Hello, I'm terribly sorry for my inability to meet the deadline by... 28 days! I have been having terribly hectic two months that I was unable to finish anything. My work requires me to stay in the office for at least ten hours per day, so... you get the gist, hence the apology. Second apology will be because it might not be as funny as I planned. It's also longer than initially planned (guilty as charged!). So, without further apologies, here we go.

The expansive mansion reflected more sunlight than the rest of the town. It stood mysteriously handsome across the river. Ok Taecyeon pedalled his bicycle across the wooden, unstable bridge that was built merely from planks while still questioned his decision to accept the offer, again. He did not particularly dislike his current job—honestly, he was quite fond of it—but his parents did. They considered this as a waste of time, but Taecyeon knew, just like all the townsfolk, his parents did not trust the scientist. No one in this town, up to ten miles radius, believed in her. Ok Taecyeon was probably the only one who went in and out the greenhouse mansion regularly without knowing when to stop for more than a month. No, he was unquestionably the only one.

Ms. Raven Aziraphale was an odd woman—that was for sure. She came to this town years ago and no one noticed it until they saw a spacious building up on the hill, the once abandoned greenhouse suddenly clean and became larger than they could remember. Taecyeon admitted how odd the scientist was in a heartbeat. He did not see her much—nor the townsfolk, even all these years—but he was certain that she looked no older than late-twenties. She wore thick, big glasses with glossy black frame to accommodate her big, dark eyes. She was small, but her limbs were constructed by well-trained muscles. It was not without a cause, Taecyeon knew, since her works required her to transport heavy stuffs (and creatures) without aid from other people (even more and so before Taecyeon was hired). She seldom left her laboratory (which entry was restricted) and only did whenever she wanted to see her kids, six unusually unique kids. These kids were one of Taecyeon’s responsibilities.

Taecyeon arrived usually before sunrise, usually five o’clock, on his bicycle. He was given a key to the side door. Only he had the access to that door (honestly no one else could find that door except Ms. Aziraphale). He would come in with his bike; park his baby properly on the side; and ring the bell to announce his arrival. He hung his jacket on the coat rack by the door and wore the gloves and boots. He went to his working station, which uncannily resembled a kitchen, and began his routine.

First, he must prepare the kids’ meals. Minjun’s bamboo mix meal came first. The giant panda was somehow altered physiologically that he no longer needed excessive amount of raw bamboos. Instead, his nutritional needs were easily met with a mixture of various beans, husks, fresh fruits such as apples, and tea leaves (fermented and dried, pre-ground leaves; sometimes he would make a fuss, and request specifically for Assam or Earl Grey; generally, anything black because he wasn’t fond of green tea, at all), with the original bamboos mixed in. Then, he would have to prepare Nichkhun’s eucalyptus mix. This koala bear was exceptionally weird. He only ate small amount of his especially mixed meal and most of times, he ate whatever Taecyeon had (like waffles, pancakes, bacon, mashed potatoes, chips, crisps, biscuits, cookies, even black coffee and vegetable stew). If Taecyeon denied him, he would sulk for the entire day and it meant hell for the caretaker (certainly, it would almost cost him a soul if any of the children become undernourished and he preferred to keep his soul intact, inside his mortal body). The third mix he should prepare was for the tiny, cutie chick that seemingly never grew, Wooyoung. Taecyeon was so fond of this chick and the sentiment was returned. He ate normally like any other chicken, but horrifyingly he liked it when Taecyeon added minced fried chicken in his meal—well, he was genetically altered, so... Taecyeon chose not to think about it. Then, he proceeded to cut some trout into fine slices. These were for the tiny emperor, Junho. He wasn’t a gourmet, but he always preferred fresh fish—saltwater ones were his favourites, but he accepted freshwater fishes as long as they were fresh when served (bossy tiny thing he was!). As for the remaining two, Taecyeon found it the simplest. Chansung was easily in for ripe bananas for every meal (although he really ate everything edible just like how he naturally was an omnivore, his favourite was still banana) and Jay knew nothing other than fresh rare meat, thrown to the air (luckily, Taecyeon’s arms weren’t considered as potential meat source, lest he would have lost a chunk of meat or even an arm by now).

Taecyeon put all the food on the trolley and began his routine. The closest from his working station was a miniature hilly lawn where a giant panda sat with hunched back at the corner. Usually, when he was jolly, Minjun would play around the hills and even sat on the bench, but this morning, he was melancholic again. Taecyeon grabbed a big, pink bowl with panda sticker on it. He filled it with the Minjun-special mix and approached the giant panda.

“Hey, Minjunnie. How are you today? Why are you always sitting at the corner?” he asked, patting the bear-familiar gently. Minjun responded to his greeting, turned to him and whined. He pressed his fluffy face to Taecyeon’s chest and Taecyeon patted him again energetically while laughing. The panda liked to be hugged and petted. The caretaker put the bowl in front of the panda’s feet. “Here, it’s breakfast time! Cheer up, Minjunnie! There you go, buddy!” Minjun was reluctant to let Taecyeon go, but he knew Taecyeon had to deliver food to his other buddies.

The second to be visited was the emperor penguin Junho. This penguin was taller than they normally were. He could be easily the tallest emperor penguin with height 150 cm. He was exceptionally cute whenever he wasn’t being so… Nuneo.

“Don’t bully the ants, Nuneo!” Taecyeon yelled as he entered the snowy room where the penguin lived. Junho was shouting at a line of ants crossing his wall. Junho jumped and ran towards Taecyeon, flapping his useless flightless wings and pointing at the ants, obviously telling Taecyeon to get rid of them. Taecyeon sighed and patted the smooth head.

“Why are you so bossy, Lee Junho? I know you are an emperor penguin, but this is not the point. Here, eat first, okay? I’ll get back later for the ants, promise.”

Taecyeon could only chuckle as he watched Junho gulp down the fish slices while was still distracted by the ants. Persistent kid—he thought. Taecyeon stepped into vast woodland outside Junho’s snowy room. In this area, the rest of Ms. Aziraphale’s kids would be found. Taecyeon looked about and called loudly:

“Chansung! Hwang Chansung! Come down!”

He put down the entire bunch of bananas from the trolley and kept calling for the long-waist monkey. “Banana time—oh, here you are.” The said monkey had white fur and pale face, which could deceive people into believing he was the monkey prince. He had the habit to climb and cling to Taecyeon simply because Taecyeon was as sturdy as a tree. He was doing it right now as we spoke. “Don’t cling to me,” the caretaker complained, trying to make the monkey let go off his arm and back to the ground. “Just take the bananas. I still have to feed the others.”

Just when he thought he was done, a tiny yellow chick came to peck on his boots. This cute chick had something akin to sunglasses around his eyes, but it was clearly just a marking. Taecyeon cooed and crouched in front of him. He took the little ball of feather and hugged him to his face.

“When will you grow up, Wooyoung-ah? You’re always yellow and soft like a newly hatched chick and yet it’s already been months since we first met,” said Taecyeon, petting the small bird with his fingers. The chick responded to it like a cat. “You really like being petted, huh? Down now, I still have a total misfit to feed. Oh, it rhymes. Kinda.” Taecyeon giggled at his own words as he let the chick down and gave him the bowl fitting his need.

“Jay! Jay! Prey throwing time!” Taecyeon called. He took the fresh meat from the silvery plate and threw it with all his might. A shadow loomed from behind and in a flash the flying meat was snatched. The girfalcon put the meat in his nest up on the tallest tree. Taecyeon whistled. “Damn! You’re good. One more time!” Taecyeon threw another chunk of meat and again the bird of prey caught it with ease. It never ceased to amaze Taecyeon how a predator worked. “GOODNESS! You’re so cool, Jay. You’re so cool.”

Taecyeon left the predator, the monkey, and the cutie pie to meet the last. This one never moved away from where he was left the night before. Taecyeon found it the easiest to look for him.

