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1.
These days when he gets home from his part-time job at the convenience store, Jooheon always finds a huge black cat scratching at his door. It stops when Jooheon arrives, patiently waiting for him to open the studio before bolting inside, taking up residence on the threadbare couch that was already there when Jooheon moved in. Jooheon would then set down his bookbag, get himself a glass of water and go to sit beside it with his laptop, working on essays or just scouring the internet, a black donut of a cat curled up at his side.
He would scratch it behind the ears, and the cat would start to purr, quite loudly, sometimes kneading Jooheon’s thigh. When he did that, Jooheon would put his computer down, letting him crawl onto his chest, setting his paws on either side of his neck. If Jooheon didn’t start to pat it straight away, the cat would headbutt him in the chin until he did. Sometimes Jooheon would wait on purpose, finding it quite hilarious to have such a demanding cat purring on his chest.
Jooheon takes to wearing black more often, so it isn’t that obvious that he’s covered in cat hair half the time. He finds that his evenings aren’t as lonely anymore, even if he would never admit that his first friend in this strange city is a huge black cat with golden eyes.
2.
Jooheon gets home later than usual, one day. The kid supposed to take up the next shift had run late, very late, and Jooheon had to cover for him until he finally showed-up, out of breath and apologizing profusely. Jooheon had waved him off good naturedly, shit happens, but he was tired, so very tired.
His heart sinks when the elevator opens to an empty hallway. No cat. He peers around the corner, just in case, but it’s empty and silent, just like his apartment when he finally walks in. He sits in his usual spot on the old couch, but the absence of an overdemanding feline next to him is more overwhelming than he would care to admit.
He finds that he can’t focus on his essay, and that nothing on the internet can hold his interest for more than five minutes. His friends back in Daegu are probably right. He should definitely get out more. A cat cannot be his only friend.
3.
He picks up cat treats when he gets off work, and this time, when the elevator opens, the black cat is here. It starts mewling at him reproachfully when he goes to unlock the door, as if his night had been ruined yesterday, too.
“Yeah, I know. Sorry for yesterday, I was late.”
Jooheon cringes internally as his own voice resonates in the empty hallway. Apologizing to a damn cat is pretty much the next step into crazy cat lady territory. He doesn’t care, though, when the cat is next to him on the couch, happily munching on his treat, satisfied purring finally breaking the heavy silence hanging in the apartment.
Jooheon falls asleep half an hour later, with the heavy cat seeping warmth into his chest. His dreams are soft and pleasant, the cat’s comforting noises seeping into his subconscious. He awakes with a start half an hour later, to pounding on his door.
He groggily nudges the cat off his chest, and pads to the door while stifling a yawn. When he opens it there’s an angry-looking boy glaring at him on the other side.
“Do you have my cat?”
“Uh?”
Jooheon looks back as the guy peers around him, and his eyes fall on the cat still on the sofa, one leg stuck high in the air as he’s grooming himself. Jooheon points over his shoulder at the feline, a smile on his lips.
“He’s giving us the ol’razzle dazzle.”
“What?”
The guy is far from amused and Jooheon must concede reluctantly that not everyone is a fan of tired memes.
“May I know why you’re stealing my cat?”
Jooheon would be offended if the guy himself didn’t look exactly like his cat, albeit in human form. Almond eyes, high cheekbones, and messy black hair. Even the scowl looks familiar. Jooheon has to fight the urge to pet him.
“I didn’t steal him. He always scratches at my door when I get home from work, so I just let him in. He usually stays a couple of hours and then he leaves.”
The guy narrows his eyes at him, as if doubting his story, but Jooheon, all rumpled by sleep, is the picture of innocence. He sighs.
“Well, don’t do that anymore. Mr. Cat, come on!”
Hearing his name, the cat on the couch lazily stretches and jumps down, slowly padding across the room to his owner, who scoots him up in his arms. The guy is slightly smaller than Jooheon and all but disappears behind his huge cat’s fur.
“Your cat’s name is Mr. Cat?”
“I didn’t pick the name.”
“Who did?”
“Why do you care?”
“Cause that person called a cat Mr. Cat.”
“Well, it’s none of your business.”
“All right.”
The guy must have been expecting more than a simple surrender, as he silently stands in Jooheon’s entryway, blinking up at him.
“Did you need something else?”
“No. I live next door.”
“Okay?”
“By that I mean if you see him again bring him home.”
“I really don’t mind having him here you know.”
“I do.”
Jooheon draws his lips in a taut line, looking at the cat who amorously blinks at him in that slow way cats sometimes have. He would reach over to pat his head one last time, but if the cat doesn’t bite, Jooheon is pretty sure his owner does.
“All right. I guess I’ll see you around then.”
