The rain isn’t all that bad, Kyungsoo muses to himself as he tries to avoid the puddles on the pathway. He struggles to balance his footing while holding the umbrella and after a few more miscalculated steps, he ungraciously almost steps on a black figure.

 

As Kyungsoo moves away, the rain is suddenly in a heavy downpour and he hurries to place empty tissue boxes in the bin. Just as he is about to turn around and go back into his warm, dry apartment, he looks again at the black figure.

 

Oh.

 

It’s the black kitten who Kyungsoo frequently sees scavenging for food as he heads to his bus stop. The cat squeezes itself in between the rubbish bins, to try and gain shelter from the wet weather, Kyungsoo assumes.

 

Kyungsoo feels an ache in his chest at the drenched animal, alike to himself when he was younger while doing his newspaper rounds. Not thinking twice about it, Kyungsoo walks slowly to the bins as to not scare the cat and crouches down.

 

The cat stands up from his rest position and peers up at him with deep, dark eyes. Behind the small figure, Kyungsoo spots food and packaging pushed to the back, as if hidden away to be eaten later. He thinks that he sees defiance in those little orbs staring him down, and he can’t help but think of how long he’s been in the streets by himself.

 

He wipes his wet hand messily on his pants and raises it above the kitten. The kitten tilts his head up curiously, his body stilling. Slowly, Kyungsoo’s fingers smooth down the head of the kitten to its tail. Kyungsoo's hands become wet again in the short hair flattened on its spine. Kyungsoo smiles at the doe eyes staring up at him, continuing the motion.

 

Ten rounds of petting and the kitten begins to nudge his head closer to the warm hand, crawling out of the small space. At the sound of rumbling thunder, the cat jumps onto Kyungsoo’s pants. He tries to scramble up Kyungsoo’s shirt, but only his small claws pierce the button up shirt. Kyungsoo laughs and picks him up, cradling him on his forearm. Kyungsoo looks down at the spattered water soaking into his clothes and shakes his head a little.

 

“Let’s go back to my apartment, okay?” Kyungsoo says to the frightened cat who looks like he’s trying to snuggle through his shirt.

 

Kyungsoo holds the purring cat tightly in his arm and hopes that it will be able to stay there until he stepped into the building. Travelling up the stairs to room 1900, he looks at the kitty. His arm feels like it is being weighed down like an anchor with the black furry thing on his arm.

 

Kyungsoo opens the wooden door with a click of his key. He walks to pull out the only spare blanket he owns from his cabinet and unfolds it to place on the centre of the living room. Kyungsoo doubts Baekhyun will mind at the scent of cat all that much, since he is pretty sure Chen is hardly bathed. Setting the kitty down on the flower patterned blanket, he grabs the blue blanket he brought along with him and dries the cat. Every few seconds or so, he sees the peak of a reproachful look directed to him at the rubbing of the fur. Kyungsoo only smiles in return - just to spite the little black cat.

 

“You’re a dry cat now,” Kyungsoo says, happily. The cat may not share the same sentiments but he gladly jumps on Kyungsoo’s lap and curls on himself.

 

“But not a clean one, are you?” Kyungsoo sniffs the fur and scrunches his nose. The cat meows and looks quizzically up at him. He paws shyly at Kyungsoo’s hand and Kyungsoo follows with another question.

 

“What should we call you?” The cat rubs his nose on Kyungsoo’s hand, snuggling his head ticklishly on the skin.  

 

Kyungsoo relents and cards his fingers through the fur, “I’ll just call you kitty for now.”

 

Very early in the morning which followed from the night of the new addition in the Do Kyungsoo household, found The Kitty taking it upon himself to explore the house. He trotted through each room, lying on chairs and squeezing through cabinets, to try and find the perfect napping spot. Finally in a gleaming white room, The Kitty leaps and climbs into a bowl shaped dish with a strange shiny contraption hanging above. He rolls around, purring in delight at the perfect fit and soon closes his eyes.

