Archive of Our Own

PROLOGUE

Soonyoung was the one who found him, the little bundle of soaking wet fur lying on the beach. He’d been out exploring, and had lost Baekho somewhere in the northern part of the jungle. He wasn’t supposed to go out as far as the shore—not as young as he was—but the sun had drawn him there. The colour of the sky had been a beacon to him, reds and yellows that had led him straight to Vernon.

If he hadn’t found him then—if he hadn’t disobeyed the rules to run out to the sunset—Vernon might not have survived the night. He’d only been half-alive when he’d found him, water spilling from his mouth when Soonyoung had nudged him over onto his side. He’d taken a look at the tiny little kitten, so much smaller than him as a tiger cub, and scrambled up the beach to the edge of the jungle. Then he’d cried for help as loud as he could.

Baekho had found him, standing proud and tall in his white tiger form. He hadn’t had to ask what was wrong—he’d seen Vernon right away, and roared for help, like a real tiger. The way Soonyoung knew he would one day—if only it could be sooner, and he could call for help quicker.

The others had found them shortly after, Nana leading the way. Soonyoung had been too young at the time to understand all the commotion, but he knew this was something he’d never see again. They have animals visit them sometimes—migrating birds flying over, unwitting fish coming up the creek to be caught in a cat’s claws, the rats and mice who are regularly chased out of their homes. But to have another shifter appear out of nowhere—a kitten washing up on their shores, no less—is something that must’ve put the whole island on alert for weeks.

Nana had carried the kitten back through the jungle, cradling him in her arms. The elders had told Soonyoung he’d done well and sent him to bed, despite all his whining and pleading and wishing to stay with the new kitten. He’d been the one who’d found him, after all!

He’d found out much later on—as a teenager—that they hadn’t believed Vernon to be a shifter at first. As a black-footed cat, he’s a wild cat species, and the only wild cat shifters they had on the island was Soonyoung’s tiger family. They’d mostly taken care of him because of the strange circumstance of his appearance, washing up on their shores half-dead.

Then when he’d woken up, he’d been incredibly expressive, giving them all sorts of signs with body language, very fluent in animal communication for his young age. He’d had his claws out, but hadn’t hurt anyone, and had allowed Baekho to lick his wounds and Nana to bind up his broken leg.

They’d called him Hansol for the first six months he lived on the island, because it took him that long to shift into human form, and they’d needed some sort of name for him. He’d lived with Soonyoung’s family whilst recovering, and once he was healthy again, he hadn’t wanted to leave. So there he stayed—this nameless, stateless kitten who had turned up half-dead on their shores.

It didn’t take long for Soonyoung to love him, to consider him his own brother. And once Soonyoung starts something, he never knows how to stop.

PART ONE

The novelty of the boat never wears off, no matter how many times he rides it. Despite most the other cats not particularly liking the water, Soonyoung has always loved the journey from Jeollanam-do out to Byeongpung-do, charting the seas he feels they own, the home he’s always known.

He’s one of the few. Even Chan isn’t liking it much, sitting in the captain’s quarters with his head between his legs as Wonwoo rubs his back. Seungkwan is the only other person who seems as eager as him, standing with Soonyoung at the bow of the ship and looking out to sea.

“I don’t know why you guys don’t invest in a plane, if most of the cat-people hate the boat,” he remarks, looking out ahead at the waves. Even Junhui is hiding away under the deck, leaving Seungkwan with the choice of the over-excited Seokmin-Mingyu-Solar at the stern, the underwhelmed Minghao-Lia-Winter sat on deck, or a giddy Soonyoung to hang out with.

“Because we don’t have anyone who can fly a plane. But we have quite a few sailors.” He turns to salute to Hongjoong at the helm, but he isn’t looking Soonyoung’s way. He hopes Seungkwan doesn’t notice.

“I guess,” Seungkwan says, resting his elbows on the ship’s bow. “How often do you guys go over?”

“The whole company goes every year at Seollal time. Winter is the best time to bring extra food and supplies, and it’s good to celebrate with family. Some of us make individual trips back at other times of the year, but Minghao arranges for the whole company to go for Seollal. We’ve never missed it!”

Seungkwan has a little smile on his face. “I don’t know if you can imagine my sisters’ reactions when I told them I was visiting Junhui’s family for all of Seollal, and I wouldn’t be able to travel back the day after. They didn’t believe that it’s not as simple as catching a train in this day and age.”

Soonyoung grins at him. “You’re good at keeping a secret.”

“It’s not like they’d believe me if I told them my boyfriend can turn into a cat, and I’m headed to see his island of shapeshifter people for the full week, with no alternate transport off the island. It’s an easier secret to keep than you’d think.”

“Land ho!” San shouts from the upper decks, and he and Seungkwan stand up straight to see Byeongpung-do rising up from the ocean ahead of them. Seokmin, Mingyu and Solar cheer from wherever they are on the back of the boat, and Seungkwan takes a deep, steadying breath in, waiting with Soonyoung to watch the island approach.

The cat majority of their office emerges from below deck only once they’re shored up in Byeongpung-do harbour, so Soonyoung and Seokmin are the first off the boat, hugging Seungcheol and Jeonghan respectively where they’re waiting at the curve of the harbour.

“Welcome home, kiddo,” Jeonghan tells him when Soonyoung embraces him hard. “Still can’t shake the tiger inside, I see?”

He gestures to Soonyoung’s tiger-striped dress shirt, and Soonyoung only grins in response. “Do you like it?”

“Love it,” he responds, leaning in to next greet Mingyu. Junhui has come running out so that Seungkwan isn’t awkwardly introducing himself to their island leaders—the last time they’d met wasn’t such a great first meeting, and he knows Seungkwan has been anxious to do over.

Jihoon catches up with him before he can become too invested in how that goes down, looking grumpy and a little woozy. “I really hate that boat.”

“I don’t,” Soonyoung says happily, and Vernon catches up to them as the group begins to migrate further into the island.

“It could be worse,” he says diplomatically. “Could be better too, though.”

Jihoon had grown up in the same area as Soonyoung, with most of the cats living on the upper side of the village, Soonyoung’s family positioned the closest to the jungle edge. But only Vernon had grown up in the same house as him—the only tiger close in age to Soonyoung is Hwasa, while Baekho and his other cousins were several years older, and acted as the caretakers for the two of them.

They’ve never really been sure how old Vernon is—he himself didn’t know, but he seemed to be a few years younger than Soonyoung when he’d first transformed into a boy. They’d given him a birthday of the day he’d washed up on the island, which is only a few weeks after Seollal this year. Regardless, he’d always been close to Soonyoung and Jihoon, as if they were older brothers to him. Jihoon is so familiar with the whole tiger family that it’s not strange for him to stop off and say hello to Baekho and Soonyoung’s younger cousins on his way home.

