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“It’s…possible,” he says, hesitation laced in his words, “that there is a one-hundred percent recovery of his memories…but not now, not in our time…not with our technology. We’re sorry.”

“We’re—we’ll try, though, right?”

“Yes.” A calloused hand rests softly on his shoulder, “We’ll try.”

。。。。。。。。。。

Himchan falls out of his bed when he hears the scream. He had never heard anything like it before. His head is throbbing and he doesn’t know what happened to the girl he took home last night. Assuming she left sometime early in the morning, he makes a mad dash to Yongguk’s room because what the , Yongguk never, ever screams. He roars. But that just now? That was a scream. When he bursts into the room, door swinging so hard it smacks into the wall door bumper, instead of seeing the axe-wielding murderer like the bloodcurdling scream warranted, he finds Yongguk making crazy-eyes at the bed,

…that has a boy sitting in it. And said boy is completely . 

Oh.

“Himchan.” Yongguk says very carefully, drawing his attention away from the (very ) boy in his bed, “I know what you’re thinking but let me just clarify: I’m fully-clothed and I may not remember everything but I do remember Youngjae dropping me off last night because I was way too pissed off my face and—”

“Dude, first the cat and now this?! Do you even know what a girlfriend is?!” Himchan is still standing at the doorway, in the same position he was in when he came running, hands braced against the doorframe.

“It’s not what it looks like!” Yongguk yells. This makes Himchan laughs because really? That is a very over-used sentence and most of the time…it really is what it looks like.

It takes about five or so minutes for Yongguk to stop screaming and insisting he’s just as clueless about this whole situation as Himchan is and for Himchan to stop screaming and assuring Yongguk that if he batted for both teams he was completely fine with that because he’s “his very loyal and very awesome best friend that stuck with him when he was on the brink of death and would continue to support him even if he decided to make love to the coffee table”. There's a brief moment of silence following the coffee table comment, before Yongguk gives up and turns to the boy sitting in the bed. His facial features are soft, just like the coffee-coloured hair on his head, with full lips and big eyes. When he notices Yongguk’s stare, he bows his head and resorts to playing with the blanket, scrunching it up between his fingers and kneading it against his leg.

“Who are you and how’d you get here?” Yongguk demands from him. Himchan almost feels bad for the kid.

“My name is Jung Daehyun.”

“Who the —“ Yongguk starts, “What the are you doing in my apartment? And why are you ?! In my bed?! How’d you even—ARGH!”

“Please don’t get angry.” The boy—Daehyun, mumbles and Himchan stares at the kid. He was either really brave or really stupid and honestly speaking, Himchan couldn't tell which one he was.

“Don’t get angry?” Yongguk asks with a tone that is unnervingly level as he stares down at Daehyun, “Then how about you explain to me how the you got into my apartment?”

“Our apartment…” Himchan is quick to correct, but it goes unnoticed.

Daehyun shifts around on the bed and opens his mouth to explain, but the shifting of his body causes the blanket to slide down and almost off his legs, threatening to expose what should not be exposed. Himchan shrieks, interrupting Daehyun, and pulls the blanket tightly around his small frame. And that’s when Himchan notices. And Yongguk notices too.

The brown tail, curled beside him on the bed. The two glance upwards and see, blending into the same, brown colour, two triangular cat ears.

Yongguk just about faints on the spot.

。。。。。。。。。。

Daehyun is lying on the couch in the living room, dressed in Yongguk’s old, black Nike hoodie that Daehyun used to sleep on as a cat because they couldn’t let him walk around , and all of Himchan’s hoodies are stained with old pizza sauce and reek of body odour. He’s also wearing a pair of old, grey sweatpants Yongguk managed to dig up from the depths of his wardrobe (one that he didn’t mind cutting a hole into for the sake of Daehyun’s tail) and it looks absolutely ridiculous how baggy it all looks on him. It makes him look much smaller than he already is, curled up on his side on the couch like he used to when he was…smaller and furrier.

"So you were a cat? You’re…Goyangi?” The boy on the couch nods, brown hair flopping around his fuzzy ears. His tail curls around one of his legs and now that Yongguk knows (although finds it difficult to accept) that this stranger is actually his cat, he feels the urge to touch it like he used to. The only thing stopping him is that he feels like it would be inappropriate now that Daehyun is…is like…this. “Then how do you know how to speak our language like…?” Himchan interrogates, waving his hands around to end his sentence.