 

Kyungsoo rolls to his side, rubbing his eyes blearily at the sound of his phone’s alarm. Barely awake, he routinely enters the toilet then proceeds to the bathroom. He wondered whether the The Kitty was feeling comfortable as he makes a grab for the cold water tap and turns it open. In a small amount of time, Kyungsoo’s ears are met with a shrill shriek and a claw attack on his arm. Shocked, he looks to see The Kitty wet with water and staring up at him annoyed, but slowly looking scared as his eyes flicker to his arm with small streaks of red.

 

“It’s okay,” Kyungsoo says, wincing a little at the sting. He grabs The Kitty in his other arm and carries him to the living room to plop him on his lap and initiate a petting session. The Kitty doesn’t respond as enthusiastically as last night, but the sound of purring comforts Kyungsoo. He looks down at his arm, and he figures that three bandaids would suffice.

 

By the time afternoon comes, The Kitty comes out of his quiet shell at the lure of the canned tuna Kyungsoo found at the back of the pantry which was just about to be overdue. As The Kitty eats happily, its tail flicking lazily in the air back and forth, Kyungsoo calls Baekhyun.

 

“How do you take care of your dog?” Kyungsoo asks, absently looking at his calendar. There was approximately a week left until his nineteenth birthday. Kyungsoo thought briefly if there was anything he wanted to do before then but his mind quickly swatted that thought away (for now).

 

“With dramas and chocolate,” Baekhyun says. Kyungsoo thinks he can hear yapping through the phone and the disgusting coos from his friend.”Why are you asking?”

 

“Passing curiousity.”

 

“Lies. You avoid animals like Zitao avoids clothes under thirty dollars,” Baekhyun argues.

 

“I don’t avoid animals, I love animals. I touched Chen the last time I came over,” Kyungsoo says indignantly.

 

“You said ‘touched’. The only time you hear anyone say ‘touch’ in the same sentence of an animal, is if it was something scary, like a bear,” Kyungsoo can physically feel Baekhyun rolling his eyes as he says this. “So what’s really happening?”

 

“I got a pet,” Kyungsoo says, slowly pronouncing each word, measuring how Baekhyun would take this. “And it’s a cat.”

 

“I’m coming over. Don’t move,” Baekhyun shouts and Chen barks along loudly.

 

Three minutes later and Kyungsoo opens the door to see Baekhyun pushing his way into the house.

 

“What’s the big deal?”

 

“You can’t be trusted left alone with anyone, even if it’s a cat,” Baekhyun tuts. “Where’s your cat?”

 

“Eating,” Kyungsoo says, locking the door and hanging the keys in its allocated hook on the wall.

 

For the rest of the afternoon, Kyungsoo was nitpicked by Baekhyun about how to take care of another living being in the house. He even took it upon himself to buy things for him.

 

(“Baekhyun, I really think you should just-”

 

“I’m doing this for you. Trust your hyung.”

 

Kyungsoo groans at the back of his throat as he sees Baekhyun click yet another item to the shopping cart using his credit card. “Why do you have to pick the most expensive ones?”

 

“Quality,” Baekhyun says, as he re-arranges the cat pole list from Highest price to Lowest price.)

 

Kyungsoo chucks a pillow at the door as Baekhyun shouts a farewell.

 

“You’re lucky to have Baekhyun as my hyung, I guess,” Kyungsoo the tuft of fur sticking atop The Kitty’s head.

 

The Kitty stretches its body languidly over his lap in response, while stretching its mouth widely.

 

The next day began with Kyungsoo’s usual morning routine of checking the mail downstairs. Except this time, Kyungsoo was enveloped with twinkling boxes which tipped on him as soon as he opened the door.

 

Closer, Kyungsoo reads the sticker on a large box, Kitty Paradise.

 

Kyungsoo feels like all his insides just flopped upside down.

