Cat-in-Law

This story started when Jihoon first met Vernon. He was in cat shelter along with his cousin who wanted to adopt a cat, and Jihoon being the -forced- reliable cousin accompanying the taller man to choose the cat.

“Oh come one, hyung.” Mingyu whined earlier that week when he crashed into his shorter cousin’s apartment. “I don’t want to look awkward when I pick the cat.”

“Didn’t I tell you to shed off your height? It’s your own fault growing that tall and becoming a titan to small cats.” Jihoon replied snidely, he was still totally bitter about his once used to be little cousin, now overgrown him, who was 5 years older than the said cousin. He also couldn’t understand why the younger wanted to adopt a cat suddenly.

“It feels so lonely for me to live alone in my apartment.” Mingyu explained that once again when they were on their way to the shelter. “And my friend said that having a pet may help.”

“Why cat?” Jihoon asked while driving his car smoothly, following Mingyu’s navigation lead. “I thought you are more dog person.”

Frowning when his navigation was a bit late in directing and updating the route -well, not his navi’s fault but more like his internet’s fault, Mingyu gave up with the maps and started looking around the area himself. “Dog can be too active and messy. And they’re too big for my apartment. So yeah..”

Jihoon never expected himself to like animal nor anything cute in general, but when he looked around while walking behind Mingyu disinterestedly, he couldn’t stop himself from staring at two brunette kittens snuggling with each other in one of the cages.

“Hyung?” Mingyu approached him when he noticed that the elder had stopped following him. “You find something?” he asked curiously and Jihoon didn’t bother himself to answer because Mingyu would eventually see the kittens he was watching. And true to his guess. Mingyu did see them and soon he cooed aloud. “Oh! They’re cute.”

The younger’s loud voice startled the kittens. One, which seemed smaller, flinched awake from its nap and raised its head to look at them confusedly. Jihoon followed the small kitten’s eyes movement until they reached him. He watched the kitten tilted its head and never once strayed its gaze away from him. Out of his control, Jihoon’s lips quirked up bit by bit everytime the brunette kitten blinked confusedly. The kitten was cute.

“Would you like to hold him?” the staff cheerful voice asked from beside Mingyua. And without breaking eye contact with the kitten, Jihoon nodded and stepped back to let the staff to get the smaller kitten. And while he was withholding his breath, he accepted the cat into his arms.

The second impression of the kitten was that he was so small that Jihoon could hold him with only one hand, this made the little one appearing cuter to Jihoon’s mind. the fur gently with his other hand, Jihoon cradling the cat with extra carefulness, he was so enthralled by the extraordinary feeling of the fur against his fingers and also the small mewl, that he barely heard Mingyu’s comment about the other cat which was still calm inside the cage. Boldly, he took the bigger and calmer cat and held it close to him. “Hyung, they are brothers. Are you going to adopt him? If so, I’m going to adopt this one.”

“Hyung? Do you hear me?”

Completely ignoring his excited cousin and the bigger cat on his hands who purred at his caressing, Jihoon focused himself on the small kitten he held. He didn't plan to adopt one but one look at Vernon, Jihoon was awed by the kitten's adorableness.

He had fell in love at first sight.

-----

On that Sunday morning -afternoon-, Jihoon wakes up with a loud yawn. The comfortable silence in his house almost pulls him back to sleep again if not for the fluffy presence nudging his cheek with warm nose. The slow drag of small rough tongue against his skin makes him opening his eyes and glances softly at his one and only beloved pet who is staring down at him with -in Jihoon’s vision- sulking expression.

“Morning, Vernon-ah.” The human greets, arms slipping out carefully from under the blanket to reach his cat and then petting him gently. “What time is it?” He asks but of course Vernon who mewl sleepily at his caressing can't answer him.

Propping his torso up with his arm, Jihoon reaches for his phone on the bedside table and checks the time. As he does that, small paw is tapping at his hand, asking for more caressing. Chuckling, the young man obliges to what his cat wants.

