Three
Animal PlanetHoya sighed, dropping the stack of papers that he had been reading through on the kitchen table. He didn’t often make it a habit to work outside of the office, but he was already behind on these audit checks and he couldn’t afford to lose any more time today. He rubbed his eyes, the words blurring in front of him.
“Wake up, Howon.” He mumbled to himself, shoving a slice of toast in his mouth and chewing slowly, trying to take in the words on the paper in front of him. It was no use. He was just too tired. The past week had seriously taken it’s toll on him and he was getting much less than his usual eight hours of sleep. It was no fault of his own though. It was all down to that freaking alien.
Ever since Dongwoo had entered his house, all the alien had done was cause chaos wherever he went. Until now, Hoya had done a great job at keeping Dongwoo on house arrest, hidden away from anyone but himself and Sungyeol, but he could tell that the alien was getting restless and who knew what sort of destruction he could cause if his boredom got the best of him.
Hoya scoffed to himself, angrily taking another bite of his breakfast. A week ago if someone had even mentioned the world alien in front of him, he would think they were a lunatic. He could only ignore the truth for so long, and that fateful night in the garden had tested his beliefs. But he held out hope that he would wake the next morning and the entire thing would turn out to have been a silly figment of his imagination. But it wasn’t a dream, actually more like a nightmare, and he was rudely awakened the next day by the alien’s antics with his younger brother.
Of course Sungyeol had immediately believed Dongwoo’s words, the alien’s arrival had been nothing short of a dream come true for the younger man. Hoya was more practical and much harder to convince, but even he couldn’t argue with fire manipulation and telekinesis. To say he was shocked was an understatement, there was actually someone from another planet residing in his home, and suddenly he was responsible for the alien’s well being.
It only made sense that the weight of the burden had made him a little dizzy. He had not passed out - no matter what Sungyeol said - he had merely needed a moment to recollect himself. Hoya was actually considered to be the ambassador of Earth to the alien from Mato, and even if the entire situation was ridiculous, he didn’t exactly want to be responsible for ruining intergalactic relations between two planets. So over the past week he had been running his business from home, keeping a watchful eye on Dongwoo and basically never letting the man leave his sight, for his own good.
What other choice did Hoya really have though? It wasn’t like he could release Dongwoo onto the world. Not only was the world not ready for the insane pink haired alien, he didn’t think that the aforementioned alien was ready for Earth. It wasn’t all cute fuzzy animals and nice kind people, there were so many bad things in this world that Dongwoo seemed ignorant to.
Hoya ran a hand through his hair. When had he started to worry about Dongwoo? As much as the alien still frustrated him to no end, he was just so good. He may have done stupid things - like that one time he decided to sprinkle glitter all over Hoya’s very important paperwork to ‘make it more pretty’ - but he always had the best intentions.
It was for that reason that Hoya almost didn’t want to ruin Dongwoo’s naive view of this planet, so it just seemed the best option to keep him hidden away, where he couldn’t discover Earth and Earth couldn’t discover him. That was a plan that Dongwoo didn’t seem to agree with though, as he was getting more and more fidgety by the day. Hoya really had no idea how he was going to keep it up.
Hoya’s thoughts were disrupted by hot hands covering his eyes, plunging his world into darkness, and a voice in his ear.
“Guess who, Okami-san!”
Hoya almost jumped out of his skin. “Dongwoo!” He scolded, but the alien just pulled his hands away and clapped gleefully.
“Okami-san is so clever, it is Dongwoo!”
“Dongwoo, you shouldn’t be sneaking up on people like that!” He hissed, spinning around angrily to face the grinning alien.
Dongwoo just looked confused. “But sneaking around is fun! Me and Kirin-chan played hide and seek last night and that was really fun-”
“That’s not the same thing.” Hoya sighed, “I am trying to work! What if I had spilled my coffee on my papers because you scared me so much.”
“But you didn’t…”
“What if I had?”
“But… Okami-san didn’t spill his coffee on his papers, so why is Okami-san angry at me?”
Hoya just shook his head in frustration. “Forget it.” He said. There was no use trying to explain anything to this dense alien. He glanced up at Dongwoo from his chair, who standing next to him with a sad expression. He felt his own face soften. “It’s okay… You just scared me, that’s all. Just don’t sneak up on me next time, okay?”
Dongwoo’s face lit up. “Okay Okami-san, I won’t! I promise!”