 

Opening the flap of the first box, there is the expensive cat pole Kyungsoo saw on his screen yesterday.

 

Speed delivery charges, Kyungsoo whimpers in his mind. He’s going to make his first agenda tomorrow morning to drop Chen on Baekhyun’s sleeping face.

 

A small black figure catapults into the brown box, circling the furry top platform of the cat pole. The Kitty mewls as he land on top of another package. He paws the sticky tape cautiously, and then gives it a smack then scurries away. Peeking from behind the television, he sees it unmoved. He gives a small sound of dissatisfaction and Kyungsoo smiles at that.

 

The rest of the day is spent unpacking the never ending packages. The process take almost what Kyungsoo thinks is triple the time it is supposed to take because he gets distracted while playing with each toy with The Kitty.

 

Through the rest of the week, Kyungsoo begins to feel like his eyes are less droopy when he hangs up the jingling keys on the allocated hook after a day at work.  As soons as he turns around, his arms are filled with a wiggling black figure and his face dawns a wide smile. Maybe it was one of his best ideas to welcome The Kitty into his house.

 

x

 

Kyungsoo woke to a sunshine drenched Sunday morning and responded by rolling onto his face. Pulling the covers, he finds only a small length covering his head and the rest of the white blanket resisting.

 

Tugging harder, the blanket still doesn’t budge. The edge of the blanket must have hooked at the foot of the bed again, Kyungsoo groans.

 

He crawls his body down the bed, his hands wandering for the edge of the bed. Eyelids heavy on his face, he feels a smooth solid figure under his fingertips. (Kyungsoo does have a horrible habit of leaving his things strewn on his bed, so he isn’t that surprised). Impatient to be enveloped by his blanket, his fingers smooth down finding the corner of it round.

 

Experimentally, he squeezes. It’s plump. Question marks pop up in his head trying to recall whether Baekhyun had entered his room that night, but then-

 

A whimper.  

 

Kyungsoo’s eyes flash open and it’s a curled figure. A figure covered in skin, finishing with a round bottom. His eyes flicker to the opposite end and his eyes are drawn to the mop of black atop the head. The fringes lead down to eyes which stare up at him earnestly and a smile pulls on the corners of the boy. Kyungsoo is entranced and the more he stares, the more he can see sparkles shining around him like a crown.

 

Stranger. . good looking stranger.

 

Kyungsoo scatters to the edge of the bed on the opposite end with a flurry of blankets tangling around limbs. Before the endpoint of landing on the ground floor, Kyungsoo was sure his foot connected with something hard.

 

Panting hard, Kyungsoo looks up and sees said hard thing. The stranger has curled in himself, clutching his chin while emitting pitiful sounds.

 

“I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo says, cautiously stepping closer to the bed. He locates his back scratcher and holds it while moving to the injured body.

 

“Why did you kick me?” the stranger frowns, looking at him hurt.

 

“Why wouldn't I?” Kyungsoo asks, both to the stranger and to himself. “Who are you? I should call the police, or better yet call Baekhyun-”

 

“You’ve called me The Kitty ever since I came through the door, but I would really like it if you called me Jongin,” he answers back. "You can give make my morning petting session longer and I’ll forgive you for hurting me.”

 

“The Kitty? Morning petting?” Kyungsoo says dazedly, conjuring the small black cat in his mind. “The Kitty is a cat and you’re a human boy, I don’t think-”

 

“Why don’t you believe me?” Jongin pouts, drawing his eyebrows together. “I know you really like playing with a small box with a big black box in the big room.”

 

“...Playstation,” Kyungsoo says unsurely. “Something else?”

 

“You eat bananas all the time, and also your stripy socks,” Jongin’s eyes widen, glowing. “You always wear them out the door and in your room. I followed you one day going to that small white room only wearing those stripy socks. The room which makes a scary loud noise,” Jongin’s finger points to the door of the bathroom behind him. “In there.”

