"what a day!" mark exclaimed, plopping on his bed.

they were finally back from their hiking day. after their picnic, their teachers had made them go down the mountain using a summer toboggan instead of walking. it had taken them a long time because this attraction was full of tourists, and so, the queue was monstrous, but it was worth it. 

now they had one hour of free time to chill before visiting the village by night and having dinner there.

"meow!" haechan meowed from inside mark's bag.

mark opened it and took the cat out. "wait!" he said before putting the cat on the bed. "let me clean your paws. you walked on this dirty grass. i don't want you to dirty my bed."

mark walked to the bathroom, the cat squirming in his hand. "will you stop moving?" mark groaned.

the cat tried jumping away as soon as mark opened the tap, but mark held him firmly.

"hey! i'm not washing you entirely!" mark caressed the cat. "just washing the paws. i know you hate taking baths. i'm just wetting your paws now." mark explained.

the cat eventually stopped squirming and let mark pass his paws under the cold water.

mark used soap to clean them and then, he rinsed and dried them, finally letting the cat on his bed.

mark plopped on the bed again, grabbing the bottle of milk that was on the beside table and drinking some.

"do you want to- "

the cat jumped on his stomach, not leaving him the time to finish his sentence nor to wipe the milk that was around his lips. the cat licked the milk around the human's lips, making mark widen his eyes in shock, and haechan sit on mark's chest in victory.

the usual bright light blinded mark, and donghyuck appeared, in all his glory, straddling mark's chest, his head tilted to the side and his big brown eyes staring deeply into mark's.

"huh..." mark said, blinking nervously.

"can i have more milk?" donghyuck asked, looking hungrily at the bottle in mark's hand.

"y-yeah." mark replied, handing the hybrid the bottle.

donghyuck brought the bottle to his lips and drank, not caring about the fact mark had drank in the same bottle beforehand.

mark kept his eyes on donghyuck, admiring how his adam apple was going up and down each time the cat person gulped down the white liquid.

donghyuck bent over mark to reach for the bottle cap that was in mark's hand before closing the bottle and pouting.

"milk tastes better there." he said with a baby voice, his finger brushing mark's lips.

mark gulped, his face turning red. what the hell was donghyuck saying?!

without wasting a second, mark pushed donghyuck off him, making him land on his back on the mattress next to him. mark then stood up and ran to the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it.

"what the hell, mark?!" he whisper-yelled, slapping his red cheeks while looking at himself in the mirror. "what are you thinking about?!"

donghyuck was a cat. a fucking cat. well, not really, more like a hybrid, even though mark still didn't know anything about hybrids. he really needed to know more about them. why was donghyuck here? why was he making his life a living hell? and why the hell was he making his heart beat this quick?! that was not normal!

mark passed a bit of water on his face to freshen up, trying to forget about the cat person on the other side of the door.

but the knocks on the door kept disturbing him.

angrily, he unlocked the door and glared at the cat who was looking at him with scared eyes.

"what, donghyuck?" mark growled.

but then, he heard someone knocking again, while donghyuck had both his hands trembling around the bottle of milk.

"mark?" a feminine voice said from the corridor out of his room.

mark panicked. what was hina doing there? donghyuck was there, in his human form.

"closet." mark said, pointing at the small closet in the corner of the room.

the hybrid nodded before rushing to the closet.

mark made sure donghyuck was hidden before opening the door of his room.

"hey hina." he smiled. "what are you doing here."

"mark!" she exclaimed. "i thought i had knocked at the wrong door."

mark rubbed his nape. "sorry, i was asleep."

"don't worry. it's normal. it was a pretty tiring day." she said. "oh! you have a beautiful view from your room!" she exclaimed, noticing the small balcony.

mark let her enter the room, glancing over the closet donghyuck was in before following the girl towards the balcony.

"we can see where we had a picnic!" she giggled.

"yeah." mark smiled, looking at how excited hina was.

she was beautiful. perhaps the most beautiful girl he had ever met. that's surely because it was the first one he had had feelings for. more than beautiful, she was actually very cute. was it the fact that she was shorter than him? was it the fact that she was bubbly? or perhaps the fact that she kept smiling and seeing the good side of everything?

mark had no clue. he just found her cute.

he couldn't help himself but imagining her with cat ears, small fangs and a cat tail. would this make her cuter? definitely.

these three details had the power to turn anybody cute.

look at donghyuck. the boy was the definition of cuteness. mark couldn't even stop thinking about him now. he couldn't stop imagining his fluffy tail, swaying left to right whenever the boy was happy; or his ears that would flatten depending on his emotions; and those small fangs that would poke out each time donghyuck dared to pout, or completely show when he would yawn because as a cat, he never learned to put his hand in front of his mouth... that was the cutest sight ever.

"mark? are you listening to me?" hina took mark's hand in her own.

mark looked at their hands, expecting himself to feel a whole zoo inside his chest. the girl he liked had just grabbed his hand. she had done that, intentionally. but why wasn't his heart speeding up this much? why didn't he feel butterflies in his stomach? WHY?

well, actually, his heart had sped up, and he had felt a warm feeling in his stomach. but it was nothing compared to what people talked about and what you read in books. it was almost too normal. was it because he didn't like hina enough? mark didn't know much about relationships after all...

"huh... what were you saying, sorry?" mark asked, looking back into hina's eyes.

she giggled. "do you want us to be together for tomorrow's activity? we need to be by pairs."

mark thought for a second, turning his head to look at the closet where donghyuck was still in. if he was with hina, he couldn't bring him. it was too risky. but spending a whole day with hina... plus, tomorrow was an orientation race by teams, and hina wanted to be with him... he couldn't miss this chance to spend some time with her...

"sure." he replied, tightening his grip around hina's hand.