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“You always use to say that you were like a diamond—just like how only diamonds could cut diamonds, you were your one and only competitor. Talked about how only you could defeat you and… like that.”

The monitor beeps almost like a response. The room is so quiet it’s deafening. Or is it the blood rushing through his veins, he can’t really tell.

“…well, you’re right.”

。。。。。。。。。。

 “You need to get a girlfriend.” Himchan says through a mouth full of Cajun chicken pizza. His foot brushes against a half-empty beer can sitting dangerously near the edge of the coffee table as he reaches over to grab another slice from the box, ignoring the glare coming from Yongguk’s direction. He can’t actually see Yongguk glaring at him but he can definitely feel the heat rays burning into his temple. After a few seconds of silence, Yongguk scoffs.

“Look who’s talking.” He replies, reaching over to rescue his can of beer from the table before Himchan kicks it over. That would be a waste of beer and he can’t afford to ruin the carpet in his apartment. He takes a sip and changes the channel from some forensic drama. He can’t even tell the difference between them all anymore.

The news is on and the woman on screen is talking about the arrest of the “mad scientist of their century”, a Russian-born scientist based in Munich, Germany on account of his unethical experiments and practice: Hybridisation of an animal and a human. Project Daisy, they called it. To be honest, it was more human enhancement than hybridisation but it doesn't matter, Yongguk tunes out halfway anyway because this has been a thing for as long as he can remember and he really couldn't give less than two s about crazy old men and their weird science-y stuff. It was interesting at first, though. The infamous Dr. Kudrin had been trying to put animal transgenes into human cells that were made in the lab and transfecting them into artificially-created imitations of enucleated human eggs. The result he was hoping for was that he would have a seemingly ordinary human, but with not-so-ordinary traits. For example, the heightened sense of hearing like a dog or a cat. If that was successful he would’ve moved onto giving a person the ability to lift an object fifty times their own weight from an ant, and maybe in the future a human would be able to camouflage like an octopus or a chameleon. Yes, it was all very ambitious and far-fetched and the implications were far too dangerous, but that didn’t stop him, and why should it?

Dr, Kudrin “grew” the eggs within the safe confines of his lab, presumably for easier observation, and of course, all of his experiments known thus far were failures. The zygote would usually be inviable, or the cell would simply not take up the transgene. Sometimes the offspring would grow, but the transgene would somehow give rise to a mutation and the creations would turn out to be modern frankensteins. Dr. Kudrin and his team would somehow always find a way to dispose of the failed experiment, leaving behind no trace of evidence other than the written logs of the experiments. It sounded pretty unethical and inhumane and Yongguk can see why everyone was freaking out about it…something to do with the importance of life and how he should give up trying to play God.

The media tends to drag on stories from years and years ago. There’s this whole Kudrin fiasco, for example, and the time when a ten year old boy went missing in Busan and the parents of the boys didn’t stop looking for him for six years. It’s been five years since that incident but Yongguk remembers thinking as he lay in his hospital bed because of his rampant tuberculosis that, hey, it’s great that those parents are loving and caring enough to look for their kid for eight-hundred years but the news should really find something else to broadcast.

He stands up and picks a random movie from the shelf beside the television and slides it into the player before settling back onto the couch. He’s watched it many times before, so he decides to just lay back for tonight, using the sounds of gunshots and screaming as white noise to lull him to sleep. The movie is fairly old, coming out when he was only four years old, but ask anyone who’s seen it and they’ll tell you that Pulp Fiction is a masterpiece and one of Tarantino’s greatest. Yongguk chugs the rest of the beer down. It’s flat but he’s not one to pour it down the sink and let it go to waste.

The room is dark and Yongguk’s eyes begin to hurt from the intense light emanating from the screen and he suddenly feels drowsy. They’re nearing the end of the movie; when Yolanda is standing on the tables and screaming and swinging her gun in all directions and he reckons he’s seen this movie enough to be granted some leeway, so he leans back onto the couch and tries to block out the sound of Himchan’s noisy eating as the other slurps up the melting cheese that’s dripping off the pizza and smacks his lips together every couple of seconds. Yongguk makes a face when Himchan wipes his greasy fingers on the hoodie that he never seems to wash, but the other either doesn’t see or chooses to ignore him.

“Don’t drop any food on my carpet.” Yongguk warns.

“Our carpet, actually.” Himchan replies. He takes another bite of his pizza and talks while chewing, crumbs dropping out of the corner of his mouth, “I’m serious, by the way. All you ever do is work and occasionally have one-night stands. A girlfriend’ll be good for you. Add some spice to your drab, monotonous life.”

“I’ll think about it.” He mumbles before pulling his hood over his face. He somehow manages to fall asleep, even with Himchan chewing his food with way too much enthusiasm merely a foot away from him.

