Jung Taek Woon learned he could change his look when he was six. In the summer break, he accidentally broke a glass door with a soccer ball, and as the man rushed out, a scared Taek Woon turned into a bird, leaving his clothes behind. All he thought of was to run back to his safe room. Once he got in the room, from the open window, he noticed as he calmed down that something was off about his room. Everything seemed bigger and strange. He suddenly faced the monitor of his room, before turning back to human form, hurting his legs and ended up crying.

His mother couldn’t get a single word from what he said and he ignored it, until it happened again and again which made his parents notice. With fear, they locked him in the house’s most unused room: the cave. He didn’t see the world since.

The couple tried to live their lives properly but then it became harder with time, as the fear of shame consumed them to the point they adopted a kid to replace Taek Woon, and assigned the maid to take care of the “unmentionable”.

The eight Hak Yeon, despite his happiness, knew that something was odd but he worked his best to show his new family that he was a good son. He worked well off at school, he achieved everything he managed to achieve, happy to hear them pawning about how good their son was.

Yet, he couldn’t chase the feeling of being kept in the shadow. He went to the university with that feeling and came back with a graduation that he hoped will allow him to get answers. “Mom.” The woman snapped from her book and looked at him with a faint smile. “I don’t know how to point it out.” He sat in front of her and held her hands. “I know that you are hiding something from me, apart from me being adopted which I know. I can’t forget that.”

The woman stiffened for a moment before letting out a forced laughter. “What are you talking about?” It made him sure he did notice her reaction but as she dismissed him, he give up on his parents looking for the old nanny, the only housekeeper of the house.

“Nanny, can I ask you something?” The woman looked at him, with a studied glare. “What are they hiding from me?”

“I am not in position to tell you anything related to the Mrs. and Mr. Jung.” The woman said with a strange tone. “But you can discover by your own. If you put a little effort to it, Of course.” It left Hak Yeon to bewilderment. He stepped back, before looking at the house.

What should I figure out? He thought to himself before noticing. They don’t have pictures of a huge part of their live before adopting me, I don’t know why. Maybe if I try to discover it, I’ll find some clue. He walked up to the main room, where his mother was still reading. “Mom, aren’t you going out with dad tonight?”

“What? Why?” The woman looked up, surprised before checking her calendar. “Oh, it’s true I promised your father to go with him to the doctor.” It made him sigh in relief, since he was just checking.

“Do you want me to get in your place?” She dismissed him in silence before heading to the office where her husband spent his time. Hak Yeon observed the room for a moment, before heading to his room and resting. He looked sound asleep when the old couple checked him, but as soon as they left, he sneaked to the couple room, looking for pictures. He checked boxes, then drawers, before giving up and fixing the room. He was glad the couple didn’t show up yet because he wanted to check the office where he was prohibited to go to when he was a kid. Getting in the room, he expected something more spacious but it was so small and stuffed with books. He picked them one by one, only to freeze at the sound of a car pulling off.

The hunt ends here today.

He managed sneak downstairs, only to freeze at the sight of the nanny getting back with empty plats. Where did they come from? He did hide as she picked towels and walked out of the house. He sneaked to watch her open a door and walk down and up without towels. He slowly made his way to the bathroom and stayed there for a while, hoping it will cover up his sneaking manners. He flushed the toilets and walked out yawning.

“Good night, sir.” He jumped and looked back to the woman who observed him sharply.

“You scared me.” He truly was scared, and was thankful he didn’t scream like a girl at it. “Good night.” He walked up, before falling in his bed. “What a fruitful day.” He mumbled to himself, deciding to drop it off for some days. He wanted them all out before checking the place. He knew that the woman had a day off per week and worked only for the morning and the late nights… a reason why he found everything odd and incomprehensible.

In the three following weeks, he focused on finding a job, and he indeed got a job in a multinational Cybernetic company. However, the family’s secret was bothering him up to the point even his coworkers noticed.

“What can I do to shake that frown out of your beautiful face?” Jae Hwan used to but at that moment he knew that the man was half serious about it. “Why are you looking at me like this?”

“Can you do me a small favor?”  The request made Jae Hwan step back. “I know you can get everything about someone from that laptop of yours and I want you to give me a complete file of my family background. I mean the Jung’s background.”

Jae Hwan observed him for a second. “Ok. Give me twenty minutes.” Jae Hwan picked up an old generation laptop, where he typed like crazy. “Ok. I got their birthdates, their documents, their son’s birth certificate included, and …that’s odd. An adoption file.”

