Sehun didn’t know whether it was the nerve or the stress, but he magically woke up five minutes earlier before his alarm. Running his palms over his face, he let out a small groan before pushing himself up into a sitting position. It took the blond haired male a good ten seconds before he realized that he’s not in his place and it took another few seconds for him to stop panicking until the image of yesterday’s catastrophe flashed inside his mind.

 

‘Right. They roomed me with a wolf. They actually put a rabbit together with a freaking wolf,’ Sehun grimaced as he pushed back the ear that was dangling in front of his face.

 

The blond male blinked away his sleepiness for a few moments until he felt something climbing up his sides. No, more like hands tracing up his sides. Sehun snapped his head to see a grinning Kai lying down on his side, hand casually rubbing Sehun’s side up and down. The latter froze almost immediately.

 

            “Morning, Hunnie bunny,” Kai chirped with a suspiciously wide smile. Sehun could only stare at the older male, his jaw hanging open slightly; words failed him.

            “I hope you don’t mind making you my bolster. I was only keeping the bed warm for you,” Kai hummed, his limbs tightening around the new rabbit’s frame. He added with a grin, “you smell delicious by the way.”

 

With a scream, Sehun scrambled out of his bed before he stormed to the bathroom and locked himself inside.

His hand reached up to massage his temple, the fear long gone and now replaced by an obnoxious pounding against his head instead. Sehun ignored Kai’s calls for him alongside with the scratching sounds against the wooden door—is he seriously clawing at the door?

 

‘Just why… Just why did I even take the scholarship?’ Sehun wailed internally, burying his face into his palms as he mourned over his fate.

 

And sadly for him, there’s no going back.

.

.

Sehun sat on the leather seat, body rigid from all the shock due to the commotion earlier. Not only he suddenly ran into a group of males with cat ears and tails—can you imagine how shocked the high school student was when he stumbled upon males in their 40s cosplaying?—one of said males threw some sort of powders onto the blond boy and poof! Sehun suddenly lost his ears, only to be replaced by bunny ears.

And much to his horror, he felt around his and found a tail—a round and puffy one at that—magically attached to his bottom.

Sehun didn’t even have time to mourn over his dignity as the tallest male swiftly hauled Sehun onto his shoulder and carried him to the Principal’s room.

 

And now here he was, sitting in front of the Principal of the academy, who Sehun analyzed to be a fox descendant, his body still trembling over the blow. Sehun didn’t even know anymore to be amazed or in disbelief at the whole things going on.

 

            “Mr. Oh Sehun,” the Principal started, making Sehun snapped out of his trance.

            “Y-yes!” Sehun stuttered out a reply. He couldn’t help but feel intimidated over the look the Principal sent him. The latter was scanning the student from top to bottom, yet there was a frown etched upon the old man’s face.

            “This is bad. He sure is tall, but his frame is too lean,” the old man mumbled.

            “Do you think he would end up like the rest of them, sir?” one of the cat-in-blacks asked from the Principal’s side. The Principal simply sighed and shook his head.

            “Now, Mr. Oh, I’m sure you’re still recuperating from the whole commotion,” the Principal said with a small smile after he noticed how tense Sehun was. “Fear not, you would not have to deal with those things anymore as long as you accept our offer as the main character in the Rabbit Project.”

            “Rabbit project?” Sehun blinked, repeating the old man’s words. His hands still feeling around his head for the new rabbit ears. It felt too fluffy to be real, and he just couldn’t stop touching it due to the softness. But the tingly feeling he received told him that they were indeed his ears for real, and so he decided to stop playing with them.

            “You see, Mr. Oh. The people here are not exactly humans; in fact, they have never been humans in first place. The reason for them to be here is one, to learn to be humans.”

            “To be humans as in to learn to develop human’s characteristics and morality?” Sehun questioned. The Principal nodded at him.

            “As well as choosing their paths in life. Once they graduate, they can choose to either live as an animal or as a human,” the Principal said with a small smile at Sehun’s confused expression. “At one point in their life, they will have to give up on their ears and tail, Mr. Oh.”

