Chapter Text
Everyday it was the same…all he could do was look through the glass, the flashing cameras, the fingers pointing and laughing…everyday it was the same.
But then 3:40 pm came.
3:40 pm was Woohyun’s favorite time of day because that was when he could see the man. The man never poked at the glass or pointed and laughed at him or shined bright shuttering lights in his eyes. No, the man barely even looked at him at all as Woohyun stood on a wet rock, staring out of the tank.
The man rarely ever looked into the tanks, and only focused on sweeping the candy wrappers, and other trash that visitors had discarded on the floor, despite the fact that there was a trash can at every corner.
Sometimes Woohyun could see him muttering complaints—at least he guessed they were complaints, though he couldn’t actually hear him. Today the man’s hair looked just as soft as always, and his bangs kept getting in his eyes as he swept crumbs into a paddle.
Woohyun couldn’t even remember when he had hair like that since he was only a small child when he was cursed to be in his current form.
He held out his black flipper like feather to the glass, however the man didn’t notice.
He never did.
Woohyun still watched him. He liked watching the man. It made him feel like he had some kind of connection to the human world again—even though it was only one-sided.
The man always seemed very serious, doing his work, and Woohyun always thought the man’s face when he was concentrating was the coolest. He thought everything about the man was cool and attractive. Even when he sometimes would trip on his own broom or when he smiled sheepishly and bowed to visitors.
Woohyun liked that the man always bowed so politely to everyone.
Woohyun liked when the man smiled the most.
Woohyun just liked everything about the man.
He was pretty sure the man was perfect. Sometimes he wanted so much for the man to notice him that he would act out, startling the other penguins in the tank. He would squawk when the man came by or smack his flipper-like feathers against the glass. But all that ever got him was entertained spectators who thought he was putting on a show and proceeded to get out their flashing devices and point and laugh like he was a joke.
He wanted to cry out that he wasn’t a joke. He didn’t want them to laugh at him or point at him and think he was nothing more than an object of amusement.
He just wanted to be human again.
-
One day he heard the staff who fed him and the other penguins discussing about a new penguin that was going to be joining them. It didn’t concern Woohyun much. He never interacted much with the other penguins since he never even thought of himself as a penguin. Though he looked like that on the outside, he thoroughly believed he was still human in his soul and one day he would be able to go back to the human world.
That afternoon, he was introduced to the new penguin—apparently the staff had been observing how antisocial he had been and were trying to set him up with a mate.
But to his surprise the moment he met the new penguin he could tell she was different.
“You’re...” He stood in front of her. She was only a little shorter than him, with the same sleek black back coat, milky white belly, and pale yellow chest. “Human?”
“Ah I didn’t think there were others like me.” The female penguin remarked, but she didn’t seem that surprised. “I’m Eunhye.”
“Eunhye-sshi…” Woohyun was starting to find some hope. There was another like him. He wasn’t alone. Maybe, just maybe they could find a way to be human together. “How did you turn? I…I was cursed when I was just a small child. I don’t know how to turn back, but maybe we can—.”
“I have no plans to be human again.” Eunhye replied, calmly.
Woohyun’s heart sank, as he was thrust back into loneliness again. “Oh…”
“In fact, I wanted to be this way.” Eunhye explained. She gestured Woohyun over to a space between the wet rocks so they weren’t in clear view of any spectators, though it was night time and everyone had left except for the nighttime staff who came around once in a while. She pulled out a small vial with her beak and put it down in front of Woohyun’s feet. “I went to a swamp witch and she gave me a potion to turn into a penguin. This is the antidote,” She pecked at the vial. “If I want to be human again.”
“Swamp witch?” Woohyun gasped. “W-Where is this swamp witch? How can I find her—?”
“No need.” Eunhye interrupted and gestured to the vial. “Take it.”
Woohyun stared at her for a moment, unsure if she was being serious. “Are…are you kidding me? How can I—?”
“I told you. I wanted to be this way.” Eunhye explained. “I don’t want to be human.”
“Yeah but…why would you want to be a penguin? Like there’s literally nothing good about being like this!” Woohyun held out his flipper. “We look stupid when we walk and everyone laughs at us!”
“Yeah but…this way, I’m taken care of. People pay attention to me. I’m loved.” Eunhye explained. “I’d never want to go back.”
