Yuto froze.

In front of him was the empty cat bed his very injured and heavliy medicated cat should have been in.

'KURO!' Yuto shouted as he turned and left his bedroom in search of his cat.

He looked in every one of Kuro's favourite napping places incase he had decided to sleep elsewhere. Behind the drawers in the living room? Nothing. Under the sofa? Nothing. In the bathtub? Nope. Under Yuto's bed? Nope.

'Oh God where is he?' Yuto was starting  to panic.

Kuro had a habit of getting into trouble which had led to a lot of annoyed people coming to Yuto's apartment to shout at him. Such things included; going to the toilet in the neighbors garden (while making eye contact with them), sleeping on police cars, stealing fish from the market and in one incident, scratching a kid. In Kuro's defense the kid was a little brat who had probably been grabbing at Kuro's tail and gotten a scratch for it, the mother didn't seem any better than the kid but she came screaming round about the 'injury' her son had sustained anyway even though the scratch wasn't that deep or long to begin with. Yuto had, at one point, considered taking Kuro's collar off so angry people would stop coming round every week but he didn't want to lose him for good.

Kuro had been injured in a fight with a local feral cat (and it was nasty) two weeks before and the vet had prescribed some pretty hardcore medication for him to ease the pain, which most days resulted in Kuro sleeping all day. The vet also said that Kuro could absolutely not leave the house until he's fully healed so he doesn't run into trouble again.

It's fine, he couldn't have gotten out anyway.

No sooner had this thought crossed Yuto's mind he noticed the half opened Kitchen window.

His apartment was at the end of the block so he had the balcony leading off from his bedroom and windows on that side but also a single window over the sink. He had opened it in the morning to let out some smoke when he burnt his breakfast but hadn't locked it properly again afterwards when he left for class.

'Great.' Yuto looked at the window, thinking about how stupid he was for making such a mistake before turning to grab his coat and shoes.

He opted to leave the window open in case Kuro came back while he was out looking.

I should have listened to my sister about black cats.

It was his older sister who had first suggested to him that he should get a pet to keep him company when he was studying in Korea so far away from home. Though she had probabbly meant something like a hamster or goldfish not a cat, but Yuto had always been told that he resembled a cat in both looks and personality plus black was his favourite colour so a black cat was perfect. When he first showed his sister Kuro over video chat she had warned him about black cats being bad luck and Yuto had just told her it was all superstition. In the end she was right about Kuro being bad luck. But Yuto loved that cat a lot. He really had been good company over the year and a half he had lived in Korea.

It was probably just Yuto's imagination but those days when he was feeling the most down, be it because of homesickness, stress at work or college, Kuro wouldn't leave the house like he usually would and just sat by Yuto's side (not even walking all over his papers) as if he was trying to comort his owner.

He was just thinking about his cat but Yuto found himself tearing up.

'No, no, no.' Yuto sniffled and wiped his eyes, 'I can't start crying.'

He stood up and opened his front door.

'Don't worry Kuro, dad's coming to get you.'

---

Wooseok stretched, clicking his back in the process.

'Ugh, I'm getting so old.' He looked down to his dog Mongshil, 'What's 19 in dog years? Like 100?'

Mongshil looked at him for a few seconds before barking in response and walking up to the still closed door to their apartment.

'Okay, okay I get it you want to go for you walk but you could still answer my question.' He huffed.

Wooseok leant over to move his poodles fur which really needs to be cut to clip on the lead. They left the building, Mongshil bounding ahead only to be brought to a stop by the lead and his owner who was still trying to put his keys away.

They walked the same route everyday so Wooseok knew he could let the leash out longer and Mongshil would go in the right direction. He remembered that when he first moved there he made the dog walk next to him so nothing bad could happen. His parents had sent him to college with the family dog in an attempt to make him mature a lot more cause he'd have more than one person (well living being) to look after, and he guessed it had worked a bit becuase he always had food in because whenever he went shopping to buy Mongshil dog food he bought food for himself which meant he wasn't living off instant ramen like most of his friends (for the most part).

Their route was pretty much a big loop and they were on the final stretch when Mongshil stopped walking suddenly. Wooseok figured there was a dead bird or something in the bush his dog had his head in but when he got closer he saw it was a sleeping black cat. 

Woah what the... it's hurt.

He squatted down next to it to inspect the scratches and wounds on its face and body, he noticed that it was wearing a collar. He didn't really know what to do when it came to cats and the impression he got off the internet was: don't touch them unless they touch you first. 

It's asleep so it's not exactly going to scratch me.

He reached out to look at the collar, he took a note of the address on the back before turning it round to read the name of the cat.

'K-ku-kuro?' He mumbled.

That's Japanese for 'black' right? Is his owner Japanese? Or just a weaboo?

When he looked down again the cat was looking at him.

'Hey there, uh, Kuro, do you want me to take you back to your owner?' He didn't really know why he was talking to a cat.

Kuro just closed his eyes again, Wooseok took this as consent or at least as him being able to pick him up. Wooseok scooped Kuro up with one arm and set off towards his owners house.