As predicted, Jiho’s day lolling around the house with Jenissi was a lot of fun.  For the most part all they did was either sit and watch TV or tidy up around the apartment.  Most of the tidying was done by Jenny, with Jiho attempting to help.  Jenissi eventually tired of the other’s “attempts”, though, and sent Jiho off to sit in a corner and not mess with anything until Jenny was done cleaning.  The highlight of the day was when Jiho dragged an old board game out of his closet and tried to teach Jenny how to play it.  It might’ve gone better if he’d remembered the rules, or even just read the rule book to refresh his memory.  He thought that it would be more fun to just make up his own rules, rather than actually read.  Either way, they had a lot of fun, and Jenny was surprisingly strategic when it came to board games.

Late that evening, they were both lounging on the couch watching TV, sitting close but not too close.  When their show went to commercials, Jiho zoned out for a bit.  It wasn’t till a preview for a horror movie made Jenny jump in fright that Jiho came out of his stupor.  Chuckling at the frightened Jenny, he instinctively reached out to Jenny’s hair, like he would have when Jenny was still a cat.  Still a little bit scared from the freaky commercial, Jenissi immediately huddled into Jiho, half-climbing on top of him and leaning into the hand in his hair.  

It took a minute or two for Jenny to settle down, and even after he’d gone limp against Jiho, purring happily, Jiho continued to scratch his fingers gently through Jenny’s light brown hair.  It was very relaxing, and Jenny was so cute, curled up close to him.  Jiho wrapped the arm that he wasn’t using to pet Jenny around the other, pulling him closer and gently smoothing down the hair that he had mussed with his earlier scratching.  Purring softly, Jenny was practically boneless against him.  It was incredibly soothing, and Jiho was happy to lie there forever.  All good things must come to an end, of course.

This ending came in the form of Byungjoo bursting through Jiho’s door, slamming it open so that it hit the wall with a loud sound, scaring the life out of Jenny, who accidentally dug his nails into Jiho as he shot straight up, falling over the back of the couch and scrambling like mad for the safety of Jiho’s room.  Jiho had fallen off the couch in the chaos, landing with a loud thud.  He could only groan for a moment, knowing that he would probably have bruises later.  

“Jiho!” Byungjoo shouted, dragging Jiho off the floor, “Hansol’s missing!” Byungjoo’s face was creased in worry as he shook Jiho, rattling Jiho’s already confused brain.

Finally managing to pry Byungjoo’s fingers off of himself, Jiho tried his best to straighten his clothes, “Didn’t we already go over this, Joo-yah?  He’s a person now.  I don’t know how it happened, but it’s not that bad.”  He smiled a bit dopily in the direction of his room before turning back to Byungjoo, “You’re just going to have to accept it.  Who knows, it might be even better?”  He was surprised when Byungjoo shook his head in frustration, grabbing him again, his grip almost painful in his worry.

“No, no, I get that now—“ he hissed, abruptly releasing Jiho to run his hands through his hair, “He was there when I left for work but now I can’t find him anywhere!  He… he wanted to come to work with me?  What if he tried to follow me again and got lost?  What if—“

Jiho finally cut Byungjoo off, slapping a hand over his mouth to keep him from blabbering, as he was becoming almost incoherent with his frantic yammering, “Whoa, whoa, calm down, Joo-yah!” Jiho said, trying to soothe his friend, “Did you check your whole apartment?  After getting lost last time, I don’t think he’d run out again.  What if he’s hiding?  He used to do that a lot as a cat, didn’t he?”

Byungjoo calmed down a little, though there was still a worried crease between his eyebrows.  Jiho removed his hand so Byungjoo could reply, “I-I looked through all the rooms, but I didn’t check his usual hiding places.  Wouldn’t he be too big to fit in most of them now?”

Shrugging, Jiho walked over to his room and poked his head inside, “Jenny, I’m going to go over to Byungjoo’s apartment and help him look for Hansol, okay?  Be good while I’m gone!”

In the faint light from the hallway, he could see Jenny’s head pop out of his closet, “Okay,” he called softly, giving Jiho a little wave.  Grinning, Jiho turned back to Byungjoo.  They traipsed back over to his apartment and started checking thoroughly through all of Hansol’s old hiding places, room by room.  It wasn’t till Byungjoo got to his bedroom, though, that he finally found Hansol.

Byungjoo had checked the closet, shuffling through clothes and shoes for several minutes before deciding that if Hansol was in the tiny closet, he would have noticed the second he opened the doors.  Sighing, he turned to the last option in the room—the bed.  Crouching down and crawling towards the small gap under the bed, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he spotted glowing eyes staring back at him, reflecting the shock he was feeling.

