Jeonghan was locking the door of his apartment when his neighbor climbed the last step of the stairs and appeared on his peripheral vision.

With a small, white Pomeranian puppy in his arms.

His mouthed a soft what when he saw the other was trying to open his own door, obviously having difficulty doing it with the excited puffball squirming in his hold. He managed to take the key out of his pocket only to drop it unceremoniously to the floor. The black haired man cursed softly under his breath.

Jeonghan was not even that close with Seungcheol, their interaction limited to friendly hellos at the hallway every now and then. Definitely not enough to rationalize what he was about to do.

He pocketed his own key while walking closer and held out his arms, “Let me help you out.”

Seungcheol beamed at him, all cute and gummy smiled, and it made the corner of his own lips unconsciously quirked upwards. The older dropped the dog on his arms carefully and Jeonghan peered at it, the fluff barked at him. It had cute rounded black eyes and the white fur was way fluffier than they looked. Jeonghan looked at his neighbor, clad in white long sleeved tee, staring at the cluster of keys in his palm with adorable confusion. 

The brunette couldn’t help but compare them, they both looked equally cute.

The clicked sound of the lock was followed by Seungcheol’s sigh of relief. He turned to face Jeonghan properly, “May I?”

“You have a new dog?” Jeonghan scratched it head briefly before handing it back, “Real cutie.”

“Uh huh.” Seungheol drew it closer to his chest before giving Jeonghan a once over, stopping on his brown postman bag, “I’d offer you coffee but i guess you are about to go to class?”

Jeonghan almost forgot about that, “Yeah.”

“Thank you Jeonghan.”  Seungcheol smiled cutely again at him before walking inside his apartment.

Jeonghan didn’t think much about the talk through his day really. He liked the dog but visiting a neighbor he barely knew just to pet the dog would be weird. He considered buying too many muffins from the bakery next to his apartment as a reason just so he could knock on Seungcheol door and pet said dog.

Which he actually did in the end. He was standing by the cashier when he saw a stack of paper with a picture of a white dog, a phone number, and promised prize printed at the bottom.

It was Seungcheol’s dog.

-----

Jeonghan was sitting on the couch in front of the TV, munching on a muffin while contemplating his choices.

He could just call the number on the flyer, but judging from how happy Seungcheol looked this morning, he would probably hate him forever for tatter telling. He could possibly call the police for dog kidnapping, but that seemed a bit excessive for just a dog kidnapping. 

The last option was confronting the thief in person.

Jeonghan threw the muffin wrapper carelessly to the trash before grabbing the sealed muffin box and headed outside. He knocked on the neighbor’s door and tapping his foot impatiently while waiting.

Seungcheol opened the door with a grin, his black hair was wet and he wore an oversized white tee and shorts. It was obvious he just finished showering. The white pup was happily circling his feet. Jeonghan raised an eyebrow at the happy fuzzball before directing a judging gaze to the older, “Did you just steal a dog?”

The grin flattered, “No.”

Jeonghan shoved the muffin box to the black haired man, “I saw some lost and found flyers at the shop earlier.”

Now it was Seungcheol that had his eyebrow up when he saw the food through the transparent cover, “You bought me muffins.”

“I bought too many.” Jeonghan squatted down and cooed at the puppy. It jumped at him and began playing with the string of his hoodie.

“You gave me a whole dozen.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Jeonghan looked up to see Seungcheol was smiling at the sweet confection, “You stole a dog.”

Seuncheol went down and crouching next to him, putting the box somewhere behind him, “Muffin was unhappy.”

Jeongan’s hand stopped moving the string; the dog yelped between them, “You name this thing?”

“Excuse you, it’s ‘her’!” Seungcheol sounded absolutely offended, “And yes, her name is Muffin.”

“Because i bought you muffins?”

“Thank you but don’t be so cocky,” He lifted Muffin up and petted her, “It’s because she is sweet like a sugar.”

Jeonghan sighed before getting up, “You have to give it back before tomorrow evening or I’ll call the owner.”

-----

“Why did you steal her?”

“I told you,” Seungcheol dropped his weight to the couch, lying on his stomach, before continued, “Muffin was unhappy." 

"How did you know?" 

"She had clothes on her and it was horrible." 