Hoya nodded, turning away from him to focus on his breakfast and paperwork. He could practically hear Dongwoo thinking behind him, shifting his weight around and nervously pulling on his pink hair. He sighed, looking back at the clearly anxious alien. “Dongwoo, is there something else?”
“Well, now that Okami-san mentions it…” He kneeled down next to Hoya, setting his chin on the tabletop and giving his best pout. “I was wondering if maybe… perhaps… there was a chance that Okami-san would let me go out and explore today. I really, really, really want to play! I promise I’ll be really good!”
“Dongwoo, we talked about this-”
“I know we did, but that was forever ago! And I’ve been trying to be patient, really I have, but I came to Earth because I wanted to see- well, Earth. Not that I don’t love Okami-san’s house, because it is amazing and spacious and beautifully decorated and-”
“Dongwoo.”
“Sorry, I know I’m doing the rambling thing again but I just really want to go outside!” Dongwoo pouted.
“You can go outside-” Dongwoo’s face lit up, “to the backyard.” Dongwoo’s face fell.
“Okami-san, me and Kirin-chan explored the backyard three days ago. I want to see more.” The alien was practically squirming next to him, all pent up energy and enthusiasm.
Hoya looked down at him, at his sparkling eyes that were so full of desire to see the world, and he actually felt… bad for the alien. He shook his head, as if that would make the empathy go away, but another Okami-san uttered from Dongwoo’s mouth made him feel weak again.
“Dongwoo, I know how badly you want to leave the house, but right now just isn’t a good time. The world is much more complicated than you think it is, and I’m responsible for you.”
“But Okami-san, I-”
“I am your ambassador, right?”
Dongwoo bit his lip, already sensing from Hoya’s tone that he wasn’t going to win this fight. “...Yes.”
“Then that means as long as you are on my planet, that what I say goes. I’m sorry Dongwoo, really. You’ll just have to be patient.” Hoya turned away from him, focusing back on his paperwork to signal that the discussion was over. Dongwoo slid into the seat next to him at the kitchen table, resting his chin on his folded palms, looking as if his entire world had collapsed around him. He was the picture of despair, his bright eyes now downcast and sadness just seemed so out of place on him that Hoya could barely look at him anymore.
“I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!” Sungyeol’s voice rang out, his sudden appearance in the kitchen breaking the silence. “Gosh, what is the point of having roommates if no one wakes you up when you hit the snooze button too many times?” He complained, yanking the coffee pot off the burner to pour himself a cup.
Hoya glanced at him, taking in his messy hair and slightly wrinkled clothes. “Sungyeol, you own the place. It’s not like it’s going to open up without you.”
“That’s not the point hyung.” He snapped back, taking a long gulp of the steaming liquid.
“Well maybe you wouldn’t be so tired if you would have went to bed at a decent time, instead of staying up late to watch Battlestar Galactica with Dongwoo.”
“Hey, that was for very important research-” The sudden sound of Dongwoo pushing back his chair from the table stopped him mid sentence. The alien muttered out that he was going to his room, and marched out of the kitchen.
The two brothers watched him go, Sungyeol staring at his retreating back with confusion. “What was that about? I mean, he told me last night that the show had a lot of inaccuracies about space travel but he didn’t seem upset about it.”
Hoya sighed, rubbing his temples. “You didn’t do anything Sungyeol, he’s upset with me.”
“Upset with you? He practically worships the ground that Okami-san walks on. He thinks you are even cuter than Japan, and that’s saying something.” Sungyeol teased.
“Not when Okami-san tells him he isn’t allowed to leave the house.”
Sungyeol made a sound of comprehension, sitting down in front of Hoya at the table with his coffee. “Listen hyung, I know we disagree on this-”
“Of course we do Sungyeol. For you Dongwoo is just this life sized… toy that you can play games with and ask all your burning questions to. But to me he is a responsibility, I can’t just open the front door and set him loose on the city. He could get hurt and then where would we be?”
Sungyeol set down his cup angrily. “Okay, first of all, I do not think he is a toy, he’s a person. And by the way, you’re the one who is treating him like an animal by keeping him caged up in this house. He travelled all the way to Earth because he wanted to explore what this planet had to offer. Not that he isn’t grateful to you or your hospitality, but I highly doubt that when he envisioned his stay here that it included spending all of his time indoors.”
“I know that Sungyeol, but I can’t risk him getting hurt!” Hoya argued back. He was expecting his brother to list all the ways he was ‘wrong’, but instead Sungyeol picked up his coffee mug, taking a sip with a curious expression on his face. “Why… are you looking at me like that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.” Sungyeol replied nonchalantly, trying to hide his grin in his coffee cup.
