August was a month of transitions.

We kept moving back and forth from Japan to Korea. Jiyong had his solo album and I had my musical to keep us separated. Jiyong shared his room with me in Korea, but I was really only there to sleep. Jiyong was rarely there when I was, and I had to deal with the Tom and Laura bed sheets alone.

With the physical transition came an emotional shift as well. I didn't know where Jiyong and I stood, still confused with my new discovery of possibly loving him and not knowing what to do from there.

Because of this, we were Tom and Jerry. Chasing, looking for times where we could be together, but never capturing, never finding the other in the same room.

Whenever we could be together without conflicting schedules, I told myself that I had to make something out of it for us. I wanted to leave an impression. I wasn't the toy that Jiyong would play with anymore as I did nothing, so now I wanted to be the kind of older-kid gadget that could play back. Someone to finally return the affection.

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"Seungriyaaaah~ Are you here?"

Disoriented with sleep, I blinked a few times but all I saw was black, the darkness of the bedroom. I shifted my legs underneath the bed sheets, wrinkling Tom and Laura, and wiggled my toes. I heard keys jangling and footsteps approaching, so I pulled the sheets over my head. The light flickered on.

"Seungriyah! Get up! Yah!"

Something plopped onto my stomach over the sheets, warm and lightweight. Its paws padded across my ribs and sniffed. The creature made its way to my head and found a strand of my hair peeking out of the covers. The next thing I knew, it was nibbling and pulling on my hair. I tried to shake the thing off me, but it stayed there, pulling even more, and I had no choice but to face the light and take off the bed covers.

Jiyong and Youngbae were there at the foot of the bed, snickering. They each had plastic bags in their hands full of dog food and rubber toys. Youngbae set down the items on the floor and sat at the edge of the bed to get the thing off me, but it only growled. Jiyong broke off into a fit of laughter.

"Kekekeke! Gaho's first enemy!"

I squinted my eyes at the creature as Jiyong picked it up and suddenly my hair was free. It was a puppy shar pei, covered in wrinkles and beige fur with brown eyes. Jiyong kept staring at it adoringly, lovingly and cradling it. I was immediately jealous. Gaho meant something along the lines of "divine protection," like a guardian angel, but it was just a dog- a growling, sniffing, nibbling dog.

"Looks like you're going to have to keep it with you," Youngbae remarked to Jiyong, poking my arm. I twitched from the bullying.

"Hmm," Jiyong nodded. "I should have known it wouldn't work out."

He set down the pup on the floor to let it roam around. We watched it carefully as it wagged its tail and searched for something to eat. Jiyong quietly tsked and chided.

"Ah, Gaho, you better not mess up my floors. The prince's slave will have to clean it up if you do."

My jaw dropped.

"Jiyong-hyung, that's not fair! Its yours!"

Jiyong and Youngbae were snickering again.

"Just joking, maknae."

Youngbae tilted his cap and smiled at me, nodding his head.

You'll be okay, Youngbae mouthed. He poked my arm one last time and got up to leave. Jiyong hugged him goodbye and I was too tired to get out of bed. Once the door closed, Jiyong whipped his head around back to watching Gaho.

"Do you have a cage for it, hyung?"

He nodded and walked up to the pup to kneel beside it.

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Seungri."

"I'll be okay," I assured him, repeating Youngbae's words. "You'll be a good master."

He lifted an eyebrow at me beneath the platinum blonde layers of hair over his forehead.

"Is my slave admitting I'm a good master?"

I wanted to roll my eyes, but refrained from doing so. I had to start being nice to him.

"You're the best, hyung."

Well. Damn, that was cheesy, I thought. Even more so than usual, it wasn't like me. It was too sugar-coated to come out of my mouth, especially when not even in front of any cameras.

Jiyong smirked and placed the dog into the cage he had left by the entry way into the room, by the shoes.

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I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of Gaho whimpering. Jiyong, who still hadn't slept being the night owl that he is, was immediately there by the cage to feed it or comfort it.

"Sshh, be quiet and tough, Gaho," he whispered in the dark. The only light in the room came from the glare of Jiyong's computer.

"Master shouldn't baby what he owns, so you have to be a strong baby, arassou?"

At that point, I could relate to Gaho's pain and felt like whimpering too. My jealousy of Gaho was short-lived, and I closed my eyes yet again to enter back into the realm of sleep.

A/N edit: GD's apartment that he shared with Ri and puppy Gaho <3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_BIW92LgUc