monthly dose of two idiots - Chapter 7 - jajajajooo (2024)

Chapter Text

30 July
[09:08 a.m.]

The ring of the doorbell stirs Hansol and Chan from their slumber. Captain Luna Hopkins, whose body is curled up near her owners' tangled legs, sits up, ears perked and pupils dilated as she stares out the bedroom door, on guard.

Today, the entertainment company the two worked for gave everyone a holiday today, because the bi-yearly building check-up and maintenance was occurring, and they needed as small of an amount of people working with the idols today as possible.

Chan has wonderfully been integrated within the company. Well, excluding when he had a fight with one of the female choreographers over how a certain move should be done for a song, he really had no hiccups. Even the choreographer he fought with is well-acquainted with him now.

Though he misses the random routine he had during his remote job, he has so many new things to look forward to after his career change. Waking up next to Hansol at the same time, getting ready next to Hansol, sitting with Hansol on the train, and coming back home with him every weekday. Their routine has been easy to fall into, because, even if they lost their free Tuesdays together, they spend even more parts of their days together, which made it easy for them to sync up with.

(“Truly, a match made in heaven,” Seokmin commented dreamily after he ran into them a few days ago at the company and asked how they were fending with a huge change in their lives.

“Yeah, if it were heaven for Satan, that is,” Soonyoung mumbled angrily from behind him. He got socked by three different hands for his comment, made because he was petty over the fact that he had to deal with Chan’s fight with Momo as their team lead for the project.)

Another ring of the bell followed by harsh knocks on their front door finally startled the two out of their sleep, eyes simultaneously shooting open, Captain Luna Hopkins jumping off the bed after being disturbed once again, still alert.

Hansol groans, rubbing his face as he leans up on his arms, glaring at the semi-open bedroom door as if the people at the front door will get his message like that and stop disturbing them.

They, in fact, do not stop, ringing the doorbell once again, the knocks following the shrill noise being more loud and impatient.

The older one looks at Chan, whose eyes are open just a sliver now, hand hiding the big yawn he was letting out.

“You go,” Hansol says, pointing at the door as he lays his head back on his pillow.

“No,” Chan says, voice flat as he also gets comfortable on the bed once again. Hansol has a rebuttal already on the tip of his tongue.

“I’m not wearing a shirt right now.”

Chan sighs out of defeat, leaning up with a pout, eyes half-open. His body is slow and uncoordinated, brain foggy as he sits up, stretching and taking his sweet time to get up. Usually, he’d bicker further with Hansol, but they’re an hour past their cat’s meal-time anyway, and the person at the door seemed to have something urgent up with them, so he has no other choice but to let the older one have this one.

This time, the bell is rung thrice, making Chan leap off the bed out of surprise and frustration, Hansol sitting up with a jerk as well.

“Okay, okay, f*ck, I’m going,” Chan huffs, rubbing his eyes and jumping over Hansol’s abandoned shirt, rushing out into the hallway towards the front door.

Despite initially intending to go back to sleep, Hansol also rushes up, grabbing his shirt from the floor and haphazardly putting it on, not caring if he's doing it right or not. He won’t be leaving Chan alone with whatever impatient maniac is at the door, that’s for sure.

Chan ruffles his own bed hair, trying to look a little presentable as he looks through the peephole to look at the people outside.

“What the f*ck,” he whispers loudly, mostly to himself, Hansol joining him shortly with a hand set on the low of his back.

“Who is it?” Hansol asks, looking at Chan to gauge by his expression whether the person was a threat or not.

Chan does not answer, just unlocking the door silently as a raging fire burnt in his eyes. Hansol turns to curiously look at who it is, only to find himself being just as pissed.

“What are you guys doing here?” Chan semi-shouts, making Wonwoo jump from where he was leaning on the wall next to the door, hand ready to knock, and Mingyu draw his hand back from the bell.

The older couple assess the sleepy heads, Wonwoo drawing out a deep chuckle as he steps forward to pat Chan on his head, a fond gesture.

“You were sleeping? Do you not remember the double date we had? Today?”

Double date?

Chan doesn't remember any double date. In fact, most of his dates were non-scheduled, so this is news to him. He initially thinks to call out a prank, but seeing how serious Wonwoo looks, he decides to evaluate his memories.

And, sure enough, as he looks back, further and further, he vaguely remembers a word-of-mouth commitment he and Hansol made with the two in front of him. He didn't think it'd go anywhere, but it turns out, he was proven wrong.

Chan bites back a curse. Yes. He completely forgot. He thought everyone had.

Looking at Hansol, it looks like he’d realised that he had forgotten about it too.

Mingyu pouts sadly, hooking his chin on Wonwoo’s shoulder as he wraps his hands around him.

“Hyung, maybe we should leave. It seems like our favourite dongsaengs forgot about us.”

Chan and Hansol immediately begin to throw a spur of excuses, shaking their hands and heads aggressively, talking over each other trying to win back the older couple's affections, only stopping when they finally hear Mingyu and Wonwoo are chuckling at them adoringly over their own voices.

They relax, realising that the two taller ones aren't actually mad at them.

“It’s alright. There’s still a couple of hours until we have to leave for our... 'reservation' of sorts, so you guys can prepare around it.”

The two dishevelled individuals visibly relax at that revelation made by Mingyu. Chan moves away from the entrance to let the men inside.

Hansol though, remains there, frowning and lips pursed as if he had a question to ask before he could move out of the way. Wonwoo makes a noise of question at the younger, causing him to ask:

“Why didn’t you both just let yourselves in? You know the password to the home.”

Mingyu tuts as if the answer to that is obvious enough, entering the home anyway, pushing past Hansol as he pointed between the two younger ones with an accusatory finger.

“Well, it's a holiday for you two. It's a really nice morning, too. We were not about to witness two of our little babies in a compromising and, frankly, embarrassing position, you know?”

It takes a few seconds for the recipients to understand what he was saying, and the look of scandal that dawns on Chan’s face with the violent blush on Hansol’s face makes everything worth it. Mingyu doubles over, laughing as he grips the wall, pointing at them, this time out of humour, voice high-pitched and incoherent as he mumbles something regarding their reaction.

Wonwoo lets himself in as well, shaking his head with a fond smile at his partner over his antics. He pats the younger ones' shoulders, trying to give them comfort as he informs them that, “he's only kidding. Both of us just forgot the code, actually.”

“Ah, hyung! You can't just say that!” Chan says, letting out an exasperated noise as he leaned forward to softly smack the now kneeling Mingyu on top of his head. He makes his way to the kitchen, trying to conceal the amused smile he has on his lips.

Hansol follows behind, getting next to the recovering Mingyu to nurse the spot where Chan hit by softly petting it, now wearing a sh*t-eating grin along his slowly fading blush.

“You give a fair point though.”

Unfortunately for him, Wonwoo laughs loudly, and he's the farthest from anyone, busy petting Captain Luna Hopkins in the hallway, so that means that the youngest in the room heard him, too. This is confirmed when Chan turns around with a glare and pink ears, jaw wide open over Hansol's words.

“Freak, you're on litter duty for a week,” Chan says. Hansol groans, throwing himself over Chan and trying to get the younger to take the punishment back. Mingyu just stares at them, smiling at them as he reminisces over the time when Hansol used to tell him he'd never be able to tell Chan how he felt out of fear.

He's glad to have seen them come this far.

-

[09:17 a.m.]

Chan is glad to be catching up with Wonwoo and Mingyu once again. It's hard to remain updated about everything with a big group of friends. Sometimes he misses out on big developments without his knowledge simply because he didn't have it communicated to him. For example, he had learnt about Minghao and Junhui’s relationship through Junhui posting a poorly made meme of a Shrek figurine officiating their wedding. And so, from that point on, he decided he'd be more close with everyone and more involved in their lives to avoid the confusion.

(And embarrassment. Imagine having Junhui repeat the same incident some five-hundred times to complete strangers during their first meeting with tears of laughter streaming from his eyes? It'd always be absolutely devastating, especially watching as the person's face goes from confused amusem*nt to pure horror as they realise Junhui isn't actually pulling their leg and, subsequently, Chan just lost a ton of friendship points in their eyes.)

The couples are currently split up, Wonwoo and Hansol enjoying an episode of whatever random cartoon is playing on the TV, leaving Chan and Mingyu on breakfast duty as they share an air-pod each and pause their cooking appropriately to follow along to the dance moves where they know it.

The environment in the house is beyond peaceful; the cat perched on Wonwoo’s lap, the sound of eggs sizzling mixing well with the overly animated voices in the show, and the light conversation passed around is comforting.

At least, that's how it feels to Chan before Mingyu asks a random question out of nowhere.

“How do you feel about learning to bake sugar cookies?”

Chan raises his eyebrows, turning to look at the taller one, confused.

“You know I’m not a big sugar cookie fan.”

Mingyu hums. That answer is obvious to him. He is a madman who knows the food preferences of each of his friends. Chan can't say the same for himself, so he finds it both impressive and concerning. Using a finger, the older one softly pushes Chan’s face to the side, to where Hansol and Wonwoo are sitting, their eyes glued to the TV like stimulated toddlers.

“Your boyfriend is.”

Mingyu’s voice stretches at the end, a teasing sound, somewhat mischievous too, like a villain offering to buy Chan’s soul or something.

Chan would be lying if he wasn’t swayed by it.

So, pulling Mingyu down to whisper conspiracies in his ear, Chan asks, “And what’s your plan, genius?”

Mingyu hums once again, his evil smile widening. He leans over to Chan as well, excited to scheme with the younger one.

"So, before we leave for 1 p.m., I will teach you how to make sugar cookies. Hansol's favourite. For funsies! Also because your favourites would take too long. For this, we got plenty of time. And before you ask why you are the chosen one: last week I tried to teach Wonwoo, and he tried to choke-slam me. Jihoon refused, Seungkwan and Seokmin shuddered and understandably told me that they didn't want to encounter an oven in their lives ever again, and Junhui just told me he'd rather die than bake."

Chan sighs. He's had his fair share of kitchen disasters and he can just feel that this experience will be remembered as one too. But, looking at Mingyu's dejected expression as the older reads his hesitance, and knowing that he wouldn't push him into doing it no matter how much he wanted Chan's 'yes', successfully and unintentionally made the younger one feel bad enough to come to a half-baked conclusion he knew would be a mistake. At least he has one excuse he could try, though.

"Honestly, hyung, it doesn't sound too bad. I wouldn't mind learning. But... um... there's an issue. I really don't have the ingredients or tools for making cookies."

Happiness dawns on Mingyu's face over Chan's acceptance, making a triumphant sound and clapping his hands.

