Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

At 9 am on April 16, 2020, there was a simultaneous biological riot around the world. The size of various breeds of house pets suddenly shot up, causing several wide-scale incidents and developing into a mass panic. Due to the great significance of this phenomenon, the event was recorded in history as the beginning of a new era of mixed species, and was thus dubbed ‘Evolution day’.

On April 17, the species who experienced the changes brought upon by Evolution day had consecutive varying degrees of shrinkage in size, and after surveying it showed that these changes were also accompained by a great increase in IQ.

On the following days, there were multiple accounts of pets beginning to speak in human language all over the world. According to the survey at the scene, the pets who spoke were logical and their thinking was clear, their world perception and general cognition was almost indistinguishable from that of humans. Due to the overwhelming majority of the evolved species consisting of former house pets, it was theorized with substantial evidence that proximity to humans was a deciding factor in the process of their evolution.

On April 20, after careful observation and prompting, it was proven that the species capable of language could also willingly shift into humanoid form, with varying but high degrees of success.

Only a few months later the scientific community reached a general consensus, biologists and experts uniformly gave these organisms the name of Evolutionary species, and successively cataloged them according to their morphology, physical capability and IQ. Subsequently divided into: Half species, First order species, and Second order species.

On January 12, 2021, the International Convention of the protection of Rights and Interests of the Evolutionary species was held after countries from all around the world actively requested the integration of Evolutionary species into society.

Thus, the era of Evolutionary species started, brought upon by the breakneck speed of assimilation of the Evolutionary species and subsequent progress into a society of mixed races, and although not all countries accepted the evolutionary species as citizens with the same rights as humans, the general consensus amongst the globalized civilization was that they were friendly to humans and thus should be treated as equals.

Many regulations were passed in order to accommodate the interests of Evolutionary species, one of which was the renowned ‘Raising Contract’.

Because most of the Evolved species were former house pets, all of which had positive impressions of their previous owners, it was observed that there were many who were still interested in continuing a cohabiting relationship with their former masters.

To guarantee the equality of such an agreement and considering that both parties consented to it, the Raising contract was established, giving the relationship of the Evolutionary species and their former human master an official status recognized by the law.

Amongst the select few diligent pet owners who successfully raised Evolutionary species, there was a certain man.

Kim Dokja, 31 years old, former overworked salaryman and current proud owner of a successful and flourishing business, his very own Cat Cafe: Kim Dokja’s Company.

Or at least that’s how it was supposed to be.

At 7 pm on April 15, 2020, there would be a terrorism incident involving an explosion in the carriage 3707 of the 3434 Train to Bulgwang, and Kim Dokja, who was on his way back home from running some errands downtown and had coincidentally been riding on the car directly after it, would consequently become bedridden and spend the two following years deep into a coma.

As for the ten beloved cats he had spent the past three years raising, well.

Of course, they could only raise hell.

Uriel had been making her rounds around the coma ward in Eden hospital, as she often did once every other week.

These days she didn’t have as much time to help out in her family’s hospital, busy as she was with rehearsals and other activities pertaining to her job as an idol, but she still liked to lend a hand every now and then when her packed schedule allowed it. Amongst the nurses of the hospital (or angels, as the public liked to call them, seeing as management and staff consisted mostly of bird-type evolutionary species), not many enjoyed the task of watching over the eerily quiet coma ward, dubbing it as boring and even ‘creepy’ by some, but Uriel on her part found the job very relaxing.

Additionally, she got to visit one of her favorite patients.

“Dokja-ssi, how are you today~?” she greeted cheerfully once she reached the luxury private room with the label ‘3807’ on the door.

Naturally, Kim Dokja could not reply to her. Uriel however wasn’t deterred in the least, this is how it had always been after all, thus she proceeded on with her job; calmly checking the vitals, replenishing the serum, aiding in range-of-motion exercises, cleaning and moisturizing the skin…

Yes, that was also a part of her job, besides, his skin was so soft and free of blemishes, it should be taken care of accordingly!!

Not to mention this was a VIP patient they were talking about, Metatron had stressed it to her several times that no amount of attention or resources should be spared when it comes to this particular patient. Apparently, he was very well connected.

Observing the soft and delicate features of the young man, Uriel wondered who could be the influential figure behind him, taking care of the hospital bills and paying for VIP care for these past two years. Maybe it was some kind of handsome rich CEO, unable to give up on his beloved and patiently waiting for him to wake up and come home…

Giggling to herself, Uriel pulled out a notepad from her pocket and scribbled something into it.

Despite never having had a chance to have a proper conversation with Kim Dokja herself and knowing next to nothing about him, the reason why she had grown especially fond of him in these past few years was precisely this.

Ever since her awakening as an Evolved species, Uriel had always had a soft spot for cute boys. Not in a sexual or even romantic way, but simply as an aesthethic appreciation. Usually she was satisfied just with admiring them, but sometimes she also enjoyed using them as inspiration for her stories (or fantasies, as Gabriel liked to put it).

Suffice to say that by now, she had already filled several pages worth of tropes featuring Kim Dokja as the subject. Everything from an illicit romance with an overbearing CEO, to childhood sweethearts, rival idols, arranged marriages, soulmates, apocalypse fantasy drama… you name it.

The only thing she regretted was that she had yet to decide on what the perfect partner for him should be.

The general practice (and her personal vias) dictates that in order to make a good companionship (read: pairing), both parts should be polar opposites of each other, for better contrast as well as a source of conflict. Taking into account Dokja-ssi’s pale countenance and lithe build, the other person should naturally be on the taller side, with strong, well-defined muscles, as well as a notable ‘male lead’ aura…

The face of a certain person immediately came to mind, her favorite pro-gamer and streamer whom she had been religiously following ever since his debut. Without shadow of a doubt, if it was that person then he would make an amazing ‘Overbearing CEO’.

Gabriel had called her crazy for obsessing over a streamer who was a Cat-type Evolutionary species of all things, her natural predator, but she couldn’t help it. He was just too handsome!

Besides, it’s not like they were simple animals anymore, they were Evolved Species, as far as she was concerned that sort of rivalry was something of the past. Moreover, she was a Second order, even if her opponent was another Second order Cat-type, she was confident that she could hold her own. Not to mention that she didn’t really want him for herself, but rather…

As Uriel’s imagination worked away at an unrivaled speed, a certain picture started coming alive in her mind. Ah… how come she had never thought of them together before? Just standing next to each other would be an image worthy of a painting, if she were to see it happen at least once in her lifetime, she could fly away to the heavens with a fulfilled conscience~!

She was still in the middle of fantasizing when she suddenly heard a small, hoarse voice croak out inquisitively, “Excuse me, Miss…?”

Uriel snapped back to attention at the sound, green eyes meeting dark, star-filled ones belonging precisely to the young man on the bed.

For a brief moment, silence enveloped the room, neither party daring to break it.

Then, just as suddenly, Uriel shrieked loudly, “Kyaaaaaaaa!!! He’s awake, he’s awake!” Without further warning, the nurse unfolded her wings, two large, white masses of fluffy feathers, and flew away from the room, leaving the patient watching her departure with a dumbfounded expression.

Uriel however currently lacked the presence of mind to pay attention to such details, the first thing she did once she had fled the coma ward being to storm into Metatron’s office, a whirlwind of papers flying into the air in her wake and feathers trailing after her as her wings finally beat into a stop. “Di-director!”

Despite having his work disrupted by the commotion, director Metatron simply raised a sculpted, judgemental eyebrow in his employee’s direction and heaved a sigh, “Uriel, what have I told you about keeping your voice down while inside the hospital?”

“Nevermind that!” she screamed, her uncharacteristic impoliteness drawing Metatron’s attention, “The patient, the VIP patient in room 3807, Kim Dokja woke up!”

At those words, the director’s demeanor changed in an instant, getting up from his chair in one swift motion and sweeping his white coat clean of wayward feathers in a no-nonsense fashion, “Uriel, accompany me to the patient’s room.”

-

After verifying that yes, in fact, the patient was conscious and responsive and it wasn’t just a play of her wishful and sometimes overactive imagination, Uriel was tasked with the very important duty of notifying Kim Dokja’s immediate relatives of the good news.

Which found her staring, completely in shock at the extensive list of names displayed as Kim Dokja’s family, along with their respective contacts.

‘N-no way, all of these people, aren’t they…?’

Uriel gulped. So this was what Metatron meant by ‘well connected’.

She was preparing herself to start calling from the top of the list when suddenly, her eyes caught sight of a certain name, sitting innocuously somewhere in the middle. She gasped.

‘Oh my god oh my god oh my god, is this for real?! It can’t really be him, right?’

Not believing her eyes, Uriel dialed the number displayed without thinking about it, forgetting to use the hospital’s phone and instead calling from her personal one in her haste. 

Noticing her mistake, Uriel cursed and went to hang up, thinking that the other person surely wouldn’t pick up a call from an unknown number so suddenly, but surprisingly before she could end the call, a gruff, slightly annoyed baritone rang out from the speaker.

“Who is this?”

Startled, Uriel spoke without thinking, “Yes! Um, Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi?”

“How did you get my number?” The person on the other side asked somewhat accussingly instead of replying.

It didn’t escape Uriel’s attention that he didn’t confirm nor deny being the famous pro-player, but Uriel had been following the other’s career long enough to recognize his voice. She was currently struggling to hold on to her professionalism, ‘Oh my god, it's really him! I’m really talking to Yoo Joonghyuk, The Supreme King Yoo Joonghyuk!!’

Remembering that she had yet to introduce herself, Uriel hurried to ease the streamer’s worries, “Oh! Sorry about that, my name is Uriel, I’m a nurse at the Eden Hospital. It’s regarding patient Kim Dokja.”

There was a brief moment of charged silence in which she could hear the other take in a shuddering breath, apprehensiveness bleeding into his voice “...Did something happen?”

“Ah, sorry I didn’t mean to worry you!” Uriel stumbled to clarify, innerly wanting to hit herself for her thoughtlessness, “It’s not anything bad, in fact he just woke up!”

“...!” There was a cluttering noise like something falling into the floor, and Uriel was about to ask if the man was alright before Yoo Joonghyuk’s voice spoke into the phone once again, sounding slightly out of breath, “...Are you telling the truth?”

“Of course!” she assured him, placing a hand over her heart like she was making an oath, even if the other couldn’t see her, “You can come see for yourself if you don’t believe me, he’s awake at this very moment!”

“I’m on my way.” Yoo Joonghyuk said, voice cool and composed but with a slight edge of anticipation. Uriel could feel her hands starting to itch with the need to write this all down in her notepad, sensing the beginning of an endless flow of inspiration. “Before I go, can I ask you for a favor?”

Uriel was startled back from her wandering thoughts, not having expected the usually stoic and inflexible man to ask for anything in such a humble manner. Her answer naturally went without saying. “Yes, of course!”

“I’ll take responsibility for everything, just don’t tell the others yet.”

I was currently in something of a daze.

I’d been in a coma for around two years, according to the caucascian-looking doctor who came to check on me. I couldn’t really find it in myself to doubt his words, seeing as I did feel like someone who’d just been freshly dug out from their grave. As of yet I could barely lift a finger, much less walk away and check myself out, as much as I wanted to.

My first instinct was naturally to ask about my cats, the second being to ask for my cell phone.

The third was to ask about that pretty, also somewhat foreigner-looking nurse that I had woken up to —and who had also flown away in what looked like white angel wings— and whether I had hallucinated the whole thing with my half-asleep and medication-muddled brain.

Doctor Metatron, as he said his name was, which was interesting all on its own, didn’t know anything about my cats, although I hadn’t really put much hope in that he would, but he did bring me my phone. Or what looked like my phone, except my phone had a big crack across the screen and also the bottom corner was chipped away from how often I had dropped it while rolling over on my bed reading webnovels, and this one was brand new, if a similar model.

Which didn’t come as much of a shock as anticipated, if my accident was as serious as I was told it stood to reason that my original phone was either blown into smithereens or lost in the commotion and probably also stepped on repeatedly by the panicking crowd.

As for my third question, Metatron's answer was: “Oh, that was just Uriel.”

And that was that.

Okay , I’ll just assume I hallucinated the wings part and leave the matter to ponder later.

Now going back to the more pressing matter. My cats.

Looking at my brand new phone as well as my private and very fancy looking hospital room, I could only think of two people who had the sort of resources as well as enough good will towards me to provide me with these things: Hades and Persephone.

Although I knew the Underworld pair held some sort of paternal feelings towards me and regarded me as something of an heir to their Gastronomical empire, I was still somewhat surprised that they’d still pay for my life support for an entire two years. Perhaps I was jumping to conclusions, but I couldn’t really think of anyone else that would fit the bill, and even then it was hard to believe.

I wasn’t precisely a people person, in fact I didn't have any friends nor a family either aside from my estranged mother in prison. Almost the entirety of my life was spent by myself.

Which was precisely why my cats were so important to me.

Some people would say that it was ridiculous to hold pets to the same level of regard that one would for humans, that they were just animals. But to me, I had been saved by them.

Hades and Perspehone naturally knew this fact about me, so I expected (hoped) that they wouldn’t have just abandoned my cats if they were willing to provide my healthcare for these past two years.

Still, I couldn’t shake the anxiety in my heart.

Unlocking my phone, I went to search my contact list for Persephone’s number when I saw something that made me scratch my head in confusion.

Han Sooyoung, Jung Heewon, Lee Hyunsung, Yoo Sangah…

‘These names, aren’t they…?’

Why were my cats listed as contacts…?

My first thought was that Persephone might have assigned them under the supervision of different employees, and these were the contacts of the people currently taking care of each of them, although it sounded a bit far-fetched.

But it was the only explanation I could find under the current circumstances.

Thinking that I might as well find out, I decided to call the first number listed, Han Sooyoung’s. Just before I could press call though, the door of my room suddenly slid open with enough strength to nearly make a dent on the wall.

Startled, I turned wide eyes towards the violent intruder, my hand just shy of the nurse call button, and met the stranger’s smoldering gaze.

Which, I didn’t know who this person was or why he was staring at me like he wanted to either beat me back into a coma or disembowel me with his bare hands. I was tempted to ask him if he had perhaps mistaken me for the person who murdered his entire family or something, or maybe it was the person his girlfriend had cheated on him with, seeing how righteously pissed he looked.

Except that one of those two options was completely improbable because I couldn’t see any sane woman cheating on a man who looked like that, least of all with someone like me of all people .

So I was left at a loss as the adonis-looking man approached me with heavy, purposeful strides.

Perhaps because I was physically incapable of running away as my legs were virtually useless at the moment, thus leaving me with no choice other than to accept the reality of my imminent violent end weighing upon me like the hypothetical sword of Damocles, I stared straight into the face of death with enough idleness to properly appreciate its handsome features.

Eyebrows seemingly drawn by a single, uninterrupted stroke of a famed artist's brush; a nose and a chin shaped in perfect angles that defied attempts to measure them through mere devices of men; a pair of deep eyes seemingly carved out of a beautiful jewel containing all the misfortunes found in this world.

I had never considered myself as someone with an aesthetic or sexual inclination towards the male figure, not that I was completely uninterested, but romance and sexual relationships had just always seemed like something that didn’t concern me as it was practically unachievable in levels both personal and emotional. Now though, I couldn’t help but think that ‘Yes, these are undoubtedly the looks of a protagonist.’

Only once my soon-to-be-murderer was standing in front of me did I remember that I still had a phone in one hand and a nurse call button on the other, both objects that I could use to call for help, however it was already too late as my right wrist was clasped into a deathgrip and the phone in my hand pulled away in one swift motion, something in the screen's display seeming to deeply bother the stranger in some way because the already prevalent crease between his eyebrows grew even steeper if possible.

“Kim Dokja” The man said, deep voice heavy with untold emotions, and before I could finish processing the fact that Yes, this stranger knew my name so was he technically still a stranger? I was being pulled into the other’s embrace.

For a brief moment that felt like an eternity, I did nothing but lay frozen and think about how warm and strong the arms enveloping me felt, somehow, the sensation came off both as foreign and strangely familiar.

Then I felt the other man bury his nose into the crook of my neck and ‘Huh, is this guy rubbing his face against me-?!’

Abruptly coming back to my senses, I pulled away from the man’s tight hold, “Um, sir…?” I asked as I simultaneously started subtly feeling around for the nurse-call button that I had dropped, ‘Help, I’m being harassed by a weirdo protagonist-looking creep!’

The  bastard at hand, on his part, threw me a reproachful look that edged on disappointment and sighed somewhat wistfully, which made me feel like I had failed some sort of test and I should not be feeling guilty, damn it!  “You fool,” he said, something in his previously bottomless dark eyes turning soft and warm, like melted chocolate, “It’s me, Yoo Joonghyuk.”

Huh, so it was Yoo Joonghyuk.

Yoo Joonghyuk…

Yoo Joonghyuk??!!

Chapter Text

The day that Kim Dokja first met Yoo Joonghyuk was also the day his favorite novel ended.

He was coming home late after yet another night working overtime, feeling both physically and emotionally exhausted.

Idly, Kim Dokja wondered whether there was any point in working so hard, seeing as his contract was destined to be terminated at the end of his trial period.

Whether there was a point to anything at all.

Usually, around this time he’d be rushing home, eager to read the latest update of his favorite novel, but as of today, that part of his routine was over.

Not to say that he disliked the novel’s ending, or well, he hadn’t entirely hated it at least, although he himself would have prefered a happier and more hopeful conclusion. But as far as the narrative goes, the ending was a fitting one, not too rushed nor unexpected.

But well, Kim Dokja had spent the better part of his youth following that novel, ‘better’ meaning not only the largest but also the one that was not absolutely miserable, it wasn’t too great an exaggeration to say that he had been raised with that novel. It wasn’t overwhelmingly popular nor a literary masterpiece, but it was his, in a way.

It having finally reached an end left something of a void inside of him that he didn’t know what to do with.

Kim Dokja’s name means reader, and that’s what he does. He reads.

So far, whenever life seemed like too much to bear, Kim Dokja had found his solace amongst books and novels. Next to the trials the characters have to endure, his own mundane inconveniences seem insignificant in comparison. He always found an odd sense of comfort in that sensation.

Kim Dokja’s name means only child, and that’s what he is. He is alone.

Whenever Kim Dokja, the reader, takes the limelight, Kim Dokja, the only child, fades to the background.

Consequently, whenever Kim Dokja isn’t reading, he goes back to being alone.

Not for the first time he entertained the grim thought that maybe it was high time he put an end to such a meaningless existence.

To be honest, Kim Dokja had never thought he would make it this far in the first place. Since his last attempt to put an end to his life at the age of 15 had failed, his days had consisted of nothing but a never ending cycle of 'Just one more chapter’. Like a reenactment of the One Thousand and One Nights, a seemingly endless compilation of stories with the hope that one day, when he looked back, he’d find something meaningful, something that belonged to only him.

So far, he only had a dead-end job to his name, and a one-room apartment with rent almost a full month overdue.

(And after his trial period was over he might no longer have those things either.)

If his life was a story, he thought, it would be a rather short and meaningless one. Not even worth publishing.

‘What would even be the title? Something like Untitled Document 1, probably’

He huffed a humorless laugh at his own dark thoughts.

Kim Dokja had survived, but he had never found a resolve to live. The thought of dying had simply been put off, filed away until the sweet respite of fiction was no longer enough to distract him from the commonplace tragedy of everyday life, until the costs outweighed the benefits.

‘I can always end it if it becomes too much’.

Until today, he had been barely scraping by, living solely for the blessed moment of the day in which his favorite web novel was updated, but now.

Kim Dokja was tired.

It was at that moment that, as if to reflect his somber mood, it started to rain. The salaryman cursed, remembering that he hadn’t brought an umbrella, and ran towards the nearest convenience store to seek shelter.

He watched the rain pour down heavily from under the store awning, contemplating whether it was worth it to run all the way back to his apartment under the downpour or if he should wait it out, when he spotted a small dark silhouette from the corner of his eye.

A black long-haired cat was sitting a few meters away, apparently having chosen to wait out the rain under the same roof as Kim Dokja.

Kim Dokja had never owned any pets before, nor was he knowledgeable of the different cat breeds, but even he could tell that there was no way this cat was a stray, because it was the best looking cat he had ever seen in his life.

Its build was big, even for a male cat, with long, elegant limbs and well groomed black fur. Even slightly wet as it was, the ruff around the cat’s neck looked incredibly soft, with tiny water drops clinging to the tips of each hair in a silver coat of dew.

The picture looked like it belonged in a cat magazine or something, advertising whichever product people who have cats put on them to make their fur look so soft and luscious.

Kim Dokja was overwhelmed with the sudden urge to touch it.

Succumbing to his temptation, Kim Dokja bent down, careful not to startle the feline, and held out a hand towards it in a calling gesture, “Psss, psss, come here…”

The cat’s ear twitched and it turned to regard him with half-lidded golden eyes, dissecting him with its gaze like it was attempting to parse out whether he was a threat. Kim Dokja was once again struck by the feline’s regal appearance, ‘are cats even supposed to be this good looking?’

And then, as if having arrived at the conclusion that his existence wasn’t worth acknowledging, the cat turned back away, leaving Kim Dokja’s outstretched hand hanging limp in the space between them, utterly ignored.

As the people walking by threw odd glances at Kim Dokja’s crouching figure, he felt an embarrassed flush climb up his neck, tinting his ears red. He’d been through countless humiliating experiences in the course of his life, but somehow, being dismissed by a cat of all things at this time felt like he’d reached an all time low.

Incensed, Kim Dokja stood back up with an expression that said that he refused to take such humiliation lying down. “J-just you wait!” he said to the cat, which was now casually licking its paws, and stormed inside the convenience store. Once Kim Dokja found what he was looking for in the shelves he took it to the cash register, where a boy with bleached hair and who looked to be in high-school age rang it up half-heartedly, and immediately went back out, making a beeline for the cat.

With a self-satisfied expression, Kim Dokja unwrapped the roll of tuna kimbap he had oh-so-graciously procured for the ungrateful feline bastard, and magnanimously held it out in invitation.

‘Cats like tuna right? Come on, eat the kimbap, you bastard…’

Said bastard cat, for its part, calmly looked up from where it had been leisurely grooming its fur, seeming to smell something in the air, right before it directed the singlest, most contemptuous look he could have ever pictured on a cat’s face at the snack in Dokja’s hand, almost like it had offended it in a personal (cat-sonal?) level. Before Kim Dokja could register the feline’s apparent disdain for convenience store food, the cat turned its bushy tail on him and proceeded to scurry off into the night, bringing to Dokja’s attention that the rain had finally dampered off.

Mindlessly, Kim Dokja brought the kimbap to his mouth and absentmindedly nibbled on it. A cat had sneered at his food.

He had never felt so insulted in his entire life, not even by his bullies in middle school and high school.

“Were you trying to feed Captain, Ahjussi?” came a sudden voice that made Dokja jump, “It’s no use, he doesn’t eat anything that’s not hunted by himself, you know?”

He looked up to find the delinquent-looking clerk from earlier, watching him with half curiosity and half pity. Dokja felt halfway compelled to tell him to mind his own business, like the cash register he had left visibly unmanned, but resisted in lieu of something the other said that sparked his attention.

“Cap…tain?”

“Oh! It’s the black cat just now, that’s what I call him,” the teenager said, “Because he’s all fierce looking y’know, kinda like he’s the boss of the stray cats in this neighborhood or something.”

…Were cats like the mafia, did he just encounter the gang leader equivalent of cats?

Kim Dokja was more inclined to believe that this teenager had a severe case of chuunibyou.

“Wait, stray?” he asked, “You mean it doesn’t belong to anyone?”

“As far as I know, I mean, he’s always hanging around here, preying on the mice and rats that gather on the back, but it doesn’t eat so much as a bite when humans try to feed it,” the young clerk mused aloud, “Hell, he doesn’t even let anyone closer than two meters from him, much less pet him. Me and my coworker have tried.”

Huh, so it wasn’t just him?

Kim Dokja felt slightly comforted by the knowledge that he wasn’t the only victim of this particular cat’s humiliating rejection, and at the same time a certain urge sparked inside him, perhaps born from a man’s natural desire to conquer, something Kim Dokja always thought he himself lacked.

‘Wouldn’t it be nice if I could get close enough to pet it?’

Distracted by his newfound interest, Kim Dokja readily resumed his commute back home under the slowly clearing skies.

And if that night he spent more time looking up foods that cats like to eat rather than reading web-novels as per his hobby, well, that was between him and his phone.

After that day, Kim Dokja incorporated a new item to his daily routine. Every day after coming home from work, he’d buy something to eat from the convenience store, (pre-packaged lunch boxes, fish cake kimbap, Tteokbokki, ramyeon… there really wasn’t a lot of variety, was there?) and then he’d sit on the curve to eat his dinner while patiently waiting for the cat to show up, a small helping of cat food or some leftovers from his own dinner that he deemed safe enough for cats to eat served a safe distance away.

He wasn’t having much luck, the cat stayed true to its utter disdain for human-made food (as well as humans themselves) but Kim Dokja thought that it didn’t really matter either way. He’d still finish his own food, sometimes he’d catch a glimpse of the haughty bastard of a cat, glaring at him like he was invading his territory before quickly scurrying away to hunt rats and start turf wars over some female cat tail or whatever, and sometimes Kim Namwoon, the chuunibyou clerk who worked the afternoon shifts, would join him and make fun of him for his failed attempts to tame the indomitable Captain, and then they would talk about menial things like games and cats and gundams and anime until it was late and he had to go home.

And after everything was done, another day would have gone by, just like that.

He decided to give the cat a name: Yoo Joonghyuk.

Maybe it was a weird name for a cat, it was a human name after all, but in his opinion it was leagues above something dumb and edgy like “Captain”, no matter how much Kim Namwoon insisted to continue to call it that.

Kim Dokja was half tempted to name the cat something stupid and insulting like “Sunfish” or “Ugly sooty bastard” but he feared that it might really attack him if he heard him address it as such, he swore its golden eyes sometimes looked scarily intelligent…

So he resolved to compromise and give it a name that sounded decent to outsiders’ ears, but was actually given with ill-intent. It’s because that was the name of the psychopathic, emotionally-challenged protagonist of a certain novel, a character that had no good qualities to speak of other than being handsome and determined, that is not to say stupidly dogged and stubborn .

Come to think of it, that bastard was also picky with his food wasn’t he?

‘Truly like two peas in a pod.’ He thought, satisfied with his naming choice.

He had to admit he was maybe being a little bit petty, but honestly, after two weeks of his efforts being ignored Kim Dokja finally deemed necessary to change his game plan.

So he started looking up recipes and video-tutorials for homemade cat food.

Kim Dokja wasn’t a gifted cook, but he wasn’t terrible either. It was just that he often didn’t have enough time or energy to cook for himself. Usually he didn’t care much for food either way, as long as it didn’t have any tomatoes in it and could fulfill his body’s basic quota of nutrients he was practically fine with anything.

He still had a meager amount of free time, with the heavy workload and hellish amount of overtime his slave-driving company put him through almost every single day, but somehow he was finding sudden bouts of energy that he previously thought had all but abandoned him as soon as he hit his late twenties, just to practice making food that wasn’t even for him, if only out of pure spite alone.

‘How about this you bastard, you better stuff your fluffy face after all the effort I put into this!’ he thought bitterly as he molded white rice and boiled beef into a rice ball with single-minded determination.

Unfortunately, his efforts didn’t heed much result. Yoo Joonghyuk still remained unmoved in the face of his offerings.

Discouraged, Kim Dokja dejectedly ate the rice balls all on his lonesome. It didn’t taste all that bad for cat food, if a bit bland. ‘Do other cats really like to eat this stuff?’

Curious, he went around looking for another cat to taste-test. There weren't any around the convenience store, but that was Joonhyuk’s turf so he likely had chased them all away already, so he ventured a bit further and finally found what looked like a colony squatting in an alley near the station.

Naturally, most of the cats scattered as soon as they heard the sound of his footsteps, but as he patiently settled the lunchbox with some leftover rice balls on the floor there were two that cautiously approached, sniffing around curiously.

One was a black and white tuxedo, visibly male judging by the size, being bigger than even Joonghyuk. The other was considerably smaller, a clean and pretty calico cat, from what he read, they were mostly female, and by the looks of it this one was as well.

Once they got close enough to get a proper whiff of the rice balls both cats promptly started to dig in with gusto, proving him that his humble creations were more than good enough for them, apparently. ‘Huh, so it’s just that bastard that’s annoyingly picky’.

He had read that it wasn’t safe to pet feral cats while they were eating, so he wisely let them be until they had their fill. Judging by how they shared amiably without fighting, these two cats got along well, he wondered whether they were siblings, or maybe they were just naturally good-tempered.

Once both cats were done, licking around their mouths with satisfaction, Kim Dokja finally ventured to pet the feral cats, both of which practically melted into his touch, rubbing themselves all over him.

‘What’s this, other cats were always this affectionate?!’

Actually, seeing the other cats from the colony still watching over them warily from afar, he thought that it was just these two cats that were particularly friendly.

Kim Dokja felt like he would burst into tears at any moment, who knew a cat’s affection could be so healing, ‘That bastard, why can’t he be more like this?’

Having his dampened spirits renewed by these two kind and lovely creatures, Kim Dokja decided to continue visiting them in the future. He would feel better if the food that he so lovingly crafted for Yoo Joonghyuk’s ungrateful’s fluffy tail didn’t go to waste and instead went to someone who could actually appreciate it.

‘Right, I should give these two names as well…’

Going by his naming scheme, he should choose a book character that fits each cat’s respective personality. ‘For the male cat, big and kind-hearted Lee Hyunsung is a good fit, as for the female cat…’

…TWSA didn’t have many soft and mild-mannered women, did it?

He would have felt bad if he named this cute cat after some side character with no relevance to the story, so Kim Dokja racked his brain for another novel with a character that would suit her temperament.

Suddenly, he remembered an office romance themed web novel that he had read a while ago. He hadn’t liked it all that much because he found most of the characters unlikeable at best, but he had stuck with it solely because of one of the main love interests whom he had been ardently rooting for, a smart and sensible woman with too much emotional maturity for a brainless romcom like the one she was unfortunately cast in. In his opinion, she deserved to be the heroine of her own story rather than be sidelined as a simple romantic interest to an undeserving male lead.

Ultimately, he had been sort of glad she was cast aside in favor of the cliché, tsundere childhood friend character while she, true to her ‘career woman’ trope, went off to pursue her own interests away from the main couple. It was a way better ending for her rather than being stuck with that idiotic male protagonist.

“Nice to meet you, Lee Hyunsung and Yoo Sangah,” he said to the two cats, “My name is Kim Dokja, I’ll be coming back with more food for you two in the future, so let’s get along from now on, okay?”

Kim Dokja was steadily improving his craft in the delicate artform of making cat food.

Yoo Joonghyuk still refused to eat it, but that was because he was a prickly bastard with a stone cold heart. Kim Dokja had instead gained more confidence thanks to the conjoined efforts of the adorable Sangah and Hyunsung, and lately also his newest acquisition, the wild and intimidating bengal cat, Jung Heewon.

Like Sangah and Hyunsung, she too was a cat living in the area around the station where some friendly pedestrians and food stall owners often came to feed the strays, although her temper wasn’t as friendly and approachable as the other two. He had first met her when he helped her fend off some male cats that had cornered her; he had thought that it was perhaps because she was a female cat approaching her heat, but she visibly wanted none of it so he chased the harassing cats away for her. Since then, she had slowly started to warm up to him, largely thanks to the cat rice balls that he brought daily which she also seemed to enjoy just as fervently as her other two congeners.

Unlike Hyunsung and Sangah though, she was much more protective of her food, and him by default. Lately she had taken up the habit of sniffing him first thing as soon as he arrived; he wondered if he had some lingering scent from when he went to visit Yoo Joonghyuk, because she tended to hiss and then start furiously rubbing herself on his legs, scent marking him.

‘Why, why exactly can’t that bastard Yoo Joonghyuk be this cute?!’

Kim Namwoon had at one point asked him why he insisted on coming every day to bring food to the ‘Captain’ like a ‘dedicated and tragically neglected wife’. Kim Dokja had explained it to him in terms that he as a teenager could understand, that basically feeding stray cats was like playing a Gal romance game, and Yoo Joonghyuk would be the typical Tsundere love interest with a cold and prickly exterior, whose heart he had to capture by being deliberately obtuse and forward with his affections, so that then he could finally reveal his warm and fuzzy insides — !

“Ahjussi, wouldn’t it be better to just play Neko Atsume?”

That fucking brat…

Anyways, like every other day Kim Dokja had gone to visit the convenience store to perform his caretaking (not wifely) duties as per usual. Kim Namwoon had, apparently, taken temporary leave from work because of exams at his mother’s insistence, so currently the store was being manned by a tired and reclusive looking teenager by the name of Han Donghoon. Kim Dokja had tried to engage in conversation with him out of politeness, asking him if he liked cats, which the kid said that he did with a small and timid voice but refused to elaborate. For someone working retail, he looked awfully bad at handling the general public. Kim Dokja felt a bit sorry for him.

Once he deemed the so-called pleasantries and introductions over, he went to find Yoo Joonghyuk. Not being able to find him at first glance, Kim Dokja cautiously set the lunchbox with chicken dumplings (maybe not your typical cat food, but he felt like eating them and Naver said that they were safe) he had made on the ground, and set off to look for him around the perimeter, finding it strange since he was always around at this time of day, usually glaring at him from a distance.

What he found once he started digging around some trash bags on the back alley behind the store made Kim Dokja’s entire body freeze, ice shooting into his veins.

‘Oh, oh no…’

Curled in on himself into a small, shivering ball was Yoo Joonghyuk, his usually prim and glossy dark coat of hair now dirty with grime and matted all over. It took Kim Dokja a closer look to realize it was matted with blood .

‘Oh no no no, please be alive, please be alive-!’

Probing him with cautious fingers, Kim Dokja breathed a small sigh of relief when he felt the subtle fall and rise of Joonghyuk’s chest, breaths weak but steady against Dokja’s hands.

‘Right, a vet, quickly…!’ scrambling to retrieve his phone, Kim Dokja searched for emergency vet clinics near him, praying that the 5% remaining of his battery would hold out. When the search results loaded, he was disappointed to find that the closest one open at this time was still an hour away by car.

‘Shit, will he be able to endure the trip…?’ taking off his jacket, Kim Dokja gently wrapped it up around Joonghyuk into a makeshift bundle. He was about to flag down a taxi when he suddenly remembered his upstairs neighbor, a nice and beautiful lady by the name of Lee Seolhwa.

‘She’s a doctor, not a vet. It’s not the same, but…’ he honestly felt terrible about bothering the woman at this hour with something that wasn’t even in her expertise, specially since their relationship was only that of polite neighbors that sometimes greeted each other in the hallway and maybe helped the other with carrying groceries at best, but at the moment his main priority was making sure that Joonghyuk would make it out of this.

With his mind made, Dokja carefully joisted Joonghyuk up and, ignoring the weird looks he was getting, half-jogged, half speed-walked the short stretch back to his apartment complex, afraid to upset the wound if he started running.

Once he had made it safely to the front of Lee Seolhwa’s apartment, Kim Dokja gave the door a few tentative knocks, praying that the woman would be present and in a good mood.

There was a tense moment of anxious silence in which Dokja was beginning to contemplate getting a cab to the vet after all when the door finally opened, revealing a dashing if a tad miffed Lee Seolhwa, looking down at the bundle in his arms with raised eyebrows.

“Dokja-ssi…” she said with a slow, measured voice after patiently sitting through Kim Dokja’s butchered attempt at an explanation, “You know that you need a veterinary specialist for this, right?”

Kim Dokja looked away, feeling properly chastised, “I know, I will go, just… Can you help me with addressing his wounds first? I’m not confident in doing it myself.”

Seeing his pitiful expression, Lee Seolhwa let out a long-suffering sigh before opening the door wider in invitation, “Come on in, you can wait inside while I take a look at him.”

“Alright, you’re all done,” Lee Seolhwa said once she had finished cleaning and disinfecting Joonghyuk’s wounds, “It was mostly blunt force trauma. I didn’t see any signs of internal damage beyond a few fractured ribs, so he’s stable for now.”

At those words Kim Dokja released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “So it’s not serious?”

“Well, not immediately so at least, but he still needs to be looked at and treated by the correct professional. Here, I know just the right person,” the doctor said as she pulled out her phone, searching for something within it before showing him a contact filed under Aileen Markerfield. “She and I used to be classmates before she switched to veterinary medicine. Her clinic is small so she doesn’t work emergencies, but if you give her a call and tell her it’s from me I’m sure she will help you right away.”

Saving the number into his contacts, Kim Dokja wanted to thank the kind woman for her actions, but he struggled to find the right words to express his gratitude, a simple thank you and an offer for monetary compensation feeling too inadequate, “Lee Seolhwa-ssi, I…”

“Don’t worry about it Dokja-ssi,” the doctor waved him away with an understanding smile, “It wasn’t a problem. I only ask that in the future, if you happen to rescue any more stray animals you take them straight to her instead.”

Just as Lee Seolhwa said, Aileen was eager to help once he had explained his situation. Her clinic was a small thing, located only a short ten minutes walk away from his apartment, but she had everything they needed.

Turns out Joonghyuk’s injuries weren't much to worry about beyond the two broken ribs that luckily hadn’t punctured the lung and Aileen determined would heal well enough on their own. He had lost some blood and was partially dehydrated so she hooked him up to an IV bag along with some pain medications and soon enough he was up and about, trying to bite and claw his way from the cat carrier the vet had kindly lent him.

Paying her made something of a dent in his savings that made him want to tear up a little, even though it was less than what her service would rightfully cost, but for the most part Dokja was glad that Joonghyuk was fine, having feared the worst.

There were only ever two things that inflicted injuries like those. Either a car got him, or…

Well, he knew first hand how cruel and malicious human beings could be. Kim Dokja almost became sick thinking about it.

Meeting Joonghyuk’s contemplative golden gaze from inside the carrier, he could only sigh in relief and thank whatever higher entity was out there that he had gotten him on time. Who knows what would have happened otherwise.

Although now that raised the question of what he should do with him from now on.

Kim Dokja’s landlord didn’t allow pets in the building, and he didn’t know anyone else who could take care of him. Kim Namwoon lived with his parents, and apparently his mom wasn’t very keen on pets.

Dokja wasn’t comfortable with just giving him away to a stranger, he didn’t trust anyone with him, not after what had happened.

After much deliberation, he ultimately resolved to secretly smuggle him into his apartment. He could just take care of him at least until he was fully recovered. Joonghyuk wasn’t loud and didn’t really meow as far as he knew, so hopefully and with some luck no one would even notice.

All was well and fine, except there was a problem he failed to account for and which he really should have considered, which was that two full days later Joonghyuk still refused to eat anything Dokja fed him.

Right now it was the weekend but if Joonghyuk still didn’t eat anything by tomorrow, Kim Dokja would have to take the day off from work to take him to see Aileen, which probably wouldn’t come off well to his superiors but he honestly couldn’t care less at this point. What mattered was that at this rate Yoo Joonghyuk would starve under his care if he didn’t figure out something soon.

Looking at the beady eyes of the feline spying at him from inside his kitchen cabinet, which he had claimed as his hiding spot as soon as he brought him in, Kim Dokja didn’t know whether to rip his hair out in frustration or slump down in defeat.

“Come on, I know you prefer your food freshly dead and all but you won’t heal if you at least don’t eat something, please…?” he tried to bargain for what must have been the upteenth time. He must have looked like a crazy person, attempting to reason with a cat, but he was pretty much at the end of his wits here.

Yoo Joonghyuk, on his part, continued to stare blankly at him. Not that Kim Dokja expected a verbal answer from a cat, but he could at least crawl out from there and eat the slices of chicken he had put down for him.

Contemplating whether he should try a different approach, Kim Dokja suddenly felt his own stomach rumble in protest, reminding him that he had yet to eat something himself. Deciding to whip up something quick, Dokja retrieved the leftover ingredients from the dumplings he had made recently and soon enough the fragrant smell of ground pork and onions started filling the apartment.

Kim Dokja was wrapping up the dumplings when he felt the weight of an intense gaze burning on his back. Looking down, he saw Joonghyuk’s yellow eyes staring intently at him, face peeking cautiously out of the cabinet and nose sniffing the air curiously.

“Could it be… you like this?” Kim Dokja held out a dumpling for the cat to sniff. Joonghyuk looked at the object in Dokja’s hand with interest, when he suddenly remembered that onions were supposed to be toxic for cats. “Wait, forget it, don’t eat that! I’ll make another one for you…”

Finishing one batch of cat-safe pork dumplings, Kim Dokja put the plate down in front of Yoo Joonghyuk and he himself sat down on the floor right in front of him with his own plate, waiting eagerly for the cat to eat. “Now, eat that damn dumpling, you bastard.”

Yoo Joonghyuk however, only gave the dumplings a cursory sniff before he continued to stare at Dokja instead.

“Oh come on, I didn’t poison it or anything, see?” he said as he made a show of biting into his own dumpling, praising the taste in an exaggerated fashion, “Okay fine, this one is actually poisoned in your standards, but yours is safe, I promise.”

