Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Heeseung is walking down the route he always goes through to get back to his apartment from work. It’s late, the sun has long since set, but the streets are well lit and the only people there are those who want to get home as fast as possible. Everyone minds their own business and that’s how Heeseung likes it. 

Except he is incapable of minding his own fucking business. He’s not going to ever bother anyone doing their own thing, as long as it’s not illegal, but he will look over just to see what’s going on. So, logically, the moment he hears a loud and strange sound coming from the alley he just walked past, the need to go and look at what has caused it is stronger than his need to get home. Even he knows what he’s doing is quite dangerous, but the urge is stronger than his common sense. After all, it’s not very likely a murderer, Heeseung is certain they’d be quieter. And, following his own logic, a little glance isn’t going to hurt anyone, really, he’s got it all under control.

Looking way more suspicious than whatever could possibly be going on in the alley, Heeseung carefully gets close and peeks around. At first, he doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary and even thinks it might have been just some trash falling or something the wind moved. Seriously, there’s only some trash lying around and one plant, which Heeseung thinks is a small tree, growing out of the concrete floor. He’s about to leave when, from between the trash, he sees movement. Heeseung’s first instinct is to run away because that’s probably a rat, and he may not be scared of many things, but he does not want to touch a rat. However, he notices that whatever it is, seems to be bigger than a rat. Way bigger, and now Heeseung is frozen in place. Until a, probably, white cat stumbles out of the trash, hissing in obvious pain. One of his front legs was at a weird angle, and Heeseung is no vet, but he’s certain that cannot be good.

“Oh, shit,” he mutters and the cat stops moving, snapping its head towards Heeseung. “It’s okay,” he tells the cat, feeling more than a little silly. “I won’t hurt you…” He continues talking, though the cat isn’t moving, eyes carefully analysing Heeseung. That’s when he notices the cat has a collar, and he hopes and prays there’s a number on it. The owner of the cat must be worried sick. 

Now, Heeseung has never had a cat, but he considered himself pretty good with animals in general. With careful and calculated steps, Heeseung gets closer to the cat, who just continues staring at him. The cat is standing weird, with its injured leg held up and leaning slightly away from Heeseung. 

“I just want to help…” Heeseung tells the cat, trusting it will understand his intentions. He reaches out with one hand and waits for the cat to smell him. Once it does, and it seems to accept that Heeseung isn’t there to cause him more pain, Heeseung finishes reaching forward as carefully holds the cat so he’s not touching its injured leg. 

“Okay, let’s see…” He looks around the tag on the collar and while it doesn’t have an address or a name, it does have a phone number and Heeseung sighs in relief. However, he cannot hold the cat and call its owner. So, Heeseung decides the best thing for him to do is to walk the remaining block over to his apartment and make the call once he’s there.

“Okay, cutie, we are going home and then I can call your owner,” Heeseung continues to speak to the cat, who does not seem pleased at his words for some reason. Heeseung chooses to believe he’s just annoyed at having been picked up. Still, the cat head-bumps his hand when he tries to pet it, so he guesses he must be doing something right.

The cat isn’t particularly heavy, so Heeseung is able to get back to his apartment in about the same amount of time it would normally take him. Getting the door unlocked does take a bit more effort, but he manages just fine. With as much care as he had picked the cat up, he lets it down on his couch and finally takes his phone out of his back pocket. Cautiously, he looks at the tag again and enters the number in his phone. 

The first time, the call is cut off before the third ring. The second time, it barely rings once before it’s been cut. Heeseung groans in frustration, but he can’t blame the other person for not answering an unknown number; he’d do the same. Thankfully, the fourth time the other person answers.

“Hi, uh… sorry for calling, my name’s Heeseung? And I think… I have your cat?” Heeseung cringes at his own awkwardness, and even the cat seems to be judging him. 

“Who? Sorry, you said my cat?”  The other person, a man, answers. Heeseung thinks he sounds young, but he could be wrong.

“Yes. I found it injured near xx university… It's a white cat? Really blue eyes?” Heeseung further clarifies.

“Ragdoll?”  The man asks.

“Uh… I don’t— I don’t really know?” He knows, maybe, three kinds of cat, and ragdoll isn’t one of those. “I could… I could send a pic? Just…” Heeseung pulls the phone away from his ear and switches to send a picture to the number. “There.”

“Mother fu— Yeah, that’s… he’s not my cat, he’s… my friend’s… yeah…” Heeseung hears the man sighing. He also notes that it seems like the cat is a male. “He’s out of the city for a bit… uh… I don’t know why he put my number there, but I can go pick him up?”

“That’d be great, yes,” Heeseung tells him. “But maybe it’ll be better tomorrow? I don’t mind looking after… him for a night.” Heeseung doesn’t know how far away this guy lives from his apartment, and he’d rather not have a stranger come over this late at night. Not like it being daytime would make much of a difference, but it makes him feel safer.

“Are you sure? I am a bit busy, so it’d really help me out, but…” The guy says, evidently not liking that he is kind of imposing on Heeseung. Plus, Heeseung thinks, he may not like leaving his friend’s cat with a stranger

“Yeah, sure, no problem… uh… but his leg seems to be really off—” Heeseung comments, he’s not sure how long a cat can go with a broken leg without proper treatment. 

“Don’t worry about it, he’s a pretty smart cat, he won’t make it worse… I hope…” That doesn’t inspire Heeseung with confidence. 

“Uh… one of my neighbours is studying to be a vet, I think— I could ask him if it’s urgent?” Heeseung offers, mostly for his own conscience.

“If you really want to… ask Hoon first, though, he doesn’t deal too well with vets,” he says, and Heeseung is confused for a moment.

“Hoon?” He questions. It sounds like he is referring to the cat, but that can’t be right.

“The cat,” he says, sounding completely casual about it. Sure, Heeseung has been talking to the cat, Hoon, so far, but this seems a bit too insane.

“Okay…?” Heeseung still agrees. He’s been weird enough so far, so might as well continue. “Is it okay if I text you after? To tell you what he said and arrange the meeting tomorrow?”

“Sure, thanks for everything, by the way, my friend will appreciate it,” there’s the sound of something crashing far away and a few curses. Heeseung decides he should end the call already.

“No problem,” Heeseung replies and after that he hangs up.