 "You stole a dog just because the owner had a bad taste?" 

"The clothes suffocated her, she was miserable.” Seungcheol rolled his eyes, “I’m not that petty you know." 

The brunette hummed. He came to Seungcheol’s apartment earlier demanding the older to give the dog back. Somehow it ended up with him sitting on the floor and playing with Muffin for an hour now. 

Jeonghan watched her playing with a red ball bigger than her size, running after before bumping it and sending it rolling across the room, "You should give her back to the owner.”

“But i like her!” Seungcheol slapped his palm on the edge of the couch for emphasis, trying to get Jeonghan to turn around and pay attention to him, “Bet i love Muffin way more than the real owner." 

Jeonghan didn’t even look at the sudden noise, he just rolled the red ball back when Muffin managed to rolled it to him, "You can’t always keep what you love Seungcheol." 

Seungcheol smiled at the younger’s back, "I can try.”

-----

“Give the dog back." 

"No." 

Jeonghan watched the scene in amusement. Seungcheol was lying on his back, head propped on an awful amount of piled up throw pillows, and Muffin was on his chest. He tried to scare her with both hands only to have Muffin biting on his fingers and got him screaming, managed to pry her off, and tried again right after he was done waving his arms around like a maniac. 

They look stupidly adorable together. 

The college student plopped down next to the other, sitting Indian style and propping his chin on interlocked fingers. Jeonghan smiled teasingly, "She is not yours." 

"Well Muffin loves me,” Seungcheol picked the dog up and put her on the floor before he sat back up, Muffin barked happily before toddled away, “She is mine now." 

"It has been three days." 

"All the more reasons to keep her,” Seungcheol looked seriously at Jeonghan and nodded, “The owner must have forgotten about her." 

"The owner is actually a cute eight years old girl,” Jeonghan shrugged before Seungcheol could open his mouth to ask, “I saw her dropping bunch of flyers at the next building coffee shop earlier." 

"So you are telling me to give Muffin up to an eight years old girl?” Seungcheol frowned exaggeratedly, “She can’t even take care of herself, let alone a puppy!” He looked so determined, “Not going to happen, not on my watch!" 

Jeonghan laughed, "Idiot." 

-----

"I can’t believe you let a child watch Final Destination." 

Seungcheol looked up to see Jeonghan dropped his bag at the table; it landed on one of his poor textbook. He scowled, "What child?" 

"That child,” Jeonghan gestured to Muffin; she was playing with Seungcheol’s jacket lying carelessly on the beanbag chair next to the couch, with his chin before settled next to Seungcheol, “Nice glasses." 

"It was Jupiter Ascending!” Seungcheol saw the TV and cringed when the scene showed someone got their head cut off with a sickening crack. He made a grabby hand for the remote control, “And thanks, i have an exam the day after tomorrow, i need to study." 

"Doesn’t excuse you for letting your daughter watch this freak show." 

"You are right,” He picked the book off his lap, expecting the device to be right under, “I can’t find the remote control,” Seungcheol looked up before screamed in distress, “Help me!" 

Jeonghan shook his head at the older melodramatic and held up the remote control, it was trapped between his right thigh and the armrest, "I got this." 

They fell into comfortable silence. Jeonghan watched some nature documentary avidly while Seungcheol continued to read his textbook, the sound of highlighter against the paper and occasional flipping were the only noises beside the narrator’s soothing voice coming from the TV. 

It had been a week since Seungcheol brought Muffin home and Jeonghan came over every single day ever since. He thought it was the dog that kept him coming but honestly, it was the thief of an owner. Seungcheol was friendlier than his initial impression, and between all the banter they did, Jeonghan could see how nice the man actually was.

Choi Seungcheol was.. adorable, way too adorable for a guy in his twenties. The way his eyes lit up two days ago when Jeonghan showed up with doughnuts. The way he shifted from from leg to leg before giving him a key yesterday, citing thousands of reason about how Jeonghan as his neighbor had to have it, but Jeonghan knew the older was just too lazy to open the door for him every afternoon. The way his lips pouted right now and his finger stop moving, making the highlighter ink dirtied the page, and the annoyed clicked of tongue when he realized his mistake.

He was adorable and Jeonghan couldn’t help himself for slowly falling.

