Junmyeon doesn’t want to believe that Lay is actually Yixing, it can’t be true because people can only turn into cats in YiFan’s manga or science fiction movies. But, the more time that passes without Lay coming out from his usual hiding places, the more he starts to feel that this is no longer a dream.

It all seemed so false to start off with. Nothing but smoke and mirrors. All just one big prank meant to scare him. But… As Yixing apologised… As Minseok cried… Junmyeon found himself falling deeper and deeper into believing that this was actually true.

But if it was true… If it was true would that be a betrayal? Would it really be a betrayal?

To Junmyeon it would be. He trusted Lay. And if Lay was Yixing, as he was being told. As he had seen. As he was slowly starting to actually believe, then Lay… no… Yixing had broken his trust. Had watched him, had listened and consoled him. Had used his things…

Junmyeon recalls the first time he thought someone was breaking into his house. How at first it had been little, slight barely noticeable things that occurred. Things that could simply have been caused by Junmyeon in his sleep. He recalls how it all started when he brought Lay home.

He remembers the times where he thought he had caught this apparent stranger.

The time where he found the shower still running with Lay inside.

All those times he thought he had heard swearing come from his room, and found Lay there instead meowing that awkward meow of his.

The time where he found Lay bundled up in a shirt Junmyeon hadn’t seen in months.

Every time that he felt so close to catching the person hiding in his house, Lay had shown up in their place.

Junmyeon felt sick to the stomach, this was just more proof that Lay was Yixing. That Yixing could actually turn into a cat.

Lay was curled up in Minseok’s lap when Baekhyun came in to let them know that he had filled everyone in on the story. Minseok thanked him and told him to take the rest of the day off if he wanted, Baekhyun didn’t say much, simply nodding before leaving.

Standing from his position across the room, Luhan moves over to give Minseok a shoulder massage. Minseok lets out a sigh, running his hand along Lay’s spine. The cat purrs softly at the action.

“You know,” Minseok starts, “I always thought that I would have at least twelve years to prepare for my child dealing with a hectic love life…”

Luhan chuckles softly, “Well, it would help if you listened to me more often and adopted a child rather than started a café and acting like all its employees are your children.”

“Since when did you want children?” Minseok muses, tilting his head back to look up at Luhan, who is smiling softly.

“Hmm…” He hums, kissing Minseok’s lips, “Since you put a stop to my dream of becoming an idol.”

“I see.” Minseok sighs, thinking that Luhan is perfect. Thinking that Luhan knows exactly what to say to make his mood lighter. Even if it did mean bringing another problem into the mix, but they could talk about that later, they would anyway.

Lay slowly rouses from his sleep, arching his back before settling back down and looking up at both Minseok and Luhan. For as long as he has known them they have always been the ideal couple. The perfect ratio of flirty to serious made them that way in his eyes. He had often longed for a relationship like theirs, and until he had met Junmyeon had never thought he could possibly have a relationship like that.

He honestly still didn’t believe he could. There were too many factors that made it near impossible to keep a partner. And although he knew Junmyeon loved Lay, he didn’t know if he even loved Yixing enough to put up with both of them.

In a way, from the very beginning Yixing had been prepared for rejection. Had been prepared to spend his life alone, either as a cat or a mix of both. Yixing wasn’t as lucky as his parent, there weren’t a large range of cat-people around in the first place, so finding one was extremely rare. And to find a gay cat-person… That was a whole other story.

However, even if was prepared physically, that didn’t mean he was completely mentally ready to spend it all alone. Especially after meeting Junmyeon. Especially after finding out that Junmyeon actually liked him. That the feelings were mutual. But then, his stupid lack of control ended up ruining that for him.

He was hurt that Junmyeon had sort of rejected him, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t understand why. Who wouldn’t react like that if they had seen someone turn into a cat and back again before their eyes? Honestly speaking, Junmyeon had taken the whole thing quite well by just crying. He was doing really well in Yixing’s eyes. To keep his cool like that after finding out his crush was his cat. A pet that he had confided in about things that crushes shouldn’t know. A pet that had seen a less than clothed Junmyeon on more occasions than Junmyeon would probably be comfortable with…

Lay sighs, his whole body shaking with the exhaled breath. Junmyeon is a good guy. Even if he hurt Yixing he didn’t mean to. He wouldn’t mean to. All those late night one way conversations showed that. Like when he first noticed the fact that Yixing was using his apartment, although annoyed he didn’t wish to harm him. He never did, and so Lay knew that the only reason he hurt so badly was because Yixing himself had hurt Junmyeon in the first place.

