“I don’t know why you insisted on dragging me out here for your food delivery.” Taeil grumbles, shifting back and forth in the cold air. “I’m not even hungry.”

Jihoon turns his pleading gaze on Taeil and, just for a second, the older man is left immobile. Jihoon knows how to turn up the charm, and although he’d never admit it, he does make Taeil go weak at the knees sometimes. “Because, hyung, I need company to make sure the chicken ajeossi doesn’t rob me.”

Taeil snorts. “Rob you, or just ask for your autograph?”

“Both!” Jihoon deadpans, before spotting the motorcycle and waving madly.

He pays the ajeossi and turns to Taeil, shoving the bag of food in his face so the hot steam wafts up, bringing with it the smell of fried chicken. Jihoon must see the look on his face because he just laughs, shaking his head. “Still not hungry?”

Smiling, Taeil turns around to head back into the dorm. Just as he puts his hand on the door, however, he hears an odd noise carried on the wind and pauses, head cocked to the side, not unlike a dog.

Jihoon just stares. “Hyung, what are you doing?”

“Be quiet.” Taeil snaps, frowning.

The noise comes again. It’s faint and pathetic, but he definitely recognises it. Turning away from the door, he lets the noise draw him in, heading around the side of the building into a small alleyway. It’s littered with cigarette butts - Kyung and Minhyuk, probably, considering those two are walking chimneys – and various detritus. Taeil carefully steps over a cardboard box, heading towards some garbage bags, where the noise is coming from. Stopping in front of them, he leans down and rummages through – dimly aware of how derelict he must look – until he finds the source of the noise, and his heart breaks.

“Oh, no.” He whispers.

//

He rounds the corner and finds Jihoon exactly where he left him – scoffing chicken on the steps leading up to their dorm. The maknae doesn’t even notice what he’s got tucked close to his chest until he’s standing right in front of him, and he watches in amusement as Jihoon’s eyes open wide.

“Hyung – what is that?” He gapes.

Taeil looks down at the kitten in his arms. It’s young, way too young to be away from its mother, and is skinny and crawling with fleas. It looks like a pathetic scrap of fur. “A kitten.”

A range of expressions cross Jihoon’s face, one after the other like a slot machine – confusion, shock, horror, anger, finally settling on sadness. “What’s wrong with it?”

Shouldering past Jihoon to head inside, away from the cold, he shoots back over his shoulder, perfectly aware of how disgusted he sounds, “someone abandoned it to die, is my guess.”

Jihoon, a beat behind, shoves the chicken back in the bag and falls into step behind Taeil. “What are you going to do with it?”

Taeil isn’t really a cat person. He much prefers dogs – Happy, his dog, lives at his parent’s place, since Jiho placed an embargo on pets in the dorm – and fish, both which are, in his mind, more affectionate than the cats he’s known. But he couldn’t leave the pathetic little thing behind, knowing that it would die if he did. So he shrugs. “Take care of it. Make sure it makes it through the night.”

Jihoon, mouth set in a grim line, nods. “Then I’ll help. We can do it together.”

Taeil rolls his eyes. Sometimes, when Jihoon opens his mouth, it sounds like he’s quoting things from a movie – he half expects him to continue with a line about the value of teamwork or something, but he just hurries ahead and presses the button for the lift.

//

“Cardboard box. And a towel.” Taeil instructs, in a hushed whisper, watching as Jihoon draws himself up and hurries off.

It’s two am, and the others are sleeping. Jiho is out, probably at the studio, and Yukwon is spending the night at Sunhye’s place, so it’s just them, Kyung, Minhyuk and Jaehyo. They’d been in Jihoon’s room, mucking around on the computer, when Jihoon had got hungry and ordered chicken – starting this all off.

Jihoon comes back, looking apologetic. “This is the only cardboard box I could find.” He says, offering it.

It’s a cardboard box that previously had cans in it – probably thanks to Jiho. Rolling his eyes, with one hand he arranges the towels to create a nest and places the kitten gently in the middle of it. It mews pathetically, the noise surprisingly loud in the confines of the dorm.