The noise hits him as soon as they enter the house. Several young cousins had been sent to live on the island all at once a few years ago, along with Soonyoung’s little sister, right around the time he’d been graduating from the island. Tiger shifters are some of the most incompatible with urban living, and those with full-time responsibilities on the mainland tend to treat the island as a bit of a boarding school, to give their children the attention and education they need to learn control. It may be an unorthodox family structure, but Baekho has long since been happy to have them, even if it means he has five young children running around the house these days.

Four of the said young children look up as Soonyoung steps into their wide living room, a wreck of colouring pens and building blocks and tiny feet running around—and stretches his arms wide, calling out for a hug.

Yoon reaches him first, screeching at the surprise appearance of her older brother, home again after so long. Mark, who has always been a little more favourable of Jihoon, also comes up for a hug despite being nearly twelve now. Hwanwoong comes in to hug Soonyoung just after Yoon does, and Beomgyu, the smallest of them all, prowls over in tiger cub form to leap onto Vernon, who takes it well in stride.

“You’re back, you’re back!” Yoon is shouting in his ear, and Soonyoung stands up with her in one arm, Hwanwoong in the other.

“I’m back!” he exclaims, spinning them around so Yoon screams and Hwanwoong giggles. All the noise pulls in Chaeyoung, who looks as if she’s been woken up from a nap in the next room, but joins in on the cuddle pile without question.

“It’s good to see you kiddos,” Soonyoung says, ruffling Chaeyoung’s hair and pulling at Yoon as she bounces on the balls of her feet. “It’s been a while, huh?”

“It’s been aaaages,” Yoon complains, taking Soonyoung’s hand to drag him through the house to her room. “I have so much to show you!”

Soonyoung manages a brief pause in the hallway to greet Baekho too, receiving a firm hug as Yoon runs along to get out the toys and drawings she wants to show him. Baekho is as sturdy and reliable as ever, a figure of comfort for Soonyoung every year he comes back home. Jihoon comes over to do the same, as Vernon gets stuck in the living room with Beomgyu attached to him.

“It’s good to see you,” Baekho tells him genuinely, patting Jihoon on the back.

“And you,” Jihoon says. “Even if I don’t think I can compete for your attention here for very long.”

“I’ll catch up with you at Seollal,” Baekho promises him, as Chaeyoung comes up and starts pulling at his hand, saying his name over and over to get his attention. “Is Hwasa coming to help anytime soon?”

“She’s coming after greeting Moonbyul’s family,” Vernon calls from the living room.

“Of course she is,” Baekho says, hands in the air. “Yes, Chaeyoung, what is it?”

They all get pulled different ways after that, Soonyoung spending the evening catching up with Yoon in her bedroom, shut off from the rest of the house. He can hear the other members of his crazy household greeting each other and running around playing and fighting, as kids do. He’s not sure how Baekho has managed this long on his own, and it makes him wish he were here more often to help out. It’s out of the question for the children to come and visit him in Gwangju, not when they’re so unreliable at controlling when they shift between forms, but he could talk to Vernon about making trips home a more regular thing.

“Oppa,” Yoon says as he’s putting her to bed, calling for his attention sleepily as he’s thumbing through a bedtime story.

“Yes?” he answers, inflecting the word cutely to see her smile.

“Vernon doesn’t smell like the rest of us,” she sighs, turning over to put her face half into her pillow.

“No, he wouldn’t. He’s not a tiger like us. Did you forget?”

Yoon makes a vague sound to indicate she had forgotten, but didn’t want to admit it. “He looks different?”

“Yes. He’s not orange like you and me.”

She giggles, running a hand through her bright orange hair. She’s one of the few whose animal features impacts the natural colour of her hair, like Jihoon’s dirty blonde and Vernon’s natural brown.

“But he’s still our family?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“He doesn’t mind that he doesn’t smell like us? Or look like a tiger?”

Soonyoung hesitates. He’s never exactly asked that of Vernon—he’s always been so easy-going about it, he could only assume the answer was yes. “You’ll have to ask him. But he knows he’s part of our family. He always has been. Doesn’t matter if he’s blood or not, tiger or not. Family is by choice.”

Yoon makes a humming sound of agreement, and their conversation comes to a close as she starts to drift off to sleep. Soonyoung quietly closes the book, kisses her forehead, and switches off her bedroom light.

He makes his way back into the living room to find the other kids have been put to bed too, and Baekho is sat talking with Hwasa and Vernon in the living room.

Baekho raises his glass at him when he comes to the doorway. “You finally escaped! Welcome home, Hoshi.”

Soonyoung grins, bends down into a squat, and transforms into his large tiger form. He prowls over to the sofa and comes up to lay across Baekho’s lap, who groans a laugh, and begins to pet the fur behind his ears.

He’s home. It feels good to be back.

-

They’re invited over to the Burrow the following day—the huge house all the bunnies call home, the most communal of all the shifter-types on the island. Seollal itself isn’t for a few days, but there’s a huge platter of food ready for them when they arrive, and Soonyoung half wonders what they’ll have left to cook for the celebrations. The other half of him is purely salivating at the smell of the basket of chicken legs.

As it turns out, not only are all the tigers invited, but some of the office cats too, along with Mingyu and Winter, their two big dogs. He ends up in a seat beside the bright-eyed Soobin, newly turned eleven, opposite Jihoon, who also looks vaguely confused as to what he’s doing there. Yeji sits on his other side, tucking into the raw crab without hesitation.

They catch up on life on the island—steady as ever, a heavier child to adult ratio than usual, but nothing they can’t handle—and Jihoon delivers the Xu Industries updates, as Minghao is absent from the meal.

When the children are full from their meals and have all be excused to run off to play, Seungcheol finally gets down to the reason they’re all there.

“When was the last time you went on a prowl, Soonyoung?” he asks, and Soonyoung perks up from where he’d been having a second helping of yaksik.

“Since before graduation,” he says around a mouthful. “Though I try to go out with Yoon and the kids whenever I come back.”

“But you have to be the responsible adult,” Baekho says, which makes Hwasa laugh through her nose. “Not quite the same is it?”

“No…” Soonyoung says, bashfully. He’s never particularly felt the part of the responsible adult—he’d much prefer to run wild with Yoon, but her safety is always at the forefront of his mind whenever they a run through the jungle together. There’s nothing more important than that.

“Hopefully you’ll like this idea, then,” Jeonghan says, eyes sparkling.

Soonyoung puts down his chopsticks, yaksik portion lowered. “What is it?”

