Archive of Our Own

Jiung was walking down his usual path after school when he noticed something weird about his neighbor's house. Sure, he had never actually properly met them, but he's sure that the front of their house looked a bit different than usual.

The front of the house was normal enough, with the normal two windows, a porch with some outdoor furniture on it, and, of course, a wreath decorated with little bits of red and green that hung over their front door. It was winter time after all.

The front looked fine, but it was the bushes that bothered Jiung so much every time he walked by the snow covered yard, bundled up in his warmest clothing. Every day, it seemed like the bush kept moving.

It started a week ago when he was walking to his house just next to this one. He was walking down the cold sidewalk when he heard a rustle to his left. So, being the curious person he was, he turned to look and saw that the bush that was against the front of his neighbor's house had lost a few leaves. Assuming it was just because of the colder weather, Jiung just shrugged and walked off, nearly slipping on a particularly icy part of the sidewalk in his rush to get away.

It continued like that for the next few days. Everyday, like clockwork, he'd hear a rustle, turn to look at the bush, and notice that the bush had lost even more leaves than before. Today, however, the bush had lost the last of its leaves, leaving him a perfect view of what sat behind it.

From where he was standing, he could spot a small fluff of grey. Actually, scratch that, he actually saw multiple small fluffs of grey. He attempted to slowly approach, not wanting to get attacked by whatever it was. There was also the possibility that it's mother might be nearby and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with that problem and a half.

Right when he was about to peer behind the dead looking bush, he heard a set of footsteps slowly approaching from around the corner of the house. Confidence quickly turned to panic as he realized the position he was in, posed over the dead bush, looking like he was trying to peek into the neighbor's house.

The footsteps got increasingly louder much to Jiung's dismay. He had to think of a excuse, fast. That or he could hide somewhere. With his mind running over a hundred miles per hour, he failed to notice that the footsteps had stopped their sounds until he felt and hand place itself on his shoulder, effectively scaring the living hell out of him.

He turned around on his heel fast enough for him to accidentally hit the person standing behind him on the head, causing the person behind him to groan in pain.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" Jiung yelled, making the stranger look up with an annoyed face. His friend, who Jiung just now noticed was standing next to them, was trying and failing to hold back his laugh.

The stranger, probably wearing double the layers that Jiung was, responded, "It's okay. I was just wondering why a person in a black varsity style jacket from my school was trying to look into my house like a creep. That's all."

Jiung's smile fell for a second, did he really look that bad? All he wanted to do was look behind the bush.

As if sensing how his mood dropped, the stranger's friend quickly took back his friend's words. "No wait! You're not a creep I swear! Uh, he just thought it was weird to see Choi Jiung hanging out in front of the kitchen window with basically no protection from the cold!"

"You know me?" Jiung asked, to which the stranger's friend responded with, "Of course we do! What kind of person who attends Harmony Prep doesn't know about you? You're the captain of the dance club and your so friendly and nice and-,"

"-and you're ranting again,” the main stranger said, putting his hand over his friend's mouth playfully. He then turned to Jiung , "The name's Keeho by the way. The talkative guy over here is Intak. We're in the same grade level as you are," he explained, smile taking over his face as he held out his other hand for Jiung to shake.

Jiung, being the panicky person he is, grabbed it quickly and forced a smile on his face in an attempt to hide him embarrassment, "Nice to meet you Keeho and Intak! My name's Jiung! Though, I think you already knew that," he said, scratching the back of his neck.

Just as they finished their introductions, the front door to Keeho's house opened. A lady then appeared at the doorway, calling Keeho and Intak’s names.

"When will you two come in? The food's getting cold you know!" She reprimanded, causing the two to scurry up the steps and rush inside, but not before wishing Jiung a nice day.

It only occurred to him that he hadn't gotten to see what was behind the bush when he entered his own house next door.

"Damn! I guess I'll have to check tomorrow then!" He exclaimed, throwing his school bag onto his bed and flopping down.

Keeho watched as Jiung walked down the sidewalk in front of their houses, nothing protecting him from the cold besides his handy black varsity jacket with the customized letter J on the left side.

He jumped back from the window as fast as he could when he noticed that Jiung was actually heading towards his house. Specifically, he was headed for the window that Keeho was previously staring out of. Now, as Jiung got closer to the window, Keeho peeked over the windowsill to see Jiung standing there, looking down for some reason.

He continued watching as Jiung's face changed from a shocked expression to a soft one in seconds. Then the boy outside the window took off his jacket, despite the cold weather, and placed it down in front of the window, a smile appearing on his face. Keeho stood up to greet him, but was instead met with the boy’s back as he sprinted down the sidewalk back to his house.