"Well, dear Channie, I have all of that sorted! If you go to your apartment parking lot, find my car, and open the trunk, you'll find not only every ingredient you need, but also every single tool you'd need to make Hansol's favourite form of cookie!"

Chan frowns, another question raising in his head. This time, the question is paired with a twinge of insecurity as he scrutinises himself over the fact that he didn't know that sugar cookie was Hansol's favourite type of cookie.

"How do you know his favourite flavour of cookies but I don't?" he asks, voice wavering pathetically.

Mingyu shrugs, a bit awkward as he picks up on Chan's dilemma a bit too quickly.

"I used to make him do my worst electives' homework for me, and he'd secretly make me give him a tray of freshly baked sugar cookies in exchange, at the end of every damn week. He'd hide the jar of them in his clothes so no one would steal them. Anyway, that has made me such a master at making them, I could open a shop and people all around the world would visit to taste my recipe. But then he called the cookies off 'cuz he just likes them home-baked and I stopped baking for him, so makes sense why you don't know about it.”

Chan smiles up at him, thankful for his hyung crushing his feelings of being the worst boyfriend ever as quickly as he could, but his face remains a bit weary still.

"And you planned to have me say yes?"

Mingyu cringes, recounting, "Honestly, I was planning to throw out everything and sob until I threw up if you refused. You were my last resort. No one else would be convinced. Jisoo can already bake sugar cookies, Jeonghan and Seungcheol would murder me in cold blood if I asked, and Minghao would just flash me a middle finger and reject me flatly. I'm not taking any chances because I'm not dealing with all that," Mingyu concludes with a shiver.

"And Hansol and Soonyoung-hyung? What about them?"

"Oh... Well, my guy, if you want all of Seoul to be burnt to a crisp in a Great Fire Of Seoul or something, maybe I'll teach them. Your choice."

"Okay, okay, that's fair," Chan agrees, rubbing his forehead in frustration.

"So...? Yeah or nah?"

Chan mumbles a curse under his breath. He's not enthusiastic at all, but the stupid part of him wanting to keep Mingyu's vigour alive overpowers him. It's like he has no free will at the moment, a puppet to Mingyu's eager expression.

"When do we begin?"

Mingyu jumps, clapping his hands, and cheering like a cartoon character would, and when Wonwoo and Hansol turn to look at him in confusion, he fumbles with the stove, pretending nothing happened as the eggs were threatening to burn. Nonetheless, an excited smile was still apparent on his face.

"We start right after breakfast," he announces in a whisper, busy as he divides the big scrambled junk of eggs and vegetables into four equal parts and places each piece on a plate of rice.

Chan's smile is still a bit faux. He's glad Mingyu is excited, but he mostly accepted to make up for the others' rejections. He doesn't really want to bake today, but he thinks it'll be a good way to spend time. Plus, he likes to imagine the happiness Hansol would have after he serves him a warm plate of nostalgia he hasn't had a taste of for years now.

Acts of service were one of his love languages, anyways. So, he doesn't really think this would hurt.

He does wonder how they'd distract Hansol, though. If he's going to be surprising him with the cookies, then maybe Wonwoo would have to join their conspiracy. But if Wonwoo, Mingyu and Chan huddle together to plot something, Hansol would definitely have his suspicions. The youngest feels a bit of anxiety thrum within him as he tries to come up with a fool-proof plan to keep his boyfriend occupied.

"Breakfast is served!" Mingyu shouts excitedly over to the two on the sofa, Chan working on autopilot as he takes out four pairs of chopsticks, and moves the hot pan to the sink with a million and one thoughts rushing through his head.

He feels his anxiety expand as he thinks about how he'll mess up on a recipe that would take an hour at most.

Gosh, if he ends up destroying the house or something with his mistakes, he could say goodbye to his happy little life forever. Hansol leaving, no more friends, cat runs away, and his belongings burnt. He shudders thinking about it.

But honestly, if he died before visiting the cat shelter they're supposed to visit for their double date, he'd fist fight god to get his place back on earth so he can experience the bliss of those cute little creatures, anyways.

Hansol grabs Chan's hand, looking at him, very concerned. Shaking his head to dismiss his thoughts, the shorter one pulls his lover towards the table, forcing his thoughts to take a backseat as they have breakfast together.

-

"So," Wonwoo begins, still chewing on his rice, "what do you think about our double date today?"

Chan grins, wide and pretty, all teeth on display and eyes turning into slivers. He thinks that's enough of an answer. He's extremely excited. He enjoys Mingyu and Wonwoo's company more than he admits, he is buzzing about going to the cat shelter, and a day near Hansol is already guaranteed to be good.

Their double date idea was half-baked when Hansol and Chan came up with it. They decided to go to double dates with every couple they were close with over the months, to adjust to the new dynamics it brought. Later, they decided against it, because everyone's schedules clashed too much to make a coherent plan for a two-on-two with every couple, with one exception.

They decided to give the honours to Mingyu and Wonwoo, who had ended up getting in on their plans by accident by the blabbering Chan who told them his frustrations over not being able to get everyone to adjust their schedules, and begged to be have a part in this adventure. They verbally planned to go to the cat shelter for a short-term volunteering session the day Hansol's gotten a free day and Wonwoo and Mingyu happen to be free too, but it didn't seem to go anywhere.

Their date had been 'planned' months in advance. Chan did not expect that the other couple would go through with it, neither did he expect that things would be this different through those months. It was just March when the youngest couple came up with this plan and they decided to hand over the next day Hansol got a holiday from his job due to maintenance as the day of the double date between them, shrugging it off as an empty plan that won't proceed.

Yet the plan proceeded, indeed. Surprisingly, even if Hansol and Chan forgot about this, Wonwoo and Mingyu remembered the promise and had made a reservation for the four of them. This double date was an important bonding experience for them, the two older ones always fond of the younger ones, so they didn't forget it.

"I'm pretty excited, I am not gonna lie," Hansol replies, smiling his gummy smile when Chan nods in agreement.

A few moments of silence passes before Wonwoo clears his throat, catching the attention of the other three looking at him out of curiosity.

"Well, we came here early for a special reason," Wonwoo says, rubbing his nape as his bangs hid his eyes that were downcast on his plate.

Hansol makes a face of realisation as he seemed to have figured out what was coming, then looks somber as well, making Chan raise one of his eyebrows up out of confusion.

"What's up?", he asks, a bit concerned.

Wonwoo chews his food slowly, as if he was trying to stall himself from answering that question. Mingyu looks like he's holding himself back from laughing, further puzzling Chan.

"Well..." he trails off, face raising up to make eye contact with Hansol, whose eyebrows are raised, face silently conveying dismay over the other not saying what he wanted to say.

Chan looks at Mingyu to see if the taller one would help him out, but the other avoids eye contact, busying himself with stuffing his face with food.

"Well," Wonwoo starts again, coughing a little as he swallowed his food, "uh... Hansol texted me a few days ago about a new mod that was made available in a game the two of us play. He was having trouble understanding how to work it when we called to try it out, and I asked when he was free so I could teach him face to face. He told me that he'd be free today. That's how me and Mingyu got to know about you guys' holiday, and so, we made a reservation as quickly as we could."

He coughs once again again, hand reaching for the glass of water in front of him, taking his sweet time sipping the contents as he was waiting for Chan to piece it together for them out loud.

"So, you guys weren't early just to get us up, obviously, because you could have done that over call, but so you and Hansol could game for a couple of hours before we leave?" Chan finishes for him, chin perched on his folded hands as he glanced at the two guilty ones in question.

"Yeah," Hansol confirms, scratching his nose to hide his eyes from Chan's intense stare.

Chan sighs, looking back at Mingyu, who just grins back at him. And he figures another thing out along the way. Mingyu decided to teach him sugar cookies right now as a fun activity for them as their boyfriends did their own thing. Plus, it would be perfect when Hansol would be locked in and busy with Wonwoo on their computer in another room, so he wouldn't even need to plot with anyone to distract his boyfriend. It all fit flawlessly.

Mingyu nods, a smug smile on his lips as he noticed Chan's face dawning in realisation over the whole picture.

"Well, I suppose that was to be expected," Chan says, Hansol and Wonwoo looking up, faces mimicking how the earth looks after the sun shines after a big storm. Their kicked expressions looks grow excited. It's clear they expected the conversation to go in a completely different path from how it actually went, but Chan has his own commitment, thanks to Mingyu, the smartass who saved Wonwoo and Hansol, his two favourite people from Chan's wrath.

"You aren't disappointed or mad?", Hansol asks. Chan pouts. That's what these two expected from him?

Thinking about it, Chan would actually sulk over it, because he'd want to use this time to bond—over a board game or a deep conversation with a cup of coffee or something, not be far apart and distracted.

But, now that he has his own thing he will be doing with Mingyu, he can't complain about it, and so he's decided it wasn't to be all that bad.

"It's okay. Me and Mingyu can do something, too. Probably. Maybe I'll force him to teach me something to cook," Chan hints, shrugging, conspiracy in his voice as he winks at Mingyu, who laughs, shocked, a hand covering his full mouth.

Wonwoo and Hansol do look pretty confused over the youngest's reaction and whatever he's got going on with Mingyu, but they decide not to poke the bear, for their own sakes. Which, in Chan's eyes, is a good decision on their part.

The environment of the breakfast table seems to become less tight, the air full of ease and contentment after this revelation has been made, and Chan grins to himself as he ate his meal.

Everyone's happy in the end, thankfully. Everyone except Chan, probably, still a bit scared over baking cookies. The weird gut feeling is still there within him.

A few minutes pass with no words spoken between them. It's comfortable, everyone eating their food slowly, enjoying themselves.

Mingyu speaks up next, a new topic of conversation in his head.

"How's work been for you, Chan?"

The older couple fondly chuckles when Chan jumps on his spot in his seat out of enthusiasm, wiggling his body out of pure joy as he smiles ear-to-ear. Hansol just grins dreamily, a look of adoration in his eyes as he takes in the sight of his elated boyfriend.

"It's been pretty good," Chan replies. Then his smile slightly falls, as he thinks over things further.

"Actually, I did have that fight with Momo, but I guess that got fixed so it's alright. But, a kind of funny thing happened recently," Chan prefaces, holding back giggles when Hansol begins laughing before he could even begin on what he was going to talk about, "there's this lady in the train who greets Hansol every morning who also lives downstairs. She kept trying to set me up with her grand-daughter, but she finally stopped once she saw me without my glasses."

Wonwoo tilts his head to the side while Mingyu makes a confused noise.

Hansol raises his hand, cackling happily as he participates in telling the story further. Chan sways his hand, letting the older one do so, knowing how much his boyfriend loved it when it happens.

