Eric loves going to the pet shelter, he gets to see a whole bunch of animals that he wishes he could take home as his pets. One of the animals that he really wishes were his, are the cats. 

"You guys are so cute! I wish I could take you home." Eric says aloud, as he pets an orange cat. 

He then looks over at Juyeon with puppy dog eyes. 

"That might work on Jacob and Changmin, but not me. No, Eric. You can't bring a cat into the dorm." 

"Why not?" Eric whines. 

"Because Kevin and Jacob are allergic to cats."

"But Sangyeon and Jacob have their own house that they go to sometimes."

"Yeah, but Kevin is still at the dorm and his room is right next to your's." Juyeon replies. 

"Fine." Eric pouts, picking the cat up and holding it closely. 

Luckily for Eric, when he is walking home from getting some ice cream, he finds a stray gray kitten in the bushes. 

"Hi kitty. What's your name?" Eric greets the kitten.

The kitten meows in response and walks over to Eric, so he picks it up. The kitten curls up in his arms and meows at him. 

"Awww, you are so cute. I need to take you home. Wait here, I'll go back to the store and buy some food for you."

Eric places the kitten back down and quickly gets some cat food at the store around the corner. When he returns, the kitten is still there waiting for him. 

"Okay, let's go home." 

During the walk home, Eric comes up with a name for the kitten, Pepper. 

When the two of them get back home, Eric sneaks into his room and puts Pepper and his food away. Eric is so excited to have his own cat, he just has to make sure that this stays a secret. Maybe Eric can actually come up with a plan to convince his hyungs to let him keep Pepper.  

Later that night, when Jacob and Sangyeon are giving Eric his glass of milk and telling him good night, Jacob goes into a sneezing fit after hugging Eric. 

"Jacob, you okay?" Sangyeon asks. 

"Yeah, it's probably just some dust." Jacob answers, while sneezing. 

"When was the last time you cleaned your room, chum chum?"

"A week ago."

"Well, it is time to clean it again." Sangyeon responds. 

The two of them tell Eric good night before leaving.

"That was a close one." Eric thinks, as he pulls his blanket down to reveal Pepper. 

Eric kisses the cat good night before falling asleep. 

The next day, the boys don't have a schedule so Eric gets to spend time with Pepper for the whole day. The kitten is really active, so Eric has Pepper chase a piece of string around. 

"Wow, Pepper. You are so fast." Eric says, as he watches the cat chase the string around. 

Moments later, Eric hears a knock at the door. 

"Uh oh, I got to hide Pepper." Eric thinks. 

Eric puts Pepper in his cardboard bed that Eric made for him yesterday and hides him under his own bed. Eric pulls out a comic book from behind his pillow to make it look like he is doing something. 

"Come in." Eric replies. 

"Hey, squishy. What are you up to?" Juyeon says, as he enters the room. 

"Just some reading."

"Oh. Well, I just wanted to ask you if you want to go to the park." Juyeon brings up. 

Eric would really love to go to the park with his hyung, but right now he is having even more fun playing with his pet cat. 

"No thanks, I'd rather read today." Eric answers, hoping Juyeon won't become suspicious. 

"Alright. If you change your mind, you know where to find me." Juyeon replies, ruffling Eric's hair before leaving the room. 

With Juyeon gone, Eric gets Pepper out from under the bed. 

"I love spending time with Juyeon hyung, but I need to spend every possible moment with you." Eric tells Pepper. 

Pepper meows in response. 

"You are so adorable, I love you too." Eric says, kissing the cat. 

Thankfully, nobody comes into the room for the rest of the day until it is time for bed. This gives Eric time to take photos of Pepper, cuddle with him, watch him eat his cat food, and play with string. This has been one of the best days of Eric's life. Tomorrow will be completely different though. The boys have practice, so Pepper will be alone. 

"Be a good boy while I'm gone." Eric whispers to Pepper, before exiting his room. 

At practice, the others come close to realizing that something is up. 

