(author's note: this part started out as a whole different, separate fic but i realised that i was never going to finish it because it was meant to be completely crack makjang style. from that, some of the fic might seem like it will lead to something else but then will disappoint because i just changed it to begin this story instead! who cares, christmas is way more fun! enjoy.)

Vulnerability crisps the edges of the early-morning atmosphere, engulfing the two pleasantly unconscious, entwined bodies that had been knocked out by the joy of the previous night.  They had been completely and absolutely drained by the capacity of intoxicants – not by alcohol, drugs, or anything of the substance-abusing type, but of the happiness they had created together. They had thought it would be temporary (nothing lasts forever), but it had been 8 months now and their more-than-contentment had not faded by even a simple fragment of the fraction of sunlight pooling through the gap in the curtain of their hotel room, illuminating the lids of Soonyoung’s sleepy eyes.

Soonyoung’s eyes open at the same pace a baby learns to walk, his first sight being the unruly hair of his lover which he had forced himself to take a liking to—he didn’t know why anyone would prefer to be untidy, in appearance or lifestyle or dinner or study or anything, for that matter. He smiles at the familiar sight in front of him, tracing the soft curls with his sight until he realises—

 “Seokmin!” he shrieks, probably waking up those sleeping in the hotel across the road. “Your hair, it’s, it’s all—“

 (the morning before.)

“Seokmin, wake up,” Soonyoung cheerfully cries, poking and prodding Seokmin in the ribs because he’s a deep sleeper and if you don’t physically hurt him, he will most likely never wake up. “It’s Saturday, I want to go out somewhere special.”

“Soonyoung, wake up,” Seokmin mocks teasingly in an attempt to defer the conversation and allow him to go back to sleep.

“Copying me won’t work this time. I’m not stupid, okay. Come on; let’s go somewhere fun just like the old days! We have to look for Christmas presents for the gang, remember?”

“Whatever, just let me shower.”

As Seokmin falls asleep against the wall in the shower and Soonyoung combs his hair into the perfect part (because even though it’s 7am on a Saturday, even his sleeping routine is cut-edge clean and he had been dressed and ready to go since 1 hour before), Soonyoung knows he wants to go somewhere fun but he also knows he has no idea where that is.

Seokmin seems a lot happier when he returns from his water-napping, so Soonyoung thinks to ask if he’d dreamed up any ideas.

“I don’t know; it was your idea, idiot.” In this relationship, ‘idiot’ had become the greatest term of endearment in existence, so Soonyoung didn’t mind. Other people stared and glared when they heard it in public, but Soonyoung didn’t mind. They were the couple which people always complained about from showing too much affection as if it were a crime, but neither Soonyoung nor Seokmin minded. They had created their own little world with each other (literally – it was called Portal, PT for short. Nerds.) 

“Okay, wait,” Seokmin changes his mind, “do you remember where we had our first date? Where there were so many people but it seemed like they kept disappearing until it was only us?”

The description strikes a string of thoughts in Soonyoung’s head, a constellation of flashbacks mangled together which gradually become sorted into their respective memories. He still couldn’t remember.

“You can’t remember, can you?” Seokmin, the soon-to-be qualified psychologist sighs. “Let me test the level of my study. Word-Association-Game time!”

“Are you freaking kidding me? We do this, like, every day, you’re psycho-“

“Soonyoung, do you want to go out or not? Just let me do it!”

“Fine. Go ahead.”

“Alright, just say what comes to mind when I say my word. Eventually, you’ll figure out the place. I can’t believe you don’t remember it anyway, it was our first date. I think about it all the time because it was so-“

“SEOKMIN.”

“Sorry. 3, 2, 1. Sky.” “Blue.” “Grass.” “Green.” “Café.” “Ca…ts. Cats? Cat café!”

Seokmin makes the sound of the bells which ring after someone wins the $100,000,000 on Deal or No Deal. “Correct, my friend! You have won: me!”

“I don’t want you.”

“Shut up, let’s go.”

Arriving at the cat café, Soonyoung slightly remembers where this place was while Seokmin doesn’t shut up about how the wallpaper is cats, the lattes have cats drawn into the foam, there are cats roaming the floor, there are cats on the chairs, everything is cats. Of course everything is cats, Soonyoung thinks. It’s a freaking cat café.

A fluffy white tail makes its appearance from behind a spotted booth and past memories suddenly flood back. It’s said that after a big shock, the victim usually loses their memory. Seokmin asking Soonyoung to be his boyfriend was the biggest shock of his life, so he hadn’t really being paying attention. Soonyoung remembers that cat, though; it must have permanent residency here. He remembers the first date, the first kiss, the first time they—

“Remember now?” Seokmin interrupts his thoughts, subtly crooked pearly whites invading his personal space. Soonyoung nods, and begins walking over to the same booth to sit down. He pats the cat while Seokmin follows his lead, and they order 2 of the cat-foam lattes – the same they had had on their first date, Soonyoung remembers.