Joonghyuk though remained unmoved, staring at Dokja with a penetrative gaze.

“...Fine, whatever, just don’t blame me for eating them all by myself later, okay?” he said with a defeated sigh, and then proceeded to gulp down his own dumplings with greedy bites.

In the long drawn out silence, Kim Dokja devoured his food with eagerness he didn’t feel. Noticing the taste to be strangely salty, he touched his face and was surprised to find it somewhat wet. “...Weird, is it because of the onions?”

Only more silence answered him. Feeling the accumulated exhaustion of the past few days weighing down on him, Kim Dokja decided to turn in for the night. Tomorrow he would call in sick to work and leave early for Aileen’s.

“Okay, I’ll just leave this here if you want to eat… Good night, Joonghyuk-ah” he said as he left for his room, the feline’s intent gaze staying fixed on his back until he had disappeared behind the door.

To Kim Dokja’s surprise and delight, by the next day the dumplings had disappeared, only a few crumbs left on the plate.

It was only about two weeks later that Yoo Joonghyuk had made a full recovery, not a trace of his injuries left either on his skin or his gait. He was as arrogant as ever, now perhaps even more so, demanding food and attention from Kim Dokja like it was his birthright. He had to admit that he didn’t mind the change in attitude all that much, although it was incredibly embarrassing whenever his coworkers asked him if he had finally gotten a girlfriend, since nowadays he often left work early in a hurry, all the while seeming much more cheerful than he used to.

If they knew it was because he had to go home to feed his cat…

'Wait, since when did I start to think of Yoo Joonghyuk as my own cat?'

He had to admit that lately, Kim Dokja felt a special brand of satisfaction whenever Joonghyuk particularly enjoyed something he had made for him, or whenever he allowed him to pet him (his fur was even softer and silkier than it looked, it was heaven). But personally what he enjoyed the most was finding out odd quirks and things that he didn’t know or hadn’t expected from him.

For example, he had a really ugly meow.

He had meowed only once. And then Dokja had promptly burst out laughing and then he never meowed again. It was particularly hard to coax him after that, he even slapped away the dumplings Dokja made him like he had offended his entire bloodline. (“I’m sorry, Joonghyuk-ah! Soft meows are overrated anyways, ugly meows are the cutest actually, it’s all about the gap, Joonghyuk-ah, please!” )

Another example, he really liked games.

He had discovered this fact one night after the rushing of a deadline at work forced him to take home a sample of the unfinished game he was supposed to test for bugs. He was duly going through the same level over and over, feeling his eyelids weighing down from exhaustion, when he noticed Yoo Joonghyuk’s alert gaze looking at the screen over his shoulder, following the mobs with his eyes like they were prey he was patiently stalking and occasionally batting at them with a scarily accurate paw.

Charmed to death, Kim Dokja had started to download some mobile games into his own phone for him to play with. Although this meant that he couldn’t read webnovels as often, he was mostly fine with it as long as he could watch Joonghyuk swatting at his phone screen like some kind of iPad cat. (although he did have to buy a protective glass after one particularly enthusiastic slash had ended with a crack on his screen.)

Anyways, although his relationship with Joonghyuk had improved, that didn’t mean he had forgotten about the strays from the station no, he regularly came to feed them as well. Heewon-ah still hissed whenever she smelled Joonghyuk on him, which was now much more often, and Joonghyuk in turn, became even more grumpy whenever he came back from feeding the strays, turning up his nose at him and dodging his attempts to pet him like some kind of scorned wife.

Ah, cats sure were cute.

Some months later, Joonghyuk was still living comfortably with him. Kim Dokja knew that he was technically breaching the terms of his rental agreement, but honestly he had a feeling that his landlord likely already knew that he had a cat and just turned a blind eye to it. Gong Pildu-ssi was a man with a rough exterior, but he usually softened like a rice cake whenever one brought up his family, it was a sure way to distract him whenever he showed up unannounced.

Kim Dokja thought that perhaps it was fine if things continued on like this.

His naive pretense of normality reached its natural end however when the inevitable reality he had been putting off finally came knocking.

Kim Dokja was laid off from work.

It was a long time coming, he had expected it practically as soon as he was hired, yet somehow it managed to take him by surprise.

Before, whenever he thought about the eventual termination of his contract, Kim Dokja thought that he would figure the rest out from there. He could start looking for a job in another company, and if he couldn’t find any, well, it didn’t matter all that much what happened to him then, did it?

He guessed that was still true, even if he were to disappear, there wasn’t anyone in his life that would miss him or care. His mother was an independent woman, Kim Dokja was sure she could manage fine without him, even Joonghyuk could live well enough on his own, he used to be feral before, and if not, he could always leave him under Seolhwa or Aileen’s care. They would know what to do if Kim Dokja no longer had the means to provide for him.

Remembering that he was already late on rent for this month, Kim Dokja cursed. Gong Pildu was a forgiving landlord, but even he had his limits. How long could it be until the notice of eviction came to his door?

“What are we going to do now, Joonghyuk-ah?” Kim Dokja asked aloud, not expecting an answer. To his surprise, Yoo Joonghyuk crawled into his lap at his question, nudging Kim Dokja’s hand with his head, and started purring.

Kim Dokja watched in amazement, this was the first time Yoo Joonghyuk did something like this, usually preferring to stay away and watch him from afar with half-lidded eyes rather than to cuddle. Slowly, as if afraid he’d startle the feline and scare it away, Kim Dokja gently put his arms around Yoo Joonghyuk and buried his face into his fur.

Kim Dokja was alone. He had nothing and no one, not friends, not a family, not a job, and soon he wouldn’t have a home either.

He held Yoo Joonghyuk closer. Soon, his shoulders started to shake, and despite the cat’s fur becoming increasingly wet with his tears, Yoo Joonghyuk stayed firmly in place, purring loudly against Dokja’s chest.

Kim Dokja had nothing and no one, but Yoo Joonghyuk was there. He was so warm and his fur felt soft on his skin, and Kim Dokja didn’t want to leave him.

“Ah, I’m sorry about that, you must be hungry right?” He said to the cat once he had recovered, drying what remained of his tears with his shirt's sleeve, “We’ll have dinner first, and then tomorrow I’ll get started on job-hunting.”

Perhaps it was a bit selfish of him, wanting to keep this, but he felt like he owed it to Joonghyuk to try.

Two weeks later, Kim Dokja’s job hunting wasn’t going all that well.

He had been going to interview after interview, but until now none of them had yielded any promising results, only managing to exhaust him in the process.

He was wandering around the neighborhood after his latest failed attempt, lost in thought. At some point he started to wonder whether he was actually lost when the arresting scent of lavender flowers led him towards what looked like a book cafe, stowed away in a corner at a street he had never known even existed.

Taking in the front of the shop, he wondered how he could have ever missed it. The storefront was almost entirely covered in freshly blooming flowers, with a discreet but elegant sign by the name ‘Tartarus Café’; the insides were just as tastefully decorated, with large wooden bookshelves stuffed to the brim with books along with vintage garden tables and chairs and an indoor garden, creating the atmosphere of a magical respite of nature in the middle of the bustling city. Although the place was small and quaint, it had a certain mysterious air about it.

He was still admiring the decor when he noticed a paper stuck on the window. It was a job posting, asking to hire a full time barista and waiting staff.

He wondered if…?

Forget it, he had no idea how to brew coffee beyond the cheap instant stuff they had at his former office, and he had never served tables in his life.

He was about to turn back when the chime of a bell signaled a person coming out of the shop, and not a moment later a melodic voice called out to him, “Oh, you’re leaving already? I thought perhaps you were interested in the vacant position, we haven’t had many applicants since we put it up.”

Kim Dokja was about to apologize to what he assumed was the owner for inconveniencing her, but he became abruptly tongue-tied when he found himself in the face of a stunningly beautiful foreign woman, with sharp golden eyes and long auburn hair that reached all the way down to her knees, all done into a complicated style with various flowers braided into it. Kim Dokja idly wondered how long it took her to get ready in the mornings.

“Uh… I’m sorry, I was just looking, but I don’t really-”

“What’s your name?” the woman suddenly interrupted him.

“Huh?”

“Your name.”

“...Kim Dokja.”

“Oh? With the hanja of ‘reader’?”

This was probably the first time someone had figured it out right off the bat. “Um, yes.”

“Excellent! I’m Persephone,” she introduced herself simply, no last name, huh. “When can you start?”

Wha-?

“What the, I mean, wait a second!” This is progressing too fast! “I have never even worked in food service before!”

“Oh that doesn’t matter dear, I’ll teach you everything I know,” the woman said, waving his very important concerns away with a flick of her hand, “Now, come on in, we can talk specifics over a coffee. You can also check the shelves for a book that catches your eye. I have read all of them already, but it’s been a while since I’ve had anyone to discuss them with, you know? My husband is a good listener, but he doesn’t really talk much.”

Getting tugged by the wrist into the deserted coffee shop, Kim Dokja wondered if he was about to get pulled into some kind of pyramid scheme or other similar scam, or perhaps even have his organs harvested for the dark market.

Turns out the owner really wanted to talk specifics with him about the job, but mostly she seemed to want a conversation partner to talk in extense about books and stories. Apparently, the Tartarus Café was something of a side hobby of hers, being the starting point of both her and her husbands chain of restaurants and food businesses, she had a soft spot for the place and couldn’t bear to let it go, even though she was becoming busier the more their Underworld chain grew and prospered. Finally, her and her husband had agreed to find someone to succeed the Tartarus Café instead so she could freely focus on her other projects, so she resolved to wait for the right person to show up and begin taking up the mantle of the business with her help.

She seemed bent on making Kim Dokja into said ‘successor’, for some mysterious and unknowable reason. He, for his part, was somewhat overwhelmed and didn’t really feel up for the task, but not seeing any better options for himself, they ultimately reached a compromise for the time being. He would take the job to make ends meet, keep a roof over him and Joonghyuk’s head, and then he’d worry about the rest later.

As he came to learn once he had started working in the Tartarus Café and began mentoring under her in kind, Persephone was, although a bit eccentric, a uniquely kind and warm woman. Maternal even. He could hardly get used to her constant bubbly effervescence and many displays of affection. Compared to her, her husband Hades, who he’d meet later, was almost the direct opposite. With a cold demeanor and somewhat introverted disposition, although the same kindness and warmth radiated off of him. As Persephone said, he was a good listener, and often sat with them when they had their little book meets over coffee, quietly watching over them as they passionately discussed pinch points, climaxes and resolutions.

Later, he’d bring up his situation with his lease, lamenting that he couldn’t adopt the strays he often fed into his own home, and Persephone immediately offered to give him the apartment directly above the shop for him to live. Of course, his immediate reaction was to refuse, he had taken advantage of their kindness too much already, but both her and Hades wouldn’t take no for an answer once the idea started to take root in their minds. Not even a week later, they had already cleaned and redecorated the aftermentioned apartment, preparing it for Kim Dokja to move in, even offering to pay the fee for the early termination of his lease. “You can bring in as many cats as you want, dear, you can even make this whole place into a Cat Café” she said in another attempt to convince him to move in, “Oh, what a quaint idea! How about I help you pick a name?”

…She was getting ahead of herself again, but listening to her spiel, Kim Dokja couldn’t help but begin picturing it.

He was never much of a dreamer. Usually, when Kim Dokja dreamed, he dreamed of other people’s happiness, things like characters in books and stories far removed from him, never his own.

He hadn’t known the difference before, not having had any ambitions or aspirations of his own. He had always thought that dreams were supposed to be a cold thing, a lonely thing.

Who knew that dreams could actually feel so warm?

Chapter Text

Yoo Joonghyuk. He said his name was Yoo Joonghyuk.

The thing is, in my life, I’ve only ever known two individuals by that name. The first one being the main character from an obscure web novel more than a decade old.

And the second one being my cat.

So, either this person was claiming to be the protagonist from my favorite novel come to life, or my cat turned human.

Or, there was the third, more probable option: I was being the victim of a very tasteless prank.

Subtly, I looked around the hospital room for signs of possible hidden cameras or microphones. I didn’t find them but that wasn't a guarantee of anything other than that they were doing a good job at staying hidden.

Was this whole coma situation staged then, and this hospital was just a television set? Were those eccentric doctor and nurse in on it from the start? Come to think of it, all these people were way too good looking to be anything other than paid actors.

I was putting the puzzle pieces together in my mind when the man (Yoo Joonghyuk?) suddenly grasped my chin with a firm grip, forcing our eyes to meet. Being once again faced with the stranger’s outrageously handsome visage, I could no longer look away. Distantly, I thought that if Yoo Joonghyuk, the character, really existed, he would probably look a lot like this.

As for my cat Joonghyuk, well, his namesake was given for a reason after all, and not just because of his foul attitude.

“...ja, Kim Dokja!” the man called out to me, pulling me out of my musings. Apparently, he was trying to get my attention and not just holding my face so I could better admire his looks, which made sense in hindsight.

“Um, yeah right, so Yoo Joonghyuk,” I nervously cleared my throat, “As in, my cat Yoo Joonghyuk, or…?”

“What other Yoo Joonghyuk is there?” the man said with a dark look, like the notion of another person sharing his name was deeply offending to him, somehow.

“...Okay, so you’re saying you’re my cat?”

“You sound like you don’t believe me.” The other said, eyebrows furrowing in annoyance. I innerly hoped that the cameras could capture this moment so I could get some praise for the herculean effort I was doing not to break into a fit of hysterical laughter because yeah, no shit.

“Uh right, no offense sir but I just don’t see how that’s possible so no, I don’t.” Despite my best efforts, some sarcascastic incredulity still bled into my voice. At least I hoped I could get some brownie points for keeping my polite facade because by the looks of this man’s sculpted biceps, he could probably fold me like a piece of paper faster than any hospital staff could get here if I managed to piss him off even a little (not that they would come to my aid, if my suspicions were right and they were actually hired actors).

Although, now that I thought about it, if the whole two-year long coma thing was really some kind of skit, how did they manage to fake my incapacitated legs?

‘Did they drug me or something…?’

I was growing increasingly suspicious and horrified with our nation’s unethical Variety television practices when I heard the other man sigh in what sounded like thinly-veiled exasperation.

“Kim Dokja, did no one explain it to you yet?”

“Explain what?” I asked, somewhat annoyed by the man’s audacity to look like he was the wronged party here, “About my supposed coma?”

“About the Evolutionary species.” The other said with complete seriousness.

“The Evolutionary what…?” Uh, this skit’s plot was growing increasingly complicated, I could no longer follow.

The man sighed more dramatically this time, clicking his tongue as if this entire conversation was but an annoying inconvenience, “It will be easier if I just show you,” he said at the same time that he moved back. I didn't know whether to slump in relief or mourn the sudden absence of a handsome face in my immediate breathing space, “Kim Dokja, watch closely.”

Curious, I did as he said and followed his movements as his hands went to take off his jacket, followed by his black turtle-neck that he pulled over his head in one swift movement, revealing the muscular chest and taut stomach that lay underneath- WAIT WAIT WAIT, WHAT?!

Realizing the indecent turn the situation had taken, I covered my eyes and screamed, “Ah stop stop stop! What are you doing?!” ‘Please sir actor and whatever variety show this is being broadcasted on, have mercy on this poor virgin’s soul, who didn’t even know he was attracted to men at all until like, five minutes ago and cease this humiliation!’

Thankfully, my prayers were answered by a merciful angel (or more likely, she was alerted by my screams of terror) and Uriel, the nurse from earlier, suddenly burst into the room with a frantic look on her face, “Dokja-ssi, what’s wrong?!”

Opening my eyes a small fraction, I was met by the sight of the almost fully undressed man whom I was pointedly trying to look away from, and Uriel with her eyes fixed on said man’s naked torso, her cheeks growing increasingly red by the second.

‘Um, miss, can you wipe the drool at the corner of your mouth and come help me?’ I tried to desperately communicate my thoughts to her through eye contact alone.

Unfortunately, it seemed like help was not coming my way as instead of calling security the woman covered the lower half of her face with her hand (is that blood on her nose?) and hurriedly excused herself, “Oh, um, I’m sorry for interrupting you two sirs, please don’t mind me, I mean, you can carry on with what you were doing, I’ll take my leave now-!” she said and scurried away sooner than I could get out a word in protest.

Now back alone with the man, I felt the full weight of that golden gaze fall upon me once again, making a shiver run down my spine.

‘Wait, golden? Wasn’t it black until just now?’

Before I could finish processing that particular detail, the door was once again pushed open, this time more gently, to reveal the last person I expected to find in this situation.

“Dokja-ssi, you’re really awake!” exclaimed a beautiful white-haired woman in a doctor’s coat, “I almost couldn’t believe it when director Metatron said-” she trailed off as soon as she caught sight of the intruder who still looked a step away from both committing a criminal felony and reenacting a bad porn movie plot in the middle of my hospital room, “Joonghyuk-ssi, can you please put your clothes back on?”

“Seolhwa-ssi…?” I asked, taking note of how she addressed him with growing bewilderment,  “What are you doing here?”

“Why, I work here of course,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. I met her gaze trying to discern any signs of deception, but found none (not like Lee Seolwha was the sort of person to lie or joke around like that in the first place, but I couldn’t help wanting to make sure). “Ever since Evolution day, this hospital has become the mecca of inter-species medicine in Seoul, a field I’m very interested in. Besides, I thought it would be good to keep an eye on you from time to time.”

The question marks around my face were probably visible by now. “Evolution… day?”

“That’s right, don’t tell me…” she said, eyebrows creasing in thinly veiled exasperation, “Didn’t Director Metatron or Joonghyuk-ssi explain anything to you?”

“I was going to, just before you interrupted us.” The man, now with his shirt reluctantly back on (and no, I wasn’t disappointed by that, not in the least ) said in a gruff voice, looking the part of a petulant child that refused to admit his wrongdoing.

“Interrupt- excuse me, Dokja-ssi is my patient, even if you’re his family, the one who should be seeing him first is me,” she admonished with an increasingly miffed tone, “And don’t tell me your ‘explanation’ was going to involve you shifting right in front of him, are you trying to make Dokja-ssi go into cardiac arrest?”

“...This fool wouldn’t believe me if I just explained it with words.” The man snapped back, sounding properly chastised despite his sullen tone.

“And you think the only solution to that is doing a full-blown transformation?” she asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow so high even I felt embarrassed, similar to when a friend gets told off by their mom right in front of you (not that I had many friends growing up, but I imagined it felt something like this). “You know well that for Second-orders, shifting outside of regulated conditions is against the law.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

Instead of answering, Lee Seolhwa sighed while holding a hand to her temple as if to relieve a growing headache before turning back to address me, which reminded me that I was supposed to be part of this conversation in the first place and not a simple bystander watching them argue back and forth like a ping pong match. “Apologies Dokja-ssi, this situation must be very confusing to you,” she said slowly in a patient voice, (which was the understatement of the century, but I wasn’t about to argue when I was finally getting someone to clue me in on what the fuck’s going on), “I know this will be hard for you to believe, but this man here really is who he claims to be. You see, a lot has happened since you’ve fallen unconscious,” she said, seeming to hesitate as if she were searching for the correct words but unable to grasp them, “There are too many things to explain and it’s probably better if you investigate and learn it at your own pace than just having me tell you, but in short, It’s not just Joonghyuk-ssi, but many other pets around the world that have evolved into humanoid life-forms during these past two years.”

Taking a moment to digest her words, my mind kept deflecting to the ‘this entire thing is a prank’ theory, but no matter how I see it, Lee Seolhwa wasn’t the kind of person to take part in such a thing.

So either I was dreaming, high and tripping on medication, or she was actually telling the truth.

“So… you’re telling me this guy here who looks to be in his twenties and big enough to knock me over with a swipe of his hand, is in fact Yoo Joonghyuk, as in my cat Yoo Joonghyuk?” Even as I said it, it just sounded like a plot straight out of one of those badly written romance webnovels marketed for teenage girls.

“Idiot, who said the humanoid appearance of Evolutionary species reflects our age the same way it does for humans?” the aforementioned man said with an indignant huff, "I’m already seven years old, if you translate it to human years then I should look older than you.”

Seven years… Did that mean that all this time I had been ogling someone of Elementary schooler age…?

'Wait, why am I taking his word for it?!'

"And even a mild breeze could knock you over with how skinny you are." he added, turning his nose up at me in a way I refused to admit felt very familiar.

‘Ouch. Well excuse me, but some of us just woke up from a two-year long coma, apparently, and can't look like a greek sculpture with washboard abs okay?!’

“Well, as I said before, I know it’s hard to believe, fortunately there's a simple enough way to prove it,” said Lee Seolhwa in an attempt to steer the discussion back to its former course after the unhelpful turn it had taken under Yoo Joonghyuk’s command, “Joonghyuk-ssi, you wanted to transform right?”

The man visibly perked at the suggestion, “So you’re finally going to let me do it?”

“Well, a full shift is still not possible, so why don’t you do a half-transformation?”

“Half…” for some reason, his eyebrows creased into a somewhat troubled expression at those words, all of his former enthusiasm nowhere to be seen.

“You know what I mean, right?” said Lee Seolhwa with a somewhat threatening smile.

“...I don’t want to.” The tall, imposing man said with a reluctant tone reminiscent of a sulking child.

“It’s as far as I’m going to let you shift so it’s either that or hope Dokja-ssi takes our word for it.”

At Lee Seolwha’s ultimatum, the man seemed to finally concede defeat and heaved a sigh. “Fine,” he said, “But I’ll show Kim Dokja alone, so you need to leave the room first.”

Appearing satisfied, Lee Seolhwa agreed to leave the room despite the multiple unsubtle SOS looks that I sent her in an attempt to stop her from leaving me and the other man alone again, “I’ll be just outside.” she said as she left, the ‘so don’t try anything’ going unsaid. Once the door closed behind her, I looked at the only remaining occupant with half confusion and half apprehension, wondering what he wanted to show me that would warrant it just being the two of us (I hoped it wasn’t just an excuse to get rid of any potential witnesses before murdering me).

After a few minutes without any movement or reaction from the other man other than to glower at me, I became unable to withstand the tense silence that had settled over us and awkwardly cleared my throat, “Um, so, what did you want to show me…?”

The question only seemed to aggravate the other, because his scowl intensified. Suddenly, he started walking towards me with purposeful strides, at which point I was fully prepared to get decked on the face, but instead he plopped down on my bedside.

Bemused, I watched with wide eyes as his expression seemed to contort with many conflicting emotions before settling into something between embarrassment and resignation, “Kim Dokja… you better pay attention because I will do this only once.”

Before I could inquire him as to what he meant, something occurred right before my eyes that made my entire worldview shatter like a glass after being pushed over the edge of the table by one of my cats.

Those were… Were they really-?

‘No, it can’t possibly be…’

No matter how much I tried to deny it though, the truth in front of me remained the same. That is, at the top of the other man’s head were there was nothing before other than a mop of artfully tossed black curls, now there were a pair of equally dark, fluffy and triangular-

“C-cat ears…!” I exclaimed in bafflement under my breath, said ears seeming to twitch slightly at the sound of my voice, a tinge of red barely visible over the man’s tan skin giving away his growing  embarrassment.

Something in my chest twinged slightly. This cute, tsundere-like attitude, it was certainly very much like…

“...Yoo Joonghyuk?” I mustered tentatively aloud. The ears perked up higher at those words, previously dark eyes regarding me with slitted pupils that were quickly becoming dilated the longer I held his gaze. Those particular golden eyes were deeply familiar.

“Yoo Joonghyuk,” I repeated, slightly more confident. Cautiously reaching a hand towards the other, I took the absence of rejection as permission to gently pet his hair, a sensation of wonder overcoming me when I confirmed it to be as soft as I remembered my Joonghyuk’s fur to be. Quickly becoming bolder, I let my hand wander towards the fluffy soft pair of ears, both of which twitched under my attention but didn’t shy away.

Yoo Joonghyuk remained obedient under my touch, his expression mostly inscrutable but his eyes were half-lidded in a way I knew meant he was feeling content and relaxed, a soft rumble starting deep in his chest that all but belied his true feelings.

This all but confirmed it in my eyes, that this man really was Yoo Joonghyuk, my cat Yoo Joonghyuk.

I still wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about his latest changes, but for the moment, I let myself bask in the relief that at least he was fine, and here with me now. The rest could be dealt with at a later time.

A few minutes passed like that, with me absently scratching behind Yoo Joonghyuk’s ears pondering the surrealness of the situation when something in the other’s eyes changed, and that was all the warning I got before I was suddenly pushed down, with Yoo Joonghyuk perched on top of me and pinning me to the bed.

“Kim Dokja…” Yoo Joonghyuk said, his rough voice more like a growl making something of a shiver crawl up my spine. I briefly contemplated if I was about to be attacked when I caught sight of the other’s eyes, their golden hue all but reduced into rings around the blown pupils.

Ah, so it was like that.

Stomping down the urge to laugh, I tentatively slithered my arms to circle around the taller man’s neck. This way, ever so slowly, I brought him down until his head was pressed flush against my chest.

As a proud and diligent caretaker of up to ten cats, this behavior wasn’t one unfamiliar to me. Although it is more frequent on kittens, adult cats aren't exempt from getting the urge to play around now and then.

While Yoo Joonghyuk was mostly aloof and didn’t often engage in the other cats’ shenanigans, it wasn’t unheard of that on more than one occasion he’d get bitey with me. Usually when he acted up like this, the most sure way to calm him down was to grab him and hold him firmly against my own body, gently caressing his fur until he became docile again.

Sure enough, it worked like a charm. Yoo Joonghyuk practically melted against my chest, the content rumble starting up again even louder.

It was as I was carding my fingers through the cat-hybrid’s loose curls in a mimicry of petting his fur, that it dawned on me how intimate our position was.

Blushing, I considered moving away and prying myself free from the other’s embrace, except there were two problems.

First, the rule of thumb that says that when a cat is laying over one’s lap, one should absolutely stay put and do its utmost to not disturb it.

Second, I was very much physically incapable of moving, seeing as Yoo Joonghyuk had a death grip around my waist and was pinning me down with nearly his full weight (which must be double or even triple my own) while I was virtually an invalid with next to no strength on all of my four limbs.

I was in the middle of contemplating this dilemma when the door suddenly slid open, revealing an unimpressed Lee Seolhwa and a silently squealing Uriel peeking over her shoulder while furiously scribbling something into a notepad (its contents something I refused to think too deeply about).

“Joonghyuk-ssi, please stop crushing Dokja-ssi. He’s in no state to handle your current weight.” Lee Seolhwa urged with a professional, if slightly exasperated tone, completely ignoring my sputtering excuses.

After a brief pause in which I wondered if he had perhaps fallen asleep, Yoo Joonghyuk finally got up, face schooled into a carefully blank expression as if we hadn’t just been caught in a compromising position, no sign of cat ears or other feline traits to be found on his outer appearance.

“I want to take him back home,” he suddenly declared without previous warning, causing me to almost choke, “When can he be discharged?”

Despite the forceful and rude demand, Lee Seolhwa’s mask of professionalism remained firmly in place, “Unfortunately, Dokja-ssi still needs to go through some medical check ups and be kept under observation for some time, not to mention that he will need to attend physical therapy sessions to get back his ability to walk, so it won’t be any time soon.”

“I can take him to the hospital for the physical therapy, he doesn’t need to stay here for the rest.”

“I see, and did the others agree to that?” the doctor inquired, raising a single sculpted eyebrow, “Or did Dokja-ssi?”

“Whether they agree or not is none of my concern,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, expression hardening. “Kim Dokja will be coming with me.”

“Oh? And in virtue of what relationship do you get to decide that, Master and Pet?”

“Kim Dokja is not my master,” he corrected, his expression seeming to say that he found the mere idea preposterous, “We’re companions.”

There was a delighted screech and I looked behind Lee Seolhwa just in time to catch Uriel covering her mouth apologetically, but unable to hide the excited glimmer in her eyes.

‘Companions…?’ At those words, my mind flashed back to the times when I had first adopted Yoo Joonghyuk. Come to think of it, I did use that term to refer to our relationship on more than one opportunity. I couldn’t believe he actually remembered something like that.

“Uh-huh,” Lee Seolhwa hummed while checking something in her clipboard, “You realize that’s not a legal status right? I can’t allow you to take him away in these conditions.”

Yoo Joonghyuk frowned, seeming to ponder seriously over her words before turning to address me. “Wait here” he said and then walked out of the door without further explanation.

An awkward silence befell the room once the door closed behind him. I looked at Lee Seolhwa for help, but she only shook her head at me with long-suffering resignation.

After what must have been less than five minutes total, Yoo Joonghyuk returned with what he had apparently left to retrieve, that being a paper that he shoved at me along with a pen, “Sign this.”

I looked down at the document, the title reading ‘National Universal Raising Agreement’ in bold letters. Did he have this ready and lying somewhere for the occasion or…?

According the article 999 of The Civil Code of the Republic of Korea and abiding by the National Legislation to Protect the Rights and Interest of the Evolutionary species, the National Universal Raising Agreement declares the following:

Gap, Yoo Joonghyuk, Second Order Cat-type Evolutionary Species Male, and Eul, Kim Dokja, Human Male, agree to form a raising contract in which the Gap will be required to provide financially for the Eul as long as this contract is valid and consented to by both parties, and the Eul in turn will be required to either spend a specified amount of time with the Gap, or cohabitate with the Gap under the condition that the specified living space is capable of housing both parties as per regulation. Additional services provided by either party as well as legal benefits of the aforementioned agreement will be listed as following:

Despite my eyebrows climbing higher and higher on my forehead the further I read, I continued on if only out of morbid curiosity alone. For all the sketchiness of the document, the benefits listed weren't few, such as tax benefits, social security benefits, inheritance as well as health insurance benefits, the legal status as next-of-kin in hospital visits, the option to share a joint account under both parties' names… Basically, it was similar to marriage.

Except the part where the ‘Acts of Service’ were listed, which were a little…

(ix) One of the parties (Gap or Eul) may request participation from the other in intimate acts such as sharing a bed, petting and scratching in alocated areas, and anything pertaining to what the National Convention of Evolutionary-species Rights has determined regular for a relationship between Master and Pet; the other is entitled to refuse said demands, and both parties may void this contract if any of the regulations are breached at any point in time or were to decide the arrangement is no longer to their interest.

…Is this some kind of kink negotiation thing?

I looked up to where Yoo Joonghyuk was still glowering at me with undisguised expectation, “Um… what is this?” I asked, somewhat at a loss.

“A Raising Agreement.” he said, not elaborating in the slightest. This guy, you’d think words cost him money with how stingy he was with them.

No, but more importantly, why was I the Eul?

“I can support you.” Yoo Joonghyuk declared as if in answer to my thoughts.

I didn’t know how to reply to that, and for a few minutes there was silence but for the subtle scratching noise of Uriel scribbling furiously into her notepad (why was she still here?).

“Why are you taking so long, just sign it.” Yoo Joonghyuk said, voice dripping with impatience. I started sweating profusely.

Obviously, I couldn’t sign this thing, but how should I explain it to him so as not to offend him?

“Um, Joonghyuk-ah…” I began, the familiar form of address seeming to work in my favor as the man’s expression visibly softened, “This seems like an important document to simply sign without consideration. I’m still a bit confused with everything new going on, could you leave me some time to think about it properly-?”

“What’s there to think about,” Yoo Joonghyuk shot down my excuse, “It’s the same as how we used to be, except I’d be the one to provide for you this time.”

Well, when he put it like that…

No, wait, it’s not the same at all!

Seeming to sense that I was stuck in a dilemma that I didn’t know how to solve, Lee Seolhwa suddenly jumped to my aid, “Joonghyuk-ssi, I understand that you’re excited to see your previous Mast- I mean, Companion, but the visiting time is almost over, Dokja-ssi still needs to rest,” she said, a polite but slightly threatening smile in place, “I advise you to leave for the day, this matter can be resumed at a later date.”

“I’ll leave after I see him sign the agreement.” Yoo Joonghyuk huffed, crossing his arms as if to impersonate a brick wall, which was exactly the impression that talking to him gave.

“How, by standing there like a thug until you pressure him into doing it?” the doctor questioned, her tongue turning poisonous, “Did you not read the consent clause? You can’t force him to sign an agreement with you if he doesn’t want to do it.”

Yoo Joonghyuk looked visibly stricken at that, and I had the impression that if his ears were out, they’d be sitting flat on his head, “...Why would he not want to?”

Seeing his pitiful expression, I was about to jump up to comfort him, but Lee Seolhwa once again beat me into it with one of her signature sighs (maybe for the better, seeing as I was all but ready to sign the sketchy agreement just to cheer him up). “Joonghyuk-ssi, it’s not that he doesn’t want to be with you but… you must understand, Dokja-ssi just woke up after two years, there’s a lot that he doesn’t yet understand. Bombarding him with things like contracts when he has yet to accommodate to the new reality of Evolutionary Species is not the correct way to do things, like this you might risk upsetting him and even disturbing his recovery.”

Yoo Joonghyuk seemed to mull carefully over her words, his expression looking somewhat ashamed after being harshly reprimanded. “Fine, I’ll be back tomorrow,” he resolved, then walked towards me and pushed something into my hands, it was my phone, “Kim Dokja, I’m the most reliable out of all of us, you need only call me.”

Looking down at his larger hands enveloping my own and then at his deep black eyes, I felt a strange sense of unrealness. No matter how I looked at him, this was a man, not a cat.

But then, why did I want to listen to his words and rely on him so badly?

After he had finally left (escorted by an overly enthusiastic Uriel), I looked through my phone’s contacts once again, now with new eyes.

Han Sooyoung, Jung Heewon, Lee Hyunsung, Yoo Sangah, Lee Jihye, and even the kittens. Were they all… people now?

I didn’t know what to do with that information.

Should I… talk to them? Would they even want to?

How would they react? Did they resent me for leaving them alone for two years? Yoo Joonghyuk seemed to still want me in his life, in his strange, slightly forceful way, but would the others be the same?

Either way, I was left almost completely drained after only a brief encounter with Yoo Joonghyuk alone, I didn’t think I was ready to tackle a conversation with the rest of them just yet.

…Did that make me a bad caretaker?

Appearing to sense the downwards course of my thoughts, Lee Seolhwa approached me with a gentle smile, “Dokja-ssi, it’s fine to rest for the moment. Joonghyuk-ssi is… well, he can be kind of a lot,” she said (Which might honestly be an understatement. As a cat he was hard to handle, I didn’t think he could get any worse), “But if you’re worried about him and the rest of the Company, don’t be. I know for a fact that they are all fine and are aching to see you, but your health always comes first, to them as well. They can wait until you’re well and ready to meet them.”

Is that so? Didn’t they resent me at all?

I looked down at my phone once again. It should be fine if I postponed meeting them for just a bit longer, right? First things first, I should get myself up to date with the latest changes from the past two years, starting with the Evolutionary species.

Right, I should also think of a way to avoid the matter of signing that so-called Raising Agreement. I didn’t want to be the sugar baby of my own cat…

Chapter Text

Once the next day rolled around, and despite the heavy exhaustion weighing down my body and begging me to sleep, I managed to gather a considerable amount of information on Evolutionary species from the internet.

In short, Evolutionary species were classified in three categories, Half-species, First-order species, and Second-order species. This differentiation was done according to their abilities as well as their morphology, determining that evolution was still in process for many of the evolutionary species and thus some were in a more advanced stage than others.

Half-species were the most common and the ones closest to an animal state. Although their appearance was humanoid for the most part, they still retained animal characteristics such as ears, tails, claws and other physical traits. Additionally, albeit they adapted abnormally fast to human society, their learning and socialization rate wasn’t as quick as the more advanced First-order and Second-order species. Many Half-species were currently still in scholarization programs designed by the government to help them adapt and settle into the working society faster.

First-order species were a step further, their humanoid form looked the same as a pure human to an outsider’s eyes, and they could shift from animal to human form much more swiftly and efficiently compared to Half-species. Their learning rate was faster and after two years, a good number of them already had jobs or were in the process of studying to become professionals and specialize in a wide assortment of fields.

And finally, the rarest Second-order species, which were considered the current cusp in the process of evolution. Like First-orders, their humanoid appearance was indistinguishable to that of regular humans, other than for an apparent shared predilection for younger looks and good aesthetics. Their learning speed was also the fastest, and they mostly excelled at their chosen occupation to an extraordinary degree; their physical capabilities were similarly well above average humans.

However, the reason why Second-orders were so revered, and even feared by some, had more to do with their animal form; which unlike Half and First-order species that still retained the same appearance as before they evolved, was well…

Big. Many times bigger than any regular non-evolved cat or dog. That is to say, a Second-order cat species would usually be about the same size as a big cat such as a lion or a tiger, sometimes even bigger.

Now I understood why Lee Seolhwa was so adamant against allowing Yoo Joonghyuk to shift in front of me at that time. I really ought to thank her for that, otherwise I might have genuinely fainted from shock at the sight.

I couldn’t help but imagine what a lion-sized Joonghyuk would look like… How would it feel to take a nap cushioned by all of that fluff?

'Forget that, what am I even thinking...'

As for my other cats, I wondered whether there were more Second-order species like Yoo Joonghyuk among them, or if he was the only one. It took a lot of effort to resist asking Lee Seolhwa more about how they were doing.

It would only make me want to see them more, and I didn’t think I was ready for that yet.

It didn’t escape me that what I was doing was essentially running away, but I was honestly scared.

Of what, I didn’t really know, but I hoped I could pretend to be an ostrich and bury my head into the dirt for only a bit longer.

At the moment, I had more than enough on my plate with just Yoo Joonghyuk alone. I had been on edge the entire morning, anxiously watching the clock on the wall all the while dreading his return.

It’s not like I didn’t want to see him. On the contrary, it’s just that his personality was a tad bit… overbearing. I was somewhat at a loss on how to handle him.

Not to mention, taking care of a cat was completely different from a human (humanoid?). I didn’t know how our former relationship would translate to our current circumstances.

The image of the fatally handsome man with cat ears came to mind. It couldn’t be that he wanted to cuddle with me on a regular basis right…? That kind of thing was honestly impossible for me, my heart just wasn’t equipped to handle it.

‘Please just let my other cats be average looking people at least. Not models or idols, or anything like that…’

Curious, I thought about typing any of their names on the Naver search bar and looking up images just for hell’s sake, but ultimately resisted because if something actually came up I wouldn’t know what to do.

So I typed Yoo Joonghyuk’s name instead before hitting enter.

Frankly, I didn’t know what I was expecting. Maybe for a social media profile with a picture or two to pop up at most, or an article page for the protagonist of TWSA (it might not have been a popular novel, but not to the point of only having me as its sole reader).

What I didn’t expect was the pages after pages of search results, everything from articles, photos, videos, interviews and fan pages, all dedicated to a professional gamer and famous streamer by the name of Yoo Joonghyuk. Which, by the look of the thumbnails, was none other than my Yoo Joonghyuk.

Which, in hindsight, made perfect sense. Second-order species were said to be particularly talented at whatever career they chose to pursue, and Yoo Joonghyuk had always liked games. Not to mention that he had the looks of a top-class celebrity, no wonder he would amass a huge following amongst both the male and female population.

That didn’t mean that I was prepared for what such fame entailed. Seeing the sheer volume of subscribers his official channel had as well as the average number of views per video, he wasn’t just popular, he was an actual household name.

No wonder Uriel (whom I recently learned was actually a Second-order dove type species, hence the wings) had been so starstruck at the sight of him…

Remembering the way the nurse had been not-so-subtly spying on mine and Joonghyuk's interactions the day before, I dreaded the possibility of her leaking our relationship as well as my information to outsiders. If the public were to catch wind of the fact that I was the famous Supreme King's former human owner… Well, the least that would happen was that my currently peaceful stay in the hospital would be disturbed.

And I would much rather avoid being swamped by reporters if I could help it, my previous experiences with them hadn't left much of a good impression to say the least.

Worried, I looked up the latest news on ‘The Supreme King’ (which was apparently a nickname coined by his fans. His actual username was just Yoo_64, very down to earth). Fortunately, there weren't any mentions of my name or of Joonghyuk’s visits to the Eden hospital; the only thing I found dating back to yesterday was a surprise stream he did in order to announce a collaboration with some game company (not Minosoft, thankfully). For some reason, the video had an absurd number of views, even for Yoo Joonghyuk’s streams.

Curious, I clicked on it just to see what it was all about. The stream started off pretty normal, Yoo Joonghyuk still looked simultaneously like every cliché romance drama protagonist I’ve ever watched, and his chat consisted mainly of different iterations of the comments “Step on me Daddy” and “Show ‘em ears!!”, which were naturally ignored by the streamer, who only responded to the genuine questions regarding the collaboration and other game-related content.

Despite how little he interacted with the chat, I still found the stream entertaining somehow, if only because of how amusing it was to watch the streamer fighting not to react to the increasingly bizarre questions and thirst comments from his fans (someone even went so far as to write “I wish you were a squid-type species so you could choke me with your tentacles”, which, weird). I suspected that the mods left those particular comments alone on purpose, since they made for half the entertainment value of the stream, a theory which was supported by the fact that the ones that bordered too much on sexual harassment were swiftly blocked.