There’s a brief moment Heeseung uses to relax himself, before he turns towards the cat. Hoon’s sitting elegantly on his couch, looking up at Heeseung with his blue eyes. He’s obviously in pain, as he keeps his leg stretched out in front of him and no weight is rested on it. Heeseung stares back at it for a few more seconds, the cat is covered in dirt and he wonders if he should even attempt to bathe it. Somehow, he thinks that’s probably not a great idea.

“Okay… so… my neighbour is a vet student, he could check out your leg before going to an actual vet tomorrow with your owner’s friend? Would you be okay with that?” Heeseung feels stupid talking to the cat and expecting an answer, but he’s been asked to do it and he’s not good at faking compliance. “He’s a cat hybrid, too, so maybe it won’t be too bad?” He offers, as if he were negotiating with the cat. Surprisingly, Hoon tilts his head to one side, ear twitching, before closing his eyes and doing something that Heeseung interprets as a nod.

He must have actually gone crazy.

With as much care as the previous times, Heeseung picks up Hoon and sets out to go out again. Admittedly, he fails a little and probably touches the injured leg or something, because Hoon rumbles warningly at him. Of course, he apologises instantly and then fixes his hold so it’ll be more comfortable for Hoon. Once outside, he only has to go two doors to the right to get to the apartment of Minho, the vet student. They aren’t precisely friends, but they are cordial to each other and this is a bit of an emergency. So, entirely anxious, Heeseung knocks on the door.

“Uh… can I help you?” Minho asks as soon as he opens the door. He isn’t looking at Heeseung, though, but at the cat. Which Heeseung is glad for, since he thinks it’d be disrespectful if he noticed he is looking at the black cat ears at the top of his head. 

“I-I’m Heeseung, from—” Heeseung nervously starts rattling.

“A neighbour, I know,” Minho interrupts him, but he doesn’t sound rude or particularly annoyed. “What happened to the cat?”

“Well, that’s the thing, I… found him? And I think his leg is broken but I don’t know how serious it is— and I think I heard you say you are studying to be a vet?” Heeseung doesn’t even pause to breathe as he continues speaking. “I’m not asking for you to, like, take care of him… but maybe if you could tell me how urgently I should take him to the vet?” He really hopes he isn’t coming off as impolite or forceful. He just wants to know if they can wait until morning before going to the vet.

“Sure, come in,” Minho says calmly, as if Heeseung hasn’t been speeding through his words. “In general, I’d say to take them to the vet as soon as possible, but I get it’d be quite complicated to find one open at this hour,” Minho reasons and points at Heeseung to sit on the couch with the cat on his lap. Probably so it’s easier to examine him, since he looks so calm in Heeseung’s arms. Minho sniffs lightly, Heeseung thinks it’s a reaction to the new scents or maybe allergies —hybrids are known to have quite delicate senses— and immediately turns towards the cat. “Oh, he’s—” He begins, but stops as the cat growls.

“He is?” Heeseung asked, wondering if it was an important comment or something else.

“A fully white ragdoll,” he finishes his thought, though something is off. “That’s not very common,” he added, in case Heeseung doesn’t know. He doesn’t, but he also doesn’t know why that is important at all. Besides, Hoon isn’t completely white, he’s got tiny black dots right next to his nose and under his eye on the opposite side. But they are small enough that one can say the cat was entirely white, Heeseung supposes.

“Right, so…” Heeseung doesn’t want to hurry him, he is doing this as a favour after all, but he kind of is worried about the cat.

Minho stares at the cat without touching it, which Heeseung finds odd but doesn’t comment on. He isn’t even blinking. “He’ll be fine if you wait until morning,” he finally states after a couple of minutes that feel quite awkward for Heeseung. “Just don’t let him step on that leg and it should be fine, there aren’t any other injuries.” 

“A-are you sure?” Heeseung questions, not because he doubts his knowledge, but because he hasn’t seemed to examine the cat at all.

“Yes,” Minho insists. “Still take him to a vet so they can put his leg in a cast for it to heal right, but I’d believe even if you didn’t, he’d heal just fine.” Heeseung isn’t entirely convinced, but he knows more than him, so he has to trust him. 

“Okay, if you say so,” Heeseung says and thanks Minho as he leaves. 

Back at his apartment, he assumes the cat has to be as hungry as he is. He doesn’t have any cat food, but he has some leftover chicken. As far as he knows, cats can eat chicken, so he takes a piece and places it on a plate for the cat on the floor, together with a bowl of water. Then, he sets the rest of the chicken for himself. Hoon seems to struggle a bit to find a comfortable position to eat in, one that won’t put any pressure on his injured leg. He manages to, eventually; Heeseung is close to getting involved and straight up feeding the kitten himself. 

Heeseung is unsure what he should do after. Since it is pretty late, he simply decides to go to bed. He sees the cat being perfectly comfortable on the couch, so he assumes it’d be fine to leave him there. At least at first, because the more he thinks about it, the more he worries the cat will try to jump off to get water or to piss. If he really thinks about it, the cat will probably choose where he wants to sleep and Heeseung will have no say in it. Just in case, he prepares some pillows and leaves them lying around. Hoon watches him intently, following his every move, which is a little creepy but also cute.

In the morning, Heeseung is woken up by the vibration of his phone. He’s got two different messages. First, he gets messages from Jay, apparently the name of the guy who’s the cat’s owner’s friend. He quickly responds to him, sending the location to the nearest vet. They’ll be meeting there in about an hour. The other message he gets has him cursing under his breath. With the whole cat situation, he has completely forgotten to text his girlfriend, something he always did, especially after getting home late at night. She doesn’t seem mad, but she is evidently annoyed. For the moment, he limits himself to just briefly tell her he is sorry and that they’ll talk later. 

After some quick breakfast and a talk with the cat, he just tells him what they are supposed to do, he finds himself standing outside the vet three blocks away from his apartment. Hoon’s fluffy tail keeps flicking around as he holds him and tickling Heeseung’s arm. No more than a minute passes since he arrives when he sees someone approaching them.

“Hey, you are Heeseung, right? Sorry for making you wait,” Jay apologises and bows politely.

