The chain link fence clinks ominously as Joonmyun jumps off. Catching his breath and readjusting a bulky duffel bag over his shoulder, he stares up at the dark windows of the school looming in front of him. Sacred Path College, he snorts. ‘Honor, Iustitiam, Veritatem, Fidem,’ my white .

Crouching low, Joonmyun slinks his way towards the corner of the largest building. Even if it’s nearing three in the morning, it doesn’t hurt to be cautious. He doesn’t quite remember if his cheap school decided to fork over enough funds for a night guard. Nearing the corner, he pulls a can of spray paint out of his duffel and shakes it vigorously. Deeming it ready, he pops the cap off and begins to write, snickering all the while.

His work takes him well over an hour to complete, but when it’s done he stands back and smirks. That’ll show them. He bundles up his supplies, covers his footprints, and high tails it over the gate and back home before anyone has a chance to notice his lack of presence.

--

Morning sees Joonmyun being woken up by loud banging on his door.

“Kim Joonmyun!” roars his father. “You open this door right now!”

He wrenches the door open before his father can steamroll it. “What are you waking me up for?!”

Grabbing the neck of Joonmyun’s t-shirt, his father hauls him into the living room where the morning news is broadcasting a heinous break in and vandalism at Sacred Path College. A smirk rests itself on the corner of his mouth before his eyes flick over to the top right of the screen where a blurry but not altogether unrecognizable shot of himself is plastered. His smile falls along with his heart and stomach as he realizes he forgot to take into account that his school wasn’t too cheap for security cameras.

He was caught.

Not too much later, the sound of the Kims’ house phone ringing echoes throughout the room.

--

Joonmyun sighs as he fiddles with the rolled up cuffs of his button up. He’s rolled them up because it’s too damn hot to be dealing with the stuffy shirt at full sleeves. Behind him, his father turns and he feels the beginning of a massive eye-roll.

“Joonmyun!” he hisses. “Quit fidgeting, you’re making me nervous!”

Joonmyun lets his eye-roll loose and grudgingly stops messing with his cuffs. He sighs again.

“Don’t sigh at me like that, young man. You brought this upon yourself.”

And he did, in a way. Granted it wasn’t his best idea to bring his cigarettes to school when he was already in a load of trouble for what they deemed “insubordination” (all he did was go to the restroom once or twice or ten times despite his teachers refusing to give their permission because he had the runs and his parents refused to let him stay home alone—

“Just drink some pepto and go to school, Kim Joonmyun, I’m sure it’s not that bad.”—

He’d had to go to the headmaster’s after because like hell he was going to announce in front of a large group of teenagers that he needed to take a .)

But still, for all the teachers to gang up and accuse him of smoking in the restrooms just because he’s a known smoker when his cigarettes had been in his bag all day…ing religious douche bags and their ing high- horses.

But no, they did and he had gotten suspended for a week because of it—which led him to partake in what had landed him here, inside the lobby of the headmaster’s office, waiting for his name to be called so the overweight, underpaid man could demand a fine from him and-or set him to some menial tasks for a period of time to “reflect upon his actions and clean up his act.”

“Kim Joonmyun,” the headmaster’s personal secretary appears at the doorway to call him in. Speak of the devil.

Joonmyun walks into the office without waiting for his father and gets a firm glare from him once he’s caught up. Cue eye roll Numero dos.

“Ah, Joonmyun, Mr. Kim, I’m glad you could make it,” the headmaster, Mr. Park, rumbles, his large, meaty hands resting on his equally meaty gut.

Joonmyun scoffs mentally and watches as his father scampers to shake the man’s hand. “Yes, sir, good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon, good afternoon! Have a seat!” Mr. Park is all smiles as he ushers them to plush chairs in front of his desk. “Well, Mr. Kim, as I’m sure you’re aware, we caught you on tape breaking in and defiling our school grounds. I must say that is a serious offense, young man. I’m only going to ask you one thing: why did you do it?”

Joonmyun exhales heavily. As he shifts in his seat, he wonders how he should put this…

“Because I think this school and all its staff are full of and my suspension was completely baseless and I’m sick of it.”

Well that was one way. Mr. Kim gasps beside Joonmyun and he stares at Mr. Park, the headmaster completely taken aback at his brash words.

“Kim Joonmyun,” whispers his father furiously, his eyes darting between his son and Mr. Park.

Mr. Park breathes once, twice before finding his words. “W-well… I’m sure you understand with the evidence stacked up against… I can’t say I agree with your thoughts of this institution…” he pauses to clear his throat. “In any case, Joonmyun, you have broken an alarming number of school rules, not to mention the law. If I were any stricter, I would have turned you over to the police to let them handle it, but…” But you don’t want any bad press surrounding your precious institution.

“Mr. Park, Joonmyun’s at a rough age in his life right now,” Joonmyun’s father speaks up. “But other than these few troubles, he’s a model student. His grades are high and he’s very active in school sports. He—” Mr. Park cuts him off with a raise of his palm.

“I am aware of your son’s place in this school, Mr. Kim, and I have already taken them into consideration when thinking about his punishment,” he leans forward slightly. “Joonmyun, your actions weren’t small. You damaged the fencing and completely destroyed the courtyard and the walkway leading to the atrium with your graffiti. It is extremely lucky that the janitorial system arrives before anyone else to open the school so that they could erase what you wrote. Not before they called me down, of course, but still. Because of the extent of your actions, it has been decided that you will be suspended for the rest of the semester.

“During your break from regular classes, you will be required to assist the janitorial staff with opening and preparing the school for the day every morning as well as helping them with any cleaning or maintenance within the first three hours of the school day. You’ll have to keep up with your studies during your suspension, too. Your teachers will provide you with the lesson plans and you already have all your books. For the rest of the day, you can ask your teachers for help, provided they have time. You will also be required to complete two hours of community service a day after school. This is where you have a choice.”

Mr. Park pauses and Joonmyun feels his temper rising. This is complete bull.

“You can either join the traffic violators of our community and pick up trash for two hours or you can help out at the local animal shelter.”

Not much choice there, Joonmyun scoffs. “The animal shelter.”

“Excellent. You will begin next week,” Mr. Park smiles and for some reason it’s rather sinister.

--

Joonmyun sighs as he stares out the window at the small houses and shops passing by. He’s on his way to the shelter for his first day of community service and he’s bloody tired. Being the first day of community service meant that he’d had to haul himself out of bed at the -crack of dawn to help open the school. He’d also been enlisted to help replace an awning in front of the science building before he’d had a chance to escape. Mr. Park had walked by at that moment and shot him a smile that didn’t reach his eyes and that sent Joonmyun grumbling because that set this up.

He turns away from the window and leans his head against the headrest. Next to him, his mother shoots him a withering look from behind the wheel. “Don’t complain, young man.”

 “Yes, mother, I know, I brought this on myself, et cetera, et cetera,” he groans. “It doesn’t mean I have to enjoy being this tired…” he grumbles as an afterthought.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,”

The rest of the ride is spent in silence.

--

Joonmyun’s mother pulls onto a small side road close to the edge of the city. After a few more minutes of driving, she pulls into the lot of the shelter.

“Oh. My. God…” he whispers. The shelter looks torn up and that would be sugar coating it. There’s no way this passed any kind of inspection… Joonmyun thought.

His mother interrupts his thoughts with a short, “Out. I’ll pick you up in two hours. Have fun, love you.”

He nods and stumbles from the car distractedly, still caught up in the look of the shelter to form coherent thoughts. As his mother drives off, he heads toward the entrance of the building. Walking inside, he double takes at the cleanliness and downright posh-ness of the interior. What… the ? It looks like the headmaster’s office in here.