            “But you still have your ears and tail, sir?”

            “The de—hybrids are not supposed to be seen by humans. Their mere existence is not supposed to be known. If they choose to stay as hybrids, then they will either stay in this school or go back to the place they came from. And I don’t think they would like to return to their parents,” the Principal nodded with a somber expression.

            “And hence you have to be aware that with the facts that they are not humane, you should not expect them to be well behaved and all,” the Principal chuckled. Sehun nodded with a grimace.

            “And so what is this whole Rabbit Project all about?”

 

The Principal smiled at Sehun’s question. He took out a few pictures from his drawer—the pictures of the alumni of the academy. Sehun took it with a polite nod of his head and studied each picture. He scanned through the pictures until he noticed the same pattern throughout the years.

Despite the fact that there was a certain number of a specific animal, there was only one rabbit in the picture.

 

            “You see, Mr. Oh. In order for them to learn the proper behavior of a human along with morality and norms, they need an actual human to teach them,” the Principal said. Sehun noticed how his expression slowly made a change into a stern one. “We usually have one human playing the rabbit role for three years, but this year, it’s not even two weeks yet we’ve been taking in about five.”

 

Sehun noticed the frown on the Principal’s face and he swallowed thickly when he felt the heavy atmosphere inside the room.

 

            “You’re going to be the sixth for the meantime, and hopefully for the next three years.”

            “May I ask what happened with the other—uh… rabbits?” Sehun asked carefully.

            “Humans might be in the top of the food chain, but human alone in the sea of predators? I’m sure you know the answer to that question, Mr. Oh. And as the students here, except for the top students and most seniors, are still not used to the presence of humans... Long story short, they ate them.”

 

Sehun’s face paled at the last part of the Principal’s sentence. The letter sent to him only required him to stay in the dorm during his entire high school years. He wasn’t informed about being turned into rabbit for the so-called Rabbit Project. He wasn’t even informed that the school was filled with non-humans!

 

            “And what are the chances that I would stay alive?” Sehun didn’t even realize how he raised his voice at the most influential figure in the place. The only thing swarming inside his mind was the fact that there was a chance for him to die just by attending a school.

            “Those ears and tail, they serve as camouflage. They tone down your human scents and make the people around you to smell you as a mere rabbit. Nothing more, nothing less.”

            “And what if I refuse the deal…?” Sehun gulped as he glanced at the Principal’s smiling face. It terrified him somehow.

            “If that happens, Mr. Oh, and only if that happens, then the moment you step out of the school gate you would be pretty much exposed to the predators. We would make sure that you would be exterminated to keep our secret safe,” the President said calmly.

 

Sehun felt his heart stopped momentarily. The Principal stood up and extended his hand towards the blond boy. Sensing the boy’s state of shock, the cat-in-black approached Sehun and brought the boy’s hand up for the Principal to shake, hence marking Sehun’s official start as the new rabbit of the academy.

 

            “Just study well and you’ll be fine. And also, keep those ears and tail in their place. One wrong move and I won’t be able to guarantee one’s life, Mr. Oh.”

.

.

Sehun still felt like crawling into a hole whenever the memory of the ‘threat’ flashed inside his mind. Heaving a sigh, he dragged his long legs towards his new classroom. Kai had left the room when he finished showering, leaving a set of Sehun’s new uniform on his bed.

 

            “I should be thanking him for that… But I don’t think I’ll be able to see him without feeling like running away,” Sehun mumbled to himself, a frown etched on his face.

 

‘Could it be that the animal sense starts kicking in?’ Sehun shook his head at the thought before sliding the classroom door open.

 

Sehun literally had to take a step back the moment he opened the door. He was almost blown over by the wave of pheromones crashing through him. It was overwhelming, and he felt his legs loosing their strength. Sehun rested his back against the wall, teeth digging into his lower lip as he gazed at the classroom door.

 

            “Are you alright?”

 

Sehun turned his head to see a male looking at him in concern. ‘A black panther—is this school filled with predators or what?’ Sehun thought. Sehun felt like cowering away, but the expression plastered on the other student’s face looked like it was begging Sehun to pet him.

