The One Who Listens

Step 8: Be Honest with Yourself

I am back with a new chapter!Para pa pa paHappy Reading!

E-Ming wiggled under the bed to revive something shiny which had caught his eye. He was utterly disgusted with the dusty condition of his owner's underbed. Still, with his huge size, the caracal went in, only to get stuck at the butt and to find the tiniest of spatulas he had witnessed. E-Ming grew extremely irritated. His mouse was lost for over three days and E-Ming just could not find it anywhere. He asked Yin Yu, plundered He Xuan's room, terrorised that stupidly huge goldfish, but to no avail. His owner did not even care about his precious mouse, whom E-Ming would love to chew and spit out, chew and spit out, and that on repeat.

"E-Ming, come out here." Hua Cheng called out from above.

E-Ming acknowledged begrudgingly with a drawn out meow and crawled out.

"Why bother going in there if you can't fit?" Hua Cheng picked him up by the scuff of the neck and dropped him on his lap in a pool. One hand then steadily held the caracal's underside to hold him in place and the other ran a brush from head to the base of the tail.

"I will take you out for a walk toda-Ah!" Hua Cheng could barely finish his sentence when E-Ming twisted his head and sank his fangs in his palm, venting his anger. He yelped, prying the cat's mouth open and yanked his hand out before he could tear the flesh off. E-Ming hissed sharply and was about to leave, swishing his tail haughtily but stopped when Hua Cheng said,

"So, you don't wanna meet gege, huh?"

In the few weeks of being with Hua Cheng and his two roommates, E-Ming understands words like, his own name, stop, mealtime, snacks, walk, shut up, get out, Yin Yu, fishface, goldie and of course,

Gege.

E-Ming jumped back into Hua Cheng's lap, mewing like nothing had happened, like he was some innocent house cat who couldn't hurt a fly. Hua Cheng sighed, picked up the brush, ran it thoroughly in E-Ming's thick biscuit colour short coat.

"If only gege knew what kind of a double face you wear..." he murmured to himself. The caracal purred happily instead.

Walking E-Ming down the street always gathered more attention than Hua Cheng wanted upon himself, but today was a bit too much. He wasn't still comfortable being so noticeable, but right now, practically being dragged forward by an almost fully grown caracal in the middle of the city, got all eyes on him. Some dumb people sqealed when they mistook the wild cat to be a lion cub. Some overly brave teenagers came forward, asking permission to pet the cat from Hua Cheng. He just waved his hand, knowing fully well E-Ming might just smack some sense into them. But the caracal walked past them like they were meaningless pebbles.

Hua Cheng was sure that if he could look into E-Ming's mind, it would have been all gege gege gege gege gege gege gege gege gege gege gege gege gege gege gege.

Up the bus, Hua Cheng was dragged, down the pavement and almost inside the hospital. It surprised him how well E-Ming could remember the way, because it was impossible for him to smell Xie Lian out from across the city.

Was it?

"Oh! E-Ming! San Lang!" He heard a pleasant cry from ahead. Sadly, he noted that Xie Lian called out for E-Ming before his own name... he felt helplessly jealous of the caracal. Hua Cheng smiled when Xie Lian trotted up to them and happily scooped E-Ming up in his arms, and bounced him a bit. For the first time he was wearing a backpack, a rather big one as noticed by Hua Cheng. Xie Lian ducked his head down to touch noses with E-Ming,

"Was San Lang gege good to you? Or was he being naughty, hmm?" Xie Lian cooed at E-Ming who was blinking at him, vertical slits, now perfectly round like plates.