“Yah!” he yelped, jumping backwards and nearly banging his head on the wall.  He had to sit for a moment and get his heart to stop trying to pound out of his chest.

Jiho must’ve heard the commotion, because he came rushing into the bedroom, “Joo-yah?  What’s wrong?” he asked, worried.  The only thing Byungjoo could do was point at the bed.  Curious, Jiho knelt down and peered under, his face breaking into a sweet smile when he spotted who was under there, “Oh, there you are, Hansol!  Joo-yah’s been worried sick about you.  Why don’t you come out?”

Hansol’s gleaming blue eyes flicked over to Byungjoo, looking surprised for a moment before becoming sad.  He lowered his gaze to the floor, biting his lip and shaking his head slightly.  Jiho’s gaze flicked to Byungjoo as well, eyes widening when he spotted a bit of a guilty look on Byungjoo’s face.  His eyes narrowed before he stood up, dusting off his pants.

“Well, I’ll leave you two to talk,” he said, kicking Byungjoo lightly with his foot before crooning a goodbye to Hansol and quietly leaving.  Byungjoo could hear the soft sound of his apartment door closing behind the other.

All was quiet in the apartment for a minute, with Hansol refusing to look at Byungjoo.  Byungjoo stared at Hansol’s withdrawn face for a moment, feeling very bad about what he’d said when he left.  During work he’d thought a lot about what it meant now that Hansol was apparently human, and while he still wasn’t quite used to it and wasn’t sure if he ever would be, he wanted to try—for Hansol.  Remembering Hansol’s sad face when he thought Byungjoo was going to take him back to the shelter (as if he could, now that Hansol was a human), he knew he couldn’t just ignore or get rid of Hansol.  His kitty—or, well, ex-kitty—was too sweet and precious to do that to.  Remembering what he had said about just wanting a cat made Byungjoo wince.  He must’ve upset Hansol pretty bad, so he had to do something to make it up to the other boy.

“Hansolie,” Byungjoo said softly, smiling a bit weakly when Hansol’s eyes immediately turned to focus on him.  Hansol’s expression brightened for a moment before he remembered that he was upset and he looked down again.  Byungjoo frowned, figuring he’d have to try harder, “Hansolie, I’m sorry about what I said earlier—I didn’t mean it, okay?  Will you come out of there?”

Hansol seemed to consider it for a moment before he bit his bottom lip again, “I can’t,” he murmured, almost too quietly for Byungjoo to hear.

Byungjoo frowned, brows furrowing, “What?  Why not?  If you need me to apologize more, then—“

“No, Master, it’s not that,” Hansol said, cutting him off and looking kind of embarrassed, “Hansolie is stuck.”

“You’re—“ Byungjoo stopped, looking at Hansol in confusion for a moment, “Huh?”

Was that a blush that Byungjoo could see on Hansol’s face?  It was hard to tell in such dim lighting.

“I don’t fit as well as I used to…” Hansol muttered, wiggling a little.  He maneuvered until his arms were sticking out from under the bed, making sad little grabby motions at Byungjoo, “Help Hansolie?” he asked hopefully, eyes still shining eerily like a cat’s.

Byungjoo laughed and rolled his eyes, reaching out to grasp Hansol’s fingers, helping to pull him out from under the bed, where he’d wedged himself into a space that was too small for him.  It took a lot of pulling from Byungjoo and a lot of wiggling from Hansol, but eventually he was freed, though it was minus his pants.  Byungjoo’s face did its best impersonation of a tomato as Hansol giggled and pulled his pants back up.  Hansol found it pretty amusing, especially Byungjoo’s bright red face.  He kept touching it, though Byungjoo was trying to swat his hands away, embarrassed.

“Does Hansolie’s face change colors like that?” he asked, studying Byungjoo’s face very closely—a little too closely for Byungjoo’s comfort.

“Not quite like that, but sorta,” Byungjoo muttered, face flaming even more as Hansol his cheeks, feeling the heat of his skin with delicate fingers, “It’s called blushing.  It’s not fun.”

Hansol seemed worried, gently cupping Byungjoo’s face between his hands, “Does it hurt?” he asked.

Only my pride, Byungjoo thought, but didn’t say out loud.  He shook his head instead, carefully removing Hansol’s hands from his face and clambering to his feet, pulling Hansol up with him.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, trying to change the subject.  It worked pretty well.

Hansol bounced up and down, gripping Byungjoo’s hands tightly and refusing to let go, even when Byungjoo tried to tug them free, “Yes, Master!  Hansolie is very hungry!  Food, please!” he chirped, cheerful as could be despite his earlier upset.  Byungjoo would’ve found this amusing, but there was one thing he had to straighten out first.

