I can't sleep. There were two really nice people talking about me with Mrs Park today. They said they'll take me home with them tomorrow!



It’s Joonmyun’s turn in the window again. The window is what the catboys call it, the little spot behind the glass at the front of the adoption centre, filled with fluffy cushions and blankets and whatever else might keep its occupant happy. Every couple of days the window is allocated to a new catboy for the purpose of exposure and perhaps finding him a new owner. The window is a much-vied position for the popularity it grants because no catboy who has been there hasn’t been adopted.

But this is Joonmyun’s third time in the window this month, and the pitying looks he gets from the other catboys never stop. He smiles and waves at everyone who walks by but they don’t deign to pay him any attention at all. He’s seen his oldest littermates who have had their turn in the window, mussed up hair and half-mast eyes and lazy stretches that reveal slivers of skin before disappearing again - they were adopted in mere days. He’s seen catboys who spit fire and catboys with enough spiritedness for an entire litter, and they were all swiped up in a week.

Joonmyun just wants to play and be cuddled and fed yummy things. He sighs and flops into the pile of cushions.

“Too much like a child,” his first owner had said, shaking his head. “He’s not what I want.” He’d brought Joonmyun back to the adoption centre and the catboy’s heart had broken into little pieces.

“Too clingy,” his second owner had complained.

His third owner, at least, had been kind enough to say he wasn’t the right person for Joonmyun, and had at least sincerely hoped Joonmyun would someone who would look after him well.

Joonmyun’s nature is gentle, and his attempts to be ually alluring don’t suit his baby face and tiny stature one bit.

“One-sixty centimetres, no health problems, been adopted three times already.”

Joonmyun perks up and he whips around to see a man and his girlfriend discussing him at the front desk. OId Mrs Park says “abandonment issues” in hushed tones; the couple glance at him anxiously, and the catboy definitely knows he’s not going to be adopted today. His ears droop back on his head and he sinks into the cushions with a quiet groan. He’s not supposed to be moping while in the window but he just can’t help himself.

One of his last remaining two littermates wanders over some time later to prod him awake. “Here again,” he sneers. “When do you get adopted, shrimp?”

“It’s not my fault!” Joonmyun tries to pout but he’s too sleepy and his face does the scrunchy-up thing instead. “Go away.”

“You’re such a baby. I only asked when you were getting adopted. No need to be so mean, shrimp.”

“You're being  mean! Leave me alone!” Joonmyun wails. He buries his face in the blanket and curls up but his littermate keeps poking him incessantly in the side.

“How many times has it been in the window now, shrimp?”

“Stop calling me shrimp!” Joonmyun yells, flushing red from embarrassment. His kitty ears twitch angrily as he turns his back on them with a huff. One of the other catboys joins in, yanking at Joonmyun’s tail like it’s the funniest thing ever and hooting at the top of his lungs until Mrs Park comes over and separates them.

“Joonmyun?” she inquires. “Are you hurt?”

Joonmyun puts a cushion on his face so he doesn’t have to talk to her. She picks it up and puts it aside, ruffling the catboy’s hair gently.
“Don’t mind them, sweetie,” she consoles him. “It’ll be your turn soon enough.”

“No one wants me,” Joonmyun sulks. “I’m toocute . And clingy. They always bring me back.” He says the words like they’re poison.

“It’s natural for you to be clingy. You've just been...” She trails off. The missing words are rejected too many times but they don’t have to be said.

“Soon enough” isn’t the next day. His littermate gets adopted and Joonmyun’s still in the window. “Soon enough” isn’t even three days later when his other littermate gets adopted too, the latter taunting Joonmyun through every hour of the three that it takes to get all the adoption papers signed.

“Soon enough” is starting to feel like never and Joonmyun is a sad kitty.



“You want to get a catboy,” Sehun deadpans. He stares up at his boyfriend like he’s suddenly grown a third eyeball, whatever show playing on tv forgotten.

“Yeah,” says Jongin. He shrugs, carding his fingers through the hair on Sehun’s head in his lap. “Our apartment’s always so quiet, you know? It’s just the two of us all the time.”

“Why?” Sehun asks, eyes narrowing. “People use them for and that kind of stuff… is this some kind of phase you’re going through?”

“Not those kind of catboys, you idiot.” Jongin whaps Sehun’s cheek lightly with the back of his hand. “C’mon, think about it. Wouldn’t you like to come home to a cute little kitty every day? Sitting in the lounge having a cry because he missed Sehunnie?”

Sehun’s cheeks go pink and Jongin knows he’s hit the metaphorical nail on the head. “Whatever. Catboys don’t come cute. They’re either trying to playfight or get in your pants,” he argues, shoving food in his mouth and adamantly fixing his eyes on the tv again.

“You so would. Look at your face! Just imagine him waiting on the couch for you after work. Or sleeping in our bed. Or sitting in your lap while you feed him breakfast– ”

“S-shut up. Where would he even stay?”

“We’ll turn the study into a bedroom. We don’t use it anyway.”

“Are you prepared to look after him? You might as well go and adopt some kid from the orphanage.”

“Trust me, catboys are so easy to look after. My nesting instincts say so.”

“You don’t have nesting instincts, Jongin. You don’t even make the bed in the morning.”

“Hey, I saw you when your goldfish died; putting it in box and wrapping it up it nice paper and digging a little grave for it in the backyard… you look after things like a fabulous mommy.”

