Chapter Text
“Okay, bye hyung! See you tomorrow.” Jisung said as he waved goodbye to Jaemin.
He began walking back to his apartment, but right before he could put his earbuds in to play his music, he heard a noise.
‘Was that… a dog?’
Jisung stopped and looked around, slowly scanning the ground and attempting to locate the noise.
Bark!
‘There it is again!’
Jisung found the alleyway it sounded like it was coming from and slowly walked towards it.
Turning the corner, he saw a pile of trash and a box that was… shaking?
Carefully, he lifted up the box to reveal an adorable white and brown speckled puppy.
It was a small terrier dog shivering on the ground, barking and yipping in pain.
“Oh… hey, little buddy. Are you okay?” Jisung asked as he slowly reached out his hand to let the puppy sniff it.
The dog did so, sniffing around Jisung's palm and giving his arm a tentative lick.
Jisung extended his hand, petting the puppy on the head gently, before seeing the cut on the dog's hind leg, mud and dirt caked around the light fur.
“Oh my god, your leg… okay, there has to be a vet around here, let me see.” He pulled his phone out, quickly finding an emergency vet just down the street.
Jisung was then able to coax the puppy into his arms, allowing him to carry it.
He stood back up, petting the dog’s head, calming it, all the way to the vet office.
————
When they got to the vet, they were able to go back to the exam room immediately.
“Wow… yeah, this is a pretty good gash your pup’s got. Do you know how it happened, did she get into something?” the vet asked.
“O-oh no, she's not mine. I just found her on the street. Didn't even know she was a she.” He let out an awkward chuckle.
“Ahh, I see. Then, if you would like, I could run a check to see if she's in our files or if she's been microchipped.”
“If that would help find her owner then yeah, absolutely, go for it.” Jisung nodded his head quickly, wanting the puppy to be able to go home.
“Alright, it'll be just a few minutes, so take it easy out here.” The vet said, giving him a final smile before taking the puppy back to fix up her leg and see if she was chipped.
“Alright, thank you.” He said, giving her a small bow as she walked off.
————
20 minutes later, the puppy was brought back out by the vet who had a grin on her face and a piece of paper in hand.
“Good news! This little puppy is named Chai and her owner has had her chipped. Though I couldn't reach him myself, here is his number if you'd like to try and get ahold of him tomorrow! And her leg will heal up in no time, it only needed some cleaning and a good bandaging. Thank you for coming in, we'll be here if you have any difficulties with little Chai here, or with getting ahold of her owner.” The vet smiled yet again, handing Chai Pack to Jisung before bowing and returning behind the door towards her office.
JIsung looked down fondly and smiled at the puppy wiggling in his arms wildly.
“Well Chai, guess you're stuck with me tonight.”
————
Back at Jisung’s apartment, Chai was bouncing around and exploring the place, sniffing around and running behind all of the furniture. It was absolutely adorable, Jisung had to admit.
Only after watching the dog hobble around the room in exploration did Jisung realize that he had no dog food or anything suitable for a dog to eat.
“I don’t think you can have ramyeon, Chai, I’m sorry. Let me go see if we can find any food at the convenience store! Please don’t destroy my house while I’m gone, okay?” He gave her a quick scratch on her head, causing her tail to wag vigorously before he slipped through the door, and shutting it firmly so that the puppy wouldn't escape from him as well.
So here he was, walking to the store at 11 p.m., after a whole day of practice and recording and everything in between. All for this silly dog that isn't even his.
All Jisung wanted to do was lay down and go to bed, but how in the world could he let this sweet little puppy go hungry? He also desperately needed to find something for the dog to use the bathroom on, he wasn’t sure if she was even house broken.
Reaching the 24 hour convenience store, he wandered the aisles for about 5 minutes (and totally not getting distracted with picking out some candy for himself), until he found exactly what he needed.
He grabbed a small box of dog toilet pads and puppy food mix, hoping that Chai wasn’t a very picky puppy when it came to her food.
He took everything up to the counter, pulling out his wallet and paying for the stuff so that he could hurry back home to Chai, not wanting the somewhat rowdy puppy to wreck his carefully stylized living quarters.
Rushing back home, he was relieved to see that Chai had indeed been good while he was away for those few minutes. She was sitting on the couch, curled up in a little ball, tail wagging happily at the warmth of the fabric she was sitting on top of.
“I can’t say I’m thrilled you're on the couch, but I’ll let it slide for now. You’ve had a long day too, haven’t you, puppy? Let’s get you some food and water and then we can go to bed.”
Jisung didn’t know why, but he felt so at ease talking with the dog. Maybe it was boredom, or loneliness, he wasn't really sure.
Rather than having some introspective daydream in the middle of his kitchen, he shook the thought from his head and grabbed two bowls from the cabinet for Chai. He filled one with water and the other with the puppy kibble and sat them down right at the door of the kitchen.
“Chai, c’mere, it’s time to eat!” He called out for her, just to hear her skittering across the floor, running her the food bowl, now with only the slightest hint of a limp.
Jisung breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the puppy happily eat her kibble, lapping up water in between bites. After only a few minutes, both bowls had been completely cleared.
“You must’ve been hungry, huh?” Jisung smiled, patting Chai’s belly as she rolled over on the floor in front of him. She let out an adorably small yip in response.