“We need you to do a favour for us.” Seungcheol gestures around the table at the group remaining—Jihoon, Vernon, Hwasa, Yeji, Winter, Wonwoo, Mingyu and himself. Baekho sits at the end of the table with Jeonghan and Seungcheol, looking like he knows what’s coming. “How do you feel about charting new land for us?”

Opposite him, Jihoon sits up straight as Mingyu makes a surprised noise. “New land? What do you mean?”

Seungcheol sits up a little more too, leaning over the table to explain. “We’ve been communicating recently with an aquatic family from Busan about having them move out here. They’re a huge family tree of dolphins and pufferfish and stingrays and all sorts. Part of the family owns an aquarium, which has been their sanctuary for many years, but money struggles has meant they might have to let it go in the near future. Of course, spending time in the real ocean would be a lot healthier for them, and we want to welcome them to our family if we can.”

“But…?” Wonwoo supplies.

“But we aren’t confident Byeongpung-do would be the safest place for them,” Jeonghan says. “We’ve been getting more and more fishermen around these parts since you left, and more tourists who turn up on the island unannounced. The last thing we’d want is a fishing tragedy, and we can’t invite them here in good conscience knowing it might not be safe.”

“Then Joshua had an idea,” Seungcheol continues. “We’re not the furthest island away from the mainland—Manjae-do is actually further away, uninhabited, and doesn’t interrupt any fishing routes like we do. We could expand out that way, start to build some homes there, collaborate with the aquatic family to make them an island of their own.”

“And you want us to scope it out,” Vernon says, nodding. “Makes sense.”

“Wait,” Yeji says, cocking her head. “Why us, though? Why not go yourselves?”

“We don’t have the people to spare,” Seungcheol says, gesturing around. Over in the wide space of the room, Jaemin and Mark are play-fighting, while Yoon’s high shriek carries in from somewhere else in the house. “We’d need to send a sizable team to make it worth it, and we just don’t have enough people whilst keeping the children supervised here. We were hoping you could cover for us while you’re here. Pull your weight with the chores.”

“Of course we can,” Soonyoung says, sitting back in his chair confidently. “Why not? It sounds fun!”

“Does anything wild live on the island?” Winter asks, one leg crossed over the other.

“It’s likely,” Baekho says. “We believe the terrain is similar to Byeongpung-do. It’s why we’ve selected you as a group of predator species, just in case. The Illusion crew will sail you there, but Hongjoong and Seonghwa won’t be leaving the boat.”

“Understood,” Jihoon says seriously. “And what do you want us to find out about the island?”

“If it’s liveable,” Seungcheol says simply. “If we can build on it, if it’s dangerous. We’ve never set foot on it before, we just need basic information to start with.”

“We can do that,” Vernon agrees.

“Definitely!” he says, excited at the prospect. It’s not often he has the chance to connect with his most primal tiger instincts—exploring a new island sounds like the most fun he’s had in a while.

“When do we leave?” Hwasa asks.

“Tomorrow, if you can,” Baekho says. “First thing. It’ll take you an hour or two to get there, and we want you to use as much of the daylight there as possible.”

“Nice,” he says to himself, meeting eyes with Jihoon. He looks a little too tense, so Soonyoung grins at him, and brings his yaksik back up to his mouth to finish it off.

-

They meet at the harbour at the crack of dawn, yawning and stretching and watching the crew prepare the Illusion to sail. Chan comes to see them off—likely because he’s staying with Wonwoo, and is too polite not to say goodbye to his host—and Wonwoo stays at the bow to wave back until the harbour disappears from sight. Then he goes below deck with Yeji, Vernon and Jihoon, leaving Soonyoung to socialise with the high-spirited dogs and Hwasa.

Unexpectedly, they’re all called to join the cats below deck around an hour into the trip. Before departing, Seungcheol had appointed Jihoon as the leader of their exhibition, as the most senior member of Xu Industries on the trip. He’s taking the role very seriously, and has split them up into three groups to spread out and cover the area of the island efficiently.

Soonyoung, Vernon and Jihoon are on the first team, Hwasa, Yeji and Winter on the second, and Mingyu, Wonwoo and Jongho make up the third, ensuring each team has a large predator on their side. The remaining crew of the Illusion are to stick to the coast, as they’re made up solely of cats and dogs. Despite being a wild cat, Vernon is smaller than the average dog while in animal form, and can’t shift reliably enough to be assigned as the protector of another group.

They emerge up top again when San calls out at the sight of land, Soonyoung practically bounding up the stairs to see the sight of Manjae-do up ahead. On first glance the size of the land and the way it slopes doesn’t look so different to Byeongpung-do, jungle off to one side, clearer volcanic rock and grassy land off to the other. But as they approach it’s so obviously uninhabited and wilder than home is, with no harbour to approach, no homes built up into a little village. The lack of noise as they shore up the boat is a little thrilling—though the island has definitely been charted before, it doesn’t seem to ever have been lived on. If they can pull this off, they may be the first to do so in the country’s history.

The winter sun is climbing the sky by the time they arrive, and they automatically get into their groups. Hwasa’s group sets off right, Jongho’s group leaves left, and Soonyoung’s group is headed straight ahead into the island, with the vague idea that they can cover plenty of area between the teams and meet at the other side.

“I feel like we should have equipment or something,” Vernon says as they begin to trek into where the land meets the jungle. “You know, if we need to call for help?”

“Equipment from where?” Jihoon asks, as Soonyoung says,

“We’ll be fine. The worst we could meet out here is a leopard, or a boar.”

“You’re so reassuring,” Jihoon says, but stays close in step behind Soonyoung, who is confidently fighting their way through undergrowth and overhanging branches, enjoying the fragrant smell of untouched flora.

“I’m serious, what boar is going to fight a tiger? And I’ll probably be bigger than a leopard, right? So we’ll be fine.”

“We’re trying not to fight anything out here,” Jihoon reminds him. “Just peacefully explore, Soonyoung.”

“Of course,” he says, before transforming into his tiger form, making it easier to tread uneven ground. Just in case.

Jihoon and Vernon naturally fall into step on either side of him as they wander deeper into the jungle. Maybe they can sense what he can tell so strongly in his tiger form—this jungle is unnervingly, unnaturally quiet and empty. Unlike their own jungle, which is often chirping with birdcall and buzzing with insect chatter, the only sound around them here is the crunching of their own feet against the long grass and windfall below.

Jihoon remarks on it when they’ve been walking less than fifteen minutes. “This place really is lifeless.”

“I don’t know,” Vernon says, running his hand along the trees, as if trying to understand them through touch. “There’s definitely life here. Maybe we’re being too loud, scaring it all off.”