“Don’t call me ‘master’,” he said bluntly, still halfheartedly trying to free his hands from Hansol’s death grip, “It sounds weird.”

The other boy tipped his head to the side, pale hair falling softly over his face as he blinked curiously at Byungjoo, “What should I call you, then?”

Byungjoo shrugged, “My name, I guess?  Anything is probably better than ‘master’.”

Hansol grinned, “Okay!  Food, please, Byungjoo!”

Rolling his eyes at Hansol’s enthusiasm over just about everything, Byungjoo shook his hands to draw Hansol’s attention to them, “You’ll have to let me go first.”

ooo

With that problem out of the way, Byungjoo did his best to live up to his promise and get used to Hansol as a person.  It was difficult, but he was trying.  Hansol was used to being a cat, so Byungjoo was doing his best to break him of any odd habits he’d had as a cat, with mixed success.

Using the litter box and eating cat food out of a can had been the first things to go, and Hansol hadn’t put up too much of a fight, at least over the litter box (once Byungjoo showed him how to use the toilet, and explained that the loud noise it made when it flushed was not going to hurt him).  It took a bit more persuading (and a little bit of bribery) to convince Hansol that he didn’t need to eat canned cat food anymore, but Byungjoo eventually accomplished it.

Hansol was also used to cuddling with Byungjoo any time he wanted, which was fine (and adorable) when he was a cat, but was really embarrassing now that he was a human.  Hansol really didn’t understand the concept of personal space—not when he was a cat, and not now that he’d become human, either.  Byungjoo eventually gave up on trying to talk Hansol out of his couch-time cuddles and petting, as that was a lost cause from the start.  He was also having trouble getting Hansol to understand that he would be sleeping on the couch that night, not in Byungjoo’s bed.  When asked why, Byungjoo tried to lie and say that humans didn’t sleep together like that, but Hansol called him out on it immediately.  Apparently he had seen humans sleeping in the same bed on TV, so that excuse was out.  Byungjoo hadn’t come up with anything else yet, but he was determined that Hansol would be sleeping on the couch that night, whether he liked it or not.

That plan started out okay, but by the time Byungjoo woke up the next morning, Hansol was in bed with him again, snuggled close and gently kneading Byungjoo’s chest in his sleep.  Byungjoo merely sighed, deciding that was another thing he would have to get used to.  It wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t get so stupidly flustered around Hansol.  He refused to think about that for the time being, and instead made himself get up and go through his morning routine.  Hansol wormed himself into the routine again, which resulted in Byungjoo teaching him how to brush his teeth, and trying to talk him into taking a shower.  The shower was flat out refused, but Hansol enjoyed getting toothpaste everywhere (including on the mirror and Byungjoo).

Since Byungjoo had the day off, he decided it would be a good idea to take Hansol shopping and buy him some clothes, so that the other didn’t have to keep wearing Byungjoo’s clothes—though at least they were close to the same size.  Because misery loves company, Byungjoo texted Jiho asking if he and Jenny would like to go shopping with them.  Jiho texted back a very excited “Yes!” with a lot of emotes, and after a moment, a selca of Jiho leaning over a sleeping Jenny and making a peace sign at the camera, along with the text “Waking Jenny up! B right over!”

Byungjoo chuckled, which caused Hansol to want to know what was so funny, which evolved into explaining the camera on his phone, selcas, and how texting worked.  Hansol was absolutely enraptured with it, and demanded to get his own phone, which Byungjoo immediately turned down.  Hansol proceeded to pout till Jiho arrived with Jenissi in tow.

When they started to leave, Hansol had a little bit of trouble at the door.  He very clearly remembered his adventure the other day, and how upset Byungjoo had been about him going outside.  It took a lot of coaxing (and a little reluctant cuddling) from Byungjoo to get him to leave the apartment.

“So long as you stay with me and don’t run off, it’s fine,” Byungjoo reassured him, flushing a little as he noticed Hansol clinging to his hand.  It looked way too intimate to him, but whatever got Hansol out of the apartment, he supposed.

“Okay,” Hansol said, looking a little less worried.  He clung even more tightly to Byungjoo, determined to not leave his side for even a moment, much to Byungjoo’s chagrin.

On their way down the stairwell, they ran into Sehyuk and Dongsung, who were coming up the stairs carrying grocery bags.  They seemed shocked to see Jiho and Byungjoo with two strangers.  Byungjoo had a minor panic attack, wondering how he was going to explain Hansol and Jenny to Sehyuk and Dongsung.  Jiho, however, seemed calm as could be.