This makeshift alliance to conjointly bully and fluster Yoo Joonghyuk among the fans made me itch to join in. Honestly, if it was me behind one of the many anonymous usernames wreaking havoc in the chat, I would probably also be tempted to spam and tease him with all sorts of nonsense, if only to watch him try and fail to ignore me as he gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes in thinly veiled annoyance.

(No, I didn’t have any masochistic or otherwise sadistic urges. What I did have was a lot of boredom and a slight penchant for chaos. Besides, what’s the point of owning cats if you can’t bug and annoy them once in a while? It was their own fault for being so cute.)

The stream continued on in a similar fashion, up until Yoo Joonghyuk’s phone started ringing all of a sudden, disrupting him while he was answering a question. The gamer shot the device a withering look and decidedly muted the stream before retrieving it from somewhere to his right. Seeing the way he scrutinized the phone screen with furrowed eyebrows I was half convinced at that point that he wouldn’t pick up, but to my surprise Joonghyuk ultimately put the phone against his ear.

The conversation naturally couldn’t be heard, since the microphone was muted, but going by Yoo Joonghyuk’s cautious body language, one could deduce that the person on the other side wasn’t someone that he knew. The stream chat was full of wild and outlandish theories made by the idle audience, ranging from that it was a crazed fan that managed to acquire his number, to a reporter threatening to expose an illicit love affair. At one point, something shocking must have been said, because Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes snapped wide open like saucers, and he leaned so far forward on his chair in an attempt to stand up that he actually tripped over and fell.

That’s right, he fell to the floor.

Yoo Joonghyuk’s reaction was quick, he got up almost immediately, not a hair out of place as if nothing had happened, and swiftly turned off the stream; but it was already too late for the thousands of viewers that had witnessed the proud and flawless Supreme King, who was collectively regarded as a national icon as well as a prime example of the success of Second-order evolutionary species, fall gracelessly to the floor.

The comment barrage was automatically full of people gawking and laughing, with everyone expressing their disbelief as well as their curiosity as to what could have caused the normally cool and composed Supreme King to fall over from shock. Once again, the crack theories ran rampant.

Even I couldn’t help letting a bark of laughter slip at the sight. I was reminded of the times whenever Yoo Joonghyuk, as a cat, missed a jump and fell over, or the few times when he tried and failed to meow correctly, only a rough and gargled noise coming out instead. Seeing the always graceful and composed Joonghyuk-ie make a mistake never failed to put a smile on my face (bastard ought to be put down a few pegs every now and then).

It was at that moment that there was a gentle knock on the door, followed by a cheerful and melodic voice that I had learnt to identify as Uriel, “Dokja-ssi, you have visitors~!”

‘Oh shit, he’s here-!’, I scrambled to exit the tab and put my phone away, “Ah, right, come in!”

Wait, visitors , as in plural?

Before I could ponder over that detail, the door was pushed open by Uriel to reveal, of course, Yoo Joonghyuk, and next to him was-

A child. A little girl, to be precise, who looked to be around 13 or 14 years old judging by her school uniform.

That alone by itself wasn’t strange, except that the child had a pair of cat ears at the top of her head, as well as a tail swishing lazily behind her, both the same shade of black as her long black hair pulled up in twintails. A Half-species , my mind supplied.

The features on her face also resembled those of the man standing next to her too closely to be a coincidence.

‘No way, is this the fruit born of that so-called illicit romance the netizens were theorizing about-?’

Wait, no, what was I thinking? There was someone already who bore an uncanny resemblance to Yoo Joonghyuk, although the last thing I knew, whether they were biologically related or not had still been up for debate.

This girl, she was most definitely-

“So you finally decided to wake up, Ugly Ahjussi,” the girl said, her tail snapping from left to right in annoyance, “Took you long enough.”

My eye twitched slightly. Without a shadow of a doubt, as the only cat amongst my own that didn’t like me, even as a kitten, it could only be Yoo Mia.

Unlike the rest of my cats, which were mostly directly rescued by me, Yoo Mia had been brought in by Yoo Joonghyuk. At the time, it was such an uncharacteristic behavior from the normally unsociable and uncharitable Yoo Joonghyuk, adding to that the resemblance between the two, of course the immediate and most obvious conclusion that I made was that she had to be his baby, although the few times I dared to express that theory aloud he immediately snapped at my ankles in anger, so I refrained from further mentioning it.

I didn’t think that as humans, their physical likeness would become even more pronounced.

“What, you’re just gonna sit there gawking at me, you’re not going to say anything?” the girl huffed. It wasn’t just their physical appearance, that haughtiness must also be inborn.

“Yoo Mia…” I said. By the way her ears stood up at her name, I had indeed gotten it right, “I’m sorry, this is all new to me… It’s been long, hasn’t it? You have grown.”

“Of course I’ve grown, it’s been two years,” Mia said with a poignant roll of her eyes, arms crossed in front of her chest, “You made my Oppa wait this long, do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Yoo Joonghyuk, who had been silently watching until now, called out to her in a warning tone at that, “Mia…”

“Uh, I mean, I didn’t exactly plan for this to happen, but-” I tried to argue nervously. Despite her short stature, Yoo Mia’s stance commanded authority beyond her age, “I’m sorry… if it amounts to anything, for leaving you alone all this time.”

“Hmph,” she turned up her nose in a way that was eerily similar to her brother (they must really be related after all), “Don’t think that’s going to cut it, you need to prove that you aren’t going to just disappear again, and then I might forgive you.”

“You don’t need to worry about that, Mia,” Yoo Joonghyuk reassured her, “Kim Dokja will stay with us from now on. I’m going to make him sign a Dependent Raising Agreement.”

I choked on my spit at that statement. Right, I had forgotten all about that…

“A Dependent Raising Agreement?” the girl repeated, humming thoughtfully as if she was turning it over in her mind, “Hmm, I will allow it.”

‘Wait wait, why are you deciding it all by yourselves, what about my opinion?!’

I was about to object when Mia suddenly yawned, rubbing her eyes somewhat drowsily, “All this talk made me tired. Oppa, I want to sleep.”

At her unexpected request, Yoo Joonghyuk only nodded as if it was natural. She smiled, satisfied with her brother’s approval before she turned to address me, “Ahjussi, you better not move from there. I like my pillows to stay put.”

Before I could ask her what she meant, she suddenly disappeared. As in, her clothes fell into a pile on the floor without anybody to hold them up.

I goggled at the sight, looking around for any signs of where the young girl might have gone, and after finding none, I looked at Yoo Joonghyuk, expecting to see some sort of reaction from him.

Yoo Joonghyuk’s face, however, remained expressionless. As if his sister suddenly evaporating into thin air was just a daily occurrence for him.

I was about to voice out my confusion when the pile of clothes on the floor rustled, and from under it crawled a tiny dark ball of fur.

It was a kitten. A fluffy black kitten.

There was no mistake. She had certainly grown from the last time that I saw her, going from a small 4 months old kitten to looking around 6 or 7 months old, but this was still Yoo Mia without a doubt.

Without any regards to where I was currently struggling to process the recent events, Yoo Joonghyuk picked the small kitten up from the floor and carefully deposited her on my lap, glaring at me as if to dare me so much as move and risk upsetting her.

Which was unnecessary, seeing as I wouldn’t be able to move even if I wanted to. I knew that although my back was ramrod straight and my hands were hovering awkwardly over the small bundle of dark fluff, there were probably hearts in my eyes at this very moment.

Kittens were… not something I could handle normally.

Back when I lived in my borrowed apartment at the top of the cafe, I used to keep my bedroom door locked at night and only let in one cat at a time. This was done to prevent all of my cats to dogpile (catpile?) on top of me while I slept, sometimes even starting fights and scuffles over my head and disrupting my rest. The only exceptions to this arrangement were, of course, the kittens.

I just couldn’t resist whenever they scratched at my door, meowing pitifully.

Although Mia was rarely seen without Yoo Joonghyuk somewhere close by, if there was an occasion in which she was willing to forgo her brother’s company, it was in favor of curling up in my bigger and warmer human bed. Yoo Joonghyuk also seemed to be somewhat understanding of this betrayal and didn’t hold it against her, much.

Cautiously, I placed my hands around Yoo Mia's smaller form and scratched her little head. She snapped her teeth at my fingers, but weakly enough that I knew she didn't mean harm and was just being difficult.

A short while later, Mia had claimed her spot on my lap and curled up as if it was her right. I watched her curved form rising and falling with the gentle tide of her breathing as she slumbered peacefully. Now I really wouldn't be able to move.

I turned to look at Yoo Joonghyuk, only to find him watching over the two of us with an indecipherable expression.

"What, do you want to cuddle too?" I teased him without thinking. Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes widened a fraction.

'Shit, why did I say that?'

Before I could take my words back, the older cat-hybrid seemed to take my teasing remark as an invitation and promptly sat behind me and hugged my back to his chest, placing his chin over my shoulder and locking me in place with both arms circling my waist. Soon, a soft rumbling noise started from his chest and spread to my back.

My entire body turned even more stiff, becoming increasingly aware of the warm pressure against my back more than the small weight on my lap.

‘Fuck, I need to go to the restroom…’

Forget it, there was no way I was leaving the bed any time soon.

The visiting hours were over regrettably fast, and soon enough Yoo Joonghyuk had to leave with Mia in tow.

It wasn’t in his initial plans to bring her along, preferring to spend more time with Kim Dokja first, just the two of them. It’s not that he wanted to monopolize Kim Dokja, but rather…

No, he wanted to monopolize Kim Dokja.

But Mia’s intuition wasn’t anything to scoff at. She could tell the moment that she saw him yesterday after she came back from school that something was up, and Yoo Joonghyuk had always been particularly weak when it came to his little sister’s demands.

At least he could count on Mia to not tell the others about Kim Dokja waking up, not even the rest of the kids. Of course, Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t naive enough to think that he could hide it forever, but that wasn’t really his intention. Just long enough that Kim Dokja could sign the Agreement and move in with him and Mia.

Humans and Evolutionary species weren't limited to just a single Raising Agreement. Going off by the spirit of humans owning multiple pets as well as some pets being raised by an entire household instead of just a single human, the Raising Contract provided the possibility of signing multiple agreements with more than one human or Evolutionary species, but that only applied to Independent Raising Agreements.

Just as its name implied, an Independant Raising Agreement was one signed between a human and an Evolutionary species in which they recognized each other as next of kin, but had next to no legal obligations to each other and were considered independent individuals beyond their relationship. In short, there was no obligation to financially provide for the other nor to spend any time together.

The same couldn’t be said for Dependent Raising Agreements, in which one took a role more similar to a guardian or a sponsor and the other of protege. Although it offered far more legal benefits, because of its many restrictions and obligations the Dependent Raising Agreement was far less popular than its counterpart, and also because of one important detail: an exclusivity clause.

That is, if a person still had a Dependant Raising Agreement in force, they couldn't sign another with a different party unless the former was voided.

Yoo Joonghyuk knew that this agreement was his best chance at keeping Kim Dokja by his side without having any of the others interfere. Although, if he knew anything the other members of the company, some of them may have already prepared something similar for when Kim Dokja woke up.

Which was exactly why he couldn’t let them find out.

As if on cue, Yoo Joonghyuk’s phone pinged with a notification from a familiar group chat, one that made him grit his teeth from irritation.

[Kim Dokja’s Company]

Black Flame Empress:
What happened Yoo Joonghyuk, did your brain finally fry after playing so many video games? [link]

Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t mean to click on the link, but from the thumbnail and the accompanying title he correctly guessed that it was a clip of his stream from yesterday. More precisely, of the moment that he fell off his chair during the phone call with Uriel. The vein on his temple throbbed.

[You have left the group]

[Black Flame Empress has added you to the group]

Black Flame Empress:
Don’t try to escape. I won’t let you live this down

Right after which Han Sooyoung spammed the chat until the screen was filled with emoticons of a cat with a bob cut laughing obnoxiously. Yoo Joonghyuk hated how much the thing looked like her.

Judge of Evil:
I can’t, it’s so embarrassing

Pure Steel Sword:
I’m a bit worried. It’s not like Joonghyuk-ssi to be so clumsy, did something happen?

Insect Boy:
The sooty bastard is becoming senile :)

Beast Master:
There aren’t many things that can affect Joonghyuk-ahjussi like that. Do you think the phone call might have something to do with Ahjussi?

Judge of Evil:
I already phoned Seolhwa-ssi yesterday but she told me he was stable

Yoo Joonghyuk cursed Shin Yoosung’s intuition. Thankfully, Lee Seolhwa had agreed to cover for him, although she had argued that she was simply respecting Kim Dokja’s wishes and not endorsing Yoo Joonghyuk’s actions.

It had nothing to do with Kim Dokja.

And it’s none of your business.

Maritime Admiral:
There you have it. Master wouldn’t lie to us about Ahjussi >:(

BiYoo:
Oh Master would totally lie to us

Moonlight girl:
Everyone, I don’t think we should be ganging up on Joonghyuk-ssi at this time. I trust that if there's anything we should worry about, if not Joonghyuk-ssi, at least Seolhwa-ssi or Mia-ya would notify us about it.

Moonlight girl:
As for Dokja-ssi, we have all been busy with our respective activities, but once we have all stabilized we should collectively draw a new visiting schedule so our time with him is equally distributed among everyone.

Black Flame Empress:
Why are you always such a stickler, this bastard doesn’t need you to defend him

Black Flame Empress:
Ya Yoo Joonghyuk, did you know your fall is trending on twitter? Someone already made emoticons from it, look

Once again, the screen became filled with multiple emoticons. This time all featuring different renditions of the moment that he fell from his chair. Didn’t these people have anything better to do with their time? Starting with Han Sooyoung.

[You have left the group]

Yoo Joonghyuk was on the verge of turning off his phone from anger when he got another notification from the messaging app. He was ready to ignore it, thinking it was from Han Sooyoung adding him back to the group, but was surprised to find it was actually a private message from Yoo Sangah.

[Moonlight Girl]

Joonghyuk-ssi, I need to talk to you about something.

It’s regarding Dokja-ssi

Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyebrows furrowed. Yoo Sangah and him weren’t exactly casual around each other, so he didn’t know what she would want to say about Kim Dokja that warranted consulting him in particular. Unless…

What about him

I know that he has woken up.

Yoo Joonghyuk cursed. Of course. He had no idea how she found out, but knowing Yoo Sangah, she probably had an in among the hospital staff. Although she might appear gentle and mild-mannered, the calico had always been shrewd and cunning like that.

How would you know that

That doesn’t matter.

I just wanted to inform you that I don’t plan on disclosing this information to the others just yet.

I may not agree with your motives, but I see the benefits of keeping it under wraps for the time being.

Yoo Joonghyuk clicked his tongue. Like she was a saint herself, he knew her better than that. Remembering that Yoo Sangah was currently abroad, he had an inkling as to her true intentions. She was proposing a temporary alliance.

Until when, until you’re back in Seoul?

That’s right.

I admit, my motivations may not be entirely selfless, but I have Dokja-ssi’s best interests in mind.

I’m sure we’re all the same in that regard, but the others... well, not many of them know how to measure themselves in front of a newly awakened Dokja-ssi. I wouldn’t want us to overwhelm him and become a burden to him for that reason.

Joonghyuk-ssi, I know you are anxious to reaffirm your place by his side, but please don’t pressure him too much.

I’ll be back soon, until then, please take care of him.

…

Understood.

Deeming it the end of the conversation, Yoo Joonghyuk silenced his notifications and put his phone away, somewhat annoyed. He had thought it was weird when Yoo Sangah jumped in to cover for him at that moment, she was actually diverting the subject.

He wasn’t exactly happy with the situation, but he could respect Yoo Sangah for planning so far ahead. He couldn’t exactly trust her, but out of everyone she was by far the best option to have as an ally.

As for the worst, the picture of a certain ugly cat with a bob cut came to mind. He hoped that woman never found out.

Chapter Text

Half a week went by and I had yet to leave the hospital.

My physical therapy was progressing well, or at least that’s what I surmised from Lee Seolhwa’s words of encouragement combined with Uriel’s enthusiasm, but the process was sluggish and honestly excruciating. I was currently so magnifically bored that I was partly tempted to throw myself off the window in a poorly-planned escape attempt if only for a chance to leave the confinement of my hospital room for just a moment.

If it was the me from five years ago, I wouldn’t be so against being cupped up in a room with nothing to do but scroll the Munpia app on my phone for days on end, seeing as that was basically my only pastime for years, but ever since I started working in the Café while simultaneously taking care of ten considerably rowdy cats, I became used to a more active rhythm to the point that I now started getting restless if I sat around for too long.

Not to say that I was completely forbidden from moving around, although it was only within the hospital grounds and never without someone to watch over me (not that I was at the level of proficiency at using my crutches where I could actually get that far by myself, yet).

Unsurprisingly, Yoo Joonghyuk was there to visit me every day, sometimes with Mia tagging along. Seeing him being so liberal with his time I asked him whether he didn’t have anything better to do, at which he responded that his agency allowed him to manage his own streaming schedule as long as he was filling a weekly quota, and there weren’t currently any relevant e-sport tournaments or events that required him to prepare. Somehow, that pissed me off a little.

Did this guy become succesful within his firsts few years as a human without experiencing being a slave to capitalism even once? God really does play favorites…

Either way, Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t that big of a conversationalist, so he didn’t make a particularly good target for relieving my boredom. Most of the time, he prefered to quietly observe me while I did my own thing, namely playing around with my phone or attempting to get out of bed through my own efforts. This attitude of his reminded me of whenever he would climb to the highest spot available and calmly assess everything beneath his eyes like some kind of lofty sovereign watching over his kingdom.

Something, however, that took me by surprise was the sheer amount of food he brought me every time. Although in hindsight I guess I should have expected it, since it wouldn’t be the first time Yoo Joonghyuk presented me with the reaps of his hunts, although those had mostly consisted of rats while this was real, human food. Very, very delicious food I might add.

The first time that he deposited a neatly packed lunchbox on my lap, I looked at him with confusion, expecting him to offer some type of explanation as to why there was a Hello Kitty  themed lunchbox brimming with an artfully presented arrangement of food sitting in front of me. Naturally, the facially paralyzed cat-hybrid offered no such thing, and only said the word “Eat” before proceeding to watch me with intense focus as I picked up the provided set of chopsticks and took a piece of rolled omelet to my mouth.

What happened next was that I almost burst into tears at what must have been the singlest, most delicious piece of omelet that ever graced my tongue buds, at which point I begged Yoo Joonghyuk to tell me where he had gotten his paws on such fine delicacy. The man’s lips raised the smallest amount in what I almost dared to call a smile, and smugly declared that he had made it himself.

Get out of here, get out of my sight you wretched Shoujo manhwa protagonist. You’re not my cat, you’re the OC of some teenage girl who read too many romance webnovels. Was what I thought as I tearfully choked on Yoo Joonghyuk’s masterful creation.

Was I the self-insert Heroine in this scenario then? I didn’t want to think too hard about that analogy.

‘The hangul of my name can even be read as “Reader”, I might as well be named Y/N...’

Forget it, bizarre as my current situation may be, this was real life still. Yoo Joonghyuk was probably just doting on me out of some sense of loyalty and obligation towards me as his previous owner, he would most definitely get bored of it soon.

Speaking of which, it had been a while since he had mentioned anything about the so-called ‘Raising Agreement’. Had he given up on it already?

Not that I was going to risk bringing it up again.

Thankfully, Lee Seolhwa was still very firm about enforcing the Hospital regulations and mercilessly kicked the cat-hybrid out as soon as the visiting hours were over for the day, since Uriel obviously wouldn’t do it and I was too much of a pushover to attempt to chase the over-six-feet-tall man away, (somehow, Yoo Joonghyuk still stubbornly resisted her until the last possible moment despite it yielding the same result every single time).

Save for Yoo Joonghyuk's periodical visits, my physical therapy sessions, and sleeping, I was still left with an overabundance of free time that I didn't know what to do with, so I was left with no choice but to regress to my former favorite pastime: reading webnovels on my phone.

Even though two years had passed and society had undergone various fundamental changes with the coming of Evolutionary Species, somehow, the general characteristics of what made up the ranking of popular novels still remained largely unchanged, beyond some of them incorporating Evolutionary species as side characters, love interests, and even protagonists in some cases (there was a currently ongoing popular e-sport themed novel which, if it's general premise and cover art was anything to go by, was brazenly inspired by Yoo Joonghyuk).

Other than that, the generic tropes that dominated the rankings back then mostly still prevailed, that is Power Fantasy type novels with overpowered protagonists, Isekai or Transmigration themed novels both of the action and romance genres, and Period romance dramas were still going strong.

Although I was a bit disappointed by the unimaginative tropes and lack of innovation in general, it was hardly a surprise considering that those genres had been popular ever since I could remember; and even though there weren't many original premises that didn't change the fact that there were still a lot of new material to read, so I happily settled on my path of checking out what literary additions were made to the world of web novels in these past two years.

Curious, I began to browse among the novels that included Evolutionary species. The action and fantasy genres were as expected, Evolutionary species were mostly depicted through their abilities and favored for their advantages in combat. As for the romance genre, I was taken by surprise by the sheer amount of adult rated novels featuring the Evolutionary species, a lot of which included the words 'Heat', ‘Estrus Cycle’, and 'Mating' somewhere in the genre tags and sometimes even in the novel summary itself.

I quickly exited the tab, feeling somewhat uncomfortable. As an avid web novel reader, I wasn't exactly a stranger to the increasingly popular genre of Omegaverse among erotic novels (although I made a point of staying away from those), but I couldn’t help but feel weirded out with this particular version of the trope, seeing as these were actual former pets we were talking about here. They may look and act essentially the same way as humans, but was it really fair to depict them in such vulgar light? Were they alright with being fetichized like this?

My mind immediately reeled back to the memory of Yoo Joonghyuk, of when he pushed me back on the bed, or the various instances in which he embraced me and held my body close to his chest. Even if his intimate actions may be easy to misunderstand if one didn’t know any better, he was simply reenacting the same behavioral patterns as when he was a normal cat, he likely didn’t understand how those actions could be misinterpreted from the point of view of humans.

It wouldn’t be right for me, or for anyone, to take advantage of that innocence and attempt to twist it into romantic interest. Not to mention how it didn’t make any sense for someone who had essentially been a normal household pet for most of its life to suddenly feel attracted to humans just because they evolved. Wouldn’t they obviously prefer someone of the same species?

Well, even if they didn’t, I couldn’t see how I would even be an eligible option out of all the much more attractive humans that exist so this kind of discourse probably didn’t concern me in the first place.

Wanting to distract myself from the questionable newer subgenre that I had accidentally discovered, I went to browse a genre that I was more familiar with as one of my favorite haunts since I was a sad and pathetic teenager, that is the action-fantasy tag.

It was at that point that I stumbled into a novel with a familiar premise.

“SSSSS-Grade Infinite Regressor by Black Flame Empress… What even is this ridiculous title?”

Disregarding the chuuni-like title, the summary and tags were what caught my attention; sponsorship from transcendent beings, the main character being an "infinite regressor psychopath”, the streaming system… Wasn’t this basically a blatant copy of Three Ways to Survive in the Apocalypse?

Sure, those were mostly common tropes among the newer generations of web novels, but even the name of the main character, Yoo Joonghyun, was only a letter away from Yoo Joonghyuk, who would believe that it was all a coincidence at that point?

Looking at the comments full of praise and rainbow farts, no one seemed to realize the similarities between the two novels, although seeing the suspicious absence of any comparisons of the main character to Yoo Joonghyuk, the famous pro-gamer, my theory was that the author was deliberately reporting them.

Ah, no, scrolling further down there was actually a comment asking whether the main character had been inspired by The Supreme King, Yoo Joonghyuk. It was the only comment to get a reply directly from the author so far.

[BlackFlameEmpress: Don’t ever compare my work’s protagonist to that Ugly Catfish Bastard ever again or I’ll sue you.]

…it seemed like the author wasn’t a big fan of Yoo Joonghyuk (Why catfish, because he was a cat?). The readers probably made a tacit agreement to not bring the subject up in the comment section again.

But even if that were the case, did it really warrant threatening someone of taking legal action like that only for making a harmless question? How childish could a person be?

Feeling somewhat dissatisfied with the author’s foul attitude, added to that the shameless bastardization of what was my favorite novel for more than a decade, I began to type out a bad review in the comments of ‘SSSSS-Grade Infinite Regressor’, despite not having read the novel at all (not that I needed to read a plagiarized work, it could never compare to the original anyways).

[Kim_Dokja: Isn’t this just a copy of the novel Three Ways to Survive in the Apocalypse? The author should be ashamed for plagiarizing a decade’s old work and marketing it as a brand new idea.]

And enter…

Satisfied with my small act of self-justice, I exited the page and went back to looking for new material to read; although the wave of nostalgia that hit me at the memory of TWSA made me wonder whether I should read it again instead…

Having succumbed to temptation and just as I was halfway through the second chapter (I kept reimagining the protagonist with my Joonghyuk’s face, it was awfully discracting), an obnoxious sudden ringing noise startled me into dropping my phone. I picked up the blaring device which had fallen face down on the bed with trepidation, surprised at the sight of the caller’s ID displayed on the screen.

[Han Sooyoung]

I stared shocked at the name for what must have been a couple of minutes, unable to muster a single movement, until the call went to voicemail and the ringing ceased. I was still sitting at a loss on what to do when the ringing resumed once again.

Sensing that the other side had no intention to give up, I ultimately concluded that I had no choice and deigned to pick up the call, “...hello?”

“...”

Confused after being met with an eerie silence, I double checked whether the other person was still in line, “Hello… is anyone there?”

“It’s really you…” a breathy voice said.

The woman’s voice was ripe with indecipherable emotions. I cleared my throat nervously, “It’s me…” I confirmed, assuming that it was really me who she had been trying to reach as it was my phone, otherwise this would have been embarrassing, “Sooyoung, is that you?”

“Yah, Kim Dokja, you bastard!” the woman on the other side angrily yelled out, making me recoil from the sudden impact to my eardrum, “Since when have you been awake?!”

“Ah, that…” I scratched my cheek and shifted awkwardly, a mixture of apprehension and guilt colluding on my chest, “Um, something like four days?”

“WHAT?!” she exclaimed, incensed, “Why did no one tell me about this, yah, were you hiding it from me?!”

“No no, it’s not like that!” I stumbled to explain, “I was just, I don’t know, I was gonna tell everyone eventually, but I’m still getting used to everything and all…”

“Yeah yeah, spare me your pathetic excuses, tell me who knows already.”

“Huh?”

“ Don’t play stupid, you know who I am, so someone must have put you up to date. Now out with it.” Han Sooyoung insisted, (so she was her after all, I should have figured that her haughty and domineering personality as a cat would translate to… this). 

“Ah, no, actually it was Seolhwa-ssi who explained everything. Other than her, Yoo Joonghyuk and Mia-ya I have yet to meet anyone-”

“Yoo Joonghyuk?!” the younger cat-hybrid cut me off, voice rising several octaves in incredulity, “You told that catfish bastard and not me, Kim Dokja, what do you take our years together for?!”

‘...catfish bastard?’

Filing that particular detail for later, I fumbled through my attempt at an explanation, “No wait, it wasn’t me who told him, it was the hospital staff-!”

“Ah forget that, is he there with you right now?”

“Uh, right now?” Confused at the question that felt out of left field, I instinctively looked around for any signs of the older cat-hybrid, “No, he hasn’t come by today yet.”

“Great,” she said, a faint rustling in the background muffling her next words, “Stay put, I’m coming.”

“Huh?” I asked, bewildered, “Wait, Han Sooyoung, wha-?”

She hung up.

Thinking about how she said she was coming over, I waited with baited breath as the minutes went by, simultaneously both eager and anxious for her arrival. I dreaded confronting Han Sooyoung and was at a complete loss on how to face or what to even tell her when I saw her, but at the same time, I didn’t dare run away at this moment.

No, more like I was physically incapable of running away. Even if I grabbed my crutches and attempted to make a run for it, it was unlikely that I would make it too far, considering the person after me was an Evolutionary species.

Come to think of it, how did she know I was awake in the first place? It didn’t sound like she had heard it from Lee Seolhwa or Yoo Joonghyuk.

I couldn’t ponder over the answer to that question too deeply, as only a short moment later, the door to my room was violently pushed open, giving me flashbacks to the time with Yoo Joonghyuk half a few days ago.

The figure standing at the door this time though was much shorter, clad in a purple hoodie and jeans and with her dark hair that was cut in a bob standing on ends. The petite woman, whom I assumed was Han Sooyoung, was breathing heavily as if she had rushed all the way here, her expression a complex mix of emotions of which I couldn’t pinpoint individually as there were frustrated tears clinging to her dark lashes. My heart itched at the sight, the familiar combination of guilt and shame quickly overcoming me.

“I…” my voice trailed off. I didn’t have the slightest idea of what to tell her.

For some reason, she looked inexplicably annoyed. I recoiled almost instinctively as she approached me, thinking that she was about to hit me.

“Kim Dokja, you son of a bitch…” the woman uttered in a menacing tone, “How dare you call my work a copy of that second-rate amateur trash, take that back right fucking now!”

….Huh?

The namesake of Han Sooyoung was slightly different from Kim Dokja’s other cats.

Maybe because she had come a bit later into his life, and at that time he was already running low on interesting characters to use as his cats’ names. Thus Han Sooyoung had been the first to be named after a real person.

It had been a while since he had thought of her, Han-seonsaengnim. That woman honestly wasn’t fit to be a teacher, her personality was awful and she often got into petty scuffles with her students even though they were in middle-school and she was a fully grown woman, but he admitted that he sometimes missed her annoying face…

Kim Dokja had gotten an unexpected email from Tls123, the author of the novel Ways of Survival, more than a year after the novel’s finalization. To say that he had been caught off ward had been an understatement.

Furthermore, the email was an invitation to meet with him in real life.

In short, Tls123 said that being able to write TWSA was all thanks to Kim Dokja, and that they were grateful to have been able to finish it with his support. Apparently, they had won a competition, and were now preparing to publish their latest work, a biographical-fiction themed novel by the name of “Author's words”, along the hand of a famous publishing company. Towards the end of the email, they expressed their desire to meet with Kim Dokja and thank him in person, if he was willing.

Of course, Kim Dokja was honored to have the chance to meet the author who wrote the novel that protected his youth, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t feel somewhat uncomfortable with the sudden proposal.

Well, meeting a stranger from the internet in real life for the first time was always an awkward ordeal, not that he would know the difference, since he found most social situations awkward in general.

To think that he, out of all other readers, was such a meaningful existence to Tls123… He would have never imagined it. It felt honestly surreal.

With that sense of unrealness looming over him, Kim Dokja kindly replied to the email with an affirmative, inviting the author to come over to his Café to chat over coffee and treats in the agreed on time.

When the day came, Kim Dokja sent Kim Namwoon (now promoted from gundam-obsessed chuuni clerk to his recently hired assistant) on his way and closed the store early to prepare for the meeting.

What he hadn’t expected though, was the person that showed up to be someone that he already knew.

She looked much the same as he remembered her, despite it having been what, 14 years? She should be in her forties by now, but despite that she still carried the same baby-face, coupled with the characteristic mole under her eye and obnoxious, shit-eating grin.

“Hey, Kim Dokja, you brat!”

Ah, her hair was longer now.

-

Growing up, aside from characters in books and sometimes TV, Kim Dokja hadn’t had much as role-models came. His father was violent to him and his mother, and although he had loved his mother, after she left him alone with his neglectful relatives to go to prison and even more so after releasing that damned book, she had effectively cut off any possibility of taking on that role for him. That didn’t leave much for the young him who was discriminated against and ostracized from every group and institution he set his foot on.

But even amongst that hell of a school life, Kim Dokja had someone sort of like that once. An adult figure that, although maybe couldn't be called a role-model, was someone that he could comfortably talk with at least. The only person that he had felt safe enough to do so.

Han-Seonsaengnim was a rookie Korean Language teacher. She was terribly rude, unbelievably arrogant, and rough around the edges, but she was genuine. And she cared. Even though she loved to pretend otherwise. It was far more than what Kim Dokja could say about any other adult in his life until that point.

She was the first, and only, teacher to publicly address the bullying situation that he was suffering, although she wasn’t precisely tactful with her approach. Kim Dokja had initially blown off at her for meddling, reacting the best way he knew how when confronted with having his vulnerability exposed, by pulling up his walls high as to not let anything through.

However, in front of the bullheaded teacher’s insistence, Kim Dokja gradually caved and began to open up bit by bit. Eventually, Han-Seonsaengnim became something of a confidant to him, whom which he would talk about books and webnovels for hours after school, and sometimes other things came up. Things such as his family situation.

Han-Seonsaengnim didn’t press him much on the details, nor did she pretend to understand him. Instead, she talked about her own circumstances, such as that she was an illegitimate child of an actress and a politician, how she had grown up rich but uncared for by her parents, how she had learnt from a young age to be independent and not to rely on anyone other than herself, which was why she distanced herself from her birth family and decided to establish her own career path with her own power.

Kim Dokja had asked whether her career choice was to be a teacher. Han-Seonsaengnim scoffed.

Han Sooyoung was a writer.

From then on, the teacher began to bring him little pieces and snapshots of her writing, asking him to be his beta-reader. Kim Dokja was ecstatic, for the first time, he felt that he was useful, that something that he often indulged in simply to take his mind off things could serve a purpose.

Kim Dokja loved reading what Han-Seonsaengnim wrote. He loved it because it was well-written and interesting, but also because it was for him.

Perhaps it was presumptuous of him to think so, but he still wallowed in that sensation as best as he could. He was a person who didn’t have anything that truly belonged to him, much less something like a gift.

-

“This sudden power-up… isn’t it somewhat cliched?”

“Yes, of fucking course it is, but it’s a classic. Besides, it’s cool isn’t it?”

“...It’s a bit cool.”

-

Just like that, Kim Dokja’s middle school days went by, not exactly peacefully, but bearable.

Except, the bullying of course, didn’t subside.

It was somewhere during the latter half of the semester when a particularly mean prank against him made Han-Seonsaengnim specially incensed, she yelled at the perpetrators without any qualms or filters.

Naturally, those arrogant rich kids without any morals weren't used to being told off in such a blatant manner, and reacted the way they often did, with violence. One of the taller kids pushed her.

Han-Seonsaengnim, rightfully pissed, pushed him back. That’s all she did. Not even particularly hard, softer than what they did, for sure.

But that alone was enough.

The very next day, she was suspended. The kid’s parents later complained to the school and threatened to file a lawsuit, and soon after she was gone.

Kim Dokja knew that she wasn’t gone forever. She had just been fired, at most, she wouldn’t be able to teach at that particular school in the future, and what she really wanted was to write anyways.

But at that time, even that was too much for him.

It was only a few more incidents later that he finally hit his breaking point and made the attempt against his life.

After that, he never saw Han-Seonsaengnim again.

To think that all this time, she had been the person hiding behind the other side of the screen, dutifully posting a chapter for him to read every single day, without fail.

All of that had been for him.

“I’m a writer, so this is the best that I can do,” his old teacher said while patiently sipping on her heavily creamed coffee, a wry smile in place, “I wrote a story for you to read. I wanted you to find it, and for it to reach you. And it did.”

She looked around, taking in his café and all of the cats circling them and sniffing around curiously (Yoo Joonghyuk seemed to be glaring, didn't he?), “I’m happy that it helped you, and I’m happy to see that you no longer need it.”

By the time his old teacher left, leaving him with a signed copy of her latest book as well as a promise to keep in contact, Kim Dokja had become nothing short of a mess.

It wasn’t anything serious, by all means, it was just a simple catching up with his old teacher and esteemed author, but he didn’t know why he was suddenly like this.

Tears were rolling freely down his face. His cats seemed to all be staring at him with somewhat concerned expressions, although it was probably just his imagination...

Perhaps he was being overly dramatic, but he didn’t want to risk the chance of upsetting them. With half an idea of where to go, Kim Dokja grabbed the keys and headed off into the night.

There was a small and quaint book shop tucked into a corner further down the block that Kim Dokja had discovered around the time that he began to mentor under Persephone, and had become his personal respite since then. It was called The Fourth Wall. There was usually only one person working the counter, the owner himself, an eccentric older man who often wore tacky fedoras and loved to pretend to be the mysterious bartender or shop owner character that offered advice to the clueless wanderers that unknowingly stumbled into his store. Although there were three other people that worked as assistants and usually came to lend a hand during the weekends. Kim Dokja assumed they were probably volunteers. Amazingly enough, they were all and each as much of an oddball as the owner.

Although the owner’s personality was strange and a tad bit too meddlesome for Kim Dokja’s liking (and that his sense of humor was awful), the quiet and reserved atmosphere of the little shop was perfect for when Kim Dokja was in the mood to isolate himself and immerse into the familiar world of books and stories.

When Kim Dokja arrived, he barely spared a curt greeting to the owner, immediately heading off to the fantasy fiction section and setting up camp there.

It was only after a few hours had passed and he was almost at the end of his current pick, that he noticed the owner flashing him poorly disguised inquiring looks.

He wasn't going to get away with continuing to pretend to not have noticed, right?

Heaving a sigh, Kim Dokja closed his book and finally addressed the owner, "Do you need something, Owner-nim?"

Jumping up at the offered opportunity, the owner immediately asked what he was thinking, "Dokja-yah, you own that Cat Cafe around the corner, right?"

Kim Dokja blinked, it was not the question he was expecting.

"Yes, that's right… why?"

The owner seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at his words of confirmation, for some reason. "Thank God. A stray cat wandered into the shop today, and I have to close up soon, I can't take it home," the older man lamented, "Do you happen to know anyone who could take it…?"

Kim Dokja didn't need to hear any more, he already knew how the rest went. Since he had established his business it had become something of an everyday occurrence. Suffice to say, the door of his café had become a prime ground for strangers to dump injured cats and abandoned litters of kittens, expecting him to take care of the problem.

Which was why his place now doubled as a foster home for rescues, which he usually tried his best to take care of with the help of Aileen until he could safely set them up to get adopted. Even if he owned a cat cafe, he couldn't singlehandedly take care of every stray cat that was dumped on his doorstep, not even with Kim Namwoon or the Underworld pair's help.

Getting the hang of the bookshop owner's request, Kim Dokja sighed in resignation. Even though it might be a bit of a pain, he could never truly refuse, the cats were not the ones at fault here, "Where's it now?"

"Last time I checked it seemed to be sleeping around the webnovel section,” the owner mused, “Thank you, Dokja-ya.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Heading off to find the little troublemaker. Kim Dokja was met with a petite female black cat lounging carefreely over a knocked over pile of books and scattered papers.

Hearing him approach, the cat looked up at him with wary dark eyes. By the looks of her poorly groomed short fur, she didn't appear to be a runaway but had likely already been in the streets for some time now.

As he got closer with cautious steps, Kim Dokja noticed that she wasn't entirely black, but had a dash of white around her muzzle as well as over her paws, making for a stocking-like pattern.

There was also a very small spot of black under her eye, contrasting with the white. It almost looked like a mole.

Hah, maybe it was because he had just met her again today after so many years, but Kim Dokja couldn't help but be reminded of a certain author.

"Hey. It’s nice to meet you, Han Sooyoung."

Chapter Text

“How dare you call my work a copy of that second-rate amateur trash, take that back right fucking now!”

….Huh?

A heavy silence befell upon the room as me and Han Sooyoung stared wordlessly at each other, her with a glare full of accusation and me absolutely shrouded in confusion as I tried and failed to make sense of the situation.

What is she talking about… could she be-?

“I can’t believe that after so many years you’re still so obsessed with that crappy novel, no matter how you look at it, mine is a thousand, no, a million times better!” she continued on with her rant despite not having received any reaction from me. “Everything from the characters and the plot, to the pacing and the worldbuilding are way more polished and-!” she suddenly paused, seeming to think of something, “No, did you even read it?”

I just continued to stare at her, gobsmacked, “Wha-?”

“My novel, SSSSS-Grade Infinite Regressor, did you read it?!”

“Uh…”

“What am I saying, of course you didn’t!” she threw up her arms in frustrated anger, “Pull up the Munpia app, I’m not leaving until you’ve read it.”

Before the cat-hybrid could make a grab at my phone I swiftly pulled it away from her reach, “Wait, wait, Han Sooyoung!” I protested, “What are you going on about, you mean to tell me you’re the author of that novel…?”

“You’re still asking that, isn’t it obvious, you numbskull?” she crossed her arms in a show of exasperation.

To think that she had become a writer. I didn’t know whether to feel proud at her accomplishment or appalled at the subject of her writing.

Had she deliberately imitated the work of the author that she got her namesake from, or was it a subconscious thing from the memories she still retained from when she was a regular cat and used to spy over my shoulder at whatever I was reading at the time?

Come to think of it, she looked a bit like human Han Sooyoung too, albeit younger.

Not for the first time, I began to ponder over the nature of Evolutionary species, what was the basis for their physical human appearance, was it really just a random coincidence or did they have any say on their looks?

