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Boisterous stomping against the floorboards sends Beomgyu jolting awake, his chin nearly sliding from his palm where he’d been attempting to stay upright and awake while working through an essay.
Farewell to his essay but also farewell to his little nap.
He stretches with a yawn, counting down the seconds in his head.
Three… two… one.
The door slams on cue and Soobin’s frustrated groan reverberates through the apartment.
Beomgyu leans back against his chair, eyeing his disgruntled housemate who makes his way to the living room. With a loud thump, Soobin plops onto the couch.
“He successfully slipped through your greasy fingers and locked himself up, I see. It’s that time of the year huh.”
He casts the other man a pitiful look, earning himself narrowed eyes as Soobin flips him off, tossing the hairbrush in his hand onto the couch.
“I hate wolf hybrids.”
Beomgyu’s lips twist in amusement.
“Now, that’s not nice.”
Sometimes, Soobin says things he doesn’t mean when he’s tired and annoyed – all of them do, honestly. And that’s why there are so many of them to keep each other in check.
But dealing with the only wolf hybrid in their house can be a tad frustrating occasionally, especially during this time of the year, so Beomgyu can’t say he doesn’t empathize with Soobin.
Soobin pops one eye open, guilt flashing across his features. He’s probably regretting his words and hoping their pup hadn’t accidentally heard what he’d just blurted in the heat of the moment.
“Okay, I take that back. I love our little baby wolf. But I absolutely hate shedding season. Doesn’t help that it happens like three freaking times a year. I don’t know how we got past the first two times.”
Beomgyu hums, the words sinking in. Three times a year. Had a whole year nearly passed since they found Kai curled into a ball and struggling to sleep on top of the heating vent at the campus student lounge?
Their other housemate, Taehyun, had been the one to find the wolf hybrid, what with him being in charge of the student lounge and having headed in exceptionally early to get ready for an event that fateful morning.
Panicking upon finding the hybrid nestled on top of the vent, Taehyun let out a yelp that left both of them startled. It was only after a lot of coaxing that he managed to learn that the wolf hybrid was named Kai, a freshman from the same university and major who had ended up sneaking in and making the student lounge his resting spot because the school administration had denied renting dorms to wolf hybrids.
They’d cited hygiene and noise concerns that led them to prioritize accommodations for humans and other animal hybrids. Being far away from home and not wanting to place more financial stress on his family by needing an apartment off-campus, Kai wound up flitting around different spots on campus for a couple of weeks till he found the student lounge which had a heating vent that provided a sliver of residual heat after hours. The shower facilities near it were an added bonus.
By the time Taehyun found him, he’d already slept there nightly for a month.
But Kai had refused Taehyun’s instinctive request to have him crash his shared apartment and in hindsight, the awareness that Taehyun had three other human housemates must have scared Kai too.
Eventually, Soobin, Beomgyu, and Yeonjun found out about the cute wolf hybrid that had all of their housemate’s attention. This meant several curious visits to the student lounge because this trio just couldn’t mind their own business.
It’d taken two weeks for Kai to warm up to them and another two weeks before he shyly agreed to move in with them. Beomgyu takes all credit for that – they’d been cuddling in the student lounge watching some drama when Beomgyu had to reluctantly pull away because he had to rush back to his apartment to work on an assignment due that night.
Kai wasn't someone who asked for things, but the moment Beomgyu processed his sullen expression, his cunning brain had kicked into action and there, he'd lamented aloud how nice it would be to have Kai lay on his lap while he worked at home on his fluffy, cozy bed.
With just one more “Kai-ya, wouldn't it be nice if you could live with us and get cuddles from all of us every day?”, Kai was sold.
A soft “it would be” falling from his pretty lips was all Beomgyu needed to call Soobin and Yeonjun to clear out their spare room for Kai and since then, the five of them lived happily ever after.
Except, that was the start of the bane of their existence – or rather, the bane of Kai's existence which the four of them had to consequently deal with.
Shedding season.
Being humans who had never personally known a wolf hybrid, the four of them first noticed Kai shedding clumps of his grey fur as summer approached. Kai had refused to acknowledge that anything was happening, simply rushing to pick up after himself, clearly apologetic and embarrassed that he was leaving tufts of fur wherever he went.
