KISS A KITTY.ᐟ.ᐟ — t.yushi
synopsis :: you had just moved into your new apartment, and you heard… scratching(?) on your front door, you open it to see a grey-ish persian cat by your doorstep. is this a housewarming gift? your neighbour must be so kind.
pairing :: neighbour!yushi x reader
content :: shy yushi, profanities, a bit rushed (sry.), coco is the cupid, jaehee&sion appearance, lmk if i missed any!
now playing ᝰ.ᐟ — kiss a kitty by chuu , 고양이 릴스 reel-ationship by nct wish
click here for the m.list
andbie time !! :: this is hella overdue IM SORRY!! but here it is, the last for kiss a kitty series!! i was supposed to do flufftober for wish this month but since i delayed this fic so much i just cancelled that thought :///
taglist :: @titsoutformrk @dearmynayeon @daeengz @yvshi @tae2an @wiishies @bananinhazz @svzannqq @hibernatinghamster @gotmetrippinlikewowwow @voucearse
you sit in the middle of your living room, on top of your coffee table, eating jjajangmyeon—a common tradition for people who is just moving in a new place in korea.
you are half done with setting up your new place, all you need to do now is unwrap the furnitures and add the cute decorations around your new apartment.
suddenly you hear a knock, disrupting your break time, a very much needed break time after carrying such heavy things. you walk towards your door, swallowing the jjajangmyeon you had in your mouth, before opening the door.
you’re greeted with a man—broad shoulders, a noticeable scar on his left cheek, everything about him screams masculine—but his stance? very timid. his hands clasped together, lips pouting lightly, probably a sign of nervousness? he looks like a cute 5 year old who is buying his own candy for the first time.
“hi, are you new here?” he asks, his voice quickly pulling you into a trance—it’s like you’re being serenaded by his voice.
“oh—yeah! i just moved here,” you reply, an octave higher. now what if you’re weirding your neighbour out?
he nods quietly, taking a few seconds before he says something again. “welcome to the building… i’m, uh… your neighbour… yushi.” he finishes his sentence, you could clearly see he was constructing his sentence as he was talking.
you laugh softly, not at him, but because of him. “hi yushi, i’m y/n, your new neighbour.” you greeted back.
he nods, furrowing his brows slightly, like he’s telling himself to remember your name—it makes you think that he looks like a cat, an orange, domesticated cat.
silence fills the air between the two of you for a minute, you were expecting him to prolong the conversation as to well—he is the one welcoming you. but maybe he just isn’t the talking type.
he scratches the back of his neck, bowing slightly. “welcome to the building again, you can—can knock on my door if you need help… it’s just the door on your right.” he mutters in a quicker manner, already walking back to his door before you can say something back to him.
“odd man…” you mutter under your breath, but you aren’t weirded out, you just haven’t met a guy who is as shy as him, yushi.
at least you have a neighbour you can count on now.
the next day, you continue on fixing your furnitures and adding decorations, watching as your apartment turns into somewhat both minimalistic and maximized with the amount of stuff toys, keychains, childhood toys everywhere you go, even on the kitchen counter.
you hear your doorbell ringing across the apartment, and you groan. “i was about to put this stuff toy up on the shelf.” you mutter to yourself, placing down the stuff toy on the floor. its not like you could have reached the shelf anyways.
you didn’t even bother to check the monitor you have that connects to the tiny camera on your door, so you didn’t realise it was the cute neighbour outside your door when you opened it.
“yushi…?” you say, surprised to see him the second time in a row.
he waves in a timid manner, doing his little pout again. “hi… i couldn’t help but hear shuffling in your apartment—“
you cut him off, embarrassed. “wait you can hear me move things around?”
he nods slowly, tapping his index finger together. you sigh, even more embarrassed now. if he could hear it, then that would mean your other neighbours could as well. such a bad impression for a new tenant.
“i am so sorry, i’ll try to be more quiet this time, i hope i wasn’t disturbing you much!”
yushi waves his hands, silently telling you that what you’re saying is not the reason he’s in your doorstep. “actually… i was checking if you needed any help..?” he asks, his ears turning red from another wave of embarrassment.
you blink once, then twice, then thrice, then four times, fast. he just offered help, why is it to incomprehensible for you? you were about to kindly decline, not wanting yushi to waste time on you, then you remembered that one stuff toy you’re trying to put up on that high shelf.
“actually yeah… that would be nice.” you accepted his offer, opening your door completely for him.
yushi does not believe that him out of all people just successfully offered help, i mean—he’s quiet, shy, minds his own business, really doesn’t care about everyone else’s business, but he’s walking inside your apartment, the new tenant of the building, with shoes off, purposefully scanning every inch of your apartment with his own eyes.
