Pop music plays shrilly under Sehun's ear, punching through sleep to roll him onto his back, semi-conscious.

He slides a finger across his phone and drops it to the sheets, sighs, and allows a couple minutes of lying prone before tossing blankets aside and getting up. He rubs his eyes as he shuffles to the bathroom, trusting his innate sense of direction to keep him from stubbing his toes against the baseboards or door frames. Emptying his bladder, brushing his teeth, washing his face...it all feels strange, for some reason, like he's not following routine. It's only when he's bent over a ceramic food dish, measuring cup of kibble in hand, that he realises he's not seen his cat at all.

"Chen?" He pours the kibble into the dish and shakes it. The sound of food usually has the cat running, although he always stops just outside the kitchen to rub along the wall and take his time, as though he just can't possibly be bothered with a meal, but if he must...

He doesn't come running, however, and Sehun keeps an eye out as he eats his own breakfast of too-sugary-to-be-healthy cereal. After he's dropped his bowl and spoon into the dishwasher, he searches the house—under his bed, in the closets, under the sofa, on window ledges, in sinks, anywhere the cat could conceivably fit—and finds no hide but lots of hair.

He brushes a hand across the floor, frowns at the many strands of orange and white fur and even a fair bit of his own brown hair, and stands quietly in the small living room.

If I was a cat, he thinks, where would I be? If he was a cat, he'd be sleeping in a sunbeam, but if he was Chen the cat...

He'd be outside terrorising the neighbour's dogs.

"Oh, no."

He left his window open last night in an attempt to get rid of the stuffiness in his room; he didn't think it was big enough for his cat to slip through, but sure enough, Chen's blue breakaway collar sits on the windowsill without him. Sehun lifts it carefully, as if nervous that his cat's actually waiting to leap at him, claws out, but nothing happens. The tiny bell jingles against the name tag, but there's no attack and no curious chirrup asking Sehun what he's looking for.

He heads outside and frantically looks in the shrubs and tall grass close to the house. Sometimes, Chen liked to sleep against the house on the cool dirt. He's not there, though, and Sehun's heart drops a little further into panic. He's so into his search, calling the cat's name, that he doesn't hear the sliding of a patio door or see his neighbour stretch on the next door patio.

"Hey—" Sehun looks over his shoulder, pales, and quickly drops his to his heels. Of course the day his cat would run off, he'd freak out and run after it in his TNMT underwear and be seen by his hot neighbour who—he's noticed before this—is usually still asleep by now. "Uh, are you ... are you okay?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I just—Chen—my cat—he ran off."

"I can help you look," Hot Neighbour says, hopping the dividing fence easily. He pauses, looking at Sehun's bare legs and arms, before ping his sweatshirt and offering it to him. "It's not exactly summer, yet."

Sehun accepts it, cheeks and chest blazing pink. "Thanks..."

"I'm Jongin, by the way. What's Chen look like? Is he the orange one?"

"Sehun. He's orange and has white feet and belly."

Jongin smiles, pushing aside some bushes and startling a chipmunk. "I've seen him around. He seems pretty popular, at least with my dogs."

"He's been in your yard?" As far as he knew, the neighbour dogs just barked at Chen through the fence. There's an apology on the tip of his tongue, but his neighbour just shrugs and squints up into the trees.

"It's not like he digs or anything—which both of my dogs do. He'll just run around a bit, drive them crazy sitting up in a tree, out of reach... Stuff like that."

"Sounds just like him," Sehun huffs. He pushes his hair off his face and looks helplessly around his small yard. The orange cat's nowhere to be found.

Jongin strides to the chainlink gate that leads to the alley. "I don't know, man." He sighs. "I think he must've gone out of the yard. Is he fixed?"

"Yeah, since he was a kitten."

"Then he should be pretty safe. Fixed cats aren't in as many fights as toms." Jongin slips his hands into his pockets. "I'm sorry. If you set his favourite food outside, maybe you can tempt him back? If he doesn't just come back home on his own."

"Yeah..." Sehun sighs. "Well, thanks for looking. Um," he grabs the zipper pull nervously, suddenly hyper-aware that he is pretty much with his neighbour in his backyard, "I can wash this and give it back."

"It's cool. Whenever." There's a blush high on his cheeks, but it could be from the sun or the search. "I hope you find your cat."

"Yeah." Sehun nods dumbly. "Thanks." He backs up a couple steps and returns to his house, closing the door and shades as an afterthought.

Jongin walks back to his own home and opens the door. His dogs, Chanyeol and Baekhyun, look up from their bed, and Jongin laughs.

Situated on top of both dogs is his neighbour's orange cat, smiling serenely and completely comfortable.

"You," Jongin says with a grin, "are trouble. You know Sehun's freaking out, right?"

Chen chirps and noses at Jongin's hand, totally uncaring.