[FT ISLAND] (1/1) My Heart is Filled with You
Title: My Heart is Filled with You
Fandom: FT ISLAND
Author: blahchiharu
Characters/pairing: Seunghyun/Minhwan
Rating: G
wordcount: ~3500
Summary: Seunghyun brings kittens home. Glaring negligence ensues.
cause no matter what I do
my heart is filled with you
- "You Got Me", Colbie Caillat
Based off this picture. I wanted to write about FTI and kittens cries why am I like this. Oh, and this clip may have had something to do with it ;)
Seunghyun comes home when Minhwan is digging through the fridge, trying to salvage something from their odd collection of plum juice and other inedible items. In a few hours Hongki and Jonghun will come back from their recording with dinner, and Jaejin will no doubt sneak back from his outing with Kibum just in time to snatch food from Minhwan’s plate. But for now, Minhwan ventures bravely into the depth of their fridge until he hears fumbling from the doorway.
“Welcome back,” Minhwan calls as he pulls out a packet of instant dukbokki. “I’m making food, do you want some too?” Instead, Minhwan is greeted with silence and the sound of shuffling. He spots Seunghyun dashing towards their room and pauses. Seunghyun is weird on most days, so Minhwan shrugs it off, his hunger more pressing at the moment.
Minhwan is popping the package into the microwave when thunder is heard overhead. In the kitchen, rain pounds harder on the window as Minhwan peers into the parking lot of their apartment complex. He wonders if Jaejin brought an umbrella and suddenly remembers Seunghyun. Minhwan pops his head into their room to find Seunghyun huddled over his side of the bed. “Change out of your clothes or you’ll catch a cold!”
“In a minute!” Seunghyun replies, the curve of back evident even under the fabric of his parka. In the background, the microwave beeps, and Minhwan heads back towards the kitchen, leaving just in time to hear a pathetic meow coming from Seunghyun’s direction.
“What was that?” Minhwan asks slowly.
Seunghyun shoots up from his spot on the floor. He makes a nonchalant motion with his arms which ends up in half of a flail. “Nothing. It’s my new text alarm. Go get your food.” He’s almost convincing, Minhwan notes, if not for the continuous meows that follow the first.
“You didn’t,” Minhwan says, but regardless he is pushing Seunghyun aside, kneeling by the closet until he pulls out a shoe box from underneath the bed. Inside are two kittens peering up from what appears to be crumbles of bread and Hongki’s shirt. The writing on the box is messy, but Minhwan can still make out the haphazard note of please adopt me written across the front.
“It’s raining, and someone just left them on the street!” Seunghyun explains. “I couldn’t resist! My kind and gentle self wouldn’t allow it!”
“Yes, you’re a hero,” Minhwan comments idly. “But bread?”
Seunghyun gives him a tragic look. “It’s not like we have cat food in here. And Jonghun-hyung’s cooking doesn’t count! Come on, have a heart! They were cold and freezing, and they were just begging for me to take them home and shower them with love and squeeze them and-”
“Abuse them with your glaring negligence?” Minhwan finishes for him, recalling the time that Seunghyun stepped on the family next door’s escapee rabbit. The little girl had mustered a shriek that Minhwan hasn’t heard since the last time he went to a SHINee concert and witnessed two fangirls fitting over the last autographed Taemin poster. “What will you do when Hyung finds out?”
Seunghyun blinks. “Hongki will try to steal one from me and Jonghun-hyung will cave in once he gets used to how cute they are?”
“Not them,” Minhwan explains, somewhat surprised to realize that Seunghyun has the unprofessionalism of their band mates down to the T. “Manager-hyung.”
Seunghyun wraps an arm around Minhwan. “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.”
The last time Seunghyun promised to take care of something, Minhwan ended up sitting on a cupholder in the back row of a four-seater as they searched around Seoul for an identical copy of Jaejin’s customized ipod. Seunghyun blamed Kibum for getting Jaejin such a hard present to replace. Minhwan blamed Seunghyun for sitting on it with his big butt. In the end their driver, a suspicious man Seunghyun called to pick them up from the dorm, dropped them off in the middle of Gangdon with only their wallets and Seunghyun’s dying cellphone.
Minhwan wants to protest, but one of the kittens is now licking the other one clean, its ears folded delicately by accident. When Minhwan reaches to unfold it, the kitten licks Minhwan’s finger, and Minhwan can’t help of squeal a little on the inside. In his defense, Seunghyun’s pout may have helped too.
Hongki and Jonghun come back with a month worth of kimbap. Just as Minhwan suspected, Jaejin reappears with a pink umbrella just in time to take a seat at the kitchen table. “What did we miss?” Hongki asks around a mouthful of kimchi soup that Minhwan heated up.
“You may all be interested to know that I saved two lives today.” Seunghyun declares. “Feel free to applaud any time.”