“But…how is this love? They don’t really…all they do is laugh. They don’t really care…”
“I don’t need anything more than this.” Eunhye assured him. “Take the vial. Become human again. Attain the love that you can’t receive here.”
-
“Yeah, did you hear?” 22-year-old Sunggyu’s friend and fellow coworker Dongwoo grinned. The two were on duty at the aquarium’s gift store for the morning. “One of the penguins went missing last night. No one knows what happened to it….just disappeared.”
Sunggyu hummed in thought as he restocked some stuffed penguins on the shelf.
“Maybe it swam back to the north pole…ah or was it the south pole?” He muttered, as he wandered into the back to grab some more souvenir t-shirts. They were all in a large crate, so he had to dig into it to find the sizes he needed to restock. But then suddenly an icy cold hand reached out from the pile like a zombie arising from a grave.
(Sunggyu would later deny how loud he screamed.)
And then a head was popping out from underneath the mass of t-shirts—a head of messy black hair, a young man, looking about his age (probably younger) with a perfectly pointy nose and slightly drooping eyes.
“What the hell are you?!” Sunggyu yelled. It was a wonder Dongwoo hadn’t heard him, from the front of the store, but it was probably because of his headphones blasting music so loud that it drowned out any other sound.
“…W-Woohyun.” The man was shivering and appeared to be completely nude, though Sunggyu could only see from his belly button up. “I-I’m a Woohyun.” He mumbled, since he wasn’t quite sure if the transformation to human was completely successful with the way Sunggyu was questioning him. But then he realized it was the man. He never would’ve imagined that he would run into the man so soon after becoming human again.
“What the hell is a Woohyun and what’re you doing sleeping butt naked in the merchandise?!” Sunggyu yelled. “I’m calling the cops—!”
Woohyun suddenly clutched onto his arm, stopping him. But then he gasped, letting go almost immediately and stared at his own hand. He had fingers and fingernails and human skin again.
“I…I can grab things now?” He breathed, in disbelief. He looked at Sunggyu, filled with determination, as if he were entering foreign territory. He reached out cautiously, fingers trembling slightly as he brushed Sunggyu’s bangs slightly out of his eyes.
Sunggyu instantly smacked his hand away, however. “Don’t touch me you weirdo.” He hissed. “You just wait right here, so I can call the cops…” His words trailed off when he noticed Woohyun’s eyes watering and a single tear trickling down his cheek. “W-Why are you crying?” He panicked. “What happened?”
“I…” Woohyun hesitantly put his fingers to his cheek, feeling tears there. “I…am really human now—?” Suddenly he sneezed, interrupting his tearful, heartwarming realization. He shivered some more, and sniffled.
“This is what you get for being an exhibitionist.” Sunggyu huffed, and hastily unwrapped a t-shirt from a clear plastic packet. “Put this on.” He shoved it to Woohyun’s chest.
Woohyun stared at the t-shirt then at Sunggyu again. “Uh…how?”
“What do you mean how? It’s a damn t-shirt just—.”
Woohyun suddenly held out his arms like a child waiting to be dressed would.
“I-I’m not doing it for you! Do it yourself!” Sunggyu threw the t-shirt at Woohyun’s face.
Woohyun clutched onto the t-shirt, studying it for a moment. It had four holes he observed so he assumed each of those holes had to be filled by a body part. But the problem was he didn’t know which one went in each hole.
“Please…” He sent Sunggyu a pitiful expression. “Can you help me fill my holes?”
Sunggyu almost choked on his own spit. “That’s it! I’m calling the cops on you, pervert!”
“W-Wait, don’t leave!” Woohyun whined. “I don’t know which hole to put it in!” He clutched onto Sunggyu’s shirt sleeve, somehow getting dragged out of the t-shirt filled crate and onto the ground, face-first.
“What the—you’re seriously not wearing pants?!” Sunggyu really wished he didn’t stare for such a long time at Woohyun’s body—his small back down to his slightly curved butt to his rather toned thighs. He coughed and grabbed for a pair of swim trunks with the aquarium’s mascot—Yunjae the dolphin, printed on them in a pattern format.
