Luhan didn’t sleep that night. How could he when Minseok was awake all night as well, sitting by Kyungsoo’s side and alternating between holding the crying, sobbing cat and rubbing his ears while he drifted in and out of sleep. Minseok had intercepted Joonmyun and directed him to place Kyungsoo in their room. It was Luhan who then persuaded Joonmyun that the best thing he could do right now was go home. He sent the distraught man out of the room and guided him to the door, endless words of ‘It’ll be okay. Minseok’s got him now. We’ll take care of him tonight,’ before Joonmyun finally consented and went to his own home. ‘We’ll call you tomorrow if you need to come over, okay?’

Luhan felt more than sorry for the man. It was sad and pitiful and there could have been an easy fix to this a long time ago, except Joonmyun messed it up without even realizing it and Kyungsoo was a stubborn cat. Luhan should know; he grew up with him after all, and he was only three years older. 

Kyungsoo had been a shy kitten who didn’t easily make friends, and Luhan was equally so. Instead of that commonality drawing them together, however, it kept them apart. Two like minds, and they never really meshed, like school children who saw each other every day and slept in the same dorm rooms every night but never became good friends.  Luhan kept to the few cats closer to his age, and Kyungsoo was befriended by another cat closer his age.

He still knew everything about him though, or at least he knew where the differences lie. While Luhan was always off daydreaming about a better life without a grounded thought on how to achieve it, Kyungsoo grew up plotting exactly what was going to happen to him. He would be adopted right on his eighteenth birthday to some nice family, and he hoped they had some kids he could play with. No other cats, because that would make things fussy, and he didn’t really want to share. He’d live in some nice little home and he didn’t technically need his own room, but a cot would be enough and he would eat and sleep and play all day, and always have someone to look out for him.

Luhan knew all this because he found Kyungsoo’s journal once. Laid out and open with small doodles of Kyungsoo’s perfect future family. Luhan had run out as soon as he heard the other cat returning. He knew it’d be worth at least a smack on the head if he was caught, even if was an accident. The shy little kitten had grown up quiet but determined, and when messed with he would not hesitate to retaliate. Kyungsoo didn’t like people messing with his routine. He had a purpose in life, and that was to act the part of the perfect cat so he could get himself the perfect family.  Luhan had even caught Kyungsoo once talking to administration, begging them to put him on the fast track and maybe get him out when he was sixteen. Anything to be out of this place so he could begin his new life as soon as possible. The then fifteen-year old cat was so determined and hopeful.

The twenty-five year old cat was still determined, but depressed.

The sun had yet to come up, but finally Kyungsoo was sleeping soundly. Minseok laid curled around him with his eyes closed, but Luhan knew he wasn’t asleep. For once Luhan slept on his own bed, alone. He didn’t like it so much but he wasn’t going to begrudge Kyungsoo a little company, and Minseok had complained and said Luhan moved around too much while he slept. So instead he just laid awake and watched the two on the other side of the room, jealous, but not really.

He’d been just as hopeful as Kyungsoo once. At eighteen he thought he would leave the agency, and then at nineteen he still thought the same. He was twenty when cats younger than him started getting adopted, and his own friends were already gone. Then at twenty-one he and Kyungsoo sat in the adoption booth at the same time for the first time ever. But Kyungsoo’s one friend Hyungsik was adopted before them both, and another year passed. They were the last cats remaining when the agency closed down and Yixing came for them. A whole year where Kyungsoo cried in his sleep and they both tried to reason why they, two perfectly nice and beautiful cats, had yet to be adopted.  

By the time he was twenty-two Luhan was ecstatic to be leaving, even if it wasn’t for the reason he always assumed. Life in a shelter home with other cats, and he could be somewhat free and not have to worry about his future – it all seemed like heaven when Yixing explained it. The only thing missing, when Luhan entered his new house, suitcase in hand and apprehension on his features, was an owner to welcome him home, and he knew Kyungsoo would feel the same. The only difference was, Luhan found Minseok in that house, while Kyungsoo found no one. 

