Work Text:
As 1 pm reaches closer, Kim Dokja enters his company building, dreading the return of his work as a qa analyst. Ready with his 3 new iced americanos, he clocks in and enters with a sigh.
However, as he nears his cubicle, he notices his coworkers gathering around a single computer, specifically Han Sooyoung’s, which causes unease to spread through Kim Dokja’s stomach. He already feels a headache coming as Han Sooyoung always brings trouble with her strange antics.
“Aww! Oh my god, look at his chubby cheeks!” Yoo Sangah exclaims, “He looks as if he’s going to explode from holding all those peanuts!”
Kim Dokja feels him twitch at the word, “peanuts,” but pushes the feeling aside.
“I’m back…huh?”
“Yah! Kim Dokja come over here and check this out.” Han Sooyoung all but screams into his ears with a cheshire grin and a strange glint in her eyes that tells him she’s done something bad again.
Apprehensive, Kim Dokja leans forward and inspects her screen. However, as soon as he reads the title, he feels his blood run cold.
The title reads, “Squirrel is Excited About the Rolled Over Peanut Truck,” along with a picture of a tiny squirrel with its cheeks stuffed full with peanuts, its hands desperately trying to hold onto a few more peanuts, and a single peanut being held behind him by his long fluffy tail. Behind it is an overturned truck spilling tons of peanuts onto the road, aka the cause of the squirrel’s dilemma.
“Isn’t this so cute?! Thank god that this photographer got this adorable picture! I hope the squirrel was able to bring back all the peanuts to his home! So cute!” Uriel squealed from beside Kim Dokja.
Kim Dokja nervously laughed, his face a mixture of disbelief and nervousness. Han Sooyoung turned around from the screen and smirked up at him. He glared back.
“It’s so adorable that I think I’ll use it as my wallpaper.” Jung Heewon shared.
However, Kim Dokja quickly shouted, “Y-you can’t!”
The office broke into silence at his unusual outburst. They all stared at him questionably, except for Han Sooyoung who was trying her best to conceal her laughter as Kim Dokja glared at her.
“I-it’s just that,” Kim Dokja stuttered as he attempted to find an excuse, “you must gain permission from the photographer…to save such images…due to copyright laws.”
The office continued in an awkward silence until Jung Heewon spoke up, “Oh…I see.”
Vowing to get revenge on Han Sooyoung, Kim Dokja stormed out of the room and started speed walking towards the bathroom. When he arrived, he sighed and held onto the bathroom counter, staring up at himself in the mirror.
Kim Dokja has been working at Sunfish Inc. for 3 years, but he has 2 secrets that he has yet to share with his coworkers.
Firstly, he was a squirrel shifter. Although shifters aren’t unheard of, they are extremely rare. There was a 1 in 1000 chance for a human child to be born as an animal shifter! Despite being so unique, Kim Dokja hated his status as a shifter. Especially as a squirrel! Why did he have to be born possessing the spirit of such a tiny and timid animal! Why couldn’t he have been born as a wolf or tiger shifter!?! Thus, he has never told anyone except for his best friend, Han Sooyoung, who constantly used this knowledge against him.
As a squirrel shifter, he has many squirrel-like tendencies. One of which is that he feels an intense urge to gather nuts and eat them alone whenever he sees them. Therefore, on his way back home last night, he couldn’t resist when he saw the overturned truck and rushed to gather the peanuts, resulting in someone taking a picture of him in his squirrel form.
Suddenly, he heard a ding coming from his phone. Hurriedly he opened it and checked his messages. Lo and behold, there was a message from his manager, Yoo Joonghyuk.
“If you’re not busy, come to the meeting room.”
As always, he was blunt and direct. Kim Dokja quickly replied.
“I’ll go asap!”
Actually, Kim Dokja had 1 more secret.
The sound of a back hitting a wall resounded within Yoo Joonghyuk’s office, as he pushed Kim Dokja against it and started to ravage his lips. They connected in a deep kiss, with Kim Dokja’s breath being taken away instantly. Not long after, Kim Dokja began to hit Yoo Joonghyuk’s chest as he felt himself getting light headed from the lack of air. The furious hits finally spurred Yoo Joonghyuk to break away with a sigh. Kim Dokja panted and tried to get in as much air as he could.
Kim Dokja was dating Manager Yoo Joonghyuk. However, unlike him, Yoo Joonghyuk was a normal human so Kim Dokja had decided to keep his identity as a squirrel shifter a secret.
Blushing, Kim Dokja whispered, “Joonghyuk-ah, we’ll get in trouble…”
However, Yoo Joonghyuk paid no mind to his words and simply replied, “No one will bother us. Anyway, I’m already too excited.” before eagerly reaching his hand down to touch Kim Dokja, causing him to moan.
“Arghh! How can you say that with a straight face? Do you not have any shame!!!” Kim Dokja angrily exclaimed.
Yoo Joonghyuk smirked before beginning to bite and suck on Kim Dokja’s neck, extracting more moans from him.
However, Kim Dokja suddenly looked past Yoo Joonghyuk’s and caught sight of 30 boxes full of…peanuts!!! Breaking away from him, to Yoo Joonghyuk’s displeasure, he walked up to them and gasped.
“What are these?"
