Work Text:
D-10
"How was the last guy?"
Minho pops the can of the soda in his hands, taking a long swig of it before he wipes his mouth with a tissue. He looks at Hyunjin, who has comfortably settled himself on Minho's couch, long legs stretched out on top of the coffee table. He sighs and takes another sip. "He has an anime figurine collection," Minho says with a shake of his head. "A whole cabinet dedicated to figurines with no glass cover."
"So?" Hyunjin snorts. "You have a thing against anime figurine collectors, bro?"
"I don't have a thing against Jisung." Minho rolls his eyes, leaning over his kitchen counter. Hyunjin sticks his tongue out at him. "Doongie is just a bit of a rebel with a thing for climbing on surfaces, and those figures are not going to last a day with him."
"Aw, that's too bad," Hyunjin says, and Minho goes over to sit next to him on the sofa. Dori crawls over and settles on the spot next to Minho's left thigh. "I can try asking around if anyone's interested? Jisung probably knows some people too. Besides, it's less shadier than looking for people online."
"Sure." Minho nods, reaching out to stroke Dori's grey fur. He rests his head against Hyunjin's shoulder with an exhausted sigh.
"I wish I could take care of them for you instead," Hyunjin admits. "But Jisung's allergies are terrible and we go out of town a lot. I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault." Minho chuckles. "And thank you, Hyunjin."
Hyunjin ruffles Minho's hair with a laugh that doesn't really sound like his regular, jolly one. "Don't mention it," he says, voice somewhat sad. "Just promise me you'll give me your air fryer before you go."
D-9
Minho has a little over a week left before he leaves for Canada. Most of his belongings are already in boxes and bags, while some of them are on sale in the Facebook marketplace for half the price Minho had bought them for. The apartment he has spent a good four years in is now stripped and bare, all traces of Minho ever living in it gone and erased except for the remaining two pieces of furniture in the living room that Hyunjin and Jisung are picking up on his last day, the air mattress he sleeps on, a few other essentials, and his cats' food and water bowls.
It kind of looks just like the day he moved in, but without the excitement of starting a new life and the ugly, floral wallpaper he had removed.
And his ex-boyfriend.
But it's alright, he thinks, even though it physically hurts to look at his cats without wanting to hold onto them and mumble out apologies for why he has to leave them behind. He'll just convince himself that this move is something that he really needs for the sake of his wellness, and then come back to his babies two or three years later and make up for all the lost time as a healthy-minded cat father. Canada is the way to go, he reminds himself whenever he feels like breaking down.
He's doing this for his own good, and for Soonie, Doongie, and Dori.
"My friend Changbin—you know Changbin? He was at the New Year's party two years ago? Well, anyway, he has this friend who used to work at a cat cafe in university, and Changbin gave me his number. I can give it to you if you're interested." Jisung's loud voice cuts through the unbearable silence of Minho's empty apartment even though he's not on speaker.
Seo Changbin, Minho recalls vaguely. An image of a short, muscled man flashes through his mind, and Minho now remembers meeting a guy with that name at a party once. Soonie meows below Minho's feet then hides underneath the sofa. "Do you know anything about this... friend of Changbin?"
If this friend of a friend used to work at a cat cafe, then it eases about forty percent of Minho's worries already. It would mean that the person has experience in handling cats of all sorts, and Minho knows that his cats aren't the friendliest ones out there.
"Just the guy's name," Jisung says. "I think it's Kim Seungmin? I'll text you the rest of the details later, yeah?"
D-8
Kim Seungmin agrees to meet up with Minho immediately after they're both done introducing themselves to each other via email.
Minho is not going to lie and say he did not go on Facebook to stalk this Kim Seungmin fellow three hours before their scheduled meeting, but he will firmly deny the fact that he couldn't help the little gasp he let out upon seeing Kim Seungmin's profile picture. The dude is handsome, way better looking than almost everyone Minho has ever swiped right on the dating applications he had drunkenly downloaded half a year ago with Hyunjin. He looks gentle, almost puppyish in some sort of way, and the thought of a puppy-looking guy taking care of Minho's cats is quite an entertaining one, if he's being honest.
They agree to meet up at Subway for lunch, because Minho is always down for a good sandwich and Seungmin lives near the branch next to the animal clinic he takes his cats to. Minho supposes that it's another terrific sign that Seungmin lives near the animal clinic. Perhaps it's the universe's way of letting Minho know that if this works out, then Soonie, Doongie, and Dori will be in very good hands. This guy has too many pros for Minho not to want him—as a cat butler, and not as a partner. All he needs to know now is if Seungmin can tick all his other requirements for taking care of his cats.