 

Kyungsoo laughs nervously saying, “I think I need to go, you...just stay here.”

 

Kyungsoo picks up a jacket and strides to the door in lengthy steps. His mind is whirring as his body moves automatically down the flight of stairs and out the door to grass. He walks down the rock pathway, circling the park. His feet pace fast, thoughts spiraling from the left and crashing with thoughts from the right.

 

He legs soon slow down, finding the familiar rhythm. His mind slows as well and he thinks over The Kitty, now turned Jongin the good looking stranger on his bed. There’s no fact or logic behind this, making Kyungsoo feel more fried.

 

He reroutes the path back to the apartment building, passing by the bakery. He greets the owner with a half raise of his arm saying, “One ham bagel, no, two ham bagels please.” Kyungsoo be damned if he doesn’t treat (the rare number of) guests in his small home well, stranger or not.

 

As soon as he opens the door to his home with a straightened spine, he almost wants to scurry back to the bakery.

 

Jongin is lounging on the couch, his body stretched along the three cushions. Kyungsoo trails his eyes down and oh. Oh. "Why are you ?" Kyungsoo shouts, averting his head away. He can feel warmth crawling up his cheeks, and tries to will it away.

 

“Isn't this natural for humans?” Jongin says behind him, as he slides open the door to his clothes. “You don't wear clothes when you're here.”

 

“No, that’s something different,” Kyungsoo says as he rifles through the hangers.

 

“Why?” Kyungsoo shivers at the breath of the word near his ear. The body smooths against his back and it feels so nice.

 

Turning around, he’s affronted when Kyungsoo has to angle his head higher to meet Jongin’s eyes. He pushes Jongin away from him, silently taking note of the firmness of the skin. Distance is key, especially with this strange boy.

 

“You have to live for 18 years in a human body to be allowed to walk around , it's law," Kyungsoo blabbers as he finally finds baggy pants to hopefully cover his longer legs and a loose shirt. He shoves them at Jongin and walks out the room. “Change and I’ll let you out.”

 

“What am I meant to do?” Jongin whines, tapping against the door.

 

“Just do it,” Kyungsoo says. He slides down the door and collapses with is back against the door to block any chance of escape.

 

After endless raps on the door, there is finally quiet. Kyungsoo looks up at the clock hanging on the wall, watching it tick away to be almost ten minutes since he sat down. Kyungsoo opens the door slowly.

 

Jongin is seated on the floor with thankfully his two legs through the pants but his upper waist is like a distorted pretzel trapped in a shirt. Kyungsoo can see one eye peeking through arms and cloth, and a sheepish smile paired with it. Kyungsoo sighs, and against all the better judgement he learned from his parents, he goes near the almost half stranger on his bed.

 

Jongin's hair is in array when Kyungsoo tugs the shirt off. Kyungsoo smooths the shirt down, his hands gliding down his chest.

 

“Thank you,” Jongin smiles.

 

“It’s okay,” Kyungsoo gives a small smile in return. “Uh, do you want to eat breakfast?”

 

Over shouts over the kitchen counter ‘to be careful because it’s hot’, the bagel bags are empty and Jongin fills in the empty holes of the situation.

 

The other cats taught him about the human transformation on his one year old birthday, in cat years. They helped train him for when it would happen by strolling along different places where they could hear humans speak in their language and observe what they do.

 

"They said it would be hard to fit in with humans, but I think I'm lucky to be with a human like you," Jongin says, muffled by the mug of milk in his hands.

 

“O-oh, thank you,” Kyungsoo avoids looking at Jongin’s face by placing the bags in the bin.

 

“It’s finally time for my morning petting,” Jongin says, bouncing in his seat.

 

“No, no more petting for you,” Kyungsoo flushes thinking about petting Jongin. “Definitely not.”

