Once upon a time, a family of wolves lived in a forest.

The forest was disappearing day by day, and animals were disappearing day by day.

The mommy wolf said to the young wolf,

“You must leave here, darling, this is not a good place to live anymore.”

The young wolf asked his mommy.

“Mommy, are you coming with me?”

“No darling, you must go on your own! I am too old to go. Head to the east. It shall be a good place for you to have your own family.”

The next day, the wolf went on his way to the east, with his mommy’s warning that he must not talk or follow humans at any time.

After a few months, the wolf was still heading to the east. But, he could not find a good place to settle down, nor a partner who would be part of his pack.

The more he walked, the murkier the air became.

“Cough! Cough!”

The more he walked, the murkier the water in the river became.

“Yuck! What is in the water?”

The wolf was very hungry because he couldn’t find any animals for weeks.

As he walked through the mountain road, he saw a rotten rabbit with a skid mark on it.

“Would it be safe to eat?… Well, I need to be strong to get to the east and settle down there to make my own family!”

The wolf forced himself to eat the corpse, so he could make it to the east.

“Blarrghh!!!!!!!!!”

A few hours later, the wolf threw up the polluted water and a rotten rabbit. He had no energy to continue his journey.

After few steps, the wolf saw himself through a puddle of dirty water.

The wolf lamented in a gloomy voice.

“I can’t find any hope. Maybe my mom lied that such a place exists! She never left the west forest! She doesn’t know anything! Why am I here?”

Wolf started crying in hopelessness.

“Why are you crying, young wolf?”

The wolf looked up and there was a little girl.

She was holding a plastic cup with crystal-clear water in it.

“I am so hungry and thirsty. I have to go to the east, but I don’t have any power to carry on.”

“Poor little wolf, have some water.”

The wolf drank all the water she had.

She chucked the plastic bottle to the bush behind her and said, “Why don’t you come with me to my grandmother’s house? She always welcomes guests. She will give you food and shelter”

The wolf hesitated for a moment, but he was starving to death.

“Oh, how kind you are! Thank you.”

The wolf and a little girl walked along the pathway together.

Sooner or later, they arrived at the little village in the mountain.

The wolf was utterly exhausted so he could not walk any longer.

“Sorry, I cannot make it anymore.”

“Oh no, it’s almost there!”

“Sorry, I just can’t.”

The girl thought for a minute.

“I have an idea!”

The little girl pointed to the giant farm in the village, and said, “That is my grandmother’s farm! There are chickens in the barn, and you shall have one of them. I will tell my grandmother.”

“Is it really okay?”

“Yes, it will be just fine. She will understand.”

Knock Knock!

“Who’s there?”

“Nanna, it’s me, your granddaughter”

“Sweetie, lift up the latch and walk in.”

The little girl opened the door and entered the house.

As soon as she stepped into the house, the little girl saw a luxurious red hood in front of her.

“Happy birthday, darling. It is for you. I made it with sixteen fat minks.”

“Thank you so much, Nanna! It is so soft!”

She was so happy that she completely forgot about the wolf.

Meanwhile, the wolf walked into the barn and saw many chickens packed in small cages.

“Oh, I wondered where all the animals were, but they are here!”

The wolf happily opened the cage and started gobbling up one of the chickens.

The frightened chickens started to cluck, and the security alarm went off.

The grandmother checked the security camera, while the little girl was trying on the hood.

“Dear God, there is a big scary wolf in my barn!”

She immediately called the sheriff who lived right next to her farm.

“There is a big wolf in my barn! It is eating up all the chickens! Please go there and kill that greedy wolf!”

The wolf finished eating the first chicken, and he was still hungry.

“Let me eat one more chicken. No one is going to notice, there are so many of them!”

As soon as he opened his big mouth to start eating another chicken, BANG!

Everything turned black – but the wolf started seeing the beautiful nature where deer and rabbits were eating grass under the large oak trees, a beautiful female wolf with babies, frogs singing in an emerald pond… the place he always dreamed of… He finally arrived there as he got shot in the head.

He happily smiled and died.

In this retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, Taehyeong changed the point of view from that of the human characters to that of the wolf and the entire story shifted from one of triumph to one of domination and loss. Taehyeong’s goal in reversing the protagonist and antagonist of the story was to “reveal the dark side of humanity” and to encourage readers of this story to consider the perspective of animals around them.