“Just put them on the kitchen table.” Jiyong pointed in the direction of the kitchen. Seunghyun wobbled as Daesung nudged the side of his leg with his head, almost dropping the half a ton of groceries he had in his arms.

“I think he likes you.” Jiyong chuckled, glad that they were getting along. Sort of. Seunghyun still acted like Daesung was nothing but a bother and an imminent danger to them and the world, but he could see he didn't mean it anymore. Daesung had managed to melt the iron man, Seunghyun had found his kryptonite.

“I think he's trying to trip me so he can get to the food.” Seunghyun grumbled in an annoyed tone. “Can you like, remove him!” he barked, working hard not to trip over an excited Daesung, who kept brushing his head and upper body up against his legs, making the trip to the kitchen seem like a high level obstacle course.

“No.” Jiyong giggled teasingly, sticking his tongue out at him. Seunghyun's jaw fell open.

“Oh, just you wait until the next time you need a favor!” he said, slightly hurt that Jiyong was taking Daesung's side over his.

“Sure, I'll wait.” Jiyong smiled, suppressing a laughing fit. He was having a little too much fun pushing Seunghyun's buttons.

“Uhm, your carpet is making a weird sound and it's all squishy.” Seunghyun frowned as he continued into the kitchen, starting to jog to get away from Daesung.

“Yeah, right.” he snorted, thinking it was just Seunghyun trying to get back at him. He wasn't going to check it out, for that would mean he was admitting defeat, but his curiosity got the better of him. There was always that one percent chance that he wasn't pulling his leg, and the thought of a squishy carpet was too much for him to handle. Seunghyun of course knew that, which was why this had been a brilliant comeback, but he couldn't help himself.

“Nooooo, not the carpet!!!!” he shrieked in horror. How he wished it had just been Seunghyun's revenge and that he had fallen for it, for the reality was much, much worse. A wave of icy goose bumps washed over him as he gagged from the ickiness of it all. The mystery of how Daesung had managed to finish the entire food container in one sitting had been solved. Most of it had ended up under the carpet, after he had pulled one of its corners loose, and further aided by Seunghyun's trampling, it was now a stew-carpet-hybrid of the worst kind.

Flabbergasted, he went to the bathroom to fetch the cleaning products. There was no chance he could just leave it like this, not for a second longer. He didn't know what to do about the carpet though, this wasn't coming out without some serious industrial cleaning products. And carpet glue, or whatever was used to fix detached carpet corners. Daesung was one strong wolf boy when he was motivated enough.

Horrified and disgusted, to the point that he was close to adding his own vomit to the mix, he started removing the squished food from under the carpet. It smelled something awful.

“Dae, there's plenty of food in the fridge, you don't have to hoard.” he told Daesung when he appeared around the corner, even though he probably had no idea what he was saying. But the moment Daesung saw what he was doing he started growling. He got down low on four feet, arching his back, as if he was getting ready to attack. Jiyong froze. He thought they had gotten over the aggressive phase. At least between the two of them. It hurt him to see him like this, as if they were strangers. As if everything he had done for him, that they had done for each other, had been erased. Maybe Seunghyun had been right, once a wild animal, always a wild animal. An old article he had read popped into his brain, about a tiger trainer who had foolishly thought the tiger he had brought up himself was no danger to him, until he ripped open his throat. Cold water ran down Jiyong's spine. Was this that moment?

“Ji! Back away from the food. Now.” Seunghyun said in an alarmingly calm voice. Jiyong did what he was told. Slowly, mini-step by mini-step, he got further away from Daesung's homemade pantry. Daesung kept growling, but relaxed his stance. When Jiyong was clear, Daesung went and put all the food back under the carpet, tucking it right in there. Jiyong shuddered at the sight.

“How... how did you know...?” Jiyong stuttered as he threw himself on the sofa, he was still a bit shaken up. He had let Daesung get too close. He had started forgetting that he was raised as a wild creature, thinking of him more and more as a human boy and not a wolf boy. His human boy.

“Uhm.. just read it somewhere... all wolves aggressively defend their cache sites against all others.” Seunghyun shrugged, planting himself right beside him on the sofa. They watched as Daesung made sure his food stash was safe.

“You read up on wolves?” Jiyong asked, genuinely surprised.

“Dunno. Just in passing.” Seunghyun tried to brush it off as nothing, but Jiyong knew better. That big-hearted oaf, he thought lovingly.

“What are we going to do?” Jiyong's tone reeked of defeat and despair.

“Can't he just have his corner of gross to himself?” Seunghyun suggested. Not so long ago he would have used this as an excuse to force Jiyong to get rid of him. And truth be told, Jiyong wasn't far from considering it. He wandered if it was doing Daesung any good to be in their incapable hands, they had no idea how to take care of him or how to help him shed his wolf ways. He had thought he had made so much progress, but it turned out that it was all just wishful thinking.

“We can't just leave it like that. It will start to rot and the smell...” Jiyong gagged just thinking about it. “Maybe I'm not cut out for this..” he added in a mere whisper, starting a staring contest with the floor. He hated admitting that Seunghyun was right after he had fought him so hard on the issue.

