Work Text:
Minho knew something was off the moment he stepped into the dorm. No cats came running to greet him. No quokka either. He knew that Jisung had a life and wouldn’t always be hanging around the dorm when he got back from his errands, but today was different. Jisung had been bragging to Minho about how he didn’t have to leave the dorm all day; Minho had lost the rock-paper-scissors game that determined who was getting groceries for the dorm.
Minho hadn’t been that serious about the game, knowing that he was more reliable to actually get the food that they needed instead of just piling up the receipt with snacks and sweets. Still, Minho had been sure to grab some extra sweets for Jisung. He was excited to present them to Jisung, but the boy didn’t yell a greeting like he usually would when he hears Minho open the door.
It wasn’t just Jisung who Minho was worried about. Ever since he had moved his cats into their dorm, they would rush to him once he got back to the dorm – but even they were absent now.
Minho kicked off his shoes and closed the door behind him quietly. He went to the kitchen and set the bags down. He was quick to put the cold groceries in the fridge and freezer. The whole time, he listened for any indication that Jisung was in the dorm. He heard nothing.
“Sungie?” Minho called, not too loud in case he was taking a nap.
The reply that he got was a cat peeking his head around the corner of the hallway that led to the bedrooms. It was Dori.
Minho knelt down. “Hey, Dori. Where’ve you been?”
Dori padded over to him. When Minho reached out to scratch the cat’s head, Dori nipped at his hand.
“What’s going on with you?” Minho asked.
Dori turned and headed back to the hallway. Minho followed. As he walked behind the cat, he became more certain that this was what Dori wanted him to do. He kept glancing back at Minho, like he was making sure the human was still there, as he led him into Jisung’s room. The door was cracked slightly, just enough room for a cat to sneak in and out.
Dori slipped inside, but Minho hesitated. He was about to knock, but a voice from inside interrupted him.
“Go away, Dori,” Minho heard Jisung groan. “I have work to do.”
“Sungie?” Minho opened the door.
Jisung was sitting cross-legged on his bed, computer balanced on his lap. Dori was trying to replace the laptop, already halfway onto Jisung’s lap as the boy tried to push him away. Jisung was wearing his headphones, but as the opened door let in light, he looked over at Minho standing in the doorway. For some reason, he looked like a deer in headlights.
Dori took this distraction to squeeze into Jisung’s lap, effectively pushing the laptop down onto the bed. The glow from the screen cast a ghostly light on Jisung’s face, dramatizing the producer’s eyebags and stressed eyebrows. The curtains were drawn, and the lights in the room were off, so the brightness on Jisung’s face was like a spotlight.
“When did you get back?” Jisung asked.
“A few minutes ago.” Minho looked closer at him. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him when he saw the tears gathered in Jisung’s eyes.
Minho entered the room fully and returned the door to its half-cracked state. Losing the light from the hallway, the room got dark. Wordlessly, Minho made his way over to the bed. Jisung was sitting in the middle of the mattress. When he got close, Minho moved the pillows to rest against the headboard and sat against them – behind Jisung.
Before Jisung could question him, Minho wrapped his arms around Jisung’s middle and pulled him back to rest against him. He made sure not to disturb Dori. When he looked over the edge of the bed, he noticed Soonie and Doongie were also in the room. They were being more respectful than Dori, sticking to the cushions on the floor that Jisung had bought the moment he found out that Minho was bringing his cats to their dorm.
“What’re you doing?” Jisung asked, trying to sit up.
Minho brought his hand to Jisung’s forehead and carefully maneuvered the boy’s head to lean against his shoulder.
“Take a break,” Minhho said. “This was supposed to be your chill day, right?”
Jisung sighed. Minho felt when he gave up, his body relaxing and becoming limp. Minho let go of his head, letting his arm lay on Jisung’s stomach. Minho could still see the features on his face from the screen’s brightness. He could see the way Jisung’s eyes looked glazed over as he stared at the ceiling. Dori moved; he climbed higher and sat on Jisung’s chest. Sensing the calm, the other two cats jumped onto the bed, laying on either side of Jisung.
“I’m surrounded by cats,” Jisung said with a small laugh. He looked to his left, his chest, and his right. “One, two, three–” he leaned his head back, looking at Minho out of the corner of his eyes, “–and four.”
“Meow,” Minho joked.
For a few minutes, the only noise in the room was the sound of Dori purring as Jisung petted his back. At some point, the laptop had turned off, sending the room into a comfortable darkness.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Minho asked quietly.
“Talk about what?” Jisung asked, matching his tone.
Minho huffed. “Talk about how you were sitting in the dark. Or about how you looked like you were on the verge of tears when I opened the door. Or how you were pushing my baby away when he was trying to comfort you.”
Jisung scratched Dori’s chin. “Sorry, Minho’s baby,” he said, looking down at the dark outline of the cat.
Dori purred.
“So?”
Jisung sighed, laying his head back on Minho’s shoulder. “I don’t know what you want to hear. Same issues.”
“What issues?”
Jisung paused. Soonie butted his head against Jisung’s elbow. He reached over and ran his hand down the cat’s back a few times.