“Hey, Khunnie, are you sleeping?” he whispered as he was approaching attentively. In any normal situation, a koala would sleep anyway, but Nichkhun was an odd one. He immediately responded to Taecyeon’s voice and turned to him with open eyes. Taecyeon chuckled. “Oh, you are awake. Why are you always awake when I come?” he wondered loudly. As Taecyeon closed the gap between them, Nichkhun naturally moved from the branch he was hugging throughout the night to Taecyeon’s chest. Taecyeon laughed, letting the Australian native settle in his arms.

“Of course, you want to sleep in my arms,” Taecyeon chuckled, caressing the fluffy back of Nichkhun’s. “You big baby. Aren’t you going to eat?”

The koala had instantly fallen asleep the minute he was settled in Taecyeon’s arms. The caretaker sighed with a smile. He took Nichkhun with him back to his working station along with the trolley.

“I guess I’ll sit down first for now,” he mumbled, taking a seat at the corner of his station, on a quite comfy couch.

He actually enjoyed this job. It was quite cool, but it surely had no future prospects or even career path. He didn’t mind it, though, but his parents did. His parents always opposed everything he wanted anyway. He did not realize it, but he was nodding off when someone called his name repeatedly. He jerked awake only to find his master, Ms. Aziraphale, stand before him.

“You seem tired, Taecyeon,” she noted, smiling understandingly. She pushed up her dark framed glasses and straightened up her back.

“Pardon me, I didn’t get much sleep last night,” Taecyeon said gullibly.

“Studying?” the woman asked melodiously. She bore a knowing grin since she knew it was exactly what he did.

“Yes,” confessed Taecyeon with a sheepish chuckle. “Anyway, Miss, I must tell you. I… I am quitting this job.” This, unfortunately, was not something the scientist expected. After all, she saw Taecyeon and her “kids” were bonding perfectly. The cheerful expression previously plastered on the perpetually sleep-deprived face finally dropped.

“Oh… but I thought you like taking care of my kids,” she spoke softly, still shocked.

“Oh, yes, I do, as a matter of fact I do, Miss,” Taecyeon quickly clarified. “But my parents don’t approve this. They want me to work at the factory.” He stared down sadly. The koala bear was still sleeping on his lap, in his arms. He did not want to leave them, but his parents’ decision was final. The scientist sighed.

“You know, Khun is really fond of you. It’s hard to understand him sometimes, but his prejudice for you is beyond obvious.”

“Yes, but he keeps refusing to eat his own food,” Taecyeon mumbled. The scientist laughed, nodding slightly.

“Because he likes you so much, he’d rather eat yours than his, even though you make it. Stubborn kids I have,” she said. Taecyeon sighed and thought that it was completely not normal for animals to be that picky, but then again her animals were not even close to normalcy. She suddenly sighed again, seemingly coming into a conclusion at last.

“Well, I can’t help it, then,” she said, forcing a smile. “However, I’m truly sorry. I have a seminar to attend, Taecyeon, and I must be gone for a week. I came here to tell you that I am about to depart now, actually. So, I wonder if you… well, at least, can stay in the job until I get back? You know my kids, they are very handful and they are overly sensitive about strangers. Remember your first day?”

“I won’t forget that even though I want to,” Taecyeon replied, smiling broadly at the memory. It was an erratic day—could be the worst of his life. No one of these kids welcomed him well during the first several days, even Nichkhun. Ms. Aziraphale caressed Khun’s fluffy back gently with a fond smile.

“They are quite attached to you since. I imagine they would be extremely heartbroken if they learnt they wouldn’t have you around anymore,” said the scientist. She sighed loudly and apologized for her overdramatic respond. “I’ll leave now. Thank you for your help so far, Taecyeon. I will add some extras for your departure next week.” With a flutter of her long coat, she left Taecyeon with a big brown trunk in her hand.

“Now she is gone,” Taecyeon said with a sigh. He looked down and saw that Khun had his eyes on him. “Don’t look at me like that,” he protested at the cute, round eyes that sparked sadness. “I don’t want to leave, but my parents convinced me to switch job or they would disown me. I don’t want to be disowned.” Khun the koala bear shifted his eyes, refusing to listen to Taecyeon somehow, and buried his face again in Taecyeon’s stomach and fell asleep.

“So nice when you have time to sleep all day,” Taecyeon said, lips pouting, but he smiled adoringly at the ball of fluff. “I guess I’ll start working now.”

Diligently, Taecyeon opened the neat journal he kept on his desk. There were tables and numbers and codes no one could easily perceive what meanings they held. Taecyeon pulled out a pen and strapped on his small pouch. He began his second work. Khun was still clinging on to him, refusing to budge, but Taecyeon supposed he could manage with the koala bear attached to him. He, then, began to measure the trees. He did not do it randomly, but as per instructions. He measured the height, the trunk size, and any differences it bore from the last examination. He wrote down the numbers and moved on to other trees. He did it again until every cell in every table was filled. It usually took him about half a day or more to finish because there was so much to do. Chansung and Wooyoung occasionally came to help. Chansung was a clever monkey, he could even write.

Taecyeon put down his journal and gears, and took a sip of his drink. Khun was still asleep. Jay was somehow perching on Taecyeon’s chair, refusing to budge. Taecyeon ate his sandwich on the ground, letting the girfalcon have its way. He soon was joined by Junho that, again, ran away from his habitat. He demanded for more fish, quacking nonstop, it seemed. The ruckus he made drew in Wooyoung in the middle of his nap. They fought.

“Wait, wait, wait, what are you doing, kids? Junho, Wooyoung! Stop!”

As Taecyeon leaned down to reach the fighting avian, Khun’s hold on him slipped off and he fell. Khun let out a meek whine that mimicked a baby’s cry. Taecyeon distractedly decided to pick the koala bear first, but the fight between penguin and chick was getting fiercer. Jay was forced to wake up because of it and he shrieked, bolted high before diving in sharply, clawing both of them.

“Oh, no!”

Taecyeon was a second late to prevent Jay from throwing the two into Minjun’s house. He ran as fast as he could, holding Khun closely with one hand. When he arrived, the two birds were already squeezed beneath Minjun’s fluffy buttocks. Chansung was dancing next to them. Minjun considered him noisy and threw a bit of his breakfast weakly. The monkey was agile, so that it didn’t hit him. Taecyeon went in to resolve the feud, but he instead must wear the mask of bamboo leaves mix. Only then, all of the beast kids stopped their nonsensical attitude and bowed their heads, contrite.

“All of you must learn to behave from now on. You could have hurt each other! You will make Miss Aziraphale sad. Do you want that?” The five animals shook their heads in sync. “Good. Now go back and do your routine. I will have to clean myself before I prepare your lunch.”

He mindlessly walked into the designated small bedroom he was given by Miss Aziraphale, but as he finished cleaning himself up, he noticed that the lab door was slightly open—it never was.  Curiously, he approached the door. A deafening croak stopped him—no, no cardiac attack—he turned to the source and found that it was Chansung, furiously telling him to go back. His card read, “DON’T GO INSIDE!”

“I am not going inside,” Taecyeon said, “I just wanted to check if everything is all right and then close the door because Miss Aziraphale is very sensitive about this.” The monkey made a disapproving face, but he let it slide. Well, Chansung did, but a loud cry stopped Taecyeon. He quickly met the eyes of a creature living inside the restricted room. It looked at him squarely in the eyes and charged towards Taecyeon.

“Wait, wait, wait—no!” Taecyeon wildly begged, attempting to close the door, but it was far too late. The creature, a gorilla, smashed onto the door and knocked Taecyeon off his balance and fled from the greenhouse. It jumped and crashed the glass in a blink of an eye—before Taecyeon could even regain his balance, Chansung was protesting loudly, pushing a card with “LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE!” on it to Taecyeon’s face. Wooyoung rolled from nowhere and chirped happily. Junho was kidnapped by Jay and they were leaving the greenhouse, after the gorilla. Minjun was slowly leaving the mansion as well, rolling sluggishly through the opening created by the rampaging gorilla.

“No, wait! Guys!”

Taecyeon could not stop them—they were amazingly fast to vanish from sight. Chansung knocked off the shelf near the door accidentally and spilled some sort of violet concoction. The bean sprouts the scientist kept on the table got the concoction on them and rapidly they grew into giant sprouts that broke the walls and cracked open the glass top. Chansung was crying with two cards in his hands, one read: “SORRY” and the other read: “SHE’LL KILL ME.  HELP!” Taecyeon laughed nervously.