“Sungyeol, tell me whatever little scheme your brain is thinking up right now.” Hoya demanded.
“I’m not thinking of a scheme hyung, I’m just trying to figure out when you started caring this much.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sungyeol set down his mug, crossing his arms to rest on the table. “Well, no offense, I just figured that the reason you’ve been keeping Dongwoo inside the house was because you were boring and lame. I didn’t realize it was because you actually care about Dongwoo. Since when did he change from a nuisance to someone you enjoy being around?”
“I don’t enjoy being around him! I’ve just had to spend a lot of time with him this week while watching him, that’s all. I’ve just gotten used to his presence, nothing more.” Hoya shifted nervously in his seat under Sungyeol’s knowing stare.
“Really.” Sungyeol deadpanned. “So if I were to say that I could get my own place, and Dongwoo could live with me-”
“No, absolutely not. You have no concept of responsibility and under your watch who knows how many things Dongwoo could get into and you don’t even realize how clumsy he is - he doesn’t know how half of the machinery works on this planet - and he’s bound to hurt himself doing something that shouldn’t be risky at all and that is just not a good idea.” Hoya finished strongly, leaving no room for discussion.
Sungyeol shook his head, laughing lightly. “Lee Howon, since when did you have a heart?”
Hoya sighed exasperatedly. “I don’t have time for this, I needed to have these reports looked over by breakfast and aren’t you running late or something?”
“I am, but this is definitely more important. It’s okay to care for Dongwoo, hyung. I know that you do. But you also have to realize that you can’t lock him away and shield him from everything. Eventually he’s going to have to see what’s out there, and it’s only a matter of time until he does. Would you rather him tell you when he decides to go exploring, or do it behind your back out of fear that you would get angry at him? Because eventually he will go looking, and then what will you do?”
“I don’t know.” Sungyeol narrowed his eyes at him and Hoya lifted his hands in defense. “I don’t know Sungyeol. I don’t exactly have a plan for this, and I always have a plan for everything. He asked me if he could go out today and when I told him no… he just looked so sad. I know that I’m hurting his feelings, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it. I’m not sure how to keep him safe and let him satisfy his curiosity. Usually I have the answers but with Dongwoo- I’m just not exactly sure how I’m supposed to take care of an alien. If we were talking about babysitting an annoying little brother, then this would be easy.” Sungyeol reached out with his too long arms to try to swat him, but Hoya moved away with practiced evasion.
“I’ll ignore that last bit, just because I’m too tired to retaliate. But do you at least understand where Dongwoo is coming from?” Sungyeol asked him and Hoya nodded.
They settled into a silence, Sungyeol sipping his coffee and Hoya pretending to look over his paperwork, until the latter came up with an idea. “What if… Dongwoo were to go to work with you? That way he could get out of the house, but he would still have some supervision.” He looked up at his brother, whose eyes were shining with excitement. “Hey, this is serious. If I let you take him to the clinic, you have to promise me that he will come back in the exact same condition that he left in.”
Sungyeol came around the table, wrapping his arms around his brother in a hug. “Of course he will! We’re going to have so much fun, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!!”
“Sungyeol. Your fanboying isn’t exactly instilling any confidence in me.” Hoya reminded him, and Sungyeol tried to hide his excitement.
“I mean, yes brother. I will be responsible for Dongwoo’s well being, and I promise to bring him back in one piece.” Sungyeol’s tone was serious, but his still clapping hands were betraying him. Hoya rolled his eyes, trying to fight his own smile.
“Alright. I guess you should finish getting ready for work then.” Sungyeol nodded excitedly, immediately gulping down the rest of his coffee and practically sprinting out of the kitchen. “Wait!” Sungyeol stopped in the doorway, his body bouncing with eagerness. “Let me tell Dongwoo.” His brother gave him an okay sign, before disappearing out the room.
Hoya sighed, his eyes landing on the papers in front of him. He pushed them away, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to concentrate whilst his mind was still on Dongwoo. He felt a flicker of panic at the thought of allowing the alien out into the world - he knew that Sungyeol cared strongly about Dongwoo and wouldn’t deliberately put him into any potentially dangerous situations, but he also couldn’t help but worry.
He had to look on the bright side though. At least he could go into the office today. He could make sure that nobody was slacking in his absence and catch up on all the work that he had been putting off since Dongwoo’s arrival. He would try not to let himself get too worked up with concern.
Hoya did make a note to keep his phone right next to him all day though, just in case.
