Tao realized right off the bat that this home, this new home of his, wouldn’t be as nice as his birth place. Where he had known a few acres of a gently rolling landscape for a backyard, there was only a dim outer courtyard running around three sides of the building. Where a cozy, if too large mansion, stood for a home, this austere structure of stone and masonry, squished into the suburban neighborhood on the cusp between lower middle class and the slums, looked anything but pleasant. He sniffed his nose at the prospect, halting in his steps.

“Come along, Tao,” came the friendly voice of the man guiding him. “It’s not as bad as it looks. I promise.”

Tao flattened his ears and slyly observed the human, realizing he had no real reason to doubt him. It soothed his fears a tiny bit, but in no way relieved him of the heartache of having to move, of having lost his master to old age, leaving him homeless and without family.

The man had arrived the day of the funeral, his grey hair a little tussled, and his clothes wrinkled and reeking with the scent of other cats. “I’m a feline social worker,” he’d said. “You can call me Yixing,” and “There’s no reason to be afraid. I’m here to help you since you’re alone now, and I’m going to take you soon to live with a new family, all cats. Wouldn’t you like that?”

Pairing: Tao/Sehun (main); Minseok/Luhan, Kyungsoo/Joonmyun, ....? (side)

Genre: Kitty!au, Drama, Romance, Extreme Feels, Not Angst (I hate Angst! I just like realism, even if this is a kitty!au lol)

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Some Language, Adult Implications, Implied past abuse

Length: Chaptered/Complete, 84k words

Title based on this poem

Permission to translate was made available in: RUSSIAN  & TURKISH