Chapter 3: Chopping

[Hoya POV]

"Rise and shine, boys-- Yeol-ah, Hoya, are you asleep there?"

I opened my eyes. Ms. Lee was looking at me.

"Yeah.. They said they didn't want to sleep alone," I mumbled as I sat up and yawned.

The others were awoken by Ms. Lee opening the window blinds, letting sunlight in.

"I have some news for you guys, so go get washed up and come down for breakfast, okay?" Ms. Lee smiled.

They all nodded and sleepily headed to the bathroom.

---

"Hoya! It's spicy!" Gyu furrowed his eyebrows as he touched the toothpaste with his tongue.

"You use toothpaste like this," I said, brushing my teeth, "No, don't swallow!"

DongWoo burped, "Too late!"

"Oh, gosh," I laughed.

The rest of them stiffly moved their arms back and forth to brush their teeth.

After that, SungYeol brushed their hair for them.

"You do this, okay? Watch in the mirror," He said, pointing.

MyungSoo closed his eyes instinctly and started purring.

"Hey, hey, look!! I know I usually brush your fur for you, but you're human now. You have to brush your hair yourself now."

MyungSoo pouted and then watched SungYeol brush his dark hair, the same color as his fur in his original form.

"Your eyes are so nice, dude!" DongWoo gave a thumbs up.

"Thank you," MyungSoo smiled lightly, "My mom had the same eyes."

"Do you guys have a choice of when you want to go back to your original form?" I asked.

They all nodded.

"Well, for the most part," DongWoo elaborated, "I mean, it would be nice to be human all the time, but sometimes we just wanna go back to how things used to be. Nice and quiet. But I noticed that it was physically exhausting being in human form, so I turned back to my original form last night."

"Yeah, you know the 1st law of thermodynamics?" MyungSoo continued, "The one about the conservation of energy?"

"Yeah, what about it?" I said, brushing my hair.

They all blinked and stared at the both of us as if we were crazy.

"Seok, are you really that smart? Gosh, you really should've really helped me on homework earlier!!" SungYeol exclaimed, "I expected a genius brain from Hoya, but not you!"

"Like I said, you can't understand my meows, and I can't do anything about that..." MyungSoo rolled his eyes, "Anyway, the 1st law states that energy can be transferred and transformed but not created or destroyed. So... basically, we have to be in our original form for the same amount of time that we are human or else we might just explode or something."

"Or get really tired," DongWoo noted, "That's why I went back to my original form last night. How awkward would it be if I became DdoDdo again in broad daylight?"

We all laughed.

After we washed our faces, SungYeol and I lined them up and they followed us downstairs to the breakfast table. Well... Breakfast was a little nicer. They finally figured out how to hold the spoons. On the other hand, chopsticks were a little more difficult.

---

All of us sat on the couch. Ms. Lee smiled.

"So, the school says you guys can attend school," She said, "but you'd need a parent or guardian to sign your paperwork. So... I signed your papers as your guardian."

They all looked at each other.

"So, do we live with you, then?" SungGyu exclaimed in excitement.

She nodded, "Temporarily. Until we find a home for you guys."

They all looked at each other and smiled.

Well, I guess we got some new roommates?

---

The eight of us decided to head to the shopping district to get some new clothes for school (and also actual clothes for the 'new humans' because they didn't have any clothes besides the one they were wearing).

"We're going chopping~!" DongWoo sang as he skipped down the sidewal