“Sure.”
That ‘sure’ sounds more like ‘definitely not’ than anything else, but Jooheon doesn’t formalize himself. The guy turns on his heels, and Jooheon watches him get into the apartment right next to his before closing his door and turning around. His eyes fall on the now empty couch, and a small pang of sadness tugs at his heart.
“Well, this sucks,” he says to the silence.
4.
“What kind of person would name a cat ‘Mr. Cat’?”
“What?”
Changkyun looks up from his biology textbook, which is definitely winning the battle against his brain. They’re sitting in a corner of a small coffee shop nestled next to the campus library. Jooheon’s need to speak every five minutes made them move here after annoyed students got tired of shushing them every so often.
“If you had a cat, would you call it Mr. Cat?”
Strictly speaking, they’re not friends yet. They only shared one elective where they randomly got paired together on an assignment, and thus discovered they weren’t adverse to each other’s presence. Jooheon appreciates Changkyun’s awkward humor and aloofness, and if truth be told, he also likes to play the hyung.
“I wouldn’t. Then again, if you think about it, it’s weird to name animals. Maybe they already have names. It’s like, if you meet a human, you don’t just randomly decide what you’re going to call them. So Mr. Cat makes sense, in a way.”
“But you don’t call people Mr. Human either.”
Changkyun points the chewed end of his pencil towards Jooheon, any thoughts of biology all but forgotten.
“Good point. They should have just called the cat Mister, then.”
“That’s true. I’m gonna go tell them that.”
“Who is ‘them’?”
“My neighbor. He got a cat called Mr. Cat. And he doesn’t want him to visit me, which is stupid, since we get along pretty well.”
“Forbidden love. Romeow and Jooliet.”
It’s Jooheon’s turn to point at Changkyun with his pen, face serious.
“You know what, that is pretty good.”
“I’m thinking of giving up everything and going into comedy.”
“It’s not that good. Stick to biology.”
Changkyun heaves a dramatic sigh, eyes falling back on the textbook spread in front of him. Cats are so much more interesting than biology.
5.
It’s been a week since Jooheon encountered his charming neighbor, a week since he last saw Mr. Cat. He’s ready to admit that the silence in his apartment is getting too heavy. That he misses having a presence when he gets home from work. That maybe he’s been browsing shelters’ websites to see if he can get a cat of his own. One that he would just call Mister. He wonders if Mr. Cat misses him too and if cats are even capable of missing people, and then he remembers the feline’s annoyed scowling the day after their missed rendezvous and he decides that yes, they can.
When he gets home from work that night, there’s still no cat at his door, but there’s a tall, lanky guy at his neighbor’s, trying unsuccessfully to get him to open it for him.
“Come on, Kihyun.”
The response comes muffled through the door, but it is very clearly an annoyed fuck off.
“Please. You knew it was only temporary.”
“He’s as much mine as he is yours!”
This one comes more clearly, because Kihyun, since that’s his name, screamed it just right next to the door. The guy winces, and glances sheepishly at Jooheon as the latter takes his time to open his door, pretending he is not at all eavesdropping.
“I’ll come back later, okay?”
“Don’t come back!”
Jooheon finally walks in his apartment, feeling strangely satisfied in knowing that his neighbor is just as abrasive with other people as he had been with him.
6.
The next day, there’s a knock at his door, and it’s Kihyun, piercing glare included. Jooheon stares at him, unfazed.
“You like my cat, right?”
“Yes?”
“Great. Hide him for me.”
“What?”
“My ex-boyfriend is coming to get him back and I’d rather die than give him Mr. Cat. So, you hide him for me.”
Kihyun is looking at him defiantly, as if challenging him to say something unpleasant. Jooheon just opens his door wider, leaning on the frame.
“All right. Is he the guy that called him Mr. Cat? We concluded he should have just called him Mister.”
“What? Who’s we?”
“Changkyun and I. Since you wouldn’t call a human Mr. Human, you know. You just call them Mister.”
Kihyun looks at him for a bit, face blank, and Jooheon just smiles back, all dimples and crinkly eyes. He swears Kihyun bites back a smile of his own and just goes to glare harder, as if he had a persona to uphold.
“I don’t have time to make sense of this so just take the cat, all right? My ex is gonna come any time, now.”
Jooheon nods, and soon finds himself with an armful of black fur and golden eyes, Kihyun hauling cat food and a huge litter into the small apartment.
“I don’t know how long it will take so just in case.”
“I’ll take good care of Romeow, don’t worry.”
Kihyun looks up at him, slightly disheveled. The cat already started purring in Jooheon’s arms and he pets him awkwardly, although in this moment, he would very much like to smooth its owner’s hair instead.
“Who?”
“Never mind.”