。。。。。。。。。。

It’s been a few months since Himchan had mentioned Yongguk’s lack of “spice” in his life and although he would never admit it to Himchan, for those past few months he’d been thinking about his words a lot and wondering if maybe Himchan had a point.

Yongguk lacks motivation during work more often these days. Youngjae is usually there to help kill time, but all in all it’s the same thing, day after day. Himchan wasn’t kidding, his life is pretty monotonous. He runs on a pretty set schedule, with every movement accompanied by sound of the slow ticking of the clock, echoing in his brain. Going to bars and clubs and picking up buxom women used to be a great way to pass time but after a while Yongguk realised that, for some reason, a lot of the women he picked up were actually looking for something more while all he was looking for was just a quick to release all the built-up ual frustration in him (he was a man and a man with needs). And now, even the fun in that has begun to run dry. He doesn’t feel anything with any of them, other than pure lust. It was never anything else, not love, not even a slightest bit of interest. He never found himself wondering what any of these girls enjoyed doing in their spare time, if they’re more of a videogame person or a book person, if they preferred action movies to horror or if they preferred heavy metal over indie.

There was never a spark nor did he never expect one.

“—a please?”

Yongguk blinked himself out of his reverie and stared at the women leaning across the bar. “S-Sorry what?”

The tight black dress did everything for her figure, but , he was on the clock and this was not the time to be ogling at his patrons.

“I’ll have one .” She repeated, sultry voice spilling from between her bright, red lips. She was doing this on purpose.

“Oh uh, yeah sure.” Yongguk turned to grab the almond liqueur from the shelf behind him and concentrated on making the drink, making sure his eyes stayed away from what the low cut dress was trying to draw attention to.

Turns out, the lady was buying it for a friend as it was her birthday and he watched a group of men and women cheer as the birthday girl put her hands behind her back before wrapping her pink lips around the shot glass and throwing her head back, spilling some of her drink into the front of her dress. Yongguk gulped as he watched the drops of alcohol lead his eyes where they shouldn’t be.

Yeah.

He definitely needed to get laid.

。。。。。。。。。。

The apartment he shares with Himchan is only a ten-minute walk from his workplace. Usually Yongguk takes his time walking back, enjoying the few minutes of solitude, allowing the cool night air to cleanse his mind. Tonight, though, was not one of those nights. Yongguk makes a mental note to himself to bring an umbrella to work more often when he hears the first few droplets of rain splatter onto the sidewalk. He peels off his waistcoat and holds it above his head, grateful for the fact that it’s two in the morning and it’s dark enough so that people can’t see him get soaked in the rain under his useless makeshift umbrella. Thankfully it’s only drizzle for now, but Yongguk doesn’t want to get caught if it does rain heavier later on.

He passes a small alleyway on the way back. As always, he can hear the dull, electrical buzzing and the occasional spark coming from the neon sign humming and flickering in the darkness a little ways down, but Yongguk knows better than to investigate shady looking neon lights in damp and dusty alleyways in the middle of the night. He’s assumes it’s the headquarters for some dodgy gang or cult. In all honesty, he has a little freak-out every time he walks past (but he’ll be damned if he ever let Himchan know). He’s not a coward—of course he isn’t—but there have been cases where men twice his size have had their faces pummelled in with a hammer, or strangled by their own arm, torn right out of their sockets after being jumped in places like this. Even though it’s never happened here, like that happens in other places and well, it sticks in your mind—after all, there is a first for everything. The only form of defence he has at the moment are his two fists and the knuckle dusters he likes to wear when the sky gets dark and the streets get dangerous. Yongguk flexes his fingers and feels the weight of them on his hand. They’re pretty reliable but worst case scenario is that the murderer has a gun or a knife and well, Yongguk isn’t exactly a trained combatant, so he’s not sure how much help they’ll be then.

He almost makes it past when his ears pick up the slightest sound, something brushing fast against the metal of the rubbish bin. His heart punches him in the chest so hard that his fight or flight instinct kicks in. He whirls around, hands clenched and knuckles white and he feels a growl rising in his throat, heart beating rapidly against his throat, and he immediately feels like an idiot.

A small black kitten is cowering behind the garbage can next to the mouth of the alleyway. Even in the dark, he can see the eyes staring at him as they reflect the murky lights from the streetlamps. Yongguk is mildly surprised that his sudden action didn’t send the cat sprinting off in the opposite direction like he would expect, it just stood there, staring. The rain is coming down harder now, he can hear the quickening rush of more and more raindrops hitting the ground, and Yongguk thinks for a second that he should just run the rest of the way back. But he looks at the kitten and for some reason he can’t seem to leave it alone. Its fur is saturated with rainwater and it looks so terribly bogged down and fragile and cold that Yongguk knows that if he does leave it, he won’t be able to sleep at night and its big brown eyes will haunt his dreams for the next month or so. He takes cautious steps towards it to not scare it away, and he smiles when the kitten steps out and towards him, tiny paws leaving ripples in the puddles that it walks through. He slowly bends down and the kitten takes bolder steps until it’s close enough to rub its wet face against his hands. Yongguk reaches out and picks the kitten up easily with one hand, wrapping his waistcoat around it. The waistcoat is wet as well but he hopes it’s better than nothing.

