Being busy wasn’t one of the things you were known for. Tripping on nothing? Check. Accidentally saying something you shouldn’t? Yup. But being otherwise engaged? Ridiculous.

Maybe that’s why your friend thought she could just barge into your house during a Friday night, then guilty trip you into babysitting Chanyeol while she went to some stupid fund raising party or whatever. Sure, she could. And she did. And maybe you were a little bit happy that you’d get to spend some time with her pet. But making you help her pick an outfit? Pure. Torture.

“You’re literally making me choose between shades of gray.” You groaned once she put on her latest choice of dress. “Seriously, why even bring so many dresses when they all look the same?” You folded your legs on the armchair, staring accusingly at all the clothes laying neatly on your bed. She couldn’t make a mess even when she was making a mess, the psycho.

“Please be serious hon, I need to be out the door in twenty.” She pleaded.

“Fine. That pencil dress wasn’t half bad.” She looked quite y in pencil skirts, actually. If it wasn’t for the lack of color you would’ve picked that one from the start.

“You do know that grown hybrids don’t need sitters right?” You watched her struggle with the zipper. “I mean, I’m cool with it and all, but you could’ve dressed up at your own place, then left Chanyeol alone for a few hours instead of wasting your time bringing him here.”

“I know, but don’t dogs get lonely? I just– Ugh.” She stomped her feet. “Get me out of this damn thing.”

“You were just spoiling him.” You didn’t even try to keep the smirk out of your voice as your hands worked on her zipper.

Once upon a time, your bestie thought hybrids were weird, now she was making plans on the go based on Chanyeol’s needs. So cute, she probably got it from you. Since Baekhyun moved about a month ago, you changed your whole routine to make sure he’d adapt. Eating nothing but take out was no longer your reality, now you had someone to help you cook. Straying on your way home from work to drink became undesirable once you thought about the cute “Hello!” you’d get once you arrived. Even your sacred weekends locked inside the apartment lazying around turned into pleasant strolls in the park or trips to the mall.

“Oh, I’m spoiling him?” She changed into your choice of dress. “Honey, we are in your place, okay? It’s an LED nightmare.”

Your friend gave herself one last look in the mirror, her fingers quickly fixing her hair up.

“Shut up, it’s pretty.” You scoffed, though you did think that the Christmas lights in the living room were a bit much. Especially given it was nowhere near December. “Plus, Baekhyun likes fairy lights.”

“He’s a ing cat, he’ll like anything that shines.” She sighed. “Just like my stupid dog won’t stop hugging me for attention.”

“Chanyeol hugs you?” That was so unfair, Baekhyun never hugged you. All he ever did was let you pet him. Except for that one time he slept on your shoulder while watching TV. You remained still for so long your neck ached for two days straight. It was totally worth it.

It was easy to pick a pair of heels. She had only brought two, and absolutely refused to even glance at yours. So rude. And her heels were boring too. Maybe you should get her some fun shoes. Like those that light up when you walk, or maybe with wheels. Oh, would Baekhyun like comfy colorful roller shoes?

Wait. No, Stop. You shook the thought out of your head, reminding yourself of those painful two weeks of eating nothing but instant noodles. Now that you finally got your Paycheck, you needed to be more cautious with money.

 “Alright, time to go.” She announced.

Overall, the outfit made her seem older, and a bit more fierce, just the way she liked it. As if the amount of overtime she had to do didn’t make her fierce enough. It was kind of inspiring, how she waltzed through the apartment as if she wasn’t on her way to the most boring party of the year. You’d rather live off of noodles forever then have to deal with her job.

Chanyeol raised his head from his Nintendo DS, tail shaking excitedly. When your friend said she blew up her budget? That was all on video games and comic books. “You chose the dress I picked up!”

You gasped, one hand frozen on the front door’s handle. Chanyeol had already helped her, all your suffering had been for nothing! “Oh please, I couldn’t trust him,” your friend said as she walked out the apartment, most likely reading your mind, “Chanyeol’s a .”

His whine fell on deaf ears, since all it did was make you chuckle. The door was halfway closed when your friend called you one last time. “You know…” her careful tone made the back of your neck itch. “Ji-Woo called me today. How the did she get my number?”

Oh. So the surprise hybrid sleep-over wasn’t for Chanyeol, but a rushed pity party for you. Wohoo. Damn people with big golden hearts and their need to meddle. You shrugged, not waiting any longer before finally closing the door.

Feeling entitled to, you made your way to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. But not even the pleasant aroma and your favorite mug, a simple white one with the quote This is not enough coffee, was enough to appease the bitter anger crawling up your spine.

You weren’t avoiding Ji-Woo, what you were avoiding, was being scolded like a child. Your parents hadn’t exactly had a fun time with you dropping out of college. They had even less fun knowing you still managed to get hired at a publishing company, even without a degree, which blew up their plans of scaring you into going back to law school. Thank goodness you had already worked there as an intern once, otherwise Haejin wouldn’t have even considered giving you a full time job.

Ji-Woo could feel when you did something your parents disapproved of, there was no other explanation. After months of virtually no calls she suddenly can’t wait to get in touch with you the moment you get a hybrid? Not fishy at all. Your house was totally not bugged.

Bottom line was: you were pissed. For years now, actually. It started off as doubt, this little voice inside your head telling you that you were screwing up your whole life over nothing. Then, it turned into guilt, a heavy weight in your chest that kept you up at night for letting everyone down. And finally came the anger, the sweet relief you had needed for so long. Because your parents not only ignored your wishes, they belittled you for even having them in the first place. Like there was no way you simply didn’t fit in law school, as if the concept that you never even wanted to go was absurd. They never pressured you into it, oh no, this little “freak out” was on you.

