The next week went on as normally as things could be now that Hansol and Jenny had somehow become humans.  Jenissi spent a lot of his time learning how to read, with help from Jiho here and there.  He was a good student, despite having been a cat, and learned surprisingly quickly.  He moved up from the children’s reading and writing books after the first few days, and it seemed like in just another week or so, he would probably be even better.  Jiho anticipated probably having to ask Jenny for help with his college work sometime in the near future.

Hansol, on the other hand, spent almost all of his time watching Korean dramas, to Byungjoo’s dismay.  Hansol usually roped his owner into watching them with him, which meant being cuddled by Hansol, and sometimes squeezed half-to-death during the intense parts.  Byungjoo put up with it, though he did manage to drag himself away long enough to go to college and do work.  The only bright side to Hansol’s TV watching was that he picked up on a more mature way of speaking.  He only referred to himself as “Hansolie” when he was trying to act cute or get out of trouble.  This was good for Byungjoo on several different levels—for one, he didn’t get all flustered every time Hansol opened his mouth anymore (at least not as often as he had been), and Hansol didn’t seem quite so odd when he had to interact with people besides Byungjoo, Jiho, or Jenny.  

In fact, due to the ex-cats learning more about how to be a little more human-like, Byungjoo thought it was safe to finally give in to Jiho’s pleading and visit Dongsung so that they could all meet his new kitten.  Jiho had been begging since they found out about the new addition to the apartment complex.  Obviously they couldn’t let Dongsung’s new kitten visit with Hansol and Jenissi the cats anymore, but they could at least visit Dongsung’s apartment with their friends Taeyang and Hankyung.  Byungjoo felt bad about lying to Dongsung, since the only way he could explain the absence of his and Jiho’s cats was that they were feeling “a little under the weather,” but it was for their own good.  There was no way Dongsung would believe that the humans he saw were Hansol and Jenny.

Byungjoo yelped as he was drawn out of his thoughts by the pricks of little kitten claws in his leg.  He glared down at the tiny black and white kitten perched on his knee, tiny claws out and clinging to his jeans.  The kitten’s giant gold eyes stared up at him before leaping off like his tail was on fire, springing around the room and careening off the furniture and people like a rubber ball.  Byungjoo rolled his eyes, glad that Hansol wasn’t quite that energetic—though he had his moments.

Dongsung and Jiho were cracking up over the tiny ball of energy.  Yano was the most spastic kitten Byungjoo had ever seen, but he had to admit that the kitten was cute.  Jenissi seemed a little off-put by all the energy, but Hansol was having a blast.  Dongsung had a whole plethora of cat toys to play with, and it seemed like Hansol was having more fun with them than Yano was.  Of course, Byungjoo had confiscated and hidden the catnip as soon as they got there, since he already knew what that did to Hansol, and most certainly did not want a repeat of that incident.  Needless to say, he had tossed out all the catnip in his and Jiho’s apartments.  Never again.

After play-wrestling the tiny black kitten into submission, Hansol cuddled the little furball, turning to Byungjoo with shining blue eyes, “Byungjoooo,” he crooned, letting Byungjoo know right away that he wasn’t going to like where this was going, “We should get a kitten!”

Byungjoo hated being right.  He sighed, rubbing his still-stinging knee, where Yano’s claws had dug into his tender flesh, “No, Han-Hankyung,” he said firmly, only stumbling a bit over Hansol’s fake name, “Hansol is more than enough trouble.”

Hansol’s lower lip pooched out in a cute pout, trying to use aegyo to get his way.  Byungjoo was a little embarrassed to admit that it had worked a few times (okay, maybe most of the time), but he was definitely putting his foot down on this.  He wasn’t going to let Hansol talk him into getting another cat.  One was enough—too much, sometimes, though he would never let Hansol know that.

“I said ‘no’,” he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.  Hansol continued his pouting for a moment, but Byungjoo was going to stay strong.  Dongsung and Jiho were watching with amusement as Hansol turned his back on Byungjoo, sulking as he cuddled the kitten.  Hansol’s pout deepened as Yano wiggled out of his arms and climbed up Byungjoo’s leg, making him yelp in pain.  Before he could pry the little creature off of his knee (again), the furball catapulted off of him and ended up on Dongsung, scrambling up to curl into a ball in the curve where Dongsung’s neck met his shoulder.  