The room is wide and light with large windows that are thrown open, its curtains flowing in the breeze wafting in. On the walls hang large frames holding pictures of dozens upon dozens of dogs and cats. Many of the animals are joined by a boy who looks to be around the same age as Joonmyun along with other figures Joonmyun can’t quite make out. The counter is small, but organized, with only a phone and a stack of animal magazines on its surface. It’s rather quite homey and Joonmyun thinks he wouldn’t mind spending time in here.

“So are you going to stare around all day or are you going to tell me why you’re standing in my building?” a sharp voice snaps. Joonmyun flinches, not having noticed anyone else in the lobby with him.

He looks sheepishly at the owner of the voice. “Sorry, I, uh. I’m Joonmyun. I’m supposed to volunteer here for a couple hours every school day?”

The boy from majority of the pictures stares appraisingly at him, eyebrows raised almost haughtily over skeptical eyes. Sharp cheekbones stand prominent on his face and provide a nice frame above kitten-like lips. His arms are crossed over a lean torso, not that Joonmyun’s checking him out or anything because He’s Really Not.

“Ahh,” the boy replies, voice still sharp. “The trouble maker. Okay. Follow me.” He lifts a divider before turning on his heels and walking out a doorway. Joonmyun, still reeling a bit, scrambles after him.

“So, uh, do you have a name? Or…” Joonmyun tries.

“Jongdae.”

“Right.”

“Jongdae” leads him through a small back office where a lady is sitting at a computer, reading glasses perched at the end of her nose. “That’s my aunt, she’s the owner of the shelter,” Jongdae tells him. He waves shyly in greeting and follows Jongdae through another door to the outside. Joonmyun has to shield his eyes from the assault of light.

“So this is the main facility,” Jongdae says. “The dog kennels are to the left and the mother and puppy kennels are right next to it. The cat house is that small building closest to the main building over there, and that small hut looking one right there is the Miscellaneous Animal Station. It also doubles as our food preparation area, since there aren’t that many “miscellaneous animals” brought into the shelter anyway. Just for the record, you’ll be spending most of your time in the MAS unless you’re helping with food delivery or cleaning. Anyway, that building in the way back is what used to be the euthanasia room.”

“Used to be?”

“The workers here fought to turn this shelter into a no-kill shelter. We only recently succeeded, if you can even call it that. We’re now officially no-kill, but the government is refusing to provide us with any more money this year because there just isn’t a budget for it. We have to make do with what we can for the rest of this year and hope that there’s enough money to spare for us next year,” throughout his explanation, Jongdae’s voice goes from mildly irritated to strongly impassioned.

Joonmyun nods and follows closely behind Jongdae who heads towards the MAS. “It’s about time to be preparing food for the animals,” he murmurs. “We’re sheltering about fifty cats and dogs right now, and one turtle who you’ll meet first. We need to start getting food together early or they’ll never be fed on time.”

The MAS turns out to be more of a small kitchen with an even smaller area of cages and a small tub filled with a bit of water. While a bit cramped, it’s reminiscent of the office, with large windows that let in an abundance of light. Thinking of the similarities, he doesn’t mind that he has to spend most of his time here instead. Jongdae sets about preparing the food for the animals, pulling large pots from below a sink and big containers from beside it. “Pay attention, I’m putting you on food duty starting tomorrow.”

Joonmyun watches as Jongdae measures out big scoops of dog food from one of the big containers. “We have twenty-eight dogs and puppies and twenty-four cats and kittens. And one turtle in that tub over there, but anyway. There’s a paper here with the recipe for all the food. You need to follow it exactly otherwise there won’t be enough food for everyone an—”

“Jongdaaaaeeeee,” a young girl singsongs and waltzes into the room.

“Hey ‘Soo,” he glances at her in reply. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey,” a warning voice says. A boy walks in behind “’Soo” and stares at Jongdae with a raised eyebrow.

Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Hey Kyungsoo, Jongin,” he amends.

“Oh? Who’s this?” Kyungsoo asks, her gaze directed towards Joonmyun who spent the whole of the interaction trying to blend into the wall.

“Joonmyun,” says Jongdae, carelessly waving his hand. “Joonmyun, Kyungsoo, my best friend. Kyungsoo, Joonmyun.”

As he turns back to the animal food, Kyungsoo skips up to Joonmyun and holds out a hand. “Hi, nice to meet you,” she smiles, her lips curling prettily over her teeth. “I’m Kyungsoo, like he said, best friend extraordinaire to that impersonable lump over there. This is Jongin, my boyfriend. We help out Jongdae after school. Speaking of school, what happened to you last period Jongdae?”

Jongin comes up to Joonmyun and shakes his hand as Kyungsoo rounds on Jongdae, going to hang on his shoulder. “So, you’re the trouble maker?” he asks.

Joonmyun chuckles. “According to Jongdae, yeah, I guess.”

“My cousin’s already started to give you already, huh? Geez,” Jongin laughs.

“Wait, cousins?”

“Yup. My mom’s that lady in the office that you may or may not have met already.”

“In passing…”

“Hmm… So has Jongdae gotten on your nerves so far?”

“Not really? He’s just really… straightforward.”

“Don’t hold it against him. He’s nice, really. It’s just—”

“Joonmyun!” Jongdae barks from the sink. “I thought I told you to pay attention to this!”

Joonmyun scrambles to the sink to watch Jongdae put together the animal food.

--

Joonmyun stumbles into his room after a long day of community service and drops onto his bed. He lets out a groan and runs a hand over his face, recalling his first day at the shelter.

After Jongdae had yelled at him for not paying attention to the food, he watched as Jongdae poured scoop after scoop of dry and canned dog food into two large pots and mixed. Then he’d handed the mixtures over to Joonmyun and started pulling out bowls to put food in and loaded a small push cart placed next to the door. With a simple, “Come,” Joonmyun and Kyungsoo followed Jongdae out the door and towards the dog kennels while Jongin started preparing food for the puppies and cats.

The one thing Joonmyun wasn’t prepared for was the immediate transformation of curt, thorny Jongdae into a cooing, smiling Jongdae. He watched, a little stunned at Jongdae, as he walked into each of the kennels and interacted with each of the dogs like they were his own, getting to his knees to pet them and squawking and giggling as they nearly knocked him over in a fit of excitement and .

Joonmyun had to look away from the sweetness for a second or minute. When he realized what he was doing, he shook himself because why would this affect me in any it’s not like I think he’s attractive or anything, Not At All.

Things got worse from there. After the dog kennels, Jongdae delivered the food Jongin prepared to the mother and puppy kennels and then to the cat house. Joonmyun definitely didn’t have to turn around and pretend to be distracted by other things when Jongdae started cooing and giggling at the rest of the animals and definitely did not have to hide any flushed cheeks as he watched Jongdae interact with the purring kittens, No, Definitely Not.

The one thing that Joonmyun definitely did, though, was notice Jongin and Kyungsoo smirking at him. Assh—

“Joonmyun!” calls his mother. “Come and eat!”

Joonmyun sighs and pulls himself off the bed.

--
 

--

Life for Joonmyun doesn’t get that much better for the first few weeks following the start of his suspension. He is drafted into more and more maintenance jobs after opening the school and rarely has enough time to get to his teachers to ask questions about his school work because of it. He’s lacking a severe amount of sleep, his grades are suffering, and on top of it all, he’s nowhere near close to getting on Jongdae’s good side at the shelter.

“Joonmyun!” has become a constant, daily refrain, in that same, squawking tone that Jongdae seems to have reserved solely for anything Joonmyun does wrong. He can only thank whatever deity exists that it’s Friday and he can take a break for a couple days before being yelled at again.

“Joonmyun!” Jongdae squawks, walking into the MAS. Think of the devil, and he shall appear… “You’re making the food too dry! The dogs won’t be able to eat that without choking! Add a bit more canned food!”

