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When the room door was pushed open, Seungmin merely glanced up briefly at his boyfriend entering the room before returning his attention to the novel within his hands. It took all of two seconds before his brain caught up to what his eyes had picked out and Seungmin found himself lowering his book to sit up and scrutinise the other.
Hyunjin was heading towards the bunk bed he shared with Minho while hugging his torso tightly, movements hasty and most suspicious. Droplets of water were dripping off the other’s soaked clothes, leaving little puddles behind him on the floor.
“Hyunjin?”
The older immediately froze but didn’t turn around and kept his back to Seungmin. “Y… Yes?”
Well, if anyone needs to hide a body, they’re definitely not going to ask Hyunjin for help unless they want to be exposed immediately. Was it even possible for someone to be this terrible at hiding something?
But, Seungmin supposed, Hyunjin’s naivety and innocence had always been one of the many reasons for him to fall in love with the older.
“You’re dripping water all over the floor, baby.”
“I… I’ll clean that up la… later.”
“Hm… okay. But you should at least dry yourself before you catch a cold. I still have the towel I used after my shower earlier. Why don’t you come over here and I’ll help you dry off?”
“N… no, it’s o… okay. I’ll just… I’ll just… I can dry myself off.”
Seungmin let out a sigh before deciding to spare the other from having to come up with more of those terrible excuses. “So, what exactly are you hiding, baby?”
Hyunjin visibly tensed up, inching a small step away from him. “Me? Hiding something? What could I possibly have to hide from you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe whatever you have beneath your hoodie?”
“There’s not-“ A quiet yowl interrupted Hyunjin’s words and the older made a shushing sound down at his hoodie, giving whatever was hidden beneath the fabric a small nudge.
Seungmin slid off his bed and made his way over to the other. “What was that?”
“It’s nothing! I... I was… I was just yawning!”
“That’s not what yawning sounds like! Are you… are you hiding a cat under your hoodie?”
Hyunjin whipped his head around to stare at the younger with a horrified expression on his face, eyes wide and Seungmin’s suspicions were instantly confirmed.
“Oh gosh, where did you even get a cat from?”
“I’m not- Ow!” Hyunjin flinched midsentence, lowering himself onto his knees as he hurriedly lifted his hoodie and gently dropped a small kitten onto the ground.
The tiny kitten, orange wet fur matted and sticking to its body, let out a hiss with its claws still splayed and it really didn’t take a genius to realise what had happened.
“Are you okay?” Seungmin asked worriedly, grabbing his boyfriend by the arm and pulling the other closer so he could check him over.
“I’m fine, Minnie. It clawed me through my t-shirt so it didn’t hurt me,” Hyunjin reassured him but Seungmin’s heart only eased after lifting up the older’s shirt and seeing for himself the unmarred stretch of skin on the other’s abdomen.
“Where did you even find this kitten, baby?”
The kitten in question had scurried beneath Minho’s bed to hide.
“I…”
The room door opened abruptly, startling the both of them as Minho stepped inside the room. The two of them must have been so distracted that they hadn’t heard the other’s footsteps approaching.
The older went straight towards the corner of the room, placing his backpack in an empty spot against the wall before turning back towards his boyfriends, frowning as he took in their actions. Hyunjin was still on his knees in front of Minho’s bed and Seungmin had crouched down to join the other on the ground.
“What are the two of you doing in front of my bed? I usually find you in it and not in front of it.”
“Uh… I uh… dropped something under your bed,” Hyunjin stammered while Seungmin wisely chose to remain silent, resisting the urge to facepalm.
The frown on Minho’s face deepened as he approached them. “What did you drop?”
“I… uh… my uh…”
Before anyone could stop him, Minho bent down and reached under the bed, one hand groping at the space beneath as he searched for the imaginary object that Hyunjin had dropped.
“Wait, hyung. I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Seungmin blurted out.
“Huh, what are you- What’s this?” Minho retracted his hand, scooping out a tiny struggling kitten from beneath the bed. “Why is there a kitten under my bed?!”
The kitten gave another hiss, tail and rear legs stiffening.
“You dropped a kitten beneath my bed, Hwang Hyunjin?!”
“No, that was a lie! I didn’t drop anything under your bed! I was just trying to get you to not look under the bed!”
