Archive of Our Own

Step 1: First Understand That Everyone, Including Werewolves, Experience Puberty in Their Own Way

Chan is 13 and Minho is 12 when he starts to experience puberty. He didn’t think he’d feel it so soon after turning 13 but here he was.

Puberty was weird all right. Chan hates it. He had weird aches and weird feelings, he sometimes itched, and he even smelt funny and he was aware he smelt funny even though he took a LOT of showers. And there were hormones all over the place, random unflattering growth spurts, outburst of acne, weird hair growth in random patches all over his body, voice cracks, even his toe nails seemed different.

‘You grew,’ Minho remarks with a frown one winter afternoon.

‘I did!’ Chan grins, a good 2 inches taller than Minho. He hasn’t seen Minho since last summer break and as usual Minho greets him like they only saw each other the other day and not in months.

Minho frowns even harder.

‘Don’t worry, you’ll grow soon, you’re still 12 so you’re still a kid,’ Chan tells him with a nod, ‘Mum says this is when our growth plates shake up a lot.’

‘I’m not a kid,’ Minho frowns even harder before adding, ‘Do your knees hurt?’

‘Sometimes,’ Chan says seriously, ‘I think that’s just my bones growing longer.’

‘Mine ache when I shift,’ Minho tells him.

Chan is instantly worried.

‘Is that normal?’

‘I think so,’ Minho shrugs, ‘It’s not bad.’

‘Can you eat medicine for it?’

‘It’s not that bad hyung,’ Minho reassures him before asking, ‘Do you feel different now that you’re 13.’

‘Different?’ Chan tilts his head, confused, ‘Like how?’

Minho shrugs, looking around before randomly walking through some trees.

‘Well, I get hungry a lot,’ Chan starts listing as he follows Minho, ‘I get really hungry at night- mum says I should eat peanut butter when I feel that way.’

‘Do you?’ Minho asks from the front, their feet crunching on a combination of frost, snow, and dirt.

‘Yeah, and it works sometimes, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to dig out more food.’ Chan chuckles.

Minho doesn’t respond and Chan wonders if there’s something else Minho wants to say. It reminds him of how Yongbok sometimes was a bit sulky, not saying what he wanted to say unless asked.

‘What’s up Minho?’ Chan asks.

‘Some hyungs from school stopped playing football with us because they said we’re just dumb kids,’ Minho says tersely from the front, ‘Because the rest of us are a year younger.’

Chan realizes that Minho is worried that, as Chan was older than him and now a teenager, he would think Minho was a kid and wouldn’t want to play with him anymore.

‘I would never do that!’ Chan declares at once, appalled at the very thought of it. ‘That’s so mean and dumb! Just because I’m 13 and you’re not doesn’t mean we can’t play!’

‘I wish we were the same age,’ Minho says quietly.

Chan jogs up to Minho to keep in pace with him.

‘There’s no need to worry Minho-yah,’ Chan reassures him, as he bumps their very padded elbows together, ‘We’re best-friends, and we always will be, okay?’

Minho seems to feel a bit better after that, pausing a moment before leaning in to lightly bump his head against Chan’s (he has to go on tiptoe to do so and Chan thinks it’s extremely cute).

But Chan knows what Minho means- in his neighbourhood back in the city Chan used to sometimes play with some older kids, but they started not inviting him to hang out or play with him anymore, saying he was too young and too small to catch up. Chan thought it was dumb because he could run faster than so many of them, and he was better at so many other games than them too.

And with Minho he was so much better than him in so many things, just because Chan was older didn’t mean he didn’t see Minho as someone he couldn’t continue to play with- that was so lame.

And while Chan continued to think like that, his mind never changing, his body was changing in all sorts of different ways the older he got.

And it seems to effect Minho more randomly though.

Chan knew to an extent his personality had changed a bit, that he had changed a bit –honestly he felt different. But with Minho it’s intensely different.

Hot and cold, he read online, about some people’s personalities.

The summer after Chan turned 14 and Minho 13 Chan never saw Minho in his non-shifted form, but rather only in his wolf form. And sometimes Minho straight up ignored him even if he did follow him around in the woods. And sometimes he’d knock him to the forest floor and lick his face.

Chan genuinely has no idea what to expect every time he went to see his best-friend once puberty was really kicking in.

And he sees Minho twice a year. Summer breaks were longer than winter breaks but he spends each break at his grandma’s house and honestly it’s solely to meet up with Minho. His parents and Yongbok went with him for the first 2 years but afterwards Chan started going on his own, either dropped off by his mother or sometimes his grandma would come pick him up.

It’s not like Chan only ever just stayed at his grandmother’s to go hang out with Minho in the woods. Chan helped his grandmother with her activities, cleaning and sorting things – being a teenager with an endless supply of energy and a stomach his grandmother was more than willing to feed it’s a fun time for Chan either way.

His grandmother even started making and selling specific side-dishes as a result of finding something of a part-time job at the local school as a cook. And apparently her side-dishes were greatly popular amongst the staff so Chan helps her prepare the vegetables, tries his best to help with the seasoning, and listens attentively to how to pickle a few of them.

He’s told he’s doing a good job but that Minho was much better than him because as it turns out Minho often came to visit his grandma, offering help in things his grandmother couldn’t do. Even Minho’s dad would sometimes show up to help her with the more strenuous aspects of her gardening and part-time pickle-making.

Chan likes Minho’s dad. He first meets Minho’s dad when he’s 13 and Minho is 12.

For some reason Chan always imagined Minho’s dad as some absent kinda dismissive parent but finds that he’s really nice. Chan learns that Minho’s dad used to be a dentist and he found it interesting how he was able to become a farmer.

Minho does grow taller, catching up to his height rapidly making Chan worried and Minho rather pleased even though he never said it out loud. His shifted form was also larger- he was just a bit smaller than the German Shepherd dog Chan sometimes saw on his way to school.

His fur was crazy- sort of puffed up at really random places and he panted a lot during the summers as a result but somehow insisted on sleeping on sunny patches of ground despite Chan’s attempts at getting him to move to a shade.

Chan’s own hair had also gone through a weird growth and as he was on break and he didn’t have to worry about taming his hair he just let it grow out every time he was at his grandmother’s place.

Chan knows that Minho sometimes felt self-conscious about his changes and Chan feels the same way too. In Chan’s opinion werewolves weren’t so different during puberty too. Just a slightly different version.

It’s also why Chan likes being older than Minho so that he could experience all of these weird things first and if ever Minho had any questions or behaved a specific way then Chan could be prepared and help his best-friend in every way possible.

Step 2: Give Your Werewolf Space

Chan meets Minho’s mum when he’s 14 and Minho is 13.

He was waiting for Minho at his pond which despite the years now still remained the same. These woods almost felt a bit like a time capsule and Chan hopes that it never changes. The only change is that there was a plum tree sapling to the edge of the clearing around the pond- in fact you could find random plum tree saplings across where Chan and Minho liked to walk around in.

Chan likes it a lot.

As he was getting older Chan was starting to appreciate the deeper meanings of things- the idea that the remains of their activities would have a real living memento was incredibly cool to Chan. It felt profound. At school for reading assignments they had read some complicated literature and Chan remembers how his teacher had mentioned “leaving a mark” – he’s not sure how much of a mark he’d leave as a single person and if it would mean anything.

But these saplings would definitely mean something- and it would be even more meaningful because it was something he shared with Minho.

He almost wishes he could put something protective around the saplings just in case they get damaged or something. But often times trees in the wild had better chances at just being left as they were to not just make them dependent but also strengthen them.

Chan is taking his shoes off to dip his feet in the pond when he feels the strangest sensation of being watched.

Minho in his shifted form was incredibly quiet most times but whenever he approached Chan he intentionally made noise so as to alert him because he once freaked him out rather badly and Minho had felt so bad, ears flat on his head, tail tucked in.

Chan doesn’t know what it is- he’s never felt like he was in danger before being in these woods and now suddenly his skin is crawling and-

Smoothly and gracefully coming out from between two trees is a wolf, a fully grown adult wolf, and it’s huge.

Chan feels his knees shake, head spinning a little.

He’s so used to Minho’s wiry funny puberty form that he forgets he’ll probably grow to be this big one day.

This wolf could easily maul him down, maybe eat him up in 10 bites Chan doesn’t know he’s about to start crying-!

Minho appears out of nowhere, growling at the other wolf, standing in front of Chan defensively.

Chan doesn’t want to be negative but this adult wolf is twice as large as Minho and while he appreciates it, he doesn’t think Minho stands a chance.

The big wolf growls at Minho and Minho growls back, standing in front of him almost sideways, as though doing his best to protect all of him. Chan wants to pick up Minho and run because now they were both going to be eaten.

But that doesn’t happen. Instead the big wolf just grumbles and then with a huff turns around and vanishes as quietly as it had appeared.

Chan’s legs and arms turn into cooked noodles and he falls to the leaf strewn floor in a slump. Minho whines a little, nudging him here and there before bumping their heads together and trotting away towards the woods.

