Byungjoo gasped as he woke up from a nightmare that he couldn’t quite remember, covered in sweat and feeling suffocated.  It took him a moment to realize the reason he was feeling so smothered and overheated.  Trying to calm his racing heart, he stared in shock at the person who was lying half on top of him, clinging to Byungjoo like he was a cuddly stuffed animal or a body pillow.  Of course, Byungjoo's first reaction—after he had recovered from the shock—was to try and shove the boy off.  This failed very quickly, since the sleeping boy had a crazy death-grip on Byungjoo.  In fact, trying to shove him off just made him cling harder, and Byungjoo ended up in a very tight embrace, with strong legs wrapped around him, unable to escape.

He tried to stifle his frustrated scream, because while he would love for the boy to let him go, he probably wouldn’t even if he were awake.  Being awake would also mean that he would probably start babbling about “Master” this and “Hansolie” that, which Byungjoo was not ready to deal with yet.  He needed some coffee first, and maybe a shower.  On the bright side, he didn't have school that day, and his shift wasn’t until later in the afternoon, so he had some time to figure out what in the world he was going to do with this boy claiming to be Hansol.  Despite his confusion the day before, he was still refusing to believe that his cat had turned into the very clingy boy he’d found in his apartment.  There had to be a logical explanation.

A logical explanation that Byungjoo wouldn’t be able to come up with till he’d had his morning coffee, which wasn’t going to make itself.  With a sigh, Byungjoo wiggled, trying to free himself from the clinging boy.  Said boy stirred a little, if only to snuggle his face into Byungjoo’s chest.  A noise that sounded vaguely like purring started up, vibrating slightly against where the boy was pressed against Byungjoo, who let out another strangled noise of frustration.

“Yah!” he said, fairly loudly, as he tried to free himself again, “Wake up!”

“Mrrrrr…” the boy rumbled, his purring stuttering a bit as he sleepily blinked open his eyes.  He yawned widely, smiling drowsily up at Byungjoo before rubbing at his sleepy blue eyes, “Good morning, Master,” he purred, leaning up to rub his face against Byungjoo’s—or try to, at least.

Using a strength that Byungjoo didn’t know he possessed, he freed himself and shoved the boy off the bed, nearly sending himself over the opposite edge in his haste to get as far away from the strange boy as possible.  Nevermind the fact that Hansol had used to greet him that way in the morning—it was an invasion of his personal space.

The boy groaned faintly from the other side of the bed, sitting up so that just his head could be seen.  He rubbed sleepily at his eyes again, apparently still trying to figure out what had just happened.  He looked too cute for his own good, wearing the baggy clothes that Byungjoo had given him to sleep in.  The sleeves were too long, falling over his hands so only the tips of his fingers could be seen.  His sleep-mussed hair plus the oversized shirt combined to overload Byungjoo with the cuteness.  Deciding that it would be a good idea to get a shower, Byungjoo hopped out of bed and gathered the things he would need, ignoring the grumbling of the other boy.  Truth be told, Byungjoo was doing his best to forget that the other existed, at least for a little while.

It didn’t last long.  Byungjoo had just gotten in the shower when the boy let himself into the bathroom, still rubbing at his eyes but looking more awake than before.  Byungjoo let out a very unmanly shriek, trying to cover himself as best he could.  The boy didn’t seem to react to that, simply shuffling closer to the shower, but not close enough to get hit by any stray droplets of water.

“Master, I’m hungry,” he whined, “Feed me, please!”

Byungjoo wondered briefly if it was possible to drown yourself in the shower.  Deciding that it would be too much effort this early in the morning, he simply resumed washing himself, trying to ignore the other.  The boy, however, didn’t take very well to being ignored.

Out of nowhere, a flying toothbrush struck Byungjoo in the head, “Ow!” he yelped, turning to glare at the boy, who was grinning and holding the tube of toothpaste in his hands, “What was that for?”

“Hurry up, Master!” the boy demanded, trying to hold the toothpaste in a threatening way, “I’m hungry!”

“Alright, alright,” Byungjoo muttered, yelping again as he got whacked with the tube of toothpaste, “Hold your horses!  As soon as I get out I’ll get you some food, okay?”

