today was no different from other days to jaemin. well, for the past seven days actually.

since the auction had taken place and since he had been adopted by the two humans named renjun and jeno, life had been so much better for the hybrid.

no more beating, no more scolding, and someone to play with him and take care of him 24/7. he couldn't dream of anything better. plus, jeno never locked him in his cage and left him free to roam around the house which jaemin was really thankful of.

renjun seemed a bit more distant and bothered by his presence, but he was never violent or utterly mean to him, so jaemin couldn't complained. for the past months, as soon as cho ryuwon had discovered that he was the hidden son of her husband and not an orphan he had met in an adoption centre, she had badly mistreated him, mentally and physically. so, right now, jaemin couldn't complain of the slight hatred that renjun may feel towards him, because he was still treating him a thousand times better than cho ryuwon was.

anyway, just like the past seven days, jaemin waited for jeno and renjun to leave the house to transform into his human form. being a hybrid was nice, but he felt much better in his human form than in his animal form, it seemed like he had more space and more freedom. except when he needed to go out and so, to hide his little pom-pom tail and his two big and pointy rabbit ears.

despite the fact there were more and more of them in the world, hybrids were still majorly discriminated against causing most of them to kept their identities hidden. being a hybrid automatically categorised people as poor and desperate.

in fact, there was a time when hybrids didn't exist. they had been created in laboratories by scientists eager to improve the human condition by mixing it with the dna of animals and get some of their genes. because of the high cost of research, scientists focused for the moment on small and domestic animals before they would move on to wild and bigger animals.

these research requiring lots of testing, scientists offered important sums of money to people who accepted to give their body to science and live genetic modifications. because the results of those kinds of experiments vary a lot, the people accepting to take part in those are often people with very little money that are ready to do anything to get out of poverty.

jaemin's mother was one of them, and she had accepted to sell her body to science in order to offer herself a better life that the one she had. after that, she met mr na with whom she had jaemin. and because she couldn't afford a child and because mr na had fallen in love with her, he made his wife adopt jaemin and treat him as their child. because of this, jaemin could never meet his real mother properly, and he got locked inside a world that didn't truly belong to him.

"jaemin!!"

the rabbit hybrid's eyes opened wide as he turned around, immediately being tackled in a hug by his long-time friend.

"hi, mark!" the hybrid giggled, pulling the boy in a hug and readjusting the beanie the boy was wearing on his head. "are you here alone?"

"no, donghyuck is right behind me!"

jaemin and mark pulled out from the hug just in time for donghyuck – mark's boyfriend – to get to his side.

"hey, jaem." donghyuck waved at him as he wrapped his other arm around mark's waist to pull him close."stop being so excited, your tail is poking out, love." he added in mark's ear while tucking the black furry tail back in mark's pants.

the rabbit hybrid chuckled at the sight of his hybrid friend being all flustered because of his boyfriend.

it felt nice to be with his friends again. jaemin had met all of them back when he was still living in his father's place, and at that time, they used to meet at least twice a week to do stuff together with people accepting of hybrids only, causing them not to feel ashamed of being a hybrid.

and since jaemin had been adopted by jeno and renjun, he had gotten out almost every day to walk around the city and meet with his friends as usual. and of course, he had told them everything about his new owners and how nice they were to him. his friends were all happy and relieved to hear that he finally felt good after being mistreated by his father's wife for so long.

"do you have plans right now, jaemin?" donghyuck asked.

"no, nothing." the rabbit hybrid shook his head. "what are you guys doing?"

"we're going to do some bowling with the others! you should come!" mark happily exclaimed, lifting his arms in the air and causing his beanie to fall, revealing his two black pointy ears nestled in his messy hair.

"naughty kitty." donghyuck tsked, bending right away to pick the beanie up and hide mark's hybrid attributes again. "be careful with your stuff, huh?"

"sorry..." mark pouted cutely, fidgeting with his fingers.

"aww... come on, love, don't pout like that. i'm not mad." donghyuck placed one of his fingers under the hybrid's chin and lifted it up so that he could peck his lips quickly.

"you guys are so cute..." jaemin cooed, looking at the two of them with envy. "i'd give anything to have someone accepting me the same way you accept mark..."

"you'll find the one for you, jaemin, don't worry about that." donghyuck smiled warmly, patting jaemin's head adoringly. "hadn't you said that your new owners were really nice? maybe they'll be the one for you."