“What makes you say that?” Jihoon asks, and Vernon just shrugs. Perhaps it’s a wild cat sense that Jihoon doesn’t have, because Soonyoung feels it too—there is something here. He just doesn’t know what yet.

They don’t have to walk much further to make the discovery. Soonyoung sees it first, with his sharper senses, and shifts back into his human form to step up beside them.

“Someone lives here,” he says, eyes locked ahead of them.

“Is that…” Vernon starts, squinting into the sun filtering through the jungle palm leaves.

“A house?” Jihoon finishes, and they slowly step towards the building in the middle of the jungle. When they step past the structure, it’s clear to see that this isn’t just one house.

“It’s a village,” Soonyoung says, coming into a wide, clear area on the other side of the house.

They emerge in what appears to be a town in the middle of the jungle, Soonyoung scanning the dozens of buildings around them, beautifully built from smooth stones and looking like something out of a fairy-tale. Streets spread out around them, the main one travelling up into a paved space that looks like a tiny town square. They pass under an arched doorway between two houses to see a statue in the town square of a tiny little kitten, beautifully carved from stone, perched innocently on its stand.

Here, too, it is eerily quiet. The village is not overgrown or abandoned, but it seems uninhabited.

“Guys,” Jihoon says. “I think we should leave.”

“Aren’t we supposed to explore?” Soonyoung asks, moving further into the town. The houses spread further than the eye can see this way too—this village must house as many people as Byeongpung-do, probably more. “They were wrong—there is life here! There must be someone left here, right? We should try and find them!”

“We don’t know anything about these people, Soonyoung, and our expedition is far, far outnumbered by the amount of houses here alone,” Jihoon says, following him through the streets anyway.

“Then let’s carry on through to find the others. We’re stronger as a group.”

“Guys,” Vernon says. “I’ve got a really weird feeling about this place.”

A loud chirp draws all their attention. A tiny little wren sits on a branch above them, out of place in the semi-tropical environment, head cocked as it looks down on them and tweets again.

“Hello,” Soonyoung says, stopping in place to look up. The bird leaves the branch and flies right in his direction—he resists the urge to bat it out of the air as it comes to land on his shoulder, chirping again. That more or less confirms his suspicion.

“There are shifters here,” Jihoon says, eyes trained on the little bird perched on Soonyoung’s shoulder. It’s so small he can’t see it if he turns his head, but he can feel the slight weight of it there. “This village, is it yours? We don’t mean to trespass—we’re just passing through—”

“Hyung,” Vernon says again, looking around them, slowly stepping closer to where Jihoon and Soonyoung are. “Look. Look.”

Soonyoung looks out between the houses, into the shadows of the jungle. In the clearing before them, dozens of different kinds of animals are creeping into view, all without making a noise, all with eyes trained on them. There are a pair of wolves dead ahead of him, a black bear lumbering over a rooftop, and several leopards and raccoon dogs are surrounding them from the back, herding Vernon towards them a little faster. In the trees he spots monkeys and red pandas, with cranes sweeping overhead in a flock of white. Some small wild cats are watching them at ankle-level too, bobcats and lynxes and jungle cats with glassy, trained eyes.

They approach in a circle that has Vernon backing right into Jihoon, and the two of them latch hands. Soonyoung gets down on all fours, preparing to shift but not wanting to trigger an attack on the three of them by moving first.

“To your right, Soonyoung,” Jihoon says in a low voice. “We run on three.”

Soonyoung glances to the side to see a small opening between buildings, where only some weasels and pheasants are waiting and watching. The three of them are big enough to jump over them and make a run for it.

“One,” Jihoon says, pulling Vernon his way. “Two…”

The wren still perched on Soonyoung’s shoulder chirps, and all of a sudden, a whole swarm of small brown birds descend upon them.

“Run!” Vernon shouts, and Soonyoung transforms into his tiger form to run ahead of Jihoon and Vernon, leaping over the group of animals in a way as they squeal and scatter. He sets a fast pace through the jungle, but makes sure never to leave and Jihoon and Vernon too far behind.

They have the leopards and two wolves in pursuit—he can smell them from here, and their head start won’t keep them ahead forever. Especially not when these people are clearly native to the island, know it better than they can ever hope to, and are not happy to have strangers appear in their home.

“Hoshi!” Jihoon calls out, and Soonyoung skids to a stop. In the few seconds he was preoccupied, he’s lost the other two behind him. As he turns and runs back up to them, he quickly assesses the situation.

Jihoon has dropped to his knees over something, and Vernon is nowhere to be seen. As he approaches, Soonyoung can see Vernon’s black-footed cat form in front of him, whimpering and panicking, leg at an awkward angle. He must’ve taken a hard fall and transformed, the way injury often compels them to, even for someone like Vernon. Jihoon is bracing himself over the cat’s form, knowing they have no time to get away, doing his best to protect him.

Soonyoung comes to a stop in front of the two of them, facing the pursuing group of shifters, and plants his claws into the ground. Then he lets out a tiger’s roar, rumbling through the earth, commanding them to stop.

It’s been a long time since he’s properly roared, and the sound grovels at his throat, but the sheer volume and ferocity of his bared teeth causes the leopards and wolves to come to a stop not ten feet away from them. The leopards move as if they’ll begin to circle the three of them, but Soonyoung lunges out—not to attack, but to clearly threaten. He will not hesitate to defend his family.

There are a few advantages to being at the top of the food chain, but he’s never felt it as much as now. The shifters come to a stop, simply watching.

He gives the animals in front of him a hard stare—seven of them total, he counts—then looks back at Jihoon, who is wide-eyed and curled up small over Vernon. Soonyoung gestures with his head with a gruff noise, and thankfully Jihoon understands. He begins to pick up Vernon, being as careful as possible with his injured leg, and the leopards watch with curiosity as he stands upright, cradling this tiny wild cat in his arms.

He jerks his head, and again, Jihoon picks up his cues. They’re usually on the same page, thankfully—knowing each other your whole life will do that. He begins to walk away with Vernon in his arms, as Soonyoung stays staring down the shifters ahead of them with a soft growl. They’re leaving, and they don’t wish for a fight—as long as they keep away, there’s no need for conflict.

Jihoon can’t move quickly with the injured Vernon in his arms, so Soonyoung waits until he’s a fair distance through the jungle before turning away from the leopards and wolves. He listens intently for any movement from them, but the foreign group seem to agree with him, and start to back up towards the village. Soonyoung hurries to get closer behind Jihoon, checking over his shoulder that they’re truly not being followed.

“I can’t believe that just happened,” Jihoon says, several times over, also checking over his shoulder regularly. When he stumbles over a tree root, Soonyoung transforms back up again, after one final check around them.

“Look ahead. You can’t fall again,” he says. Finally, brighter cracks of sunlight up ahead promise the edge of the jungle. “How is he?”