“it’s still a mess—well understandably so…” you walk behind him, and for some reason, you genuinely wish he doesn’t see you as a snobby, dirty, messy woman with everything just scattered around the floor, the counters, even on the couch.
“well you’re just moving in so… i can see why.” he has a point. “so where do you need help?” he asks, turning around to look at you, head slightly tilted, his eyes showing nothing but attentiveness in them, like a cat.
you point at the stuff toy you placed on the floor right next to a standing stool, “i need that to be on that top shelf, but i can’t reach it.” you point at the shelf, you can feel your cheeks getting flushed from embarrassment. “uhm—please?” you added.
he chuckles and just nods, before proceeding to do what you had instructed him to do. thankfully he’s tall enough to be able to reach the top shelf with ease, the stuff toy (that happens to be a miffy) now displayed perfectly just right above the collection of jane austen books you have.
“oh thank you for that,” you say, acting like you held your breath for a minute and then finally breathed out. “i was struggling with that earlier.”
“too short?” he asked, the tone sarcastic. he had a smile on his face as he turns to you whilst asking that question, he genuinely thinks it’s funny.
you purse your lips and cross your arms, like you’re deadpanning him, but in the same level of energy as him. “maybe.”
he breaks into a small, quiet fit of laughter, you wonder if his laughs are always this quiet every time. you followed suit, letting out a chuckle, he’s very quick to be amused.
“is that all you need help with so far?” he asks, looking around the living room, everything seems to be placed already.
“so far yeah,” you reply, shrugging your shoulder. “so how long have you been in the building?” you strike up a conversation, silently motioning him to sit on your couch.
it was all so sudden for him but he obliges, it is proper etiquette. “a year and a half already? yeah it’s been that long.” he answers your question, watching as you sit next to him, with a respectable amount of distance.
“really? how has it been so far? any bad experiences?” you ask further more, like a detective professionally slithering her way inside of a person’s life.
“eh…i don’t really tend to join others businesses so personally haven’t experienced anything bad, but i heard one of the neighbours is a… weirdo? i don’t know from which apartment though.” he answers again, in deep thought, you almost feel bad for asking him that question with how much he’s pondering.
you hum in response, you’re sure that if you keep asking him questions he might combust and maybe take eons to reply, so you stop questioning him.
“i can make us snacks if you’d like,” you offer, standing up to head down to the kitchen.
“oh no it’s okay—“ he stops himself from talking, the sound of grumbling coming from his stomach echoing in the living room, debunking his lie.
he looks at the opposite way, his cheeks warming up, his own stomach betrayed him, his dignity. you laugh quietly, you really didn’t mind, you thought it was cute.
“i’ll be back with snacks.”
STEP II — scratch scratch.
you wake up to the sound of your obnoxious iphone alarm, stretching your arms and legs out, coming in with a massive yawn. you slowly took your time to sit up, your eyes half-lidded, your face feel bloated, well maybe because you ate instant ramen last night.
you get up from your bed, immediately cleaning it up, patting it down, tidying it like you didn’t just roll around your bed the entire night while you were sleeping. you walk to your bathroom, washing your face with ten percent energy in you, feeling cold water splash onto your face, energizing you by at least another five percent.
you then walk into the kitchen, grabbing your overnight oats from the fridge, immediately munching on it while you turn on your tv, watching the latest k-drama you’re following. you didn’t have anything planned for the day, you’ve completely moved in, you’re on leave from your job for this week, and it’s not like you have anything planned with your friends, unless it’s spontaneous. you’re most likely just going to laze around till you have to go back to work next week.
hours have passed by, you’re still lounging on your couch, watching a new k-drama, but instead of eating your oats, you’re eating your lunch, which consists of seaweed soup, and unagi rice meal. you’re the type to do commentary while watching something you’re hooked on, even when your mouth is full of food.
well of course you don’t talk when your mouth is full when you’re with other people—you still have basic table manners.
“what the fuck is he doing? he’s losing her!” you say with such exclaim, holding your chopsticks so tight as you point to your tv, rice grains falling out of your mouth bit by bit, falling back onto the bowl.
you heard scratching, but you guess it’s from the tv, so you didn’t mind. scratch, scratch, scratch. again with the scratching—there’s no cats in the current scene, and it’s not like the director of the k-drama will allow something scratching whilst two characters are arguing under the rain.