Kihyun narrows his eyes at him, and then just gives up.
“All right. I’ll go now.”
7.
If Jooheon intently sticks his ear to the wall separating his apartment from the next, it’s only because he just landed himself in the middle of a custody battle and is entitled to know the proceedings.
“Where is he, Kihyun?”
“I don’t know. I told him you were coming to get him, and he packed a little suitcase to go on his merry way.”
“Kihyun.”
The guy sounds tired. Jooheon shifts a little. His legs always get numb if he sits cross-legged for more than five minutes.
“That’s my name, yes.”
“Please. We agreed.”
“Well I changed my damn mind. Why should I give up Mr. Cat? You’re the one who left. You get the new fancy boyfriend and the new fancy job and the new fancy apartment, and on top of it you want the cat? Screw you, buddy. Get your own damn cat.”
The guy says something that Jooheon doesn’t hear, and then Mr. Cat himself distracts him by headbutting his knee until Jooheon relents and starts scratching him behind the ears, setting off the purring machine. He jolts when he hears a door slam, and when he sticks his ear to the wall again, the apartment on the other side is silent. That is, until he’s pretty sure he hears a sniffle, and yes, that is definitely his neighbor crying.
Eavesdropping suddenly feels too much like intruding, and Jooheon sits back, burying his hands in Mr. Cat’s fur.
“What should we do, Mr. Cat? You should go comfort your owner.”
After his hands, it’s his face that he presses against the warm cat, closing his eyes, and the deep rumbling coming from the animal’s chest is all he can hear for a while, soft and appeasing, until a sharp knock at his door startles him out of his thoughts.
Kihyun has red eyes and even more disheveled hair, and Jooheon wants to bury his hands in his black strands and pet him to see if it makes him feel better.
“You’re all right?”
“Do I look all right? I just came to get my cat back.”
“He’s over there somewhere.”
Jooheon moves aside to let Kihyun in his apartment, and the guy makes a beeline for the couch, where Mr. Cat is yet again grooming himself. He doesn’t scoot him up, though, just sits next to him and pats him gingerly on the head until the cat snuggles up to him. He sheepishly glances at Jooheon, who comes to stand a few feet away from them, hands buried in his pockets.
“Thanks. For helping. Sorry for being a dick.”
“It’s all right. I don’t want Mr. Cat to go, either. And I think you’re kind of funny.”
Kihyun snorts, and it should be unsightly but on him it’s just oddly cute. Jooheon shrugs. He really has a soft spot for cats, in human form or not.
“He used to live here. My ex-boyfriend. I think that’s why Mr. Cat first came. Then I think he just took a liking to you. He kept pestering me the past week.”
“It was nice having him. It can get pretty lonely here.”
Kihyun doesn’t look at Jooheon, absorbed in the black mass of his cat, now sprawling across his lap.
“I’m sorry. I’ll let him come.”
“So your ex gave up?”
“I guess.”
Kihyun’s long fingers still in the cat’s fur, and Jooheon pretends he doesn’t hear his voice crack. Instead, he breaks out his best smile, takes his hands out of his pockets, and follows a sudden inspiration.
“Wanna order take-out? I thought I would watch a movie tonight. Could use some company.”
Kihyun looks up at him, his gaze searching. He seems to find what he’s looking for, as he slowly nods, resuming his strokes on the feline’s fur, who starts to purr loudly. When Jooheon comes back from retrieving his phone in his jacket, Kihyun has his ear pressed against the purring cat, eyes closed.
8.
Much later, Jooheon finds out that Kihyun does love scratches behind the ears. He’d lie on the couch, head in Jooheon’s lap, Mr. Cat taking up residence on his belly. Jooheon would be watching yet another movie, almost absent-mindedly burying his fingers in Kihyun’s black hair, lightly scratching his scalp. If Kihyun could purr, he would, instead he just burrows more comfortably, and lets small sighs escape his lips, his own hands patting the soft fur on Mr. Cat’s back.
He likes kisses, too, and curling up in bed, draping himself over Jooheon like a human blanket. He’s clingy even if he pretends he’s not, and he’s still passive-aggressive as all hell, feigning annoyance when Jooheon just finds it funny and goes to mess up his hair. Sometimes Jooheon thinks he did end up adopting a cat of his own, one that already has a name and takes up way too much space in his tiny bed, but it’s fine. It’s perfect.
(Changkyun, too, ends up adopting a cat. An old thing nobody wants, that he finds miserably curled up behind his building. He names her Grandma and the thing spends most of her days sleeping on the cat bed Changkyun put near the heater, because his own grandmother is always cold, so he figures Grandma must be, too. He talks to her in a deep baby voice that Jooheon finds hilarious, and uses to mercilessly mock his now best friend.)