Dongsung chuckled at Byungjoo’s miffed glare, reaching up to gently the kitten with a finger.  Yano blinked suddenly sleepy golden eyes at his big owner before dropping off into a kitten nap.  With their main source of entertainment asleep, Byungjoo decided it was time for them to go.  If they sat around too long without the kitten to distract them, Dongsung might start asking questions about “Taeyang” and “Hankyung”, and that just wouldn’t do.  Belatedly, Byungjoo realized that he probably should’ve come up with some sort of in-depth backstory for his and Jiho’s “friends”, just in case someone asked.  He’d have to put that on his to-do list, right after teaching Hansol table manners.

“Well, I guess we’d better head out, hyung,” Byungjoo said, standing from his spot on the couch, “We’ll have to come back and see Yano again soon—he’s really cute.”

Hearing that, Hansol perked up, looking dismayed, “Not as cute as me, though, right?  I’m cuter than Yano, right, Byungjoo?” he whined, clinging to Byungjoo’s shirt and trying to give him the cutest look possible.

Byungjoo spluttered incoherently for a moment before remembering how words worked.  Needless to say, his face was imitating a tomato again, “Sh-shut up!” he stuttered, shoving Hansol off of him, “That’s two completely different things!  Yano’s a kitten, so he’s—“ Byungjoo made nonsensical hand motions for a moment, “And you’re—“ he groaned, rubbing his face, apparently having no words for Hansol, who was watching him with confusion, “See you later, hyung!” Byungjoo shouted before dragging Hansol out of the apartment, leaving Jiho and Jenny behind.

Dongsung stared after them for a moment before glancing at Jiho for an explanation.  Jiho just shrugged, looking to Jenissi for help.  The other was too busy poking around Dongsung’s bookcase to be of much use, though.  Jiho sighed, turning back to Dongsung with a wry grin on his face.

“He’s just a little stressed about Hansol, you know,” he chuckled, “Forgive how oddly he’s been acting, hyung.”

Nodding and continuing to gently the sleeping kitten on his shoulder, Dongsung gave Jiho a sympathetic look, “I understand.  I would be the same way if Yano weren’t feeling well.  I hope your cats get to feeling better soon.”

Laughing a little awkwardly, Jiho nodded, “Thanks, hyung!  Well, me and Je—uh, Taeyang—had better head out too!  See you later!”

Pulling Jenny away from the bookcase and out the door, he left behind a very confused Dongsung, who started to wonder if maybe something was going on with Byungjoo and Jiho.  He shrugged, nearly knocking Yano off his perch, and decided a cat nap with his adorable kitten was in order.

ooo

“You need to learn how to act more human,” Byungjoo stated seriously, half-glaring at Hansol, who was perched on the couch delightedly pushing the button to change the channel on TV.  It didn’t seem that the former cat was listening to Byungjoo, so he quickly snatched the remote from Hansol’s hand, causing the other to pout cutely at him.

Nothing kept Hansol down for long, though, “You should take me on a date then!” he chirped, causing Byungjoo to nearly drop the TV remote.

“Wh-what?!” he spluttered, “Where in the world did that come from?!”

Hansol was grinning in a very cat-like fashion at him, and it made Byungjoo nervous.  The other pointed proudly at the TV screen, where a boy and a girl were on a date at a cute cafe.  They were holding hands and doing other disgustingly cute couple things.  Byungjoo blanched a little, face turning red again.  That was not what he had in mind when he said that Hansol needed to learn how to be more human.

One look at Hansol’s sparkling blue eyes told Byungjoo that he had probably lost this fight before it even started.  Grumbling to himself, he looked away from Hansol’s (adorable) hopeful face, “I guess we can go out to eat,” he muttered.  Going out of the apartment and watching how other people act would be good practice, after all.  Maybe Hansol could even learn some table manners while they were out.  It was for the greater good, and it definitely wasn’t a date.

Byungjoo got all the air knocked out of him as Hansol catapulted off of the couch and onto his owner, “Byungjooooooo!” he cooed, clinging to the other and rubbing his cheek all over him like he had when he was a cat.  Byungjoo tried to pry him off for a moment, but eventually gave up.  Hansol was a lot stronger than he looked.

“It’s not a date!” he croaked, still trying to get his breath back.  It was kind of difficult with Hansol’s death grip around his chest.  Hansol just continued to grin his cat-grin at him, practically blinding him with that smile.

