On a gorgeous Sunday morning in the beginning of May with spring in full blast, a tall, slender Asian-American man with brown hair, small eyes and big glasses walked out of his house, twirling his keyring on his index finger whilst whistling a pleasing tune. His little song got cut short, however, when his lips got too dry to continue it smoothly, and he looked around to make sure that no one heard his horrible attempt at Maroon 5’s Sunday Morning: Whistle Version. Jae silently continued his oh so tiring trek to his oh so fancy 2003 PT Cruiser(that he was way too well dressed to ever be seen in, in his opinion). He got in the car, started him up(his car was definitely not female, not y and sleek enough), and jumped when his One Republic CD started playing on full blast. Hurriedly, he lowered the volume to one that wouldn’t burst his eardrums, and opened up the one nice thing about his car: the sunroof.

    Opening his sunroof at that very moment may have been a questionable course of action because, the next thing he knew, some creature was hurtling through it and landing on his hand that had only just had time to reach the gear shift. If Jae wasn't so busy pissing his pants and screeching, he may have noticed that it was just a harmless cat. It's not his fault that the thing had basically attacked him and was now in the process of looking like it was possessed while trying to right itself. Before Jae could even calm himself enough to stop screeching, he was making eye contact with the little and it decided it was a good idea to just waltz on over and settle itself in his lap.

    “You’re a cat!” Jae yelled very matter-of-factly while looking down at the white ball of fluff sitting on his now fur covered black pants. “I don’t have a cat!” The feline only set its head down on its paws in reply and curled its tail around itself while looking up at him with shiny eyes that only a terrified dog person could hate. “You’re shedding all over me.” He whined and dropped his hands to the seat around his legs. The cat lifted its head and army crawled closer to his stomach, its claws pulling little strings up from the fabric of his pants. While Jae cried on the inside and groaned, complaining about not even liking cats on the outside, the kitty rubbed its little noggin against the navy blue fabric of his shirt. This time he only sighed and pushed it off of his lap and right back onto the gear shift, muttering a small, “Why?”

But the cat had not given up. Love is love and it was ready to fight for this man. It stood, front paws on the driver’s seat and back paws on the passenger’s, and gracefully started walking(right on Jae, of course). It turned to look him straight in the eye as it reached the middle of his lap and hopped its front paws up, right onto Jae’s chest, so that they were face to face. For a moment they sat there, staring at each other with blank faces with only the sound of One Republic in the background. For a split second, Jae didn’t hate this cat. But then he was yelling again. “Why are you my neck  with that sandpaper tongue?! I don’t know you!”

Jae let out a long, drawn out groan and threw his head back against the headrest while trying his hardest not to wring that damn cat’s neck, but his low groan became a scream when there was a loud bang on his window. He stared wide-eyed(well, about as wide-eyed as he could get) at the face that was now pressed against his window. The person was Asian from the looks of it with pretty intense cheekbones, rather red lips, and blond hair. He peeled his face from the glass and started yelling, his eyes wide and hands still glued to the window. “Fluffy! I told you to stay in the house! Why don’t you ever listen to me?!” Fluffy stopped Jae’s neck for a moment to glare at the man, but chose to ignore him and get back to giving rough kisses.

There was a spot on Jae’s tan neck that was turning red and he heaved a sigh before rolling down the window. “Please save me.”

The man nodded his head aggressively in response, his face scrunched, eyes apologized, and reached an arm in through the window, picking up the cat who hissed at him and nearly sliced Jae’s face open. “I am so sorry, oh my God.” Looking at him like this, Jae noticed how sharp his facial features were. His eyes were actually much smaller than they seemed while pressed against the window, but definitely not as small as Jae’s. His lips were also not as red as they seemed pressed against the window either, now a more pinkish color and outstretching into an apologetic smile, showing a little bit of his bright white teeth. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt, horribly ripped blue jeans, and work boots. His blond hair was combed back, but a few clusters fell forward and were stuck with sweat to his forehead. He reached his other hand in for a handshake. “My name’s Brian and this is Fluffy.” He lifted the ball of fluff as he introduced it. “We’re your new neighbors.”