None of them minded, honestly. Apart from his adorable ears, the wolf hybrid had a fluffy patch of fur which ran from his nape down his back and extended to his bushy tail and all four of them loved fluffing up his fur and cuddling him like an actual puppy. So when the shedding happened, they accepted it as part of a natural biological process.
But Kai began to appear increasingly distressed, not just by the falling fur, but also by the itch it caused, prompting Yeonjun and Taehyun to research about what was going on. It seemed to bother their pup enough to spur him into hiding in his room more frequently than usual.
That was when they discovered that wolf hybrids shed their fur seasonally in response to weather changes. Armed with this precious new knowledge, Yeonjun had bravely offered to brush Kai's fur to help manage the shedding fur and relieve him from the itch.
Never had they seen their sweet angel throw a fit. But there and then, Kai knocked the brush from Yeonjun's hand with a snarl and scampered into his room.
From then, it was a game of cat and mouse, and with the understanding that the lack of brushing and proper grooming could possibly result in a heat rash and infection for Kai, they ended up luring the hybrid out with food before holding him down and brushing his fur.
The exhaustion from holding down a strong, struggling pup was one challenge, but having to deal with an uncharacteristically growling Kai as he bared his teeth and nearly snapped off Taehyun’s hand was another.
More importantly, they had to constantly devise ways to make sure they brushed Kai’s fur at least once a week for a whole month which was well, a test of their creativity to say the least. They'd tried trapping him through several different methods and pulled several tricks, each time posing a greater challenge for the next.
And now, as Kai’s third shedding season since he moved in approaches, the boy knows exactly what’s in store. This means a grumpy pup who scampers away the moment he spots any of his four housemates.
Frankly speaking, Beomgyu has talked about this to the other guys and it was acknowledged that apart from their frustration, they were also considerably saddened by the fact that Kai would get upset at them and give them the cold shoulder.
No one admitted it out loud, for fear of scaring Kai away, but all of them loved their pup. It was a sort of love that went beyond wanting to give a lone wolf hybrid a roof over his head – a sort of love that left them wanting to take care of Kai, wanting to take him out on dates, wanting to kiss and cuddle him, and wanting even more.
But ultimately, knowing how easily scared their sweet boy could be, they kept their desires to themselves, deciding to show their affection without any labels.
So shedding season wasn’t just Kai’s enemy. It was all of theirs, which explains Soobin's annoyance at being ruthlessly dodged yet again.
Beomgyu casts Soobin a sympathetic look which earns him a sour frown.
“You keep leaving the dirty work to us. Sneaky bastard. You just don’t want to get into his bad books.”
Well, that’s pretty true. Beomgyu hasn’t actually chased Kai down while wielding a hairbrush so okay… Soobin’s sorta right.
“Someone’s gotta give him the tender loving care he needs. Can’t have him shutting all of us out no?”
His very logical reasoning is interrupted by a smack on his head. Yeonjun’s whiny voice echoes in his head before he even sees the man, and staying composed, Beomgyu tidies the strands of hair that had flown out of place when the other man swiped some stupid folder on his head.
“Good try. Soobin and I have both tried this round, but he’s too sharp. Since you’re in his good books, it’s your turn.”
“Well, what about Taehyun? Technically, he’s Kai’s favorite. They’re always having secret dates on campus.”
He looks back at his assignment in perfect timing, the document empty save for the ugly module name in glaring caps.
357.234B RESEARCH METHODS IN CHILD AND FAMILY STUDIES
He mutters a silent curse. Maybe he shouldn’t have laughed in Taehyun’s face back then when he complained about being the only one majoring in music theory because look how much that got him in terms of his Kai-time-meter?
“Taehyun was the one who held him down each time last season while Yeonjun and I took turns to brush him,” Soobin says and Beomgyu clicks his tongue. Now they’re ganging up on him.
“Apparently Kai’s crazy wary around him, he chose to group with someone else for an assignment yesterday just to avoid Taehyun and it broke his heart.”
Ouch, sucks to be Taehyun.
“Proves my point. If he’s isolating from everyone, there’s gotta be one of us he can go to.” No one buys it because everyone – including Beomgyu himself – knows what sort of a slimy weasel he is when it comes to hogging Kai for himself.
“I heard that Taehyun cried a little after he got back home alone yesterday,” Yeonjun announces grimly. “He's been sulking in his room since then trying to nurse his broken heart.”
