Taylor Swift – Innocent

                Wariness is a natural instinct for animals, especially when they are in unfamiliar places and facing suspicious living beings, so that made me being oversensitive and unreasonable getting pissed at a harmless For so far wolf that was merely trying to protect itself, but at that time, I could only think of the judging face of the people back in my life that simply ticked me off. Not wanting to think about the wolf furthermore, I grabbed the journal and plopped down on the bed, trying to distract myself with some light reading. Now, having a closer look and not in some panic situation, I was surprised that the leather cover was smooth and only with little scratches though the fading colour of the cover and foxed papers were pretty much the signs saying this journal was old.

                 Feeling the thin lines on the spine of the journal, the owner must have been using it frequently, even the papers binding inside could be seen not aligned properly. Not wanting to have any loose pages falling down, I flipped open the journal carefully. Just when I thought my mind was finally able to rest from the thoughts of the wolf, a page slipped off resulting in having my brows furrowed. What? A page fell- My inward groaning was cut off when I finally registered what was on the fallen page. It’s a sketching of a wolf. For a split second, I was simply amazed by the sketching skill with the shading and precise visual texture of the fur, then somewhere in my brain clicked in realization.

                The owner of the journal/lived here raised a wolf. I mean like it was not utterly absurd since with such coincidence a wolf that was not supposed to exist in the land of Korea was right here and a journal that proved someone knew the existence of the wolf with this sketching. Several thoughts buzzed on my mind and suddenly I was getting quite piqued up when I remembered a movie entitled ‘Hachiko’. Could it be a wolf version of Hachiko? The famous loyal dog. This suspicion of mine seemed to fit the details quite well, so maybe the owner moved away or died Most probably the latter and the wolf, the owner’s pet was left to wait for the owner’s return for years already, considering the journal was quite old. Though the sketching of the wolf on the paper was somewhat different from the one I saw, squinting my eyes at the sketching again as I tried to remember the features of the wolf that was currently in the barn.

                Well, it was years ago, a wolf aged too, so maybe it looked like this when it’s younger. I broke into a grin, finding this discovery of mine was really interesting, but then I winced when I remembered how I treated the wolf. Rolling around to lie on my stomach, I began to read the journal from the first page and I was hooked to it from the first page.

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                I have never given much thought of how was it like to have a pet, but ever since I began to read the journal that was everything related to wolves, I imagined in having a wolf as a pet instead of those puppies or kitties. Hence, I started to spend my time in that barn, with the mysterious wolf. At first, it was just a few short visits to the wolf with of course food, then the visit lengthen to a fair amount of spending my time in that messy barn, not to mention a stinky one.At least it was pretty cool inside, pretty much an ideal place to spend the summer. To make myself even more comfortable in the barn, I actually cleaned the barn. Well, if you consider sweeping a little (precisely only a corner), spraying some fragrance and set up a beach chair as cleaning. To be honest, I was not too sure what has gotten into my head, I mean, hello? Having such close proximity with a wolf and no one to be getting help from in the middle of the pine forest was pretty much a suicide attempt.

                I was just really drawn to the wolf with its brown topaz eyes that always gleam in the shadow and I was not sure I should be relieved or disappointed that the wolf never approached me, just merely staying back in the dark and followed my every movement with that mesmerizing pair of eyes. Mostly I spent my time in the barn by reading (usually the journal repeatedly) and then I even started to play my guitar or just talking randomly to the wolf so that it wouldn’t feel bored. On the day the maid came, I tried to stay in the house as much as I can because I was worried that the maid might find me suspicious spending time in the barn and the existence of the wolf will be revealed. That was simply a disaster if that happened.

               Shaking my head at the thought, I tried lifting up my mood by simply buried my face in the journal again. Almost able to recite the contents about the expressions of the wolf in the pages I was reading with my eyes closed, I sighed when I recalled how I misread the suspicious expression of the wolf as an offensive one on the day I first found it. Speaking of food, I wondered if I gave too little food to the wolf because apparently in the journal did not mentioned specifically how much serving should a wolf eat and only simply stated: “Consistently hungry, such a fattie.” I hope I gave enough to not to starve the wolf and for the last two days, I noticed that the wolf was drifting in and out from slumber. It’s not sick, right?

                I resisted the urge not to roll my eyes when I saw the disbelief on the maid’s face when I told her to stock in the meat supply and made it thrice of the amount too. She must have thought I was some kind of carnivore human, well, I couldn’t really tell her “Oh, apparently I have a wolf under my care, not to mention it's huge too.” There were these few times I managed to sneak glimpses of the full view of the wolf and I must say I was stunned because I never thought a wolf can be this huge, roughly five times bigger than a normal wolf size. At first, it was terrifying to know it was such a large wolf, but then maybe it’s a hybrid or mutant wolf species, I mean the world is pretty crazy and unexpected things happen all the time.

               Shortly after the maid’s leave, there was this sudden heavy downpour that came without notice and I was glad that at least it came after the maid left, I wouldn’t want to have her staying in the house because of the rain, no one liked to have a total stranger staying in their house. Well, that was what I said, but then you can never be so sure of one’s words, even if it’s your own because that's what exactly happened to me, counting down from two hours.

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                I was getting restless when the rain was getting heavier, causing a torrent of abuse in this area as well as my heart because I was actually being anxious for the wolf. Like I said, I almost memorized the contents of the journal and there was this statement saying the wolf disliked getting wet because wetness caused them to be in distress. I’ve half of mind to charge into this massive storm just to make sure the wolf was doing alright. Nevertheless, my thoughts were halted when I heard a sound- as if someone just slumped down behind the door which was at just an arm’s length away. I was confirmed not to have mistaken the loud rain sound as something else when weird noises were heard from the door yet again. I was petrified when the noise was becoming louder and I could almost guess what was making that sound. It sounded like something was.. Scratching the door..

              Scratching? That was something a wolf would do, right?

              Automatically, my body sprang into action and opened the door, expecting for the wetness and of course the big brown wolf with its brown-gold eyes staring at me. But, it’s not and my blood ran cold at the stomach lurching sight.

-A/N-

Our lovely Kyungsoo is going to make his entrance in the story~ :)

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