“Yeah,” Heeseung nods, bowing back at him as best as he can with the cat in his arms. “Um… do you mind if I stay for the visit? I kind of want to know he’ll be okay…”

“Sure, Hoon doesn’t seem to mind being in your arms,” he answers casually, almost as if teasing the cat. Accordingly, the cat lowly hisses at Jay. Heeseung is starting to have doubts about this whole thing. 

The vet confirms what Heeseung already knows, the cat has broken his leg. Jay, of course, pays for the visit and treatment, and Heeseung feels bad for the cat once they are told it’s going to take between one and two months for his leg to fully heal. Maybe Heeseung is insane, but he swears the cat understands this bit of information and is complaining about it. Jay seems to think the same as he answers to Hoon’s every meow. They walk out, Heeseung once again carrying the cat, he really doesn’t want to let him go. He knows he should, Hoon isn’t his cat after all, but Hoon seems to like him and he is constantly glaring in Jay’s direction.

“Do you think you can hold him now?” Heeseung asks, noting how Jay seems not very intent on grabbing the cat. The longer Heeseung holds onto it, the more he wishes he could just look after until his leg heals at least. Or until the actual owner comes back.

“Listen, and I don’t mean to impose or anything, but…” Jay hesitates for half a second, looking down at Hoon. He sighs and then continues, “would you be able to look after him? Just until my friend comes back.”

“I thought you…?” Heeseung isn’t even sure what he wants to ask, or if he wants to ask anything at all. 

“I know, but he’s obviously very comfortable with you, and my place doesn’t actually allow pets,” he explains. “If you can’t, I’ll figure out what to do; but you seem nice and like I can trust you with him.”

“Are you really trusting a complete stranger with your friend’s cat?” Heeseung puts into question his judgement. Sure, he knows he is not going to harm the cat, but Jay has no way of knowing that.

“I think you’ve proven yourself enough over the night, really,” Jay comments. “I don’t know how many people would take an injured cat from the street, care for them and then take them to the vet,” he points out. “Besides, Hoon trusts you, so I have no reason not to, you know what they say… animals are the best judge of character.”

“W-well, I mean, I can take care of him, if you really can’t…” Heeseung gives in, partially because he can’t argue against Jay’s words, but also because he wants to keep the cat a bit longer.

“Seriously? Thanks, you’re saving my life,” Jay smiles at him, and Heeseung is a bit taken aback. “A-and the cat’s, of course,” he adds, kind of awkwardly. “Anyway, I’ll send you some money so you can cover anything he may need— yes, I know… Hoon’s a bit… picky with food, so don’t give him cat food, he won’t eat it and… uh… sand is better for his litter.” Heeseung thinks Jay is weirdly strange, his way of speaking is almost as if someone else was telling him these things. For the sake of his own sanity, he chooses not to question him. He doesn’t know him particularly well, after all. “And any other question you may have, you can just text me,” Jay ends his mini-speech thanking Heeseung once more.

The moment Heeseung steps foot in his apartment, his girlfriend is there already, looking a lot more pissed than Heeseung has originally thought she’d be. Sure, he might have forgotten to text her, but it doesn’t guarantee this kind of reaction. At least, Heeseung doesn’t think so. Which has him worried he could have forgotten something else, something more serious. He can’t think of anything, but there is always a chance something is escaping his mind. Hoon seems to sense the tension, as he looks around trying to find the cause of it. The moment Hoon sees Heeseung’s girlfriend, he narrows his eyes and scrunches his nose as if disliking the scents around him. 

“Hey, Sora, sorry I forgot to text you yesterday, something came up and…” He gently raises the kitten in his arms so she can see him. 

“Evidently, but couldn’t you have taken two minutes to text me? Do you know how worried I was?” She complains, and honestly, Heeseung doesn’t have enough strength to deal with it at the moment. 

“I’m sorry, I was tired,” he excuses himself. “Let me put the cat down and we can talk about it, okay?” Heeseung attempts to reason, he doesn’t want to argue while holding the cat.

“I see what’s more important to you,” she spits, and Heeseung hates it. He hates how annoyed he is getting and the fact that she isn’t trying to listen. He hates the little version of Sunoo, his friend, in his head that keeps telling him she’s not good for him. Ignoring her for just a second, Heeseung places the cat back on the couch and breathes in deeply, reminding himself that she is just concerned for him. She is doing it all out of worry. 

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you, okay?” He apologises again, getting closer to her. 

“Fine, if you say you mean it,” she sighs, sounding anything but believing. “The cat’s kind of cute, I guess,” she adds, to which the cat seems to be a little offended by. Heeseung is sure he’s just imagining it. The moment Sora attempts to pet him, though, Hoon flattens his ears and tries to move away from her. That’s weird. “Not very cuddly,” she shrugs and walks away from him. The cat almost immediately relaxes. 

After taking care of Hoon, Heeseung goes over to try and talk things out with his girlfriend. It doesn’t go well and after reaching yet another dead-end with her being offended and leaving. They’ll probably make up later, but at the moment Heeseung feels exhausted. He flops onto the sofa next to Hoon, and is surprised by him slowly crawling closer. The cat seems to want to comfort him, but again, Heeseung is probably just reading too much into his actions. 

To add insult to injury, later during the day, Sunoo and Jungwon, the number one haters of his relationship, come over to his place. Fortunately for him, both of them are distracted enough by Hoon that they don’t judge him too much for his newest fight with Sora. Once again, Hoon never once pulls away from them, he doesn’t look defensive or cautious around them. Heeseung thinks maybe Hoon hadn’t liked Sora’s perfume or something like that, because he doubts the cat has something specifically against her. 

Even if the cat is a great distraction, it doesn’t completely save him from their comments. He’s grown used to them, and they never take them too far. Sunoo has said, multiple times, that even though he doesn’t like Sora and thinks he can do better, he’ll respect Heeseung’s poor choices; he’ll still comment on it as long as Heeseung allowed him to. Jungwon is just as direct with his judgement, but a lot less insistent on it. For the most part, Jungwon just ignores Sora as much as he can. Heeseung understands them, she’s never tried to get closer to them or even to be on their good sides. If he’s honest, sometimes it seems like she intentionally antagonises them. It’s just that her personality can be a bit strong. And it seems like Hoon has joined the group who don’t really like Sora. Though, after a week of living with him and having witnessed more fights between him and his girlfriend, Heeseung is not surprised Hoon has sided against her as well; all that shouting must be horrible for the cat.

