The Early Bird Catches the Worm

            Ryeowook stood up and straightened out his disheveled clothes.  This looked so much worse than it actually was, but if he started rambling off an explanation as to why they were nearly kissing on the couch, it would probably just sound like a cover-up. 

            “We were up late watching movies.  I guess I overslept,” Ryeowook admitted.

            Yesung grinned at him and walked over to ruffle his already messy head of curls.  “I was just a little worried when I jogged by this morning and the closed sign was still up.  So after my shower, I came by and knocked on the door.  When you didn’t answer, I began to worry.  Heechul told me he was going to China for a stretch and asked me to keep an eye out if anything strange happened, so I thought I ought to use the keys you gave me for emergencies…just in case it was one.  But I think I judged wrong.  Are you going to introduce me to your guest?”

            Ryeowook nodded and turned to Kyuhyun, who was finally getting up after unwrapping himself from the quilt.  “Kyuhyun-ssi, this is Kim Yesung-hyung.  He owns the café right next door to us and lives above it.  Cho Kyuhyun-ssi is currently renting a room from us.”

            Yesung extended his hand and shook the newcomer’s hand, making sure to keep a firm grip on him as he shook.   The guest’s hands were gigantic compared to his own, however, and if Kyuhyun noticed the tighter grip, it didn’t seem to bother him.

            “Pleased to meet you,” Yesung said.

            Kyuhyun gave a slight bow.  “Likewise.  I assume Heechul asked you to spy on us.”

            Ryeowook smacked Kyuhyun in the arm.  “Stop it!  He isn’t that bad!”

            “Actually, he did.  He wasn’t worried about your guest until he picked him up at the airport and realized he was younger and better looking than his old roommate implied he was, so he called me up bright and early in the morning before he flew out and asked me to keep an eye on things while he was gone.  I kind of thought he was delusional until I walked in this morning.  Didn’t you two just meet?”

            Kyuhyun smirked.  “I’m going to risk going upstairs to shower and change.  Are you willing to make me breakfast past ten?” he asked.

            “You’re paying me to make all your meals,” Ryeowook pointed out.  “If you want to stay for breakfast as well, Yesunggie-hyung, we can all eat together.”

            Yesung folded his arms over his chest and looked from Ryeowook, who was decidedly avoiding eye contact with him as he picked up the living room, to Kyuhyun as he headed to the stairs and began to ascend them.  Heebum rubbed up against his leg and began to purr loudly and he reached down to pet the affectionate cat.  “I think I will stay.”  His brother was running the café with his mother and it was not particularly busy.  Plus, this would give him plenty to report to Heechul about later. 

            Ryeowook washed up quick and changed into real clothes before heading back to the kitchen.  Yesung had left for a few minutes to go to the café and get them all drinks, which Ryeowook was thankful for.  Although he enjoyed sleeping in the arms of an attractive man again all night, Kyuhyun was right about the couch, it wasn’t that comfortable to sleep on.  He felt sore and stiff.  A strong coffee was just what he needed to wake up properly and he knew that Kyuhyun would not object, since he was so against drinking tea in the morning.  Assuming eleven o’clock still counted as the morning. 

            “Should I even ask about it?”

            “What?” Ryeowook asked, sipping his vanilla latte.  “Us on the couch?”

            Yesung nodded.

            “He saw one of the ghosts last night and he was so terrified, he climbed out the window to get away from it,” Ryeowook explained.

            Yesung started laughing hysterically.

            “Had you been awake and looking out your window, you would have seen him.  His room faces your café,” Ryeowook informed him.  “But the thing is, we drank a bunch of wine last night and he keeps telling me that it had to be a hallucination.  He refuses to believe it was a ghost.”

            “Maybe that’s a good thing.  He won’t leave right away then,” Yesung said, leaning against the counter as he watched Ryeowook begin making food.  “Just get him drunk every night and maybe he’ll stay the whole month because he’s convinced it’s all in his head.”

            “I’ve already told him all about the ghosts and he doesn’t believe me,” Ryeowook said, adding rice to the steamer.  “It’s his own fault if he doesn’t want to face reality.”

            “I think he’ll eventually have to come to terms with the fact that they’re real.  They certainly won’t leave him alone if he stays a whole month.”

            “Bangshin follows him around as much as Heebum does,” Ryeowook said.  “It’s because the idiot let Bangshin in that Eunhyuk came looking for him.  Who the hell opens the door for a ghost cat when they don’t believe in them?”

            Yesung shook his head.  “Why were you sleeping on the couch with him though?”

            “He didn’t want me to leave him alone after seeing the ghost.  So we stayed up late watching a movie and ended up falling asleep together on the couch by accident.”

            Yesung stared at Ryeowook hard.

            “It’s true!”

            “I thought your brother was nuts until I walked in the door this morning.  You’ve never acted so impulsive before.  I don’t understand it.”

