background

He may be up for adoption now, but Hongki has been owned by humans before, and it didn't end so favorably.  His first human adopted him when he was only a puppy hybrid, and he was everything he could have hoped for and more.  The boy was around the same age, loved him unconditionally, and spoiled him in every way imaginable.  They grew up together for the majority of their childhood.  Boy and hybrid were the archetype of the relationship between man and dog, and the fact that Hongki is a hybrid rather than just a dog only made their bond stronger.  He was living the dream.
It didn't last.  Hongki had always had a habit of getting distracted and wandering off, sometimes ending up halfway across town before his boy found him.  Sometimes he wandered on his own, his attention caught by something glimmering off in the distance, or even a squirrel he followed up a tree despite having no idea how to climb one.  Sometimes he would make a new friend and follow them to the next place they were going, with no regard to whether that was a good idea or not.  His boy always found him, scolded him, forgave him, and helped him patch up whatever trouble he got into.  Until the one time he didn't.
Kidnapping, dognapping, hybridnapping - call it what you want, but essentially, a woman stole Hongki from his boy.  That was Hongki's second owner.  He missed his boy a lot, but she wouldn't let Hongki go home.  Eventually he accepted that and gave the woman his love and devotion like a good boy.  That home only lasted about three years, until Hongki grew into more of an adult and the woman slowly grew less and less interested.  Apparently she'd liked him because he was young; he had no clue.  One day she found a new pet and kicked him out on the streets.  He stayed outside her door for a week until the cold rain and the hunger made him sick and the woman called and had him sent to a shelter.
His third owner adopted him from the shelter.  The third one was the worst.  He was abusive, taking retribution every time Hongki tried to wander off or got too friendly with other humans, even though he meant no harm and wasn't even trying to run away.  The abuse was both emotional and physical, and Hongki ended up permanently leashed to the wall and confined in the man's house for over half a year.  Eventually he, too, abandoned Hongki and left him to the streets, and after a while, he ended up here in Youngbin's shop.  His past experiences and abuses haven't deterred his longing for an owner once again, and they haven't altered his cheerful and loving attitude, but there are still several triggers that will send him whimpering to a corner or hiding, shivering, under the nearest warm blanket.

personality

Hongki has what's been described as the typical retriever personality.  Bright and cheerful, easily excited, and friendly to a fault, he's one of the easiest people to get along with right off the bat.  Mischief is one of his favorite hobbies, although only a fraction of it is intentional or even conscious.  Focus, on the other hand, is a foreign concept.  Even the slightest distraction has been known to throw him hopelessly off track.

Unfortunately, the friendliness that is Hongki's greatest charm also happens to be his biggest flaw.  Combined with his distractability, it's made him into the type of person who could end up following some stranger home just because they were kind to him for two seconds.  He gets attached to people very easily, hybrids and humans alike (but especially humans; something about that "man's best friend" instinct coming from his retriever half).  On top of it all, he has no sense for people's character, automatically assuming the best of everyone who crosses his path, despite how it's gotten him into trouble in the past.