“I’m adopted.” Jae Hwan looked extremely panicking at it, as Hak Yeon stood closer to check the discovery. “Don’t worry. I’m fine about it. They treated me well.” He clicked on the birth certificate. “They had a son? Taek Woon?”

“You didn’t know?” Jae Hwan asked him and he shook his head. “That’s odd.” If the man wasn’t focused, he would have rolled his eyes at how obvious it was. “What happened to their son though? I mean if he was with them then you would have known and if he was missing you would have known that too.”

“He has no school records, and nothing else from a birth certificate.” Hak Yeon pointed out, his stomach twisting at the theories running in his brain. “Except this birth certificate, it’s like Jung Taek Woon never existed.”

“Maybe he never did.” Jae Hwan suggested. “Maybe they made the certificate out of excitement but it turned out the son of someone else. In that case…”

“No. The kid is … He’s theirs.” Hak Yeon picked his jacket. “I’ll ask for a day off.” Jae Hwan didn’t have to say anything, hoping he didn’t make a mistake. Meanwhile, Hak Yeon planed everything in his head. He will ask his superior if he can get one day off when the nanny won’t be at home, convince his parents to leave the house as well since he will be working, which is a lie and an excuse. He did as he planned that day, confusion eating him up. He reserved them for a play in the city’s main theatre, something traditional and so suitable to the couple’s taste, and he was sure the woman won’t be there, before excusing himself since “I have to start my shift early tomorrow because of a very important project exposition.”

“You are working very hard, my son.” The man patted on his back, and Hak Yeon felt more worried than proud of it.

“I am trying the best I can.” Hak Yeon smiled to his parents. “After all the love you gave me, this is the little I can do.” They beamed to him, and he smiled as they bought the lie without a blink.

The day came, and Hak Yeon indeed went to work, only to walk around the block, hide in Jae Hwan’s favorite nap’s hideout. He indeed slept, until his alarm went off signaling that the couple won’t be home. He took a taxi back home, getting in and sighing. No matter how determined to discover the truth he was, he was scared to death.

He opened the hidden door, glad it wasn’t locked, before heading down to a cave. “The hell is this place.” He expected it to be dirty and bad but the place was rather clean and empty except from a bed. “Why… why does this place have a bed? Who sleeps here?” He noticed piled plats and suddenly he noticed something that made him scream enough loud to make the huge black leopard jump at him.

He thought he died. He thought the animal will eat him. Yet, he could hear his heart beating still, he could feel his limbs, and he then dared to look. The leopard was still up him. “Good kitty.” He whimpered before closing his eyes at the slight movement only to notice the leopard walking to the open door. “Oh !” He tried to distract it but the animal left the place. “I’m doomed.” He ran out, then inside the house with wide open door. “Kitty?” he heard noises in the kitchen and sneaked to find a man, with beautiful white pearly skin and dark long hair, placing different food out of the fridge. “Won’t you get cold if you stay like this?” Only god himself knows why he spoke because he didn’t himself and he left his hands up. “It’s ok. I’m… I…” the man jumped out in a leopard form, running out of from the second door of the kitchen.

At that point, Hak Yeon had fainted.

When he woke up, the last thing Hak Yeon expected was to see his room’s ceiling. “What?” he sat up in a rush, remembering the man and the leopard and that the man and the leopard were ONE? “I must be gone mad. This is impossible. No one can shift into animals.”

“I can.” Hak Yeon screamed in fear before looking at wide startled eyes, and screamed again.

“You! The leopard! You!” the man nearly scoffed, before jumping up. “What?” The man looked so scared Hak Yeon didn’t know what to do.

“They are back. I need to go back.” Hak Yeon ran out of his room, heading down, to find a neat kitchen. He stood there, dizzy, before going to the main gate. It would be a lie if he didn’t notice a huge black shadow sneaking to the door and soundlessly closing it. He nearly fainted in relief but his mother’s arms held him up.

“Ow, my poor baby. You look so tired.”

Hak Yeon nearly cried in her arms, he nearly peed in himself from fear when the leopard - man, whatever someone would call that – stood up him. He wanted to tell her, yet he couldn’t. He excused himself after dinner to sleep but he was surprised to see the man in his bed. He nearly screamed closing the door before his parents would come up. “What are you doing here?” Hak Yeon hissed at the man who opened his eyes to look at him.