“must be from outside,” you mutter to yourself, placing down your bowl, swallowing the food in your mouth first before walking down to your door.
the scratching gets louder with each step you take closer to your door, till you can finally hear it clearly. you open the door, well, you didn’t meet anyone within eye-level, but then you heard a meow. you looked down to see a cat.
it meows again, its pupils as round as saucers, it wags its tail against the white, newly mopped floor, it looks up at you like you are its owner—new owner, maybe.
you noticed the collar around its neck, a baby blue cork collar, with a bell right on the centre of it, a name engraved on the side.
“coco…” you named out, is this cat lost? it doesn’t seem to be in distress, in fact—its all over you. you presume it’s a boy, with the collar and with the name, you haven’t checked properly to know it’s gender.
you picked it up, hands holding coco underneath its front legs gently, “yup it’s a boy.” you mutter to yourself, placing coco down gently, who just happens to wak into your apartment like it’s been there more than a thousand times.
maybe coco is a gift from your neighbour? but from who? and why? maybe from yushi, he seems the type to be sentimental, maybe it’s a housewarming gift. how nice of him.
yushi is not the type to panic over anything, besides food, obviously—but that’s besides the point. the point is, he’s a calm and collected person, life rarely gives him any reason to panic and manic.
he forgot he left his front door ajar, from lazing all around that his mind doesn’t pick up on a lot of things, so he didn’t see his cat leave the apartment, by his own accords. we all make that mistake at some point.
he doesn't notice it at first, how the usual purring from coco suddenly just stopped, to be fair, it is usually muffled by the tv playing movies, but the background noise is dead quiet. then he notices how coco isn't scratching on his scratch tower, how he isn't on his usual spot.
"coco?" he called out, looking around his entire apartment, even in warm corners, and even underneath his appliances and furnitures. but nothing. now he has a reason to panic, and he begins to.
he huffs heavily each second, his hands slowly starting to sweat, he looked everywhere, he has no idea where coco could be. then his phone rings, three messages from you.
he grabs his phone, seeing your name pop on his lock screen eased him a little bit, which he didn't realise.
y/n girl next door: yushi look!
y/n girl next door: *two images attached*
y/n girl next door: i have a cat! he was just scratching my from door! is coco from you? a housewarming gift? or is he yours?
he looks at his door, he forgot he left it ajar, just enough for a little animal to walk through. his fingers ghost over his keyboard, not knowing what to say. well of course saying yes, coco is in fact his cat and that he is not a housewarming gift is the right move. what's so hard about that?
yuushi kitty neighbour: ah yes! coco is my housewarming gift ^^ plis take care of him!
he doesn't have the guts to say yes, coco is his cat, why is it so hard for him? being unable to tell you the truth cost him his cat of three years, which he particularly began to sulk over. he convinces himself that everything will be okay, he'll have his cat of three years come back soon, the moment he gets the courage to actually tell you the truth.
he sits back down on the couch, bouncing one leg, then he receives another message from you.
y/n girl next door: omg you didn't have to 😭! thank you 🫶ill give you a present in return soon! thaaankyouuuusooooomuuuuch yuu 🫶
yuu. heart hands emoji. what the hell. how long have you known each other? four days? five? yeah, five. it's been five days and you already have a nickname for him, and why is his heart beating faster over something so simple? maybe he isn't so anxious about coco that much anymore.
coco lays on your couch, specifically on your light green star shaped pillow, you have never seen a cat this comfortable ever, not even the cats in your feed. you plan on leaving in a bit, hoping to buy everything for your new cat today, food, treats, bowls, cat litter, even a scratch tower, you’re going all out for coco.
you’re really touched with yushi’s gift, a real, moving cat, and it even looks like it chose you, if he looks that comfortable already. you kiss the top of coco’s head, patting him.
“i’ll be back, coco, i’ll just buy you your stuff.”
STEP III — a box of egg tarts.
before, you used to wake up from your awful iphone alarm that sounds like a nuclear threat alarm. now, you wake up to coco’s paws, doing biscuits on you. a much better alarm.
yushi used to wake up with coco’s constant meowing, waiting by the doorway of his bedroom, ready to be fed the first thing in yushi’s morning. now, he wakes up a bit late, expecting to see a cat half a second before he realised—
“i forgot y/n has coco…” he tells himself, groaning as he stretches under the blanket. he gets up, groggily walking to his kitchen, making instant ramen, wondering if coco is behaving well in your apartment.
coco meows as he watches you eat, like he’s watching a reality show, but you don’t mind an audience. coco rubs his body against the leg of your chair, showing you affection, to which you chuckled.