The stars are aligning for Minho in the best way possible, but that also means that he cannot find any more excuses not to leave for Canada.
Fuck.
"Lee Minho, right?"
He looks up to see Kim Seungmin standing next to his table clad in a baby blue sweater. The bright fluorescent lights of this particular Subway store kind of makes Minho feel like he's in heaven and he's talking to an angel at the gate. If Seungmin can meet his demands, then maybe Minho might just call him one.
But Minho doesn't want to get his hopes up just yet. He's picky and easily disappointed, and has been let down thrice already. He can't just go in blindly based on two coincidences surrounding Seungmin's circumstances around cats and animals.
"Yeah, that's me," Minho says, standing up with a hand outstretched. Seungmin takes it with a smile. The first thing Minho notices is how gentle his hand is, thinks that it might definitely pass his cats' standards and even his own. "Do you want to start discussing now, or should we have lunch first?"
Seungmin says they should eat first, so that's what they do. Minho hides his impressed grin when he and Seungmin go for the same type of bread and cheese, and introduces himself with more basic facts while they enjoy their meal. Minho gives Seungmin his phone, lets him swipe through hundreds of pictures of Soonie, Doongie, and Dori, and swells up with pride when Seungmin coos at the homemade Halloween costumes Minho dressed his cats in last year.
"I'm actually not a cat person," Seungmin admits. Minho's expression falters. Seungmin says something else after that, but all Minho hears is the shitty pop tune playing in the background.
D-7
"He said he's not a cat person, but that doesn't mean he won't give yours the lifestyle they deserve," Hyunjin says, giving Minho a shove to the side with his elbow. "You said he's pretty rich and he already has experience! What's not to like?"
"I don't trust people who aren't cat people," Minho grumbles out with a frown. Kim Seungmin was a lie. A fraudster in a baby blue sweater. "I'll just message the previous dude, his anime figurines be damned."
Hyunjin gives him another light push, and Minho glares at him. "I wasn't a Jisung person before but look at me now." Hyunjin gestures at himself and the surrounding area, his shared apartment with Jisung. He sighs. "I know what you're doing and I don't think it's very fair."
"Yeah?" Minho huffs, suddenly feeling defensive under Hyunjin's scrutinizing gaze. He slumps down against Hyunjin's bedroom wall. "What am I doing, then?"
"You're finding excuses not to leave," Hyunjin says, plain and simple. "Like, you turned down the first girl you met online because she got Soonie and Dori mixed up."
"I would've forgiven her if it was Soonie and Doongie, but Dori? Seriously?"
"And then you said the next guy wasn't a good fit because he already had another cat," Hyunjin pointedly adds.
"Soonie is sensitive," Minho mumbles. "And what if the guy doesn't give them an equal amount of attention?"
"You want to go to Canada but you don't want to go to Canada," Hyunjin continues, ignoring Minho's question. Minho looks away from him, hates that his best friend is right. "I think Kim Seungmin is as good as it's going to get."
"I only have a week left, Hyunjin," Minho says, the realization dawning on him like a heavy bowling ball falling on his foot. Minho doesn't want to leave, but he can't stay either. Canada is the way to go, he repeats in his head. "This is all Bang Chan's fault."
"It is," Hyunjin agrees, nodding sadly. He laces his fingers with Minho's own, tightly wrapping his larger hand against Minho's smaller one. "But I think a brand new environment will do you wonders, and if it doesn't then you can always come back as soon as you'd like."
"I already did the papers," Minho glumly says. "And my sister is already waiting for me."
"Exactly," Hyunjin replies. Minho's heart sinks to the ground when he hears Hyunjin start to sniffle, wills his own tears not to start falling now or else he's going to keep crying for the rest of the night. "Give Kim Seungmin another chance. I know you left him on read yesterday."
Minho swallows. He obediently reaches for his phone to open his texts with Seungmin. "Okay."
"And give yourself a chance too," Hyunjin says, squeezing Minho's hand in the way that he always does whenever he's upset. "You deserve to be happy."
D-6
"I didn't mean to ghost you after the other day," Is the first thing Minho says when he meets up with Seungmin again. "I was just... busy... packing my things."
Seungmin shakes his head, motioning for Minho to take a seat. "No need to explain yourself. It's alright." He's wearing another baby blue top again today. Minho briefly wonders if it's his favorite color.
