Day by day, Daehyun was getting better at eating on his own. He was yet to reach the skill in using chopsticks, but he could use the spoon and fork like how boys in his age would. It was all thanks to Yongguk’s hard work in coaching him.

                Yongguk would always try to squeeze in some time during the lunch hours to go home and feed Daehyun since he wouldn’t have time to teach the boy to use the cutlery during the short break. If he couldn’t, he would make plenty of breakfast for Daehyun and make an effort to get home as early as he could.

                Daehyun’s intense training of eating without being fed or using his hand would seriously began when they were having dinner. Yongguk always got short-tempered every time Daehyun spilled the food onto the table or worse, his clothes. His new clothes. However, the way Daehyun would jump at his yell with his ears popping up on his head, had inevitably quelled his anger.

                It didn’t take long for Daehyun to master the skill. The boy had always been a fast learner in the first place. Yongguk could lay back in his seat and watch Daehyun eat with a proud smile now. Even though the food was still spilling and smeared on most part of Daehyun’s little face, the boy was actually doing a good job in putting the rest of it down into his stomach.

                “Hyung isn’t going to work today?” Daehyun asked before biting the sausage on his fork.

                “I’m feeling lazy to go out today. I’ll tell my company that I’d be working from home,” Yongguk replied after taking a sip of his black coffee. Daehyun bobbed his head up and down at this answer.

                Coffee was the only thing he would have in the morning, as usual. Before Daehyun came into his life, he never bothered to cook anything for breakfast but, the boy would announce that he was hungry as soon as he woke up. He had never cook every single day before and his fridge had never been packed with food. The strangest thing was, he didn’t feel burdened about it.

                “Done!” Daehyun exclaimed, lifting his empty plate to show it to Yongguk.

                “Do you want more?” Yongguk asked, setting the cup of coffee on the table.

                The boy shook his head. “Daehyun’s full.”

                “Alright.” Yongguk stood up and sauntered to the sink. “Come here and bring your plate with you.”

                Daehyun held the plate with both of his hands while balancing the spoon and fork sitting in the middle. He reached the man’s side and was told to put them in the sink.

                “I’m gonna teach you how to wash the dishes.” Yongguk took the sponge and put some liquid soap on it. “Just the easy way,” he said before taking the spoon.

                “Watch and learn,” Yongguk told Daehyun who was already fixing his eyes attentively on whatever he was doing, his brows knitted together in full concentration.

                Yongguk the tap and ran the water on the spoon. Then, he began to scrub it until it was cleaned. After giving the spoon another rinse, he placed it on the rack to drain.

                “That’s it. Now, you try.” He stepped aside and held out the foamy sponge to the boy. Daehyun cautiously took it like it was the most fragile thing.

                Yongguk told him to clean the fork first. Daehyun gave it a vigorous scrub underneath the running tap, causing the foam to splutter everywhere. Yongguk gasped when some of it landed on his face. He let out an annoyed groan while wiping it off with his sleeve, but Daehyun was too focused on his chore to notice. However, before he could say anything to condemn, the boy turned to him with a radiating smile.

                “Is this okay?” Daehyun showed the cleaned shiny fork to the taller man.

                Yongguk swore the whole kitchen was illuminated by the brightness from Daehyun’s smiling face. And just like that, all of Yongguk’s anger flew away. “Yeah…” he nodded slowly.

                Daehyun squealed happily before placing it on the rack with the other forks. He quickly picked up the plate after that and thoroughly scrubbed the muck away. “This is fun!” he uttered while laughing in excitement.

                Yongguk really couldn’t hold back his own laughter seeing how eager the boy was to wash the dishes. “What’s so fun about it?”

                Daehyun once again turned to him with another blinding smile, looking very cute in his eyes that he felt the need to ruffle his hair. Daehyun’s smile grew even wider as he returned to washing the dish.

                “That’s enough,” Yongguk said, taking the sponge back. “It’s all cleaned now.”

                “Okay.” Daehyun started to rinse the plate, very slowly as if he didn’t want to stop.

                It was obvious for Yongguk to notice. He stifled a laugh before suggesting something else for the boy to do. “I think I’m gonna teach you to do the laundry after this.”

                Daehyun immediately whipped his head towards Yongguk, eyes big and smile beaming. “Really?!”

                Yongguk didn’t know how much more of Daehyun’s cuteness he could take for the rest of the day.

                Daehyun had been switching the channels for quite some time now. If Yongguk was at work, he would just watch whatever show on the TV, even if he couldn’t really understand what it was about. But when Yongguk was home, he would always have the urge to be around the man. Maybe, it was a habit he had developed during his life as a cat entirely. He had always been a clingy cat and craving his owner’s attention all the time.

