Chapter Text
It’s just a random Tuesday Evening, And after enough convincing from Changbin and Jisung, he reluctantly leaves the dimly lit studio– because Jisung broke one of the lights, and somehow it really messed everything up. But at least it was warm in the studio.
When Chan steps out of the building for their record label, he is met with his worst fear. The cold, and the fucking god-awful rain that seems like bullets on his skin. He might hate the rain, but at least the sound of it hitting the concrete is enough to soothe him.
It’s slowly getting darker as the seconds go by, which was the reason why his boys made him leave when they did— Chan had totaled his car when a drunk teenager on her phone rammed into the side of his car at an intersection.
Typically, Chan prefers to be tucked away indoors during such weather, prioritizing his safety above all else, because of how dangerous the part of town their record label and studio are in, but this time he didn’t have a choice since Changsung was supposed to go on a date after work.
Usually, they would just drive him, like they had been doing for the last week and a half, but obviously, that wasn’t possible this time. But that isn’t his point, nor is it his biggest problem.
Currently, his biggest problem is how fucking cold it is. And he would have gone home as fast as possible.
However, as he walks past a narrow alleyway— a very dark and creepy one, nonetheless, when he suddenly hears a soft yet very persistent meowing. He wants to hesitate, but he knows that he would never be able to live with the guilt if he didn’t see what it was.
Plus, he’s sure Minho would have his head if he ever found out about Chan ignoring a cat in the rain.
As Chan stands at the entrance of the dimly lit alleyway, he wonders if this is a good idea or not. It might be, or it might not be. This could be some kind of a trap for a psychopath, or he could save an innocent cat who was abandoned for no reason.
The air around him feels thick enough to cut it with a knife. He tries to squint into the darkness to see if he’s able to see a cat or not, wondering if it’s just beyond his line of sight. All he can make out is the far end of the alley,
It’s a narrow path that fades into a deeper shadow, with the silhouette of a grimy dumpster, emitting a faint, unpleasant odor.
Chan wonders why he just had to hear the meowing and why it couldn't have been someone else. Really, he isn’t in the mood to go snooping around to find a cat.
But he will, despite the slight fear in him. Then, there it is again. If Chan listens hard enough, he is going to hear the faint sound of meowing that seems to echo off the walls. It’s distant yet persistent. And this time he knows that it can’t be just a figure of his imagination despite how much he would like it to be.
Chan knows he has no other choice but to go look for this cat. He takes a deep breath and steps into the alley carefully, trying to force his steps to be quieter than they usually are— he goes to the gym a lot, of course, it’s going to be loud every time he tries to walk.
The chilly air brushes against his skin, biting at it and turning the tips of his fingers bright red. Along with the crunch of gravel under his feet, Chan can fully say that this is terrifying.
He walks slowly, each step as quiet and as slow as he can manage, until he reaches the dumpster, its sides battered and covered in graffiti. The meowing grows louder, more urgent as if pleading for help.
That’s probably exactly what it is doing. This can’t be a trap, because who would willingly do something like this to an animal who never even deserved it? Chan leans down, peering over the edge of the dumpster with bated breath to see if there’s anything on the other side.
There isn’t. So he then looks inside the dumpster, and he sees the remains of discarded fast food—the remnants of a half-eaten meal right outside of a weathered McDonald’s bag. His eyes widen as he spots movement within that greasy packaging.
What kind of fucked up person would do something like this to a poor animal?
Chan reaches carefully into the garbage, his fingers brushing against crumpled wrappers and stale fries, trying to get ahold of the cat without scaring it or making it angry with him. That is probably the last thing he wants to do right now.
He is as careful as he possibly can be with the bag when he picks it up, and he can feel something soft and warm nestled inside. As he pulls the bag closer, a pair of fluffy black ears emerges
They look so soft and fluffy. There is a little bit of dirt on the cat’s ears, and the cat from what he can see is soaked— the bag it was in was soaked to the brim with rain water and whatever else. But it’s okay because he found the kitty.