"So, Chan's eyes usually feel too tired to wear contacts in the morning before leaving the house, so, he opts to wear his glasses and change into contacts at work when he's more awake," Hansol says, still laughing between words.

"The woman had only seen Chan in contacts during her run-ins with us downstairs, and she knew us as a couple. She didn't know Chan began a new job, either."

Wonwoo's laughs erupted in the room as he realised where the story was going, but Mingyu still looked lost, so Chan continued, Hansol too busy clutching his stomach as he remembered the event.

"When she saw me in glasses, she thought I'm Hansol-hyung's co-worker friend. The look of pure horror when I had taken off my glasses once in the train. It's been a couple of days since this has happened, by the way, and she's laughed it off by now too, but, oh god, that look. It was both devastating and hilarious. Oh well. At least she thought I was decent-looking, at least enough for her grand-daughter."

Hansol makes an offended noise, recovering from his laughter.

"I'm honestly surprised you don't get hit on more often when you leave the house with your glasses. You look like a hot nerd in them," Hansol says, pointing at Chan, who, at the moment, was still wearing his prescription glasses, cheeks red behind the frame.

Mingyu makes a noise of agreement as he gave Hansol a high-five of approval, while Chan whined and Wonwoo huffed out of annoyance.

"Is that your opinion on every person that wears eyeglasses? That they're nerds?"

Hansol shrugs under the accusatory tone the oldest has pinned him with.

"Not really. But, solely based on you, I think yes," he says.

Wonwoo deflates, a small smile on his lips. "I agree, then. I am a pretty hot nerd."

The three others have separate reactions over this action of gloating: Mingyu cheering, Hansol impressed, and Chan rolling his eyes. The table continues talking with rigour, slowly transitioning into a pleasant conversation as they continue to eat, Chan telling them more stories from his new job. The couple is good at reacting to every tale Chan presents to them, Hansol mostly listening to him and nodding along.

They laugh, like at the story in which Chan ran face first into a glass door in front of the CEO because it didn't have any handles and it was cleaned hauntingly well; they tease, like how Chan wrongly credited a song to Hansol, even though another producer had made the song, and had done so in front of the actual producer (thank f*ck they took it well), and they gasp, as Chan explains how Soonyoung and him became a feared teaching pair between the idols and now the company is doing anything but pairing the two for classes to prevent them from getting intense.

Their conversation moves to the kitchen, as Mingyu soaps up the used utensils, Chan washes them, Wonwoo dries them, and Hansol places them back at their spot, this time discussing the new project Hansol had just finished working on, how Chan is the one who will be choreographing it all alone, and how exciting it'd be to see its release because Chan's first fully choreographed song ended up being made my his boyfriend.

Then they finally part ways, Hansol and Wonwoo locking themselves in the guest bedroom where Hansol's gaming setup was, while Mingyu tiptoed to grab the car keys from the coffee table so they can retrieve all the things they need for baking.

Chan feels like he's doing something illegal, as he and Mingyu are excessively silent, to the point it's unnecessary, knowing very well that their boyfriends were another level of 'unaware of their surroundings' as they were gaming, especially with other people. But it was kind of fun stifling giggles as they snuck out like kids pretending to be spies navigating through guarded areas.

Even though the bulky mixer clanks loudly against the many different-sized bowls Chan was carrying in his arms, and Mingyu trips over a cat toy that sends a variety of metal utensils Chan couldn't name crashing to the ground, no one glances out the occupied room to check on them, leaving the two clear of any trouble. Their boyfriends would only pop out if one of them let out a blood-curdling scream, which wasn't going to happen, so they're safe.

Placing everything down on the kitchen counter with a relieved sigh, Mingyu sneaks to shut the kitchen door, an excited and sh*t-eating grin resting on his face.

"You ready?" He asks, the joy in his voice barely unconcealed.

"Well, do I have a choice?," Chan grumbles, arms crossed.

Mingyu happily shakes his head.

"You lost that chance."

Chan sighs, exasperated. He rolls his eyes, joining Mingyu's side like a petulant child forced to behave.

But he knew. He does still have the choice if he was serious enough. But, despite how he feels, he thinks about his beloved and his uncertainty are forced down. It's for Hansol. Anything for Hansol. Just imagining the delight on his face as he looks at his favourite cookies baked by his boyfriend years after having them the way he loved them, Chan blushes and feels excitement thrumming through his veins.

So he sucks his anxieties and doubts in through his mouth, and breathes it all out through his nose, pushing the image of Hansol up in his head.

Mingyu notices the shift in Chan's confidence, jumping and clapping his hands like a seal.

"Let's go, my little student!"

Chan sticks his tongue out at the older, but he rubs his hands, ready for the challenge.

-

"No way."

Chan glances up at Mingyu. His hand is still hovering over the bowl, even though he's already emptied its contents, and his forehead is scrunched from how his eyebrows are raised as high as he possibly can when Mingyu revealed the ingredients they'd be working with.

"I'm not kidding, I swear," Mingyu assures.

"Liar."

Mingyu groans, facepalming. He doesn't know what else to say to the younger to convince him. Chan points accusingly at him.

“You mean to tell me… Hansol’s favourite type of cookie only contains seven f*cking ingredients?”

The other one peeks out from behind his hand and nods, a little hesitant because he can feel the venom in the shorter one's tone.

“And it is very well known by literally everyone that the quickest way to Hansol’s heart is his stomach?”

“Oh lord,” Mingyu says, voice wavering. He can tell where this is going, and he doesn’t like it. He wonders how Wonwoo would react on his unfortunate funeral.

“And when I f*cking asked you for foods Hansol likes so I could win him over during your final year of college, you just said ‘I don’t know’, forgetting about the cookies you baked every f*cking week for three years for him?” Chan flails his hands around, the bag of all-purpose flour too haphazardly being thrashed around in his dilemma.

Mingyu tries to calm the other down and take the bag from his hands, but Chan draws his hands back defensively, jaw clenched, brain still clouded.

The older one turns around, leaning on the counter with his eyes covered, not willing to look into Chan’s eyes. He feels like a spouse who just revealed that they've been unfaithful. This situation is far from that, but the atmosphere feels close enough.

“I genuinely didn’t think about it, okay? I get it: you could’ve been smooching Hansol years before this if I didn’t do something stupid, but I'm sorry, it’s done. You guys still got to smooch, but I agree, I could have sped up the process. Just. I'm so, so, so sorry. I’ll take whatever punishment you give me.”

Mingyu tightens his hands around his eyes as he hears Chan sigh, an extremely defeated and sad sound. f*ck, he feels horrible about this. The void pulls at his stomach, nauseous from how his terrible judgement subjected his close friends to torment of a 'will they, won't they' kind of situation.

But before he can look up from his hands and comfort his younger friend and beg for forgiveness on his knees, he is pelted in the face by a handful of flour, each speck holding all the pettiness Chan felt. He began coughing as he breathed some of it in, not expecting the hit.

When he finally looks at Chan, the shorter one laughs loudly after inspecting his face, clutching his belly and pointing at him as Mingyu’s handprints are perfectly preserved over his eyes making the white flour over his face look sillier.

“What was that for?” Mingyu whines over his coughs.

“You said you’ll take any punishment, and I decided I’ll show you how you were dead to me for a few moments after you revealed that by turning you into a ghost,” he explains, grinning wide as he stood there as if he did nothing wrong, the bag of flour hidden behind his back.

Mingyu blows on the backs of his hands so some of the white dust can blow onto Chan’s face, leaving him coughing and with a few particles of flour clinging to his hair.

The younger one chuckles in good faith, followed by a silence in which his face falls into something more serious, making Mingyu tense up.

“I guess it's… fine. I don't know. I'll need to think more about it, but right now, I don't want to. It’s passed. We got together without me having to uh… play with the system. So, while I should make you owe me a bajillion favours for hiding such golden information from me, I won't even do that, because it proves that even without me not knowing Hansol’s favourite cookie was a sugar cookie, he still liked me enough to date me this long. So, you can call this growth organic growth, baby,” he concludes, posing heroically, staring off at the distance as if they were a new foe to conquer, everything coated with flour.

Mingyu exhales, clapping his hands silently in relief. Then, he looks at Chan, face lightly dusted white, and he can tell that the shorter one is trying to keep his seriousness by biting the inside of his cheeks, preventing laughter. So he awkwardly chuckles first, letting it turn into the beginnings of a smile on Chan's face, then into boisterous laughter shared by the two.

Resting his head on one of the cupboards and gesturing at the older one, Chan mumbles something about looking like an old person through the laughter. Mingyu can’t help but laugh along, even though it’s at his expense (though not really, because Chan looks like he has a few gray hairs, too).

A loud cheer of victory coming from the guest room snaps the two back into the kitchen, so they have to pull themselves together, recover quickly from their non-alcoholic, drunken laughter and soon, their baking adventure commences.

-

[10:07 a.m.]

Or, not really, maybe.

Chan is faced with a few issues. His gut feeling is being proven right with each passing second.

He last baked in March. The same cake he never got to share with Hansol. That’s how far his baking adventures go. He doesn't do it without company. He’s not much of a baker. And paired with Mingyu’s perfectionist streak, he finds baking boring and a bit too easy when the older one takes over the job and does the work perfectly for him from time to time.

So, when Mingyu sits back on the counter, still covered with flour, and just begins directing Chan verbally, a tad distracted by his phone, the younger feels his fingers shake, because, truly, this is the first time he’s baking with no physical help.

His unconfident body gives him a rather big disadvantage. He's inexperienced, and that turns him clumsy.

During the first (spoiler alert: failed) trial, he pours too much sugar into the bowl, a sight ignored by him and Mingyu as Chan didn't do the measurement correctly, and Mingyu is too focused on how Chan's trembling fingers dropped an egg onto the counter.

So, when, after twenty minutes, the baking sheet full of the raw cookies made it in the oven, and Mingyu finally took a small taste from the mixing spoon, Chan sighed internally when his reaction was not ideal. Wide eyes, frown, pursed lips, confusion. That constituted to Chan's worst baking nightmares.

Mingyu then looked at Chan as he was handing him his condolences.

“Maybe he’ll like them extra sweet.”

But the gut feeling that this will turn to be false persists within Chan. Already with a correct strike when it came to his gut feelings, Chan favoured this idea and expected nothing out of this batch.

He turned out to be right once again.

The extra sugar being out of proportion of the other ingredients made the whole thing sticky and lose shape immediately, so, two minutes into the bake, the cookies goo out and close the gaps between each other, leaving one pan-shaped mass of cookie behind as it is baked.