‘Wait-?’ Chan pants out, suddenly breathing harshly like he had just run around for half an hour or something.

Minho comes back some minutes later, his shirt inside out, hair a mess from wearing his clothes rapidly.

‘That was my mum,’ Minho explains as he sets down some slippers.

‘Your mum?!’ Chan squeaks out.

‘Yeah,’ Minho nods, ‘She’s here for a week.’

‘Oh- oh, uh,’ Chan pauses, ‘That’s-…good?’

Minho nods, shrugging a little before he notices his shirt is inside out. As usual Minho didn’t like talking much about his mum so Chan doesn’t ask more questions even if he wants to.

‘Um, she’s scary,’ Chan says instead.

Minho just shrugs again as he turns his shirt out into the right way.

‘Will you also become that big?’ Chan asks interestedly.

‘Maybe,’ Minho replies before he grumbles out, ‘Why are you never scared of me?’

‘I’m not scared of you,’ Chan chuckles, ‘You’re so pretty and cute- you don’t scare me.’

Minho’s eyes widen, his face going red.

‘Don’t call me that-!’ he almost yells.

Then he shifts so suddenly and randomly, his clothes ripping at random points to accommodate his changed body. He struggles a moment with his shorts before he manages to kick it off and runs off into the woods.

‘Minho-…’ Chan gapes after the werewolf.

Chan has called Minho cute many times before- especially when he was a puppy. And Minho used to like being called cute. Maybe he thought it was because Chan was treating him like a kid he didn’t like it anymore?

Chan collects Minho’s dropped clothes and folds them as neatly as he could considering their random tears.

He feels a bit bad for causing such a reaction so he takes Minho’s clothes back with him and asks his grandmother for needle and thread. With her help he manages to stitch Minho’s clothes so that the seams were closed and there were no bad tears. His grandmother helps him patch one of the bigger tears with another piece of cloth.

‘There,’ she smiles, ‘He’ll be able to wear that for a long time.’

Minho’s clothes were always a little large for him, and Chan guesses it’s to help with the shifting.

This wasn’t the first time Minho had suddenly shifted without any warning, and he guesses as a way of making sure his clothes wouldn’t just turn into rags at once or even potentially hurt him by binding him, he and his father intentionally got him larger clothes.

The next day Chan takes back the fixed clothes, also washed because his grandmother said that was a polite thing to do, and waits for Minho.

Minho appears in his shifted form, head a bit down in a way that Chan knew meant he was apologetic.

He walks over to where Chan was sitting and he opens his arms for his best-friend. He doesn’t pull him into a hug, he knows Minho’s not always too fond of that, so he just pats his head and down his neck a little as Minho bumps his head against Chan’s.

Minho then puts down the bag he had been carrying in his mouth and Chan takes it from him with a smile. They’re fresh plums and very shiny and deep red in colour.

‘Thank you,’ Chan tells his best-friend before patting the bag he brought with him, ‘I brought your clothes back- I sewed it too! Grandma taught me.’

Chan shows Minho how he patched up his shirt and shorts for him, and showed him the fun star-patterned patch he had selected from his grandmother’s bag of random fabrics. Minho sniffs all of the clothes, paws them a few times, before his tail starts wagging, ears relaxed.

Chan folds it back properly but Minho stops him, grabbing the clothes and going to the side, clearly to shift back.

Chan had assumed Minho would want to stay in his shifted form- he normally did when he felt overwhelmed or shy or something.

‘It smells nice,’ Minho says as he pulls on the clothes, too large for his frame. ‘Thank you hyung.’

‘I think I can teach you how to sew if you want,’ Chan tells him ambitiously even though it had been his grandmother who had done most of the sewing. Didn’t mean Chan couldn’t learn.

‘Really?’ Minho’s eyes widen in interest.

Chan nods at once.

‘Dad mends my clothes for me but you and grandma did an even better job,’ Minho observes, patting down the front of his shirt and pausing at the patchwork of stars, ‘This is cute hyung.’

Chan spends that summer learning how to sew.

Step 3: Communication is Important

Chan’s not all too fond of winters; most times during winters Minho stayed inside at his grandmother’s place, especially once only Chan started coming to visit. His grandmother would make them fun snacks to eat and they would both pick up on random cooking tips from her though Minho certainly seemed to be better at that.

But today they’re out in the woods because Minho had excitedly told him about finding chestnuts and Chan is booted, coated, hatted, and gloved and ready to go. His grandmother tells him to be careful and to come back home before the sun set and that Minho should come for some chicken soup later.

Minho is already waiting for him at their spot which, due to the trees didn’t see too much snow fall on the ground so it wasn’t all frozen or worse, mushy. Minho’s thick coat was great for winters and he did frequently just stay in his shifted form during this season. They would go ice-fishing with Minho’s dad later in the week and Chan is looking forward to that. Last year they caught some which they cooked and ate and it was a really cool experience.

‘You’ll have to show me how to find them,’ Chan tells Minho as he adjusts his bag a little before asking as usual, ‘Are you sure you’re not cold?’

Minho just whips his tail around and starts sniffing around the floor before trailing off at random, head low as he looks around the ground.

‘Minho,’ Chan frowns, ‘Can I at least wrap a scarf around you? I’ll tie it in a way where it won’t bother you!’

Minho just ignores him.

Sighing, Chan follows his friend to the woods.

It doesn’t take too long before they find chestnuts- there were several great chestnut trees scattered all around and once they find the tree the nuts were plentiful around it.

His grandmother promised they would roast whatever he found and he could take it back home for his parents and brother.

They pause at one of the largest chestnut trees Chan has seen in the area and basically make camp considering just how many chestnuts they find without even searching through the fallen leaves. They work together in comfortable silence- sometimes Chan liked to tell Minho about the new anime series he was watching, or about a book he was reading for school- but in general he liked sharing this silence with Minho, shifted or not.

Minho sniffs around the floor before digging lightly with his paw and looking up at him.

‘Got some?’ Chan asks, walking over to Minho’s spot. Sometimes if he found a good bunch Minho would excitedly show him his discovery. Just about 10 minutes ago he had found a cluster of chestnuts and Chan collected them and put them into his bag.

But it’s not chestnuts.

‘Oh my god,’ Chan gasps as he stares down at the curled up ball of fur. ‘Oh no.’

Minho whines, agitated as he backs up a little before shifting out.

‘Is it dead?!’ Minho gasps out with a shiver, fully naked in the cold.

‘I don’t know but you’ll be if you stay like that!’ Chan says as he hurriedly takes off his coat and drapes it over Minho quickly who was now kneeling before the furry lump.

‘Oh- it’s alive,’ Minho gasps, ‘It’s breathing.’

‘Shouldn’t it be in a tree?’ Chan says worriedly, ‘It’s too cold out here in the ground.’

‘Maybe it fell out? An owl took it?’ Minho says worriedly, glancing back at the tree.

‘Wait wait,’ Chan makes Minho sit up and makes him wear his coat, putting his arms though and zipping him up. Then he takes out some hot-packs he had put in his pocket and taking off his beanie places it in the bottom.

‘Here, put it here,’ Chan tells Minho who pushes up his coat sleeves and scoops up the ball of fur and places it inside the beanie.

‘A squirrel?’ Minho asks. The furry creature is too balled up for them to really see but it most likely was a squirrel.

‘I think so,’ Chan nods, ‘I think we should take him to grandma and ask what to do.’

Minho nods.

‘I think you should shift back,’ Chan tells his best friend seriously, ‘Or you’ll be too cold, and you’ll hurt your feet.’

‘Your coat is warm though,’ Minho frowns, ‘I want to hold the squirrel.’

While Minho was 14 and Chan 15 (though both of them not for too long), and Minho really didn’t want to be seen as younger he sometimes behaved like he was still a kid.

‘Minho,’ Chan says in his best older brother voice he used on Yongbok (and Yongbok’s best friend Han Jisung) sometimes, ‘If you get hurt it won’t be nice- we’re not that far, once we get home you can change into my clothes and hold the squirrel then.’

Minho frowns, lips forming a sort of pout before he nods.

He takes off the coat, still frowning, actions a little bit aggressive and shifts. Chan places the beanie down and pulls on his coat before picking up the beanie again. Minho sticks close, looking at the beanie at every opportunity before they reach his grandmother’s house.

‘Don’t shift yet-!’ Chan says warningly but Minho shifts halfway through to his grandmother’s house, in the middle of her winter garden.

‘Minho-!’ Chan huffs out. But the younger boy just shoots ahead to the backdoor, knocking quickly. When Chan gets to the back porch his grandmother opens the door, not surprised to find Minho there naked but just in general surprised to see them both in such a state.

They quickly explain what they found and his grandmother hurries them inside. Chan hands Minho the beanie before rushing to his room to pick out clothes for his best-friend to wear.

His grandmother gets out an old shoebox and Chan insists they continue to use his beanie to put the squirrel in with the hot-pack. His grandmother makes some holes on the top before placing a book over the cover of the box, explaining that a wild squirrel would be unsafe just in case it woke up later that day.