It's already twenty six past 11. Jihoon mutters under his breath, caressing the little brunette cat while his other hand tapping at his phone away, checking the messages he got overnight -or morning. “Seokmin and Hoshi wants to come over.” He muttered and that makes Vernon who takes the remaining space on the pillow beside his head to raise his head and looks at him expectantly.

Chuckling at the excited gleaming in that pair of small chestnuts, Jihoon nudges Vernon to move. The cat almost immediately spring away from his pillow and waits with happy feet running around the space near the door. Shaking his head at Vernon's behaviour, Jihoon scoops his tiny fur ball and investing small pecks on the soft fur. “The universe's cutest, Beonon -ah.”* If Vernon can talk, Jihoon will be extra delighted to hear his squeal.

Seokmin and Hoshi arrive extremely fast. By the time Jihoon finishes washing his face and brushing his teeth, which is only several minutes after he answered to Seokmin’s message asking his permission to come over, the younger boy has rung Jihoon’s doorbell as if the end of the world finally come.

“Ya. Just ring once is enough.” Jihoon complains exasperatedly when he opens the door but before he can nag at his neighbor further, a black and white shadow jumps through the open door, dodging him and zipped its way into Jihoon’s apartment room.

“What?”

“Aah! Hoshi-ah!” Seokmin rushes inside after taking off his shoes in panic. “What did I tell you about visiting the neighbor? You can't just running in as you like!”

Watching Seokmin ironically disappears uninvitedly into his apartment once he takes the turn to the living room,  Jihoon palms his face and sighs even more tiredly. Why did he allow them to come over again? He mulls over, slightly regretting it. Ah, right. For his Vernon.

Closing the door, but not slamming it, Jihoon reaches the living room only to find Seokmin standing awkwardly, not knowing what to do in front of the two cats snuggling to each other on the lounge sofa.

After successfully separating the two cats, Jihoon cradles Vernon while he is laying down on the sofa while his fingers smoothly brushing the honey colored fur of his calm cat. It's not like Jihoon doesn't like Hoshi, the black and white cat has helped Vernon to be more . His baby used to be a timid kitten who looked like he didn’t know what to do after separated from his brother -the other kitten Mingyu has adopted, but then he become more cheerful and seems happier after getting to know Hoshi who often comes with Seokmin to play with him. Jihoon is glad to have that, but sometimes the presence of that black-white cat annoys the young man a bit -if not a lot.

Jihoon is not the type of person who acts possessively over what is his. But the fact that Vernon sometimes put Hoshi at the top of his priority list, makes Jihoon feeling betrayed. It upsets him, a lot, he admits only to himself. But what can he do? His always calm and obedient baby likes Hoshi, and Jihoon can't make his cat to not love the other cat just because he wants Vernon to like only him. Beside, after what happened some weeks ago… God, Jihoon doesn’t want to remember that little activity -which involves explicit explanation- done by the two cats. He begs the deity above to permit him to forget that misdemeanor which can never be undone now .

Vernon’s smooth fur, the young man thinks solemnly to himself. ‘Is this what parents feel when they give their daughter to another man? When they let their daughter to marry? Ah, talking about marriage…’

“Shouldn't there be a wedding for cats?” Turning to look at Seokmin who is sitting on the floor across him, while continues petting Vernon who is curling up lazily on his chest, Jihoon asks his neighbor who is trying to get his frantic cat sitting calmly on the cushion.

When Seokmin looks up at him, Jihoon can see from his slow blinking that the boy thinks about the marriage as a joke. “That will be fun!” he laughs before yelping in pain when Hoshi scratches his hand and jumps onto the sofa toward Vernon.

Darting his gaze to the cat, Jihoon watches in challenging amusement when Hoshi looks at him cautiously, before raising his brow when the older cat ignorantly climbs onto his chest and then snuggling with Vernon as if he has deemed the human undangerous. Looking at how easy Vernon let the other cat, he wonders to Seokmin who is caressing his scratched hand. “Are we going to be in-law?”

