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There was a stranger sleeping on Sunghoon’s sofa.
More accurately would be to say there was a drunk stranger cuddling Sunghoon’s cat and sleeping on his sofa.
Sunghoon’s night had been pretty standard for the most part; he’d studied, had dinner, fed his cat and gone to sleep. Jake and Jay had asked him earlier in the day if he’d wanted to go out, but he’d honestly been so tired lately he just wanted to sleep. So that had been normal. What hadn’t been normal, and had actually almost given him a heart attack, was when he was abruptly woke up at three in the morning by loud noises coming from his front door.
Startled awake, he rushed out of his room with his phone in hand ready to call the police. He expected many things, from a thief to a murderer, even a random animal that had, somehow, managed to get into his apartment on the 6th floor. What he hadn’t expected was a cute guy, absolutely drunk and barely coherent, to be stumbling through his apartment. He stared, completely froze, as the guy hit himself against almost every piece of furniture Sunghoon owned, giggling and apologising to the inanimate objects. He continued to watch the guy fumble his way to the sofa and face-planting against it, not noticing Sunghoon at any point.
At that moment, Sunghoon was ready to call the police. Sure, the guy was just drunk, and probably a little confused about where he was; for all Sunghoon knew, he probably was a neighbour. He’d still broken into his apartment and would be a nightmare to deal with in the morning.
But then, Sunghoon experienced absolute betrayal.
“Oh…” the guy slurred. “Since when do you have a cat?” Sunghoon had to make extra mental effort to understand the words coming out of the guy’s mouth. Not only was he wasted, his face was half pressed against the sofa and it muffled him out.
That wasn’t important, but the fact that Yeong, his grumpy, vicious, antisocial cat, was cautiously sniffing at this guy’s hand. And then the traitor had the audacity to rub his head against it. Oblivious to how strange this behaviour was from the cat, the guy pet his head as coordinated-ly and gently as he could. Not like Yeong cared, he seemed entirely too happy with whatever attention he could get from this stranger. He was purring so loudly, Sunghoon could hear him from his spot a meter or so away from the sofa. Sunghoon was so taken aback by this, he stopped himself from doing anything. Especially when he saw how the guy rolled onto his back and awkwardly fit himself on the sofa, much to small for him apparently, and then saw how Yeong jumped on top of the guy and made himself comfortable on his chest.
It was ridiculous, the most he got was the cat besides his knees when it was cold. He took care of his every need and this random guy got him all cuddled up over his chest and purring like his life depended on it. Now he couldn’t even kick the guy out, the cat was way too comfortable, and got even more comfortable when the guy held it with his arms. The guy fell asleep almost instantly, and soon so did Yeong. Sunghoon remained in the dark, staring at both of them and trying to figure out what he should do.
After staring at the guy and his cat for five more minutes, Sunghoon sighed and went back to his bed. This was probably a terrible idea, one he’d regret in the morning, but again, he was tired. He wanted to sleep more than he wanted to deal with all that. If he called the police, or anyone else for that matter, it’d take them a good while before anyone got there, then he’d have to go through all the processes and stuff, and he just didn’t want to. If the guy somehow didn’t have a killer headache once he woke up and decided to kill him, maybe he just deserved that.
Besides, if his absolute asshole of a cat though this guy was good enough to be his personal pillow, maybe he wasn’t that bad. It did help that the guy was cute, so Sunghoon guessed he’d let pretty privileges win this one.
Once morning came, Sunghoon was still very much alive and felt considerably less exhausted than he’d felt all week. He’d honestly forgotten about the whole drunk guy on his sofa until he was startled again by him. Unsurprisingly, he was still passed out. Surprisingly, Yeong was still on top of his chest. Now Sunghoon really had to do something about it, he couldn’t let a stranger just stay in his apartment. Well, he could, but he felt like he’d taken enough dumb decisions for the day. Though, he guessed, it could wait until after he had breakfast, the guy was completely unconscious after all.
As he normally would, he made something small for himself and filled Yeong’s bowl with some wet food. The cat had the decency to get up to eat at least, so the routine wasn’t completely broken. Though, he did immediately return to the guy after he was done. Sunghoon decided to ignore that for the moment, and instead checked his phone while having his breakfast. He had messages on the group chat with Jake and Jay.
Jake
Jay, don’t kill me
I may have lost Heeseung-hyung…
Jay
what
how
?????
The messages were from just a couple of minutes ago, so Sunghoon decided to involve himself in the conversation. He had nothing better to do, after all. At least until the guy woke up or his cat got tired of him.
who?
Jake
He’s Jay’s friend
Met him like… a month ago?
Told him to crash at mine
Jay
how did u lose him???
Jake
Idk
But he’s not here
Jay
didnt he go back w u?
Jake
He… came by himself…
I though he was here!
So I didn’t check
But he’s not, I don’t know where he is…
Jay?
The group chat was silent after that, Jay seemingly having gone offline. Sunghoon knew Jay was uncapable of actually killing Jake, so he wasn’t worried. Besides, Jake lived right above him, so as long as he didn’t hear any screams coming from the floor above, everything g should be fine. He was going to reply, making fun of Jake for losing a whole person, but then he heard groans from his sofa. Since furniture can’t actually talk, he assumed the guy had woken up and was experiencing the wonderful effects of a hangover.