She then places the box on the dining table.

Then they’re both kind of sulky at each other, which his grandmother notices at once.

When Minho goes to wash his feet and hands his grandmother asks him what happened and Chan explains.

‘It’s so cold today and- I just- I don’t want him to get hurt,’ Chan mumbles, ‘And if other people see him, it would be dangerous- people could try and kidnap him or something, it’s unsafe for him.’

He sometimes had nightmares about it- about Minho being discovered, and people from TV coming and reporting him, and scientists and doctors using him as a test subject. He’s seen enough movies and animes to know it wouldn’t be a good thing.

His grandmother nods in understanding before she says, ‘I understand how you’re feeling Chan-ah, but Minho is Minho, isn’t he?’

Chan is confused by that.

‘He’ll do what he wants to do, what he thinks he needs to do- he lives his own life, and it could be different from yours,’ his grandmother explains, ‘Just because you’re worried about him doesn’t mean you always know better and should tell him what to do.’

Chan immediately feels ashamed, realizing that he did sometimes do that.

‘He’s not your younger brother- and you don’t always tell Bokkie what to do or not to do, right?’

Chan nods. Honestly most times he just left Yongbok alone- he realizes, much to his own disappointment, that he was definitely over bearing towards Minho a lot of times.

‘Exactly, Minho knows himself pretty well – and he’s good with explaining things if he thinks he has to,’ his grandmother tells him, ‘If he felt cold, he would tell you.’

‘Sometimes- sometimes I think he doesn’t tell me,’ Chan confesses.

‘Maybe because he thinks you might not listen?’ Grandma says bluntly but gently.

Oh, Chan hates that so much. He hates it so much and he can immediately think back to how he could have, several times, talked down Minho and not listened to him.

‘But you’re right about him shifting,’ his grandmother nods. ‘I’ll tell him about it okay? Don’t worry Chan-ah.’

Chan then goes to wash up, unimaginable dirt in his finger nails that takes a long while to get rid of. When he comes out his grandmother calls him to the dining room where she had boiled eggs waiting for them as she put together sandwiches for them.

Minho’s head is down, staring at the table top, not looking up at him when he comes into the room. Chan doesn’t say anything but comes to sit next to Minho. He picks up one of the eggs and peels the egg for Minho before handing it to him.

Minho still looks upset, not looking up though he thanks Chan in a small voice before reaching for the salt shaker. They both eat the eggs in silence and grandma hands them both a simple ham and cheese sandwich before walking out to the living room where the TV was on.

‘I’m sorry hyung,’ Minho says quietly after a while. ‘Grandma explained it to me- I was being careless, and I didn’t listen to you.’

‘I’m not angry at you Minho,’ Chan tells him sincerely, ‘I was worried- I know you didn’t think of it like that, but I was worried.’

Minho nods, eyes looking suspiciously teary.

‘I was worried about the squirrel,’ he tells him in a quiet voice, ‘It was all alone, and cold. I nearly stepped on it. What if it died?’

‘I was worried about the squirrel too, but I was worried about you,’ Chan explains. ‘If you got hurt I would-…man, I’d be so upset, it would be my fault.’

‘If I got hurt it would be my fault,’ Minho shakes his head, ‘It’s not hyung’s responsibility.’

‘Maybe not,’ Chan sighs, ‘But I still want to protect you. You’re my best-friend, I don’t want to see you hurt.’

Minho sighs quietly.

‘I know you can take care of yourself, I’m not saying you can’t,’ Chan says quickly, ‘And I’m sorry too Minho-yah, for making you feel like you couldn’t explain yourself to me- it was really uncool of me to be like that.’

Minho looks at him at that, expression surprised.

‘I was being a dick,’ Chan tells him.

Minho’s lips quirk into a small smile at the curse word.

‘And I’m sorry for that,’ Chan tells him sincerely. ‘I will always listen to you.’

‘I’ll also listen to you,’ Minho tells him, extending out his pinky.

Chan links their pinkies together and leans down a bit to bump his head against Minho’s the way Minho did to him sometimes. It makes Minho smile fully, cheeks pushing up from the force of it.

‘Kids,’ Grandma calls from the living room, ‘It’s started to snow, I can call your dad to pick you up or do you want to stay the night?’

Minho’s eyes widen at that, before looking over at him questioningly.

‘Do you want to stay?’ Chan asks eagerly.

Minho nods at once.

They’ve never had a sleepover before and Chan is honestly surprised that they never have.

Minho sleeps on the futon Yongbok usually used, just on the opposite end of the room, and they stay up later than Chan normally does even on weekends or holidays just talking about any and everything, their futons getting closer eventually.

The following day Minho’s dad comes to pick him up and they tell him about the squirrel. They follow him to the woods where he finds a nice tree and after inspecting it notes that the small hollow in it was unoccupied and tucks the squirrel, beanie and all, into the hollow with a handful of chestnuts and other seeds.

Chan divides the remaining chestnuts evenly (when Minho doesn’t look Chan adds a few more into his pile) and hands it to his best-friend.

Abruptly, Minho hugs him.

‘Thanks hyung,’ he says in a sort of embarrassed tone before running off after his father.

Chan finds himself smiling for most of the day.

Step 4: Encourage Positive Behavior

They have an unexpectedly mild summer which Chan appreciated. Being 15 meant feeling hotter than usual for no reason and just sweating buckets.

It’s like he hits another level of puberty and suddenly he has facial hair? And that too really dumb facial hair? Yongbok laughed at his lame moustache hair that stuck out in random singular thick strands and the absolutely horrible random acne that was so tempting to scratch and poke at. That and the really horrible voice cracking and shifting; no one takes him seriously and honestly Chan can’t blame them.

But apparently werewolf puberty was just absolute chaos.

For lack of a better description, Minho seemed more wolf than human sometimes- most times. Especially in his shifted form. It reminds Chan of a couple of years ago when Minho only stayed in his shifted form.

But this time around it’s somewhat different.

In the weirdest way.

Normally they met up in the afternoons at the woods on the first day of Chan coming home to his grandmother. He’s expecting Minho to be there, intentionally aloof and disregarding his affectionate greeting.

But Minho shows up at six in the morning, clawing at the door and then knocking Chan down onto the floor in greeting.

‘Dude-!’ Chan wheezes as Minho scrambles all about him. His grandmother is given a better treatment- in fact Minho actually flops down, showing his belly to her and she pats him a few times before he gets up, shakes himself vigorously that brings a furnado about before shooting out into the morning again.

‘What the fuck- fudge?’ Chan gapes after his best-friend.

‘He’s been here for the past couple of days,’ his grandmother laughs, ‘Think he was waiting for you.’

But the funny thing is Minho chases after him and follows him around but absolutely refuses to come close to him other than to tackle him to the floor. He actually growled at Chan for coming too close.

The next morning he hears Minho scuttling about outside and he goes to check on his best-friend, hoping to have some conversation with him. He slips into his shoes and finds them sopping wet. He only has to look down at his feet for a second before-!

‘MINHO WHY WOULD YOU PEE ON MY SHOES?!’

Minho, tongue hanging out, zooms past with speed.

‘ARE YOU CRAZY?!’ Chan yells, kicking the shoes off and running for the garden hose.

Later that day he makes his way to Minho’s house and his father greets him in his usual mild manner and smile.

‘Minho’s knocked out,’ he shakes his head in amusement, ‘Ah, puberty.’

Their usually tidy home is something of a mess and Chan guesses it might be because of Minho. Chan opens Minho’s room door a little bit, poking his head in to hopefully just check in on his best-friend outside of his puberty-hazed werewolf mind.

Curled up in a ball in some truly ratty pajamas (wearing a shirt Chan recognizes because it was one he mended at one point in the past) is Minho, hair a mess and somewhat covered in dirt at random. Chan feels a little better after seeing him.

He leaves the shrimp snacks he brought with him for Minho including some items from his grandmother for Minho’s dad before making his way back.

About a week later Minho’s weird phase kicks up a notch when he happily brings Chan a live chicken.

‘MINHO!’ Chan yells hysterically after the werewolf, ‘MINHO WHERE DID YOU STEAL THIS CHICKEN FROM I’M SO SERIOUS RIGHT NOW-!’

Minho brings him 3 thankfully live chickens and a few broken eggs in total and Chan is very grateful that it stops and Minho doesn’t kill any chickens.

He then allows Chan to come closer and doesn’t burst about energetically, keeping away from him anymore. He randomly brings Chan other things, as though realizing that maybe live chickens weren’t a good thing. He brings twigs, random plants, he even brings him a computer mouse and Chan isn’t sure where he got it from but calls Minho’s dad to ask him if they were missing any at their house. He sometimes dropped them off at the shed, some memory deep inside his werewolf-mind telling him that was where Chan used to keep things when they were kids though now it's genuinely become a functional gardening shed and Chan's succulents were thriving and spreading all around some rock formations in the backyard.

But it was always mildly terrifying every time Minho approached him with something in his mouth. And it gets more terrifying when Minho refused to show him what he had in his mouth.