Jae shook his hand, “Jae.” After he shook his hand, though, Brian held it for a short, awkward moment before quickly retracting it and slid it into his jean pocket. Jae took a deep breath, hoping that an incident like this wouldn’t happen again in the future with this stupid cat living next door(at least its owner was aesthetically pleasing). He rolled up his window, took the keys out of the ignition, and got out of the car, almost hitting Brian with his door in the process.

“She must’ve snuck out while I was bringing boxes in from the moving truck…” He scrunched up his face a little and bit his lip when he realized the damage done by his precious of a cat. Jae’s black pants were covered with white fur, and so was his navy shirt and-- oh, no. Oh, . His pants. Fluffy clawed at his pants. At his crotch. There were strings just hanging from the crotch of his slacks and Brian grimaced as he thought of how uncomfortable his cat made his poor new neighbor. What a first impression, huh?

Jae cleared his throat and immediately the other’s attention was off of his crotch. “If you could not stare at my private area while making that face, I would greatly appreciate it.”

He shook his head furiously and gripped his horrible pet a little tighter, making her uncomfortable. “Oh, god, no, this is awkward. Wow, uh.. I’m just-- My cat just-- She messed up your pants, that’s all I’m looking at. God, I’m sorry. Again.”

As soon as he stopped talking, Jae pursed his lips and almost looked angry, then just started laughing like this was the most hilarious thing in the entire world. He was leaned over with one hand on his back, the other on his knee, just dying of laughter while Brian just stared, dumbfounded. By the time that Jae had physically ran out of breath to continue laughing(but still tried to laugh a little more), though, Brian was at least smiling. It was a super awkward smile, but it was still a smile. Jae straightened his back, took his glasses off and wiped his eyes. “You, my friend, are hilarious.”

“I am?” He asked and Jae just patted little Fluffy’s head.

“And your cat is a little .” He leaned so that he was face to face with the very happy feline and started talking like a baby. “Yes you are, you are just a little ! A cute little , but still a little .”

“She knows she’s a little , I tell her everyday.” He said and actually laughed a little. “I’m still sorry about what she did to your clothes.” Brian bit his lip again when he apologized.

“It’s fine, I have like 5 other pairs of black pants, and the fur’ll come off when I wash this shirt.” He smiled and looked over at the house next door with a full moving truck in the driveway. “It looks like you’ve got a lot of boxes to bring in. Why don’t I change into some lighter colored clothes and help you out?”

“No, that’s not necessary. Weren’t you trying to leave when Fluffy, uh, found you?”

“Well, I was gonna go to church, but by the time I get changed the service will have already started, so I was just gonna stay home. Go bring your cat inside, and I’ll come over and help out as soon as I’m changed.”

“But--” Before he could finish, Jae was already jogging up his driveway to his front door.

***

When all of the boxes were in their respective rooms(but far from unpacked), Jae ran back to his house, grabbed a couple of beers, and brought them back to Brian’s. Their clothes were soaked in sweat and their muscles were sore, so it was relieving to sit on the sturdiest boxes they could find and down a couple drinks.

“So, when will you have furniture?” Jae asked. His brown bangs were stuck to his forehead, and the pit stains on his baby blue t-shirt were intense(and gross, as Brian had told him, but he had no room to talk; he had to change his shirt two times because of how much he was sweating. He came from Canada, definitely not used to summer on the coast).

“Hopefully tomorrow,” he replied and sipped on his bottle of Miller Lite. “But most likely not until Tuesday.” He smiled as he scratched the fur right by Fluffy’s ear. “It’s a good thing the living room floor is carpeted.”

“Why don’t you come and crash in my guest room? Leave Fluffy in here with her cat bed and you can come sleep in an actual human bed.” He suggested and sipped on his beer too.

“Can't I bring Fluffy?” At that question, the corners of Jae’s mouth went straight down. “She's 100% potty trained and won't scratch on your walls or furniture! I know she's a little , but that's only when she finds new people that she likes more than me, and I'm pretty sure she's already gotten used to you.” He suggested, his shiney brown eyes getting all big and cute as he awaited Jae’s answer.

