“You know, you could help.” Youngjae complained, looking over at his flatmate who was lying on the couch. “You haven’t helped at all!” He exclaimed, though it went unheard. Youngjae groaned, then smiled as a thought came to his mind.

“Fine. I guess I won’t cook dinner tonight.” Daehyun, his lazy roommate, jumped up from the couch and ran over to Youngjae. He started meowing and purring as he rubbed against the younger brunette’s leg. Youngjae giggled. “You’re going to need to be human to help me out.” Daehyun meowed once, before stretching his arms. He stretched and stretched until he was no longer a cat and was a man (well a man with cat ears and sharp teeth) standing in their living room.

“Ya! Put on some clothes!” Youngjae yelled, covering his eyes. “I hate when you transform back. Why can’t you be clothed when that happens?” All that was heard was a deep chuckle.

“You know you like it.” Daehyun teased, before walking over to a box marked Daehyun’s Clothes and found a blue shirt and black sweatpants. “Ok, how about we eat!” He cheered, throwing his hands up.

“No. We have to put some stuff away or we’re just going to be living in a place with boxes everywhere. Now take your boxes to your room.” Daehyun groaned, but did as he was told because food was on the line. He never did any physical activity unless it involved a food reward. Sometimes he really hated being in his human form, Daehyun thought to himself as he began to move boxes to his room.

Honestly though, he should be happy he isn’t stuck in that cat form. The Busan boy was not born that way; he was a very troublesome teenager who got mixed up with the wrong people. He owed this gang, who resided in his hometown, a whole bunch of money and since he was a student with no job or source of income, they cursed him into being a cat forever.

Daehyun had to live three terrifying months in that form until he stumbled across Yoo Youngi, Youngjae’s grandmother. It’s as if the woman was waiting for the little kitty to cross her path.

~~~

A small kitty, barely old enough to be on it’s own, was stumbling in the dark streets of a hopefully friendly neighborhood. The kitty was walking along the road close to the sides, trying to hide himself from predators. His plan did not work well with street lights shining on his white with grey splash coat. 

The kitty kept looking around, hearing constant noises everywhere. Crickets chirping, wind blowing the grass, cars driving by, owls hooting; being outside for three months, you’d think he’d be used to it by now but he wasn’t. He needed to find a place to hide or he was going to die from a heart attack.

He jumped up onto the sidewalk and headed towards the nearest house, maybe he could find a porch to sleep under for the night or week. He immediately stopped as he saw a dog chained up in the front yard of a blue single family home. 

The cat slowly backed away, but it was too late. The dog had noticed him and was slowly getting up in an attack ready stance. Growling and barking, the dog charged forward towards him. The kitty bolted away, dashing to the next house over. He looked back, seeing the dog almost catching up to him until she ran out of chain. 

The dog growled, eyes narrowed as if to say, “back off my property.” The kitty slowed down, closing his eyes in relief and catching his breathing. The moment only lasted a second, before hands wrapped around his belly. He shrieked, instantly attacking the hands with his small canines. 

The human hands didn’t seem to be bothered, the teeth too small to do any damage. The kitty wasn’t about to give up, until the human spoke.

“Well, it’s about time I found you Daehyun.” The kitty turned to see an elderly woman smiling down at him. “Let’s go inside, you must be hungry and cold.” The woman walked back over to where the dog was chained up and the kitty couldn’t relax until they were inside her small home.

“Don’t worry too much about Kanji, she’s just a hyper little thing.” Once inside, the woman placed the kitty on the floor and let him explore. She left to go find her spell book, not remembering the counter curse by heart. She came back into the living room to find the cat her cheesecake. 

“Oh! I forgot about feeding you, but that will have to wait.” The woman opened up the book, flipping through the pages until she landed on the right one. “Oh, here it is. Okay, try not to move too much, don’t want to mess up!” She chuckled. 

The woman started mumbling some words while twirling her pointer finger upward, a wave of an orange glow forming. Once the words were done, the woman pointed her finger towards the cat. The cat's eyes widened as the bright light came towards him, tapping his nose.

The orange orb then circled around the cat, speeding up every other cycle until it looked like there was a hula hoop surrounding him. Suddenly, the orb exploded into a white light, fading out to show a handsome, albeit , 16 year old boy. 

The boy confusingly blinked, slowly bringing his hands into his view turning them over a few times. The boy looked up at the old woman, a big smile breaking out across his face. She smiled back, handing over some clothes. 

“I’m sure you have a bunch of questions to ask, but why don’t you get dressed first.” The young boy blushed, thanking the woman as he grabbed the clothes from her and scurried into the next room. The elder woman chuckled at his reaction, going into the kitchen to make some food for the young one. 

~~~

Daehyun smiled at the memory, putting down the last of his box in the bathroom connected to his room. He opened it up and placed his personal items in the mirror cabinet above the sink. 

“Daehyun! Dinner is ready!” Said boy internally cheered, breaking down the box and placing it on top of the pile of other boxes in his room. He’d take care of them later, because now was eating time.

Daehyun jogged out of his room and into the kitchen, going to the cabinet with the bowls and plates in it.