‘Minho- Minho what’s in your mouth.’

Minho turns his head away, pretending he can’t hear Chan.

It was 5 in the morning and barely light out but Minho had whined and clawed at the wall below his window and Chan had come out to find his best-friend looking very smug but absolutely not showing him why he was smug.

Unimpressed, Chan levels Minho with his best big brother stare that worked on Yongbok and Jisung. But Minho knows he can get away with it.

As usual.

‘Please spit it out.’

The oddest sound comes out of Minho’s mouth.

‘Minho do you have a frog in your mouth!?’

Chan can’t believe he’s chasing after Minho at 5 in the morning, demanding him to drop the frog he had in his mouth.

Frog set free and unharmed (probably severely traumatized) Minho dashes off again, and Chan wonders if he hears him yell after him to not bring any animal, live or dead.

The weird behavior comes to a stop when one early morning, rather than scratch and excitedly huff about under his window Chan is woken up by whimpering sounds. He opens his window screen to look down and his heart literally drops out of his chest at the sight of Minho limping.

He scrambles out, not even bothering to pull on a shirt or slippers, grabbing his phone on his night stand and gets outside in record time.

Minho has sat down on the yard, one paw held up, panting a little, clearly pained. Chan all but slides to him on his knees, switching on his flashlight on his phone to shine a light on any injury.

‘What is it? What happened?’ he asks worriedly.

He doesn’t see any blood just yet- his imagination had gone into overdrive for a moment there, unsure why he was thinking about animal traps and stuff.

Minho gives him his paw and Chan carefully takes it but his best-friend flinches, growling at him.

‘Minho,’ Chan frowns at him, ‘If I can’t look I can’t see what’s wrong.’

Minho does a weird scooting backwards on his back legs and Chan follows at once.

‘Kids, what’s wrong?’ his grandmother croaks out.

‘Minho is hurt I think,’ Chan calls out, ‘I’m checking his paw!’

‘I’ll bring the first-aid kit!’

‘Come on man,’ Chan tries to keep level with the wolf’s head, ‘Look at me, I can help you, just give me your paw and let me see hm?’

With a small whine Minho lifts his paw again.

‘Thank you,’ Chan reaches up to briefly pat his head and then takes his paw.

Minho bites his arm; it’s not with any force and Chan knows this was Minho more or less just complaining and throwing a tantrum but at least he wasn’t trying to take his paw away.

‘Okay, I’ll check now okay?’

His grandmother brings out the first-aid kit as well as a lamp. Minho’s ears flatten at once, tail wagging a little.

‘Minho-yah,’ his grandmother shakes her head, ‘Got into trouble?’

Minho grumbles a little.

With some angling and turning Chan finds that there was some blood but nothing too bad. Between the fur in between his paw pads Chan spots what looked like a sizeable splinter.

‘Oh, I see it,’ Chan observes. ‘It’s a splinter.’

‘Tweezers?’ his grandmother squints at the paw.

‘Yeah, I don’t think my fingers can get it,’ Chan tells his grandmother.

‘I’ll go get it,’ his grandmother says again, ‘Minho-yah, you should lie down, it’ll be easier for both of you that way hm?’

Chan manages to get Minho to lay on his side even though the latter keeps raising his head, giving him a criminally offensive side-eye the whole time. His grandmother hands him the tweezers and Chan is grateful that the splinter comes out in one piece.

‘Stay for breakfast today okay?’ his grandmother tells Minho who wags his tail in response.

Chan cleans up the paw with some iodine and checks as thoroughly as he can for any debris but finds none.

Minho grumbles deeply.

‘Dramatic,’ Chan snorts as he looks down at his best friend, ‘You’ll be fine.’

Minho flops around onto his back, wiggling a little before turning to his other side, back to Chan.

‘Oh- so that’s how you’re going to be?’ Chan snorts, ‘I basically perform surgery and you’re sulking at me? Minho-yah, that’s not very nice.’

Minho just huffs out loudly at him and then-

‘-oh my god did you just fart at me?!’

Step 5: Help Them Understand the Changes in Their Body

Chan is 16 and Minho is 15 when he realizes that his best-friend was, as kids his age sometimes put it, really going through it.

‘…are those hives?’ he asks worriedly as he looks at his friends arms.

They were indoors today, what with the heavy snow outside and also Minho seemed quite tired. Feeling unseasonably warm and tired- he had only worn a simple wool coat over a hoodie and he had been sweating when he arrived some 15 minutes ago.

‘It’s not contagious,’ Minho states at once before looking down at his arms. ‘Some sort of reaction.’

‘What’s causing it?’ Chan asks worriedly.

‘I haven’t shifted in a while,’ Minho admits, pushing down his hoodie sleeves. ‘I think that’s why.’

‘Why haven’t you shifted,’ Chan frowns as he hands his best-friend a cold cup of water. He was going to have to put water in the fridge for him.

Minho pauses a moment, absentmindedly scratching at his arm and Chan immediately reaches out to stop him, taking his hand into his.

‘I guess this whole puberty thing is really annoying in my shifted form- the extremes are-…they’re really extreme you know?’ Minho gets out.

Minho’s whole countenance was so down- his skin looked dull, and his eyes seemed dull too. Chan tries not to get too worried, anxiety for his friend flaring up in him.

‘Like how?’ Chan asks as he flexes Minho’s fingers randomly.

‘I just want to eat everything,’ Minho sighs out.

‘…like, raw meat?’

‘I’ll be honest, when I shift my mind is a lot more unfocused- kinda freaks me out,’ Minho admits.

He was trying to look aloof but Chan can tell he’s genuinely afraid.

‘And I don’t want to hurt you,’ Minho adds quickly and quietly.

‘I know you wouldn’t hurt me,’ Chan says at once, ‘If you do I know it’s an accident, I wouldn’t blame you.’

‘-but I’d blame me,’ Minho states, pulling his hand away to rub over an itchy spot rather than scratch. ‘I got angry at dad the other day, for no reason really, I pushed him without thinking and he fell hard. He’s okay though, but I just- he was so shocked. And I don’t-…I don’t want that to happen to you.’

‘You don’t scare me,’ Chan tells him again before grinning, ‘Remember? You’re too pretty-?’

Minho sort of actually growls, whole body curving in and reacting in a way that indicated he was going to shift.

Was he angry at Chan? Or was he embarrassed?

‘I’m sorry-.’

Minho just slumps into himself, shaking his head, ‘No- hyung, that was- sorry, I’m not good at controlling my reactions-.’

‘-you don’t have to always be in control around me-.’

‘I have to!’ Minho rounds up at him as he gets up from the dining table chair, eyes flashing, ‘Hyung, you don’t understand, I could actually hurt you!’

Chan doesn’t know what to say or do.

‘Is that why you haven’t shown up since I got here?’ he asks instead.

His grandmother would always let Minho know he was arriving the day before but Minho hadn’t shown up for nearly a week before popping up today.

Minho sighs and nods, taking a seat a little further away from Chan.

‘Do you stay shifted at home or anywhere else-?’ Chan asks worriedly.

‘-I don’t-…I don’t feel all too uh, good shifting just by myself right now. And at home I don’t want dad to like, walk on tiptoes around me- he’s always said home is where I can be safe- but it’s where he can be safe too.’ Minho explains.

‘I’m here now,’ Chan says firmly, ‘You can shift when you’re with me.’

‘Hyung,’ Minho groans, ‘Look, just forget it what I said okay? It’s fine- I just, I’ll get used to it.’

‘I don’t want to see you hurt,’ Chan tells him sincerely.

Minho doesn’t look him in the eye, just shaking his head.

‘Can you explain a bit more?’ Chan asks instead.

Minho grimaces, looking away for a moment before he says, ‘I’ve never really been worried about- about like, not being in control- even last summer, I still had my consciousness I guess. I knew when to shift back, I knew not to get too close to the roads, to the farms- but now I just-.’

Minho sighs again.

‘2 weeks ago I sort of woke up at the edge of town,’ he tells him in a quiet voice. ‘I woke up because of the dogs barking.’

Chan’s stomach feels like it drops straight out of his ass.

‘I’m worried I’ll shift and just- stay like that, I don’t know,’ Minho admits in a quiet voice.

‘Is-…can you contact your mum?’ Chan asks hesitantly after a while.

‘Dad called her after that,’ Minho tells him, ‘She said it wasn’t an issue.’

Chan tries to push down his frustration regarding Minho’s mother. How could she leave him at all and most of all during this time of change in his life! Chan is so grateful for his parents and their patience and support during his random puberty-charged reactions and changes- but Minho was alone in this, and even though his father was no doubt doing his best he wasn’t a werewolf.

And neither was Chan.

He doesn’t push the topic anymore and instead offers that they watch a movie which Minho agrees to with a bit of relief. Chan reaches over to randomly stop him from scratching himself, keeping his hands busy by handing him the bowl of popcorn they were sharing.

He can tell that Minho was antsy- he was tired yes, but he was restless.