 

x

 

Days passed by with Jongin jittery to explore out the door to more mellow days staying in the house. Jongin marks this Sunday as a lazy afternoon as soon as he pulls down Kyungsoo back on the couch by the back of his jumper.

 

“Don’t you want to go to the park today?” Kyungsoo asks, craning his head backwards to meet Jongin’s eyes.

 

“I just want to stay here,” Jongin says.

 

He says no more while rearranging his body to lay atop Kyungsoo’s. His messy black hair tickle Kyungsoo’s nose as he buries his face into his neck. He wraps his arms around Kyungsoo’s and rests like that. Kyungsoo can feel the uncomfortable dig into his ribs, but he figures he can ignore it for now.

 

They say nothing else but only communicate through the inhales and exhales of their bodies. Soon, they arrive at a similar rhythm, complimenting each other.

 

Kyungsoo raises his hand and after an inner debate with himself, he cards his fingers through Jongin’s hair. He feels the small shiver running through Jongin paired with a small noise from the back of his throat.

 

“There used to be a cat named Zitao on the streets,” Jongin begins. “I met him during winter, when every cat kept food to themselves. He shared some food he found outside a restaurant with me and that’s when we started sticking together. We roamed towns and played in the different puddles. It was soon nearing his first birthday which meant it was time to look for a human.”

 

“So we stayed outside a building all day and all night, hoping that Zitao could be picked up. A small boy picked him up and brought him in the house. I was so happy, I was going to leave but I wanted to see if Zitao would still have dark hair all over his body.”

 

Kyungsoo’s laugh rumbled under Jongin’s fingertips, imagining Jongin pawing every part of Zitao’s body. Jongin gives him a confused look, but Kyungsoo just pets his hair to not worry about it.

 

“When his first birthday did come, I could hear Zitao shouting in the house,’ Jongin begins to tremble, and only subdues slightly at the squeeze of Kyungsoo’s hand on his shoulder. Jongin coughs, then continues. “All these humans were around him and hitting him with different things. I tried to go inside but I couldn’t-I-He looked at me through the glass and shouted for help. I panicked and ran away from the house. I yowled and scratched at different buildings but no one was there. On my way back to the house, I saw a tall man and clawed his leg to follow me. And he did.”

 

“When the man came out of the house, Zitao did too. There was blood all over his face and he was moving weirdly,” by now, Jongin was shaking all over and burying his face deeper into Kyungsoo’s neck. “I shouldn’t have told him to stay in front of the house or go with the boy, or take so long to find someone or-”

 

“It wasn’t your fault,” Kyungsoo the back of Jongin’s head. Jongin looks up at him, tears sparkling like jewels under the lights. “Neither you or Zitao knew about the people in that house. Don’t hurt your head thinking that it was your fault, okay? You helped Zitao in the end, remember?”

 

“But I should’ve gone in there myself,” Jongin cries.

 

“Human houses are designed to be opened by humans,” Kyungsoo says. “It’s not your fault.”

 

Jongin whimpers and doesn’t speak the rest of the day.

 

x

 

Kyungsoo was scrolling through his tablet mindlessly, the sentences blurred spots. The creak of the door had him looking up, and at Jongin’s body half hidden by the door.

 

“Can I come in?” Jongin asks, quietly.

 

Kyungsoo bends and opens the comforter, patting the empty space with a smile. Jongin walks carefully to the bedside and crawls next to Kyungsoo. (Leaving significant space between them).

 

“Can I stay here?” Jongin murmurs, almost too quiet to be heard.

 

The words ‘of course’ are about ready to roll from his tongue, but Kyungsoo stops himself. The salary he has from work just about covers his food and bills, leaving only a little left over for ordering games online. How would he make it through with another living in his house?

 

It wouldn’t be fair to Jongin, no. He’s not responsible for Jongin in the first place, he’s-

 

“Of course,” Kyungsoo spits out, unintentionally harsh. He repeats the words again, softer, to reassure Jongin (and himself). “Stay as long as you want.”

