Chapter Text
It is not a rule, but kind of a fashion trend for witches to keep pets. Eccentric pets mostly, the poison of scorpions and spiders are ingredients of some rare potions, owls that can deliver letters, though nowadays witches are prone to use mobile phones--- modern technology is welcomed as well. Keeping them around also adds to the mysterious aura of the witch. "Keep your eyes away from me", their pets send out messages like that.
But Hongjoong never really thought about keeping a pet. He lives alone and needs company sometimes, that's for sure, but living with a little creature is an entirely different thing. He’s not sure of his ability to take care of the pets, nor to say his lifestyle is also messy, trying not to burn the house down while conducting his little experiments. As a beginner who just graduated from wizardry school, Hongjoong is preparing for his phase one QWT, as known as the Qualified Witch Test. This test is the reason why witches have a bad reputation of unstable mentality. It's desperately hard with many lessons, even if someone wants to quit, and decides to put the textbooks into hellfire as fuel, the flame will keep burning for like three days.
Undoubtedly, Hongjoong needs to work hard, so he throws himself into reciting things like wizard history and fundamental spells. He's not very skillful in broom riding either, with thermal sensors being used in the test, the difficulty grows.
The test takes up most of his time and Hongjoong puts trivial things aside, but if he was asked about his preference for pets (witches talk so much about it, sometimes judge people by their pets), Hongjoong would say, maybe a cat is what he wanted. Reptiles were never his favorite, and it takes quite a lot of energy to keep a snake. Insects like spiders are even worse, imagine the creepy legs and the webs they weave in your house. Bats are an option, but Hongjoong was not sure how to feed them because they live on fresh blood from animals. How does he deal with those corpses?
However, cats, like the classic black ones that always appear beside witches, don't have these flaws. They are quiet, clean themselves occasionally, and are easy to get along with. Hongjoong also attracted cats when he was in school.
There's an alley in town, which he and his classmates sometimes visit to get some soft drinks and candies. The street cats would follow him for no reason, even though Hongjoong was not holding any food in his hands. They just circled around Hongjoong, wagging their tails to show their affection to this stranger, and meowing happily when they were petted.
His teacher in the shapeshifting class said he had something beyond description, that cats like from nature, but Hongjoong doesn't have the talent for turning himself into an animal. He got a C from that class, that's the lowest score he ever received in school.
In a word, Hongjoong is not considering keeping a pet in his house.
Despite his preference for living alone, Hongjoong still gets surrounded by street cats when he walks on the way home. Some insisted on following him until Hongjoong opened the door, and needed to use a small spell to keep them away from his home.
“I’m so sorry, guys.” He lowered down and spoke to those meowing creatures. “You will ruin my precious books and specimens. No one is allowed to step in. Oh hey, take your paws off my wand please--- It’s not polite.”
This makes him feel bad actually, for Hongjoong is not a cold-blooded person afterall. He started to give some treats to the cats when he took a break from those huge books, smiling while watching them taking snacks in his hand. However, the number of cats grows, and Hongjoong sometimes has to put them in order, remembering their features to make sure everyone gets food equally.
Hongjoong sat on the doorstep, resting his chin on his hand, with his broom placed beside him, looking at the cats eating their treats in his free time. The afternoon sunlight shined on him, making Hongjoong warm and dizzy, maybe a little tired from the broom riding practice he had just done. He was about to close his eyes when he saw a new face in the crowd.
A black cat, different from the ones that followed him down the street, with its shiny black fur, so neat and tidy like someone brushes it every day. Its big round eyes looked straight into Hongjoong’s, glowing with a curious light.
“You are new.” Hongjoong said to the cat, “Are you here for some treats too?”
The cat mewed and came to him, stopped by Hongjoong’s boots. It stretched lazily and lay down, slowly wagging its tail. The cat doesn’t seem hungry, Hongjoong thought and smiled when he reached a hand to touch the cat’s fur. It felt good, and the cat purred in delight, obviously welcoming his touches.
“You look like a domestic cat. ”Hongjoongasked. “Who’s your owner?”
To his surprise, that cat got up from the ground and shook itself, as if it was answering his questions.
“So, you don’t have an owner.”
The cat meowed again, this time sounded like an affirmative response.
Hongjoong had never met a cat who was able to communicate with people before, he even thought the cat was a shapeshifter. But a rookie wizard as he was, Hongjoong can still tell the difference between a real cat and a fake one. Or maybe I have been with cats for some time that they started to understand my words, Hongjoong thought to himself, as the cat still looked at him and tilted its head towards his broom.
“You want to know what it is?” Hongjoongsaid, and realized he was actually asking the cat a question. The cat replied, encouraging him to keep going.
“It’s a broom for witches. Like a magical stick that can carry people and fly.”
Why am I explaining the broom to a cat? They don’t even understand what a stick is. Hongjoong almost felt stupid, but the cat got closer to him, looking at that broom but with no intention of playing with it. It’s observing the broom, more precisely to say, like a kid who wants to know about something.