This happens for a few days before Chan suggests they go on a walk rather that stew indoors. Minho looked like he was inclined to say no but then agrees to go for a walk.

‘I’m curious,’ Chan says as they follow the stream through the snow covered woods.

‘Hm?’

‘When you shift, what’s your vision like?’ Chan asks. It’s honestly something he’s been curious about for a long while.

‘Oh- colours are different,’ Minho explains, ‘Sometimes it’s-…sometimes it’s colour, and it’s also temperature, and scent too. I don’t know how to explain it- but I’m not like, visually impaired in the slightest when I shift.’

‘What colours do you see?’

‘I see blue better for sure,’ Minho tells him seriously. ‘I see blue very well- everything else is kinda muddy I guess.’

The walk seems to be better for Minho’s energy and overall mood despite starting off a little sluggishly. Chan suggests they go on a walk again the next day and Minho is a little hesitant again but agrees nonetheless. For about a week they go on long walks that honestly were more like hikes around the hills that Chan was now getting very familiar with.

They come across a natural clearing with incredibly soft and untouched snow and immediately dive into a heated snowball fight.

Minho is bursting with energy and he plummets Chan with snowball after snowball, laughing delightedly the whole time, movement light and quick. Chan gives up, falling back into the snow.

‘Heh,’ Minho stands over him, wide bright grin on his face, eyes sparkling the way Chan adored and had missed. ‘Weak.’

‘Or,’ Chan rasps out, holding up an accusatory finger, ‘Have you considered that you’re maybe too strong?’

Minho laughs, throwing himself down on the snow next to him.

‘Gonna let someone younger than you bully you like this-?!’

Chan scoops out a big handful of snow and brings it down on Minho’s head and face before throwing himself onto his best-friend and bundling him into the snow.

‘-HYUNG!’ Minho yelps before finding his balance and pushing back. ‘THAT WAS SO FOUL-!’

Chan, wheezing, falls away onto the ground and weakly defends himself against a flurry of snow Minho flails at him.

Suddenly Minho stops, exhaling out abruptly. Chan lowers his hands, looking at his best-friend with worry because Chan has a feeling Minho was about to cry.

Instead Minho pushes himself up to his feet, clearing his throat, and turning away and walks off.

Picking himself up quickly Chan jogs after his best-friend and reaches him, carefully placing a hand on the side of his arm. He doesn’t say anything, just walks alongside his best-friend for a while until they reach thicker parts of the woods and Minho speaks.

‘I think- I think I want to shift,’ he says.

‘Okay,’ Chan nods.

‘Not- not today,’ Minho looks down at the floor, ‘Um, maybe tomorrow instead.’

‘Yeah, that’s cool too,’ Chan replies.

The walk back is quiet and thoughtful, Chan can tell Minho was thinking a lot, clearly mulling things over. Chan knows there’s not much he can say in this, and not much he can try and relate to. But he would be here for Minho.

He offers his hand silently and after a moment Minho takes it.

The next day Minho brings with him the bag he normally carried in his mouth when he shifted. And from within it he takes out a spray bottle and hands it to him.

The smell hits him at once and Chan does a double take at his best-friend.

‘-is this vinegar?’

He nods, ‘Spray my face with that if I get too crazy.’

‘Minho-,’ Chan begins.

‘No,’ Minho shakes his head, ‘Hyung just-…please.’

‘Okay,’ Chan nods. ‘Do you want to shift now or-?’

‘-a bit more in the woods,’ Minho replies quietly. ‘Also, uh, grabbing the back of my neck works if I’m being too aggressive.’

‘Okay. Hey, I’m here with you yeah?’ Chan tells him, ‘No matter what.’

‘Just- just don’t be too like, brave or something.’ Minho mumbles.

‘Me? Brave?’ Chan jokes. ‘Have you met me?’

‘You are,’ Minho says quietly.

Chan has always struggled in restraining himself from hugging Minho since he was young and it hasn’t changed much now at 16. But the other thing that hasn’t changed is that Chan always wants to make sure that Minho’s comfort came first.

They are 15 minutes into the woods when Minho shifts. Minho had told him to keep the bottle out with him at all times so Chan keeps it dangling on the side of his backpack where a water bottle would be.

Chan keeps his clothes into his bag and watches as Minho, who has definitely grown in his shifted form too, shakes about as though to get his bearings.

He snaps his jaws a little, face all wrinkled up, ears twitching about, tail twisting and curling at random.

Then he pauses and stares at Chan.

Chan has never been afraid of Minho. And he wasn’t about to start.

‘Ready to go?’ he asks instead.

Minho just sort of blinks at him.

‘Let’s go,’ he says and turns around and starts walking.

After a while he hears Minho catch up to him. Minho keeps some distance from him though, picking the side with the vinegar spray.

He doesn’t need it though.

When they reach the snowy clearing Minho runs about, kicking snow high and above him happily. Chan throws snowballs at him and sometimes Minho would chase after them, biting at them aggressively with snarls that should be worrying but Chan is just happy that Minho was letting out his shifted form and expressing himself.

Chan gets tired after some time and he slumps down on some snow. Minho comes to sniff him aggressively, pawing at him as though to tell him to get up and play.

‘Dude I am exhausted,’ Chan groans, ‘Unless you want to carry me back let me rest man.’

After a while Minho also sits down but instead intentionally falls over him, head on his chest.

Chan snorts, reaching up to pat his head.

Minho bares his teeth at Chan but rather than be afraid he pets his head, focusing on the ears.

He hears Minho sort of sigh out but it’s almost a relaxed one, like he liked it.

Chan continues to scratch around his head, behind his ears, keeping him close.

‘Nice?’ Chan smiles.

He kind of wants to tease Minho because this reminded him of petting a dog. But he doesn’t. Minho said he wasn’t always very clear in his mind when he shifted but maybe this made him feel better. And well, Chan wants Minho to feel good and honestly he was enjoying this himself too.

Out nowhere Minho suddenly pulls back, face wrinkling up comically and then-!

Minho sneezes and it’s really cute.

Chan tries not to laugh as Minho sneezes a few times, limbs sort of akimbo. He finally stops after the 7^th sneeze and then looks back at him.

Chan can’t really tell because well, Minho was in his shifted form, but he’s pretty sure he was smiling at him.

‘Bless you,’ he tells him.

And Minho is off again, throwing himself out into the snow with eager abandon.

Step 6: Help Them Regulate Their Energy and Mood

Chan obviously can’t keep up with Minho’s aggressively energetic zoomies but it’s fun watching him sprint about through the snowy woods with happy abandon. Chan does his best to keep pace but there’s not much he can do against a werewolf.

So a few days into Minho’s zoomie-filled treks through the woods that leaves Chan very exhausted and a little bruised he decides he needs to do something.

He puts down the backpack on the snow he had been carrying with him that had a lot more things than he normally brought with him.

Minho tilts his head a little confused.

‘Just need to get that energy out,’ Chan tells him, ‘And I have an idea.’

Minho paws the ground a little nervously.

‘Obviously we can’t just keep hiking around that’s not gonna really help I think,’ Chan upends his bag. ‘So I thought-?’

Minho’s body language completely shifts, tail wagging excitedly at the sight of the frisbee.

‘Oh- you like that?’ Chan grins, ‘Okay- let’s try it out!’

And it works.

Oh wow does it work.

Minho is so cute chasing after the frisbee that Chan was starting to get really good at throwing. Minho flings himself with abandon through the clearing, chasing after the brightest blue frisbee Chan could find.

Of course Chan has some fun with it sometimes; he doesn’t have just one frisbee but he has three and he once threw them all in quick succession and he’s never seen Minho look so confused before. The confusion lasts 5 seconds before Minho decides that root problem is Chan and chases after him.

It’s not a long chase and Minho has him down in seconds, face first in the snow, snarling playfully as he bites around him without actually hurting him.

He also sometimes feinted his throw and Minho hates it but it’s always funny to see his reactions because-

‘YOU PRETENDED TO THROW THE FRISBEE YOU KNOW I’M NOT AS SMART WHEN I SHIFT-!’ Minho yells from up ahead, clearly having shifted back. Chan had to jog after his sulky-tantrum-throwing best-friend through the woods, calling out apologies and wheezing with laughter.

Chan knows it’s probably not quite normal to find someone yelling cute but he does. When Minho realizes that Chan is just grinning he sort of yells more before huffing and turning around, storming away.

‘Minho!’ Chan calls out, jogging after him, trying to suppress his laugh, ‘Minho come back I’m sorry-!’

There’s just a lot of explicit words in response, a few which honestly impress Chan a bit before Minho splashes into the icy pool in just a shirt and sweats.

‘What are you doing-?!’ Chan laughs.

‘Drowning myself!’ Minho yells back.

Chan collapses on the snowy floor, wheezing with laughter.

He doesn’t pretend to throw the frisbee anymore after that though he’s tempted. It took Chan 5 bags of shrimp chips and nearly 15 minutes nonstop of being pummeled by snow balls for Minho to forgive him.