 

“Thank you,” Jongin burrows his body deep into the covers, only his eyes peeking out.  

 

Jongin is his responsibility and Kyungsoo would try for him.

 

Try for Kyungsoo had meant skipping walking into fast food joint and the delay of buying Jongin new clothes (Kyungsoo felt a wash of possessiveness when he saw Jongin taking sniffs of his shirt and burying his face in them with a happy purr the other day). This also resulted in staying overtime behind his desk so every morning he would drop Kyungsoo off at Baekhyun’s house.

 

By the end of the first month living with Jongin, Kyungsoo was semi-proud to say they would be able to (barely) live in their apartment with the bare necessities the following month. On the bus en route to the apartment, Kyungsoo looks down at the box seated on his lap. He can’t wait to see Jongin’s face when he sees it. Kyungsoo smiles, imagining his reaction.

 

Jongin’s is awash with awe; widened eyes, experimental pokes of the white with his index finger, not so careful sniffs, with a bit of frosting brushed on his nose.

 

Kyungsoo laughs and swipes it off with his thumb.

 

“It’s a strawberry cake,” Kyungsoo patiently explains. “I haven’t treated you to something special before and I think you might like this.”

 

“You treat me special each day,” Jongin smiles, twin shades of red colouring his cheeks. “Thank you, Kyungsoo.”

 

“It’s really okay,” Kyungsoo says, sheepishly. He wrings his fingers over each other, relaying Jongin’s words in his head. It’s as if even being in the same room as Jongin can cause his mind to turn back time to his much more awkward, blushing thirteen year old self.

 

Kyungsoo slices the cake and plates one for Jongin. He makes sure to give him the piece with the most strawberries adorned atop it. Jongin’s face and excitedly the cream, purring at the taste.

 

Kyungsoo feels too many emotions whizzing and colliding inside him to squeak a word because Jongin just purred.

 

Very soon, Jongin’s face is covered in white frosting and stray crumbs. Jongin holds his plate up in two hands, asking for more. Kyungsoo shakes his head, and instead kneels down in front of Jongin. His fingers attempt to wipe away the food from his face, gathering the bits of cake in his inner hand.

 

Throughout this, Jongin is giggling at the feel of fingers all over his face. He pokes out his tongue, helping Kyungsoo to clean around his mouth. Yummy. He spots the heavy coating of the cake stuck on Kyungsoo’s finger and he stripes a long along it. Very Yummy. Jongin continues to work along the fingers, swirling them in his mouth.

 

Kyungsoo is flabbergasted. He never imagined buying a cake to end like this. Not at all.

 

Then again, it’s not as if Kyungsoo would have ever imagined Jongin kissing him soon after. Or him leading him to the bedroom. Or snuggling him under the covers of the bed and peppering him in kisses. Or the words, “I like you a lot, Kyungsoo. So much.”

 

x

 

The feel of Jongin in his arms douses Kyungsoo to wake up with pure happiness. Kyungsoo looks across the pillow to see eyelashes softly fluttering open. They peel open to reveal a dazed stare towards him, and Kyungsoo smiles.

 

Kyungsoo kisses Jongin’s cheek as a greeting, and he responds by whimpering. Jongin snuggles, closing in any gaps between their bodies. Jongin gives a quick peck at Kyungsoo’s lips, before pulling back and biting his lip.

 

“Was it okay, last night? I mean I saw humans kissing each other’s faces on that big box but I don’t know-” Jongin worries his bottom lip.

 

“It was very okay,” Kyungsoo says. He pecks Jongin on the lips once, twice, thrice.

 

“I like you a lot too, Jongin. Don’t worry.”

 

Kyungsoo isn’t too sure about the money and the mystery surrounding Jongin himself, but for now it’s placed in a box and shove aside because their time is now (plus morning petting is scheduled right now -  Kyungsoo was coerced with Jongin’s kisses to bring it back).