Joonmyun sighs. “Sorry.”

He works quickly to fix the food and load the cart as Kyungsoo and Jongin prepare food for the rest of the animals.

“Go easy on him, Dae,” calls Kyungsoo. “He’s doing the best he can.” She walks over to the sink where Joonmyun is serving the food into bowls and bumps his hips with hers. He glances at her and she smiles encouragingly and just a tad bit apologetically before helping him load the filled bowls.

When they’re done, Joonmyun prepares to push the cart out towards the dog kennels, but Jongdae stops him with, “Oh Joonmyun, can you feed the turtle before you come out?”

Joonmyun nods because what’s the harm right? He picks up the bag of food that was left on the table and turns towards the tub.

“By the way,” Jongdae breezes as he exists the room, pushing a food cart in front of him. “Mr. Benedict is a snapping turtle.”

….

Joonmyun exits the MAS in a hurry after almost losing a finger to “Mr. Benedict.” He walks swiftly towards the dog kennels but sees no one there, the dogs happily scarfing down the food in their bowls. Then he heads to the mother and puppy kennels and still finds no one.

Where… I wasn’t with that turtle for that long was I? he thinks as he heads to the cat house. As he approaches the door, he hears Jongdae’s and Kyungsoo’s voices filtering out.

“…finances?” Kyungsoo asks.

“I’m handling it, Soo. Don’t worry about it,” Jongdae replies, his voice strained.

“Dae, I hope you’re not using your own money again,”

“I said don’t worry,”

“She’s right, though, Dae, you can’t be buying the supplies for the shelter all by yourself like that. Does my mom even know that you’re doing this? In fact, does yours?” Jongin’s voice adds.

“Well what else am I supposed to do, Jongin? We don’t have enough funding to finish this year out and wait until the government maybe gives us more funds. Besides, it’s not a big deal. I still have a bunch of money left from my birthday since almost all our relatives copped out on actual gifts.”

“But what happens when your funds run dry, too?” Kyungsoo asks.

“I told you guys, don’t worry about it.”

“Jon—”

“Guys, seriously, it’s fine. Can you hand me the bag of kibble?”

Joonmyun takes that as sign that it’s safe to enter the cat house. Jongin and Kyungsoo look up and nod at him as he walks in; Jongdae merely glances up from his place inside a cage filling a feeder with kibble.

“Nice of you to turn up,” Jongdae drawls. “How’re your fingers?”

Joonmyun waves at him in return, waggling his fingers just to get the point across.

“Damn,” Jongdae stage whispers. Kyungsoo and Jongin laugh good-naturedly.

As Joonmyun goes to finish bringing bowls of food to the rest of the cats, Jongin says, “Hey, so are you coming tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” Joonmyun pauses.

“Tsk. Jongdae, how could you, you know that we need all the help we can get!” Kyungsoo admonishes.

“Must’ve slipped my mind,” Jongdae mumbles.

“Anyway,” Jongin presses on. “Tomorrow is the day we start cleaning the animals.”

“C-cleaning?”

“Animals need baths, too.” Jongin answers simply.

“I…” Joonmyun trails off. It’s supposed to be my day off tomorrow… “Sure. Totally.”

“Great!” Kyungsoo grins. “Be here by 8, kay? Earlier if possible. And bring people if you can! Believe us when we say that we’re going to need a lot of help.”

“No trouble makers!” adds Jongdae. Jongin laughs.

--

--

The next day dawns before Joonmyun is ready. He drags himself out of bed at 6:30 (“Also known as Too Goddamn Early to Be Up On a Saturday,” Joonmyun grumbles to himself as he walks to the kitchen) to get a bit of breakfast before getting ready to head to the shelter.

Yawning as he opens the fridge, Joonmyun grabs a carton of orange juice and takes a generous gulp.

“Good morning, star shine, the earth says, ‘Hello,’” a voice singsongs from behind him.

Joonmyun jerks in surprise and spills a little juice down his front. He whirls around and glares at a giggling Baekhyun and Chanyeol sitting at the table, “God damn it,” he croaks. “Why. How. What the bloody fu—”

“Joonmyun,” his mother says warningly.

“Yeah Joonmyun,” Baekhyun mocks. “Language.”

When his mother isn’t looking, Joonmyun flips the giggling pair off. Baekhyun sends him a kiss and a wink between her giggles and Chanyeol collapses on the table in guffaws.

“Why are you guys here so early?” Joonmyun asks, sleep still seeping into his voice.

“Because I haven’t seen your mom in a while and I wanted to come over and chat before we headed over to the shelter,” Baekhyun answers.

“I thought you were my friend,” Joonmyun mumbles as he sits at the table.

“Mmm, yeah,” Baekhyun nods. “But I like your mom better.”

Joonmyun flips her off again.

“Kim Joonmyun,” snaps his mother.

--

Joonmyun clambers out of the backseat of Chanyeol’s car and heads toward the entrance.

“Wow,” rumbles Chanyeol, his arm already fastened around Baekhyun’s slim shoulders. “This place looks like .”

Baekhyun smacks him in the chest with her hand. “Chanyeol!”

Joonmyun chuckles and reaches for the door. “It looks better inside.”

“Oh Joonmyun!” Jongdae’s aunt calls from behind the front desk. “I’m so glad you could make it! Oh and you brought some friends! I’m Juli Kim, I’m the owner of this shelter. It’s nice to meet you…”

“Oh, I’m Baekhyun and this is Chanyeol. It’s nice to meet you too,” says Baekhyun, stepping forward and shaking hands with Mrs. Kim with a smile.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Baekhyun and Chanyeol. Thank you so much for coming with Joonmyun to help out. Just go ahead and follow him towards the back. My son, his girlfriend, and my nephew are already at the MAS prepping the supplies for the day.”

Joonmyun smiles at her and motions for Baekhyun and Chanyeol to follow him. He leads them outside and to the MAS. As they near the small building, shouts of laughter drift out through the open doorway. Joonmyun walks in with Baekhyun and Chanyeol on his tail, and immediately gets a faceful of water from the sink spray hose. He sputters as Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Jongin, and Kyungsoo double over in laughter and stares at Jongdae who was holding the spray hose.

Jongdae stares back at Joonmyun for a few seconds before doubling over in laughter himself.

.

It’s when the others recover from their laughing fit that Baekhyun and Kyungsoo see each other.

“Kyungsoo?”

“Baekhyun!”

“What are you doing here?” they ask at the same time.

“Jongin’s my boyfriend and I’m Jongdae’s best friend! What are you doing here?” says Kyungsoo.

“I’m Joonmyun’s best friend,” answers Baekhyun.

They walk over to each other and give each other a quick hug as the males in the room look on in confusion. When the girls notice the stares, they laugh.

“We take singing lessons together,” Kyungsoo says to the room at large.

“Wow…” Jongin rumbles, walking over to fist bump with Chanyeol. “I was not expecting this. Jongin.”

“Chanyeol,”

“And that’s Jongdae, since he didn’t look like he was going to say anything anyway,” called Kyungsoo.

Jongin laughs. Jongdae flushes. Joonmyun double takes. Jongdae, flustered?

Jongdae clears his throat. “Yeah. Anyway, let’s get these shampoo bottles outside so we can start already. If we don’t finish by sunset, we’ll have to continue tomorrow.”

They all group around the sink to gather bottles. “So how many animals do you guys house here?” Chanyeol asks group.

“Twenty-eight dogs and puppies and twenty-four cats and kittens,” replies Jongin.

“And one turtle,” adds Joonmyun darkly. Baekhyun looks at him curiously and Jongdae smirks.

“That’s…that’s a lot of dogs,” mutters Chanyeol. “Will we even finish today?”

“If Jongdae puts his mind to it?” Kyungsoo says. “Yup. Come on.”