。。。。。。。。。。

“Yongguk!”

It’s Sunday morning and Yongguk doesn’t feel like getting woken up by Himchan’s squawking so early in the morning. He rolls over and throws his pillow over his ears when he hears Himchan yell from where he assumes is the bathroom—probably taking his ritualistic morning —but the pillow does nothing to dampen the racket. The fifth time Himchan calls, Yongguk flings himself out of bed and storms to where Himchan is standing in the bathroom with toothpaste smeared on his t-shirt, ready to break his nose, when he sees why Himchan has been yelling all morning.

The small kitten is sitting on the floor of the bathroom, staring at the both of them. Now that he’s able to see it dry and not in the dark, Yongguk realises that the cat is actually a dark brown, not black. At least that puts his superstitious side at rest.

“Yongguk there’s a cat in our apartment.”

“I know. I didn’t think it’d stay.”

Himchan stops brushing his teeth for a moment, “You brought him here?” Yongguk half-heartedly shrugs.

“What—why?”

“I’m going back to sleep now.”

“Not before taking this cat out.” Himchan gestures towards the brown kitten sitting on the tiles. Yongguk groans.

“I wanna keep it. My apartment, my rules.”

“It’s our apartment. And you can’t just do that! What if its owner is looking for it? We’re not even allowed pets in here.”

Yongguk rubs his face with his hands. It’s too early for him to be up and geez Himchan it’s just a cat.

“If its owners are looking for it, they’ll put up those lost posters or whatever. Also it’s just a kitten, what’s it gonna do? Maul us to death? I’ll just buy it food and a litter box and it’ll be fine.”

。。。。。。。。。。

Three days later finds Yongguk scrubbing kitten pee and mushed up cat food out of the carpet and tending to the fresh wounds on his face.

。。。。。。。。。。

“I don’t think this is working out.” Himchan says as he stares at the kitten curled up on the couch and the tell-tale scratches in the cushion next to it.

It’s been five days since Yongguk brought the kitten (aptly named Goyangi because both of them have brilliant imaginations) back to the apartment. However, in the course of those five short days, Goyangi had torn up three cushions and two pillows, urinated on every square metre of their carpet and broken at least four cups. The sound of shattering glass and ceramic resonates in Himchan’s ears. It’s the sound of money going down the toilet.

“Why don’t we just sell it? It’ll cover some of the cost of all the damage it’s done.”

“No!” Yongguk says a bit too loudly, “He’s not too bad. At least he pisses and s in the litterbox now, all we have to do is train him to not shred apart every soft object he comes in contact with.”

Himchan watches as the kitten kneads the cushion with its tiny little paws and he can feel a bit of his insides warm up. He admits that Goyangi has the cutest little pink nose and his little face just begs to be kissed all over. Yongguk already does that, in fact, and Goyangi lets out quiet meows in response while Himchan just watches as Yongguk showers the kitten with love. It’s—dare he say it—cute. And very, very disgusting. He knows that Yongguk has grown extremely fond of the cat. When Yongguk comes back from a particularly stressful shift, Goyangi would his face like a dog would with his sandpapery tongue until Yongguk was nothing but smiles. Thinking about all this, Himchan’s hands fly up to slap onto his face before he drags them down and groans loudly.

“Fiiine.” He leans down and prods the fluffy stuffing back into the tear in the cushion with his finger, “But he’s your responsibility and all the payments for the damage from now on are out of your pocket.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever.” He mutters as he brushes Himchan aside.

“Ugh.” Himchan grunts as he watches Yongguk kiss Goyangi on the nose. Goyangi’s face scrunches up and Yongguk’s nose in return and he smiles so widely Himchan actually audibly gags at the sight because it’s so sickeningly saccharine.

“I told you to get a girlfriend. That is not a girlfriend. Idiot.”

。。。。。。。。。。

In the next few days, Goyangi learns to treat soft items gently after a few sessions of scolding and his first encounter with a spray-bottle and Yongguk rewards him by allowing him to sleep on the extra pillow he keeps on the bed. Himchan makes comments about how Yongguk is taking his first steps to becoming the fully-fledged crazy cat man that he’s destined to be but Yongguk ignores them in favour of feeding Goyangi little kitten treats and scratching the underside of his chin and behind the ears. They find out that his purring is the loudest when the backs of his ears are scratched, and the red lines on Himchan’s hands tell them that touching his tail is a big No, with a capital ‘N’. Either that, or Goyangi just doesn’t like Himchan. Yongguk bets on the latter. They also find out that Goyangi is an extremely needy cat. He constantly nuzzles his head against Yongguk’s hand and occasionally weaves between his legs, which has caused more accidents than Yongguk can count (a notable incident being that one that involved Yongguk 's fist being acquainted with Himchan's eye). A moment without constant touching and Goyangi will start meowing until someone gives him the attention.