The elementary school boy dares to openly grimace at the idea, right to his face which makes Jihoon glares back, feeling furiously offended. But looking back to himself, Jihoon too doesn't want to be Seokmin’s in-law. The kid -and also his cat- are too loud for his peaceful mind and his Vernon. Yet still, the wedding happens anyway because one certain brat not able to shut his mouth and two certain cat-lovers just getting too excited at the prospect of gathering and party.

“This is ridiculous.” Chan, Jihoon’s younger brother, comments in their group chat - Cat Kingdom , the name recently changed by Mingyu who happens to be the creator of the group, with its description, My Vernon is the Queen , obviously written by certain someone-, with numerous disagreeing emoticons and photos of grumpy cats. “Who in their right mind hold a wedding for cats?”

After Seokmin babbles too much to his friends about Vernon and Hoshi, their group chat explodes with the talk of VerHosh marriage which Jihoon never agree to have despite him being the first one who brought up the topic. And with him rarely checking the chat room because of his works and also undivided attention to his cat who gains weight lately, he never know that the reception has been decided one sidedly by his friends. He doesn’t know until his friends arrive in his apartment with party equipments carried in big bags, and not to be forgotten, their various cats are also present in this chaos.

Overwhelmed by their arrival, Jihoon reaches for the nearest hard object -which is his acoustic guitar- and shouts at the group of intruders who grins at him. “YAAAA!!”

At the very least, Seungcheol has the decency to look guilty about it and Chan looks extraordinarily annoyed by this occasion.

“Aigo.. Hyung..” Seungkwan is -just like usual- in charge of food, moving the foods from the containers he has brought onto the plates which aren’t Jihoon’s. “How many times do I have to tell you? Get some artistic plates for parties.”

“I’m…” Jihoon stops his words midway when he hears Vernon calling him from Mingyu’s hold. “Morning, Honey. How was your nap?” Jihoon receiving his -now a little bit fat- baby Vernon from Mingyu -who has kindly fetched the cat from his nap spot-, scratches Vernon’s head gently, fondly watching in amusement when he sees the cat curls in his hold, flailing his long tail while his ears folding sideways. Not looking back at Seungkwan, Jihoon continues his retaliation to the younger. “I’m not expecting any party.”

“Yeah, say that again, I don’t care. We party when it happens.” Seungkwan raises his finger, waving it side to side then pointing at Vernon in Jihoon’s hold. “Look, even your cat likes the new plates.”

Truthfully, Vernon is trying to reach out to the kitchen island where some of the foods are already plated artistically nice by Seungkwan and Mingyu. “Vernon just like the foods, not the plates.” Jihoon comments, turning away from both two younger men to turn at his younger brother. “I think you said that it is ridiculous, why are you here setting up the table with linen and white lace table runner?”

The youngest adult rolls his eyes at Jihoon before nudging his chin toward the two in the kitchen. “Tell your friends to not drag me here.”

Rolling his eyes when Chan starts ranting about him not having a cat but still dragged around by these cat-lover group, and then catching his cat’s paws which are trying to find a hold on the lace, Jihoon warns. “You can’t play with it now.”

‘Then, what should I do?’ Jihoon can imagine hearing Vernon say that when he lets his front feet to fall slack on Jihoon’s forearms, whining while making a tiny grabby moves toward the linen which descend from the end of the table until almost reaching the floor. Snorting, Jihoon really can’t stop his cat’s adorableness.

Understanding his cat, Jihoon carefully moves and drags his feet toward another room where the other cats are left. “Let’s get you to your friends, Vernon-ah.” he says sweetly to the cat, nuzzling his soft smooth fur with adoration and his cat replies with the same adoration which for a moment Jihoon is scared to find out adoration for exactly whom.

Otherwise, Jihoon continues walking and when he hears Vernon’s excited meows, he caresses the cat’s head again before reaching for the door. “Meet your friends, Vernon-ah.” Opening the door to the room, Jihoon swiftly checks each spot to find the cats. The first one he spot is Hoshi, Vernon’s fiance, the delighted cat is perching high on the cat tower and that made Jihoon wants to shove the cat down and makes the smug look disappears. He is dying to do it, but Jihoon can feel Vernon’s excitement from the way he flails his feet, so he let Vernon go from his hold and the two years old cat immediately jumps and joins his friends.