They're at a Starbucks this time—Seungmin's location choice. Minho is not a big fan of fancy drinks and the general Starbucks ambience with its noisy customers and stressed out college students, but it's technically now Seungmin's turn to decide their meeting spot, so Minho isn't going to complain. He'll be a better, less biased judge of character today for the sake of his cats. For his own peace of mind.
He drinks his cup of coffee and faces Seungmin with a sheepish look. He doesn't know the next step in transferring cat ownership. He has never gotten this far with the others before. "Do you want to go to my place after this and meet them?" Minho guesses that he has to let Seungmin meet them soon anyway. "It's just a short walk from here."
"I'd love to," Seungmin grins excitedly. He pauses to think for a moment, his gentle hands curling around his mug. "Soonie, Doongie, and Dori. Did I get their names right?"
A smile forms on Minho's face before he has any chance of stopping it from happening. "You did," he says, and Seungmin looks extremely glad to have gotten their names correctly. No one has ever looked this happy about Minho's cats before, not even Hyunjin looked like this when he met them for the first time.
D-5
Seungmin's house is nice. A good enough place for his cats to live in, as much as Minho doesn't want to admit it. He has minimal breakable objects placed on top of high surfaces that can easily be knocked over by Doongie, a large window that lets an ample amount of sunlight it for Dori to laze next to, and a lot of affection for Soonie, who likes being showered with attention. There's nothing for Minho to dislike about his cats' future living space, nothing for him to dislike about the guy who's going to be taking care of them either.
He likes everything about the arrangement that they've settled on too, although he wishes that it didn't have to happen in the first place.
"Are you comfortable with telling me why you're leaving? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to though." Seungmin hands him a glass of water and pulls out a chair to sit across Minho. They're in his kitchen, which is also just as nice as everything else in his house. He has the coffee machine that Minho wanted to buy last year, the same one that he was told not to buy by the person he used to live with.
He's right. Minho doesn't have to tell Seungmin anything if he doesn't want to, but he only has five days left and nothing else to lose anyway. It'll be similar to the time he told his entire life story to the bartender he's somewhat friends with at the bar he used to frequent in. Someone who isn't really a stranger, but someone he isn't going to see again, at least not for a long time.
"Got dumped half a year ago," Minho says, simplifying his pain in order not to dampen the mood too much. "I'm over him but I think—I think I lost myself in the process. I don't feel the same anymore."
"And going to Canada is going to help you?" Seungmin asks, but not in a condescending way that Minho is used to being asked by other people he knows.
"I don't know for sure," Minho replies. "But I'm hoping it does. Or else all of this will be in vain, and I'm just breaking my heart all over again for nothing by leaving my cats behind."
Seungmin chuckles at that. "They're in good hands, I can promise you that," he says, voice sincere. It does things to Minho's brain that he doesn't want to unpack. He can't afford to dwell on it. "I'll take care of them while you go take care of yourself."
D-4
Hyunjin and Jisung throw him away party that is simultaneously the saddest and funniest thing that has ever happened to him.
Not even getting broken up with can top this, and Minho is kind of glad losing his fiancé is no longer the most pathetic thing ever.
"How did you guys think you were going to surprise me?" Minho genuinely asks. "I don't even have any furniture for the both of you to hide behind."
Jisung looks at Hyunjin, embarrassed that the reason they were caught breaking inside Minho's apartment was because he sneezed loudly enough to wake Minho up. There is a green balloon on a string tied to Hyunjin's wrist, a poorly decorated cake in his hands, and a bag of confetti on the floor that Dori is about to tear open.
"The plan was to sneak in really quietly," Hyunjin answers, glaring at Jisung, who looks away in shame. "And then we were going to throw confetti all over your bed and hang the balloon on your bedroom doorknob."
"That's so elaborate," Minho says, and then he takes the cake from Hyunjin's hands, tries to read what was written on the frosting. "And what's this supposed to say? It smudged."
"We will miss you," Jisung replies, sounding all choked up. When Minho looks at him, his face is all red like he's about to start sobbing. Hyunjin, too, has a few tears that look like they're about to start falling down.
Minho sucks in a breath, tries to focus on how funny they both look standing in his living room at ten in the morning so that he doesn't end up in waterworks. "Come on, let's not do this right now, guys," he pleads, and they both turn away to wipe their runny noses. He puts the baked dessert down on his table and drags them both to the stacks of boxes he has littered all over floor. "Help me find the box with all my plates and utensils, we can't eat the cake with just our hands."
D-3
Now that Minho is almost ready to go, it's like the universe is giving him signs not to.