I think she’s used to you enough already!”

    “Ehhhhh… I don’t really--” He started, but before he could finish Fluffy was standing on his legs, his neck again. He started to think that she actually thought this would make him like her. He groaned, “That sandpaper tongue again!” She stopped for a moment, looked at him with her big, round eyes, then rubbed the soft fur atop her head against the spot she had been , as if to make up for the roughness of her tongue.

Brian smiled. “See? She’s not so bad.” And she wasn’t, Jae supposed.

He looked at the blond’s hopeful face one more time before he caved. “Okay, I guess the cat can come too. But she stays in the guest room, and you are cleaning up any and every mess that she makes. Understood?”

“Understood!” Brian exclaimed. He picked up Fluffy from Jae’s lap and started whispering all sorts of good things in baby talk to her, but she seemed to not want anything to do with that, her mind solely on Jae’s long, tan neck. (Specifically the area to the left of his Adam’s apple. That was a nice spot.)

***

    After putting down some newspaper in the guest room and closing Fluffy in there, the two made their way to the kitchen. Brian sat down on one of the tall chairs at the island and let his feet dangle as Jae walked up to his fridge-freezer duo. “Hey, Brian. Do you want a corn dog or something?”

    The blond stiffened completely and stared wide-eyed at Jae. “I-I just met you, dude, what the hell?” He whisper-yelled, as if there was anyone besides him, Jae, and a cat in the house that might hear him.

    “What? I’m just trying to be courteous.” Jae replied, slightly confused as to why the other got so flustered about a hot dog on a stick.

    “Is that what Americans call courtesy?!” He whisper-yelled again, his face turning a shade of red that Jae didn’t think was possible with his skin tone.

    The tanner of the two pulled a box of individually wrapped corn dogs out of the freezer. “We always feed our guests, don’t you do that in Canada, too?”

    A quick wave of relief passed over Brian, followed by the inevitable wave of embarrassment. “Oh.”

    “Oh?”

    “We don’t call those corn dogs back home,” he explained, “we call those pogos. Corn dogs… A corn dog in Canada is… Well, let’s just say you would have reacted pretty similarly to me if you knew the slang.” He chuckled nervously. “I’ll take a po--corn dog. That feels so weird to say..”

    Jae scratched his head and took two out of the box, then put it back in the freezer. “Pogo sounds weird. Makes me think of pogo sticks.” He hopped over to the cabinet to take out plates, then hopped over to the microwave saying, “boing,” with each hop and the two of them laughed. Right when Brian thought he wouldn’t have to explain anything, Jae said, “So, what is the Canadian slang version of corn dog? What does it mean? Is it like ual? ‘Cause, I mean, I’m relatively straight unless you’re super good looking,” he squinted at Brian, observing his face, “and I don’t think I’d go for you anyway.”

    The blond pouted for a moment. “I’m gonna try not to take offense from that.” He sighed. “So a corn dog is--” Jae sat down in the chair next to him, set his elbow on the table, and rested his head in his hand, ready to listen very intently to what Brian had to say. “A corn dog is-- ugh, can’t you just look it up on Urban Dictionary? It’s so awkward to explain.”

    “That’s too much work, just tell me what it means.” The brunet whined. The microwave beeped so he stood up to take one hot dog(or pogo) out and put the other one in.

    “Okay… It’s like a where the person can actually take… all of it in their mouth.”

    “So just ing?” He asked, leaned against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest.

    “Not quite. More than just the-- They take--” Brian pressed against his temples and took a deep breath. Why is he not feeling super awkward right now? He thought to himself. “It’s the balls too. The whole thing, and the balls. There, I said it.”

    Jae just sort of stared for a second, then laughed. “Holy , that’s a thing? People can actually do that? I mean, I guess some guys are smaller than others so it’d be easier, but seriously? Can people actually do that with guys who are, like, average sized? Man, that’s like ing to the max. Jeez, that’s amazing. I want to meet someone who can do that and just high five them.” The microwave beeped again and he took the other corn dog out and took them both over to the island, then went back to the refrigerator. “Do you want ketchup or mustard?”