Being slightly curious as to why Jiung just left his custom jacket in the cold on the ground outside of Keeho's living room window, he stepped outside to check for himself.

He approached the window casually, occasionally stepping on a few sticks or rocks hidden in the snow. He didn't exactly know why Jiung had approached the dead bush so carefully, so he didn't even attempt to be careful, making all the noise possible in that situation.

He should have been listening while walking though because as soon as he peered behind the bush where Jiung's jacket was, someone approached from behind and spun him around to face them.

Keeho yelled, ready to kick the person in the leg and make a break for his front door or Jiung's front door, which ever one he saw first.

"Sorry, did I scare you?" He heard a soft voice ask. Finally comprehending the situation, Keeho looked up to see Jiung smile in front of him, smiling at him sweetly. To say that his heart melted would be an understatement. It melted, and did flips while at it!

Jiung, probably taking Keeho's stunned silence the wrong way, immediately started apologizing which, in turn, made Keeho start panicking, attempting to get Jiung to stop.

After the situation had calmed down, Jiung perked up and held out a wrapped up bundle in his arms.

"Here,” He said, holding out the bundles for Keeho to take, "for the kittens hiding behind that bush over there!"

Keeho took the blankets before processing what Jiung had said, "Kittens?" He asked, eyebrows knitting together.

Jiung laughed, making Keeho's heart do little jumping jacks in his chest, "Yeah, kittens! Look," he said, pulling Keeho by the hand towards the bush in front of the kitchen window, "right there! See a whole litter of grey fluff balls."

Keeho’s eyes followed Jiung's finger and widened when he saw what Jiung was pointing at. There they were, a litter of around five kittens, all wrapped up in Jiung’s varsity jacket. Speaking of jackets, Keeho turned to look at Jiung and was immediately taken aback. He didn't have a jacket on in fourty degree weather! What was he thinking?

Keeho immediately took action, taking off one of his many layers and wrapping it around Jiung's shoulders, giving Jiung time to stick his arms into the sleeves before he let go. He then stood back as Jiung slowly zipped up the padded jacket with his half frozen fingers.

Keeho could only sigh as Jiung stopped zipping half way up the jacket and completely ignored all of the buttons. “Here let me," he said, handing the blankets back to Jiung as his hands nimbly buttoned up the remainder of the jacket.

"Better?" Keeho asked, getting a small nod as a response.

He watched as Jiung, holding at least three different blankets and bundled up in a thick padded jacket, waddled forward and dropped the blankets to the snow. His jaw dropped as the boy in front of him kneeled down into the cold, wet snow and wrapped the comfy looking blankets around a certain part of the bush, carefully sliding a piece of cardboard under them all.

"What are you doing?" He asked, continuously staring at Jiung as the boy stood up and smiled triumphantly.

"Did you not notice? You've had kittens that've been here for lord knows how long!" Jiung said, his face showing a smile but his eyes showing something else entirely.

"I never noticed no, but if it helps I'm sure my mom will agree to us taking them inside that way we don't have to spend time in the freezing cold to say hi," Keeho suggested, slowly scooping up the kittens into a bundle of blankets and fur and carrying them up onto his porch with Jiung following behind.

He slowly pushed the door open, using his foot to prop it open for Jiung to come in. They both took off their shoes before Jiung followed Keeho into the cozy looking living room.

Keeho sighed as he placed the blanket bundle of kittens down next to the TV. The heating in their house was decent enough to keep the kittens warm for a while, but what would happen if the kittens started getting hungry?

The rest of the day was spent with Jiung on the couch watching his favorite cartoon while Keeho sat beside him, fretting about the kittens that now slept soundly in their makeshift bed.

Though, Jiung soon went home, claiming he had homework that was due the next day. He had wished Keeho a great night before running down the sidewalk and slamming the front door to his own house shut in his rush to get out of the bitter cold.

Keeho didn't blame him, it was freezing outside, but now what was he supposed to do with the five tiny fluff balls that were bound to wake up any second now?

Jiung returned for the next two days, each time bringing a new toy for the kittens to either play with or something to help Keeho and his mom take care of the fluff balls. His effort was appreciated by not only Keeho and his mom, but by the kittens too. On days when Keeho was lazing about on his living room couch he could see the kittens running around and playing with the many toys that Jiung bought.