Luhan pushed off his bed and languidly strolled over to the other bed.

“Minseok,” he whispered gently in the other cat’s ear. “Minseok why don’t you sleep now? Okay? I’ll watch him now.”

The cat opened his eyes and blinked. Wordlessly Minseok nodded and he yawned as he sat up, tail darting around because he was too tired to control it. Luhan assisted him over to the other bed and pulled a blanket over him. He placed one small kiss behind Minseok’s ear and eased him into sleep. Then he returned to Kyungsoo and crawled up behind him. The younger cat mewled in his sleep and Luhan inhaled softly, hoping he hadn’t woken him. But Kyungsoo only sighed and relaxed while Luhan pet his back and shoulders evenly until both of them drifted off into sleep.

Tao found them the next morning, tip-toeing in with Baekhyun on his heels to see how the night had passed. Minseok snored in his bed, and Kyungsoo was sprawled out and taking up every ounce of space on his bed. Luhan was on the floor curled around a single pillow, and when he opened his eyes at the opening of the door he looked startled and confused.

“What? How did I get --?” He looked up over the edge of the bed where one of Kyungsoo's arms hung off the side. “Oh.” Luhan sighed, and Kyungsoo began to rouse from his sleep. He sat up abruptly and shook the hair off his face and then fixed an angry, confused scowl on the two intruders in the doorway. 

“Why am I in Minseok's room?”

“Good question,” Luhan answered him from the floor. 

Kyungsoo noticed him then and seemed even more confused. “Okay... so why are you on the floor?”

“Because you apparently kicked me off the bed last night?”

“And what were you doing in my bed?”

Luhan yawned and scratched his head petulantly. “But it was my bed,” he whined softly.

“Yeah? Then why isn't Minseok in it?”

“Shhhhh, not so loud. He's still sleeping,” Luhan worried in hushed tones.

The subject of their conversation snoozed on, Tao noticed gratefully. Luhan still stretched on the floor, and Baekhyun tip-toed in further to where Kyungsoo was sitting. “Soo, you okay? How's your head?”

“It's fine. Why, did Luhan beat me overnight?” Kyungsoo paused and thought about it. “Actually it hurts really bad...”

“Thought it might,” said Baekhyun. He stepped up to the bed to pull Kyungsoo out of it, locking his arm around and under Kyungsoo's shoulder. “Come on, there're some meds in the bathroom. Let's get you up.”

“Okay...” Meek Kyungsoo had returned and at Baekhyun's urging he followed him down the hall.

Tao heard Baekhyun ask as soon as they'd stepped out, “How's everything else feel? Do you remember what happened last night?” Tao and Jongdae had filled him in over breakfast.

“Uhm...” Kyungsoo's voice grew weaker as they trailed away. “Crap I think so.... Where... what did I say to Joonmyun?”

Tao and Luhan heard no more. 

“Want some help?” Tao offered, lending a hand to pull Luhan off the ground.

“Sure, thanks. Kitten strength. I miss the good old days.” He laughed.

Tao smiled. “So, why are you on the floor anyways?”

“I wiggle too much in my sleep... it annoys just about everyone. Honestly I'm not surprised Kyungsoo would kick me off even while he slept.” The older cat chuckled at himself and then stretched, and he chomped on his gums for a bit before remembering that Minseok was still sleeping. “Hey, I think we're gonna skip breakfast today. Minseok didn't sleep all night.” 

“Sure, I'll tell them. Uhm... we got this from here, ok? Sleep.” Tao reassured him, even though personally he didn't have a single clue what they were supposed to do today. He trusted Baekhyun to make Kyungsoo's head better, and Jongdae to feed him. Kai was already gone for the day, so perhaps later he could be obnoxious and pull some recognizable traits out of the depressed cat, and Tao... he just kind of felt in the way. 

Luhan thanked him anyway and patted him nicely on the shoulder, and then he crawled over to Minseok's bed and slid in. Tao backed out of the room and shut the door.