    Brian only stared in response.

    “What? Do you also eat corn dogs plain in Canada?”

    “No, I just--” He sighed. “Ketchup, please.”

***

    About two weeks after Brian moved in, it was his first day at his first job in America, and that was definitely reason for celebration. He called Jae while walking home from the guitar shop he worked at. He had gotten off about an hour before, but he came back because he forgot to buy himself new strings before he left. “How was it?” Jae asked as soon as the younger answered the phone.

    “Well, I can’t tell if they don’t like me or they’re intimidated by me. No one really talked to me except the person who trained me, but they were definitely talking about me. Looks like you’re still my only human friend here.”

    “They probably thought you were cute. It’s not easy to approach cute people. Give it time.”

Brian let out a one syllable laugh. “Aye aye, cap’n.”

“Are you home already?” He asked as he to the street they lived on.

“Yeah, I got home like a half an hour ago.”

“In like five minutes come over to my house, I gotta drop something off then I’m gonna take you out for drinks. Don’t forget to lock your door, you’re not in the safety of your hometown anymore.”

“But--”

“See ya.” He cut him off and hung up.

Just after he got home and set the guitar strings next to his acoustic guitar in his room, there was a knock at the door. He answered yelled for him to come in and made his way back to the living area where he saw Brian wearing ripped skinny jeans, white sneakers, and a black short sleeve shirt with a big skull and a design behind it that gave off a Dia De Los Muertos feel. His blond hair was parted to the side and fell halfway over his forehead and Jae could see his roots showing

“You actually look really good right now.” Jae commented and his Canadian neighbor flashed him a bright smile.

“Like, you could potentially go gay for me good, or just better than usual good?”

“Like I could potentially go gay for you good. You should wear skinnies more often, your legs look great in them.” He grabbed some cash off the counter(He never keeps cash in his wallet, it’s not necessary unless he’s going to need to tip someone.), put his arm around Brian’s shoulders and led them out, locking the door from the inside as he opened it. “Did you wear this to work?”

“Yeah.” He responded, “Do you think that’s why they were all just staring at me? I mostly work with girls, the only other guy was the one who was training me.”

“That’s definitely why.” He laughed and unlocked the car. “Get in.”

“Don’t you think driving isn’t the best idea? We’re going out for drinks. You know. Alcohol.” Brian said as he got in the car and Jae opened up the sunroof.

“I’m buying you drinks. I’ll have like one beer, but you drink as much as your little heart desires.”

***

When the bartender came to finally take away Jae’s empty glass, Brian asked for one more long island iced tea. Jae had recommended it and he just could not have enough. “I’m glad Fluffy attacked you while I was bringing in boxes.” The blond said, smiling at the older of the two.

Jae laughed. “You’re glad she attacked me?”

“Yeah.” He said, as if the reason behind this was obvious. “If she hadn’t attacked you, you would’ve went to church that day and never even talked to me. Instead, you were kind of forced to talk to me, and then you helped me out and even let me stay over at your house since I didn’t have a bed yet. You even helped me get this job. And now you turned a day that I thought was going to be horrible because no one liked me into a really great day.”

“Aw, you’re a cheesy drunk, how cute. Stop it.” He smiled and called for the bartender, telling him that he was ready to pay for all of their drinks.

“For real, though. I need to go hug Fluffy when I get home. She’s such a good cat, even if she’s a little sometimes.”

    “Ahh, enough of that. Earlier you mentioned something about seeing someone you thought you knew at work, didn’t you?”

    “Yeah, my crazy ex. I could’ve sworn I saw her sitting at one of the tables in the cafe on her phone. She didn’t order anything, just sat there and left after like fifteen minutes. There’s no way it was her, though, Lizzy’s in Toronto.” He squinted at something behind the bar as he spoke.

    “You don’t think she’s crazy enough to have come all the way here, do you?” Jae asked, slightly concerned.

