Fantasy AU

GDae

Jiyong swore to himself that his last cat, Ai, was irreplaceable.  After Ai was gone, Jiyong never took a cat anymore to accompany him at those lonely nights. Instead, he bought a small aquarium and put two clown fish inside.

He called them Seungseung and Riri.

It was a good way to make his brother mad at him immediately. Seungri would pout at him and threaten to flush Seungseung and Riri to the toilet when he first heard his name was used to call Jiyong’s new pets. But Jiyong said that he felt like Seungri was home when he could call the fishes like that and it would be less lonely to be home alone after Ai was gone forever.

That tabby cat was the love of his life and he would never had any cat again in his life. It felt like he betrayed Ai.

Or so he thought.

Until one day, that round and fluffy white-orange-ish cat appeared, staring at him.

That cat touched the window of the bookstore where Jiyong worked at with its adorable fat paws. At first, Jiyong smiled like crazy and curled his hands when he saw fluffy paws knocking the windows. Then the thought of Ai staring at him like a mad cat erased the smile from his face. Jiyong shook his head. No, I can’t fall in love with that cat! He screamed inwardly at that time. Then the cat slightly tilted his head and staring at Jiyong, giving the best cat eyes to him.

Jiyong always ignored the cat.

But the cat was stubborn.

It wanted to play with Jiyong. So, when the cat saw Jiyong, it would knock the window, trying to get Jiyong’s attention and maybe hope that Jiyong would respond to it. Then, Jiyong understood the pattern when the cat would come to the bookstore and knocking its paws to the window. It only took one week when Jiyong decided to took the cat inside the bookstore and play with him (yeah, Jiyong saw the balls that the cat had).

Jiyong was defeated by its cuteness.

One point for the cat, zero for Jiyong.

When it came, Jiyong would knock the window then opened the door. The cat seemed to understand what Jiyong meant and ran into the bookstore. It would climbed the table and waited for Jiyong to sit on his chair behind the cashier, then the cat would try to sit on Jiyong’s lap. Jiyong didn’t allow him to sit on his lap, though. Instead, he let him to sleep or sit at the cashier’s desk. But then, the cat was being cocky. He wouldn’t let Jiyong caressed him. The cat sent him a face: ‘I would let you pet me if I could sit on your lap’. After few times of playing push and pull, Jiyong put him on his lap. The cat purred and snuggled to Jiyong’s stomach. Jiyong couldn’t help but ran his ten fingers on the fluffy ball that stayed still on his lap.

Two points for the cat, still zero point for Jiyong.

***

Jiyong couldn’t count how many days since he first met the cat, but he found himself now giggling to the cat’s behavior. If it felt bored with Jiyong, he would act cute behind the window: its paws, showing the pedestrians his furry stomach and snuggling here and there. The cat attracted some visitors and the owner of bookstore couldn’t be nothing but very happy about that. The cat also had its own food and drink –it was provided by the owner. As Jiyong went home, the cat also went somewhere.

Somewhere that Jiyong didn’t know.

And Jiyong was worried about the cat’s whereabouts.

***

It was a rainy day and Jiyong somehow felt sick. He decided not to go to his workplace and snuggling into his blanket. Then he remembered about the cat. How is he doing? Is he okay in this weather? Jiyong imagined the worst thought about the cat: shivering and shaking because of the coldness and no place to take shelter. Then because of the coldness, it died.

Jiyong shook his head to throw away the thought about the cat died. He didn’t need to witness another cat died. So, ignoring his headache he put his jumper and planned to find the cat. It might be at the bookstore. But when Jiyong was about to go out, he found the cat was standing in front of the entrance of his apartment. It saw Jiyong and walked towards him. His fur was wet, but it seemed okay.

“Meow…” it meowed weakly and walked around Jiyong’s feet. He snuggled his head in between Jiyong’s feet, maybe it tried to find warmth.

Jiyong sighed in defeat.

“Let’s go home,” Jiyong said. “It’s warm there.” Jiyong picked up the cat and brought him to his apartment.

After arriving at the apartment, Jiyong went to the kitchen and put the cat on the dining table. Jiyong faced the cat and the cat tilted its head, busy its paws until it clean.

“Let’s see… I have to give you a name. Because I can’t keep calling you ‘cat’. Hmmm… You have orange-ish fur like a sunset, how about I call you ‘Taeyang’?”

He saw the cat turned around, as if it didn’t like the idea of being called Taeyang. The cat then