The dog stared at the beagle, a thousand thoughts running through her head. Who was this guy and why was he trying to start a fight? “I’m sorry, did you just insult my parents? How do you know I’m not a purebred?”

    “Oh please,” Baekhyun rolled his eyes as his tail stayed pointed upward, “You’re blonde fur and tail don’t match any pure breeds. You try so hard to be one of us, so why don’t you just quit it?”

    “I’m not trying to do anything,” Wendy argued back, feeling the fur rise on her tail, “If I’m doing anything, then it’s obviously your issue. The females are happy with my presence!”

    “Is that so?” he leaned in closer towards her in an effort to intimidate her. When she didn’t lean back, he sneered at her. “You’re not good enough for Chen, no matter your social standing with him.”

    It was like a clap from a distance finally reached her; those words, though not direct from the cat himself, broke a piece of her heart and slapped her across the face. It was like this beagle, whom she never heard of before oddly, just read off a fear of hers. She sometimes thought it, but she never admitted to really believing it.

    She wanted to retort; to punch the dog and kick his pretty teeth in, but she suddenly felt chilly. The hot day wasn’t providing her any warmth as she started to wonder if Chen believed that too.

    Am I not good enough?

    Just as Chen was approaching the two, Baekhyun made a quick comment about how she smells like bad gum before sitting up straight and greeting the cat who sat down. “You two getting along?”

    “Yes.”

    “No.”

    Baekhyun turned his head and glared at the dog as she let her answer slip. Chen’s brows raised as he pushed the beagle to sit back some so he could reach across and pat Wendy on the shoulder. “No?”

    “She’s just kidding,” Baekhyun laughed, moving Chen’s arm off the female. Wendy’s ear twitched as Baekhyun slung an arm around her, “We’re being the best of friends.”

    “Get your paws off me,” Wendy growled, shrugging the hand away as she stood up. Her ears were pointed and her tail shaked with tension. She looked at the cat and declared that she was going to climb a tree.

    As the dog passed, Chen looked over at Baekhyun, who was feigning a look of confused innocence.

    What did you do? He gave a look at the beagle, squinting his eyes.

    The beagle held his hands up in the air. I have no clue what you're talking about.

    The cat huffed in irritation as he stood up, jogging to follow Wendy into the more wooded area of the park, leaving the game and an irritated Baekhyun behind.

🐱 🐶

    Wendy wasn’t climbing a tree, but more like kicking and clawing at it. Chen never saw Wendy so irritated at someone else before (besides him, but that no longer counts), so he didn’t know how long she was going to do this. He approached her from around the tree; her eyes caught the sight of him before she stopped.

    Her face, usually blushing from Chen’s touches and words, was now angry red. She didn’t like how that damned beagle insulted her parents, and furthermore, insulted her. Thinking about it more, she raised a hand to claw at the tree again. It just felt so good to have this frustration let out.

    Stupid beagle with his stupid floppy ears and stupid tail and stupid mouth and stupid personality...

    Chen waited a moment before he intervened and took hold of her upper arm. His tail flickered and like a magnet, wrapped itself around her leg. “Wendy.”

    Even times where she’s supposed to be mad, Chen’s voice calmed her. She huffed and shook her arm out of his grasp as Baekhyun’s slimy head popped up in her head. She gave one last scratch to the tree before looking at the gray cat. “What?” she asked a bit to aggressively

    He gave her an expression that read you know what. Puffing out her cheeks, Wendy sat down on the grass and hugged her knees, curling herself into a ball, embarrassed to look at her housemate.

    Finding her actions both unsettling and cute, the gray cat sat down behind her with his legs on her sides, and pulled her in close to him, giving her a hug around her curled body. “Wendy?”

    She hummed a confirmation that she was listening to him but not wanting to answer. He called out her name again as he moved her so she could lean into Chen’s chest.

    “What?” she tried to pull away, but Chen’s warmth...

    “You know what.”

    “It’s none of your business.”

    “It is too my business.”

    “Is not.”

    “Is too.”

    “Not.”

    “Too.”

    “No.”

    “Yes.”

    “Stop,” she tried, pushing herself to sit up straight. She was practically sitting on the gray cat’s lap. She couldn’t recall how that happened as she tried to get off, but Chen had this magic power with his hands. He just held her wrists and gave her an expression that made her gulp. Too many good and terrible thoughts were running through her head, like how attractive the curl of his lips were or how dark his eyes looking at her was. She started to zero in on his eyelashes and even noticing the hairs on his eyebrows.

    He looks so y when he’s serious.

    “Wendy.”

    Without much thought, she asked “Do I bother you?”

    As if the question punched him in the face, Chen physically leaned away from the dog. She went from a pouting stubborn mess to looking at him with a pouting stubborn mess with tears in her eyes. “Want to be more specific?”

