AN: As requested by the very few people that bothered to comment, this is going to be a chaptered fic!

Enjoy~~

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It’d been a month. A month since he got stuck giving a lift to the strange guy with the red gloves. A month since he’d last crossed the graveyard. A month since he’d been stuck on the highway during the storm.

But he’d forgotten.  Forgotten the ethereal, almost alien face. Forgotten the weird gloves. Forgotten the strangeness of the situation. Forgotten the whole encounter…forgotten the graveyard.

He probably wouldn’t have, if he hadn’t been drowned in work for a good fortnight, followed by demands from his friends to spend time with them. In a month’s time, it was the Chairman’s son’s death anniversary, and apparently it was tradition for all employees to get a week off of work in rota, and Changmin was in the list of those to get the first week off. He’d been suffocating in piles of work that had to be done before he was given the week. Normally he wouldn’t have cared if he lost a free week, but his sister had been on his back for not relaxing enough for someone his age, and so Junsu and Yunho had convinced him to sign up for a camping trip. They, too, were off during the first week.

He could hype himself up when he got into the idea of all the things they could do in the wilderness. But honestly, he just wanted enough time to complete all his tasks without harassing his colleagues for help. The Chairman was doing everyone a favour by honouring his late son in that way, and he did not want to be disrespectful or screw things up when he was still considered fresh meat in the office. The only reason he got away with so much was because he had backup from Yunho (the golden employee) and Junsu (the sunlight in the office). Ugh, who the hell had come up with that title for the dolphin?

But it was work that kept his mind off the road again. He was thinking about his next project that he had to complete for the meeting arranged for that Friday, completely ignoring his surroundings.

It was sudden. Out of nowhere.

One minute, he was driving slowly, the next he was swerving so violently that he could hear screeching of the tires and was scared they were on fire from the friction against the asphalt.

He’d almost driven right off the cliff-side.

He’d almost died. Damn whoever it was that decided to make an open road on such a dangerous cliff side! Were they trying to kill travellers or what?

With great relief to find himself in one piece, he turned towards the road glaring at the cause of his near-death-experience.

“You have got to be kidding me!” he said out loud, staring at the persecutor.

A cat?

Are you serious?

He just glared at it. In return the fur-ball looked towards him with an almost accusatory look in its eyes. What the hell? It’s not like he was the one to almost cause the death of either the feline or himself!

With a huff, after bringing his car back to safety, he got out the car seeing as the cat wasn’t moving anytime soon. As he slowly approached it, he was expecting it to flee. But instead, it slowly padded towards him.

It looked like it needed comfort. As weird as that was for him to acknowledge.

What was a cat doing in the middle of nowhere anyways?

“Hey there, little guy. Are you lost?” he bend down, looking for a collar around its neck. He found one.

As he reached for the red band, the cat purred into his palm and tried snuggling into him. Ok, that wasn’t expected. He was not an animal person. That was Junsu’s job. Or even Yunho. Just not him…he wasn’t good with little small furry things.

“Ok. If you just let me look at your collar…” he muttered. The cat was sniffing around his fingers now, completely in his lap.

Great, he thought. He was in the middle of freaking nowhere, with a random cat getting comfy with him.

Cue the thunder sound.

“Ugh! You’ve got to be kidding me!” he growled as he looked at the darkening sky.

And it suddenly hit him.

The thunder, the storm…the passenger. He remembered it again. And with the memory of the beautiful face, came the shivers and goose bumps across his skin.

Automatically, his head whipped around, searching for anything weird…out of place.

“Meow” the cat purred. Seemingly content.

Whatever. Lost or not, he was not going to leave a little, defenceless, innocent animal here while a storm was clearly hitting the area.

“Let’s go, little guy. Better get some cover.”

As soon as he had the doors to the car locked, the cat was trying to jump onto the backseat.

Yeah, not happening.

He kept the struggling animal in his lap, forcing its head away to look at the tag on the collar. Unfortunately, all it said was ‘JJ’s JiJi’, which was probably its name. But there was nothing about the owner. Maybe this JJ was the owner…

Who the hell doesn’t put a contact on their pet’s collar? What did they think it was for? Decoration. 

With no other choice, he had to let the feline jump in the backseat and cuddle with the cushion. Oh, well Junsu wouldn’t mind. And anyways, Changmin had warned him before about leaving his belongings in his car.

As he made his way, the rain started in earnest. An Jiji didn’t seem to like it one bit; burrowing into the cushion, meowing loudly and even trying to jump into his seat before being scared off by the thunder on the windshield. He kind of felt sorry for it, the meowing sounded really scared.

What would Junsu do, in a situation like this? As he thought about that, he came across a bend in the road. It was the same place he’d had his passenger freaking out, last month. As the car went past it, he couldn’t stop his eyes from analysing it.

