“You didn’t call yesterday.”

Ryeowook shrunk into the sofa. He was alone in the apartment and it was still morning when he had decided to call the shelter again to talk to maybe Heechul but especially Sungmin.

“I know, I’m sorry. I forgot to call last night.”

“Why did you forget about me!?” Heechul asked from the other end of the line, clearly not amused.

“I’m sorry, hyung! But Kyuhyun and I were looking for a job for a long time and he helped me write applications to the places that sounded interesting and like I would fit to them and then we watched a movie and I got really tired… I’m sorry, I know I should have called.”

“You never get tired easily. What on earth did you two do yesterday?”

Ryeowook took one of the pillows and hugged it as if that could help make him disappear. “We were at the mall again in the morning and then had some cake afterwards before lunch… He said he wanted to have cake because I’ve been here for a week now…” A couple of seconds passed without a response from the older cat hybrid and Ryeowook started to fear the other had simply put away the phone. “Heechul-hyung? Are you still there?”

“Yes, yes, I am,” the other quickly assured him. “He really said that? He wanted cake to celebrate that you’ve been with him for a week already?” Ryeowook blushed. When Heechul said it like that it sounded even more serious. He simply hummed in response, hugging the pillow even more tightly. “Why did Hannie not get that idea?”

“From what I’ve heard you weren’t exactly nice to him…”

“So what? I might have been nicer to him if he had promised me cake!” Heechul mumbled something incomprehensible, but Ryeowook slowly relaxed again. It was somehow strange and even a little funny to hear Heechul complain about how Hangeng had treated him in the beginning compared to how Ryeowook was treated now.

“But hyung, I didn’t know he would get cake… I would never have thought he’d do anything like that.”

“Whatever. What else did you two get? You surely didn’t just go to the mall for some cake, did you?”

“No. He got me a key chain so I can carry around the key for the front door if I want to be outside for a while. And… we were in a toy’s store…”

“You finally listened to me?” Heechul asked, instantly excited again at that news.

“I did.”

“What kind of plushie did you get? Does it have a name yet?”

“A name?”

“Of course! Every stuffed animal that means a lot to you has to have a name. Since many people name theirs as a child, there are a lot of teddy bears out there that are simply called ‘Teddy’, but many people have also been more creative. Sometimes the parents name the stuffed animal. But since— Wait, what kind of plushie did you get? You didn’t answer my question!”

“Sorry, hyung. I got a giraffe.”

For a moment, Heechul was quiet, then he burst out laughing. “I can’t believe it! The smallest nineteen-year-old I know gets himself one of the biggest animals as a plushie!”

“Yah! Hyung, stop laughing! The others just weren’t as interesting… I just happened to like the giraffe more,” Ryeowook defended himself and pouted even though he knew Heechul wouldn’t be able to see it.

The young cat hybrid stayed quiet while he waited for his best friend to calm down. Still gasping for air, Heechul eventually continued his explanation after a couple of minutes. “Where was I? Ah right, your giraffe needs a name. You picked it and I’m sure it means a lot to you. If it doesn’t now, it will later. You’ll just regret it if you don’t give it a name.”

“So what name does yours have?”

“Hangeng,” Heechul replied right away.

“Yah, he’s your boyfriend!”

The older one laughed. “I know. But so far, I’ve mainly used his teddy bear. I call it myeongsang.”

“Myeongsang?” Ryeowook repeated, unsure why a stuffed animal should be called ‘meditation’.

“Yes,” Heechul admitted, sounding embarrassed. “His actual name is the Chinese word for ‘dream’, but since I’ve never been able to get the pronunciation right and the word sounds kind of the same to me, so I’ve simply started calling him myeongsang,” he explained.

“Ah, I see…” the younger cat hybrid replied and indeed it did make sense to him. “So you give your first stuffed animal a name because it’s really important?”