For example, as far as I knew cats weren't native to Korea, but all of my cats so far looked like koreans or at least east-asians. And then there’s Uriel who looks like a foreigner despite speaking fluent korean and apparently having been raised and evolved here as one of the hospital’s resident pet doves.

Is it because I gave them all Korean names… ?

“-ey, Hey!” Han Sooyoung snapped her fingers in front of my face, startling me to attention, “What are you looking at with that dumb expression on your face, you better not be about to have some kind of relapse on me or something!”

What relapse, it’s not like I was ill or anything.

“Sooyoung-ah,” I addressed her affectionately after batting her hand away, “I’m glad you could become a successful author, but even then, plagiarizing other people’s ideas is not the way-”

“WHAT PLARIAGISM YOU BASTARD, I OUGHTA FUCKING KNOCK SOME SENSE INTO YOUR THICK SKULL WITH MY FIST, YOU-!”

I closed my eyes and braced myself expecting her to hit me, but instead of the impact of a fist I felt the weak grasp of her small hand grabbing at the fabric of my shirt.

I tentatively opened my eyes to the sight of Han Sooyoung timidly pressing her face against my chest, her shoulders rising and falling in time with her soft sniffles.

“Y-you idiot, don’t you ever do th-that to me again, or I swear I-” she complained weakly, voice muffled by the fabric of my hospital gown.

My heart all but broke at the sight. She was no longer refering to my criticism (hate) comment, was she?

Had she been pretending to be strong all this time…?

At a loss of what to do, I cautiously put my arms around the small quivering frame in front of me and held her as gently as I could, hoping to provide even a meager amount of comfort at this moment, even if it could never make up for my last two years of absence.

Unlike Yoo Joonghyuk’s broad figure, Han Sooyoung was small, small enough to fit snugly into my embrace. She didn’t seem to have changed much since the times she was a regular cat, always going around with a big head and an attitude and picking fights with other cats twice her size (namely Yoo Joonghyuk).

We stayed like that for a few minutes until Han Sooyoung’s shoulders stilled and her weeps subsided. Just as I thought she had finally calmed down, I felt both of her fists, which were previously harmlessly grasping at my clothes, suddenly shift into claws.

“Ouch-! Han Sooyoung, what the fuck?!” I recoiled at the unexpected flash of pain.

“Don’t think that this alone is enough to make me forgive you, you irresponsible bastard,” she declared with a threatening smile, 'Where did her tears go?', “I’m gonna need some form of substantial compromise on your part.”

“Substantial compromise…?” I repeated, confused.

“I want you to read my novel, no, all of my writing. Drafts, manuscripts, published works, everything, you hear me?” She demanded, turning her nose up in a haughty expression, “And you have to tell me what you think about all of it, not just a simple review but a proper report in detail, okay?”

I blinked, shocked at her request, did she not have an editor yet? “Okay… is that all?”

Han Sooyoung crossed her arms over her chest, a satisfied smirk in place. “That’s right, so you agree?”

Suddenly, I had a bad feeling about this, “Uh…”

“Good, it’s nice to see that we’re both on the same page. Now sign this.” She said at the same time that she pulled out a (familiar) piece of paper along with a pen.

No, where did this come from all of a sudden?

As I patiently read through the document with the bizarre title of ‘Editor and Proof-reader Contract’, I felt my expression fall at the contents, a helpless feeling coming over me.

Isn’t this just a re-brandished version of the Raising Agreement that Yoo Joonghyuk gave me…?

Did she plagiarize even this? Other than some modifications to the ‘Acts of Service’ detailing the need to act as her editor, everything else was pretty much the same. Furthermore, why do you need your editor to live in your house and expressly ban them from ‘having prolonged contact direct or indirect with other cats or Evolutionary species’, are editors an euphemism for kept men now?

And why was I once again the Eul, wouldn’t it be the fair thing to make me pay for my two year absence by having me provide financially for them? Why am I the one being kept then?

“Sooyoung-ah, I don’t think this contract is very fair…?”

“Why, what are you not satisfied with?” she asked, taking the contract back from me and frowning over the contents, “Is the pay not enough? Or don’t tell me-” she suddenly looked up at me, eyes wide with realization, although I was unsure as to what conclusion she had reached all by herself.

“Did you already sign a contract with that catfish bastard?!” She suddenly accused me, which, huh?

Apparently taking my shocked silence as confirmation, Han Sooyoung clicked her tongue at me in frustrated exasperation, “I knew it, that crafty sack of fleas, you better break off that contract right now Dokja, I’m a much better choice than him, he’s all pretty fluff while I’m the one making the big dough-!”

“Han Sooyoung,” a harsh voice interrupted her argument (read: bragging), startling both of us into turning towards the source, to find that very same Yoo Joonghyuk standing by the door with balled fists, looking seconds away from throttling Han Sooyoung if his pissed off expression was any indication.

“Oh, um, Yoo Joonghyuk, you’re back!” I awkwardly attempted to step in and distract him while Han Sooyoung childishly stuck her tongue out at him.

“You should have stayed lying down in whatever hole you just crawled from, you fluffhead catfish,” the younger cat-hybrid drawled as she leisurely unwrapped a piece of candy and popped it into her mouth. If looks could kill Han Sooyoung would be dead and buried a thousand times over just with Yoo Joonghyuk’s efforts alone.

I felt the beginning of a migraine growing around my temples. This time the problem wouldn’t be resolved just by putting them into separate rooms along with their respective food bowls for a while, would it?

Yoo Joonghyuk hadn’t been entirely truthful with Kim Dokja. He had actually been neglecting his streaming schedule in order to spend more time with him.

He himself couldn’t care less about it, but the same couldn’t be said for his company. Half of the funding of his team came from sponsoring from his streams and advertising deals that were conditioned to him staying relevant, so naturally they couldn’t just stand still and let him do whatever he wanted forever, which was why his manager Bihyung eventually had enough of him putting off his nightly streams and called him over for a chat.

Bihyung was a First-order cat species, but his talent wasn’t any less than that of a Second-order as far as securing business deals was concerned, much less a human, which was why he climbed the ladder so fast and quickly established his place as a high ranking executive of Star Stream, the entertainment company that Yoo Joonghyuk’s team was signed to as well as a leading Industry in Korea.

Yoo Joonghyuk hadn’t really wanted to involve his team with a primarily Show Business oriented company like Star Stream that had only recently started delving into e-sports, he was a gamer not an entertainer, but Bihyung had pestered and harassed him to ‘not let his face go to waste’ until he had reluctantly agreed. His manager might be an annoying pest with the character of a conman, but his abilities were the real deal. He knew it first hand since it was his management that had launched Yoo Sangah to stardom, aside from the actress’s own natural talent.

What had really sold Yoo Joonghyuk on the idea was the pay though. He wasn’t particularly interested in amassing human wealth beyond what’s necessary to provide for himself and Mia, but he understood that if he wanted to compete against the other cats on equal ground he needed the capital to back him. He couldn’t allow Kim Dokja to be swayed away from his side because Yoo Joonghyuk couldn’t provide him with enough commodities.

(The infuriating image of Han Sooyoung laughing obnoxiously as she dangled the keys of her newest Ferrarigini between her fingers and called him broke came to mind. Yoo Joonghyuk clenched his fists at the memory.)

Which was why, despite finding Bihyung fundamentally annoying, he still reluctantly heeded his demand and vowed to resume his nightly streaming schedule… as soon as the week was over.

Of course, Yoo Joonghyuk refused to disclose the actual reason why he had been neglecting his job. Bihyung might not have been an official member of Kim Dokja’s Company, but he had still been fed and taken care of by the Café owner during his time as a stray, so Yoo Joonghyuk was still understandably wary of him getting too close and comfortable with his person.

More importantly, Bihyung was Biyoo’s parent.

Yoo Joonghyuk had nothing personal against Biyoo, she was a smart and sensible child and a good friend to Mia, but perhaps that was the problem. She was too shrewd.

Unlike Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung who were often too distracted bickering with each other to pose any real threat, Biyoo knew exactly where to direct her energy and how to best capture Kim Dokja’s attention. She was who Yoo Joonghyuk had to watch out for the most among the kids.

Now with that said, the reason why he was late for his daily visit to Kim Dokja was precisely because of his talk with Bihyung, which Yoo Joonghyuk bore with endless patience as to not arouse suspicion. Now he was practically skipping steps in a hurry to get to his companion’s hospital room with today’s homemade lunchbox firmly secured in his hands.

He couldn’t wait until Kim Dokja was back living with him and he didn’t have to go out of his way every day in order to see his companion, the fool would always be in Yoo Joonghyuk’s sight, in touching distance, inhabiting Yoo Joonghyuk’s space; in his living room, in his kitchen, in the bath, in his bed…

Yoo Joonghyuk’s wandering thoughts were suddenly cut short as he closed in on Kim Dokja’s hospital room, a familiar (and unwelcome) scent assaulting his nostrils.

A bad feeling stirred in Yoo Joonghyuk’s gut, confirmed as soon as he heard a certain grating voice coming from the other side of the door.

Gritting his teeth, Yoo Joonghyuk promptly slid the door open, “Han Sooyoung.”

Ever since I brought Han Sooyoung home, she and Yoo Joonghyuk had been like cats and dogs (ironic, I know). I thought it was partly my own fault since I failed at introducing them properly, and of course Han Sooyoung wanting to establish dominance in her new home immediately antagonized the most intimidating cat already living in it (something like the prison logic of going for the leader first?). Since then, they could hardly stand the sight of each other, although they had never fought hard enough to get seriously hurt.

Looking at them now, I feared that streak was about to be broken.

As soon as he walked in, Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes zeroed in on the contract still in Han Sooyoung’s hands.

“Han Sooyoung, what are you doing to Kim Dokja, get away from him.”

“What, does this look familiar to you, like you didn’t try the exact same thing?” Han Sooyoung snapped back, waving the stack of papers in the air, “You think you’re so slick trying to keep him all to yourself, just wait until I tell everyone, you selfish bastard!”

Yoo Joonghyuk narrowed his eyes, which were turning alarmingly golden, “You wouldn’t dare…”

“Hah! Just try me, you bitch.” Han Sooyoung’s back curled in preparation to pounce. Oh shit.

“Guys… can you calm down?” I tried to pacify them all the while I was frantically slamming my finger on the nurse call button from under the blanket. Please, anyone, come soon!

“You shut up, traitor!”, “Kim Dokja, don’t interfere.” They both turned to yell at me at the same time. Eek!

“What is going on here?” a voice suddenly interrupted the two cats’ face-off. My savior!

Lee Seolhwa stood at the door with her arms crossed and an icy expression, immediately commanding authority in the room. “Joonghyuk-ssi, didn’t I warn you against shifting in this place? One Second-order alone is trouble enough, not to mention two,” she said, “Did you two forget you’re in a hospital? Don’t make me call security on you.”

I looked at Han Sooyoung with wide eyes. She was a Second-order as well?

“Don’t act all righteous now doctor-nim, you’re obviously on his side!” the author yelled, “How could you hide Kim Dokja from the rest of us, we trusted you!”

Despite Han Sooyoung’s dramatic accusation, Lee Seolhwa’s face remained the picture of unimpressed, “I’m on my patient Kim Dokja’s side. Excuse me for prioritizing his wishes over your sensibilities, since he’s the injured party. You two would do well on doing the same instead of selfishly barging in here and attempting to impose your desires over his needs.”

At those words, Yoo Joonghyuk looked down at his feet with a frown as if ashamed, while Han Sooyoung looked away with a pout on her face, seemingly reluctant to admit that she was in the wrong. A smile tugged on my lips; just like children, the both of them.

Taking their silence as good as an acknowledgement that she was going to get, Lee Seolhwa turned to address me. “Dokja-ssi, I will leave you three to talk if you want to, but I will be right outside so remember that you can always call me back if needed.”

I nodded absently and watched her go. I felt somewhat like a damsel in the presence of her trusted knight, my heart even kind of skipped a beat just now. Amazing.

I was wondering whether I should say something to break the tension in the room after Seolhwa’s departure, when suddenly, Yoo Joonghyuk turned his gaze towards Han Sooyoung, regarding her with intent focus. “Hey, don’t look at me like that, I’m not going to apologize-!”

“He didn’t sign it.”

“...What?”

“Kim Dokja didn’t sign it yet. The Raising Agreement.”

“...” Han Sooyoung’s expression turned serious, scrutinizing him with dark eyes, “Why are you telling me this?”

“Do you really want to bring the others into this, at this time?” Yoo Joonghyuk continued. What was he going on about now…? “You might hinder me if you call them, but you will lose your best chance too.”

“...Don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, you crafty son of a bitch,” the younger cat-hybrid said, “But I admit you may have a point. Who else knows?”

At her question, Yoo Joonghyuk turned to look at me briefly before resuming his conversation with Han Sooyoung. I felt a mild bout of annoyance surge within me at the sight. Why are they talking like I’m not here?

“That Calico…” Yoo Joonghyuk reluctantly confessed. Calico? As in…

Yoo Sangah…?

“Her?!” Han Sooyoung balked, before scoffing, “Figures she would. Anyone else?”

Yoo Joonghyuk shook his head no.

“Great.” The author concluded, clapping her hands as if she was physically putting an end to the conversation, and then turned to regard me, “Where to now, then?”

“...Huh?”

Han Sooyoung rolled her eyes, like she had made herself perfectly clear and I was the one being dense. I felt my head throb faintly in irritation. “Who are you staying with? I gotta warn you, my house is on the better part of the city and is twice, no, three times as big as this idiot’s dingy shoebox of an apartment-”

“I live in a penthouse.” Yoo Joonghyuk scowled, which, woah. “Kim Dokja should stay with me. It’s closer to the hospital.”

“Same thing. It’s still smaller than my house,” the younger cat-hybrid argued, “And less crowded. Don’t you have Yoo Mia to take care of as well? You shouldn’t push yourself too hard, big man.”

“You-!”

“Um… what about my own apartment?” I interjected.

They both turned to look at me with equally disappointed expressions. “Tch”, “Tsk”.

…Was something wrong with my apartment? You two were raised there, okay? Don’t look down on it just because you’re well off now, it’s a perfectly good apartment!

Although, I had my doubts as to whether it was still as I left it. It had been two years after all.

What about my Café? I couldn’t really manage it in my current condition, adding that I no longer had any (normal) cats to inhabit it, but I was still reluctant to give up on it, it felt like it was my baby…

Just as I was pondering over my current situation, a staccato rhythm like that of heeled footsteps approaching called my attention to the door right before it suddenly slid open.

The person on the other side was elegantly dressed in a black form-fitting dress; her long, auburn hair done up in a sophisticated style and a pair of large and expensive-looking shades obscuring most of her face, although I knew as soon as I set sight on her who the woman was.

“Oh! So many people are here already! And here I thought I was going to be the first… It’s a shame I wasn’t in the country or I would have come earlier.” The woman said with a pout at the same time that she took off her sunglasses, letting me take in the sight of her blooming smile and sparkling honey colored eyes, “Dokja, my sweet child, let your mother have a good look at you.”

Sure enough, it could only be Persephone.

Chapter Text

“Dokja, my sweet child, let your mother have a good look at you.”

Taking in her youthful appearance, I was somewhat taken aback at how little she had changed. It had only been two years so it stood to reason that that would be the case, but having been subjected to an entirely new reality since having woken up, my mind had trouble assimilating that under normal circumstances, two years wasn't really such a long time.

Still, I would be lying if I said that I hadn’t missed her. Particularly since after she had assembled her new and successful restaurant, The Gourmet Association, combined with me being busy tending to my Café and the cats, we hadn’t had as much time to spend with each other.

“Persephon-” before I could finish greeting her, I was promptly enveloped into a crushing embrace, with my face gently pillowed against the older woman’s warm bosom.

“Tsk tsk, you’re still calling me that, didn’t I tell you to call me ‘Mom’?” She jokingly chided. I sighed somewhat wistfully and playfully rolled my eyes where she couldn’t see, not attempting to excuse myself. We had had the same argument many times before. “...I always knew that you would come back to us.”

For a brief moment, none of us said anything and simply stayed quietly wrapped in each other’s arms, doing nothing other than basking in each other’s presence. There wasn’t much that I could say to her at the moment, so I chose to stay quiet. In all likeness she didn’t really want nor expect any words of comfort or gratitude from me, nor an apology or an explanation. Although if I was a bit braver, I might have told her, ‘Sorry for making you wait’ .

“...So, how have you been?” I asked her once we separated, “Where’s Hades-ssi?”

“Now that you’re back, better than ever,” Persephone gushed with a blinding smile, “Your father is still in Paris, probably having a meeting with sponsors and annoyed that I ditched him and dumped all the work on him as we speak.”

A small laugh escaped me despite myself. It was a relief to see that she was still as free spirited as ever.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Han Sooyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk standing some distance away, trying and failing to look like they weren't listening in to our conversation. Yoo Joonghyuk had his arms crossed in a defiant posture and Han Sooyoung was feigning disinterest by fidgeting with her phone, but why did I think that they looked somewhat… anxious?

“So, when are you getting discharged?” Persephone asked, taking me back to the issue at hand.

“According to Seolhwa-ssi, my recovery is stable so I should be able to go back home at the end of the week,” I said with some relief, “Of course, I would still need to attend physical therapy sessions for some time…”

“Oh, that’s just lovely! How about you come spend some time with us in our villa then, if you’re free?” The older woman readily offered, “We can have Charon drive you to and back from your hospital visits, no problem. You can just think of it as a vacation.”

I felt sweat gathering on the back of my neck. I knew that when she said ‘villa’ what she actually meant was ‘huge and opulent mansion by the riverside’.

“Um, thank you Perseph- I mean- mom, but I think I’d like to stay in my own apartment for the time being.” It’s not like I didn’t want to spend time with her and Hades, but sometimes their excessively luxurious lifestyle could get a bit overwhelming to an ordinary person like me.

Persephone blinked. “Your apartment?”

Suddenly I had a bad feeling, “...Did something happen?”

She grasped her chin in a contemplative gesture, “Well, it was certainly destroyed in Evolution day after the cats in the café downstairs grew several sizes,” she mused, making my heart seize in my chest. I had read about Evolution day, but my mind hadn’t connected the dots until now. Of course, if all of my ten cats evolved at the same time then it was no wonder that my home and everything around it would be- “But don’t worry, we’ve since reconstructed everything, so it’s good as new at the moment!”

…Why did she need to play with my heart like this? I felt like I just went through multiple roller coasters.

But I really ought to be thankful to her, otherwise both my apartment and the café which had been her gift to me and that I had carefully tended and nurtured through the years would be gone forever by now.

“That… how much were the reparations worth?”

“Oh honey don’t worry about it, that place has as much sentimental value to me as it does to you, I wouldn’t let it crumble over,” she calmly waved me away, “And more importantly, you’re our son, it’s only right that we should help you with everything to the best of our abilities.”

I tried to hold back the tears I could feel forming in my eyes. Hearing her refer to me as her son, it never felt quite real. Persephone and Hades never officially adopted me, since I still had my own birth mother, but they still really did treat me like their own child.

Speaking of my mother, a part of me was wondering what she was doing. Had she heard about my circumstances?

“Anyways, are you sure you want to move back to that place all by yourself, or don’t tell me…” Persephone looked over to where the two Second-orders were still loitering around, both of which suddenly stood taller in attention under the weight of her gaze. Sure enough, she must have said or done something to instill this amount of respectful fear on them. “Were you planning to bring them with you?”

At that question, I couldn’t help my eyes from straying towards both Han Sooyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk’s expectant slash hopeful gazes.

If it was before, I wouldn’t have hesitated. My cats were my family, naturally, where I went, they went.

But that was no longer the case. They were independent and entirely self-sufficient now; they had their own lives, their own careers and occupations, important ones. The café had mostly been an excuse to share more of my life and space with them, but right now they weren't mere pets to work what must be a demeaning job to them in a cat café, and the apartment wasn’t nearly big enough to house all of them.

More importantly, if they were public figures, I couldn’t risk them getting too involved with me.

“Uh… I think I can manage by myself,” I said, but as I saw both of their faces fall with obvious disappointment I immediately backtracked, “But if you guys want to come over and maybe help me out from time to time, I wouldn’t mind…”

The way they immediately perked up at those words made me think that their cat ears had nearly popped up for a moment there. Crap, now I couldn’t get that mental image out of my head…

“Great! I’ll arrange the place to be cleaned and ready for you to move back in by the end of the week.” Persephone clapped her hands, snapping me out of my wayward thoughts, “Now that that’s all settled, have you had lunch yet, dear?”

To my embarrassment, my stomach immediately rumbled at the prospect of food. Normally, I could go about my day skipping a few meals here and there and not feel a difference, but lately I guess I had been too spoiled by Yoo Joonghyuk’s timely (and delicious) homemade lunches.

“Uh…”

Persephone smiled with obvious fondness, her eyes fully turned to crescents, “I hear you loud and clear, Honey,” she said as she cheerfully motioned Yoo Joonghyuk and Han Sooyoung over, “Kids, come help Dokja-ya into his wheelchair, will you? We’re going to The Gourmet Association for supper!”

The two Second-orders both blinked at her request, and then promptly started fighting over who got to help me into the chair and who would be the one to push it and whatnot. I sighed.

I couldn’t wait for my physical therapy to be done and for me to be able to walk without aid so I didn’t have to be subjected to this ever again.

Just as promised, I was finally discharged by the end of the week and promptly moved back into my old apartment with Perspehone and the Underworld Group’s help. Although I was still wheelchair bound for most of the time, I could still walk with crutches well enough that I could more or less get around, so I wasn’t too worried.

Seeing the storefront of my café right beneath my apartment, looking exactly the same as the last time I had seen it with its large sign spelling ‘Kim Dokja’s Company’, made a wave of nostalgia rush through me as well as a pang to my heart at the thought that I might not be able to open ever again.

I could have never imagined that I would become a person that actually enjoyed working in the restaurant business, but those few years that I had spent serving tables, messing up orders, and clumsily brewing coffee along with Persephone, Hades, Kim Namwoon, and my cats, were quite honestly the best of my life, no question about it.

Although mostly it was all thanks to my cats, that café would just not be the same without them, it might as well stay closed.

Speaking of closing, I thought I had locked my door last night…

So what was this crushing weight that I could feel draped over me and smothering me into the mattress?

I tried to get up from under the heavy mass of fluff and muscles to no avail. I was effectively pinned to the bed. Under normal circumstances I’d welcome the chance to bury myself into all this heavenly soft fluff, but it was almost summer already, I felt like I was going to suffocate.

Seeing my attempt to escape thwarted, I took my chance at nudging awake the huge slumbering creature currently using me as their pillow, “Joonghyuk-ah… do you think you could maybe get up? I can’t breathe here…”

Unfortunately, the only answer to my plea was the rumbling noise coming from the big cat’s chest getting louder, to the point of resembling the engine of a motorboat rather than a cat purring. This bastard was definitely awake and purposely ignoring me.

“Yoo Joonghyuk, I said get up!” I wiggled my body harder in an attempt to dislodge Yoo Joonghyuk’s body from on top of me.

The other seemed to take mercy on me because the weight crushing me gradually lifted, or so I thought until I felt a large scratchy tongue lap at the back of my neck.

!!!!

‘So scratchy!’

“You bastard, don’t you know how rough your tongue is-?!” I turned back to yell at him, only to freeze at the sight that greeted me.

Instead of the giant long-haired black cat that should be Yoo Joonghyuk’s cat form, hovering over me was a black haired, very very handsome, and also very very naked, human Yoo Joonghyuk.

“-!” I attempted to say something but no sound came, leaving my mouth hanging open and gaping like a fish.

“Kim Dokja,” Yoo Joonghyuk said with a voice rough from sleep. I swallowed. “You’re finally awake. Breakfast is ready, I’ll heat it up for you.”

“Uh, Yoo Joonghyuk, could you uh…” ‘Don’t look down there, don’t look down there, don’t look down there-!’ “Put on some clothes, maybe, please-?” I tried to keep my eyes from straying towards an inappropriate direction. Looking at his face however also proved fatal for my heart so I just closed my eyes altogether.

Yoo Joonghyuk huffed something that might have been a laugh, after which I heard a rustling sound followed by the weight of the two hands on both sides of my head being lifted off.

A few minutes went by in which I adamantly kept my eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the other man getting busy in my kitchen, only chancing a look once I felt the enticing smell of Yoo Joonghyuk’s heavenly cooking filling the apartment.

“Here, eat.” The cat-hybrid, now thankfully back with clothes on, said as he deposited a tray overflowing with food. I looked down at the contents and felt my mouth water, the male lead attribute really jumped up to new heights every time I saw him.

“...This,” I said, something in the tray catching my attention, “Dumplings?”

“Murim dumplings,” Yoo Joonghyuk said in ways of an explanation, “They’re not as good as the ones you used to make for me, but I wanted to return the favor.”

The ones I made, did he mean the cat-safe dumplings…?

Curious, I picked up a dumpling with chopsticks and carefully blew on it before taking a cautious bite.

“-!”

…

“Kim Dokja, what’s wrong?” asked Yoo Joonghyuk with a worried expression, probably because my eyes wouldn’t stop watering, “Is it too spicy?”

It’s spicy alright, but this… how should I explain it?

In which universe did it make sense to compare such a rich and savory combination of flavors and soft texture that melted on the tongue to the bland stuff I used to make? Was he being sarcastic?

“Yoo Joonghyuk…” I said through bitter tears, “You must have suffered.” Enduring my cooking all this time when he had the potential to make something like this, it must have been hell.

Yoo Joonghyuk furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at my sudden declaration. I had no time to explain it to him though, I had to finish all this feast before the food cooled down, it would be a crime to not eat even though I wasn’t really hungry.

The cat-hybrid watched me with a placid expression as I ate. Which reminded me, he used to do the same as a cat back then, didn’t he? At that time I just thought he wanted a share of whatever I was having.

“Aren’t you gonna eat?” I asked with bulging cheeks, not bothering to swallow before talking. Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes zeroed on my lips. Shit, were cats also bothered by seeing others talk with their mouth full? I might have gotten too comfortable…

“I already ate,” he said simply, “there’s more in the kitchen if you’re still hungry.”

No… this is already plenty, just how much did he cook anyways?

“No please, I’m full already,” I assured him, “Where’s Mia, by the way?”

“At school. I have to pick her up in the afternoon.” Yoo Joonghyuk said as he tidied up the dirty plates and carried the tray back into the kitchen, where he sorted the leftovers into various containers and stored them in the fridge. I felt bad watching him do all the housework, but it was hard for me to stop him when I had to employ the use of crutches to even attempt getting up and doing it myself.

“School?”

“The Government’s Schooling Program for Evolutionary species,” the cat-hybrid explained, “All Half-species are required to attend, and even some First and Second Orders if their general behavior and degree of adaptation to human society is considered below standard.”

I nodded, intrigued. It never ceased to amaze me how fast the world changed in order to assimilate the Evolutionary species.

“...Do, uh, any of the rest go there too?” I asked apprehensively, unable to fight the urge to inquire on the whereabouts of the others.

Yoo Joonghyuk turned to assess me with bottomless dark eyes, making me squirm under his hard gaze. I had already assumed that he wouldn’t respond when he finally opened his mouth. “If you mean the kids, they are all attending the same school, yes,” he said, a conflicted expression on his face, “Shin Yoosung, Lee Gilyoung and Biyoo that is. They’re pretty much the same as ever.”

I wasn’t sure what Yoo Joonghyuk meant by that, but I for one was ecstatic at the news, “That’s great! Are they staying together too?”

“The school provides the students with living accommodations, so most of them just stay on campus,” Yoo Joonghyuk explained, “Mia is the exception. She says the dormitories are too packed for her liking.”

That did sound like something Yoo Mia would say. Even back then, she usually shied away from crowds, never showing her face in the café whenever there were clients present.

Thinking about the kittens made my heart ache with the desire to see them. I could even surprise them at their school, once my body had recovered enough not to worry them or be a burden, at least.

I should probably focus on that and prepare for the day I would have to face them, eventually.

By the way, wasn’t I forgetting something important…?

“Yoo Joonghyuk, how did you get in-?”

That’s when a rattling noise was heard coming from the door, making both of us turn to the source of the interruption and forgetting about the question I meant to ask.

With no words exchanged, Yoo Joonghyuk headed to the door and promptly pulled it open, revealing Han Sooyoung crouching on the floor, both of her claws out and suspiciously close to the keyhole.

...

“What are you doing here?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked after a particularly awkward stretch of silence, a judgemental expression on his face.

“Hah, you’re so funny, like you want me to believe that Kim Dokja let you in willingly?” Han Sooyoung snapped back, standing in all her 1,58 cms glory and looking up at Yoo Joonghyuk like she hadn’t just been caught trying to break into my house. “I wouldn’t be doing this anyways if he just answered his damn phone.”

My phone…? I checked where it was lying by the bedside table. It was dead. Weird, did it run out of battery?

No, but why couldn’t she knock on the door like a normal person?

“Shut up and state your business here.” Yoo Joonghyuk said in a no-nonsense tone. Was he my bodyguard now…?

“I’m not telling you shit.” She stuck out her tongue before turning to address me, “Kim Dokja, aren’t you bored cooped up in here? Let’s go out for some fun!”

“He’s still weak, he should stay to recuperate.” The taller cat stated, shooting the idea down.

“And who asked you, Mister I-hate-fun-and-bright-colors?” she rolled her eyes, “Besides, that’s what his wheelchair is for right? It will only be for a while.”

Yoo Joonghyuk glanced down at his clothes, which were indeed all black. Was he getting self-conscious now? “That’s besides the point. Don’t you have a book-signing event to attend?”

“That’s where we’re going! Kim Dokja will love the book fair, and he’ll also see how a cool and popular author I am, and read my novels,” Han Sooyoung threw her hands up in the air, “C’mon, Kim Dokja get ready, I’ll help you get into the car!” She rushed past Yoo Joonghyuk to grab my wheelchair. Wait, aren’t you forgetting to ask for my permission first…?

“Han Sooyoung, isn’t that place packed with people, do you really want to expose him like that?” Yoo Joonghyuk walked after her, grabbing her by the shoulder.

“Don’t be such a fussbucket, he can just wear a mask, no big deal. I assure you no one will know.” Han Sooyoung waved him away.

Not being able to get through Han Sooyoung’s blithe attitude, Yoo Joonghyuk turned to me instead. “Kim Dokja…”

Both cats looked at me with nothing short of begging eyes, seeming to finally acknowledge my opinion for the first time since this whole ordeal. I glanced from Han Sooyoung’s hopeful gaze to Yoo Joonghyuk’s sort of threatening glare, and thought, what the hell.

“Ah, I guess I could go out to take a look?”

Yoo Joonghyuk’s expression soured and he slumped in defeat at the same time that Han Sooyoung cheered, “YES! Take that sourpuss hairball, let’s go!”

Yoo Joonghyuk slapped the shorter cat’s pointing fingers away. “Fine, but I’m coming along.”

Just as Yoo Joonghyuk predicted, the venue was incredibly crowded. The line for Han Sooyoung’s table went on for quite a long distance, putting into perspective how popular an author she was. She looked absurdly smug about it too, turning to look in our direction from time to time to point at the neverending line with a gloating expression.

‘I should probably get on reading her novels if it makes her this happy’, I thought as I looked down at the pile of signed hard covers by ‘Black Flame Empress’ sitting on my lap.

We had been originally led to a VIP lounge, but I decided it was more fun to go out and look around, despite Yoo Joonghyuk’s protests. It’s been a while since I have been to a place like this, even before my coma I hardly had time for such events, and I was curious about all the new books and novels that came out in these past two years.

So we were currently roaming around the venue and stopping by the various stands to take a look, or more like Yoo Joonghyuk was roaming and I was just being wheeled around by him, but it was me who pointed to wherever I wanted to go and he obediently listened so it wasn’t inaccurate to say that it was mostly me doing the looking.

I felt a bit bad for making him take me around like my personal servant but part of me couldn’t help but think that he had it coming. Perhaps it was the bitter part of me that felt all the stares and whispers stick to us like glue wherever we went; even with a mask on, Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t fail to turn the heads of every woman and man in a 20 meter radius as if he had a neon sign on his forehead that said ‘Look At Me I’m Handsome’.

Bastard.

I couldn’t deny that I was having fun, but part of me couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable under the attention. It was honestly pathetic, to think that after all these years the feeling of being the object of other people’s talk, even if by association, would make my skin crawl like this.

But oh well, I had no choice but to deal with it. It wasn’t his fault for looking the way he did. It was mine, I should have named him ‘Ugly Sooty Bastard’ after all, and then he might have turned out different.

Now it couldn’t be helped. I could only hope that he didn’t get recognized.

It was at that moment that something else caught my attention.

It was a promotional poster for a movie. Apparently, it belonged to the stand of the company that published the book the movie was based on, a Post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama.

In it, a beautiful woman in a skintight black leather suit was striking a pose and looking back at the camera with her long, chestnut colored hair flying artfully in the wind. What made me stop weren't her drop-dead gorgeous looks however, but the name displayed underneath.

‘Moonlight Girl. Starring Yoo Sangah’

That… it couldn’t be, could it?

No, there was just no way.

Following the direction of my gaze, Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyebrows furrowed and his expression seemed gloomy, “Are you interested in that movie?”

I raised my eyebrows at him, the way he said that as if it was squeezing it through gritted teeth made me think that he must not be fond of that movie. “Not really. Do you not like it?”

“...I don’t really understand the point of movies, so it’s all the same.”

“Oh? But games are different?”

“They are different,” Yoo Joonghyuk asserted, matter-of-fact, “I don’t like things that I can’t change.”

I stared at him with wide eyes, not having expected such a deep answer.

It’s true that in books and movies, one could only ever be a helpless spectator that had no say or agency on how the story developed, unlike in games where there was always a good ending waiting for you, if you tried hard enough.

‘Tch, what are you trying to sound so cool for, you punk,’ I thought with something not unlike fondness, ‘You say you don’t like movies but you’re just like the protagonist of one.’

Unlike his protagonist-like mentality, reading suited a lazy and uncreative person like me much better.

Just as I was pondering the inferiority of my innate character-setting, I caught sight of what looked like a reporter doing a media coverage of the book fair a little distance away, camera fortunately pointing away from our direction. She called out a couple in a stand and started asking them questions, probably interviewing passerbys.

Please don’t look over here, please don’t look over here, please don’t look over here…

“Yoo Joonghyuk…” I called out with a slightly quivering voice, pulling up my mask higher self-consciously. I knew that there was likely no way that I would still be recognized as ‘The Son of a Murderer’ at this age, but I couldn’t help the deep-seated trauma that made me want to avoid cameras as much as possible.

It wouldn’t be so serious if I was by myself, but the problem was that Yoo Joonghyuk was with me.

I was about to urge him to leave together when from the corner of my eye, I saw the moment the reporter looked in our direction in search of her next victim and her eyes immediately sparkled. I instantly knew what was on her mind, a good looking person was always guaranteed to get attention from viewers.

She said something to the cameraman before they both turned and quickly walked over. There was no time, I decided that it was better to cut our losses and swiftly wheeled my way out of there, ditching Yoo Joonghyuk without another word. I would have gotten up and ran, but at the state I was in I had a better chance of maneuvering my way out of the crowd in a wheelchair than outrunning the reporter or Yoo Joonghyuk on foot.

It seemed like my actions were so sudden even Yoo Joonghyuk had no time to react, shocked still at my impromptu escape. “Kim Dokja!” he yelled just as he was timely caught by the reporter. I could see in his furious expression that he was getting ready to shake her off, so I took my chance to quickly disappear into the crowd before he could run after me.

‘He’ll probably get over it,’ I thought as I hurriedly fetched a taxi back to my apartment, shooting him a text telling him that I was leaving early because I was feeling tired and not to worry. My phone immediately started ringing, at which I turned it off in a panic.

'Shit. He's not going to be happy about that is he?'

Guess that was a problem for Kim Dokja of the future.

Kim Dokja of the present had another problem to deal with first. That is, right outside of my building's entrance there was someone waiting. A child.

That building only had my apartment and the Cafe under it, so either this child was lost, or looking for me for some mysterious reason.

Just as the cab stopped in front of my address and I got out with the help of the kind driver, the young girl, who couldn't be older than elementary schooler age if her cute uniform and little beret hat were any indication, turned around.

"Can I help you?" I asked cautiously. The child looked at me with wide, sparkling eyes, her expression immediately brightening with a thousands-watt smile.

"Papa!"

Oh. Oh.

Now that I looked at her from a closer distance, she looked almost exactly like me.

Chapter Text

Yoo Joonghyuk couldn’t believe that he had been so careless as to let Kim Dokja get away.

He hadn’t been paying proper attention, distracted as he was by thoughts of his recent conversation with the human. Did the other man really prefer movies as a form of entertainment?

‘Should I have pursued a career in the film industry instead…?’

By the time he realized, Kim Dokja had swiftly slipped away without a word. Yoo Joonghyuk had no time to react when an unknown woman (likely a reporter, going off of the microphone in her hand and the cameraman trailing behind her) suddenly approached him, blocking the fleeing figure of the human from Yoo Joonghyuk’s sight.

“Excuse me sir, we’re from Star Stream Entertainment News and we’re currently interviewing visitors on their experience in the Book Fair. We were wondering if-?”

Yoo Joonghyuk had no patience to spare the woman, simply throwing her an icy glare and forcefully shaking her off. By the way the reporter recoiled at the expression on his face, he knew he hadn’t been subtle with his anger.

Turning his eyes back to the direction where Kim Dokja had disappeared to, Yoo Joonghyuk’s anxiety spiked after not finding any trace of the human in the crowd. He sniffed the air in an attempt to pick up a scent, but the sheer amount of people practically rendered his heightened senses useless, their hypersensitivity becoming more of a burden in this situation rather than an advantage.

Had Yoo Joonghyuk been on his right mind, he might have taken a second or two to calm down before beginning to search the venue in a methodical manner, and if that didn’t work maybe even call Han Sooyoung to enlist her help. After all, Kim Dokja was a single human, and wheelchair bound at that, he couldn’t have gotten far, if Yoo Joonghyuk put his mind on it, he should be able to track the other down and catch up in no time.

Only that losing Kim Dokja set a deep-rooted fear in Yoo Joonghyuk ablaze, driving him into a nearly feral state that left no space for coherent thoughts.

For humanity, ‘Evolution day’ was a date of unprecedented historical significance, and the same could be said of the Evolutionary species, but when it comes to the latter, there weren't many with fond memories of that particular time, even going so far as to become something of a collective trauma for those who underwent evolution during that period.

Contrary to most humans’ initial misunderstanding, the process of evolution didn’t begin with Evolution day, but had actually been underway since way before that, although the changes hadn’t been obvious to the outside. By the time that Evolution day came about, most Evolutionary species already had a developed intellect and high degree of consciousness; suffices to say, none of them expected to suddenly grow several sizes, or the series of changes their bodies went through in the following days, including the ability to shapeshift into a humanoid form.

The initial mass panic that overcame humans at the sudden appearance of the Evolutionary species was shared by them as well, not to mention that during those few days before they developed the ability to communicate in human tongue and the language barrier between species was breached, many of the evolved species that didn’t manage to escape in time were captured by humans and sent to research facilities to be studied.

Yoo Joonghyuk, who had been roaming the streets in a state of frenzy searching for the Kim Dokja who was nowhere to be found at the time, had been one such case. Although the time that he spent in the research facility wasn’t long, it wasn’t something that he liked to look back on, much less talk about. All members of Kim Dokja’s Company knew about it and thus avoided breaching the topic around him to the best of their abilities, something that Yoo Joonghyuk was secretly grateful for, despite their shared rivalry and territorial dispute.

Which was why it had been long since Yoo Joonghyuk had to think back to his memories of that time, where he was locked up in an unknown place and treated like a beast, not knowing anything of what went on outside, constantly wondering what had happened to Kim Dokja who had never returned home that day.

He had only just gotten his companion back, the separation anxiety brought upon the past two years hadn’t yet finished quelling in Yoo Joonghyuk’s heart, losing sight of him in a situation where he couldn’t ensure the other’s safety sent him into a blind panic.

‘Kim Dokja, where’s Kim Dokja-?’

Yoo Joonghyuk felt his body getting hot, a familiar telltale itch under his skin that made him want to tear all his clothes off spreading through every part of his body. There wasn’t enough rationality left in his brain to spare any thought to whether he was in a public place or if what he was doing was a criminal offense, his utmost priority was to find Kim Dokja.

Yoo Joonghyuk suddenly shifted into his animal form, eliciting panicked reactions as well as sighs of wonder from the spectating audience. The Second-order couldn’t care less about the gawking witnesses though and immediately set off in pursuit of the faint scent that he recognized as Kim Dokja’s.

“AHHH!!”

“-Is that-?!”

“A Second-order Species-!”

“Mom, what’s that?!”

“Woah, It’s my first time seeing one since Evolution day-”

“Someone call security-!”

Without any regard for the people he bumped against and toppled on the way, Yoo Joonghyuk traced the path underlined by Kim Dokja’s scent until he finally made it out of the venue, just in time to see Kim Dokja being helped into a cab and leisurely driving off, as if he hadn’t just made Yoo Joonghyuk go literally crazy from worry.

