It's not a big cage. That's what Junhui realizes, when his friend, Soonyoung, takes him to the pet store not far from his home. The older had been interested in getting a pet for a long time, but he had never come around to actually get one.

That's why Junhui was surprised, when Soonyoung had called him this morning telling him, that he was going to get a cat or a dog today. The thing is, it's not real cats or dogs. It's cat-humans and dog-humans. Knowing this, the Chinese boy hadn't been sure whether or not, he should go with his friend to get one.

That's when the cage comes into the picture. Junhui had been sure that the pet store would be a bad place. Having imagined small boys and girls with ears and tails sitting miserably in cages, just waiting for someone to come and rescue them, he was pleasingly surprised.

It was not a big cage - it didn't look like one at least. It was more like a big living room with glass walls around it. Inside were a lot of small half-humans. Some had dog ears, some rabbit ears and so on. Junhui had thought that there only would be cat- and dog-hybrids, but he had clearly been very wrong at that.

"Aren't they cute?" Soonyoung asks Junhui, not even expecting an answer as he follows Seungcheol - the worker at the place - into the 'cage'.

There's only a few of the hybrids that look at them, but they go back to whatever they were doing instantly. Some of being awakened from their sleep, frowns lightly at the intruders and goes back to sleep.

"What kind are you looking for?" Seungcheol asks Soonyoung.

Junhui is too busy looking at all the pets to hear his friend's answer. The only thing he hears is 'someone cute' and he already knew about that.

The Chinese boy has no intentions of getting a pet. He has nothing against them, but he has never wanted to get one, not having been ready to take care of someone else than himself. Now, seeing how cute they all are, his resolution might change a bit.

Once his gaze lands on a small boy with grey cat ears and tail, he's sold.

The small boy is sitting alone, knees under his chin, looking at all the groups of boys and girls playing together. The look on his face hurts Junhui's heart - he looks too sad.

"That's Minghao," Seungcheol informs him, having caught him staring. "He's from China and doesn't speak Korean yet."

That gets Junhui's attention even more. The 'not being able to speak Korean' is probably why he's sitting alone. Knowing the struggle, the Chinese boy wants to talk to the small cat.

"Wait," Seungcheol says, gripping his wrist before he gets to do what he intended to. "You can't just go talk to him."

"Why not?" Junhui asks, looking at the Korean boy.

"Talking to them is a sign of you taking them home. So unless you want to take him home, don't talk to him," Seungcheol explains.

The pets all had hopes of getting adopted, only wanting to get a warm home and someone to love them. They usually became very happy, when others than the workers talked to them. It was their chance to get adopted.

Seungcheol had once had to deal with Seungkwan getting disappointed, because someone talked to him, but didn't want to take him home. It wasn't easy and nobody w