“Hey, guys,” Sehyuk greeted, smiling at them and casting curious glances at Hansol and Jenissi, who were both smiling right back at Sehyuk, “Who are your friends?” he asked politely.

“Funny you should ask, Sehyuk-hyung!” Jiho said happily, “This is actually Je—“

He was cut off swiftly by a hard jab of Byungjoo’s elbow into his side.  While Jiho was coughing and holding his stomach, with Jenny looking on worriedly, Byungjoo quickly tried to come up with some way to explain Hansol and Jenny without making Sehyuk think they were nuts.

“Uh… these are our friends from… um… out of town!” he explained, sounding a little panicky, “They’re from the country, so please excuse them if they act a little oddly!”  Jenny was giving him a very affronted stare, while Hansol just looked confused, but Byungjoo ignored it for the time being.

“Oh, I see,” Sehyuk said slowly, seeming a little confused himself.  He exchanged a curious glance with Dongsung, who shrugged as if to say “this is Byungjoo and Jiho we’re talking about.”  That made sense, of course—Byungjoo and Jiho were always up to something, it seemed.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Dongsung said kindly, “I’m Dongsung, and this old man here is Sehyuk.”  He laughed cheerfully as Sehyuk shot him a mock-glare, patting the eldest’s shoulder to console him, “What did you say their names were?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at Byungjoo.

I didn’t, Byungjoo thought, and I don’t particularly want to, because I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.  Uh…

Byungjoo quickly blurted out the first couple of names that came to his mind, “This is Taeyang,” he said, motioning to Jenissi, who blinked at him like he was nuts, and then to Hansol, “And this is… uh… Han… Hankyung!”

Sehyuk and Dongsung were really looking at him oddly now, but when no one spoke up to explain what was going on, they decided to just excuse it as another weird Byungjoo thing and move on.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you two,” Sehyuk said, repeating what Dongsung had said earlier.  He suddenly seemed to remember something, turning to Dongsung with a smile, “Oh!  Dongsung, you should tell them your good news!”

A big grin broke out over Dongsung’s face, and he shifted grocery bags around to pull his phone out of his pocket, “Well, I liked playing with Hansol so much that I decided to get a cat!  He’s really cute but kind of demanding—I’m hoping he’ll grow out of it, since he’s just a kitten now.  Here, isn’t he cute?”  He showed them several pictures on his phone.  It was a little black kitten with a tiny white patch on his chest and big golden eyes.

Hansol seemed very pleased with the fact that Dongsung had decided to get a cat because of him.  Byungjoo had to elbow him as well to get him to stop preening.  Jiho was too busy cooing over how cute the kitten was, with Jenny peering over his shoulder at the pictures.

“What’s his name?” Jiho asked, handing Dongsung’s phone back to him.

“Yano,” Dongsung replied with a chuckle, “He’s really playful, so maybe I can bring him over to play with Hansol and Jenny sometime?  It would be funny to watch.”

Byungjoo gave a nervous laugh, “Yeah, fun!  Uh, sorry to rush out of here but we have some errands we need to run before it gets too late, so, um, see you later, hyungs!”

Before Jiho could say anything that would give them away, Byungjoo grabbed him (and, by extension, Jenny) and dragged everyone down the stairwell and out of the apartment complex, only breathing a sigh of relief once they were out in the fresh air away from their curious hyungs.

“That was a close one,” Byungjoo muttered, trying to get his heart rate to calm down.

“Why did you make up names for Jenny and Hansol?” Jiho asked, seeming confused.

Byungjoo gave him an incredulous look, “Are you dumb?  They would think we were nuts!  I don’t particularly want to go to a mental hospital, thank you.”

Jiho seemed to think that they would’ve taken the news just fine, but accepted it with a shrug and continued on with Byungjoo and the other two towards the closest department store.  It wasn’t a very long walk, but it was long enough for Hansol to get a lot of stares.  His white hair and blue eyes certainly did stand out, but so did the way he was clinging to Byungjoo like his life depended on it.  Byungjoo just hoped they could make it through shopping without any incidents—it wasn’t even that late in the day and he was already tired.

That hope, of course, was doomed to failure from the start.  The second they got into the department store, Jenny discovered the cleaning section, and Hansol discovered his love for shopping.  While Jiho was getting dragged off to the aisles full of cleaning supplies, Hansol was diving headfirst into a rack of clothing.  Byungjoo had to drag him out by force, though Hansol came away with an armful of clothes that he wanted to try on and then buy.  Byungjoo groaned, but reluctantly pulled Hansol in the direction of the nearest changing room.