“I’m actually not sure of that myself. It just comes to me. Like walking on two legs and using my hands. I mean I’m still a bit…uncoordinated but…” He fiddles with the drawstring of Yongguk’s hoodie and keeps his eyes down, “it feels natural.”

“O…kay…” Himchan watches Daehyun with curious eyes.

“So prior to…um…” Yongguk scratches his head and leans his mouth against his fist, “me taking you home…what do you remember?”

“Just…being a cat, I guess. I’ve never…I’ve never been a human before. This is the first time something like this has happened.”

“Ah.” An uncomfortable silence settles and Daehyun nuzzles the pillow under his head. Yongguk watches with a feeling equal parts affection and unease. This is Goyangi, he reminds himself, this is the kitten he used to cuddle with and kiss almost every second of the day, the kitten that used to crave his attention. But yet…it’s not Goyangi, after all, the boy introduced himself as Daehyun. What was up with that? It’s almost like he’s two separate beings but at the same time—Yongguk is snapped out of his thoughts when he hears a noise, not dissimilar to a whine, coming from Daehyun’s direction and Himchan’s head whips around to stare at him as well.

Daehyun freezes up immediately, wide-eyed and frightened like he had just torn open the most expensive couch cushion in existence. It’s clear then, that the boy is definitely the same needy kitten as Goyangi, mewling whenever there was a lack of contact.

“I-I…” Daehyun begins but he doesn’t finish his sentence because Himchan is reaching over and scratching behind one of his ears. In an instant, Daehyun visibly relaxes and sinks into the couch, tail waving lazily in the air at regular intervals. Yongguk can hear his quiet breathing from where he’s lying, eyes closed and face buried in the baggy sleeve of the hoodie. A few minutes pass and Yongguk wonders if he’s fallen asleep, and by the way he isn’t responding anymore, he infers that he indeed has. Yongguk looks over at Himchan.

“What?”

“You—you never even liked him as a cat though…?” Yongguk says almost like a question, gesturing towards the scene in front of him.

“You know, to be perfectly honest—aw look at his little ears—I find him cuter like this.” Himchan says, touching the cat ears peeking from his coffee-coloured hair and watching them shake.

Yongguk is taken aback by Himchan’s response and his openness to this whole situation. With the way Himchan was acting one would think things like this happen on a regular like—"woah hey my cat turned into a dude no biggie". It takes him a while to realise that he’s biting down on his tongue that he finds is to stop himself from replying with a “yeah, me too”. Because no, no he doesn't agree with Himchan whatsoever.

Yongguk sighs.

Something tells him life from now on is going to get complicated.

。。。。。。。。。。

That night Daehyun insisted he take the couch now that he was too big to share the bed with Yongguk and Yongguk would be lying if he said that after a few nights of sleeping alone again, he didn’t miss having to share his bed with the little kitten.

。。。。。。。。。。

“He’s helpful.” Himchan points out from where he and Yongguk are sitting in the living room just as Daehyun drops a soapy dish into the sink with a loud clatter.

It’s been a week since, and Himchan and Yongguk take turns keeping Daehyun company while the other goes to work. Turns out, it works perfectly, with Himchan working a 9 to 5 job being a café barista on some days of the week and Yongguk working from 6 to whenever the bar closes every night. The boy yelps and stumbles backwards, losing his footing and almost cracks his head open on the corner of the open utensil drawer behind him. Himchan winces as he watches Daehyun tumble onto the tiles in a mass of flailing limbs, and when Daehyun’s long, brown tail takes a couple of dishes down with him, Himchan in a breath of air as he thinks of the money that needs to go into replacing them. The brown-haired boy pulls himself up into a sitting position and sheepishly looks over to the two men sitting on the couch, ducking his head when he sees that they’re both watching him and would’ve most likely seen him stumbling around the kitchen and wiping the tables clean of all crockery. It’s especially embarrassing when he knows that cats are known for their supposedly superb balance. Yongguk sighs and gets off the sofa, making his way to the kitchen.

