Chapter Text
It's almost a normal day. Right up until the alarm goes off, Harua hasn't noticed that anything is any different to usual. His eyes are just as tired as they've been for the past couple of weeks. His body aches a little, but with the amount of time they've been spending practising choreography lately, it would be strange if he didn't ache.
Maybe he wouldn't usually drift off back to sleep. But he'd climbed into bed last night with the knowledge that he had a completely free day, and he isn't about to waste a lie-in with a comeback on the horizon. Most days he likes to be up, but he's been trying to rest whenever he has the chance before the promotions start.
Half of the members are scheduled to be at the company, which is what woke him up in the first place. He can hear the noise of bags and shoes and coats in the hallway. Someone is laughing, someone is opening the door with a little too much force.
The conversation carries. Euijoo and Fuma talking about something, Taki shouting something. Someone who he can't identify is talking around a toothbrush.
It's not loud enough to fully wake him up, but he can't sleep through it either. Instead, he makes the most of the in-between state, lying with his eyes closed and the blanket tucked around him. He doesn't even move when the door to the room swings open, and Nicholas steps in.
It just sounds like he's grabbing a jacket. He does a quick once-over of the room, but his eyes don't linger on Harua, and then he practically beelines to the clothes hanging on the rack nearby.
He's already wearing a jacket, but this one must not fit the outfit. Harua watches with half-lidded eyes as Nicholas shrugs it off and throws it down onto his bed. He hesitates over two, but then Yudai calls his name from the corridor and he grabs the one closest.
Harua almost tells him he looks fine. He's still half asleep and lying at an angle where he can't see him completely, but Nicholas always looks cool, and he appreciates it when the effort he's put into an outfit is recognised. It's bonus points to his 'Number One Fashion Student' title as well.
Except-
He gets as far as opening his mouth. And not anywhere past that. Nicholas is still checking his reflection in the mirror, but Harua's tongue feels glued to the roof of his mouth. He hadn't realised his throat was so dry. The noise he'd been trying to make comes out completely silent, and it feels more like he's choking than trying to form a sentence.
Harua frowns. He almost goes to reach up and massage his neck, but his position lying down is odd. He can't move his arm up that far.
Nicholas is leaving before he can really process it. He doesn't check over his shoulder to see if he'd accidentally woken Harua up, and he doesn't close the door with any kind of thought about muffling the sound.
"He's not there," he says from the corridor, "He must have gone for a walk already."
There's no mistaking that he's talking about Harua. There are only two people sleeping in this room, after all.
But Harua is right there. Very much still in bed, and not even trying to hide it. It isn't uncommon for him to have gone on a morning walk if he's not scheduled to be at the company, but something about this makes him frown.
Had Nicholas not seen him? He'd looked directly at his bed - or so Harua had thought. Maybe he'd been more asleep than he'd realised. Maybe Nicholas had been too lost in thought to pay proper attention, or maybe Harua's body had been hidden beneath his piles of pillows and blankets.
"I didn't hear him leave," Yudai says. "He must have gone early."
"Or maybe you just weren't paying as much attention as you thought you were," Taki tells him. His voice gets quieter as he speaks, moving towards the door and out of the dorm, but Harua still catches the way Yudai's feet hit the ground as he runs after him, and the way Taki squeaks.
The conversation might continue. It might not. The door shuts with a click, and Harua is left alone in the room.
All the noise has woken him up. He could probably go back to sleep if he really wanted to, but he wouldn't wake up for another hour or so afterwards - and then it's just a waste of a day he could have spent relaxing. The mental list of names of members he knows staying back today is short. Jo and Maki, and possibly Yuma.
Maki had mentioned something about cleaning last night. He'd announced it - just that he was going to go through the rooms and take out all the trash that had slowly been accumulating throughout comeback-preparations - but Harua would have been listening anyway.
Something had changed between them recently. When Maki spoke, Harua turned to listen. If he tapped his shoulder to get his attention, Harua was already watching him out of the corner of his eye. If he smiled at something he thought no one was watching, Harua felt his heart beat a little faster.
He'd become endearing. Not that he hadn't been originally, but this was something... different. Something that made Harua nervous every time he started to think about it for too long.
His solution to that issue is to simply not think about it at all.
Either way, he knows Maki is going to start cleaning soon, and he wants to let him know he appreciates it. It would be rude to still be in bed when Maki's helping out around the dorm, wouldn't it? He'd planned to at least move the plastic bottles from his desk into the living area.
He wants to linger. He wants to hover around Maki like the scent of smoke clinging to the fabric of a jacket. He wants to be steam on a mirror, just fogged up around the edges.
He wants to be near Maki.
He doesn't want to think about what that could mean.
Harua forces his thoughts to come back down to the ground. He wants to help Maki out because he appreciates how much he does to keep the dorm clean, that's all. Nothing more than that. Before he can start to spiral again, he makes up his mind to get out of bed and at least put on some proper clothes.