“I’m just saying, cats know best,” Riki, an employee at the coffee shop Heeseung often goes to, comments as Heeseung tells him about the new developments. Riki will use any excuse he can to stop working even if for only five minutes; he’s never been scolded yet, so that encourages him to keep doing his thing. 

“Don’t join their club, Sora’s got enough opposition as it is,” Heeseung groans, the coffee in front of him mostly an excuse to be in there. 

“It’s not like I can hate her, I’ve never even met her,” he points out, subtly rolling his eyes. “Which is weird as fuck, because you are here basically every day of the week.” 

“I don’t come that often,” Heeseung argues, even though he knows that’s a lie. 

“Five out of seven days is almost the entire week, hyung,” Riki mocks him. “You could always bring her here, I promise to behave,” Riki raises his eyebrows, knowing fully well that he will not fulfil that promise.

“I doubt that,” Heeseung counters and, just for a second, he turns towards the window. “What?” The second he looks out the window he sees Jay, but he’s not alone. Jay is walking a fluffy, golden dog. It shouldn’t be any of his business, but he’s sure Jay has told him he couldn’t keep Hoon because his place doesn’t allow pets. As far as he knows, dogs are pets too.

And then Jay enters the coffee shop with the dog, which Heeseung is pretty sure is against the rules. He’s never seen any signs saying pets aren’t allowed in, but he’s never seen a sign stating otherwise either. He looks at Riki, waiting for him to say or do something. What comes out of Riki’s mouth is anything but what he expects.

“Jake-hyung! You know you can’t come in here in your dog form!” Riki reprimands the dog, which seems to pout. Then Heeseung understands that’s not a pet dog, that’s a hybrid. Suddenly, it all makes sense, except Jay walking him like an actual pet dog.

“Sorry, you know how he gets,” Jay apologises for both of them. “He wanted to go on a walk,” Jay explains, though Riki doesn’t look surprised at all. Heeseung concludes they probably have done this before.

“And you couldn’t say no… whatever, go change in the bathroom,” Riki sighs and Heeseung watches as the dog happily goes over to the bathrooms, waiting for someone to open the door for him. 

It’s cute, Heeseung thinks, but also weird to think that’s a person. Jay walks behind him with a bag on his shoulder, probably where he keeps the hybrid's clothes, and they both disappear behind the door. After them, a group of three friends walks in and Riki is forced to go back behind the counter. In the time it takes Riki to take their order, Jay and another man walk out the bathroom. Heeseung doesn’t need to be the smartest to know that the other man is the hybrid, especially because he has a pair of fluffy golden ears on top of his head and a matching tail. 

The moment Jay notices him, he waves and walks towards him, pulling the other man along by his arm. Heeseung is not the best with strangers, but he tries his best to stay calm and smile. Thankfully, it’s not that hard since he’s been texting Jay occasionally to give him updates on Hoon’s condition. Since Jay isn’t a complete stranger, Heeseung does not feel as anxious as he normally would. However, he isn’t entirely calm either simply because of the other person, who he doesn’t know. 

“Oh, you are the guy taking care of Sunghoon—” The hybrid starts and is awkwardly interrupted by Jay.

“’s cat! Sunghoon’s cat, yes,” Jay continues with his weird speech pattern, which Heeseung would think is just how he talks if it weren’t because the dog hybrid looks confused at him; very cute, but also a little bit suspicious. “This is Heeseung,” Jay tells his companion. “This is Jake,” he now addresses Heeseung, “my boyfriend.”

“Hi,” Jake says warmly, dog tail wagging behind him a little. “You seem nice,” he comments and Heeseung, while taken aback, feels oddly complimented. 

“Thanks?” He really doesn’t know how to react.

“Anyway, thanks for taking care of Hoon, I hope he’s been behaving…” Jay seems to struggle with his words, as if he had to really think before speaking. 

“Oh, he’s been super sweet really,” Heeseung tells him easily. The cat has been nothing but lovely, Heeseung is sure he’ll miss him once he has to return it to his owner. “Though he doesn’t really get along with my girlfriend,” he adds as a joke. 

“I’m not surprised,” Jay says and snickers, but Heeseung thinks it’s for a different reason to his joke. Jake’s ears twitch and looks over to Heeseung once more and then laughs together with Jay. Apparently, he’s figured things out even if Heeseung is still lost.

They talk for a couple more minutes, but soon Heeseung excuses himself and leaves. While he doesn’t have anything to do, he doesn’t want to intrude on their obvious date. Back home, Hoon’s laying on his bed, seemingly asleep or just resting. His fluffy ear twitches and Heeseung tries his best not to immediately grab him. The cat already lets him do a lot, petting him and snuggling him, so he’s not going to abuse the cat’s trust in him. 

Hoon heals fast under Heeseung’s care, and in about a month he’s almost completely healed. He can now walk around a little, but he’s still very careful when he steps on his injured leg. He doesn’t jump from high places or stand on it for long, but it’s a lot of progress. The vet tells Heeseung the cat should be completely healed in two more weeks. Coincidentally, Jay says Sunghoon should be back around that same time. Heeseung could have thought about it for more than two seconds, but his mind is immediately taken to the fact that in two weeks, the cat will no longer be at his place. He’s grown attached to the cat, and he’s sure he’ll miss him immensely once he’s gone. He can only hope that his owner will allow him to, maybe, visit him occasionally. 

If he’s honest, Hoon is an amazing cat, most of the time. But then, there’s the slight moment in which he hides or becomes extremely defensive to the point of hissing and slapping at anything that comes near him. These moments being exclusively around Sora. It’s a bit of a problem because Sora is around often enough that Heeseung worries her presence will stress the cat. He’s not even sure why the cat reacts so negatively towards Sora, but he knows it’s not the cat’s fault; it’s probably just instinctual to him. Still, he seems to mostly just avoid being close to her and limits to watch her every move. 