“Your unfinished game of final fantasy doesn’t count,” Jaejin supplies while reaching for a pickled radish. He stops when Hongki moves the bowl out of the way. They get into a chopstick fight which ends when Seunghyun snatches the last radish off the plate and orders them to finish listening to him.
“There’s something you should all see!” Seunghyun says and disappear into their room. He comes back a minute later with the shoebox, grinning when Hongki suddenly starts cajoling at the kittens. “I am adopting them and they will be my favorite primmadonnas. They will be featured on the cover of our next album, and I plan on writing an entire solo just for them. This one is Bob and that one is Carly.”
“We’re not keeping them” is the first thing Jonghun says. After second, he adds, “And those are terrible names.”
Bob sniffs Jonghun’s hand in return. Jaejin is busy picking up Carly while she buries her face into the crevice of Jaejin’s arms, fur soft against the fabric of Jaejin’s sweater. Hongki scratches at Bob’s cheeks until Bob rolls over, paws curved cutely outwards.
“We can’t keep them. We don’t have cat food or anyt-”
Bob sneezes.
“We’re keeping them,” Hongki decides. “And is that my shirt he’s peeing on?”
“I think we need to buy real cat food,” Jaejin says when their supply of tuna runs out. “You can’t keep feeding them our dinner.”
“They’re growing!” Seunghyun looks scandalous at the suggestion. “You can’t just starve them!”
“We’re growing too!” Hongki calls from his room. “Yah! Choi Jonghun! Tell him!”
“Go buy cat food,” Jonghun says from the kitchen table, eliciting his leader powers. He ignores the pout Seunghyun gives him, too busy buried in his new piano scores. “Pick up more kimchi while you’re at it. And stay away from the piggy bank!” He adds when Seunghyun begins gravitating towards their mutual savings fund, which only consisted of a 100 won bill and some gum wrappers the last time Minhwan checked.
Seunghyun turns his pout to Minhwan until Minhwan sighs and agrees to go with him. The convenience store on the bottom floor of the apartment complex doesn’t carry cat food, just an odd collection of ramyun and instant foods. They make the ten minute walk to the nearest store on the next street, Seunghyun carrying on a not-so-inner debate about whose shirt he should steal to line the kittens' box next.
“What about this?” Minhwan asks when Seunghyun is loading a year worth of cat food into his cart. He points at the cushions on the shelf. “We can make a cat bed out of this.”
“My savior!” Seunghyun declares, hugging Minhwan from the back. Minhwan shrugs him off by picking the cushion up and dumping it into Seunghyun’s cart. Seunghyun tries to buy Jonghun expired kimchi, stopping only when he spots a cute stuffed charm that could double as a cat toy, and Minhwan has to replace the kimchi in their cart with another bottle.
“Do we really need cap nip too?” Minhwan asks when they’re at the cashier’s counter, and Seunghyun is putting what appears to be half of the pet’s aisle on the belt. He raises an eyebrow when Seunghyn pulls out Hongki’s checking card. Seunghyun sighs at Minhwan’s disapproving look, slapping the card onto Minhwan’s outstretch hand and pulling out his own card instead.
They return to the apartment in time to find Jaejin sprawled over the couch with his laptop. Bob is curled into a ball, sleeping on Jaejin’s back. The kitten’s head shoots up as soon as Seunghyun rips over the bag of cap nip, jumping off Jaejin and making circles around Seunghyun’s leg.
“Where is your sister?” Seunghyun asks Bob, who meow in return, bearing teeth in a threatening fashion that only kittens can achieve. That is to say, not threatening at all.
“Save that for later. Feed them first,” Jaejin tells them. “According to this article, you should feed them kitten food until they’re at least a few weeks old.” He watches as Seunghyun pulls out five different kinds of kitten food.
Carly appears out of nowhere as well, rubbing herself against Seunghyun’s arm until he uncaps the lid of the can. They eat happily while Minhwan watches from his spot on the floor. Minhwan finds Hongki’s pants lying on the couch next to Jaejin and stuffs Hongki’s card halfheartedly into the pants pockets. Seunghyun has disappeared into their room to fetch something. “What do you think manager-hyung will say?”
Jaejin shrugs. “He won’t come back for a couple of days, but I suspect it will include some sort of speech about how irresponsible we are. Then he’ll try to convince us that we can’t keep them. Seunghyun will protest and Hyung will bribe us with food until we agree.”
Minhwan says nothing and watches Carly yawn.
“Hey,” Seunghyun says in the middle of the night, poking at Minhwan. Minhwan replies by curling up tighter under his blanket. “Minhwan-ah,” Seunghyun continues, pulling the blanket away from Minhwan’s head. “I think Bob is a girl.”
Minhwan makes a mumbled sound in reply.
“And I think Carly is a boy. What should I do? Everything is changing! Today I tried to feed Carly but she-he-she tried to scratch me! It’s terrible! I think Carly likes Jaejin more than me!”
“Seunghyun,” Minhwan says.
“Huh?”
“Go to sleep.”