The two men witnessing this can only witness their creation go to sh*t: Mingyu's recipe be shamed and Chan's anxiety proven right. Mingyu would just shrug and shake his head when Chan looked at him in silent questioning after they witness this phenomenon in front of them.

“Maybe I can use a cookie cutter on them,” Chan contemplates, carefully ignoring Mingyu’s look of pity towards him.

In the ten-minute cook time, Chan then found out that sugar burns out easily. And he discovers this the hard way.

Pulling the pan out, his disheartened look is unconcealed as the edges of the cookie are blackened and the smell of burning casts over them.

Mingyu opens the window, using another baking sheet to air the smell out. He doesn't look too bothered, as if he planned for something to go wrong in his head already, further making Chan's incompetence blow up in his mind.

“This year is really the year of kitchen accidents, I think,” Mingyu voices as Chan continues to glare at the massive burnt cookie as if it’s its fault.

“Shut up, Mingyu.”

The already worn-out Chan slides on the floor despite it being covered in his flour-y sins, sulking as he stares up at the counter, particularly at the corner of the smoking pan peaking out. The taller one just laughs, as if his dilemma is just a joke to him, so he crosses his arms tighter around his body and juts his lips out.

“It’s okay, you twenty-five year old baby,” Mingyu comforts, though it’s far from comforting, with his slightly teasing voice, Chan’s frustrated eyes moving to the older one to glare at him next.

The older one slips next to Chan, wrapping a comforting hand around him and slowly patting his hair.

(When white flows in front of Chan's sight, he has to further resist the urge to scream his lungs off.)

“If you want to give up right now, it’s alright. We don’t have to tell anyone. However, we can still try again. Use a different strategy this time. If that fails too, then consider this mission aborted,” Mingyu promises, his smile more sincere and voice more kind this time around.

Chan sighs for what feels like the nth time today, and he can feel his back hurt as he sits in poor posture, legs splayed out. He truly is sitting like a tantrum-throwing child being pissed in a store, and Mingyu was trying to gentle-parent him out of it. The hand massaging his head, and the sugary voice, it all is a bit familiar. In a bad way.

This sudden awareness over this makes Chan feel a tad ashamed, so he pulls himself up, making Mingyu rise once again, arm still around him, eagerly awaiting his decision.

He tries to think about it.

He can call it quits. He should. He feels horrible and inadequate. He feels bad that he couldn't perfect the recipe Hansol loves. Of course, Hansol would probably cry his eyes out of gratefulness if he revealed that he at leasttriedto learn it, and that would be satisfactory enough.

But if anything, Chan was a bit stubborn. Okay, very stubborn. His gut seems to had settled itself, and he takes it as an indicator.

Seven ingredients. Just half an hour. If Chan learnt this, he could easily bake them from time to time, with no big issues. It's so possible, and so near. They have so much time to learn it even if he messes up. Even though one small issue blew up in his head, and his hands are still unsure and confused in their movement, the image of an appreciative Hansol being presented with a plate of his favourite cookies flashes in his head.

“Let’s do it.”

Mingyu hoots, falling into a ramble about what he’ll do differently. His confidence does wear onto Chan, trusting his hyung for round two.

-

[10:36 a.m.]

Whoever said third times the charm, Chan thinks they were mistaken.

Because his second time did the trick.

This time, Mingyu had carefully double checked every measurement Chan had made, he approved the speed of the kitchen mixer before it was turned on, and he closely observed his every action, too.

Even if Chan got a big blotch on wet flour on his shirt, sneezed with the bag of flour open in his hands, causing another wave of flour all over him and the kitchen, leaving a mess of white footprints all over, and he almost messes up the cookies by overworking the dough if it wasn’t for Mingyu literally pushing him away from them, things went rather smoothly compared to the last run.

Minutes that stretched too long to be minutes for Chan passed when the batch finally makes it into the oven, after which the youngest splays himself on the ground with no care of how dirty it is, breathing as if he just fought in a five versus one battle. It certainly felt like it.

He doesn't move for the entirety of the baking time, restlessly waiting for the ten minutes to end, too afraid to look into the oven. A source of comfort is Mingyu, who checks in every two minutes and lets out satisfied noises each time, calming Chan's anticipating, racing heart.

When the timer (Chan forgot to set that last time, whoops) finally dings, he very slowly rises up, his eyes closed as he feels a bit too scared to look in, despite Mingyu's encouragement. The mystery intensifies, and he hopes that they're picture perfect.

Mingyu is quicker that Chan, of course, rushing from silently texting on his phone at the kitchen island to the oven holding the mitts in a midst of mere seconds, eyes bright, as if he just accomplished something big.

“You did it!”

Chan’s eyes snap open, and he gasps out of delight, every negative emotion filtering out of body.

They're picture perfect, holy f*cking sh*t.

He also cheers, voice wavering as if he was emotional (and maybe he was, leave him alone), “I did it!”

The cookies were flawless, pretty to look at, their caramel colour appetizing even to Chan, who didn't prefer sugar cookies all that much, and the warm smell hitting them in the face is stomach-grumbling as Chan pulled the door of the oven open.

Even if Mingyu controlled his every move except physical, he still thinks this was part of his doing. So he can safely say that he baked on his own for the first time, and for Hansol.

Mingyu patted the younger one on the back, albeit a bit aggressively as Chan almost face planted into the oven, but he doesn't mind it as they pulled the dozen cookies out, the proud smiles they wore being a delightful sight indeed.

The younger one pushes the kitchen door open, jogging cheerily, happy enough this time around to let the smell of sugar cookies invade every part of the house.

It takes the same amount of time for the cookies to cool to a warm temperature from a burning one (and Mingyu to try one and give Chan a overjoyed hug) for the smell to make its way into the guest room through the cracks of the door, pulling Hansol out like bees to flowers, his headset still hanging around his neck, expression intrigued.

“Is that… Sugar cookies… That I… smell?” Hansol questions, pausing his sentence every two words to take a whiff in the air, legs making their way to the kitchen as if he was enchanted. His eyes glowed with disbelief, as if he never expected this aroma to fill his lungs ever again.

Chan grabs the warm plate he had decorated the cookies on—Mingyu busying himself in the background with cleaning up the mess—shaking them in front of Hansol as if it were bait. His boyfriend's jaw is wide, taking off his headset, placing it on a clean chair.

“Oh my god. I haven’t freshly baked cookies for like…” he pauses as he smells the plate closely, exhaling loudly with an delighted look on his face, “I don’t even know, man. Can't think over this amazing smell, oh god. Too f*cking long, though,” he says, grabbing one and observing it closely.

Chan sets the plate back onto the counter, holding his breath, and clasping his hands together as he felt like he was being judged by Gordan Ramsey.

Hansol seemed to have had enough of the observation phase after three seconds, diving in for a big bite, almost finishing the cookie completely and cleanly, chewing slowly with a soft crunch. His eyebrows are furrowed, and to an unsuspecting stranger, it’d look like Hansol’s mad and confused, but in Chan’s familiar sight, he’s just slowly processing everything.

He seems to go in slow-motion, as his eyebrows shoot up next, eyes wide, then letting out a borderline inappropriate and loud moan in the room, making Chan gasp, embarrassed, and Mingyu hit his head against the fridge—jolting up while he was putting the left-over dough in there, letting out a groan of pain.

“What the f*ck, Hansol?” Mingyu comments, pulling his head out of the fridge to give him a look of disgust, but the other just completely ignores him, practically inhaling the rest of his cookie. He has a satisfied smile on his lips as his mouth is full, his lips scrunched as he chews along, nodding through.

Chan waits for his verdict after his boyfriend swallows the last bits, but he misses out on it because in the blink of an eye, Hansol has him scooped up in his arms, looking up at him with a dopey grin the youngest was greatly familiar with.

“Couldn’t help it, dude. My God. I just keep falling deeper and deeper into love,” he confesses, voice dreamy as Chan laughed, hands gripping Hansol’s shoulders as he uselessly kicked his feet around slightly, trying to find purchase of the ground.

“What if I didn’t bake them, though?” Chan asked, voice teasing, glancing right to see Mingyu, who, despite his previously exasperated look, was now looking at the two with a proud look.

“Oh, of course you did, my most beautiful Chan. Mingyu swore off baking sugar cookies for me on the day he graduated,” Hansol explains, swaying them around, making Chan gasp and wrap his legs around the other from the unstable feeling. Hansol’s face grows even more satisfied.

“That was because you are like... the only person in the universe that doesn’t rank sugar cookies after three types of other cookies,” Wonwoo quips from afar, the three in the kitchen turning their heads to watch the oldest approach slowly, moving his limbs around to release loud cracks.

“Shut up, Wonwoo, your favourite type of chocolate is fruit.”

Wonwoo makes an offended noise, but he doesn’t refute it, too busy grimacing as Chan leans down to press a kiss on Hansol’s lips to stop the banter from proceeding further.

“I hope you liked it.”

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted.”

Mingyu lets out an angry noise, mumbling something about his years of baking never receiving such high praise, but he doesn’t interrupt them, the couple wrapped closely around each other in their own bubble.

Wonwoo gestures Mingyu out of the kitchen under the guise of wanting their third game-buddy to join them on Hansol's computer, but, everyone knows that it was mostly to give the couple their own space.

“When do you think they are completely getting rid of their honeymoon phase?”

Wonwoo shrugs at Mingyu's question, gesturing at the dazed, in love look his boyfriend has adapted for every conversation in the past four years between them.

“If it’s anything like us or our other couple friends, then never, probably,” he replies, looking back at Hansol as he closes the door, who was setting Chan on the counter and pulling him into another hug.

“You said you’d never surprise me a couple of months ago, but you can’t help but always catch me off guard, huh,” Hansol whispers, voice muffled into Chan’s shoulder.

“It’s just easy cookies. Wasn't even my idea,” Chan mumbles, cheeks red as he feels a wave of shyness rush over himself. Sure, he thought Hansol would be touched, but he didn't know it'd be this deep.

He doesn't hate it, though.

“My favourite cookies. You took the time to learn them. I don’t care whose idea it was or how easy it was. You did it for me. You went out of your way to try. For me. Oh Lord. You’re so sweet. Chan, I love you so much. I can't believe I can call you mine.”

Hansol lowers his boyfriend to lean his forehead against Chan’s, his eyelashes fluttering on the surface of the younger one's glasses. Chan frowns. Where was all of this coming from? Sure, they like throwing ‘love you’s around casually, but this one is extremely heartfelt. Received by Chan, who f*cked up a seven-ingredient recipe the first time he tried it.

It's way too big of an honour for a task so futile.

But Chan doesn’t have time to argue over semantics. He needs to return the love, of course.