It was precisely Tao's feelings of inadequacy that sent him rushing out of the house after lunch. Kyungsoo was acting too much like his normal self, Baekhyun fussed over him constantly, which drove the two to bickering. Jongdae looked on helplessly and Tao had absolutely nothing to do. 

He'd missed his morning walk. It was too soon to pick up Kai, but Tao needed to go somewhere, and he had an inkling that he could find a certain place if he wandered correctly. He'd been there once after all, but only after a car ride and he wasn't sure he'd paid close enough attention. He did know in which general direction Sehun had walked home that one day though. He was certain he could find their house, and he had nothing better to do with his time than search.

After half an hour of wandering up and down three consecutive streets, Tao wished he'd asked somebody for an address, a street name, anything. He'd heard of this convention too known as calling people. Maybe he could have done that and gotten directions. Instead he was sweaty and tired in the noonday heat. His hair stuck up from the humidity and he was starting to get weird stares from some of the neighbors after he found himself in a dead end and had to double back. One more street sign stood off in the distance, however, and Tao made his way purposefully around to the next bend. Maybe if he looked like he knew where he was going, it wouldn't look so odd to see a hybrid cat roaming the streets unaccompanied.

“Jackpot.”

Halfway down the street he spied Yixing's house finally. He recognized it by the sad rose garden under the front window. Picking up his pace, he half-sprinted towards the house. He halted abruptly though on the sidewalk in front of it. What on earth was he doing here anyway? To see Yixing? He almost persuaded himself of this. After the night's drama, he surely needed some guidance from the retired cat counselor, and Yixing knew Kyungsoo well enough to help. Right?

He rang the doorbell, unconsciously expecting Jessica the housekeeper to open it. Or at least Yixing, and then he could tell the night's tale and pitifully ask for advice about what to do. As it turned out, the person he most wanted to see opened the door. Sehun squinted his eyes against the light invading his house, and he looked taken aback when he recognized who it was. A screened door stood between them, and Tao didn't know what to say.

“Hi.”

A long few seconds passed before Sehun even responded.  ”Hi,” and he frowned. He opened the screen and Tao invited himself in. 

“My dad’s not here,” Sehun said almost at once.

“Oh.” That was indeed sad news, because now Tao didn’t know what he was supposed to say. “Okay then.”

“Did you want to see him?”

“I guess…”

“He’s in his office across town. He’ll be there all day though. I can take you to see him if you want.”

Tao panicked. “What? No, it’s okay. You don’t have to. I can wait!”

Sehun smirked, and the neat way his cheekbone seemed to want to connect to his eye gave Tao the urge to look away.

“I can take you,” Sehun repeated. “Just let me get something. I need to drop off a hardcopy of my essay at school, but it’s on the way there. If  you don’t mind a short detour.”

Tao could find no words to contradict Sehun’s plans. Not with Sehun disappearing into the back of the house, then stalking back to drop off his school bag by the door. He then secured the dogs in the backyard –  not before one of them tried to come and greet Tao – and then they were off, Tao in the passenger seat of a car that was marginally nicer that Suho’s, but not by much.

It smelled like dogs. And also the aroma of something sweet and that had since turned sour. Tao tried not to notice it, but when he elbowed a plastic cup with a ½ inch of pink milky substance and a few balls of tapioca that had long come to room temperature and then boiled in the car for who knows how many days, Sehun didn’t even flinch. “Oh yeah, forgot to finish that drink. Remind me to toss it when we get to campus.” Tao tried hard not to gag.

The whole drive took less than fifteen minutes on the freeway. Tao settled for staring at traffic and the city as it passed by, instead of at the man driving. Neither attempted anything at conversation since Sehun’s full concentration was on the road, and his mirrors, and sometimes glancing sideways at his passenger, but Tao was pretty sure he was just watching to see if Tao did anything embarrassing or cat-like. He kept perfectly still, only regarding Sehun through the reflection in the side window whenever he thought the other wasn’t looking.

They parked behind a large complex of buildings. Sehun unbuckled and opened his door; Tao did not.

“Are you coming?”

“I can wait,” Tao said dryly.