When Seunghyun doesn’t reply, Minhwan rolls over to make room and lifts the covers. Seunghyun crawls onto the bed hesitantly, his back pressed against Minhwan’s. Seunghyun’s feet are cold, but Minhwan ignores it in favor of some shut eye. “Minhwan-ah?”
“Mmm?” Minhwan says, feeling Seunghyun’s body shift against his.
“Jaejin may be Carly’s favorite, but you’ll always be mine.”
“Okay,” Minhwan replies and falls asleep.
Their house mother calls in sick the next week, so they draw straws to see who has to clean the bathroom. Minhwan gets the shortest straw. Hongki gets the second shortest, but he trades it with Seunghyun with the promise that Seunghyun doesn’t have to replace the earphones he lost. In the end, Minhwan is the one who scrubs the tub with dish detergent while Seunghyun picks idly at the trash bag.
“This is gross,” Seunghyun decides, a towel tied to the lower part of his face, covering his mouth and nose. He tries to take the bag of used tissues out to the trash shoot in the hallway, but only makes it halfway across the living room before slipping over water splashed from the kitten’s bowl.
Seunghyun goes down with a yelp, the back of his hip landing in an awkward position while the tissues fly everywhere. Seunghyun laughs as if on reflex, but stops when he finds that the pain doesn’t go away and it’s hard to get up. Hongki is the first to poke his head out of his room, but before he can ask if everything is okay, Minhwan’s already there, pulling Seunghyun up from the back.
“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!” Hongki comes back with a mop. “I was supposed to clean this room but Heechul-hyung called!” He starts making mopping motions on the hardwood floor, which only makes a bigger streak. “Are you injured?”
“He’s fine, Hyung,” Minhwan replies for him, grip still tight as he holds Seunghyun up from the waist. He’s picking up the tissues by the time Seunghyun opens his mouth. Minhwan shushes him instead. “I’ll take the trash out. You go lie down.”
“I’m not a girl!” Seunghyun whines.
“That yell of yours sure sounded like a girl’s,” Jaejin supplies from Seunghyun’s other side, dangling a bottle of pain killers in front of Seunghyun’s face.
Seunghyun grumbles in reply, retreating back to their room to find Carly and Bob curled on his bed. He moves the kittens gently to the side and gets on the bed himself, grinning when Bob cracks one eye open to look at Seunghyun. Upon deciding that Seunghyun is not an immediate threat, Bob goes back to sleep. Seunghyun is playing his DS when Minhwan comes back, Seunghyun’s pillow stuffed between his back and the headboard.
“I’m mortally injured and need to be nursed back to health by a cute girl,” Seunghyun declares when Minhwan sits on the edge of the bed.
Minhwan laughs. “Take what you can get.”
A few days later, Minhwan comes back from a day out with some school friends to find Seunghyun curled onto the floor. “What’s going on?” He asks, but after taking one look at the expression on Seunghyun’s face, Minhwan drops his bag and rushes towards the couch.
“Bob is stuck!” Seunghyun says hoarsely. “I heard him meowing from underneath, and I can’t get him out.
Minhwan bites his lip. The sound of Bob’s pathetic meows is devastating to his ears. He helps Seunghyun move the giant couch to the side, just enough so that Seunghyun can pull Bob out. Bob’s left arm is twist in an impossible way, and for a second Minhwan thinks Seunghyun is crying.
But Seunghyun doesn’t cry. Instead he tells Minhwan to call Manager-hyung. “Ask him to give us a ride to the vet.”
“But he’s at the recording with Hon-”
“Then I’ll walk to the vet,” Seunghyun decides, slipping into his shoes. “You take care of Carly.” He’s out of the door before Minhwan can protest. Minhwan takes a few minutes to fumble around the dorm, searching for extra jackets and his keys, only to realize he had them all alone in his canvas bag. He rushes into the hallway, but Seunghyun is already gone.
Jonghun is the first one Minhwan calls, but when he doesn’t pick up, Minhwan calls Hongki. Jaejin is the only one who answers his phone, and Minhwan explains the situation to him as quickly as possible while he waits for the elevator. “He just ran out?” Jaejin asks. “But he doesn’t even know where the vet’s office is!”
“There’s one ten minutes away from us, right? The one by the acupuncture’s office,” Minhwan says as he punches at the buttons in the elevator. The family inside gives him odd looks but Minhwan ignores them. He hangs up before hearing Jaejin’s reply.
Minhwan finds Seunghyun a few blocks away. Seunghyun is about to say something biting when Minhwan hands him the extra jacket. “Let’s go together.”
They’re in the waiting room when Jaejin comes. “I told Manager-hyung. He’s coming with Hongki and Jonghun as soon as their recording is done. How’s-”
“In the examination room,” Minhwan replies. “The vet says he may have a broken foot. Seunghyun?”
Seunghyun says nothing, too busy staring at the wall.