‘Kim Dokja… just you wait!’ Yoo Joonghyuk thought with gritted teeth, his claws digging against the ground before he charged after the retreating car, already anticipating the direction where it was heading.

Neither he, who had left his phone discarded along with his ruined clothes, nor Kim Dokja, who had turned the device off in an attempt to escape Yoo Joonghyuk’s wrath, were in a state to pick up Han Sooyoung’s calls.

“Shit, you two, what are you doing that you can’t just pick up, fuck!” The woman looked at the voicemail screen with a foreboding sensation, watching as chaos unfolded in the venue with a feeling that the two people she had brought along had something to do with it, somehow.

“Forget it, this is the last time that I bring you two anywhere!”

To be honest, after hearing the young girl’s form of address coupled with that face that shared a 80-90% resemblance to my own, my brain went offline for a moment in which I actually began to consider whether I had unknowingly fathered a biological daughter at some point in time, even though I was, by all intents and purposes, a virgin.

Thankfully, that misunderstanding was cleared soon enough.

“It’s me, Biyoo!” the little girl ran to my side and hugged my waist, “I missed you so much!”

Oh, Oh ! So it was Biyoo. I let out a relieved sigh from the utmost depth of my heart. I wasn’t the scum absent father of a six year old after all.

Although on second thought, my current situation beared more resemblance to that of an absentee father than I would have liked, considering that I had missed the crucial last two years of her life, if not by choice.

Sensing the increasingly weird looks and probing stares we were getting from the people walking by our emotional reunion, I decided that it was probably best to move the conversation upstairs, as soon as I managed with much difficulty to pry off her death grip on my waist. Once in the safety of my own apartment, I shamefully wondered If you could call me awkwardly squirming under the small girl’s limpid eyes while I mentally racked my brain in search of something to fill the silence 'a conversation’.

My eyes skirted anxiously around the room, momentarily stopping on the bushy white cat tail leisurely swishing behind the child that I had previously missed before wandering to her beret hat, which likely hid the pair of cat ears that identified her as a Half-species.

Biyoo had been the latest admission to the Company, dropped off by that irresponsible bastard Bihyung who liked to munch off of the food I generously left for the neighborhood strays and then disappear. She had only been a teeny three month old kitten the last time I saw her, able to fit entirely in the palm of my hand with space left over, it was hard to believe that in the blink of an eye, that small fluffy white ball had grown into the lovely and well-behaved child sitting before me.

“Uhm, Biyoo, right-?” I finally found the courage to open my mouth, and cringed almost immediately at the words that came out, “I mean, it’s really you, you’re so big, I could barely recognize you-!” I tried to amend.

Well, of course I couldn’t recognize her, not because she had grown but because she looked like a human child instead of the tiny kitten that I remembered.

Not that I was about to mention that.

“A-anyways, how have you been? Yoo Joonghyuk told me that you guys were in school, seeing your uniform I can see that it’s really true…” Now that I had broken the dam, all the words came rushing out in a clumsy verbal onslaught, as if in an effort to bury the guilt brought upon by my own insufficiency as a guardian with more awkwardness, “I’m sorry, I wanted to come over and surprise you kids with a visit, but I only just got released from the hospital, and as you can see, at this moment I’m a little…”

'Excuses, shut up with all excuses.'

I slowly trailed off. That was only obvious, not just to me but likely to anyone who would listen. I was just being a damn coward.

I only hoped that this child at least wouldn’t misunderstand. That she wouldn't mistake my avoidance as lack of care for her or the others.

Not that I could say anything in my defense if she did misunderstand. I wasn't in a position to ask her for understanding after everything, or forgiveness.

I could only try my best to meet her eyes, and hope for the best.

And with that small resolution made, I ceased any further attempts at self-justification, letting the room be engulfed in silence once again; all the while Biyoo continued to look at me with a meaningful gaze that I didn't know how to interpret.

Suddenly, Biyoo leaned closer, making me wonder what she was about to do. To my surprise, I felt her small fingers caress my forehead, smoothing down the wrinkle in my brow. “Stop worrying so much,” she said, voice soft and clear, sounding both young and older than her age, “Captain always says that you make that face when you’re thinking about something unnecessary.”

‘Captain’? Did she mean Yoo Joonghyuk?

“Th-that…” I awkwardly cleared my throat and fumbled on my explanation, feeling inexplicably silly under her pure starry gaze, “I just thought… that you must be feeling sad, or angry, or disappointed in-”

Biyoo shook her head, a helpless smile on her face, “Papa is the one that’s hurt, why are you asking me if I’m in pain? I’m just very happy to have you back,” she laughed and then launched herself back into my embrace once again, “But I am mad at Captain! I knew he was likely to do this, but that doesn’t mean that he has the right to hide you away from us. I came running here as soon as I pieced the situation together!”

I hesitantly hugged her back, not quite knowing where to put my arms, “Come to think of it, how did you find out that I was awake?”

Biyoo looked up at me and blinked innocently, “I already suspected something was up with how suspicious Captain was acting, but listening to Father complaining about how he was skipping all of his scheduled streams and practice matches and refusing to answer his phone pretty much confirmed it.” She said, tone neutral and matter-of-fact, as if she were discussing the weather, “Everyone knows that there’s only two things that can shake up Captain so badly, and Mia is still attending school normally so there was really only one option left.”

There were too many things to dissect in that comment, I instinctively opened my mouth to object.

Wait, not Papa but ‘Father’?

No, why was I ‘Papa’ in the first place?

And Yoo Joonghyuk had been skipping work?!

I closed my mouth then opened it again, not clear on which to address first.

Right at that moment, there was a loud banging noise followed by a metallic screeching, alerting us to the presence of a person outside the door. I was about to ask who it was, but the other person started frantically rattling the doorknob before going back to banging on the door, “Kim Dokja! I know you’re there, open up!”

Uhh, I guess that solved the mystery of who was trying to bring my door down at this time.

Shit, he sounded really angry… and how did he get past the backdoor downstairs, did he kick it down too, or did he come through the Cafe’s door in the front?

Unfortunately, the longer that I took to answer, the more impatient Yoo Joonghyuk became, “Kim Dokja!”

…I should probably own up and open the door. Otherwise I didn’t think the door lock would stand the test of Yoo Joonghyuk’s superhuman strength for much longer.

I was starting to seriously consider investing in a door with reinforced steel and an electronic lock.

To my surprise, before I could fetch my crutches and heed Joonghyuk’s threats, I felt Biyoo’s small hand holding me down. “Papa, stay back. I’ll handle it.”

…?

Was this really an attitude normal for a child? And why did she sound like she was squaring up for a fight…?

Just like that, Biyoo walked to the door at a leisurely pace, despite the increasing amount of threats and banging coming from the other side. “You can stop that, Captain. Papa is sleeping right now, you should let him rest.”

I raised an incredulous eyebrow at the small girl’s excuse. Who in their right mind would believe that I could stay asleep with all that noise…?

Despite my misgivings, Yoo Joonghyuk immediately ceased his temper tantrum as soon as he heard the girl’s voice, “Biyoo…?” he said, hoarse voice dripping with disbelief, “What are you doing here, where’s Kim Dokja?”

“I already told you,” Biyoo said with a bratty roll of her eyes that I thought looked strangely familiar, “And did you think I wouldn’t figure it out? Father has been losing sleep to cover for you with Star Stream since you started ditching work, you should be grateful that I haven’t ratted you out yet.”

“...I’ll make it up to Bihyung later.” Yoo Joonghyuk said with a sullen tone. Bihyung? That rascal had also evolved? “Can you open the door? I won’t wake Kim Dokja up.”

“I thought you had the key from Ahjumma?” Biyoo said. He did?!

“...I lost it.”

“And you didn’t think to make a spare? Tsk, how thoughtless~”

“Just hurry up and open up.”

“And why would I do that? You would just make a racket and bother Papa.”

“I won’t! Just… What do you want?”

“Huh? And what makes you think that I would want something from you?” Biyoo asked in a faux innocent tone. 'Why does it look like she’s having so much fun messing with him?'

“You must want something.” Yoo Joonghyuk insisted.

“Is that so?” The half-species made a show of thinking, “Okay, then how about a condition.”

“...What condition?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked reluctantly.

“A simple one,” Biyoo said, “Just don’t interfere.”

“What?”

“When I’m spending time with Papa, don’t interfere. Don’t try to distract his attention from me. With Yoosung and Gilyoung too.”

“Why would you do that for them?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked, skepticism dripping from his voice.

“Because I like them. I’m not like you, I don’t see everyone as my enemy.” The young girl said with yet another poignant roll of her eyes, “I like Mia too, but you already give her preferential treatment anyways.”

“You realize that I can force this door open instead?” ‘WHAT?!’

“Yeah, but then you’ll wake Papa and I’ll tell him that you were bullying me and he will hate you.” Biyoo said. ‘Wait, what? That’s not what-’

There was a meaningful silence from the other side of the door.

Wait…

I looked askance at Biyoo, she pulled her tongue out playfully and then made a shushing gesture.

This kid, just where did she learn to act so manipulative?

“...Fine.” Yoo Joonghyuk eventually promised through gritted teeth, “Just… open the door now.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Biyoo said with a smile full of self-satisfaction, “I’ll get the key!” she declared cheerfully, then turned to face me and mouthed,“Papa, go to your bed and pretend you’re sleeping!”

‘Oh shit, right!’ Just as I was about to scurry off to fake being asleep and keep up Biyoo’s lie, a familiar voice joined the fray on Yoo Joonghyuk’s side, “Damn, who busted the door downstairs, did a burglar break in or someth- OH FUCK, SHIT YOO JOONGHYUK PUT ON SOME CLOTHES FOR FUCK’S SAKE!"

Han Sooyoung? And what did she mean, was Yoo Joonghyuk naked?!

“I don’t have any on hand.” Yoo Joonghyuk answered in a deadpan tone. 'What happened to the ones you were wearing?!'

“Then shift back into your cat form! I don’t care, just do something about your dangling human bits!”

“Then leave, you have no business here, Han Sooyoung.”

“Not my busi- I CAME ALL THE WAY HERE AFTER YOU TWO BASTARDS DITCHED ME WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A HEADS UP AND DIDN’T PICK UP ANY OF MY CALLS, DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BOOK FAIR AFTER YOU LEFT?! LET ME TELL YOU, THE HUGE MESS-!”

I couldn’t listen on anymore, “YOU TWO, SHUT UP!” I screamed from the other side of the door, effectively silencing the arguing duo. I felt my face heating up, I wasn’t used to raising my tone that much, but it wasn’t the first time I did it as a last-resort measure to break these two up. I didn’t expect it to be equally effective this time. “Yoo Joonghyuk, were you seriously planning to flash a young child?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

“Wait, what child?” Han Sooyoung asked, confused.

“Biyoo is here,” Yoo Joonghyuk explained simply, “Kim Dokja, hurry up and open the door!”

“Not until you are fully clothed, I’m not exposing Biyoo to your indecency!” I argued. Seriously, since when was he such an exhibitionist? Where did my fluffy, dignified, gentleman cat go?!

Well, actually, thinking better of it, I wasn’t so sure about the ‘gentleman’ bit.

“In the first place, I wouldn’t have had to shift and shred my clothes if you hadn’t run away from me like that!” Yoo Joonghyuk snapped back, voice thick with anger and some other emotion that I couldn’t pinpoint. ‘Wait, he shifted? Why?!’

“I wasn’t running away from you, I was running from the reporter!” I argued, incredulous, “And I texted you after telling you I was going ahead, didn’t you read it?!”

“...I lost my phone.” Yoo Joonghyuk admitted grudgingly.

“Hah! You lost it, or you left it back with all your stuff after losing your marbles like a psycho just because Kim Dokja went out of your sight for two minutes?” Han Sooyoung guffawed, “You’re lucky I actually have a working brain and went back for it after realizing what happened! They could trace your identity with this, you know? Better be thankful you were even fast enough to outrun the cops and escape spending the night in prison, because you can bet your tail that it wouldn’t be me that would bail you out!”

“...You have my phone?”

“That’s right. No need to thank me, I know you wouldn’t do it anyways, you ungrateful son of a bitch.” She said in a gloating tone, “I also found your keys and your wallet, I already pocketed all the money that was inside it though, take it as my reward fee- HEY!”

There was a noise that sounded like scuffling followed by a metallic jingle, and then a scraping and clicking sound coming from the door lock- WAIT!

I had no time to react before the door was harshly pushed open, making me stumble back and fall on my ass.

Or that would have been what happened, if I hadn’t been caught by Yoo Joonghyuk and pulled back into his arms.

I stood completely frozen as my face came in contact with the taller man’s wide (naked!!) chest, his arms fastened around my waist like vices. I could feel his breath tickling my hair as he held me in a protective embrace and nosed me all over, as if to make sure I was alive and whole.

I would have protested, hadn’t my brain crashed and melted at the sensation of Yoo Joonghyuk’s firm pectorals against my cheek.

“Captain, here are some of Papa’s clothes that you can wear.” Came Biyoo’s voice, snapping me out of my daze. I looked back to see her coming out of my room with a baggy shirt and sweatpants that I usually used as sleepwear.

“Biyoo, close your eyes!” 'This R-rated sight isn’t fit for a child!'

Once Yoo Joonghyuk was barely decent, (emphasis on ‘barely’ seeing as my clothes looked tight enough on him that I worried they were going to rip), I reluctantly uncovered Biyoo’s eyes, “Don’t look too much, it’s indecent.”

She gave me a strange look.

“How come you had a key to Kim Dokja’s place?” Han Sooyoung suddenly asked what had been bothering her.

“None of your business.”

“Hur, whatever. Anyways, you owe me one so hard after what you pulled, you ruined my book signing event and now everyone’s talking about the Second-Order that went on a rampage instead of me and my book!”

“You were the one that dragged us there in the first place, if anything it’s your own fault.”

“I didn’t expect you to blow it like that!” She threw up her arms in frustrated exasperation, “And what if any of the Company members find out, other people may not recognize you, but all of us know what your original form looks like!”

“Uh… I think it may already be too late.” Biyoo said while looking at something on her phone. She turned the screen around to show us a chat interface under the title of [Kim Dokja’s Company], where someone dubbed ‘Judge of Evil’ sent a compilation of candid pictures taken from onlookers where you could faintly see Yoo Joonghyuk in his big cat form running among the crowd of book fair attendees as well as on the street, followed by a short clip from a news site, the one from the reporter whom I had escaped earlier, where while one couldn’t properly discern Yoo Joonghyuk’s features, or mine, you could clearly hear him yell ‘Kim Dokja’ towards somewhere off-camera.

There was a moment of silence in which everyone individually attempted to process what it meant, broken by twin pinging noises, at which both Han Sooyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk fished out their phones respectively. Being closer, I spied at Yoo Joonghyuk’s phone screen and caught sight of a notification, which said ‘Moonlight Girl has kicked you out of the group [Kim Dokja’s Company]’.

“Shit.” Han Sooyoung said articulately. By the look on her face, it seemed that she had received a similar notification.

‘Shit’ was right.

Why didn’t I just stay home…

Chapter Text

“Hey! Didn’t you say Yoo Sangah knew about it already?” Han Sooyoung snapped at Yoo Joonghyuk, “Morover, you’re clearly the one who fucked up, how come I was also kicked out of the group chat?!”

“Which is exactly why she’s cutting off her losses before we have a chance to drag her down with us,” Yoo Joonghyuk explained nonchalantly, looking entirely unaffected by the fact that his actions had led to the rest of my cats finding out about me waking up and probably hating me for hiding it from them at this very moment, “And everyone knows about your book signing, it’s not hard to infer that you were also involved.”

Han Sooyoung looked stunned speechless at his answer. Although whether it was from what he said or from hearing what was the most amount of words Yoo Joonghyuk had spoken together in a sentence since I met him, it was hard to tell. “Fuck, I should have ratted you out when I had the chance!”

“Your regrets aren’t any of my concern right now.” He said as he rummaged through one of my drawers for something unknown before turning to face me, a strange glint in his eyes, “More importantly, Kim Dokja, have you reached a decision already?”

“Huh? Wha-?”

“The Raising Agreement.” The Cat-hybrid placed a familiar stack of papers in front of me, along with a pen. “There’s no time, you need to sign it right now.”

I felt my entire face stiffen at the mention of it. ‘Shit, so he hadn’t given up on it after all…’

…But was it necessary to keep a copy in my drawer?

“What the fu- Are you fucking serious right now?!” Han Sooyoung suddenly yelled out in sheer disbelief, “You’re really trying to coerce him into signing an agreement in this situation, and right under my nose, have you no fucking shame?!”

“It’s not coercion, I clearly asked him to make a decision.” Yoo Joonghyuk said, indeed without any sign of shame whatsoever. “Kim Dokja, I wanted to give you more time to think about it, but I’m afraid there won’t be another chance.”

“Uhm, Joonghyuk-ah, this…”

“Huh?! Okay then, if we’re gonna play it like that, then Kim Dokja, you absolutely have to sign an Agreement with me!” Han Sooyoung burst out with indignation, “Or don’t tell me you still trust this guy after he chased you across the city and honest-to-god broke into your house like a psycho? One of these days he’ll eat you up in your sleep, I’m warning you!”

I wanted to point out that technically, she had also broken into my house, but wait- eat me?!

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting?” Yoo Joonghyuk glared fiercely at Han Sooyoung, a threat evident in his voice.

“Don’t play dumb with me, everyone knows what kind of indecent thoughts you’ve been keeping all this time, you’re practically salivating to-!”

“Quiet!” Biyoo suddenly exclaimed, startling the entire room into complete stillness.

Seeming satisfied once all attention was on her, she turned the screen of her phone back to face them, “Look, they’re still talking.”

[Kim Dokja’s Company]

Maritime Admiral:
?????!!!!!

Maritime Admiral:
no way! did master really say what I think he said??

Beast Tamer:
He definitely called Ahjussi’s name!!

Insect Boy:
It’s gotta be hyungg!! he’s awakew!!!

Insect Boy:
I nkew that sooty batsard was up to somthingne!

Moonlight Girl:
Gilyoung, language

Insect Boy:
Sorry noona :(

Insect Boy:
Aneweys soemnone come peak me upp I wanna go aee him!!!

Judge of Evil:
Chill out Shorty, nothing’s confirmed yet. You should concentrate on school instead of playing with your phone

Insect Boy:
Don’t traet me like a kid!!

Beast Tamer:
Maybe they would treat you like an adult if you could spell like one

Insect Boy:
Shuot up uogly!!

Pure Steel Sword:
Is it really Dokja-ssi??!!

Pure Steel Sword:
I tried to call his number but no one’s picking up… and the hospital’s line is busy

Maritime Admiral:
did anyone try to call master and ask him…?

Insect Boy:
Yore still defending him??? >:(

Maritime Admiral:
i’m not! i’m just being rational…

Judge of Evil:
What makes you think you’re going to get a direct answer out of him?

Judge of Evil:
Or from that damn Witch for that matter

Pure Steel Sword:
Come to think of it, why did Soyoung-ssi also get kicked out?

Judge of Evil:
Didn’t you see? That was the venue where her stupid book signing event was supposed to be, she posted about it all over her social media when it was announced. There’s no way she wasn’t in on it

Judge of Evil:
Yoo Joonghyuk might be stupid, but even he’s not stupid enough to risk bumping against her in there for no reason

Judge of Evil:
Oh I’m so going to give them a beating… What Second-order species or whatever, they’re both going to have a taste of my sword!

Maritime Admiral:
i support you Unni!

Beast Tamer:
Guys… Biyoo is not here

Pure Steel Sword:
What, you mean in the group chat? Come to think of it, she and Mia haven’t said anything yet…

Beast Tamer:
No, I mean at school… I just went to her classroom but she’s not there, I asked her teacher and he said that she was given authorization to leave early

Maritime Admiral:
huh? authorized by who?

Beast Tamer:
I don’t know, the teacher wouldn’t tell me

Beast Tamer:
I asked Mia but she said that she didn’t know anything either…

Insect Boy:
And yuo beileiv that?? Shes in cahoots with that oppa of hers

Maritime Admiral:
She’s not reading our messages??

Beast Tamer:
Mia usually has her phone off while she’s in class

Judge of Evil:
What a responsible kid, y’all should probably follow her example

Despite feeling dizzy from attempting to follow the conversation with next to no context while simultaneously trying to figure out who was who, I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes at Biyoo after the latest text, “Did you cut class to come here?”

Despite her looking entirely unaffected at the prospect of being found out by the rest of the company just a second ago, the small girl seemed to stiffen at my question, avoiding my gaze, “I asked Grandma Persephone to call the school for me…”

I heaved a sigh and was ready to scold her when Han Sooyoung interrupted, “Who gives a shit about that right now! Look, the calico finally wrote something!”

I glanced back at the phone screen to find that someone under the handle of ‘Moonlight Girl’, whom I presumed was Yoo Sangah, had sent a series of texts.

[Kim Dokja’s Company]

Moonlight Girl:
Hello everyone, sorry that I was unable to reply, I just got out of a phone call with Lee Seolhwa-ssi.

Moonlight Girl:
First things first. I have very good news, Dokja-ssi has indeed regained consciousness a few days ago and is in good health. Although he has yet to make a complete recovery after being bed-ridden for two years, with a bit more time and frequent physical therapy he should be back to normal soon.

Maritime Admiral:
seriously?!!

Insect Boy:
HYUUUUUNGGG!!!??;!

Beast Tamer:
OMG! Ahjussi is finally awake!!! :’DDD

Judge of Evil:
So it was true…

Pure Steel Sword:
Dokja-ssi!!! I’m very happy but why did it have to happen while me and Sangah-ssi are out of the country :’C

Judge of Evil:
Wait a minute, if what you said is true, why did Seolhwa not tell any of us until now? Did she only tell that witch and longhair emo bastard while keeping the rest of us in the dark?

Moonlight Girl:
That’s what I was getting at. Seolhwa-ssi informed me that although Joonghyuk-ssi and Sooyoung-ssi finding out was an accident, she actually witheld the information of Dokja-ssi’s waking up at his own request.

Maritime Admiral:
WHAT?

Pure Steel Sword:
Seolhwa-ssi really said that…?

Judge of Evil:
So it was like that, why it doesn’t surprise me

Beast Tamer:
Does that mean… Ahjussi doesn’t like us anymore?

Insect Boy:
Yore lieiying hyung wuold never do that to us!!!!!

At this point, I thought I had a general idea of whose username belonged to whom, judging by the overall tone of each of their texts combined with how they interacted with each other.

I felt my heart squeeze in my chest after seeing their reactions to Yoo Sangah’s words, so much that I had to physically rein down the urge to grab Biyoo’s phone in a last ditch effort to explain myself, ‘No no, it’s not like that! It’s just that I can’t …’

Before I could beat myself down further (because I was too much of a coward to genuinely act on that impulse), Yoo Sangah’s following text came timely as if in answer to my pleas.

[Kim Dokja’s Company]

Moonlight Girl:
Stop getting ahead of yourselves everyone. Think carefully, do you really believe that Dokja-ssi would ever abandon any of us?

Maritime Admiral:
that’s…

Moonlight Girl:
However, put yourselves in his place and think about his situation. He’s only just woken up, and the world has changed drastically from what he knew. It's only reasonable that he’d feel overwhelmed and want some time for himself before he’s ready for us to visit him. The fact that he ran away from Joonghyuk-ssi speaks for itself.

Moonlight Girl:
And you still think that the best thing to do as soon as we find out he's awake is disregard his wishes and go seek him out, regardless? I don’t think so, Seolhwa-ssi agrees with me on this point.

Pure Steel Sword:
It’s true that Joonghyuk-ssi can be a bit… scary

Beast Tamer:
Then, what should we do, Unni?

Insect Boy:
Its not fare that sooty bastard getss to be withe Hyung and we don’t!!! >:((//

Judge of Evil:
That’s right, it’s not like we can just wait it out, Dokja-ssi is the type to need a push if you ask me

Maritime Admiral:
or a good punch to the face

Beast Tamer:
No, don’t bully Ahjussi!!

Moonlight Girl:
I understand, which is why I have a proposition that might serve as the ‘gentle push’ in this situation.

Moonlight Girl:
How about just sending the kids first?

I was so immersed in the conversation that I nearly jumped when I heard Han Sooyoung next to me scoff, “Huh, so that’s why she kicked us out of the group, that shrewd little vixen. She wanted to do damage control.”

I turned to look at her in confusion, “What do you mean?”

“Yoo Sangah didn’t want The Company finding out either,” Yoo Joonghyuk answered me in her stead, his low baritone sounding like it was coming from right next to my ear, which made me realize just how close we were huddled together, ‘Eek!’ , “She told me so herself.”

As soon as my brain registered his words, my confusion only deepened, ‘Yoo Sangah said that?’

“But this is still bad news, if she said to send the kids first, that means we’ll be having some visits pretty soon.” Han Sooyoung said. ‘What do you mean by “we”, this is my house…’

No, but I couldn’t deny feeling relieved that for the most part, none of them seemed to be holding too big of a grudge against me for not contacting them.

I had to thank Yoo Sangah, I guess her gentle personality hadn’t changed all that much now that she evolved.

“Kim Dokja, the Raising Agreement.” Yoo Joonghyuk suddenly said with a completely serious expression.

“What the fuck, are you seriously bringing up that shit again?!” Han Sooyoung snapped, “Can’t you see we have more important crap to worry about right now, like those snotty brats that might come crashing here any minute now?!”

I suppose Yoo Sangah wasn’t the only one who seemed to not have changed much in the last two years. I suppressed a long sigh.

“Joonghyuk-ah, isn’t it about time for you to pick Mia up?” I gently coaxed him. He should probably also go back home and get a change of his own clothes while he was at it, so that I could look him in the face without getting distracted by the tight-fitting fabric clinging to his chest every time.

Yoo Joonghyuk frowned, something resigned in his expression as if he knew he couldn’t argue with me on that point, lest he risked neglecting his precious little sister. If it were literally anyone else, I might even dare to call his expression a pout, “Come with me then.”

“Huh, where do you plan to take him?! Hey, don’t go with this asshole, you can come to my house though, it’s way more-!”

“Guys!” I called out to them before the conversation could develop into yet another argument, “It’s alright, I mean, I’ve already buried my head in the dirt long enough, I should start acting like a responsible pet own- er I mean- guardian.”

“Tch,” Han Sooyoung clicked tongue, “You still haven’t changed.”

“You’re too soft.” Yoo Joonghyuk complained at the same time.

I wanted to point out that it was precisely because of that so-called softness that I even picked them up in the first place and now kept forgiving their consecutive transgressions.

No, they were right, I should be harder on them.

“Which reminds me, isn’t it about time I see you two out? I think I can handle myself just fine with just me and Biyoo.” I squeezed out through a smile full of teeth.

“Ya, are you throwing us out?!”

“Kim Dokja, you-”

“Yeah yeah, I know you two want to stick to me like rice cakes all the time but I’m sure you have other business to attend, like the aftermath of the book signing fiasco. I don’t want any police officers knocking on my door, you hear?” I said as I kindly ushered them out. They both looked at me with similarly sorry although reluctant expressions. Once again, I pictured two pairs of cat ears flattened over their heads in a pitiful image, at which I guess I should be grateful that they were still clueless as to how effective that sight would prove to my weak, cat-lover heart.

Not that I thought Yoo Joonghyuk would be shameless enough to actually pull out the cat ears and act cute just to appeal to me, after how obviously embarrassed he was by it that first time, but Han Sooyoung was another story.

“Hey! Are you seriously throwing us out?” Han Sooyoung complained again, tone full of indignance.

“I don’t remember even letting you two in, in the first place,” I stated drolly, which if anything made their already pitiful appearances even more pitiful. I sighed, already feeling myself softening all over again like putty in their toe beans, “You can visit again later if you want, just let me deal with this by myself, okay? I don’t want there to be any fights because of me.” ‘Least of all in my house’. Was what I didn’t say. It was one thing when they were still all cats ranging to at most 25 cm tall, even with some squirmishes here and there, no real damage was done; nowadays that was no longer the case.

“Tch, what fight, I could beat all of their asses with my paws tied.” The female cat-hybrid huffed, crossing her arms around herself.

“Kim Dokja… I’ll be back soon.” Yoo Joonghyuk said, his grave expression making it seem as if he was making a heartfelt promise before leaving for war. I rolled my eyes.

“Okay okay, now off with you two, and please, knock the door next time, like any sane, normal person, er, cat-person? Yes, just please no more breaking and entering.” I all but begged. I didn’t want a repeat of any previous incidents such as nearly dying in my sleep from suffocation by a huge mass of fluff, or almost suffering a heart-attack thinking that someone was trying to break into my apartment and rob me by lock-picking, otherwise I might be facing an early death before even making it out of my thirties. “Sooyoung-ah, try to keep it low for the time being, we don’t know whether people might try to draw connections to the incident in the book fair, and Joonghyuk-ah, you… um, just try to stay out of jail, okay?”

They both did their respective equivalent of grumbling and complaining (which in Han Sooyoung’s case was actually grumbling while in Yoo Joonghyuk’s his scowl just became more pronounced) but reluctantly agreed, thus I finally succeeded in convincing the two happy home invaders to leave me some room to breathe for the time being, although not without making repeated promises to let them back in later.

I breathed a sigh of relief, only for my eyes to fall on the quietly sitting Biyoo, staring at me with wide, star-filled eyes.

There was a drawn-out silence in which I once again became aware of the reality I was in and contemplated my predicament.

This… was she really my cat? Or was she my child?

She called me ‘Papa’ before, so she must think of me as something of a parental figure at least. I didn’t quite know how to feel about that, I had never thought of having children of my own, having resigned myself to spending the rest of my life single. Adding to that I always thought I wouldn’t make a very good parent, considering the environment in which I had been raised; hell, even as a pet owner, I still left a lot to be desired.

Shit, I was already messing up, wasn’t I?

I felt myself starting to panic before Biyoo’s soft but firm voice snapped me back to reality, “Papa, you haven’t signed a Raising Agreement yet, right?”

I was confused as to her seemingly random question, but still nodded in affirmation… Come to think of it, she wasn’t about to ask me to sign yet another one of those shifty contracts, right?

“That’s good. Independent Agreements are fine, but Dependent Agreements are a big no-no unless you’re willing to stay tied to that person,” the small girl said, fixing me with a look bordering on pitying, “Papa is a bit naive, so I worry that you might get cheated.”

I felt some indignance flare at her somewhat condescending words. Did I look like such an unreliable adult in her eyes?

No, but she had a point, maybe I should start researching more about this topic, considering that both Yoo Joonghyuk and Han Sooyoung seemed to place a lot of importance on it.

My ruminations were interrupted by three consecutive knocks on the door. I briefly considered that it might be the same two that had just left and was considering ignoring them and pretending to be dead, only to be caught completely off-guard by the voice that came from the other side.

“Um… Hey, is anyone home? Ahjussi…?” A distinctly male voice asked, “The door downstairs was completely busted… Shit, what if there’s some home intruder inside? Jihye, I told you we should have brought Heewon Noona with us!”

The door… Crap, I forgot Yoo Joonghyuk trashed it earlier, I should have made that asshole fix it before leaving.

Wait, forget that! That voice…

Kim Namwoon...?

And the other person should be…

“Shhh!! Shut up you idiot, don’t be such a wuss, the wrecked door must have been Master’s work. Besides, I can handle an intruder just fine without Unni's help!” A young girl's voice, unmistakingly belonging to Lee Jihye, said.

“Ahjussi! Are you there?!”

“Move over! Hyung, open up, it’s me, your absolutely favorite cat in the world and the one you love the most!”

“What nonsense are you spouting, you delusional bug boy?!”

There was no mistake. I shared an uncertain look with Biyoo (it was mostly me that was feeling uncertain while she looked largely unaffected) and crutched over towards the door before cautiously pulling it open, revealing four pairs of eyes filled with varying degrees of expectation and wonder.

“Guys… I-”

Those two words were as far as I was able to get out before I found myself being tackled to the floor by two prepubescent-sized children, at which moment I had a brief second of regret for not having opened the door while on my wheelchair instead, before my head hit the ground.

Once the white at the edge of my eyesight faded, I focused my eyes on the twin weights sitting at the top of my chest only to find, instead of the full-sized children from just now, two adolescent kittens, one orange tabby and one brown bobtail, excitedly purring up a storm and kneading on my stomach.

This… it wasn’t so bad, was it?

Chapter Text

Before I could fully finish processing the situation, I became quickly overwhelmed by an incoherent jumble of multiple juvenile voices arguing and speaking over each other simultaneously.

“Ahjussi!”

“Ahjussi, uhh I mean Boss, welcome back!”

That voice, was it Kim Namwoon…? That’s right, he had started to call me ‘Boss’ once I took him in as an employee at the cafe. At least when I was in hearing range.

Which meant that the tomboy-ish girl currently yelling at me while addressing me so rudely would be Lee Jihye.

“You damn ugly ahjussi, to think that you were holed up here all this time like a rat while we-!”

“Ah, Biyoo, you were also here?” Kim Namwoon chimed in, noticing the young girl sitting quietly by the corner looking almost entirely unbothered by the commotion.

“I knew it, you damn traitor-!”

“Biyoo-yah, how could you-?!”

“Ugh-! Cough-” I suddenly found it hard to breathe under the combined weight of the former kittens after shifting back into their human forms, “Guys… do you think you could get off me for a second-?”

“Ah! Ahjussi!”

“Hyung! Get off him you fatty, can’t you see you’re crushing him?!”

“Huh?! Who are you calling fatty, you filthy bug otaku!”

The bickering voices of Shin Yoosung and Lee Gilyoung steadily grew into background noise as I began to wonder if maybe I should start doing some weight training, in the event that being suffocated by my cats was going to become a regular occurrence.

At the very least I should start by getting back into shape, (in the loose sense of the word that is, since I could hardly remember ever having been anywhere close to proper shape). My current state was nothing short of pathetic.

Later, I found myself undergoing my hardest trial yet, that is sitting on my humble loveseat sandwiched from both sides by the clingy trio of children, and on the opposite side staring daggers into me was Lee Jihye. And Kim Namwoon, but he looked more like he was trying his best to blend into the wall rather than intrude on the tense atmosphere.

If I thought that being left alone with Biyoo was awkward, it had nothing on the current situation. In a brief lapse of sanity, I even found myself missing the two headache-inducing menaces I had only just recently managed to get rid of, if at least because their probing stares hadn’t been so blatantly dripping with open hostility and thinly veiled accusation.

“Uh…” I racked my brain in search of something to say to break the ice. Anything that would do, a conversation starter, a timely joke, or even an excuse, but mostly came up blank as soon as I met Lee Jihye’s fiery gaze that practically spelled my death if I dared to say the wrong thing (which reminded me a little too much to that of a certain broody, wanna be emo cat).

Fortunately, it was at that time that my sweet and sensible child, Shin Yoosung, decided to take mercy on my poor wretched soul and provided me with an appropriate diversion in the form of an innocent question. “Ahjussi, how come Joonghyuk-ahjussi, Sooyoung-unnie, Mia and Biyoo knew you had woken up, but you kept it from the rest of us?”

“That’s right! Hyung, am I not your favorite?”

Taken aback after having been dropped with what felt like the equivalent of a nuclear bomb of topics I was actively trying to avoid, I looked down to find two pairs of begging eyes looking innocently up at me with hopeful expectation.

From the corner of my eye I snuck a brief look at Lee Jihye, whose molten glare in turn seemed to burn even hotter after those words were uttered, if possible. I could practically feel the sweat running down my chest and the back of my neck gradually begin to soak through my clothes.

I was wrong, Shin Yoosung wasn’t a sweet and sensible angel, she was actually a vengeful spirit casted upon this earth solely to sic misfortune upon my blasted soul.

“Ah, Yoosung-ie, Gilyoung-ie, you see, that is because uh…” my eyes flitted around all over the room in search of an out so I wouldn’t have to give an actual answer, but I was only met with Kim Namwoon’s elusive gaze and Lee Jihye’s murderous one, urging me to continue. I audibly gulped. Seems like there's no way around it, I could only tell the truth and hope they weren't too hurt by it.

“Um, actually it was never my intention to hide it from you guys, not for long at least, but I guess I was a bit scared to face you after everything, knowing that so much had happened after I left you all,” I finally managed, my small voice sounding pathetic even to my own ears, “As for Yoo Joonghyuk and the others, they all found out about it on their own… that’s all there is to it. Ah, anyways, I’m sorry for not telling everyone earlier, I was going to do it, eventually, no for real-!”

“Okay, enough!” Lee Jihye cut me off, “We get it, you can stop with your pathetic rambling now. Tch, you’ve always been like that, anyways.” She clicked her tongue in exasperation, arms crossed over her chest.

“You really haven’t changed at all, huh Boss?” Kim Namwoon leaned lazily back on his chair, an irreverent grin in place.

“Ah, so it was as we thought.”, “So that means I’m still your favorite, right?!” The kids both said at the same time, after which they exchanged competitive glares while holding me closer to each of their sides.

I blinked in confusion at their collective reactions, “Uh, are you guys not angry…?” I asked, unable to keep the sheer incredulity out of my voice.

“Nuh-uh” “No way!” “Nah dude” “Fuck yes we are!”

Hearing her companions’ dissent, Lee Jihye directed a fierce glare at Kim Namwoon, eyes wide with disbelief at the perceived betrayal. “Hey! I can believe it from the kids, but you too?! Grow a damn backbone already!” She elbowed him on the side.

“Ouch, fuck! Okay okay, I get it!” The white-haired boy conceded before turning back to face me with a solemn expression, “Boss, we’re not angry, we’re disappointed.”

“That’s not right either, you bleached-brain idiot!” She snapped, now punching him repeatedly with both of her fists.

“Ahh, stop it! Help, Boss, I’m being assaulted!” Kim Namwoon put up both arms to cover himself from Lee Jihye’s rain of fists. I looked at their interaction at a complete loss on whether I should intervene or not. Never would I have expected the two of them to have such a close relationship (could this be considered close…?).

Although, thinking better of it, it made sense considering that it was Kim Namwoon who had led me to finding Lee Jihye in the first place.

Lee Jihye’s adoption story was simple and straight forward, she being among my latest acquisitions followed by Lee Gilyoung, Shin Yoosung, Yoo Mia, and lastly Biyoo. I was already running the Cafe at the time, and although it had been fairly new, our namesake was steadily gaining traction and on the road of becoming a well-established business by all indications.

Thanks to the help and tutelage from Persephone and Hades, I had quickly become adept at serving tables as well as preparing pretty damn good coffee, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, my culinary skills left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t so bad as to call it terrible, but it was nothing to write home about either. Although my cats seemed to enjoy it well enough, humans tend to have higher standards, so it became apparent at that point that I needed a helping hand in the cooking front, and I naturally couldn’t keep inconveniencing the Underworld couple forever. They had already gone above and beyond for me.

Never would I have expected the solution to present itself in the form of Kim Namwoon, who came knocking on my door asking if I needed an extra hand after being fired from his job at the convenience store for getting caught on the security cameras sneaking expired lunchboxes for the latest stray cat roaming the neighborhood.

“I can’t believe that damn geezer kicked such a fucking fuss over goddamn expired food, it’s not like anyone was going to buy that shit anyways. Tch, fucking cheapskate.” Kim Namwoon had said. I sensibly nodded along and kindly refrained from mentioning how if it was me, I might have purchased those expired lunch boxes, if the discount was generous enough. “Man, you should have seen that poor cat, it looked like it hadn’t eaten in weeks. I wish I could take it home, but you know how my mom is, can’t stand cats or dogs because ‘they’re too messy and make the house dirty.’” The white-haired teenager complained while making air quotes, “Oh, but I think I'm close to getting her to agree to let me have a bearded dragon as a graduation gift, how cool is that?!” his eyes lit up in excitement, then suddenly seemed to remember that he was supposed to be doing a job interview and swept his eyes around the cafe with appreciative eyes, “By the way, it’s a damn cool place you got here, Ahjussi, to think that you finally tamed the Captain, you’re like some kind of cat charmer wizard or some shit. Hey, I know, why don’t you take in the stray cat that’s been hanging around the convenience store?! Come with me, I can take you to its hiding place!”  

In the face of the younger man’s overzealous eyes, I didn’t have the heart to refuse, which is how we ended up going into an impromptu animal rescue mission and came back with a feisty if a bit haggard-looking brown tabby that appeared to be no more than a year old.

Although Lee Jihye had acted cautious and cantankerous at first, she adapted fast and made herself right at home in the Café, becoming particularly attached to Yoo Joonghyuk, whom she followed like a duckling with its mom whenever the older cat allowed it, which he often did with a surprising amount of tolerance, leading me to believe that since they both used to hang out around the same area, they might know each other from before. (One time, I jokingly asked the long-haired cat if she was his little girlfriend. Yoo Joonghyuk honest-to-god scratched me and then proceeded to act snappish and sulky for an entire week. Drama queen.)