“No, Chansung, I think she’ll kill both of us.”

Wooyoung suddenly came to him, pecking his boots erratically. He flapped his wings and chirped furiously. It was as if he was trying to tell him something. Taecyeon, then, remembered about Nichkhun. The koala bear was curling into a ball near the door, his back quietly saying that he was hurt, immensely.

“Oh, my, I’m so sorry, Khun!” Taecyeon said as he hurriedly went to retrieve the fluffy grey fur-ball. The koala bear slowly returned to the spot he usually clung and all was immediately well again. Well, actually… he could be the only one who was well again now.

*****

Taecyeon rode his bike downtown. Chansung held on his back, Wooyoung in his hat, and Khun was on his chest. As he sped towards a steep road, entering the town, he watched as townsfolk were in panic. They were screaming and running wildly away from the Day Tower, their beautiful skyscraper located in the heart of the town. Taecyeon stopped before he slid down through the slope and witnessed the gorilla was at the top of the tower (almost unseen, actually, if not for the ample of followers it had with him—a bunch of apes and monkeys arguably from their local zoo). At the bypassing citizen, Taecyeon asked what happened. The person looked at him wildly and replied in high-pitched voice urgently, “That crazy gorilla released all animals from the zoo and they are now all over the town! Run! Run away from here! Run!”

Just as the citizen returned to their escape plan, Taecyeon heard sounds of wild animals around. Elephants were prominently recognized. He could see that there were two elephants nearby, stepping on carts and smashing anything restricting their moves. There were also a couple of lions and tigers. No wonder people freaked out—he thought. But it wasn’t any worse than the bunch of monkeys sauntering into shops and ruining everything inside—also they attacked people, mostly girls. Shortly put, it was a total chaotic situation. Taecyeon could not think of any way he could revert all of these. He rode across the town, trying to get to the tower, but the flood of people wouldn’t allow him. Suddenly, a beautiful voice began to sing from atop a house.

“What a voice,” Taecyeon said, looking for the source, however what he saw, rather than the source, was people on their knees, crying like babies. “What…” He blinked. He heard the singing, but he wasn’t affected at all. He looked up and found a familiar panda standing there—singing. He proudly posed with a series of movements that Taecyeon had learnt to interpret as, “BEHOLD, INPERTINENT CREATURE. SEE HOW A MAN DOES HIS WORK! AND COWER BEFORE ME, FOOLS!” Well, not as fearsome as it sounded, but still, it was quite troublesome.

“Minjun!” he called, relieved. Minjun recognized him in a flash second and he stopped singing. People ceased to cry as well…

“Oh, well,” Taecyeon awkwardly mumbled and blinked, “At least they are now bewildered enough not to come back and run wildly for a while.” He parked his bike, letting the passengers down except Khun. He climbed to the roof and fetched Minjun, who was very compliant—except he was actually terrified to come down on his own (what is he? A cat?)

“You shouldn’t go off on your own, Minjun,” Taecyeon lectured him as soon as they were on the ground. “The zookeepers might think that you are one of the zoo animals and they would catch you and put you in the zoo.” Chansung whined and cried out of the blue. Taecyeon, used to the behaviour, let him as usual, but this time, immediately as the monkey cried, food flew from all directions towards them. “What?!”

People now scattered about, shouting and yelling in horror as fruits, particularly bananas, and all kinds of food were flying all over the place. One huge watermelon failed to reach Chansung because it hit an old man right on the face.

“Oh, God, I’m sorry!” Taecyeon involuntarily said while Chansung was crying even louder as no food made it to his grasps. Bananas were everywhere, mashed to the ground because it either floated to someone or someone just hit it heroically (and, of course, smacked down by the fruits or stepped over one on the ground and fell flat on their butts, but that was natural, right?). Taecyeon could not do anything; he just kept apologizing to every single person who passed them. His back was glued to the wall. Just as he thought everything had been quite chaotic, suddenly a roar was heard from his side. He slowly turned towards the sound, mostly for dramatic effect, and gulped as he met by the eye with the king of jungle.

“Okay…” Taecyeon said sluggishly as his mind halted to work.

“Run, doofus!” someone yelled.

Taecyeon carefully took the beast-kids he had with him away from the lion, his back was still glued to the wall. His eyes were fixated on the African savannah’s pride king, just in case he was offending the alpha male (well, Taecyeon was just assuming that he would be the leader of the pride because he seemed territorial—which was the nature of the leaders). Taecyeon’s free hand was searching for his bike, ready to take it wherever safe, but no matter how many times he tapped the supposedly spot where he left the vehicle, his hand failed to find it. He finally shifted his eyes towards the space and was surprised. The bicycle wasn’t there anymore.

“Sorry, pal, gonna run!” a citizen shouted from a hundred metres away, pedalling one extremely familiar bike away from the scene, fleeing.

“Hey! That’s mine!” Taecyeon screamed angrily. He called the random citizen repeatedly as he attempted to get his ride back, just a few moments before he realized his mistake. He rubbernecked, sensing that danger was looming behind him. The lion bared his teeth and prepared to leap and attack Taecyeon. Oh, God, please, no. The big claws were on show, right before his eyes, within seconds—but then, suddenly hundreds, no, thousands of chicken appeared out of nowhere!

“What the…” Taecyeon was bewildered! The chicken came in big batch as in a flood! But it wasn’t ordinary flood because it was comprised of seemingly countless of chirping, newly hatched yellow chicks. Taecyeon, who was six feet tall, was nearly drowned in it. Of course, automatically, the lion was buried deep in the chicken flood. He was whining and panicking, trying to swim his way through the stream of mysterious avian babies.

“Chansung, Minjun!” Taecyeon called, holding Khun higher in his arm, up to his neck so Khun wouldn’t be bothered by the chicks. Chansung cried, again, but only briefly until he successfully climbed up to Taecyeon’s sturdy arm. He shouted angrily at something on the crates just ten metres from them. Minjun struggled to get to Taecyeon’s waist. He was also protesting towards the same thing as Chansung. As the only human around now, Taecyeon was incredibly distracted. He tried to calm the lion down (because Ok Taecyeon was a very good guy who liked animals better than people, or was it just the author’s personal preference? Okay, perhaps, but Taecyeon didn’t like cats, well, any animals, really, until he worked for Miss Aziraphale, of course, but this was not just any animal, this was the lion…)

“Will you shut up?” Taecyeon hissed at the narrator who was sitting comfortably on a floating deco stool, safe from any crazy interference. The narrator blinked their one-eye and scratched their perfect white head cover—that hid their entire head completely.

“But it is my job to narrate, like the Narrator Smurf,” the Narrator replied. “I didn’t even get to the part where you spotted little Wooyoung break-dancing over there, the reason Chansung and Minjun are screaming furiously.” The Narrator moved their gloved hand and presented the very image of what they just said, which was on the crates, gracefully. Taecyeon, the lion, Chansung, and Minjun followed their lead. Wooyoung was indeed break-dancing so skilfully there, but apparently this wasn’t meant to be revealed until later, thus it made Taecyeon actually mad at the Narrator.

“You just broke the fourth wall! Really, did you think the readers would laugh at this?”

“Well, they probably didn’t laugh at some of Deadpool’s jokes, but at least some people attempted to educate other audience to re-study what they might miss. I can, of course, spare my time to do that because I have unlimited leisure time—”

Wooyoung suddenly sang randomly instead of danced. The song and lyrics were uncannily familiar—almost sounded like a regular popular song and the lyrics were nearly humane, but let us not dwell on it right now because something else needed our utmost attention. What would it be, you said? Well, let’s say… IT’S RAINING EGGS, folks! Raw eggs rained down on them all, but only the Narrator got hit because they were floating in the air (naturally) while Taecyeon and others were safe because they took shelter under a roof. The Narrator had passed out, so new narrator would be assigned promptly.