He watches as Wonu, Vernon’s older brother, jumps on his brother and starts nudging and rubbing their cheeks together. Jihoon is really fond of the two’s behavior around each other, Wonu always sticking close to Vernon and watch over the younger with careful eyes, it kinds of reminding the human about his own reaction to whatever Vernon does. Before a smile completely blooming on his face, a -as sick as this sounds to him- familiar blur of white and black tackled Wonu away.

Hoshi hisses, his fur raising up and so are his tail and ears. Baring his fangs at the other big cat, the cat narrows his almond shaped eyes, making an angry line crossing his face. This stimulates Wonu to mirror the same gesture, he steps up in front of Vernon and hisses back at Hoshi.

“Hahaha, Wonu is really protective.” Seungcheol, one of Jihoon’s friends, is there too. His current task is making sure the cats won’t make a mess in the room or they -the humans- will have to face the wrath of the little demon which owns the apartment they has barged in, again.

Sighing and turning to close the door, Jihoon sits on the floor with his back leaning against the wall beside the door. He crosses his legs as he pulls his baby away from the two bickering cats, not wanting Vernon to get caught in their battle. “And Hoshi is possessive.” He sighs not amusedly, then ignoring Seungcheol commenting that he is the one who is more possessive.

Throwing his gaze around the room, Jihoon takes attendance of the cats. Seungkwan’s cats are lazyly laying down on the big comfy cat bed in the far corner of the room, Hao folding his front feet under his head while Jun rests beside the younger cat with his head on top of Hao’s head. The two have amused -almost mocking- look directed at the two big cats hissing and scratching each other.

Looking back down when he feels Vernon jumping away from his lap, Jihoon’s eyes follow the brunette cat going past the two still bickering cats, to Joshua who turns at Vernon’s mew and meet the youngest cat halfway.

“I don’t really think that this wedding is necessary. Do the cats even know what this mean?” Jihoon asks, watching Vernon interacting with Joshua near Seungcheol who has his white Angel on his lap.

sleeping Angel’s fur, Seungcheol replies with a smile. “Who knows? It’s not like we can fully understand their thought.” There is a small mewl and the older man looks back down and starts cooing at his own cat. “Aww, Angel wants some scratch?”

Making an almost appalled expression at Seungcheol who obediently listens to whatever his cats want, Jihoon leans back on his hands, commenting. “You’re still his servant.”

“He is the cutest cat alive.” Seungcheol claims and Jihoon frowns. “My Vernon is cuter.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever you say, Jihoon-ah. To each their own.” giving half hearted smile at his friend, Jihoon shakes his head and turns his attention back to Vernon who now cuddling sleepily with Joshua. The adorable sight can’t even cure his heart from breaking apart.

“We’re here to witness the happiest ceremony in this life.” Seungkwan starts with Vernon and Hoshi -each respectively having a pink and blue bow tie around their neck- seated on the table in front of him. All the guests, which are 5 humans and 5 cats, sit comfortably in the living room behind the two furry grooms who face each other, Hoshi holding his head high looking happy -and smug- while Vernon tilting his head and eyes wide in confusion.

The self-claim cat priest continues his speech, talking with smooth flow as he looks around the room and every once in a while, meeting the two cats’ father which are Jihoon and also Seokmin, who has just came home from his school.

“If there is anyone who wants to…” before Seungkwan finishes his sentence, Chan raises his hand. “Can you please hurry this up? I’m hungry.” The remaining others sigh and shake their head. Leave it to Chan -the sole not cat owner- to not understand the importance of this holy ceremony. But actually, there is also another man who agrees with him, and that is Jihoon, the father of oblivious Vernon.