Luckily, Lee Jihye seemed to enjoy my food just as much as her peers, and quickly gained back a healthy weight. As for Kim Namwoon, at first I thought of making him help me out with taking orders while I slowly showed him the ropes of the business, but he turned out to have a knack for making pretty good desserts, so I left him in charge of the kitchen once Hades deemed him good enough to take on the mantle as his ‘disciple’. This proved to be both a great and terrible decision, since after being given free reign the teen practically turned the place into his makeshift lab for crazy food-experiments, particularly after witnessing how popular my cooking was with cats and becoming obsessed with replicating it (without success, the cats all seemed to collectively hate it for some reason).

Even back then, Lee Jihye used to turn her nose up haughtily and take off running whenever Kim Namwoon approached her with the intent of gaining her affection. Seeing them now, maybe their dynamic hadn’t changed as much as I thought.

As I was distracted taking a sudden trip down memory lane, Shin Yoosung looked around my apartment with curious eyes, “Ajhussi, are you staying alone here right now?”

“H-huh?” I snapped back to attention at her question, “Uh, yeah I’m alone at the moment. Why do you ask, Yoosung-ah?”

“It reeks of that Sooty bastard and Sooyoung-noona everywhere, that’s why!” Lee Gilyoung complained, “But you said they’re not living here, right? That means that I can move in with you, right, Hyung?”

“Hey, I was going to ask that first, get lost bug freak!” The young girl snapped, at which Gilyoung stuck out his tongue in mock challenge.

“Hey hey, wait a second!” I interfered just as both children seemed like they were about to get physical, (I guess me having to be the one to separate them whenever their tussles got too rough was yet another thing that hadn’t changed). “Aren’t you guys staying in the school dorm?”

“But I want to stay with Ahjussi!”, “That’s right!” The kids whined in unison and looked at me with twin begging expressions, their wide and damp eyes reminiscent of my first memory of them; two pitiful, shivering kittens left abandoned out in the cold winter.

“Uh…”

“Hey, you rascals, stop getting in the way of Ahjussi and Master’s relationship!” Lee Jihye suddenly ceased her assault on the defenseless Kim Namwoon to jump into the conversation, “This place was marked by Master already, you kids shouldn’t interfere!” I was momentarily grateful for the interruption just as I was close to caving, that is until my brain fully registered her words.

“Our…relationship?”

“Huh, I thought you were mad at the Captain, Jihye?” Kim Namwoon asked with apparent surprise at the girl’s outburst.

“I’m not mad, I’m just… disappointed,” the Cat-shifter denied with a pout, only to cringe to herself after realizing her word-choice, “But Master is still Master! It’s only right that I, as his disciple, have a duty to protect his territory.”

“His…territory?” I repeated, incredulous.

“That’s unfair, how come Joonghyuk-ahjussi keeps hogging Ahjussi to himself? He belongs to all of us!”

“Yeah! Who does the Sooty bastard think he is, acting like he’s special?” Lee Gilyoung crossed his arms over his chest in defiance, “It’s not like he and Hyung are mates!”

“Tch, that’s only a matter of time, brat.” Lee Jihye scoffed.

“Huh, come to think of it, it’s already close to the season, isn’t it?” Kim Namwoon mused aloud. ‘What the heck are they going on about now…?’

“Captain might not be Papa’s mate, but he did propose a Raising Agreement to him.” Biyoo suddenly piped up after having been silently observing the entire time, “Sooyoung-unnie too, you guys are lagging behind already.”

I turned back to look at Biyoo with my most deeply betrayed expression, only to meet her dark eyes glittering with mischief. ‘This brat-!’

“WHAT?!” Both Shin Yoosung and Lee Gilyoung exclaimed in unison. Even Lee Jihye seemed somewhat surprised at Biyoo’s revelation.

“Ahjussi, you didn’t sign it, did you?” Yoosung demanded to know with desperate eyes.

“Uh…”

“Hyung, you can’t sign a Raising Agreement with him, he’s a bad guy!” Gilyoung grabbed onto my clothes and pulled as if in an attempt to make me see sense, “You can’t sign an Agreement with anyone but me!”

“Huh?! What nonsense are you saying now, Bug boy?!”

“Just as you heard, Dog-mug, I will take care of Hyung!”

“Just you wait-!”

“Ah ah, wait a moment you guys!” I stepped in and held them away from each other, “I haven’t signed anything! I don’t even understand what the whole ‘Raising Agreement’ is all about in the first place.”

“Really?” Shin Yoosung smiled, warm brown eyes overflowing with intentions I was unable to discern.

“Then, I can teach Hyung everything about the Raising Agreement! Um, I need to prepare one first…” Lee Gilyoung’s enthusiastic voice devolved into a whisper.

“Aren’t Raising Agreements pretty lenient about how many pets you are signed with? I have one with Abyss and it’s mostly just a formality thing.” Kim Namwoon suddenly piped up.

I found it hard to believe when they were acting like it was such a big deal. "Wait… Abyss, as in your bearded dragon, did it also evolve?"

"Yeah! Come to think of it, I should introduce him to you one of these days." The white-haired youth mused, "He's pretty cool, I mean, he's kind of in his 'rebellious age' or whatever, but we still get along." He said, adding air quotes around the 'rebellious age' bit.

'Huh, is evolution actually more common than I thought…?'

"Hey! Don't get Ahjussi all mixed up, your contract with ABFD is an Independent Raising Agreement, it's not the same thing." Lee Jihye bonked the older boy on the head.

"It's not…?" Kim Namwoon blinked in surprise.

‘It’s not?’ I was yet again reminded of why I should urgently look up the differences between the two, or else at this rate I might end up being tricked into some sort of marriage fraud, or whatever was the Evolutionary species equivalent to it.

As I pondered over the legal obligations of being an Evolutionary species’ former owner, my attention was diverted as I heard the sound of the door being unceremoniously pushed open, revealing the one person that I hoped would stay out of sight for at least a while longer.

“Ah, the bad guy is here!” Lee Gilyoung pointed in the direction of the intruder, where Yoo Joonghyuk was standing with a bored looking Mia in tow.

At the very least I  could appreciate that he had the decency to put on some of his own clothes before making his way back here to torment me, all important bits fully covered in a modest and quite flattering turtle-neck and jeans ensemble. Unfortunately, his stunning looks were somewhat overshadowed by the menacing expression on his face as he glared at the pair of children currently clinging to me.

This… What did I use to do to make them get along whenever a squirmish broke out in the Cafe? That’s right, I wonder if maybe some good old special-made Cat rice balls could fix this situation.

Probably not.

“Joonghyuk-ah, you’re back already?” I asked in an attempt to dispel some of the tension. “I thought you’d be out for a bit longer…”

Yoo Joonghyuk turned the full force of his glare in my direction, “Is there any reason why I shouldn’t be here?”

‘Eek! Okay okay, I was just saying!’

“Stop bullying Ahjussi!” Shin Yoosung stood in front of me as if shielding me from Yoo Joonghyuk’s glare. ‘Yoosung-ah, I wasn’t wrong, you’re truly a sweet child!’

“Yeah, Biyoo told us all about your evil plan to force Hyung into a Raising Agreement and lock him up in a cage all to yourself!” Gilyoung mirrored her and stood in front of me with his arms held up in a fighting stance,  “Give it up, we won’t let you get away with it!”

‘Huh? Wait, where did the cage bit come from?’ I appreciated the kids’ efforts, I really did, but I could see from Yoo Joonghyuk’s increasingly irritated expression that it was having the opposite effect.

“That is between me and Kim Dokja, none of you have the right to interfere.” Yoo Joonghyuk said, voice akin to a growl.

“Eek!” Both kids' facade of bravado crumbled as soon as Yoo Joonghyuk showed his teeth, their visible cat ears and tails bristling in alert.

Something of a switch flipped inside me after seeing them being intimidated by the taller Cat-shifter, my protective instincts rising in full, “Yoo Joonghyuk, what do you think you’re doing?!”

The older evolutionary species seemed taken aback at my sudden outburst, his dark eyes opening wide, “They started it…” he mumbled.

“They’re children, you’re an adult, you should know better!”

Yoo Joonghyuk turned his glare towards the wall at my chastising tone, his appearance reminiscent of a sulking child, “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”

I felt my patience running thin and was about to demand him to apologize, when I caught from the corner of my eye that his tail had inadvertently manifested, and was currently swishing impatiently behind him in a tell-tale gesture that I knew meant he was feeling agitated.

This guy, because of his appearance I keep forgetting that he isn’t a human, yet here I was expecting him to act like a fully socialized adult man.

I mean, if anything I was probably the one to blame for his lacking social skills, I wasn’t the best example back then, and then I left them all to fend for themselves, so I should be taking responsability.

I sighed, feeling my shoulders sag with the abrupt depletion of my anger. It was time that I started to think of what I could do to correct my mistakes instead of running away from them.

Now, where to start.

“You guys, if you really want to stay here so bad, how about I tidy up the cafe downstairs for you?”

Chapter Text

It was a spur of the moment decision, I didn’t mean to imply anything by it, other than to provide a temporary place to house the increasing number of Evolutionary species squeezing their way into my apartment. It was the most logical option, it only made sense to make use of the next available space once I had made up my mind to indulge them for the time being.

I didn’t account for the chain of reactions that single, innocent question ensued.

“For real, Ahjussi?!” Shin Yoosung asked with her sparkling burgundy eyes wide open. “Does that mean that you’re opening Kim Dokja’s Company again?”

“Aww, but I want to sleep with Hyung in his bed!” Gilyoung complained, then turned to me with a pleading gaze, “Hyung, can’t I, please?”

“Uhm, but my bed is kind of small, so it would be a bit cramped…” I valiantly tried to resist the begging look.

“No problem, I can just turn back into my original form!” the boy waved off my concerns. Well, when he put it that way… No, wait, that wasn’t the issue in the first place!

“Hey, if it’s gonna be like that then I also wanna sleep in Ahjussi’s bed!” Yoosung protested.

“Wait a moment, what did I tell you two kids about getting in the way?!” Lee Jihye scolded them as she pulled them apart from each other.

“Hey Boss! What’s up?” came Kim Namwoon’s boisterous voice as he walked over and playfully threw an arm over my shoulder, distracting me from the ongoing argument, “I’ve been meaning to catch up, it’s been a wild two years without seeing each other!”

Wild was a serious overstatement is what I thought. "I'm... okay, I guess. It's all just a bit overwhelming still."

“Yeah I can definitely imagine,” the younger male said understandably, “It must be an experience to have woken up to all of this. If it was me I would have thought that I had actually died and crossed over to some sort of alternate reality, like something out of a game or anime or some shit.”

That… I suppressed a shiver at how on the nose that speculation actually was.

“By the way you’re not planning to make me crash on one of your cat beds and spare mattresses down there are you?” Kim Namwoon said in a somewhat self-important manner, “I mean, I might have been your employee before but I’m a professional now, I have standards.”

I shot him my most unimpressed look, meaning to tell him that the invite wasn’t meant for him in the first place and that if he wasn’t satisfied with my accommodations then he should be better off going back to his own home, but the latter part of his statement caught my attention.

“A professional?”

“Ah, did no one tell you?” Namwoon asked in an incredulous tone, following it with an explanation after he noticed the confusion in my face, “I am a pro-gamer, me and Jihye play in Captain’s team in fact. We’re famous, y’know?”

My eyes widened with genuine surprise at that. Of course I already knew Yoo Joonghyuk was famous, the insurmountable amount of content I had found on him online were testament enough to that fact, but somehow I had never thought to wonder who his teammates were, or bother looking it up.

It should have been obvious in hindsight, as I couldn’t imagine Yoo Joonghyuk cooperating, much less playing as a team with anyone he wasn’t familiar with. It just came as a shock that Kim Namwoon had made the cut out of all people.

I mean, Lee Jihye I could understand, she had always followed on Yoo Joonghyuk’s steps, but what prompted Kim Namwoon to pursue a career in gaming? I knew he liked playing games, but as far as I remembered, he had never mentioned wanting to make a profession out of it. In fact, he usually appeared somewhat lost when the conversation about his future plans came about.

Although, looking at Lee Jihye still arguing with the kids on the side, I think I could make myself an idea of what could have motivated him.

“You don’t know, but everyone’s been busy while you were gone,” the pale-haired young man said as he pulled out his cellphone to show me something on the screen, "Check this out". I gingerly took the phone into my hand as I listened to him ramble (he had a keychain with a toy brown tabby dangling at the bottom. Yeah, that pretty much confirmed my suspicions). The image depicted on the screen appeared to be a group photo. “I mean, I always knew Boss was a Star caretaker, but what are the chances that all of your cats would end up as celebri-” before I could make out the individual faces in the picture, the phone was roughly pulled out of my hand, a threatening aura permeating the air and cutting Kim Namwoon off mid-sentence.

“Kim Namwoon,” Yoo Joonghyuk’s gravelly voice all but hissed, his onyx eyes stopping on the arm slugged over my shoulder, “What nonsense are you running your mouth off about now?”

“C-ca-captain!” the younger man stuttered and cautiously removed his arm, “Nothing nothing, I was just catching up with Boss on all the latest news. Man, it really is crazy when you think about it, you must have pissed your pants with shock when you woke up, oh how I’d kill to have seen it-!”

“Kim Namwoon…” Yoo Joonghyuk repeated, low voice carrying a hidden warning.

“Okay okay, I got it!” The white-haired younger man held his palms up in an appeasing gesture, “I was just saying that it’d be cool to organize a little reunion or something. By the way, are you planning to re-open the cafe? Because I’d be down to lend a hand here and there if that’s the case, even though my schedule is packed and all-”

Somehow, the cat-shifter’s already thunderous expression turned even fiercer if possible. Kim Namwoon promptly shut his mouth after one last sharp look from Yoo Joonghyuk, quickly making up an excuse to remove himself from the conversation and escape his captain’s escalating rage, “U-uh, yeah, well, I was just saying uh, I mean, uh… Jihye-ya, did you need something?!”

“Hah?!” Came Lee Jihye’s confused voice from where she was still squabbling with the two rowdy kids. Meanwhile, Yoo Mia seemed to be blissfully impervious to the chaos around her as she sat on the counter nonchalantly playing games on her phone while Biyoo was off to the side talking on the phone with god knows who.

I felt a mixture of conflicting emotions gather in my chest at the sight, having never seen my apartment look quite so lived in as in that moment, the closest thing being when the cafe was in business.

Somehow, the atmosphere was very similar to those times. However, seeing them as fully realized people now, with their own lives, careers and experiences away from my own small world confined in the memories of those days, left something of an odd taste in my mouth, like I didn’t quite know what to make of it.

I still wanted to be there for them, and be part of their lives in some form, but I didn’t know if it was appropriate to treat them as I always did. What did their former master mean to an evolved species?

With that question in mind, I glanced over at Yoo Joonghyuk from the corner of my eye, only to find him already staring intently at me. His dark gaze boring into my face with enough intensity to burn a hole on my skin.

I briefly mourned having missed the chance to escape along with Kim Namwoon, now forced to stand still and quietly endure this guy’s brooding moods lest I unwittingly stepped over some sort of hidden landmine. A few minutes passed like that with both of us refusing to break the silence, at which point I eventually lost my inner battle and nervously looked over at Yoo Joonghyuk, and he looked even more uncomfortable than I felt, arms crossed tightly over his chest.

Seeing him looking so tense I couldn’t continue to pretend as if I hadn’t seen anything. The concern on my face must have been evident because the moment our eyes met, the frost stretched tight over his expression melted as quickly as snow under the blazing sun.

“Kim Dokja…” the taller male’s usually resolute voice sounded strangely hesitant, “Were you really considering opening the cafe again?”

I looked over in genuine shock at the other’s question, not having expected that of all things to be the cause of his distress. Although confused, I seriously mulled over the matter before shrugging, “I haven’t really given it much thought. I mean, I haven’t even had time to process all of this yet, and it’s not like I’m in a state to go back to work just yet.”

Not to mention that I basically had lost all my ‘employees’. You could hardly run a cat cafe without, well, cats.

Unless I just turned it into a normal cafe, or my cats that were now proper Korean citizens were somehow still willing to subject themselves to being pet and fawned over by perfect strangers. Both of these options seemed wrong for completely different reasons.

‘Come to think of it, were animal cafes still a thing nowadays in today’s society? Or was it, like, illegal under labor laws or something?’

As I pondered over the sudden morality dilemma of what qualified as animal exploitation, Yoo Joonghyuk suddenly spoke up, his voice clipped. "I don't think it's a good idea."

I turned to him, surprised despite myself. "What do you mean? Why not?"

Yoo Joonghyuk hesitated, his gaze flickering away from mine. "It's... complicated."

At this, my first thought was that I must have been right in my speculation that things such as animal cafes must be frowned upon these days. Nonetheless, I raised an eyebrow at him, willing him to elaborate. "Complicated how?"

For some reason, Yoo Joonghyuk seemed unable to give out a straight answer to my honest question, his expression shifting awkwardly as his tail manifested again and started to swish aflutter in the background, “All you need to know is that it’s a bad idea.”

In the face of such an intense reaction, my imagination began to run wild. ‘Did Yoo Joonghyuk hate the cafe so much…? Could it be, were animal cafes seen as some sort of archaic, perverted and immoral practice?!’

I gasped in horror at the possibility that I had been abusing my cats all along.

Perceiving the shift in my expression, Yoo Joonghyuk seemed to sense that something was amiss, eyes narrowing in suspicion, “Kim Dokja, what crazy idea has gotten into your head now?”

Before I could decide on whether I should get on my knees and apologize to him and the rest for all the years of mistreatment, there was a sudden loud and frantic banging on the front door.

We all stood by simultaneously watching the door in apprehension, not quite knowing how to react. I knew for a fact that I wasn’t expecting anyone, but on the other hand, my house was currently packed with similarly uninvited guests.

“Should I get it?” Lee Jihye eventually asked in the face of the persistent banging. 

“It’s most likely my dad,” Biyoo suddenly chimed in, something that made Yoo Joonghyuk snap his head in her direction (wait, her dad?) , “He just called and demanded to know where we all were. He sounded mad.”

“Wait, don’t-!” Yoo Joonghyuk tried in vain to stop her but it was too late, Lee Jihye was already reaching for the door. I didn’t have enough time to react, much less ask her just who granted her permission to just go ahead and open the door of other people’s houses for strangers, when a white haired man in a flashy, expensive looking suit stormed into the apartment, looking halfway between frazzled and hysterical.

Once inside, the man started parsing the room with his gaze, and as soon as they landed on me and Yoo Joonghyuk’s position he took off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of scarlet (and slightly bloodshot) eyes. “You-!” he started as he made a beeline towards Yoo Joonghyuk, his expression turning somewhat conflicted the moment that he met my gaze, “You- I’ll get right back at you!” he warned Yoo Joonghyuk before turning to face me fully, a manic glint in his unnaturally colored eyes that I couldn’t quite decipher.

“Umm…” I was awkwardly waiting for the strange man to say something, but became somewhat alarmed the moment the other’s eyes suddenly started to water.

“You bastard, I’m glad that you finally woke up but were you ever planning to say something to me?! This isn’t the way that I wanted to get the happy news, damn it!” he complained as he wiped his eyes free of tears, “Shit, don’t get me wrong I’m not crying because of you, you prick, I’m just lamenting that my salary is nowhere near enough for the crap I have to deal with.”

Before this scene, I honestly didn’t dare to interrupt the stranger’s emotional outburst to inquire about his identity. Fortunately for me, Yoo Joonghyuk chose that moment to address the pale haired man and dispel my doubts, “Bihyung, what are you doing here?”

In response, Bihyung turned the singlest, most infuriated and venomous glare at the taller, at which point I didn’t know wether to be more shocked at the reveal of the man’s identity or at Yoo Joonghyuk’s complete lack of self awareness or ability to read the mood.

“You ask what I am doing here, WHAT AM I DOING HERE?!” Bihyung’s voice picked up volume from a guttural whisper to a full blown bellow,  all of the hair in his body standing on end as well as a pair of white cat ears and tail, “I’M CLEANING UP AFTER YOUR COLOSSAL SHITSTORM OF MAGNIFIC PROPORTIONS YOU GODDAMN SON OF A FEMALE DOG, THAT’S WHAT I’M DOING! DID NO ONE TEACH YOU TO KEEP YOUR MESS TO THE LITTER BOX INSTEAD OF DRAGGING IT TO NATIONAL TELEVISION?!”

There was a pause in which dead silence befell the room, everyone watching in varying degrees of fascination while the pale haired cat-shifter attempted to catch his breath following his tirade, not without yelling one last thing, “And pick up your fucking phone for once, damn it!”

Recalling how Yoo Joonghyuk’s phone had been retrieved, I could see how he would be in no condition to pick up. Not that it was any excuse. Additionally, the person being scolded showed little to no change in expression even after being called out so blatantly. I could only feel sympathy towards Bihyung for being tasked with this inconsiderate asshole.

Seeing that Yoo Joonghyuk showed no intention of explaining himself, I decided to intervene lest Bihyung ended up bursting a blood vessel out of sheer anger. “Uh, was it really that bad…?”

“Yes, in fact, it really was that bad!” The cat-shifter stressed, “He can thank the cat deities that I’m such a capable and professional agent and managed to defuse the situation before it got any worse.”

Huh, so he was actually Yoo Joonghyuk’s agent, who would have thought that the free spirited stray cat that dumped his kitten into my doorstep would end up being responsible for an entire team of e-sport professionals. What a turn of fate, one point for character development I guess, and karma.

That explained the dark circles under his eyes as well as, well, everything. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine being officially in charge of keeping this bastard on a leash and employed to boot. For me personally, I had deemed it a fool’s errand and mostly just let him do whatever he wanted.

(Which… sort of made me an enabler to his spoiled and hardheaded ways, now that I thought about it.)

“Did anyone else recognize our Joonghyuk-ie from that video?” I asked, recalling the somewhat blurry footage that I had seen.

“I don’t think so, his full animal form is not known to the public,” Bihyung said, “But if you recall there’s a short moment in which his human form is shown. Even without a clear shot and a mask, we can’t risk it going viral and having netizens speculate, especially before tournament season.” The manager went on to explain, then turned towards Yoo Joonghyuk to continue scolding him, “And it was in Star Stream’s TV broadcast too! Did you know many favors I had to cash in in order to remove the Hot Searches for that?! You ought to grovel on the ground and kiss my paws for this, you ungrateful brat!”

I was ready for Yoo Joonghyuk to nonchalantly dismiss Bihyung’s words, maybe even scoff in ridicule. Which was why his next words had me doing an honest-to-god double take, “It was my mistake.”

Even Bihyung seemed in complete disbelief that Yoo Joonghyuk had actually admitted to being at fault, both of us standing in shock at what appeared to be a historical, once-in-a-lifetime event. The moment however, was quickly ruined by the words that followed, “I shouldn’t have allowed myself to be swayed by Han Sooyoung. If I had just kept true to my original intention of not letting Kim Dokja out of the apartment, all of this would have been avoided.”

Umm, by the sound of it, it appeared that his regrets actually lied somewhere else and had nothing to do with shifting in public and having his career jeopardized.

By the blank look in Bihyung’s face, like the very picture of a person who had lost all will to fight, I could see that the manager had deemed Yoo Joonghyuk as a lost cause as well.

“Ah,” at the mention of Han Sooyoung, I recalled that he had yet to come back, despite having made such a fuss about being chased out, “Is Han Sooyoung also…?”

Seeming all too glad to continue engaging with me instead of continue to attempt to get through to the pro-gamer, Bihyung went on to explain, “Ah her, I bet her agent and editor are driving her up the wall at this very moment after the way she ran out of her own book signing. Even if she wasn’t ‘directly involved’ in the chaos, there’s still damage control to be done.”

I nodded thoughtfully. Yet again, I was reminded of how much influence my existence, and even the most seemingly innocuous decisions that I made on a whim, could have on my cats’ lives as public figures.

Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t completely in the wrong. Even though Han Sooyoung had been the one to originally suggest we go out, I was also guilty of agreeing to it. And later, my attempt to avoid being caught in that broadcast paradoxically ended up causing even more trouble for everyone.

I smiled wryly to myself. Would I ever stop messing everything up?

“Speaking of damage control, you need to come to the company immediately,” Bihyung suddenly said, interrupting my downtrodden train of thought, “Or did you really think there wouldn’t be any consequences to skipping work these past two weeks? Let me tell you, the executives have been driving me crazy after you called off the filming of that one energy drink commercial.”

I became somewhat alarmed after that revelation. Had Yoo Joonghyuk really been neglecting his job to that extent? For me?

“I’m busy, they can wait.” Yoo Joonghyuk said, arms crossed firmly over his chest in a way that didn’t leave any space for arguments.

“With what, harassing poor Dokja-ssi here?” Bihyung asked with a raised eyebrow, “Please, he can go without your company for a few hours, surely.”

“Kim Dokja needs to be taken care of.”

“There’s plenty of people here for that! Like…” he looked around the room, seeming to hesitate after seeing the current guests gathered in my apartment (Biyoo cheerfully waving to her dad in the background). “Um, Jihye and Namwoon can take care of his necessities, and Biyoo is plenty more responsible than you, that’s for sure.”

“You can’t be serious,” Yoo Joonghyuk scowled, “Why don’t you take Lee Jihye and Kim Namwoon to meet the higher ups then. They’re also members of the team.”

The manager seemed to be on the verge of losing his last vestige of patience, “Because you are the captain, and The Supreme King, and also the one who has been skipping work and causing trouble. Do I really need to go over this with you?”

The taller cat-shifter seemed ready to argue, but at that point I decided that it was about time I intervened, “Joonghyuk-ah, I think you should go.”

Yoo Joonghyuk turned to look at me with a betrayed expression, his dark eyes turning sullen, “Why, are you so intent on chasing me away?”

I let out a small laugh. For such a big cat, he really enjoying putting up a kicked puppy act. “That’s not it, you big oaf. I just don’t want you to continue neglecting your job and causing trouble for your team because of me.”

Yoo Joonghyuk frowned, a single crease in his brow furrowing his perfect face, “You don’t need to worry about those things.”

“But they are important to you, are they not?”

The other’s eyes shook at my words, an emotion that I couldn’t quite pinpoint flickering behind those dark irises.

“Go on, I’ll look after Mia while you go do your thing.” I gently reassured him.

Yoo Joonghyuk looked like he still wanted to say something. Bihyung however had already waited enough, “Okay, that’s awesome, everything’s settled then! Dokja-ssi, can I trouble you to take Biyoo to school tomorrow while you are at it? Yeah? Great, thanks!”

Just like that, the manager grabbed the pro-gamer by the wrist and they were out the door before I even had time to react.

“Yay, now we have Ahjussi all to ourselves!” Shin Yoosung piped up suddenly as she grabbed my elbow.

“Hyung, that means that I can stay in your bed with you, right?!” said Lee Gilyoung mirroring her and taking hold of my other elbow, which prompted yet another argument about sleeping arrangements.

I sighed. Maybe I should have taken up Persephone on her offer back when she wanted to give me a luxurious king sized bed for my apartment instead of settling for a regular queen size. Although back then, she seemed hopeful that I would share it with a partner instead of, well, cats.

Recalling her desire to set me up, I laughed at the ridiculousness of it. A partner? Yeah right. A person like me who couldn't connect with others didn't have what it takes to be in a relationship.

My cats were more than enough for me.

Chapter Text

In the end, the sleeping arrangements were decided as follows: the four kids curled up with me on my bed, Lee Jihye called dibs on the couch, and Kim Namwoon was (shamefully) exiled to the spare bedroom downstairs, where the cats often used to lounge whenever they were not in the various cat beds and cat trees layered around the cafe. When the white-haired youth tried to rise up in protest, I kindly reminded him that the door was open and he could always choose to go back to his own home if he so desired. That shut him up pretty quickly.

Although I was unsure as to why he insisted on staying even though he had, to my knowledge, a roof and a warm bed of his own, I didn’t really mind either way. A part of me couldn’t help but wonder if it had any relation to Lee Jihye and the white-haired youth’s apparent fixation on her.

I was reluctant to call it a ‘crush’ to be honest, as I didn’t want to make assumptions about Kim Namwoon’s feelings or his relationship with Lee Jihye. Not to mention that there was also the matter of them belonging to completely different species.

Were interspecies relationships a thing? From the little I had seen during my brief, accidental venture into the web novel romance tag, it was at the very least accepted to some extent, otherwise the trope wouldn’t have been so popular.

I wasn’t really sure how to feel about that.

As I turned in for the night, all of the children curled up around me in their kitten forms (Mia on my feet, Yoosung and Gilyoung nestled on both sides of my face, and Biyoo on top of my chest), I contemplated over all the things that I didn’t yet understand about this new, mixed species society. Starting with the so-called Raising Agreement.

I considered pulling out my phone and starting proper research on the topic, except that I was too afraid to move and risk disturbing the multiple small occupants currently sharing my bed.

I guess it would have to wait until tomorrow, after I had safely escorted all of them to school and had some time to myself. Hopefully.

The following morning started off as tragically chaotic as I had anticipated.

Shin Yoosung and Lee Gilyoung bickered about every other thing, Yoo Mia demanded that I make her a michelin star level breakfast like her brother would (as if that would ever be possible), and Biyoo clung to me while insisting that she was assisting me as an extra crutch; all the while Lee Jihye kept pestering me about my supposed relationship with Yoo Joonghyuk and until when I was going to ‘keep her master waiting’ (whatever that meant). 

As for Kim Namwoon, the guy seemed perfectly content to help himself to the leftovers Yoo Joonghyuk had left on my fridge as well as throw a remark here and there goading Jihye on.

“Seriously though,” Kim Namwoon said in between mouthfuls of omurice, “Are you gonna let Captain move in with you? That’s kind of dangerous you know, with summer approaching and all.”

Hm? What was dangerous about summer…?

“Hey! Don’t go putting weird ideas into ahjussi’s head, it’s perfectly normal for mate— uh, I mean companions— to cohabitate!” Lee Jihye protested, “Besides, Captain is a perfect gentleman, he wouldn’t do anything to Ahjussi that he didn’t agree with…”

I didn’t have the slightest idea about what they were talking about, but I did agree that living with Yoo Joonghyuk was dangerous. If I ever woke up to him in his birthday suit again, I felt like I was really going to die.

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind moving back in with all of my cats, but considering the chaos that unfolded every time so much as two of them were in the same room together these days, I would need a considerably bigger house to comfortably fit all of them. With separate rooms.

I’m sure that if I even mentioned it in passing to Persephone or Hades, they would secure some kind of luxury home for me and The Company to live in, but I wasn’t really comfortable asking such a big favor from them, hypocritical as it may be. Not to mention that as of yet I had serious doubts that this rowdy bunch could truly compromise and stay out of each other's way, even with the room to spare.

I guess only time would be able to tell.

For now, I suppose that I should start by trying to get back some of the time lost with each of them, all the while doing my best to keep the peace between everyone.

It sounded honestly exhausting even in my head.

Keeping that thought for later, I saw everyone off as Lee Jihye (with Kim Namwoon tagging along) took on the job of escorting the kids to school, since it was too far for me to do it in my current conditions. Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung kept protesting and demanding to take the day off from school, but they calmed down once I promised to pick them up to have a meal together later.

And just like that, I was back by myself again.

With the foreboding sensation that I wouldn’t have another chance like this, I quickly took out my phone and looked up the keyword ‘Raising Agreement’ on Naver.

It pulled up several pages worth of search results. Without thinking twice, I clicked on the first one, a government official page.

‘The National Universal Raising Agreement, or Raising Agreement, is a contract established between a Human and an Evolutionary species to formalize their relationship as a close relation or familial union, giving it an official status under the civil law of The Republic of Korea. Although many variations of the Raising Agreement may be drafted according to the interests of the involved parties, they are generally categorized in two main types, The Dependent and Independent Raising Agreement (...)’

The further I read, the more impressed I became at the level of efficiency in which society had assimilated the evolutionary species, and at the same time I grew conflicted at the realization that, apparently, not all Raising Agreements were quite as constricting or one-sided as the ones Yoo Joonghyuk and Han Sooyoung had offered me.

Now I understood Biyoo’s cautiousness much better. Not that I would have thoughtlessly put my signature in just any random paper that someone gave me, even if they were of trust; a lifetime subsisting under a capitalistic society and my years of experience as a corporate slave taught me to be wary of suspicious legal loopholes more than anything.

Well, now I could rest assured that there would be no harm nor consequences even if I kept ignoring their offers. It was just their usual competitive and territorial streak making them act up.

I could definitely see the benefits in an Independent Raising Agreement though. I had always considered my cats to be something of my own small, make-shift family, but it would be another thing to be able to formalize it on paper.

It was certainly a thought.

Just as I was letting my imagination roam, the sound of the doorbell pulled me out of my wandering thoughts.

That… It had been so long since I heard anyone actually going through the trouble of ringing the doorbell instead of barging right in, I had all but forgotten I even had one to begin with.

The sound originally failed to register in my mind for the first few seconds, only realizing after it rang a second time that I should probably go get it. For a short moment I actually debated whether to pretend that I wasn’t home, but ultimately decided to make the mature choice. Whoever they were, chances are they were at the very least comparatively more sane than the last few guests that had visited my home.

It was only once I had taken the elevator to the ground floor that it dawned on me that someone had fixed my front door somewhere in the course of last night. Had Yoo Joonghyuk actually decided to take responsibility…?

"Hello?" I asked through the door, "Who is it?"

"...Dokja-ssi?" A small, gentle female voice eventually said, sounding hesitant, "I'm sorry, I came here all of a sudden…"

It wasn't a voice that I recognized, but I could think of only a few individuals that would know to come looking for me in these circumstances.

I opened the door somewhat cautiously. On the other side, a tall, elegant-looking woman with long brunette hair that fell gracefully over her shoulders greeted me with a smile; her laughing brown eyes made her identity apparent even through the combined face mask and cap that were meant to conceal her appearance to outsiders.

“...Yoo Sangah?”

“Ah, this place really takes me back.”

I stood around aimlessly as Yoo Sangah looked over the apartment with nostalgic eyes. Seeing the same flawlessly beautiful woman from the billboards up close and occupying the same space felt honestly surreal. ‘Are good looks and eye-catching, successful careers a characteristic shared by all evolved species, or is it some kind of strange coincidence?’

Maybe she was also a second-order? I did remember reading something along those lines…

“Uh, sorry! Does Sangah-ssi want anything?” I blurted out, suddenly remembering my manners as a host, “Let’s see… we have tea, coffee, uh, milk?”

“Oh no please, Dokja-ssi is a patient, please let me—!” Sangah tried to take over the task of serving the beverages, but I waved her off.

“It’s really no trouble, I’m all but fully recovered already, I can do something this small.”

“Oh… If that’s the case, then coffee sounds great.” She tactfully retreated, sitting elegantly on the sofa and looking entirely out of place in the mundane scene, like a flower in the middle of a swamp. “Thank you.”

“So, uh—” I awkwardly began once we both sat down with our respective coffees, (admittedly, I did end up needing Yoo Sangah’s help with carrying them to the table), but stopped short at the sight of the slight wetness gathering on the corner of her eyes, “Sangah-ssi! What happened, is the coffee too hot, did you burn your tongue—?!”

“Oh no! Sorry, it’s just that…” the actress wiped her eyes and laughed somewhat helplessly, “To be able to sit in front of Dokja-ssi and talk like this, I was a bit overwhelmed that’s all.” She looked me in the eyes and smiled, wistful, “It’s very good to see you, Dokja-ssi.”

“Ah…” I felt my eyes start to water in turn, before I blinked it away, “I’m very happy to see you too, Sangah-ssi, and… I’m sorry.”

Yoo Sangah tilted her head, inquisitive, “What are you apologizing for?”

“Uh— why—?” I stammered, taken aback at the question. ‘Shouldn’t it be obvious?’ , “Because it’s been so long, and I left you all—!”

“But that wasn’t Dokja-ssi’s fault.”

“And then— I woke up and didn’t contact any of you—!”

“Yes, I too wish you’d contacted me first, but it’s not like I can’t understand your decision,” the calico cat-shifter acknowledged, “Yet I couldn’t resist appearing in front of you today, regardless of your wishes, I hope you can forgive me.”

She then proceeded to bow down in apology, to my utter shock and embarrassment. “No, that’s not—! Sangah-ssi, raise your head please!” I immediately urged her, flustered. 

I breathed a sigh of relief once she heeded my words, “I didn’t mean it like that, I was just… surprised, I guess.”

“Ah, well, I admit that my visit here today wasn’t something I had originally planned,” Yoo Sangah smiled sheepishly, “I only got back from abroad this morning, and even ditched Hyunsung-ssi to come,” she confessed, “I guess I’m not so different from Joonghyuk-ssi and Sooyoung-ssi, after all.”

“You mean you came here without telling anyone?” I asked, shocked at her admission. From the little I had seen in their chat conversations, Yoo Sangah seemed like a very honest and straight-laced person with a good head on her shoulders, I didn’t think she would be the type to play tricks like these. Yoo Joonghyuk’s words about how she had collaborated in concealing the fact that I had woken up from the rest of the company came suddenly to mind.

Maybe, I should consider that aside from her sensible and polite appearance, she also had a conniving side to her.

“That’s right, so I would be grateful if you kept it a secret that I came here, if you could,” she said, a dangerous, albeit stunning smile on her face, “Don’t worry, I didn’t plan for a long stay, I know very well that Dokja-ssi needs his rest.”

“Sangah-ssi…” I trailed off. I wanted to tell her that she could stay as long as she wanted, but didn’t know whether it was appropriate.

“That matter aside, there’s another reason why I thought it was urgent to pay you a visit, Dokja-ssi.”

“Huh?”

“It’s about Joonghyuk-ssi and Sooyoung-ssi,” she said, a serious look hardening her soft features, “Well, it involves the rest of the company too, I suppose.”

I pondered over what could have her taking on such a serious tone, that required singling out those two in particular. “Ah, is it about the Raising Agreement?”

“As expected, I see you’ve already been introduced to them,” her lips quirked up in light amusement, “I’m assuming you haven’t signed one yet?”

“Oh no, Biyoo already warned me off from it, you don’t have to worry.” I waved off her concerns with a small laugh.

“I’m glad to hear that. She is a smart and sensible girl, isn’t she?” Yoo Sangah said, taking one last sip of her coffee before placing it down on the table, “But it’s not the agreements themselves that are the issue here, Dokja-ssi.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s nothing wrong with signing a Raising Agreement per-se, you’re free to do so if you so choose,” she argued rationally, “Which leads me to my main concern: What is it that you want to do yourself, Dokja-ssi?”

“Huh?” I asked, not having expected the direction this conversation had taken.

What I want to do…?

Something in my expression must have belied my confusion, because she went on to explain. “What I mean is, there’s not one of us who would object to Dokja-ssi’s happiness.”

At her words, I felt like I had taken a too-large mouthful of coffee and it was still sitting in my belly, warming my insides. Unfortunately, I still failed to grasp her meaning, so I just continued to stare at her with a gaze that I hoped conveyed understanding. Judging from the amused look on the actress's face, I probably just looked as clueless as I felt.

“You know Dokja-ssi, the first time that I met you in that alleyway, my impression was that your eyes were kind, but that you were incredibly tired.” Yoo Sangah suddenly mused, voice soft and tinged with nostalgia, “With time, that began to change. You became more and more animated, seeming livelier and happier every time I saw you, and then you took us in and opened the cafe, and I never saw that forced, tragic smile on your face again.”

She looked at me, the sunlight filtering through the half-open blinds catching on her brown irises, making them look all the more gentle, “The only thing that I, that we all want, is for you to continue being comfortable and unburdened,” she said, “We still want to spend time with you, as long as you would have us, as I’m sure you have noticed. But don’t let it be at the cost of your own happiness, Dokja-ssi.”

“That…” I mumbled, feeling suddenly short of breath for some reason, “Why do you think that I would be unhappy…?”

Yoo Sangah smiled softly, her eyes brimming with so much tenderness that I had to look away. “I don’t think you would be completely unhappy, but you would certainly be uncomfortable. And restricted.” She mused, which brought me back to all those clauses in the Raising Agreements, “That’s why you should stop worrying so much and just do what you want to do, we will all be there to support you.”

I looked back at her, finding her words hard to believe, but feeling grateful nonetheless.

Now, what is it exactly that I want to do…?

As promised, Yoo Sangah’s visit was a brief one, having been cut short as she declared she had matters to attend as soon as I gave her my word that I would give a proper thought to what she had said, although not without reassuring me that we would see each other again soon.

“Ah, I almost forgot. There’s one last word of advice from my part, if you allow me." The actress said, “Normally, Joonghyuk-ssi is good at reeling back his instincts, but in light of the recent circumstances, I think that it’s probably best that Dokja-ssi avoids spending too much time alone with him just in case, at least until summer has passed.”

And with that last, ominous warning, she turned around and walked away with an elegant flick of her long hair.

‘Summer… This again?’

Why couldn’t anyone take the time to properly explain what the hell was happening in the summer, and what did it have to do with Yoo Joonghyuk!?

‘Should I just ask Seolhwa-ssi?’ I recalled the doctor mentioning being something of an expert in Evolutionary-species.