"Soonie has a cold," Minho tells Seungmin over the phone, repetitively running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "He has the sniffles and he won't stop sneezing, and I don't know what to do, they've never gotten sick like this before. I mean, Dori swallowed a bone once, but it wasn't that—"
"Hey, calm down," Seungmin says, gentle. He tells Minho to breathe, to sit down and have a glass of water, and Minho follows his directions with shaking hands. "Do you have a humidifier? It might help Soonie if the air isn't too dry."
Right, right, a humidifier. Minho leaves his phone on speaker and runs off to open the box he has labeled 'Random Shit.' Doongie crawls next to him, nuzzles against his foot as if he knows that it'll comfort Minho. He finds the air humidifier eventually, after throwing a bunch of his things around, and he cleans it up and turns it on, keeping it near Soonie. During all of this, Seungmin stays on the phone with Minho.
"I'm sure it isn't serious," Seungmin says. "A few cats in the cafe got colds before and they all turned out fine. Soonie will be fine. Just relax, okay? I'm on my way."
Seungmin hangs up, and somewhere in the apartment, Dori meows.
Minho feels the strong urge to cry come over him again so he diverts his attention to Doongie and picks him up, strokes his orange fur and cradles him close to his chest. He leans against his wall, the exact spot where the TV used to be, and a few memories start flooding back to him. The day he first moved in, the first time he brought Soonie and Doongie home, the day he was proposed to in the kitchen, the day Dori was given to him, the day Chan packed up his bags and left Minho by the doorstep—it all comes to him, builds up into one intangible ball of pain and sadness, and crashes down hard.
The past six months of his life play out too, like some badly edited montage of Minho's epic failures; the weeks he spent in bed with nothing but his cats and horror B-movies, impulsively quitting his job and begging his sister to let him live with her in Canada, Jisung and Hyunjin visiting him with mushroom soup—he thinks about it all and reflects deeply. Would it be too late for him to throw eggs at Chan's car? It wouldn't be, but Minho knows the main problem doesn't lie with that Australian man.
He sees the plane ticket and his passport on the kitchen counter. He wants to take them and shred them to pieces, but he doesn't. He just hugs Doongie tighter and whispers into his ear that he's going to live with someone new soon, someone who will take care of him until Minho returns.
When Seungmin rings the doorbell, Minho struggles to stand up to open the door because his legs have fallen asleep and his mind is still a mess. When he finally twists the handle open, he falls straight into Seungmin's arms.
Still, he doesn't cry. No, today's not the day.
D-2
Minho tells Hyunjin and Jisung not to come over his apartment to bid their goodbyes. He doesn't want to make memories, good or bad, in that place anymore.
With a heavy heart, he knocks on their door with a cake in his hands—this time the cake is store-bought, because his oven now belongs to an elderly woman who acquired it from him via Facebook marketplace. They open it and greet him with open arms and wide smiles, and Minho has to ask them to let him put the cake down first or else it'll get crushed in Jisung's tight embrace.
"What does your cake say? I'm not wearing my glasses," Jisung says, peering into the see-through box the cake is in. Hyunjin has already seen the frosted message, and Minho knows this because he looks like he just got punched in the face.
"I'll miss you guys too," Minho recites, and Jisung curses at him before he excuses himself to the bathroom. He comes out five minutes later with puffy eyes and a red nose.
"Remind me why we can't drive you to the airport again?" Jisung asks, spooning a large portion of cake into his mouth. He gets blue icing all over the sides of his lips, and Hyunjin fondly wipes the residue away with his finger.
Minho raises an eyebrow at him. He knows that Jisung knows why but he tells him again for the sake of answering his question. "Because," he says, taking his own bite of cake. It's not as delicious as the ugly one they made for him the other day, but he still eats it since it's his last meal with them. "I won't be able to leave if you guys start crying on the way there."
He's a fool for five things in his life: his three cats and his two best friends.
D-1
And maybe for Kim Seungmin too now, even though it's too late for that. Minho realizes this with a deep sigh.
He's at Seungmin's house again, but he has his cats with him this time because it's time for him to leave them. Seungmin gladly accepts the box of toys Minho has filled with all of Soonie, Doongie, and Dori's snacks and essentials, and leaves Minho alone to spend his final moments with each of them. He doesn't say a word when Minho starts talking to his cats, probably understanding that it is something Minho really needs to do or else it'll tear him apart.