There was a huge rock that was covered in green muck, little bushes sprouting from the corners. Other than that, it was just a normal highway scene. He couldn’t put his finger on what exactly was going on.

By the time, he realised where he was headed, dread filled him up. 

. The cemetery. He’d forgotten about the creepy disappearance.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one agitated. Jiji was meowing like crazy in the back, the cushion seemingly forgotten in favour of scratching against the car door, standing on its back paws to look out the window. It wasn’t exactly helping his situation. He made a note to himself to contact Junsu immediately once he got home.

“Will you calm down plea-”

There he was. Again.

At first he couldn’t believe his eyes, but as he squinted against the rain, he was sure he was not mistaken. If nothing else, that glove was definitely of the same person. He stopped the car a few feet ahead, but looking back Jiji was in a right fit.

It was scratching against the window so bad, Changmin was cared it’ll leave scratch marks on his baby. Before he could do anything about it, his brain registered the cat’s actions. It was meowing, loudly, and scratching against his car door and window. But what was more interesting, was that its entire body was contorted, facing in the direction of the guy, who was, by the way, soaking wet but seemed to not have a care in the world. And, if he remembered right, the excitement had started when they’d got closer to where they were now…

Ok, seriously. What the was happening.

Somewhere, his brain made the possible connection between JJ and JaeJoong. But the majority of his being was more concerned with his current predicament. First, he was seeing the same weird guy again. He was wearing the same pair of gloves, and if Changmin remembered right, even the same sweater and jeans! Secondly, he had a distressed cat in his backseat that seemed to want to bolt out the window…to that guy. It was very likely that the cat belonged to him, but what were the chances? Thirdly, it was raining again. Was this some kind of coincidence or was he just overthinking things. Why was he here again? And he was walking! Why was he walking in the rain, in an almost abandoned roadside, with no coat or umbrella, no car and no companion?

He was chewing on his lip so hard, he could almost feel the sin ripping. What to do?

With a final look at the struggling cat in the backseat and the soaking man on the road, he took a deep breath and honked his car from its standby position.

Jaejoong immediately lifted his head and looked towards the car. In a matter of milliseconds, that same smile from a month ago appeared on his face.

Changmin had to admit, even though he was thoroughly soaked to the bone, that smile could still outshine the sun.

As he jogged towards the car, Changmin hesitantly opened the door. Another dilemma: his car seat was about to get drenched.

Jaejoong opened the door but didn’t get in. As soon as there was enough space, Jiji scrambled towards him, pouncing at his chest. With a light laugh, Jaejoong held the cat to his chest, even though rain was still pouring down in him. Surprisingly, the animal didn’t protest to the wetness.

“Um, you wanna get in?” Changmin offered, not quite sure if he was being sincere or not.

“Thank you Changminnie. But I’m afraid I’ll have to decline this time” he said with a regretful loo on his face.

Changmin grunted in response, before clearing his throat. “Yours, I’m assuming?” he nodded his head towards the cat, hiding its head in his armpit.

“Ha-ha. You could say. You of all people to find him…” Jaejoong trailed off, staring at Changmin with that damn smile on his face again.

Before Changmin could rudely point out that his car was becoming the Arctic Circle, or that it was getting wet, Jaejoong looked over his shoulder before turning back around and moving away from the car.

“Thank you for bringing him. Have a good journey!” he wished cheerily before shutting the door and jogging back…towards another figure.

Huh? Where had they come from? Changmin hadn’t event noticed. He was sure Jaejoong was all alone on the road. As Changmin looked on, Jaejoong seemed to greet the newcomer before presenting Jiji. As far as he could tell, the other person was male, too, but it was too rainy and foggy for him to be sure.

Jaejoong’s turned around. Changmin awkwardly stared, embarrassed t being caught. But as usual, Jaejoong just smiled and waved enthusiastically. Ok, time to move it, Changmin!

As he drove off, he started to feel guilty. Even though he had offered, it didn’t sit right with him to leave two people and a cat alone on the roadside, while it was heavily raining. They seemed to have no mode of transportation either.

As much as his conscience was arguing with him, it’s not like he could turn around and forcefully offer a lift. It wasn’t his business. And besides, Jaejoong had seemed happy, as creepy as it sometimes was.

Why was he getting the tingling feeling in his stomach again? Damn it! He didn’t have time to be distracted by such stupid things. Not when he had an unfinished project and a looming meeting with the executives.

Focus! Forget Jaejoong. Forget about him. He’s just a random guy that walks around abandoned places…with an extremely cute smile.

Damn you brain! Forget about him! Stop thinking about his smile.

And that’s what he put his power into doing, for the rest of the ride. Albeit, it was a fruitless attempt. There’s no way he could forget Jaejoong now. Not with the wet cat smell permeating in his car.

He wondered if they were going to the cemetery again… 

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