Minhwan gives Jaejin a look of confusion, and they stay silent until the vet returns. He leads them into the room where Bob is sleeping on the table. “It’s a medium range injury. He’ll heal within a few weeks. You can take him home with you tonight, if you’d like. I can subscribe some pain medicine to put in his cat food. We should also schedule a check-up appointment. The receptionists can handle it.”
“I’ll go see the receptionists,” Jaejin offers and leaves. Seunghyun is uncharacteristically quiet, the hollows of his cheeks empty as he gazes down with an expression Minhwan rarely sees. He turns to look at Minhwan, eyes dark, when a knock comes from outside.
“Um, Manager-hyung is here,” Jaejin tells them.
The ride back to the dorm is a quiet affair. Bob sleeps on Seunghyun’s lap in his new cat cage while Minhwan peers inside the bag of prescription medicine. Hongki and Jonghun exchange looks with Jaejin. “I’ll come back with dinner,” Manager-hyung says when he drops them off at the entrance to the apartment. “Then we’ll talk about the cats.”
“Cats,” Seunghyun echoes when the van drives away. “Who told him about Carly?”
“He was bound to find out, Seunghyun-ah.” Hongki offers a smile. “Let’s go check on Carly, huh?”
Carly spends a good ten minutes sniffing at Bob, curling up against Bob and falling asleep on Seunghyun’s bed eventually. Seunghyun watches them nap from the foot of the bed, eyes distant as Jonghun and Minhwan peek from the doorway.
“I talked to your house mother.” Manager-hyung says over dinner. “She can take the cats in, and if you want, she can bring them to visit sometimes. It’s better than taking them to the pound. What do you think? Seunghyun?”
Five pairs of eyes turn to stare at Seunghyun. Seunghyun shrugs. “Do what you think is right, Hyung.” Their manager seems satisfied with that answer, so no one protests.
Seunghyun crawls into Minhwan’s bed again that night. This time, without invitation. Minhwan is already awake when he feels the familiar dip on the other side of his bed. He turns around to find Seunghyun facing him. “It’s not your fault,” Minhwan says. “We had to give them up at some point.”
“Then why does it feel like I’ve failed?” Seunghyun asks quietly, and suddenly Minhwan remembers the first time they met, aspiration and determination in Seunghyun’s eyes as he greeted them with a bow. Minhwan had been too busy moping after Wonbin then, disappointment evident every time he regarded Seunghyun. Seunghyun hadn’t minded then, but right now he looks as if Minhwan had just told him that he never wants to make music with Seunghyun.
“Bob and Carly love you,” Minhwan says. “You saved them, remember? You’re a hero. A prince among men!” When Seunghyun finally smiles, he adds, “And they can always visit whenever Park-sshi comes.”
Seunghyun doesn’t reply, burying his head in the crook of Minhwan’s neck.
“Cheer up, mmmkay?” Minhwan adds, arms around Seunghyun’s waist as he smiles. “Everything will be okay.”
Bob and Carly go home with the Park-sshi the next day. Seunghyun spends the entire morning making a care package for the cats. He stuffs his favorite duffle with cat food and makes pitiful faces when the house mother is about to leave. Carly is asleep in the cat cage, but Bob looks at Seunghyun with wide eyes and meows. Hongki is the one who bursts out crying, his sobbing stops only when Seunghyun pulls him into a not so manly hug.
“They’ll be okay,” Jaejin tells Park-sshi, and just like that, the cats are gone.
“Come on,” Jonghun says. “I’ll treat you guys out.”
“Can we get samgyupsal?” Hongki asks.
“To McDonalds,” Jonghun finishes.
“Stinky pants.” Jaejin throws a balled up napkin at him.
Seunghyun kisses Minhwan a week later, in the middle of the afternoon when Minhwan is making instant ramyun. One minute Minhwan is standing in front of the microwave, and the next Seunghyun has his arms around Minhwan, their collective body weight knocking into the refrigerator. Seunghyun’s lips are soft and he tastes faintly of gochujang.
“You’re my favorite,” Seunghyun says.
Minhwan laughs. “What about Bob and Carly?”
“They’ll understand.” Seunghyun smiles and kisses Minhwan again, his breath hot against Minhwan’s lips. He pulls out the bag of ring shaped gummy candy that Hongki had brought home and slips one over Minhwan’s finger. “Be my mistresses and we can live a happy life with ninety cats!”
“Hey, underachievers,” Jaejin calls from the doorway with a box of cake. “Keep it in the bedroom!”
“No, you go into your bedroom and leave us alone!” Seunghyun laughs. He stops only when Minhwan wiggles away from him to get the ramyun. Hongki and Jonghun come back later and join them at the table, where Hongki blabbers on about getting one of his co-star’s number.
Minhwan turns when Seunghyun squeezes his hand under the table. When Seunghyun beams at him, Minhwan can’t help but smile back.
fin
Also! Can someone rec me FTI fics? I haven't been in fandom for years and would really love to read some Seunghyun-centric fics :c
Love it? Hate it? Please leave some feedback, even if it may be a little late. You can also join the community, since I'll be locking up NC17 fics.
