Chapter Text
Minho
It wasn’t even noon yet and Minho was already sweating.
Why did I decide to move in the middle of summer again? he wondered as he balanced a pile of boxes in front of him, half-blinded by the sun and slightly tumbling.
He held the door with his foot and pushed it open with his shoulders and a cold breeze from the air conditioning hit his face mercifully. With a sigh, he placed the boxes on a nearby table and let his eyes wander across the room. When they landed on the three pet carriers on the ground, he smiled.
“Welcome home, guys.” He knelt down to open them and then watched his three loyal companions carefully step out into their new environment.
To Minho’s relief, instead of scared they seemed curious, roaming around the shop, examining the sparse furniture and cat condos that Seungmin and Felix had helped him set up a couple of days ago.
Dori was the first one to claim a spot on a hammock in the corner of the room close to the ceiling. Soonie and Doongie strayed back to Minho, throwing him expectant looks that indicated a desire for treats.
Rolling his eyes – but unable to suppress a grin –, Minho rummaged in one of the boxes marked as cat stuff until he’d found a bag of treats. He sat down on the floor cross-legged and pulled Soonie on his lap, burying his fingers in the soft, orange fur.
When he had finished his treats, Doongie directed a whiny meow at Minho, which Minho answered with a knowing nod. “Yeah, I’ve been wondering the same thing.” He looked at the half-empty café around him, at his new business – a lifelong dream that suddenly, in the implemented reality, seemed like a very reckless, incredibly naive idea.
“We’re in this together now, so you better be the cutest cats this city has to offer.” Minho brushed Soonie’s fur roughly and eventually buried his face in it to give his cat a kiss. “Because we have to win over a lot of customers!”
Soonie – protesting with a quiet grunt – freed himself from Minho’s grip and joined his brothers in the corner of the room, who’d found a loose button that looked particularly interesting.
“Great talk,” Minho muttered as he got up from the ground.
“You’re not talking to the cats again, are you?” The door opened with a soft chime as Seungmin stepped into the café, Felix following on his heels.
“Of course I am,” Minho answered, catching a box from Seungmin’s arms labelled plates before it hit the ground. “They’re my main business associates.”
“Ha ha.” Seungmin grinned at him, heading straight for the kitchen. “I thought we are your business associates?”
“You were just crazy enough to invest your money in me,” Minho called after him. “But those three adorable and elegant creatures will bring in the customers, and that’s what we depend on the most.”
“Elegant creatures, huh?” Felix asked, pointing at Dori who had managed to get caught in the hammock, chewing on his own tail.
“Wait.” Seungmin’s head appeared in the service hatch that connected front room and kitchen. “There are three?”
Minho stared at him for a second, convinced he was joking but Seungmin’s expression revealed genuine confusion. He must’ve seen something on Minho’s face – irritation perhaps, or something that might’ve resembled the sentiment of It’s not too late to fire you – because he offered his most apologetic smile and a small wave of his hand. “Just joking, of course I knew that.”
“Yeah?” Minho crossed his arms in front of his chest, unwilling to let his friend off the hook just yet. They’d known each other for years and Minho was pretty sure he’d spoken of his cats on multiple occasions. “What are their names?”
Seungmin’s smile faltered and his eyes flickered to Felix for help. Minho followed his gaze only to find Felix in a similar state of confusion and distress.
Minho felt the sudden urge to break one of the chairs and then have a very long nap.
Seriously guys?
Instead, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud – likely a result of constant stress and existential fear because he’d spent all of his savings on this place, moved into a new apartment and now his friends (and full-time employees) didn’t even remember the names of his cats.
Seungmin and Felix changed another look – this time more concerned about what would happen next.
Minho pinched the bridge of his nose and sucked in a breath, trying to calm the persistent thoughts of either breaking something or yelling. “You know what?” He smiled at his friends – perhaps a little too forced. “We’ll just make posters.”
Felix raised an eyebrow at him. “Posters?”
“One for each cat,” Minho explained as the idea took shape in his head. “With a picture and some general info.”
“You mean like a profile?” Seungmin cut in.
Minho nodded. “Exactly. When you’re done with the menu, you can take pictures of the cats and I’ll add some fun facts later.”
“Hey.” Felix placed a hand on his shoulder as Minho passed him with another pile of boxes. “It might seem scary now with everything still empty and unprepared, but the café will be running in no time, you’ll see. We didn’t take those barista courses for fun.” He grimaced, trying to keep a straight face but failing miserably as he remembered the countless cappuccino disasters before they’d perfected their craft. “And with all of Seungmin’s recipes? People have no other choice but to be obsessed with us.”
Minho reciprocated his friend’s smile. In that moment, he was grateful for Felix’s inexhaustible optimism. “I hope you’re right.”
