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Minho has never been so grateful for the quiet before.
He’s finally finished his last year of college and has taken three weeks before starting his first Adult Job to travel the country with just his car and a tent and visit as many beautiful and remote places that he can before he’s just a cog in the corporate machine for the rest of his life. He’s finally reached his first destination right around lunch time.
He grabs his lunch out of his cooler and starts down a path, looking for the perfect place to sit down and enjoy some food and the views. He spots a flat enough rock at the edge of a clearing, taking note of the small herd of deer at the other side.
He sits down and pulls out his sandwich, glancing around at the trees and landscape as he chews. The deer start working their way closer to him, munching away at the grass of the clearing. One in particular seems less afraid, but Minho knows it’s best to just ignore the wildlife, so he just lets it meander closer to him. He pulls his food into his lap though so it can’t get a bite.
The deer gets more bold though, going so far as to stick its nose right into Minho’s lap to grab at his bag of carrots.
”Whoa, hey! These are mine!” Minho knows it’s stupid that he’s talking to a deer, but he just came out here to enjoy some peace and quiet. He’s a bit muffed that he’s having that ruined by a deer of all things.
He gently pushes the deer’s nose away, and he swears it looks irritated as he does so. The deer rounds the rock that Minho is sitting on and disappears behind him. Minho notes that the rest of the herd appears to be headed that direction too. “Finally some alone time,” Minho whispers under his breath.
He’s about to take another bite of his sandwich when he feels a tap on his shoulder.
The noise that comes out of his mouth is a cross between a shriek and a full on scream, and it’s also one that he will never admit to happening.
He turns around to find a man behind him. The first thing Minho notices is that he’s naked since the way Minho is sitting on the rock puts him exactly eye level with his crotch. Minho quickly scrambles to stand up off the rock so he’s face to face with the stranger. His hair is long and black, framing one of the most ethereal looking faces Minho’s ever seen. Under normal circumstances, Minho might consider kissing his full lips, but these are not normal circumstances seeing as he also has small antlers growing out of the crown of his head.
The stranger speaks first, “Come on, man, I just wanted one carrot.”
Minho’s brain can’t seem to catch up. “A carrot?”
The man takes another step toward him and Minho takes one step backward. “Yeah, a carrot,” he says like it’s obvious. “It’s my favorite, and the humans around here always give me one. Why are you being stingy with yours?”
Something clicks in Minho’s brain, but he’s sure that it has to be wrong. “You’re the deer?”
”What, never heard of shifters before?”
Minho has, in fact, never heard of shifters before. He wonders briefly if he got in an accident on the way here and he’s having some kind of concussion induced dream. He doesn’t think he’d be able to make this up though.
”Hyunjin, leave the poor guy alone,” Minho startles when another voice shouts out from behind the stranger, Hyunjin apparently. Minho peers around Hyunjin to see that the voice belongs to yet another naked man, this one much more muscular than Hyunjin with short hair and larger antlers.
”But Channie, I just wanted a carrot,” Hyunjin turns around and whines.
”And I said leave him alone,” he says it with a tone of finality before Minho sees the weirdest thing he’s ever seen. The man turns back into a deer and bounds off into the woods after the rest of the herd.
Minho is at a loss for words as Hyunjin turns back around, snags a carrot from the bag that still sat on the rock, ignoring Minho’s indignant noise of protest, and turns to follow the herd.
He pauses just a few paces away. “I’d love to see you around,” he sends a wink in Minho’s direction before popping the carrot in his mouth, shifting back to a deer and running after the herd as well.
Minho is dumbfounded, confused, and pretty sure he’s hallucinating.
He’s also insanely curious and knows he’ll be coming back here everyday of his three week vacation.
Maybe he’ll get a chance to kiss those lips after all.