Until Yunseo, a friend of both Heeseung and Sora, comes over one afternoon. It’s such a strange chain of events, Heeseung isn’t even entirely sure of what happened. The moment Yunseo comes through the door, Hoon immediately hisses at him. Heeseung thinks it may be because he’s never met Yunseo before, and even if he’s been fine with most strangers, maybe Yunseo is the unlucky one. He ignores it, moving Sunghoon to his room so he won’t have to be near Yunseo or Sora, who he already hates apparently. Yunseo doesn’t mind the cat’s reaction, though, so they just settle in the living-room and talk for a bit. 

Heeseung leaves the room for just a couple of minutes to look for some drinks for them, that’s when it really happens.

“Get the fuck off me!” Heeseung hears Sora shouting and angry cat noises and immediately knows what’s happening. 

He rushes back into the living-room just in time to see Sora forcefully throwing the cat away from her. While he understands it was probably just a natural reaction to being jumped on, he still gets angry at her. The cat doesn’t know better and is still recovering from an injury, she shouldn’t be so forceful. 

“What is wrong with that thing?” Yunseo asks, alarmed and standing far away from them. 

“He’s just a cat…” Heeseung replies, but he’s more focused on checking if Hoon’s alright than on them. The worst they could have would be a couple scratches; Hoon had a full broken leg in the middle of healing, on the other hand. 

“It attacked me!” Sora complains, but as far as Heeseung can see, she has no marks on her. “Get that devil cat out of here!” She demands.

“What? I can’t do that,” Heeseung refuses. He has promised to take care of Hoon until his owner returns and he’s going to honour that promise. “He’s just a little anxious because he doesn’t know you well, he didn’t even hurt you,” Heeseung defends the cat. 

“Seriously? You are going to take the cat’s side instead of mine?” Sora scoffs. “Whatever, we’ll go out to get some food, that little shit better be gone when we return,” she demands and pushes Yunseo out of Heeseung’s place. Heeseung doesn’t even get to argue back.

Heeseung is left confused and wondering if she couldn’t hear him properly. He’s not getting rid of the cat, even without the promise, this is no reason to be kicking an animal out in the middle of the night. At most, Heeseung would consider looking for someone who could care for Hoon. But, given that Hoon behaves perfectly fine around everyone else, he knows the cat’s not the problem. He shakes his head to refocus his thoughts, and turns once more towards Hoon, checking that his leg is still okay. 

“Don’t worry, okay? I’m not kicking you out,” he gently speaks to the cat and pets his soft head. Hoon seems to relax the moment they leave, and under Heeseung’s touch he gets even more comfortable. “I don’t know why you hate her so much, but could you just tolerate her? You’ll be staying here for a couple more weeks only…”

As if understanding, and arguing, the cat meows in a low tone. It’s as if he doesn’t want to even tolerate Sora, something in his body language tells Heeseung as much.

“I know we argue a lot, but I don’t think she’s done anything to warrant this much hostility,” Heeseung tries to reason; he realises how weird this is, but he’s got used to talking to the cat in this manner. Especially after he fights with Sora. 

Still refusing to cooperate, Hoon slips from his hold and with surprising skills, goes for Sora’s purse. Heeseung notes that it’s strange that she left to buy food without it, but is distracted by Hoon, somehow, pulling Sora’s phone from inside it and throwing it to the floor. Heeseung tries, and fails, to grab it before it falls and then fails again to retrieve it from the floor. Though, the second time it’s because Hoon pushes it away, as if not wanting Heeseung to get it just yet. Heeseung thinks he’s just playing around, but he is astonished by the level of dexterity the cat has. 

The phone slides almost through the entire place, and by the time Heeseung manages to get it, he sees it’s got Sora’s messages opened. Specifically, the messages she has with Yunseo. Heeseung doesn’t mean to read them, he’s not like that, but his eyes glance over some of the messages and he freezes. They are suggestive, to say the least. His mind is rapidly trying to come up with any excuse, any reason or explanation, for the kind of messages he’s seeing, but he can’t. There’s no context in which “next time I fuck you so good you won’t remember Heeseung at all” can be interpreted platonically. And that’s not the only message they have which is completely inappropriate and sexual.

Heeseung feels like crying, but he’s unable to fully process what this means. 

Chapter Text

When Sora and Yunseo return, Heeseung acts like everything’s normal. Hoon’s still there, sitting on his lap and comforting him. Sora glares at it and starts complaining once more, but Heeseung doesn’t have the energy for it any more. He cannot bring himself to care. Both of them betrayed him, and she wants to argue about the cat? Sure, she doesn’t know he’s figured things out, that he knows she’s cheating on him, but it seems so completely absurd of her to even care about this. But, Heeseung guesses, she probably doesn’t really care about him. She’s constantly pushing him and testing his patience, and Heeseung has endured so much just because he thought there was love between them. Now, though, he’s rethinking their whole relationship.

They leave, eventually, Sora’s upset and Yunseo barely talks, and Heeseung is a mess. The only thing keeping him from breaking down is Hoon. The cat lays on top of him and purrs so loudly his entire body vibrates. He even nuzzles against him a couple of times, and seems to be sorry for him. With his tiny gestures, he seems to be telling Heeseung this isn’t his fault, he’s enough and that he deserves better. 

“If she disappears in the next couple of days, it wasn’t me,” Sunoo says the next day. Him, Heeseung and Jungwon got together at the coffee shop Heeseung always goes to as soon as they got Heeseung’s message begging them for help. 

“Sunoo, no murder,” Riki warns him from back where he’s preparing their orders. “I’d love for you to do it, but I don’t want you going to jail.”

“Okay, but I could—” Sunoo begins and Jungwon is completely on board with whatever idea he’s got.

“No,” Riki insists, causing Sunoo to pout. Heeseung is glad none of them are reminding him of how many times they’d told him Sora wasn’t good for him. 

“The only reason you don’t want to kill her is because you don’t know her,” Sunoo accuses him, knowing Riki well enough to be certain of his words. 

“I think you should not discuss illegal activities so openly,” Heeseung comments, trying to get them to stop. 

“I think we should not commit illegal activities, full stop.” Riki speaks in general, but is looking at Sunoo specifically. 

“I hate agreeing with you, and you are just saying that because you think Sunoo’s too pretty for prison,” Jungwon sighs. “But you are right, we shouldn’t murder her— Heeseung has to talk to her about it, though.”

“Wait—” Heeseung reacts to the focus shifting towards him. 