“Chan is right. Beside, there is no one here who doesn’t accept this.” Jihoon sighs, crossing his arms as he leans back against his black couch. He knows that none of his friends disagree with it, and if there is anyone who not wanting this, it is probably himself; he can’t let his baby marry unruly cat who always jumps into his apartment uninvited and steals Vernon’s attention all to himself. Jihoon thinks that he is the only one, yet unknown to him, there is also one cat who doesn’t like this arrangement, but his owner’s hold on him is so strong that he can’t disentangle himself to jump at the front table.

With no one raising a disagreement to Chan’s words, while grumbling Seungkwan wraps up the ceremony soon and starts the party with several wedding shots with the newly wed cats. While most of the humans are enjoying their feast on the table, the cats eat happily from their bowl. Well, most, Angel and Joshua are keeping Seungcheol by their side to make sure that their bowl aren’t empty of food. While Jihoon has his face down on the table, murmurs of Vernon marrying Hoshi and Vernon will forget him spilled from his lips.

“Eish. This hyung.” Seungkwan who sits beside Jihoon, makes a face at the older. “Stop making it sounds like your son is running away.”

Chan, sitting across him also comments snidely. “Vernon is still yours. If Vernon wants to be with Hoshi, they are only two doors away.”

Ignorant to Jihoon’s distress, young Seokmin announces as if Vernon will start living with him. “You can always visit us! We won't mind you coming to our home because you’re now my in-law.”

Frowning, Seungkwan looks at the youngest. “Does it mean that you never accepted him before because he wasn't your in-law?”

“Well, he is scary.”

Hearing that, Jihoon finally looks up from the table, angry line gracing his face. “Ya!”

“Look! He is scary!” Seokmin points out before scrambling away from the table, bringing his plates of pasta and fork with him.

“Hyung, why don't we become in-law too?” Mingyu chirps up before Jihoon attacks the elementary student.

Aiming his anger now at his cousin, Jihoon glares. “Ya,  Kim Mingyu. Do I need to remind you that your cat is my cat's older brother?”

The tallest pouts. “But I also want Vernon as my son-in-law. He is more affectionate than Wonu. Vernon always accept my hugs while Wonu barely notices me at all.”

“You chose Wonu when we dropped by Cat-shelter.” Jihoon reminds.

And of course Mingyu remembers it. He can also still remember how painful the first scratch he got from Wonu when he took the older cat to his home, practically separating him from his younger brother. “I didn't know that he will be like that, until now.” Wonu doesn't scratch him much lately, but his ignorance level is still so high that Mingyu can't cope with it. He adopted a cat to help himself from feeling lonely but his cat practically ignored him.

“I'm sorry to hear that.” Jihoon says flatly before sitting back and starts picking his food, ignoring Mingyu who whines about him wanting Vernon.

A collective mewl makes Jihoon looks up from his now empty plate -only God knows where his food had disappeared to- to turn at the little group of cats. He blankly watches Vernon and Hoshi snuggling, and at that, Jihoon feels like he wants to tear up. Everything floods into his mind and Jihoon is faced by pictures of memories.

Where is the kitty who always jumped at anything which surprise him? Where is the kitty who cried and ran away when something scared him? Where is the kitty who snuggled close to him when he needed caress and attentions? Where did the time go? Vernon was just little kitty he adopted from a shelter, but now he is an adult, married and will be father of his own kitties.

Jihoon is aware that this doesn’t mean that he will relent his ownership to anyone, but to think that his baby Vernon now has his own man -cat-, there is a sense of losing something dear to him in Jihoon’s heart.

So this is what it feels like to be a father. He consoles himself in silence while wishing for the best for his Vernon.

“The universe's cutest, Beonon-ah” this phrase comes from Rich Man, said by Kim Bora “The universe's greatest, Bora”.
Jihoon adoring Vernon is one of the most cutest things ever! I can't wait to write HoonSol’s wedding story~~ UwU
I don’t add this tag, but do you notice the hints about pregnancy? ;)

Coming up next, WonSol! The hint for their story is ‘Wolf and Rabbit’~~ Can you guess what's going to happen? ;) Stay tune to Wedding Stories ^^/