Chan’s face breaks into a gentle smile, momentarily forgetting the fact that he’s in the middle of an alleyway staring fondly at a bag of McDonald’s that came out of the garbage.
Oh, how this must look to people who have absolutely no idea what he’s doing. It’s okay, though, because he would rather be seen as a crazy person for being a good person, than normal and being horrible.
The cat, a small little thing that fits in the palm of his hand, looks up at Chan and meows at him. “Hi, honey.”
There isn’t a collar on the cat or anything that would help Chan find the owners. Which, it makes sense if he’s like this, but it doesn’t make it any easier for Chan.
And the cat doesn’t look like a hybrid in animal form, he would know— or at least, he thinks he does. Hyunjin in cat form is a menace and looks very realistic, but there is a part of him that you can just tell.
Chan has always had that instance with every other hybrid he’s met, so he doesn’t think it’s different with this cat. But he’s going to take it home, anyway, because he isn’t a heartless fucking monster like whoever left it there.
Chan cradles the cat to his chest and drops the McDonald’s bag back into the dumpster. It’s times like these where he wishes he had pockets or some kind of bag to keep the poor thing from getting wet, but he doesn’t have either of those.
He speeds back out of the alley and tries to be as careful as possible as he books it back to his home. Honestly, it’s a miracle he hasn’t managed to get hurt or fall by the time he reaches it.
All he knows is that he shoves the key into the door and unlocks it, before gently dropping the little cat on the back of the couch.
The cat tilts its head at him again. But Chan only strips himself of the very soaked hand t-shirt that he stole from Jisung years ago po, and grabs his phone out of his hidden pocket in his pants.
He had ruined his last phone by walking in the rain, so he invested in a little bag he could zip to the inside of his pants. It had been the only thing he could think of at the time, and he’s glad that it comes in handy sometimes.
And he does the only thing he can think of. He calls Minho, his best friend with three cats who volunteers at every shelter in a thirty-mile radius.
Their conversation goes something like this.
“Hello? Chan Hyung, I’m about to get in the bath.”
“So uh, I found a cat.”
“…what do you mean you found a cat?”
“I was walking home, because Changhin and Jisung ditched me to go on a date, and I walked by that one alley near the McDonald’s and that phone store, and it’s currently pouring rain, but through it I hear little meows. Very persistent meows.”
“Did you dig through the trash to find this cat, Hyung?”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“You’re right, you’re right. Uhm… Let me take my bath and then I’ll come over. Do you want cat food? Jisung bought me a lot. I don’t know where he even got this much.”
“Okay.”
Chan glances back at the fluffy black cat laid on the back of his couch after Minho hangs up the phone. It seems like the more he looks at the cat, the more its cuteness seems to multiply. It was a small little thing with the cutest little pink nose and wide eyes that seemed to follow his every movement.
There was something that made him feel so much better knowing that he had recused it from the rain. The thought of not hearing the cat’s meows, or being as heartless as a person as some people are to not check would have left that kitty outside in the rain for longer.
He could only imagine how the cat felt, drenched and shaking because it was the middle of September and it was starting to get colder as the days went by. How scared the cat must have been before Chan decided to go look for it.
Now, the kitty was going to be safe and warm in Chan’s house. Though, it was obvious how dirty the cat was. It made him wonder how long the poor thing had been on the streets, and if it had even been placed in the McDonald’s bag, or if it had crawled there to get away from the onslaught that was the rain.
The cat's damp fur looked very matted, and it was covered in dirt. Chan could only feel bad. Like any normal human would.
Gently, he took a step closer. “Hi, little kitty,” Chan cooed softly, crouching to bring himself to eye level with the cat. “Can I pick you up so I can give you a nice warm bath? I’m sorry, but I don’t have any food at the moment. My friend Minho will be here soon with some tasty treats, I promise.” The cat was seemingly curious by Chan’s attempts to soothe the cat, but also very scared of him.
