Work Text:
“Who would you trust the most with your cats?”
“I'd leave them to Felix to look after.”
Fine. Completely normal. Just a simple question Chan asked at the beginning of a truth or dare to Minho before everything escalated badly.
Everyone in their friend group finished their respective exams and for those who worked they miraculously had all the weekend off so they let themself indulge in maybe too much alcohol, if the situation the day after said anything.
No one would remember it, or at least almost no one, just one person. Seungmin considers himself a man of rational and habit. He writes everyday something in his diary, he has his own routines that he follow religiously, he tries not to let his emotions take over him and say or do something he would definitely regret and when someone, or himself, is in front of an obstacle he tries to find a solution putting his mind first and then his heart.
Unfortunately, like every other human being he has his own flaws. One in particular is his feelings for a certain house cat and, to make things worse, his need to prove to said cat that he could be a potential partner and much more than just a friend.
The problem starts after he heard the answer, how could Minho think of him as a boyfriend if he doesn’t even think of him as someone who could take care of his cats, his brothers? Seungmin doesn’t even think Soonie, Doongie and Dori like him, let alone let him take care of them.
Seungmin is doomed for life. He is going to be single for the rest of his life and catless because surely every cat in this world hates him and then Minho will hate him too and- ok let’s stop it here.
When everyone finally went to sleep, his brain overthought that single question and answer not letting him sleep much. His poor brain worked overtime to find a solution to his problem, but came out with nothing. At the end, he had to admit that he in fact had no idea on how to take care of a cat, he never had one and to be honest he was more of a dog person.
As any normal person in this time and age, he started by searching online sites and articles about cats and how to make them love him. He even made a mental list of all the passages for his success: 1. make the cats at least tolerate his presence, 2. show Minho how good he is with his cats, 3. Minho will realise his undying love for Seungmin and they will finally be together and live happily ever after.
To achieve step one he needed to be alone with the cats so that he could then pass to step two, it would be too embarrassing trying to interact with Minho’s cats in front of Minho and the cats straight up rejected him. It would have the opposite effect.
—
The first opportunity came two days after the night that started it all. Minho had made a reservation to a japanese restaurant that he should’ve gone with one of his friends that returned from a trip in America, but his friend couldn't make it so he asked Seungmin if he would have liked to go with him. Seungmin, after finding out that it coincidentally was a restaurant he wanted to try for some time, accepted. (and because he would never decline to hang out with Minho, he would take anything the older will give him.)
Minho proposed for them to go together, so Seungmin offered to meet him at his apartment and then took Minho’s car. Seungmin noticed Minho letting out a small sigh, and was scared to have said something wrong but then Minho agreed.
Seungmin arrived at the apartment a bit too early and after knocking and ringing the bell a few times and receiving no response he decided to just use the spare key Minho gave him some time ago of his apartment and let himself in. When he entered the first thing he heard was the sound of the shower being on and then he saw Minho’s cats, Dori was on the sofa while Soonie and Doongie were in the cat tree Minho recently bought for them.
Unsure on what to do he went through the advice he read online in his mind.
“Ok so I have to move slowly” And then he proceeded to move in slow mode to the sofa, obviously as far away as possible to where Dori was staring at him, “Oh God, why is he staring at me like that? Did I do something wrong already?! It’s not even five minutes since I’ve been here!” Seungmin was panicking… because a cat was behaving like a cat.
“Wait, I need to calm down, it said in some articles that I need to be calm and let them approach me.” And so he sat, feigning tranquillity and even pretending to be on his phone, sometimes he would take peeks at the cats to see their reaction and what they were doing.
The cats, well, they were ignoring him, like he wasn’t even in the room. All of them returned to their napping, they didn’t move, not even when Dori was staring at him, he just moved his pupils.
“How can I let them approach me if they don’t even care about me being in the same room as them?! Minho hyung will never love me if this is my relationship with his cats!”
Just when he was about to beg the cats to like him, he felt like he was about to make a deal with the devil, the door of the bathroom opened and a very shirtless Minho came out.
In Seungmin head you could hear sirens going crazy “CODE RED! What the fuck is this? Fuck being calm, I’m sorry SoonDoongDori I tried but this is too much for me”
Minho noticed his presence and a bit surprised said “Seungmin? What are you doing here? I thought we agreed to meet in…” He looked at the clock in the living room, maybe to make sure he wasn’t the one being late, “20 minutes. Did something happen?”
Seungmin was trying really hard to find something to say and not blatantly stare and panic even harder at the, still shirtless! With too much skin visible!, man in front of him. Seungmin can multitask ok, it was just really difficult to do it right now.