Beomgyu slams his laptop shut.
“Okay fine. And I’m only believing you because I've been here all morning and haven't seen Taehyun come out of his room more than once to take a piss.”
Curse Beomgyu for loving four idiots, two of which are the kings of guilt-tripping.
Soobin’s the first to break into a triumphant grin and he waves the hairbrush around. It’s a real beauty – one that Beomgyu had gotten custom-made based on Kai’s exact fur type, so frankly, it wasn’t that he hadn’t contributed to the whole shedding season thing.
“Save it,” he grunts, making a beeline for Kai’s room.
But something occurs to him as he spins around with a smirk on his face.
“If I get him to sit still and let us brush his hair, I’ll earn the right to hog for the next two weeks after shedding season is over.”
Yeonjun snorts in disbelief.
“Sure.”
How insulting. Beomgyu will show him.
-
“Kai-ya,” he tries, semi-aware that his two other housemates are staring at him expectantly with an irritating smugness. He isn’t fazed by the lack of response or his loser housemates’ mocking stare. Not when he’s about to prevail as the shedding-pup-tamer.
Two knocks on the boy’s door and he’s still greeted with silence.
“Kai-ya, it’s Beomgyu. Your hyung who has never held you down to forcefully brush your fur because he loves you too much to torture you!” he calls out extra loudly while maintaining full eye contact with the pair just a few meters away on the couch.
Typical Soobin behavior means Beomgyu gets a middle finger from him. Yawn, expected, overdone, boring. Meanwhile, typical Yeonjun behavior earns him a pillow flung in his direction and hitting him square in the shoulder.
He lets out an embarrassing ‘oof’ and being the scheming rat he is, he begins knocking more incessantly on Kai’s door while whining and bellowing.
“Oh my god, Kai-ya, they’re hitting me! You have to save your favorite hyung!” He’s convincing nobody with how dramatic he sounds, but Yeonjun flinging another pillow and barely missing him by a hair helps his narrative.
“Kai-ya! You have to save me, they’re hitting me because I’m too gentle and kind and refused to hold you down and brush your hair!”
Their bickering halts abruptly, silence filling the apartment when the click of Kai’s door reverberates.
The door slides open ever so little by a tiny sliver and Beomgyu steps backwards in silent reassurance that he isn’t going to knock the door right down.
The tiny sliver is barely enough for him to see Kai properly and all he can see is their pup peering out with wary eyes.
He puts both hands up, patting his empty pockets.
“No hairbrush, I promise.” He does an exaggerated twirl with his arms outstretched before continuing in a stage whisper, “Pesky hyungs are in the living room getting ready to throw more cushions at me.”
Sometimes, with how gentle Kai is with him, Beomgyu tends to forget how strong their wolf pup is by nature, and he’s completely taken aback when Kai cracks open the door quickly just to yank him into his room before slamming it shut.
He stumbles and Kai instantly pouncing onto him to tackle him into a hug doesn’t help with his shaky balance. Before he knows it, the hybrid has him knocked onto the mattress, his body plastered on top of him.
Beomgyu’s heart races with the sudden proximity, though he proceeds to melt into goo when Kai nuzzles his neck with a sad whimper. He squeezes his arms through so he can cradle Kai by his waist, stroking his nape and running his fingers through the fur there. It’s slightly amusing and he can’t help but grin when he pulls his fingers away to find tufts of grey fur stuck to them.
Maybe it’d be really therapeutic to help brush Kai’s fur if his fingers weren’t at risk of getting chomped off every few seconds.
“What’s wrong, baby?”
Kai doesn’t reply and Beomgyu isn't too fazed. It’s hard to get him to talk when he’s in one of his grumpy moods.
But he does get another mournful whine against his neck which is good progress, even though the way Kai’s breath fans his skin sends a shudder down Beomgyu’s spine.
They lie in silence like this for a good moment, Beomgyu savoring the pressure of the warm bundle pressed against his body. He stays silent till he is sure Kai’s calmed down enough for his heart to stop racing in nervousness.
“You made the other three really sad. I heard that Tyun cried after you refused to pair up with him for some assignment.”
“Not my fault,” he mumbles, muffled and sullen, and petulant Kai is somehow endearing. “He tricked me last time.”
