Nichkhun had no idea how to respond to that, neither verbally nor emotionally, so he did the only thing that came to mind, he hugged him tighter and changed the subject.

“So, why do you think you've grown up in your human form, but you're still just a cute little pup in your tiger form?” he asked out of curiosity. He had been wondering about this ever since he found out everything was not as it seemed, after that fateful moment when he had opened the door for a lost little tiger cub, not knowing that the little rascal wasn't just slipping in through the crack in the door of his cabin, but also of his heart.

“Dunno, uhm, I always think about it like, the tiger is the one that represents my soul, and my soul is still young and playful, it doesn't want to grow up, because.. well, why would it? Isn't it much more fun to be free and do what you want, rather than having to deal with a mountain of pointless worries that break down your spirit? If that's what growing up is, I don't want it. That's why I mostly just sleep when I'm human, I feel much more like myself when I'm the tiger. It's a simpler, happier life, you know?” Chansung explained, clearly having given it a whole lot of thought through the years.

“How did you end up here, all alone.. where's your family?” Nichkhun quietly asked. He knew he shouldn't be asking, that it was Chansung's private story so it was his decision whether and when to share it. He had no business pushing him to open up. But the curiosity got the better of him. He couldn't understand how anyone could abandon a boy with such a pure and beautiful heart. He started getting angry just thinking about it. The only thing stopping his lid from popping and allowing his feelings to boil over was Chansung's serene but desolate face. His heart sank along with Chansung's expression, like a pebble that had been haphazardly thrown into a pond, left to drift to the bottom, where it would spend the remainder of its lifespan, deserted and alone. He couldn't imagine how it felt to be ripped out of your life just to be cast away, doomed to roam the darkened paths of loneliness, through no fault of your own.

“They left me..” Chansung finally answered, his voice trembling. Nichkhun could feel Chansung's hand grab hold of his side, like he needed to physically feel that he was here, that he wasn't going anywhere.

“..my uncles drove me up here and left me here on my 12^th birthday. It's a tradition.” he added after a long pause, his voice regaining its hold on his vocal cords, returning it to a light and steady, almost indifferent tone.

“WHAT?!? And how did you survive???”. If Chansung had weighed a little less, Nichkhun would've jumped right out of the chair in shock, instead he just raised himself in the seat so he could focus better on the story. He was outraged, every muscle in his body was tense, his mind lost in a fog of wrath, indignation and disbelief.

Chansung simply shrugged, “Just.. went through trash cans, the few that I could find, begged when I was out of options, just did what I had to in order to stay alive. It was tough the first couple of years, but then I sort of got the hang of it.”. He talked about it like he was explaining a situation anyone could find themselves in, like it was normal to have been abandoned in the woods by your own family, your own flesh and blood, left at the mercy of the forces of nature. Nichkhun clenched his teeth, almost biting his tongue in the process.

What kind of people could do that? How could his own mother not accept that he was just a little bit different? Different didn't always have to mean bad. Different was what made the world beautiful. He realized he was being the biggest hypocrite in the world, having taken the length of his life to come to terms with his own homouality, which was a much simpler problem to deal with than changing into a tiger every time the sun went down. He got a painful pang in his heart as he thought about how hard life must have been for his furry bundle of brightness, when the list of his misdoings only consisted of being born. When was being born a reason to sentence someone to a life of misery? Actually, it had always been that way, since the dawn of time. This cold world didn't care what precious colors lay hidden within people, it was gray and it worked hard to stay gray.

“What tradition?” Nichkhun asked after taking a deep breath. It wouldn't help Chansung if he allowed himself to go off the hook and rant about the unfairness of the world. He was pretty sure Chansung knew better than most how unfair it truly was. He was amazed that despite it all, Chansung had managed to stave off the bitterness that lay in wait behind every unfortunate incident, hoping to cut a piece out of your heart and feed on it, leaving you with a hole that would never heal. He was a warm, kind hearted guy that wanted to enjoy the good things in life. Nichkhun couldn't help but feel a bit foolish at how he had handled his own life, knowing that all the while Chansung had been out in these woods by himself, eating trash and whatnot, suffering through harsh winter winds without a shelter to call his own.

“Every 14^th guy born into my family's bloodline is cursed with this affliction, and it's not like you can hide it forever, people start suspecting something is up when you never take part in anything that happens after 6 PM. So when you reach 12 years of age, you are escorted deep into the forest and left to make a life for yourself there.” Chansung said matter-of-factly, like he was describing the recipe for an oven roast, step by step.

“Have you ever tried to go back?” Nichkhun enquired, not having one ounce of control over his curiosity. He wanted to know everything about Chansung, even the messy parts. He was the most interesting being he had ever come across. How he was going to return to his boring, stifling joke of a life was anyone's guess. He was not looking forward to it.

“It's really far from here..” Chansung began, then his voice faltered.

“..and they don't want me to..” he added with difficulty, the sadness in his voice heartbreaking. Nichkhun pulled him into a tight hug, tapping his back lightly in an attempt to comfort him. He wanted to tell him that he was here now, that he wasn't alone anymore, that he would take care of him. He wanted to, but he didn't. Empty words would only hurt Chansung and he wasn't sure he could back them up with anything but the air in his throat.

Instead he told him about his grandmother, he told him the kinds of stories she used to tell him, making him believe in the unbelievable, enriching his bleak world with a pinch of magic. He ended up telling him the whole story of the woman and the wolf, from the very beginning to the tragic end. It didn't take a genius to connect the dots and see the connection between the story and the situation in which they found themselves.

“That woman is an idiot!” Chansung exclaimed the moment he had released the final 'The End.'.

“What? No! She has the most beautiful of hearts, she's ready to sacrifice her own happiness for the happiness of her one true love.” Nichkhun objected, slightly offended. He had always looked up to the woman in the story, how selfless she was, suspecting that he was probably too selfish to do what she did. Hadn't he proven that already, leaving Hyorin like that? Not being able to sacrifice his own happiness for her and his family's happiness. He let out a heavy sigh.

“Do you really think the wolf is happy, alone in the woods, abandoned by his one true love, missing her like crazy?” Chansung raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

“Hmm.. okay, maybe not happy.. but what was she supposed to do? She didn't fit in his world and he didn't fit in hers. That's the story's main point and the source of the sorrow it makes you feel, there is no solution.” Nichkhun retorted, satisfied with his rebuttal.

“There's always a solution. They just had to make a new world, a world of their own where they could both belong.” Chansung smiled back at him. Ah, everything was so simple in Chansung's eyes. He almost envied him of his naive vision. If only the world worked like that.

“But what about your family, they only saw one way to deal with.. your problem..” Nichkhun knew the moment he opened his mouth that he was making a mistake, using Chansung's horrible history to win an argument was about as low as one could go, but still he couldn't resist it. Why couldn't he just let Chansung's innocent light be, why did he have to try and draw it into his own darkness?

“Of course there was a solution then too, but you have to want to solve the problem in order to find it. They were just more comfortable with sweeping the problem under the rug instead of dealing with it. It's not their fault, that's just the way they were brought up.” Chansung sighed. He ran his finger through Nichkhun's hair, looking into his eyes, melting his soul. Nichkhun gave up. Maybe the woman and the wolf could have been happy together. He wanted to believe it. Chansung leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss. A kiss of hope.