All through work, he was distracted. He couldn’t help have this nagging feeling at the back of his head that there’s something wrong. Whether he forgot to lock the front door or had an appointment he forgot about, he was restless all throughout the day. Mr Ok even reprimanded him when he caught him staring off into the distance instead of crunching the numbers for last year’s sales but Chansung could only sheepishly smile and apologise for his tardiness. As soon as Satan’s spawn turned his back to return to his office, he flipped him the bird much to the joy of Jo Kwon and Jinwoon in the cubicles near him.

7:00 couldn’t have come any sooner because as soon as the second hand reached 12, Chansung was already out the door before any of the other workers got to stretch their legs. He shoved past the people in the building and apologised for almost knocking down Shim Changmin from accounting on the 3^rd floor but was running too fast to hear the reply. If he ever wished he had a car, this wasn’t the time. He was thankful for his bike so that he can manoeuvre between the cars stuck in traffic and got home in half the time he usually does.

He threw his bike in the driveway and left his briefcase near the front door. The key almost got jammed from how hard he was turning it but he eventually managed to get it open. Once he was inside, he finally stopped to catch his breath. He panted as he made it to his room and flipped through his calendar.

“No appointments this month”

 He turned back to look at the front door.

“Door was locked too”

‘So what was it?’

He just shrugged and silently laughed at himself for his erratic behaviour. Sure his boss worked him till his fingers cramped up but he wasn’t that bad of a guy. What was it that made him so agitated?

After paying off the bills, he decided to call his mum before he got ready for the night. After an hour long conversation, he took off his contacts and slipped on his glasses while grabbing his books and headed for bed. He loved reading and from time to time and he liked to indulge himself in fantasy novels.  The possibility of there being a whole other world other than the one he knew is what attracted him to the genre.

As he got himself comfortable and turned to the dog-marked page, he paused his actions. He left the book on the bed and got up to where he left his daily planner. He flipped a couple of pages ahead and stopped.

“Nope. No reports due to the giant Okcat either”

He tried brushing off that feeling again as he still couldn’t pin-point as to why and how it came.  He looked back at his book and decided to pass up his nightly reading today. Maybe some sleep will help settle his head.

Shake, shake.

Nothing.

Shake, shake.

He’s not here.

Chansung started to shake the box of cat food a little harder. He even started to whistle and make hissing noises to call out the Emperor but the cat was nowhere in sight. He ran out to the middle of the street in front of his house and looked at all the front lawns of the houses on his street. He even crossed the street and was about to head to the park two streets down when he heard someone calling out his name.

“Chansung! You’re not going to work like that are you?”

It was Jinyoung drowning his plants. Chansung didn’t register what he said until Jinyoung motioned to his bare chest and polka-dot pyjama bottoms.

“He’s gone! The Emperor is missing!” he was really afraid of having a panic attack until he got sprayed with a powerful gush of cold water. “Yah yah what are you doing?” he spluttered between giant gasps for air.

“Yah? I’m your hyung punk! There that woke you up. Well if you haven’t noticed, it’s Friday which means you still have work. So you either shower and get ready for work so you can make it in time or you can stand there and look for that cat that probably dumped your for another owner that can remember the difference between ‘Chicken’ and ‘Tuna’ flavour”

Chansung was too dumbstruck to move from his spot and it wasn’t until Jinyoung sprayed him with the hose again did he run back into his house.

Sure he made it to work in time but he might as well just stayed at home with the amount of work he’s doing now. He didn’t even bother to dry his hair and forgot to wear his socks so his bike ride to the office was very uncomfortable.

“Hyung are you okay? You look very--”

“My cat’s missing”

“Oh, you mean Emperor? I thought he was a stray,” questioned Jinwoon. He started getting worried for Chansung when he wrote the title ‘Annual Report’ six times already in his blank document page.

“But…he’s stayed with me for almost a year,” reasoned the still distracted Chansung.

“Have you bought him a collar?”

Chansung finally turned to face him with a blank expression.

“Have you at least installed a cat flap so that he can return home?”

“He’s never been in the house”

Jinwoon was at a loss for words at the revelation. “He hasn’t even been inside your house!? The next thing you’ll be telling me is that he doesn’t meow at you either...” he trailed off once he got confirmation from the distressed look on Chansung’s face.

“Chansung-hyung. He wasn’t your cat. That boy’s been playing you. I’m sorry man,” he pushed back on his wheelie chair to come closer to Chansung so that he can lay a sympathetic pat on his back.

“You’re a nice guy. There’s plenty more cat…fish in the sea?” he left it at that because the Okcat was on the prowl for any workers slacking off to get assigned an extra task.

When the giant man passed, Chansung whispered back at Jinwoon, “I know it sounds like the cat doesn’t even know me but he’s been with me for almost a year. I would feed him every morning and he’d let me pet him. Sure he’s never been vocal towards me but what if he’s just shy or has had his voice box damaged?” Jinwoon still looked sceptical. “And as for the house thing…maybe he’s allergic to carpet?”

That’s when Jinwoon lost it and couldn’t help the giant snort he gave out. “I’m sorry man, I know you love that cat but he’s probably been two-timing you. Why don’t you buy yourself a kitten? That way you can raise it and he’ll…”

Chansung had tuned him out at this point. Like Jinyoung, Jinwoon didn’t really understand the impact this had on him. He developed a special attachment to the little cat and he knew the cat felt the same way in return. On the weekends when he reads on his front porch, the Emperor would always brush his feet before leaping onto his lap for an afternoon nap. Or whenever he felt like having company for lunch, he’d always take his food outside and sit on the paved porch next to the little critter munching away on chicken wings. The deepest of connections transcend words. That’s what he thought, or so he used to at least.

It was almost winter and Chansung pulled his scarf up higher to cover himself from the merciless cold. His fingers felt numb but he kept on sticking up the ‘Have you seen this cat?’ flyers. He wasn’t sure why he was so driven to find Emperor and it was near impossible to fill in the details for the flyer since he knew so little about the cat but he didn’t want to move on without at least trying.

He reached his 30^th telephone pole before he got the feeling that he was being watched. He stapled the flyer and turned to face a pair of brown orbs only centimetres away from his face. Shock made him back up into the pole and hold onto it to catch his bearings.

“Hello”

The curious figure only continued to stare. He too had most of his face covered in a thick, red, wooly scarf and little tufts of brown locks peaked from beneath his matching beanie. The only thing Chansung could make out were the small, brown eyes staring back at him.

“Can I help you?”

He only tilted his head in response.

Chansung stepped away from the pole and pointed to the flyer. “Have you seen my cat?” he asked but only got silence in return. He let out a heavy sigh and picked up his stuff to continue putting up the remainder of the flyers, not hearing the soft response from the man as he turned his back to him.

I did say I was going to upload at night but now it's the morning and I am so sorry for making you wait! Something came up and it couldn't be avoided *sigh*

How is it? It's still dragging on, I know but hopefully the next chapter will get a little more interesting! ^w^

Thank you guys for reading/commenting/subscribing! I can't remember why I stopped writing those couple months ago! (Well school was in the way actually....)