“They all mean the best for you. Me too, actually. In case you think I really have no part in your shedding rituals. I had the hairbrush custom-made for you.”
Kai tears himself away from his neck, staring at him with incredulous, large eyes, prompting him to laugh fondly. The pup makes no effort to run away, so that’s good enough.
“You could develop allergies and rashes from not being groomed properly. We care about you and we’d trust you with it, except we know you can’t reach your back to brush it properly. And you,” – he pinches Kai’s waist, eliciting a yelp – “you aren’t gentle with your fur either.”
He expects Kai to argue back, maybe even attempt to kick him out for being exceptionally naggy, but the hybrid surprises him with downcast eyes instead, his ears flat against his head.
Cute, if not for how Beomgyu's heart instantly plummets.
“What's wrong? Is it really bad? Does brushing your hair hurt? We can work this out, talk it through, think of a way to groom you that hurts you less. Kai-ya, it's okay, you can tell hyung everything.”
Beomgyu feels himself losing his composure and it's the first sniffle that tears him out of his spiral. Kai has never cried in front of them. Not when Taehyun found him trying to sleep at the freezing student lounge, not when he messed up a graded performance because of a high fever and was crestfallen for two weeks, not even when Soobin accidentally sent his carefully scented comfort throw pillow to the laundry and destroying it.
“Shit. Kai-ya, what's wrong? Did I say something wrong? Hyung's sorry. Tell me what hurt you and I swear I won't say it again!”
Kai buries his face back in the crook of Beomgyu's neck and it's getting hard to breathe with how he's panicking.
“Kai-ya, c'mon.”
But all their pup does is sob, soaking his collar with how hard he's crying.
Left with no choice but to be the one to stay composed, Beomgyu inhales deeply, rubbing soothing circles on Kai's back before stroking his back in large swipes from his nape right down his tail. It's a bit of uncharted territory, given that Kai didn't usually like even showing his ears and having anyone touch his tail, but it doesn't seem to bother the hybrid at the moment. If anything, Beomgyu sighs in relief when he notices Kai's staggered breaths slowly growing more regulated, syncing up with his petting.
“It's okay, darling. I'm here,” he whispers, straining his neck to nuzzle his cheek against Kai's wet one. “Not going anywhere. Take all the time you need.”
“Sorry, I just h-hate shedding.” Despite his voice being raspy from the crying, the little hiccup that punctuates his sentence is admittedly adorable and Beomgyu feels himself calming down when he realizes that whatever had Kai so stressed, it was something their pup was finally ready to share after finally letting his tears run freely.
“Tell me about it,” he drawls, shooting Kai a smile when the hybrid finally pops his head up. He searches Beomgyu’s face intently, and while he has no idea why Kai’s guard is up, he knows he needs to look confident – needs to look like someone to be trusted.
And the moment he reaches out to wipe Kai’s tears, the hybrid melts into his touch, letting his eyes slip shut.
“I hate shedding. It makes me feel like a freak.”
Beomgyu does a double take. He knows the world isn't kind to hybrids, especially wolf hybrids, but it doesn't help to quell the way his stomach sinks when he registers what Kai just called himself.
“What?”
“It‘s shameful. Ugly. Disgusting. Am embarrassed when all of you see me like that.”
“Like what?”
Kai flips onto his side, curling into fetal position. He's at least still facing Beomgyu and the man finds comfort in seeing Kai's face and being able to gauge his emotions.
“With my fur all falling out, with everything clumping whenever you guys do something as simple as brush my fur. It’s… It’s weird and ugly, gross too. It’s even one of the reasons why wolf hybrids aren’t allowed in most accommodations. No one likes wolf hybrids, much less a gross wolf hybrid.”
Beomgyu tries to stay strong, but the way Kai speaks of himself breaks his heart infinitely.
“Every time the others try to brush me, I get worried they’d feel disgusted the more they see these ugly parts of me. I get worried all of you will feel weirded out once the novelty of having a wolf hybrid in the house wears off and reality sinks in. I try to hide my ears and fur under my hoodies, but my tail still sticks out like a sore thumb. And when I try to fade into the background, my fur decides to fall off like this. When it happened in front of you guys, I felt so embarrassed, I wanted to run away.”
It explains a lot, not just his hostile reaction towards having his fur brushed during shedding season, but also the way he used to hide his ears and tail as much as he could when he first moved in. There has been improvement though, and they’ve occasionally gotten away with petting Kai’s ears just like Beomgyu had done moments ago.
