“Taekwoon I met when I was just a kid. How old were we, eight? Nine? I can’t remember exactly.”

            “Nine.”

            “Ah, thanks Taekwoonie. Anyways, there was this park that I used to go to every day after school with my friends, and one day we saw these kids being mean to this little black cat, aaah, you were so cute back then, why can’t you be so cute again?”

            “Back to the story, Hakyeon.”

            “I decided to go over and stop them, and when I got closer they ran off laughing. You should have heard the noise he first made when I picked him up, it was adorable. My friends told me that we should go, it was getting late and it wasn’t good to go around picking up strange animals, so I pet him and left.

            “The next day when we came back he was waiting by the swings, which were my favorite. I thought to myself, what a friendly cat.”

            Taekwoon huffed at this. Hakyeon just grinned at him.

            “Eventually he was waiting for me by the swings every day, until about a week and a half later he just followed me home. So I kept him!

            “It wasn’t until, what, a year later? That he finally let me know that he was a shapeshifter. It was really startling actually. I came home from school one day and no cat! Instead Taekwoon was sitting cross-legged on my bed. I almost had a heart attack.”

            “He even let out a shriek.”

            “I did not! And I’d like to see you not be surprised when your so-called pet turns into a human.” Hakyeon jabbed him in the side.

            “Anyways, that’s how we met. And we’ve been friends ever since! When I finally moved into this place, he came with me and lives just down the hall.”

            Hongbin wondered exactly how big this house really was. He had heard of elven houses being deceptive in appearance but since he had never been in one he wouldn’t know.

            Taekwoon spoke.

            “I started working at the bakery just after it opened, because Hakyeon kept pestering me to stop being a “lazy of a cat” and do something. Even though now all he does is hang around me when I work and talk incessantly about nothing in particular. And then ten minutes to six he leaves and-“

            “And comes over to talk incessantly about nothing in particular to me,” Hongbin finished.

            Hakyeon pouted.

            “You guys make me seem like such an annoyance.”

            “Well to be fair-“ Taekwoon started.

            “I mean-“ Hongbin began at the same time.

            Sanghyuk started laughing from across the room. Hakyeon dramatically sighed.

            “Well, whatever. I know you get lonely without me, it’s not like you ever even leave the back kitchen of the bakery, Taekwoon.

            “So that’s how I found all of them, and then blah blah blah, they all met, friendship ensued, etc.”

            Hongbin sat for a moment, filing through what he’d been told. Hakyeon continued.

            “And now, by some chance fate, you’ve joined us!” Hongbin swallowed back his protest of not having willingly joined anything, and nodded. He also didn’t add that he didn’t put much stock in fate. A lot of the creatures believed in some sort of fate or other power, but he’d never really understood any of it. Whatever happened, happened. But then again, magic was a thing, so maybe something else really did hold some sort of sway. Hongbin decided to stop thinking about it.

            “Hey, do you think you could direct me to the bathroom?” He directed at Hakyeon, who was making faces at Sanghyuk, who was making faces back. Taekwoon was the one who answered, though.

            “Down the hall, second door on your right.” Hongbin thanked him and got up, walking by a sleeping Wonshik. How could he even be comfortable? His face was pressed against the chair, which didn’t look very pleasant. But Hongbin just kept going. Past the clean kitchen, which he now figured was because of Taekwoon being in control of that domain, Hakyeon didn’t seem like much of a cook. He turned down the hall, counting doors. All of the doors looked slightly different, made of a different wood or in a different pattern, kind of like the whole house, where nothing really matched but everything fit together. Hongbin attributed that aspect of the house to Hakyeon. Reaching the second door, he stepped into a stone- stone? A stone-walled bathroom, with what looked like natural walls carved straight out of a rock. It was bigger than he thought. Everything so far has been bigger than he thought, so he just finished what he had come to do, and after messing with and figuring out how the wide, tilted sink worked, he exited back out into the hall.

            And realized that he couldn’t tell which way he had come from.

            He hadn’t really paid attention while he walked, so he didn’t recognize the immediate surroundings. There was a door in front of him, and one on either side. The hallway wasn’t dark by any means, but the lighting was less clear and bright than Hongbin was used to. It added an air of unknown things, things that he couldn’t quite pin down.

            Leave it to an elf.

            He sighed. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to explore a little bit? He was sure Hakyeon wouldn't mind.

            He opened the door straight in front of him across the hall. The door was smooth, and the handle turned easily. The room was dark, but he could make out the shape of a bed with unmade covers, and a chest at the foot. There was a painting on the wall, of what Hongbin couldn’t quite tell. On second viewing, the floor was covering with things ranging from books, to clothes, to dishes. If he had to take a guess, Hongbin would say that it was Sanghyuk’s room.

            Backing out, he turned to the left. There was one door on the side of the hall, and one door set straight into the end of the hall. So Hongbin wasn’t completely lost, after all, he could just turn in the opposite direction. He went to the next door, easing it open. This room was chilly but not cold, and had a light on a desk on the far side of the room. There was a smaller bed against one wall, and then a structure that looped around the room that looked like- oh, it was a cat walkway. There was a little bed on the top of one of the corner posts, and a collection of little toys around it. So this is Taekwoon’s room. It was kept pretty clean, with some papers out on the desk and a jacket slung over the chair. Hongbin would guess that the cabinets along the wall were just as organized. There was a big window, looking out over what was definitely not part of the city.

            Leave it to an elf.

            The window was overlooking a little fenced garden, with variations of flowers and a couple of vegetable plants. Looking further out, there was a row of trees a ways away, which was probably an orchard. The window was open, and there was a barely noticeable breeze swaying the curtains. It was a nice room, all in all, and Hongbin could definitely see Taekwoon in it.

            The last door in this end of the hall opened into another bedroom, this one was warm and well lit, with a lamp in the corner and a dome light in the middle on the ceiling. The bed was in the center of the far wall, with lots of pillows. The bedside table had a book open spine-up, and Hongbin had to resist going over and fixing it. There was a bookshelf on the other side of the bed against the wall, next to a large window with a little alcove, with more pillows and blankets. This overlooked a little creek that Hongbin could hear through the open window.

            “What do you think?” 

too much describing? i hope not omg

i think i will make it a chabean fic? not like super romance-y or anything but i guess i'll see how it plays out

i'm worried about writing taekwoon omg i hope i get his character right? PLEASE if you think its off let me know!

i'm still kind of hashing out the actual storyline

thanks for all the comments and subscriptions!

~Win (also if you want i am realminhyuk on tumblr!)