“I love you too, Hansol-ah. You should know I’d do anything for your happiness by now. You more than deserve it,” Chan whispers back before pressing another kiss against Hansol’s lips. He’s pulled closer before he can break it apart, Hansol deepening the kiss, holding him like they are one, like they’ll become one the closer they get. Like they'll be one, just how it’s meant to be.

The warmth of the moment cocooned them, shutting out the world outside. His fingers gently brushed Chan's cheek, a touch so tender it made his heart ache. His fingers continued, tracing the shape of his jaw, holding him as if it's his everything.

The warmth of Hansol's lips, the gentle pressure as he kissed him deeply, conveying everything he just said, in another way. Chan's hands found their way to the back of his neck for some sort of support, trying to reply with his actions, as their hearts pounded in one beat.

Hansol pulls back, smile tame, but still stupidly cute. Their foreheads rested together, breaths mingling in the small space between them.. Chan is looking down, lips pursed as the feeling of shyness increases tenfold. Hansol grips him tightly but not uncomfortably, just enough to show that he’s afraid Chan’ll run away.

Chan’s not going anywhere, though. Especially as everything they felt was there, in the lingering warmth of the kiss, in the way they couldn’t bear to part, even after the kiss had ended.

Maybe he'll be using the cookie recipe more than he thought. If he knew how much it meant to Hansol, maybe he'd attempt it weekly, too. Anything for him.

Hansol sighs as he looks at the plate, leaning his head onto Chan’s shoulder.

“It’s been a couple of years since I ate these exact fresh, home baked cookies. Reminds me of uni. Of how towards the end, I got my little crush on you and how you felt so impossible to obtain. Now look at me, getting my biggest crush of my lifetime making those same cookies for me.”

Chan’s lips round up as he comes to the realisation over why Hansol was such a sap all of a sudden. He's wrapped in a warm mix of nostalgia and gratefulness, still holding onto the fact that he's been able to get together with Chan. The feelings are familiar, new and overwhelming to him all at once.

Chan’ll say this: Mingyu knows how to play the system and make everything be impossibly romantic. He’ll need to treat him well for this service for sure.

While Hansol goes in for a second cookie, still holding Chan’s hand as he jumps onto the floor once again, the younger one turns to look at the door of the kitchen, that's being cracked open. Two heads are popping in the door, both wearing equally fond and pleased smiles on their lips.

“Do you remember when we were worried about them during the New Years party? I’m glad it all ended well.”

Wonwoo nods in agreement to Mingyu’s words said in a low voice, glancing at him for a moment before turning back to look at Hansol splitting the cookie, the man blushing when Chan teases him by just grabbing another cookie from the plate.

“Looking forward to their wedding,” he replies. Of course, Wonwoo knows that there’s still at least a couple of years before the topic of marriage will be brought up in their friend group, but he likes to think that Chan and Hansol would be the ones signing the papers as soon as the opportunity opens.

-

[12:43 p.m]

Chan burst out of the washroom, face red from exertion and breathing ragged as he rushed through his long overdue morning routine to prevent him from being late.

“Chan, hurry!” Mingyu hisses at him, already having his outside shoes on, like everyone else, as they wait the last one from amongst them to get ready.

“Wait, I’m coming, asshole!” The younger one yells, running back into the room as he was taking off his usual earrings.

Wonwoo rolls his eyes, turning to Hansol. The oldest one picks on what's going on.

“Are you two matching jewelry with each other again?”

Hansol nods, lifting up his finger to show the ring Chan had gotten custom-made for him.

It’s a picture of Captain Luna Hopkins, still a kitten, taken a week after they got her. She’s staring into the camera, mouth open mid-meow, a tomato cat-cap on her head. Her tail is curled around a person’s legs.

Wonwoo's annoyed façade breaks at close inspection of the image, cooing and turning to the cat that’s laying on the couch, in view.

“She’s grown up so well,” he says, voice pitched higher, making Mingyu bite back a laugh of surprise from next to him. Sure, he baby-talks his dog a lot, but Wonwoo never does that. Seeing him baby-talk a cat is new to him.

Hansol hums, turning his hand to look at the picture too.

He remembers the day they took this. Chan was in the process of moving in, and found a cap he had gotten Lucy, Hansol's previous cat, for its birthday, something that he was never able to give as she passed away before then. It was a many sizes too big on the kitten, but she looked adorable and Chan had taken a billion photos of her on his phone that day.

“Okay, I’m ready!” Chan announces, running out of the bedroom, busy adjusting the visitor shirt matching the one everyone was wearing.

Mingyu can’t help but laugh another time, Wonwoo also cooing once again, when they realise that the charm hanging from Chan’s earrings is also custom: a cutout of his and Hansol's cat’s head. She's an adult in that one, face charming as her lips seem curled up politely.

“Both of you have no sense of fashion,” Mingyu says, voice teasing as he opens the front door to let everyone pile out.

“Who said we’re adhering to fashion with this look?” Hansol rebuts, vision distracted admiring Chan’s earrings he got him a few days ago. Before closing the auto-lock door, Hansol kisses Chan shortly once again, finding the shorter one particularly adorable dressed like this. The younger kisses his cheek, winking shyly at him, pinkies linked with his boyfriend as they left the entryway.

---

The car ride to the shelter is short and uneventful, but the three of thd four men in the car are silently but seriously hyped for the trip. Mingyu is excited, too, but he still is a bit weary of cats, so he doesn't quite match the energy of the rest. He hopes he has a change of heart there.

Chan wishes to question how they got him and his boyfriend into the short-term volunteer list without the two having to go through the rigourous check-up process, but the older ones don't give him the chance, so he waits for his curiosity to be naturally satisfied.

The air conditioner hits Chan in the face as soon as he pulls the clean glass door open, holding back a groan of relief as the walk from the carpark to the shelter already drenched him in sweat due to the violent sun.

A middle-aged woman looks up from her phone as she sits at the reception desk, a sweet smile on her face when she notices their shelter-provided visitor shirts. Long, brown hair curls around her round face, her expressive eyes sparkling as she anticipates their visit.

“Hello! Can I help you?”

Mingyu grins back at her. The woman's face seems to light up in recognition, eyes glistening, but the younger couple doesn't seem to notice it.

“We reserved a time space to help around the shelter a few days ago. Um, it’s under the name Kim Mingyu.”

She nods, sporting a customer-service smile, turning in her chair to look up their names on a database.

A few seconds of semi-awkward silence passes, before she gets up, pulling four lanyards for them. She hands Mingyu and Wonwoo theirs, but withholds the other two.

“We need Mr. Choi and Mr. Lee to fill out a form because they weren’t fully detailed during the online process. But, after these are filled, you’re set for your short-term volunteering session,” she said, handing Chan and Hansol two papers and pens. The two nod, getting to work on them. It's a bit strange, they didn't know they did online submissions.

“Ah, Hyerin-noona, aren’t you being a little too formal?” Mingyu asks, voice teasing.

The woman at the table laughs, not the polite kind a tired worker would let out to stave off annoying customers, but the kind that holds some weight of genuineness—this one specifically holding naught.

“Mingyu-ah, have you not yet grown up from your mischief?”

Hansol and Chan look up from their forms with equally dumbfounded looks on their faces, eyebrows knitted together and mouths agape over this unexpected dynamic. They had come into the shelter under the assumption that Mingyu had verified the four of them formally through an online process they were unaware of.

Wonwoo catches their looks, being ever the observant fellow that he is, and laughs softly.

Mingyu and Hyerin also turn to look at them, bursting into childish giggles as the youngest couple tries to school their expressions a moment too late.

“Did Mingyu not tell you?” she asks sweetly, her face relaxed and friendly. Nothing like how she was upon their entering.

Chan is the one to shake his head, already done with the short form, Hansol continuing to fill out his details slowly at his own pace, most probably distracted by the conversation. He’s used to working in still environments, and this is far from it. Chan, on the contrary, is used to being surrounded by multiple noises in his own workplace, making it easier for him to work on the form.

“Well, to introduce myself: my name is Oh Hyerin. You can call me Hyerin-noona. I used to babysit Mingyu back when he was going through his bitchass teenage phase. Therefore, you can thank me because he’s no longer an asshole,” Hyerin announces, posing like a superhero, chest puffed out proudly as she stares off into space like a statue. She chuckles when Mingyu whines and flails his hands forward trying to pinch her, easily dodging him due to the table between them.

Chan let's out an 'oh' of understanding, Hansol just nodding. They're childhood connections. It makes sense. Not completely. This is a bit weird, because the friend group is particularly familiar with their other close friends. This is the first they're hearing of Hyerin.

“Well, they just reconnected six days ago, after ten years. So, this is their first time meeting each other after a while,” Wonwoo explains further, leaning towards them so only they could hear it.

Chan coos, expression gentle as he watches at Mingyu, who is half-hugging the woman. It's nice to see that despite the big rift of ten years between them, they're still able to treat each other like they met just yesterday. He finds these types of reunion stories sweet, especially because he wishes to have these kinds of reunions with his old friends and acquaintances once again as well.

“Well, that’s sweet. A little unexpected, though,” Hansol mumbles, capping his pen as he finishes up the form. "I was expecting us just to hang around cats."

“It’s okay. We’re still going to be helping the cats with socialising, that's not void. The shelter owners—that includes Hyerin-noona, too—will be having an adoption event here soon, and so they need new humans to interact with the cats anyway,” Wonwoo says, pushing Hansol's form towards Hyerin.

“Oh yes,” the woman says, pulling away from Mingyu to assess the papers. She skims through the details in a few seconds, trusting them enough to have been accurate.

“Okay, everything is in order,” she says, stamping the forms, then gesturing at them to follow as she walks around the table and towards a door tucked behind a curtain.

Wonwoo and Hansol share the same exact energy of exhilaration as she leads them through a tight hallway, ridden with labelled doors. Hyerin pushes past a wooden door tucked near the entrance, helpfully labelled ‘cats’.

There’s another curtain in their way, but the pungent smell of cat piss and sh*t immediately permeates their lungs, Mingyu and Wonwoo scrunching and blocking their noses because they weren’t used to the smell, the other three seeming unfazed by it.

Pulling the curtain away, they’re faced by another door.

“Holy f*ck, Noona. This is a maze, honestly,” Mingyu complains, voice nasally as he is still blocking his nose, the smell of cat sh*t stronger as they pass by the recently used cat litter boxes.

“I know,” she says, stretching her voice into a small whine, “we’ll remodel someday, hopefully. Not now. Despite that, we definitely need to keep the litter boxes away from the cats unless they need to use them, that's for sure.”