The boy seemed pleased with this, “Okay!” he chirped, smiling sweetly at Byungjoo.  He hopped up to crouch on the counter, sitting oddly like a frog.  Byungjoo decided it was probably best to ignore that as well.  He tried to go about his business, working shampoo into his hair and trying to hurry so he didn’t have to put up with the other any longer than he had to.  He was halfway through rinsing his hair when he heard a gasp and a crash.  Having a bad feeling of what he was likely going to find when he turned to see what the strange boy was up to, Byungjoo sighed and turned to look anyways.  He was not disappointed.

The boy had jumped off of the counter and was now perched on the (thankfully closed) toilet lid, shoulders hunched up and narrowed blue eyes focused on the mirror, of all things.  The plastic cup that Byungjoo used to rinse his mouth out after brushing his teeth was rolling along the floor.  Byungjoo wasn’t sure why till he saw the boy pick up the toilet brush and throw it at the mirror.  Thankfully, it missed, otherwise the mirror probably would’ve been broken.  The boy let out a loud, hissing sound, looking around for something else to throw.  

Byungjoo thought it might be a good idea to stop gaping and make him stop before he had to clean up broken glass.  

“What are you doing?” he shouted, startling the boy and nearly making him fall off the toilet.  The boy righted himself at the last moment, though, straightening up with surprising agility and grace, almost like a cat.

He flailed his arms in the direction of the mirror, “Master, there’s another person over there!  He snuck up on me—make him go away!”  The pout from the night before made a reappearance, looking even cuter when paired with the oversized clothes and the rosiness in his cheeks from the humidity of the bathroom.

Byungjoo groaned, rubbing at his face for a moment before remembering he had shampoo on his hands, yelping as he tried to rinse it off so it didn’t make his eyes burn.  The boy started to reach for something else to throw at the “person” in the mirror, but Byungjoo made a garbled noise and flicked water at him.  The boy hissed again, this time actually falling off of the toilet seat, trying to shake the water off.

“That’s not another person—that’s you!” Byungjoo grunted, finally shampoo-free, “It’s a mirror—it shows your reflection.”  He continued to mumble something about showering in peace, but the boy was too busy creeping back up to the mirror, looking at his reflection with curiosity.

“You mean that’s what I look like?” he chirped, smushing his nose up against the glass, his breath making it fog up even more than the steam from the shower was doing, “That’s Hansolie?”

Byungjoo only had a slight eyebrow twitch at the name, before sighing and giving in, “Yeah, that’s you.”  Deciding that he was finished with his shower, he stepped out, grabbing a towel to wrap around himself, “Now get out while I dry off,” he ordered, holding the towel with one hand and pushing the boy towards the door with the other.

The boy wrinkled his nose at the water on Byungjoo’s hand, fighting a little against the other’s insistent pushing, “But Hansolie is hungry!” he whined again, gripping onto the counter, “Master has to make food!”

Rolling his eyes at the dramatic way the boy was wailing—which may or may not have put him in mind of a certain overdramatic cat—Byungjoo managed to toss the boy out of the bathroom, grumbling out a “Just a minute!” before he slammed the door shut, locking it this time.  Hearing a pathetic scratching and whining on the other side of the door, Byungjoo sighed.  It was gonna be a long day.

ooo

Waking up was going much more smoothly in the apartment next door.  Well, sort of smoothly, at least.  Needless to say it was a lot less stressful than how Byungjoo’s morning had gone.

Jiho woke up slowly from a deep, dreamless sleep, and the first thing he noticed was that he couldn’t feel his feet.  He continued to lie still for a moment, sleepily wondering why his feet were asleep.  It took a few minutes for his brain to wake up enough to look down at his feet—to make sure they were still there, of course.  

He decided that, yes, they were probably still there—just hidden somewhere under Jenny, or Jenissi or whatever he wanted to be called.  The ex-cat was curled up on top of Jiho’s feet, just like she—er, he—had always done when he was a cat.  Now, though, Jenny weighed quite a bit more, and that had caused the circulation in Jiho’s poor feet to get cut off.

Jenny was absolutely adorable, Jiho decided, staring drowsily at the other man, who was sleeping so soundly, all curled up like the cat he used to be.  Jiho was trying to decide whether he wanted to wake Jenny or not when the other started to stir.  Hazel eyes blinked open, staring at Jiho for a moment before closing again.  Jiho gave a dopey, half-asleep smile and nudged one of his numb feet against Jenny.