“Were you planning to not mention it?” Jungwon confronts him. “She’s been cheating on you, with your ‘friend’, and you are just going to stay quiet?” 

“W-well, no… but I was hoping…” Heeseung trails off. He’s never liked confrontations, but he knows he can’t really avoid this one. Though if they’d had a good alternative, he wouldn’t have complained. He wants some other way to get through that without having to bring up the fact he saw her messages. 

“There’s really no other way around it,” Sunoo comments. “And I can’t force you to break up with her, but I seriously hope you are at least considering it. 

“I don’t think… I can forgive her this time,” Heeseung admits and feels oddly lighter after saying it out loud. He’s always been extremely forgiving, but he’s come to realise he might have been letting her get away with too much. Maybe, it is time he puts himself first for once.

That’s not the last conversation he has about the matter at hand. For as much as he fights and argues with Sora, he doesn’t actually enjoy any of it. He’d much rather just resolve things calmly, but he knows Sora won’t let that happen. He spends a good amount of time trying to think of how to bring it up, but not only the messages, all of the issues they have. He seriously needs to end things with her, no matter how much he likes her, sometimes that just isn’t enough. They are not good for each other, and it’s been hurting him more than he’d like to admit. 

“It’s just… we haven’t even been together for that long,” he tells Hoon as if the cat could understand him. He’s done that a lot, and the cat seems to genuinely be listening to him, though half the time he also seems to be completely spaced out. “And I like her, but I don’t know… I thought I had come to love her? But now it doesn’t feel like it… and finding out she’s been cheating…” He exhales sadly, carefully petting Hoon who’s sitting on his lap as he sits on his sofa. “Makes me think she never even cared about us, but should I really end things?”

As expected, the cat doesn’t respond, but it does seem to push his head against Heeseung's hands with a little more strength. Heeseung would take that as him supporting his decision. 

“Heeseung, darling, I was just thinking— ugh, that thing’s still here… anyway—” Sora begins her usual speech, the one she recites whenever she arrives at Heeseung’s place and he’s already there, about a new date idea she had or something she wants to try. Heeseung isn’t listening this time, however.

“I want to break up,” Heeseung states, clearly and a lot more confidently than he intended. There’s no hesitation in his voice, and to some extent he thinks the cat is actually giving him strength and comfort. The moment she complained about Hoon, Heeseung made up his mind. It’s not even his cat and he’ll have to return him soon, but at the moment, he’s taking care of him and no animal deserves to be treated like that. 

“What? What are you talking about?” Sora sounds confused, surprised even. Heeseung can’t blame her, from her perspective, this seems to come out of nowhere.

“I know about you and Yunseo…” Heeseung says, hoping she won’t try to deny it. 

“About…? He’s just a friend—” Of course, Heeseung is never that lucky. Sora tries to play it off, pretending she’s done nothing wrong.

“Sora… please, I saw the messages,” Heeseung tells her. He knows what her reaction will be even before she opens her mouth again. But there’s nothing left in him to want to prolong this fight with ambiguity and vague claims. 

“You saw what? Did you go through my phone?” She sounds scandalised. On the one hand, he had seen the messages accidentally and Sora should know better than to assume he’s intentionally done so. On the other hand, what even is the point of arguing over that when she’s just trying to shift the focus away from her cheating. “You know that’s the one thing—"

“Does it really matter right now?” Heeseung asks. He’s tired and only now is he noticing how often she does this same thing. Every time they had an argument, she’d make herself the victim somehow. “I saw them unintentionally, but even if I had, you are fucking our friend,” he points out. There’s a clear difference between those two things. “And it’s not the ‘one thing’, Sora… you have a bunch of rules and demands which I have always followed and fulfilled… but you never once respect what I say or do what I ask you to— I’m tired…”

“You are tired? The moment you got that cat you began ignoring me—” She tries to argue once more.

“The cat has nothing to do with this, Sora, and you know it,” Heeseung is firm. He should have known better from the start, as he cannot remember one time Sora had ever listened to him. “This started way before he was even around, and even if I had somewhat neglected you because of him, the answer is not to cheat.”

“I didn’t cheat—” She sounds so petulant and arrogant, Heeseung almost begins crying out of frustration.  

“Oh, please,” He scoffs. After that, he moves Hoon gently off his lap and stands to push Sora out of his home. Hopefully, out of his life. “Don’t lie to me, I’m not stupid,” Heeseung says. “There’s no explanation you could give to excuse the sort of messages you’ve sent. None.”

“You can’t just break up with me for this little thing!” she argues, resisting Heeseung’s push. He’s not being forceful yet, but he will if he has to.

“It’s not a little thing,” Heeseung tells her. “I don’t think you understand… I’m done. I don’t care what you have to say, we literally argue all the time, this— This was barely even a relationship to begin with… so I’ve had enough.”

“What the fuck— You’ve had enough? I tolerated that little bitch for over a month and it even attacked me!” Sora goes back to attacking the cat, probably because she doesn’t have anything else to hold against Heeseung. “You know what? Fuck you, I’m breaking up with you!” 

If she thinks Heeseung will argue for the sake of having the last word, of being the one to end the relationship, she’s terribly wrong. 

“Okay,” he says, never raising his voice, “now leave.” He moves her towards the door, taking advantage of her shock, and locks the door once she’s out. Even if she furiously tries to get him to talk to her again, Heeseung is officially over all of it. 

When he looks back, Hoon is no longer on the sofa, instead he’s on top of the little coffee table, pawing at Heeseung’s phone. Once more, Heeseung can’t tell if it’s a coincidence or if Hoon is just that smart of a cat, but he’s got Sora’s contact opened and ready to be blocked. It’s honestly impressive, and he laughs at the thought of a cat hating someone so much they’ve learnt how to use a phone. Heeseung’s the one to finally push the button though, knowing that’s what he should do. 

He can’t lie and say he’s completely fine. It hurts and he feels empty inside, like he’s lost a little part of himself. But he cannot deny either that he also feels less stressed and lighter. He’s not happy, however he recognises this is the right call. Sora was doing more damage to his life than bringing positive energy. Maybe he should have listened to Sunoo from the start. There’s something nice about not having to worry about potentially upsetting someone because he doesn’t make them the centre of his every thought. 

