When Yixing had finished showering, he used a new towel that he found in the bathroom before making his way to Junmyeon’s room. He felt bad for borrowing his new owner’s clothes, but he didn’t have any of his own and he needed to go to work… So that was his only option. Once Yixing was ready for work, wearing borrowed clothes from Junmyeon that were just a tad too short for him, Yixing had called his boss to explain his disappearance, telling him that he would be in to work later.

+++

Yixing had moved to Seoul several years back and had managed to find a job surprisingly fast. It had surprised both Yixing and his family when he had told them. Around the fifth or sixth day of his job hunting he had walked passed a café, where he walked straight to the counter to order. At the time, it was mid-summer and strange for a person to keep a hat on their head for an extended period of time. So, not thinking anything strange of it himself, he took off his hat, revealing to the entire restaurant his fluffy caramel ears.

“Oh!” The waitress had said, “You must be looking for the new cat café right?”

Yixing had given a blank look, bitting his lip and, after remembering that not everybody has cat ears and nobody takes it this well, he nodded slowly.

“You’re not too far off.” The girl said, smiling brightly, “It’s just three doors down, you can’t miss it! There is this cute cat on the door and there are lots of boys with cat ears… Is it your first day there?”

Again Yixing had nodded, not quite understanding what was going on.

“Okay then! I hope to see you there sometime!” She had waved him off and Yixing was forced to walk to this cat café that she had mentioned.

The girl was right when she had said there was a cute cat on the door, the cartoon picture was of a black cat curled up around a cup of coffee. Yixing walked inside, curious about what else the girl had said and also in want of a drink. Behind the door was defiantly not what he had expected. Sure it said ‘cat café’ on the door but Yixing had thought that maybe there would be lots of cute cats around the café like the one he saw on the internet. However, he had not expected to see three males around his age dressed in masculine maid outfits with cat ears on their heads and tails attached to their pants.

“Welcome to the Cat Coffee House!” a tall male said from behind the counter. His fake cat ears a blue black against his dark brown hair. “Are you here to apply for a job?” he said gesturing to Yixing’s head.

Yixing had nodded his head, not completely sure what was occurring, but glad he had a bag full of resumes. He had pulled one out and was about to hand it to the male before him when the taller shook his head. “Wait here a second, I will get the manager.”

It wasn’t more than a minute before a chubby boyish man with leopard print ears atop his head came out and greeted Yixing, claiming to be the manager. “Hi, I’m Minseok! I run this place it’s nice to meet you…?”

“Yixing… Zhang Yixing…”

Minseok had nodded and gestured for Yixing to follow through the café and out the back into a small office that held pictures of Minseok and another person. Yixing had felt unsure about whether or not the other person in the photo was a male or female. Later he would find out that Luhan was indeed a man and would, on many occasions, attempt to prove his manliness to everyone with in the store. Yixing would also find out that Luhan was co-owner of the store and Minseok’s partner for the better part of nine years.

After Yixing had handed over his resume and all the serious questions of past experience and how he heard of the job were out of the way Minseok looked up from his notes.

“So, Yixing, I see you have your own ears. That’s great news!” Minseok had muttered. “Do you mind if you take a look?”

Instead of actually thinking about it Yixing had leant forward after nodding at Minseok.

“You could take them off…?”

Yixing had frozen then, forgetting that normal people are able to remove their cat ears… Normal people don’t have real ones atop their heads…

“Before I tell you something entirely weird… What are my chances of getting this job?” Yixing had asked casually, there was no point avoiding the inevitable.

Minseok had laughed at that, not many of his potential employees were so eager to know their chances after the first meeting. “You’ve got it, if you want it. But I would need to know some more details before I can actually get you to start. We can sort that out later though.”

Yixing had nodded before explaining that the ears atop his head were part of him, that they wouldn’t come off. It was when he had pulled his pants down slightly to reveal his tail that he had met Luhan for the first time, and after getting a black eye from the older the two Chinese men found themselves to be on rather good terms with each other, not even thirty minutes later.

“So you really are part cat?” Luhan had asked, playing with Yixing’s tail.

The younger had nodded, “I don’t know how or why but my family has always been like this, as far back as my grandmother can remember.”

Luhan had nodded, and shrugged, looking up at his boyfriend, “I want to hire him, I like him.”

“Lu… you punched him in the face that long ago and now you’re all buddy-buddy.”

“Minnie, I had to make sure he knew you were mine, and that I wasn’t a girl-“

“So you proved your manliness by punching him.” Minseok had heard the same speech several times before and would hear it at least a thousand more before the year was over.

+++

Yixing found that the distance from his owner’s house to Minseok’s café wasn’t actually that long. Surprisingly he didn’t get lost, however he did take the long way, realising too late that instead of ten minutes he could have taken five to walk from the apartment to the café.

When he entered the café he found that Baekhyun was at the counter, wearing white and grey cat ears, ready to greet a customer. But upon seeing that it was Yixing who had entered the café, the young waiter leapt over the counter to hug his friend. Then there was a slap to the arm that stung even though Baekhyun hadn’t really meant for it to.

“Where have you been you idiot! I had to take all your shifts… Not that I am complaining but…” He reaches up and Yixing’s cat ears, “I was worried about you.”

“It’s complicated…” Yixing mutters, closing his eyes as Baekhyun continues to play with his ears. He feels as though he could fall asleep, but he knows that any second Minseok will walk into the café with his leopard ears and do exactly as Baekhyun had.

As soon as Baekhyun pulled away as Minseok entered the room and hit Yixing on his head.

“I had the animal rescue service asking for you! How much of an idiot are you that you leave your wallet somewhere where a cat can sleep on it!” Minseok yells as he pulls Yixing in for a hug. “I was so worried about you, please tell me where you went…”

Sighing Yixing pulls his manager through to the office to explain the full extent of his strange affliction. Baekhyun followed close by, eager to hear what the cat-boy had to say for himself. The younger had been worried about his friend, they had met soon after Yixing had started working at the café, and it wasn’t half a year before Baekhyun was trusted to keep a massive secret from the rest of the world. He took it better than Chanyeol did, thank God. But it was still unexpected to find out that this person beside him had real cat ears and a real cat tail.

He had grown used to expecting weirdness from Yixing. Like Yixing obsession with his grandmother, introducing them when Yixing had stated that he missed Grandmother Zhang. He was used to the fact that Yixing – although heavily lactose intolerant – would drink as much milk as he wanted before spending all his time in the bathroom. He had grown used to expecting the unexpected, and thus was waiting to hear some stupidly crazy reason for the pound having his wallet, some insane reason for why he had disappeared. What he did not expect was for Yixing to turn into a cat right before his eyes.

A/N:: Thank you to all of those who have subscribed! I didn't think that this would recieve this much love! Thank you so much! I shall try to update again soon~! LOVE!