By Zephyria “What in the world is going on?”
Yumin was dumbfounded. But as he thought about it, he realized he hadn’t touched his phone since returning to his dorm room at dawn. The same was true for his wallet.
That meant he had lost his belongings at the Friday drinking party.
No way. I was so out of it, I couldn’t even properly keep track of my things.
Given that he was drunk and had suddenly transformed into a wildcat, it was, in a way, understandable.
The situation, where he couldn’t even get a single meal, was dire. For an ordinary human, it would be as simple as getting a new ID and a new card from the bank as soon as the sun rose, but Yumin’s circumstances were different.
He was registered as a Beastman, not a human resident, so he couldn’t handle administrative tasks at a regular community center. Only civil servants from a special organization within the Ministry of Welfare, the Beastman Life Support Division, could manage Beastman identities.
It would take at least two weeks to apply for and receive a new Beastman ID. What was he going to do?
He decided he had to call his parents or Noona for help, but regardless, he was facing a few days of starvation.
“Ah, I’m screwed.”
Just as Yumin was clutching his head and groaning, a familiar voice called out from behind him.
“Excuse me, Go Yumin?”
“Huh?”
He turned around to see Hyeon-seok, a classmate he had met at the drinking party. Even in a hoodie and glasses, he looked handsome, likely due to his height.
“I called out just in case, and it is you.”
“Uh, yeah. You said you lived in the dorms too.”
“Um… By any chance, did you buy all the meal tickets?”
Hyeon-seok asked. Yumin slapped his forehead, realizing his mistake.
“Well… actually, I couldn’t buy them.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t have my wallet right now. Or my phone.”
“Ah! I was going to tell you anyway, but I have your phone.”
At Hyeon-seok’s words, Yumin’s eyes widened.
“Hyeon-seok, you have it?”
“Yeah. You suddenly left during the drinking yesterday. Since you didn’t come back, I took your phone. I didn’t know your room number, so I was wondering how to return it, but this is perfect.”
“Wow, thank you so much. You saved me.”
Yumin let out a sigh of relief.
“I was carrying it around hoping I’d run into you. Good timing.”
Hyeon-seok took Yumin’s phone out of his pocket and handed it over.
“Ugh, thank you so much. You’re my savior. But by any chance, did you see my wallet?”
“I didn’t see your wallet.”
“Oh, really? Ah, I must have lost it.”
He wouldn’t be able to find his wallet, but at least he got his phone back. Yumin felt relieved.
“Yumin, I’ll buy you a meal. Eat whatever you want.”
“Really? Is that okay?”
“Of course. You said you don’t have your wallet.”
“Wow… So I can have Jeyuk, Donkatsu, and Ramyeon?”
“Yep. Absolutely.”
Hyeon-seok generously ordered three servings for Yumin. After swiping his card and placing the order with the kitchen, the two found a spacious spot and sat down.
“Hyeon-seok, you’ll be blessed.”
“Nah. We’re classmates, I can do this much.”
“Is that so? Anyway, thank you. Ah! The food’s here.”
Yumin walked over to the serving counter and lifted the tray piled high with dishes. There were so many dishes that it took five trays.
“I’ll help. But this feels like a company dinner. There’s so much food.”
The two chuckled as they carried the trays.
Mealtime was pleasant. Perhaps because they had already met, Yumin found it easy to talk with Hyeon-seok. Having lived only in the Beastman village and attended Beastman schools for all twenty years, he rarely spoke with humans his age. Yet, thanks to watching so many dramas and movies, they surprisingly hit it off.
“Yumin, you saw that movie too? It’s a bit of a niche film…”
“Honestly, I watched it because it was racy. I wanted to see something like that.”
“Huh?”
Yumin smiled as if to say, “What’s the big deal?” and puckered his lips in a small ‘w’ shape. Hyeon-seok chuckled at his attitude, unsure whether to call it brazen or honest.
“Let’s eat!”
Yumin shoveled the ramyeon broth into his starved stomach. While it’s often said that cats can’t handle hot food well, wildcats are different. The strong and wild Black-footed wildcat had a constitution that allowed it to eat anything it was given.
He slurped down the ramyeon and shared a bowl with Hyeon-seok. He found the donkatsu difficult to cut, so he simply broke it into two pieces and ate them with a fork.
“Hyeon-seok, you eat some donkatsu too.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Before long, Yumin’s mouth was covered in breadcrumbs. Hyeon-seok pulled out a tissue and offered it to Yumin.
“Why?”
“You have crumbs on your mouth.”
“Really? Wipe it for me.”
Yumin demanded confidently.
“I can’t see well. Hurry.”
