Kitten ~ YoonSeok

(5) His Secret

15 years earlier

(4 year old Yoongi)

A butterfly! Two butterflies!

Hmm? What's this?

My shadow looks weird.

"Mum! I have triangles on my head!"

10 years earlier

(9 year old Yoongi)

The library is really loud, and no one will talk to me. They call me a freak. What's wrong with me?

People say they can't hear anything, but I can hear it. People chewing, sniffing, people turning pages, someone dropping a pen. Why can't they hear it? Is it because my ears are better? Why doesn't anyone else have my ears?

I don't want to be at this school anymore.

I don't want to be a freak.

I want to be normal.

Someone pulled my tail yesterday, and they didn't apologise.

They are so rude.

But everyone laughed at me.

Did I do something wrong?

5 years earlier

(14 year old Yoongi)

This new school is nice, I guess. The beanie is a tiny bit itchy, but it muffles sound so I don't feel overwhelmed by insignificant noises. I have to tuck my tail into these tight school pants, but it isn't too bad. At least no one pulls it.

I can't go to places with loud crowds without getting headaches.

And I still don't have friends.

There's a nice boy in my English class, but he avoids me now too.

Will anyone ever accept me for who I am? It feels hopeless. I am constantly drained of energy, and I'm too moody to talk to people anymore.

I finally googled it.

A hybrid.

It sounds like a disgusting word. Like a cuss someone spits out to vaguely insult a stranger.

Is that what I am?

My mum still calls me "her little Kitty".

The kids at my old school called me "cat-boy" or "feral".

Are these the options I have?  Are these the labels I am to assign myself with?

Is hybrid really the best choice?

Maybe that's all I'll ever be.

But no one will know ever again.

Not if I can help it.

Present Day.

Yoongi doesn't normally do this.

He doesn't usually allow himself to be vulnerable. But he finds himself in front of his full-body mirror in a loose tank and shorts.

He looks into his reflection, sees himself.

Ebony black hair falling in tufts poking out from his beanie, glittering black eyes gazing blankly back at him. The material of his clothes fell loosely around his pale white skin. He wonders what his reflection is thinking.

Probably what an idiot he is.

Come on, Min, he tells himself off. Stop being such a coward.

His hands tremble a little, but he reaches up to the beanie which ordinarily sticks like glue to the crown of his head. He clutches the thick fabric in-between his fingers and counts down from three.

Three...

Two...

One...

Yoongi inhales, sees the rise of his milky white shoulders in his reflection, and yanks the beanie off like he was a little kid and it was a bandaid covering years and years of hurt and pain which he was finally ripping off.

A rush of sound swells over Yoongi, like he had just resurfaced from underwater. A plethora of different noises swarmed around his head, sounds he couldn't distinguish priorly. Sunghyun laughing at the mumbling of tv out in the lounge room, Hyunjoon cursing as he attempted to cook dinner for the trio, the chirping of crickets outside the building.

He throws the beanie to the floor, and his head follows it down.

He can't. He can't look.

Not yet.

He remembered. You'd think he wouldn't, but he did. Even after all this time. His classmates shoving him around, yanking his tail, screaming into his ears. Yoongi blinks, once, twice, then rapidly. His shoulders begin to shake with panicked breaths.

No, NO. Stop. It's just you. It's just you. Please don't do this. Be stronger.

Yoongi knew what sight awaited him as soon as he looked up. But it didn't make it any easier to do so. His fears keep murmuring to him, poisoning his beliefs with lies.

You're not strong enough, they whispered, you'll break.

Yoongi didn't like his fears.

They made him think he could never win.

Yoongi looked up.

His eyes ran over the pointed black ears on his head, traced the curves like mountain peaks. They were raven black, with a splotch of white on his left ear. Like a magnet, his hand drew forward to graze over the soft fur covering the expanse of the appendages.

Yoongi flicked his tail out, swishing it high in the air. It felt nice. Like his left ear, Yoongi's tail was tipped with a cap of snow. His tail swished around playfully without his consent, enjoying the space it had been given.

His secret.

A hybrid.

His mum's little Kitty.

His classmates' victim.

His own worst enemy.

~~~

A/N:

This one's a lil shorter but I took my time with it.

I'm trying out a slower pacing with shorter but more frequent chapters so I hope this works :)

- Ari