They amble outside and place their load near a group of faucets with hoses attached to them.

“Okay,” says Jongdae. “I think we need to take care of the smaller dogs first before the bigger ones. They should be easier to take care of so it would be good to get them out of the way first. Also with the smaller dogs, we can handle them by ourselves instead of in twos or threes.”

The group nods and Jongdae leads them to the dog kennels. “The smaller dogs are in kennels 10-28. Take a leash and slip it over their heads as soon as you walk in. None of them bite, but they might try to run out.”

They get to work and the rest of the morning is filled with shouts and laughter and squeals from the girls when their dogs decide to shake on them once they turn the water off.

They manage to finish bathing all the smaller dogs and a couple of bigger dogs before Mrs. Kim waltzes out of the main building and declares it lunch time, carrying huge containers of subs and cookies and a cooler of drinks. The break is spent eating, talking, and laughing, all of them joking around with each other like they’ve been friends for a long time. Even Jongdae laughs freely, his lips curling up at the corners cutely, not that Joonmyun’s looking.

“So you guys all go to school together?” asks Kyungsoo.

“Sacred Path, yup,” replies Baekhyun. “What about you three?”

“Yeah, we all go to Seoul High,”

“Oh cool!”

Kyungsoo turns to Jongdae. “Speaking of school, Dae, you have to quit skipping last period. Kwon’s starting to interrogate me every time you’re not there!”

“Urgh, but I hate Kwon and I hate Lit class,” groans Jongdae.

“Oh no,” Baekhyun chimes in. “Don’t mention any hatred for Lit class around Joonmyun, he’ll castrate you.”

Jongin guffaws. “You like Lit class, then?” he asks.

Joonmyun shifts in his seat, uncomfortable with the way all the attention is suddenly on him. “Yes?” he answers timidly.

“Maybe you should help Jongdae,” Kyungsoo suggests mildly, eyeing Joonmyun knowingly. “Teach him how to like it.”

Jongdae, who had been taking a sip of water, promptly spits out a mouthful, thankfully on the ground. “Kyungsoo, what the absolute hell,” he coughs.

Kyungsoo snickers and glances at Joonmyun, whose cheeks have gone suspiciously pink. “Just a suggestion,” she murmurs.

“How about you suggest something useful?” Jongdae cuts. “Like getting back to work so that we don’t have to come back tomorrow for this, yeah? We still have to bathe some of the mothers and puppies,” he gets up and stalks back towards the kennels after throwing away his trash.

“Welp,” Chanyeol sighs, standing up. “Guess it is time to get back to work.”

Slowly, the others finish the last bites of their subs and follow Chanyeol to the kennels.

Jongdae is already in one of the kennels with his head pressed to the neck of a golden retriever. He pulls away when he hears the others approach and turns to face them. “So we need to split into teams of two to tackle the rest of the big dogs, I think…”

He trails off as Kyungsoo attaches herself to Jongin and Baekhyun smiles shyly at Chanyeol. He looks at Joonmyun, who’s watching the couples wistfully. As if feeling eyes on him, Joonmyun looks at Jongdae and flushes when he realizes that Jongdae is his partner by default. He walks towards Jongdae and the golden retriever furtively, reaching for the leash held loosely in Jongdae’s hands before bending down to slip it over the head of the dog.

“Come on,” says Joonmyun. “Let’s get started?”

And he leads the golden retriever out of the kennel. Jongdae watches him silently before remembering why he went for this dog first. “Wait!” he yells, but it’s too late. As soon as the retriever crosses the threshold of the kennel he takes off and yanks Joonmyun along behind him.

“Jesus Chri—” yells Joonmyun. “Jongdae!”

Everyone stills as Joonmyun is yanked all over the shelter yard. Baekhyun breaks first, giggling growing louder and louder until she’s outright screaming in laughter. The others start laughing as well, including Jongdae who had just started to run after Joonmyun and the retriever.

“Stop laughing at me and help me!” Joonmyun screams, his legs beginning to trip over themselves because of the speed the retriever was running.

Jongdae struggles to breathe and instead falls to his knees and pats his thighs. “Bruno!” he calls, still laughing. “C’mere boy!”

Joonmyun finally trips and falls flat on his face as the retriever turns and bounds over to Jongdae. Jongdae squawks when he gets glomped by the dog and cracks up all over again when he catches sight of Joonmyun sprawled on the ground.

Jongdae stands up and walks over to Joonmyun, who hasn’t moved since he fell. “Joonmyun?” he questions. Getting no response, Jongdae prods him with the toe of his shoe. He bends down next to Joonmyun and shakes his shoulder. “Joonmyun? Are you okay?”

Joonmyun doesn’t move for a moment, still reeling from being dragged around the shelter yard. As he feels Jongdae’s tentative hand on him, he groans and turns his head toward him.

Now Joonmyun’s never really liked cliché things, but he’s stunned into silence looking up at Jongdae. He’s glowing, thanks to his position over Joonmyun and the sun at his back. Joonmyun feels his heart pick up speed. W-what?

“Are you okay?” Jongdae asks.

“Y-yeah,” Joonmyun stutters. He becomes aware of how ridiculously he’s acting (Why is my heart—no, my heart isn’t doing anything, God damn it Kim Joonmyun get your together!) and pushes himself up hurriedly. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Jongdae stands and holds out a hand to help Joonmyun up. Joonmyun ignores the little flips starting in his chest cavity (Not My Heart, Definitely Not) when he takes it. When he’s finally on two feet again, Joonmyun glances around and sees Jongin and Chanyeol still laughing and Baekhyun and Kyungsoo whispering feverishly to each other and throwing knowing glances at them. He brushes off the ominous feeling creeping into his conscious and walks over to the hoses. “Nothing happened, it was all a figment of your imagination,” he says to the group at large. “Let’s just get the dogs bathed, okay?”

The still whispering Kyungsoo and Baekhyun drag the still snickering Jongin and Chanyeol and their dogs over to the hoses as well. Jongdae leads Bruno over to Joonmyun and secures him before beginning to wash him.

For the next few hours, they bathe the bigger dogs in pairs and then move on to the mothers and puppies that are safe to wash. They finish washing the dogs by three o’clock and take another small break before moving to start on preparing food. Joonmyun’s tiredness begins to sink into his bones making his movements at the sink sluggish. He doesn’t notice Baekhyun sneaking up on him.

“What’s wrong, Grandpa?” she coos, startling him enough to bang his knee. “Too tired?”

“! Byun Baekhyun!” he yells. Laughs are heard from around the room.

“Language, Joonmyunnie,” she teases with a pout. “I was just checking on you, you look like you’re about to collapse.”

He almost feels sorry until he sees Jongdae walk in. Hearing Baekhyun, he turns to look at the two by the sink and walks over. Byun Baekhyun I will ing kil— “If you’re tired, I can take over,” he says.

“I’m fine,” Joonmyun insists, still mentally planning Baekhyun’s death.

Jongdae shrugs and walks away. “Remember, not too dry,” he calls over his shoulder.

When Jongdae is across the small room helping Jongin and Kyungsoo with the cat food, Baekhyun leans in and whispers, “So… Him, huh?”

“Don’t start,” Joonmyun whispers back heatedly, turning back to the dog food.

“But you think he’s cute!”

“I told you nothing of the sort.”

Baekhyun whips out her phone and scrolls back to their messages from the first day of his suspension. “That ‘Well…’ is proof enough, Kim Joonmyun, don’t lie to me.”

. “I could’ve been talking about Jongin or Kyungsoo too you know.”

Baekhyun snorts. “Please, Joonmyun. I know you too well to believe that. You stop paying attention to anyone remotely cute once you find out they’re taken because you’re too much of a gentleman!”

“But Kyungsoo is cute!”