Junmyeon slumps further into the couch.

He has been home for several hours now and after sitting by the front door for half an hour calling for his cat he moved to the couch. Slowly slipping further down into it.

The place is silent and as much as he wants to the television or radio to drown out his thoughts, he cannot be bothered moving to turn anything on. Thus leaving him alone with his thoughts, alone with the truth. That Lay and Yixing are one in the same.

For hours now he has been waiting for him to walk in through his front door. For a while he has been imagining what Yixing would say to him if he did. What he would say to him.

In his mind, when Yixing burst through the door, crying, there is a lot of screaming. Junmyeon yelling a lot of questions that he doesn’t really want answered. He can see himself throwing cushions in the air, towards Yixing. He can see himself crying more. And when Yixing gets closer, Junmyeon sees himself punching his chest, like in a drama. He sees himself slowly sinking to his knees and crying more because he knows. He already knows how he feels…

He loves Lay. Even though he has only gone a few hours without the cat, he feels like his world has gone to . He feels that the apartment is suddenly twice as big as it was when Lay was around. He knows that if he were to curl up in bed it wouldn’t be as warm as it was with Lay resting on the pillow next to him.

Just thinking about it makes his heart ache.

But loving Lay doesn’t cut it anymore. He needs to love Yixing as well, and before all this started he was pretty darn close to it. The more he thinks about it, the more he knows that even though there is this hiccup in the road it doesn’t really change anything.

Feelings do change, but it doesn’t happen overnight.

Junmyeon learnt that a while ago. But he had also learnt that sometimes, the original feeling can cloud judgement. That the original feeling could be deceiving him, tricking him. That’s why he needs to think some more.

That’s why, no matter how often his mind may wander to what Yixing is doing, how he is feeling, how hurt he is because of Junmyeon, he can’t simply just go with the flow. That’s why he needs to leave it be. He needs to let it settle in the pit of his stomach and be digested before he can run over to Yixing and tell him that he is sorry.

Junmyeon wipes the tears that are forming in his eyes. He just hopes that Yixing will be okay until then. He hopes that his reaction hasn’t scared the other. He now knows that it is already hard for Yixing to be himself around others. He now knows, after thinking about it for a few hours, that Yixing revealing himself like that was not what he would have wanted. He knows that his reaction would have made Yixing feel ten times, maybe even one hundred times worse about himself than he already does.

Junmyeon finally lays back on the couch, curling up in to himself. He is still in his suit, and probably will remain so for a while. But, at this point, he doesn’t even care. He just wants to be left alone. He just wants to sit in silence and be left alone with his overwhelming thoughts. He just prays that it isn’t his original feeling clouding his judgement, because a world without Lay… A world without Yixing and his dimpled smile, would be quite a dull world for Junmyeon to live on in.

As a cat Yixing can hide from the problems he left in his human world. However, the feelings don’t leave him. The tight pain in his chest that makes it hard to breathe slowly gets worse for him as he thinks of Junmyeon. He knows that if he isn’t careful he could die of heartbreak in his cat form and so as his head spins and heart races, he leaps off Minseok’s lap. He needs to shift or he won’t survive, and he knows that he needs to because it’s Junmyeon. And Junmyeon does love him. And even if it takes him days, or weeks or months, Junmyeon will eventually want to see him again. Even if it’s not the way that Yixing wants him to, he needs to survive in order to explain everything to Junmyeon when the time is right. 

A/N:: another chapter down. I stayed up past midnight to write this. It's slightly longer than a lot of my other chapters but I think it needed to be. I may not update again til Tuesday it really depends on my mood.  Thanks for all your comments love and support. I'm sorry if I don't reply to all of them but there is only so much I can say without revealing what will happen next or sounding like a broken record. Anyway love yall♡