    “Nah… No, there’s no way she’d do all that, she doesn’t even have a passport.” He said as he finished up his drink. “The glasses are too small here.” He commented and Jae laughed.

    “Come on, let’s go have some ramen to soak up all that alcohol at my place and then you can go hug your precious cat.”

    Though the ride was short, the only song that played was Brian’s favorite song by The Script, so he spent the entirety of his time in the car with Jae singing loudly and slurring his words. He seemed to be having the time of his life right then, and the designated driver just couldn’t help but to sing along with him.

    When they pulled into Jae’s long cement driveway, the two of them noticed that the living room light had been left on in Brian’s house. So that he wouldn’t run his electricity bill up even more than he already had by leaving it on for the hours that he wasn’t even home, the blond said that he would head over and turn it off, then come back for the ramen Jae had offered him.

    As the blond came closer to his door, something felt off. When he really thought about it, he was sure he hadn’t left that light on, and when he went to open the door, all he had to do was lightly push it because it hadn’t been closed, let alone locked. With wobbly, weary steps, Brian slowly made his way into the living room. Nothing seemed too out of place here, the gaming consoles still in place, along with all of the games and controllers. Nothing seemed to be missing. As he analyzed the room, however, he noticed that Fluffy was lying on the couch completely still. Usually the second he walked in the door she would be at his feet, ready to give lots of love, but she just sat there motionless. “Fluffy?” He called softly, but she didn’t stir awake. “Fluffy, Daddy’s home. Come here, girl…” He whispered as he hesitantly walked towards his statue-like Persian cat. When he got closer, he noticed the thick crimson liquid sticking to her white fur, puddled under and around her.

    He choked back a sob and dropped to his knees, crawling the rest of the way to her as tears spilled from his small eyes, his face contorted into one that most would describe as painful, agonizing even. He wanted to hold her, but didn’t want to move her, so he settled for just petting her. Her fur was still as soft as it had been before he’d left. He had only given her a bath maybe two, three days before, so she still smelled good too. And she looked so peaceful, as if she were napping in his lap after falling asleep while being petted and praised, but in reality she was lying lifeless but still warm in a puddle of her own blood. Brian sobbed loudly when he thought about how this had been done. Had she even known what was happening? Was she even aware of it? Or did the monster that did this to her somehow get in his home quietly enough to not wake her, then end her life while she was sleeping? Was it painless? Was she panicking? Who the hell would ever do such a horrible thing?

    And then he realized, it was her. He did see her at the cafe while he was working. That psycho really followed him all the way to America. Suddenly it was hard to breathe. He stood up and ran to his room, not bothering to turn on the light, and saw his clothes thrown everywhere. It was as if a tornado had gone through just the one room, even pulling the drawers out of his solid oak dresser and just throwing them.

He the light, determination driven by the bloody death of his 9 year old cat, and frantically looked through every single shirt he could find throughout the room, whether it be on the floor, bed, or desk. He was looking for one shirt in particular that he knew Lizzy would have taken. It was half of the simple couple-tee set that said “I’m hers” with a Mickey Mouse hand pointing to the left. She bought the shirts for their two year anniversary because she was upset that they didn’t do any cute couple things anymore since they had passed the honeymoon stage. He broke up with her the day after, and never even wore the shirt.

    “You should have just dumped me on our anniversary, showed how much of an you really are.” She told him. “You might as well burn the ing shirt I gave you.”

    He thought that she should have seen it coming, though. They lost that spark after a year of dating, but she refused to give up; she said she still felt something just as strongly as she did in the beginning. She tried so many things to make him reciprocate her feelings again, but nothing ever changed. It got boring. But she seemed so obsessive, always texting him, wanting to know where he was and who he was with at all times. Lizzy was livid once when he went home to visit his mom, because he hadn't seen her before the semester started. She seemed to think that his older sister was a side-chick he had back home after he posted a selfie with her on his Facebook. “I guess Asians do tend to get with other Asians. Is she Korean too? Did your precious mommy set you two up? Doesn’t she know we’re still together? I don’t care how rocky our relationship gets, you’re still mine.” She said when she called him, no more than five minutes after he posted the picture.

