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Hyunhak had been waiting for Zao to ask that. He poured out all the worries he’d been struggling with that day.

Why did he keep feeling thirsty and swallowing his saliva whenever he looked at Yiyeon?

Why did his whole body suddenly tingle at Yiyeon’s trivial actions, and why did everything he’d hidden– his ears, tail, whiskers, and more –feel as if they were about to appear?

Why did his buttocks, face, chest, and even the inside of his belly grow hot, like a cat that had suddenly jumped onto a hot stove?

More importantly, there was the time he licked Yiyeon’s arm, and the changes that had come over his own body when he rescued him in the valley.

Despite the embarrassing nature of the details, Hyunhak spoke candidly and without hesitation. He recounted everything he had felt, even unnecessary details like how it felt between his legs, or how his tail seemed to stick out in front rather than behind.

Zao, who had been quietly listening to Hyunhak’s story, looked at him with a slightly contemptuous gaze. While cursing him inwardly, “He was always a fool, but he’s become a total idiot overnight,” Zao sat calmly and listened to Hyunhak’s story until the very end. Then, with he blurted out the answer to what Hyunhak had been agonizing over the whole time.

–You just want to mate, don’t you?

At Zao’s indifferent remark, Hyunhak jumped up out of the water as if he had been stung by something. He stood tall and stared at Zao as if he’d just had a great epiphany.

‘Mating!’

His head felt numb, as if he’d been hit on the back of the head, and his hair stood on end as if he’d been doused with cold water, even though he was still underwater.

In an instant, a pair of round ears covered in black fur suddenly popped out of Hyunhak’s head. It was animal’s ears. Before he knew it, his tail was slithering through the water like a water snake.

– You’re around that age. Your ears have appeared.

No, in this regard, he was actually late. If he had been a simple wild animal, he would have been swept up by those natural instincts and the laws of nature long ago, but because he possessed reason, his reproductive urges had been buried.

To put it simply, if he had been an ordinary animal focused solely on survival, he would have entered his breeding season as soon as he reached adulthood. But Hyunhak had desires beyond mere survival, more elevated ones, involving emotions and intellect.

In response to Hyunhak’s uncharacteristically naive question, [visit our site]Zao choked out a series of caws, only to grow somber. He knew exactly why that self-important, extraordinary spirit– who thought so highly of himself –couldn’t define his own body’s reactions.

And perhaps Hyunhak realized this too, for he asked the question again.

“You mean I want to mate with Yeon-ah?”

How could he not know about mating? It was one of those instincts you naturally learn once you’re born and your body matures. You learn it naturally, even without anyone teaching you how to have offspring. So why, even knowing that, had he been unable to apply that knowledge to the changes between his legs until now? It was precisely because Yiyeon was human.

Hyunhak, a tiger, and Yiyeon, a human.

He had overlooked the fact that a human could be a mating partner. Now that he thought about it, he was actually surprised he hadn’t considered it sooner.

What is mating like for humans? Is it different from that of a tiger? Hyunhak’s ears perked up.

“Hmm…”

Hyunhak sank into the valley stream, lost in thought. With only his face peeking out above the ​Read on​water’s surface, he blushed on both cheeks, whatever he was thinking. At that moment, Zao, who had been looking at Hyunhak with pity just a moment ago, suddenly grew serious at the sight of that devious face.

“How many cubs will we have? No, more importantly, will they be cute? Will they be born human, or will they be born tigers? Or maybe half and half?”

In that brief moment, Hyunhak had already imagined himself with Yiyeon and their children. Upon hearing Hyunhak’s words– spoken by a man whose body was big but whose mind was still immature –Zao shouted in exasperation.

– That’s impossible! You’re different species to begin with! And you’re both males!”

Just as he had never considered Yiyeon a potential mate to begin with, it was a relationship that could never have worked from the start. One was human, the other a tiger, and even if they transcended their species, there was no way they could conceive a child since they were both males. No matter how powerful a spirit might be, while he could shapeshift, he could never change his innate physiology.

Not all animals mate solely for reproduction, so even if you gave him the benefit of the doubt a hundred times, even if they were to connect on a deep emotional level, there was another barrier for Hyunhak.

– And have you forgotten? That human killed your mother.

At Zao’s words, Hyunhak’s face, which had turned bright red as he sank into the water and spewed bubbles, grew cold. With a sullen expression, as if someone had plucked the whiskers of a sleeping tiger, Hyunhak scrunched up the bridge of his nose.

That was surely how this relationship had begun. [Read on]An enemy? It was a flimsy excuse. It wasn’t that his mother’s death didn’t weigh on his mind, but if asked whether he was still dwelling on it, the answer was no.

Even if it hadn’t been for Yiyeon, Hyunhak would have soon left his mother’s embrace to live on his own; even before that, while growing up under her care, he had always considered himself and his mother to be entirely separate beings.