Fandom: FT ISLAND
Author: blahchiharu
Characters/pairing: Seunghyun/Minhwan
Rating: G
wordcount: ~3500
Summary: Seunghyun brings kittens home. Glaring negligence ensues.
cause no matter what I do
my heart is filled with you
- "You Got Me", Colbie Caillat
Based off this picture. I wanted to write about FTI and kittens cries why am I like this. Oh, and this clip may have had something to do with it ;)
Seunghyun comes home when Minhwan is digging through the fridge, trying to salvage something from their odd collection of plum juice and other inedible items. In a few hours Hongki and Jonghun will come back from their recording with dinner, and Jaejin will no doubt sneak back from his outing with Kibum just in time to snatch food from Minhwan’s plate. But for now, Minhwan ventures bravely into the depth of their fridge until he hears fumbling from the doorway.
“Welcome back,” Minhwan calls as he pulls out a packet of instant dukbokki. “I’m making food, do you want some too?” Instead, Minhwan is greeted with silence and the sound of shuffling. He spots Seunghyun dashing towards their room and pauses. Seunghyun is weird on most days, so Minhwan shrugs it off, his hunger more pressing at the moment.
Minhwan is popping the package into the microwave when thunder is heard overhead. In the kitchen, rain pounds harder on the window as Minhwan peers into the parking lot of their apartment complex. He wonders if Jaejin brought an umbrella and suddenly remembers Seunghyun. Minhwan pops his head into their room to find Seunghyun huddled over his side of the bed. “Change out of your clothes or you’ll catch a cold!”
“In a minute!” Seunghyun replies, the curve of back evident even under the fabric of his parka. In the background, the microwave beeps, and Minhwan heads back towards the kitchen, leaving just in time to hear a pathetic meow coming from Seunghyun’s direction.
“What was that?” Minhwan asks slowly.
Seunghyun shoots up from his spot on the floor. He makes a nonchalant motion with his arms which ends up in half of a flail. “Nothing. It’s my new text alarm. Go get your food.” He’s almost convincing, Minhwan notes, if not for the continuous meows that follow the first.
“You didn’t,” Minhwan says, but regardless he is pushing Seunghyun aside, kneeling by the closet until he pulls out a shoe box from underneath the bed. Inside are two kittens peering up from what appears to be crumbles of bread and Hongki’s shirt. The writing on the box is messy, but Minhwan can still make out the haphazard note of please adopt me written across the front.
“It’s raining, and someone just left them on the street!” Seunghyun explains. “I couldn’t resist! My kind and gentle self wouldn’t allow it!”
“Yes, you’re a hero,” Minhwan comments idly. “But bread?”
Seunghyun gives him a tragic look. “It’s not like we have cat food in here. And Jonghun-hyung’s cooking doesn’t count! Come on, have a heart! They were cold and freezing, and they were just begging for me to take them home and shower them with love and squeeze them and-”
“Abuse them with your glaring negligence?” Minhwan finishes for him, recalling the time that Seunghyun stepped on the family next door’s escapee rabbit. The little girl had mustered a shriek that Minhwan hasn’t heard since the last time he went to a SHINee concert and witnessed two fangirls fitting over the last autographed Taemin poster. “What will you do when Hyung finds out?”
Seunghyun blinks. “Hongki will try to steal one from me and Jonghun-hyung will cave in once he gets used to how cute they are?”
“Not them,” Minhwan explains, somewhat surprised to realize that Seunghyun has the unprofessionalism of their band mates down to the T. “Manager-hyung.”
Seunghyun wraps an arm around Minhwan. “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.”
The last time Seunghyun promised to take care of something, Minhwan ended up sitting on a cupholder in the back row of a four-seater as they searched around Seoul for an identical copy of Jaejin’s customized ipod. Seunghyun blamed Kibum for getting Jaejin such a hard present to replace. Minhwan blamed Seunghyun for sitting on it with his big butt. In the end their driver, a suspicious man Seunghyun called to pick them up from the dorm, dropped them off in the middle of Gangdon with only their wallets and Seunghyun’s dying cellphone.
Minhwan wants to protest, but one of the kittens is now licking the other one clean, its ears folded delicately by accident. When Minhwan reaches to unfold it, the kitten licks Minhwan’s finger, and Minhwan can’t help of squeal a little on the inside. In his defense, Seunghyun’s pout may have helped too.
Hongki and Jonghun come back with a month worth of kimbap. Just as Minhwan suspected, Jaejin reappears with a pink umbrella just in time to take a seat at the kitchen table. “What did we miss?” Hongki asks around a mouthful of kimchi soup that Minhwan heated up.
“You may all be interested to know that I saved two lives today.” Seunghyun declares. “Feel free to applaud any time.”