“Should I be worried?” Baekhyun and Joonmyun both jump at the sound of Jongin’s voice behind them. They turn around and see him watching Joonmyun with suspicious eyes.

“No, no. I’m just trying to prove a point to Baekhyun, don’t worry,” mutters Joonmyun, sending Baekhyun a glare. Jongin shrugs and gathers an armful of bowls before walking away.

Baekhyun looks like she’s about to start again, so Joonmyun cuts her off. “Enough, Baek. This conversation is over.”

Baekhyun huffs. “For now,” she warns.

As they load up the carts to bring the food out, Kyungsoo says, “Don’t forget about Mr. Benedict!”

“Not it!” yells Jongin.

“Not it!” choruses Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol.

Jongdae’s already walking out of the MAS.

God ing .

Joonmyun picks up the bag of turtle food and slinks to the tub. “Hey, little guy,” he murmurs. “You’re not gonna try to bite me this time, are you?”

He grabs a handful of food and reaches to drop it in. He gets bitten.

“Why the !” he yells, gripping his hand. Blood begins to seep out of the gash, so he runs to the sink to wash it off. “   I hate that ing turtle fuc—”

“Well that’s not nice,” drawls Jongdae. Joonmyun jumps again and water spills out of the sink. Jongdae chuckles and walks over to the sink. He opens the cupboard by Joonmyun’s head and pulls out a first aid kit. Pulling out peroxide, ointment, and a bandage, he reaches for Joonmyun’s hand and starts to treat it.

Joonmyun can’t ignore the irregularities in his heartbeat anymore. He takes the time to observe Jongdae, the boy who gives his all to the animal shelter. He watches as Jongdae’s face tenses in concentration, as his eyelashes flutter with every blink. He drags his eyes over the whole of his face, taking in the cheekbones that would probably feel really good under his fingertips, the small lips that quirk up every now and then as if he’s laughing at whatever’s running through his head. The lips that seem to be getting closer.

Joonmyun stops himself when he realizes he was leaning forward. He shakes his head, hoping to rid it of the stupor he threw himself in, and clears his throat just as Jongdae finishes bandaging his hand. “Thanks,” he croaks.

“Mhm,” Jongdae replies carelessly, already packing away the supplies and placing the kit back into the cupboard. “Come on, let’s go feed the animals.”

Joonmyun exhales shakily before following Jongdae out the door.

--

--

It’s one of those rare days that Jongin and Kyungsoo can’t make it to the shelter. Joonmyun and Jongdae work to prepare the animal food in silence, moving around each other with practiced precision. Joonmyun hands Jongdae a group of bowls before he can ask for them and Jongdae finds he no longer has to remind Joonmyun to not make the food too dry. They begin to load food bowls onto the carts.

“How was school?” Joonmyun tries.

“Hmm? Oh, uh, okay I guess? Same old boring stuff I probably won’t ever need in the future.”

“Literature included?”

“Especially that.”

Joonmyun ignores the slight sting. “You know, I really could help you out with that if you want…”

“Thanks, but no.” Jongdae says. “It’s not that I’m getting bad grades in Lit. I’m actually getting the best score in my class. I just… hate it. I’ve been around it my whole life, I honestly don’t need any more of it.”

“Your whole life?”

“My mom’s a literature teacher. She started me on it when I was young and she’s always emphasized it since. I guess it was her way of linking us since I’ve always been closer to my aunt. It’s tiring, though. I don’t care about the classics or why anything symbolizes anything else.”

“What do you care about, then?” Joonmyun asks hesitantly.

Jongdae pauses. “Animals. Here and everywhere else. That’s kind of why I was so hard on you when you first started here. I thought you were just here against your will, that’d you’d be difficult and end up hurting the animals. I guess I wasn’t totally fair to you. You can’t really blame me though, when I all I heard from my aunt before you got here was that you had just been suspended for the entire semester for vandalism and that this was one of the terms so that you wouldn’t be turned over to the police. Sorry,” he finishes sheepishly.

Joonmyun is taken aback, not have quite expected to learn so much about Jongdae just from the question. “It’s fine,” he answers. “I would’ve treated me the same way, too. If I was in your shoes, I mean.”

“Can I ask though? About why you got suspended?” Jongdae questions as they begin rolling the carts towards the kennels.

Joonmyun sighs. “It’s kind of embarrassing. The beginning at least.”

“I promise not to laugh?”

“Yeah, okay,” Joonmyun snorts. “I was having stomach problems one day, but my parents didn’t let me stay home. My teachers refused to let me use the restroom, so I just walked out of class. They tossed me to the headmaster. A few days later, they accused me of smoking in the restroom and none of them would listen to me when I told them that otherwise. They suspended me for a week when they found my cigarettes in my bag, which was stupid, because they should’ve been in my pocket if I was going to the restroom to smoke.”

“You smoke?”

“Socially.”

“Oh okay.”

“Anyway, I broke into the school and spray painted, ‘ Sacred Path and all its good for nothing, high-horse riding teachers and staff,’ all over the courtyard and got caught on the security cameras. The headmaster suspended me for the rest of the semester and required that I help open the school and fix anything that needs fixing every morning, keep up with my regular school work without actually attending class, and volunteer here every afternoon.”

“What the hell? That’s really harsh!” Jongdae cries, his expression irritated.

“Yes, well. I did make a personal jab at everyone with power at the school so I guess it fits the crime,” Joonmyun laughs.

Jongdae is silent as they wheel the carts back to the MAS. “You know,” he starts. “If you ever need to take a break, you can skip out of your work here for a day or two. I control the log for your time, so I can make it seem like you came anyway.”

Joonmyun glances at Jongdae thoughtfully. “It’s fine,” he says finally. “I like it here. Seeing the animals every day and how happy they get when someone comes with food or to play with them is worth the stress and exhaustion.”

Joonmyun busies himself with unloading the carts and misses the pleased smile that crosses Jongdae’s face.

--

Joonmyun walks in the office, a greeting for Mrs. Kim on the tip of his tongue. It dies there, though, when he doesn’t see anyone sitting behind the old computer. Not thinking anything of it, he shrugs and heads out to start his hours for the day.

He walks in the MAS and sees Mrs. Kim at the sink preparing the dog food. He looks around, expecting to see Jongdae, but he doesn’t seem to be anywhere. Mrs. Kim, noticing his presence, throws a smile at him. “Good afternoon, Joonmyun dear,” she says.

“Hey Mrs. Kim. Where’s… Where’s Jongdae?”

“Hmm? Oh he should be here soon.”

“I’m actually already here,” comes Jongdae’s voice. He walks through the doorway of the MAS, a bundle in his arms. “Aunty, I found a kitten near the drop box.”

He brings the bundle forward and lets his aunt see. A small kitten pops its head out and looks around curiously. Its fur is deep black and its eyes are yellow. One of them is darker than the other, a small cataract right in the center of it.

“Oh it’s adorable, Jongdae,” coos Mrs. Kim. She washes her hands off and reaches out to gently pat its head. “Have you checked for its gender yet?”

“Yeah, as soon as I picked him up. He’s a male.”

“So sweet.”

The kitten begins to purr loudly, arching its head up to meet Mrs. Kim’s hand. “Joonmyun, come meet our newest member!”

Joonmyun inches forward, eyes locked on the kitten. As he gets closer, the kitten turns to look at him, his little nose twitching as he sniffs the air. Joonmyun rubs the area above the kitten’s nose and his purring intensifies. Joonmyun holds back a coo.

He doesn’t notice how long he stands there petting the new kitten, but when he looks up, Jongdae is staring at him with eyes softer than he’s ever seen, a small smile making his lips curl up at the corners. He retracts his hand and Jongdae shifts the kitten around so that he’s looking at him.

“I think… I think I’ll call you Mr. Snarlington,” he says, his voice gentle. The kitten mewls. “You like that name? You’re so cute, you little ball of fluff.”