He gives Seungmin a detailed and laminated list of instructions with everything he needs to know about taking care of his cats. He also gives him a box filled with all of their food, bowls, and toys that Seungmin gratefully accepts. Minho stalls a little more by hugging his cats over and over again, knows that he's doing it because he can't bear to leave them behind. His initial plan of taking two hours at Seungmin's place turns into four hours, and then Seungmin asks him to just stay for dinner.
Minho accepts the invitation under the guise of needing to spend more time with his cats, although it is mostly true, but he also accepts it because he enjoys Seungmin's company.
When Minho finally gathers the strength and courage to let Seungmin know that it's really time for him to go now, Seungmin escorts him to the door with a melancholic smile while all three cats trail closely behind like they know what's about to happen next. They've always been smart that way. Minho is proud to have raised them so well. He knows Seungmin will continue to raise them properly in the way that they deserve.
He picks up his jacket on the rack near the doorway, ignoring the heavy pressure building up in his chest, and Soonie puts a paw against his leg.
"I'm no expert in cat language, but I think he's trying to tell you not to leave," Seungmin says. "You don't have to go if you don't want to yet, I have a spare bedroom you can use. There's still some time left."
The dam breaks at last. Minho realizes that he hasn't shed a single tear since the day Chan moved out.
"You think so?" Minho chokes out, bending down to give Soonie more pets and scratches. Dori watches them from the corner of the living room. "You'd really let me stay?"
"For as long as you need." Seungmin nods, squatting to also give Soonie some affection. He gives Minho a look, wraps an arm around his shoulders in an awkward side hug, and Minho cries the whole night.
CANADA
There is a room in Minho's sisters house that she decorated just for him.
It's cat themed. His house slippers have cat paw prints on them, the clock in his room is a Hello Kitty one, and the mug that she gives to him is, well, cat themed too.
Her husband is a funny guy who makes a good beef wellington that he gives Minho the recipe to. He does his best to make Minho feel at home by including him in every conversation they have at the dinner table. He doesn't quite understand why Minho is so fond of cats, so Minho shows him his photo album of Soonie, Doongie, and Dori, and he says that Doongie looks like he'd be able to pack a mean punch if Doongie had fists instead of paws.
His sister and her husband have a dog—a large golden retriever that drools a lot. She's a young dog with a lot of energy, and Minho gets tired just watching her dash through the backyard with a ball in her mouth. She's friendly too, even though Minho suspects that the only reason she follows him around the house is because his clothes still smell like his cats. She curls up next to him on the couch whenever he watches TV and gets saliva all over his sweatpants and reminds Minho of a guy he knows in Korea who looks a lot like a puppy.
Hyunjin and Jisung send him multiple texts at every hour. His phone constantly pings with chat notifications while he's asleep, and reading the messages the next morning puts a huge smile on his face that stays on for the whole day. They tell him to call them if he's ever lonely or bored, ask him what he plans on eating next so that they can order the same thing, and send voice recordings that contain gossip about their other friends that Minho listens to whenever he misses them too much.
And Seungmin, too, frequently messages him with hourly cat updates. He takes damn good pictures of them with his camera and buys them nutritious snacks and multivitamins to make sure they're always healthy, and Minho is so thankful that Seungmin exists.
"Update me on your life as well," Minho tells him over the phone one day, maybe five months or so into his stay in Canada. "I want to know how you spend your days too, how everything is going for you, how things are over there."
"I didn't think you were curious," Seungmin sheepishly replies, chuckling.
"I am," Minho says, grinning stupidly. If this call was on the telephone, then he'd surely be twirling the cord around his fingers. "You know so many things about me and I barely know anything about you. All I have are useless assumptions about your likes and dislikes based on the few things I've noticed from you."
"Assumptions like what?" Seungmin asks.
Minho shrugs, even though Seungmin can't see it. "Like your favorite color, I guess? Is it baby blue?"
"It is," Seungmin confirms. And then he asks another question that throws Minho slightly off guard. "Is Canada working out for you?"
Is it? Minho supposes that it's still too early to tell. He glances around his cat themed bedroom, spots the golden retriever running around in the grass through his window with mud all over her. He ponders on how the past five months have been for him and he can't seem to think of anything to suggest that his decision to live here has been a bad one. He has a new job at the supermarket in town, a fellow Korean co-worker with a foxy face that he hangs out with sometimes after work, and a new hobby of making steaks with his brother in law.
Is Canada working out for him?
"I think it is," Minho says.
When he hangs up after wishing his friend a good night, Minho looks down at his phone background picture, a photo of Soonie, Doongie, and Dori sent to him by Seungmin. It puts a smile on his face.