chapter five;

From his cage, Minho could hear a loud wailing of a female’s. He wondered what could have happened for that girl to be able to produce a howl that loud. He glanced at Changmin who was now back from his daily morning training in case the older one knew the occasion, but Changmin, too, was giving him a puzzled look.

Jonghyun, resident’s nosy ahjumma had mysteriously disappeared from the cage when Minho woke up that morning. Perhaps he had gone off with Key the bobtail to visit the “crime scene”, Minho inferred. They were, in any case, the best of friends. For their similarities in hobbies and interests, Minho believed that old saying which stated that birds of the same feather flock together, despite the evident fact that they are not birds of the same feather nor are they birds at all.

Minho tried to recall how the two mismatched best friends, or BFFs as people today commonly refer as, first met. Was it Key who first came to them? Or was it Jonghyun who once in a while would escape from the cage for “a man’s night out”, as he called it?

While Minho was lost in his own thoughts, the same girl who visited Minho at his cage passed by with Sir Youngjin by her side. Her tears were still streaming down her chubby poisonous cheeks, her eyes red from all the crying.

“I’ll get you a new puppy, okay?” her father tried comforting her.

“BUT IT’S NOT THE SAME PUPPY!” she yelled back. “I WANT MY TAEMMIE BAAACKK!”

And she continued to whine about some more things, oblivious to the fact that she was attracting almost every passerbys’ attentions.

What a spoiled brat, Minho thought.

Mansoo came just in time as the father and daughter disappeared from Minho’s sight. “We have a case. Let’s go,” he told Minho and unlocks the cage to let him out.

Minho followed his trainer obediently, not interested to know more about the heartbroken and miserable little girl named Wooyoung.

Meanwhile, Taemin the lost Chihuahua had just woken up from his not-so-comfortable sleep under the slide at a park somewhere in Seoul. Loud chatters and giggles forced him awake, and he immediately became alerted that danger could befall him any time, judging from his narrow escape from becoming some creepy boy’s dinner.

He hid behind the concrete slide and peeked outside. About 100 metres from where he was, a group of three little children were enjoying themselves in a sandbox. Taemin wondered why do kids these days wake up so early. It’s not that they need to go to work and earn money or something.

He glanced around to find a safe way to exit the playground without being noticed by the kids. Then, a seemingly familiar figure caught his eyes. He squinted his eyes. Is it really Onew I’m seeing?

Just as Taemin was preoccupied with doubting his own eyes while continuing to study that figure, one of the kids suddenly shouted out, “Look! It’s a duck!” and pointed at the same figure.

“No, silly! What would a duck be doing here? It’s a bird,” the boy corrected her.

“But birds fly! That thing is walking!” the previous girl argued back.

Taemin shook his head at that pathetic sight and sighed. How can kids these days wake up so early to play but still can’t tell the differences between ducks, birds and chickens?

“Doesn’t matter! Let’s chase that thing!” the other boy announced, and the three children began to run towards the chicken.

Onew, who had just noticed the coming danger, freaked out. “AAARRGGH!!” he shrieked before sprinting away in panic. “HEEEELLPP MEEEE ANYYOOOONNE!!”

Taemin giggled at the hilarious scene wholeheartedly. That’s what you get for deserting me last night.

Realizing that it was now safe to leave his temporary shelter, the delighted Chihuahua began strolling out of the park while humming to a quirky song he had heard from someone’s house while he was wandering alone in the dark last night. He then caught another sight of the terrorized chicken running for his dear life from the scary kids. “HEEEEEEEEELLPPPPPP!!!” Onew screamed.

A satisfied smirk crept on Taemin's face. “Wow, fantastic baby.”