They were all scattered around on the floor of the room because everyday when Jiung left, it felt as if Keeho had just lost a major energy source. He didn't want to do anything other than flop onto the couch and hope that his mom would clean up the toys while he dozed off. Which never happened. So now, whenever Jiung leaves, the mess stayed there until the next day when Jiung would come over again and pick them up to play with the kittens.

The kittens, of course, didn't come at a free price though. His mom was already complaining about how expensive it was to buy individual cans of cat food and to buy cat products in general. Not wanting to spend too much on the kittens that would probably get adopted soon, she simply bought one of everything besides the cat food. No one wants to share one small can of food between five different people.

Keeho sighed and pulled out his phone from his pocket. The kittens were still messing around with Jiung's toys so it was the perfect time for him to take picture to post online, looking for people to adopt the cute kittens.

ji.ung: looking for people interested in taking in these kittens! we found them outside of my house the other day...they look to be around 4-5 weeks old...maybe more. hurry and reply because they are a handful-

view all 31 comments...
ji.ung: I call Pearl!
keeho.y: @ji.ung of course you call Pearl, you’re always babying her the most-
shotasoul: oh? what’s this? I wasn’t aware Jiung was coming over to your house to play w the kittens @keeho.y
keeho.y: @shotasoul I have nothing to say to you
shotasoul: @ji.ung HE’S BEING MEAN TO ME
ji.ung: @keeho.y DON’T BE AN IDIOT, YOU IDIOT
keeho.y: @ji.ung @shotasoul how about no?

Keeho watched on as Jiung played with the kittens, using the toys to test their hand eye, or more like paw, coordination and occasionally just pulling it up to mess around with them.

"You come over to just play with the kittens, and not for Keeho?" Keeho’s mom questioned as she walked in, snacks in hand.

Jiung looked up at Keeho’s mom with wide eyes and immediately starting apologizing which made both Keeho and his mom burst out into laugher.

"It's okay, Jiung. I don't know you that well anyways, so let's just play with the kittens!" Keeho joked, picking up the kitten nearest to him, which just so happened to be Pearl. The one that Jiung had claimed as his own.

Yes, the two of them had named all five of the kittens. There was Pearl, the darkest colored kitten, also the one that Jiung had claimed the other day, then there was Crystal and Draji, who wouldn't leave each other's sides no matter what. Next were the other three, named, Kino, Mist, and Trix. They were always spotted together attempting to do something they weren't supposed to be doing, say, for example, climbing the kitchen counters to reach the cat food, even though they could barely reach the counter top.

The kittens never acted like that when Jiung was over though, when he was over it was playtime and they weren't about to lose to their siblings. Keeho watched daily as the kittens competed to see who could get the most of Jiung’s affection, even though they all knew at the end of the day that Pearl would eventually work her way into Jiung’s lap and take a nap there, claiming him as her own.

If that happened then Keeho would have to step in to free Jiung of the dark kitten's sleepy power and let him get back to his house before his mom called wondering where he made off to at six in the evening and why he was covered in small cat hairs.

But right now, it was his and Jiung’s time. The kittens had gotten tired of playing with Jiung for once and had resorted to climbing onto the climbing thing that his mom had bought for them. The two teens, however, were curled up into separate blanket balls on Keeho’s small living room couch, watching a random show that had been playing for the past hour or so.

The show was rather boring, so Keeho took the chance to sneak a look at Jiung. He turned his head only to see Jiung’s eyes staring back at him. Both boys immediately looked away, Keeho back at the TV and Jiung looking towards the kitchen before realizing how weird he looked and spinning back around to face the TV as well.

"Well, that was unexpected," Keeho whispered, not really meaning for it to be loud enough for Jiung to hear, but it was.

"Yeah, really unexpected," he replied, before realizing that he had accidentally responded to Keeho’s whisper without it being directed towards him.

The two teens slowly turned to look at each other before laughing, Keeho at the situation he was in and Jiung at Keeho’s laugh. Once the laughter had died down though, Jiung broke the silence.

"Your laugh is contagious, you know that right?" He asked, not expecting a response.

Keeho looked at him, amused. Was his laugh really what made Jiung laugh right then? Or was that just his imagination playing tricks on him?

"Yeah your laugh made me laugh. Why else would I tell you that your laugh is contagious?" Jiung chuckled. "And no, I can't read your mind. You said that out loud."

Keeho facepalmed loudly, making Jiung laugh even harder. He was falling deep and he couldn't help himself. How was he supposed to let go of the kittens now that Jiung was coming over daily just to see them?

Darn.

Guess he'll have to keep them for a bit longer than he planned to.