Maybe it was the jet lag, or the fact that he hadn’t eaten lunch, or maybe how cold it was, but Kibum was hoping to heaven (or hell, whichever worked faster) that Jonghyun would just shut up.

Everybody else was in a fine mood, laughing and talking and walking through the Japanese market, but something about Jonghyun’s voice was barring straight through Kibum’s temples, breaking his train of thought.

“Alright Kibum, we can take a hint.” Minho clapped a hand on Kibum’s shoulder, making him jump and scowl. “We’ll go get you some lunch.”

Kibum sighed as they all left, stopping in front of a street vendor as he waited for his bandmates to come back.

“Are you interested in buying a pendant?”

“Hm?” Kibum turned, actually looking at what the vendor was selling. They were necklaces, small stone animals of all varieties hanging from twine. They were actually quite cute, Kibum picking up a small one with a dog on it to take a closer look.

“If only I could turn Jonghyun into a dog or something, he already acts like one.” Kibum murmured. “Then he couldn’t talk, and if I want him to stop bothering me, I could just put him in a crate.”

“What’s that? Kibum, are you buying something?” Jonghyun came up behind him excitedly, making him jump.

“No, I’m—”

“Wow, that’s really cute.” Jonghyun took the pendant from his hands. His face fell. “I wish I had some money with me.” Then he turned to Kibum with hopeful eyes. “D’you think you could—”

“No.” Kibum answered flatly.

“Please?” Jonghyun whined, drawing the word out.

“It’s half off.” The vendor offered, not-so helpfully. Kibum hated how he always ended up crumbling under Jonghyun’s gaze.

“Fine.”

Jonghyun brightened, taking the pendant and putting it around his neck, Kibum handing over his money just as the rest of his bandmates returned with lunch.

When the street shopping was over and they had checked into the hotel, Jinki, Minho, and Taemin wanted to go out shopping for clothes and a place to get dinner. Kibum stayed insistently on the couch, thinking perhaps he would take a nap, and Jonghyun retreated to a bed, saying that he didn’t feel well. And Kibum did end up falling asleep for a while, waking up to something warm and wet touching his face. He scrunched up his nose and groaned, shoving at whatever it was and opening his eyes.

Kibum squinted and sat up, taking a few moments to realize that there was a dog, sitting in the middle of the floor and looking at him expectantly, head cocked to the side. Kibum did not recognize the dog, cream and white and a bit fluffy, with big dark eyes and dark spots raised like eyebrows.

“How did you get in here?” Kibum murmured, wiping his face on his sleeve. “Who do you belong to?”

The dog gave a little yip and walked off, Kibum following it into the room where Jonghyun had slept. It was empty, save for a pile of rumpled clothes on the floor.

“Where did Jonghyun go?”

The dog made a soft growling noise and sat, tilting its head up. Kibum caught sight of something around its neck, crouching to get a closer look.

“No. Not possible.”

Around the dog’s neck was the pendant Kibum had bought for Jonghyun. The dog whined, putting a paw on Kibum’s arm.

“…Jonghyun?”

The dog jumped to its feet, wagging its tail and barking excitedly.

“Jonghyun brought a dog into the hotel? He’s an idiot. I’m going to—”

The dog barked, giving Kibum the most exasperated look he had ever seen on an animal. “What?” he asked it. The dog began nuzzling at Jonghyun’s clothes, making another noise as its head popped through a sleeve. It looked at Kibum again, who could only look back.

The dog then ran over to their luggage, ping one of the bags with its teeth. It pulled out the microphone with Jonghyun’s name on it, and, with the shirt hanging off its body and microphone between its teeth, stood on its hind legs.

“What the hell—” The dog looked over at him, pleading dark eyes, and everything fell into place. “You’re Jonghyun?”

The dog barked, tail wagging a mile a minute and microphone falling to the floor as it jumped at Kibum, tongue flopping out.

Kibum blinked, then made a face. “You my mouth!” He exclaimed. Jonghyun looked at him innocently, tilting his head to the side.

“How did this happen?”

Jonghyun shrugged, twisting his neck in an attempt to get the shirt off. Kibum pulled it over his head.

“So…um… What do we do now?”

Jonghyun barked, padding out of the room. Kibum followed, curious, throwing his hands up when Jonghyun went into the kitchen, nosing at the fridge.

“We’re going to eat? That’s your brilliant solution?”

Jonghyun whined, sitting and putting a paw on his stomach.

“Jonghyun, I don’t even know what’s safe for dogs! You can’t eat chocolate, or grapes, but…”

Pulling the fridge open with his teeth, Jonghyun jumped up and put his paws on one of the shelves, looking in.