“You okay?” Yongguk asks as Daehyun gets to work picking out shards of plates from the fur of his tail. Daehyun nods and when he looks up at Yongguk, the older feels his heart stutter. The boy seems so strangely feline and it reminds Yongguk so much of when he was still ‘Goyangi’ that Yongguk feels weird when he catches himself thinking that maybe the boy is kinda pretty. He reaches out a hand and Daehyun cautiously reaches out and takes it, allowing himself to be pulled up. Daehyun’s tail swishes when he’s finally standing, sending powdery bits of broken ceramic everywhere.

“Thank you.” Daehyun says simply, and smiles. Yongguk can just imagine how stupid this must look, complete with sentimental piano music and cherry blossom petals swirling all around them, but he can’t seem to bring himself to take his eyes off the way Daehyun’s eyes become perfectly formed crescents when he smiles.

But it doesn’t take long before Yongguk can hear the discordant slamming of piano keys and feel the dispelling of the cherry blossom petal swirl around them when Himchan starts coughing.

Loud. Deliberate. Coughs.

。。。。。。。。。。

Days pass by as normal—or as normal as they can be when your cat is now a catboy—and Yongguk finally gets accustomed to having Daehyun around and about, sharing the apartment with them. The younger had taken a liking to Yongguk’s hoodie, wearing it at all times and refusing to take it off even when the weather got warmer—Himchan had even gone out and bought Daehyun shorts and spent most of his free-time cutting holes in them for him to wear. Daehyun would wear the shorts when the temperature rose to unbearable values but for some reason he would refuse to take off the hoodie, only taking it off to put it in the wash. Even when Yongguk was forced to chuck off his own sweaters for a wife-beater, Daehyun had clung onto the thick material, shaking his head even when Himchan asked him if he wanted to swap it for a t-shirt instead after he saw blood dripping out of his nose from over-heating.

And sometimes, when Yongguk woke up in the middle of night needing a glass of water, he would see Daehyun sleeping on the couch in the same black Nike one, with one of Yongguk’s other jumpers pressed against his face. He supposed it was just a comfort thing, considering he was used to sleeping on Yongguk’s bed, to help him sleep better. He heard owners of newly-bought kittens would sometimes be given something, like a piece of cloth, that carried the scent of their mother so that they wouldn’t feel as lonely. It was probably the same premise.

Kinda.

。。。。。。。。。。

It took some time, but eventually Yongguk’s habit of patting Daehyun on the head and scratching him behind the ears resurfaced once the barrier of awkward that had formed after Daehyun’s “magical transformation” dissipated. Yongguk had felt a bit guilty, because he had suddenly withdrawn all of his affection towards him after that fateful morning. (Seriously, how was he supposed to treat him after the sudden transformation?). Although Daehyun wasn’t a cat anymore, Yongguk could tell that he still craved attention because every time he reached over to pat his head, he could feel the boy lean slightly into his touch out of what he assumed was pure instinct. He thinks that sometimes Daehyun doesn’t even realise he’s doing it. And he thinks that sometimes, he can hear the deep purring rumbling in Daehyun’s throat.

Old habits die hard, he supposed.

With Himchan and Yongguk’s help, Daehyun soon manages to perfect the art of not dropping stuff around the house and occasionally helps with mundane chores around the house. There was a significant decrease in the number of broken glasses and plates in the past week or so, so that was an improvement on Daehyun’s part, much to Himchan’s approval.

Yongguk, on the other hand, manages to perfect the art of being a complete creep. He finds himself on many occasions thoughtlessly watching Daehyun patter around the apartment, in the apron he always forgets to take off after he washes the dishes, as he dusts the shelves or walks around holding the laundry basket that’s twice his size. It’s really ing cute. Objectively. He only does this because it’s fascinating, he tells himself, because stuff like this only happens in movies and if truth be told, he and Himchan deserve pats on the back for handling this very bizarre situation as well as they did, if you ask him.