“This will definitely scare some people that'll deal with the smell for the first time, though,” Wonwoo comments, Hyerin nodding in agreement and mumbling something about getting the litter area behind the cat room as she swings the door with a cat door wide open.

The first thing catching their eye is the wall that comes into their view immediately after opening the door. It is full of open cages, cat beds fitted in each of them. There’s only one cat sleeping there though, its grey-striped back turned towards the door. Its ears turn towards the sound of the door clicking, along with grabbing the attention of much of the other cats as well, looking up from what they’re doing to look at the door. Two women working there look up too, smiling when they spot the group.

“Oh let me introduce you to them. This is Jinah and Sooah, and these are my girlfriends,” Hyerin announces, grinning brightly at Mingyu.

Mingyu remains uncharacteristically silent as he stares closely at the two girls, who seem to become more and more nervous under his gaze. Hyerin seems to be growing defensive, and the other men in the room feel the air tensing up.

With a hum, the taller one snaps his fingers, face lighting up with recognition.

"I remember you two! Weren't you like her overly protective university hoobaes? This is so cool," Mingyu rambles, clapping his fingers soundlessly, while the three women remain dumbfounded and the other three men relax after the sudden stuffiness.

Hyerin covers her face, whining, "You remember them??"

"You'd bring them over every Friday. Sooah-ssi made some great cookies. Jinah-ssi was scary, but I looked up to her 'cuz she was out around everyone. Honestly, you thought I'd forget? You must've thought I was not a bright fourteen-year-old for that," Mingyu explains, making Sooah, a woman with shorter hair and a less intimidating aura compared to the other woman, jump in to hug Mingyu, Jinah just patting his back.

Jinah has a strong face that rests in a serious expression, hair tied back and body language a bit defensive. Sooah's oval face is set in a big smile, hair tied in a bun, smile wrinkles decorating her face.

"Well, I'm so happy you remember us, Mingyu! I hope we get to catch up soon, but today is a working day. Please, address me as Sooah-Noona. So, are you four cat people?"

Wonwoo and Hansol nod enthusiastically, Chan a little less so, while Mingyu just tilts his head. The three other men introduce themselves to the two ladies properly, shaking their hands before they turn to the cats scattered around the room.

The women go around introducing cats and talking about their ages, names, personalities and ailments.

Most of them have strange names, too, and Chan feels a bit less strange about it because he has his own weirdly named cat at home. What he does enjoy, though, is watching Mingyu, who hasn't been around too many cats, frown deeper and deeper every passing name.

“Oh, and finally, we also have our cats that we take back to our house here,” Sooah introduces, pointing at the three cats that were all playing with each other.

“Yeah, those are our Lizzy, Raina and Nana. Just so you know, they’re non-adoptable,” Hyerin elaborates, winking at Hansol and Wonwoo, while Mingyu just shakes his head.

“We are not looking to adopt, really. Chan and Hansol have one back at their home, anyway.”

The three women nod along. The tallest one in the room pointedly ignores when Hyerin and Sooah giggle to each other something along the lines of their cats being irresistible.

"Well, we're open if you guys change you guys' minds. Anyways, we have a couple of tasks prepared for you, and we can get into it now.”

-

[14 07 - 02:07 p.m.]

For the past hour or so, Chan, Wonwoo, and Hansol have found themselves socialising with the cats. They learn more about them separate from their short introductions along their way, and Chan’s amused to see that Changbin is not the one with the strangest cat names.

Dust Bin, Bidet, Silver Trophy (for an orange cat) and Penis-Kun were Chan and Hansol's agreed-to favourites.

A particular cat Hansol and Chan have bonded with due to its playfulness was named Spray Bottle, particularly because it’d constantly have to be sprayed when it’d try to steal other cats’ food as a last resort. (That did make the youngest couple wonder what was the back story to Penis-Kun's name if they went by the logic behind Spray Bottles name.)

Spray Bottle is particularly adorable, it's right eye covered with fur as it lost it after an infection as a kitten. It's very high-energy and vocal, still playful despite running around all day.

Mingyu, who was awkward with cats, was pulled into cleaning duty. He was the one gladly sweeping the floors, reorganising the toys, and changing the cat beddings and putting them in the wash alongside Hyerin, the two slow as they worked through, distracted as they're discussing the years they spent apart from each other.

Time seems to have slowed down. Wonwoo, Hansol, and Chan are the only ones in the room, looking after the cats. They're playing with them with shelter-provided toys, petting them and getting them comfortable with new people, and talking softly with them.

Seems like most of the cats have taken to the chairs, crannies and bedding in the scratch posts to take a nap after a long day of lounging and social interaction, minus a couple few that were still interested in the three new humans, adjusting and approaching them slowly, more cautious and introverted.

Sooah and Jinah have disappeared off on their own to do different desks, Sooah at the front desk in case of any visitors and Jinah deciding to bring food for everyone as her way of representing her thanks for the men volunteering despite the guys' insistence against that.

Hansol smiles down at Spray Bottle as it dashed around chasing after the brown mouse toy he was controlling, the slit in its green eye dilated as it wobbled around trying to catch it.

Chan was staring at this scene with tenderness, entertained after being stuck at the same spot for a long while now that a white cat was comfortable curled on his lap, enjoying Chan’s attentive hands that was petting and scratching it all over, clearly satisfied as its purring rumbled through Chan's hands.

He catches Hansol’s eye, the older one smiling at him. Chan admires that smile greatly. He's been seeing it a lot for a long while, but that familiarity doesn't take away it's beauty.

Chan breaks out of his thoughts when the cat in his lap rubs its head against his hand, making the man realise that he got distracted enough to cause a stop in his movements. Hansol just smiles wider, angling his body closer to Chan, looking down at him with a glint in his eyes.

“Do you realise how domestic this is?” Hansol asks.

Chan tilts his head to the side, shaking his head. This moment is cute, sure, but he doesn't see domesticity in it. He doesn't tell that to his boyfriend though, curious to see how he sees it that way.

Hansol finally stops spinning the toy around, letting the cat catch it and wreak havoc on it. He kneels down, placing the toy away, then leaning in to remove Chan’s hair out of the way to leave a kiss on his forehead.

“It's just... a sight of my daydreams. You with me, in cat heaven. If uni me saw this, he would be seething,” Hansol explains, squeezing Chan’s ears, careful not to press his earring, admiring how they get red and hot against his hand.

“Ugh, you’re so annoying and cheesy,” Chan says, pulling Hansol’s hand off using his shoulder and adjusting his hair to cover his ears, putting all his focus in petting the cat. Spray Bottle tries to grab Chan's attention, trying to hit the dangling charm of his earring, Hansol grabbing the cat and holding it like a toddler.

“I don’t know. It’s just so nice to be here. With you, you know. Best friends to lovers? The best progression in my life.”

Chan flushes deeper under his gaze, eyes scanning the area to catch something interesting. This appreciation and love at the moment is overwhelming him.

And his eyes catch something interesting, indeed.

“Look at Wonwoo-hyung!”

Hansol, curious, sets Spray Bottle down and turns around to find Wonwoo kneeling next to a cat the three men found hard to warm up.

It was the same cat that was sleeping and disinterested when the group of volunteers entered the room.

She was a senior cat, mostly unnoticed by the volunteers when they came in initially, timid and hidden when the strangers showed up. She hissed at Chan’s approach and hid further in a corner even when Hansol tried to coax her using food and toys. The couple decided to work with the other cats as Wonwoo planned to make it his mission to bond with the grey cat.

Currently, she has her head poking out from the corner she was hiding in, nose close to Wonwoo’s frozen hand. For the past twenty minutes, Wonwoo's been sitting there, just talking softly to the cat, so the sight of her taking interest in the man gets the youngest couple to hold their breaths, eyes peeled to witness what'll happen next.

The cat then swiftly next moves her head to bump into Wonwoo’s hand, rubbing it against his fingers.

The older man makes a small noise of joy, trying to contain his enthusiasm as to not scare the cat, looking across the room to find his friends, a proud smile on his lips. His eyes glow with fondness and excitement.

Chan claps softly and Hansol silently cheers for him. They gesture a pumped fist towards him, wishing him good luck for whatever he'll attempt next.

Hansol sighs, face contemplative when Wonwoo turns back to the senior cat. Chan stares at him, wondering what’s on his mind. He softly elbows his boyfriend, expression asking him what's up. The older one sighs once again, gesturing at Wonwoo.

“You think they’ll adopt that cat?”

Chan thinks about it for a few moments before shrugging.

“With Bopul with them? Probably not,” Chan concludes, watching as the cat on his lap has had enough of Chan's inconsistency with petting it, getting up, stretching, and immediately running to pounce on Spray Bottle, beginning a playful scruffle between them.

“Who knows,” Hansol says, sticking his body close to Chan, their arms touching, silently moving to pick out the strands of fur on Chan’s clothes.

Chan kisses his cheek in thanks after he's done. Hansol pats his thigh, smiling at him. It's a short break for them, the cats busy with themselves, and the two together in their corner.

A few minutes pass like that, the couple staring at Wonwoo as he tries to get the cat on his lap, before the door knob turns.

“We’re done with our work!” Hyerin announces, finally entering the room room with a mask on her face. Mingyu’s holding the bag of cat litter, face clearly disturbed even with the mask concealing half of it.

They get rid of all their equipment in the back, before Hyerin's gone back to meet Sooah at reception, and Mingyu returns to collapse next to Hansol, wearily looking at the cat Wonwoo has successfully coaxed onto his lap.

“The cat sh*ts were diabolical to clean up. How often do you need to clear it out?”

“Clean their sh*t daily. Replace the litter weekly. That' it. Why ask, though? It's not like you’re adopting one,” Hansol asks, trying to pry answers from Mingyu by feigning curiosity. Did the older couple decide to get a car?

Mingyu huffs, rolling his eyes, then pointing a finger in Wonwoo’s direction.

Focusing on expression, there was one look on Wonwoo's face that is clear as day; love. The nervousness as the cat adjusts itself on Wonwoo, still doubtfully sniffing him, paired with Wonwoo’s stillness and smiles of encouragement towards the cat makes it clear: he's in love.

“Woah. He looked like that the day he fell for you,” Chan says, voice teasing. Mingyu leans over Hansol to flick him on his arm, but the man in the middle blocks him by leaning forwards.

“But seriously though,” Hansol prefaces, shifting the topic as Mingyu returns to his original pose after another eye roll, “do you think you’d adopt her, if Wonwoo asked?”

Mingyu is silent after that question, gaze fixed on Wonwoo as the cat is finally sitting down, straight tail curling up as the man continues to talk sweetly.