“What the hell is this story… I didn’t sign up for this kind of madness,” Taecyeon mumbled, leering at the lion that quickly nodded as in the cinematic comical/fable scenes. Taecyeon turned to the singing-dancing Wooyoung and wearily scooped the tiny chick into his palm. Instantly, the chick stopped singing and rubbed his head on Taecyeon’s rough palm. It would be great if everything turned back to normal once the baby bird stopped singing—but no. Even the raw eggs rain—it didn’t stop!

“I guess we have to get going now,” he said, mostly to himself. He began to move carefully through the river of yellow chicks that vigorously and incessantly tried to swarm over Taecyeon and the lion. “Wooyoung, can—can you possibly make them disappear?” the only human among them asked desperately. He had a really hard time going out of the flood, chicken flood. The yellow baby blinked cutely and chirped energetically. He began to sing again, but in such manner that it sounded as if he was singing backwards. Then, magically the chicks disappeared. He, then, started a wiggly dance as he was inside Taecyeon’s grasp. It caused the awfully impractical rain to stop.

“Oh, thanks!” Taecyeon said in relief.

Just as he reached the corner, he saw two hawks manoeuvre in the sky across the town. One of them was definitely smaller than the other, but curiously it was the one that chased the other. After taking a very good care for Ms. Aziraphale’s kids, he could identify Jay in a split second, and that smaller hawk was none other than the bird of prey among the beast kids.

“Oh, no… that’s Jay,” he said, sighing in a mix of worries and fear. Chansung tugged on his ear, shoving a card onto Taecyeon’s face. Taecyeon must pull back a bit until he could read it clearly: “NO JUNHO”. Oh, yes, of course, didn’t Jay take Junho with him when they left the greenhouse?

“Goodness…”

Now Taecyeon had absolutely no idea regarding how to gather the kids again. He, then, spent his day running about the town, but he found no one. The police and zookeepers were roaming all over the place and having the lion with him meant he must be extra cautious.

“Wait, Lion! Don’t go on your own!” Taecyeon yelled as he saw the lion dash down the road. It was obvious that the king of the jungle was going after a bird of prey—very unlikely was Jay, but one could hope—but Taecyeon could not seem to be able to let him roam alone. A dart flashed before Taecyeon’s eyes and hit the lion right above his left hind leg. After a moment, Taecyeon could hear rushing footsteps coming closer.

“We got him! We got him!” he heard people shout excitedly as he saw the lion slowly succumb to the tranquilizer’s spell.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Lion, but it might be better for you to come back to the zoo for now,” Taecyeon murmured regretfully. “I will break the fourth wall and make the author free you later. I promise.” With determined resolve, Taecyeon fled the scene with the beast kids. Even so, as he unconsciously navigated through the town, he passed his parents’ house.

“Taecyeon!”

He stopped.

“What do you think you are doing?” It was his mom, hands on the waist, face purple because of rage. “What are you doing with those creatures? Come inside now.”

Taecyeon was perplexed. He stared at the kids he was bringing with him. They all looked at him with glistening eyes, begging him not to let go. Khun was hugging him tighter and Chansung grasped his shirt to the point of almost ripping it. Wooyoung snuggled into his palm and Minjun began to cling to his leg. Taecyeon could not just leave them like this. Especially with Junho still missing and Jay tailing local bird of prey and seemingly intending to make them prey instead of predator.

“I… I can’t, Mom,” he said.

“Why can’t you? You promised to leave the cursed witch and start working in the factory just as your father and I have settled. You are not planning to continue, are you?” judged the mother. Taecyeon flinched.

“No, Mom,” he denied quickly. “It’s just that our town is in total disarray and it’s my fault. I want to fix this first.”

“No, you have nothing to do with this and you will come inside right now,” the mother insisted. She wasn’t interested in listening to anything she didn’t like. Whatever he said, he was wrong. Poor boy, should’ve run when the mother noticed him.

“Then,” Taecyeon said dejectedly, “Let me take them back to their place, Mom. I’ll be home shortly.” The mother crossed her arms and, despite obviously against the proposition, nodded. Taecyeon dragged his feet towards the abandoned greenhouse at the secluded area of their town. On his way there, however, he was expected by the police and the exotic wild animals department’s supervisor. They were waiting in front of the gate.

“Hand them over, please,” the police officer—a sergeant judging from his uniform’s decorations—asked curtly without any second wasted with courtesy. The name C.M. Shim was exhibited on his shimmering metal nametag.

“Excuse me, but why?” Taecyeon asked back, unconsciously hugging Khun slightly closer to his chest and turning his front away by a few degrees in defence. Minjun hid behind his legs, Chansung sunk down to shield himself completely with Taecyeon’s body, and Wooyoung squeezed himself into whatever left between Khun and the human’s chest.

“They are dangerous animals. They must be kept in the zoo to prevent any more unwanted mishaps,” said the police coolly. “Please cooperate and hand them to Mr. Gray here. He will be responsible for these beasts from now on.” The mentioned man stepped forward; hands open as he expected Taecyeon to immediately surrender.

“I’m sorry, but I have no authority to make the decision,” Taecyeon said grimly.

“We guessed so,” Sgt. Shim said, no hint of surprise in his voice or face. He lifted his left hand and commanded coldly, “Apprehend him and take the filthy animals.”

Suddenly a dozen of cops marched towards Taecyeon, surrounding him effectively. Before he could react—because he was merely normal person, of course—Taecyeon was subdued and robbed off his consciousness. He barely could hear the cries of Minjun and Wooyoung, but he saw Chansung bolt away from the scene as nothing more than white flash. But what about Khun? It was his last thought before he lost his consciousness completely.

*****

“Ta… ta… te? Te…? Te…”

Taecyeon woke up to distinct, mysterious murmur. It sounded somewhat familiar and foreign at the same time. It was strange and somehow inhumane. Is this where the aliens come in? He begrudgingly thought to himself as he sat up. His movements caused the voice to abruptly stop and made the owner of the voice move swiftly away. Taecyeon realized that he was in the old town library, where no one went to these days.

“How did I…” Taecyeon’s question was gone, replaced by other questions as he spotted a shadow behind bookshelf near him. “I know you are there,” he said bluntly and gently simultaneously despite not knowing for sure whose shadow it actually was. He knew, however, that it wasn’t a danger for him. He slowly went to approach the shadow, but it moved quickly away from him.

“Don’t run, please,” Taecyeon said, “I know who you are. We are friends, aren’t we? You know I won’t hurt you.” Well, it was bluffing, but there was reassurance in it as well. Taecyeon thought that it couldn’t be a lie if he truly befriended the stranger after this (oh, yes, that is a clever trick indeed). The shadow uncertainly made its way back to where Taecyeon was waiting. Taecyeon could see, in absence of bright light, that it must be human—a man—but whoever it was, they were on four. Taecyeon instinctively held out a hand to the stranger, unfortunately it wasn’t accepted—instead, he got pounced right on the chest.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?!” Taecyeon shouted, flailing and trying his best to remove the person from his body. “Get off me! Get off me, you creep!” But the jerk didn’t move away, instead clutched tighter on to Taecyeon’s shirt and whimpered distastefully. Taecyeon ripped the person off him in the end with his raw brute force. As the freak rolled on the floor, Taecyeon jumped to his feet. He glared, but quickly had his jaw dropped. The person he just threw didn’t look anything a human was supposed to look. For starter, they didn’t wear clothes—not even a single cloth. The next thing was fur, the person was covered in thick grey fur all over their body except for the palms and probably face—they were curling on their side, their back facing Taecyeon.

“Wait a minute,” Taecyeon mumbled. He recognized the faint sob that came from the strange creature. “No way,” he continued as realisation hit, “Just how freakish this story is going to be?” He ran to the creature and gently pulled their shoulder. A handsome face with teary eyes greeted him. Taecyeon would recognise those eyes and quivering lips everywhere after getting to deal with them every day. “Khun, I’m sorry. I was surprised.” The man curled into Taecyeon’s arms without being asked, attempting to position himself despite being almost as tall as Taecyeon himself. The caretaker laughed.

