Cat Boy

17 | say the name

"Wake up."

Vernon's eyes fly open at the voice. It takes a couple of seconds for him to realize that he's not in his bed, and the voice isn't the one he's used to waking up to daily—it's whispered and worried, unlike Joshua's uncaring yell that slaps him out of his slumber usually.

He jerks up so hard that his neck creaks with a concerningly loud sound, and tries to roll over, forgetting the fact that there's nothing to support him on the other side except air. Vernon collapses on the floor in a tangle of limbs and a particularly weak oof as the person steps away hastily.

He pulls himself up instantly, wide-eyed and messy-haired, hurriedly pulling down the hem of his t-shirt over his tummy and pushing back his hair so he can look at the perpetrator.

It's Daehyun, standing over him looking nervous and awkward and just as sleep-mussed as him, with her hair in a tangled ponytail and a crumpled piece of cloth clutched in her hand (for reasons he has not yet understood).

"I'm sorry," she says, biting her lip and tugging at a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "It's really late and I—we're going to be late."

"Late?" he echoes, still with rounded eyes, then glances around the room searchingly. He's sitting on the floor next to their lone couch—where he's apparently fallen asleep last night—and yup, they're late. "What—what happened—"

"I think I fell asleep," she says, still chewing on her bottom lip. There are bags under her eyes and her hair looks like an untended tumbleweed bush, but his heart still skips a beat when she speaks, pulling at her sleeve ends awkwardly. "Sorry about that, by the way, I think your voice was just too relaxing."

"It's fine," Vernon mumbles, too shaken and tired to contest. Then he takes a closer look at the cloth in her hand, and his brow furrows. "Is that my pillowcase?"

"What? Oh, yeah." Daehyun chuckles nervously, waving it in the air. "I drooled all over it, so I'm gonna get it cleaned up and get it back, so don't worry about it."

He has no idea what to say to that, so he just nods quickly. She holds out her hand, and after a moment of confusion regarding her intent, he takes it. Daehyun hoists him up, and they fall into another awkward silence as he looks away and tries to fix his mess of a shirt.

"So...where's Joshua?" he asks, looking around. The pink-haired boy is noticeably absent. Perhaps not to Daehyun, but for Vernon, who's used to seeing him walk around in the mornings humming under his breath and looking as fresh as a dewdrop on a petal, it's a very obvious change of scene.

"Oh, he said he was gonna make us some breakfast," Daehyun replies, head-bobbing vigorously, looking glad to have a different topic of conversation. "Something about it being the most important meal of the day? Said that's why teenagers were all so unhealthy these days," she added with a laugh.

"Yeah, well, he's still a teenager," Vernon mutters, and moves towards the kitchen, only to stop and turn towards her at the last moment. "So—uh, what's the...plan? Thing?"

"He very specifically asked me to finger-brush so I'm gonna go do that now," she replied. "And take a bath, because apparently I smell like egg tempera concoctions, whatever the hell those are."

"Oh, they smell pretty bad," he mutters in agreement, then stops short. "Not that you smell like that, I mean—except you kind of do."

"Only kind of, so I'll take that as an improvement." Daehyun shrugs, whipping the pillowcase up to hang it over her shoulder. She snaps off a two-fingered salute and a million-watt smile that manages to power up his circuit pretty damn well, and turns on her heel to march into the bathroom.