    Brian finally came back to reality when he heard footsteps running toward him and a voice that he immediately recognized as Jae’s calling his name. He stood up, not bothering to wipe the tears that finally stopped falling, and stared sadly into the doorway, his eyes shifting to meet his neighbor’s when he came into view.

    “Brian, what the hell happened here?” Jae asked as he half-walked-half-ran up to the younger male, clearly worried and kind of freaked out. “I saw Fluffy. Are you okay?”

    He nodded. “It was her, the crazy ex I thought I saw at work. She did this.”

    “Are you sure?” Jae inquired, apprehensive to ask the reasoning behind his assumption. He only nodded again. The little light that was usually in his eyes had disappeared and was replaced with an unfamiliar cloud of sadness, but his balled fists made him seem more angry than sad. “We need to call the cops. Do you want me to make the call?” He asked as calmly as he possibly could. Brian only nodded again.

***

    “Sir, I understand that you’re upset because of your cat and your sweater, but--” The police officer started, but Brian cut her off.

    “Shirt.” He corrected, arms crossed over his chest.

    “Right, your shirt. But, still, nothing major was stolen and no one with any type of social standing was injured, and your house doesn’t seem to have been forcibly broken into; whoever it was came in through the front door. I’ll do my best to make sure your case gets investigated, but I honestly can’t promise you that it’ll get very far.” She explained, an apologetic look in her eyes.

    “But I know who did it!” He retorted and threw his arms down to his sides. “It was my ex-girlfriend! She followed me here from Toronto, showed up to my job today, then came here and killed my ing cat! I couldn’t give two s about the damn shirt she stole, I never wanted it to begin with, she gave it to me!” He yelled, raising his voice more and more with each sentence.

    “Brian, calm down.” Jae, who was standing next to him, said as he put a hand on the younger’s shoulder. “Yelling at the officer won’t help you any.”

    “You say she came here from Toronto?” The officer asked, clicking her pen and opening her pocketbook.

    “Yes.”

    “Would you happen to know when? Did she contact you and let you know she was coming?” She asked, scribbling some words in the notebook.

    “Sometime between now and two weeks ago?” He replied, but it sounded more like a question than an answer to one. “I changed my phone number and blocked her number on my new phone when I got here, so there was no way for her to tell me she was coming.”

    “And what’s her full name?”

    “Elizabeth Smith, common spelling.”

    “Alright.” She clicked her pen, closed her notebook, then put them back into the pocket of her vest. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll run her name through the system, see if there was anyone with that name coming in from Toronto in the past two weeks. If there was, I’ll see if we can get her in for questioning and establish an alibi, then I’ll get back to you. How’s that sound?”

    “Great. That sounds great. Thank you so much, officer.” Brian responded. A wave of relief went through him and he relaxed as he spoke, the corners of his mouth turning up into a thankful smile.

    “No problem, man. I would want someone to do this for me if someone killed my cat, too. Do you have somewhere else you can sleep for a few days? Just until we can be sure the unsub won’t do to you what they did to-- What was her name again? Fluffy?” Brian nodded. “Yeah, Fluffy.”

    “I mean, is next door too close to be safe?” The blond male asked.

    She nodded as she spoke. “Yeah, I would recommend staying somewhere farther.”

    “I don’t know anyone here accept him, though,” he pointed to Jae, “and he lives next door.

    “Do you have money for a hotel?”

    “No, I just started my job today and all of the money I have in my savings needs to go towards my first month’s rent. Do you really think she’d come back?” He asked, hands shaking.

    “We can never be sure, sir. How about this; you stay with him, and I mean you really stay with him.” She suggested. “If he goes to the store, you go to the store. If he goes to work and you aren’t going to work too, you go with him. He drops you off and picks you up from work. Would that work for you guys?” The two looked at each other and nodded. “Great. Why don’t you grab some clothes for tomorrow and I’ll walk you over? Just to be safe.”