While waiting for their memory-grasping beverages to arrive, Soonyoung picks up the fluffy white cat which composed itself with the greatest familiarity. Some said that animals can look like people, people can look like animals, etcetera. This cat looked like someone he knew, he definitely knew, but he couldn’t pinpoint it.

He forgot about it as soon as their lattes arrived. Soonyoung and Seokmin finished drinking them 5 minutes later but stayed at the café for another 5 hours, reminiscing and talking about the past and the future and everything that could happen and all the possibilities and—

“We should go now. Before we go, do you remember the mantra chant thing we made up when we were here?”

“Of course!”

“Soonseok, talk! Seoksoon, talk! Everybody, talk! Kakao talk! Baby, talk, talk talk~” they chant, the perfect symbol of their innocence and naivety from a year ago which will never fail to reside in their hearts.

As they walked home, Soonyoung noticed that there was cat fur sticking to his clothes like Seokmin sticks to the bed in the morning. It was all over Seokmin too, but they fell asleep as soon as they got home, too tired for a shower. Seokmin was always dirty as hell, anyway.

(the next morning.)

Both Soonyoung and Seokmin had dreams of cats, although their expressions were contrastingly different – Seokmin had a smile while Soonyoung had a frown, and the way they could express their emotions while unconscious astonished the chilled air on the balcony as it blew through the smallest crack in the open window, awaking Soonyoung.

Soonyoung’s eyes open at the same pace a baby learns to walk, his first sight being the unruly hair of his lover which he had forced himself to take a liking to—he didn’t know why anyone would prefer to be untidy, in appearance or lifestyle or dinner or study or anything, for that matter. He smiles at the familiar sight in front of him, tracing the soft curls with his sight until he realises—

 “Seokmin!” he shrieks, probably waking up those sleeping in the hotel across the road. “Your hair, it’s, it’s all—“

Seokmin shoots into a sitting position, startled by the sudden ruckus that Soonyoung created. Seokmin hadn’t known that it was there was a human ability to scream so loud, and was wondering how Soonyoung still had his throat intact.

“—over your body!”

“Well, I am a man now,” the groggy boy jokes. “If you think we’re cats, Soonyoung, then this will be the first time I’ll say I genuinely want .”

Although Seokmin was speaking, Soonyoung only heard continous meows coming from his loud mouth – it was kind of a refreshing silence, but what the hell is going on, Soonyoung thinks. Seokmin comes up to him, standing face-to-face and keeps meowing. Soonyoung believes this must be what true insanity, or truly being a cat, feels like, and he is sorry for those cats. To clear his head, the newly insane boy decides to take a shower before going out to look for Christmas presents.

As he looks in the mirror, all he can see is himself as a cat. Something about the cats at the café had, for sure, messed up something with his mind. Or maybe it had been the dreams that came after them. Or maybe it had been the dumb word psychology test that Seokmin forces him to do all the time. Aside from the craziness of the situation, Soonyoung decides he doesn’t look that bad as a cat. Seokmin, on the other hand…

Soonyoung closes his eyes while he washes his hair with the most expensive conditioner he has in an attempt to think about what to get his friends for Christmas. He’d never really bought them anything in the previous years; they hadn’t been that close. But now there were 12 other boys in the friendship group, including his love, which he had to buy presents for. He opens his eyes after feeling rejuvenated from the cool water and looks in the mirror on the wall in front of him once more, not sure what to expect. Screams of joy and relief could be heard as he realises that he is no longer a cat, and what had happened was definitely either a reverse sleep paralysis or a solid hallucination. He rushes out and hugs Seokmin to express his emotions: “We’re not cats!”

“I know that, Soonyoung? Maybe I shouldn’t have taken you to the cat café; it seems like you’ve gone a bit… low in the mental department.”

“Idiot,” Soonyoung retorts, grabbing a chilled ice tea from the fridge before heading out the door, making sure to lock Seokmin in. He hears Seokmin walk over with not-so-graceful footsteps, clumsily walking into furniture and whatnot and try to open the door. Seokmin sighs – it’s not the first time Soonyoung has done this.

Although a joke, it was exhausting, to say the least. Seokmin pulls his own key to the apartment out of his pocket, opening the door and playfully pushing Soonyoung aside. “Let’s just get to the store already.”

The air outside is crisp due to the earliness of the day, and soon enough, they reach the store that has anything and everything – perfect for Christmas shopping. Soonyoung glances across the road after parking his car and sees Junghan, (that must have been why the cat looked familiar, they looked kind of similar) so ducks out of view from him and rushes into the store, pulling an unknowing Seokmin by his arm.

“I think we have to buy something that has to do with cats,” Soonyoung offers, “there’s got to be a reason that all this stuff with cats is happening, right? I didn’t know what to buy anyway. Congratulations, you’re getting a stuffed cat toy for Christmas.”

“Fine by me,” Seokmin shrugs, deciding to buy whatever Soonyoung buys for him in return, so he can grasp a taste of his own medicine. A cat toy for Christmas? Lame.

And with that, the presents Seokmin and Soonyoung would buy were decided, bought, taken home, and wrapped, ready to go for 7 days time when it would be Christmas. This was the where the excitement began.