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In the beginning, Felix and Hyunjin absolutely despised each other. The moment Felix, a chick hybrid, saw the ferret that Chan—the boyfriend of his owner, Minho—had adopted, he was utterly thunderstruck.
As the only and most cherished hybrid in that house, the thought of sharing his home and affection with someone else drove him insane. He even gave his owners the cold shoulder, making them regret their decision, and turned the new home into a living hell for the poor ferret.
Hyunjin was completely flustered by this situation at first. However, as time went on, he began to mirror Felix’s behavior, giving back exactly what he received.
Even though Chan and Minho were deeply saddened by this state of affairs, they kept hoping that the two would eventually get used to each other over time.
The strange thing was that whenever they transformed into their human forms, they never fought. Yet, because staying in human form was exhausting and harmful to their hybrid bodies, these moments were brief and rarely seen.
As time passed, things only grew worse instead of getting better. Felix would constantly peck and bite Hyunjin with his beak before running away, and whenever Hyunjin caught him, he would wrap his long body around Felix's neck, leaving him breathless.
Unable to bear seeing them harm each other like this any longer, Chan and Minho decided to separate them. Taking advantage of a moment when the two were in their human forms, they announced that Hyunjin would be given away to someone else. Hearing this, the two stood frozen, not knowing what to do.
"But why? Don't you want me anymore?" Feeling unloved, Hyunjin’s eyes welled up with tears.
"No, baby, of course we love you so much. But you keep hurting each other. Living in the same house is no longer safe for you. That’s why we decided to give you to my close friend, Jisung. He will take great care of you, and we can visit you whenever we want."
Chan’s calm, lengthy explanation caused the two to look at each other in utter shock.
"But we aren't hurting each other! Why would I ever hurt my boyfriend?" Felix’s words, spoken with a look of pure confusion, left the couple sitting across from them completely dumbfounded.
"What? Wait a minute, what did you just say? Your boyfriend? Hyunjin?" Minho made his astonishment clear with his questions.
"Yes! Hyunjin and I are boyfriends, and you can't send my boyfriend anywhere!" Suddenly losing his composure, Felix wrapped his arms around Hyunjin in a fiercely protective stance.
"But how? You were constantly fighting... Boys, can you please explain what on earth is going on? Our minds are completely boggled," Chan said, his voice entirely betraying his confusion.
"We weren't fighting, hyung," Hyunjin began to speak, his cheeks flushing a faint red.
"We were courting each other." As he confessed this out of sheer embarrassment, Felix shly buried his face into his boyfriend's neck, leaving Minho and Chan staring at them in absolute disbelief.
"Courting? Like... mating rituals?" Minho spoke up, trying to wrap his head around the situation, though he didn't even seem to know exactly what to ask.
"Well, not exactly like that. You could call it flirting, like humans do," Hyunjin explained, while Felix seemed to shrink even smaller back into his spot. For some reason, explaining their relationship had made him incredibly shy.
"But you looked like you were constantly fighting... When you first arrived, Felix didn't want you at all. We thought you two just couldn't stand each other," Minho said, still looking bewildered by the dynamics of their relationship.
Felix peeked out from his hiding place to answer him. "I didn't want him at first, yes. Because I was jealous of him. I was terrified that you would forget about me and love Hyunjin more. But later on, as I spent more time with him and saw that you showed the exact same care and love to both of us, I let go of those thoughts."
Hearing his boyfriend express his thoughts so openly brought a warm, affectionate smile to Hyunjin's lips.
"So how did you even get to this courting phase? Good grief, I can't understand when or how this happened. How did we never notice?" Chan lamented to himself, and it was Hyunjin who answered him.
"Actually, we don't really know either. Since we couldn't stay in human form for long, we couldn't sit down and have proper conversations. I think it was completely instinctive. All of a sudden, I found myself courting him, and when Felix responded to it, it just kept going."
"So, all that biting and choking was entirely just flirting, is that it?"
"Yes. Though lately, we've been doing it just for fun. The movements you mistook for fighting are actually our own unique communication language," Felix said. His words finally brought clarity to the couple, even though they were still stunned.
The hybrids they thought were fighting were actually two boyfriends who just loved bickering with each other...
Chan and Minho sat on the sofa as if turned to stone, utterly unable to process the scene before them. The two pets they had spent months losing sleep over—fearing they would tear each other to pieces, and worrying more about their psychological state than veterinarian bills—were now huddled together in human form, trying to hide their blushing cheeks out of sheer embarrassment.
Minho pressed his hands to his temples and took a deep breath.
"So..." he said, his voice coming out higher than usual. "That day when Felix jumped on top of you and tried to pluck your fur... that was actually a display of affection?"
Hyunjin tightened his grip on Felix's shoulder slightly and offered a soft smile. Even in his human form, he retained the graceful, fluid movements of a ferret.
