Yuto started his search in the back alleys he had often seen Kuro wandering through behind thier house. He dodged and weaved in between the large trash bins that, judging by the smell, hadn't been emptied yet. The alley itself was at the back of 4 of the 10 apartment blocks so there was a lot of trash and a lot of strays trying to get a meal, Yuto lost count of the amount of times he had almost been scratched just walking in between the bins, he was starting to regret wearing ripped jeans because some of them were coming dangerously close to cutting his skin. The strays must have smelt Kuro's scent on him because his mere presence was rilling them up.

Damn what is Kuro up to when I'm at college for these cats to hate me so much.

After a few minutes of being hissed at by cats Yuto decided to go elsewhere, he doubted Kuro was there.

Next stop was the cafe a few streets over where he often hung out when he first moved to Korea, one of the part time staff had studied in Japan and could speak Japanese so he had always been someone Yuto could talk easiy with. Kuro had followed him there a few times and (after being fed once) kept going back.

If he's gotten hungry he'll be at 20space. Yuto reasoned.

He practically sprinted there, jacket flapping behind him as if he were some kind of super-hero on his way to save a damsel in distress. He accidentally bumped into a business man on the outside of a huddle of men in suits smoking outside of a karaoke bar, knocking both himself and the man onto the floor. Hard.

'Ah, ah I'm sorry.' Yuto shifted from sitting on his (now bruised) but to his knees, leaning towards the man to help him up.

'What the hell d'you think you're doing?' The man slurred, clearly drunk out of his mind.

'I'm sorry, I was in a rush.' Yuto reached out again to help the man up but the man smacked his hand away.

'Your accent, where ya' from? Japan?' The man leaned in closer to Yuto who nodded, 'Well what'cha doin 'ere then? Go back to Japan!'

Yuto recoiled in shock, it was the first time anyone had been so outright offensive towards him so he didn't know what to do but open and close his mouth like a fish in a search for words, the other men weren't making any indication they were going to do anything but watch their collegue who had stood up on his own.

'Go on then.' The man gestured down the street where Yuto had been headed before they collided.

Yuto didn't know what to do but get up and leave. He felt sick. As he was standing up the man smirked at him, the others too, as if they had, had some great victory over him, that was until Yuto had stood up fully and they realised he was much taller than them all, arrogant smiles dropping from their faces. It didn't make him feel any better though. 

As he walked away the men seemed to regain their confidence and began to jeer after him.

'GO ON, GO ON HOME, GET OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!' They laughed at his back.

Yuto felt tears swelling at his eyes, he was having a bad enough day as it was with Kuro escaping and now racist drunk business men hollering at him in the street.

His chest felt tight, a lump was forming in his throat and his vision was becoming blury through his tears. But he couldn't wipe them, not when the men were still shouting to him, he couldn't show his weakness. He couldn't.

---

Woah- the hell? Are there really still people like that in Korea? Wooseok thought to himself as he watched a group of drunk business men across the road yell at a, presumably, Japanese guy to get out of the country. He had been walking towards Kuro's owner's home when he had seen the guy on the other side of the road running along, then bumping into one of the men knocking them over. It had looked like it hurt.

He hadn't quite caught the guys face but he looked kind of familiar, Wooseok would have crossed the road to confront them but he had a hyper dog on a lead in one hand and a sleeping cat in the other so he couldn't have exactly done anything if things went south and the men got violent. Anyway it seemed to be over, the Japanese guy was walking away and the men were stumbling back into the karaoke bar, laughing. 

Wooseok set off again in the opposite direction to the Japanese guy towards Kuro's home, but there was something so familiar about the Japanese guy that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

He rounded the corner and eventually came to the apartment blocks Kuro lived in, he had trouble locating the right building at first but eventually came to the correct one. The buildings were all pretty old in stark contrast to the newer more modern buildings that were slowly taking over Seoul. There were two elevators that displayed the floors they were currently on, on old screens.

Floors 3 and 7, so I'll call the one on floor 3.

Wooseok stepped forward, wrapping Monshils lead around his wrist so his very excited dog wouldn't run off to investigate these new surroundings, and pressed the button on the left elevator. A downwards pointing arrow appeared next to the number 3 which then started counting down to 0.

Wooseok's destination was the 6th floor, once he got off the elevator he walked over to room 10 and rung the bell. No response. He rung it again. No response. He rang it a third time, Mongshil was starting to get aggitated cause he could hear the bell through the door, Kuro was starting to rouse from his sleep in Wooseoks arm. He tried knocking instead but there was still no response.

He had been there nearly 15 minutes, alternating between knocking and ringing the doorbell and was starting to worry. At first he worried that something had happened to the owner, there were no indications on Kuro's collar how old the owner was so it was plausible that they could be elderly and may have fallen. Then his worry switched to Kuro himself.

What if the owner did this to him? Oh God what if they beat him up and kicked him out and I'll just be putting him back there.

Wooseok had always loved animals and would do anything for them, so once he got that idea in his head there was no way he could have shaken it. He decided to leave.

I can keep Kuro, I'll take him to the vet in the morning, yeah I'll ask mum and dad for more money to look after him and if the owner really wants him back I'll probably see missing cat posters over the next few days and can bring him back anyway.

His mind was made up and he headed back to the elevators.

---

None of the workers at 20space had seen Kuro and it was getting too late for Yuto to keep looking for him, Kuro was a black cat afterall and Yuto could easily walk past him in the dark unknowingly so he decided to go back home.

Once he got back to his building he got into the right elevator as it was already on the ground floor, as he was getting in he noticed that the left one was on the 6th floor and he figured it was just one of his neighbours.

---

Wooseok got in the left elevator because it was already on the 6th floor from him getting out, the other one was on the ground floor and he figured someone else must've used that one while he was waiting.

The elevator began to move down, 6, 5, 4, 3...

---

The elevator began to move up, 0, 1, 2, 3...

---

For a brief moment Yuto, Wooseok, Kuro and Mongshil were side by side.

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2, 1, 0.

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4, 5, 6.

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Hey guys, I hope you've liked the story so far! Feel free to leave comments with any questions/hopes for the progression of the story ~*