On a thankfully clear sunny winter afternoon they’re playing with the frisbee once more when Chan overshoots and it gets stuck on one of the nearby trees. Minho paws at the tree, spinning around under it before looking at Chan.

‘I’ll get it,’ Chan tells him, ‘Don’t worry.’

Chan isn’t the best at climbing trees but this tree had some lower branches that looked sturdy enough. He takes off his bulkier outerwear and hoists himself up, swinging his leg over to straddle the base of the branch before balancing himself and standing up carefully. The tree isn’t too mossy but he couldn’t be too careful.

The frisbee is a little higher up and Chan thinks hard for a moment before he reaches for one of the stiff branches and shakes them a bit.

A bunch of dried leaves and plant debris fall in a flurry and after some more shakes the frisbee dislodges and falls down. He hears Minho yip happily and when Chan makes the mistake of looking down because he’s hit with vertigo.

And of course he tumbles out of the tree.

By some miracle no bones are broken though in his desperate attempts to stabilize himself he scratches up his hands quite badly. His thick winter clothes taking most of the damage for him otherwise he’s pretty sure he’d be scratched up to high heaven.

‘-hyung-!’ Minho gasps out, shifting quickly and crawling over to him, eyes wide and horrified, ‘Oh no hyung-!’

‘I’m okay-,’ Chan manages, very winded from the fall and very dizzy.

‘You’re bleeding-!’ Minho hovers, panicked before he remembers that Chan always carried a first-aid kit with him. He quickly gets the first-aid kit out and also grabs his shirt that he tugs on quickly before scrambling back to him.

‘Don’t move hyung,’ Minho tells him, looking over him worriedly, ‘There’s- there’s nothing on the ground but let me check your head-!’

Minho assesses him carefully, eyes still wide in panic, hands shaking a little. But Chan hasn’t hurt himself badly- he would definitely bruise that was for sure. Minho pulls his coat over him before checking his hands. He winces at the sight of his fingers and when Chan looks at his fingers he understands Minho’s reaction because he was missing two finger nails. And wow the pain hits him hard and he grits his teeth, trying not to yell, just groaning a bit.

Minho works quickly, cleaning up all of the blood with sterile wipes and dousing every cut and bleeding wound with liberal amounts of iodine before basically mummifying his hands.

‘Okay, I’m gonna change and we’re gonna head back okay?’ Minho says as he helps him sit up.

That’s also when Chan finds that Minho had a phone. For some reason he just assumed Minho didn’t have one but there he was, calling his dad to tell him what happened.

‘When did you get a phone?’ Chan asks as they make a slow trek back, his hands were really really starting to hurt and he needed some distraction so talking it was.

‘Hm?’ Minho is sort of walking sideways, hovering as though to make sure Chan didn’t fall. Chan would think it was extreme but his entire body was aching a lot the further he went and he definitely needed some rest. ‘Oh, I’ve had this for several years.’

‘Oh my god, why haven’t you told me? We can message and stuff,’ Chan huffs out.

‘I feel like you’d message too much,’ Minho deadpans.

‘You can ignore me,’ Chan grins.

Minho rolls his eyes.

When they pause a moment to take a break Chan looks over his best-friend and notes that he looked better, his skin was cleared up, his eyes shining, he looked healthier.

‘You look better,’ Chan tells him.

‘And you look like shit,’ Minho declares, looking away.

‘Oh come on,’ Chan chuckles, ‘I just fell down a tree, be nicer to me.’

‘I cleaned your hands, that’s plenty nice,’ Minho huffs before walks up to him, holding his arm out, ‘Come on hyung, dad will be at your grandmother’s soon.’

Chan does need some support but he’ll take this moment to squeeze Minho just a little. Minho grumbles, ears turning red, but doesn’t try to move away or tell him off.

Chan doesn’t need any stitches but the nature of his wounds, plus the weather, made it very difficult for him to do anything with his hands. Minho and his dad take him the village clinic where he’s given pain killers and anti-inflammatory medication and a large tube of ointment to use.

Minho is praised for his quick thinking and for how he cleaned up the wounds by the nurse there and his best-friend sort of shrinks into himself, shy at the praise.

‘We won’t be able to go for hikes,’ Chan sighs out, staring at his very wrapped up hands.

‘It’s okay,’ Minho shakes his head. ‘Let’s watch movies and stuff.’

The pain meds are strong and it makes him sleepy and more often than not Chan falls asleep against his best-friend as they watch TV.

He’s half-asleep when his grandmother brings them some snacks- Chan needed some help eating actual meals but he could eat snacks- albeit very carefully.

‘Thank you for taking care of Channie,’ his grandmother tells Minho.

‘He’s my best-friend,’ Minho replies in explanation.

Chan is just so happy to have Minho in his life.

Step 7: Desensitize Your Werewolf to Other Humans

Minho was always a little socially awkward- not that Chan blames him. He had so much to think and consider that Chan feels really bad for him even if Minho never really talks about it or showed it. Chan knew that Minho had some friends from school, but Chan likes to think he’s a bit special.

He was definitely comfortable with Chan’s grandmother, but his other family members was another story. He always shied away from talking to his parents if they were there though he seemed to adore Yongbok.

Chan does his best to help him get used to his family when his mother and Yongbok comes to stay for the summer break. He doesn’t force it of course, inviting Minho to eat with them every now and then and letting Minho know he could say no there was no pressure. Minho’s dad comes to eat with them too sometimes.

Chan’s mother adores Minho and Minho is especially shy around her but he lets her fix his hair when they come back from the wind-swept wood hikes, eyes gleaming in a pleased manner.

Once, his mother and grandmother leave them for nearly a full day as they were visiting a local market in the next village and Chan proposes they cook. Yongbok is a bit skeptical but Minho nods in agreement.

And clearly his brother has a bias and it’s not him because he loves whatever Minho makes for him, looking at him with sparkly eyes almost. Chan would be disappointed but he cannot lie because Minho is the better cook out of both of them and definitely much more skilled with a knife and handling cooking material than him.

During the winter break Chan and his whole family come to stay with grandma. She had been a little unwell and Chan’s mother had already been there for a month or so taking care of her mother. According to his mother Minho would drop by a few times, more so on the weekends, and would help her with things in the garden she wasn’t too familiar with. Chan can’t help but be so proud of having Minho as his best-friend.

‘Oh, I think Minho’s here,’ his mother calls from the living room and Chan who had just come out of the bathroom rushes out to the window and true enough there he was.

‘Ah, he’s grown so much from when I last saw him!’ his dad exclaims, also looking out.

‘You last saw him when he was like, 13,’ Chan laughs before rushing out to wave at his best-friend.

And maybe his dad had a point.

For the longest while Chan was always taller than Minho. But as he walks over Chan realizes that Minho was now his height. He’s carrying 2 bags in his hands other than his backpack and he immediately more or less tosses the one in his hand at Chan the moment he’s close enough.

‘Dad said those are for grandma,’ Minho says in greeting.

As usual, not even a hello or how are you- just diving into conversation immediately like they haven’t seen each other in months.

‘Oh-,’ Chan looks into the bag and finds many heads of rather young looking lettuce. ‘Nice.’

‘Hm,’ Minho nods, ‘Whole family?’

‘And more,’ Chan chuckles, ‘Gonna warn you, but Bokkie’s friends are with us for about a week.’

‘A week?’ Minho frowns, ‘You guys are only staying a week?’

‘Bokkie, his friends, and dad will stay a week before going back,’ Chan explains, ‘Mum and I are staying the usual length.’

‘Oh, okay,’ Minho looks ahead again.

‘Were you going to miss me-?’ Chan begins to tease.

‘-then you can stay for the ice-fishing,’ Minho states, ‘And I can push you into the lake.’

‘You get meaner each time I visit.’ Chan wheezes.

Chan’s about to give Minho a quick rundown of the chaos that was Yongbok and his friends when they get inside (or the SeptTrio as he internally called them) when he’s distracted by the sight of Minho taking off his thicker outer layer.

When did Minho started looking like that?!

Chan can’t quite put a name to it- can’t quite say exactly what it was; was it the shoulders? The neck? They were the same height now yes and Chan is hoping it stays that way but-

‘-ah, Minho-yah, you’re looking well!’

Minho greets Chan’s dad with a smile and bow, looking awkward but he’s definitely grown out of his incredibly awkward stage of basically being unable to look people in the eye. Chan understands- but as an older brother he always felt a responsibility to show Yongbok a good example. He hopes he was able to be a good example to Minho too and he can’t help but feel proud of him as he continues to talk to both his parents now but he was still struggling to exactly name why Minho suddenly looked so different.

‘We’ll have a really nice dinner in a couple of nights, you and your dad must come,’ his mother tells Minho as he makes his way towards Chan who was waiting somewhat stunned by the doorway to the room he usually shared with Yongbok but had now expanded that to two other boys.

‘Thank you, I’ll let dad know,’ Minho replies politely.

Chan reaches over to tug Minho a bit to get him out of being talked to for too long by his parents and into the bedroom where 3 fourteen year olds were setting up the PlayStation.