            “I’m attracted to a young, rich, y looking screenwriter.  Can you blame me?”

            Yesung shook his head.  “The thing is…both your brother and I have played the field enough to know by now, it’s the young, rich, and y ones that tend to come and go the fastest.  They’re not usually in it for the long haul, Wookie.”

            Ryeowook frowned.  “So what?  Heechul never cares about that.  Look at his track record!”

            “You’re not that type though.”

            Ryeowook continued to prepare their late breakfast without responding to Yesung’s words.  He hated his neighbor for even bringing it up because he really did like his guest.  A lot.  But there was some truth to what Yesung was saying.  Ryeowook wasn’t the type to have one night stands.  He liked being in a relationship.  But Kyuhyun was almost too tempting to say no to and he wondered, if he didn’t take this opportunity to be with him, would he end up regretting it later?  Or would he regret sleeping with someone he knew would never stick around?  It was hard to predict which would give you the most future heartbreak sometimes. 

            Heebum headed back into the room, running at full speed and jumping up on the bench below the window to look out at the birds. 

            “What’s gotten into you?” Yesung questioned, walking over to the cat and glancing out the window.

            “Bangshin probably wrestled around with him a bit and riled him up,” Ryeowook concluded. 

            When Kyuhyun walked into his room, it looked as if a tornado had whipped through it.  There were clothes thrown all over the place—on the floor, on the bed, half hanging out the window—and it took Kyuhyun a while to straighten everything out.  Thankfully his laptop was still sitting on the desk where he’d left it. 

            Even if the window was open all night, he couldn’t blame it on a strong wind.  He’d already put his clothes away into drawers and the closet, knowing that he’d be there for a long stay.  No matter how much he revolted against the idea of believing the in supernatural, he was coming up short on ideas as to what else could have caused him to hear a cat meow and purr, to see a toy moving around the floor on its own, or to feel a cat paw him in the face if it weren’t for the fact that the ghost cat was real.  And the owner?  Well…he saw something.  And it called the cat by name.  Kyuhyun admitted that a skeptic might still remind him that he was drunk on wine…but he wasn’t that drunk.  If he’d been that drunk, he never would have bothered going upstairs to begin with.  He just would have stayed with his adorable host all night.

            “I should have,” Kyuhyun reasoned.  “I should have just stayed with Ryeowook from the beginning and then none of this would have happened.”

            The door, which he hadn’t shut completely, opened a little more and Kyuhyun looked over to see Heebum enter the room.  He circled around, checking out the mess, before hopping up on the bed and lying down on one of Kyuhyun’s ugly sweaters.  He curled up into a little ball and began to purr loudly. 

            “I’m not sure who has the more insane owner, you or Bangshin,” Kyuhyun continued, in a huff about having to clean up his room.  He took the jeans from out of the window sill and looked down at the ground below, making sure that nothing had been thrown out.  “What do you think?  Is it normal for ghosts to mess up a person’s room because their cat would rather sleep with a real person than them?  Or is it completely insane to have your neighbor check up on your brother to make sure he’s not getting too close to the guests staying at their house?”

            The cat eyed him and then closed its eyes again.

            “And just what kind of neighbor is that anyway?  Who gives their neighbor keys to the house?  They seemed awfully close, didn’t they?  He must come over a lot.”

            Heebum continued to ignore him, but Kyuhyun felt a familiar rub against his leg as he began hanging his shirts back up in the closet.

            “I don’t even want to talk to you right now, Bangshin.”

            There was a loud meow. 

            “No.  You’ve been a very naughty kitty!” Kyuhyun lectured the ghost cat.

            Kyuhyun suddenly felt sharp claws swipe his leg. 

            “Ow!  Hey!  That’s enough!  It was your fault that I had to sleep downstairs with him, wasn’t it?  If you didn’t come into my room and have your daddy following me, this wouldn’t have happened,” Kyuhyun explained to the cat, gathering up clothes to bring with him to the bathroom.  “You’re not coming in tonight!”

            After a quick shower and drying his hair, Kyuhyun hurried back downstairs.  He didn’t really want to spend a lot of time upstairs with the ghosts and he especially didn’t want to leave Ryeowook alone with Yesung for long.  He wasn’t sure about the man.  On the one hand, he might just be checking on Ryeowook because Heechul asked him to, but that firm handshake and determined look in his eyes warned him otherwise.  Perhaps he just looked out for Ryeowook like an older brother or maybe he was interested in him as well and was trying to keep Kyuhyun from making a move on him before he had the chance to.  Kyuhyun wasn’t willing to risk it.  He was infatuated with his little host already and he wasn’t about to let some dorky neighbor steal him away.

            Kyuhyun practically ran down the stairs, not particularly liking the hallway anymore.  Heebum chased after him and ended up bypassing him halfway down the stairs, beating him to the kitchen by several seconds.  H