Purrfect Pair

Kitty City

"I heard Keonhee come in, is he here?" Youngjo starts to call as he reenters from the employees only area. He stops when he sees Keonhee staring inquisitively at two shorter guys and Geonhak trying to cover Keonhee's eyes. "Is something the matter?"

Keonhee breaks the silence with another heartwarming smile, "Youngjo! Look! They're wearing cute little ears!"

"What?" Youngjo steps closer and spots the twins who are desperately trying to put the hats that Keonhee had accidentally knocked off back on their heads. "Oh wow, that's cute. It's a real choice, but I respect it."

"I know, it's so different, but cute too! And so realistic!"

"Uh..." Geonhak turns to the twins for affirmation to continue, "they're not fake."

"What?"

"Dongmyeong and Dongju are...hybrids..." he lowers his voice towards the end.

"What?"

"Show them." Both the twins take off their hats and lift up their shirts to reveal their tails wrapped around their torsos.

"I don't get it? How do you have cat ears? And a tail?"

Dongmyeong speaks up, "We're hybrids, as Geonhak-hyung said. Well, more shifters. We can shift into cats but we have human forms too. These are them. We still have our ears and tail, but we look decently human."

Keonhee and Youngjo stare puzzled at the pair before breaking out into huge smiles, "That's adorable! You're cats? How amazing!"

"You're not scared?" Dongju asks.

"No way, I've seen way weirder. My friend, Hwanwoong, is actually a fairy, so you guys aren't too abnormal."

"A fairy?!" Geonhak exclaims.

Youngjo turns to him, "You didn't know? I thought he told you. Of course, his height kind of gives him away."

"No, he didn't."

"Oh, well, he's a fairy. With pixie dust and everything, even has wings. He just hides them under his clothes like they do with their tails."

"Wow, ok, I can see there's some favoritism here." Geonhak complains.

"You'll be fine."

"Tell me about what it's like to be a cat. Is it weird being so low to the ground?" Keonhee starts to spew out rapid-fire questions to the twins. Dongju looks extremely overwhelmed, but Dongmyeong is happy to answer each question with a smile.

Youngjo laughs, "You could just ask Hwanwoong that."

"Youngjo!" Keonhee tries to scold him, but it comes out far from threatening.

⌘

Geonhak's shift goes better than anticipated. Only one actual customer comes by, so he's able to put his full attention into listening to the twins' answers to Keonhee's obscure questions. Keonhee's so fascinated with them that he's able to convince Youngjo to close the shop early for the day so that they can come to Geonhak's apartment to talk to the twins more. He even offers to cook dinner and bring a movie to watch. The twins, already best friends with Keonhee and Youngjo, pout and showcase puppy-or kitty-eyes at Geonhak until he caves and says ok. So, they all end up back at Geonhak's apartment around 4:00pm.

"I brought a new movie, it's called 'Shazam'. It's about a teenage superhero and it just recently came out." Keonhee proudly holds up the cd in front of the others.

Dongju moves in to get a closer look, "Wow..." he takes the cd from Keonhee's hands and flips it to the back where the pictures are, "it looks cool."

"Do you like superhero movies, Dongju-ah?"

"I haven't seen many; but the action's really cool...and the special effects!"

"I'm more of a comedy guy, but this has the best of both worlds." Keonhee bends down and leans in to whisper, "At least sappy romantic, Youngjo, didn't pick the movie. He would've brought The Notebook for sure." They both giggle. He pulls away, "I'll get started on dinner. Youngjo, can you help me in the kitchen?"

"Coming!"

Dongmyeong's nose perks up a few minutes later and he wanders into the kitchen to watch the couple cook, leaving Dongju and Geonhak alone on the couch. Keonhee sneaks him a few scraps to which Youngjo claims Keonhee ate (it's his bad habit while cooking) and Keonhee just waves him off.

Geonhak makes to break the silence, "So, Dongju? Did you like the bookstore?" All he gets back is a grunt and shrug. "You haven't talked much today, are you ok? How's your wound?" Another shrug. "If you want to give me the silent treatment, then ok, kitten." Geonhak returns to watching commercials as he waits for the couple to finish making dinner. He still doesn't know why Dongju keeps ignoring him. Maybe he's tired? Or his wound is causing him pain? Geonhak mentally reminds himself that he needs to redress Dongju's wound soon.

"I'm fine." Finally! An answer.

"Really? What about your wound? Is it itchy? Or sore?"

"It's bearable, hyung, don't worry."

"Ok, but I'll have to redress it soon, ok?"

"Alright."

And that's the end of that conversation. Youngjo and Keonhee return from the kitchen with bowls of noodles for everyone to eat and Dongmyeong trails after them with bottles of water and soda to drink. "We took from your fridge, hope that's alright." Youngjo says sheepishly.

"It's fine, hyung. Sit down." Geonhak scoots over closer to Geonhak and pats the space next to him. Youngjo happily accepts the space and Keonhee slides in next to him.

Dongmyeong looks at the couch-everyone squished together-and cringes, "Where should I...? Oh! I know, I'll be right back." Dongmyeong disappears into the bedroom and, a few seconds later, a white cat trots into the living room.

"Oh my god!" Keonhee almost drops his bowl when he sees the cat. "Is that Dongmyeong?"

"Meow! Meow!"

"Aww!" Dongmyeong hops up onto the couch and stakes claim on Keonhee's lap, easily curling into a ball. Keonhee squeals as he pets Dongmyeong who's insistently rubbing his head against Keonhee's hand.

Youngjo smiles fondly and turns to Dongju, "Do you look like this too?"

Dongju shakes his head and answers Youngjo's question without hesitation, "I'm a black kitten, not white. I can shift too if you want?"

"What about your wound...?" Geonhak interrupts.

"It's fine. I haven't been in cat form in a while; I miss it. It's almost healed anyway." Dongju slips away into the bedroom and returns as a black cat. The dead giveaway it's him for Geonhak is the scar running across his back. It's still a little concerning, so Geonhak keeps a close eye on Dongju's movements, but it looks a lot better than when he first saw it.

Dongju hops up and settles on Youngjo's lap eagerly. He even kneads Youngjo's thighs a bit as cats do before settling down. Youngjo strokes his cheek, "You're so cute as a cat! Your nose is so squishy and pink." Youngjo keeps petting him until Dongju starts to drift off.

⌘

When the movie's over, both the twins are passed out on Keonhee and Youngjo's laps respectively. It takes all of Keonhee's willpower to move them off their laps and into Geonhak's bedroom. He complains about disturbing them and says that if they wake up, he's blaming it on Geonhak. Eventually, though, they get them transferred without a problem and Youngjo and Keonhee take their leave.

As Geonhak cleans up a bit, he rethinks Dongju's attitude from earlier. He really hasn't done anything to him, right? He hopes Dongju's ok. He'll have to talk to him about it cause obviously something is up.

Geonhak picks up the clothes the twins shed when they shifted and tosses them into the hamper alongside his clothes. He changes into a fresh pair of pajamas and leaves sets out for the twins to change into when they shift back. Then he tasks himself with cleaning the dishes from dinner earlier. He's so engrossed in his work, he doesn't hear footsteps pad into the kitchen.