“I want to go to a café!” he crowed, flinging himself off of Byungjoo to go get ready, “Come on, Byungjoo!” he said, throwing Byungjoo’s shoes at him to hurry him up, “We gotta go!”

Rubbing the sore spot on his head where one of the shoes had hit, Byungjoo sighed.  What had he gotten himself into?

ooo

And that was how Byungjoo found himself on a totally-not-date with Hansol at a cute little café half an hour later.  Hansol was clinging to him while they both looked over the menu, trying to decide what they wanted.  A few days ago, Byungjoo would’ve been trying to get Hansol to leave him alone and stop touching him, but he had gotten used to the clinginess of the now-human Hansol.  He didn’t really pay it much mind as he decided what he wanted on his sandwich.  It was only when Hansol started absently rubbing his cheek on Byungjoo’s shoulder that he noticed the odd looks and glances they were getting.

Byungjoo cursed softly under his breath.  He could feel himself blushing, and that was definitely not something he wanted the entire café to witness.  It was bad enough he was being seen on a sort-of-but-not-really date with Hansol, but adding his tomato face to that was just too much.

He quickly ordered what he wanted and elbowed Hansol repeatedly until the other picked something.  After receiving their food, Byungjoo let Hansol drag them to a secluded corner of the café, where hopefully people wouldn’t pay much attention to them.  He let out a sigh of relief when they sat down and he could calm himself and maybe turn his face back to a normal color.

It took him a while to notice the sparkly-eyed looks that Hansol was sending him.  Byungjoo had a mouthful of his sandwich when he spotted Hansol grinning at him.

“Whaa??” he asked through his mouthful of food, brow furrowing in confusion.

Hansol propped his elbow up on the table and set his chin on his hand, eyes narrowing into merry crescents as he continued to grin cheekily at Byungjoo, “Nothing~” he sing-songed, before finally picking up his sandwich and taking a bite.  As he was chewing, Byungjoo couldn’t help but notice that Hansol had gotten a little bit of sauce on the corner of his mouth.  He hadn’t yet mastered the art of eating with his mouth closed, and he still got food all over himself, which was part of the reason why Byungjoo had wanted him to get more practice eating out in public.  Byungjoo didn’t want to think about what the other part of that reason might be.

He cleared his throat to get Hansol’s attention.  If Hansol had still been a cat, his cute ears would’ve perked up as he blinked big blue eyes at his owner.  Byungjoo tapped the side of his mouth to show Hansol where the sauce was, “You have a bit of food here,” he murmured, his gaze bouncing back and forth between Hansol’s lively blue eyes and his smiling lips.

“I do?” Hansol asked, and a moment later, his pink tongue slipped between his lips to swipe at the side of his mouth.

Byungjoo swallowed heavily.

“Did I get it?” Hansol asked curiously, naively.  He seemed confused when Byungjoo’s face started heating up again, “Is it still there?” he asked again, his tongue sweeping out again just to make sure.  He even tried to clean the other side, since Byungjoo still hadn’t said anything.  Blinking at Byungjoo’s very red face, he stated, “Your face is red again.  Are you okay, Byungjoo?”

Byungjoo let out a garbled noise and thunked his head down on the table, refusing to answer.  Hansol poked and prodded at him for a moment, trying to get him to sit up, before finally going back to eating—or so Byungjoo had thought.

The next thing he knew, he felt a foot nudging at his own.  He brushed it off at first, thinking Hansol was just moving around and had accidentally bumped his foot.  A moment later, Hansol’s foot was wedging its way between his, hooking around it and pulling his feet forward.  When Hansol started rubbing his leg against Byungjoo’s, he thought his head was going to explode.

He sat up abruptly, face extremely red and eyes wide, “Hansol!” he hissed, though he was distracted by something over Hansol’s shoulder.  He ignored Hansol’s giggles for the moment, choosing instead to glare murderously at the couple sitting a few tables away.  One of them was laughing obnoxiously while beating the table with his fist, unable to control his mirth.  The other was looking vaguely uncomfortable with the situation.  Byungjoo knew both of them very well.

Hansol noticed that Byungjoo was focused on something besides himself and followed his gaze, brightening when he spotted the other two people.

“Jiho, Jenny!” he called, waving happily at them, “Are you on a date too?”

This caused Jiho to go into even worse fits of laughter, while Jenissi just looked confused, “Date?” the other former cat asked softly, looking from Hansol and Byungjoo to where Jiho was trying to control himself, “What’s a date?”