Jongdae chuckles and begins rocking the newly dubbed Mr. Snarlington back and forth as Joonmyun goes to take over the food preparation from Mrs. Kim.

“Nonsense, Joonmyun, I can handle it. Why don’t you and Jongdae bring Mr. Snarlington to the office for a bit?”

Jongdae heads back first with Joonmyun trailing behind. When they get to the office, Jongdae sets the kitten down on his aunt’s chair and together, they pet him until he settles down. Jongdae’s smile never leaves his face.

Joonmyun spends the rest of the day thinking about Jongdae’s eyes and smile and how much he’d love it if they were his to keep.

--

Joonmyun runs a hand through his hair, his other hand clutching an exegesis on Franz Kafka’s “The Bucket Rider.” He had just finished helping the janitors fix a bunch of leaks in the bathrooms in the science block and needs to get to his Literature teacher before her prep period ends and he has to retreat to the library. He stops outside her classroom and knocks before pushing the door open.

“Mrs. Kim?” he calls.

“Oh Joonmyun!” his teacher answers, a smile on her face. “It’s good to see you! Did you need something?”

“Uh yeah…I finished writing the exegesis for “The Bucket Rider” and I was hoping you could look over it to see if I did it correctly.”

“Oh okay that’s abso—”

The door opens and Jongdae walks in, hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“There’s noth—Joonmyun?”

“Jongdae? What are you doing here?”

“Oh Joonmyun, this is my son! It’s a staff development day at his school so he doesn’t have classes today,” Mrs. Kim steps in. “You know each other from the shelter, right?”

Jongdae and Joonmyun are still staring at each other warily, but nod at her question.

“I’m surprised you didn’t know about me being his mother, Joonmyun, since you spend so much time at the shelter after school.”

“He said his mother taught Literature but he never mentioned your name,” mutters Joonmyun.

“Hmm. Well now that you do know, Joonmyun, maybe you can help me with getting him to love Literature like you do,” she laughs. Jongdae rolls his eyes.

“Mo—”

“I’d love to, Mrs. Kim, but I think Jongdae’s too busy with the shelter to pay much attention to me spouting reasons for why Lit is amazing,” Joonmyun answers, smile bright.

“We’re in the same boat!” Mrs. Kim laughs again. “Anyway, Joonmyun, I’ll look this over for you and talk to you more about it tomorrow. Is that alright?”

“Yeah, that should be fine. Thanks.”

“Of course, dear, any time. Hey, I was just about to bring Jongdae to the mall for some lunch. Would you care to join us?”

Jongdae’s eyes widen and Joonmyun shakes his head. “Oh no, Mrs. Kim, I don’t want to impose. My mom’s coming to get me anyway.”

“Nonsense, Kim Joonmyun. I insist. You and Jongdae can hang out before heading to the shelter, too,” she responds.

“W-well… I guess? I’ll… I’ll just call my mom.”

--

Lunch with the Kims is a bit disconcerting. Mrs. Kim is more relaxed in the food court than she is in the classroom, smiling and joking more freely than Joonmyun’s used to. Jongdae is, too, his snark overflowing as he speaks with his mother.

Joonmyun thinks he likes this smiley, snarky Jongdae more.

Not that he likes Jongdae or anything.

“I have to head back to school now, you two. Why don’t you guys just hang out for a couple more hours before you call your aunt to bring you guys down to the shelter, Jongdae?”

Jongdae nods slowly.

“Okay then. Have fun you two. Don’t get into any trouble!” Mrs. Kim warns as she walks away.

It isn’t until she walks away that Joonmyun realizes how potentially awkward the next few hours will be.

“So uh,” he says. “What are we going to do?”

Jongdae glances at him and checks the time on his phone. “I don’t know…Walk around, I guess.”

“Okay.”

They begin to walk in silence. The silence carries for a few minutes before Joonmyun tries again. “Do you want to watch a movie or?”

“I… I don’t have money to spare for a movie,” Jongdae says, eyes focused straight ahead.

Joonmyun is immediately struck with a flash of guilt, suddenly recalling the conversation he eavesdropped on all those days ago.

“Oh,” he answers lamely. “Okay.”

They relapse into silence once more, Joonmyun internally kicking himself for his careless suggestion. He follows Jongdae mindlessly, too caught up in his guilt. He doesn’t realize they’ve walked into a bookstore until Jongdae stops walking to browse through a certain shelf.

“I thought you hated Lit,” Joonmyun said.

“I hate the subject, but it doesn’t mean I don’t like to read,” Jongdae answers. “If they found a way to let Lit become a subject in which you read things for yourself, things that you enjoy and not things that are prescribed by some inane curriculum, I’d like the subject a whole lot more.”

Joonmyun has no reply to that, so he watches as Jongdae looks through the store’s selection of books.

Eventually, the time for Jongdae to call his aunt to come pick them up arrives and as he calls, he walks with Joonmyun towards the grocery store adjacent to the mall. Once inside, he signals Joonmyun to get a cart as he heads toward the pet food aisle, still on the phone with his aunt.

“Yeah,” he says into the phone. “I’m getting the food now.” He points towards three bags of dog food and Joonmyun hauls them into the cart. “Yes, Aunty, of course I’m paying with shelter funds, don’t worry. Okay. Yeah. See you in a bit.”

“Cat food too?” Joonmyun asks when he’s done.

“Yeah, but I’ll get it, we only need a couple small bags and a few more cans of wet food.”

Joonmyun pushes the cart behind Jongdae as he goes to get the cat food before they make their way to the registers and once again remembers the conversation he wasn’t supposed to hear. I really hope Jongdae isn’t going to be using his own money again…

When they get to the checkout, Joonmyun unloads the food and watches as the items are rung up. The total comes to just a little under $100, and Jongdae takes out his wallet to pay. The card he pulls out of his wallet is labeled with his name, and he signs with his signature.

“Would it be okay if I got another receipt?” Jongdae asks the cashier. “One with just the prices and the total?”

“Sure,” the cashier says with a smile. “One moment.”

The cashier hands the second receipt to Jongdae and he slips it into the bag of canned cat food before pocketing the first. “Thank you! Come on, I think my aunt should be here already.”

“I was thinking,” Joonmyun says as he pushes the cart after Jongdae. “I don’t have your phone number…”

“And why would you need that?”

“In case I have to miss a day or something?”

Jongdae is silent for a  moment. “Fair enough, I guess. Here, give me your phone and I’ll put it in.”

Joonmyun hands his phone over as they exit the store. He notices Jongdae’s aunt waiting in the loading zone leaning against her car. “Oh hey Joonmyun,” she calls. “I didn’t know you would be here!”

“Hi Mrs. Kim,” Joonmyun greets. He helps her load the food into the trunk of her car as Jongdae gets the bags of cat food. He hands Joonmyun his phone when he’s done.

“Thanks sweeties,” she smiles. “Now let’s get going.”

In the car, Mrs. Kim turns to Jongdae, “Did you get the receipt? How much did it cost in all?”

“Yeah, it’s here. It was just a little under $100 for everything,” he replies.

“Oh that’s great. And you used the shelter funds, right?”

“Yes, Aunty, I told you I did already.”

“I know, sweetie, I’m just checking. It wouldn’t be the first time you used your own money for shelter supplies. I really don’t like it when you do that.”

“Well, I did this time, Aunty.”

“Alright.”

Joonmyun sits silently in the backseat. Oh no…

--

It’s a few days before Jongdae’s aunt finds out he used his own money to buy food. When Joonmyun walks into the office, they are both yelling at each other while Jongin tries hopelessly to calm her down, Kyungsoo standing shell shocked and near tears in the background.

“Mom,” Jongin says, his voice rising slightly. “You need to calm down. It’s not that big of a deal!”