“I want to run away, but I need some money.” The words froze Hak Yeon literally.

“Run away to where? Are you nuts? Your place is here! If you want to be free, you have to face your parents.” The man didn’t budge. “You are Taek Woon, their son. They have to listen to you somehow.” It made the man jump to Hak Yeon, holding his arms. “W-w-w-w-w-w-what do you want?”

“My name… Please, say my name.”

“Jung Taek Woon.” It made the man sigh deeply. “What is it about?”  The man went to bed and slept in, before Hak Yeon could hear sniffing. IS HE CRYING?

“It has been years I didn’t hear it.” The man’s voice was truly soft, and it contrasted with the scary aura the man had. Hak Yeon made his way to the chair and tried to dry his sweaty hands on his pants.

“Why? What made them lock you down?” The man looked at him and started taking off his clothes, much to Hak Yeon’s shock. “What are you doing?” In a swift changed into a gigantic Cobra. Hak Yeon nearly screamed but managed to hold it up as the man went back to human form, wearing back his clothes.

“Now you know why I’m locked up.”  Taek Woon spoke with an irritated tone. “I’ve been there for since I was seven or eight.”

“And now we are both in our thirties.” Hak Yeon mumbled in shock. “I was adopted by your parents when I was eight. I always thought they were odd but never thought it was because they locked their real son in a cave.” Teak Woon nodded absently at it. “Are you hungry?” he nodded again. “I can’t let you eat here, it will be risky. Do you want to eat out?”

The man sat up. “You mean… out of the house?” Hak Yeon nodded and the man nearly panicked but kept a stoic face. “I don’t want to.”  Hak Yeon sighed.

“Scared?” the man didn’t move. “I guessed so. Look. Go back to your hide out; I’ll sneak in with food, ok?” It made the man nod, turning into a huge bird, picking his clothes and leaving. Once alone, Hak Yeon slapped his cheeks. “I am drunk and this is just a dream. I’ll wake up soon. Ok?” He closed his eyes, opened them and looked back to his locked door and then to the open window. He couldn’t tell if he felt something right then but he knew he wasn’t dreaming

Heading out, he managed to go out of the house, buy food, and sneak in the open cave. “Taek Woon?” he called before noticing someone lightening a candle. “I got you a lot of food.” The man blinked as Hak Yeon put down boxes of food he never tasted. “Come on. It’s so tasty.”  Hak Yeon offered a spoonful and Taek Woon took it, eyeing Hak Yeon suspiciously. The explosion of tastes made Taek Woon shift his attention to the food, to the extent in shocked Hak Yeon who observed with no word.

Hak Yeon ended by concluding that night that, other than shifting into really scary animals, Taek Woon was a ball of fluff. He refused to let him go out. “Stay until I sleep, please.” He mumbled, holding on Hak Yeon’s shirt for dear life. The man had no choice anyway. Taek Woon slept, and Hak Yeon considered it over and over.

By the time he got home, he made the resolution to face his family with it. Luckily for him, they were up. The unlucky part is that they noticed him sneaking and they were rather pissed. “Where have you been?”

“With Taek Woon.” He answered clearly which made them stand up, both shocked. Hak Yeon took a seat facing them and looked at them with a dead serious expression. “We need to talk.”

The outcome of that night didn’t truly go in the way Hak Yeon planned but he managed to make them hear him out. The kid deserved support. No matter how evil they think his powers are, he’s their son.

However, no matter how much he tried to convince them. Taek Woon was still prohibited from seeing the world. “Why? Why are so afraid from letting him out? He got more control on his shifting powers than he did twenty two years ago. He’s an old man, right now! He deserves to live.”

“Live? Do you think that thing can live?” The man hissed at him. “He will attract attention, and shame on us. He can neither leave that place nor even think of it. And you! Don’t you even dare to get involved in this.”

“Why? Am I not involved enough? I was adopted to cover his existence, or exactly his absence, and you consider it not “involved”?” Hak Yeon was shedding tears, because he felt used and hurt. “You used me to hurt your own flesh and blood and I’m not involved?” He dried his tears, picking his jacket. “I’ll help him up to live the life you denied it to him. The decision is final.”

“Hak Yeon!” Their calls reached deaf ears, and Hak Yeon made sure that Taek Woon slept in his bed, in his room, inside his house. He knew he was doing the right thing.