“This won’t work, Khun. You are no longer a cuddly, small koala bear anymore right now. Let’s try it like this,” said Taecyeon, lifting the supposedly koala bear Khun, placing the unexpectedly long legs around his waist and tugging the hands around the torso. Khun wanted to bury his face in Taecyeon’s chest so bad, but he wasn’t satisfied with the rest of his torso not touching Taecyeon’s if he insisted to put his head where he wanted. Taecyeon just laughed and laughed at this creature’s antics. He eventually led Khun’s face to rest on his shoulder instead.

“What were you trying to say earlier?” Taecyeon asked once Khun was settled—he was nuzzling effectively into Taecyeon’s crook of neck. The originally koala bear didn’t answer despite opening his mouth. He shut it back and snuggled closer—as if it was possible. Taecyeon sighed and hugged the clingy—stunningly good-looking—beast.

“Now that I think about it, you and the other kids always understand me perfectly. I wonder what you guys actually are,” Taecyeon said, swaying his body gently and rubbing Khun’s furry back caringly. “The books are on the floor,” he suddenly noted. “Did… an earthquake happen recently? I can’t remember any. I was here yesterday night. The library wasn’t as wrecked as this yesterday.”

“Taec? What the hell are you doing?” a woman’s voice interrupted him. Taecyeon scrambled to his feet as soon as he heard her—he would know who it was anywhere. The brooding aura enveloped the woman, whose hands were on her hip, disapproving Taecyeon’s current state.

“Sister! This is not as you thought!” he yelled, though he kept holding on to the strange humanoid creature that refused to let go at all. It would not be weird in any way if Khun weren’t a tall male humanoid that seemed to come straight from Journey to the West TV series. Well, it would still be weird if Khun were a female, too, but still, it might be less weird—it didn’t make it much better for Taecyeon either way because their position was the worst type of positions to be caught red-handed in a rundown library or library in general, but maybe also there would be worse positions, but let’s not try to think about it for now. You are too into this, aren’t you, goddamn Author? Save me. Taecyeon snipped inwardly to the Narrator who apparently was invisible to his sister.

“I asked, Taecyeon: What are you doing?” she said, not amused.

“I don’t know,” Taecyeon replied, doing his best against a woman’s wrath, “I was bringing Miss Aziraphale’s kids back to the greenhouse and suddenly I am here.”

“Don’t lie to me,” his sister rejected flatly, “There was an earthquake about an hour ago and that was shortly after Mom met you. You know what’s going on—those beasts sheltered by your employer are dangerous. They are not normal!”

“Earthquake? But we don’t have earthquake—not at this time of the year. I have done my calculation!” Taecyeon said, much to his sister’s dismay. She rolled her eyes and seemed even madder than she previously was.

“Egghead, I just said that one of those creatures caused it. The giant ape one—or so Evan told me. He saw the ape prance and shout, and suddenly the earth was shaking. It escaped and nowhere to be found now.”

“How is that possible?” Taecyeon asked, high-pitched—because clearly he had some ideas how it was possible knowing what Wooyoung, Chansung, and Minjun could do. His sister didn’t know, though… not yet, at least—that is if her absolutely normal and proper husband, Evan, had not seen anything else. He grinned, but the sister huffed.

“Go home,” she said curtly. “Our parents are going to disown you if you don’t come back home right now. I don’t want that. We don’t want that.” She moved from where she had been standing, picking up fallen books from dusty floor attentively. Taecyeon watched her silently for a few moments. He eventually decided to stand up and left the library. It was best for him to come back home, right?

“Wait a minute,” his sister said, prevented him from leaving by grabbing his shoulder.

“What?” Taecyeon asked innocently, rubbernecked.

“Put it down,” she commanded.

“Put what down?”

“That.”

“That what?”

“The thing you have on your chest and around your waist and torso,” she said, indicating to, of course, the clinging-for-life Khun. Taecyeon leered at her with incredulous look, as if what she had just said was nonsense. “You know that it’s not normal to bring that kind of… whatever it is—with you, right? Put it down!”

“What do you mean it’s not normal, Sister? I have been bringing him around like this for months since my employment. It would be extremely uncomfortable for Khun if I suddenly put him down because it has been a terrible day for us, especially for him—I accidentally dropped him today and yelled at him, too. I wouldn’t dare to make him any more upset at this point.” As he explained casually, the sister was completely dumbfounded. was agape; her mind was busy making calculation, doing good measure of relation analysis on everything her brother had just spouted.

“Khun, you said?” she reconfirmed her hearing first and Taecyeon nodded. “But he is a koala bear as far as I have always been informed—by you!”

“Oh, yes!” Taecyeon cried in some sort of relief. “He is, isn’t he! But apparently he is not just a koala bear! I would want to show you his eyes, but he is currently sleeping, so…”

“You are under the impression that I actually understood whatever predicament you were thinking about in your vast brain, brother, but you are gravely mistaken,” the sister said, holding up a hand, “I can’t ing believe that this creature is actually a small, cuddly koala bear that likes to snuggle to you every single day!”—she stopped abruptly, eyed Taecyeon’s passenger—“Well, the snuggle part is on point, but the small and koala bear parts are not!”

“Oh, sister…”

“Wait, don’t go home if you just want to stay stubborn and bring this… whatever it is, there. Mom is going to throw it out and you are going to be hurt in many ways,” she said, her tone indicating a change of heart. Slight, but still a change, let us appreciate her. “Just stay in the private study tonight. I’ll tell Mom about you holing up to study again because you are unable to handle your emotions right now.” Taecyeon’s eyebrows shot up. His sister made a grim face as she lightly blushed. “I don’t really care about the situation, you know. I just want the best solution for you right now. Don’t think that I side with that strange woman—ever!” Taecyeon smiled widely and kissed his sister’s cheek affectionately as a sign of gratitude.

“I know you are a big softie, Sister,” he stated.

“Don’t let it go over your head, Bookworm!”

“Aw, of course, thanks so much.”

Taecyeon swiftly went into the private study his sister mentioned. It was his second bedroom, actually, because he spent more time in there than anywhere else. The first was actually the one stationed for him in the greenhouse mansion. He rarely slept in his parents’ house because the lack of books. The private study itself had a small bed and all in one bathroom, used to be a room reserved for a novel writer who had long passed away.

“Khun, here, sleep on the bed. I will change my shirt first, okay?”

Naturally, he attempted to put Khun down because his shirt was absolutely hideous to see and uncomfortable to keep wearing. Khun didn’t care, normally, because he was just as he always was. Khun whined when Taecyeon gently tugged his limbs off his body. Taecyeon Khun’s head and assured him that he wouldn’t be long. Only then, Khun was able to accept the fact that he must let go off the caretaker for the time being. Taecyeon smiled and went to the small trunk where he stored several pieces of change clothes. He changed his shirt and trousers, then he took shorts and shirt, and put them on reluctant Khun.

“If you are going to stay with me until you come back to being a koala bear, you will have to wear these, else I will be forced to leave you,” he said. Khun begged so prettily with his beautiful, doe eyes, but Taecyeon wouldn’t budge. The furry humanoid ended up wearing the clothes and curled up to the man once again after he picked up a thick book with him to bed. The man sat, leaned back to the headboard, and opened the book where he marked.

“Taecyeon!”

The door flew open and the librarian sister of Taecyeon’s stormed into the room, extremely distressed. A white monkey bolted past her, leaping right to the gap between Taecyeon’s arm and torso. One yellow baby bird with black marking resembling glasses around its eyes popped out of the monkey’s grasps. A giant panda rolled into the space as the woman stomped about and slid away from the doorway in panic.

“What happened?” Taecyeon asked, welcoming Minjun who just climbed up the bed.

“They just came in—you get them out first thing in the morning!” yelled the sister.

“Okay…”

His sister panted heavily. She calmed down within a minute, and she folded her arms, facing her younger brother with judgemental look. Taecyeon quickly raised his hands and nodded, implying that he was sincerely going to do as she previously said. Therefore, she wasn’t satisfied with it. She opened , obviously pondering and thinking about pouring out whatever she had had in her mind for quite long time.

“You know what, little brother,” she finally spoke.