“you’re the best gift ever, coco.” you coo coco, glancing shortly to the grey-ish persian cat, you still don’t know how to thank yushi, besides giving him updates then and there about coco, but you know that’s not enough. he gave you a living animal as a welcome gift, there must be something equivalent to that for you to give him.
food is the next best thing to give someone, that isn’t a pet. but what food could you give him? maybe a stew—but he might not be able to finish it, how about cheese balls? no, that’s too generic. ramen? everybody has ramen.
a dozen egg tarts from your desired bakery, perfect. you could never go wrong with egg tarts, and you’re pretty sure he loves sweets, with how he finished all your cookies the day he helped you out with moving in.
“should i give yushi a box of egg tarts, coco?” you ask your cat, who surprisingly meows in reply, giving you slight shivers, maybe cats do understand the human language.
taking coco’s meow as a yes, you begin to prepare for your little errand, excited to give your kind neighbour a thank you gift. you soon found your way out of the apartment, realising you’re not all so familiar with the streets and the path for places.
you open your phone, pressing on your handy dandy map app, typing down the name of the bakery and following the long blue line’s path, hoping that you won’t bump into someone while obsessively looking at your phone while walking, which you have successfully accomplished.
you enter the bakery, the smell of fresh bread and pastries hitting your nose, which oddly gives you that nostalgic feeling, buying from the bakery was always your stress reliever when you were in high school. you scan around the bakery, perhaps you might add onto your egg tart shopping with other types of pastries, and you did.
you filled your tray with delicates, and another tray of a dozen egg tarts. you wait patiently in line for your turn to pay, your mind wandering elsewhere.
‘does yushi like egg tarts? i should have asked! what if he hates it? oh no.’
you began to panic (internally) over your thoughts, the habit of tapping your foot against the floor very obvious for everyone around you, especially with how quick you’re tapping it, though quickly cut short, since now the person in front of you is now—not in front of you.
you pay for everything you have bought (which could feed 6 people) and quickly leave the bakery, oh and did i forget to mention that you bought a 4x4 inch strawberry chiffon cake too? definitely not for you, you won’t finish it within the day because you would most definitely forget it. it’s for yushi.
your thoughts completely infiltrated you, buying that cake last minute, so now you’re giving him both the egg tarts and cake, which you now realise is a lot of sugar. you’re wishfully hoping he’s a sweet tooth.
you finally arrived back at your building, realising how quicker it is to go back than to arrive at a destination, you hit the elevator and arrived at your floor, quietly walking down the hallway, in case he might hear you.
you stop at his door, hesitating whether to knock and personally give him your present or be totally introverted and place the cake and box of egg tarts by his doorstep, but someone might grab it if you just leave it there. so you knock.
couple seconds later his door opens, you can see that the back of his hair looks flattened, like he didn’t move an inch while laying down. you notice how it somehow looks longer than the last time you saw him (which was literally a couple of days ago), his white shirt a bit crinkled, so are his black shorts.
“y/n? do you need anything?” he asks, he looks genuinely surprised that you’re standing in front of his doorstep.
you shake your head as a no, giving him the small smile you would always give him. “no no no no, i’m here to actually drop something off for you,”
yushi’s eyes glimmered with curiosity, what if it’s coco? maybe you have had enough of taking care of a pet and that’s why you’re returning coco to yushi. but obviously he’s wrong.
you hand out the box of egg tarts, and the box of cake. his eyes glimmered even more.
he could feel his mouth start to salivating, but he swallowed it in, looking up at you with those cute eyes again.
“what’s this for?” he asks, holding the thin part of his door, as if he’s trying to stop himself from just snatching the desserts away from you.
“well, it’s basically my thank you gift for your housewarming gift, coco.”
even at the reminder of coco, he blushes, his cheeks turning light pink over at the mere thought that you got him a gift, but he’s wondering why he feels like this. you’re a friend, and it’s not uncommon for friends to give food to their friends. how come when it’s with you, he cherishes that thought?
he grabs the two boxes from your hands, his fingers brushing against yours so gently, you would think a ghost did it, but that soft physical interaction was enough to create a small spark, from within. his fingers lingered a bit longer than he would like, and your hands stayed in place, maybe silently liking the feeling too.
he snaps back to reality, finally taking both boxes completely from you. both of you look away, an unfamiliar feeling in your hearts beats, before he spikes up another conversation.
“how is he by the way?” yushi asks, his index fingers fidgeting with the handle of the boxes.
“oh! he’s behaving really well, surprisingly a very domesticated cat,” you explain, tucking your hair behind your ear, and he notices. “he loves attention though, that’s for sure.”
he smiles at your last sentence, he remembers the times coco would actually pat his foot and meow till yushi gives him the attention, and coco would walk away with such satisfaction. he was about to reply with a memory of coco, but then he remembers: you don’t know coco is actually his cat.