He climbed up the stairs with a heavy sigh, preparing to tell Dongwoo that he would be allowed out of the house. He expected the alien to be ecstatic at the news and there was almost a sense of relief mixed in with concern at the fact that Dongwoo would no longer be trapped here in his home. Hoya couldn’t help the guilt that he had felt for the last week, he knew that Dongwoo wanted to explore and he couldn’t help but feel angry at himself that he was bringing the usually bright, bubbly alien down.
He knocked politely on Dongwoo’s door, opening it when he heard the whispered come in. He found Dongwoo propped up his bed, leaning back on the pillows as he played with his puppy stuffed animal. Dongwoo had practically demanded the thing last week, and spent a lot of his time cuddling with the fluffy thing while Hoya was too busy with his paperwork. But now the little animal was propped up on his chest, and Dongwoo was it with that sad expression still on his face.
“Dongwoo?” He started, and the alien turned to him.
“Yes, Okami-san?” Dongwoo responded, but his voice held none of his usual enthusiasm.
Hoya walked over, taking a seat on the bed next to the alien. “Are you okay?”
Dongwoo looked up with wide eyes. “I’m sad.” He admitted.
“I know, Dongwoo.” Hoya could only sigh.
“I really, really, really want to go out and explore Earth. I mean, I know it’s not Japan, but I think that I will like Korea as well. I’m really glad that I landed here and met Okami-san, and I know that Okami-san is only trying to look out for me.” Dongwoo’s lip jutted out. “But I so desperately want to see all of the pretty things on Earth…”
Hoya bit his lip, feeling the faint guilt in his chest expand into something that made him feel like a bad person. “I am only trying to keep you safe and I’m sorry that I made you sad. But I came in here to tell you some news that might make you happy again.”
Dongwoo looked up hopefully. “Okami-san?”
“I’m going to let you go out today-”
“Really?! Okami-san is being serious?” Dongwoo’s face lit up with excitement.
“But only under Sungyeol’s supervision. I’m going to let you go to work with Sungyeol today, but you have to promise me that you’ll stay with Sungyeol and do whatever he asks.”
“Oh yes! I promise! I pinky promise! I get to go out and see things and do things and I can play with Kirin-chan and-”
“Sungyeol will be working.” Hoya reminded him.
“Does Kirin-chan work in an office like Okami-san?” Dongwoo asked politely.
Hoya shook his head. “No, Sungyeol is a veterinarian. That means he looks at animals that are sick and helps them-”
“Animals?! Like cute kitties and puppies and goldfish and rabbits and hamsters and-”
“Yes, exactly like that.” Hoya cut in. Dongwoo’s face lit up and he bounded off the bed.
“Thank you Okami-san! Thank you! Thank you!” He gathered Hoya in his arms and jumped up and down. Hoya could only jump along with the excited alien, trying not to allow a smile to crack across his own face. Dongwoo’s happiness was infectious and Hoya couldn’t help but feel a sense of achievement at bringing that smile back to the pink haired man. He didn’t even reprimand Dongwoo for his hair.
”Did you tell him?” A new voice cut in and Dongwoo released Hoya and ran to the newcomer.
“Oh Kirin-chan, we’re going to have so much fun!” He shouted, grabbing Sungyeol’s hands and bouncing excitedly on the spot. Sungyeol joined in the bouncing and Hoya watched amusedly for while, a faint smile on his face as he caught the pure joy in Dongwoo’s sparkling eyes. When he realised that he was staring, he shook himself out of his trance.
“I’m going in to the office.” He interrupted, causing Dongwoo and Sungyeol to stop jumping. “I’ll have my personal phone. Call me if there are any issues. And I mean any issues.” He demanded and Sungyeol nodded with a salute for good measure.
“I will, I swear!” He agreed and Hoya nodded sternly, before forcing himself away. He reminded himself that there was no use worrying, that Sungyeol would keep Dongwoo safe and this would placate the alien for a while, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking over his shoulder as he left the room and studying Dongwoo’s form, ingraining it into his memory so that he would notice if he came back in anything other than that exact condition.
Purely because he was the alien’s ambassador, nothing else.
A/N: So maybe the pink haired wonder is having a bigger impact on Hoya than he expected.
Hoya couldn’t be immune to the happy virus for long!
So Dongwoo finally is able to leave the confines of Hoya’s mansion, and he gets to go play with Sungyeol at work! He’s definitely super thankful to his Okami-san!
We hope you like it so far! Drop us a comment and let us know what you think!
See you next time!
Jade & Ray
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