“Fine! I’ll fry you up some meat or something.” Jonghyun’s tail wagged furiously, leaping up to at Kibum’s hands.

“Don’t you have any manners?” Kibum huffed, placing a pan on the stove. “Also, please keep your tongue from touching me at all times. It’s weird.”

After giving him a rather put-out look, Jonghyun pulled out a chair and sat at the table patiently. The longer the meat sizzled the more excited Jonghyun got, tail whapping against the back of the chair. Kibum split the meat onto two plates, grabbing forks and sitting across from Jonghyun at the table. Jonghyun pawed at his fork, glancing at Kibum. He sighed, stabbing a piece of meat and putting the fork in Jonghyun’s mouth.

There was his former bandmate and friend, now a dog, sitting across the table from him with a fork in his mouth.

“This is bizarre.”

Kibum could have sworn that Jonghyun grinned at him. The fork was quickly given up on, Jonghyun’s plate being clean within minutes.

“You’re gross.” Kibum had to say. After arguing a little with Jonghyun about how he should still clear his place even though he didn’t have opposable thumbs, Kibum put both of the plates in the sink and sat back down.

“Now what? There has to be a way to make you human again.”

Jonghyun sighed, laying his head on the table and looking up at Kibum. The pendant fell on the table as well, stone clattering. Then Kibum was struck with an idea. It was a crazy idea, but at this point, really anything was plausible.

“I bet I was sold a cursed pendant! It has a dog on it, and that’s what you turned into!”

Jonghyun’s ears pricked up, head lifting off the table.

“We should go talk to that vendor. I bet he knows how to change you back. Good thing I didn’t buy the elephant one.”

Nodding, Jonghyun hopped off of his chair. Kibum went to put on shoes, Jonghyun padding out the bathroom and nudging the door closed.

“Hey Kibum!”

Kibum cursed under his breath as the hotel door opened, the rest of his bandmates coming in. They were laden with shopping bags.

“Hi. Have fun?”

They all answered enthusiastically. “It’s nice that we have a whole week in Japan to sight see and stuff before concerts start.” Taemin said happily. Kibum swallowed. A week. He had a week to make Jonghyun human again.

In the silence, a toilet flushed, Jonghyun emerging. His tail began wagging instantly, bounding over to Taemin, Minho, and Jinki, their hands and faces.

“Where did this dog come from?” Minho asked.

“Did this dog just flush the toilet?” Taemin looked slightly bewildered. Kibum laughed nervously.

“Yeah, he’s…well trained, isn’t he?”

“Kibum, you didn’t go out and buy another dog, did you?” Jinki asked slowly.

Kibum shook his head quickly. “Of course not.” He looked over at Jonghyun, who was getting his belly rubbed by Minho and Taemin, trying to formulate a lie. “It’s cold out, and I saw this dog just walking around, so I let it into the hotel room for a while and fed it. We were just about to go out and, um, look for its owner.”

“We?”

“Me and the dog.” Kibum crouched, clapping his hands. “Come on boy, come here.”

The cutesy pet voice made Jonghyun sit up and give him an unamused glance. Kibum clapped again, smile becoming frozen on his face. “Here boy.”

Jonghyun began walking slowly, then stopped to nuzzle Jinki’s leg.

“For god’s sake Jonghyun, let’s go.” Kibum’s patience had worn thin, the exclamation making the others give him looks.

“Jonghyun?” Taemin echoed.

“They, um, kind of look similar, don’t you think?” Kibum smiled nervously, Jonghyun padding over to him.

“Hey, speaking of Jonghyun, where is he?” Minho asked.

“He was feeling better, so he went out in the streets to see how many people would recognize him. You know how he’s dumb like that.” Kibum said with a shrug. After saying that he might be out late, they slipped out the door.

When they got there, the shop had been deserted. “Figures.” Kibum mumbled. Jonghyun began sniffing around, alerting his attention with a bark.

“What is it?” Kibum asked, walking over. It was a note, taped to one of the inside walls.

If you two have returned and one of you is not human, then my assumptions were correct. There is a friendship here that is now what is once was. Whatever the reason, the two of you have lost appreciation for one another. If the appreciation can be restored, the spell will be reversed. 

P.S. If the spell is not reversed by sunset tomorrow, then it will become permanent. Good luck!

“Is this guy serious?” Kibum couldn’t believe it. Forget a week before Japanese concerts began; he had only two days—including this one—to make Jonghyun human again before they lost their main vocalist and somehow had to explain to Mrs. Kim that her son was now a dog.

Pocketing the note, Kibum stood. He pointed at Jonghyun.

“I appreciate you!” he declared. Jonghyun tilted his head at him, but nothing else happened.