“Will I need a bowl or plate?” He turned to the other, seeing he had a bowl in his hand and was dishing himself up. “Bowl it is.” Daehyun grabbed a grey plastic bowl, shut the cabinet door, and sped towards the crock pot. He lifted the lid and inhaled the aroma of different flavors.

“Oh. My. God. This smells so good.” Daehyun grabbed the tongs and portioned out some meat and then used the ladle and scooped up some veggies and broth. Setting the utensils down and placing back the lid, Daehyun walked over to the table and sat down. “So what is this one called?” 

“Slow cooked roast beef. I found a book of recipes in one of the boxes from my grandmothers house.”  The rest of dinner was mostly quiet, except for Daehyun’s food moans and getting up for seconds and then thirds. Youngjae had spent dinner reflecting over their situation.

The two boys had been living together for three years now, meeting when Youngjae’s grandmother passed away. After Youngi had subsided the curse (since it was an ancient spell, it wasn’t easy to break and Daehyun turned back into a cat almost a year later) Daehyun stayed around, having Youngi help him return to somewhat normal every year. Even though Daehyun could be a human, he now had the power to turn back into a cat whenever he pleased. 

Once Youngi passed, her magic went straight to her next living kin, Youngjae who wasn’t born with magical powers or really knew anything about the fact that magic existed. Youngjae’s parents had died when he was eighteen and before that, they had kept everything a secret. By the time he graduated and was living on his own he recieve a letter from his grandmother. 

The letter explained the world she lived in and what Youngjae should expect in the next couple days, her last days of living. Youngjae called in sick from work and flew out to see her, but she was gone before he reached her house. He had Daehyun to thank (not thank) to help him through that time.

~~~

“Here we are.” A small blue house came into view from the car window. Youngjae smiled towards the driver, handing him some money and thanking him for the ride. He stepped out, shutting the white taxi car’s door and watched it drive away before turning back towards the last known address listed for his grandmother. 

Youngjae took a deep breath, before confidently walking towards the house. However, after the first step forward, Youngjae froze as an overwhelming feeling hit him. 

He fell to one knee, clutching the front of his shirt as he cried out. Tears sat in the corner of his eyes, pain creeping all over his body. Was nobody around to see him struggling?

At that moment, the door to his grandmother’s house opened and out stepped Daehyun. The elder glanced towards his dog, who was barking the instant she noticed the intruder. 

“Kanji, what are you getting worked up about?” Daehyun asked, wiping away the tears on his face. He didn’t want to step away from inside, but his dog didn’t usually get too worked up unless something wrong was going on. That’s when he peered over at the man kneeled on his front lawn.

“Hey are you okay?” He questioned, jogging over and placing a hand on the brunette’s shoulder.

“Is this… Yoo Youngi’s… house?” He inquired through gritted teeth. Daehyun became alert after that, stepping a few feet away.

“Who are you?” That was a yes to Youngjae. Brushing off the extreme pain he still felt, the younger stood up and gradually headed towards the front porch stairs. Daehyun ran over to the mysterious man and grabbed his bicep.

“Hey! You can’t just go in there.” Youngjae put his hand up to push away the elder, but before his hand even made contact with the other, he was thrown back. Daehyun’s back barely touched the ground, doing a back somersault and landing on his feet and sliding back a bit. His face displayed shock.

“You’re a witch…?” He said to himself, glowering towards the man. “Stay away from her!” He yelled, running faster than a human and tackling the younger. Youngjae groaned, the back of his head hitting the ground. He felt sick and dizzy, the power inside him not subsiding.

Daehyun placed a hand on the other’s shoulder, detaining him. With the other hand, he pulled out a knife from his shoe and held it against his neck.

“I’m only going to ask you one more time.” He growled out. “Who are you?” 

“Please…” Youngjae pleaded out. “Youngi… is my grandmother…. She sent me a letter… it’s in my back pocket.” Daehyun didn’t waste any time and reached into the other’s pocket, pulling out the letter he was talking about. Daehyun sped through it, his mood calming down as he realized who he was sitting on. Standing up and placing his knife back into the sheath in his shoe, he reached a hand out for the other.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were Youngjae. My name is Daehyun and I’ve been watching over your grandmother for a couple years now. Where have you been?” Youngjae was taken back by the rude tone in the other’s voice.

“I didn’t even know I had a living relative until yesterday, so you can drop the attitude.” Youngjae snapped back, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself. At the moment, it seemed like the pain was gone, but the power feeling was still strong inside him.

“Well, sorry to bring you some disappointing news. Youngi passed away a few minutes ago. I can take you to her, if you’d like.” Daehyun’s voice still had a bluntness to it, but the more he talked, the sadder his tone turned.

The younger nodded, following the elder inside his grandmother’s house. The first room was filled with a tv, a couple filled bookshelves, a coffee table, and a couch where Youngi was currently laying. Daehyun sat on the floor next to her head, gently brushing her hair. Youngjae stood next to her feet, just glancing down at the woman he’d never met, but looked remotely like himself. 

“I’m sorry for your loss…” Youngjae said quietly, bowing his head. They remained that way for 15 minutes, Daehyun breaking the silence by wiping his eyes, standing, and facing the other. He reached his hand out and gave a sad smile.

“It’s nice to meet you, Youngjae.”