“Are you kidding? Have you not seen the transformation this kid has made in only a couple of days?! Don't you think your expectations are maybe.. a bit unfairly high? Could you stop being human in only two days?” Seunghyun put his arm around his shoulder, squeezing it lightly in an attempt to comfort him. It was working. It always worked. Annoyingly so.

“Hmm.. what if we try and make him understand that the fridge is his cache site?” Seunghyun wondered aloud.

“I don't know.. Do you think that would work?” Jiyong asked, secretly really impressed by the idea.

“Dunno. Worth the try?” he shrugged, sending him a crooked smile. He was annoyingly handsome. The kind of handsome nobody could deny, and he knew it.

“How would we even do that? It's not like he can understand us...” Jiyong was still shaken up, having a hard time getting rid of the doubts that had clawed themselves into his brain.

“Oh, he understands more than you think.” he gave him a wink and stood up, dragging Jiyong along with him.

“Dae. Daesungie! Come on boy! Here boy!” Seunghyun called from the kitchen.

“Don't call him like he's a dog!” Jiyong scolded him, even though he was more guilty of thinking like that himself. The guilt had already started eating itself through his gut.

“Well, it worked, didn't it.” Seunghyun chuckled as Daesung came running into the kitchen chanting “Cumong! Cumong!”, his hands sticky and his tongue hanging out. He was ridiculously cute, there was no denying that.

“First thing's first.” Jiyong pulled a wet tissue pack out of his pocket. It took the entire pack of tissues to restore Daesung to his original self.

Seunghyun put his hand on the fridge door. “Daesung. Food. Nom nom.” he said theatrically, banging on the door. Then he pointed to the living room. “Nom nom NO!” he said harshly, lowering his eyebrows as if he was angry. Daesung watched his actions carefully, his eyes full of wonder. Seunghyun repeated the process a few times, but Daesung just stared at him. In the end he gave up.

“Forget it, it's pointless. It was a stupid idea.” he sighed. A moment later Jiyong felt Daesung's hand slid into his. He pulled him along, out of the kitchen and to the living room. Daesung pointed at the corner and then to the kitchen. When Jiyong didn't catch on, he grunted out of frustration. He went to the corner and grabbed a handful of the mush under the carpet and ran into the kitchen, his hand dripping the entire way, much to Jiyong's dismay. He took a deep breath and followed him into the kitchen, trying to prepare himself for whatever situation he would encounter there.

Daesung smiled when he saw him, pointing at the open fridge. He had put the handful of carpet-stew right into the bottom drawer. Instead of freaking out over the mess he had left in the refrigerator, Jiyong looked at him proudly. Seunghyun was right. He understood more than they thought. That was one amazing boy, he thought impressed.

“Yeah!” Seunghyun clapped enthusiastically to indicate that he had the right idea. Daesung jumped for joy, bursting with pride, before pulling Jiyong back to the carpet corner.

“You want to move the food?” Jiyong asked with a frown.

“Mm. Moo.” Daesung nodded to confirm. Jiyong got a container and scooped the rest of the goop into it and brought it into the kitchen under Daesung's strict supervision. Together they put it into the drawer. Jiyong wanted to clean it first, but Daesung wouldn't hear of it so Jiyong conceded. They had won the war, but apparently they couldn't win every fight.

Seunghyun high-fived Jiyong in celebration, interrupted by an overexcited Daesung who wanted to get in on the action. So they taught him to high-five. A decision they would come to regret for Daesung wanted to high-five, and nothing but high-five, till death did them part.

Two hours later, and it wasn't clear who was more stubborn, Daesung or the stain under the carpet. Seunghyun and Daesung were still in the kitchen, poor Seunghyun probably getting tennis elbow from the incessant high-fives. He was thankful that he was keeping Daesung distracted while he cleaned up the mess.

“Houston, we have a problem!” Seunghyun called.

“What?!” Jiyong came running. Seunghyun did a demonstration.

“Let's say I was thirsty and wanted a cold one.” he started his one man act, walking to the fridge. Daesung started to growl.

“See! Now he thinks he owns the fridge and everything in it!” Seunghyun chuckled, shaking his head at the fatal flaw in their plan.

It took the rest of the evening, but in the end they managed to convince Daesung to commandeer only the bottom drawer. The rest of the fridge belonged to Jiyong. Thankfully, Daesung was so tired after the ordeal, that he sent himself to bed.

As Jiyong put his now dry phone back together, he dared to hope. He held his breath as he pushed the power button. And there was light! The ever so familiar beep alerted him that he had several messages, all from Taeyang. He was so glad his phone was working that his gut tickled.

“Wow, somebody's popular.” Seunghyun snorted, trying to peek over his shoulder. Jiyong jumped up and ran to the bathroom, since he knew Seunghyun wouldn't stop trying if he sensed that he didn't want him to see the messages. He wasn't sure why he didn't want him to see them though. It was probably best to keep these two parts of his life separate anyway. His life was complicated enough as it was.