“It’s probably just a sprained ankle or something—he tripped hard, rolled a little bit, and when he came to a stop he had shifted. I nearly fell watching him.”

“I forgot how small you are,” Soonyoung says to Vernon, reaching out to tickle under his chin. Vernon is stiff in Jihoon’s arms, half out of pain, half out of fear, he imagines. “We’re okay now, kitty. We’re leaving.”

“Soonyoung!” a voice cries from the jungle edge, and Soonyoung jogs ahead to meet Hwasa there, Yeji and Winter just behind her. She embraces him in a hug, brow furrowed. “What happened? I heard you roar from miles away!”

“Ah,” Soonyoung says, turning to make sure Jihoon is making it out of the jungle after him. “That. We met shifters. There’s a big village of them here, they must have been here years and years, probably even longer than Byeongpung-do has been established. All sorts of wild animals—none of them would talk, they were cornering us—”

“Vernon is hurt,” Jihoon interrupts. “We should get back home as soon as possible. We need to get off this island before they find the boat—there are so many of them, we wouldn’t stand a chance against a proper attack.”

“Did they hurt him?” Yeji asks, very gently running a finger over the bow of Vernon’s head.

“No, he tripped while running. They were pursuing us for a while. I don’t want to stick around and find out if they’re coming back for us.”

“I’ll call for Mingyu and the others to meet us at the boat,” Winter says, before shifting into her husky form and howling out for Mingyu. The sound makes Soonyoung shiver, knowing the native wolves will hear it too, but it can’t be helped. They have to move as quickly as they can, and have to let the third team know to come with them. He can only hope he left enough of an impression to make sure they aren’t followed.

It takes them over an hour to make their way back to the boat from where they are, unable to run with Jihoon carefully carrying Vernon, and not wanting to cut through the jungle again when they know what lies within. They meet with Jongho, Mingyu and Wonwoo at the point where the ship comes back into view, and Soonyoung finds it a relief to see the boat is still there. He’d been half-worried he’d come back to find it overrun—but only the Illusion crew are there, preparing to sail them back to Byeongpung-do. Winter’s howling must’ve reached the team at the shore, too.

“Go, Hongjoong, as soon as we can,” Soonyoung says as Hongjoong meets them at the deck, concern lining his face. “We have to get away from here.”

“Is he alright?” Hongjoong asks, looking at Vernon even as he takes off back towards the helm.

“Is any of your crew a medic?”

“Seonghwa,” he says, and Jihoon takes off towards the stern to find Seonghwa.

“What happened?” Jongho is asking, their boarding plank being drawn back by Wooyoung as soon as he’s on board. “We didn’t even make it halfway around the island.”

“It’s already inhabited,” Soonyoung says. “By shifters. They weren’t happy we were there. All sorts of forms we don’t have on Byeongpung-do —pandas, wolves, birds, wild cats, weasels—you should’ve seen them.”

“How?” Wonwoo asks, clutching the bow as the ship begins to slowly move away from the shore. “How could all those species possibly live here undetected for so long?”

“None showed their human form, even when we showed ours. They must live almost wild. But they had this whole village—they know how to use their hands, definitely. It was incredible.”

“Soonyoung,” Jihoon calls, running back into the group of them, now without a little cat cradled in his arms.

“Vernon?” he asks.

“Seonghwa is treating him,” he says. He pulls Soonyoung away from the group pointedly, and Soonyoung goes with him, lowering his voice.

“What is it?”

“Did you see them?”

“What?”

“The cats, in the village,” Jihoon says, glancing over at the island as he speaks, now growing smaller as the ship picks up speed. “They had all sorts of wild cats—but I definitely saw some black-footed cats, a whole family of them. And the statue—I think that was a black-footed cat, too.”

Soonyoung blinks at him. “What? What are you saying?”

“Didn’t it look like a monument to you?” he asks, eyes round. “The cat? Like someone they had lost?”

Soonyoung stares. “Holy shit.”

“I think we have something of theirs, Soonyoung. And they saw him, definitely, those leopards were looking at him.”

“They’re—he’s from there?”

“It makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Soonyoung runs his hands through his hair. “It does. Shit. Oh, shit.”

INTERLUDE

Soonyoung was the only one unbothered about the fact that Hansol couldn’t—or wouldn’t—shift into his human form for the longest time, despite obviously being a shifter. The others cats were unnerved by him for a little while, a new wild cat in their midst without a name or identity to speak of, more adept at hunting than even the grown tigers whilst being so calm and docile with the other cats.

Soonyoung enjoyed playing with him, and that was what mattered. Over time, the other cats came to do the same, trusting him the longer he stayed on Byeongpung-do. The questions on everyone’s tongues faded until they no longer seemed important—Hansol was here now, and just like every member of their community, he was an outcast. So he was one of them.

Then one day, at around ten years old, Soonyoung had woken up to see Hansol stretching out awkwardly in the middle of their kitchen floor. His claws scrabbled against the floor, limbs twitching erratically. He’d started to grow and shift, with much more difficulty than it should take for a shifter older than four. Soonyoung had stared for a moment, amazed. When Hansol had whined, pained, he’d snapped out of it and called out for Baekho.

By the time Baekho had arrived in the room, a young boy sat opposite Soonyoung, smaller and skinnier than Soonyoung himself. He was naked, which was unusual for shifters—taking your clothes with you was one of the easiest things to learn—and somehow, he kept his cat ears atop his head and his fluffy tail protruding from his tailbone. Soonyoung had never seen that in a shifter before, and hasn’t since.

Baekho had squatted in front of him and muttered, “Well I’ll be.”

Hansol had looked up at him, and cocked his head like a cat would.

“I didn’t think you could do that, Hansol,” Soonyoung had said, grinning.

“V-Vernon,” the boy had said, frowning as he’d tried to find his voice. “Food?”

“You hungry?” Baekho asked, and Vernon had nodded.

Baekho had made sure he and Soonyoung ate well, and then he’d taken Vernon to see the elders. From then on, Vernon hadn’t shared classes with Soonyoung and the other cats. He already had every cat instinct honed—he knew how to hunt, to stay hidden, how to understand his cat senses. But he had a vocabulary of less than a hundred words, half of them English words. He wasn’t dextrous at walking on two legs, he didn’t know how to use a hairbrush or cutlery, or how to properly sit in chairs. At no older than eight, he needed to be in academic classes with the toddlers, and practical animal behaviour classes with the adults.

Most prominently, he didn’t know how to shift. It took him one year after he’d shifted into a boy to go back into being a cat, and was only triggered by the flu he’d caught from Jihoon. He stayed as a cat for another four months before being able to turn back, long after he’d recovered. No matter how much he’d trained, he’d never quite gotten the hang of it—though he did eventually manage to leave his tail and ears behind, presenting as a fully human boy. He never would have been allowed off the island if he couldn’t.

