A little furry hamster rolled around in its tiny cushion bed, stretching its minuscule paws. Groggily blinking its golden eyes, its nose sniffed the cold morning air and its small mouth opened wide to let out a yawn. When it looked out the window, the sun had yet to rise, the sky remained dark and one could still clearly see the milky moon glowing above several small houses.

The black furry hamster shifted into a human the next second, revealing a tall man with threateningly handsome features. When he stretched his hands, they reached the low-ceiling of the house. When he walked out the house to head towards the communal bath to start his day, his eyes landed on a particular ginger dog peeking at him from behind the fence.

Jin’s eyes became sharp in a split second upon seeing the small pup. He had seen this little dog loitering around the house every day, and he had seen Tina feed this lil one every morning. It just never registered to him as something out of ordinary. Now that he’s up early, he might as check the pup to make sure there’s nothing strange going on around Tina.

After all, he did have a promise to fulfil - he said he’d help Tina maintain her mob life.

In large strides, he walk towards the dog. Upon seeing this the little pup growled at him, it bared its usually hidden sharp teeth towards Jin. Not bothered, Jin lifted the pup by the scruff of its neck, bringing its face near his. With one look at its features, a scowl appeared on Jin’s face.

“Wolf tribe… One? No two years old. Which hole did you jump out from? Your tribe should be located a continent away.”

Grr! The small pup struggled but to no avail; all the little waving limbs did was make it appear cuter.

“You can’t transform?” He pushed his finger to poke the little puppy’s face, but the ferocious (but still adorable) dog starts chewing on it brutally. Taking back out the finger out of its mouth, Jin smiled smugly. “It’s better that you can’t. It’s less headache for me.”

At the mention of this, the small pup started shifting into the shape of a small toddler boy with fluffy orange ears and tails - if anyone were to see him, they would surely be melted by his cuteness.

“Tsk. I raised a flag.” Jin put down the boy and ran his fingers through his hair frustratingly. Tina had taught him the concept of ‘flags’ and he’d witnessed people triggering events with mere words. As much as it was unbelievable, the evidence was there. He thought he’d be more careful with his words. Yet…!

“Stop lingering around this house.” Jin flicked the small boy’s forehead, and the boy crouched down covering his forehead with both hands. His teary eyes looking at Jin as if he’d been unfairly punished.

“Look there.” Jin pointed at the neighbour Aria’s house. “See that house? There’s a really nice lady with pink hair who’s willing to treat you nicer than the horrible woman in this house would. All this woman does is leave you leftovers at the front door. You don’t even know how she’s truly horrible, she scams people off a large amount of money and only give them a hamster bed to sleep— Ah… That wasn’t my point.”

Jin dry coughed, realising he unconsciously started ranting to a small 2 year old boy. The boy, naturally, had trouble digesting the load of irrelevant information he’d just been given.

“Tina… my master, no?” The small voice asked timidly, looking up towards the tall imposing man.

'Tina would start coughing blood if she heard this.’ Jin's lips curved when he imagined her repulsed expression he’d gotten used to the past few months.

“Not Tina. Aria’s your master.” Jin pointed at the wooden house beside.

The little boy tilted his head in confusion. He knew the pink hair lady who lived next door. However, the pink hair lady always avoided stray dogs. She’s allergic to dogs!

‘Ah I failed.’ Jin thought once he heard the boy’s thoughts about Aria’s allergy. It would’ve been a good strategy to dump him onto Aria otherwise.

How would Ginger call Aria master when she’d never even fed him? All the boy remember was warm hands and the kind face of the brown haired lady from the house in front of him. He’d think of the tasty food he got when he was starving during cold winter months.

“No. Tina’s my master.” The boy shook his head. His mind was set. He only recognised one nice person who treated him nice and it was Tina.

“……” Jin was lost for words, but a second later he decided to just leave it be. The boy’s only two year old, it’s quite far until he develops ML attributes. It should be okay?

But Jin did not realise (and Tina had forgotten to teach) about the existence of several novels with child protagonists and child-raising themes.

“Tina won’t like it if you appear like this. Stay in your pup form.” He pat the little boy’s head, his fingers felt ticklish when it weaved through the smooth fur.

“Ok.” The little boy nodded enthusiastically and returned to its little dog form.

“I’ll feed you from now on.” Jin thought he might minimise contact between the little wolf-kin and Tina as much as possible. He felt dissatisfied when he thought about his hours of sleep being cut short to get up early just to feed this mutt.

Ginger immediately felt familiar to the tall man who he first felt threatened by. He lovingly rubbed his head against the man’s legs who he already labelled 'co-master' together with Tina. Jin felt something was wrong with this situation, but he left it to being needlessly paranoid after staying with Tina for so long. It's just a kid...

On his way back after taking a long bath, dawn arrived and the sunrise splashed the sky a pretty shade of pink. The birds sang songs to welcome the start of the day, tweeting and chirping joyously. Jin’s steps stopped midway when he sensed someone looking at him with the intent to observe intensely.

His eyes darted around, and landed on the big tree outside the house, upon a lone yellow bird innocently resting on the branch.

“Hah!” Jin scoffed when he realised the bird’s identity. “Is she opening a zoo? Why are there so many critters around her?”

Jin released a large murderous intent directed at the bird, enough to frighten a bear. If it were any normal bird, they would have dropped dead on spot from fright. However, the yellow bird was unperturbed, it just flapped its wing and left the town to travel north.

When he entered the house, he was welcomed home with a heavenly aroma of freshly baked cinnamon buns. He languidly sprawled on the wobbly chair, his long arms dangling off the sides.

“Why do you look half-dead so early in the morning?” Tina asked with a raised brow. She’s the one who had to painstakingly make breakfast, why does HE look like he’s so done with life?

“Because I’m a nice guy who keeps his promises.” Jin answered thoughtlessly, stuffing one cinnamon bun into his mouth.

What the hell are you on about now…

yam.laure

Hi! I've already said this during the first chapter, but I thought I'd write this again here. This story doesn't have a regular update schedule - I update when I'm free to write.

Also there has been a recent cover change from the previous brown-hair girl which was (stolen) LOL. I couldn't get away with it when the story got more popular. The current girl on the cover photo looks more 'haughty pissed' than 'annoyed', but hey at least this one's original work~