“Yes, that’s pretty much it. Some people also give more than just one plushie a name, but I would think many just give their most important one a name—or at least they’ll only remember that one name as the years go by.”

Ryeowook hummed softly and thought about it. He honestly didn’t know what he should possibly call his giraffe, though. “Anyway, is Sungmin-hyung there?”

“Yes, he is.” Heechul huffed. “And I thought you had called to talk to me!”

“Of course I also wanted to talk to you!”

“Or so you say now.”

“Hyung~!!”

“Whatever. Hang on a second.” Ryeowook could hear the other knock on a door, a moment later he said, “Sungmin, here’s a call for you.”

“For me?” the bunny hybrid replied and even through the line Ryeowook could hear the older’s skepticism.

“Yes, for you. Here you go.”

“Thank you?” Sungmin’s voice got louder and then the other was on the phone. “Yeoboseyo?”

“Sungmin-hyung, it’s me.”

“Ryeowook-ah!”

“Wookie-hyung is on the phone?” another voice resonated from the background that the young cat hybrid identified as Taemin’s.

“Yes, he is. Hang on, Wookie, I’ll put you on speaker.” Ryeowook could hear something, then Sungmin spoke up again. “Are you still there?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Hyung! It really is you!” Taemin exclaimed.

“Of course it’s him,” Sungmin deadpanned and then spoke to Ryeowook again, “How are you?”

“What is Kyuhyun like?” the youngest instantly continued to ask without giving Ryeowook the chance to answer.

The cat hybrid laughed softly. “I’m doing fine. Kyuhyun is really kind to me. But things here are still unfamiliar, especially right now. He took off last week for me, but right now I’m all alone… It’s really strange to have absolutely no one around.”

“Tell us more, you’re leaving out all of the details! What did you two do so far? We only ever heard Heechul say you’re doing fine, so we already know that.”

Ryeowook blushed a little at the realization that the others had probably been asking about him. Had they really been worried? Then again, he had probably given them enough reasons to be worried about him. “Well, I have a really big room… I don’t think I’ve ever had this much space for myself. It’s really weird and I’m still not used to calling this ‘mine’. I also have a key for the apartment.”

“What did you guys do this past week?” Sungmin asked further.

“We honestly didn’t do much… We started getting to know each other… I cooked for him… We watched movies together… His sister and her two hybrids came over the other day.”

“Eunhyuk and Donghae?” Taemin asked right away.

“Okay, you have to tell us this: Are the rumors telling the truth? Are they in a relationship?” Sungmin added curiously.

Ryeowook hummed in embarrassment. “They are.”

“Yes!” Sungmin exclaimed excitedly.

“That’s so cool!” Taemin agreed. “How are they? Are they nice? I wish I could meet them someday…”

“Yes, they were nice to me,” Ryeowook replied slowly, remembering their conversations.

“To you?” Taemin asked and sounded confused.

“Yes, to me. They all kept teasing each other, but they were kind towards me.”

“I guess that’s good, though. Like that, you could get to know them a little better as they interacted with each other but apparently they didn’t expect you to join their teasing right away,” Sungmin said thoughtfully.

“Yes, I think so, too.”

“But be honest now, hyung—things aren’t as bad as you thought they’d be, are they?” Taemin asked directly.

Ryeowook looked down at that remark. “No, they’re not. I’m sorry for making a scene,” he replied quietly. He was still unsure if Kyuhyun wouldn’t have been better off with any of the others, he would have still preferred to stay at the one place he had ever called his home, but he knew he couldn’t change things now. And slowly he was also learning to live with how the situation had changed. Maybe someday he’d feel more comfortable at this place as well.

“See? So don’t be that pessimistic! Things will turn out to be great in the end. You’ll see! Of course it’s not easy now, but you’ll see that the more you two will get to know each other, you’ll realize it’s better this way now than if you had stayed at the shelter all your life.”

“Thank you very much,” Sungmin commented bitterly.