Hongjoong was still a little puzzled about what he had just seen. The street cats would never interact with him like this one, but it didn’t have an owner. He whispered a small spell, looking through a filter that can distinguish shapeshifters from animals, but still in vain. In front of him was just a normal black cat.
An adorable one, to be honest, and it walked so elegantly, standing out in its kind. Humans can never refuse a fluffy animal like that, not to mention how innocent it looked when Hongjoong stared at it with doubt.
The sunlight was going dim and Hongjoong’s time was over, no matter how much he wanted to know about the cat, it was time he went back to those obscure magical theories. Hongjoong stood up, taking his broom in hand. The cat watched his move with its big eyes.
“I’m going home.” He said, feeling strange about this conversation. The cat mewed reluctantly, laying its face on Hongjoong’sankle.
Hongjoong knew that cats liked him, but this time it just felt different. This one was lovable, listened when Hongjoong talked to himself, and didn’t want to sharpen its claws on his wand. He felt an urge to ask where the cat was going to stay at night but didn’t do it at last. He could not risk all the books and the potions he just made to take this cat home. And they just met each other like an hour ago.
From the bottom of his heart, Hongjoong hoped that he could see this cat again tomorrow. He just couldn’t stop thinking about how it cute looked when Hongjoong talked to it. Maybe, if I know it better, it can be the one that I can keep in my house. Hongjoong thought to himself.
But it’s just a small wish, Hongjoong didn’t expect it to come true.
The next day, and the day after that, he met this cat again, and Hongjoong was growing his attraction to it. They would exchange small talks under the sunlight, of course, it was Hongjoong doing the talk, while the cat meowed and wagged its tail in response. Gradually he began to talk about all his worries about the important test, his love and hate of being a witch, and some new recipe that he found in the magical books, and he knew the cat was really listening to him. If it was a human, Hongjoong could never open his heart to someone this quickly, but the little cute creature had this magic to keep him going. Also, it’s magically healing when his fingers brush through the cat’s fur, and seeing it narrows its eyes in enjoyment.
His meeting with this cat became a routine after a week. Whenever they had a wonderful afternoon and were about to separate, Hongjoong had to use all his self-control, holding back the impulse to ask them to come home with him. The cat didn’t want to leave him either, but it never followed Hongjoong on the way back.
But this day felt a little weird. Hongjoong glanced through the crowd, counting the familiar faces of the cats, without finding the one in all black. It didn’t come to him that afternoon, and Hongjoong made all the guesses in anxiety. He knew that cats were free to go anywhere, but couldn’t stop thinking about if some bad accidents happened. The idea of never seeing the cat again was dragging his heart down like a hard rock in his chest, making Hongjoong feel upset.
He stayed for a few more times after the sun sank, hoping to see the cat showing up. Hongjoong let out a slight sigh when it went dark, and finally stood up from the stairs, thinking about going home alone. That’s when he heard a small meowing sound and stopped immediately.
He couldn’t hold back his smile when he saw the same black cat go back to where they first met. It leaned its body on Hongjoong affectionately, making his smile widen.
“Hey.” He spoke to the cat softly, “Where have you been?”
The cat’s big eyes looking at him, this time it’s sounding pitiful, made Hongjoong frown and petted it as a comfort.
“Something bad happened?”
Something bad did happen. When he got a closer look at the cat from the street light, he saw a wound on its back, still bleeding a little, staining its beautiful fur. It looked like a scratch from a wild beast, Hongjoong couldn’t imagine how painful it was to get hurt. The cat trembled when he tried to place his hand on the wound, sounding so fragile. If Hongjoong left it with an injury like this, the cat could not make it to the morning.
Hongjoong took off his scarf and squatted down, trying to make his move as tender as possible when he wrapped the cloth around the cat’s wound. It surely hurt, for the cat was almost in tears when Hongjoong was bandaging, but it endured the pain without complaining.
“It’s just a single patching up to stop you from bleeding, but if I don’t deal with it, the wound will get worse,” Hongjoong said to the poor little thing, feeling sorry for what it had been through.
“If you don’t mind, would you like to go home with me and let me take care of this?”
The cat meowed to him cheerfully, Hongjoong reckoned it as a happy yes.
It took Hongjoong some time to clean the wound thoroughly, apply some drugs to it, and gently cover it with a sanitized bandage. The black cat only complained once, when Hongjoong had to cut out the fur around the wound to prevent it from getting infected, he received a bitter reply from the cat, and Hongjoong smiled back at it.
“It’s going to grow back and your scar will never be seen, I swear. Do you trust me?”
The cat purred as a confirmation. Feeling the warmth of its flesh under his hand, for the first time in his life, Hongjoong started to feel a connection between him and another creature.
When they finally settled down, the cat took some food, and lay on his thigh, curling up in comfort. Hongjoong watched its eyes close sleepily, patting its head when a soft wind blew in his chest.
Witches always say that your path leads you to the destined animal that follows you for a lifetime. Maybe, keeping a pet is not that hard, Hongjoong told himself. His instinct was yelling at him to keep the cat, and beyond question, he could not ignore it.