He glanced at his three loyal companions in the back of the room, who were still busying themselves with the detached button. Something about them made him feel warm, already at home.
Felix was right, this was his dream, which he’d been saving for and planning for years. There was no other choice but to make it work.
Jisung
The sound of a wailing car horn stopped Jisung in his tracks, causing him to look up from his phone screen. He caught a glimpse of the passing driver who was tapping his forehead at him.
Jisung realized he’d been so absorbed in his office’s group chat that he hadn’t paid attention to the traffic and accidentally stepped onto the open street.
He lowered his phone regretfully and stuffed it in his leather bag, glimpsing up at the morning sun that was already burning down on him relentlessly. In thought, he cursed the dress code in his office that required him to wear a suit to work every single day and loosened his tie in the cooling shadows of a nearby building.
When he reached the neighbourhood of his workplace, he noticed a moving van parked in the middle of the street and three people carrying piles of boxes into a shop on the opposite side of his office building. As Jisung got closer, he could identify the shop as a café – more specifically, a cat café.
Jisung had never actually cared about cats – not that he had time for pets anyways; his new job was keeping him busy most days of the week. Plus, he was pretty sure he was allergic (although he couldn’t recall any memories of being close to a cat like … ever).
The café part of the new business, however, intrigued him. His lunch breaks had always been too short to eat out or drive somewhere because no restaurant was close by. And on the rare occurrences Jisung tried to prepare lunch for his break, it always ended with him either forgetting it completely and resorting to the (pretty sparsely stacked) vending machine in the office, or preparing it the day before and then forgetting to pack it in the morning (and then resorting to the vending machine in the office).
So, the newly opened cat café right there on the opposite side of his office building seemed to provide the perfect solution for his ongoing lunchbreak struggles.
He realized he’d been standing on the sidewalk and staring at the newcomers for several minutes as one of them – blonde hair and beaming smile – raised a hand to wave at him. Before Jisung could decide how to respond – he felt a little awkward at first, being caught staring – a second person stepped next to the van and forced the hand of his friend down, probably embarrassed about the gesture (but hard to tell from the distance).
The second young man had short brown hair, a warm shade that caught a gleam of sunlight directly from the sky. He was wearing a red-checked flannel that fell loosely around his shoulders, revealing a black tank top underneath. His face was expressionless, cold even, and although Jisung couldn’t really see it from a distance, he couldn’t help but look a beat longer than he intended to.
The stranger’s eyes flickered across the sidewalk, following Felix’s wave, until he found Jisung and held on to him for only a second – or was it longer than that?
Jisung thought, Is that the owner?
Then, immediately after, he thought, He’s handsome.
He turned around to enter the building, taking his phone from his bag and adjusting his tie. There were twenty unread messages in the group chat about a last-minute afternoon meeting, implying that Jisung would have to work overtime again. It didn’t even surprise him; he’d been staying late every single day for the past month.
When the door closed behind him, he couldn’t help but look over his shoulder to the new café. The strangers were gone but Jisung spotted a tabby cat behind the front window, resting on the window ledge and watching the outside world with curious intensity.
“Hey, you’re early!” A firm hand on his shoulder brought Jisung back to reality and he lost sight of the spying cat. When he turned, he was greeted by his colleagues Chan and Jeongin, who’d already passed him on the stairs.
“Did you see those guys out there?” Jeongin asked. “The cats are adorable!”
Jisung shot him a look. “You’ve met them?”
“The cats?” Jeongin grinned, leaning over the banister. “Chan wouldn’t let me, but I peeked through the window.”
Chan chuckled. “They’re not even open yet.”
“You’re just disappointed it’s gonna be a cat café and not a dog café,” Jeongin said, which Chan agreed to with a shrug and a nod.
“I actually meant the owners,” Jisung said. “Have you met them?”
“Nope.” Jeongin was already out of his sight, only his footsteps echoing through the stairwell. “But they look nice!”
Jisung recalled the beaming blonde stranger waving at him; then, his mind wandered to the second stranger who’d not even smiled. One of them definitely seemed nice, the other one …
His mind stumbled, unable to finish the thought. Well, he was probably overthinking this anyways.
“What about you?” Chan asked as they walked side by side to the office.
“Hm?”
Chan smirked. “Cats or dogs?”
“Oh.” Jisung chuckled, then shrugged. “I’ve never really thought about it, to be honest. No time for pets, you know.”
“Excuses!” Chan exclaimed, playfully folding his arms in front of his chest. “You’re with Jeongin, I can see it in your sorry eyes. Another cat lover!”
That made Jisung laugh out loud. “No, seriously. I’m probably allergic.”
“How can you be probably allergic?”
“I’m not interested in getting close enough to cats to find out,” Jisung said.
Chan laughed, holding the glass door open for him to enter another day of meetings and full calendars and never-ending emails. “Rough start for our new neighbours.”