And no, it’s not because Daehyun is one of the sweetest people he’s ever encountered, speaking softly and politely and just plodding around the house doing odd jobs here and there. Generally, Yongguk finds these kinds of people awkward to talk to—it’s like talking to a person who constantly uses the weather to break the ice when it doesn’t need to be broken. But with Daehyun, it’s comfortable and the conversations just flow. It helps that the boy is naturally curious, asking all sorts of questions, sometimes questions that Yongguk can answer (“Ooh, what is this? Is this…jelly? Can I eat it?” “…no Daehyun. It’s not jelly. You can’t eat it. Put that back where you found it.”) and other times questions Yongguk can’t answer (“Why are we on this earth? How did this all happen? Why are you you, and why am I me?” “Daehyun what the ?”).

It really does not have anything to do with Yongguk discovering that he may or may not want to touch Daehyun’s ears and tail more than would be considered healthy because they’re so ing adorable he can’t help the thoughts from emerging from the depths of his mind.

(Sometimes Yongguk thinks it may be more than just the ears and the tail, and more than just innocent touching, but during those times he resorts to grunting in frustration, grabbing the dumbbells from his room and working out until he’s too tired to think about that kind of stuff.)

And it’s definitely not because he thinks Daehyun is quite ‘pretty’, for lack of a better word—a totally out-of-character observation that he’s quite determined to keep a secret from Himchan for as long as he can. Yongguk does not fall for boys, he falls for girls and Himchan knows—knew—that.

(It’s kind of a stupid thing to try and convince himself into believing, though, considering all his relationships for the past few months or so with women have been based off pure carnal desires and never lasted more than a night.)

But Himchan, the all-knowing Kim Himchan, doesn’t fail to notice Yongguk’s slowly emerging feelings, and tries to—but does not—perfect the art of being the world’s most reliable, yet skilfully subtle wingman. Yongguk threatens to get a restraining order against him after the eleventh time he had pushed Yongguk towards Daehyun and, underestimating his own strength, caused the knocking over of a chair and the smacking of Daehyun’s head. Of course, Yongguk can’t get a the restraining order because Himchan is his best friend so instead, he settles for carrying a slipper around and brandishing it like a weapon whenever Himchan comes within a 6ft radius of his personal bubble.

The slipper-brandishing is effective for only about three days.

。。。。。。。。。。

He knows that things are starting to get weird when the big-ed women that lean in way too close over the counter don’t even catch his attention anymore and even the most killer legs go by unnoticed, all because his mind is constantly whirring with thoughts of Daehyun and Daehyun and Daehyun and nothing else. He almost screws up a couple of drinks on a few of his shifts, but thankfully Youngjae is beside him most of the time to keep an eye on him because he knows something is off. But Youngjae, lovely guardian angel Youngjae, doesn’t pry. Yongguk is eternally grateful because he’s not sure how he would explain the situation to Youngjae without Youngjae sending him to a shrink or having him condense the story into “so you wanna your cat?”.

Youngjae has a hunch that it has something to do with the boy wearing a beanie that he saw sitting on the couch in the apartment one day when he went to return the watch Yongguk accidentally left behind at work the night before. He steps back enough to let Yongguk figure whatever’s bothering him out without interfering, but not too far so that he can back him up if it’s needed. It doesn’t go by unappreciated though, and Yongguk makes sure Youngjae knows this by grabbing a cute girl’s number and sliding it Youngjae’s way after a particularly busy shift.

However, the worst part of this whole…thing, is when Yongguk realises that he doesn’t even think about the (or the possible ) anymore. He starts to actually think about what it’d feel like holding hands with him, he starts to imagine what it’d be like taking him out to eat at a fancy restaurant or to catch a new release at the cinema—you know, typical cliché date stuff—and…to be frank, it freaks Yongguk out. He imagines what it’d feel like having Daehyun fall asleep against his shoulder while they’re watching a movie on the couch and drinking beer or eating pizza together, playing videogames with each other, what it’d feel like to sleep beside him and actually wanting and knowing that Daehyun will be there when he wakes up in the morning without a raging hangover.

He actually finds himself wondering about what sort of things Daehyun would do in his spare time, if he’s more of a videogame person or a book person, if he preferred action movies to horror or if he preferred heavy metal over indie. He thinks—hopes, even—that this…

…this is the prelude to a spark.