Jongdae’s aunt rounds on her son. “Yes it is, Kim Jongin and don’t you dare say it isn’t. You stay out of this! Take Kyungsoo with you, neither of you need to see this.”

When Jongin finally retreats, his arm tight around Kyungsoo’s shoulders, Mrs. Kim turns back to Jongdae. “Why do you insist on doing this Kim Jongdae? I told you to use the shelter funds and you blatantly lied to me about it!” she yells.

“We. Don’t. Have. Enough. Funds. Aunty!” Jongdae yells back. “I was just trying to help out a bit!”

“Whether or not we have enough funding is my problem! You are a teenaged boy, still in high school. You should be using your spare money on video games and books, not worrying about whether the shelter has enough funds! How do you think it makes me feel, Kim Jongdae? To hear that my nephew is paying for things that I’m supposed to be taking care of out of pocket?! Now you listen here, Jongdae, if I find out that you’re using your own money for things like this again, I will talk to your mother and make sure you can never help out here again.”

“You wouldn’t!” Jongdae whispers, his voice shaky.

“Try me, young man,” she replies coldly.

Jongdae stares at her, his lips trembling as his eyes start spilling over with tears. “I’m sorry,” he gets out. “I really was just trying to help.” He turns and runs out the back.

It’s somber at the shelter that day.

--

Joonmyun is running late.

The day had started off horribly for him. He was late to get to school to open and had dropped a container filled with glass beakers down the stairs when he was asked to help clear out an old science classroom. He’d had to clean up all the glass and ensure that there were no smithereens anywhere to harm the students and because of it, he wasn’t able to get to his biology teacher for help understanding the Punnett square. His biology teacher had kept him after regular school hours to explain some more, even though Joonmyun had insisted that he understood it after the first explanation.

Needless to say, Joonmyun isn’t having the best day thus far.

He skids through the office and out to the MAS where Jongin, Kyungsoo, and Jongdae are already pulling pots and bowls from under the sink.

“Oh, he finally shows up,” says Jongdae coldly.

Joonmyun tries to catch his breath, his lungs threatening to collapse. “Sorry,” he wheezes. “My bio teacher kep—”

“And yet you couldn’t send me a text to let me know you’d be late?” Jongdae snaps. “You have my number for a reason.”

Joonmyun stares, taken aback by Jongdae’s attitude. “Sorry…”

“Well it’s too late for that now, just start on the food,” he says tersely, stomping out of the room.

Joonmyun turns to Jongin and Kyungsoo, confused. “Don’t worry,” Kyungsoo says apologetically. “He’s not mad at you. He just found out that his aunt withdrew shelter funds and put it into his bank account to repay him for all the times he bought supplies with his own money.”

Joonmyun nods and gets to work preparing the dog food. As he lifts the bag of food, however, the bottom rips and dog food spills all over the floor. !

He bends to scoop up the fallen pieces just as Jongdae walks back in the room. “What the hell?!” he roars. “Joonmyun why the  did you spill dog food all over the floor?!”

“It was an accident, Dae,” Jongin steps in. “The bag ripped when he lifted it.”

“It wouldn’t have ripped if he supported the bottom!” he yells. “You had one job, Joonmyun. How can you be so useless?!”

Joonmyun snaps at that. Standing up, he grabs Jongdae by the collar and shoves him back against the sink. “. You. Kim Jongdae,” he growls. “It was a god damned accident. Why the  would I do this on purpose?”

“Because that’s what you do isn’t it?! You make messes, just like you did at your school!”

Joonmyun shoves him into the sink again before he’s being pulled back by Jongin.

“Calm down, both of you,” he says, voice hard.

“You guys don’t need me here today,” Joonmyun says coldly, glaring at Jongdae over Jongin’s shoulder. “I’m useless after all. And I don’t need any more today.”

He walks out of the room and back towards the office. He doesn’t stop walking until he reaches a coffee shop near the shelter and he realizes he’s too far from home to walk. He reaches for his phone and calls his mother.

--
 

--

Joonmyun doesn’t return to the shelter the next day or the day following, still too mad to think about going back. Baekhyun comes over on the second day of his hiatus from the shelter, having gone over to help out only to find out that Joonmyun wasn’t coming.

“Hey,” she says cautiously from his doorway. “Can I come in?”

“You’re going to come in anyway, why are you asking?”

“How are things?” she asks as she sits next to him on his bed.

“Cut the , Byun Baek. We both know why you’re here.”

“What happened, Joonmyunnie?”

“I had a horrible day. He yelled at me. Called me useless. I shoved him against the sink and yelled at him, too. I left. Haven’t been back since.”

“Oh Joonmyun…”

“I know.”

“Are you going to go back?”

“Eventually. I can’t just never see those dogs and cats again. I like them too much.”

Baekhyun snorts. “Okay. So tell me, have your feelings for Jongdae changed at all?”

Joonmyun glares at her before sighing. “No. They’ve just gotten stronger, actually. We were both on edge that day and I feel like for shoving him up against the sink like that.”

“Mmm, I bet you’d like to shove him up against a sink for another reason,” Baekhyun coos and waggles her eyebrows.

“You little ,” Joonmyun yells, shoving her off the bed.

“Kim Joonmyun!” his mother’s voice drifts in from the living room.

Baekhyun cackles.

“I hate you both,” says Joonmyun plaintively.

--

Joonmyun wakes up to his phone ringing on the table next to his bed. Grumbling, he shuts it off. Whoever it is can wait until it’s not three AM. He snuggles down into his pillows and prepares to drift back to sleep.

His phone begins to ring again and he flips the case open to see ‘Jongdae’ in the caller ID. He answers it, confused.

“Hello?” he croaks.

“Joonmyun!” Jongdae sobs.

Joonmyun sits up hurriedly, concern flooding his system. “Jongdae?” he turns on his lamp. “Jongdae what’s wrong?”

Jongdae sobs out a response, but it’s too garbled for Joonmyun to understand it.

“Wait Jongdae calm down. Say that again.”

“T-there’s a f-fire at the shelter!” he cries.

Jongdae’s blood runs cold.

“I’ll be there in ten.”

He bolts out of his room and runs to his parents’ room. “Mom! Dad! Wake up!”

“Joonmyun, wha—”

“There’s a fire at the shelter! I need to get to the shelter right now!”

His mother jumps to her feet and ushers him out the door. He calls Baekhyun on the way to the car.

“This better be important, Kim Joonmyun,” Baekhyun slurs when she picks up.

“Baekhyun! There’s a fire at the shelter! Get down there if you can!”

There’s a beat of silence before Baekhyun replies, “I’m coming,” and hangs up.

Not having anything else to do, Joonmyun becomes antsy. “Mom, drive faster, please!”

“I’m going as fast as I can, Joonmyun. Relax. We’ll get there.”

Joonmyun takes to bouncing his legs, watching mindlessly as houses and trees fly past, hoping that nothing else happens.

Seven minutes later, Joonmyun’s mother screeches into the parking lot and Joonmyun throws himself out of the car. Sirens are wailing in the background and he runs towards the office and towards the back. He stops once he’s outside, his breath catching in his throat. Fire is raging in the MAS and it’s slowly spreading towards the dog kennels. He sees figures throwing buckets of water to try and quell the fire and others darting into the kennels and leading dogs out the side gate towards the parking lot.

He runs to help them, wrenching kennels open and leashing as many dogs as possible to get them out. The heat gets more intense as the fire gets closer, and the people who were trying to put out the fire resort to keeping it from spreading any more.

Joonmyun runs through each kennel, making sure all the dogs are out before heading to the cat house. There he sees Baekhyun and Chanyeol ushering the bigger cats into small cages and carrying the smaller ones. He runs to help them as much as he can, his eyes and throat stinging from the heat and the smoke. As they rush to the parking lot with the cats, they see firemen lugging a hose towards the MAS.