He figured Woohyun was going to make another fuss about putting on the shorts so he decided to save time and just do it himself. He flipped Woohyun over onto his back, and Woohyun didn’t know why but he was suddenly feeling embarrassed, and he guessed this was a human feeling—being exposed like this. He unconsciously folded his hands over his crotch, and Sunggyu noticed, meeting his gaze.
“So you do have a sense of shame…” He muttered, as he grabbed Woohyun’s calf, pulling the blue trunks up his leg.
“I can…do it myself.” Woohyun murmured, watching him carefully. “Just…show me which holes I should fill—.”
“Stop talking about filling holes, pervert.” Sunggyu groaned, and grabbed Woohyun’s other leg, successfully pulling the shorts up to his knees. “I’m sure you can do the rest yourself?”
Woohyun nodded, and waited for Sunggyu to look away before hastily pulling the shorts to his hips like how he had seen humans wearing them before. Before he could even try to stand up, Sunggyu threw a white t-shirt with the aquarium’s logo on the back at him.
“Now put that on.”
“Um…” Woohyun stared at the shirt for a moment, turning it over in his hands. He started putting his arm into one of the holes, only to realize it was the neck hole.
Sunggyu grumbled something along the lines of, “Seriously you can’t even put on a damn t-shirt…” He knelt down beside Woohyun and grabbed the t-shirt from him. “Hold out your arms.” But Woohyun suddenly grabbed the shirt back.
“No I can do it.” He declared with zeal as he once again attempted to stick his arm through the neck hole.
“You’re doing it wrong stupid.”
“I’m not!” Woohyun defended. “I know—!”
“No you don’t!” Sunggyu argued and attempted to pull the shirt away from him. “You don’t know which one is the right one! Just let me do it damn it!”
Dongwoo wondered what was taking Sunggyu so long and decided to check on him. But as he pulled off his headphones and wandered towards the back, he could hear yelling.
“No! I can—.”
“I know which holes to fill so just let me do it you pervert!”
He opened the door to see Woohyun lying on his stomach, holding the shirt as far above his head as he could manage with Sunggyu right on top of him, attempting to pull the shirt out of his grasp.
“Uh hyung…” Dongwoo grinned, sheepishly. “I don’t think the boss allowed dating in the backroom.”
Sunggyu shot him a death glare. “What part of this looks like a date to you?”
“Well to be honest with you…it looks like what happens after the date.” Dongwoo explained in a rather nonchalant manner. “Well assuming the date goes well and all—.”
Sunggyu groaned in disbelief and pushed himself off Woohyun, dusting off the invisible dirt from his pants. Woohyun watched them converse for a moment—which was basically Sunggyu explaining to Dongwoo that Woohyun was some crazy pervert and that they should call the cops to come for him. But then Woohyun suddenly realized something. He gasped, startling the two men as he scrambled to his feet. However as soon as he stood up, he began waddling to the door, before realizing his stride length was longer than in his penguin form.
“Ah! I can actually run now!” Woohyun marveled at his own legs, gripping at his thighs and in general feeling up his own legs long enough to make Sunggyu incredibly uncomfortable.
“I told you! He’s a total pervert! Now he’s touching himself.” Sunggyu told Dongwoo in a rather whiny tone and gestured to Woohyun, who was in the midst of affectionately rubbing his rather hairy calf.
“I had no idea humans could have fur.” Woohyun hummed as he stroked his leg hair thoughtfully.
“Its disgusting!” Sunggyu exclaimed in horror, rudely pointing to Woohyun. “Look at it Dongwoo! Its totally gross!”
Dongwoo chuckled. “Hyung, don’t call him an ‘it.’ He’s a person…”
“That’s right!” Woohyun turned to Dongwoo with wide eyes and nodded enthusiastically. “I…I’m a person!” He proceeded to make a rather cute whimper of happiness and nodded some more to himself, pumping his fists like a child.
Sunggyu elbowed Dongwoo, nervously. “Are you sure? Because I’m really not…”
-
Unfortunately for Sunggyu, they did not call the cops and Dongwoo even let Woohyun come with them on their lunch break—a suggestion that Sunggyu voted against but was somehow outnumbered (he was still trying to work out the numbers on that.)
They sat down to eat lunch at the aquarium café. Dongwoo ordered them some sort of seafood pizza (another thing Sunggyu voted against but was once again outnumbered).