And without much thought, he did.

A loud gasp escaped Sehun’s lips when he finally came to his sense. The other male simply stared at him with wide eyes, obviously not expecting the other’s action.

 

            “I—I… I’m really sorry, I didn’t think properly—please don’t eat me!” Sehun literally clawed at the wall as he looked at the other male in fear. Much to his surprise, the black panther guy merely blinked at him before he let out an amused chuckle.

            “So you’re the new rabbit? It’s not the kind of first meeting I had expected, but I must say I’m pleasantly surprised,” he grinned before extending a helping hand. Sehun looked at him in astonishment before taking said hand and pulled himself up.

            “My name is Zitao, but you can just call me Tao,” Tao smiled. “What’s your name?”

            “O-Oh Sehun,” Sehun said after he finally found his voice. “Just… Sehun would be fine though.”

 

Tao let out a rather boisterous laugh, patting at Sehun’s arm without minding his strength. Sehun felt like grimacing at the pain and yet he simply laughed along awkwardly.

 

            “No need to look so scared! We don’t bite, you know,” Tao exclaimed, tugging Sehun to the classroom door with an excited smile. Sehun could only guess how much from the way Tao flicked his tail once in a while.

 

‘Well… A certain wolf bit onto my ear on first meeting,’ Sehun side-eyed the classroom at the memory, his ears flattening down against his head almost immediately.

 

            “I’m sure you’ll get along with the rest of us just fine. Not everyone pet each other during first meeting—I guess you’ll be the first—but as long as you pet them in the right place then everything would be alright,” Tao blabbered, patting at the desk beside his.

 

Sehun blinked in surprise at the invitation but he settled his stuffs on said desk nonetheless. He couldn’t really refuse the look Tao gave him; he still belonged in the big cat family after all.

With a sigh, Sehun studied the classroom, noticing how the students seemed to be conversing to each other in small groups. It wasn’t much different from any normal class aside from the additional animal traits, but then again Sehun can’t be so sure because there are chances that they’ve learned basic manners.

Sehun returned his focus back to Tao, who was still babbling about their classmates. A small smile tugged up Sehun’s lips as he watched the way Tao flailed his arms with an enthusiastic look.

It might be not as bad as he thought.

.

.

            “Kai.”

 

The said male turned his attention towards the tiger-boy who was approaching him, another tiger-girl attached by his side.

 

            “Chanyeol, Gayeon,” Kai addressed the two with a nod. “What’s up?”

            “I was going to tell you to get off my desk, but that’s not it,” Chanyeol waved it off. “I heard you’re rooming with the new rabbit?”

 

Kai slid off Chanyeol’s desk and approached his own, his lips tugged up into a small smile as he tipped his head to the side slightly.

 

            “News surely travels fast, huh? And I’m guessing that you’re complaining?” Kai raised an eyebrow at Chanyeol, noticing how the tall male furrowed his eyebrows at him in confusion.

            “No, I’m just surprised. You usually rejected the rooming offers be it from the other students or from the school—“

            “Basically he’s moping about the fact that you blatantly said no to him last year,” Gayeon cut off Chanyeol’s blabbing. Chanyeol’s tail stood straight as he flashed a panicked look at the girl.

            “But anyway, you actually accepted a rabbit, not to mention a first year at that, as your roommate?” Chanyeol looked at Kai as if he had grown two heads.

 

Kai simply stared at Chanyeol for a few seconds before shrugging and rested his head on top of the desk, turning deaf ears towards the protests coming from the male tiger. The corners of Kai’s lips tugged up into a small smile as he slowly closed his eyes, ignoring Chanyeol completely.

 

            “I don’t know, but perhaps,” Kai started, making Chanyeol stopped rambling almost immediately. The wolf pushed himself up into a sitting position before flashing a small smirk at the two.

 

            “It might be fun to watch a bunny struggle in your clutch, no?”

 

 

---

 

A/N: Your feedback is welcome and appreciated!