It’s been one week since he last saw Jongin. One very, very long week since the adoption papers had gone through and Jongin had officially moved out of the cafe. That's not to mention the few trial days Jongin had spent at his new home over the past month, before the shelter that sponsored the younger hybrid would sign off on the papers. Kibum, one of Taemin's two humans, had long since given up trying to cheer Taemin up, the little cups of jello with pretty little flowers on top he’d provide doing little to brighten Taemin's day.

The few minutes of bliss the gelatin brought him was quickly dampened by the thought of how Jongin hated banana flavouring, yet would always eat the scoop Taemin offered him, something Taemin did only because the way the larger cat’s nose would crinkle was one of Taemin’s favourite things. The feeling of longing was only further pushed home by the absence of Jongin to place the pretty little pansy into Taemin’s hair, tucking it behind his ear along with the waterfall of his auburn fringe. The look of adoration that would pull at Jongin’s lips and spill warm from his deep brown eyes was the only reason Taemin ever wore the flowers. He also kept them all pressed in his copy of Dragonball volume.8, Jongin’s favourite, but that wasn’t something anyone needed to know as far as Taemin was concerned.

Today was different though and in an action that was very drastically against his nature, Taemin had been awake by eight that morning, even though Jongin wasn’t expected to arrive until noon. He’d spent a good hour trying to figure out what to wear, which had Minho, his other human, questioning where their Taemin had gone and just who this cat was. A comment that had Ren, one of the board cats at the cafe, snickering; silenced quickly by a sharp look from Taemin. 

It was all Kibum could do to get him to eat after that, insisting that he have breakfast at the very least lest all his hair fall out from malnutrition. Taemin did so reluctantly, not even eating half of his bowl before Kibum was heaving a sigh.

“If you’re just going to play with it, go.”

Which is exactly what Taemin had done. Moving swiftly down to the main public cafe Taemin had made his way across to his favourite booth, which sat pressed against the full length glass window that fronted their catcafe. He’d climbed onto the table, folding his legs under himself as he waited, eyes bright and ears alert. The soft smile that pulled at his plush lips was the first they’d seen in weeks and not even Kibum had the heart to chase him off the table.

Taemin had fallen asleep like that, his knees having been pulled up, arms wrapping around them, and his face far from dignified in the way it was pressed against the glass window in front of him. The soft tinkle of the bell over the door as customers came and went was enough to lull Taemin to a dozen as he waited, enough so that he didn’t even hear when his boy and their recently acquired human arrived. 

Taemin was startled awake by the press of a cold nose to the back of his neck, smacking his forehead against the glass before jerking r