it's a boy!

three simple words that embarked another wild ride for kim jungmin and his wife, lee hyunsook. their second son, jooyoung is born on the 9th of march; happy, healthy, and as chubby as can be. they have big plans for him, you see? he's meant to help take over the family business, the vice president of sorts to his father's successful financial group. however, as time wore on, jooyoung's poor life decisions do nothing but send him further away from his parents' visions.

growing up, jooyoung had always been a little rebellious. as the younger brother, being reckless and wild was second nature and he spent more time getting his ass saved by his older brother than he did with his nose in a book. school was never for him and he skipped classes whenever he could, sneaking up to the highest rooftop on campus to play on his hand held game consoles or, by tenth grade, smoke a cigarette. the choices he made in terms of friends led him to drop out of high school at age seventeen, rolling with kids five, six years older than him who were involved in things a mother would try to protect her son from. the crimes they committed were petty: intimidation and theft, some turned to drugs but jooyoung was smart enough not to get involved with the harder substances. regardless, through all the absences from home and trouble he caused, jooyoung's parents remained saints with their youngest.

even with an unfavorable reputation, jooyoung tried his best to remain close with his family. his father, though firm, continued to try and push jooyoung down the right direction. "please go back to school" was an every day discussion and while jooyoung pushed and argued, it never gave his father a reason to falter. his mother was just as resiliant, nursing jooyoung's hangovers with haejangguk and bandaging his wounds after a scuffle in an alleyway. "it's better to love my son for all his flaws than to lose him completely," she always dejectedly said, brave-faced in the company of her best, albeit judging, friends. it was his brother who wasn't the least bit tolerant with jooyoung's lifestyle, refusing to talk to him for days on end whenever jooyoung went on one of his random escapades. their relationship faltered to the point of distant acquaintances and when jooyoung's brother got married - jooyoung was left uninvited.

the night of his brother's wedding, jooyoung had insisted that he wasn't interested in attending. "what's the point of being there when the groom doesn't want me to be? i'll be out, anyway," and out he was, drunk in his favorite night club with lines of empty shot glasses along the bar counter. as miserable as the night dragged on to be, it didn't stop him from trying to dance the night away with anyone he could find.

he comes to know the stranger he meets in a whirlwind of light touches and forgotten emotions as park jinyoung; a student visting from abroad in an effort to "find himself". jooyoung didn't know it then, found it hard to put a finger on, but whenever he was with this curious traveler - everything just felt right, like he was also on a journey to find himself. his true self.

summer fling turned into summer romance and it didn't take long for jooyoung to grow attached. friends with negative reactions towards jooyoung's new found relationship were instantly dropped and jooyoung found himself shedding useless baggage and healing anew. better decisions were made through jinyoung's influences and his nights no longer consisted of going out and partying until dawn, no. instead, they consisted of long walks, nice dinners, and quiet promises to keep. jooyoung's family notices the difference in his personality with silent approval, relieved that their son and baby brother had put an end to the negativity and was growing to be a responsible young man. jooyoung and his brother make amends under jinyoung's guidance, releasing the tension that long since plagued jooyoung's shoulders and bringing a family closer than it ever was before.

needless to say, when the time comes for jinyoung to return to his home country, jooyoung spends the first few days moping. luckily, keeping in contact through various forms of social media and interactive platforms proved to be easier than expected. after all, jooyoung had never pictured anyone to come after jinyoung. not even when the distance between them became more of an obstacle than a silly annoyance. despite it, jooyoung easily learns that what they have is just what love is in its rawest of forms and he's the first to say i love you over skype, unwavering and confident like how jinyoung looked at him the first time they met. jinyoung saying it back is just the icing on the cake.

on their one year anniversary, jooyoung gets held up with overtime at work - late to his skype call with jinyoung by an hour. rushing home by bike is the only way to avoid traffic and he peddles as fast as he can to get home to explain himself to a semi-angry boyfriend. instead of making it home that night, jooyoung gets rushed to the nearest hospital for a couple of weeks, flesh torn by claw marks and neck bitten into by canines. blood drips from the gashes on his arms and medics are afraid to move him in fear of pulling him apart. headlines flash on the news: man attacked by three stray pitbulls, saves girl (5).

jooyoung pulls out of his critical condition five days into his hospital stay, his antibiotic dosed body fighting off any trace of infection before he comes to. he's kept to heal, for observation, but all jooyoung can think about is how upset jinyoung must be at him for missing their anniversary. when he's finally out of the hospital, fucked up as can be, the first thing he does is wait for jinyoung on skype. it takes a lot of explanation, plenty of i don't remember what happeneds, and constant reassurance from jinyoung but when it's all over with - stitches and a bruised face don't hurt as much as they did before.

what does hurt is the constant yapping he begins to hear in the mornings, small voices echoing in between the chirping of birds and barking of dogs. his head is filled with secret conversations of animals, many of them making perfect sense as they cry, yip, and coo in his direction. it also doesn't help that his senses seem to kick into overdrive: nose too sensitive to smell, ears able to pick up on the slighest of noise, eyes too clear and too focused for jooyoung's liking. he doesn't understand it at first, especially after a sass-filled argument with his french bulldog, but jooyoung's never been one to think he was crazy just for shits and giggles. the impossible was possible. after all, he wasn't meant to live after what had happened.

his first transformation is an easy one: a raven gliding across the night sky to explore seoul for what it is. his conscious shouts human, but his body displays bird, and while it freaks him out to be awake and aware throughout the whole experience, it fuels him to experiment with other animals along the way. his first attempt at anything bigger than a bird scares him out of transformation, dislocating his shoulder in the process. his preferred land animal transformation, a black panther, causes him to fall off the side of a building, not used to walking on all fours with a tail controlling his sense of balance. eventually, he nails it - finding guidance in pyeongchang where others like him have found peace and knowledge.

and so kim jooyoung goes on to live a life that he never would have thought to have live. he finds work with decent wage fixing automobiles, settles in to sunday dinner with his family every week religiously, and gets married to the love of his life on june 20th, 2016. he doesn't know what's awaiting him in the future, but the animal in him is ready for any obstacle tossed his way.