。。。。。。。。。。

He hears it one morning when he spots Daehyun sitting and watering the plant by the windowsill using a measuring cup and a spoon, making sure that none of the water spills out of the pot. It’s not something he’s ever seen before but Yongguk lets it slide, because for one, it’s Daehyun, and the boy is always a tad unusual (and how) and it’s oddly charming, and two…the boy is singing to the flowers. He’s singing to the flowers. Yongguk just about clutches his chest in pain and collapses on the ground at the sheer sight. But he doesn’t, because what he’s hearing is absolutely beautiful and it would be shame to miss it because he’s too busy clutching his chest in pain and collapsing onto the ground. He can’t make out the words because Daehyun is singing so softly, but he’s sure the melody would float in the air just as beautifully, just as perfectly, whether or not he knew the lyrics. The tune wraps around his wrist and tugs him towards the boy. It physically pains him to interrupt, but he doesn’t want to be caught sitting there listening to Daehyun all day—because trust him, he could. He approaches him slowly, clears his throat and Daehyun immediately stops singing and whips his head around.

"Oh Yongguk! Good morning!” He beams in his direction and Yongguk almost stumbles over the corner of the rug on the ground. Thank god Himchan is at work.

“Uh. Hey.” Yongguk says, regaining his balance. He gestures loosely to the flowers sitting in front of Daehyun. In all honesty he hadn’t really noticed them since it was a present from one of Himchan’s ex-girlfriends and he never really liked flowers anyway. They were ugly and the pollen makes him sneeze during spring. “I’m…guessing you like flowers?” Daehyun shrugs and pats the flower petals.

“They’re pretty.” Daehyun states and Yongguk just stares at him for a while. He doesn’t know what else to say, but he doesn’t want to leave either. He racks his brain for something to keep the conversation going, until Daehyun beats him to it,

“So do you need anything…or…?” Daehyun says, looking up at him expectantly.

“No, not really. Well….I—I was just…” Daehyun lifts his eyebrows, and Yongguk clears his throat again, “Do you get…bored? Around here?”

“Bored?” Daehyun looks up to the man looming over him, “No, not at all. I mean, sometimes I do miss being able to go out but…I don’t want people to, you know, stare.” Daehyun turns back to the flower and says the last part especially soft and Yongguk strains to hear, “But I don’t hate it.” He continues, “I like it here and it’s comfortable. With you.”

Yongguk’s heart stumbles a little at the last part. With you. He’s sure it was platonic. It must be platonic. Right? Daehyun probably thinks the same about Himchan as well. Probably. It’s Himchan, after all. You could never be sure.

“Yongguk?”

“Yeah?!” Yongguk clears his throat again, “Uh, sorry, yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

“I'm…dandy!” He says too enthusiastically. Dandy. Who the says dandy? “No, I mean—yeah I am. I was just thinking…well, you—do you maybe want to head out? Like, to eat or…’cause I have time to kill before my shift and…you know, you don’t have to but, yeah. If you want.” Yongguk mentally punches himself repeatedly in the teeth for tripping over his words more than Himchan tripped over the hurdles during the 100m race at athletics day in high school.

“Oh…um…I guess…okay!” Daehyun says and it actually surprises Yongguk. He didn’t expect Daehyun to agree so willingly. “That would be great.” Daehyun concludes decisively, smiling, and Yongguk grins in return.

。。。。。。。。。。

"So are the pants okay?” Yongguk asks, looking over at Daehyun. He’s wearing a beanie that covers the ears and sits low enough to cover up the lack of human ears on his head and “swag pants” (Yongguk shudders every time Himchan refers to them as such) that looked loose enough to conceal the existence of Daehyun’s tail that he found after raiding Himchan’s endless closet of wonders.

Daehyun nods and they continue roaming through the mall, Yongguk letting Daehyun lead the way.

The two stop by a few stores to buy Daehyun some new clothes. There was a lot of protesting and internal conflict on Daehyun’s part. On one hand he refused to let Yongguk buy him all the new clothes (“like some kind of boyfriend”), but on the other he didn’t want to have to steal clothes from Himchan and Yongguk forever, and it’s not like he had any money on him anyway. After leaving the last shop with hands clutching a bunch of shopping bags of only the bare essentials—as insisted by Daehyun—the two slow down as they pass by an ice-cream store, Daehyun’s eyes dragging along each ice-cream on display, and it occurs to Yongguk that, being a seemingly stray cat pretty much his whole life, Daehyun probably never had the opportunity to try a lot of different types of food from outside that wasn’t found in the bin and rotten. Himchan’s cooking at his—their—apartment wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t anything fantastic either. He nudges Daehyun into the store and watches with curiosity as Daehyun slows to a halt, staring at the multitude of flavours and colours behind the glass.