“I’m sorry, hyung,” Taemin replied immediately. “You know how I mean it. I still also would love for you to find a loving home someday. Now you can actively decide whether you’ll go or not, so that’ll be good as well, won’t it?”

“Mind you, Ryeowook will also be asked next year whether he’ll want to stay or not,” Sungmin responded matter-of-factly.

“I know,” Taemin replied. “I think they always ask us about that when we turn twenty, don’t they?”

“I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask Hangeng about that.” A brief silence fell upon them, then Sungmin spoke up once again, “Wookie, what are your plans for today?”

“I don’t really have any, to be honest,” the cat hybrid replied and sighed softly. “I got a question from Kyuhyun that we’ll talk about later that I’m not sure yet how to answer.”

“What kind of question is that?”

“He asked me to tell him about the happiest or best memory I have. He already said he would start asking me questions to get to know me better when he goes to work so I can take notes and won’t be pressured to come up with something like this on the spot.”

“Wow, that’s really nice of him!” Taemin commented, sounding amazed.

“I know. I’m also really grateful he does it this way. It gives me time to think properly about what to write… Though so far I don’t know what to tell him about…”

They were all quiet for another while, probably thinking about what Ryeowook could write. It was only after a couple of seconds that a voice from the background suddenly interrupted their silence.

“Yah, kids, Hannie needs the phone!” Heechul called out and suddenly the younger cat hybrid knew exactly what his answer to Kyuhyun’s question was.

“We’re just trying to help Wookie with something. And we’re no kids!” Taemin protested right away.

“You still are a kid. But what does my Wookie-baby need help with?”

“Nothing, I think I found something I can write down,” Ryeowook answered quickly. “I’ll talk to you all later. Have a nice day!”

“You, too,” the others answered, sounding a little more hesitant, but Ryeowook didn’t wait any longer before he ended the call and hurried to go into his room. He sat down at his desk and opened the notebook Kyuhyun had gotten for him. He grabbed one of the pens lying next to it, then he wrote down what Heechul had just reminded him of.

“I’m home!” Kyuhyun called out, making Ryeowook smile. Even though he was cooking, he hadn’t failed to notice the turning of the key in the door lock and Kyuhyun’s steps into the apartment as well as the shutting of the door.

“Welcome back,” the cat hybrid called over his shoulder nevertheless and continued to prepare the dish.

A minute or so later, Kyuhyun peeked into the kitchen. “Ah, you’re so diligent already…” he commented. “It smells really good! I’ll be right there with you, okay?”

Ryeowook turned to look at the other and nodded, then he turned away to set the table, listening as Kyuhyun went upstairs.

Just when the meal was ready, the other came back downstairs. Ryeowook looked up when Kyuhyun entered the kitchen and was taken aback for a moment. The younger man was suddenly wearing his sweatpants and a loose-fitting T-shirt instead of tight jeans and a shirt dress.

“What?” Kyuhyun asked when the silence dragged on.

“Nothing,” Ryeowook replied hurriedly and finally put the pan with their lunch on the table. “Let’s eat,” he said instead and sat down hesitantly.

The younger man laughed softly and sat down as well, grabbing the spatula to fill his plate. “This is what I’ll usually wear when I’m home. I just figured I’d give you some time to adjust first, but now that I’ve started working again, I prefer to be able to dress in something comfortable when I’m home,” he explained.

Ryeowook nodded softly, thinking about it for a moment. When Kyuhyun was done filling his plate, he took the spatula to put some of the food on his own plate as well. “I guess that makes sense. It’ll help you relax.”

“Exactly!” Kyuhyun agreed. “You should try it at some point, too. You already washed your sweatpants, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Great!” The young man happily started to eat and hummed at the taste. “You know, the others asked me if I wanted to have lunch with them at the cafeteria like I did before you came here. But I said there’s no need for that anymore because you cook for me. You should have seen their faces! At least half of them were envious because I told them about how much of a great cook you are.”