Feeling the stares of all the other people in the café, Byungjoo once again hid his face against the tabletop, silently promising to murder Jiho when they got home.

ooo

On the way back to the apartment, Hansol tried his best to cheer Byungjoo up, even though he wasn’t entirely sure why his owner was upset to begin with.  “Cheering up” consisted mostly of him cuddling close to Byungjoo and purring happily.  It didn’t really do much to make Byungjoo feel better, or so he tried to pretend.  To be honest, ever since Byungjoo had adopted Hansol from the shelter, he’d especially loved the soothing effect that Hansol’s purr had on him.  It was really different and kind of embarrassing now that Hansol was a human, but it soothed him just the same.  He could probably do without the way that Hansol was rubbing his face against his shoulder and neck, but he was too worn out from their little “date” to do anything about it (or so he told himself).

Jiho and Jenny were a safe distance ahead of them.  Jiho seemed to be trying to get Jenissi to kiss his “injury” better—said injury being where Byungjoo had whacked him to get him to stop laughing and making a scene back at the café.  Jenny was confused at the reasoning behind kissing a wound to make it better.  He was saying something about saliva carrying bacteria and the importance of keeping the wound clean.  Byungjoo couldn’t help but snort a little laugh at that, causing Hansol to glance up at him, eyes once again narrowing into happy crescents.

They were almost to the apartment when Hansol suddenly stiffened up, his attention riveted on something to the side of them, close to the road.  Byungjoo barely had a chance to ask Hansol what was wrong before the other was flinging himself towards the road.  Byungjoo finally noticed a little bird pecking at the ground alongside the road, where someone had tossed out some food.  Hansol was flying towards the bird, cat instincts apparently having kicked in.  The bird, however, was dangerously close to the road, which was fairly busy at this time of day.  Fear flashed through Byungjoo as he imagined Hansol getting out into the road and being hit by a car.

“HANSOL!” he yelled, finally able to make himself move from where he had been frozen in his spot.  He sprinted over to Hansol, who had stopped at Byungjoo’s shout.  The former cat was looking scared and confused, not knowing what he’d done wrong.  Jiho and Jenny had stopped as well, and were watching worriedly from a couple of yards away.

Byungjoo gripped Hansol’s arm hard, yanking him away from the road.  He was about to start ranting about how stupid Hansol was and how dangerous cars were when they heard a familiar voice from behind them.

“Did you just call him Hansol?”

Byungjoo froze.  He almost couldn’t make himself turn to face the person behind him, but he slowly turned anyways, staring in shock at Sehyuk, who had apparently been on his way home from work when he spotted Hansol—or Hankyung, to him—sprinting towards a bird like some sort of crazy person.  Byungjoo’s mouth went dry.  He was in trouble now, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to get himself out of it.  His grip tightened on Hansol’s arm, causing the other to yelp in pain.  That drew Byungjoo out of his own shock-induced stupor.

He immediately loosened his hold on Hansol, feeling guilty that he had hurt the other in any way.  Hansol was pouting, confused as to why Byungjoo was so mad that he had hurt him.  Byungjoo had never done anything to hurt him before, so he couldn’t understand what he had done that was so bad as to make Byungjoo hurt him.

Byungjoo grimaced, mind working furiously as he tried to come up with a good reason as to why he had just called Hansol “Hansol”, instead of “Hankyung”.

Is the cat finally out of the bag?  he wondered, not even getting a chance to enjoy his cat pun thanks to the stress of the situation.

“Um,” he started, his wording eloquent as always, “No?”

Everybody was looking at him now, and Sehyuk seemed suspicious, “But I just heard you shout ‘Hansol’,” he said, confused, “Isn’t his name Hankyung?”

“Um,” Byungjoo said again, glancing at Jiho for help.  Jiho could only shrug slightly—he had no idea what to say either.  Clearing his throat nervously, Byungjoo blurted out the first thing he could think of, “It—it is!  We were just, uh, playing charades!” he gave a little laugh, sounding more nervous than amused, “And Hankyung was pretending to be Hansol going after a bird!  Ha ha!  He’s so funny!”

Everybody looked even more confused at this point.  When it seemed like Byungjoo wasn’t going to explain any further, Sehyuk gave a hesitant nod.