A minute of silence passed, it was starting to be a bit awkward, then Minho called his name, a bit worried with an underline of smugness that you could only identify if you were paying attention (Seungmin was not paying attention, too distracted by the vision in front of him),
Hearing his name being called, woke up Seungmin from whatever trance he was in.
“Oh! Hi hyung! Nothing happened, I just didn’t check the time before leaving the dorm”
What really happened was: Seungmin checked the time, saw that he was early, and decided to go to Minho’s apartment because he wanted to spend as much time as possible with Minho. Everyone knew that Seungmin was a punctual person, never arriving later than 5 minutes early. Minho obviously knew about this but didn’t point out that twenty minutes early was too much even for Seungmin. Instead his expression changed to a knowing smile, he let out a fond sigh this time and then said that he will change leaving Seungmin alone.
When Minho was out of sight, Seungmin let out a breath he didn't notice he was keeping, his shoulders visibly relaxed and he noticed something.
The cats were gone, not a single one was in the living room, the cat tree was empty, same for the spot where Dori was on the sofa. He tried looking in the living room but he didn’t find them.
“Was it because they sensed I was panicking? It can’t be, can it? There’s no way I already failed my mission. How can I win Minho hyung’s heart if his cats hate me?” He let out a groan, frustrated and a bit discouraged by the whole situation.
Minho left his room right that instant, worried gaze not leaving Seungmin’s face trying to find some form of discomfort “Seungmin are you really ok? We can reschedule if you are not feeling well”
“Hyung don’t worry i’m perfectly fine! Let’s go, I can’t wait to try the restaurant”
Minho continued to stare at him for some more seconds, just to be sure if he was telling the truth, and when he made sure that Seungmin didn’t lie Minho nodded and both of them went to the entrance to put their shoes on. With a last “Bye babies!” said by Minho to his cats, they left for the restaurant.
Needless to say, they both had an amazing time. The dishes they ate were delicious, the atmosphere was comfortable and Minho and Seungmin talked through their time at the restaurant. After that they decided to end the night with an ice cream and a walk without a destination.
Minho rode Seungmin back to his university dorm, Seungmin thanked Minho and was about to get out of the car when Minho stopped him by lightly grabbing the sleeve of his shirt.
“Seungmin I-” Seungmin looked at him, confused but especially curious, he never saw his hyung so serious, but Minho never continued that phrase instead he smiled at him, in his eyes Seungmin recognised uncertainty and something he couldn't figure out, and said “Thank you for coming with me Seungmin-ah. Have a good night”
Seungmin wished him a good night too and then left, feeling like he was missing something important. When he entered the dorm he saw his roommates, and friends, sleeping in the living room with the tv on playing a movie he didn't recognise. He woke them up, with a bit of difficulty regarding Hyunjin and Jisung, thankfully Felix woke up without too many complaints, and helped them to their rooms.
He went to bed a bit restless, the last moment in the car with Minho replaying in his head, but he set it away to focus on something more important: Soonie, Doongie and Dori and what he could do to better their relationship.
—
Since searching on Google didn’t do him any good, Seungmin was left with nothing. Apparently not even articles and sites could help you if you are hopeless from the beginning. (And if the owner of the cats is too gorgeous for this world).
The next step would be asking someone with more knowledge than him to help, it wouldn’t be so difficult considering his knowledge was almost zero but Seungmin is a loser with not a lot of friends and the only friend who knows a lot about cats is the same guy he is trying to impress. Not ideally and definitely useless for his plan.
Other than Minho himself he decided to discard both Changbin and Hyunjin, considering their cat’s allergies, then Chan and Jisung because they have a dog and they never had a cat in their life. He will never go to Jeongin only because he is not that desperate and he wouldn't survive being called a “stupid loser” or being laughed at for struggling with cats and a crush of all things. At the end the last one is Felix.
Felix is not a bad choice at all, he is his best friend and even though he may not have had a cat, everyone at least once compared him to one, plus he would actually try to help him without insulting him or teasing him for his problem (Jeongin, take some notes). Plus he was the one Minho chose to take care of his cats if he couldn’t, Seungmin will never forget this detail. Is he the best choice? He might be a “Lee”, but his name is not Minho but Seungmin is on the verge of either crying out of panic or just giving up so at the moment Felix will do.
Finding a moment with Felix alone was surprisingly easy, they might be four in the same dorm but their schedules were different and most of the time they would be together in the same room in the late afternoon before dinner. The opportunity came on a Friday morning when both Hyunjin and Jisung had classes at 8am, not their greatest choice, which is something they never fail to let everyone in their friend group know every single week, while Seungmin and Felix’s lessons were later than theirs.