“Then why would you say that you’ve dropped something under my bed?! I would have looked under there for sure if you said that! But how did the cat get here?”
Minho went to retrieve a small sachet of liquefied cat treat from his backpack, ripping it open quickly and holding it in front of the kitten, all the while cooing softly at it. The kitten sniffed tentatively at the sachet before seemingly deciding that it was harmless and dropping its aggressive posture, lapping at the liquified cat treat.
“It got scared and went to hide under your bed,” Hyunjin pouted.
As the kitten continued licking away eagerly at the cat treat, Minho lightly lifted it onto his lap. The cat treat seemed to have won the kitten’s trust as it relaxed on the other’s lap and even allowed Minho to pet its fur.
Hyunjin moved to sit cross-legged next to the older, reaching out a hand to pet the top of the kitten’s head.
“I wasn’t asking about how it got under my bed but about how it got into our dorm.”
“Hyunjin carried it home,” Seungmin contributed helpfully, joining his boyfriends and sitting on the floor.
“Well, what was I supposed to do then? Leave it in that cardboard box in this heavy rain?”
“I wonder why you were in a cardboard box in this terrible weather. Surely you weren’t abandoned there, were you?” Minho was back to cooing at the kitten. “Only someone without a heart could possibly do something as cruel as that.”
“Uh huh, which was why I couldn’t have just left it there. I wasn’t sure what to do with it so I decided to bring it home first. I thought maybe I could send it to an animal shelter or something like that after. I suppose… we can’t really keep it, can we?”
Seungmin placed an arm around Hyunjin’s shoulder. “That’s going to be difficult, I’m afraid. We don’t have any time to take care of a kitten with all our busy schedules.”
“It’s just… I’m feeling really attached to this little kitten. It’s going to be hard to say good bye to it.”
Oh, what was Seungmin going to do with his overly kind boyfriend who just has too much love to give?
Not knowing what else to do in a situation like this, Seungmin and Minho fell silent and simply watched their boyfriend quietly interact with the kitten.
“Do you think…” Hyunjin glanced up at them for a moment before lowering his gaze back onto the kitten, biting down on his bottom lip. “…we can let the kitten stay here inside our room? We can keep it a secret and no one else will ever have to know. I’ll take care of it, feed it and clean up after it.”
Seungmin and Minho exchanged glances.
“Please?” Hyunjin battered his eyelashes at them, holding the adorable kitten up to make his case more persuasive.
Minho was, unsurprisingly, the first to crack. “I guess we can do that. But only until we decide what to do with it before someone finds out. We can’t possibly keep the kitten here in our room forever.”
A smile blossomed on Hyunjin’s lips. “I knew you couldn’t say no to this cute little kitty.”
It wasn’t the cute little kitten that Minho couldn’t say no to, Seungmin wanted to say.
“I really hope no one else finds out about the kitten and tells Chan-hyung though,” Minho sighed. “All of us will get into trouble if he finds out we’re hiding a kitten in our room.”
“Of course no one will find out. This kitten will be the best-kept secret ever,” Hyunjin giggled.
“I hope-“ Seungmin didn’t get to finish his sentence before the door was shoved open and Jisung barged in.
The three roommates froze simultaneously as the other made his way into their room.
“It’s time for Jisung’s kiss-o-clock. Who is going to be the lucky first winner to re-“
Jisung paused in the middle of his sentence, blinking rapidly at his boyfriends before seeming to register that they were all gaping up at him. Seungmin tried to subtly nudge Hyunjin into concealing the kitten but the older didn’t seem to get the message at all, still frozen in shock.
It didn’t take long for Jisung to finally notice what was in Minho’s lap. “Wait, you guys have a kitten?!”
Jisung’s loud shriek echoed through the room and Seungmin was certain that everyone in the dorm heard it as well.
“We can’t keep the kitten, Hyunjin.” Bang Chan’s voice was stern, words firm but their leader’s gaze was visibly wavering as he looked at the other.
Hyunjin was clutching the sleeping kitten in his arms, looking up at Bang Chan with a heartbroken expression as though the older had just told him that Christmas was cancelled this year. The younger’s eyes were glassy, shimmering with unshed tears and the conflict within Bang Chan’s eyes grew.
Seungmin pulled his boyfriend into his arms, rubbing at the older’s back soothingly. “It’s okay, Hyunjin. Listen to Chan-hyung. He’s right, you know?”