As he nudged his small face forward, Hyeon-seok flinched.
“Uh, okay.”
Hyeon-seok was naturally calm, but he was a bit flustered just then. Yumin, on the other hand, looked at him with wide eyes, as if asking what the big deal was about wiping a few crumbs.
“Ahem, ahem. All done now.”
“Thanks. Let’s eat our Jeyuk quickly too. It’ll be bad if it gets cold!”
Yumin devoured the Jeyuk at lightning speed. Hyeon-seok ate slowly, trying to suppress his frequent smiles.
“I’ll buy dessert too.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“Let’s go to the convenience store.”
“Sounds good.”
There was a 24-hour convenience store just outside the dorm cafeteria. It had a parasol, a table, and plastic chairs, perfect for sitting down.
“Do you like ice cream?”
“I love it. Especially vanilla.”
“Then do you want this?”
What Hyeon-seok pointed to was the largest ice cream sold at the convenience store, usually a family size meant for three or four people to share.
“Hyeon-seok, you’re generous.”
“Am I? Let’s have two of these.”
“Great! That’s bold and nice!”
Yumin and Hyeon-seok sat facing each other at the plastic table with their ice cream. Although the night air was chilly and the plastic spoons were too crude to scoop the ice cream easily, Yumin was still happy to taste ice cream after so long.
“This is delicious. But Hyeon-seok, what were you doing before you came down? Were you alone?”
“No. I was in the study room. The dorm Wi-Fi seemed a bit weak. I kept getting kicked off the portal.”
“Why the portal?”
“Course registration correction is due today. I was trying to fix my schedule.”
“Huh? Wasn’t course registration correction until tomorrow?”
“No. It’s until midnight tonight.”
Yumin gasped, his mouth agape.
Having messed up his initial course registration, he had been counting on the correction period. But despite intending to do it, he had attended the drinking party yesterday and hadn’t even looked at the portal. He had completely forgotten, and now it was due tonight. His head suddenly started to ache.
“Ah, then I need to decide quickly. I need to add one more 3-credit course. And I have some things to change.”
Since he hadn’t decided on a replacement course, Yumin couldn’t cancel his current classes yet. He needed to be careful to switch safely, but the problem was that it was already 8 PM, leaving only four hours.
“Well… it would be best to do it quickly. People in the group chat are saying the portal server is acting up. Too many people are probably trying to access it.”
“Group chat?”
“Ah, you wouldn’t know. A group chat for Class 1 was created last night.”
When he opened his phone, he had indeed been invited to two unfamiliar group chats.
The “Super Class 1 Freshman Room,” which could accommodate a total of 40 people, and the “Super Class 1 All-Year Free Participation Room,” which could accommodate 100 people. When he opened the freshman room, an overwhelming amount of conversation had accumulated. The past messages were so lengthy that he didn’t even dare to read them. Yumin only saw the messages that were coming in now.
However, everyone was talking about one course.
□□□:
□□□: I’ve already refreshed 100 times… It’s
□□□: It’s been five hours for me. Sometimes a spot opens up, but when I click it, it disappears, sob sob.
“
Yumin asked. Hyeon-seok shrugged and replied,
“I’m taking it too. It was open when I registered. It wasn’t a very popular course. But someone… you know, that handsome guy.”
“Beom Tae-jun?”
“Yeah. Rumor has it he’s taking it, so all the girls are trying to transfer there.”
“What?”
“
The moment he heard that, a sharp thought struck Yumin. If he took the class with Beom Tae-jun, he could quickly get close to him. And the course name was
“But since the enrollment is small, there are almost no people dropping out. They say spots open up occasionally, but you have to get the timing right, so it’s practically impossible…”
“Wait a minute. What time did you say course correction ends?”
“Midnight tonight.”
“Hyeon-seok, I’m really sorry, but I have to go. You can have all this ice cream. See you tomorrow!”
“Oh? Uh… okay. See you tomorrow.”
Yumin quickly said goodbye to Hyeon-seok and left.
Clutching the plastic spoon, he swiftly re-entered the dorm building and hurried up the stairs, taking two or three steps at a time. After opening his door, he ran straight to his desk and opened his laptop. As he pressed the power button, Yumin rubbed his palms together, praying for a quick boot-up.
Soon, the laptop screen lit up. The wallpaper was a photo of a wildcat glaring at the lens with a displeased expression. While others might mistake it for a random cat picture found online, it was actually a photo from Yumin’s middle school days.
Yumin was once a rebel. He had gone through a brief but intense period of adolescent turmoil, during which he took photos glaring at the lens and baring his fangs.