Meanwhile, Jenissi was in neat-freak heaven.  He was showing all sorts of amazing cleaning supplies to Jiho and asking if they could get them.  Jiho gave in just a little, saying no to most of the things but agreeing to a few small items.  Jenny seemed happy, so that was okay with him.

While Jenny was looking at the different products, Jiho wandered off a bit to the nearby toy aisle.  He spotted a tub full of discount toys and decided to dig through it a little, to see if there was anything interesting.  Sure enough, deep down in the bin was a very funny-looking rubber chicken.  When Jiho squeezed it, it made the most hilarious honking noise.  Cackling to himself, Jiho decided to play a little prank on Jenny.  Hiding the rubber chicken behind his back, he crept up behind Jenny and waited till he was sure the other was immersed in trying to read labels (which was a lost cause, since Jenny couldn’t read, but he was sure giving it a good try) before sticking the rubber chicken right in Jenny’s face and squeezing it repeatedly.

The loud honking noise absolutely terrified Jenny, who wasn’t all that good with loud noises, or sudden noises, or especially loud, sudden noises.  Jenny let out his own squawk and practically fell over himself to get away, knocking over a display of cleaning products in his flailing.  Jiho was laughing his head off while Jenny glared up at him from the floor.  The loud ruckus, however, had attracted the attention of some of the store employees, so Jiho quickly grabbed Jenny and yanked him to his feet, pulling him along and escaping the cleaning section before they got caught.

Once they were a safe distance away, Jiho bent over, still laughing despite his winded state.  Jenny seemed a little miffed, keeping a distance between them and standing stiffly, staring decidedly away from Jiho’s laughing face.  When Jiho finally calmed down a little, he wiped the tears of mirth from his eyes and grinned at Jenny.

“That was so funny, oh my god,” he chuckled.  When Jenissi still continued to ignore him, Jiho rubbed the back of his neck and patted Jenny’s shoulder, trying to apologize, “Sorry, Jenny, I didn’t mean to scare you so bad, but I just couldn’t resist.”  He glanced down at the rubber chicken he still held in his hand, giving it a light squeeze to make it honk quietly.  Jenny glared at the chicken as if it had greatly offended him before grabbing it out of Jiho’s hand and whacking him with it once before flinging it across the store with all his strength.  Jiho stared after it before laughing again, wrapping an arm around Jenissi’s shoulders and grinning at the other.

“You’re so funny,” he laughed, even though Jenny was still frowning at him.  He could tell that Jenny wasn’t as upset anymore though, which was good.  As funny as it had been, he didn’t want Jenny upset with him over it.  Deciding it was probably time they did a little clothes shopping as well, he steered them in the direction of the clothes part of the store, “Let’s go find Joo-yah and Hansol.”

They found them, all right.  Byungjoo and Hansol were in the middle of getting scolded by a store employee, though for what, Jiho wasn’t sure.  It wasn’t till Byungjoo had apologized profusely (and forced Hansol to apologize as well) and the employee left them alone that Jiho found out what had happened.  Apparently, Hansol had gotten into a fight with a girl over a shirt he had wanted.  It had escalated to Hansol swiping at the girl and hissing.  It had taken both Byungjoo and the store employee to break it up.  

Glaring at Jiho, who was laughing at him, Byungjoo sighed tiredly, running a hand through his hair, “Just hurry up and get some clothes for Jenny.  I wanna go home.”

Hansol seemed dismayed, “You mean I can’t shop more?” he asked, clinging to the clothes that Byungjoo had agreed they would buy.

Byungjoo narrowed his eyes at Hansol, “No, no more shopping.  We’re buying this and going home, before you attack someone over some boxers or something.”

Hansol tilted his head to the side, pulling a fistful of boxers out of the pile he was holding, “But I already have some of those!”

Byungjoo rubbed his hands over his face, feeling yet another headache starting to pop up.  This was going to be a lot more stressful than he’d thought.

A/N:  Hopefully the slightly longer chapter and all the crazy shenanigans help make up for the unexpected sad part in the last chapter!  Also, ask and ye shall receive!  Someone mentioned seeing some more Topp Dogg cats, so I tossed Yano in there for you ;D Probably won't get to see him much, but he might show up again!  I also tried to fit some more Xenissi in here too, for those of you who wanted more Xenissi uwu They're silly, especially with that rubber chicken LOL!  This is also unbeta'd!  I'll probably talk my beta into looking it over tomorrow when she gets done with work (beta'd as of 3/1/15 thanks bb!) ;D Till the next chapter!

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