“Wakey wakey~” he hummed, voice a little raspy still from sleep, “Let’s get up and make breakfast, Jenny—or, uh, Jenissi?  Would you rather be called Jenissi?”  Jiho wanted to make sure he was calling the person who used to be his cat by the correct name.  He didn’t want to insult Jenny (any more than he already had by thinking he was a girl).

Jenny sat up and stretched luxuriously.  Jiho watched curiously as Jenny really flexed and stretched, just like a cat would, before finally turning towards Jiho.

“Jenny is fine,” he said with a faint smile, “I don’t mind either way, really, so long as you don’t call me a girl again.”  At that, Jenny narrowed his eyes at Jiho, who got the silent message loud and clear.

Jiho chuckled, “I’m sorry I kept calling you a girl, Jenny, but how was I supposed to know?  I’ve never had a pet before…” he pouted slightly, trying to coerce Jenny into forgiving him.  Little did he know, Jenny wasn’t even mad.  Sure, he’d been a little miffed when his master kept calling him “she” and “her”, but he hadn’t meant anything bad by it.  It was a little fun to make Jiho squirm, though.

“It’s all right,” Jenny murmured, looking away and kneading the comforter beneath him.  There were a few beats of awkward silence before Jenny glanced shyly back at Jiho, “…Food?”

Staring dumbly at Jenissi for a moment, Jiho finally managed to shake himself out of the half-asleep stupor he was in, “Oh, sure!  What do you want to ea—“ his sentence was cut off abruptly as he tried to stand and ended up faceplanting due to his numb feet.  He groaned into the floorboards as the awful tingling started in his toes.

“Master?” Jenny asked, worried as he peeked over the side of the bed, “Are you all right?”

“M’fine,” Jiho mumbled into the floor, “Help me up?” he asked pitifully, rolling onto his back and reaching up for Jenny to grab his hands.

Jenissi’s eyes crinkled with mirth as he helped Jiho back to his feet, steadying him when he nearly fell over again.  He gave a light laugh when Jiho muttered about how awful his tingly feet felt as they came back to life.  Jiho stopped his ranting to grin at Jenny, but his smile dropped when he remembered something he’d wanted to say.

“Oh!  You don’t have to call me ‘master’, by the way,” he said sincerely, staring down into Jenny’s dark eyes, “Just Jiho is fine, okay?”

Jenny stared back for a moment before murmuring, “Jiho?” as if testing out the name.  Jiho couldn’t help from grin from ear to ear.

“Let’s go make breakfast,” he said, ignoring the weird look Jenny was giving him.  Today was going to be a fun day.

ooo

If Byungjoo had thought his daily routine with Hansol the cat could be annoying, Hansol the human (or not Hansol, because that was just ridiculous) was ten times more annoying.  It had started with the shower, and continued with making breakfast, and later with brushing his teeth.  The boy—Byungjoo was going to refer to him as Hansol simply because the boy refused to tell him what his real name was—wouldn’t stop clinging to him, rubbing his face against him, and tugging on his clothes.

During breakfast it was whining about “Where’s my tuna?  Hansolie doesn’t like this yuckie bread!” and “What is Master eating?  Can Hansolie have some?  Please, please, please!”  It just about drove Byungjoo nuts.  He may or may not have thrown some bacon at Hansol in a fit of frustration.  He absolutely refused to feed the boy canned cat food, though—he had to draw the line somewhere.  How he made it through breakfast without murdering the boy was beyond him.  Brushing his teeth was just as bad, but at least if he got really upset, he could flick water at Hansol to make him leave Byungjoo alone.  Thank goodness for water—Byungjoo’s last defense.

He honestly should’ve been expecting it to just get worse when he continued on with his usual routine.  After cleaning up around the apartment a little with Hansol tagging along, asking nonstop questions or trying to cling to him, Byungjoo was ready to take some painkillers for his headache and go back to bed—and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.  He finally collapsed on the couch to watch some TV and maybe relax for a bit.  He should have known better.

Immediately after sitting down, Hansol was in his lap again.  To make things even more fun, he didn’t just climb into Byungjoo’s lap—oh no, he leapt into it.