Ryeowook blushed at that compliment and he looked down shyly. “I’m not all that good…” he mumbled in embarrassment.

“Oh yes, you are, Ryeowook. You’re the best cook I’ve ever met! And believe me, I’ve always loved my mother’s and Mihye-noona’s cooking.”

“Thank you,” the slightly older man mumbled and started to eat as well, keeping his eyes on his plate so he wouldn’t have to meet the other’s gaze. “Is Mihye-sshi the hybrid you grew up with?”

Kyuhyun nodded. “Yes, she is,” he replied and ate another fork full. “By the way, did you think about the answer to my question yet?”

Ryeowook swallowed quickly, then he nodded, glancing up again before looking down once more. “I did. I had trouble coming up with something at first, but while I talked to Heechul-hyung, Sungmin-hyung, and Taemin-ah, I remembered something that I knew would work very well for my ‘best memory’,” he replied.

“Ah, that’s good to hear! I’m glad I’m not the only one who had trouble coming up with the best possible answer!” Kyuhyun replied and laughed softly.

The cat hybrid looked up in surprise. “You did it, too?”

“Of course I did! While I want to get to know you better, I can also imagine you’d like to find out more about me. So I figured that while giving you questions to think about, I might as well answer them for you so we’ll both gain more or less equal knowledge of each other,” the younger man replied and smiled warmly, then he took another fork full. “So what’s your answer?” he asked before putting the food into his mouth. His curious gaze still lingered on the other man.

Ryeowook ate another fork full as well before he spoke up, “I think the best or maybe happiest memory I have is when Heechul came back to the shelter we used to stay in to tell me I could come home with him and Hangeng.”

“Ah, that makes sense!”

“It does?”

“Yes, of course! You said you’ve been alone all your life and that people came and went but never stayed in your life, but then there was Heechul. I take it Hangeng found him and opened the shelter a while later?”

Ryeowook nodded. “Yes, that’s what happened. Heechul promised me to stay in contact… But you know, he wasn’t the first person who said that and at that time I thought he wouldn’t be the last one either. Despite figuring I knew better, I nevertheless hoped he’d contact me at some point—and then after a week went by and I guess he and Hangeng figured things out, he started to call me every day. And then after a little over a year, he and Hangeng suddenly came to the room I shared with another cat hybrid at that point and they told me to pack and that Hangeng had opened a shelter and they wanted to take me too, they would explain everything else to me later. I already knew at that point that they were a couple, so the thought that Hangeng might take me in as his second hybrid never crossed my mind. I helped them make the shelter comfortable because when I moved in with them, their room, Hangeng’s office, the living room, the kitchen, one of the bathrooms, and my room were the only rooms that were almost completely done.” He stopped talking when he realized he was probably wavering off to topics that weren’t even interesting for Kyuhyun. “I’m sorry, you probably didn’t even want to know that...”

“Please don’t apologize. I’m happy to hear you’re opening up towards me! And I’m also really happy for you that Heechul kept his promise and came back for you.”

Ryeowook nodded softly, still embarrassed to have revealed so much about himself and his past. “What’s your best memory?” he asked to change the topic and started to eat again.

“Mine is actually far less meaningful than yours, I think. I actually have two memories that came to my mind as I was thinking about this question. One is when one of my favorite games of all time finally came out. I’m still playing it a lot on my computer.” By that point the cat hybrid knew Kyuhyun liked video games a lot, so he wasn’t really surprised by that answer. “And I think the other one would be when I finally graduated. I had studied so much before then, it was such a good feeling to see it all pay off! Plus, it enabled me to finally move out and start my own way of living which eventually also led me to bringing you home with me.”