“Well, what do you expect me to do?”

Jonghyun pawed lightly at Kibum’s leg, his fingertips. Kibum pulled his hand away. “What did I tell you about the ?”

Jonghyun whined in response.

The sun was beginning to set, all of the other shops closing down. They walked aimlessly, Kibum stuck in thought, until they came across a large public park. Jonghyun bounded ahead in excitement.

“Jong—” Kibum didn’t want to muster up the energy to chase after him, and ended up not needing to as Jonghyun scampered back, large stick between his teeth. A bit confused, Kibum took what was offered to him and threw it, watching as Jonghyun chased after the stick and picked it out of the grass.

Part of Kibum could not believe that he was actually playing fetch with his bandmate, and another decided that, really, much stranger things had already happened that day.

They both quickly grew tired of the game, Kibum taking a seat on a park bench. Jonghyun jumped up on it too, laying his head and dirty front paws in Kibum’s lap. Kibum sighed but didn’t make an effort to move him, Jonghyun’s head. “We’ll figure something out.”

It was quite late when Kibum decided it was much too cold to be outside any longer, and even later when they had finally made it back to the hotel, met with the worried faces of the other members.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nearly eleven o’clock, and Jonghyun’s not back yet, and he left his phone here.” Minho filled him in quickly.

Oh. Kibum had completely forgotten about the lie he’d thoughtlessly told his bandmates.

“He’s probably hurt, or kidnapped, knowing him.” Taemin said. Jonghyun made a whine of protest, but it went unnoticed. “At this point, we really should call the police.” He even had a phone poised in his hand, and Jonghyun jumped forward, knocking into him in an attempt to dislodge it.

“Kibum, I thought you were going to return the dog.” Jinki said, stress clear on his face.

“I know where Jonghyun is, but you need to listen and not freak out.”

That statement was enough to get everyone’s attention, Jonghyun walking to sit next to Kibum. Kibum gestured to him.

“This is Jonghyun.”

“Kibum, this is serious.”

“So am I.” Kibum knelt down, Jonghyun lifting his head up to help display the pendant around his neck. “This thing is cursed. I’ve tried to take it off, but I can’t, and we have until tomorrow to figure this note out.” He handed over the message left behind by the vendor, petting Jonghyun and watching as his bandmates read it.

“If you knew it was a cursed pendant, why did you buy it?” Minho asked.

“I didn’t know! Besides, this idiot wanted it.” Kibum responded, getting an indignant whine and a glare from the dog at his feet.

“So… you’re saying this is really Jonghyun?”

Both Kibum and Jonghyun nodded. Taemin and Minho began to question him, asking yes or no questions that they knew only Jonghyun would know the answer to. When they were satisfied of the truth, Jinki put his hands on his temples.

“We’re never going to a Japanese market again.” He mumbled. “It’s really late, let’s sleep on this and figure it out tomorrow.”

As if in response, Jonghyun let out a long, teeth-baring yawn, padding over to where Jinki was sitting on the couch and putting his head in their leader’s lap. Jinki smiled, and they all want to get ready for bed. Brushing Jonghyun’s teeth was not an easy task.

Again, Kibum woke to being in the face. He spluttered, flailing his arms in a sad attempt to put Jonghyun at bay. When he could sit up and open his eyes, he saw Jonghyun sitting in front of him, tongue lolling out of a huge grin.

“Please stop my face!”

Jonghyun’s shoulders went up and down in something that could only be described as a laugh. Kibum groaned, getting out of bed. He found a note on the counter of the kitchen in Taemin’s scrawl.

Minho and I are going to find a witch or someone to fix Jonghyun. We’ll be back when we have somebody.

And under that, in Jinki’s handwriting:

I’m out buying breakfast.

As soon as Kibum had read that, the door clicked open. It was Jinki, with breakfast for Kibum in one hand, a bag of dog food in the other.

Jonghyun growled, flattening his ears to his skull as Kibum asked “Why would you buy dog food?”

Jinki gave him a sheepish grin. “Because… there’s a dog?”

“But he’s still Jonghyun!” Kibum went over to the stove. “Can dogs eat eggs?” he asked.

“Probably.” Jinki responded helpfully. So Kibum scrambled Jonghyun up some eggs, who pulled out and jumped on a chair, wagging excitedly. Jinki looked astounded.

When breakfast was over, Jinki sat Kibum down in front of a piece of paper and a pen.

“To fix Jonghyun, you need to appreciate him, right? So maybe if you made a list of what you like about him, it’ll help.”

“Make a list?” Kibum echoed.

