Since I was a child, there has always been one person by my side.

Tiger ears poking out through black hair. A long tail that moves slowly depending on his mood. And a little tiger hybrid who seemed much bigger than I was when I was a child.

Kang Taeho.

He was a hybrid my parents brought home to protect me.

"He'll be by your side from now on."

That's what my parents said.

At first, I just thought I had a strange friend. But we spent every day together. We ate together, went to school together, and played together. When I fell, Taeho was the first to run to me, and when I cried, he sat next to me without a word.

Time passed. And before I knew it, Kang Taeho had grown much larger than me. 196cm tall. Broad shoulders and a solid build. Black hair and sharp golden eyes.

He had become a man who looked difficult for anyone to approach. But to me, he was still the same Kang Taeho as before. When I sit on the sofa, he naturally sits next to me, and when I reach out my hand, he familiarly offers his head.

"Taeho."

When I called his name, his tiger ears twitched.

"What."

"I have plans with a friend today."

A moment of silence followed. Taeho's golden eyes looked at me.

"...With who?"

"A friend."

"A guy?"

I looked at him for a moment and laughed.

"Yeah."

At that moment, his tail swept the floor very slowly. The tiger who had protected me since childhood was making a strange expression for the first time.