Seungmin was drinking his coffee in the kitchen while revising some notes for an exam he will have on Monday, when Felix made his appearance with his deep voice greeting him with a “Good Morning, Minnie”, fancy pyjamas and messy freshly dyed hair.
The night before all four of them decided to do something crazy with their hair and dyed them some eccentric color. Now they will have to go around campus with red, blue, light blue and orange hair. Seungmin has to admit all of them looked very good and that he is starting to get used to the orange in his head, but that is beside the point.
The point is in front of him searching for something quick to eat and Seungmin has thirty minutes before he has to go for his first class. He needs to act now.
“Hey Lix, quick question”
Felix just hummed as a sign he was listening, but not awake enough to form a full sentence. Seungmin will work with that, he just needs an answer not a full movie script about cats, it could be a few words and he would take it anyway.
“So, hypothetically speaking, you need some cats to like you because you need to impress their owner, you already tried a slow approach but it didn’t work, what would you do?”
“Seungmin, my best friend who I love very much, what the fuck are you talking about at 9am?”
“It’s just a hypothetical question Lix, just answers it” after some seconds of silence he added “Please?”
“I’m trying to figure out if this is some sort of complicate metaphor for something else I’m too sleepy to figure out, you wanting to adopt a cat which is quite surprising or something dumb you came out on the spot just to mess with me as soon as I woke up” After a sigh, Felix continued, “I don’t know Minnie, I’ve never had a cat in my life, but I guess I’ll try to play with him, maybe the cat will relax if he see you are safe to play with?”
“You are a genius Lix! Thank you so much!” With that Seungmin quickly hugged Felix and then left the kitchen to go to the entrance to wear his shoes and his jacket to go to university. Before he could open the door he was stopped by Felix calling him.
“Wait Seungmin, is this about you being totally in love with Minho hyung?”
Seungmin let out a nervous laugh “What? No, absolutely not, I told you it was just a random question. Minho hyung and his cats has nothing to do with this”
Felix continued to look at him like he knew everything he was trying to hide, a smirk forming in his face, Seungmin knew he had to leave before- “Oh Seungminnie wants to impress his favourite hyung, that’s so cute”
Without saying anything Seungmin flipped Felix off and left the apartment, he quickly walked to his first class with the sound of Felix cackling still in his ears.
Jeongin, don't take notes from Felix, he is as bad as you would’ve been. Fuck both of you.
(Somewhere both Felix and Jeongin started to sneeze, someone was definitely thinking about them but not in a nice way)
—
During his first class, instead of paying attention to what the teacher was explaining, his mind focused on Felix’s advice, completely ignoring his comments because those were not worthy of his time. (Definitely not because he didn’t want to blush in class in front of everyone)
Playing with cats should be easy and something he can manage without ever doing it before. He saw Minho playing with them countless times, maybe he watched more Minho himself than the cats playing but it shouldn’t be too hard.
Seungmin’s opportunity came the next day, another dinner with his friend group like any weekend. Like most of the time, they did it at Minho's apartment and Seungmin came early again. Minho noticed it but didn’t say anything, he just huffed a laugh and let him come.
Seungmin prided himself in the way Minho’s eye wouldn’t leave his new hair, and how his ears were turning a bit red. If Seungmin didn’t like his hair before, he definitely did it after seeing Minho’s reaction.
“You can wait for the others in the living room, they should arrive in ten minutes maximum or else I’m not going to give them any food. If you need me, I’m in the kitchen finishing our dinner.”
Seungmin laughed at Minho’s words, not entirely sure if he was joking or not, and went to the living room where he found his three main problems. This time all three of them were in the cat tree, Soonie and Dori cutely cuddling together while Doongie at the top of the tree peacefully sleeping.
Seungmin didn’t want to bother them because of his plan of dating their big brother, but if he was something he was stubborn and he would not lose against three cats.
He found one of their toys on the ground, a little ball with a rattle that made a sound when you play with it, and he started to approach the three while slightly shaking the ball to make the cats notice it.
The result was… terrible. The peak of his attempt was when Doongie opened his eyes to look at him and his ears twitched a bit, Seungmin still had no idea if it was a good thing or not. Overall the cats didn’t move or pay him any attention, they simply ignored him.
Seungmin was feeling ridiculous, standing in front of three cats trying to show them that he was a good playmate and failing miserably wasn’t the outcome he hoped for.
Seungmin was on the verge of kneeling down in front of them and begging them for a bit of attention. There’s no way he was this bad with cats, he always thought he was great with animals in general but his plan was clearly changing his mind.