“He’s certainly good at pretending to be a cat,” he said, smiling uncertainly, “Well, I guess I’ll see you guys back at the apartment.”  With a wave and a friendly smile to Jiho and Jenny, and another odd look cast in Byungjoo and Hansol’s direction, he continued on in the direction of the apartment complex.

Once he was out of sight, Byungjoo let out a sigh of relief.  He decided to wait till they got home to lecture Hansol on road safety.  Pulling lightly on Hansol’s arm to get him moving, he started walking in the same direction as Sehyuk.

“Let’s go home,” he said, sounding way more tired than he should have been after such a small outing.

Being quiet for once, Hansol trailed along with him, with Jiho and Jenny falling in behind.  When the reached the apartment complex, they split up to go to their respective apartments.  Byungjoo dragged Hansol inside, kicking off his shoes and releasing Hansol’s arm before collapsing onto the couch tiredly.

After a moment, Hansol toed off his shoes and tiptoed over to sit on the other side of the couch, worried that Byungjoo was still upset at him.  It was quiet for a few minutes, but Hansol couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Byungjoo?” he asked softly, “What did Hansolie do wrong?”

Byungjoo groaned, rubbing at his face, “You scared the living daylights out of me—that’s what.”

Tilting his head to the side in confusion, Hansol tried to think of what he could have done to scare Byungjoo.  He hadn’t jumped out at him from behind something and shouted “boo!”, so he didn’t understand how he had scared him.

Dropping his hands down into his lap, Byungjoo stared at Hansol with a very stern expression, “I don’t want you to ever run out towards the road like that again, Hansol,” he growled, causing Hansol to shrink back into the couch, “Cars on a busy road are very dangerous, and you could’ve gotten hurt, or worse!”

“Sorry, Master,” Hansol whispered, not looking at Byungjoo.  His hands were anxiously kneading the couch, like he would’ve done when he was a cat.  That, plus the way Hansol had gone after that bird earlier reminded Byungjoo that Hansol had been a cat once, even if he was human now.  He still didn’t know how or why Hansol had changed into a human, and he didn’t know if it would stay like that if if Hansol would eventually change back into a cat.  For some reason, that thought made his chest feel tight.  Not wanting to think about it, he pushed it to the back of his mind for now.

His eyes softened at Hansol’s distress.  The other hadn’t slipped up and called him “master” in a while.  Smiling slightly, he reached out and patted Hansol’s knee.

“It’s all right—nothing happened this time,” he said, trying to calm the other down, “Just don’t do it again, okay?”

Hansol finally looked up from the floor, his eyes somewhat watery-looking, “Okay,” he murmured, sniffling softly, “Hansolie will be more careful.”

“Good,” Byungjoo said, smiling wider, “Now how about we get ready for bed?  I don’t know about you, but I’m tired.  Today wore me out.”

As he got up to go to his—or, well, maybe “their”—room to change into his sleeping clothes and brush his teeth, Hansol’s face slipped into a little frown.

“Today was fun, though, right?” he asked, still sitting on the couch.  He had twisted around to peer over the back of the couch at Byungjoo, who was already heading down the hall.

Byungjoo glanced over his shoulder, spotting the half worried, half hopeful look on Hansol’s face, “Yeah, I guess…” he said carefully.  

Hansol perked up, eyes starting to sparkle again, “Does that mean Byungjoo will take Hansolie on another date?” he chirped, sounding excited.

Byungjoo couldn’t help but gape at Hansol, mouth hanging open like an idiot.  Hansol was waiting expectantly for his answer, and Byungjoo finally snapped out of it long enough to reply.

“No!  No more dates!” he said loudly, turning and disappearing into his room, not wanting to deal with this after the day he’d had.

Yelping, Hansol scrambled off of the couch and ran after him, sounding worried, “Ever?!” he wailed, sounding heartbroken.

Byungjoo’s answer echoed from the other room, “Ever!”

A/N:  OMG GUYS I'M SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT!!!!  I've been sick for the past few weeks and have just felt way too bleh to write :c I finally sat down and finished this chapter tonight (or this morning, as it's 4:30 AM haha), since I love y'all and I know you're looking foward to an update 8'D Hopefully updates will be more regular now that I'm feeling a bit better!  Also, apologies for the lack of (much) Xenissi in this chapter!  I tossed in some Gohn x Yano, so hopefully that'll make up for it ;D Unbeta'd, as my lovely beta went to bed like two and a half hours ago, LOL!

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