Moving the whole ensemble into Jihoon’s room and shutting the door – the others would find this really hilarious, so it’s best if they not find out, at least not right away – he looks down at the little thing and sighs. It’s a lovely ginger colour, but it’s malnourished. When he had picked it up, it had felt like a bag of bones, heart thrumming delicately against his palm. He can see the fleas crawling all over it, jumping into the air.

It wriggles around, eyes opening and closing slowly, mewling again. It’s probably hungry, but some dim factoid swims to the forefront of his mind – he shouldn’t give it cow’s milk, despite what everyone says.

So he barks another order at Jihoon – “a hot water bottle, filled with warm water, not hot,” and sits down on the bed to do some googling.

//

15 minutes later, the kitten is snuggled up in in the nest, sleeping quietly. They stare down at it, then look back up at each other.

“We need to get supplies.” Taeil states, sounding much more confident than he is.

Jihoon’s face slowly breaks into a smile. “So we’re keeping it?”

“That’s not what I meant –” Taeil hastily tries to backpedal, but Jihoon is too far gone – he’s jumping up and down in the air, pumping his fist silently.

He knew that this would happen, of course – Jihoon is innocent and childlike sometimes, especially when it comes to animals. Which is fine, except it’s going to have to be Taeil who cops the punishment from Jiho when he finds out (which he will). And Taeil’s certain it won’t be pleasant.

Kneeing Jihoon in the side, he turns and stalks out of the room, grabbing his motorbike keys from the hook in the hallway. If he’s going to get in trouble from Jiho, this had better be worth it.

//

It’s an hour and a half before they get back to the dorm, mainly because they had driven all over Seoul trying to find a pet supply shop that was open 24 hours. Jihoon, who hadn’t ridden pillion before, had spent the entire time looking pale, his arms wrapped firmly around Taeil’s waist. Taeil had practically had to peel him off every time they stopped (although some small part of him didn’t want to, wanted to let Jihoon cling to him).

Letting themselves back in, Jihoon wondering aloud if the kitten is okay, considering they’ve been gone so long, they hurry back to the room and find the kitten is indeed okay, still sleeping peacefully in the warm confines of the nest. They take turns feeding it from a tiny bottle, with special kitten formula. The thing seems happy to drink, and Jihoon even burps it, before letting it fall back asleep in the box.

Silence settles over them. It’s close to 4 in the morning, and Taeil is exhausted – this hadn’t been on the cards for his night, at all. The worst part is, he knows, he’ll have to be up in just a few hours to take it to a vet once they open, to get some flea treatment and give it a general check up.

Jihoon sits next to him on the bed and leans his head on Taeil’s shoulder, a surprisingly intimate gesture. They sit like that for a minute, not moving, just enjoying the moment and each other’s company.

“What about ‘Muffin’?” Jihoon blurts, staring at the little thing.

Taeil hesitates. Once he lets Jihoon name it, it’s a done deal – there’s no way he’ll let it out of his sight. But then, he supposes, watching Jihoon watch it sleep, they’ve already passed that point long ago.

“Cinnamon?”

“Peanut?”

“Rusty?”

“Lucky!”

They shoot names back and forth, eventually graduating from sitting on the bed to lying down on the bed, pressed up against one another.

“Barley?” Taeil whispers sleepily.

“I think we need to find out if it’s a girl or a boy first.” Jihoon says, yawning and rolling over, arm wrapping around Taeil’s waist, face buried in his neck. “Then we can decide.”

Taeil begins to reply, but falls asleep before he can get the words out.

//

That’s how the others find them in the morning – wrapped around each other, still dressed, lying on top of Jihoon’s bed, with a cardboard box on the floor, a furious mewling kitten inside.

“You two had a busy night.” Kyung says, straight faced, standing over the box.

Taeil sits bolt upright, heart beginning to race as he sees the position they’ve found them in – and what it looks like. But Kyung isn’t focusing on that, he’s peering down at the kitten. Quickly extricating himself from Jihoon’s arms, he swings out of bed and scoops the kitten into his arms.