                Daehyun turned around to look at Yongguk’s home office from the couch he was sitting on. He perked up when he saw that the door was left open. Unlike today, Yongguk would usually shut the door whenever he was using that room so, Daehyun thought that he wasn’t allowed to disturb him.

                Maybe hyung forgot to close the door, Daehyun thought. The curiosity to know what the man was doing in that room was developing inside him. He pondered about going there to have a look. What if his hyung  gets mad at him for interrupting his work?

                A moment later, Daehyun’s mind came out with an excuse that the man wouldn’t get angry if he just had a peek into the room without saying anything. Therefore, he tossed the remote to the other side of the couch before tiptoeing to the opened door.

                Stopping by the door frame, Daehyun sneaked a look inside. He saw Yongguk’s side profile as the man sat at the desk while looking at a laptop. He also noticed that his hyung was wearing round glasses and had a sudden thought of how handsome Yongguk looked in those, as handsome as the lion he saw on TV the other day.

                Daehyun wanted to stay there longer, wishing to know what else Yongguk would be doing in the office. However, the man was still unmoving after some time which could be equivalent to the length of five songs shown on TV according to Daehyun. His feet began to ache from standing too long while trying to keep quiet and hide himself.

                He leaned against the wall, letting it reduce the weight supported by his feet. His cheek pressed against the door frame, still not giving up on peeking at the man. That’s when Yongguk suddenly straightened in his seat to stretch his body, tilting his head up and down, side to side, and right to left. When his eyes landed on the boy standing by the door, he only arched up his brows questioningly.

                Daehyun smiled sheepishly. “What is hyung doing?”

                “My work,” Yongguk stated briefly. “What are you doing?”

                “What work?” Daehyun completely ignored Yongguk’s inquiry.

                “I told you I’m an editor. Come here.” Yongguk beckoned his hand and Daehyun quickly walked over to him. He moved all the papers placed on a chair next to him to the desk before telling the boy to have a seat there. Then, he earnestly showed what was on his laptop which turned out to be only lines of words. “This is the manuscript from the writer I’m working with. I need to read it and give it a touch up to make it an interesting book to read.”

                “What book?” Daehyun asked with a tilt of his head.

                “This is a fantasy novel.”

                “It doesn’t look like a book to Daehyun.”

                “What…?” Yongguk frowned at Daehyun who was staring confusedly at the laptop screen. Only then he understood what the boy meant. “Ohh… Of course this doesn’t look like a book. It will be printed out once the editing is finished,” he explained, making Daehyun turned back to him with full attention.

                Yongguk took a novel from the other side of his desk to make it as an example. “This is how the finished product would look like.”

                Daehyun’s mouth rounded as he took the thick book from Yongguk’s hands, as if he was in awe with it, just by looking at the pretty and colorful cover of the book. He flipped through the pages, taking a glimpse at the many paragraphs of words. Then, he went back to look at the cover. Some of the letters were raised and he loved to run his fingers over them.

                Yongguk’s lips crinkled into a fond smile at the boy. “Nice, isn’t it?”

                Daehyun looked up at him and nodded, his smile was wide, turning his eyes into the shape of crescents. “What does it say?”

                Yongguk’s smile gradually faded as his brows started to furrow. “You… Don’t know how to read?”

                The smile on Daehyun’s lips also disappeared and was replaced by a pout. “No…” he muttered while shaking his head.

                Yongguk sighed, leaning back against his leather chair. “That is a problem.”

                A while later, both of Yongguk and Daehyun were on the floor of the office room, sitting across each other on each side of a low folding table. Yongguk had written something on a piece of paper and slid it to the boy after turning it upside down.

                “Do you recognize the letters?”

                “Yeah! Daehyun know all the letters!” Daehyun skimmed what was written by Yongguk before lifting his head. “And Daehyun can count too!”

                “You sure can.” Yongguk was slightly relieved when Daehyun had at least knew all the letters and numbers. It would make the teaching a lot easier. “But for now, let’s leave the math aside and focus on reading and writing first.”

                Yongguk stifled a laugh because he just sounded like a kindergarten teacher. He didn’t know why he was doing this and neglecting his actual job. Maybe, it was because he loved to read books so he wanted Daehyun to at least be able to do that and experience the wonderful feelings he could get from reading.

                They began their lesson to pronounce the letters. Yongguk would say it and Daehyun would repeat after him. When he asked Daehyun to read the words on his own, he would pat the boy’s head every time he got it right.

                Daehyun, being a fast leaner he was, always got every syllable correct. And the reward from Yongguk, as in a pat on his head, had been the biggest motivation for him. So, when he was always correct, Yongguk would always pat his head, until the point that he was enjoying it so much that he couldn’t hold his cat ears from coming out.

                “Oh, look! Keke’s ears!” Yongguk exclaimed before patting Daehyun’s head more, causing the boy to close his eyes in delight. “How cute can you be?!”