I was considering giving her a call, when suddenly, my phone started ringing instead. I checked it to find I had an incoming call from Persephone.

‘Dear! You finally picked up, I’ve been trying to get through since yesterday — ” my surrogative mother’s effusive voice complained from the other end of the line, “I saw what happened at that convention event or something. If I knew they would get you in trouble, I wouldn’t have let you alone with those two kits in the first place. I'm sorry, I feel like such an irresponsible mother — ”

Feeling a moment of panic at the genuine guilt in her voice, I cut her off before her rant could further develop in that direction, “Persephon— I mean— mom. Please calm down, it’s nothing, no one got in any trouble and Bihyung already dealt with any issues that might arise, there’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Oh I know Bihyung dealt with it, I was the one to call him and demand that he get it done as soon as possible in the first place,” she huffed with exasperation, and that should have not come off as that much of a surprise. Persepephone had always been thorough in dealing with whatever she deemed as a threat to her most important things, her family and her business. “I know you have a soft spot for that boy of yours, Yoo Joonghyuk, so I won’t be too hard on him, but in my humble opinion dear, he needs a tighter leash. Me and your father will be watching more closely from now on.”

I felt a shiver run down my spine at the veiled threat, although it wasn’t even meant for me in the first place. I contemplated telling her that everything that went down at the book fair was my own fault, but I knew better about how well that would go with Persephone. When she was like this, it was hard to make her see reason; she would likely find someone else to blame faster than admit that I had screwed up.

“S-speaking of Hades-ssi, how is he doing?” I suddenly asked in a last ditch effort to change the subject.

“Oh, just wonderful actually!” Persephone exclaimed, successfully distracted. I subtly let out a relieved sigh away from the receiver, “That’s the other reason I was calling in fact, he just got back home this morning and is dying to see you. I just sent a driver over to pick you up so you can come and catch up with your old men over lunch!”

My face froze in shock at the sudden invitation. I could hardly imagine the stoic and intimidating man that I knew as ‘dying’ to see me, but I couldn’t deny the fact that I missed him.

I was about to agree, when I suddenly recalled my promise to take the kids out for lunch, “Uh, sorry Persephone-ssi, I already made plans to eat with the kittens— I mean— the children, and I would hate to bail out on them.” I said apologetically, “But I can come over for dinner—!”

“Oh that’s hardly a problem honey, they can come over too!” The older woman insisted, “I’ll tell the driver to take a detour and pick them up at the school, you know there’s more than enough room at our table for all of our family, dear.”

At that point, I could hardly say anything but obediently agree to her request, mind still turning circles around her words, ‘Our family’.

As soon as I hung up, a sleek black car pulled up on my porch and a stone-faced man in a suit came out and proceeded to stand politely in front of the rear door in waiting. Obviously, this was the driver that she mentioned.

I sighed. Guess my plan to quietly curl up with one of Han Sooyoung’s books for the day would have to be put on hold until further notice.

Chapter Text

As the car reached the Underworld pair’s residence, what little hope I had left for it to be just a simple, moderate lunch with my adoptive parents was dashed as soon as I caught sight of the main entrance.

“Woah! Hyung, look at that!”

“Waah… It’s like we are royalty!”

Sure enough, lining up the path to the door were more than a dozen servants and household staff, decked out fully in uniform and standing in a ramrod straight posture, their collective gazes brimming with expectation as they watched our group descend from the vehicle.

“Welcome back, young master!”

“Ah… thank you, everyone.”

Well, it was good to see that the people here were still as energetic as ever, I guess.

When it came to sir Hades, there were a few adjectives that came to mind to describe him, such as Elegant, Handsome, as well as Intimidating were right up there up there if I were to be perfectly honest. That wasn’t to say that I wasn’t aware of a somewhat unexpected side of the man that subverted my original impression of him, such as how soft and gentle he became whenever it came to his interactions with his beloved wife, Persephone.

Seeing them together, I often felt part warm and part envious, like they were everything I wished my own real parents were once upon a time, when I was young and naive enough to dream of impossible things.

Originally, I found it hard to believe that a fairy tale’s love like theirs could exist in real life, it was only after some time of being continually subjected to their lovey dovey antics that my skepticism began to dwindle until it sank in that they were really, honestly and truly that smitten with each other, even after decades of being together.

It was something that I couldn’t fathom, loving another and being loved so openly like that. It was the stuff of fiction.

Now, although I could recognize that sir Hades had always treated me with far more kindness than what I had rightfully earned, and could maybe even been said to like me to a certain degree, ‘Fatherly’ wasn’t exactly a word that I would use to describe him. For the most part, I had thought that he went so far as to sponsor me for the sake of indulging his wife, who had become obsessed with the idea of ‘adopting’ me.

Seeing him now, some part of me couldn’t help but have second thoughts whether that was really the case.

Sitting on the further end of the long and opulent dinner table, to the left of his wife, who was busy placing all sorts of side dishes on my plate and urging me to eat, the normally taciturn man looked particularly spirited. Although he had yet to emit a sound, save for a short ‘Welcome back’ after I first walked in, I could sense a certain warmth from his usually ice-cold gaze that had me shifting awkwardly in my seat.

Well, it had been two years after all, I guess even such a stoic and peerless CEO would get a little sentimental from such a dramatic reunion. Albeit it didn’t change the fact that I had no idea about how to act in front of such an emotional scenario. What is even the right thing to say in this situation?

Should I put on a ‘moved to tears’ expression? Not that I wasn’t indeed moved, but tears were a little…

As I became distracted, the pile of food that Perspehone had stacked into my plate had grown so high that it was a feat that she kept managing to squeeze in even more. Seeing that my chopsticks had ceased moving, the matriarch became somewhat dissatisfied, her mouth pursed into a pout, “Dokja-ya, what are you spacing out for, are you perhaps feeling ill?”

At that question, everyone’s eyes raised from their plates and looked at me with worry evident on their faces. All except for Mia who continued to focus on her meal, completely unbothered.

“Ahjussi, are you really sick, should we call Seolhwa-unni over?” Yoosung asked, all the while Gilyoung burst into sudden tears and began crying “Hyung! Don’t fall back into a coma!”

“Nono, I’m fine, I’m just not that hungry, that’s all!” I promptly attempted to quell down the fretful children.

“Even so, you still need to eat, dear.” Persephone urged, “You were already so skinny, after these two years you are all but skin and bones! I’m afraid you won’t properly recover until you have put on some healthy weight.”

Seeing the dainty appearance of my wrists as well as the protruding veins on my waxy pale hands, I couldn’t deny her point. Even so, seeing the pile of food threatening to topple over sitting on my plate, it was still too much.

“Your mother is right,” Hades suddenly said, making me almost swallow my own tongue in fright, “At the very least, you should have some dessert.”

He snapped his fingers, and the servants swiftly replaced the left-over food on the table with a plethora of desserts and pastries. Chocolate truffles, matcha cake, lemon pie, ice-cream sundae…

My gaze slid from the exquisite presentation of sweets to the secretly expectant dark gaze of the older man, then back to the table. Persephone burst out in gleeful laughter at both of our expressions.

“You should try them, dear. He spent the entire morning in the kitchen preparing these for you,” she said with a playful wink. Hades threw her a somewhat scolding look, which she promptly ignored.

Everyone on the table looked at the feast with new eyes at her words. Lee Gilyoung was already grabbing a chocolate truffle with stars in his eyes when Shin Yoosung promptly batted it away, “Were you raised by pigs?! This was made for ahjussi, he should be the one to try it first!”

“Hyung was the one to raise me. Are you calling hyung a pig?!”

“Shut up-!”

Paying no mind to the kids raising the usual fuss in the background, I was left with no choice but to scoop up a piece of tiramisu and bring it to my mouth under the watchful gaze of the Underworld couple, making a show of licking my spoon clean and smiling gratefully at them, “Thank you, it’s very delicious.”

Hades’ usually stone-like countenance relaxed minutely, portraying his inner satisfaction, all the while Persephone’s smile visibly softened.

Seeing the approval in their faces, I continued to eat the dessert with a lighter heart, proverbial fireworks lighting up on my tastebuds with every spoonful. It had been a while since I last tasted Hades’ masterful handicraft.

“What are you waiting for, everyone? Please don’t hold back and eat to your heart’s content!” declared Persephone with a smile, effectively ending Gilyoung and Yoosung’s ongoing argument, both putting aside their mutual differences in favor of the sweet delicacies in front of them.

As I listened to the matriarch trading idle chatter with the kids over the meal while occasionally laughing at their antics, my mind wandered back to Yoo Joonghyuk and what he was doing. Did he clear things up with his company yet…?

“That reminds me, Dokja-ya, do you have any other appointments for today?” Persephone suddenly addressed me, putting a stop to my ruminations, “Because your father and I would love to have you for the day. Oh I have an idea, why don’t we invite the rest of your cat family and friends over for dinner and have a welcome back party?!” She exclaimed with a cheerful clap of her hands.

I choked on a bite of sponge-cake and started coughing aggressively, barely managing to hold back from spitting all over the table. One of the servants, Eurydice, hurried over to clap my back, all the while Persephone threw me a concerned look, “Ah, is it still too soon?”

Once I had recovered, I gestured to Eurydice that I was alright and poured myself a glass of water to help soothe my throat, and hopefully wash down my embarrassment along with it. “Cough- uhm, no that’s fine,” I said once I could manage words again, “Actually, that’s not a bad idea.”

“Oh, is that so?” Persephone blinked, a renewed glint lighting up her golden irises, “Wonderful! We should hurry up and get the preparations done, then.”

I laughed awkwardly as I watched the matriarch immediately getting absorbed into discussing the preparations with her husband and giving out instructions to the servants, the merry and festive mood soon enveloping the house and spreading to the children, who started cheering over the prospect of a party and excitedly talking with each other. That is all except Yoo Mia, whose deadpan expression morphed into a proper scowl at the noise, likely not happy with the idea of being in such a crowded environment.

I too wasn’t entirely comfortable, but I couldn’t bear to put a damper on their expectations in these circumstances. Moreover, it was unfair to Jung Heewon and Lee Hyunsung, and even Yoo Sangah, if I continued to avoid meeting with them after I had all but reunited with everyone else already.

Besides, everyone had been nothing but accepting towards me up to now (in their own weird, special way). It couldn’t be so bad to have them all in one room together again.

Famous last words.

Well, technically not the last, considering that I did manage to form half a sentence before the merciless blade of the intimidating lady in a bartender suit reached my skull, but it was nowhere coherent enough to deserve a mention (something along the lines of “Wait, what are you planning on doing with that sword?! Wait-wait-!”).

“Tch, that’s what you get for hiding from us like a rat,” the offender, who had been introduced as Jung Heewon by the servants announcing their arrival, grumbled as I clutched my head in pain, “And to think that you were getting all chummy with those second-order bastards while leaving us out, you heartless man, sad excuse of a master-”

“Heewon! Stop it, it’s not Dokja-ssi’s fault!” yelled a male voice, Lee Hyunsung’s, interrupting Jung Heewon’s relentless verbal assault (which, ouch). “And remember he’s still a patient, you can’t be rough with him! Dokja-ssi, are you alright?”

“Stop exaggerating, I barely even grazed him…”

“Ah, no that’s alright. I'm not hurt or anything,” I reassured both the man as well as the children currently fussing over me while glaring daggers at Heewon. “Besides, she’s completely right, I totally deserved that,” I admitted, feeling the guilt burning low on my gut, “I’m sorry, everyone.”

The three newest visitors at the manor, Jung Heewon, Lee Hyunsung and Yoo Sangah, looked at me with varying degrees of emotion at my words. Yoo Sangah, who I had met earlier today, smiled kindly, while Jung Heewon clicked her tongue and sighed. As for the hulking giant of a man who had introduced himself as Lee Hyunsung was- wait, was he crying-?

“Waaaah- Dokja-ssi!!” He suddenly threw himself at me, muscular arms clamping around me like a vice, “Thank Eden you’re back! You can’t imagine how lost I was after you fell into a coma, I actually went and joined the army, it was horrible!” the cat-shifter lamented as he squeezed me tighter to his chest, “I was so miserable everyday, all I could think was how much I missed you and our life together with everyone. If it wasn’t for Sangah-ssi’s offer to work for her, who knows where I would be right now-!”

“Ah, Hyunsung-ssi, I think you’re suffocating him…” Yoo Sangah chimed in with a concerned expression. ‘Sangah, you’re most definitely an angel!’.

At her words, Lee Hyunsung temporarily ceased his wailing to look down at me, whose face had turned blue from air deprivation, and quickly released me with a gasp, “I’m sorry Dokja-ssi! I got too excited just now, I actually lost control,” he hurriedly apologized, “It’s been so long, I actually forgot how frail Dokja-ssi was, and now you’re even thinner…”

Jung Heewon barked out a laugh while I felt a vein throbbing at the implications in his words (are you trying to show off those great muscles of yours, huh, is that it?!), but immediately softened at the sight of tears gathering around Hyunsung’s eyes as he looked down at me. Geez, even as a human, he was still the same big pushover.

He really wasn’t suited for something like the army with such a soft temperament. I suppressed a shudder at the memory of my military service days. 

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing,” I sensibly reassured him once again, “You’ve been through a lot… I’m glad to see you’re doing alright.” As I said this, it dawned on me how much I meant it.

Hyunsung’s tears started spilling at a faster rate rather than stopping, and I worried for a moment that I had made it worse somehow. I looked at the others for help, only to find Yoo Sangah smiling at me with a helpless expression and Jung Heewon appearing reluctantly amused.

“Waaaah, hyung-!”

“Ahjussi-!”

While I was distracted trying to figure out the situation, I was suddenly assaulted from both sides by Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung, who were currently hugging my legs while crying. I patted their backs somewhat tentatively in a reassuring manner, perplexed at their reaction. ‘Did I say something wrong-?’

Before I could decide whether to ask that question aloud or continue pretending that everything was normal, my thoughts were interrupted by a certain familiar sing-song voice, “Oh hello there, I’m glad to see that I’m not too late for the party.”

“Huh, look who decided to show up,” said Heewon with a sarcastic sneer, “Did you have a tough clean-up, you traitor witch?”

“What are you even yapping about, I don’t remember swearing any allegiances,” quipped Han Sooyoung innocently, “But if you’re that concerned, you can rest easy, I dealt with everything smoothly,” she assured with a self-satisfied smirk, “I don’t know about that fluffy-hair brute back there, but seeing that he’s not here yet, he must be busy taking care of any leftover problems on his side, it’s no big deal.”

“Excuse me, no big deal?!” Yoo Sangah, who had been mostly quiet until now suddenly raised her voice, surprising me. “Joonghyuk-ssi nearly exposed himself and Dokja-ssi on national television, and you say it’s not a big deal, do you not realize how irresponsible you sound?”

“Woah, hold your claws ladyboss, nothing of the sort happened,” the second-order put up her hands in a playfully appeasing manner, “I recognize there might have been a slight, microscopic miscalculation on my part for not taking account of that bastards’ explosive and obsessive tendencies, as well as the presence of cameras, but all in all everything turned out well, didn’t it?” she said with a wave of her hand in a dismissive gesture, “Look, we’re even here together after so long, we should be celebrating and shit!”

With a growing sense of foreboding, I looked at Yoo Sangah through the corner of my eye for her reaction to Han Sooyoung’s presumptuous attitude.

Sure enough, it was my first time witnessing the usually calm and diplomatic woman looking quite so thoroughly pissed off as right now.

“You-!”

“Sangah-!” I cut her off, not yet sure what to say to deescalate the argument.

“Sangah-ssi, I think Sooyoung-ssi has a point,” Persephone’s lofty voice resounded across the room, timely interceding in my time of need, “I understand that you’re rightfully angry, and I plan to take full discipline action on this matter, but I didn’t invite everyone here today to argue,” she stated in a calm, level manner, “Dokja-ya finally agreed to have a welcome back banquet with everyone, so I hope we can all celebrate together and appreciate this moment peacefully.”

“That-” Yoo Sangah half-protested before pulling back, “You’re right, Persephone-ssi, my apologies, I behaved inconsiderately.”

“No need, I know you all have my Dokja’s best interests in mind,” she reassured her with a gentle smile, “Now, how is everyone feeling about some tea? I think I have some leftover Silvervine tea that I received as a gift stored away somewhere…”

“Me, me, me!”

“Me first, I raised my hand first!”

“Ahjumma, I want some!” Gilyoung, Yoosung and Biyoo all raised their hands enthusiastically.

“Tch, I still think we’re being too easy on them,” Jung Heewon complained, “I’m still hitting that emo bastard’s prettyboy mug when he shows up no matter what everyone says, let him keep his popularity after I break that ‘perfectly sculpted jaw’ of his that his fangirls love so much.”

“Uhm, I think Joonghyuk-ssi will heal pretty quickly considering that he’s a Second-order,” Lee Hyunsung rationally argued, “So at most it might take a week-”

“You shut up.”

Without further incidents, for the next hour we sat over dessert and tea while everyone caught up with each other. Or more like, Lee Hyunsung enthusiastically briefed me in on what everyone had been up to these past two years while I sat there with a stiff smile on my face, not quite believing it, with a few interjections from the others here and there (and a few sarcastic quips from Han Sooyoung mixed in, which everyone tactfully ignored).

As expected, Yoo Sangah was a successful international actress and Lee Hyunsung was currently working as her personal bodyguard. Not that she needed that much protection, but his huge build cut an intimidating figure that worked well to deter any unwanted advances by fans and other creep factors, which was a relief because I couldn’t imagine someone more harmless and incapable of hurting anyone than Lee Hyunsung.

What took me by surprise (or maybe not so much) was Jung Heewon’s profession. Apparently, she was a professional Kendo player and instructor with her own dojo. I looked at her with open admiration as Hyunsung went on and on about the various championships and competitions she had won, feeling honestly impressed. For her part, she seemed to be gloating at the attention beneath her embarrassed facade, her nose rising higher with each word of adulation from the taller cat-shifter.

It wasn’t much time later that Lee Jihye and Kim Namwoon crashed in as well. Considering the growing commotion at the table, I began to genuinely dread Yoo Joonghyuk’s arrival. Hopefully, he would be too busy doing… whatever it was that Bihyung had him doing.

Not that I didn’t enjoy his company or anything, but a part of me suspected that his presence would invite even more chaos, to say the least.

The (rather ominous, straight out of The Addams mansion) sound of the doorbell rang out, making me almost jump. I turned to the hall entrance with apprehension, waiting for the other shoe to drop. To my surprise, none of the guests escorted in by Euridyce were who I had been expecting.

There were three people. They were Lee Seolhwa, along with a emotional looking Aileen as well as… Who was that?

“Move over, let me through!” came in a young, androgynous looking boy with short blond hair, “Where is he?!”

“Hayoung, stop being rude!”

“Oh! Hayoung, over here!” Namwoon called out to them, bringing their attention to where we were sitting. The boy however ignored him as his blue eyes parsed over the entire table until they finally settled on me.

The boy walked bristly towards me with a deeply focused appearance, to the point where I almost feared that he was going to attack me. Once he was in front of me, his thin eyebrows pursed down into a conflicted expression, and it dawned on me how ethereally beautiful this person was. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that his looks could slap Yoo Joonghyuk on the cheek twice.

‘Wait, Hayoung, Hayoung…’ “Jang Hayoung…?” I muttered aloud. The way the other’s mien softened briefly before hardening once again made me suspect that I had guessed right, although why he was glaring at me with such intensity was still unknown. To my knowledge, I had never committed any injustices towards Jang Hayoung to warrant such treatment.

“Kim Dokja, I challenge you to a duel!” the boy suddenly declared, “If I beat you, you have to officially acknowledge me as a member of the company!”

‘Huh…?’

Silence enveloped the room as everyone paused the conversation to observe the situation with varying degrees of expectation (and amusement, in certain cases). Jang Hayoung was waiting with baited breath for my response, his fists shaking with nervousness and his blue eyes burning with resolve.

I, on my part, was still very much in the process of deciphering the meaning of the young man’s statement, without much success as of yet.

‘No, more importantly… Wasn’t Jang Hayoung a… female cat?’

Chapter Text

“If I beat you, you have to officially acknowledge me as a member of the company!” Jang Hayoung’s voice echoed across the vast dining room, silencing the entire table into a standstill.

‘Huh…?’

I sat somewhat in shock at the impromptu challenge while innerly attempting to puzzle out the motive of such a ridiculous demand.

By ‘company’, did he mean Kim Dokja’s company?

Why would he even want to be a part of it? It’s not like the cafe was even still in business or anything. Or did the company turn into some kind of exclusive organization at some point during my absence?

Is that it, was Jang Hayoung being bullied?

I became somewhat anxious at the prospect. If that was really the case, I should step up and educate them, isn’t that right? Like a responsible caretaker, or something.

Well, it’s not like I had made a deliberate decision to exclude him from the company or anything like that. It was just that, well…

Jang Hayoung was Aileen’s cat.

Although it was true that I was the one who first found him. It was a rather funny story, thinking back on it.

It happened while I was under a certain dilemma, that is, the matter of sterilizing my cats.

Being the inexperienced pet-owner that I was, I had only started contemplating taking them to get fixed rather late, unversed as I was on the matter.

Interestingly enough, at the time I had yet to have any problem with marking or my cats going into heat and causing trouble, so I didn’t have any reason to be concerned. That is, until Yoo Joonghyuk and Han Sooyoung started getting… too territorial.

They were squabbling so often that it started to become troublesome, and when I expressed my concerns to Aileen, she suggested that I should bring them to get fixed. So after a lot of scrambling and going around, I somehow tricked Yoo Joonghyuk into a cage and took him to Aileen’s.

However, the moment that Aileen opened the cage as she prepared a needle with anesthesia, Yoo Joonghyuk flew.

I mean he literally flew.

I don’t know whether he knew what Aileen was going to do. Thinking back on it, he may have heard one of us say something and somehow understood what was going on, which explained why he might have reacted with such intensity, but at that moment, he simply jumped straight to the ceiling and out through a small window that was left open, disappearing into the streets.

I ran twice around the block searching for him with no luck, that was when I stumbled upon the wandering Jang Hayoung.

Seeing the dirty and haggard adolescent cat, it was apparent that it had been lost, if not abandoned, for quite some time, so I took it upon myself to take it back to Aileen’s to get checked before resuming my search for the lost Yoo Joonghyuk, who reappeared later that afternoon at the door of the cafe as if nothing had happened.

After that, I could never manage to corner him again to give it another try, nor Han Sooyoung once I tried switching targets. Although on the bright side, after that incident it was enough to mention Aileen’s name to get them to stop causing trouble in the blink of an eye.

Maybe it was for the better that I didn’t manage to actually go through with the procedure at the time, seeing as they were both evolved now. ‘What of all the sterilized pets out there, did they evolve without their… important bits?

I shivered imagining the implications

As for Jang Hayoung, even after putting up a notice, no one came to pick them up, so Aileen gracefully took them in, seeing as I already had a full house at my place. The name was randomly chosen after the main character of a fantasy web-novel I had recently picked up, about a woman transmigrating into a man’s body in another world.

‘Speaking of which, wasn’t Jang Hayoung a… female cat?’

I carefully took in the other’s appearance once again. It’s true that they were rather androgynous-looking, and their voice was more on the husky-side, which made me think that they were a man at first glance but, this person should still be a woman.

That is, unless after evolving they chose to identify with a different gender, or maybe evolution could go so far as to completely switch someone’s sex altogether…?

‘I should probably ask Lee Seolhwa about it later… not right now though.’

“Um, when you say ‘duel’, may I know what you are referring to…?” I tentatively inquired, back to the matter at hand. I surely hoped it wasn’t anything that required physical exertion, (not that I was contemplating going through with it, mind you).

“What? I mean gaming, what else?!”

…

‘Huh?’

That was… not the answer that I had been expecting.

“Umm, why gaming though…?” I asked.

Jang Hayoung’s face was incredulous, like they couldn’t fathom why I was asking such an obvious question. Before they could form an answer though, Kim Namwoon’s hyena-like laughter interrupted them.

“S-Sorry, I couldn’t hold it anymore,” the boy excused himself, “Hayoung is a member of our team, but for some reason she’s constantly challenging the Captain to solo games in order to become an official member of the Kim Dokja Company,” he timely explained in between laughs, “Naturally, the Captain wipes the floor with her every time.” 

“Kim Namwoon-!” the blonde flared up in indignation.

“Ah, I get it,” I nodded wisely with deep understanding, “That bastard has been bullying you, hasn’t he?”

“Pfff-” Han Sooyoung nearly spitted out her drink, seeming to find the ongoing conversation hilarious. Other than that, no one else said anything or rose up in Yoo Joonghyuk’s defense, not even Mia, which cemented my theory in my head.

“Wait, no that’s not it!” Jang Hayoung insisted. Poor thing, I wanted to cradle her in my arms and tell her that it’s okay, we’ve all been bullied by Yoo Joonghyuk at some point in time.

Opportunely, that’s the moment that a certain long-awaited guest chose to make his fashionably late entrance, looking fresh and unfairly handsome in a dark v-neck and jeans.

Speak of the devil, it never fails.

“Captain, welcome back!” greeted Lee Jihye enthusiastically. Half of the table echoed the greeting politely, while the rest either grumbled under their breaths or clicked their tongues. Jung Heewon went a step further and openly glared and bared her teeth in a promise of violence.

All of this however, went of course ignored by Yoo Joonghyuk, who walked in like he owned the place, not escorted by any servants which left me wondering whether he had just let himself in somehow.

“Ah, Captain…” Jang Hayoung called faintly, probably fearing their previous conversations having been overheard.

Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t address any of this, parsing his eyes over the table once before opening his mouth to muster a simple observation, “I see everyone’s here already.”

“Despite your best efforts.”

“Heewon-ssi-” Lee Hyunsung attempted to pacify the grumbling Jung Heewon.

“Oppa, I’m tired,” Yoo Mia suddenly pitched in, rubbing her eyes adorably and whining in a cute and spoiled tone that was completely unlike how she normally spoke with others, “I want to go back already.”

Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes instantly softened. “We’ll go back soon,” he reassured her, then turned to face me with a less patient gaze, “Kim Dokja…”

“Ah no, don’t even think about it,” Jung Heewon flared up as if she had oiled poured on top of her, “We’ve only just managed to get him away from your claws, you’re not spiriting him away again you bastard!”

“Yeah, go eat a hairball you emo catfish!” Han Sooyoung shamelessly cheered from the side.

“Shut up Han Sooyoung, don’t think we’ve forgotten about you!”

“Huh? What about me?!”

I was watching the chaos unfold, thinking about how best to sneak out and pretend this had nothing to do with me, when a deep, grave voice rang out across the dining hall, commanding the room into silence.

“Everyone, sit down.” Hades said.

“Thank you, dear.” Persephone said after a pause, speaking in a calm and level tone that did nothing to dispel the tense atmosphere, “You too, Joonghyuk-ssi, please sit.”

“Tch…” Yoo Joonghyuk clicked his tongue, but reluctantly obeyed, pulling out a chair and taking a seat directly across from me.

‘Does it physically pain him not to be in glaring distance from me…?’ I grumbled inwardly, pretending I couldn’t feel the other’s dark onyx gaze boring into my face. ‘What does he want now?’

“Okay, I know everyone’s anxious but let’s all calm down for a minute,” Persephone proposed, “We’re finally enjoying some good quality time together as a family with Dokja-ya here after this long and arduous wait. If you have any respect whatsoever for him and for our household, I’d advise all of you present to not attempt to sow discord at this moment.” she said, her soft and elegant voice taking on a menacing edge, “So either sit back and enjoy our welcome back party tonight, or you can leave, are we understood?”

“But-!”

“That’s-!”

“I won’t repeat myself,” she spoke over the aborted protests of Jung Heewon and Han Sooyoung, an obvious warning in her tone, “Are we understood?”

Silence reigned once again, any short-lived complaints having been effectively suppressed by the matron of the house.

I suppressed a shiver, reminded of the identity that ruled the Underworld’s many businesses with an iron fist. It didn’t come as a surprise that she would be the one to successfully put a rein in the seemingly unmanageable cocktail of chaos that was the current company.

“Yes, Persephone-ssi.” Everyone agreed in unison.

“Wonderful!” the older woman smiled candidly, all evidence of the previous dangerous expression having abandoned her face, “Then, let’s enjoy ourselves, shall we?”

The party slash banquet progressed more or less peacefully after that (or as peaceful as it could get, all things considered), which led me to my current situation, listening to Aileen catching me up on all the relevant and bizarre events from these past two years. Naturally, veterinary care was one of the fields most affected by the advent of the evolutionary species, and as it turns out, there was substantial evidence of more and more pets showing signs of evolution recently.

As she went on about her experiences, I considered whether it was the right time to clear up some of my ever growing list of questions on evolutionary species’ biology, such as the matter with sterilization, (and also that summer thing that everyone kept bringing up).

Although, thinking back to the looming figure of a certain second-order species, who was currently sitting across from me, lying deathly still with a kitten-shaped lump nestled on his shoulder while his dark eyes kept glaring holes into the side of my skull, I ultimately decided against it.

As for Jang Hayoung, she seemed to become mute as soon as her captain showed up, the matter with the so-called challenge apparently forgotten in favor of sneaking curious glances at Yoo Joonghyuk, and then at me and so on and so forth, for whatever reason. For the sake of preserving the current peace and my own mental health, I continued playing dumb.

“It’s funny though, even with all the recent developments in this field, you are still the first and only person as far as I know to successfully raise so many evolutionary species,” Aileen observed, “Even for the people with multiple pets, the average is about two or three per owner. Last I heard, the greatest documented case was a person who raised six in China, and that is already considered something crazy.” 

“Huh,” I mused, “I didn’t realize it was so amazing…”

“Obviously you didn’t know, you have been out of the loop for some time that’s why I’m telling you now,” she quipped, “If those researchers and the media were to catch a whiff of your case, they’d have a field day I bet.”

“...” my eyes drifted to the ground as I contemplated her words, my stomach churning at the implications. “I mean, it’s not like I did anything special. I wasn’t even awake for the feat.”

“Excuse me for interrupting, but that’s not exactly true Dokja-ssi, allow me to explain” cut in Lee Seolhwa, who had arrived only a few minutes after Yoo Joonghyuk and was currently sitting to his right, calmly listening to the conversation. “Evolution is not something that happens overnight, but a process that can take anything from a few months up to several years, depending on each case. Moreover, there’s evidence that suggests that the stimuli that prompts evolution is not limited to the evolutionary species’ human owner, but can also be influenced by other humans as well as their environment and interactions with their fellow evolutionary species.” she expounded, the excited shine in her almond shaped eyes denoting her interest in the topic, “That is to say, that a comfortable habitat with a high degree of positive stimuli and human-pet interaction, as well as a healthy dose of competition among peers without losing the attention and love of their caretaker, should make a great environment to successfully grow evolutionary species.”

“Huh, that makes sense.” Aileen acquiesced, while Yoo Joonghyuk wrinkled his nose in distaste, but didn’t otherwise contradict the doctor’s words.

“Is that so…?” I hummed, not quite believing that their petty fighting could play a key role in such an important thing. “Which reminds me, did Hayoung also evolve on the same day?” I asked, redirecting the focus towards Aileen.

“Actually, she evolved a little later, a few months had passed since Evolution day before she started changing,” the older woman perked up, “I remember I was so scared when she suddenly grew several sizes. She didn’t grow to the point of destroying my office though, so that was a relief.”

“Huh, maybe she felt left out after everyone else evolved first,” I teasingly suggested, “Like the runt of the litter.”

“That’s not-!” Jang Hayoung retorted with a red face, but stopped herself at Yoo Joonghyuk’s unimpressed face, sitting back down in her chair, “Ugh…”

After witnessing their brief interaction, I couldn’t help but raise a scrutinizing eyebrow at the male cat-shifter, “Yoo Joonghyuk, have you been bullying her?”

“What?! Wait-!” the blonde shifter stood back up, alarmed.

“Kim Dokja, what rubbish are you spewing now?” Yoo Joonghyuk said in the usual tone he used whenever I was being stupid or purposely obtuse, according to him, which was just unfair.

“I said it’s not like that!" Jang Hayoung loudly exclaimed, as if afraid we would continue ignoring her, which is exactly what I did as I continued to address Yoo Joonghyuk.

“If not, then why would she come here today saying something about a challenge to become a member of the company?”

“She said what?” Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyebrows furrowed, “Jang Hayoung.”

“That…” the young girl trailed off, suddenly tongue-tied after being subjected to the accusing gaze of her captain, “It’s just that when I asked before to be a member of the company, Captain would turn me down, and later when I started making a challenge of it, he’d always be so ruthless…”

“It’s not my place to admit you as a member of the company in the first place.” Yoo Joonghyuk dryly supplied, “I believe I told you before, that you should ask that question to Kim Dokja.”

“But he wasn't available!” she complained, “And I thought it was the same thing since Captain is like, the second-in-command…”

“Hayoung-ssi, why would you think that?” I asked, not quite sure where she got that notion from.

“I mean, aren’t you and Captain, y’know, like…”

“Mhm?” I tilted my head to the side, puzzled. Seeing her trail off, I looked curiously at Yoo Joonghyuk for answers instead, only to find him already looking at me with somehow even more intensity than usual. I slowly turned back around.

“Forget it!” Hayoung eventually resumed, “Anyways, that’s why I came to challenge you as soon as I heard that you were awake…”

“That’s all good and well, Hayoung-ssi, but I don’t see why it needs to be a challenge,” I attempted to cajole, “And, if you don’t mind me asking, why do you want to be part of the company so bad in the first place?”

“Well, I thought I should earn my place, or something.” the young woman retorted, “And everyone else is a member already, so why not me?”

“I mean, Kim Namwoon isn’t really a member…”

“But he worked together with everyone, didn’t he?” she argued, “So it’s basically the same thing!”

“I guess when you put it that way…” I conceded, “Wait, you mean you want to work for me?”

“Kim Dokja…” Yoo Joonghyuk exhaled in a warning tone.

“I know, I know, I’m just joking.” I reassured him, “Hayoung-ah, the thing is, I’m not even that good at games in the first place, so you would easily beat me. It would be faster to simply accept you as an official member, it’s not like I mind anyways.”

“You’re not?!” Jang Hayoung gaped, “But, I thought Captain had picked up gaming after you…”

“Well, I mean I used to work as a Quality Tester for a game company, which might have been how he was introduced to the concept of video games I guess, but that doesn’t mean I myself am particularly good at them,” I explained, “Especially not the MMOs & MMORPGs games that are played competitively.”

“Huh, so it was like that?” the girl slumped down on her seat, appearing somewhat disheartened for some reason, “What, that’s so boring…”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” I quipped sarcastically, “I understand if you’re no longer interested in being part of the company-”

“Wha- I never said that!” Jang Hayoung hurriedly denied, “You already admitted me as a member, so don’t you think you can take it back now!”

“Uh, no yeah, I didn’t mean it like-” I raised my hands in a coaxing gesture, “Okay, okay, I’m not taking it back, don’t worry.”

“Hell yeah!” Kim Namwoon jumped in and put his arm around the younger girl in a side-hug, “Congratulations Hayoung, you’re official now!”

“What are you doing, let go of me!”

“Congratulations, Hayoung-ssi.” said Yoo Sangah in a sincere voice, echoed by Jung Heewon and Lee Seolhwa.

“Huh, so I guess congratulations are in order, hoobae.” Lee Jihye gloated rather haughtily.

“Congrats Hayoung-unnie!”

“I’m still Hyung's number-one!”

“Everyone, let’s make a toast!” Kim Namwoon boisterously raised his wine glass (which contained what I was quite sure to be pepsi) in the air, “Cheers for Dokja ahjussi’s return, and for the company getting a new official member!”

A reply came in the form of echoing cheers from (mostly) all of the guests present, followed by the rambunctious noise of joyful laughter, animated conversation as well as playful bantering slowly taking over the room, filling the air with the many sounds of people existing together, sharing a table.

It was a sound I had become quite accustomed to after starting my business, and it was also a sound that I had often found comforting, yet strange. As the owner of a cafe, I used to observe those people sitting huddled together in their booths, as if in their own individual worlds, talking over coffee and sharing their life with each other like it was no effort at all. Looking on as an outsider, I often wondered what they were talking about that was so interesting, what they found so fun about spending time with other people, what being part of such a scene was like.

‘So that’s what it was like.’

It’s weird. It’s so noisy, yet it’s not annoying at all.

After the banquet was over and it became time to part ways, everyone turned to me with an obvious question in their eyes, as if unsure how to proceed until I had made a choice regarding my living arrangements and other things I was avoiding thinking about.

Seeing the indecisiveness (and growing panic) on my face, Persephone once again suggested that I just stay for the night and relax, an offer which I gladly accepted as an opportunity to bury my head in the sand for a little longer.

Naturally, the kids collectively decided to stay with me, and promptly started arguing about who got to sleep together with me in my room, on what side of the bed and so on. Bar Mia who was still peacefully asleep curled up on her brother’s shoulder, unaware of the chaos.

As we all said our goodbyes for the night, I went to what was dubbed ‘my room’ in the house. That is, the room that the Underworld couple prepared for me, in which I occasionally stayed in.

Seeing the western mahogany door open up to a huge, opulent room decorated almost entirely in various shades of gold and black, I was reminded as to why I rarely stayed for longer than a night.

It’s not that the decoration was bad or tacky, rather it was classy and sophisticated. It was just too… much.

On the good side, the bed was ample enough to fit several adults laying with their arms and legs spread out, so at least I would be able to sleep comfortably with the kids tonight. Or as comfortable as possible with them snuggling me in this summer heat.

As I was considering turning on the air conditioner, I was surprised by the door being suddenly pulled open by Yoo Joonghyuk, who then proceeded to lock it behind him.

There was a moment of silence as we stared each other down, me in confusion and him in… some other emotion I couldn’t decipher (was‘stupidly handsome’ an emotion?).

“Joonghyuk-ah, is there something you need?” I eventually asked, “And why did you lock the door...?”

“To keep the pests out,” he said, ‘pests’ being obviously the kids. Now that I thought about it, it was certainly strange that they hadn’t gotten there already, did they get lost?

“Um, did you do something to them…?” I questioned him apprehensively.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” he supplied in a tone that was not the least bit reassuring. “I need to speak to you alone.”

“Don’t tell me, are you planning to sleep on my bed again?”

“You can relax,” Yoo Joonghyuk said, “I won’t be staying tonight, I have to take Mia back home.”

“Huh?” I goggled, almost incredulous of the fact that he was voluntarily choosing to not stick to me, “Really…?”

Yoo Joonghyuk didn't deign me with an answer, and continued to dissect me with unreadable eyes.

“Kim Dokja, is this truly what you want?” he suddenly asked.

“What?” I asked, shocked at the sudden shift in tone, “What do you mean?”

“I saw your expression earlier, during dinner,” he said in ways of an explanation, “You seemed… satisfied.”

“Ah, is that so? Uh, I mean, I guess I was, kind of,” I stammered, feeling suddenly uncomfortable at having been seen through in such a way, “I don’t know…”

“Kim Dokja, if being together with the others makes you happy, I will respect that,” Yoo Joonghyuk said as if admitting to a huge compromise, “However, don’t delude yourself into thinking things can be like they once were. You can’t turn back time.”

His words felt like a cold splash of water on my face.

“That…” I swallowed and willed my voice to stop shaking, “I know that, you’ve all been through so much in my absence, I can’t even begin to imagine-”

“That’s not what I meant.”

I paused at that, “Then… what?”

“We are not ordinary animals anymore,” Yoo Joonghyuk said as he closed the distance slowly, with measured steps like an animal cornering their prey, “And I’m not your pet.”

“I know that already,” I said, my voice shaking now for entirely different reasons, “We’re companions, isn’t that right?”

“Kim Dokja…” he trailed off, “What I want from you, do you know it?”

“What…?”

“Do you know it?” he repeated.

“That…” I backed away from him until I felt my legs hit the back of the bed, “The raising agreement…?”

“That’s just the means,” Yoo Joonghyuk said in a tone that suggested he was losing his patience, “Do you have the slightest idea as to what end?”

“Uh…” I faltered, “I don’t-”

“You know,” the man assured, his devastating face now dangerously close to the point that I could feel the heat of his breath caress my skin, “You're just being purposely obtuse.”

“I said I don’t know-!”

Suddenly, a hand secured my waist while another grabbed my chin, making my body instinctively tense up in preparation of a fight. Like a well-oiled machine that had learnt nothing but how to take hits, even after all these years. I squared my jaw and squeezed my eyes shut.

But instead of the expected pain from the blow of a fist, I was pulled into what could only be described as a passionate kiss.

‘??????!!!!!!!’

I stood still as a rock statue for what seemed like forever as Yoo Joonghyuk deepened the kiss, subconsciously kissing back while my screen crashed and burned. We finally separated after what felt like an eternity later, my body feeling both scorching hot and shockingly cold at being suddenly deprived of the other's touch.

There was a pause in which we both looked into each other's eyes in deep contemplation. Or more like, he was contemplating, while I was just staring blankly while reeling from shock.

He seemed to find something in my expression satisfying, his lips quirking up into a pleased (and honestly devastating) smile.