Joonmyun looks wildly around the parking lot and only calms when he sees Jongdae’s aunt holding a plastic bin filled with water. Inside, Mr. Benedict swims around, his flippers constantly hitting the sides because he’s not used to such a confined space. Joonmyun then walks through the dogs, taking a head count, and sighs in relief when they’re all accounted for. He turns to the cats to do the same, but sees Jongdae already there, tear tracks glistening on his cheek. Jongdae looks up and sees Joonmyun staring at him and suddenly he’s up and throwing himself towards Joonmyun in a hug.

“I’m so sorry,” he cries as he buries his face into Joonmyun’s neck and shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Joonmyun says soothingly. “I’m sorry too.”

Jongdae shakes his head vehemently, face still buried. “Thank you for coming,” he whispers.

“Of course,” Joonmyun says. “I told you, I like the shelter.”

--

It takes another couple hours for the fire to be completely put out. By the time it is, the sun is coming up. Joonmyun and his mother, along with Baekhyun and Chanyeol, stay to help the Kims clean up the debris.

--

It takes a month before the shelter can scrounge up enough money to repair the damage the fire caused, and another month after that to completely rebuild the MAS. The dog kennels and the cat house had luckily survived the fire, unscathed save for minor blackening from the smoke.

Joonmyun spends most of his time at the shelter because the headmaster graciously agreed that that is where he would be needed more. Baekhyun and Chanyeol become familiar faces around the facility as well, both of them spurred into volunteering after helping during the fire. He grows closer to Kyungsoo and Jongin, frequently cracking jokes with them as they carry out their duties. He’s even able to make Jongdae smile a couple of times, which he deems as a grand success even if he has to take a few deep breaths to calm his heart rate afterwards.

--

It’s a couple weeks after the reopening of the MAS that Joonmyun is ambushed. He arrives early and is just about to walk into the office when he’s grabbed from behind and pulled into a car. He bolts upright in the seat, prepared to struggle until he sees Jongin smiling at him from the driver’s seat and Kyungsoo smirking beside him.

“I believe a simple, ‘Hey Joonmyun, come with us,’ would have sufficed,” he snarks.

Kyungsoo tsks, looking at her nails. “But where’s the fun in that?”

Joonmyun blanches at her reply.

“Okay, so what do you two want?”

“Just a friendly chat about my dear cousin,” says Jongin.

“What about Jongdae?” Joonmyun replies a little too casually.

“Well… We want to know how you feel about him,”

Joonmyun pauses. With all that’s been going on recently, his burgeoning feelings for Jongdae were pushed to the back of his mind (save for every time he smiled or laughed). Now that he’s been prompted though…

He looks at Jongin and Kyungsoo warily, worried they might try something.

“Relax,” says Kyungsoo. “We’re not going to do anything. We really just want to know.”

After another moment’s hesitation, he finally starts to speak. “I like him,” he says simply.

“Mmm, not good enough,” Kyungsoo prods. “Continue.”

“I don’t know what else you want me to say,” Joonmyun chuckles. “I like him. Probably as more than a friend? He drives me crazy sometimes, especially when he gets on my case about food and makes me feed Mr. Benedict. I think he’s amazing with animals and that he’d be an equally amazing vet or something someday. I also think he’s really sweet under his thorny exterior. I admire him because he of how passionate he is. I like the way he smiles. I like his eyelashes. I like his cheekbones. I—” he stops himself when he sees Kyungsoo and Jongin share a smile. “What?”

“Nothing,” they chorus. They drive him back to the shelter and the rest of the day goes by without another hitch.

--

The end of the semester arrives, meaning the end of Joonmyun’s requirement to volunteer at the shelter arrives as well. It weighs heavily in the back of his mind.

It’s simple, really. He knows he should stay and help even after the semester ends, and he really wants to. But after Jongin and Kyungsoo’s abduction of him a few weeks prior, his feelings for Jongdae have been multiplying exponentially. It’s gotten to the point that he can no longer function properly when Jongdae’s in the same room as him and that has led to a few small arguments with him that they thankfully stopped before they could escalate any further.

“Joonmyun,” calls Jongdae. “Can you feed Mr. Benedict?”

Joonmyun sighs and reaches for the turtle food. “Hey you,” he says. “No Joonmyun flavored meat for you today, okay?”

After successfully feeding the turtle, he heads out towards the dog kennels. A wave of déjà vu hits him when he sees no one there but the dogs scarfing down the food. The feeling intensifies when he heads to the puppy kennels and sees no one there either. He brushes it off and goes towards the cat house, slowing when he hears Jongdae talking Mr. Snarlington.

“I hate him, Mr. Snarlington. I hate the way he makes me feel. I know, I know it’s stupid to hate him because of something as stupid as that. He just… He’s so different than I expected him to be. Different in a good way, though. He’s sweet and caring. And he works so well with animals, Mr. Snarlington! I wish he’d stop coming, sometimes, you know? My life would be so much easier if he didn’t come. But in a lot of ways, it’d be so much harder, too. I like him a lot, Mr. Snarlington. What do I do?”

Joonmyun is frozen, his heart racing in his chest. Well…

He waits a few more minutes before he walks into the cat house, smiling sheepishly when Jongdae tells him off for taking too long.

--

The semester break arrives.

Joonmyun doesn’t go back to shelter.

--

Jongdae drags his feet through the door of the office.

“Aunty?” he calls out. He doesn’t see her behind her computer and jumps when she pops out of the bathroom.

“Oh sorry, sweetie.”

“It’s fine. I’m heading towards the back now.”

“Alright dear, have fun,” she says. Jongdae misses the excited smile she has on her face.

He makes his way to the MAS, ready to start preparing the animals’ food. He stops short when he sees carts already loaded with bowls of food ready to be brought out. Shrugging, he figures his aunt or Jongin had extra time. He delivers all the food to the dog kennels and heads back to the MAS to pick up the cat food. As he nears the cat house, his ears pick up the sound of a familiar voice speaking to Mr. Snarlington. He slows down.

“I don’t know why he calls you Mr. Snarlington, you purr more than you snarl. Haha, don’t do that, your whiskers tickle. Can I trust you, Mr. Snarlington? Because I have a confession to make. One that could potentially change the way you see me. I like someone, Mr. Snarlington. That someone is a pain in the though. He’s mean, and he likes to yell at me, especially when I make the food too dry. But he’s also really sweet, you know? He treats animals like they’re his flesh and blood and he’s amazing at handling them. He also has the prettiest smile. He looks a lot like a cat when he smiles, Mr. Snarlington. But I like him. I really do.”

The voice falls silent and Jongdae slowly pushes the cart into the house.

“Joonmyun,” he says.

Joonmyun stands up and puts Mr. Snarlington back into his cage. “Hi…”

“You disappeared for a week,” Jongdae accuses.

“I did. I needed to sleep for a week after all the craziness of the semester.”

“And you couldn’t have texted or called to let me know?!”

Joonmyun has the decency to look ashamed, one hand rubbing the back of his neck.

“Why are you back?”

“I told you, I like the shelter.”

Jongdae’s heart rate picks up. “Just the shelter?”

Joonmyun smiles. He walks over to Jongdae, who takes a step back. He reaches out and holds Jongdae’s hands in his. “I know you heard my conversation with Mr. Snarlington, Kim Jongdae.”

Jongdae flushes, his heart beating in his throat. “Just the shelter, then, right,” he dodges, trying to pull his hands away from Joonmyun.

Joonmyun chuckles and wraps his arms around Jongdae. He leans in and brushes their lips together softly.

“Maybe you, too.”

(◡‿◡✿)

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! Comments are a wonderful thing, guys!