Yongguk finds it endearing.

Himchan finds it annoying.

So Yongguk resorts to letting Goyangi sleep in his Nike hoodie when he’s not around because the old thing probably carries his scent more than he himself does.

。。。。。。。。。。

Yongguk and Himchan go to a newly opened nightclub one night with Youngjae after Goyangi falls asleep on Yongguk’s pillow. He walks in and immediately heads over to the bar, shouting over the suffocating bass of the music and orders a Black Russian first thing, downing it before the ice even has a chance to melt. Himchan orders a Mojito and sends it to a girl sitting a few seats away and Yongguk claps him on the back and shoots him a grin. It feels like decades since he’s been to a nightclub since he had been pre-occupied with his new pet, but tonight he feels like he should really let go. Youngjae is already somewhere on the other side of the bar charming the socks off a sweet-looking girl with bouncy caramel hair and a heart-shaped face. Even from where he’s sitting with the music pounding at his eardrums, he can hear the cheesy pick-up lines Youngjae is throwing in her direction. For a second he’s tempted to walk right over and embarrass Youngjae in front of her, just for the fun of it, but he thinks better of it—Youngjae is a pretty nice guy after all and Yongguk isn't that much of an . He hops off the seat after a couple of lowballs and heads straight onto the dance floor. Even though he doesn’t know how to dance, the alcohol in his system is telling him that he is the next Michael Jackson. No, wait, he is Michael Jackson. He is Michael Jackson incarnate.

Yeah.

He grinds his hips against a couple of girls before letting one drag him off the dance floor to stumble into the women's restroom and have a quickie in one of the free cubicles. It’s filthy and dirty but whatever, he’s drunk and holy it feels so ing good. He staggers out ten minutes later, lipstick smeared on his collarbone and sees that Himchan’s heading out the door with a girl in his arms. His friend waves his arms around, catching Yongguk’s attention, before winking and sliding out the door, girl in tow. Yongguk orders a few more drinks, and an unknown stretch of time passes and soon he’s asking for “Godmothers” and “that one drink where you put the thing in and ice goes in and stuff”, before Youngjae steps in and clamps a hand over his mouth.

“Actually, hold that drink.” He informs the bartender, who just laughs and nods.

“, you reek of alcohol.” Youngjae mutters as he drags Yongguk out of the club, “And . Ugh.”

“Di’ you see tha’ girl though?” Yongguk manages to slur out as his right arm presses down on Youngjae’s shoulder painfully hard. He leans down and intends to whisper into Youngjae’s ear and Youngjae lets out a disgusted “blurgh!” when Yongguk accidentally takes his ear into his mouth. Yongguk doesn’t seem to care though, because he then yells (not whispers like he probably thinks he is) into Youngjae’s ear, much to the other’s discomfort, “We ed. In the…in the toilet, oh sweet mothering Mary it was really in’ good. Speak’n of…can I get a Bloody…Bloody Mary? Bartender, sir?”

Youngjae sighs as he pulls Yongguk towards the yellow taxi that pulls up next to them. He sends the taxi driver a brief look of apology on Yongguk’s behalf before opening the back door.

“Dude, just get in the ing cab.”

。。。。。。。。。。

It’s not much of a surprise when Yongguk wakes up the next morning feeling like Satan curb-stomped him while he was sleeping and like he’s going to puke up every meal he’s had for the past six months. When Youngjae unceremoniously dumped Yongguk onto his bed (making sure that Goyangi was out of harm’s way) before leaving the apartment like some kind of guardian angel, Yongguk remembers letting out a very unattractive groan slash whine, because he knew he was going to wake up the next morning with the worst ing hangover he’ll have for a while. What is a surprise, though, is waking up to a completely boy curled up into his side, snoring away like he belongs here.

It takes a while for his alcohol-enfeebled brain to understand the situation, but when it finally clicks…

He screams. 

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A/N: I haven't written anything in over a year and why do I always do this...

It took me so long to uncheck the hide chapter box why am I always so unconfident with my stories I always feel like they're subpar.

Anyways, I'm sorry guys I just never know what to write and I have a bad habit of writing drafts and throwing them away a few days of re-reading later. I'm terrible.

Also wtf aff I had indented paragraphs what the hell did you do to them.

Also, hello reader. I love you ♥