“Wait- Maybe the cats felt I am trying to steal their brother and they don’t want me to. Shit this is worse than I thought. Me and Minho hyung will not even go on a date at this rate”
Needless to say, Seungmin was going crazy. And like any crazy person he started to talk to the cats.
“Hey guys, listen we don’t have to do this. Your owner didn’t teach you that sharing is caring? I will never forbid Minho hyung to see you or be with you. You can trust me on this one. I will take care of hyung and- wait where are you going?”
And the cats left, all three of them. Leaving Seungmin standing in the living room like the loser he is. Great job, Seungmin!
Not soon after the accident, someone knocked. Minho asked Seungmin to open the door for him, and with that Seungmin woke up from the miserable state he was in.
Slowly everyone arrived and they started their weekly dinner. Minho sat near a very thoughtful Seungmin, it was clear his mind wasn’t set on the conversation their friends were having.
Minho worriedly called his name, but didn’t receive a response which made him even more preoccupied. It was the second time in the same week where Minho found Seungmin lost in his thoughts and preoccupied with something he couldn’t figure out.
Minho reached for Seungmin’s sleeve to pull it to gain his attention, the action startled the younger boy but had the desired result.
“Seungmin-ah, everything’s fine?”
“What? Oh yes hyung don’t worry”
Minho wanted to insist, but he couldn’t because Changbin asked Seungmin a question. Minho decided to give up for the moment, but Seungmin better be ready to give his hyung some explanations.
—
Seungmin is fucked. That’s it.
Minho’s cats hate him. That’s like the worst outcome ever for him.
The Internet was useless, asking the next person after Minho with a bit of knowledge on cats was useless, talking to the cats was useless. What is he supposed to do? He just wants to go on at least one date with Minho, he isn’t asking anything crazy.
The worst part is that he has to meet Minho in a cafe because he wants to talk to him. Did he notice that his cats hate him and he wants to confront him about it? He is going to have a heart attack by the end of the day.
Seungmin entered the cafe, a small place that opened the month before and that not many people knew about. It was a cozy place, with a lot of windows and some plants.
He spotted Minho on a table near a window with already two cups of coffee and two desserts ready on the table. He walked towards him, mesmerised by the man in front of him who was glowing with the natural light from the window.
Minho noticed him and greeted him, with a soft smile on his lips, and encouraged him to sit and eat the green tea based dessert he specifically ordered for him because he knew it was his favourite.
“He is really making it hard not to like him” Seungmin couldn’t help but think, fondly watching the man he fell in love with.
They ate in silence, it wasn’t awkward per se but not even comfortable, it was just a bit tense. Seungmin was waiting for Minho to start talking, but his mind couldn’t help but overthink everything that happened in the past weeks.
“Seungmin, I’m going to ask one time and you have to be honest, I know you well enough to know if you are lying to me or not. What’s going on with you?”
For someone who didn’t know Minho very well, Minho may have sounded a bit too strong and like he didn’t care that moment, but Seungmin knew Minho well enough too, enough to see right through him. Maybe it was the worry in his voice or the preoccupied expression he made that convinced Seungmin to ask a fatidical question for him and his relationship with Minho.
“Have your cats ever not liked someone? And like, what did you do about it?”
“What? What does this have to do with you?”
“Just answer the question hyung please before I go insane”
Minho looked at him suspiciously, he clearly didn’t expect Seungmin’s answer to be about his cats, but Minho never really knew how to say no to Seungmin so he just answered.
“For what I know they never really disliked someone, they may not be the most extroverted animals on the planet but I never had to intervene to better their relationship with a friend or a relative. Now can you please answer my question, Seungmin? Why are you looking at me like I just said the worst thing ever for you?”
As the silence stretched, Minho became more and more worried about the boy in front of him. “Hey, Seungmin, you can talk to hyung, you know that. Whatever it is, hyung can help you overcome it, just please talk to me” Minho’s tone was impossibly soft, like he was talking to an injured animal.