But his mystery remained a mystery. Even once he’d learned enough to communicate with them properly, he couldn’t tell them how he’d washed up on Byeongpung-do. He couldn’t remember anything.

Soonyoung didn’t really care. Vernon wanted to stay with them, and that was what mattered. He finally had another wild cat his age—someone who would play with him and Junhui, and also liked to sit and watch with Wonwoo and Jihoon. He fit in with the tigers, he fit in with the cats, he fit in on the island.

He was family.

PART TWO

Several of the elders are gathered in the harbour when they arrive, along with other leaders Soonyoung hasn’t even had the pleasure of greeting yet like Kyuhyun and Nana. Jihoon beelines straight for Nana as Seungcheol watches them with an expression of concern, coming up to Soonyoung.

“Why are you back so early?” he asks, glancing over the rest of the crew making their way off the ship, Seonghwa very carefully cradling Vernon in his arms. “Is that Vernon? What happened?”

“The island is inhabited,” Soonyoung says, mind still fixated on the one detail he can’t wrap his head around. Is that really Vernon’s true family? “Definitely inhabited, we were chased out of there.”

“Come inside,” Joshua says, voice smooth even as his eyebrows are pinched. Nana and Seonghwa have already headed out of the harbour with Jihoon on their tail, taking the short trip up to the fox’s den. Their family of foxes on the island isn’t big, but they do tend to inherit the role of healers. Nana’s home medical supply is a lot more extensive than Seonghwa’s quick bandage work on the boat.

They enter a rounded front door and pass through a living space, where Chaeryeong is dealing out food to Seeun, Renjun and Yeonjun, Renjun nearly falling out of his chair trying to peer in on the passing commotion. They follow right through to the patient’s room at the back, where Vernon is set down in the middle of a comfortable, human-sized examination chair, and Nana begins to examine his injury.

“Jihoon?” Jeonghan says as they all come to perch or sit or stand around the room, the whole scouting team along with several key leaders of the island all crammed in to watch for a diagnosis. “Can you explain what happened?”

“Wait a moment,” Nana says, glancing up at Jihoon. “Is anyone else injured?”

“No,” Jihoon says, shaking his head. “We’re just a little shaken up. We weren’t expecting to find anything there, but it’s a whole inhabited island. Shifters who must’ve been there for generations.”

“How is that possible?” Seungcheol says. “How are they surviving? With what supplies? We’ve rarely ever seen boats travel as far as Manjae-do.”

“I don’t know,” Jihoon says, resting back against a wall and wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. “They seemed much more wild than we are. All in animal forms, none spoke to us even once we’d revealed ourselves. They pursued us through the jungle to the point I thought Soonyoung was going to get into a fight.”

“They’re not used to having visitors,” Soonyoung agrees. “I think they survive from the land. All natural. Everything they’d built there was by hand, over time. They have lots of food, lots of space. I don’t see why they couldn’t survive on their own.”

“How did he get the injury?” Jeonghan asks, watching Vernon over Nana’s shoulder.

“Fell while we were running.”

“It’s just a dislocation,” Nana says, holding Vernon at an angle, who goes pliantly. “I’m going to set it again, Vernon. This might hurt a little. You want me to give you anything for the pain?”

Vernon meows in the negative, and Nana tuts quietly.

“I’ll give you something after,” she promises. Then she makes a sharp little movement that makes Vernon yowl, move away, but hobble on three feet and tentatively test the fourth. Nana prods him again, and seems satisfied. “You’ll be right as rain in no time.”

“I’m sorry, Vernon,” Seungcheol says, carefully petting behind his ear. “We would never have sent you if we had any idea…”

He startles and moves back, but Soonyoung doesn’t see why for a moment, Nana blocking his view. When she moves back, it’s to find Vernon has shifted back up into human form—he’s holding one arm tenderly, with his cat ears poking out from underneath rumpled hair, tail poking its way out of his waistband.

“It’s okay,” he says, grimacing slightly. “You didn’t know.”

The room looks on at him in shock, Nana tilting her head. “How did you do that?”

“It doesn’t really hurt,” he says, massaging his wrist a little before dropping his arm. He notices his tail batting at his side and feels around at his head for his extra set of ears. “Oh, man, these are going to be a pain to put away again.”

“Vernon?” Jihoon says tentatively. “You shifted back…?”

“I uh, wanted to say,” Vernon starts, carefully standing up from the patient’s chair. “I want to go back.”

“What?” Seungcheol says. “Absolutely not, you’re injured, and that island isn’t safe for any of us—“

“Oh, not to the island,” Vernon says. “Not yet, anyway. I want to go back to the boat. You guys probably couldn’t smell it, but we have stowaways.”

The door swings open at that moment, and Mingi comes rushing into the room. “We have—on the ship—”

“Stowaways, got it,” Joshua says, but Vernon makes it to the door the quickest, holding up his hands.

“Can I go alone?” he asks, completely level. “Please?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Seungcheol says, squaring up with him. “Why alone?”

“There are only two,” he says, placating. “One of them is related to me, I’m sure of it. The smell—they’re a black footed cat, too.”

Seungcheol and Jeonghan exchange looks with each other, incredulous.

“Family?” Nana says, smile widening. “Are you telling me…?”

“I am,” Vernon says. “You always told me I washed up on the western shore. If I’m from Manjae-do it’s a miracle I survived that far in the ocean, but…”

“Yes,” Nana says, all bright smiles. “That explains so much.”

“Noona,” Seungcheol says, flustered. “We can’t just let him…?”

“I imagine the Illusion crew already have our visitors surrounded,” Nana says. “Soonyoung can be his backup. Let the boy be the first to greet his long-lost family, Cheol.”

Vernon meets eyes with Soonyoung over the room, who swallows and nods. As much as he doesn’t like this, there’s little he wouldn’t do for Vernon’s sake.

Next thing he knows he’s a step behind Vernon, striding back through the town to the ship again. Seonghwa waits anxiously at the bow, and shows them to the storage room where San is guarding the door, Wooyoung and Yunho and Jongho stood just inside, in a glare-off with two young women.

“Hey,” Vernon says, crouching down on his haunches, pausing comfortably like a cat would. “It’s okay.”

The woman directly opposite is wearing some obviously stolen some spare sailing uniform, but out of the cargo pants a brown tail with dark stripes pokes out, standing high in the air. She has ears twitching on the top of her head that match Vernon’s, and she watches him intently as he enters. The second woman is wearing a puffy brown dress that’s clearly her own, hair cropped short, eyes sharp on the scene.