“You’ll boil in the car. Come on.”

“I can roll down the window.” Tao pointedly didn’t make eye contact.

“Not with the engine already off, you can’t. Hurry up. I won’t make you walk half a block behind me, but I’m also not going to wait around for you to catch up.”

Tao grumbled and held his tongue about how easy it was to turn the car back on for a second to allow Tao to roll down the windows. All in all though, the day was warm, and without a hint of moving air coming across the pavement. Not that it was any better out in the sun, thought Tao. Still, might as well be miserable moving, then miserable sitting still.

He didn’t dare to walk right next to Sehun. Instead Tao opted to walk just off to his side, close enough that he was probably in the man’s periphery but not elbow to elbow. It was mid-afternoon at the university on a Friday and there were still plenty of students milling around. None of them, Tao noticed sadly, were anything other than fully human.

He was conscious of his tail. Of his ears. Of the fact he didn’t have a single garment to cover either portions of his anatomy. He also knew that cats didn’t go to college. Cats didn’t go to school period, and he read that in all of their faces, the ones who noticed his existence, the ones who stared curiously at him as if to ask themselves what on earth a hybrid was doing on campus walking around like a normal human.

Sehun paid them no mind. He did, however, laugh once when he glanced at Tao and his downturned ears. “Relax. You look like a fugitive. They’re not going to lynch you, you know.”

“They’re all staring though.” He didn’t mean to say it out loud. It just slipped off his tongue in fearful whispers.

“Yeah, and you’re making it worse by looking like a scaredy cat.”

“I’m not…”

“Yeah, you are. Now quit it and act natural.”

“Easy for you to say. Nobody’s staring at you for being weird.”

Sehun scoffed but kept on walking. “Oh trust me. I’m used to people staring.”

“Yeah? At what?” Tao expect some kind of answer, but Sehun’s mouth was shut and his face drew a blank. He concluded, under his breath and more to himself than to Sehun, “At least you don’t have a tail.”

“But you do, and you swish it so nicely.”

Sehun’s remark was all taunt and finely veiled sneer. Given a choice, Tao would have stopped walking altogether, or maybe even baited Sehun back with something else just as insulting, but his head was spinning and the day was hot, and if he quit moving now there was no guarantee Sehun would wait for him to catch up. In fact he was sure Sehun would have no problem abandoning him in the middle of the campus, and as a hybrid alone, this was the last place Tao wanted to get lost in. Not every one of the students’ stares had been pure curiosity. Some of them were jeering, probing; one or two had even looked lustful, if Tao recognized that emotion correctly, fearfully.

He should have gone home when Yixing hadn’t been at his house. He should never have agreed to this ridiculous trip, and it wasn’t worth tagging along with Sehun when he didn’t really even have an endgame. Talk to Yixing? Is that what he wanted to do. Sure he could find something to ask him about. He’d probably have no trouble explaining what happened the night before with Kyungsoo, but was it really his to talk about?

The kittens. He wanted to talk to Yixing about the kittens. But he could have waited. He didn’t have to endure this kind of public trial, not on a day when he was already worked up and generally bewildered at a cat’s purpose in life.

He held his tongue and bit down on his bottom lip, and Sehun didn’t talk to him anymore. They passed a few more buildings before Sehun lead them through a side door of a larger complex. The plaque on the door read Education Wing and Offices. Down a narrow hallway and through a larger foyer, up four flights of stairs and snaking again through a maze of offices they went. Tao abandoned Sehun’s side and instead now walked several feet behind him, and neither said anything about the new arrangement.

Sehun paused and knocked at a door that read ‘Education Studies. Professor Kim Ukwon’ followed by his office hours. An answer came from within, and Sehun opened the door to messy little office revealing a thirty-something year old professor with a crafted mess of brown hair and a lollypop stick between his lips.

“Professor,” Sehun greeted him formally.

Professor Kim smiled between pressed lips, removed the stick from his mouth, and stood up from behind his desk. “Sehun. You made it. Got your essay like you promised?”