    Closing her eyes, Wendy had to take a slow breath to say the words. “Does it bother you that I’m not purebred?”

    Understanding now what might have happened, Chen placed a hand on her face and rubbed her cheek with his thumb. He gave her a reassuring small smile and shook his head. “Should it bother me?”

    “Does it?”

    Shaking his head, Chen continued to caress her cheek, “Wendy, I don’t care what breed you are.”

    “Why not?”

    Finding  the situation to be a bit ridiculous, Chen leaned in and rubbed the tip of his nose against her cheek, chuckling, “I like my world the way it is.”

    She felt the cat nuzzle her cheek before slowly moving up her ear and down her neck. She started to feel a bit dizzy at his touches, especially when he tightened his arms around her, keeping her locked in his embrace. It was moments like this when she felt like she could fall asleep, knowing she’s protected.

    His voice was the perfect tone as he whispered more sweet compliments into her ear. “I like how beautiful my world looks in the morning. I like it when my world is safe and happy. I like how warm my world feels in my arms. I want my world to be herself; because no one else see’s my world like I do.”

    She turned her head to look at him; feeling really warm. They’re eyes met and unlike the other times, when they were staring at each other with mysterious and confused expressions, they were staring at each other with a mutual agreement. Everything and anything was being answered and for that moment, they pretended that their issues never existed. They were just a cat and a dog who were always staring into each other’s eyes.

    “Wendy...” The cat leaned in just a bit, wanting to close the gap between their faces and sending shivers through the dog’s body.

    “Jongdae...” the dog replied back, sending butterflies in the cat’s stomach, “Am I good enough?” For you?

    Without skipping a beat, he replied, “You’re perfect.” For me.

    “Am I interrupting something?”

🐱 🐶

    Lisa was laughing her off when she stumbled upon Kai being tied to a branch with his shoelaces by Chen. Chen was muttering torture methods as Kai pleaded for the cat to not tie too tightly, which only resulted in him being tied even tighter.

    Lisa stumbled towards Wendy, who was watching with her hand over her cheeks. Patting her on the back, Lisa chuckled, “Oh my gosh, this has to be the best day ever. Watching Kai get what he deserves...”

    Wendy’s lip twitch in amusement, but she was more or less still replaying the sensation that just happened a few moments ago. She and Chen had been close like that at one point; when he was acting so strange that day about a month or two ago. She was so caught up in his emotion and his scent that, at the time, it felt like she was drunk, but now... Now...

    Now what?
    “So I haven’t seen you in a while pup,” the black cat smiled as she ruffled the dog’s hair, scratching her head. Wendy found her leg shaking at how she was just hitting the perfect spot. “My human had a meeting across the country and I had to go with her.”

    “ ‘so okay,” the dog hummed as Lisa moved her fingers down to her chin, “You didn’t miss much.”

    “On the contrary,” the black cat jutted her chin towards the two cats. “I must have missed something big if Chen is murdering Kai. Especially if you smell like a certain kitty...”

    The dog blushed and hid her face in her knees, her tail wagging quickly. The black cat chuckled at her reaction and pat her on the head. “It’s okay, you two smell alike anyways. I wonder why...”

    Pushing the cat away from her in a joking manner, Wendy whined a bit. She didn’t like being teased like this, but she couldn’t stop the smile appearing on her face. “You’re cruel. Go back to BamBam.”

    “Speaking of him,” the feline purred as she whispered into Wendy’s ear, “I told him how I felt.”

    “And?”

    The two looked as Kai struggled to get out of the tied shoelaces, but Chen was also sitting on his chest, scratching his face in one long .

    “Well... he left me.”

    With wide eyes, Wendy was about to shout when Lisa laughed. “Ah, you’re so fun to tease. Nah, he was so happy. His tail went a mile a minute and he had the stupidest grin on his face. I think he almost fainted when i curled my tail around his.”

    The dog tilted her head, “Huh?”

    “Oh, that’s right, you dogs don’t really have flexible tails like us cats,” Lisa chuckled to herself as she scooted closer to the dog and made her watch their tails twirl around each other. The dog’s brows shot up in surprise, feeling like she was committing adultery. “You see... our tails tell our emotions. So for cats... if their tail wraps around you in anyway, that means they like you, but if their tail wraps around yours, then you’re really special because most cats use that a declaration of some sort.”

🐱 🐶

    Wendy glared at Baekhyun when the four approached the purebreds (Kai was finally untied by Lisa, who graciously kept calling her ‘his queen’). Baekhyun glared back for a second which didn’t go unnoticed by Lisa.

    “So... you left in the middle of a game,” Baekhyun pouted at Chen, “You just can’t do that.”

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