“I don’t really know; maybe yeah? The fact that Wonwoo takes Bopul outside for his late night toilet sessions, whether rain or shine, is honourable. I guess me cleaning up after a cat wouldn’t be too bad,” Mingyu concludes, smiling softly.

“You don’t think you owe him or anything do you? You know how much he hates that.”

“Unfortunately, Chan-ah, you’re right about that point. But I said I don’t know, okay? Let me say, we should wait and see if Wonwoo actually wants it. I'll consider it seriously then. Despite what I said, I do not want to say yes to cat sh*t cleaning duty after that experience,” Mingyu shudders at the end of his sentence, looking back at his experience of replacing the cat litter with Hyerin, who, for some reason, did not even flinch with the horrible stench.

Maybe participating n everything except socialising with the cats was a bad decision, but it's too late to turn back on it now.

Hansol laughs. “I wouldn’t blame you. I know you’re not overreacting, trust me, you'll need to consider a lot of things. I'll say, a cat with diarrhoea is not something pretty,” he warns, him and Chan both gagging as they recalled the time Captain Luna Hopkins had an upset stomach during the summer.

Mingyu gets up, dusting his pants off. “Thanks for that, I'm sure I'll want a cat now. Though, a dog throwing up on your carpet hurts a part of your soul, too, so I'll consider that, too. Well, I'll leave you lovebirds alone. I’ll see what he’s up to.”

Chan and Hansol watch as Mingyu slowly approaches Wonwoo, saying something in a low voice they couldn’t comprehend clearly from across the room.

Hansol taps his boyfriend's shoulder, wanting to ask a question. Chan hums, eyes still distracted.

“What do you think of a second cat?”

Chan laughs at the sudden question thrown at him by his boyfriend, turning to look at him again.

“No chance, hyung. Our apartment is too tiny to have more than what we have. Captain Luna Hopkins is a more demanding type of a cat too, we have our hands full with her.”

“I know that, but still. Maybe… when we can afford a bigger place? Our Captain must feel lonely with both of us out at the same time, y’know.”

Chan smiles, a reserved kind, the one where he picks up Hansol’s planning of a future where they’re together without realising. Hansol doesn’t register his words as he continues talking about what cat in the shelter he thinks would accommodate their cat better. Chan just gets comfortable and listens, knowing this will lead to a spiral of thoughts and their progression into niche topics.

One of the cats, a sphynx, curls up next to the couple, and Chan feels a comforting feeling.

Peace.

Life is perfect. Close to it, at least.

-

[14 33 - 02:33 p.m.]

“So, that’s why I think that game is the best thing ever, y’know. It's got cats and all,” Hansol finishes, turning to look at Chan, whose eyes are busy looking into the sink as he's washing the cats’ food bowls, the other one standing next to him to dry them out.

Chan hums, not knowing what to ask this time around. Usually, he'll find something to get the older to continue talking, his voice nice to listen to, but he can't come up with anything after this, ending Hansol's long train of thought.

Hansol seems to have realised how long he’s been talking for, moving his mouth to stretch his sore jaw and blink back into reality.

“Woah, I went off on a tangent, didn’t I? I’m sorry. You always ask the perfect questions that get me talking.”

“Nothing to apologise about. It’s fun to listen. It's like… my personal podcast,” Chan dismisses, handing Hansol another dish to dry, the taller one feeling warm and fuzzy over it.

Sooah is not sneaky at hiding her smile as she takes the bowls and prepares food for the cats. Hansol notices it, feeling a blush on his face.

He loves flaunting this fact about his boyfriend, though. Hansol tends to fall into baseless rambles about one thing or the other when he gets close with someone. Most people get annoyed when the topic doesn't particularly interest them, which is fair as they can't relate to it and add their thoughts.

Chan, however, actively listens instead of just waiting for him to finish. He asks questions and reacts at the correct times, and he doesn't mind if Hansol gets too worked up over something seemingly asinine.

It's something else to appreciate about Chan in his eyes. He never feels stupid about his rants with him, because before he realises that it's really a one-sided interest, Chan asks a question that contributes to the rant extending.

Sooah coughs to conceal a laugh as she glances up at Hansol’s flustered expression.

Chan, still blissfully unaware of his surroundings, finishes up the last few dishes, handing them to Hansol, who's slowed down.

“So,” Sooah begins, leaning on the counter and finally catching the complete attention of the men that are working in front of her, “how long has it been since you've two been together?”

Chan answers, seeing how Hansol was still in loading mode.

“About 8 months.”

Sooah nods, an impressed look on her face. The couple feels weird as they can't tell what she is feeling impressed about.

“Oh? I honestly thought you both have ran longer than Mingyu and Wonwoo. Hyerin said those two have been together for five years, now.”

Chan and Hansol look at each other this time, equally blank faces conveying a full conversation between them.

Is that a good or bad thing?

“You both seem to be in sync, that’s all. It actually reminds me of us. Me, Hyerin and Jinah, I mean. In all the good ways. I think you’ll get far like us too,” Sooah elaborates, eyes downcast as she hides a prescribed pill in one of the marked bowls.

Hansol and Chan smile at each other, then at Sooah. Hansol seems more interested, as he's the one who asks the next question.

“Would you tell us how?”

-

It turns out Sooah was a great story teller, because as she explained her journey with her girlfriends, Hansol and Chan remained hooked on her words. Their like children following the Pied Piper, sticking close to her so they can clearly listen to her narration no matter how much they're moving around.

The young couple could pinpoint spots at where their stories overlapped, explaining what familiar parts Sooah saw within them. Confessing feelings years after they began, moving in relatively early together, and how their routines and jobs slowly intercepted over time.

Even as Jinah came into the small kitchen with bags of takeout, they moved back to the cat room, their story-time continuing as they're carrying the cat bowls on a tray.

“Hyerin was babysitting cats and teenagers at that time, and so we were quite hush hush about the nature of our relationship because of that. I was so paranoid about her safety, to the point I wouldn’t hang anywhere near the two in public after we got together for the longest while,” Sooah finishes, kneeling down as the cats rush towards her, knowing that she has the food. Chan and Hansol wait for her to finish up bowls in her tray before handing her theirs, not wanting to mix the medicated and non-medicated bowls between the cats.

Hyerin stands in a corner where Mingyu and Wonwoo knelt, the grey senior cat sitting between them, its cheeks squished between their thighs, and eyes closed. Hyerin has her back turned to the door, hands on her lips as she talks to them, the sitting couple looking up at her. Their voices are low enough not to be heard by them, especially over the ruckus between the hungry cats.

Chan hums, leaning down to hand Sooah the final tray. He can feel Hansol’s hand supporting him, placed on his back, but upon looking at his lover, he realises that the taller man is staring at the couple in the corner, face full of wonder.

Sooah, also noticing the enthusiasm of her audience die down, stops her narration and redirects her vision towards where Hansol’s looking, observing the situation.

“Oh, I think Hyerin is trying to get them to consider adopting Siren.”

“Oh yeah, about that. Why is she called Siren?”

Sooah giggles, seeming like she has the perfect explanation to Chan's question. She loudly calls out for the cat, placing the last bowl that is meant for it on the ground. The cat, Siren, squeezes from between Mingyu and Wonwoo, jogging over with headache-inducing, loud meows.

Hyerin’s turned around, smiling fondly at Sooah as she finally notices her presence in the room. Wonwoo turned to talk to Mingyu into his ear.

“Okay, I get her name now,” Chan sighs, rubbing the outer part of his ear as he’s still processing the grating meows of the cat. It was cute, he admits it, but the loudness truly got to him.

Hansol chuckles, rubbing Chan’s back in comfort.

Sooah turns her attention back at them, the trays stacked between her arm and body.

“Alright, where was I about my story?”

She continued her story about the journey between her and her girlfriends. Hansol and Chan genuinely remain hooked, from being shocked learning that the ladies have hit a long decade of their relationship to laughing at the little tales of getting to know each other romantically after being friends for the longest time.

Sooah is sitting against one of the scratching posts, Hansol and Chan back at their old spot at the cat-bed-wall-place. Chan’s draped over Hansol’s chest, the other man’s arm wrapped securely around his shoulder. Chan can feel the rise and fall of his boyfriend's chest against his back, resting his head against his shoulder.

The room is encased in a peaceful chatter, Mingyu and Wonwoo soon joining the couple in the middle of the story to listen to what Sooah was telling with such emotion. Hyerin sits against the other side of the cat post with a small spray bottle in her hands, sometimes interjecting, but mostly busy watching the cats to make sure the more energetic ones don’t go over to bully the slower cats out of food.

It only takes a few minutes after Sooah concludes the story and finishes up the questions Chan and Mingyu ask with Hyerin’s help, that Jinah enters the room, carefully sidestepping the animals that have dispersed after their meal to announce that she’d laid out a late lunch for all of them.

Hansol and Wonwoo help gather the cat bowls to help Sooah out, later joining their boyfriends that were waiting for them in a small room with a table and a few cupboards.

Hyerin, Sooah, and Jinah decided to eat together in the kitchen instead, despite the insistence of the men suggesting otherwise, because they wanted to give them their own time over their double date. The older ladies won, leaving the men in the room to eat with themselves.

So, there they sat, on a worn table with lanky chairs, having their part of the takeout that was a generous treat from the very introverted Jinah, finally having their chance to talk and catch up to the fullest.

It's deep into the meal when Hansol coughs into his hand, trying to school the smug smile on his lips.

“So… how’s Siren been?”, he aks, face serious, but voice giving away the smile he's fighting back.

Wonwoo immediately hides his eyes behind his hands, making his glasses tip over the edge of his nose.

“I told myself coming into this that I won’t bond with the cats in the ‘I want you in my house forever’ kind of way,” Wonwoo prefaces, voice pained, only peeking from between his fingers after Mingyu rubs the back of neck in comfort, “but Siren. She’s so cute. Did you know she was saved by Jinah-ssi from euthanasia after she couldn’t give birth in a breeding mill? Can you imagine how much trust she’d have to feel for me and Mingyu to bank on us immediately despite having the worst humans surrounding her? Hyerin-noona said it took her seven months to fully gain her trust.”

Wonwoo groans into his hands after he finishes, rubbing his face. His glasses skew around, Mingyu catching them and folding them in his hands.

Hansol hums, his jaw slack, and Chan can read him.

Did not expect it to go that deep, woah.

Chan clears his throat next, ready to ask his question.

“And Mingyu? Did you like her? You think Bopul would like her?”

Surprisingly, the older man has the same exact reaction as Wonwoo, hiding behind his arms.

“f*ck. Yes. Don’t even plant the idea of her and Bopul. Bopul would ADORE her. I always thought cats were just… alright?? But, f*ck, then after I sat next to Wonwoo in the room, Siren sniffed my leg and then just buried her head into it. I had a cold, cold heart before her. She has warmed me up.”