“Vernon?” the first woman says, voice unexpectedly low, prowling forward in the same stance as Vernon. “Is that really you?”

“It’s me,” Vernon says, speaking slowly, carefully. “Your voice—I know you, don’t I?”

“You don’t remember?” she says quietly.

Vernon tilts his head, eyes fixed on her face. “I know you. But I don’t remember you. I don’t remember anything before I washed up here.”

The woman stands, slowly, watching as Yunho and Wooyoung do the same with her.

“I believed you were dead,” she says, hushed. “My name is Youngji. I’m your twin sister.”

“Youngji,” Vernon says, as if the name is familiar on his tongue. “My sister?”

“I’m sorry,” she says, and twenty years of trauma raws her voice. “We truly believed you’d drowned.”

“What happened?” Soonyoung asks, unable to stop himself.

“An accident,” the second woman says, eyes trained on Vernon. “We were playing one day. You fell into the river that runs through the jungle. It leads to a waterfall on the eastern side of the island… we were too far away from the village for help. We hunted for hours, into the night and the next morning, but we never found a trace of you.”

“Your voice, too,” Vernon says, forehead creasing. “Sometimes I hear it in my dreams.”

“I called for you for a long time. Do you remember me?”

Vernon shakes his head slowly. “No. I’m sorry.”

She steps forward, smiling. “You can relearn. I’m Suhyun.” She has the tiniest little ears poking out from above her bangs, and from under her dress, the tail of a racoon dog sweeps the ground. She opens up her arms, and Vernon doesn’t hesitate, going in for a hug.

“Vernon,” Youngji says, choked up, and Vernon turns to hug her too. She grips him like she never wants to let him go again.

When they part, Vernon exhales heavily, then turns to glance at Soonyoung before speaking. “I think we’d better leave the ship. I have a lot of questions for you guys. And I mean a lot.”

-

Vernon takes Youngji and Suhyun on a walk to have a real conversation with them. Soonyoung offers no less than four times to go with him, but Vernon is certain. He wants some alone time with them, and yes, he will be fine, no, he doesn’t want backup just in case.

Soonyoung sits at the edge of the jungle where the three had disappeared, walking in the direction of the western shore, where Vernon had first washed up all those years ago. At the first call of distress, he’s ready to pounce.

“Hey,” Jihoon says, and it makes him startle. He hadn’t noticed him approaching.

“Hi,” he says, leaning forward on his knees. Jihoon comes to sit beside him, the view of Byeongpung-do tranquil beneath them, if chilly with the winter breeze.

“You okay?” Jihoon asks after a moment.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Jihoon shrugs. “It’s alright to be worried about Vernon. But you should try and be happy for him, too. He’s finally found his family, where he’s come from.”

“I am happy for him,” he says, well aware of how grumpy he sounds as he says it. “It just doesn’t hurt to be cautious at the same time!”

“That’s true,” Jihoon says, patting his knee and looking out at the sea instead of Soonyoung. “But they took a huge gamble sneaking onto the ship like that, just the two of them. They weren’t worried about the harm that could come to them. They wanted to find Vernon that much. They must’ve missed him.”

Soonyoung’s face scrunches up. “I know. But they don’t even know him. Not anymore.”

“Doesn’t mean they don’t have a right to,” Jihoon says gently. “He’s not going to stop being our family just because he’s also theirs, you know.”

Soonyoung looks down at his shoes. “Yeah.”

Jihoon pats his leg. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m sure.”

“Alright. Good.”

They sit there in silence for a while longer before Jihoon gets up to head for the tiger household. After a minute or two more, Soonyoung follows after him.

-

Vernon doesn’t arrive back until the evening. When he does, it’s to sit down in front of Baekho and say,

“I want to go out to Manjae-do.”

Soonyoung stands before Baekho can respond. “It’s not safe!”

Vernon looks over at him with surprise, as if he had barely noticed Soonyoung in the room. “Why?”

“Why?” he exclaims, gesturing to Vernon’s arm. “They were ready to attack us!”

“They don’t have visitors much, and you reek of tiger,” Vernon says, as if that’s a completely reasonable explanation. “I’d like to go and see where I come from, meet my birth family. I think it will answer a lot of questions for me.”

Soonyoung huffs, waving around his hands as he speaks. “But—what about work! What about Seollal? You can’t just leave us behind—you can’t go on your own—”

“I won’t,” Vernon says calmly. “I was going to ask if you want to come with me, actually. They want to meet my family, too.”

Soonyoung gapes for a few seconds, then looks around the room. Baekho is watching him with raised eyebrows, while Jihoon is smiling his way. “Yeah,” he breathes out. “I can come. If I don’t reek of tiger too much.”

That makes Vernon break out into a smile. “I think we’ll be okay this time. I’m not going to miss Seollal, either. I need to run it by Seungcheol first, but I’d like to invite the Manjae-do residents to come here and celebrate with us before I go over there. It would be kind of nice, right?”

“Sounds good to me,” Baekho says. “Am I going to meet a parent or two? Someone I can pass your embarrassing childhood stories onto?”

“I hope so,” Vernon says softly, sitting down beside Jihoon with a hopeful little smile.

“And you’ll come back to the office…?” Soonyoung asks, hopeful.

Vernon locks eyes with him. “I’m not staying out there forever, Hyung. Just for a little while. I’ll ask Minghao, but I think he’ll understand why I want the time off.”

“Yeah,” Jihoon says, emphatically. “Not every day you discover your mysterious origins.”

“No,” Vernon agrees. “I never thanked you, though. For protecting me out there. I don’t think we were in real danger anyway, but… it means a lot. You guys mean a lot to me.”

Jihoon ducks his head, going slightly pink. “It was nothing. I did what I had to.”

“It was brave,” Vernon tells him. Jihoon nods vaguely again, embarrassed but pleased.

“Put your visitors up in our spare room for tonight, Vernon,” Baekho says, standing up and clapping his shoulder. “Soonyoung, you’ll have to share with Yoon tonight.”

“Share?” Yoon’s voice cries out from the next room. There’s the patter of tiny feet, and her head pokes in around the door. “Share with me?”

“Is there space?” Soonyoung says, incredulous.

“Of course!” Yoon cries. “You can always share with me, Oppa!”

Soonyoung laughs, kneeling down to embrace her running hug. Over her shoulder, he spies Vernon smiling down at him, grateful.

“Of course,” he agrees. “We’ll have a sleepover, right?”

“It’ll be so fun!” Yoon exclaims, and Vernon laughs, eyes twinkling.

