Chapter Text
Jihoon had liked him for almost a year now.
It wasn’t something he told anyone. Not his friends. Not his family.
Lee Sanghyeok. Literature Department. Two years older. A perfect mix of smart and kind. His face was the kind that made Jihoon forget the sound of his own footsteps when they passed each other on campus.
The first time they met was brief. Jaehyuk hyung, his sunbae, had introduced them casually over lunch, with Sanghyeok sitting across him with his long, ink-stained fingers holding a book Jihoon couldn’t pronounce. He had looked up when Jaehyuk called his name, smiled politely, and said, "Oh, hi. You're Jaehyuk’s junior?"
Jihoon remembered the way his heart skipped a beat, then did a full cartwheel as he bowed so fast he nearly hit the table.
Since then, there had only been tiny moments, Sanghyeok passing by in the hallway, greeting Jaehyuk hyung with a small nod. Jihoon, always lingering nearby, would panic and bow so low. Sometimes Sanghyeok would nod back politely, maybe even smile a little. But Jihoon was sure, absolutely sure, he didn’t remember him.
And yet… he hoped. He hoped so badly that he was wrong.
He heard the stories. Sanghyeok was on full scholarship, apparently the dean’s list darling. A quiet reader type who helped out with the school library committee and sometimes wrote poems that got posted on the university bulletin board anonymously, but everyone knew it was him.
And he was pretty. Not just handsome, pretty. The kind of beauty that looked like he’d stepped out of a black-and-white novel and into real life, wearing soft knit sweaters and round glasses like the world moved slower around him.
Jihoon was just a freshman before. He studied advertising, he's too lazy sometimes, he procrastinated way too much. And oh—he had a secret.
He was a shapeshifter.
Not that anyone outside his family knew. It wasn’t illegal, to be one. His whole family was a shapeshifter too. A family of cats. But shifters weren’t common, and in the world where social media could turn anything into a circus, the attention was often more exhausting than empowering. Jihoon kept to himself. So did his family. He hadn’t shifted in public since he was a kid.
Especially after some dumb elementary school classmates mocked his form, a too-small orange tabby kitten with limbs he hadn’t grown into yet.
“You look like a skinny tin can.”
“Why are your legs so noodle-y?” "Do you like anchovies?"
Yeah. Jihoon grew up, eventually filled out, and his shift form matured along with him into something sleeker, fluffier, and honestly, pretty adorable. Not that he would admit that out loud.
He didn’t really use his cat form anymore… unless he was home, curled up on the carpet under the sun or lounging on his bed.
But that changed the day Jaehyuk hyung casually said, while sipping iced coffee one time during lunch.
"Oh, Sanghyeok hyung? He loves cats."
And just like that, it was like someone lit a firecracker in Jihoon’s head.
He likes cats?!
Would he… would he pet my head? Brush my fur? Let me curl up in his lap while he reads poetry and drinks tea with honey?
Suddenly, Jihoon was leaning halfway off his chair in the café, clutching his cup with wide eyes and a heart threatening to explode.
He could barely focus on his homework that night. His brain was a mess of daydreams and fur and imagined purring.
He transformed.
And when he looked at his reflection in the mirror in cat form, he even combed back his ear fluff with his paw like he was preparing for a date. His tail twitched. He made up his mind. He was going to shapeshift.
He was going to show up as a stray and see just what kind of person Sanghyeok hyung was when faced with a small orange tabby with hopeful eyes and a silent plea to be loved.
He had no plan beyond that.
Just a crush, a heart full of reckless hope, and a tail that curled with excitement.