                When it’s time for lunch, Yongguk excused himself since he needed to cook a meal for two. Daehyun just nodded at him without breaking his focused gaze on the paper. His mouth kept repeating the words written by Yongguk one after another.

                Yongguk smiled as he got up on his feet. His eyes never leaving the boy until he walked out of the room but, even after he reached the kitchen, the smile didn’t drop. It made him wonder the last time he was this happy; probably the first meeting he had with the cat Keke. It seemed funny now because the cat had become the main source of his genuine smile.

                After everything was ready, Yongguk called Daehyun from the kitchen. He was sure the boy could hear him since the door to the office room was left open. However, it took at least three times for Yongguk to shout the boy’s name before he showed himself.

                “Come here and eat. You can continue your lesson after this.” Yongguk arranged everything at Daehyun’s seat before going around the dining table and sat across the other.

                Daehyun grabbed the spoon and began digging his food. As usual, Yongguk’s gaze would linger on Daehyun for a minute to make sure he was doing just fine on his own. He also expected a regular declaration of how delicious the food was but this time, Daehyun was being exceptionally silent and stiff. That was when he realized Daehyun had a hand kept in a fist behind the rice bowl.

                “What’s with your hand?” Yongguk asked.

                Daehyun immediately stopped chewing as he looked up to Yongguk. When the man dropped his gaze, he followed it until it landed on his fisted hand. Then, he looked up again, but Yongguk was already staring at him.

                “Um…” Daehyun’s eyes awkwardly diverted to somewhere else.

                “How can you eat like that?

                Daehyun forced whatever was left in his mouth down his throat. “Daehyun can,” he assured the man.

                Yongguk narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. “Is there something in your hand? Are you hiding it from me? What is it? Show it to me,” he urged.

                For the quite a long period of time he had been living with Yongguk, Daehyun found the man less scary no matter how dark and threatening he looked. But if he did not do like he was told, Yongguk surely wouldn’t stop asking him about it.

                Daehyun shifted his hand, placing the back of his hand on the table. Without warning, he opened it and Yongguk chocked on air. There was a dead cockroach lying upside down in Daehyun’s hand, its feet were still twitching slightly.

                “What the ?!” Yongguk’s disgusted expression was mixed with anger. “Why are you holding that all this time?”

                “Daehyun caught it in the room. Is hyung scared?” He innocently moved his hand closer towards the latter.

                Yongguk jumped in his seat, pushing himself away from the table. “No! It’s gross! Throw it away!”

                The boy pouted. “But Daehyun tried so hard to catch it.”

                “Who told you to catch it?! Get rid of it or no more food for you!”

                Daehyun’s pouty lips started to tremble. Tears were welling in his eyes. How could Yongguk made him choose between his favourite toy and food? How could he eat happily if he had to throw away something he caught using all his effort?

                Daehyun abruptly stood up and ran to the bedroom. But not before he threw the cockroach right onto Yongguk’s face.

                Yongguk scrambled out of the chair, his hands flailed over his face and hair. “ !”

                The roach bounced on his body and his hands before it finally landed on his food. “Great. Now there’s no food for me too.”

                Yongguk grimaced at the poor dead thing in his plate and it made his whole body shudder in disgust.

                “Daehyun love going to the park!!”

                Yongguk thought he would be mad at the boy a little longer, but he found himself knocking on his bedroom only after an hour. Daehyun didn’t lock the door, so he let himself in and made the boy promise not to do anything gross again, saying that normal humans don’t do that kind of thing. As to reconcile with each other, he brought Daehyun to the nearby park and now, the boy was all excited and frisky.

                Daehyun was amused at everything. He wowed at the trees, at good looking people, at the benches; a longer wow at the fish in the pond and a long enough wow at an ice cream stall that Yongguk just had to buy one for him to make him stop. When he finished eating, they reached a small garden of flowers which was full of butterflies. Daehyun squealed happily before running around, trying to catch them.

                Yongguk watched the boy jumping here and there, running after a butterfly at full speed, tripping over his own feet and getting back up, only to chase after another one. He wanted to let him be at first, but he was starting to attract people’s attention. He knew they must have not seen anyone who was that enthusiastic in catching a butterfly and thought that it was fun to watch.

                “Daehyun-ah!” he called.

                Daehyun stopped running once he saw Yongguk beckoning at him. He walked towards the man, slightly panting over short breaths. “Yeah?”

                “Again, that’s not what a human would do,” Yongguk said, his hands resting on his hips.

                Daehyun’s lips immediately curved downwards. His big eyes were looking up at the taller man, seeming like they were glossed over with tears.

                “Are you sad?”

                Daehyun nodded.

                “Why?”

                “Because Yongguk hyung doesn’t let Daehyun catch butterflies.”

                “That’s not what I said.”