“Oof!” Byungjoo grunted, the wind getting knocked out of him.  For a moment he didn’t have the strength to shove Hansol off, which gave the other the chance to cling tightly to Byungjoo, purring and rubbing his nose against the side of Byungjoo’s neck.  Byungjoo groaned, trying to wiggle away, but to no avail.  He finally gave up, grabbing the remote and turning the TV on, doing his best to ignore the person in his lap.

Though it was impossible to ignore the person attempting to snuggle with him, Byungjoo did find that he eventually became somewhat desensitized to it.  If he thought of it as Hansol the cat, then it actually made it a little easier.  Nevermind that Byungjoo felt a little bit crazy thinking of the boy as his cat, but whatever worked.  He made it through the rest of the early afternoon like that, until it was time for him to leave for his part time job.  He finally managed to dislodge Hansol, who had fallen asleep again, pushing him over to lie down on the couch while Byungjoo got up.  He’d hoped that he’d be able to get out of the apartment before Hansol woke up, but no such luck.

Before he was even off the couch, Hansol was clinging to him again, blue eyes wide and worried-looking, “Where are you going, Master?” he asked, voice small.

Byungjoo’s brow furrowed as he tried to free his arm from Hansol’s death grip, “I’m going to work, now let me go,” he grumbled, tugging uselessly—why was Hansol so freakishly strong when he wanted to be?

Hansol tilted his head, looking confused, “Work?  What is that?  Can Hansolie come too?”

Rolling his eyes, Byungjoo sighed, “No, you cant.  Why do you want to come with me anyways?  It’s not all that interesting.”

Hansol pouted, reaching up to cling to Byungjoo’s arm with both hands, kneading it slightly and rubbing his thumbs over the skin, making goosebumps pop up on Byungjoo’s arm, “Master always leaves, and I never know where you go.  I tried to follow but got lost, and Master was angry with Hansolie.  Why can’t I go?” he pleaded, giving the most pitiful look as he tried to persuade Byungjoo to let him go too, “Please?  Hansolie will be good!”

“Ughhhh…” Byungjoo groaned, still trying to weasel his way out of the other’s grip, but the mention of Hansol getting lost struck him hard all of a sudden.  As if all the other proof hadn’t been enough, that last little straw finally broke the camel’s back, so to speak.  Byungjoo suddenly felt light headed, swaying around a little bit.  Hansol, worried, released Byungjoo’s arm to tug on his clothes, chirping fretfully and asking if he was all right.

The answer to that was no, he was not all right.  He had in fact just come to the conclusion that his cat had turned into a human.  He had no idea why, or how, or even what he was going to do about it, but it was way too much for him to handle.

“Why me?!” he groaned melodramatically to himself, burying his head in his hands, “All I wanted was a cat!”

He didn’t see the way Hansol’s face fell, or the way the other scooted back slightly, releasing the sleeve of his shirt so that he could place his hands in his lap.  Hansol drew his legs up onto the couch and wrapped his arms around them, blue eyes looking watery and sad, but Byungjoo didn’t notice, too caught up in his own conceived troubles.  He still didn’t notice, even as he realized he was going to be late for work if he didn’t leave right this minute, and jumped up to get ready to leave in a frenzy.

He even forgot to say his usual goodbye to Hansol as he rushed out the door, hurriedly locking it behind him.

There was no pitiful wailing calling after him as he ran down the hall to the stairwell, but he was in too much of a hurry to realize.  Inside his apartment, Hansol sat and stared at the closed door, silently wondering if he’d made a mistake, wishing on that shooting star.

A/N:  So um... I didn't really mean for it to take a sad turn there at the end LOL I'm so sorry!  I blame the song I was listening to while writing the last part ;o; Please don't worry!  Byungjoo will get used to Hansol... eventually!  This story has a lot of happy stuff to come before the happy ending uwu There will only be one more tiny bit of slight angst after this, if everything goes as planned (which isn't saying much since the sad part at the end of this wasn't planned LOL)!  I hope everyone is having a good weekend!  Enjoy the chapter, and I should have the next one done soon, if my writing muse sticks with me uwu Unbeta'd again, because my beta went to bed like a sissy pfft jk jk bb ilu (beta'd as of 2/23/15! thank u bb <3)

Comments, subs, and upvotes are all greatly appreciated! <3