Except-
This is where the 'normal' illusion of the day starts to fade away. Harua shifts his way over to the edge of his bed, and sees the ground is... a lot further away than he last remembers. He isn't talking about a couple of inches. Sticking his head over the side of his mattress and looking down feels more like staring down the side of a mountain.
He blinks, but the view doesn't change. It's no longer a jump he can make safely. There's got to be at least ten metres between where he's lying and the floor.
It's dizzying. Harua pulls back, suddenly feeling much more awake than before, only to find that his body doesn't move like he remembers.
He can't sit up. His arm - he hadn't been able to stretch earlier - is shorter than he remembers, and his legs trapped beneath his body, positioned in a way that shouldn't feel as natural as it does.
Pulling back isn't a shuffle. He doesn't sit up and use his arms to pull his body across the mattress. He doesn't kick off the blankets with his legs - because now he looks down the bed, it seems to stretch on for miles - and his legs are nowhere near the blankets.
He jumps back with muscles he's not sure he remembers using in this way before, but that thought is quickly filed away in favour of something a little more pressing.
He's... shrunk?
He's smaller. The barriers at the side of the bunk-bed are huge. He could fit between them if he wanted too, and he's certain that hadn't been possible when he'd gone to sleep. With the ground seeming so far away and the length of his bed seeming to have grown, it's the only conclusion he comes to.
It's impossible, yet it's the only explanation his mind provides.
Somehow, he's shrunk. He's no longer the same height he used to be, but he doesn't feel small like a child. He feels-
Slowly, Harua looks down.
He's not sure what he's expecting to see. He prides himself on being accepting and unfazed, but there's still a pit of dread in his stomach before his head even begins to move. A bad feeling that's been growing in size since he woke up.
It's easy to be accepting of things that happen in real life. There are limits on what's possible, and at the end of the day, humans are just humans. He can take emotions and confessions and secrets between other people in his stride. As unexpected as they may be, he's always been able to nod in understanding and move on with his day.
Things like... this are different.
This doesn't feel like reality. He feels oddly calm after realising his body has changed form, but is that because his mind is struggling to catch up with the fact this isn't an odd dream? Or is it just because there's nothing he can do about it?
Either way, he already has a feeling about what he's expecting when he looks down.
Still.
He wouldn't have predicted two tiny rabbit paws.
A noise tries to make its way out of his throat, but it's swallowed by the same dry feeling that had prevented him calling out to Nicholas earlier. He's suddenly acutely aware of his nose twitching instead. His teeth are too large in his mouth. There's movement he didn't think was possible in his ears , and the world suddenly sounds a little too loud.
The fans have always joked that he's a rabbit.
It's his designated animal. At first, he hadn't been able to see it - looking into the mirror had only ever reflected back his face, after all - but he'd quickly grown into the nickname. Over the years, it's gotten to the point where the rabbit-lights from the holidays hang down from the side of his bed, and he carries around a rabbit-themed bag. Introducing himself as a bunny has become his go-to greeting.
It's always just been a nickname, though. He'd never expect Yuma to one day wake up as a cat, or Euijoo as an orange.
Why is this happening to him? There's no mistaking it - the paws move whenever he tries to move his hands, and he can swivel the ears on his head without much effort at all - but there's no logic or reason behind the transformation.
It's like a bad dream, except Harua is wide awake.
He's only just coming to terms with this new reality when the door to the room opens again. He'd been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't paid attention to the sound of people coming down the corridor.
Maki steps into the room. He's wearing rubber gloves up to his elbows and carrying a half-full trash bag in one hand. He heads straight for the collection of bottles on Harua's desk, but not before emptying the trash bin in the room into his own bag.
Jo isn't far behind him. He also enters the room before the door can close, but he looks significantly less sure about what he's doing than Maki does. It seems like he's playing along the exact same lines Harua had been planning to - wanting to help out to show appreciation, but not quite sure what exactly to do.
He's holding the roll of trash bags in his hand. When Maki eventually fills up the one he's already holding, Jo is at least quick to take it from him, handing over the next so Maki can continue cleaning.
Otherwise, he just stands there a little awkwardly. It's odd to be in someone's room without their permission, Harua agrees, but Jo's standing near to the bed, and -
They're close. Close enough for Harua's nose to twitch and the movement catch Jo's eyes, even if he hadn't been looking in that exact direction. He turns to look at the bed with a frown.
There's nothing obviously out of place. Harua is small, and if the rest of his body is the same pale-white as his paws, he's fairly confident he blends in with the colour of his pillows and bedsheets.
The movement could have been a sheet. The closing of the door could have created a breeze strong enough to move one of the blankets slightly out of place, just enough for the weight redistribution to cause some movement. Nicholas' abandoned jacket could have been sliding down his covers this whole time.