“Yes, big sister, what it might be, I wonder,” Taecyeon sniped in similar tone as her voice just now. She frowned and a vein popped out on her temple.

“You can’t trust a woman like your… employer,” she said. “She is not normal.”

“Normalcy is a relative aspect. There hasn’t been any international standard for what people globally agree as normalcy,” Taecyeon wittily answered without hesitation, but he quickly shut up as the sister threw a dark glare at him.

“Look at them,” she pointed at the beasts, “They are monsters. How could you live with them—hug them. They are not even cute! No, don’t interrupt me now.” Taecyeon shut his mouth once again. “She is not to be trusted. How long has she been here? How old is she? She didn’t cook, didn’t clean, didn’t marry. What is she actually doing up there? A woman has her function in society. She can have a job—I have a job—but she must not waste time and grow old as an untouched woman, forgetting the essential duty every woman is destined for: a wife and a mother.”

“Sister, it doesn’t have to be that way,” Taecyeon disagreed, but his sister was even more disagreeing.

“No, it doesn’t, but no woman secludes herself and surrounds herself with plants and mumbo-jumbo inside a greenhouse, having strange pets and a caretaker who does all the jobs for her. You know what she reminds me of? A witch.”

“No, she is not a witch. She is a scientist.”

“A scientist? A woman can’t be a scientist. No females are clever enough to do intricate formulations and use complicated contraptions, not even good enough to do math. It’s impossible.” Yes—but that was an opinion, not a fact.

“How could you be so close-minded, sister? She is doing her part to contribute to our society! Intelligence has nothing to do with a person’s gender.”

“Well, if you are so confident, tell me what she did to help our society as you claimed.”

“Well, firstly, she formulated growth potion that can help our crops to grow faster without altering the quality. She has this formula to change colours of roses. She developed a standardized method to observe wild animals classified by their habitats and basic nutrition. She measured trees’ growth rate to calculate how we nurture our forests, so we won’t completely clean off woods while we chop down the trees for our needs. She has this artificially modified vegetable-based food that mimics meat for people who can’t or won’t eat meat. She also found a medication for people whose health deteriorating because of excessive purin acid production. And she…”

“I don’t see how those are helping any of us,” his sister cut in. “She doesn’t help us make money. Society needs money, Taecyeon, not alternative foods. We have plenty to fill our stomachs already.”

“Sister, we would be able to make money if we mass-produced her inventions!”

“But who would want to? Those freaky things only creep people out.”

“Sister…”

“Listen, little brother, you will do as you promised our parents. I will let this slide just this one time because the town is in a total state of chaos and I don’t want you to get back out there. Just remember, you take them back wherever they come from and you go home, do the job Dad signed you up for.”

“Yes, I will.”

“Good. And you must come back to clean this room. I don’t want this room to smell like monsters,” she said before storming away and slamming the door shut. Taecyeon was shocked and immediately turned to the kids, protesting loudly.

“Oh, wasn’t it horrible? You are not monsters, are you, guys?”—he was genuinely upset, but he just sighed—“She could be intimidating, but she is my sister. I know she is merely concerned about my wellbeing.” He waited until the other three settled on their chosen spots on the bed. He, then, asked, “So, have you seen Junho or Jay on your way here?”

“JAY LEFT THE TOWN” was written on Chansung’s card. Taecyeon raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

“How about Nuneo, then?”

“NO CLUE,” Chansung showed on his card. Minjun nodded drowsily. He tried to snuggle under Taecyeon’s arm, but he was swatted away by greedy Khun, who was so much bigger than them all (except Taecyeon, of course). Taecyeon just chuckled at their antics and kept on the right path of conversation.

“That’s a trouble. We must find him tomorrow first thing in the morning.”

He opened the book in his hands and began reading briefly before he fell into a deep pondering once again. His forehead creased. The kids had found their spots now… all over his legs and under his arms, by his waist and on his stomach and chest (there was one guess to know who it was…).

“You know, I don’t want to leave this job,” Taecyeon said. Chansung’s card only contained four exclamation marks, implying that he was shocked to the core. Smiling bitterly, Taecyeon explained to the supposedly not-smart-enough-to-understand-humans animals: “I am having fun doing legwork for Miss Aziraphale’s projects. I learn things I never had the privileges to study—yeah, I don’t go to prestigious school; I can’t, honestly.

“I myself love history. I know everything about this town. I know that the greenhouse and the mansion were abandoned until five decades ago. It was suddenly filled with life. Trees, lights, activities. No one knew about the identity of the new owner or when actually they arrived, but one day, people woke up to fliers about a caretaker wanted for pets in the greenhouse. I was incredibly intrigued about the mystery arrival, which was my first intention signing up. I have doubts about her, of course, until now. Especially after I witnessed your… superpowers? Were those superpowers?”

Chansung and Wooyoung stared at him, judging plainly. They were disagreeing with Taecyeon’s statement—no, questions. How could a question be disagreed before answered? (Yeah, tell me about it).

“CURSE,” helpfully the white, handsome monkey explained. Taecyeon was surprised.

“A curse?” his voice was quiet, but his surprise wasn’t hidden at all. “Like… witch’s curse? Magical one? How could it be? Is that even possible?” Wooyoung suddenly climbed to Taecyeon’s shoulder and slapped him on the cheek with his adorable, tiny wing. Khun was staring hotly at Wooyoung and wouldn’t stop glaring until the deceptive bundle of fluffs hop down, back to where he originally snuggled. Chansung rolled his eyes, “Really?” was written all over his strangely good-looking monkey face.

“IT HAPPENS ONLY IF WE DO…”—Chansung flipped his card—“SOMETHING WE LIKE TO DO.”

“Oh.” Taecyeon muttered in realization. “But… your odd curse only appeared when you… whined, Chansung. Does it mean…?” Minjun was laughing: A real panda laugh that actually sounded strange and funny at the same time. Khun was shaking, too, apparently tickled by the fact that it hit sore spot without him seeing the face Chansung made right now. Wooyoung immediately nagged Taecyeon into apologizing before the monkey whine for real and draw in all available foods nearby.

“But, then, does it mean you might not be animals at all?” Taecyeon’s fast recovery past the urgently demanded apology successfully diverted all attention. Chansung made a face, still, but he was informatively replying to the question instead of dwelling at the hurtful fact that their caretaker had just pointed out bluntly.

“SURPRISINGLY WE WERE HUMANS.”

“Of course,” Taecyeon sheepishly said. “You are too smart for mere animals, but I always thought it was her doing, now… some… curse.” Chansung sighed. Others were quickly asleep during the two sentences talk because sleep was important for them—unlike for some odd creatures that actually thought sleeping is for the weak (they sleep when they die, they said).

“TALK TO HER,” and then he flipped the paper, “LIMITED SPACE.”

“Well…”—Taecyeon nodded and patted Chansung’s head—“Gladly, once this is over, though. How about we sleep now? I am going to mark this page first because I forgot that time I read this.” The monkey readily agreed. He fell on his stomach and was in deep sleep only within 3 seconds (amazing, right?). Taecyeon threw one last look at the page he was reading. He would make the scientist bleed out all the details. Yes, out of her pores!

*****

It was, thankfully, a fine morning when Taecyeon was up. The sun shone adequately (because it was the beginning of autumn, obviously, and it wasn’t a tropical country where sun shines 12 hours per day every day per year, except when it is rainy, of course). Taecyeon took Khun with him because the damn creature wouldn’t let go. He woke the rest of the animals and left the building. His sister was home, of course, but she had given him a spare key to the back door. He went straight to town, but surreptitiously. He didn’t want to get tackled in the middle of his search, of course, by the police and zookeepers.

The townsfolk were busy straightening up their homes and shops. Good thing that it was still quite close to reality as the town didn’t revert to their initial state magically just like animated series that starred three chemically engineered little girls with super powers, which they used daily to fight monsters. Taecyeon stirred away from the crowded neighbourhood and slowly made his way towards an abandoned manhole near the edge of the town. Just as he entered the paved path, it was raining red bean rice cakes. Huge ones—no, giant red bean rice cakes. Any one of those was of Taecyeon’s arm size, like, half a kilo each.