"Hey, babykins. I didn't see you at all yesterday. You didn't even come see me for cuddles." Jacob says, sitting down next to Eric and putting an arm around him. 

"I was busy reading. I haven't picked up a comic book in forever so I read some for the whole day." Eric explains. 

"Oh. Well-" Jacob begins, but he is cut off by a sneezing fit. 

"Hyung, are you alright?" Eric asks, even though he knows why Jacob is sneezing. 

"Yeah. My nose is just itchy, must be dust or something again." 

"Hey guys. What are we up to?" Kevin says, sitting on the other side of Eric. 

"Just hanging out." Eric answers. 

Of course, Kevin starts sneezing now too. 

"Guys, what's wrong? Why are you both sneezing?" Chanhee asks. 

"I don't know. It must be something in the air."

"Okay everyone, time to get back to work." Changmin announces. 

The boys all get in their positions, and that is when Kevin and Jacob finally stop sneezing. 

"Hey, you guys stopped sneezing so much. I wonder what was wrong." Sangyeon says. 

"Maybe you two are allergic to Eric. You stopped sneezing once you got away from him." Jaehyun jokes. 

Jaehyun has no idea how close he is to the truth until the boys go back home hours later. 

"Oh my gosh! What happened in here?!" Chanhee exclaims, as he enters his and Eric's room. 

Books are knocked down all over the floor, a cup of water is spilled, and the bedsheets are scratched up. In the middle of all this mess, is Pepper, who is sleeping peacefully. The rest of the boys come to find what is going on, and they see the kitten too. 

"So that is why Jacob and Kevin were sneezing." Haknyeon states. 

"Eric, do you know why there is a kitten in your room?" Jacob questions. 

"Ummm, Chanhee did it." Eric responds. 

"How could I have done it?"

"Fine, it was me. I found this kitten the other day when I went to get ice cream. I named him Pepper." 

"Eric, you have to take him to the shelter." Sangyeon says. 

"No, I can't! I won't!" Eric replies, slamming the door and locking himself in with the cat. 

"Pepper, they're trying to take you away from me." Eric says to the cat, as he picks him up and holds him closely. 

"Eric, open the door." Sunwoo says. 

"Uh uh."

"Eric, open this door. Come on, it's my room too so you have to let me in." Chanhee tells Eric. 

Well, Chanhee is right. Eric can't just lock him out of his own room. He decides to open the door so that his hyung can enter. 

"Eric, can we talk?"

"No." 

"But it is important. Can we just talk for a minute?" Chanhee replies, sitting down next to Eric. 

"Fine." Eric gives in. 

"Eric, we are not trying to be mean to you or hurt you, but you have to take the kitten to the shelter."

"But, why? It's not fair, I want him to stay." Eric argues. 

"Well, for one thing Kevin and Jacob are allergic to cats. If you keep Pepper, then their eyes will always water and they will keep sneezing and that's not good for them. You care about them, right?" 

"Yeah. I love Jacob hyung and Kevin hyung, I love all of you guys." Eric answers. 

"And we love you too, that's why we are gently telling you that Pepper has to go because it will be hard for you to take care of him with how busy we always are. He is also very energetic it seems, based on all the mess in here. Maybe a bit too energetic."

"Yeah, he is just like me. I guess you are right, with all the energy he has it would be like having two of me and you guys can barely keep up with just me. Okay, I'll take him to the shelter." Eric says. 

"Good. I'm proud of you for making this decision. You can spend the rest of the day with him and then we'll take him to the shelter tomorrow morning." 

"Okay, hyung."

The next morning, Younghoon goes with Eric to the shelter to drop off Pepper. Luckily for Eric, the man who owns the shelter allows Eric to come and see Pepper whenever he wants to. Not surprisingly, Eric goes to see Pepper whenever he has time, even if it is just for a few minutes. He is able to do this for a couple months until Pepper gets adopted. Eric continues to go to the shelter even after his kitten gets adopted because he loves cats, and even if he can't adopt one, he will gladly spend time with some.