“Holiday gifts from customers.”
“A-are these nuts?”
“Yes. They’re supposed to be in Mr. Lee’s room, but they had too much so they were transferred here. Feel free to take some if you want.”
With that, Yoo Joonghyuk returned back to Kim Dokja’s neck, sucking bruises onto his unblemished skin. Kim Dokja was way too distracted to scold him for it. He was too busy thinking about the nuts.
“No! Kim Dokja, stop it! Stop thinking about the peanuts!”
Kim Dokja’s heartbeat sped up as he glanced down at the bags, unaware of what was happening to his neck. When he was brought back to his senses by Yoo Joonghyuk telling him to get back to work with a smirk, he dazedly left the office without questioning his sudden good mood.
However, when he returned back to the QA department he was met with many strange stares from his coworkers and Han Sooyoung who burst out laughing when she saw him. Confused, he ran to the bathroom again.
“Was there something on my face that Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t tell me about?”
When he looked into the mirror, all his excitement about the peanuts disappeared as he saw the amount of bruises and bite marks left on his neck. He looked like he was mauled by a wolf! He angrily cursed out Yoo Joonghyuk in his head!
—
Later when the work day was ending, he hastily texted Yoo Joonghyuk after making up a plan.
“Joonghyuk-ah, I’ll be doing some overtime tonight so we’ll have to leave work separately today. :( I’ll text you when I get home!”
“Okay.”
Determined, Kim Dokja sneakily entered Yoo Joonghyuk’s office with a gulp. Walking inside, he felt as if he had entered heaven. The bags of nuts seemed to be sparkling and were beckoning him to gather them and bring them home! Joyfully, he stacked them on top of each other and filled his hands with them, just like he had the night before in his squirrel form, before walking out with a grin. Kim Dokja was in bliss.
“This is enough for my winter stock!” He thought delightfully.
Distracted by the peanuts, he didn’t notice Yoo Joonghyuk walking towards him until it was too late.
“Kim Dokja?” ringed throughout the room.
Kim Dokja felt his heart drop to his stomach as he instantly recognized that voice.
“Dokja-yah, what are you doing here?”
“T-this…uh…didn’t you say you’d leave separately…”
“Are you taking all those home with you? You’re not a squirrel…”
Suddenly Kim Dokja tripped and fell down, the bags of nuts collapsing all over him. There was also a sudden poof in the air as smoke encased them.
“Kim Dokja!”
Panicking, Yoo Joonghyuk reached out to save him. He moved the bags away in a hurry as anxiety racked through his body.
“Save me…”
However when Yoo Joonghyuk made it to the middle, what he saw surprised him. He picked up the small squirrel laying on the ground and held it up to his face. It was barely the size of his palm and squirmed around before running out of energy and passing out.
“What is this…”
—
When Kim Dokja awoke, it was to the sight of a luxurious ceiling and soft bed sheets, so unlike his usual dingy bedroom. Suddenly, he heard footsteps getting closer and decided to sit up, noticing he was still in his squirrel form.
Wait. He was still in his squirrel form????!!!!
Unaware of the mental hoops and distress Kim Dokja was going through, Yoo Joonghyuk simply asked, “Are you awake? I brought you back to my studio apartment after you passed out.”
Sighing, Kim Dokja admitted defeat and said, “In the end, you caught me.”
With Yoo Joonghyuk’s silence, he began to feel restless. He squeezed through Yoo Joonghyuk’s pillows and hid in there, with only his tail peeking out as he awaited Yoo Joonghyuk’s reaction. As more time went on, Kim Dokja began to tremble and feared Yoo Joonghyuk’s reaction to his identity. He teared up, thinking he would break up with him.
“Of course Joonghyuk-ah’s going to break up with me! Who would want to date a freak like me…”
However, Yoo Joonghyuk simply picked up the pillows hiding his beloved and looked at Kim Dokja with amusement. He was looking back up at Yoo Joonghyuk with teary eyes, holding onto his fluffy tail for dear life. Yoo Joonghyuk suddenly thought of what they could do in the bedroom with it…
“Let’s talk for a bit. Can you return to your human form?”
Kim Dokja focused on his tail and tried to return to his human form. However, when he came to, he realized he had kept his tail!
“T-this doesn’t usually happen! It’s hard to control myself when I’m flustered!”
Yoo Joonghyuk suddenly walked up to him, a dark glint in his eyes. Without warning, he grabbed onto Kim Dokja’s tail and squeezed it at the base, watching his reaction. As he expected, Kim Dokja gasped and looked up at him in shock.
“Everytime I tried to seduce you, you ran away from me. Is this the reason why?”
“Well…yes. I can’t control myself when I’m embarrassed.”
“Now that I know about it, you don’t have to hide it, hm? Now be honest, Dokja-yah, have you thought about doing lewd things when you’re like this?”
Kim Dokja felt his face heat up and turn red like a tomato.
“No! Never!”
Yoo Joonghyuk took hold of Kim Dokja’s chin and smirked up at him with fiery eyes. He began stroking up and down his tail, maintaining eye contact with Kim Dokja.
“Hmm. Really?”
Poof! Kim Dokja’s ears popped out. Yoo Joonghyuk grinned in victory, dragging Kim Dokja back to his bed.