Chapter Text
There weren't many things going on in Kim Soleum's life. His entire life he was doing exactly what was asked of him - working hard and studying in school, so he wouldn't find himself at the bottom of his class's ranking. Truth to be told, he never was a fan of this system - instead of creating a competitive spirit you only point students against one another. For that reason Soleum never aimed high - the last thing he wanted was to end up on the hit list of his classmates. Soleum always and without an exception aimed for the middle of the ranking. No matter what subject, no matter what competition. He was completely average all the time and that was the one thing he prided himself with. His grades were never bad enough to worry his teachers or good enough to pressure his siblings to outperform him. During the calmer years of his school and university years he'd take on a part-time job to not put too much of a financial strain on his parents. He would have a few friends in school, yet would naturally drift apart during university and later work.
Kim Soleum's life was completely ordinary and average and he was set up to become the perfect grown-up. Not standing out, just working diligently to make end's meet. A job he didn't like, but also didn't hate enough to quit.
The perfect set-up.
Soleum, all his life, did his best to avoid trouble. He avoided trouble with such a passion that one might call it one of his strengths.
So, really.
What was this situation?
He stared and stared some more at that small bundle of orange fur on his doorstep. Yes. Out of everyone's apartments, with the doors next to each other, lined up like sardines in a can, he was the only one with a furry visitor. Out of everyone, why did it have to choose him who avoided everything overcomplicated with every phiber of his being?
From all possible angles this looked like an animal - a fox, to be precise. In the middle of a big city like Seoul? Of course he had seen documentaries of foxes surviving in cities... Rummaging through trashcans for edible scraps... But what was it doing in front of his door?
He was already getting a headache from this situation. If he stepped towards the animal, reached over it and unlocked the door... Took a big step over its body. A fox wasn't that big anyway, yet Soleum was careful. They were known to carry rabies and he wasn't interested in dying. Who knows what was going on in the head of an animal that came to camp in front of his door? As Soleum approached with soft, careful and quiet steps he had trained for his entire life. Loud enough to be audible if one laid attention. This way he wouldn't be called rude for interrupting someone's attention and at the same time didn't need to worry about being accused of eavesdropping when walking past a room. Of course the one in front of him didn't need such consideration. It was a fox.
A glance down showed Soleum that the fur of his visitor was well taken care of. Some people had pet foxes. Maybe it escaped from somewhere? The chances of it having rabies were small then. Yet the absence of both of both a collar and the dent in the fur around the neck where a collar might have been before made him doubt it. Still, this was none of his business. Soleum was an adult busy with grown-up things. He couldn't even remember the last time he went to the zoo to look at animals. Maybe he should go soon. A zoo or - if it was too inconvenient - at least a cat cafe? Fox cafe? Was there such a thing in Seoul? Distracted by his thoughts he almost dropped his keys onto the ground... Or the animal.
The soft noise of metal rubbing against each other causes the fluffy big ears to twitch and Soleum suddenly feels himself in a rush. Stepping over a sleeping animal and ignoring its existence once he was inside his home was a completely different thing than looking into its eyes while cruelly closing the door right in front of its nose. If the fox even had the decency to let him go inside without getting in first. What was he supposed to do then? Which hotline would he need to call to remove a wild - maybe sick, maybe dangerous - animal out of his own four walls? For him who was just a normal corporate worker coming home from work this sounded like a lot of stress and headache at the end of an already exhausting day. What he wanted to do right now was to take a bath, prepare some instant noodles and then get comfortable in his bed, falling asleep with his phone playing an episode of Bluey he already knew every line of from the bottom of his heart, so he could fall asleep to it without worrying about missing any oh so important dialogue.
Of course Soleum wasn't quiet enough to trick a fox. They didn't have those big ears just for show. They could even hear ultrasonic, so if course the animal's ears continued to twitch and turn as the human unlocked and then opened his door. Yet it didn't move and stayed where it was, curled up on his door mat. It should calm Soleum and for a moment it did. For a moment he was under the impression that he could simply open the door and get in, avoiding thinking about this unexpected doorstep camper. Yet he was too slow. Too slow for his own senses to not catch up. Sound was a fox's primory sense, before smell and vision. Still, these other two senses were also way sharper than a humans. So one couldn't blame Soleum for not noticing the stench sooner, hidden underneath all the typical city smells. While his sense of smell was inferior, he still picked something up in that moment - something that was still hidden to his eyes:
His doormat underneath that animal was completely covered in fox blood.