                Daehyun frowned and tilted his head. Yongguk sighed. It was the adorable confused face again.

                “What do you want to do with the butterfly if you caught one?”

                Daehyun began pulling on his sleeves as he thought of an answer. “Play with it?”

                Yongguk smirked, folding his arms across his chest. “You mean crush it with you hand and kill it, right?”

                Daehyun averted his eyes to the ground. “Umm…”

                “You see that little girl over there?” Yongguk pointed behind the boy. “That’s how humans catch butterflies.

                Daehyun turned around and saw a girl running after a butterfly with something in his hands. That was when he remembered he had seen it on TV. It was something used to catch a butterfly.

                “Here.” Yongguk handed out a small net catcher which he had bought at a stall when Daehyun was busy catching butterflies like a cat.

                Daehyun’s eyes lit up, as bright as those times when he tasted delicious food for the first time. But when he was about to take it, Yongguk pulled it back.

                “Only if you promise me not to kill the butterflies,” Yongguk warned.

                Daehyun pouted. “What is the point of catching them?”

                “For fun of course! You can either release them back or keep them in… this jar!” Yongguk pulled the said thing from his back.

                Daehyun’s jaw dropped in a silent scream. “Daehyun promise, hyung!”

             Yongguk gave the stuff away and Daehyun snatched them eagerly. He was so happy that felt the need to hug the man and stood on his toes to kiss his cheek.

                Daehyun was gone like the wind after that, while Yongguk was touching his kissed cheek which had turned so red by now. The only thought he had was that Daehyun watched too much TV and he probably should give the boy a parental guidance after this.

                However, before the blush on his face could even fade out, Daehyun was already rushing back to him. The boy looked like he was running for his life and Yongguk was sure the net catcher and the jar were thrown somewhere. Daehyun didn’t stop until he hid behind Yongguk.

                “What’s wrong?!” Yongguk asked worriedly.

                “Th-There!” Daehyun nodded his head towards a dog a few feet from them.

                “What? Are you afraid of dogs?” Yongguk tried to turn around, but Daehyun kept him from doing so and continued using his body as a shield.

                Looking back to the large golden retriever, he saw that it was waiting for the small ball from its owner. It was thrown right in their direction and fell behind the dog. Then it rolled over towards them with the dog running behind.

                Yongguk could already tell how much Daehyun was afraid of dogs based on how hard the small body was shaking while clutching to his back. The boy was whimpering in fear and it got louder as the dog came closer and closer. When Yongguk turned his head to look at him, Daehyun was ready to scream his lungs out.

                Yongguk hastily turned his body around and hugged Daehyun, pressing the boy’s face onto his chest to block his view, as well as to muffle his scream. And as he expected, Daehyun’s cat ears made their appearance, while Daehyun’s tail popped out from his shorts.

                Yongguk was quick to pull Daehyun into his long coat and dragged him to the toilet.

                “Where are we going? Is the dog gone?” Daehyun asked after he had stopped screaming. He turned his face away from Yongguk’s chest, but he still couldn’t see anything as he was wrapped in the large coat.

                “There’s no dog here but a big catboy,” Yongguk said quietly and Daehyun exhaled in relief.

                Both of them got into a stall in the toilet. Yongguk blew out a puff of air as he let Daehyun out of his coat. He then turned the boy around to check on his pants.

                “Thank god your pants didn’t tear apart.” Yongguk lowered the short pants, releasing the long huge tail. “Now, it back into your !” he whispered.

                “Daehyun can’t just do that!” Daehyun glared at the man.

                “Shhh!” Yongguk clasped Daehyun’s mouth, afraid if someone might hear them. “We can’t just sit here and wait for them to disappear!”

                “Maybe hyung can try to push it in,” Daehyun suggested innocently.

                “Pipe down!” Yongguk shouted in a quiet voice. “Why should I do that when you can do it yourself?”

                “Daehyun think it would hurt less like that.”

                “It hurts?” Yongguk asked in concerned and Daehyun just nodded. “Then we shouldn’t do that.”

                “But hyung and Daehyun will stay longer in here.”

                “Whatever.” Yongguk sighed. “But still, since you can push it out, you can try to pull it back in.”

                They continued to argue in the small stall and eventually, Yongguk forgot to keep his voice low. But even if he used a hushed voice, other people in the toilet could still hear them and each of those people had left the toilet with a huge misunderstanding. At least, they could stay in the stall until Daehyun’s ears and tail disappeared without anyone came knocking at the door and told them to get out.

A/N:

It's been a hundred years, I know ^^' I'm very sorry for the late update >.<

For you guys who have a lot of patience waiting for the update and would still continue reading this story, just know that I really, really appreciate every single one of you ^3^

Thank you so much to the upvoters, subscribers, readers and commenters! I love you all!! XOXO