“Yes, sir. Sorry it took a little longer than I said it would.”

“No problem. No problem.” The professor casually made his way forward, perched a hand on Sehun’s shoulder and then noticed the hybrid in the doorway. “Friend of yours?” he asked with earnest curiosity. Tao cringed on reflex anyways.

“Uh, this is Tao. He’s my… neighbor,” said Sehun with some awkwardness. Tao could guess why. They weren’t exactly friends, were they? And calling each other neighbors was a generous term as well. Professor Kim didn’t seem to notice though.

“Tao,” the older man repeated. He offered a hand which Tao gingerly shook. “Nice to meet you. This boy here is my favorite student. Well, one of them at least. This year at least,” he amended with a cheeky smile towards Sehun.

Tao smiled politely. He didn’t exactly have anything to add, because what kind of small talk was he supposed to say about the professor’s supposedly favorite student this year. ‘Uhm, great. Because he’s obnoxious and mean and I guess this is what you expect from your next generation of teachers?’ Indeed, Tao would do best to keep his own counsel.

Tao missed a few of their exchanges while he ruminated. Something about Sehun apologizing once again for missing the deadline and more denials from the professor refusing to penalize him.

“That’s okay. It’s okay. Personally I wasn’t too keen on your first topic anyways. This was a much better one, if you don’t mind me saying so. And of course now I understand your inspiration. But anyways, let’s have it, your paper, and I’ll let you two get out of here and have some fun.”

Tao wanted to protest. They weren’t in any hurry to have fun. He and Sehun were barely tolerating each other as it was, and he guessed from Sehun’s expression that the boy had to be thinking the same thing. Shyly, Sehun opened up his book bag on a chair and pulled out a folder. He put his back to Tao and extracted a small document. Tao tried not to peek. Truthfully he was suddenly drawn to a frame on the professor’s bookshelf showing himself arm in arm with another man younger than him with dimples in both cheeks and fluffy blond hair. Only the second man had ears that matched Tao’s own. And a tail that disappeared off frame.

Professor Kim was friends with another cat?? As in, really close with another hybrid cat? The photograph was so intimate Tao had to look away, even as the man caught him looking. He smiled, Tao flinched, and Sehun missed the whole thing. Then the professor winked, and for reasons unknown, Tao felt himself starting to blush red.

Fortunately Sehun distracted the man by passing over his paper, cover page turned upside down, and Professor Kim smirked knowingly. He took it though and gave the first page an eye before laying it right side up on his desk. Tao had just enough time to read half of the title, Where Education Fails: A Cultural Study of Hybrid ‘Education’ and – before Sehun ushered him out of the office.

The professor called his goodbyes down the hallway and Sehun didn’t stop. He marched them down the stairs and into the main foyer while Tao’s head was still reeling. 

What are you writing, and why? he wanted to ask.

Why are you even dragging me around with you?

I could have stayed in the car but you made me go inside.

Why does it look like your professor is in a relationship with a hybrid?

Does any of this have anything to do with me?

Or doesn’t it.

Or if it does, then why?

Can’t we just go see Yixing now?

Can I just ask to go home now?

He didn’t notice when Sehun pulled up abruptly at the bottom of the stairs and Tao nearly rammed into him from the back. A small group of students lounging on the sofas on the ground floor had taken notice of them.

“Hey, hey! Sehun!” called the loudest of them, a boy with dark hair and a mischievous sneer on his face. “I see you got yourself a catboy there!” A few of the girls and another boy snickered evilly.

“Ignore them,” Sehun whispered to Tao fiercely. He started to walk past but another jeer was sent their way before they could get further out of earshot.

“Did you take him to see your precious cat-loving professor? Needing approval, are we?”

“Hey, I heard those things get pretty wild every couple of months!” shouted another student. Is it true? Are you sure you can handle him? He looks fierce!”

“Fierce as a baby kitten,” snickered the first boy.

Sehun’s pace sped up exponentially as Tao struggled to stay right behind him.

“Hey if you need any help handling him, you know where to find us!” was the last thing they heard before Sehun Tao in front of him and shoved him out of the building first.