"jeno is really nice. i feel like renjun doesn't like me much..." jaemin pouted. "but anyway, they're a couple, so they wouldn't be the one for me."

donghyuck raised a brow.

"plus, they have no idea i am a hybrid, and i don't want to ruin what we have by telling them." jaemin continued, making mark nod slowly.

"understandable. but keep in mind that you'll never know if you never try." donghyuck stated. "look at mark. he took a year to tell me, and i couldn't be happier."

"mmh... true." jaemin hummed, recalling the many times donghyuck and mark had told him about their story.

"donghyuck?" mark interrupted, tugging onto his boyfriend's sleeve. "what time should we be there again?"

"oh, right." donghyuck gasped, looking at his watch. "we still have a few minutes. are you joining us for bowling, jaemin?"

"sure!" the rabbit hybrid nodded, happily hopping behind the couple towards the bowling club, but keeping donghyuck's last words on his mind.

how would he ever find the donghyuck to his mark if he kept his identity a secret?

⊗

after an intense bowling afternoon with mark, donghyuck and their friends, jaemin was back to renjun and jeno's appartement which had become his new home. actually, jaemin wasn't inside yet. since neither jeno nor renjun were aware of his true identity, jaemin was kept locked inside the house while the two of them went out for the day. however, as soon as the two boyfriends were out of the house, jaemin could transform into his human form and open windows from the inside to get out of the house. and so, he simply needed to sneak back in and get into his rabbit form before jeno and renjun came back - but this wasn't an issue, the two of them were never home before five anyway.

so, just like for the past days, jaemin checked his surroundings before pushing open the window he had left slightly ajar a while ago. once he was sure no one was following him, he slid inside the house, trying to be as discreet as possible.

"here we are." the hybrid spoke out of relief as he locked the window to make it seem like he was never gone and the window had never been open.

since the boy still had some time before his new owners came back, jaemin decided to grab something to eat from the fridge and fill his empty tummy. hence, the hybrid walked out of the room and hopped across the corridor to get to the kitchen. however, he definitely didn't expect someone to be lying in the corridor, bawling their eyes out, and causing him to trip and fall right on top of them.

long story short, jaemin found himself lying on top of this person's stomach - person whom he identified as jeno - as the other fell on the floor on his back.

jaemin didn't even have a second to realise what was happening, he was suddenly flipped over and slammed to the floor, his arms pinned above his head and a forearm pressed to his neck while his whole body got blocked by jeno who was now lying on top of him.

"who the hell are you, and what are you doing in my house?!" jeno screamed at jaemin's face, pressing his elbow harder against his neck as if he wasn't moping a few seconds earlier.

"i-i..." jaemin stuttered, his eyes widening in panic. "i-i'm n-nana..." he finished with difficulty.

'no, you're not, so you better give me an answer before i call the police and- hey! is that my beanie?!" jeno exclaimed, his eyes falling onto the familiar accessory. renjun had gifted him this beanie for one of their anniversaries, and jeno valued it very much, so, seeing this stranger wearing it made his blood boil even harder.

without second thoughts, jeno's forearm left jaemin's neck so that he could snatch his precious beanie off the stranger's head. however, as soon as the beanie was off the mysterious boy's head, jeno's attention got caught by the two white and hairy strips that were attached to the boy's skull and fell to the ground once taken out of the beanie.

jeno stared at them for a few seconds, his eye brows furrowing in confusion as he saw them moving slightly on their own and revealing a more rosy part. in fact, from where he was, these two strips looked awfully like rabbit ears.

"what the hell?!" jeno let out, not realising that in his confusion, he had pressed against jaemin's throat harder, causing the boy to lack vital air.

to get out of jeno's deadly grasp, jaemin morphed himself into his animal form, making jeno fall on his stomach on the floor at the disappearance of the body and allowing jaemin to hop away from under the boy's muscular chest and face him.

"what the- nana?!" jeno gasped, staring at the white rabbit that he recognised perfectly in that form.

the rabbit looked back into jeno's eyes slowly nodding his head as an answer to jeno's question.

