Chansung made a silent prayer thanking Buddha for getting him to work 0.5 seconds before the boss arrived. His breathing just stabilised when boss man himself walked up to his cubicle with a new assignment for him.

“Chansung-ah, here’s another report I’d like you to look over. I hope it’s not too much trouble for you?” he asked him another one of his trick questions but since Chansung was in such a good mood, he didn’t care. Taecyeon could throw whatever at him and he’d still feel over the moon because he finally has someone waiting for him back home at the end of the day.

“Sure boss man! I mean Mr. Ok. I’ll be happy to do it!” he chirped with a little too much enthusiasm.

“Ah so she took you back I see. Or you guys fixed up whatever troubles you had before? Nice to see you in such good spirits Chansung-ah” and he genuinely meant it. When his employee were in top shape, it meant that his reports were handed to him earlier than due date. He walked back to his office, snickering at himself for being such a sneaky troll and left a puzzled Chansung behind him.

“You saw him do it too right?!” Chansung turned to his left to look at Jinwoon who wheeled his chair over to him so as to not be heard. “You saw him do that weird…” he mimicked something between a rat and a deranged person laughing “thing that he does sometimes when he thinks we’re not looking.”

“I think that’s him actually thinking he’s being sneaky or something? Something like a troll?” Chansung bewilderedly commented.

“You know, one day I think he’ll come up to us and reveal that we’re all part of some elaborate plot for him to take over the world or something. I mean the guy clearly has a few screws loose,” giggled Jinwoon. “I mean, have you seen that cat thing he’s always drawing?”

“That ugly thing with the weird cheekbones and whiskers? I saw a sketch of something like that on one of the pages of a draft report he gave to me once. I thought that maybe a kid drew it?”

“The only kid around here is the giant Ok-cat. Ok-cat…that strangely sounds so befitting. Am I right or am I right Chansungie?”

They both had to cover their mouths to stifle their laughter because imagining their giant boss as a cat was way too funny especially on a Monday morning. After they calmed a bit, Jinwoon turned back to him to ask, “So really though. What’s got you so cheerful on a Monday morning? I’m sure it’s not because you missed me right?”

Chansung playfully punched his arm and replied with, “He’s back! My cat’s back Jinwoon!”

He wasn’t expecting that reply and almost fell off his chair from the surprise. Now Jinwoon had to use both hands to cover his mouth to stifle his laugh, “Oh God Chansung, you know just what to say on a Monday morning. I needed that, thanks!” and he went back to his cubicle, still giggling to himself.

Chansung wasn’t really sure if what he said was supposed to be funny but shrugged and went back to work, feeling much better than he’s been in weeks.

He was in such great spirits that after work he popped by Minjun’s to tell him of the joyous news. With a spring in his step, he almost kicked down the door from how excited he was and ran up to Minjun near the cash register. “Hyung! Hyung! You’d never guess what happened!”

“What? Did you find Junho?” he looked up in hope.

That caught Chansung off guard since Junho was the last thing on his mind. And Junho being lost wasn’t something he was aware of which puzzled him even more. “What? No hyung… I was going to say that I found the Emperor… wait what do you mean Junho’s lost?” he questioned, distracted from his previous joy.

“Oh well I figured you might know where he is since you guys are dating and then you both stopped showing up here so I thought you might’ve broken up. However I still see you going to work but I haven’t seen Junho in weeks. So either Junho’s moved or something or…he was missing” he explained.

Chansung wasn’t sure what to make of this. Not so much bothered by Minjun’s thought that they were a couple; he was more distraught that Junho’s missing. Not that he knew where Junho lived in the first place, at least Junho would show up around these parts from time to time. If Minjun says he hasn’t seen him in weeks then something might be wrong. He bid him farewell and made his way back home a little dazed.

Yes he did tell Junho to never talk to him again but that was kind of a ‘heat in the moment’ thing. He was angry and upset but those feelings of hurt have mulled down to a dull throb that isn’t as bad. He still likes Junho (really likes Junho in fact) but he just wanted some time out to get over the humiliation from his rather harsh joke. Junho being the Emperor? He scoffed at the memory and went back to scratching the real Emperor behind his ears.

The little cat was in his lap pawing at his left thigh in delight as Chansung continued to scratch him in all the right places. He looked down at the bundle of fur in his lap and smiled at the cute cat.

“I miss him” he whispered. It caught the cat’s attention and he looked up at Chansung who was watching him with glazed eyes. “I miss him Emperor. I miss…Junho.”

Now the cat halted completely and stepped off his lap. This snapped Chansung out of his reverie and he returned his attention to the little creature.

“What’s wrong little Emperor?”

The cat its paw then began to clean itself.

“I think you would’ve liked Junho”

He stopped cleaning himself and sat up straight and stared at Chansung with an unyielding gaze. An unnatural look to the usually carefree cat. Chansung’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he stared back, feeling like he’s misunderstanding something. They locked eyes for a couple of minutes before the Emperor snapped out of his trance then went back to cleaning himself.

Wanting to try something, Chansung lowered his head to the cat’s eye level and repeated, “I miss Junho.”

Again like before, the cat stopped what it was doing and stared, almost glaring, at Chansung. Suddenly creeped out, he backed away from the cat to collect his thoughts. ‘Junho can’t be the cat? Right? I’m just losing my mind’. He humoured himself and started asking the cat more questions.

“Are you Junho?”

The Emperor just stayed in his position.

“Do you know Junho?”

Again, no response.

“If you know the answer to any of the two previous questions… meow for me,” he scratched the back of his head, feeling silly but waited for a response. After a minute more of the same silence, he huffed and got up. He knew it was a long shot but he wanted to try before completely dismissing the Emperor’s strange behaviour. He turned and was about to go back inside when…

“Meow”

So... shuffles feet in embarrassment. I guess I'm back LOL =P

Here's a proper explanation (and apology).

Thank you for reading lovelies!