Joonmyun didn’t have to go to work, in fact he didn’t need to go to work; even with the wedding never going ahead, he still had the time off which was supposed to be for his honeymoon. With no honeymoon to go to and not wanting to spend the time holed up at his place, Joonmyun decides the only way he’s going to take his mind off the disaster of the wedding was to get himself back at work, busy and occupied with other things.

“J-Joonmyun?”

The secretary is visibly shocked when Joonmyun steps into the building on the Monday. The people surrounding them were also shocked, not expecting him back so early.

“Good morning!” Joonmyun shoots back in a voice as cheerful as he could muster and shot her a shaky smile, locking his gaze to the floor and heading straight for the elevator.

Joonmyun didn’t know he was going to be met with when he came to work that morning. He was kind of expecting some people to be shocked that he was back so early, but not everybody who saw him as he exited the elevator and made his way to his office. Gossip gets around quickly- it’s bound to happen to someone like him- so of course there was the possibility that people already knew about the wedding incident and that was why they were so shocked to see him back so early.

‘You’d think they could make it a lot less obvious’ Joonmyun thinks to himself, shooting some of his co-workers a smile and watching them jump and nervously smile and wave back. It’s only the beginning of the day and Joonmyun doesn’t finish until later that evening, he’s probably going to have these scenes for the remainder of the day.

“It’s fine Joonmyun, you’ve got this” he mutters to himself “You survived being jilted, and you can survive a day at work”

With this continuously being chanted in his head, Joonmyun set about trying to get back to some normality. He wanted to feel like he was living normally again yet his experience at work so far had ensured he was living quite the opposite. Finding out anybody had been jilted on their wedding day was huge news itself, finding out Kim Joonmyun- Mr. Perfect, the best rookie the company had hired straight after graduation- had been jilted, that in itself would equal a scandal!

“Of course it was only a marriage to try and cover up certain messes in his home life” he overhears a co-worker whisper to another sat next to her at lunch “What with all these rumours going around, he was probably only doing it to get people off his scent”

“Hush now! Nobody deserves to be jilted like that whether the wedding was real or not!”

“Of come off it! I heard he was only getting married to dispel these rumours that he was gay. The rumours had been going around for years! Who’s to say he really is and he was just doing that to cover it up? It’s karma, karma I tell you!”

Having heard enough, Joonmyun skips the rest of his lunch and spends the rest of his time back in the sanctuary of his office. How many more conversations were people having like that about him? How many weeks of these secret conversations was he going to have to overhear until people finally got tired over such a story?

With a call from Jongdae coming through, Joonmyun quickly answers. Maybe he’ll be able to provide him with some much needed comedy to get him through the rest of the day.

“Hello?” he asks tiredly

“Oh my God Joonmyun you have to help me!” Jongdae wails from the other end of the line and almost immediately Joonmyun springs into action.

“Why? What’s happened?” he asks “Has there been an accident? Is it grandma? Did she fall over again?”

“It’s Sniffles!” Jongdae exclaims

“Sniffles?”

“My cat!” Jongdae adds and Joonmyun rolls his eyes and lets out a sigh “Something’s wrong with her! Her stomach is all swollen and she keeps being sick all over the place! I wouldn’t ask for your help because she’s at work but my car is at the garage being fixed and I can’t find anybody else able to take me to the vets!”

Joonmyun wants to remind Jongdae that he too won’t be able to take him to the vets because even though he’s on his lunch break, they’re not the longest breaks in the world. Then he thinks back to how everybody has been acting around him today, plus he’s still getting holiday pay, so to hell with it.

“Fine, I’ll be there in five”

Joonmyun’s shared some experiences with Jongdae that would make for an amazing story or two; the time they buried their grandmothers dentures thinking they were possessed by some evil magic, the time they found Joonmyun’s brothers collection and got quite the punishment from their mothers when caught, and now sat in a vets with an almost hysteric Jongdae next to him could be added to the list.

“You need to get out more” Joonmyun points out

“Excuse me?”

“Get out more. That way you won’t be so attached and hysterical over something like a cat” Joonmyun explains making Jongdae scoff

“Says the guy who wastes every living moment of his life in his office! And besides, I got Sniffles after my last break up, the really messy one remember? She’s helped me through a lot I deserve to be like this!”

Rolling his eyes, Joonmyun gets up from his seat and walks over to the posters hanging up on the other side of the wall. This wasn’t exactly how he planned to spend his afternoon, but then again he guessed it was better than having to hear people talk about him behind his back.

The sight of the vet walking out with Sniffles in his arms has Jongdae rushing over to take her and cuddle her as tightly as he could. Seeing how much his cousin gushed over an animal made Joonmyun wonder what he would be like if he ever dated anybody again.

“Is she okay? Is she gonna live?” Jongdae asks, making the vet laugh

“I can assure you there’s nothing wrong with her at all. In fact I think you should be happy rather than worried” he replies making Joonmyun and Jongdae frown

“What do you mean?” Jongdae asks

“Sniffles here is pregnant. I ran a scan on her and so far I’ve been able to count three kittens” the vet explains

“Pregnant?” Jongdae gasps, looking down at his cat with wide eyes “Sniffles!” he exclaims dramatically

“How could you not know your cat was pregnant?” Joonmyun asks

“Well she’s not exactly a human! The signs are a lot less obvious!” Jongdae shoots back, the vet watching their exchange with a smile on his face.

“It happens to the best of us” he says, reaching over to pick up a few flyers “These here can give you advice on how you can help your cat throughout the remainder of her pregnancy. The best advice I can give you though is to go home and create a space she can go to when she’s about to give birth, something simple like a cardboard box with a pillow to keep her comfortable”

“Thank you so much uh…”

“Jongin” the vet says “Call me Jongin”

Anybody else watching the scene would think that Jongin had just performed a miracle never seen on the planet before the way Jongdae was thanking him. Joonmyun joins the thanks- now ensured that he won’t have a panicked Jongdae to deal with for the rest of the day- but is interrupted with the sound of his stomach grumbling.

“Sorry” he mutters embarrassedly at how loud the sound is

“Haven’t you had lunch?” Jongdae asks

“Well you kind of rang me up during my lunch break, so no” Joonmyun replies and now Jongdae feels guilty, apologising profusely to him.

“If you want something to keep you going until dinner, I know this great little cake shop nearby” Jongin suggests

“Appreciated but I’d rather just go home and cook myself up something there” Joonmyun replies

“Nonsense! Let’s go check it out and I’ll pay for whatever you have. Please” Jongdae insists and eventually agreeing to go check the place out, they get directions from Jongin and Jongdae promises to pay for Joonmyun’s food as soon as they’ve gone back to take Sniffles home and settle her down. All of this for one cat, it amazed Joonmyun.

Lunch rush over, Yixing is able to take a deep breath in and relax. With Kyungsoo on his break he’s left to himself getting fresh batches ready to put on display, humming along to the music on the radio.

Hearing the ring bell as the door to the place is opened, Yixing looks up to smile and greet the customer, but seeing just who it was who had entered made Yixing gasp and the plate he had been holding previously went crashing to the floor, he going down with it to hide.

Poor Sniffles, it's not easy being a cat...

At least this gave me a really creative way to introduce a new character and leave it to pick up nicely for the next chapter! Now, I'm no animal expert, and my cat had her kittens over 13 years ago, so I had to do some research into the symptoms of a pregnant cat. If there are any inaccuracies, blame me for mr trust in this website here.

Until the next chapter!!