His last two weeks with Hoon are the most peaceful weeks he’s had in a long time, probably since before he met Sora. He’s probably sadder over having to give Hoon back than about his break up by the time he takes Hoon for a final vet check. The cat is completely healed and Jay tells him Sunghoon, the owner, is back so he can pick him up. Heeseung really doesn’t want to, and he almost wants to argue that he’d take better care of Hoon anyway. However, he can’t. Besides the leg, the cat is perfectly healthy and had been perfectly healthy when he found him. Obviously, it had been a badly timed accident. 

So, reluctantly, Heeseung meets Jay to give Hoon back. Not before thanking Hoon for his help, much to Jay’s confusion, and also hugging him one last time. Maybe he should seriously consider getting a cat of his own.

“Seriously, thank you for taking care of Hoon,” Jay repeats as he gets a hold of the cat, which seems completely against the idea even though he never complains with Heeseung.

“It was no problem,” Heeseung politely repeats himself. What else is he supposed to say? The cat even helped him out with Sora; twice. Maybe even more, if he really thinks about it. “Would it be okay to…”

“Hm? What?” Jay can’t properly hear Heeseung because he’s mumbling and whispering his words.

“Just… Could I see Hoon again? Would your friend be okay with that?” He finally asks. Worst that could happen is that he gets told no.

“Oh,” Jay nods, understanding Heeseung now. “I’ll give him your number so he can tell you,” Jay has a mischievous smile on his face which Heeseung doesn’t get. “I’m sure he’d be more than happy to talk to you about his cat.” Immediately, Hoon bites Jay’s hand. It wasn’t a hard bite, since Jay just hisses in mild pain and can easily pull his hand away.

“Are you okay? Does he hate you or something?” Heeseung is taken aback, because while Hoon doesn’t seem to be super friendly with Jay, he hadn’t been as hostile as he’d been with Sora up to that point. 

“Na, he’s just… defending Sunghoon’s honour or something like that,” Jay dismisses him. Heeseung is still worried, but almost at the same time, Hoon relaxes in Jay’s arms. It was as if he’s telling Heeseung he can trust Jay, this time. 

That night, Heeseung misses the light weight of Hoon on top of him. He hasn’t seen Sora or Yunseo in two weeks, and probably won’t see them again, but somehow, Hoon’s absence is more precent than hers. Maybe it is because he’s truly alone now, and while he’d known Hoon being there helped, he hadn’t realised how much. He’ll have to call Sunoo or Jungwon to spend some time together soon. The next day, Heeseung functions as well as he can, having slept terribly and being pretty dead inside.

At some point during the morning, he texts both Sunoo and Jungwon to go get coffee once everyone’s done for the day, and they agree quite easily; as long as Heeseung pays, of course. He doesn’t mind, and he knows they’ll go anyway because Riki’s working, and they always go whenever Riki’s around. 

He’s the first of the three to arrive and Riki enthusiastically greets him. As if he ever changed his order, Heeseung takes his time to read over the menu and then chooses the same drink he always has. Riki feigns being annoyed by this, as he usually does, and Heeseung finds comfort in this normalcy. Sora might not be around, but she never was around when he came to the coffee shop, and he couldn’t bring Hoon here either. This is how it has always been. 

And then he spots Jay sitting at a table not too far from the counter. He expects him to be with Jake, like the last time he’s seen him there, but that’s not the case. In front of him sits another hybrid, pale and beautiful, and with a pair of extra fluffy white cat ears on top of his head. Heeseung takes one look at his face, at the little moles on his nose and under his eye and connects all the dots.

Well, there’s that and the fact that he clearly hears them talking.

“I’m not texting him, I was his cat for like two months and he just broke up with his girlfriend—” the hybrid says.

“That has nothing to do—” Jay starts but the hybrid stops him before he can make up any excuse.

“Don’t pretend you aren’t trying to get me to ask him on a date, I know you!” He argues. He sounds convinced and frustrated.

“I’m not saying you should do it right now… in a week maybe?” Jay instead changes his approach from ignorance to bargaining. 

“He broke up with his girlfriend, what makes you think he’d even be interested—” he shakes his head and his ears twitch. “It’s weird enough that I was his cat, I can’t text him, it’d be creepy.”

“Hoon?” Heeseung decides to interrupt in that moment, which effectively freaks the hybrid out to the point that he almost jumps out of his chair. 

“Heeseung, hi,” Jay ignores all of it, Heeseung thinks Hoon’s reaction is cute. It’s the same he had as a cat. “Do you like men?”

“Jay!” Hoon screeches, horrified.

“Yeah, I’m bi,” Heeseung answers, not ignoring Hoon but looking straight at him. He might be moving on too fast, but Hoon was very beautiful and he’s not dumb enough to let that opportunity pass by. 

“See?” Jay points up with his hands at Heeseung, Hoon’s face is completely red.

“Please, stop.” Hoon begs and Heeseung takes pity on him.

“I would have never guessed you were a hybrid,” Heeseung changes the topic to help Hoon out.

“I— Yes, I… Sorry, I couldn’t—” he struggles to speak and explain himself. “My name’s Sunghoon… thank you for… looking after me,” he says, with every word sounding smaller and smaller. Heeseung thinks he’ll turn into his cat form to hide at any second.

“Ah, that makes sense,” Heeseung nods, remembering Jay had mentioned a Sunghoon at some point. Maybe he should have figured it out the moment Jay said the cat’s owner’s name was Sunghoon, and the cat was Hoon. That sounds odd in retrospect.

“So… sorry, you can’t really… see ‘Hoon’ again, since…” Sunghoon points at himself, but Heeseung doesn’t understand what he’s trying to say.

“Oh, but,” Heeseung stops for a second, trying to figure out how to best continue. “I mean, we could meet? I’d like to thank you for your help with Sora,” Heeseung tells him. “I now realise I should have known you were a hybrid when you used her phone.” Heeseung laughs.

“W—? I should be thanking you,” Sunghoon argues. “You took care of my injury for two months, that’s a lot.”

“You helped me find out my ex was cheating, I wouldn’t have known without you there, so…” Heeseung counters. Jay is looking at them in amusement, enjoying a real-life drama. So is Riki, but he’s attempting to be more discreet about it. 

