“Hi Yesungie, I’m home!”

A soft meow resounds as your cat walks to you lazily but happily, only to rub his body against your legs, purring. You chuckle and kneel on the floor to touch his perfect, fluffy pure black fur, making him purr even more. You feel the warm body under your fingers and, as usual, you’re amazed at the thought that this little being here is alive and feeling safe with you. Not that you’ve ever done something horrible to animals, but still. Life is something you keep on getting amazed about, because it’s there, and, and, and you don’t even have words to describe that feeling.

You put your bag in the kitchen and go to the room you use as an office. Sitting there, you laugh when Yesung jumps on your lap without caring about warning you first. Not like a cat could ever warn you.

“Bad boy, Yesungie! I told you not to jump on me just like that…”

His golden eyes stare at you for a while and he jumps on the floor, sitting in front of you, his tail moving left and right gracefully. He keeps on staring at you there, silent, and you sigh, not believing it. Yesung has to be the smartest cat around. Seriously. He was very calm from the beginning, just playing around a bit when he was still a poor kitty you had found in the streets, abandoned, mourning over his only kitty brother run over by a car. You had taken him with you and if, at first, he was a bit scared of you, he quickly understood you loved him and started trusting you more.

You quickly understood Yesung was no normal kitty when you found him someday sitting on opened newspapers, waiting for you to come back home. The fact that he was sitting there wasn’t strange in itself; the fact that the newspapers were open was a bit weirder. And the fact that one of his paws was pointing at advertisement, and he was purring, like he was already enjoying your future reaction. Someone was having a hard time trying to find a competent graphic designer to work at his studio. You were a graphic designer. And you had complained the day before about wanting to get a new job.

Things like these happened a lot after that, with Yesung always being strangely smart, and caring, and loving, just like a boyfriend would’ve been. Sometimes you woke up with your cat your nose softly a few minutes before your alarm would go off, making you turn it off before it could start making that horrible noise. Sometimes you came back home and, strangely enough, your computer was on, your slippers were in front of the door and all the cat hair around the house disappeared.

Today is one of those days when you keep on thinking that maybe your cat got mutated before being dumped in the streets or something. There’s no way he can be that smart.

“Okay, Yesung, I got it. Come here.”

Obeying, he jumps on your lap and purrs when you scratch him softly between the ears, the only place he can’t reach by himself. You hug him, because Yesung just seem to love hugs, and you place a kiss on his wet little nose. “You’re too cute. And too smart for a cat.”

Kissing his nose again, you sigh. “Too bad you’re not a human being. I mean, a real guy would’ve hugged me back… aaah Yesung, I need love so freakin’ bad.”

You laugh when you see how Yesung seems thoughtful. “Don’t try to look like you understand. I love you Yesungie. More than I think I should, you know. I bet it’s not sane to love a cat so much…”

You shake your head. “Oh well, I was never considered as sane anyway. My friends all say that I’m crazy.”

Of course, there’s no way Yesung will reply back. So he’s simply staring at you with his golden eyes, and you can’t help but hug him tight.

**********************

The day after, you wake up because of your alarm clock. Snoozing it, you frown when you notice that Yesung isn’t around. He’s always in the bed with you. Maybe he had to go satisfy his natural needs? Oh, but your slippers are next to the bed. You slide in them and leave your room. “Yesung?”

Nothing.

You check in every room, and can’t find him anywhere. It’s not like your apartment is big, Yesung should be easy to find, but… but he’s not there. You finally find a hint to where he is.

Opened window.

Yesung escaped.

You feel something like a knife inside your heart. Yesung escaped. Yesung left you. Maybe you offended him by telling him he should’ve been human? Maybe he didn’t like you anymore? You started crying. Crying over a cat. Just a cat…

More than a cat. Your only companion and the one who had helped you find the excellent job you had at the moment.  Lost. Escaped. Not with you anymore. You decide to stay home that day. Not answering your phone, not eating, not doing anything. You feel stupid to be so depressed over a cat. A ing cat. Just a cat.

The day after you force yourself to go to work. And to eat. And to do stuff. And see people. Trying not to be depressed all day long. And so on for a week.

And then that night…

It’s a stormy night. The electricity was cut off from your apartment, thanks to a lighting bolt striking not too far away from there, and you hide in a corner, crying. You always hated storms. In the past three years, Yesung was there to support you, to reassure you, and you miss hugging him and hiding your face in his soft fur.

Suddenly, the powerful wind smashes open your window and you scream in terror, hiding into your corner some more, and rolling in a ball, too scared to go and close the window. You are quite surprised when suddenly it closes by itself, appeasing the raging sound of the storm outside.

By itself?

No, not by itself. You can see the silhouette of a man in front of the window. Locking it, he walks to you. Slowly. Silently. You throw your keys at him, screaming. “Don’t come near me!”

He dodges the keys easily, stops where he is. His voice is deep. Deep and perfect. Purring. “It’s me.”

You can’t understand. “Don’t, don’t come any closer!”

“I won’t. Not unless you tell me I may, mistress. Isn’t that how it always was? I may not jump on your lap if you don’t tell me I may…”

This deep voice. Somehow…

“Who, who are you.”

“It’s me, mistress. Yesung. Your cat. Didn’t you want a human being and not a cat, mistress? I’m here…”

You can’t believe it. But, as a lightning makes the entire room as bright as in daylight, you see the pure, black hair of the man, along with his almost scary golden eyes. Staring at you.

You know these eyes.

“Yesung…?”

“I’m here, mistress.”

“Ye…”

“I’m here. Aren’t you afraid of storms? I’ll protect you from them. Like I always do.”

You nod and he walks to you to hug you tightly. Kissing your nose softly, he purrs in your ear, making you shiver. “Yesung…”

“Mistress,” he purrs again.

“Yesung…!”

“I’m here.”

You hide in his arms, crying, hugging him like you always hugged your beloved cat. But, this time, your cat, no, your boyfriend, hugs you back.

You don’t learn about it that night, but Yesung decided to become human after what you had told him. For you not to be sad and lonely anymore. For you to have someone to hug you. For you to be happy. He went, alone, near the place where his brother died when they were kitties. His instinct has told him to. Praying there day and night, he ended up waking up as a human. And he came back to you.

Because he loves you.

That’s what his delicate purr in your ear tells you, again and again.