Eunwoo is the type that wears her heart on her sleeve. Not to say that she’s an emotional wreck (which she clearly isn’t!). She’s just sensitive to her environment and those who are in it. If something feels off, Eunwoo will be the first to notice it. If someone looks distant in the group, she will gently go up to the person and open up an unusual topic; leading them into a whimsical conversation about how a unicorn's’ mane would taste like candy floss if they were real. She’s actually not scared of horror movies, but will scream along with her less courageous friends in order to make them feel that they’re not the only wimps in the cinema. When she jots down potential lyrics for new songs in her notebook, she makes sure that the words comes from the heart and will resonate through anyone listening to her group’s music.

That’s the kind of person Jung Eunwoo is. And at this moment, she hates herself for being this way as she stares in concern at the small fluffball trying to climb its way out of a cardboard box much too large for itself. The white cat, which looks more than a year old, has patches of orange-brown fur on its body and face. Part of the orange fur on its face resembles a mustache. Said cat has been mewling at her and trying to claw its way out of the box.

Eunwoo had been taking a detour through a back alley to get back to the dorm when she noticed the very audible cries coming from the box. It was left abandoned near a dumpster and a couple of trash bags sitting near it. Being the curious girl that she is, Eunwoo looked into the box and discovered the poor animal with nothing but a dirty blanket covering the bottom of the box.

The blonde girl is left with a predicament: Leave the cat be, or take it home.

Both options are pretty bad. Leaving the cat be will just make her feel worse about herself and who knows how many days it has been since it last ate or drank anything. Taking it back home will solve all those problems. But, there is one major obstacle.

She is not allowed to have any pets in the dorm. Her management said so. Nayoung too.

No, she can’t do this. She really can’t do this. Eunwoo stands up from her crouching position, and takes a step away. The feline meows louder despite its weak condition. She shakes her head and closes her eyes. No. No. No. She backs off and walks dejectedly away.

She swallows the heavy lump in as she nears the end of the alley. I shouldn’t be easily swayed by this, she thinks. Just as she is about to emerge from the alley, a loud thud comes from behind her. She flinches and sharply turns around.

The box has toppled over. What is even more amazing is that the cat is slowly limping its way towards Eunwoo.

Eunwoo wears her heart on her sleeves, and she’ll be damned if she doesn’t bring this poor creature back home.

---

When Eunwoo finally returns back to the dorm, she is relieved to find that nobody else is in the apartment. She enters quietly while carrying the box, not forgetting to give a goofy smile to the feline staring up at her with curious eyes from inside it.

“Home sweet home, cutie,” Eunwoo coos at her new feline friend. She goes straight to the bedroom she shares with Nayoung, Yaebin and Yewon, and proceeds to place the box on her own bed. She scrunches her nose at the foul odour coming from either the old blanket or the kitten. “Okay, that has got to go away. I’m sure there’s some extra towels around here somewhere. Lemme go find one and if there’s any milk in the fridge.”

The cat starts to mew again when she leaves the room. It takes all of Eunwoo’s willpower to not go back in again, and just hug the adorable fluffball. She can’t understand why anyone would think of leaving such a defenseless animal all by its lonesome. Eunwoo shakes the negative thoughts out of her head. What’s important now is that it gets all the tender, loving care it needs.

Firstly, a clean and unused towel. Easy enough to find - there’s so many of them folded in one of the cupboards in the bathroom. Living with ten members in a dorm meant that there’s always extra necessities lying around somewhere.

Secondly, milk and maybe tuna if there’s any in the pantry. Eunwoo isn’t sure if that’s good for the cat though. She’s going to have to look it up on the net eventually. Opening up the fridge, her eyes light up at the sight of a carton of milk but then frowns at the piece of post-it note stuck on it.

‘PROPERTY OF BAE SUNGYEON’

Without a second thought, she grabs the carton out of the fridge. “Sorry Sungyeon, but the kitty needs the milk more than your addiction to cereal.”