“Your unfinished game of final fantasy doesn’t count,” Jaejin supplies while reaching for a pickled radish. He stops when Hongki moves the bowl out of the way. They get into a chopstick fight which ends when Seunghyun snatches the last radish off the plate and orders them to finish listening to him.
“There’s something you should all see!” Seunghyun says and disappear into their room. He comes back a minute later with the shoebox, grinning when Hongki suddenly starts cajoling at the kittens. “I am adopting them and they will be my favorite primmadonnas. They will be featured on the cover of our next album, and I plan on writing an entire solo just for them. This one is Bob and that one is Carly.”
“We’re not keeping them” is the first thing Jonghun says. After second, he adds, “And those are terrible names.”
Bob sniffs Jonghun’s hand in return. Jaejin is busy picking up Carly while she buries her face into the crevice of Jaejin’s arms, fur soft against the fabric of Jaejin’s sweater. Hongki scratches at Bob’s cheeks until Bob rolls over, paws curved cutely outwards.
“We can’t keep them. We don’t have cat food or anyt-”
Bob sneezes.
“We’re keeping them,” Hongki decides. “And is that my shirt he’s peeing on?”
“I think we need to buy real cat food,” Jaejin says when their supply of tuna runs out. “You can’t keep feeding them our dinner.”
“They’re growing!” Seunghyun looks scandalous at the suggestion. “You can’t just starve them!”
“We’re growing too!” Hongki calls from his room. “Yah! Choi Jonghun! Tell him!”
“Go buy cat food,” Jonghun says from the kitchen table, eliciting his leader powers. He ignores the pout Seunghyun gives him, too busy buried in his new piano scores. “Pick up more kimchi while you’re at it. And stay away from the piggy bank!” He adds when Seunghyun begins gravitating towards their mutual savings fund, which only consisted of a 100 won bill and some gum wrappers the last time Minhwan checked.
Seunghyun turns his pout to Minhwan until Minhwan sighs and agrees to go with him. The convenience store on the bottom floor of the apartment complex doesn’t carry cat food, just an odd collection of ramyun and instant foods. They make the ten minute walk to the nearest store on the next street, Seunghyun carrying on a not-so-inner debate about whose shirt he should steal to line the kittens' box next.
“What about this?” Minhwan asks when Seunghyun is loading a year worth of cat food into his cart. He points at the cushions on the shelf. “We can make a cat bed out of this.”
“My savior!” Seunghyun declares, hugging Minhwan from the back. Minhwan shrugs him off by picking the cushion up and dumping it into Seunghyun’s cart. Seunghyun tries to buy Jonghun expired kimchi, stopping only when he spots a cute stuffed charm that could double as a cat toy, and Minhwan has to replace the kimchi in their cart with another bottle.
“Do we really need cap nip too?” Minhwan asks when they’re at the cashier’s counter, and Seunghyun is putting what appears to be half of the pet’s aisle on the belt. He raises an eyebrow when Seunghyn pulls out Hongki’s checking card. Seunghyun sighs at Minhwan’s disapproving look, slapping the card onto Minhwan’s outstretch hand and pulling out his own card instead.
They return to the apartment in time to find Jaejin sprawled over the couch with his laptop. Bob is curled into a ball, sleeping on Jaejin’s back. The kitten’s head shoots up as soon as Seunghyun rips over the bag of cap nip, jumping off Jaejin and making circles around Seunghyun’s leg.
“Where is your sister?” Seunghyun asks Bob, who meow in return, bearing teeth in a threatening fashion that only kittens can achieve. That is to say, not threatening at all.
“Save that for later. Feed them first,” Jaejin tells them. “According to this article, you should feed them kitten food until they’re at least a few weeks old.” He watches as Seunghyun pulls out five different kinds of kitten food.
Carly appears out of nowhere as well, rubbing herself against Seunghyun’s arm until he uncaps the lid of the can. They eat happily while Minhwan watches from his spot on the floor. Minhwan finds Hongki’s pants lying on the couch next to Jaejin and stuffs Hongki’s card halfheartedly into the pants pockets. Seunghyun has disappeared into their room to fetch something. “What do you think manager-hyung will say?”
Jaejin shrugs. “He won’t come back for a couple of days, but I suspect it will include some sort of speech about how irresponsible we are. Then he’ll try to convince us that we can’t keep them. Seunghyun will protest and Hyung will bribe us with food until we agree.”
Minhwan says nothing and watches Carly yawn.
“Hey,” Seunghyun says in the middle of the night, poking at Minhwan. Minhwan replies by curling up tighter under his blanket. “Minhwan-ah,” Seunghyun continues, pulling the blanket away from Minhwan’s head. “I think Bob is a girl.”
Minhwan makes a mumbled sound in reply.
“And I think Carly is a boy. What should I do? Everything is changing! Today I tried to feed Carly but she-he-she tried to scratch me! It’s terrible! I think Carly likes Jaejin more than me!”
“Seunghyun,” Minhwan says.
“Huh?”
“Go to sleep.”