-

They sail out to Manjae-do the next day, Vernon and Soonyoung and Jihoon along with half of the island elders, intent on extending a proper invitation to their neighbours for Seollal. They can fit up to fourty extra bodies on the ship, which is exactly how many people they take back with them—Soonyoung thinks that every spare bed on Byeongpung-do will be filled that night.

The other black-footed cats are eager to learn everything they can, squeezing in three younger children, two more young adults Youngji’s age, and four middle-aged family members to stay at the tiger household. They sit and have a long conversation with Vernon’s birth parents that evening, and it goes smoother than Soonyoung ever could’ve imagined—it’s clear to see how much they love Vernon, despite all that time lost. It’s easy to come around to sharing Vernon when they have that in common.

On the morning of Seollal itself, it snows. It so rarely snows on Byeongpung-do that this sends the kids into a frenzy, and Soonyoung spends much of the morning supervising the tiger children, several of the other cat kids, as well as a few Manjae-do children who have come over. He quickly goes from supervising to teaching them how to make snow angels and snowmen while in human form, and how to have play-scuffles in the snow and leave paw prints around in their animal ones.

The children from Manjae-do seem to have an easier time of shifting than Vernon ever has, but they always retain their animal ears and tails between shifts, the same way he does. Some even retain other features such as claws or sharp teeth, but they have excellent control over them when they do, and no one is hurt amidst the madness. The Byeongpung-do kids take it all in their stride, thankfully, and don’t ask too many questions that aren’t easily answered.

Soonyoung doesn’t see Jihoon until it’s coming up to midday, when he comes out of the burrow with several of the adults doing their best to call the kids inside for food. When the fields are mostly clear, Soonyoung is finally free to start balling up snow and throwing it around like the child inside him so desperately wants to. If Jihoon is in firing line at the time, that’s not his problem.

Vernon gets involved, surprisingly, after only a few snowballs have been thrown—he hadn’t expected to have any of his attention today, what with so much to say to the family he’s never known. But Vernon has always loved the snow, despite the very little he’s experienced it.

“Wait!” A high, tiny voice calls across the field before they can really get going. “Oppa!”

“Yoon!” he says, holding the snowball up as if to throw it at her. “Are you with me or against me?”

“Not you!” she says, slowing to a toddle as she goes past Soonyoung, who frowns. “Vernon-oppa!”

“Yes, Yoon?” Vernon says sweetly, crouching down to pinch her cheek as she approaches. “What is it?”

“Soonyoung-oppa said to ask you but I forgot,” she says, breathless. “He said I should ask if you mind being different.”

“If I mind being different?” Vernon asks, quirking an eyebrow in Soonyoung’s direction. Jihoon is wading through the snow to join them now, and Soonyoung looks down at Yoon and Vernon’s interaction, waiting. “In what way?”

“Because you don’t smell like tiger, or look like tiger,” Yoon says, squinting up at him. “But you’re still one of the tigers. So I asked Oppa if you minded that, and he said I should ask you.”

Vernon stands up straight, taking Yoon’s hand in his, leading her slowly back towards the burrow as he speaks.

“I’m glad you asked,” he says conversationally. “I used to mind, a little bit. We all want to fit in, right? But then I realised that didn’t really matter. My family love me, and accept me as I am. So it’s kind of cool that I’m different, isn’t it? And now I’m lucky enough to have two families because I’m different.”

“But you’re still a tiger,” Yoon says, as if it’s fact. “You’re still our family.”

“Of course,” Vernon agrees, and this seems to satisfy Yoon.

“Okay. Thanks Oppa!” She lets go of his hand, and without hesitating another moment, begins to run back to the burrow.

Vernon looks up at Soonyoung. “She’s just like you. Mind set on food.”

“She’s going to grow up even crazier than Soonyoung, I think,” Jihoon says.

Soonyoung just watches her proudly. “Even better than me,” he says fondly. “I can’t wait.”

“Like you aren’t already the best, craziest tiger on the island,” Vernon tells him, and Soonyoung smiles down at the snow.

“Really?”

“Hey!” Baekho’s voice calls out from the burrow doorway, and the three of them look up. “Are you kids coming or do I have to drag you in?”

“We’re coming!” Soonyoung hollers back, and Baekho makes a watchful motion at them before disappearing back inside.

“Really,” Vernon says, and Soonyoung grins harder. They take off into the snow, and Soonyoung slings an arm over Vernon’s shoulder, content to see him sit with his birth family for dinner.

After all, he knows he won't stray far from home.

EPILOGUE

Vernon had shifted between forms maybe ten times in his whole life on the island. Even with years of training, he never really got the hang of it. Once he’d reached eighteen and was able to stop standard lessons, he hadn’t transformed at all, but chosen to remain in human form whilst focusing on training with Nana. He wanted to go into veterinary work when he graduated into the mainland.

Soonyoung at once found him lucky and pitied him—his tiger form was such an important part of himself, he couldn’t imagine not embracing it regularly, even once he’d graduated into city life. But being able to go about knowing he wouldn’t accidentally slip up and ruin everything must be freeing. Soonyoung’s long-held problem was the opposite of Vernon’s—while Vernon only knew how to be one or the other, Soonyoung’s line between his forms was so blurred, he often transformed without realising. The two of them are two wild, but it grips them in different ways.

Still, he managed to get the elders’ approval to graduate from the island at twenty-one, and he moved out to Gwangju to work for Xu Industries, like most graduates do. While the city was leagues different from island life, he was still surrounded by family and friends he knew so well, and he was even sharing an apartment with Jihoon. Things were good. They were even better when Vernon moved out of the island too, dropped the veterinary path, and joined Xu Industries only two years after him.

After the long stay on Manjae-do, they’d both returned back to Gwangju weeks later than planned. Soonyoung had left Vernon there two weeks into the trip, choosing to spend another week or so with Yoon and the other kids before they got the boat home.

When they meet again to go back to the mainland—just the two of them—Vernon stands with him at the bow and says, “Can I move in with you?”

Soonyoung looks at him in surprise. “With me and Jihoon?”

“Yeah,” he says, looking out to the ocean. “I think I take you guys for granted too much. I don’t want to go back to being on my own. I want to be with family more.”

Soonyoung grins. “Of course. Yeah, we can make that work.”

Vernon nods. “Cool. And we’re going to visit home more often now, right?”

“Byeongpung-do or Manjae-do?”

Vernon gives him a look. “Both. Obviously.”

“I’d love to,” Soonyoung replies, looking out at the sea. “Yeah. Really love to.”

The mainland rises up ahead, and Soonyoung feels acutely relieved. He hadn’t realised he was harbouring any tension until now.

Vernon doesn’t make it much longer before he has to go below deck, unnerved by the expanse of water. Soonyoung fidgets at the bow for a moment more, then follows him down to keep him company.