“Come on Kibum. We only have a few hours, alright? This is important.” He insisted. After telling Kibum to call him if it looked like they needed some chew toys and a dog bed, Jinki left.

Kibum tried, he really really did, but he couldn’t get past 1) Good voice and 2) Not bad to look at with the dumb dog staring at him.

“What?”

Jonghyun cocked his head to the side.

“You’re annoying.”

Jonghyun whined, laying and putting his head between his paws. Kibum felt his heart soften a little. This was the exact opposite of what he was supposed to be doing.

“I’m sorry. You’re not annoying.”

Jonghyun looked up from his paws, obviously not trusting what he was saying. Though this whole mess had started because of Jonghyun talking—or rather, Kibum being annoyed by it—somehow he not being able to speak at all was even more unbearable.

“Come here.”

Jonghyun slowly complied, and Kibum let Jonghyun curl up on him, upper body in his lap, head keeping Kibum’s right hand trapped against the couch cushions. Kibum petted him, and Jonghyun whined a little, at Kibum’s fingers. This time, Kibum did not pull away, or even protest.

“I’m so sorry about this.” He said, playing with Jonghyun’s soft ears with his free hand. “I’m sorry that I got irritated, I’m sorry that I was rude, I’m sorry that this happened… Who even sells cursed necklaces anyway?” Kibum knew he was rambling, but it didn’t really bother him, because at this point the steady air from Jonghyun’s nose onto his hand made him realize the dog had fallen asleep.

“Wow, I miss you.” It had just hit Kibum, like seeing a loved one laugh for the first time after being on a long trip away. He missed his annoyingly, stunningly talented bandmate, and his dumb smiles and their weird conversations. Jonghyun had always been there willingly, even when Kibum didn’t want him but especially when Kibum did, whether or not they were talking or simply sitting there, giving Kibum energy during performances just from the energy radiating from his own body, working his hardest every day, with passion. Jonghyun was incredible.

Not to mention nice to look at. When human, that is.

Kibum started as the dog stirred at the afterthought, wondering for a moment if he had said it out loud. But then the dog’s body began to glow, so brightly that Kibum had to shut his eyes.

When he opened them again, he was so shocked that he shouted and jumped off the couch, Jonghyun tumbling to the floor, waking up with a start. Kibum took him in with his eyes.

It was Jonghyun, really Jonghyun, white hair tousled as though it had messy fingers running through it, muscled skin paler than he remembered, looking around in sleepy-eyed confusion, wearing nothing but the dog pendant around his neck.

“Ki…bum?” he croaked out. Then he found Kibum with his eyes, and smiled so widely that Kibum almost wanted to cry.

“I’m human!” He said proudly, as if showing his mother that he could ride a bike with no hands. Or ride a bike at all.

“Jonghyun, please go put some clothes on so I can hug you.”

Jonghyun stood up, the stupid smile Kibum missed so much on his face. “But I haven’t had on clothes for over a day now.”

Kibum set his shoulders, crossing his arms. “Jonghyun.”

Still smiling, Jonghyun complied, getting up and going to his suitcase in the bedroom. When he reappeared, fully clothed, Kibum wrapped him tightly in his arms, breathing him in and breathing out a sigh of relief.

“You smell like a dog.” Jonghyun mumbled, wrapping his arms around Kibum’s waist.

“And whose fault is that?” Kibum asked back. Jonghyun laughed, burying his face in Kibum’s neck. Kibum did not know how long they stayed like that, and how much longer they would have stayed that way if not for Minho and Taemin busting in, chattering excitedly, an old woman following in their wake.

“You’d be surprised at how many witches one can find in Akihabara, but this one said she has some experience with—Jonghyun?”

“Hi!” Kibum could almost still see the tail wagging as Jonghyun bounded over and hugged his bandmates. They were happily surprised, to say the least.

“Kibum fixed me.” Jonghyun said. The woman took one look at the situation, and promptly left without a single word. Only moments later Jinki walked in, arms full of dog toys, treats, and a huge dog bed. All of which dropped to the floor as Jonghyun wrapped him in a hug.

“Jinki, you obviously have no faith in me.” Kibum remarked dryly.

“It was getting late, and you hadn’t called, so I… I need to take care of my bandmates.”

Jonghyun broke the silence by picking up a box of dog treats and saying “How did you know these were my favorite?”

It was a painfully lame joke, but they all laughed anyway. Minho picked the dog bed off of the floor, saying “Come on, let’s return these.” They all nodded in agreement, Kibum brushing the dog hair off of his clothes.

Jonghyun hooked an arm with his, smiling at him, then leaned over…and his cheek.

Needless to say, there was a considerable amount of screeching and hitting on the way to the car.