“Hi!” The girl behind the counter greets them all too cheerfully and Daehyun startles, eliciting a small laugh from the worker, “How may I help you?”

Daehyun turns to Yongguk, as if asking for permission and Yongguk holds out his hand towards the ice-cream as an invitation to choose whatever he wanted. The glimmer of pure excitement in Daehyun’s eyes is priceless and Yongguk decides on the spot that he would buy ten thousand cones of ice-cream just to see it again.

“Ahh yeah,” the girl says as Yongguk stands and waits for Daehyun to make a decision, “the older brother always has to buy for the younger brother, right? I’m like that with my younger siblings too.” She laughs softly as she peels off her gloves and fixes her ponytail.

The comment catches Yongguk off-guard. “Y-yeah, yeah.” He laughs nervously. If it wasn’t for Daehyun, Yongguk was sure the girl would’ve definitely caught his attention...but she doesn’t.

Daehyun ended up asking for three scoops of ice-cream, all flavours that gave Yongguk a toothache just thinking about (like strawberry cheesecake supreme with lemon swirls—is that supposed to sound appealing?). They’re on their way home when Daehyun offers Yongguk a bite of his icecream, sticking the cone in front of his face. Yongguk stares at the pastel rainbow blob under his nose and his first instinct is to push it away, so he does, but he’s instantly hit with sudden guilt when Daehyun’s face falls. The crestfallen expression alone at that moment was enough to make Yongguk sigh and mutter “fine”, before taking a bite of the cold dessert. He regrets it when he suffers a terrible case of brain-freeze, but a second later, he doesn’t give a because he realises that that?

That was an indirect kiss. With Daehyun. Indirect kiss with Daehyun.

Kiss.

With Daehyun.

“That was…really, really sweet.” Yongguk manages to choke out as he swallows the sticky lump of sugar, feeling it slide down his throat.

“You don’t like sweet food?” Yongguk shakes his head. He never had a sweet-tooth and isn’t planning on growing one any time soon—not that he could even if he tried. This causes Daehyun’s eyes to widen in surprise, “How can anyone not—wait, but…just now you…” Daehyun trails off his sentence as he points to his ice-cream.

“You and your stupid, pretty face could ask me to throw myself into a pit of Himchan’s dirty underwear and I would do it.” Yongguk wants to explain. But he doesn’t.

He shrugs.

。。。。。。。。。。

The clock almost hits half past four by the time they arrive back and they find Himchan already spread out on the couch watching the news. When they enter the room, Himchan turns to them, a knowing smirk plastered onto his smug face. When Daehyun thanks Yongguk profusely for taking him out and buying him all the clothes and the ice-cream and leaves to get changed into less restricting clothes, he opens his mouth,

“Don’t.” Yongguk points an accusing finger at Himchan before the latter even makes a noise, “I know you’re going to say something stupid. So don’t.”

“What makes you say that?” Yongguk narrows his eyes at his friend slumped on the couch.

Himchan snickers, “Look, man, there’s no point in denying it. We both know that I know that you know that I know that you like the kid, okay?” There’s a brief pause as both of them try figuring out what Himchan just said, brows knitted in confusion.

“Whatever.” Yongguk finally says, brushing the comment off right when Daehyun walks into the room dressed in one of Yongguk’s sweaters, one that he most likely took off from Yongguk’s bed, and plops himself down next to Himchan’s feet on the couch. Yongguk saunters over to the kitchen, takes a can of cold beer from the fridge and snaps it open before dumping himself onto the one-seater sofa. He has an hour and a half before his shift, so that gives him around three quarters of an hour to relax before then. The television is loud in the background as he reclines into the couch, listening to the leather sigh as it moulds around him. It’s little sounds like that that makes him feel truly relaxed.