"Stare harder and i might burst into flames any moment now.”

Jeonghan scrunched up his forehead in confusion before Seungcheol burst into laughter. He doubled over; making the book and everything on it fell to the floor. He wheezed, “Why were you staring at me anyway? I know I am attractive but a week hanging out together has to tone down the awe a little bit.”

“I was thinking, not staring,” Jeonghan huffed before leaned back with more force than necessary. Since when he turned his whole body to the older anyway? “Accidentally facing your direction that’s all.”

“Sure,” Seugcheol chuckled and bent down, trying to pick his fallen textbook, “Whatever helps you sleep better at night.”

“What about you?” Jeonghan jabbed sharply, willing the conversation to go to different direction, “When will you return Muffin to her rightful owner Mr. Thief? It will definitely help you sleep better at night.”

The black haired man looked at Jeonghan with a fake shocked look, “I did not steal Muffin!”

“You did, we’ve been over this conversation yesterday,” Jeonghan rolled his eyes when Seungcheol sneered at him, “Why are you keeping her anyway?”

Seungcheol leaned back up and shrugged, “I like her.”

“You can adopt another puppy.”

“I love Muffin, she’s sweet,” Seungcheol interlocked his fingers on his lap before looking at Jeonghan, small smile playing on his lips, “And I like the company she brought along.”

Jeonghan could almost feel his jaw dropping slightly as he saw Seungcheol scooped Muffin from the beanbag next to the couch and held her up, cooing on how much he didn’t want to give the fluff ball up before nuzzling his cheek to the white fur.

Seungcheol letting him come over for a week straight should have been a clue honestly, but Jeonghan would rather not hopping in the first place than ended up being disappointed. Things definitely turned out better than expected and Jeonghan was happy with that. 

He said something before his brain could catch up with his mouth, “I will keep you company.”

Seungcheol tilted his head and looked at the other, “Oh?”

Jeonghan turned his head away from the hopeful puppy eyes, “Only if you return Muffin.”

The older smiled happily before looking down to the puppy on his lap, “Deal.”

-----

They went to Muffin’s owner right after Seungcheol finished his exam. Jeonghan drove them with his car while Seungcheol whined the whole way from the shotgun seat, all while continuously patting the white Pomeranian napping on his lap.

The owner house was nice and a bit far from their college neighborhood. It seemed like the owner was taking Muffin for a ride when Seungcheol decided it was a good idea to steal her. The one who opened the door was a young mom, who immediately went out and closed the door the moment she saw the pet carrier that they bought along.

“It took me a week to convinced my daughter to let Marshmallow go and accept our new puppy,” She rubbed her temple unhappily, “I really hate letting her go but we can’t afford having two puppies at the same time,” The lady sighed dejectedly, “Can you please take care of her for me?”

Jeonghan was not really sure what was going on and Seungcheol was just happy he got to bring Muffin back home

-----

Life was good.

Jeonghan spent his evening at Seungcheol’s more often than not. He had to keep the new addition to the apartment company because her new owner, bless Seungcheol and his decision to be a medical major, was too busy to play with the energetic puppy.

Not like Jeonghan was complaining, he liked throwing things around and watched Muffin happily brought it back to him. The increasing amount of dog toys littering around the couch in front of the TV might or might not be his fault. As long as Seungcheol didn’t notice, he would keep buying them because Muffin loved the toys.

It was one of those nights when Jeonghan had to do some studying but still didn’t want to spend the night alone. He was lying on his back on Seungcheol’s couch, reading material papers forgotten on his stomach. He could hear the fuzzball yapping from the kitchen before he complained loudly, “I am bored!”

Seungcheol fingers didn’t even halt; he kept on scribbling on the notebook, “Change the channel.”

“You passed your last test with flying color!” The brunette pouted and turned his head to complain some more, “Pay attention to me!”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t have more test to prepare,” The older sighed before he turned around and put down his glasses. He removed the papers from Jeonghan before slide on top of the other’s lap, “Which part of you?”

Jeonghan grinned, satisfied that his boyfriend was finally giving him attention he deserved, before slipping his fingers through the black locks and yanked down, “Everything.”

It definitely sounded ridiculous but Jeonghan was glad Seungcheol decided to steal a puppy.