‘Minho-yah, this is Han Jisung and Kim Seungmin- they’re Yongbok’s best friends!’ Chan gestures to the trio sprawled out on the limited flooring. ‘Guys, this is Minho, my best-friend and he’s your hyung.’

‘I didn’t know you had friends,’ is what Seungmin says.

Minho looks like he’s trying not to laugh.

‘Hi,’ Jisung bounces up and bows a bit, cheeks flushing a little, kind of openly staring at Minho.

‘I brought tangerines,’ Minho declares, holding the other bag up, ‘Eat up.’

‘Thank you hyung!’ Yongbok exclaims happily, hurrying over to take the bag from him. ‘Are these from your farm?’

Minho smiles at Yongbok and nods.

‘Woah they’re so big!’ Yongbok says happily, ‘Wanna join us? We’re gonna play Mario Kart.’

‘I’m afraid I am not good at games Bok-ah,’ Minho tells him with an amused smile.

‘And we have chestnuts to gather,’ Chan tells his brother, ‘Do you guys want to come with us instead?’

All 3 boys shake their heads apologetically.

‘I like staying warm,’ Seungmin informs them not before giving them both skeptical looks like they were insane for wanting to go out in this weather to look for chestnuts of all things.

He doesn’t complain when Chan brings back a good amount of chestnuts that they all roast later that night though. He’s in the dining room, helping his grandmother shell some peas and Chan doesn’t mean to but he overhears his brother and his friends talking. They probably thought they weren’t loud, but their video game was loud, and so they need to talk over it. He wouldn’t have cared to listen but he picks up his name and Minho’s name.

‘-he’s really good looking okay!’ Jisung says defensively, ‘What, I can’t appreciate his looks?’

Yongbok laughs heartily at that, the sound of him clapping his best friend on his shoulder ringing through clearly.

Chan chuckles to himself at that, remembering how embarrassed Jisung had looked, unable to yap as he usually did when Minho had sat down to eat dinner with them.

‘-besides, he’s like, Chan-hyung’s boyfriend.’

Chan nearly upsets his bowl of peas.

‘No he’s not,’ Yongbok snorts dismissively.

‘-they’re not dating?’ Seungmin sounds surprised. Why was he surprised.

‘No- but I think they’ll get married when they get older,’ Yongbok says with confidence that Chan does not understand before adding, ‘They behave like mum and dad sometimes- very funny, and gross too.’

‘They kiss-?!’

‘No!’ Yongbok chokes out, ‘I don’t know- maybe when they’re like, in the woods-?’

‘Ew!’ Seungmin shudders.

Chan would be laughing at their conversation if he wasn’t losing his mind, his face and probably whole body red.

Kiss Minho?! Him kiss Minho?!

And immediately his mind is assaulted with vivid HD footage of kissing Minho and he violently shakes his head, causing his grandmother to look at him in concern.

Oh now he can’t un-think it.

It randomly comes to his mind when he’s walking with Minho through the woods when the latter is talking, complaining about complicated maths that Chan cannot help him with despite having done it the year past.

Sometimes Yongbok and his friends join them though, being beguiled to get some fresh air by the adults. Minho gets along well with the younger boys, chatting easily to them. Like Yongbok (probably following his reaction to Minho) the two boys seem to think Minho is cool; though of course Seungmin never shows it or really says much about it. Jisung is much more open about it, tailing after him and once he gets over his shyness asks him a million questions nonstop. It’s cute watching Minho be the older one.

They don’t take the kids to the pond though- some unsaid agreement between the two of them to leave that space untouched and unknown by others.

They get them to the clearing past the hill though and they spend some time energetically in a snowball fight. Minho matches their younger energy while Chan just tries to breathe his way through the day, molding snowballs for Minho as quickly as he could.

They call it a draw and the 3 boys try making a snowman.

‘Should have brought a frisbee,’ Chan teases as they slump down on some snow.

He gets an elbow in his rib for that.

Unexpectedly Minho takes his hand, removing his glove.

Chan is sort of frozen, eyes widening as his heart rate rockets up at an alarming rate. But Minho is looking at his scars from his accident last winter. The worst of it had faded into nothing more than discolouration but he still had some bumps and scarring.

‘It’s not cool looking,’ Minho remarks.

‘I’m sorry?’

Minho snorts, dropping his hand and Chan feels like he can breathe again but his heart is still racing and he can’t stop staring at Minho, winter blue sky clear and bright behind him, his mustard yellow hood barely keeping in his fluffed up hair that had trapped bits of snow of it.

‘Come on,’ Minho tells him, eyes narrowing as he looks at the 3 boys before smiling mischievously, ‘Let’s surprise attack them and show them how cruel life can be.’

‘You are not setting a good example,’ Chan says but he laughs, sitting up.

Minho scoffs, ‘That’s exactly why they think I’m cooler than you.’

‘Hey!’ Chan yells, ‘What’s that supposed to mean! I am cool!’

Minho just sticks his tongue out at them and starts launching snowballs at Yongbok and his friends.

Chan contemplates for just a second before he starts launching snowballs at his brother too.

Step 8: Reassure Them That You are a Safe Space for Them

Chan is really going through it- if anyone were to check in on him mentally at any given point he was screaming loudly the whole time.

Oh it’s bad.

It’s really bad.

He gets spacey and zones out and inevitably he always thinks of Minho and he gets all flushed and his stomach does weird fluttering gurgles- physically his stomach makes sounds when he thinks about Minho and it’s always at unfortunate timings like in the middle of class when everyone is stressing over their education.

That should be Chan. Stressing over his education. Not stressing over how pretty Minho was or whatever new adjective his brain threw around in regards to his best-friend.

HIS BEST-FRIEND!

It's not like he never thinks about Minho. He thinks plenty about him and-...Chan balks as he realizes he thinks about Minho a lot.

The thing is it’s not much of an issue when Chan is with Minho- during the summer or winter break, despite his constant internal screaming and moments when he sort of gets lost just staring at Minho he’s able to function normally and as he usually did.

But the moment he’s not there Chan has a near mental collapse rethinking things Minho said or did, the way he laughed or the way he teased him.

He’s seen his friends in class have crushes and ask out fellow classmates or other students from other classes- he’s seen them comically flirt and ask each other out in extraordinarily cheesy ways. Chan’s never been jealous of it- he found it mostly amusing and interesting.

But he’s never wanted to ask anyone out.

Sure he had a couple of classmates he thought were cool or cute or good looking or whatever, but he’s never wanted to ask anyone out. He’s never just stared at someone and the only thing in his head is so good looking like he does with Minho.

And no, this wasn’t a crush.

It wasn’t, of course it wasn’t. Minho was his best-friend, they’ve known each other since they were literal kids. If anything Minho was more like a younger brother.

Right?

The idea of equating Minho to a younger brother, like Yongbok (and by extension, Seungmin and Jisung), makes Chan want to physically throw up.

He’s so lost in his Minho-centric thoughts that he doesn’t even notice when the subject of his thoughts approaches him until he’s feet from him.

‘AH-!’

Minho looks at him, unimpressed and amused at the same time.

‘Wish I captured that on camera so that I can look at it every time I need to laugh,’ Minho grins as Chan picks himself off of the ground.

‘Oh my god,’ Chan groans, hand to his chest, ‘Dude man-.’

‘-I was making so much noise- I literally stepped on every twig getting here and you’re staring at like,’ Minho looks around, ‘The dirt, like it holds all of the answers to the universe- school kicking your ass that bad?’

Minho takes a seat next to him on the rocks as usual before leaning in to bump their heads.

And again, a new development, Chan’s heart spikes up at the proximity and the previously adorable and endearing behavior. Chan averts his eyes away from his best-friend quickly.

‘Oh, yeah- final exams coming up after all of this, ready to die.’

‘Want me to give the eulogy for your funeral? Here lies Bang Chan, a somewhat okay guy.’ Minho intones in a comically somber tone.

Chan wheezes, elbowing him and feeling better already, mind clearing from all of the fog of confusion and weird emotions he didn’t know how to address. That didn’t matter when Minho was with him.

‘You’ll be in the same position next year.’

‘And until then I will be making fun of you,’ Minho chortles, putting down his bag and taking out plums, ‘Here- picked them this morning.’

‘Ah, Minho-yah,’ Chan sing-songs, flinging his arms out as though to hug him.

Minho grimaces, face pulling a comic look of disgust as he moves away but it’s not like he’s moved away that much. It’s funny because they always did this- Chan pretending he was going to hug him and Minho acting like he was disgusted and moving away just a bit.

Chan never hugs him in the end, they both knew that, which was why Minho never felt the need to actually pull away too far.

Some things that just never changed since they were kids in that regard.

Sometimes Chan thinks he knows Minho- as well as he could considering he spent his holidays with him and vice-versa. He’s pretty sure Minho knows everything there was to know about him- if anyone asked Minho any question about him Minho would be able to answer.