“I was twelve! What about cat heats, Jongin, how are you going to deal with– ”

“ him?”

“…”

While Sehun and Jongin’s relationship is nowhere near stale, their lives are turning somewhat routinely; work, lunch, maybe dinner out, day off on Saturday, Sehun at the café, Jongin at the performing arts school. The more Sehun mulls over it, the more he wonders about how long Jongin’s been planning this shenanigan for.

Maybe he’s not as averse to having a catboy around as he thinks. In fact, he can’t wait to feed him bits of toast with jam and cornflakes and wipe off milk moustaches–

Jongin bends down and drops a kiss square on Sehun’s forehead in attempt to drag him out of his fantasy-induced state. “Adoption centre, ten o’ clock tomorrow morning.”



“Maybe you should ask Minseok,” Sehun says at ten o’ clock the next morning outside the adoption centre. “He’s got a catboy. He could help you pick one instead of you just marching in there without a clue.”

Jongin waves his concern off. “Spontaneity never hurt anybody,” he insists. “Hey, look at the cute one in the window.”

Sehun looks at the cute one in the window.

The catboy sitting amongst all the cushions is bundled up in a blanket at the table, colouring pencils in his hand and doodling pictures. They watch him draw a tree, a swing set and a lone stick figure with ears and a brown tail, who is presumably himself. The catboy looks momentarily lost, as if wondering what to draw next, and then he adds a second stick figure and gives both faces a big smile.

Sehun looks back at Jongin. “You think is cute?”

“He’s looking at you, Sehun. Don’t say that,” Jongin smacks him.

The catboy his head and blinks innocently up at the blond boy. Sehun awkwardly waves back, flustered, as the catboy was pulls out more paper and draws himself again and a tall person with yellow hair next to him holding hands. Sehun chokes back his response while Jongin chortles away in the background.

The catboy seems to have noticed Jongin and adds him to the picture, his face creased and one ear flat against his head in thought. He presses the finished drawing up against the window for them to see and shyly peeps over the top of the paper, tail waving anxiously from side to side, to gauge their reactions.

Jongin gushes one hundred and one things about how cute and adorable and cute he is and Sehun cackles and slaps his thighs uncontrollably; the pair of them look like idiots on the street, laughing at something through a window.

Stickfigure!Sehun’s face is uncoloured, white as milk, while stickfigure!Jongin’s face is a brown with the capacity to rival a piece of toast burnt beyond salvation. Jongin does a thumbs-up and the catboy beams.

Sehun points at the happy little figure rolling around ecstatically in his blankets. “Jongin, we’re getting this one.”



Joonmyun watches them talk to Mrs Park from his spot in the window with a bubbly feeling in his stomach. They’d laughed and genuinely smiled at him, and not out of the pity everyone seemed to direct at him. In all of Joonmyun’s time at the adoption centre, he’d found nobody was really interested in the cute catboy type. But if white one and brown one wanted a cute catboy… he squeals at the prospect of new owners and hides his silly grin in the corner of his blanket.

“What’s so funny, shrimp?” a group of catboys ask. They all call him some demeaning name or another and Joonmyun’s grin slips off his face as he pulls the blanket tighter around himself.

“Nothing’s funny,” he says, shrinking back. “Go away.”

“Aww, tell us!” they chorus. One of them reach out to pinch his ears. “Are you hiding something? What’s in your blanket?”

“I don’t have anything! Don’t touch me!” Joonmyun cries shrilly. He swats at their hands but they don’t go away. The catboys grab his blanket and tug it off him, and he whines pitifully.

“What was it? A treat? Did you eat it already?”

“Fat shrimp– ”

“Hey, that’s not nice. Back off.” Startled, they all look up at the sound of the new voice. Joonmyun peers over the cushion he’s clutching to his chest to see brown one looking down at them with a reprimanding stare. “Apologize to him.”

The rascal catboys pass glances at each other before mumbling “sorry”s and “won’t do it again”s. Some of them have even started to look coy in the hopes of being noticed but they get ignored when Jongin bends over slightly and opens his arms for the catboy in the window.

Joonmyun blushes. He looks around to make sure he’s really being wanted. “M-me?”

Brown one nods. “Come here.”

Joonmyun drops the cushion and bounds into Jongin’s arms, much to the distaste of the other catboys watching the scene unfold.

The catboy is much smaller without the blanket than he’d imagined and his head only comes up to somewhere on Jongin’s chest, but his tiny form fits right against him. Jongin glances down and smiles warmly. “What’s your name?” he asks.
“J-Joonmyun?” the catboy says timidly, playing with the hem of Jongin’s shirt.
“Hi. I’m Jongin, and that’s Sehun over there.” Jongin pats him on the head and Joonmyun blinks. “We’re coming back for you tomorrow.”



The adoption centre is quiet, the occasional sounds of snuffling and light snores breaking the silence. Joonmyun surrounds himself in his nest of cushions and carefully takes out a rectangular object, flipping to a new page under the dim light of the table lamp. It’s a leather-bound journal, a parting gift from his last owner. There is a note stuck to the inside of the cover.

You’re a wonderful kitty, Joonmyun, and you deserve to be adopted. Make nice memories with this, okay?

Joonmyun chews on the end of his pen, his mind consumed in his thoughts. With one ear down and tongue between his teeth, he writes an entry into the journal.

hi guys i actually recognize like 80% of you cos you're subbed to my other fics

but idk man im convinced this is turning into a collection of fluff vomit