"y-you... n-nana..." jeno's mind couldn't function properly at that point. "y-you're a human?!"

this time, the rabbit shook his head as no.

jeno's eyes widened more if possible. "you understand what i'm saying??"

another nod from the rabbit made jeno sit up on the floor and eye the rabbit he had gotten at the auction a week prior. "what the hell...?!" he mumbled to himself in disbelief, his eyes study in the rabbit from the tip of his ears down to his claws.

jaemin didn't move an inch as jeno looked at his tiny body up and down, waiting for another reaction form the human boy. however, he took a few steps back as jeno leaned forward, stretching his arm out as if he wanted to grab him.

"i won't hurt you..." he informed, still taken aback by this sudden discovery. "c-can you maybe... go back to your huh... human form? so that we can have a small talk?"

after a few seconds, the rabbit nodded slowly, and in a nick of time, his body became larger and his white hairs disappeared, leaving a tall boy with two fluffy rabbit ears sitting in front of jeno. the boy looked shy and delicate, and to the way his hands were trebling and fidgety, jeno guessed that he was frightened of his possible next move. but he didn't have to worry, jeno wouldn't hurt him.

"h-hello..." the rabbit boy let out, looking at the floor and not daring to make eye-contact with his owner.

"well... hello." jeno replied. "i... i have to admit i don't really know what to say... but at the same time i have hundreds of questions..."

jaemin gulped, slowly nodding his head and not knowing how to start either. he was aware that he would need to answer dozens of questions, but he lowkey dreaded this moment.

"can i... huh... can i ask a few things first?" jeno asked delicately, as if he feared to scare the hybrid boy.

jaemin nodded again, signalling jeno to start questioning him.

"so... you are a hybrid, is that right? a rabbit hybrid." jeno started, looking carefully at the rabbit boy.

"yes." jaemin let out timidly, his two rabbit ears moving on their own.

"and... did the people who sold you at the auction know that?" jeno continued genuinely concerned. this had made him remember how bad the people at the auction seemed to want to give him away. jeno couldn't understand how someone could be so cruel to an animal, but would anyone do that to a human being? "were you mister na's rabbit?"

jaemin bit his bottom lip for a few seconds. "i... i'm his son..." he replied. "the one organising the auction was mrs cho, my step mother. and... yes, she did know i was a hybrid... but she hated me."

"oh..." jeno stayed shocked at the boy's words. "i... i'm really sorry about that... i didn't know..."

"it's okay... you couldn't know..." the rabbit replied timidly.

"and, do you... huh... would you rather live elsewhere than in our household?" jeno spoke, his words hurting him a lot because of how attached to his rabbit he had gotten in the past week. "i mean... you're a person, and you surely have a life and everything, i don't want you to feel pressured to stay here and act like my rabbit because i adopted you. i don't want to deprive you from anything, so... if you want to, you are free to go and live your life freely, you know?"

"actually..." jaemin looked down at his fidgety hands. "i... i don't have a home or family anymore... you and renjun became my new family and home... so... if you don't mind, i would like to... huh... stay here with you..." he inquired timidly, fearing rejection.

"oh my god, yes, of course." jeno immediately nodded. "i mean... i adopted you, so you have all rights to stay here, and i would be delighted to have you staying here with us. i've been taking care of you for the past week and i promise i won't stop and- "

jeno was stopped in his words by the sound of the keys jiggling, signalling that renjun would enter the room a second from now.

the rabbit boy's eyes widened like saucers when he realised what was happening.

"please, don't say anything to renjun!" he whisper-yelled in panic, looking into jeno's eyes.

"don't say what?" jeno frowned. sadly, he couldn't receive a verbal answer as the hybrid morphed himself into his animal form the second renjun entered the house.

"jeno, babe..." renjun smiled when he noticed his boyfriend sitting on the floor, the rabbit nearby.

"hello, renjun." jeno replied, standing up to greet his boyfriend.

the front door was shut close, and renjun placed the two drinks he was holding on a table nearby before jumping into jeno's arms and planting a kiss on his lips.

jeno kissed back, hugging his boyfriend tight. their argument the night before had left both of them sad and lost.

"i'm so sorry for everything, jeno. i really am." renjun apologised between kisses. "i am so stupid and jealous... nana is just a rabbit, i'm sorry i thought he could replace me... you wouldn't replace me with a rabbit..."

a small smile crept to jeno's face at those comforting words that were sufficient to solve their argument. and so, nuzzling his face into renjun's neck, jeno forgave his boyfriend, feeling so much lighter.

of course, jeno would never replace renjun by a rabbit.

but he would need to keep in mind that nana was not entirely a rabbit...