Chan’s mouth is framed into a round shape as he didn’t expect such a reaction from Mingyu, either. The taller man was always nonchalant when it came to cats. He never had the immediate bonding moment with a cat, and he’s had his fair share of mean ones over the years. So, he just had a ‘meh’ kind of approach to them. So, this was a first, and thus, Chan can understand his dilemma well.

“So, when are you gonna adopt her?”

Hansol’s question gets three pairs of glaring eyes on him. Chan is glaring because he thinks Hansol just said the wrong thing during a sensitive time, while Mingyu and Wonwoo glare because of their indignations about adopting a cat.

(Also because the idea is too tempting.)

The older couple speaks over each other as they try to cite why they can’t adopt Siren.

“Mingyu doesn’t really like cats that much!”

“We already have Bopul!”

Raising his hands up in surrender, Hansol elaborates. “I’m just saying. Wonwoo-hyung, Mingyu-hyung’s bonded well with her. Mingyu-hyung, you know Bopul is gentle with other animals, so that’s no issue. You said it yourself, so you shouldn't contradict that. Lastly, Siren’s a senior cat. She’d be low maintenance, and so you guys don’t need to be scared about being first-time cat owners. Wouldn’t it be nice for her to have a final home for the last couple of years of her life, too?”

There.

The room’s stumped now. Chan’s glaring at him again, and Mingyu and Wonwoo are washed with new-found gloomy realisation.

“She’s not got many years in her life…” Wonwoo repeats, voice full of dread as he processes that fact.

Hansol hums. “Then do you think not knowing how she’s doing for the next few years will be okay with you guys?”

The couple in front of him gives the question a thought. Turning to look at each other, they silently conclude their answers together. They’re synchronised as they shake their heads, Mingyu pouting at the thought, and Wonwoo’s arms crossed as he knows what is coming next.

“Then wouldn’t it be sad to not adopt her?”

Chan’s eyebrows are raised out of being impressed, Mingyu’s pout growing more, and Wonwoo letting out a frustrated noise.

“Hansol, you’re right. Just… we’ll take a couple of days to think it over,” Wonwoo concludes, moving forward to take a bite of the food nearest to him, not wanting to discuss it further.

The mood’s a bit damp after this conversation, Mingyu and Wonwoo holding hands under the table in a silent comfort.

Chan pats and rests his hand on Hansol's thigh, and he nods at him after the other gives him his attention, silently saying that Hansol did the right thing. Hansol just sets his hand atop his, giving back his silent thanks.

It’s easy for Chan to fall back into conversation, Mingyu also joining in to disperse the mood. Hansol soon follows too, and finally, about halfway through the meal, all four of them have finally settled into some toned-down talk. Despite the unsaid stuff there.

-

However, it’s after the end of their meal, that Mingyu seems a bit dissolved in his thoughts.

Hansol, sitting in front of him, notices it almost immediately. Tapping Chan’s hand to grab his attention out of his conversation about the rainy season with Wonwoo, he gestures towards Mingyu. Wonwoo also turns to look at his boyfriend after Chan becomes distracted, leaving all three of them looking at the man who hasn't noticed it yet, still lost in his thoughts.

Wonwoo taps Mingyu’s shoulder, finally getting him to snap back into reality, looking around to find his friends staring as well.

“Oh?”

Chan and Wonwoo laugh, Hansol smiling as he waves his hand over Mingyu’s face.

“You good?”

Mingyu nods, though his smile is strained as he sits straight.

“Yeah. I was just thinking if me and Wonwoo should come here more often.”

Wonwoo visibly brightens, a smile dawning on his face and posture becoming more engaged.

“Really?”

Mingyu nods once again, Wonwoo’s grin stretching wide across his face.

“I want to come here more often so we can easily decide if we’re adopting Siren or not.”

Wonwoo claps his hands, leaning forward to hug Mingyu.

“I’d love that.”

Chan and Hansol turn towards each other, happy about the development between their friends, but feeling too awkward to look at their moment, trying to give them privacy. They smile at each other when they make eye contact, shy ones you’d see on a first date.

“You wanna come here often, too?”

Chan’s question makes Hansol brighten up, too. The youngest one laughs at how this reaction was very similar to the one he just saw.

“Yes, yes, oh my god, I was planning to ask you that. It’s fun here. Besides, Sooah-noona will probably not let us go unless we tell her our story, too.”

Chan nods, thinking back on the twenty or so cats he met today. It may be dramatic, but he'd sacrifice his damn life for them. He’d love to get to know each and every one of them and then resist the urge to be irresponsible and steal every one of them.

He and Hansol have to stop their discussion when Wonwoo clears his throat, getting the group into the beginnings of a discussion to scope out the possible days Mingyu can come over at the younger couple's apartment, wanting to get more comfortable with taking care of a cat.

-

[19:44 - 07:44 p.m.]

Chan crashes into the couch, letting out a relieved sigh as his skin makes contact with the soft surface.

“Cap’n!!” Hansol shouts, seeming way more energised in comparison to Chan. That's how it'd usually be, so it doesn't faze Chan at all, who just closes his eyes as he takes the comfort of the sofa.

The group had ended up having ice cream from the parlor next door with the ladies, then staying much later from when their volunteering session ended to help them assemble the cat beds they washed earlier that day and close up the shelter.

Mingyu and Wonwoo had dropped them off at their apartment, with a promise for the next visit set for Mingyu’s bonding time with Captain Luna Hopkins.

It had been a long day. Chan was happy it happened, but still glad that it's finally over and time to unwind.

A meow comes from their bedroom. Hansol cheers, running into the room, Chan staring at him from the sofa with a adoring look on his face. After a long day out, Chan always seemed to be the one crashing, Hansol too excited to be back home to think about how tiring the day was.

Soon enough, though, Hansol will also be exhausted, and the two will probably cuddle together then go to bed early. That's a thing to look forward to for Chan, so he hopes it comes soon.

Chan shuts his eyes, not sleepy, but wanting a break from all the visual stimulation he had today, before he hears a yowl come from the room, followed by a high pitched scream.

Kicking up onto his legs with no time to think or slow down, Chan runs to the bedroom, a concerned look on his face over his boyfriend’s shout. When he peeks through the door, he’s met by a sight he’s seeing for the very first time.

Hansol, scared of a cat, standing on the bed with a pillow in his hands, and Captain Luna Hopkins, clearly agitated with her pupils dilated and tail and fur standing upright, swiping her paws and snapping her jaw at him, earning her more screams.

“Huh…”

Chan frowns, leaning against the doorframe as he tries to figure out why their cat is suddenly so aggressive towards one of her favourite owners. Something didn't add up.

Hansol notices his boyfriend, fighting the urge to throw the pillow at him to grab his attention.

But he just yells, “Don’t just stand there.. Help me!!”

Chan snaps back in, a high-pitched shout let out by Hansol next making him laugh, this grabbing the cat’s attention. She slowly turns around, mistrust written on her face. Chan stops his laughter, a bit horrified as he's scruitinised by his own pet.

She jumps off the bed with a final hiss towards Hansol, approaching her other owner.

The two men held their breaths as they waited for Captain Luna Hopkins’ verdict. She walks around Chan, smelling at his legs carefully.

A second passes.

A moment goes on.

And then.

Another yowl sounds. The cat quickly swipes its paw at Chan, but her shortened nails can only scratch at his jeans and cause no real damage.

Yelping, Chan steps out of the room, Captain Luna Hopkins following, then, in a swift move, he runs back into the bedroom, closing the door behind him as quickly as he could. He thanks himself for his quick thinking, holding his heart as it beats way too quickly under his palm.

Sighing, he slides down on the door as he recovers over being attacked by the cat that’s never even meowed angrily at him, who was now hissing and meowing loudly outside the door, the sounds of claws against the wood flowing around the air.

What the f*ck happened?

A minute passes in silence as they try to ponder on that question silently.

She's not aggressive usually, they don't look vastly different, they don't smell...

Well.

“I think I figured it out,” Hansol announces, snapping his fingers in a ‘volia’ moment.

Chan’s eyes follow his boyfriend as he gets off the bed, walks to the closet, gets two pairs of comfy clothes out, and throws one pair at the younger one.

When Chan looks up at him in confusion, Hansol grins.

“I think she can smell other cats on us. We need to wash up and burn these clothes.... Or throw them in the laundry, maybe.”

“Oh.”

Chan looks at the door, behind which the cat is still aggressively clawing.

“Makes sense,” he concludes, taking Hansol’s hand as he helps him up.

It takes a warm shower and a change of clothes for the both of them to get Captain Luna Hopkins to trust and adjust to them once again. She does look a bit wary of the situation, because in the evening, as Chan and Hansol lounge in bed together, doing their own thing, she rubs her face and tail all over them, leaving her scent on them.

“Aw, was our baby jealous?” Chan coos, looking up from the video playing on his phone to watch how she wraps her tail around Hansol’s leg. The older one looks up from his book, following Chan's line of sight and smiling fondly at the cat.

“Probably. She’s so cute like this though.”

The cat meows loudly, as if she’s disagreeing with him, making the couple laugh.

The younger one looks up at Hansol from where he is laying his head on his lap.

“You had fun today, right? We can go again, soon. I meant it.”

Hansol smiles down at him, cheeks a bit hollowed out as he’s still chewing on a cookie from the plate on the nightstand.

He nods, speaking after he's done eating.

“I know. But only if you had fun too.”

Chan huffs.

“Of course I did! Sooah-noona was a sweetheart. All three of them were, actually. Plus, it’s really nice to see you so happy with the kitties, in your element. I just love seeing you like that.”

Hansol sits up straighter, smirking. He puts his book aside so he can run his hands through Chan's hair, fluttering his eyelashes at him.

“And I thought I was the CEO of the cheesy department. What’s this?”

The younger one groans, hiding his face behind his arms.

“Don’t reject my affections, hyung.”

Hansol laughs, gently prying his arms away to reveal the pink man under him.

“Someone as pretty as you? Impossible for me to reject.”

Before Chan can either name an example of when Hansol refused doing something or the other with him, or return the Cheese King title back to him, the older leans down, making their lips touch, silencing the younger and stealing his thoughts away.

It’s a bit weird because their heads aren’t angled perfectly, but it doesn’t take away from the kiss. The emotions are still raw as they kiss.

Electrifying, but familiar.

New, but still home.

An imperfect kiss, vowing to how perfect how their imperfect love is.

Chan thinks as he grips Hansol’s shoulder, that no kiss with the man above him would ever bore or tire him.