If only he knew how stupid Seungmin’s problem really was…
“Hyung, your cats hate me and I could never take care of them and we can never be happy together or I can’t even ask you on a date because your cats don’t like me and consequently you don’t like me and-”
“Whoa Seungmin calm down, what the hell are you talking about? My cats love you”
“No they don’t, I tried to make them like me but it was all useless”
“You tried to what? Min, I already told you they love you, what made you think of the contrary”
“First of all you said you would let Felix take care of them and not me when Chan hyung asked you during truth or dare. And remember when you invited me to that Japanese restaurant because your friends couldn’t make it anymore?” Minho hummed, his ears pink and his eyes everywhere but on Seungmin, “Well, I came early right? And I wanted to prove to you that I can take care of them too so I searched online and some sites said that I need to be calm and move slowly not to scare them. I did that, but they continued to ignore me, then you came out of the shower, I panicked a bit and when you left Soonie, Doongie and Dori weren’t there anymore”
“Min, It was because it was their usual dinner time and when they saw me out of the bathroom they started to follow me for their food. They were ignoring you not because they don’t like you, but because they are comfortable with you in the same room with them and I bet that if you tried to go near one of them, let them sniff your hand then they would’ve let you caress them.”
Now Seungmin felt a little stupid, he knew he didn’t know much about cats in general but this was bad bad. There was still something that he was confused about though.
“But what about the time we had that group dinner at yours and I came early, I tried to approach them with one of their toys because Felix told me to try to play with them to make them more comfortable with me and they didn’t even spare me a glance and then left again.”
Minho laughed a bit “That was because I took them to the vet the same day for a check up on their well being, all three of them are in perfect form by the way, but they hate the vet and when we come home they always sulk and prefer to stay together on their own. They probably left because they sensed everyone else was arriving and they didn’t want to deal with so many people all at once”
Seungmin couldn’t help but let out a stupefied “Oh”, looking at Minho with reddening checks.
“If your cats like me so much then why did you say Felix’s name that time?”
“For the same reason you went to Felix for advice, he is generally a sweet person, really good with all type of animals and the one with a bit of knowledge on cats so he was the least worst. I didn’t know you were this passionate about my SoonDoongDori Kim Sengmin. But if this reassures you, I wouldn’t actually leave my cat with any of you.”
“Hyung, I’m passionate about everything about you!” Seungmin blurted out, surprising both Minho and himself.
For some seconds they just stared at each other without saying anything, Minho’s ears and Seungmin’ cheek a dark red, until the older one remembered something the younger said.
“Wait, what did you mean that you can’t ask me on a date and that I will never like you?”
“Ehm, since I thought your cats hated me I thought I didn’t have a single chance because you would’ve rejected me as soon as I asked you” Seungmin eyes were on the very interesting plate with the crumbles of his dessert, avoiding any eye contact with Minho.
“Seungmin, ask me now”
Seungmin raised his face at the speed of light, dumbfounded, “What?” He intelligently said.
With flushed cheeks and eyes that did that cute thing where they blink super fast, Minho repeated “I said, Kim Seungmin ask me now before I leave this cafe out of embarrassment”
Seungmin cleared his throat, feigning confidence “Hyung, would you like to go on a date with me? Please?”
Minho’s smile was blinding when he answered “Of course Seungmin, I thought you'd never ask and made me wait forever”
—
It was another Saturday, the weekly dinner with everyone in their friend group, Seungmin was already at Minho’s apartment watching his boyfriend cook their food sitting on a stool by the kitchen island while stroking Doongie’s fur, who was sitting on his lap.
He was banned from helping, one time they tried to cook together even with the knowledge of Seungmin’s terrible history of cooking, but they ended up distracted (they were kissing...) and almost burned half the food. Seungmin was still happy about openly stare at his gorgeous boyfriend doing something he loves, and Minho was still happy about Seungmin’s presence near him. It's a win-win situation.
They were talking about their plan for the next day when Seungmin suddenly felt something soft near his ankle, he looked down just to see Dori sitting near his feet. Too busy smiling softly at the grey cat he didn’t notice the missing brother approaching him. Soonie first meowed then he jumped on the kitchen island, luckily no food was there.
Seungmin, too soft for the cats, started to scratch behind Soonie’s ears which brought a light purr from the orange cat. Surrounded by Minho’s cats, his focus only on them, he didn’t notice the fond gaze directed at him.
Minho, after not receiving a reply to what Seungmin preferred to do the next day between eating at home or at the park, important business mind you, he turned around just for his heart to skip a beat. Kim Seungmin was trying to kill him.
Minho subtly took out his phone from his pocket and took a picture, his new background. Seeing his three babies, his three brothers, being so comfortable and cuddly with his boyfriend was a sight so precious to him, he hoped for this sight to be present in all of his days.
(And maybe this sight was enough to forgive Seungmin for all the time he was dumb and oblivious to Minho's poor excuse of flirting.
No, Minho never had a “friend who came back from America”, he just wanted an excuse to take Seungmin to a restaurant he knew the younger one wanted to try. And even though he couldn't go pick him up because of Seungmin obliviousness everything went well at the end.)