When Seunghyun doesn’t reply, Minhwan rolls over to make room and lifts the covers. Seunghyun crawls onto the bed hesitantly, his back pressed against Minhwan’s. Seunghyun’s feet are cold, but Minhwan ignores it in favor of some shut eye. “Minhwan-ah?”
“Mmm?” Minhwan says, feeling Seunghyun’s body shift against his.
“Jaejin may be Carly’s favorite, but you’ll always be mine.”
“Okay,” Minhwan replies and falls asleep.
Their house mother calls in sick the next week, so they draw straws to see who has to clean the bathroom. Minhwan gets the shortest straw. Hongki gets the second shortest, but he trades it with Seunghyun with the promise that Seunghyun doesn’t have to replace the earphones he lost. In the end, Minhwan is the one who scrubs the tub with dish detergent while Seunghyun picks idly at the trash bag.
“This is gross,” Seunghyun decides, a towel tied to the lower part of his face, covering his mouth and nose. He tries to take the bag of used tissues out to the trash shoot in the hallway, but only makes it halfway across the living room before slipping over water splashed from the kitten’s bowl.
Seunghyun goes down with a yelp, the back of his hip landing in an awkward position while the tissues fly everywhere. Seunghyun laughs as if on reflex, but stops when he finds that the pain doesn’t go away and it’s hard to get up. Hongki is the first to poke his head out of his room, but before he can ask if everything is okay, Minhwan’s already there, pulling Seunghyun up from the back.
“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!” Hongki comes back with a mop. “I was supposed to clean this room but Heechul-hyung called!” He starts making mopping motions on the hardwood floor, which only makes a bigger streak. “Are you injured?”
“He’s fine, Hyung,” Minhwan replies for him, grip still tight as he holds Seunghyun up from the waist. He’s picking up the tissues by the time Seunghyun opens his mouth. Minhwan shushes him instead. “I’ll take the trash out. You go lie down.”
“I’m not a girl!” Seunghyun whines.
“That yell of yours sure sounded like a girl’s,” Jaejin supplies from Seunghyun’s other side, dangling a bottle of pain killers in front of Seunghyun’s face.
Seunghyun grumbles in reply, retreating back to their room to find Carly and Bob curled on his bed. He moves the kittens gently to the side and gets on the bed himself, grinning when Bob cracks one eye open to look at Seunghyun. Upon deciding that Seunghyun is not an immediate threat, Bob goes back to sleep. Seunghyun is playing his DS when Minhwan comes back, Seunghyun’s pillow stuffed between his back and the headboard.
“I’m mortally injured and need to be nursed back to health by a cute girl,” Seunghyun declares when Minhwan sits on the edge of the bed.
Minhwan laughs. “Take what you can get.”
A few days later, Minhwan comes back from a day out with some school friends to find Seunghyun curled onto the floor. “What’s going on?” He asks, but after taking one look at the expression on Seunghyun’s face, Minhwan drops his bag and rushes towards the couch.
“Bob is stuck!” Seunghyun says hoarsely. “I heard him meowing from underneath, and I can’t get him out.
Minhwan bites his lip. The sound of Bob’s pathetic meows is devastating to his ears. He helps Seunghyun move the giant couch to the side, just enough so that Seunghyun can pull Bob out. Bob’s left arm is twist in an impossible way, and for a second Minhwan thinks Seunghyun is crying.
But Seunghyun doesn’t cry. Instead he tells Minhwan to call Manager-hyung. “Ask him to give us a ride to the vet.”
“But he’s at the recording with Hon-”
“Then I’ll walk to the vet,” Seunghyun decides, slipping into his shoes. “You take care of Carly.” He’s out of the door before Minhwan can protest. Minhwan takes a few minutes to fumble around the dorm, searching for extra jackets and his keys, only to realize he had them all alone in his canvas bag. He rushes into the hallway, but Seunghyun is already gone.
Jonghun is the first one Minhwan calls, but when he doesn’t pick up, Minhwan calls Hongki. Jaejin is the only one who answers his phone, and Minhwan explains the situation to him as quickly as possible while he waits for the elevator. “He just ran out?” Jaejin asks. “But he doesn’t even know where the vet’s office is!”
“There’s one ten minutes away from us, right? The one by the acupuncture’s office,” Minhwan says as he punches at the buttons in the elevator. The family inside gives him odd looks but Minhwan ignores them. He hangs up before hearing Jaejin’s reply.
Minhwan finds Seunghyun a few blocks away. Seunghyun is about to say something biting when Minhwan hands him the extra jacket. “Let’s go together.”
They’re in the waiting room when Jaejin comes. “I told Manager-hyung. He’s coming with Hongki and Jonghun as soon as their recording is done. How’s-”
“In the examination room,” Minhwan replies. “The vet says he may have a broken foot. Seunghyun?”
Seunghyun says nothing, too busy staring at the wall.