Searching through the pantry holds no success for canned tuna. None of her members are the biggest fans of tuna, apparently. Eunwoo sighs. She’s going to need to take a trip down to a pet store and stock up on feline-friendly food soon. Once she finds a small container to pour the milk in (and returns the rest of it into the fridge for the rightful owner), she carries it and the towel back to her room.

What she didn’t expect to return to is another girl cradling the cat in her arms.

“KYLA,” she screams, and almost dropping the container of milk. “What are you doing here!?”

The youngest member of the group looks up at the blonde, unfazed by her over-dramatic entrance. “Um, I live here?”

“No, I meant why are you here?! Aren’t you supposed to be at practice or something?!”

“It’s my day off today so I’m spending my free time in my room reading,” she explains calmly like she usually does. “Until I heard loud meowing noises coming from here so I went to check and here I am now.”

Eunwoo facepalms herself. So much for trying to keep this a secret from her members.

“Unnie, are you going to keep this little guy?” the other girl asks as she starts scratching gently on the cat’s neck, much to its purring pleasure.

“As long as I don’t get caught by Nayoung unnie,” the culprit of it all sheepishly says, sitting on the bed with Kyla. “And what do you mean a guy? Isn’t she a girl?”

Kyla proceeds to turn the cat around. “I don’t think girls have dangling parts on their rear end.”

“KYLA!”

---

Kyla is a great maknae. Eunwoo is truly blessed to have someone so mature and responsible listening to her as she rapidly explains about finding a neglected cat near a smelly old dumpster. The American member simply nods her head in understanding as she watches it trying its best to drink up the milk from the tupperware container. Eunwoo has already thrown out the urine-stained blanket and replaced it with the clean, soft towel into the box.

“That’s really kind of you to take this kitty in, unnie,” Kyla looks up and smiles sweetly at the blonde. “But I’m pretty sure we’re not allowed to keep a pet here.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice.”

“No offense, but you’re terrible at hiding things.”

Eunwoo puts on an offended look. “Such disrespect! I’ll have you know that I’m-”

“How about we find someone who is willing to adopt it?” Kyla cuts in, looking back down at the feline which is now limping around to sniff at its new environment. “We can’t hide it forever from the rest and we definitely don’t have the free time to look after it when we have promotions.”

Eunwoo stops herself, frowning in concern. “We should get it back into a healthy condition first. He looks like he hasn’t been fed for days, and that limp on his back leg is worrying me.”

“So you’ve finally accepted that it’s a boy,” Kyla lightly chuckles. “Are you going to take him to the vet?”

“I guess? I can’t go today though. By the time I’ll be done with the check-up, Nayoung unnie or the others would already be home. I can’t just waltz in here with the cat and be like ‘Hey girls, just got back from the vet! Nothing to worry about, haha!’.

Kyla just rubs her forehead in frustration. “Why can’t we just tell Nayoung unnie, instead of hiding him?”

“Because she’ll flip if she knows about this!”

“Unnie, she’ll flip if she discovers it first. Not when you’re being honest from the start, and save us all the trouble.”

“I can totally hide this from her! Give me enough time to take care of him, and she’ll never has to know about the adorable kitty living here.”

The younger member just stares at Eunwoo. “You actually just want to keep him forever, don’t you?”

The answer is an awkward silence, and a nervous Eunwoo fiddling around with her fingers. Not daring to say anything to her exasperated friend. A sudden mew breaks the silence, and both girls whip their heads in the direction of the sound.

There on the floor, in front of the shared wardrobe is the cat sitting on top of a puddle of liquid; meowing innocently and then prodding off to sniff away at the other objects in the room.

Eunwoo grimaces.

Kyla heaves a heavy sigh. “ I am not cleaning that up.”

---

Eunwoo finally manages to find the nearest pet store in the neighbourhood after one too many wrong turns on her GPS. Kyla had told her about it earlier. Their new feline friend can’t survive on just stolen milk alone so it is her duty to buy some proper cat food and maybe other nibblets. And most important of all: Cat litter. The maknae agreed to keep watch of the furry rascal; reluctantly promising to hide it well if any of their other members return home from school, work or practise.