It only made Chan wonder what the fuck the cat had been through. But the cat only stared back at him intently. There was no hiss or scratch when Chan cautiously scooped it into his arms, and cradled it as closely as he had when he carried it back home.
He carried the kitty toward the bathroom, where he set it down gently next to the tub. He turned on the faucet, allowing the water to flow. Chan adjusted the temperature, ensuring it was warm—just shy of hot, because he could only imagine how cold the poor thing was—as he filled the tub with lukewarm water.
Once the bathtub is filled halfway, Chan turns the water off so he doesn’t end up drowning the poor thing, and he picks the cat back up and very gently drops it in the bathtub.
But then he realizes that he has no idea how the fuck he’s supposed to bathe a cat.
He doesn’t even have pet shampoo. Oh well, he’s just going to try and have to coax the dirt out of the cat’s fur with his hands and the water in the tub.
For the next thirty minutes, Chan is running his fingers through the cat's fur in an attempt to get the dirt out. And it works for most of it, but there are still little clumps of dirt he can’t get out. And the bath is getting colder and colder, and he doesn’t want to make the poor thing cold.
That would honestly just serve to make him feel worse about himself and the situation.
Chan carefully dislodged the drain from its spot, allowing the very dirty water to be drained from the tub. And then he turns his attention back on the sweet little thing in his bathroom, and with a gentle touch, he picks the cat back up, cradling it against his chest, and wrapped it in a soft, warm towel to dry it off and make it feel warm.
Just as Chan went to help the cat with drying off, the doorbell chimed sharply, cutting through the silence of the room— other than the sound of the tub draining.
And then he could hear the sound of his front door opening and closing, along with the electric lock being clicked back into place.
He wasn't taken aback by the sound; after all, all of his friends were well aware of where he kept the spare key.
A few moments later, the sound of footsteps echoed down the hallway, growing closer as they approached the bathroom where Chan was currently tending to the feline.
“You really weren’t lying about having a cat in here, what the fuck?” Minho tilts his head before coming closer. “Do you know if it’s a hybrid or not?”
Chan shakes his head. This cat really didn’t seem like any hybrids he had met, so he didn’t think it was. However, he knew sometimes you couldn’t always be sure. “I have no clue if it’s a hybrid or not.”
That seemed to make Minho more invested in the poor thing, as he walked back out of the bathroom and motioned for Chan to follow him with the cat. And Chan likes to say that he listens the most out of their friend group, so he follows behind until they get back into the living room.
There’s a bag of cat food on the floor, along with a food dish and a dish for whatever Chan wants to give the cat to drink. Not milk, though. Minho has told him all about how milk is actually bad for cats because they don’t have the enzyme in their intestines to digest the sugar in milk.
Actually, that dish might only be for water. Chan doesn’t think cats are supposed to drink anything else, and he would hate to be the reason why the poor thing feels sick. “We should give it food. Usually, if a hybrid is like this, they’ll only be able to transform after you feed them if they're starving. Which I’m going to assume this cat is.”
Minho opens the bag of cat food and Chan holds the bowl up to the edge of the opening after putting the cat on the couch again. Once the dish has enough cat food in it to almost overflow, Chan sets it on the ground near the coffee table, and watches as the cat goes over to it and digs in instantly.
Minho in the other hand takes the water bowl to the kitchen sink to fill it up so the cat has water when it's done eating. “Minho, do you know how long it takes for a hybrid to transform after they eat?”
“I think about ten minutes.” Minho states when he walks back into the living room and places the dish down next to the food. “It depends on if the hybrid wants to transform back into a human or not.”
Minho comes back to sit next to Chan on the couch and watches the cat intently. A part of Chan kind of hopes it is a hybrid.
His house is a little lonely by himself with how big it is. It would be good to have something around for him to talk to. But time will only tell. But hey, at least he gets a furry little friend for the time being.