And Beomgyu has the same hope that there’ll be an improvement in Kai’s confidence if the four of them work harder to prove that they love him for who he is.
We love you Kai.
The words hang at the tip of Beomgyu’s tongue, but it doesn’t feel right to vocalize such precious words without all of them present, so he settles for pressing a soft kiss on Kai’s forehead.
“Thank you for telling me all this, Kai-ya. You don’t know how much it means to me. I’ll let the others speak for themselves, but me? I’m absolutely head over heels for you. You’re perfect, beautiful, and so impossibly loving. There’s a reason why we’re constantly fighting for your attention.”
Beomgyu strokes the base of the hybrid’s ears, unnecessarily smug when he feels Kai shiver under his touch.
“We treasure every part of you, including all your biological traits as a wolf hybrid. It’s part of you, and we treasure it the same. A little bit of shedding fur can’t scare us. Not when you’re our pup.”
Beomgyu’s trying his luck at this point, having scoured dozens of Reddit threads on wolf hybrid behavior to know that a lone wolf hybrid away from home would often yearn to find a pack to help them feel safe.
None of them are wolf hybrids, but Beomgyu would like to think that they’d still make a really good pack for Kai.
His words meet silence and he fears that he’s gone too brazen implying something like that to Kai without being certain whether he feels the same way.
But he chances a glance at the wolf hybrid, relief flooding him when he finds Kai staring at him with gleaming eyes.
-
Beomgyu isn’t surprised to swing open the door just to find Yeonjun stumbling right in with a curse while flanked by Taehyun and Soobin on both sides.
“Good try at the eavesdropping.”
“What? We heard the crying and in case you forgot, we care about our pup too.”
The corners of Beomgyu’s lips twitch when Kai squirms at being referred to as their pup again. Apparently, he isn’t alone in his Kai-cuteness aggression, because Yeonjun steps forward to wrap his arms around the wolf hybrid, nuzzling his cheek. It’s a bit aggressive but there’s a dumb smile playing on Kai’s lips at the display of affection, and Beomgyu lets it slide.
But the reunion only gets that far when Kai steps away, his expression turning serious. His sudden bow takes everyone by surprise and when he shoots back up, his face is red from nervousness.
“I’m sorry,” he blurts before going silent again.
Yeonjun reaches forward to kiss his knuckles in encouragement and it works for a moment, prompting the hybrid to inhale deeply.
“I’m sorry for acting the way I did and putting all of you through so much. I hated shedding because it reminded me of how different I was from all of you. And I was afraid that with all of you watching fur fall off me in clumps, it’d quicken the process of you guys finding me gross and disgusting.”
Soobin looks indignant enough to interrupt, though he holds himself back, allowing Kai to organize his thoughts.
“I was ashamed back when Taehyun found me in the student lounge and I didn’t want to, but you were all so kind to me, I ended up growing attached to all of you and couldn’t say no to moving in. But from then on, I grew more and more self-conscious about– about looking and behaving differently from all of you. I felt weird and ashamed to be a wolf hybrid, knowing many other people despise wolf hybrids too. I let it snowball, and when you guys tried to help with my shedding I– I got scared.”
He hangs his head low and Beomgyu’s heart squeezes tightly when he watches the matching pained looks on the faces of the other three men.
“I’m sorry for how I acted. I just didn’t want the people I fell in love with to see me in that shameful state.”
Palpable silence fills the hallway, and all of them seem to freeze at the confession.
Soobin breaks the solemn tension first, bounding forward to give Kai a bone-crushing hug. It’d be a lot more adorable were he not crying out dramatically. Beomgyu would’ve rolled his eyes (fondly) were he not still reeling from the realization that Kai just beat them to confessing their feelings.
“There’s nothing shameful about being a wolf hybrid,” Soobin wails, swaying Kai around in concerningly exaggerated strokes. “We love you. And that means we are in love with very part of you. You’re our pup. Why would we chase you around to brush your fur if we found that disgusting?!”
“We’re sorry for being so insistent about brushing your fur without properly understanding why it made you so upset,” Taehyun adds and Yeonjun slings an arm over him, knocking their heads together as they watch Soobin shake the life out of Kai. “We love you and… and sometimes, love makes us blind to certain things.”