Stepping into the large store, Eunwoo whips out her phone for her checklist of cat necessities. Good thing her mom didn’t ban her from using her card. Rushing through the many shelves of pet items and completely ignoring an employee’s offer to help, she hastily searches for the feline section of the store. When she finally finds it, her eyes almost bulge out of their sockets at the familiar figures over at the end of the aisle.

“Omo, this one’s sooooooo cute!”

“Are you kidding me? This pug is the adorable one! Look at that cute little face!”

Damn it. Just her luck…

Of all the times she has to bump into her fellow beagle line, it just has to be on the day she’s trying to keep a secret from them. Kyulkyung and Yaebin have their backs to her, fortunately. They are too busy fawning over the many small dogs up for sale which are in display cages at the back of the store. The blonde quickly turns around, biting her lower lip. She’s so close to the tins of cat food and everything else she needs to buy. One misstep and her cover will be totally blown. She just hopes her members are too distracted by the cute dogs to notice her presence.

Eunwoo takes a deep breath. She’s going to have to gun for it before they notice her. Taking a few steps backwards, she carefully grabs about five tins of cat food; mostly at random and not checking the flavors or brands in particular. Check.

“Miss, are you sure you don’t need help?” the male employee from before appears in front of her, looking at her in concern as she haphazardly tries to carry all four tins with her.

Looking back up like a deer in headlights, Eunwoo shakes her head hastily, not really trusting how loud her voice will be if she speaks. Her two best friends can instantly recognise her if they hear her.

“Well, okay. But do you at least need a basket?” he inquires again.

Her eyes lights up and she nods her head vigorously.

The employee turns around and goes to the front of the store to retrieve it. Letting out a breath, the blonde continues to scour the shelves until she finds the box of dry cat food that Kyla recommended. Check. Trailing downwards to the bottom of the shelf, she caught sight of the hefty bags of cat litter stacked on top of one another. Her mind returns back to the ‘tinkle’ incident over at the dorms earlier. Eunwoo prayed to the heavens that none of her roommates doesn’t notice any strange scent lingering in their shared bedroom.

Eunwoo isn’t really what people would call a strong girl, so it doesn’t come as much of a surprise when she struggles to lift the topmost bag with only one hand. Her muscles swelled under the pressure, letting the bag land dejectedly on the floor with a thud.

“I’ll help you with that, miss!” the very nice employee from before comes to her rescue once again, much to her relief. The supply of cat food she is cradling in her right arm tumbles down into the safety of the basket. She winces at the noise it made and turns her head slightly to look back.

Still fawning over the puppies. Good. That’s a great sign. She’ll be out of here in no time.

“Will this be all that you’re buying?”

She whips her head back at the employee and eagerly nods. The sooner she gets out of here, the better. When she finally pays for the items with her card (she almost yelled at how expensive they were), Eunwoo heaves the two shopping bags up with all the strength she can muster (damn you, cat litter!) and waddles out of the store.

A triumphant smile curves its way up on her lips. She can’t wait to feed her little fluffball with all the food she bought from her own hard-earned income. Is this what it’s like to be a mom? She may be over- exaggerating it, but she never had a pet while growing up. Her parents didn’t allow it because they need a lot of responsibility and tender-loving care. Apparently, they thought their daughter didn’t have much of the former trait.

Well, this will show em’. She’ll show em.

She will take care of her cat! She will be responsible for it! She will-

“Eunwoo unnie?”

The blonde breaks herself from her daydream, slowly and reluctantly turning to face in the direction of that familiar voice. There, in front of her, are the three other members of the maknae line. All looking at her with various expressions on their faces. Yewon; clueless as usual. Siyeon; bewildered but not too surprised by her antics. And Sungyeon; judging hard.

Sheepishly, Eunwoo waves at them casually, though right now she just wants to bolt out of there as fast as she can. “H-hey…”

At that moment, the ‘ding’ from the bell of the pet store’s entrance rings out.

“Ah! What are you all doing here, and why is Eunwoo carrying all those pet store bags?”

Kyulkyung wastes no time on pointing out the obvious, with Yaebin looking at the blonde with suspicion from the side.

Curse her luck.

Author's Note: This will be a two-shot, so next chapter will be updated soon!