Tao’s heart raced, and Sehun looked furious. But not at him, Tao was shocked to realize. Once outside Sehun kept speed-walking, so that Tao was forced to take long, awkward strides and skipping at every other step to keep up.  Halfway back to the parking lot he slowed by a fraction and Tao resumed his place at his side just a shoulder’s width behind.

“Sehun…” he tried to say.

“Don’t.”

“But… huh?”

“Just don’t pay any attention to the things they said, okay?”

That wasn’t what Tao was going to ask, but, “Okay.”

“They’re just a bunch of bigots who talk all the time and they don’t know anything about cats. Anything! So just… forget all that crap. Okay?”

“Okay,” Tao repeated. His words felt like they were on autopilot, because that wasn’t the problem. He knew why it made him mad, because those kinds of people were exactly the type of humans that made Tao want to stay indoors and hide away. Why his parents and then his master had kept him shielded all those years when he lived on the ranch and had old-fashioned guests over; the reason why he was occasionally asked to go upstairs to his room and wait things out and he gladly went. Tao knew why it made him mad.

But why was Sehun so mad?

They stood by the car when Tao realized he’d asked that question out loud. Sehun stopped in his tracks, and he fumbled with his keys, and with his words as his lips moved but no sound came out. He found the right keys, and the car chirped as the doors were unlocked. Sehun still hadn't rounded over to the drivers' side though. He stood awkwardly next to Tao's door, and he blocked it just enough that Tao couldn't open it without hitting him. 

“Just don’t listen to them.” Now Sehun was repeating himself aimlessly.

“I… won’t,” Tao said. Sehun took a step closer to him. “It’s not a big deal to me. I’m kind of used to it, I guess.”

“You shouldn’t be though.”

Tao sighed. “I know, but…”

“Stupid humans and the way they talk,” Sehun grumbled and he took another step towards Tao, his inner turmoil apparently not allowing him to recognize personal boundaries. He was nearly blocking Tao against the car, back to the door and nowhere to move.

“It’s okay…”

Except it wasn’t really. Not with Sehun so close. From his height Tao only saw the fringe of Sehun’s downturned head, and not the face hiding below it. One of his hands braced against the car by Tao’s side, while both of Tao’s hands rested palms down on the car door, holding him up. The surface of the metal burned to the touch, but he had to hold on a little while longer. Especially when Sehun lifted his head and his face magically surfaced just inches from Tao’s. He didn’t look him in the eyes. All Tao saw was a strong but small nose, and Sehun seemed more interested in his jaw and cheekbones. Anything but each other’s eyes.

Tao’s palms burned finally and he released them with a gasp of relief, which Sehun misinterpreted as something else. He started to pull back when they met eye to eye. Sehun froze and Tao held his breath. His hands hung limply by his side but he still had the power to move. The muscles of his lower black clenched as he pressed forward off the car, moving slowly and slowly closer towards the other man who hadn’t moved, hadn’t shifted, hadn’t even breathed.

With half a inch to spare, Sehun finally breached the gap and claimed Tao’s lips. 

4,758 words

Woahhhhh!!! I promise you I didn't start this chapter thinking that Taohun would kiss already. Circumstances. They just happen and not even a writer can control it. After the stress of the last chapter though, I think we all deserve this. 

So, what happens now!? I don't even know. I need to follow this scene and watch how it plays out hahaha. 

By the way, if you saw the sneak U-Bomb ship reference, congrats to you. 

Aren't they cute though? Ukwon would make a great professor, and B-Bomb would totally be a cat. FYI, I saw both of these guys live at their showcase and got a hi-touch session. They're neither of them my main Block B biases, but I just have to say one thing: up close and in person, B-Bomb is basically one of the most beautiful and perfect specimens alive. No joke.

But omg Taohun! I'm so freaked out! Also, I promise I won't leave the Sudo/Kyungmyeon storyline hanging too long either - unless Taohun keep on surprising me. Then again, they are the stars here. :D

<3 Rosie