Jo turns in the direction of the bed, and Harua's heart leaps into his chest.
For a moment, he thinks that Jo is just going to look past him, just like Nicholas had.
Although his mind is shouting at him to let himself be found, his instincts are stronger. Since Jo and Maki walked into the room, he's barely been able to shift his weight. Deep in his subconscious, there are only two choices that he's able to make whilst stuck in a place with beings much larger than him.
He could bolt the moment that they come too close, but the covers are heavy and there's a wall preventing him from moving too far. Or he could stay completely still and hope that Jo assumes he'd just bought a life-like plushie. In the end, it's not even a choice that he's able to make - his mind betrays him, and he's frozen in place like a deer in headlights.
"I think that's most of it," Maki says. He sweeps the plastic bottles into a bag and they rattle as they fall. It's a loud sound to Harua's newly sensitive ears, and it draws his attention.
It's got to be enough to distract Jo. It has to be, it's a much larger movement than anything Harua could make this size. Maki's talking to Jo, that surely has to be enough to draw Jo into looking away.
But Jo isn't predictable in that way.
Harua's eyes move towards Maki, his ears twitch at the sound. It would have been unnoticeable amongst the sheets if Jo had been a second faster in also following the direction of the noise - but he lingers on the beds for a moment too long.
They make eye contact.
Jo stares at him. Harua hadn't been looking that way, but his eyes leave Maki the moment that he realises Jo is looking directly at him. He doesn't dare blink. He doesn't dare move a muscle. Even if his brain knows it's only Jo - probably the gentlest member out of all of them - his instincts tell him to freeze in place.
Well. They tell most of him to freeze in place.
His legs are quivering slightly, caught up between the urge to duck away and jump under the blankets. His nose is twitching as he breathes. Jo stares back at him, expression incredulous and unreadable, and Harua's ears flinch in the tiniest of movements.
"Oh," Jo says. He blinks. The game is clearly up. He knows Harua is there - or, he knows a rabbit is there, even if he doesn't know that it's Harua just yet. "Oh."
Maki keeps cleaning. The bag with the bottles in gets tied and placed near the door, whilst he does a once-over of the rest of the room, nodding to himself when he doesn't notice anything else that could be obviously thrown away. "Hmm? What's up?"
To his credit, Jo's voice doesn't sound as shocked as it probably should. In fact, he sounds impossibly calm considering the situation. There's nothing in his tone that suggests he's just found a rabbit sitting in his groupmate’s bed.
Harua stares at him. Jo stares back.
"Well-" he starts to say, but words fail him. Maki looks over his shoulder to frown at how strangely Jo is acting. He follows the direction of his eyes, and then Maki is looking at Harua as well.
His face changes expressions so rapidly that Harua can't begin to place a single one. He goes from shocked to confused to bewildered, and then he abandons the trash bags on the ground in favour of standing next to Jo to get a better look.
Harua backs up a little.
They're standing too close. He feels like he's being inspected. The weight of their gazes makes his skin itch.
"Is that... a rabbit? " Maki says. His eyes widen as Harua blinks back at him. "In Rua's bed? Are you sure it's real?"
Jo glances at him silently. He'd barely had time to check, and it's not like he has any more answers that Maki does. Even Harua barely has more of an explanation than the two boys staring at him - and he's the one that's been turned into a rabbit in the first place.
Maki reaches out his hand. He moves slowly, as if he's scared of scaring Harua. Harua's instincts are telling him to back away, but his determination to get at least some sort of communication between them going forces his body to stay still. Even if he's in a rabbit's body, it's still his mind that's in control.
To prove that, he ducks his head forwards, displaying the back of his neck towards Maki. He refuses to flinch when Maki starts to run his fingers down the fur there.
His touch is gentle. Maki's hand is warm, and the sensation of being pet is strangely comforting. It's enough to make his mind stop running quite so quickly. His instincts that had been telling him to pull away are finally beginning to quieten down - drowned out by the rhythmic petting, telling him to chase after the feeling instead of backing away.
"It's soft," he hears Maki tell Jo, although it sounds slightly distant now that Maki's hand is all Harua's brain can focus on.
"It's a real rabbit?"
Maki nods. "Yeah, there's no way that it's a toy," he says, "I can feel it breathing and everything. Here-"
He puts one foot on the bottom rung of the ladder and pushes up, using the extra height to lean closer to Harua. His hand leaves the back of his neck, but his body-heat doesn't leave completely - instead, he puts his hands on either side of the mattress around Harua. Slowly, he scoops him into his arms.
It's an odd feeling. Harua doesn't jump out from the hold, but he does pointedly ignore how close the two of them are. They cuddle all the time. All the members do. This isn't anything different - Maki doesn't even know it's him, he can't read into it.