“What the…” Taecyeon stopped abruptly as one of those man-destroyer-rice-cakes slammed down just an inch away from his spot. Chansung whined. A bunch of rice cakes all flew towards them, thanks a lot, Chansung! Taecyeon dove and rolled like an agile secret agent you know nothing about, saving them all from being crushed by super smooth-looking, delicious-smelling rice cakes.

“Don’t!” Taecyeon warned Chansung from whining. Wooyoung took this to his tiny arms and straightened up the monkey with a weenie smack on his cheek. “Thank you, Woo,” Taecyeon said. The chick nodded coolly before climbing and making himself comfortable inside Taecyeon’s shirt, where Khun didn’t hog him and wouldn’t squeeze him accidentally. Then, they heard some sort of battle song and the sound of sled coming towards them.

“JUNHO,” was written on Chansung’s card.

“Okay…” Taecyeon immediately understood. The sledding penguin showed himself. Taecyeon skilfully scooped the penguin as he passed them. He stared at him questioningly, along with Chansung, tiny Wooyoung, and judgemental Minjun by Taecyeon’s leg. The penguin was quiet, frozen, momentarily, before dejectedly looking at the ground far beneath his cute feet. Taecyeon let him down only after he made the rice cakes disappear—good, he could actually do it! Junho, then, pecked Taecyeon’s legs continuously, pointing at the manhole and loudly telling him to go there.

“Okay, okay, I’m going there, but all of you must stay out of sight, okay? Don’t follow me inside. I can’t bring you back up.”

“BUT YOU ARE NOT HUMAN,” Chansung protested. “YOU ARE HERACLES.”

“Thanks, Chansung, but I can’t risk it,” Taecyeon said as he tried, hard, to detach Khun from himself. He attempted to do it with various angles that somehow looked like he was doing a war dance—only to fail. “Khunnie, let me go?”

Taecyeon sighed helplessly. The once-human-but-cursed-into-a-koala-bear-but-now-was-a-humanoid-creature-with-koala-fur-and-handsome-face looked up at him with his round, brown eyes. He was pleading for Taecyeon to give it up.

“Why is it so hard for you to not-hugging me, Khun? There, a tree! Yay?” Taecyeon hopefully pointed at a tree behind the bushes nearby. Khun didn’t even turn to where he pointed to. Taecyeon sighed again. “Okay, you are going with me, but you will leave your brothers without anyone to protect them. You can, can’t you, because you look like a human and they don’t. Are you going to be selfish?” This was Taecyeon’s makeshift trump card—it didn’t exist before knowing Khun wasn’t a humanoid before, certainly. It was great that these kids understood him perfectly, word by word.

“SMOOTH,” Chansung commented, earning synonymous agreeing nods from Wooyoung, Junho, and Minjun. The clinging creature took the words in and reluctantly climbed down, standing on his own feet. He drew away his hands from Taecyeon and obviously didn’t want to agree since he kept his eyes on the ground.

“I’m so sorry, buddy, but you are heavy. I could fall in there and crush you—or worse, dip ourselves in smelly water that wouldn’t wash out,” Taecyeon thought.

“Wait here, okay? I won’t be long,” he said, rubbing Khun’s unexpectedly silky hair. Did he ever clean Khun’s fur with shampoo and conditioner? He asked himself. Taecyeon went to the manhole, removing the lid and quickly sliding down the metal ladder.

The sewers. He had never been there before, but he had read about the whole system. It was a limited system in this area, unlike the one built in the capital city. Still, it was smelly, but at least it had small sidewalk, so he didn’t have to walk in the waters. He didn’t know where to go, pondering over left and right and openings on the walls. He was thinking, thinking, thinking, decisions could not be made even after two minutes passed. The Narrator was getting bored of his indecisive attitude so they let it be known that there was a song playing from somewhere on the left.

“Okay, thanks a lot, Narrator, big help,” Taecyeon said to the floating bastard who kept being sarcastic since their existence had been revealed to the readers without any mercy left for them, although it was sort of an exercise of futility because the Narrator was in charge of the story and the author gave them powers? “Yeah, right, I honestly don’t care, neither do the readers, man,” Taecyeon nonchalantly told the Narrator much to burn their supposedly stone-cold heart. A splash of waste water to Taecyeon’s blade-sharp cheekbone as he slipped on his way towards the source of the song, then.

“Ha, ha, funny,” Taecyeon said sardonically, recovering from the unfortunate incident.

So, back to the story before the things went way away from the purpose of entering sewage system. The song featured a charming voice of a man, and it was undoubtedly a vinyl record played on gramophone.

“I had enough parties, I had enough parties,” it sang. “I didn’t know why I had to work so hard or how to spend the money that I made. I looked around to see with what I can fill myself up, but why is it that I eat and eat but am still left hungry?”

Taecyeon felt inside that he had heard this song before, but it sounded so far away from his memories, a distant nostalgic feeling that might be strange and foreign but undeniable. It gave him a strong sense of attachment, as if it spoke to him about his own struggles and experiences. But, then again, perhaps it did.

“When I became secure, I wanted to become nervous again. When I became nervous, I wanted to become secure again. I thought about what it was that I really wanted, but even after having it, why am I still left hungry?”

“This song is so good,” Taecyeon murmured to himself, peeking into the hole in the wall, to a channel to different direction of the system. It was true, there was a gramophone sitting not far from where the opening was, and it was still playing the song. The question was… who put it there and who turned the gramophone to work?

“Thank you,” a gruff voice answered Taecyeon’s indirect praise. Taecyeon turned his eyes to the source. It was the gorilla. Taecyeon jumped backward, eyes wide, and heart nearly suffered cardiac arrest.

“Did… did you just talk to me?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, yes,” the gorilla answered suavely. He walked gracefully, as graceful as a silverback gorilla could be, towards the gramophone. “It is my prized possession, a reminder for who I was, who I really am,” he explained. Taecyeon cautiously walked behind him, unsure about the turn of events, but curious enough to follow the unfolding of this strange case of… a gorilla. “I cannot sing or dance like I used to because if I do, there will be an earthquake. I was cursed; just the same as what happened to the six beasts you are taking care of.”

“Oh,” Taecyeon was speechless. Now he knew what his sister was talking about, and it explained pretty much everything. “You saved us yesterday, didn’t you?”

“I wouldn’t say as much,” the gorilla humbly replied. “I provided distraction, enough for the kids to escape and Khun to bring you with him. I would advice that you pay close attention to that kid, specifically if he hasn’t returned to his koala bear form. I have seen it far too often. He requires a lot of care during his reversion process.”

“You saw?” Taecyeon asked.

“Oh, I did,” the gorilla was amused, “I stayed with Raven in her lab all the time.”

“Oh—excuse me,” Taecyeon said, embarrassed. Then, it dawned on him. “Why did you run away from the lab, though—uh, what’s your name?”

“Jinyoung, if you please,” the gorilla filled in, “I fled because I heard the animals in the zoo being tortured. I correctly empathized on how obscene they were treated and I wasn’t allowed anyhow by Raven to go, considering my own safety. Your recklessness presented me with an opportunity.”

“You’re welcome?” Taecyeon said. Jinyoung, the gorilla, laughed.

“I am guessing that you are now here to bring me back.”

“Yes, I’m sorry, but everything was chaotic and I need to bring you all to safety until she returns, which is still five days away.”

“Okay, if you really are certain.”

Leaving the gramophone where it was, they climbed the ladder, greeted the faint sun on the surface of earth again. Unfortunately, as they emerged, they found out that they had been surrounded by police squad and the zookeepers. The four animals and Khun were held captive, fear was written all over their faces.

“Good work, laddie,” the leader of them spoke, noticing the presence of Jinyoung. He signalled one of the cops present to step forward. “Hand it over now.”

“I beg your pardon,” someone interrupted swiftly along with a loud stomp that shook earth. They all turned towards the one making unprecedented entrance, apparently without knowing the suspense that should be kept to create this story more thrilling. “I would love to come later just in some heroic story, but I’m no hero, so I come on time.” The scientist was grinning from above them all, happily riding what could only be described as makeshift giant robot that normally was automobile (well, would you imagine that?). In the air, a familiar falcon was floating and singing.

