Chapter Text
Jihoon sighs as a clamoring crowd of people rushes past him— all in pursuit of the ever-elusive cat belonging to none other than Xu Minghao.
Minghao was undeniably the most sought after man Jihoon knew— blessed with a face that looked as if it were sculpted by the Greek gods themselves, and a bank account just as impressive, courtesy of his father, the mayor of their quaint town.
It was safe to say that every eligible young woman and man vied for the attention of Xu Minghao. So when the announcement was made— it caused quite an uproar in their otherwise quiet town.
Jihoon thinks it to be ridiculous: whoever manages to get the key hanging around the cat's neck would earn the right to marry Minghao.
Why marry a stranger who got lucky enough to catch your cat?
Jihoon shakes his head, it wasn't any of his business anyway. He has no desire to play along with Xu Minghao's elaborate game.
Nor does he have the desire to marry the man.
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Jihoon is greeted with the familiar chime of bells as he opens up the record store, already slipping into his regular routine.
He's in the middle of shelving CDs when the door chimes again— though he doesn't bother lifting his head to see who it is.
“Jihoonieee,” the playful voice of Soonyoung rings out, entirely too chipper for eight in the morning, but Jihoon is used to it by now.
“Good. Finish stocking the shelves, don't mix genres like last time.” Jihoon warns, pushing the box towards Soonyoung.
The other man groans, his arms clutching his head dramatically. “You gay people are so picky about your music.” Jihoon pays no mind to his complaints, already turning away to grab the pricing gun from behind the counter.
“Hey,” Soonyoung calls out, leaning in conspiratorially when Jihoon stops and faces him.
“You think we'll get more foot traffic today? With, you know…”
“Work,” Jihoon cuts him off.
Soonyoung grins. “Right. Work.”
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The night air raises goosebumps along Jihoon's skin as he locks up, Soonyoung rocking back and forth on his heels beside him.
“Guess I was wrong.” Soonyoung laments, falling into step with Jihoon as they leave the record store.
“I thought— with Minghao's competition thing— and how the town's so busy now, that we would at least get a few more customers, y'know?”
Jihoon only grunts in response. Business had been slow for a while now; he didn't know how the owner was managing to keep the place open. He's almost certain he'll have to start looking for another job soon— as much as he despises the idea.
He liked working close to music— his dream was to become a producer but there weren't many opportunities this town could offer, and moving to Seoul just to chase a dream was too expensive. So he settled. As much as Soonyoung had encouraged him to go further with it, he knew it wasn't realistic.
Working at the record store wasn't horrible, he doesn't hate it. In fact ,he really liked it, being able to surround himself with music was all he ever wanted. It only became a problem when the owner started cutting their work hours, since he wasn't making enough revenue to pay them fully— and, Jihoon had bills to cover too.
“It's lively,” Jihoon observes. The town was bustling tonight, the diner across the street was still open, and the bar just a few blocks down was full too.
Soonyoung hums. “Yeah, thanks to Minghao and his cat. The whole town's going crazy.”
“Have you actually ever seen the cat?” Jihoon asks. “It feels like a myth at this point.”
“Only in passing,” Soonyoung shrugs. “Little thing's fast. Disappears the second you think you've got it.”
Jihoon raises his eyebrow at that. “You've tried to catch it?”
“God, no,” Soonyoung laughs, his eyes turning into crescents. “It ran past me yesterday, Mingyu was trying to catch it.”
“Kim Mingyu?” that surprises Jihoon, he never thought Mingyu would be the type to get caught up in things like this. “I always thought he and Seungkwan had something going on.”
“Right?!” Soonyoung exclaims excitedly, making Jihoon flinch. “You took the words out of my mouth, they totally like each other."
Jihoon tunes out the rest of Soonyoung's rambling for the rest of the walk— not that Soonyoung would ever mind. He likes to talk; It was something that Jihoon realized early into their friendship.
“See you tomorrow,” Soonyoung says, already veering down the opposite road.
“Don't be late again tomorrow!” Jihoon calls after him, watching as Soonyoung waves a dismissive hand in the air until he disappears from view.
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Jihoon barely has time to open his front gate when shouting erupts from down the street.
“It went that way!”
“Straight ahead!”
“No way, it went left!”
Before he can process it, a ball of brown and black fur barrels into his legs, lets out an indignant meow, and slips through the open gate like it owns the place.
Jihoon is bewildered, but he closes the gate before the crowd can come any closer to see it. That would just cause unnecessary trouble in a night that he was hoping to be peaceful.
Jihoon leans back against the gate and exhales slowly, Xu Minghao's cat sitting a few meters away from him— looking at him with an almost curious gaze.
“Some owner you got, huh?” Jihoon lets out a dry laugh. “What's your name, anyway?”
He pushes away from the gate and cautiously reaches towards the cat, in search of a name tag.
Which is clearly the wrong decision.
The cat bares his teeth, letting out a sharp hiss as it swipes at him.
“Hey!” Jihoon yanks his hand back, clutching it to his chest.
The cat attempts to make a run for it— bolting to the other side of the lawn but it stumbles. And then it limps.
Jihoon has half a mind to leave it be, but he's not a monster. He's also not about to have leaving Xu Minghao's stubborn cat to suffer on his conscience for the rest of the week.
With a sigh, Jihoon hesitantly approaches it, hands raised. “Look.”
“I can leave you here, or you can let me help you.”
The cat seems to relax at his words — or maybe his actions. Cats don't understand Korean, do they?
“Who lets their cat be hunted all day long anyway?” Jihoon mutters under his breath, annoyed at Minghao more than anything.
He's about to take its paw into his hand— but with newfound energy, it hisses and dashes off, jumping over his fence.
“Great. Amazing. The cat hates me.”
With a resigned sigh, Jihoon moves to go inside, but a glint of silver catches his eye. The silver key that hung around the neck of Xu Minghao's cat was now laying on the grass of his front lawn.
Amazing.
Jihoon debates on leaving it there, to ignore it and go about his night— maybe take a bath and watch some TV and then he'd go to work the next morning and live his regular, peaceful life.
He picks up the key.