That doesn't stop his skin from feeling like it's on fire. It doesn't stop the part of his mind that tells him to lean comfortably into the touch.
There's another hand on the back of his neck, this one slightly more hesitant than the last. "You're right," Jo says, patting Harua one last time before pulling away, "But... where did it come from?"
Maki doesn't have an answer for that.
The trash bags are abandoned on the floor as he starts to make his way out of the bedroom. Even Jo doesn't bother to pick them up as he follows Maki into the living room, all the way until Harua is being placed down onto the table in the centre of the room.
Yuma had been sitting on the sofa as they'd entered. He hadn't looked up for more than a brief glance - legs crossed and phone in his hand - but as soon as Harua's feet hit the table with a solid weight, he looks up.
"What," he says, "Is that?"
Harua shuffles closer to the centre of the table. He doesn't like being so close to the edge, even if he's more confident he could make this jump than the drop from the side of the bed. He pushes one of the magazines slightly out of the way, creating more space for himself.
Yuma, Jo and Maki all stare at him. He's created room in a distinctly un-rabbit like way.
"A rabbit," Jo says eventually, and it's obvious from his tone that he has no more of an idea about the situation than Yuma does. "We found it in Harua's bed. It doesn't seem to have made a mess or anything, it was just... there."
"And now it's here," Yuma finishes up for him. "You don't know how it got there?"
"We just found it!" Maki says. He'd been looking around like he was going to get inspiration on what to do next, only to find nothing. "Are we the only ones in? The others just left to go to the company - do you think this is a prank? Like a hidden camera?"
Jo shakes his head, "They have to give us a warning before they film anything in the dorms."
"What if the others approved it though?"
As soon as the words leave Maki's mouth, he must know how ridiculous it sounds. They've had hidden camera pranks played on them before, but this is on another level. And even from Harua's position on the table he can see how dirty the dorms are. With the comeback so soon, there are plates stacked up on every surface in the kitchen and random clothes strewn on the back of the furniture. Maki's attempt at cleaning has left full trash bags by the door.
There's no way the company would release something that had their living conditions looking like this. Especially not if it involved an animal getting free-range of the place.
"Okay, so that's out of the question. Is-" Maki looks around again, "Did they all leave already? Who's actually gone? We should probably at least tell everyone, are there any of the hyungs here?"
"We discussed this all last night," Yuma says. "You should know that, if you actually paid attention."
"I already said I was planning on cleaning!" Maki protests, "I didn't need to pay attention after they said I didn't need to be there. You can be my guest if you want to swap places next time!"
Yuma does a full body shudder at that. He may not be one of the messier members, but that doesn't mean he wants to take as much initiative as Maki does when it comes to keeping the dorms clean. "No thanks," he says, pulling a face, "I'm happy with just sticking to my own chores."
Maki grins right back at him, and Jo has to be the one to gently steer them back into the right direction. "The members who left?" He prompts.
"Oh," Yuma says. He counts off his fingers as he goes. "Everyone who went to the company was... K, Euijoo, Fuma, Nicholas and Taki. Harua went for a walk this morning, so he's not here either. It's just us three in the house at the moment. Plus the rabbit."
Maki nods slowly. His eyes have travelled back to Harua-rabbit, but his mind is clearly elsewhere.
"Harua's shoes are still here," Jo says.
"What?"
"Harua's shoes," Jo twists to point in the direction of the doorway, where their shoes are all nicely lined up on shelves, "They're still there."
It's not like Harua only owns one pair of shoes. He owns quite a few, but due to the lack of space in the hallway, most are stored in boxes under the bed until he decides to wear them. The only ones left on the shelf are his slippers and the shoes he usually wears when he's walking.
They're not in as good condition as the others, courtesy of a few too many rainy days. As an idol, he can't exactly be seen on public outings wearing muddy shoes, so it's easier to keep one pair for when he's not going to see anyone - instead of having to maintain a couple of pairs that need to be clean.
Yuma also turns to look. He frowns. "That's odd. I mean, I didn't actually see him go for a walk. I just heard Nicholas saying he must have left."
"I thought you got up early today?"
Yuma's frown deepens. "I did."
The three of them exchange glances. Harua can't tell exactly what's going on in their minds, but they look from the shoes to Harua's room multiple times. Yuma looks down at Harua-rabbit and swallows heavily, whilst Jo's wearing the same expression he'd been when he'd seen Harua on the bed.
There's a strange tension in the room. If they're thinking along the same lines, then no one's willing to say it. It's an insane suggestion to make. Harua can only hope that his pleading eyes make some sort of connection with someone.
In the end, it's Maki who cracks under the pressure first. He makes eye-contact with Yuma and Jo one last time, before turning to stare at Harua one last time.
"This may sound crazy," he says, slowly - as if that's going to make it sound any more like a reasonable suggestion. Like he isn't about to start talking to a rabbit. "But... Harua... is that you?"