“What the…”

“Sergeant Shim,” Aziraphale said, standing up, “I am taking back all my kids back. If you won’t let them go, Sergeant, I will…”

“What, attack me?” the sergeant sniped in hotly. The scientist pushed her glasses up.

“I will sing,” she told him, smirking.

“Huh?”

A rear cart arrived in time with an upright piano in it. Taecyeon was bewildered as he saw Khun dashed for it. He sat and began playing without hesitation. The sky suddenly lit up, gold and glittery. They, mere humans, looked up; greeted by familiar gold coins appearing out of thin air, resembling flowers. The cops and zoo staffs alike moved automatically to reach the coins happily.

“It’s real! It’s real!” they shouted joyfully.

“They said…”—the scientist posed dramatically, going into the first verse of whatever song she was really going to sing now—“…science is too hard for girls. They said only men could handle it. Just because I was born without , whenever I raise my scientific proven fertilizer, you tell me that it’s a potion—because I’m a witch, mumbo-jumbo, ear of a goat, whiskers of a rat… what are you, medieval folks? Come on, it’s not 17^th century anymore!” She shouted angrily at the last line. She pointed at the sergeant, glaring darkly. “I’m a scientist and you must fear me,” she declared, and with a smirk, added, “I’m eighty-one.”

“What?” the sergeant asked.

“What?” Taecyeon was even more surprised. Jinyoung the gorilla next to him laugh merrily. He picked the human by the back of his shirt and leapt, in time to land in a passing canoe that came with flood of chicken. They now started moving away from the officials they rather not to be close with. Taecyeon saw Junho and grabbed him on the way.

“Kids these days, they don’t know how to treat the elderly. They go arrogantly, apprehend seniors who just happen to pass by. Just because we look like a monkey,” the scientist sang, Chansung roared angrily in response, jumping and climbing to the odd woman’s side on the unusual vehicle. “Just because we look like a cuddly giant panda.” Minjun nodded, singing as backing vocal (what language did he sing in?), riding in the cart with Khun and the piano. Then, she narrated, “Just because we look like animals, we must stay in a zoo, right? We don’t belong anywhere else, right?” The scientist laughed sarcastically. Jay dove sharply, taking the dancing Wooyoung with him.

“Get them, fools!” the sergeant barked despite they were all almost suffocated by hundreds of chicken.

“This is the strangest thing I have ever been involved in,” Taecyeon said, awestruck and dumbfounded at the same time. He chuckled. Junho slapped him across the cheeks, disagreeing. “What was that for? I was saying this is like a super awesome gig in a crazy dream, I can’t believe my eyes or ears.”

“Wrap speed to home, Mr. Park,” Miss Aziraphale commanded, sitting regally on the available throne-like nook, pointing towards the greenhouse. Jay glided and changed his song. Wooyoung was dropped onto Taecyeon’s waiting palms. Khun stopped playing the piano while Minjun took over, doing some sort of poem recitation.

“Wait, that’s my bike!” Taecyeon yelled upon spotting his yesterday-stolen-bike.

“Later, young man,” the scientist exclaimed. “Now, home awaits!”

The beasts all cheered except Jay and Minjun. Using whatever curse captured Jay’s singing, the bikes around the street came together and became sentient. Those things upgraded Taecyeon’s canoe with wheels and Khun’s rear cart with quicker “horse”. Their pursuers were all down to their knees, weeping.

It was almost unbelievable, even for someone who witnessed everything first hand. The scientist’s back seemed grey and sad despite their triumph. Taecyeon’s excitement was rapidly drained as soon as his eyes caught the sight before him. He realized that he knew nothing about these beasts and the scientist herself. Junho purred and nuzzled into Taecyeon’s embrace, getting light smack from Wooyoung whose spot disturbed because of the penguin’s intrusion. They fell asleep like babies just a moment later. The gorilla kept his eyes to the opposite direction, observing the tailing pack. Minjun stopped reciting, now leaning his back at the corner of the rear cart. Khun curled near the piano. Chansung was munching banana (where did that come from?). Jay flew back down once they neared the greenhouse. The scientist slid down her robot-vehicle, followed by Chansung. She landed in time to provide Jay a perch (her right forearm).

As soon as the song ceased, their vehicles returned to their original forms. Taecyeon brought the penguin and chick easily out of the canoe. Jinyoung, though, offered him a hand to bring them instead, silently informing Taecyeon about something—someone—required his utmost attention. Taecyeon turned to Khun who hadn’t moved a muscle since he saw him earlier. Without further thought, he entrusted the avian friends to Jinyoung and ran to Khun. The undefined creature was shaking badly and his temperature was skyrocketing.

“Bring him in,” the scientist said as she came to bring Minjun with her.

*****

Three hours passed since they came back to the greenhouse. Taecyeon was busy repairing the damaged parts of the greenhouse, thanks to Jay and Jinyoung—and Chansung, good ole giant bean sprouts. Thankfully, they assisted him well. He had to make food for them, too, as well for himself—apparently he hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday? Wow (big surprise, right?). The scientist emerged from her lab with a bundle of fluff enveloped in red blanket.

“You know, Taecyeon,” she started right away, placing Khun the koala bear in Taecyeon’s hands gently, “I wasn’t kidding when I said I am eighty-one.”

“Uh, what?” Taecyeon asked, shocked again.

“I have been looking for a way to revert their curses. I am close to bring Khun back into his human form because, for whatever reasons, his body responds most positively to the formula I created. That form you saw was as far as a human he could be currently. The withdrawal symptom, however, was quite severe. Please look after him until he wakes up.”

“Wait, I…” Taecyeon had so much going inside his head.

“I know you quit, but it’s not been a week since you told me your resignation, is it?” she cut in, grinning. Taecyeon let out a sigh, but he shook his head.

“No, I mean,” he was conflicted, “I am not sure about quitting. All that happened just recently got me thinking. I don’t want to leave. Will you let me stay here?”

The scientist frowned, staring straight at him darkly, uncertain. She crossed her arms, thinking pensively. She took a deep breath and said, “I shall with one condition.”—Taecyeon’s eyes sparkled—“Call me Raven.”

“B—but…”

“Don’t even think about calling me grandma—I’ll numb your tongue,” she threatened, ending it with a wide smirk, though.

“Okay,” Taecyeon agreed, a shaky laugh followed right after. “I heard Khun was trying to say something when I was unconscious yesterday. So, I am wondering, Jinyoung here can talk flawlessly—can Khun speak at all?”

“We all understand human speech,” the gorilla replied for Raven, “but only I can speak for now. He probably was trying, but unsuccessful. Isn’t that wonderful, dearie?” He directed the last phrase to Raven. The scientist smiled softly and nodded.

“I’m going to work harder to see what he actually wanted to say. Now, if you’d excuse me, young man,” she gracefully excused herself, off to the lab again. This time with the gorilla.

Seeing the woman and the beast communicating so affectionately, Taecyeon pondered about the story behind them and every single beast kid she harboured here. For a moment, Taecyeon was able to ignore the ruckus caused by the hyper Chansung versus Junho versus Wooyoung (they actually destroyed plenty of props in Junho’s south pole inspired habitat, but well, of course, we could always take care of them tomorrow, right?), also Minjun and Jay who apparently could not agree on anything despite being different species (wait, what?) that in reality caused more holes around the greenhouse (but certainly we could always repair them later, it’s not like night breeze would kill the plants, right?). Taecyeon focused himself to the koala bear in his arms. It was strange to see him sleep not hugging anything.

“I suppose I will have time to listen to your stories later.”

He stood up and went into the small bedroom next to his working station, where he could use some rest now. As the door closed, so the end of this story finally arrived. So much for comedy, right? Narrator out—Mr. Sulu, warp speed, home!

I have answers, but I will end this just like this! (lol) *bricked* Of course I know the origin of the curse and the background stories for each of them, but... Mr. Scotty, get me out of here! Right now! *disappears*