Somehow Ryeowook wasn’t even surprised to hear the other mention them living together as part of his good memories though it still didn’t make sense to him. “But I think those two are also very understandable. One thing is something you enjoy a lot and the other is something I think everyone is looking forward to. From what I’ve heard, exams are really tough, so it’s always a relief when you’ve passed.” While living in shelters, it was normal that hybrid children learned everything from the older hybrids. The older ones taught the children how to read as well as the basics of math so that they could easily manage everyday life. But everything else they learned was usually subject to pure luck—maybe they saw something on the news or heard something on the radio or they learned something by reading the books the shelter owned or maybe because one of the other hybrids had heard it somewhere else before. Because of that, the system of a real school seemed a little strange to Ryeowook and, regarding exams, also a bit scary, though he could tell there were also many good sides about schools like the variety of subjects children were taught.

“That’s true! I’m also really glad I only got you now that I’m done with studying for high school. Though I’m afraid I’ll also have to study quite a lot when finals time comes around in university… But at least we have time to figure out a good routine and find more things we like to do with and without one another until then. And that time will pass as well!”

Ryeowook nodded softly in response. “It’s fine. I’ll make sure that I won’t bother you at that point.”

Kyuhyun shook his head vigorously. “That’s not at all what I would want from you. I’m talking about probably not having enough time for you and that you may feel even lonelier than you do already and I wouldn’t want that. So instead of that, I might actually annoy you by making you listen to all the things I’ll need to remember.”

The cat hybrid nodded once again, watching the other intently and curiously. “But that’s fine, too. That way I’ll also learn about the things you’ll need to know and I might even be able to help you. I’d like that.”

Kyuhyun’s expression made it obvious the other hadn’t expected to get that kind of answer. “You… would? It’s just finances and that kind of stuff, so it’s really not interesting at all.”

“Well, then maybe we can find a way together to make it interesting and help you remember it all.”

Their eyes met for a couple of seconds until Ryeowook looked down again, but he could still see Kyuhyun shake his head. “You really are someone, Ryeowook… I don’t think I’ve ever met someone like you before.”

“But that’s good… isn’t it?”

“It’s actually a shame! Of course it’s good because it means you’re unique, but it’s also a shame there aren’t many people with that kind of attitude. You seem to like helping a lot, even if it’s something you wouldn’t necessarily need to know or do. That’s really sweet!”

Ryeowook blushed and played a little with the fingers in his lap. “Thank you, Kyuhyun…”

“Ah, I’m so full now! Thank you for having made lunch for us!”

The cat hybrid looked up to see the other’s plate was entirely empty, making him smile because it proved Kyuhyun had stated the truth. “You’re welcome, I’m glad you liked it. Let’s save the rest for leftovers, okay?”

The other nodded eagerly. “I bet my parents will be happy about me spending less money on food now and about the fact that I actually eat something healthy regularly.”

Ryeowook looked at the other, surprised at first, but then he remembered Kyuhyun having told him he couldn’t cook well, making him smile again. The thought that this might also change Kyuhyun’s parents’ view of him made him feel happy and relieved. “I hope you’re right. I wouldn’t like to keep on disappointing your parents.”

Kyuhyun shrugged. “It’s not difficult to do so, believe me. But I’ll nevertheless also be really happy when they decide getting along with you will be healthier for their long-term relationship with me than if they keep on going against you.”

The cat hybrid looked down when he was once again reminded of the fact that Kyuhyun would nevertheless fight for him and he felt that warm feeling in the pit of his stomach again that still left him confused. Maybe it was really just because for the second time in his life someone was doing his best to stay by his side, no matter what other people said.

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A/N: The name for Hangeng’s teddy bear is 梦想 which would be pronounced as Mèngxiǎng. The Korean word Heechul mentions is 명상 and is pronounced as myeongsang. Some words in Korean can also expressed with Chinese characters, myeongsang is one of them. These are the so called hanja: 冥想, 瞑想. Do you see how the second character is the same in both of those two possible writings and also the same as the original Chinese character? So I’d say Heechul did a pretty good job in finding a similar word to the original one ;P

I hope you enjoyed reading the chapter~ Have a nice day <3