It takes a good five minutes of back and forth of who should be thanking who, until Sunghoon eventually agrees to get some coffee with Heeseung. Sunghoon has probably not accepted that Heeseung will be paying for him, but they can discuss that again once they are having coffee together. One meeting turns into two, which then turns into three and the four. Partially because neither can give in and they keep treating each other. Heeseung pays for the first one, which has Sunghoon insisting he needs to treat Heeseung now, after everything he did that’s the least he can do. But then, Heeseung uses the same excuse to invite Sunghoon again, because in his mind what Sunghoon did was way more impactful and so he couldn’t let Sunghoon treat him. 

Of course, the other reason is that spending time together is nice. Heeseung seriously enjoy being together with Sunghoon, which is strange. He doesn’t remember having this much fun going on dates with Sora, and these aren’t even really dates. 

They really are not, even if everyone around them likes to call them that, they haven’t. Though, after a couple of months of this strange arrangement that has been going on, Heeseung kind of wishes they were. And so, when Sunghoon makes some admissions, it takes Heeseung less than a second to make up his mind.

“I was a little jealous of your girlfriend,” Sunghoon admits. They are a little tipsy, having drank at a bar before sitting down at a park. Their pants are getting a little wet due to the grass under them, but it doesn’t bother them.

“Really?” Heeseung may not be entirely sober, but he knows what that means. He also vaguely remembers the kind of conversation he’d walked in when he first met Sunghoon in his human form. It’s all starting to make sense to him.

“Yeah… but that’s not why I hated her, really,” Sunghoon defends himself. “A-and that’s not why I showed you she was cheating… it’s just—” Sunghoon momentarily trails off, looking over at Heeseung. “You deserve better than that.”

“Go on a date with me,” Heeseung blurts out. He’s been meaning to ask for at least a few weeks, but in that moment, it just makes sense. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t.

Sunghoon doesn’t even blink as he stares at Heeseung for a moment too long before giving his response. “Okay.”

Their date doesn’t take place until two weeks after that. It’s entirely a time issue. Regardless, Heeseung is uncharacteristically and unreasonably anxious before he goes to pick up Sunghoon. They aren’t even doing much, simple dinner out at a restaurant not too far away from their places. It’s by no means a fancy place, nor is it special at all. It’s just that Heeseung really likes the food there and he thinks Sunghoon will like it too. 

Sunghoon is never not stunning, Heeseung is sure of this, but he looks unreal the moment he opens his door. The flick of his tail and the small twitch of his ears tell Heeseung he’s probably as nervous as he is, though, and that helps Heeseung relax a little. Heeseung tries not to think about Sunghoon’s tail and ears too much, otherwise he is reminded of when Sunghoon was a cat under his care and he’d always pet them. Those aren’t thoughts he needs to be having now that he knows Sunghoon’s human. It’d be inappropriate to even try to touch them now, at least not without Sunghoon’s explicit consent. 

“Why didn’t you turn human?” Heeseung thinks to ask at some point. He’s been trying not to think about back then so much he accidentally made himself think about it. 

“When you found me?” Sunghoon asks for clarification, to which Heeseung nods. “When we are badly injured we can’t turn,” Sunghoon explains. It’s quite simple and Heeseung thinks it makes the utmost sense. 

“What about when you healed? Why did you have me take you to Jay?” Heeseung continues asking, mostly out of curiosity; some things he has wanted to ask from the start. 

“I… was embarrassed,” Sunghoon admits. “I mean, I spent almost two months cuddling up to you, and you thought I was just a cat, so obviously I couldn’t just— Don’t laugh at me!”

“I’m not, I promise! I think it’s cute,” Heeseung says and flushes on the spot. “You are cute,” he doubles down, because he’s already said one part, might as well say everything that’s on his mind. 

“You are annoying,” Sunghoon responds, looking away from Heeseung but his tail curls up revealing just how much he actually liked the compliment. 

It takes one more date for them to kiss, and three more for Sunghoon to get tired and ask Heeseung to be his boyfriend. And then it takes a lot of convincing from Heeseung’s part to get Sunghoon to turn into his cat form for him. Sunghoon is just adorable, and as much as Heeseung now knows that’s Sunghoon, he kind of still misses Hoon a little. 

Getting a cat, though, is now out of the question, Sunghoon had been profoundly offended the moment he’d even suggested the idea. To Sunghoon, it’s as if Heeseung’s trying to replace him. Heeseung find Sunghoon’s jealousy over a hypothetical cat to be hilarious. This is probably the only reason Sunghoon agreed to turn into his cat form. Not like they couldn’t cuddle with Sunghoon being human, but he was so tiny and adorable, and fluffy, as a cat that Heeseung just needs it every once in a while. 

Later Sunghoon admits to actually really liking being in his cat form to sleep, especially if he’s spending the night with Heeseung, because he’s extra warm like that. Plus, it has the added bonus of being able to smell Heeseung’s natural scent a lot better. Heeseung doesn’t think he smells like anything in particular, but hybrids do tend to have a way better sense of smell than humans, so he doesn’t question it. At some point, Sunghoon also explained that scents is how he discovered Sora was cheating on him; Heeseung doesn’t really care.

“Wait, so you were a hybrid all along?” Jungwon asks the day he, officially, meets Sunghoon. Sunoo is as shocked as him.

“Yes,” Sunghoon replies, unsure of what else he should say. 

“That explains a lot,” Jungwon nods, as if it all made sense. Sunghoon has told Heeseung he was sure Jungwon had to also be a cat hybrid, so when Heeseung catches him intensely staring at the top of Jungwon’s head, he tries not to laugh. 

“Hyung, this is great,” Sunoo comments, and there’s something in his face that tells Heeseung he won’t like what he’s about to say. “You’ve always wanted a cat, now you have one and a boyfriend! It’s two-in-one!” He cheers, knowing fully well he’s just trying to annoy Heeseung. 

“I’m not a cat!” Sunghoon argues, but honestly, no one is listening. 

If Sunoo’s going to claim Sunghoon’s his cat, then he’ll act like it. Just to spite them, Heeseung grabs Sunghoon’s face with his hands and kisses him on the nose. As expected, it gets the reaction Heeseung wanted out of Sunoo and Jungwon, who shout for them to get a room. Given that Sunghoon immediately ignores them and instead quickly kisses Heeseung on the lips, maybe they should.