“I know, I understand…” Hyunjin’s voice was quiet. The other’s grip around the kitten was still tight and the look in his eyes was filled with heavy reluctance as he reached out to gently bop the kitten’s nose. Seungmin vaguely wondered how the tiny kitten was able to sleep on so peacefully after having stirred up so much turmoil with its presence in the dorm. “I… I’ll bring it to a… shelter.”
As Hyunjin kept his head lowered, eyes never leaving the little bundle of fur within his arms, his other boyfriends all exchanged panicked gazes not-so-subtly. Seungmin met Changbin’s eyes and then Felix’s across the room, the desperation and dismay filling their eyes almost laughable if not for the fact that his own heart was fluttering helplessly at his boyfriend’s clear distress. They were all just terribly whipped for Hyunjin and nothing made them more upset than their boyfriend’s unhappiness.
The silence that occupied the room was hefty, punctuated only by the occasional squeak of the couch or a chair as one of them fidgeted uncomfortably.
“I have the perfect idea.”
At his sudden exclamation, seven pairs of hopeful eyes turned to fix on Jeongin.
“Why don’t Minho-hyung adopt the kitten? He can keep it at his house along with Soonie, Doongie and Dori. That way, the kitten can have a new home and Hyunjin-hyung can go visit it at Minho-hyung’s house whenever he’s free.”
The hope filling Hyunjin’s eyes were unbearably bright and he immediately turned to Minho, scooting towards the other on his knees with a pout ready on his lips. “Hyung…”
The older had started instinctively retreating from the other before catching himself and halting. “You don’t have to attack me like that. I was going to agree to Innie’s idea. I think it’s an excellent suggestion.”
“So you’ll really adopt the kitty?”
Minho nodded in confirmation. “I’m sure having one extra cat around wouldn’t make too much of a difference.”
“Thank you, hyung!” Hyunjin tossed himself at the older and Minho caught the other in the nick of time before the younger could send them both sprawling onto the ground. “You’re the best boyfriend ever!”
Now that the smile had returned to Hyunjin’s face and the other was once again enveloped in his usual bright aura, everyone collectively let out a sigh of relief.
Hyunjin found his way onto Minho’s lap, snuggling and nuzzling happily into the crook of the older’s neck as the other tenderly stroked at his hair.
“Then that’s settled. For now, I suppose we can keep the kitten here for the night and then the two of you can send it over to Minho’s place tomorrow.” Bang Chan straightened up on the couch.
“Hear that, kitty? You get to come to bed with me to- Achoo!“ Hyunjin had to pause midsentence as a gigantic sneeze ripped its way from him. “Achoo! Achoo!”
As more sneezes shook Hyunjin’s torso, Seungmin picked up a box of tissue from the coffee table and handed it over to him. The older accepted it gratefully and grabbed a handful of tissues as another sneezing fit came upon him.
“I hope you didn’t catch a cold, Jinnie.” Bang Chan’s voice was filled with concern. “You should have changed out of your wet clothes and dried off first thing after reaching home.”
“Wait a minute.” Changbin raised an eyebrow. “Hyunjin, aren’t you allergic to cat fur?”
Hyunjin struggled to answer the other in between his sneezing fits. “Achoo. No, I’m not- achoo, really allergic. I’m just a little- achoo, allergic.”
“A little allergic?” Minho’s voice was sharp as he pressed his lips together in disapproval. “That’s not how allergies work! I can’t believe you brought a kitten home knowing you had an allergy to its fur.”
“I just- achoo, couldn’t leave it there- achoo, in the rain.” Hyunjin rubbed at his nose furiously before attempting to smile up at his boyfriends, eyes red-rimmed and watery from all the sneezes. “I’m completely fine- achoo. You don’t have to- achoo, worry about me at all.”
With an exasperated sigh, Seungmin got up and started dragging Hyunjin off Minho’s lap as their other boyfriend transferred the kitten to his arms instead. “Come on, we’re going to get you a shower and some medication for your allergy.”
“But I’m fine!”
“No, you’re not!”
“What about the kitty?”
“The others will take care of it and make sure that the kitten stays far away from you until Minho can bring it home tomorrow.”
“But I was going to play with the kitty!”
“You can play with me instead.”
“You’re a puppy, not a kitty.”