“…in other news, Dr. Kudrin is now serving time in jail for the practice of unethical—”

“Ugh…not this bull again.” Yongguk groans, tipping his head back in exasperation, can of beer dangling between his thumb and index finger, “I’m so sick of seeing that wrinkled face all over t.v.”

“Well…it is an interesting case though. I know for sure that it’s going to be recorded in world history. I heard there were even rumours about how there were a couple of successful experiments, but nobody knows if those rumours are true or not.” Himchan replies, tickling Daehyun with his toe, “Maybe they’re hiding them and planning to use them for further research or whatever. Or world domination.” He finishes conspiratorially.

Daehyun half laughs and half groans, smacking Himchan’s feet away and they land with a muffled thud on the ground.  Himchan grins and lifts his legs up again and grabs Daehyun’s tail causing the smaller to yelp and slide off the couch in a fit of laughs. Yongguk watches, his attention no longer on the news or Dr. Kudrin, but on the way the cat ears fold back as he clutches his long tail in his arms and laughs. Yongguk lets the sound wash over him. Something about this just feels very right.

The laughter, however, is short-lived.

Daehyun stops moving a second later, laughter abruptly halted, and his eyes glue onto the screen of the t.v. Yongguk follows his gaze and see the footage of the investigation of Dr. Kudrin’s lab from the police as they search for anything of significance to the case. The place looks dingy; nothing like what Yongguk had imagined a scientist of his ambition to work in. It looked more like the set of a Saw movie than anything he was expecting. There were multiple instruments set out on tables—some of which looked like they belonged in a medieval torture chamber, and large tube filled with strange teal fluids, metal pipes connecting them to control panels with more buttons than seemingly necessary. But more strangely,

“Daehyun, what’s wrong?” Yongguk asks with deep concern.

The boy, who was erupting with laughter mere seconds ago, is now staring at the screen, fear evident in his eyes and the tremors that run through his body. For a moment Yongguk thinks he can hear Daehyun’s heartbeats beat extra hard.

“Daehyun—“

“I know this place,” the boy chokes out, “I know this place.”

Yongguk is about to ask what the he’s on about when the boy suddenly collapses on the ground. Himchan is up in a second, but Yongguk is up even quicker, scooping Daehyun up in his arms and gently shaking him to get a response. He doesn’t.

。。。。。。。。。。

When Daehyun comes to his senses, the first thing he notices is the familiar scent of the pillow under his head. He smiles to himself, turns his face and snuggles deeper into the softness. He feels warm and very, very comfortable. There’s a cool breeze on his tail, however, so he pulls it under the blanket and—wait, blanket? His eyes fly open and he rolls onto his back, which grabs the attention of the person sitting beside him.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

“Yes, I’m…aware of that…” Daehyun says, “Wh-what happened? Why am I in the bed?”

“You were laughing, slipped off the couch, laughed more, looked at the t.v, claimed you “knew the place” and then fainted.” Yongguk lists promptly.

“I did?” Daehyun asks, mainly to himself. And then he remembers. The laboratory, the fluids, the machines.

“Daehyun, what happened back there?” Yongguk questions gently, not wanting to trigger anything. Without thought, he reaches out and rests his hand on top of Daehyun’s sitting on his lap and the latter turns his hand around and grasps Yongguk’s hand tightly.

“It was…strange.” He says simply. There’s a pause and Yongguk squeezes his hand in reassurance, urging him to continue. “It wasn’t just a feeling I had—it wasn’t like I just felt I knew the place. I don’t know where they came from but,” Yongguk watches him takes a deep breath, “I had memories. Memories of being there.”

Yongguk furrows his eyebrows. The boy watches him carefully for a reaction, not blatantly staring, but his eyes linger on his face for a moment before dropping back down onto their hands. He plays with their fingers when Yongguk replies,

“How do you—“

“I get it now.” Daehyun says, almost a whisper, “Yongguk.” Hearing his name, he refocuses his attention on what the boy’s saying and not on the way Daehyun’s fingers feel like both fire and ice under his palm, burning through his skin.

“Remember what Himchan said? About…about the rumour?” Daehyun asks. Yongguk looks at him with concern. He sounds too dull, too lacklustre, too…unlike Daehyun. And it hits him, even before Daehyun confirms his thoughts.

“Yongguk…” Daehyun says, “I’m one of them.”