Then it was Ji-woo’s turn to treat you like a moron. To be fair, she did try to be understanding at first, but at the end of the day she sided with your parents, per usual, and you were once again feeling like trash. Well, no more. Having the same fight over and over again was exhausting, and the last one was just as deadly as the first had been. So, until the three of them accepted that no, you were not getting a degree, you had nothing more to say.

Except… You did miss them. You’ve been missing them your whole life. Your firm grasp on the coffee mug turned soft. Lost in thought, you barely noticed Baekhyun leaning on the counter. “So, what are we watching?”

Hybrid pajama party. Right.

“Last time I picked the movie, you barely made it through the intro.” You blinked twice, mustering your best smile before facing him. Baekhyun paused for a bit, noticing something wasn’t quite right but still not saying anything. It wasn’t the first time too, Baekhyun had been present during at least half the times Ji-Woo had called you, but never made any comment on the matter. Only waiting until your cell phone released you from your trance before talking about something entirely different.

At first, you thought he simply didn’t want to pry. But the more you got to know him, the more you realized how good he was at reading the mood in a room then changing it for the better. Having someone so caring around was as much of a blessing as it was a curse, because every now and then you felt guilty over letting the poor guy in the dark.

“My bad. But try to pick something with a bit more action, kay?” He grinned as you furrowed your brows. Labyrinth was a classic dammit! “And maybe we should get some popcorn.”

Just like that, you could already feel your bad mood dissipating. There was no reason to hold on to it when Baekhyun was looking at you with such a soft expression.

Chanyeol closed his DS at the mere mention of food. “Popcorn? I’m all about that.”

The smell of butter filled the apartment and you sat comfortably between the hybrids. Despite their pleas for an action movie, you managed to put a slasher on instead. Ideally, you wanted to watch an actual horror, something more frightening than random killers with masks. If only to prove to your smug cat that your choices of movies weren’t boring, but as the film went on, you got more and more relieved you changed your mind. Sure, the idea was to get a little scared, but Chanyeol was not taking the movie well. At all.

Any time something even close to a jump scare appeared on the screen, the dog hybrid hid himself further underneath the blanket. In contrast, Baekhyun only laughed whenever a scare got to him.

You were somewhere in between, feeling your heart pick up its pace at some scenes, but finding yourself loosing focus the more Chanyeol refused to even look at the TV. At least he wasn’t screaming anymore, which was great, but you didn’t want to traumatize the poor puppy on the one time he slept over. Your friend was going to kill you.

“Um… Chanyeol?” You called softly. “Do you want to watch something else?”

His brown eyes met yours, clearly tempted by your proposal. Then he untangled himself from the ball of fear he had become and sat straight. “Why would I want that?” His prideful question would’ve made you feel better if his voice hadn’t cracked a bit at the end.

As if life was mocking him, that was just the moment the protagonist turned a corner and found herself face to face with the murderer. The music picked up and Chanyeol latched himself onto your arm. His reflex was so sudden it gave you a bigger scare than the movie.

“Hey, it’s okay.” You petted him with your free hand, curling yourself in his direction. Earlier your friend said he liked the attention, so maybe that’d make him feel better?

The movie stopped.

“This is getting old.” Baekhyun said, missing his usual cheerful tone. You hadn’t even noticed when he got up to get the remote.

His eyes went from you to Chanyeol, then to how you were still holding each other. “I’ll put something else on.”

Slowly, you let go of Chanyeol. Now that the “danger” was gone, you were feeling a bit flustered, even when he was the one who grabbed you first. And if his reddened ears were anything to go by, he was embarrassed too.

Baekhyun chose one of the many generic romcoms laying around your library. Hey, you were entitled to guilty pleasures other then coffee. Once the cheery music started to play he sat between the both of you.

“Better?” The smile was back in his voice.

“I- hm, yeah.” You managed to stammer.

Once again, your heart started to drum. Though this time the movie had nothing to do with it. In fact, you couldn’t even bring yourself to pay attention to the plot, not with the way Baekhyun wrapped his tail around you.

***

Waking up early was never easy. Waking up early on a Saturday? Terrifying. Waking up early on a Saturday because someone couldn’t wait till a decent hour to call your home number? Plain evil.

“Hello?” Baekhyun answered, then waited as the other person said something. God bless him, not only were you too tired to get up, could barely feel your back after spending a whole night on that forsaken sofa.

You complained in the form of a moan, stretching your arm in his direction. Baekyun let out a chuckle, but he did sit back next to you, allowing your hands to reach him. “Yeah, but she’s busy.” He paused.

Chanyeol didn’t even flinch at all the noise. Heavy sleepers are so blessed.

As you went from his hair to his cheek, Baekhyun leaned into the touch and closed his eyes. He was so adorable you wished you were the one that could purr.

“No, I’m just the house cat.” he blushed, and that woke you up a little. Who was he talking to? It felt like you should know, like it was supposed to be obvious.

Ji-woo called me today…

Sleepiness gone, you jumped out of the sofa, grabbed the telephone base and pulled it with such strength that the cord flew out of it with a snap. From the other side of the room, no longer sitting, Baekhyun stared at you, ears down and tail up.

“What-” he glanced at the phone still in his hand. “Who was that?”

***

Y/N [8:11AM]:

Did you tell your parents you got a hybrid?

Y/F/N [8:11AM]:

Why should I

I’m a grown

Y/N [8:12AM]:

Wow

A rude one too

Manners?