It would have been better if he’d had a peaceful start without such entanglements, but the fact that he didn’t wasn’t a major stumbling block for Hyunhak. Life is a struggle for survival. If Hyunhak were to count all the lives he had taken so far, the number would likely rival that of Yiyeon. Death was an inevitable part of any creature’s existence.

Hyunhak looked at Zao. If Zao were to be hunted down by a bigger beast one day, he might feel a twinge of regret, but that would be all; he wouldn’t dwell on it for long. In the wild, when food was scarce, weaker individuals would attack one another and be devoured.

In that sense, he should have left Yiyeon alone when he was attacked by other humans, but Hyunhak had intervened in that life-and-death situation that day, fully prepared to face his regrets.

Yiyeon was probably the one and only– the first and last –reason Hyunhak had ever disrupted this natural yet cruel order of nature.

In any case, for this reason Hyunhak had long since stopped caring about his mother’s affairs. Zao interjected.

– You don’t have to worry about yourself, but this human might be different, don’t you think?

“…….”

– Humans mourn for years after their parents die.

Zao’s words pierced Hyunhak’s heart like a bullet fired by Yiyeon. Zao didn’t stop there; he continued speaking. Each word sank Hyunhak’s soaring spirits deep into the valley.

He didn’t care whether other humans stayed at their parents’ graves for years or what they did, but he knew that Yiyeon was just as devoted to his mother as any of them. Yiyeon had told Hyunhak right before they parted last time that he had to take care of his mother. That alone was enough to make Hyunhak realize how special Yiyeon’s bond with his mother was.

Unlike animals, which quickly leave their mothers’ embrace to live on their own, humans, unless there’s a special reason, stay with their mother or father until they pass away, and naturally develop a deep bond proportional to the time spent together.

He used to find it strange, but now he thought he understood that feeling, at least a little. After all, he couldn’t accept Yiyeon’s death in the first place, which was why he threw himself into his life. And now that they were living together, wasn’t he constantly worrying about his every move? While growing ever more attached to him.

– What do you think will happen to this human when he finds out that he killed your mother?

“I wonder… What would happen?”

He was curious, yet at the same time, he wasn’t. How would Yiyeon– who treats his mother with such special care –react stolen contentif he found out that he killed Hyunhak’s mother? He’d probably bow his head and apologize. And then…

The tiger’s ears, which had been standing erect above his head, lost their strength and drooped.

Suddenly, Hyunhak recalled the words Yiyeon had spoken while looking at his mother’s corpse.

‘I’m sorry. In my next life, please come find me and punish me in the most cruel way possible.’

Yiyeon’s gaze from that day, stained entirely with guilt, was still vivid in his mind. How could he forget? Yiyeon’s appearance that day was like a fragment of a star that had circled the distant sky and finally fallen into Hyunhak’s mind.

‘Then let it be my punishment.’

Hyunhak thought to himself. As punishment for killing his mother. Was there really a need to wait until the next life? Since Hyunhak had come to him in this life, let him be punished by staying with him forever, let that be his punishment. Let’s consider that the cruelest punishment in the world.

Hyunhak thought his idea was ingenious. If he put it that way, Yiyeon would never be able to refuse. After all, he had already promised to do whatever Hyunhak asked of him. If punishment were added to the mix, there was no way he could possibly refuse.

Overlooking the fact that he himself was still an inexperienced tiger, unauthorized copy Hyunhak praised his own plan as an impeccable solution. He even began to think that revealing the truth at this point might not be such a bad idea. At least until Zao asked his next question and brought him back to his senses.

– What do you think will happen if the human finds out you’re a tiger?

“Well…”

Suddenly, the stream water he was submerged in felt as cold as ice. Reveal to Yiyeon that he killed his own mother and, as punishment, make him stay by his side? Out of the question. For that to happen, Yiyeon would have had to know from the start that he wasn’t a human but a tiger. And Yiyeon was the hunter who had tried to capture him.

If his true nature as a tiger were exposed, would Yiyeon aim his gun at him again? Would he put everything that had happened so far aside and pull the trigger?

He’d promised to do anything he asked, but he wouldn’t know until it actually happened whether that promise held true for Hyunhak the tiger as well. He must feel the same way about Yiyeon.

He wanted to believe that even if Yiyeon knew his true identity, he wouldn’t point that fire-breathing stick at him again, but he had no certainty whatsoever. As Hyunhak’s expression darkened, Zao clicked his tongue.

–I told you, you would come to regret it.

Regrets? He’d had thousands of them in his life. No, spending time with Yiyeon, he had visit our site a dozen or so every single day. Just today alone, it was hard to even count how many times he’d regretted his actions and words and wished he could take them back.

Regret? When Zao had said that, half of him had thought complacently, “It’s just one more of those regrets I have all the time.” But now his desire not to regret it had grown far too strong. He didn’t want to regret it, even though he knew he would. The crow’s warning had taken this very point into account.

After a long silence, when Hyunhak said those words, Zao pretended not to hear them and simply flapped his wings.

“Is there no way for me to become human?”