Later, as the well-mannered and handsome Yumin, he would occasionally reminisce about his middle school self, thinking how charismatic and cool he had been. That’s why he used his own photo as his laptop wallpaper. After all, no one would know he was this wildcat.
“Open, open.”
Yumin hastily accessed the course registration website. However, as his classmates had said, the server was sluggish. As he logged in with his portal ID, his hands kept slipping, and he entered his password incorrectly.
“Calm down!”
Taking a deep breath, he typed his password. But this time, the Wi-Fi was poor. The Wi-Fi connection, worse than a landline, was infuriating.
After several failed attempts, Yumin finally managed to access the course registration portal. When he searched for “
It wasn’t a system that automatically registered the next person in line whenever a student dropped out. Instead, you had to quickly snatch up the open spot whenever a student dropped out in real-time.
So that’s why people were having trouble. But in a way, it was fortunate. Even I, who found out late, can participate.
Yumin refreshed the page. Even after ten attempts, no spot opened up. Then, suddenly, the text “Available spots: 1” appeared.
“Whoa.”
He quickly clicked the register button, but by then it was closed, and Yumin was bounced back to the main page.
“It just appeared!”
Yumin slapped his forehead with his left hand. The sound was a satisfying slap.
“I’ll try again.”
Yumin was persistent and tenacious. Wildcats are wild animals; they can endure days without a drop of water in harsh environments, hunting. Some species even stalk their prey while submerged in water.
This course registration? He would conquer it with his instinct for species propagation.
Yumin pressed the refresh button with one hand while skillfully maneuvering the mouse with the other.
Click!
Failed.
Click!
Failed.
Click~!
Bounced to the main page.
Click!
Failed.
Thirty minutes passed like this. The open spots appeared and disappeared instantly, like a form of false hope. But Yumin never gave up, repeating the refresh like a machine.
At 11:45 PM, the opportunity finally came. One spot opened up. Yumin swung his mouse with a flashy wrist snap.
Registration successful.
“Waaah!”
Yumin jumped up and cheered. He finally had a connection with Tae-jun!
Monday morning, Yumin woke up early and pulled out all his clothes, putting on a fashion show. Standing in front of the full-length mirror, he matched different outfits, his expression that of a professional model. A male must dress flamboyantly. That’s how opportunities for reproduction arise.
Look at peacocks. They adorn their feathers colorfully and spread them beautifully to perform courtship dances. Some males even lure mates by singing or building cozy nests. And if one is visually attractive, the probability of being chosen increases significantly under the same conditions.
Therefore, I must also focus on my appearance.
What else is important? Fashion, without a doubt. Yumin decided to become a deadly wildcat today. He put on a shiny black t-shirt and black pants. Looking in the mirror, he saw that black suited him well, as expected.
Next, he put on a leopard-print bomber jacket, which would be the highlight. It was a garment with densely packed leopard spots the size of his fist, fastened with a zipper. It was a daring fashion choice, something rappers might wear, far from a campus look.
However, wildcat beastmen loved such clothes. Most wildcat beastmen were small in stature when humanized and often had simple, cute appearances. Therefore, they preferred flashy patterned clothing as a means to express the dignity of their true selves, as predators. Leopard print, in particular, was a bit of a show-off item, something one might wear on a blind date or proposal.
Yumin smiled as he looked at his reflection. Wearing the leopard print, he definitely looked fierce and tough.
“Good. This is it.”
To finish, Yumin opened his dresser. Inside, dozens of pairs of black socks were neatly arranged. To be precise, there were no socks of any color other than black.
Black-footed wildcats always wear black socks. Their identity would be shaken if their feet weren’t black.
White socks, striped socks, or fluorescent socks were worn only by eccentrics desperate for attention. Or they might be worn once during the peak of adolescent rebellion.
Black is the best. It’s warm and cozy. Yumin felt a sense of peace as he put on his black socks.
Shouldering his backpack and stepping out the door, he put on black sneakers. The color coordination was perfect.
It was a 15-minute walk from the dorm building to the liberal arts building. As he passed several college buildings and affiliated research institutes and descended the hill, he drew people’s attention.
His fresh appearance, clearly that of a freshman, and the way he occasionally stopped at signs to check directions, as if he didn’t know the way, were noticeable, but the leopard-print jacket was the showstopper.
Is he a celebrity? Or someone seeking attention?
As passersby glanced at him, Yumin’s phone buzzed. Seeing the caller ID, it was Yumin’s Noona, Hye-min.
“Oh, Noona.”
How can you go to Seoul and not contact me once?
His Noona snapped.
“Sorry. I was busy over the weekend. Something happened.”
Something happened? What?
“I’m on my way to class now, so I’ll keep it brief. I caught a big one.”