“Well, I suppose it’s time for me to get ready for bed now, and we can call your owner in the morning.” JIsung chuckled, feeling just a bit silly for narrating everything to the dog who was just pleased to be in a warm home with a full belly, trailing alongside the man sleepily.
As Jisung was changing into his pajamas, the note the vet gave him for the puppy’s owner fell out of his pocket. He made a mental reminder to try and call them the next morning.
————
The next morning came much quicker than Jisung secretly hoped. He really quite enjoyed having Chai with him. He even woke up with her nuzzling her face against his, and he thinks it was the best way he could’ve been woken up. Even if it was 8 a.m. on his day off, he couldn’t bring himself to be mad at the cute little terrier.
He had to admit that the loneliness of his apartment often got to him, wishing he had someone or something else to occupy the space, but too awkward and nervous to take that step. However, it seemed to be fate for him to meet Chai, to open his eyes on having a pet of his own.
It was a bit disappointing that he couldn’t just keep Chai, but he knew she had an owner who was surely missing such a sweet puppy.
After making himself and the dog breakfast, lazing around the house for a couple hours while watching TV, Jisung finally decided it was time to attempt to call the her owner.
Grabbing the vet’s note off of the nightstand in his room, as well as his phone, he plopped back down on the couch, with Chai curling up against his side like she always belonged there.
JIsung couldn’t lie, he hesitated. Wondered if he should call her owner. Only after one night, he was dreadfully attached to the dog already, and was afraid to part with her.
Little did he know, luck would be on his side today.
He sighed as he dialed the number and pressed the call button before he let himself back out of it.
The call was picked up on the third ring, hearing a soft “Hello?” from the other side of the phone.
“Uhm— Hi, is this Chai’s owner? I got this number from the vet’s office downtown, they told me to give you a call since they couldn’t reach you last night.”
“Oh my god, you have Chai? W-wait, vet? Is she okay?!” The man’s tone grew exceedingly worried, and Jisung was quick to intercept.
“No, no, Chai is just fine, she just had a scratch on her leg that I thought was worse when I found her, so I took her to the vet. But she just needed bandages, she’s completely fine, I swear.”
“Oh my, that’s… that’s such a relief, thank you so much.”
“It’s no problem, really. Are you able to meet up to get Chai back today?” Jisung had to bite his tongue to keep from saying ‘ Because if you don’t, I’m just gonna keep her.’
“Yeah, yeah, I can meet you at the cafe down the street from the vet in about 30 minutes, if that works for you?” The other man sounded flustered and nervous, but Jisung chalked that up to talking to a stranger who has your dog in his house.
Jisung felt himself deflate, knowing he would be saying goodbye to Chai in just 30 minutes.
“Okay, that works for me.”
————
30 minutes later, Jisung was sitting at a table outside the cafe with a small coffee, waiting for this mystery man to show up to take Chai back to her real home.
Jisung sat there, Chai on his lap, as he sipped his drink. He was saddened to see the puppy go, he couldn’t lie. However, he knew she needed to be returned to her rightful owner.
A few minutes later, as his coffee started to cool in the late October air, the dog on his lap let out a loud bark, excitedly panting and wagging her tail, attempting to wriggle out of Jisung’s arms and run towards a man, no— an insanely handsome man.
Jisung’s jaw dropped seeing Chai’s owner, eyes studying his whole face, bright eyes and strong cheekbones, fluffy hair that was messy in just the right way.
“Chai! Oh my god, my puppy… Where on Earth have you been?” He ran over just as the dog managed to slip out of Jisung’s grasp, getting immediately scooped up into the other man’s arms, nuzzling himself in the dog's short fur.
“H-hello,” Jisung cringed at how he stuttered, but this man in front of him was drop-dead gorgeous, he couldn't help it.
“My name’s Jisung, I found Chai in an alleyway yesterday evening, I’m so glad I was able to return her to you.” He tried to offer a soft smile, but in his daze, he couldn’t be sure how it looked.
“Oh, right! Sorry, that was pretty rude of me,” the man gave him a deep bow, showing his gratitude. “Thank you so much for taking care of Chai overnight, she ran out the other day while I was moving things out of my old apartment…” He sighed, smiling sadly. It felt like there was more than the stranger would let on.
“I’m Mark, by the way. It’s nice to meet you, Jisung,” He spoke so earnestly that it made JIsung’s heart flutter in his chest.
“Yeah, it’s nice to, uh, meet you too,” The younger managed to push out in an awkward whisper.
Mark gave him a lopsided smile and sat down in the cold metal seat across from him.
“So… did you have fun taking care of Chai? She wasn’t too wild, yeah? She’s still got that puppy energy, and she can be very rowdy sometimes.” Mark spoke softly, voice full of endearment. He giggled lightly as he watched Chai spin under the thin table legs.
“Yeah, it was great! I haven’t had my own dog to take care of in a really long time, like since I was a kid, so it was a fun change of pace. She’s so well-behaved, it was pretty easy. I’m a little sad to see her go, to be honest.” JIsung rambled on as Mark beamed at him, seemingly excited at what the younger was saying.
“I apologize in advance if it sounds too forward, but I actually have something to ask you, if that’s okay?” Mark asked sheepishly, once JIsung was finished speaking.
“Oh, of course! What is it?” He asked, tilting his head to the side gently.
“How would you feel about maybe… keeping Chai for me?”