Woohyun was not sure exactly how to deal with his chair so he proceeded to stand on it, successfully garnering stares from others in the café and embarrassing the hell out of Sunggyu.
Dongwoo laughed, thinking that Woohyun was really interesting.
“What’re you doing you idiot?” Sunggyu hissed. “Sit down!”
Woohyun looked down at Sunggyu and Dongwoo and noticed they were much lower than he was. “Ah…” Then he chuckled awkwardly. “I guess I’m too tall to stand now.”
Sunggyu groaned, as he let his face fall into his hands. “Now he thinks he’s tall…wow he really is delusional…”
Woohyun hopped off the chair and almost stumbled forward, but managed to keep his footing. He looked around, attempting to mimic how others were sitting in their chairs. He suddenly felt his heart beating wildly against his chest and his face going warm. He realized people were staring at him—no they were laughing at him.
“No…” Woohyun thought in a panic. He had thought he had escaped that way of living. He thought being a human meant he wouldn’t be treated as a joke anymore. But they were laughing—they were all laughing at him. He worriedly stared at his hands to check in case they had turned back into fins. Instead all he saw were stubby fingers. They were ugly, Woohyun thought.
This wasn’t any different than being a penguin. He still looked stupid—people still laughed at him. What was good about this? He might as well have just lived as a damn flightless bird for the rest of his life—at least that way his life wouldn’t be as painstakingly long.
“Stop…” He murmured, eyes darting to and fro—wide and horrified. “D-Don’t laugh…” He looked down, his bangs falling heavy and dark over his eyes.
Dongwoo stared at him worriedly. “…Woohyun-sshi—.”
Suddenly Woohyun darted out of the restaurant without another word.
-
Woohyun ended up at the beach which really wasn’t too far from the aquarium. He climbed up some large rocks, and watched the waves. He didn’t like human feet, they were weak and he had already garnered many scrapes and cuts from walking around barefoot. He sat cross legged and let his gaze wander over the ocean.
What was really that much better about being human, he started to wonder.
“Dongwoo…yeah, I found him…” Woohyun turned around to see Sunggyu walking up to him, talking on the phone. “He’s fine, relax…ok I’ll talk to you later.”
He hung up as he approached Woohyun with a rather annoyed look.
“What’s wrong with you?” He sighed, though instead of aggression in his voice, Woohyun heard something like relief. Sunggyu did a quick scan to see if there was anything physically wrong with Woohyun. Then he noticed the bottoms of Woohyun’s feet had scrapes and cuts on them.
“Yah…you’re bleeding.” Sunggyu grabbed his shoulder. “Are you ok? Why are you so dumb? Don’t you have shoes?” He immediately realized the pointlessness of his question since he had first met Woohyun when he was completely naked.
Woohyun watched Sunggyu pace in a small circle for a moment, seemingly contemplating something. After a moment of thought, Sunggyu turned to him with a serious gaze. “Just…wait here, ok?” He turned and walked off, but then five steps in, turned around again and pointed at Woohyun. “Right there, ok? Don’t you dare move!”
Woohyun watched the other man scurry off before focusing his gaze on the ocean again. He thought back to his habitat in the aquarium, and had this sudden urge to go back. There was this one rock he always used to hide under when he wanted to be alone and away from the people poking the glass.
He never thought he would miss being a penguin.
Suddenly he felt some water droplets on the back of his hand and looked up to see if it was raining. But it wasn’t and there was now water coming out of his eyes just like earlier when he was in the t-shirt bin.
He touched the moisture on his cheek and attempted to blink but everything just became blurry and his chest ached. He didn’t understand what the hell was going on, and frankly it scared him. Was this some kind of human medical condition? Was he dying? Was human life really this fragile and empty?
He shakily got to his feet and attempted to rub his eyes with his bawled up fists, but more tears kept pouring out and he was sniffling and hiccupping now.
“I hate this…” He thought. “I’m scared…I…I want to go back…”
-
Sunggyu returned with two bags of clothes and some flip-flops from the nearby souvenir shop.
“I didn’t know which color you like best so I just got both…” Sunggyu paused when he realized Woohyun wasn’t waiting where he had left him. He looked around for a moment. “Yah!” He called out, but the beach was practically empty, and all that was left on the rock Woohyun was sitting on was a single dark grey and black feather.