“It was starving, in the alley behind the dorm. What was I meant to do? Leave it there?” He shoots back, defensive, looking at the others for support.

Minhyuk smiles. “It is kind of cute.”

Jaehyo just shakes his head and wanders away, not wanting to get involved in the inevitable storm.

“No, but you could have handed it into the vet’s, or an animal shelter. I don’t want a mangy cat running around getting underfoot.” Kyung replies, ignoring Minhyuk’s support, shaking his head.

Taeil is suddenly resentful, and stands up abruptly. “It’s a good thing it’s not your decision, isn’t it? That falls to the leader.” He pauses. “Or the eldest.”

Kyung narrows his eyes. Taeil rarely – in fact, never – pulls the age card, and Taeil can see the cogs ticking over in his head. Eventually he concedes defeat, shrugging as he walks out of the room. “It’s your funeral.”

//

Jiho is religiously anti-pets because, one day when Sunhye had brought the dogs around, one had taken a in his hat. Everyone thought it was hilarious – Yukwon had laughed for what seemed like hours – but Jiho had not. After that, he had banned any and all pets from the dorm, citing his position as leader. It hadn’t really been a problem for Taeil – Happy never visited anyway, and Jiho had allowed the fish to stay – but now?

Jiho stares at the kitten, sitting content in Jihoon’s arms. They had taken it to a vet, and found out that it was actually a she, and apart from being slightly malnourished, in good health. The vet had given them some kitten-safe flea spray, some more formula, and a sheet of paper that Taeil now clung to.

“...And then Taeil drove us around looking for kitten formula and a litter box. At 3 in the morning. And he took it to the vet, and paid for all the treatment, and got instructions on how to care for it. Come on, Jiho, please let us keep it? Even Minhyuk thinks it’s cute.”

As if agreeing, the kitten gives a huge yawn and stretches, its tiny paws reaching out in front of it. Something changes in Jiho’s face, and he touches her foot with a finger, as if amazed something could be that tiny.

Jiho looks up at Taeil. “You really did all that? I thought you didn’t like cats.”

“I don’t like cats. I just really like this cat.” Taeil shrugs.

Jiho nods, his decision seemingly made. “We’ll have to name her.”

//

They all gather around the hat, watching as Jihoon reaches in and pulls out a name. “Lucky.” He announces, with a sage nod.

They’d decided on this method – not unlike the way they’d chosen members for Bastarz – as a fair and even way to name the kitten, who by now, even Kyung had fallen in love with. Pretty much everyone in the dorm had taken turns feeding the little thing, and squabbles could be heard every night about what room she would get to sleep in, in her little beer nest.

Each member would draw a name from the hat, and then they’d have a vote. The name with the highest votes won. It was simple in theory, but Taeil had learnt long ago that nothing was ever simple with these six.

“Fat Head? Really?” He whines when it’s his turn. “Who put that in there?”

Kyung sniggers.

//

All in all, the seven names drawn are:

Lucky
Fat Head
Cinnamon
Makki
Mocha
Rap Kitty
Cookie

And the votes go like this:

Lucky: | | |
Fat Head: |
Cinnamon:
Makki: |
Mocha:
Rap Kitty: |
Cookie: |

//

“Lucky is so cliched.” Kyung sings. “Fat Head was much better, I’m telling you.”

Jiho nods. “I preferred Rap Kitty, personally. But who suggested Mocha? She’s ginger, not brown.”

Taeil holds Lucky close, feeling her begin to purr contentedly, and looks at the other six crowded around, staring at her and chattering amongst themselves, and begins to feel joyous – so joyous, in fact, that it must be bursting out of his pores, because Jihoon catches his eye and smiles. They’ll forever be linked by finding Lucky and caring for her, even if she now belongs to the seven of them. Maybe this is just a new stage to their friendship; maybe the feelings in his chest, the way Jihoon looks at him, is something more.

All he knows is, he owes it all to the little kitten, curled up in his arms.

Lucky indeed.