But clearly Chan didn’t know everything because a few weeks into summer they’re hit with stormy season. And it hits them abruptly while they’re out in the woods. The day had started off bright, humid, and sunny like any other day from the past weeks.

The change is so fast and so abrupt it has Chan sort of stunned as thunder booms over head, rain pouring down in torrents. He’s soaked in a matter of seconds.

Spluttering a bit he turns around to talk to Minho but his best-friend is gone.

‘Minho?!’ he calls out hysterically, squinting through the sudden rain that was truly pouring down hard and heavy. It’s the worst kind of weather, Chan thinks, with half of the sky still bright and blue and the other like the world was coming to an end.

‘MINHO!’ he yells.

He spots Minho’s tri-colour coat in between some shrubbery past the clearing where they had just been hanging out in- more like Chan had been lazing about and Minho sniffing around the area, chasing butterflies and frogs. It was just supposed to be a lazy hot day but now it was like this.

Rushing over to his best-friend he finds him huddled oddly near some shrubs, shaking at random.

‘Shit-!’ Chan hisses, ‘Minho, did you hurt yourself-?’

Thunder booms overhead, lightning forking dangerously.

Was Minho scared of thunder?

Minho whines, slumping down on the ground, head low, ears flat and whole body shaking.

‘No no,’ Chan crawls through the muddy grass a bit to get to Minho’s head, ‘It’s okay Minho-yah, hyung is here- it’s just thunder, no worries okay? I got you.’

Minho whimpers, whole body shaking badly.

Chan didn’t know it was this bad. When they were younger they didn’t meet up much when it rained because they only ever met outdoors and well, that combination seemed like a terrible idea. And usually they hung out indoors when it rained or they would skip days when it rained and-

Thunder booms loudly, spooking Chan too at just how loud it was and Minho shrinks into his body. Chan does his best to cover Minho with his whole body, hoping what he was doing actually helped. He wondered if storms were especially bad for Minho when he shifted because it didn’t seem to phase him much when he didn’t shift.

Chan manages to sit on the ground, almost scooping Minho’s entirely drenched wolf-form to himself, hand coming over to press his head to his chest and also cover his exposed ear.

‘It’s okay Minho-yah,’ Chan murmurs, ‘I’m here yeah? Don’t worry.’

Chan is thinking about all those online articles he’s read about being caught in a storm with lightning and he can’t remember if it was safer under a tree or not but he knows for sure being out in an open clearing was a bad idea so in the woods it was.

He pats down Minho’s shaking body as soothingly as possible, wet fur making it a somewhat difficult motion but Chan never stops.

The clouds overtake the whole sky eventually and the rain doesn’t seem to want to let up but at least the thunder and lightning had lessened somewhat.

‘Yeah, it’s okay, it’s stopping,’ Chan says soothing, face pressed up to the top of Minho’s head. ‘It’s okay, it’s going away soon.’

The rain stops being so intense after about half an hour and Minho moves around in Chan’s hold and he lets go of his best-friend so that he could stand.

Chan sort of wants to laugh, Minho looked absolutely miserable but he also feels really bad for him. Taking his face into his hands Chan their faces together, petting his ears and head gently.

‘Feeling better?’ he asks gently.

Minho grumbles- it’s an attempt at sounding dismissive but he still sounds shaken.

‘You’re okay to go? Or do you want to shift.’

Minho just gets up in response, shaking his whole body and immediately drenching Chan all over but with added fur this time.

‘Minho!’ Chan laughingly groans.

It’s still raining when they get back to Chan’s grandmother’s place where she was waiting worriedly for them, towels ready. Minho shakes off his fur again, this time at a polite distance before stepping inside gingerly and heading straight for the washroom.

He has to wear Chan’s clothes as the clothes he kept in his bag were soaked through too, now washing in grandma’s new second-hand washing machine she had proudly purchased just some weeks ago.

Chan doesn’t ask him questions about the thunder and his reaction and Minho seems to appreciate it, looking a little sheepish once they’re both clean.

‘Dry your hair,’ grandma tells them both seriously, ‘Do either of you want to be sick for the rest of summer? Exactly, now where is that dryer?’

Both of them sporting incredibly puffy hair that has them wheezing at each other they settle down on either side of grandma in the living room with honey lemon tea that they’re more or less forced to drink.

They watch an incredibly dramatic soap opera with grandma for a while, gasping alongside her at a character’s behavior while trying not to giggle at the dramatic cuts and sequences and slow-mo reels.

Grandma leans forward a little to adjust her back cushion and when Chan looks to the side finds that Minho is already looking at him. Minho looks a little taken aback but then he smiles and mouths to Chan with a slightly wry expression: ‘I can’t believe I am actually invested in this show now.’

He’s got a bit of lint in his fluffy hair, probably from the towel, and Chan absentmindedly reaches forward to remove it.

He hears Minho’s quiet but sharp inhale, eyes fluttering a little as Chan removes the fluff.

He sort of stares at him for a moment before his ears turn red and he turns away to face the TV again.

‘Chan-ah, can you put that round pillow behind me?’ his grandma asks, shaking him from the moment, realizing that his heart was racing in his chest.

The storm continues and Minho stays the night, as usual sleeping on the futon Yongbok usually used.

And Chan is so acutely aware of Minho’s presence tonight- he normally just knocked out to sleep but tonight can’t help but just stare at the back of Minho’s head.

He’s not sure how long he just stays like that, like some weirdo, but the storm picks up and thunder rumbles, lightning throwing the room into sharp relief.

He notices immediately how Minho flinches awake.

For no clear reason Chan closes his eyes and pretends to be asleep.

Thunder rumbles over head again and Chan continues to pretend like he was asleep which would not be out of character. He’s slept through 2 earthquakes, a fire alarm, many storms, and of course his own alarms in the past so this was not out of brand for him.

He hears Minho sit up, blankets shifting about, barely audible above the storm and his racing heart.

He feels movement and then after a while feels something hit his futon.

Chan stays like that for a long long time before he hears soft deep breathing and he carefully opens his eyes just a tiny bit.

Minho had pushed their futons closer, now just a short gap away from him. He was facing him, hand partially stretched out, resting a little on his futon.

The storm was still going strong, wind rattling the windows a little.

Slowly and carefully he reaches to tug on Minho’s blanket a little so that it covered him better. Then after a moment of deliberation he rests his hand next to Minho’s their pinky fingers touching just a little bit.

Chan finally falls asleep after that.

The storm lasts for another 3 days and once it’s gone Minho insists they go fishing, claiming they’d be able to get a lot of mudfish right now. Chan meets him at the lake, slathered in sunblock which makes Minho laugh at him for having weak city skin.

Then he proceeds to tell him in great detail about how they need to immediately vacate the lake area if they see any leeches.

‘Hyung,’ Minho says seriously, noting how Chan was now starting to space out, just sort of staring at him, ‘Hey, focus this is important. Leeches are not fun okay? You see one, we get out.’

Chan salutes in response.

They wade out into the water carefully before they find a decent spot that was under some tree branches, just a little ways out of the mouth of the stream. Chan was used to setting up his fishing rod now and they set up quietly by themselves, already feeling cooler with the water around their knees, in the shade provided by the trees.

Is Chan hopeful about catching any fish? Not particularly. Is he actually interested in fishing? Also not particularly. But he likes joining Minho, and sometimes Minho’s dad, because well, Minho liked it.

It almost seemed to have a meditative effect on him and something tells Chan that this was a piece of peace being shared with him.

After a while, as usual, Chan’s eyes find their way to rest on Minho who was to his side, a little ahead.

Minho has his sleeves rolled all the way up to his shoulders, the summer breeze ruffling his hair.

Chan always thought Minho had a nice nose and now he can’t help but think that in general, everything about Minho’s face was nice. And no, it’s not like Chan has never thought that Minho wasn’t good looking- he has eyes, he knows Minho is good looking. He was always a cute kid and even puberty didn’t really change that, if anything it somehow rather unfairly seemed to treat him better. Chan still felt awkward in his own body to an extent but Minho was just-…he was so beautiful.

Chan balks at himself for how quickly that description popped up in his head and how he was feeling hot all over and quickly looks away.

UGH he needed to stop thinking about his best-friend.

But Chan can’t help but look at Minho again.

His best-friend.

His Minho.

Minho swings back the fishing rod, watching the hook fly through the air and out into the water where it settles in the distance. Then he looks over at him, head tilting in a questioning manner as though asking why he was staring at him.

Chan suddenly feels like he was seeing Minho for the first time- or at least now seeing him without any self-imposed filter, just accepting all of this for what it was.

‘Hyung?’

The reflection of the sunlight hitting the water casts stars in Minho’s eyes, illuminating the soft rosiness of his cheeks from the warmth of the summer afternoon, little flecks of light dancing across his lips-

Chan realizes that he wants to kiss Minho. He really really wants to kiss Minho.

‘What is it?’ Minho asks with a frown.

Chan tries his best to look away from Minho’s lips.

‘I think I saw a leech.’

Chan is 18 and Minho is 17 when he realizes, rather belatedly, he has a crush on his werewolf best-friend.