Minhwan gives Jaejin a look of confusion, and they stay silent until the vet returns. He leads them into the room where Bob is sleeping on the table. “It’s a medium range injury. He’ll heal within a few weeks. You can take him home with you tonight, if you’d like. I can subscribe some pain medicine to put in his cat food. We should also schedule a check-up appointment. The receptionists can handle it.”
“I’ll go see the receptionists,” Jaejin offers and leaves. Seunghyun is uncharacteristically quiet, the hollows of his cheeks empty as he gazes down with an expression Minhwan rarely sees. He turns to look at Minhwan, eyes dark, when a knock comes from outside.
“Um, Manager-hyung is here,” Jaejin tells them.
The ride back to the dorm is a quiet affair. Bob sleeps on Seunghyun’s lap in his new cat cage while Minhwan peers inside the bag of prescription medicine. Hongki and Jonghun exchange looks with Jaejin. “I’ll come back with dinner,” Manager-hyung says when he drops them off at the entrance to the apartment. “Then we’ll talk about the cats.”
“Cats,” Seunghyun echoes when the van drives away. “Who told him about Carly?”
“He was bound to find out, Seunghyun-ah.” Hongki offers a smile. “Let’s go check on Carly, huh?”
Carly spends a good ten minutes sniffing at Bob, curling up against Bob and falling asleep on Seunghyun’s bed eventually. Seunghyun watches them nap from the foot of the bed, eyes distant as Jonghun and Minhwan peek from the doorway.
“I talked to your house mother.” Manager-hyung says over dinner. “She can take the cats in, and if you want, she can bring them to visit sometimes. It’s better than taking them to the pound. What do you think? Seunghyun?”
Five pairs of eyes turn to stare at Seunghyun. Seunghyun shrugs. “Do what you think is right, Hyung.” Their manager seems satisfied with that answer, so no one protests.
Seunghyun crawls into Minhwan’s bed again that night. This time, without invitation. Minhwan is already awake when he feels the familiar dip on the other side of his bed. He turns around to find Seunghyun facing him. “It’s not your fault,” Minhwan says. “We had to give them up at some point.”
“Then why does it feel like I’ve failed?” Seunghyun asks quietly, and suddenly Minhwan remembers the first time they met, aspiration and determination in Seunghyun’s eyes as he greeted them with a bow. Minhwan had been too busy moping after Wonbin then, disappointment evident every time he regarded Seunghyun. Seunghyun hadn’t minded then, but right now he looks as if Minhwan had just told him that he never wants to make music with Seunghyun.
“Bob and Carly love you,” Minhwan says. “You saved them, remember? You’re a hero. A prince among men!” When Seunghyun finally smiles, he adds, “And they can always visit whenever Park-sshi comes.”
Seunghyun doesn’t reply, burying his head in the crook of Minhwan’s neck.
“Cheer up, mmmkay?” Minhwan adds, arms around Seunghyun’s waist as he smiles. “Everything will be okay.”
Bob and Carly go home with the Park-sshi the next day. Seunghyun spends the entire morning making a care package for the cats. He stuffs his favorite duffle with cat food and makes pitiful faces when the house mother is about to leave. Carly is asleep in the cat cage, but Bob looks at Seunghyun with wide eyes and meows. Hongki is the one who bursts out crying, his sobbing stops only when Seunghyun pulls him into a not so manly hug.
“They’ll be okay,” Jaejin tells Park-sshi, and just like that, the cats are gone.
“Come on,” Jonghun says. “I’ll treat you guys out.”
“Can we get samgyupsal?” Hongki asks.
“To McDonalds,” Jonghun finishes.
“Stinky pants.” Jaejin throws a balled up napkin at him.
Seunghyun kisses Minhwan a week later, in the middle of the afternoon when Minhwan is making instant ramyun. One minute Minhwan is standing in front of the microwave, and the next Seunghyun has his arms around Minhwan, their collective body weight knocking into the refrigerator. Seunghyun’s lips are soft and he tastes faintly of gochujang.
“You’re my favorite,” Seunghyun says.
Minhwan laughs. “What about Bob and Carly?”
“They’ll understand.” Seunghyun smiles and kisses Minhwan again, his breath hot against Minhwan’s lips. He pulls out the bag of ring shaped gummy candy that Hongki had brought home and slips one over Minhwan’s finger. “Be my mistresses and we can live a happy life with ninety cats!”
“Hey, underachievers,” Jaejin calls from the doorway with a box of cake. “Keep it in the bedroom!”
“No, you go into your bedroom and leave us alone!” Seunghyun laughs. He stops only when Minhwan wiggles away from him to get the ramyun. Hongki and Jonghun come back later and join them at the table, where Hongki blabbers on about getting one of his co-star’s number.
Minhwan turns when Seunghyun squeezes his hand under the table. When Seunghyun beams at him, Minhwan can’t help but smile back.
fin
Also! Can someone rec me FTI fics? I haven't been in fandom for years and would really love to read some Seunghyun-centric fics :c
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