“Does that clear things up for you?” he asked in a sarcastic tone, voice hoarse and intimate in a way that made me blush down to my toes.

“Uh...” I mustered after much effort, “Wha-”

“Kim Dokja, I’ll only say this once so listen well,” Yoo Joonghyuk interrupted my pathetic attempt to formulate a coherent sentence, “I want to make you into my mate.”

There was a brief moment of silence as I slowly processed his words with my fried brain before the heaviness of his declaration settled in.

“Huh-?” I swallowed, “Mate…?”

Yoo Joonghyuk nodded seriously, and then grabbed my face, forcing my eyes to meet his, which was when I noticed they had turned gold, “I’ll be pursuing you seriously now, so don’t you dare attempt to avoid me.”

“...”

He searched my face for a few minutes for something unknown, releasing me once he seemed satisfied, “I’ll be back for you, so don’t even think of running away.”

Forget running away, I couldn't even move as I stood frozen in the same position even after I heard the door close behind him, until my legs eventually gave out and I fell back on the bed with a heavy thud.

…

What?

Chapter Text

Yoo Joonghyuk walked with heavy steps while carrying the sleeping Mia back to his car, where he carefully laid her down on the back seat so she could rest more comfortably. As he climbed into the driver’s seat, he stood completely still with both hands firmly gripping the steering wheel, willing his erratic heartbeat to go back to normal so that he could get on driving without getting into an accident on the way.

He hadn’t really intended to confess to Kim Dokja, at least not so soon. It was a spur of the moment decision, one incited by his growing need to claim the human as his own before any of the others could try to take him away. He had yet to decide whether it was the right choice, but to be perfectly honest, he was already getting sick of trying to “gently” get through to Kim Dokja like Lee Seolwha had suggested. In his opinion, that fool wouldn’t get it unless you slammed his head straight into the point.

Which was what he did, sort of.

With the memory of the kiss still fresh in his mind, Yoo Joonghyuk caressed his lips with a mix of excitement and disbelief, chasing the leftover warmth from Kim Dokja’s touch. Suddenly, he saw the car windows starting to fog over with condensation from the humidity in the car, which was when he noticed the heat was coming from himself. He felt hot all over, almost feverish, like he was stimming in a pot of boiling water. His skin felt clammy and itchy to the point where he wanted to rip it off so he could escape the heat.

It was a sensation not unlike being on the verge of shifting, except not quite.

Wait, could this be…?

Shit, this was bad.

With proverbial alarms blaring in his head, Yoo Joonghyuk promptly grabbed Mia and took her back to the manor, leaving her to Persephone with curt instructions to look after her for a while before briskly taking off. He couldn’t be responsible for her in this state, he had to get home quickly or else…

He was afraid might do something he will be sure to regret later.

I woke up later in the morning to the sight of the kids in their kitten forms cuddling me in the huge bed at the Underworld residence. I didn’t remember falling asleep, but most memories from last night after a certain incident, which we shall not reference here, had become blurry.

It was with a little (a lot) reluctance that I eventually managed to muster the energy to pry myself out of bed, careful not to disturb the three fur balls still peacefully slumbering within the rumpled sheets.

In a daze, I stumbled into the adjoined bathroom and came face to face with my own disheveled appearance. My usually tidy hair was standing up in odd angles, I had two large visible circles under my eyes, and there were remnants of what could only be dried saliva staining the corner of my lips.

Suppressing a full body shudder, I proceeded to wash my face with abundant water, scrubbing it clean to the best of my ability. Now contemplating my slightly more presentable reflection, my eyes couldn’t help straying to where my lips had bruised from the repeated scrubbing.

‘That guy, just where in the world did he learn to kiss like that…?’ I wondered while absentmindedly rubbing my lips, ‘Come to think of it, that was my first…’

And just like that, the events from last night that I was trying so hard to push back all came rushing in at once, leaving me with no option but to put my head under the running faucet in a last ditch attempt to cool my head down and dispel my mind of all unnecessary /scratch impure/ thoughts.

‘Shit shit shit. What the fuck is happening. What the fuck is wrong with me?!’

It’s one thing for Yoo Joonghyuk to do what he did, I mean, I didn’t really get why he did that, but anyways, I shouldn't be entertaining any reaction to it.

Okay, so he took me by surprise, but still, this wasn’t right. I should do something about it. Put my foot down, draw the line, something like that…

This was likely a case of an unfortunate crush. Like the type little kids get towards their school teacher and stuff. I just so happened to be the one to take care of Yoo Joonghyuk for a few years and so he’s confusing familial love with romantic interest, that’s all. As the mature adult in this scenario, I ought to kindly reject his misguided, uh, affections . It was only right for me as his former master- I mean, companion .

I tried to picture sitting Yoo Joonghyuk down and having this conversation… No way, I couldn't do it.

I thought of enlisting someone to help me break it up to him, just in case he refused to listen. Not that I thought that he would get violent with me, but I was still scared of being alone with him for reasons I was not prepared to admit.

I mean, rationally speaking, there was still a chance that he was fucking with me, right? Like, that was totally something that he would do, right?

(No it wasn’t).

But what did I know?

It dawned on me that I practically didn’t know anything about Yoo Joonghyuk.

I knew Yoo Joonghyuk as a cat for sure. I knew what food he liked, his favorite nap spots, the games that he enjoyed, and where he liked to be scratched.

This Yoo Joonghyuk, the human Yoo Joonghyuk who got angry at me one moment and k- kissed me the next, him I didn’t know.

I was an idiot for thinking that I did, that I knew any of them.

If only I had never gotten into that accident (if only they had stayed as normal cats ).

I felt a pang of horrified guilt at my own despicable thoughts, right before laughing somewhat humorlessly.

That’s right, I was originally such a person.

How could I possibly return (deserve) his affection like this?

I simply didn’t have the qualifications.

Once done feeling sorry for myself, I emerged from the bathroom to find Shin YooSung, Biyoo, and Lee Gilyoung huddled together, their expressions etched with concern, likely having sensed something wrong after having taken too long. I held back a grimace, innerly cursing their sharp instincts.

After a brief pause, likely in which they all took in my sorry appearance, YooSung spoke up first, her voice filled with apprehension, "Ahjussi, is everything alright? Did something happen?"

Having failed to come up with a convincing excuse, I offered them a faint smile, hoping it was enough to ease their concerns. "Everything's fine. I just needed a moment to freshen up." I patted YooSung's head gently before turning to Biyoo and Gilyoung. "Hey, how about we go down for breakfast? There’s probably still a lot of leftover desserts from last night. What do you say?"

The kids' faces lit up at the mention of breakfast, their worries momentarily forgotten (Or at least, they pretended to for my sake, which I was all too grateful for). We all made our way down to the dining room, where we found Persephone and Yoo Mia already sitting down, waiting with an assortment of sweets and desserts as well as tea and beverages laid on the table.

“What took you so long?” Yoo Mia’s glare was full of impatience, apparently annoyed with our tardiness. I was surprised, both at her presence, and at the fact that she would even wait for us instead of simply digging in. Although on second thought, It figures that no matter how spoiled Yoo Mia was, she still knew to behave herself in front of the matron of the house. After all, I knew first hand just how seriously Persephone took everything involving food, table manners included.

“Ah, sorry to keep you waiting,” I bowed my head apologetically. Mia clicked her tongue with irritation, reluctantly accepting my half-assed apologies, even if only so she could get on with her breakfast. “But Mia-ya, I thought you left with your brother…?” I finally asked what was on my mind after a brief pause, eyes watching out for a certain looming figure while my heart beat erratically in my chest. ‘Wait a moment, he’s not here is he? I’m not ready yet…!’

“Tch, and you still dare to ask?” Mia snapped back angrily, something about my question setting her off for some reason, “Stop acting stupid and take responsibility for once, you ugly squid!”

“...Huh?”

“Hey brat, don’t speak to Hyung like that!”, “Ahjussi is not ugly!” Gilyoung rose up in my defense together with Shin Yoosung.

“Yoo Mia, behave yourself.” Persephone admonished her, voice level but commanding authority in a way that was automatically effective. After Mia had settled down, the matriarch redirected her attention towards me, “Dear… did anything happen between you and Joonghyuk-ssi recently?”

“...Cough-!” I almost choked on a piece of toast, shocked at the sudden turn of the conversation. “Excuse me, by ‘anything’ you mean…?”

Seeing my not-at-all-overblown reaction, Persephone let out a long suffering sigh. “I thought as much, for it to be brought forward like this, it can’t be just a simple stress response,” she concluded. “Dokja-ya, you should refrain from seeing or visiting Mr. Yoo for the time being. He’s not in a state to entertain guests at this time.”

I raised an incredulous eyebrow at her words. That’s all nice and well, since I was planning on avoiding him in the first place, but I couldn’t ignore the implications of her cryptic statement, part curiosity and part worry rising up in my chest. “Um, I’m sorry Persephone-ssi, I don’t understand, did something happen to Yoo Joonghyuk…?” 

“She means that that hornball finally blew his top,” a familiar voice quipped sarcastically, “You better listen to her and don’t come over for a few days, unless you wanna end up like the squeaky rat chewing toy you brought over that one time.”

“Han Sooyoung?” I looked over in surprise as she pulled over a chair and slumped down unceremoniously, “I didn’t know you were still here…”

“Hey! Why shouldn’t I be here, huh?” she protested with her mouth already full of carrot cake (at which Persephone was glaring pointedly), “If anything, you should thank me for warning you away from wrapping yourself up like a present for that bastard’s claws to shred!”

“Wait wait, slow down, let's start over” I urged her, “What’s wrong with Yoo Joonghyuk, why can’t I visit him…?” Not that I was planning to, but all the crypticness didn’t bode well with me.

Seeing my genuinely frustrated expression, Han Sooyoung finally calmed down and slowly finished chewing the cake in her mouth, washing it all down with a few sips of tea before clearing her throat. “Because he’s in heat, you idiot, do I really have to spell it out for you?” she said in the most droll, deadpan voice, as if she were saying that Yoo Joonghyuk had caught a simple cold, or that he had the stomach flu, or something else that’s normal and not... 

“W-what?!” I goggled.

“No way, that bastard is?!”, “Eek, Ahjussi you should stay back and hide!” Gilyoung and Yoosung rose up at the same time with similar degrees of shock and urgency. Mia on her part made a show of rolling her eyes at their antics but didn’t otherwise react, silently acknowledging Han Sooyoung’s words as veridic.

“Sooyoung, while I appreciate you trying to ease Dokja into the details of Evolutionary species’ physiology, I don’t think this is a conversation to be having over the dining table,” Persephone scolded in a serious tone, “Or in the presence of children, for that matter.”

“Tch, it’s not like I’m delighted to go over the nitty gritty details either,” Han Sooyoung leaned back on her chair, arms crossed in a bratty show of defiance,“But if I’m not clear enough, this idiot here will end up walking right into the panther’s den!”

“Wait a moment, so let me get this clear,” I dragged her attention back to the subject at hand, unable to wrap my head around the situation, “You’re saying Yoo Joonghyuk is in… heat?”

“Yeah that’s right,” she acquiesced, “Now can we stop talking about it? I’m on the verge of losing my appetite.”

“No, but,” I scratched my head in confusion, “I thought male cats didn’t have heats….?”

“Haha, does that guy still seem like a regular cat to you? Poor bastard,” Han Sooyoung scoffed, finding delight in her fellow cat-shifter’s misery. “Heats for Evolutionary species are not the same as with un-evolved creatures, both male and female can suffer from them. If you really want to know, you should consult Naver, or better yet, that doctor lady friend of yours. She’s the one with the freaky obsession with the subject.”

Doctor… Did she mean Lee Seolhwa…? “But if he’s… like that, why aren’t any of you having the same problem-?”

“I said go ask someone else!” she snapped, “Now if you mind, let me enjoy my goddamn breakfast in peace already!”

…But if you were the one to bring it up in the first place.

“Ahjussi doesn’t have to worry about it,” Yoosung jumped up to comfort me after seeing my disgruntled expression, quickly followed by Gilyoung “Yeah, that sooty bastard can take care of it by himself, he’s not good enough to be Hyung’s mate, anyways!”

Mia flares up at those words, quickly rising in defense of her brother’s honor, “What are you talking about bug face! It’s the Squid Ahjussi who’s not good enough for my Oppa!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yuh-huh!”

The childish squabbling faded to the background as my mind lingered on the last word on Gilyoung’s lips, running circles around it.

Mate…

Yoo Joonghyuk had said the same thing too, back when he-

…

Nevermind.

Anyways, I had to look up what the term meant. In the context of evolutionary-species obviously. Because it couldn’t possibly mean what I thought.

…I really hoped it didn’t mean what I thought

It was only after the kids had left for school, safely escorted by the Underworld family’s driver, that I dared to start my research on the subject. By ‘research’ meaning doing exactly as Sooyoung suggested, looking it up on Naver that is.

Not that I didn’t consider giving Lee Seolwha a call, but it’s safe to say that I would rather avoid having that conversation with her, if possible. Before that I wanted to dispel the most embarrassing queries through the safe haven of the internet, where no one could see or judge my reaction to the information I was about to glean.

Tucked away in my temporary room, I spent an embarrassing long time staring at the blank search bar before daring to type out the words 'Evolutionary species, heat’, and then hesitated for yet another few minutes, bracing myself for what the search results would reveal (please, please, let it not be porn), and finally hit enter.

Once the results started to load, I didn’t scroll down enough to risk stumbling onto anything beyond PG rating, and immediately clicked on the first safe looking link, a medical encyclopedia page brimming with technical jargon and anatomical diagrams. Perfect, nothing to kill any and all sensuality quite like the stuff out of a middle school sex-ed textbook. Satisfied with my choice, I skimmed through the first few pages of the (frankly quite boring) article before stopping on a certain paragraph.

‘Once sexual maturity is reached, it’s not uncommon for Evolutionary species to experience periods of Estrus (i.e, heats). The Estrus experienced by Evolutionary species is a lot similar to that of a lot of unevolved mammals, such as cats and dogs, with some differences. According to research, it may vary from individual to individual, but has proved to increase in intensity in the case of mated Evols (i.e, evolutionary species) and Evols with an available partner as compared with unmated Evols. The above data suggest that, unlike the case of unevolved species, either sexual or romantic attraction play a considerable role in the body’s physiological reaction. (For more information, read Dr Lee’s study here).

A dditionally, it has been theorized with substantial evidence that there’s a certain correlation between Evolution order and the intensity, frequency, and overall duration of the estrus period, with high orders experiencing less frequent estrus with considerable control over the initial phase. Although this may appear as an advantage, medical professionals’ general consensus is that the evolutionary species of all orders avoid suppressing their natural instinct and find sexual release in a safe environment to the best of their ability, otherwise they may develop symptoms of sexual frustration and irritability, which will in turn cause each consequent estrus to spike in intensity, and in some cases may experience a general lack of inhibition and decrease in cognition, leaving little aside of the primal instinct to mate. As for overall duration, most heats tend to last for an approximate of three to five days, but in some cases they may last for about a week or more depending on the accumulated desire and availability of a partner, especially if said partner were to be the subject’s elected mate (See more info).’

As I read further into the article, I felt my face heat up in embarrassment as it became apparent that this heat thing was exactly what it sounded like. Afraid of letting my imagination wander too far into inappropriate territory, I hurriedly clicked on the link expanding on the subject of these so-called mates, hoping to escape to safer ground while simultaneously clearing up more of my doubts.

‘In the case of most species, a "mate" typically refers to a partner selected for reproductive purposes. Mating systems vary across species, but in the case of both humans and evolutionary-species, mate selection is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors. However, for evolutionary-species, the concept of “mate” may also carry the implication of a life-commitment. It is unknown just where such a category originated, but from what is known since evolutionary-species appeared, the concept is commonly recognized among Evols of all orders and types, some of which describe it as a bond not unlike marriage for humans, except perhaps more permanent and driven by biological instincts which only evolutionary-species appear to possess or understand.

Mating is central to evolutionary processes, promoting reproductive success through the transfer of genes. Reproductively, it has been observed that Evolutionary-species show little difference to humans’ biology, and are compatible to them both genetically and physiologically. Traditionally, sexual selection drives the preference for traits that indicate genetic fitness, such as physical attractiveness or resource acquisition. Evolutionary-species, particularly those of high-order, often exhibit sexual dimorphism similar to that of humans, where males and females have distinct physical or behavioral traits to attract mates. This goes to show that the way evolutionary-species have evolved to resemble humans and adapted to their social system may influence future mate-selection for both species.

So far, there have already been many documented cases of cross-species mating, most of which offspring were born with no apparent genetic drawbacks at least until the day of this study, and inheriting in most cases the same if not similar physiognomy to their evolutionary-species parent. Considering the above, it may be the case that we as humans may be heading towards a future where we evolve to the same standard to that of evolutionary-species through a process of sexual selection-’.

Wait wait wait wait-!

M-marriage… Cross-species m-mating… O-offspring-?!

I shook my head in disbelief. No way, it couldn’t be right?

I looked back at the article hoping I had read it wrong, but no matter how many times my eyes scoured through the screen, the words didn’t change.

Fuck… so it wasn’t just a weird romantic fiction subgenre, cross-species relationships were really a thing?

I couldn’t come to terms with just how much society had progressed these past two years. I had felt that the speed of acceptance of evolutionary-species was crazy enough, but this ?

Was I really the only one who found it weird?

I considered searching on the net for like-minded people, but I was afraid of inadvertently stumbling into a cesspool of bigots, race-purists, and the such, which wasn’t really something I wanted to see. I loved my cats and I was glad for their right to mingle with human society in any way they saw fit. I just felt a bit uncomfortable with the idea of creatures that, no-matter their appearance, were only normal housepets until just a few years ago forming romantic and sexual relationships with full-grown humans.

If it was any of them wanting to settle down or date some random guy or girl, I don’t know if I could find it in myself to approve, much less with me. No matter Yoo Joonghyuk’s outward appearance, he was still only a seven year old cat, I couldn’t look at him and not remember that grumpy little ball of fluff from once upon a time.

But still, I didn’t want to hurt him, and I didn’t want Yoo Joonghyuk to think that I didn’t take his feelings seriously, even misguided as they were.

God, I needed someone to run this all with, a human someone.

Suddenly I remembered Lee Seolhwa and all her knowledge on evolutionary-species. Although embarrassing, she didn’t seem like a bad choice.

Wait a minute, Lee Seolhwa… Dr. Lee…

With a foreboding feeling, I scrolled back to the part of the article which mentioned a certain Dr. Lee’s research and clicked on their academic profile.

‘Dr. Lee Seolhwa is a renowned medical researcher specializing in evolutionary biology, focusing on reproductive habits, genetics, and sociological factors across species. She is particularly recognized for her work on the genetic underpinnings of mate choice, sexual dimorphism, and the role of social hierarchies in reproductive success, with applications ranging from animal and human behavior to evolutionary-species health.

Among her key publications, Dr. Lee’s work " Genetic Underpinnings of Mate Choice and Its Evolutionary Significance" and "Sociobiology of Reproductive Cooperation" have garnered significant attention. These studies examine how genetic compatibility and cooperative breeding influence reproductive success in evolutionary-species and humans. Her paper “The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary-Species Reproductive Health: Insights from Evolutionary Biology" applies evolutionary theory to evolutionary-species fertility and reproductive health, further cementing her position as a leader in the integration of evolutionary biology with medical research.’

Huh…

Figures as much, was what I thought with a mix of shock and dry amusement as I searched through my contacts and sent her a quick text asking to talk.

Sure enough, there was likely no one to walk me through this whole matter better than her.

Chapter Text

Standing in front of the towering white building with the letters ‘Eden Hospital’ spelled out in bold over the front door, I debated whether it was too late to turn tail and run.

Honestly, if it was up to me, this was one place I would rather not willingly visit if possible. I sighed, recalling all my bad memories regarding hospitals. I should have known that Lee Seolhwa would take the chance to turn my request to talk into a medical check-up.

I can’t keep stalling this conversation, I thought. Otherwise Yoo Joonghyuk is going to catch me unprepared again next time, with his so-called ‘pursuing’. I blatantly refused to entertain thoughts of what this ‘pursuing’ would entail. (No, I wasn’t going to imagine it!)

Once I checked myself in with the reception desk, I was quickly welcomed by the enthusiastic blonde clerk. “Oh yes, Mr. Kim! Dr. Lee has been waiting for you. She’s in her office on the top floor, first aisle to the left!”

Yet another blonde… I thought, wondering if she was also an Evolutionary-species like most of the other staff. Remembering Uriel, the quirky dove-type Evol from my previous hospital stay, I wondered whether I would bump into her this time as well. Not that I had anything against her, but I hoped my visit this time would go as quietly as possible.

After getting lost once or twice— okay, perhaps it was a few more times; sue me, this place was huge and all the corridors looked the exact same —I finally found my way to Lee Seolhwa’s office.

“Ah, Dokja-ssi, you’re finally here,” she greeted me as soon as I knocked on the ajar door. “I’ve been meaning to check on your recovery. It’s been a few days since your last appointment, has it not? How are you holding up?”

“Uh… yeah, I mean, I’m doing pretty good, all things considered,” I replied, scratching my head. “Come to think of it, I rarely rely on crutches lately; I can pretty much walk normally most times.”

“Uh-huh, is that so? That’s great to hear,” she responded, jotting something down on her clipboard. “What about your food intake, did you have any trouble adjusting to a solid diet?”

“Umh…” I thought back to my meals, most of which were carefully monitored by either Yoo Joonghyuk or the Underworld couple. Other than my generally small appetite, there haven’t been any problems. “Not really no.”

“Have you experienced any particular discomfort? Such as pain, soreness, indigestion, insomnia, anxiety, auditory or visual hallucinations…?”

“Wha—?” I stammered, caught off guard. “Uh, no, I mean, I’ve been feeling a bit tired and on edge, I guess, but I thought it was mostly because of, well, everything going on.”

“Yes, I can imagine why you may think that’s the case,” she said, her eyes softening. “I’m glad to hear that your recovery is steady. Your body has shown exceptional adaptation to the medication; it’s worth celebrating.”

“Huh, is that so?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. Come to think of it, I certainly noticed that my recovery had been a bit… fast. Perhaps abnormally so. I mean, I wasn’t a medical expert, but you would think something like a two-year-long coma would take longer than a couple of weeks to bounce back from.

“Well, considering that you managed to walk here without mobility aid, you’ve recovered well beyond my expectations. This is something of a medical achievement,” she continued, a smile creeping onto her face. “Dokja-ssi, would you mind letting me run some tests? It would be useful for my research.”

“Research…?” I echoed, confusion evident in my voice.

“Yes. As you may know, this hospital is a front-runner when it comes to evolutionary-species medicine. Recently, we have started to include newly developed medication incorporating some aspects of the evolutionary species’ natural healing factor into treatments. It’s in its experimental stage as of yet, but so far, it has shown outstanding results.”

“You mean to say… that you used me as a guinea pig?!” I exclaimed, my eyes widening in disbelief.

“Ah, in a way that’s correct, I suppose,” she admitted, looking slightly apologetic. “But rest easy, I’ve only administered the medication in small, controlled doses. Besides, I’m confident in my research, and so is your family, as a matter of fact. You could say that it’s thanks to their cooperation and generous donations that we’ve managed to make this much progress in the experimental treatment—and so soon at that.”

“Wha—?” I interrupted, feeling overwhelmed. “Cooperation? You mean they were in on it, and agreed?!”

“Well, yes,” she replied, her tone serious. “Not that it didn’t take some serious convincing. I had to provide solid proof that it was a viable option, with little to no side effects. Additionally, you had already been in a coma for over eight months at the time, and it was unknown when you would wake up, if at all. So it was only reasonable that they would cling to what little hope there was that your condition would improve. I hope you don’t hold it against them”

“That is… I mean, I understand; it’s just that,” I sighed, running a hand through my hair in obvious frustration. I wasn’t mad at them, I didn’t have any right to be, I was just… conflicted. “Ugh, I don’t know. Everything is so strange and new with this whole evolutionary species thing. I don’t get anything that’s going on half the time these days.”

“I can imagine,” she replied empathetically. “You can ask me anything, you know? Or didn’t you come here today for that reason.”

“Uh, well, I mean, yeah…” I replied, caught off guard by her forwardness. “I’m not sure where to even start… I heard that you’re an expert in evolutionary-species biology, is that right?”

“As much as you can be an expert in such a novel field, I suppose that’s right,” she said with a thoughtful nod. “Let me guess, are you perhaps concerned about the evolutionary species’ reproductive habits?”

“How did you—?!” My eyes widened in surprise. “Did you hear it from Persephone-ssi?”

“No, but I could very well guess,” she replied, a teasing smile on her lips. “Judging from your flustered reaction, I must have hit the mark. Did Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi go into heat, perchance?”

“Wh-wh-what-? How-?!” I stammered, my face heating up.

“Suffice to say that I have seen enough of my share of estrus that I can more or less tell the signs,” she explained, her tone matter-of-fact. “In Yoo Joonghyuk’s case, this should only be his second since evolving, but I was there to document the first, at least as much as he allowed me to. Which was enough to bring about great progress to my research. Second-orders are not easy to come by, and unmated ones, even less so.”

“Wait, wait, wait—!” I interrupted, reeling at her choice of words. “What do you mean by d-document…?”

“What do I mean?” she asked, her expression playful. “I wrote down his symptoms, ran some tests and blood work, that kind of thing. Or were you perhaps thinking of something else…?”

“No! It’s nothing; forget it…” I quickly replied, embarrassed.

“I did offer to help him out with it that one time, in case that’s what you were alluding to,” she continued, her smile fading slightly. “He flat out rejected me, of course.”

“W-wait, by help out, you mean…?!” I asked, my heart racing. No way, it couldn’t really be ‘that’, could it?

“Exactly as it sounds,” she said, her tone light but serious. “I didn’t know the relationship between the two of you at the time, so I just thought it was a good opportunity to examine a second-order’s estrus behavior up close. But don’t worry; Yoo Joonghyuk made it clear that he had a chosen mate already and would not betray him under any circumstances.”

“A-are you serious?” I replied, trying and failing to digest the metaphorical bomb that she just had so lightly dropped on me, ‘ Seolhwa…with Yoo Joonghyuk…?’ “Isn’t that kind of… unethical, you know, him being your patient and all?”

“Perhaps,” she admitted, her gaze steady. “But I also think of him as a friend, like I do with all of you. I could see him suffering, and it’s not like I found him repulsive. You can rest easy, though; it was just a fleeting whim of the past, nothing you should concern yourself with.”

“That’s not the part I’m taking issue with—!” I blurted out, feeling my whole body turn red like a ripe tomato, while simultaneously feeling something bitter like bile rising up from deep in my chest. I ignored it. “I mean, don’t you find it… strange? To have th-that kind of relationship with a different species…?”

“Mhm? Strange how exactly?” she asked, tilting her head slightly. “Sexually mature evolutionary species, especially those of high order, are perfectly conscious and fully capable of giving consent. There’s little moral ambiguity to worry about.”

“Yeah, but still—!” I protested.

“Dokja-ssi,” she said gently, “I understand that everything is new to you and that the concept of interspecies relationships might be hard to wrap your mind around right now. It’s also perfectly fine if you don’t feel comfortable pursuing such a relationship yourself,” her face took on a serious mien, “But I hope you can get rid of the prejudice that evolutionary species are a less emotionally developed lifeform. If you don’t feel the same for Joonghyuk-ssi, you are free to reject him, but don’t let it be because you are unable to take his emotions seriously or see your conditions as unequal. I’m sure that would hurt him much more than simply having his feelings be unrequited.”

I stared at her, heat prickling under my skin as shame crept in, slow and suffocating. I could feel the blood draining from my face. “Th-that’s not— I didn’t mean—”

“You don’t need to explain yourself to me, Dokja-ssi.” She waved off my stammering with a soft smile. “I just think you ought to take a closer look inward before trying to lay your feelings bare to Joonghyuk-ssi. He may be a bit of a brute, but even he deserves that much honesty—don’t you think?”

“...You’re right. Thank you, Seolhwa-ssi.” I bowed.

“Don’t mention it.” Her smile deepened, warm and unbothered. “Now then, let’s move on to your blood sample, shall we? Please, raise your arm.”

By the time Lee Seolhwa finished running her tests, the sun had hit its lowest point in the sky—and so had my patience. I barely waited for her to say we were done before making a beeline for the door.

Which is how I ended up crashing face-first into Uriel.

“Oof—! Dokja-ssi! I’m so sorry!” she blurted, scrambling to help me up as I lay sprawled on the floor like a discarded rag doll. She, of course, hadn’t even stumbled. Damn Second-orders. “I didn’t mean to scare you! I just heard from Azrael that you were here with Seolhwa-unnie and rushed over without thinking—”

“Uriel… It’s fine. I just didn’t see you there,” I said, brushing myself off. “Did you need something?”

“N-no! I just… I wanted to see you,” she admitted, fidgeting. “It’s been a while since your last visit. Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah. Seolhwa says everything looks good,” I replied.

“Oh, that’s a relief!” she said, beaming. Then, hesitantly, “Did Joonghyuk-ssi not come with you…?”

“No, it’s just me today.” I tilted my head. “Why? Were you hoping to see him?”

“N-no! That’s not what I meant!” she said, waving her hands frantically. “It’s just—he usually insists on sticking close to you, so I thought…”

“Right. Sorry about that,” I said with a sigh, wincing a little at the memory of Joonghyuk being… Joonghyuk. “He couldn’t make it today. He’s, uh... currently indisposed.” It’s not like I could tell her that he was cooped up in his apartment battling his way through his heat, could I?

Her eyes widened. “Wait—did something happen to him?”

“No! No, he’s fine,” I said quickly. “Just... busy with something. He’ll be back to annoying me in no time.”

“Come to think of it,” I added, “you were a fan of his, weren’t you, Uriel-ssi?”

“Ah, yes! But don’t worry—I’m nothing like those wife-fan types, really!” she said, flustered but determined. “My admiration is mostly innocent! Honestly, I’m a much bigger fan of your relationship. You two are just so dreamy together—!”

Normally, I wouldn’t have paid any mind to Uriel’s senseless fangirling, but for some reason, in that moment her words struck like a pebble to glass—small, but sharp enough to splinter something underneath.

I forced a laugh, but it sounded thin to my own ears. “Dreamy, huh. That’s one word for it.”

Uriel paused, her smile faltering. “Ah… did I say something wrong?”

“No, it’s fine,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck, suddenly guilty for troubling her with my nonsense. “It’s just… don’t you think that Yoo Joonghyuk should be with someone more…?” I trailed off, trying to gesture vaguely with my hand.

“More…?” Uriel echoed, tilting her head.

More deserving.

“You know… on his level?” I clarified hesitantly.

Uriel gasped. “What do you mean? You two are perfectly suited for each other!” she exclaimed, eyes wide with passion. “You are warm where he is cold, you are polite where he is rude, you are kind where he is pragmatic, you are amicable where he’s closed off—!”

I blinked, mildly stunned. Now why does that sound like you're insulting him? I thought you were his fan?

“Whereas he is good at caring and providing for you where you are terrible at taking care of yourself,” she continued, counting points on her fingers, “he is stubborn and knows what he wants as opposed to you, who have trouble making up your mind—”

“Ouch,” I muttered under my breath.

“—and more importantly,” she added with finality, “you both are good-looking in contrasting, different ways! In sum, you two are like puzzle pieces that match perfectly and make up for what the other lacks! Isn’t that wonderful?!”

I stood in shocked silence as she panted, catching her breath after the impassioned speech. Just… how did she glean all that information about our dynamic from the few interactions she had seen?

I guessed I shouldn’t have underestimated the power of a fangirl. Or the power of imagination.

Once Uriel recovered, her face turned tomato red, clearly embarrassed by her own outburst. “Oh my god, I’m sorry, Dokja-ssi!” she said, bowing slightly. “I just… got a bit excited there, heh. But I still mean it. Don’t put yourself down, okay? I know Joonghyuk-ssi would hate it if he heard you talk about yourself that way!”

I laughed dryly. If that guy were here, we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place.

If he had heard me, he probably would’ve given me that look— the look he used whenever he thought I was being dense—and said something along the lines of: “You’re an idiot, Kim Dokja.”

I wasn’t an idiot though. Or at least, I wasn’t as oblivious as I sometimes pretended to be.

I just… didn’t know how to handle all these new relationships.

It was so much easier when they were just cats…

“Uriel-ssi…” I interrupted her softly, the knot in my chest tightening. “Sorry if this question comes off as inappropriate, but I was wondering—just what was it like for you? When you evolved, I mean?”

She blinked, surprised. “You mean on Evolution Day?”

I nodded.

“I was perching on a window ledge by the upper south wing, watching a kdrama over a patient’s shoulder,” she said, eyes distant with the memory. “I was looking forward to the much-anticipated kiss scene between the two leads, when suddenly—!”

“Ah, no,” I cut in, chuckling. “I didn’t mean the exact moment. I mean like… after. How did you deal with, well, everything ?”

“Hmmm…” she hummed, holding her chin in a thinking gesture. “Well, it was a bit scary at first. I suddenly had this new body that I didn’t recognize, and a bunch of new thoughts and sensations that I didn’t know what to do with. But thankfully I wasn’t alone. There were all the other angels with me, and Director Metatron, of course.”

Her expression softened.

“He was quick to take the reins and provide order. So after the initial chaos, things settled down quickly. You could say I had it easier compared to other Evols. I couldn’t imagine having to go through that alone, without anyone to guide me—!”

Something must have shown on my face, because she stopped herself mid-sentence and waved her hands in alarm.

“A-ah no! I didn’t mean to imply anything, Dokja-ssi! I know that in your case it couldn’t be helped—!”

I raised both my hands in a pacifying gesture. “Don’t worry, Uriel. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”

Her words still struck true, though. I couldn’t stop picturing my company in that situation… scared, alone. I shook my head in an attempt to dispel the thought.

“That… you mentioned Director Metatron. Is he not also an evolutionary species?” I asked, more curious now than before.

Uriel blinked, then broke into laughter—a bright, bell-like sound that seemed to lift the weight in the room for a moment.

“Hehehe, did he give you that impression?” she giggled. “No, actually, Sir Metatron was the one to raise the doves that later became us angels,” she revealed.

Wait, really?

“Although to us, he’s more like a mentor-like figure than a master. Well, he’s also our legal boss, so there’s that too.”

I tried to imagine what that would be like. Wait a second—my cats were also my employees once, sort of, when I was running the café… So how come they didn’t treat me with that much respect?

Did I perhaps spoil them too much?

“If he’s in an authoritative position over all of you, did you by any chance sign one of those Dependent Raising Agreements?” I probed.

Uriel giggled again, clearly amused. “No, of course not. I remember when asked, Sir Metatron’s words were, and I quote: ‘Why would I need something like that, when employment contracts already exist?’”

Huh. Maybe I needed to take a page out of his book. Next time Yoo Joonghyuk tried to hound me about signing an agreement, I should tell him to work for it by laboring in the café. I was sure he would make for an excellent cook.

( I was just kidding though. I couldn’t possibly ask him to put aside his very successful career to work for me. But still… a man can dream. )

“Uriel-ssi…” I began, feeling that strange knot of anxiety return. “As an evolutionary species, don’t you find romantic relationships between an Evol and their previous master a bit… inappropriate?”

“Hm?” she blinked at me. “How would it be inappropriate?”

I stared at her, caught off-guard.

“On the contrary,” she continued cheerfully, “among interspecies relationships, an Evol falling for their former master is one of the most common cases! I myself think it’s super romantic!” she added, scrunching her nose. “Not that I would ever feel that way about Director Metatron…”

Her expression shifted into a dreamy smile. “But in your case? It’s like the stuff of a romance novel. I support it 100 percent!”

I laughed awkwardly.

I too had thought that my situation resembled the premise of a trashy romcom, but unlike Uriel, I had a less rose-colored and optimistic view of it. My experience with life (and lack of experience with romance) made me helplessly cynical like that.

And yet, Seolhwa’s earlier words still rang in the back of my mind—that I owed it to Yoo Joonghyuk to take his feelings seriously, not like a kid with a crush.

So now I had to do my best to untangle the mess of conflicting emotions in my brain, and figure out an answer for him—one that, hopefully, wouldn’t ruin everything forever.

I couldn’t risk losing whatever was left of our relationship… no matter what form it had taken.

The rest of the week passed in a blur of activity—family lunches and dinners, outings, and countless meetings with nearly every member of the company, sometimes one-on-one, other times in groups, whenever they could tolerate each other’s presence for more than an evening. All except for one, of course.

Despite being so busy that I barely had time to do anything besides crawl into bed and sleep—perhaps occasionally sneaking in a few chapters of one of Han Sooyoung’s novels (which, I’ll admit, are surprisingly entertaining… not that I’d ever tell her that)—my mind kept drifting to the one person I hadn’t seen in days.

It felt surreal. After getting so used to his constant, overbearing presence, his absence was almost tangible, like the air itself had a Yoo Joonghyuk-shaped hole in it. Every room I walked into felt just a little emptier.

I wasn’t ready to admit that I missed him. And I definitely shouldn’t have been wondering what he was doing now (if I let myself linger on the thought too long, I was sure I’d combust).

So I did the next best thing to quell my anxiety: I watched his old streams.

It might’ve been pathetic—and I would die of embarrassment if anyone ever found out (especially Yoo Joonghyuk himself)—but it helped. Kind of. Seeing his face—cold and devastatingly handsome—and hearing his voice as he explained his gameplay strategies, it was like a temporary balm to the phantom ache that had settled in me these past few days. By the end of the week, I had practically binged his entire channel.

That’s how, one day, I misclicked while searching for one of Joonghyuk’s match replays… and accidentally landed on a fan forum.

Specifically, a thread titled:
“THE YOO JOONGHYUK THIRST ZONE™ – cat ears, game plays, and god-tier pecs (18+)”

I should have closed it immediately. I didn’t.

What followed was a descent into a world I was entirely unprepared for.

[ulti4life]: i don’t care how cold he acts on stream, you just know he’s the type to tie your shoelaces in total silence and then walk away like nothing happened 🥺
[godslapjoong]: this man’s APM is in the thousands and y’all wanna talk about his pecs???? okay actually nvm you’re right
[catboyyjh]: i will NEVER recover from the day his ears popped out on stream. idc if it was an accident. those were real. he’s a cat-shifter and i’m down bad.

Attached was the clip. And, well… I clicked play.

It was from over a year ago. He’d been doing a post-match Q&A, leaning back in his chair, visibly exhausted, when he yawned—and there they were. Sleek, black ears flicked into view through his hair like it was nothing. He didn’t even notice at first. The chat, on the other hand, imploded.

He ended the stream less than a minute later. The damage was already done.

[obsessedndistressed] : when they twitched. when they TWITCHED.
[joonghyuksleftfang] : i’ve written six fics and commissioned three pieces of art about those ears alone.
[furypaws420] : y’all acting surprised like he doesn’t already have predatory energy. let the man HUNT me.

I mean, I always knew—logically—that Yoo Joonghyuk had fans. A lot of them. Thirsty fans (or “wife-fans,” as Uriel so lovingly called them). But still, something about it made my chest tighten. I should’ve stopped scrolling. I didn’t.

Then came the relationship theories.

[jihyecarry]: he and Lee Jihye lowkey bicker like a married couple. i’ve seen duo queue footage. there is tension.
[hansooyoungreal]: she writes one emotionally tortured protagonist with wavy black hair and a cat-like personality and we’re supposed to believe it’s not based on him???
[sangahsoftcore]: Yoo Sangah’s agency keeps denying it, but she’s always “randomly” at his bootcamp events. come on now.
[namwoonlives]: y’all sleeping on the Namwoon rivalry arc. it’s giving hate-fueled intimacy. it’s giving slow burn.

Someone had even drawn a flowchart. A color-coded relationship map titled:
“Joonghyuk and the People Who Might Be Sleeping With Him (Theories Only, Please Don’t Sue).”

Others were less speculative.

[joonghyukfanficdump]: imagine his ears twitching when you kiss him. just. think about that. [maingirl69420]: if i ever get to stroke his hair while he purrs i’m never recovering. this is my roman empire.
[meowhyuk]: i want to be his nest. i want him to curl up on top of me like a grumpy blanket. is that too much to ask.

I stared at the screen, slack-jawed.

They didn’t know him. Not really. Not the grumbling, antisocial cat who flinched away from touch and turned up his nose at my cooking. Not the awkward, stubborn man who seemed to take it as a personal insult whenever someone called him “cute.”
Who learned to cook just to return the favor.
Who got so worried about me he nearly committed a felony.
Who risked his career— his entire career —just to spend more time with me.
Who showed, again and again, in his clumsy, infuriating way, that he cared, and cared, and cared.

And yet to the internet, he was the ultimate fantasy—mysterious, lethal, feline, hot. Thousands of strangers fantasizing about stroking his ears, cuddling his tail, or being scratched during… things I absolutely didn’t want to imagine.

My ears were burning.

That’s when I stumbled across one of those fanfics in the thread.
I should’ve clicked away.

I didn’t.

Instead, I hit Next Chapter .