“And that’s why you need a sweet guy full of patience and T.L.C. like me,” Beomgyu sighs wistfully, ignoring the tongue click from Yeonjun.
Rude. Beomgyu’s smile sits proudly on his face.
Eventually, Beomgyu ends up having to peel Soobin away from Kai like a piece of stubborn gum so the hybrid can finally take Taehyun’s hands in his.
“Taehyunnie, I’m sorry for hurting your feelings and avoiding you even in class. I just spiraled when I realized you’ve seen me in my ugliest state. At some point, I catastrophized everything and I was almost– almost always just left waiting for the ball to drop whenever I was around you.”
Taehyun gazes back at him with shining eyes.
“Kai-ya, you shine so bright always. You don’t know how beautiful you are in our eyes – inside and out.”
Beomgyu shakes his head at the way Soobin coos when Kai clumsily stumbles forward to wrap his arms around Taehyun. This guy’s always on some fudanshi shit, even when it comes to the people he’s mutually in love with.
“Sorry, Tyunnie, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
Beomgyu doesn’t even notice how Yeonjun and Soobin’s expressions have gone rigid until Taehyun pulls away with a quizzical look on his face.
“Cry?”
Kai turns to Beomgyu who in turn puts up both his hands. “I was just conveying what those two said.”
“You were cooped up in your room all day!” Yeonjun protests weakly – too weak to counter the scathing way Taehyun raises an eyebrow.
“I was on a Zoom call with a hybrid behavior specialist. It was an expensive but fruitful discussion,” he states, and Beomgyu slaps his forehead when he realizes he, too, had fallen victim to another one of Yeonjun’s scams. So much for being Yeonjun-scam-proof.
“For the record, he didn’t just share with me about shedding seasons. He also shared lots of insights on the mating cycles of wolf hybrids,” Taehyun continues, his tone calm as if he was simply stating a matter of fact.
Kai turns beet-red.
Soobin squeals and smacks Taehyun on the shoulder a few times while Yeonjun whistles like the lecherous man he is.
Beomgyu shakes his head yet again.
Same old same old – he could get used to this.
-
Beomgyu's often the serial complainer when it comes to lamenting the lack of 1:1 time with Kai, but he supposes the view of the wolf hybrid hugging Taehyun's waist while Soobin and Yeonjun take turns to ruffle his fur and run a brush through with utmost care is pretty okay.
Well yeah, that's admittedly an understatement. It's extremely endearing, but Beomgyu will probably only acknowledge it with a gun to his head.
Kai squirms every now and then from the discomfort, but otherwise, he doesn't complain much.
After all, Beomgyu had finally decided to make some physical contribution by collecting hoodies and pillows from everyone and selecting a few plushies they’d bought for Kai over the past year to form some sort of nest. Of course, the sad throw pillow that Soobin had ruined had also joined the pile. Mostly for the vibes and because Beomgyu wants to guilt-trip Soobin in retaliation.
Technically, he had only done so under Taehyun’s watchful eye, since the guy’s now a self-proclaimed wolf-hybrid expert. Whatever, his effort still counts, since they’re now all cozily gathered in Kai’s makeshift nest.
It seems like a simple thing – just a wolf hybrid getting his fur brushed, but Beomgyu knows it's much more than that. Knows it takes a lot of trust and love for Kai to lie vulnerable like this. Maybe the occasional purr that rumbles softly from Kai also leaves his pride soaring.
Shifting closer, Beomgyu pets his head and rubs soothing circles at the base of his fluffy ears. Eventually, Kai reaches out with grabby hands and their intertwined fingers bring a stupid smile to Beomgyu's face.
Oh, how embarrassingly whipped. Thankfully, he's not alone.
“You look like a midwife.”
Peace, zen, peace, zen.
“Shut up, Soobin, keep your breeding fantasies to yourself,” he replies sweetly before turning to Kai again.
“How do you feel, pup?”
Kai hums in response and it spurs Taehyun to rub his nape.
“Itches and stings sometimes, but it's okay.” He pauses for a moment before adding, “It’s nice. I like how it feels.”
He hides his face, nuzzling against Taehyun’s thigh and leaving his words muffled.
Beomgyu hears it loud and clear anyway. All of them do, if their fond smiles are anything to go by.
“Feels like home.”