"Exactly, hyung. Felix is very protective and actually a bit shy. Since he couldn't bring himself to approach me directly, he found that cornering and pecking at me was the only way to get my attention. And I just went along with it."
Felix slowly lifted his head from Hyunjin's neck and glared at Minho. He still carried the sweet yet feisty aura of a little chick.
"You guys never understood us! Every time I bit him, I was actually trying to say, 'You smell really nice today.' And when he wrapped himself around me until I was breathless, he was showing me how much he loved me. This is our love language."
Hearing this, Chan felt both deeply relieved and angry at himself. For days, he had needlessly called Jisung, begging him, 'You need to adopt Hyunjin right away, otherwise there's going to be a murder in this house.' Remembering Jisung's name in his contacts, he immediately grabbed his phone and typed a quick message to sort things out:
"We changed our minds about putting Hyunjin up for adoption. I'll explain the details later." After sending it, he put the phone aside and turned back to the boys.
"But why didn't you tell us anything while you were in your human forms? What if we had actually given you away to Jisung?"
An instant flash of fear sparked in Hyunjin's eyes, and he drew even closer to Felix.
"Staying in human form is exhausting for us, you know that. Our bodies grow heavy and our energy drains instantly. Every time we intended to speak up, we would always end up forcing ourselves back into our hybrid forms. But when you said you were going to separate us, we knew we had to take the risk and speak up no matter what. Because without Felix, I can't live in another house."
Felix completely melted at those words. The feisty chick from moments ago was gone, replaced by a love-struck creature entirely curled up against his boyfriend's chest.
Unable to take any more of this intensely emotional and romantic atmosphere, Minho stood up.
"Alright, this is way too much sentimentality for me. Since you aren't fighting, from now on you'll be held accountable for whoever tore up the living room couch cushions. Since you were flirting, you'll be paying the bill for your own flirting."
Chan laughed, grabbing Minho's arm and pulling him toward the kitchen. "Leave the boys alone, Minho. Look at them, they clearly have no intention of leaving each other's side."
Left alone in the living room as their owners moved to the kitchen, Hyunjin and Felix let out a deep breath. Hyunjin placed a gentle kiss right into Felix's hair.
"I'm never leaving you, you know that, right?" he whispered. Felix smiled lovingly at his words and gave his boyfriend a quick kiss.
"I know. But if the name Jisung ever comes up in this house again, I will literally learn how to fly and lose my mind on everyone." Despite his threatening tone, Hyunjin burst into laughter.
His boyfriend was incredibly cute, even when he thought he was being intimidating.
Unable to resist the sweet exhaustion that came with staying in human form any longer, the two lay down on the sofa, holding each other tightly.
After a few minutes, noticing the silence in the room, Chan and Minho walked back into the lounge only to find that the boys had shifted back into their hybrid forms.
Hyunjin was stretched out comfortably on the sofa, while Felix was resting peacefully right on top of his white fur.
Looking at them, the couple felt like they were going to melt from the sheer cuteness. A pang of regret washed over them as they realized how close they had come to separating the two, but thankfully, they had averted the mistake just in time.
They had realized, albeit late, that the hybrids they thought were fighting were actually two crazy boyfriends who simply chose to bicker, tease, and love each other in their own unique way...
Bonus Hyunlix Moments
•Felix constantly bites Hyunjin’s tail, letting himself be swung around while Hyunjin thrashes about. (I think he loves flying.)
• Hyunjin’s favorite place to sleep is inside Chan’s sweaters. As for Felix, his favorite is his pillow made of Hyunjin’s tail...
• Hyunjin’s favorite activity is holding Felix by his neck with his mouth and carrying him around. (Minho used to think he was trying to eat Felix—and well, he does want to eat him, just not the way people think!)
• Hyunjin’s least favorite activity is going to the vet. That’s why Felix always comes along with him and doesn't get off his back for even a single second.
• Felix’s favorite activity is the moments he sleeps together with Hyunjin. If they happen to transform into their human forms while sleeping, he absolutely adores breathing in Hyunjin’s scent.
• When they are in their human forms, both of their favorite thing to do is to rest together. Because when they are in their hybrid forms, they exhaust each other so much that they barely have any energy left once they turn human.
• Another thing they love is playing with each other’s hair. They absolutely adore braiding it into little plaits and putting in fancy hairpins. (Chan’s gallery is completely full of their photos.)
• When their owners go to work, Hyunjin loves drawing pictures on Felix’s body. It cracks him up to see Felix as a fully painted little chick when he turns back into his hybrid form. (Minho, on the other hand, faints out of sheer terror, thinking Felix got hurt somewhere.)
• Hyunjin loves strawberries so much, so Felix prepares strawberry desserts for him at every opportunity.
• Felix loves strawberries too, but he doesn't really like eating sweets. So, he tastes the strawberry flavor right from his boyfriend’s lips...