feb, week 1. pray

Sunggyu doesn't realize when it happens. By the time he realizes something has changed, days, weeks, months-- maybe even years, have passed by. But it's not really a bother for him to know that a lot of time has passed, the bother lays on the fact that these many years had to pass for it to happen, for him to finally notice.

To happen... what, exactly?

Sunggyu isn't sure of the answer to such question. He just knows it like how he knows there's four seasons in a year, like how the snow, the one he hates at the beginning of every winter but grows fond of at the end when spring is around the corner, is white. He knows something has changed, it's like it has a smell and it's so intense and persistent-- he can't ignore it.

He hasn't shifted in a long time. He didn't have a reason to do so. Why would he? When all he has needed is a place to sleep in, animals to hunt and snow to play in until he grows tired and he moves into a different part of the forest to discover the best places to hide at and the little ponds that grow on the summer. He likes the orange color of his fur and his long tail to leave it behind for a human body he hasn't really liked just yet.

Being a human required a lot of maintenance that foxes don't need. Like how a human needs to shower every other day, needs a few changes of clothes since being isn't really well seen; how the human tongue is a bit too picky and suddenly the raw meat doesn't taste as good like when he eats it in his fox state. No. Being human is something he doesn't really like.

But he has searched for the thing in his fox state for a few days now, and there's so many places a fox can go to without risking his life of getting run over or shot at. Sunggyu evades cities and towns like the plague if he can-- but, sadly, maybe those are the places he should be looking in to get his answer.

He's not sure what he's looking for or even why for that matter. All he knows is that he should, so he is. He plans to break into a cabin at the beginning of winter, when three seasons of searching have passed by, and to steals some warm clothes to put on so winter doesn't hit him so hard when he decides to shift into a human again, after so many years of living the comfortable life of a fox.

The cabin he breaks in is a little one that is just besides his favorite part of the forest. This cabin is normally inhabited, probably because it's far from the city or maybe it's just expensive like that. There's only one car parked at the front, a new SUV that is probably rented or actually just bought-- Sunggyu isn't really sure and doesn't really care. What he cares about is that the new tenant is a male with a sense of fashion, or at least with a common sense with lots of jackets stored in his closet.

The hole he made two winters back has been covered up and he's basically forced to make a new one or go for the easy way and break a window. He's not in a rush but he's not your typical kind of living thing with patient overflowing his existence itself, so he easily breaks the window by throwing some rocks against it.

He didn't actually contemplate that the tenant would be inside the house, which is stupid of him. The SUV is parked just in front, where would the person be if not there?

Sunggyu doesn't wait around to see who comes out. He makes a run between the bushes and to the inside of his forest, knowing very well that the tenant won't come looking for him, and even if they did, they wouldn't find him so easily.

About an hour later, he comes back.

The SUV is missing and the window has been sloppily covered up with a piece or rag, as if this way no one will notice it has been broken in a corner. Sunggyu smirks to himself, as maybe his stupid decision ended up being The master plan.

When he steps into the cabin through the hole, his body shivers in reaction to... everything. He has to stop himself from moving further, not knowing what is it exactly that's affecting him. Is it the scent? Is it because it's yet warm inside? Is it some kind of sixth sense he hasn't well understand, like how he doesn't understand why is he even able to turn into a human (but he doesn't question it either)? Or maybe it's everything at the same time, hitting him from everywhere in every way.

He closes his eyes and lets his nose make the decision of where to go. This human, whoever they are, is very very interesting. Their suitcases are scatter around the room, half empty with some bags standing up on the inside, dirty clothes, probably. The table in the kitchen has only one thing on the top: a bottle of vodka that is half empty.

The walls are , nails hammered between the wood logs, and Sunggyu doesn't see much but a few untouched boxes laying around the room. He walks down from the window and slowly approaches one of the suitcases, struggling to open up the bag of clothes and easily giving up.

Since the cabin isn't so big and the only closed room is actually the bedroom, he quickly scans the tiny living room and tiny kitchen, not interested in anything else, even if everything sets off an alarm within him.

He walks into the bedroom and finds the dresser opened up, making it easy for him to climb up and give it a look. The drawers are half full, and from this position, Sunggyu gets the best angle to look at them, and also, to smell them.

This is it, Sunggyu thinks. This is what I've been looking for.

He drops into the drawer and smells the pieces of clothes more closely, digging his nose in them. This is when he confirms to himself that the tenant is a male, it is obviously a male. This smell couldn't come from a girl, it's too rough, like rosewood, yet faintly musky.

He can't help it but start rubbing his body against the fabric of the clothes so he can imprint the smell in himself. It's his natural side acting up, he tells himself. His prudent side wouldn't do this, he wouldn't mess up the tidy clothes and he wouldn't purr like a stupid cat would do, but he finds himself doing these things and he seriously doesn't even care.

His heart feels content, and he doesn't want to part away from this smell, not in a million years. But he has to do it at some point, his realistic side remembers.

Not if I take one thing or two...

He quickly scans what he has messed up, looking for the bigger thing with