Because Sunghoon was quite the considerate person, he did prepare some meds and water for the guy. This was not because he found the guy cute and kind of adorable when interacting with Yeong. In fact, he was still a little jealous of the guy with how his cat was behaving around him. He felt a little better as he walked around the sofa and saw the shock on the guy’s face mixed with the confusion. He obviously didn’t know who Sunghoon was and had no idea how he’d ended up there.
Yeong was still on top of him and the guy was, either consciously or not, holding him in place while petting him gently.
“I’m guessing I wasn’t kidnapped, so did I break in?” The guy asked, giving up on holding his head up and closing his eyes to protect them from any amount of light.
“Broke in,” Sunghoon told him. “I’ve got water and painkillers, if you need them,” he placed them by the sofa.
“Thank you,” the guy said. “I’ll question your survival instincts once I’m not dying.”
“I don’t think you can judge,” Sunghoon replied instantly.
“Fair,” he said. Carefully, making sure the cat remained comfortable, the guy sat up enough to be able to take the painkillers and drink the glass of water. “Whose apartment have I invaded?”
“I’m Sunghoon,” he replied, only a little captivated with how cute he was being with Yeong. “And that’s Yeong, the reason I didn’t kick you out last night.”
“Ah, I see,” he smiled softly as he looked at the cat, scratching his head. “You saved me from sleeping outside, didn’t you? Such an adorable baby,” he talked to the cat and Sunghoon refused to have a crush on a guy he barely knew.
“He saved you from the cops,” Sunghoon clarified, absolutely failing to cover how flustered he was.
“How generous of him, then,” the guy was nice enough not to acknowledge it. “I’m Heeseung, by the way, thanks for… well, not calling the cops, apparently, and letting me sleep here… and the painkillers and water…” he looked at Sunghoon, eyes struggling to stay open. “Maybe the cat’s not the only nice one here.”
“Right— Wait, Heeseung? As in… Jay’s friend Heeseung?” Sunghoon needed a second to make the connection, but it all made sense.
“You know Jay?” Heeseung asked, a little confused and still waiting for the painkillers to properly make effect.
“Yes,” Sunghoon nodded, immediately going for his phone and ignoring all the panicked messages from Jake and Jay. He was going to tell them Heeseung was there, alive and completely safe, but then he decided they could wait a little longer. “You were meant to go to Jake’s apartment, right?”
“Yeah… how did you know?” Heeseung was more confused than before. He was probably not able to think much yet.
“Jake told me, well, he said it on the group chat we have— not important,” Sunghoon shook his head. At least he knew this guy was never any danger. “You missed by a floor, he lives in the next floor.”
“Oh…” Heeseung was simply accepting all the information Sunghoon was giving him.
“We… have the same door code, so that’s probably how you got in,” Sunghoon added. That at least solved the mystery of how Heeseung had got in without breaking his door. To be fair, Sunghoon hadn’t checked and had assumed he just forgot to lock it, but this made more sense.
“That’s not very smart…” Heeseung commented, and Sunghoon had to agree.
“It’s really not, I’ll change it later,” he sighed. “Do you have your phone? Can you reply to them? They think you died or something,” Sunghoon said, waiting for Heeseung to respond.
“I think my phone’s dead,” he tried to turn it on a couple of times, but eventually gave up. Heeseung had completely sat up on the sofa and the cat was pleasantly sleeping on his lap.
Jay
i cant even call him
goes to voicemail
jake i swear
Jake
I’m sorry!
I didn’t think he’d get lost!
He’s old enough to take care of himself, I think!
Jay
u thought worng
he’s fine
well
mostly fine
yeong has claimed him
he can’t move
and he’s hungover
(photo attached)
Jay
what
Jake
How?
How did he get there?
Wait, give me 5 minutes
Jay
i
weve been frekin out
and you said nothing
wtf
I didn’t know it was him
Jay
im murdering jake
do what you want
Sunghoon ignored his phone after that, especially knowing Jake would soon be coming down. He didn’t need to deal with both those things at the same time. He looked at Heeseung again, who seemed to have figure out what Sunghoon was doing and who he was texting. He looked a little better, though still half-dead.
“What are my chances if I asked you out now?” Heeseung said unexpectedly. Sunghoon looked down at his cat, still comfortably on Heeseung’s lap but no longer sleeping. Instead, he was looking directly at Sunghoon as if daring him to say no.
“I think my cat would murder me in my sleep if I said no,” Sunghoon replied honestly. Not like he was against the idea, if he had to admit to the full picture.
“Always saving me, aren’t you?” Heeseung spoke to the cat again. “Are you free next Friday? We could have some diner,” Heeseung asked him directly.
“Yes, I’d like that,” he managed to reply just as Jake barged through the door.
Well, he’d be seeing Heeseung again soon, so he didn’t mind the interruption. Besides, next time his cat wouldn't be there to stop him from taking his spot.