“I won’t tell anyone,” Minho said, then added, “Neither will my children.”
Jisung sighed again. “It’s just the songs I’m working on.”
“Chan’s making you work on one of your chill days?” Minho asked. “Did you tell him that you needed rest today? To decompress?”
Jisung shook his head. “He only needed me to clean some stuff up. It would only take a few minutes.”
“You seem pretty stressed for only a few minutes of work.”
“That’s because I’ve been trying to think of lyrics for a few hours.”
“I thought you didn’t have to do that today.”
“I didn’t,” Jisung said. “ Changbin did.”
Minho blinked. “Why’re you doing Changbin’s work?”
“He’s hanging out with Hyunjin today,” said Jisung.
“He hangs out with Hyunjin every day,” Minho said. “They’re roommates.”
“They’re going to an art store or something today,” Jisung said with a small huff.
“So he just stuck his work on you?”
“Well… not exactly.”
Minho waited for him to continue.
“He asked me if I could do his work for today so he could hang with Hyunjin,” Jisung explained. “He’s taking Jinnie to an art store because he broke some of his paintbrushes or something. Bin wants to get him some new ones to make up for it, and the store is having a major sale today. I told him that I wasn’t doing anything today, so I could help him out. I didn’t realize how much stuff he had to do, but now I don’t want to let him down and not complete it. That’s why I’m stressing about work.”
Minho nodded in sympathy. He could see both sides, but he still felt a little annoyed at Changbin for giving so much to Jisung just so he could buy Hyunjin more art supplies that he definitely doesn’t need.
“How do you do that?” Jisung suddenly asked.
Minho tilted his head. “Do what?”
“You make it so easy to talk about stuff,” Jisung said. “Like I can swear to myself that I won’t let people know I’m stressed, but then you come along and words start flying out of my mouth, and then you know everything that I’m feeling. How do you make it so easy?”
Minho shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“It’s like your superpower.”
Dori shifted on Jisung’s chest, getting closer to Jisung’s face so he could lick his cheek. That’s when Minho noticed that Jisung was crying.
“You know Chan will understand if you don’t get everything completed today, right?” Minho said, rubbing Jisung’s arm in a way he hoped was comforting. “If it’s causing you this much stress, he wouldn’t want you to force yourself to work on it.”
“But Changbin–”
“Can deal with it,” Minho interrupted. “If you don’t finish everything, then he can finish it himself. You’ve already helped him enough. I swear, Sungie. You need to learn how to say no sometimes.”
“But I had nothing to do today,” argued Jisung.
“You were supposed to relax today.”
Jisung hummed.
Minho moved an arm so his hand was resting on Jisung’s head. He ran his fingers through Jisung’s hair, just how he knew he liked it. Jisung’s eyes slipped closed, and Minho’s heart clenched as he watched more tears slip out silently. He hated how good Jisung had gotten at crying without making a sound. He used to cry all out – loud and harsh. But now, he had mastered the silent cry so that only the people who were watching the tears roll down his face knew that he was crying.
After a few minutes of Minho rubbing his head and Dori purring on his chest, Jisung was asleep. Dori licked away the remaining tears, grooming the human and taking care of him in his own way.
When Minho knew that Jisung was in a deep sleep, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Chan. He picked up on the second ring.
“What’s up, Min?”
“Did you know Sungie was working on songs today?” Minho asked in a hushed voice.
Chan lowered his to match. “No? I thought he was taking a break today. I had him clean some things up from last week’s songs, but it wasn’t that much. He should’ve stopped after that. I told him to. Where did he find more work to do?”
“He told Changbin that he could cover whatever he was supposed to be working on today,” Minho said.
“What?” An aggravated huff was heard over the phone. “I told Changbin that stuff didn’t have to be done today. Why would he give that to Han-ah?”
“I don’t know, but Sungie was stressing about it,” said Minho. “I came back to the dorm from grocery shopping and found him in his room with the windows closed and the lights off. Once I started talking with him, he started crying. He’s asleep right now.”
“I’ll talk with Changbin,” Chan said. “You just take care of Han-ah for now. I’ll make sure Changbin doesn’t do something like this again. Or at least tell him to let Han-ah know if something doesn’t have to be done by that night.”
“Thanks, Channie,” Minho said.
“Of course,” said Chan. “Take care of my 3RACHA maknae, ’kay?”
“Of course.”
The phone call ended, and Minho’s focus was back on the sleeping boy. His face was blank with relaxation – a much better look than tears and lines of stress, Minho thought.
Doongie nuzzled Minho’s arm. Minho gave him some scratches on his neck.
“And thank you guys for keeping him company while I was out,” Minho said, looking at each of his cats. “Make sure you always take care of him the way he takes care of you. You’re all so important to me.”
Soonie meowed and somehow sounded annoyed.
“Alright,” Minho scoffed. “I’ll stop being sappy. Rest time now.”
He lay his head back against the pillows stacked behind him. He kept one arm on Jisung’s waist and moved the other one up, resting beneath Dori and steadying the cat on Jisung’s chest.
Almost instantly, all four cats joined Jisung in his slumber.