“thats good to know, i’m happy i picked the right cat for you.” he smiles, and you smile back. at this point the conversation has died down, yushi doesn’t really have to say anything, and your mind just overheated from overthinking about… desserts.
“well—thank you very much for the cake and egg tarts y/n, they’re both my favourite,” yushi thanks you, holding both boxes with one hand around the handles, and the other hand at the bottom of the boxes. “i’ll make sure i will eat these well.”
you let out a phew, at least now you know he’s a sweet tooth. “of course yu! enjoy!” you wave your hand, walking a couple more steps till you reached your door, finally a home sweet home.
he watches you as you enter your apartment, noticing a small smile on your face, almost like you’re relieved about something. he looks down at the boxes, his stomach grumbling just in time. he opens the cake box and egg tarts, the scent of a bakery filling his apartment. he sighs in excitement, grabbing a fork before digging in. the lightness of the cake and the cream fills up his mouth, and he savours it. closing his eyes, making a mmmm hum, the cake exceeding his standards.
coco pops out from your bedroom, meowing as a greeting. you chuckle while you drop your bag onto the couch, letting it thud and bounce slightly from the impact. you sit right next to your bag, and coco immediately finds his spot on your lap, making himself comfortable.
“i guess i won’t be moving anytime soon.” you tell yourself, watching the peaceful cat on your lap, then you began to daze.
the small scar on yushi’s cheek is so prominent yet aligns with his features, he looks good with it. the way his cheeks blush when he becomes shy, the smile he displays when he’s shy, the way his ears—
“what the hell is going on with me?”
you cut your thoughts off with your own mouth, ever since yushi introduced himself to you the day you moved in, at least sixty percent of your thoughts have been nothing but him. maybe he has been so nice to you that you just think about him, maybe you feel indebted to him because he helped you out with your stuff, and even gave you a cat.
it can’t be anything else.
you can’t help it. you genuinely can’t help it.
after a 9-5 work, you always need to pass by yushi’s door first before reaching yours, and you would find yourself hesitating to knock on his door. of course you won’t do it, so when you’re finally in your apartment, you rant to coco.
“i don’t know why i always do that coco, i bet i look like a freaking psycho just standing there with my hand up high for like— four minutes.” today is another day, and another embarrassing standoff with yushi’s door.
it’s not like you guys don’t talk anymore since the day you gave him those desserts (which he finished in one night), he sends you cat reels quite frequently, and you send him cat reels back. you guys just haven’t seen each other in like—two weeks, even if you live right next to each other.
even on weekends you don’t hang out, you’re either doing a movie marathon or out by yourself at a park, and yushi usually hangs out with his friends. or maybe not one of you has ever had the balls to ask each other to hang out. maybe that.
you feel your stomach grumbling, and you quickly check the fridge, practically empty. the pantry, also practically empty. you need to do grocery shopping. you switch to your small purse, instead of your big shoulder bag, filling your purse with just cash, card, and your phone. you tie your hair into a messy bun, your empty stomach making you do things at twice times speed.
you decided to bring coco with you, grabbing a cat bag, putting coco in it, who calmly cooperated with you. you then grab your purse, bringing just your wallet and your phone, shutting the door behind you. but why is the click sound doubled? like two doors had just shut in sync?
“y/n?” you hear a voice call out for you, you look towards that direction, and it’s yushi.
he’s wearing a simple white tee and light blue denim baggy jeans, too casual for the season right now. he looks surprised to see you, and it’s quite visible, you can see how raised his eyebrows are.
so that’s why you heard two synced clicks.
“hey yuu!” you exclaim, “where you headed?” you ask, your heart thumping harder than usual, why if he’s going to the grocery store as well?
“to the grocery,” he replies, “you?”
“to the grocery as well—oh look who i brought!” you say as you show him the small cat bag, revealing coco. he meows as he sees yushi, whose eyes are wide.
“coco?” he calls out, almost like he’s telling coco to come back home, but you don’t catch that tone.
“yup! he’s coming with me while i buy groceries, wanna come with us?” you ask, almost too casually. you didn’t even know what just spewed out of your mouth.
you had just asked the person that you’re oh-so-not-admiring-from-afar-but-you-technically-are-admiring-him-from-afar to go grocery shopping with you, it sounds a bit creepy to you. just to you at least.
yushi’s ears turned red, like visible red that you can see it as well, his lips pursed into a line like how he usually does when he ponders. he nods as an agreement, fidgeting his fingers from the sudden burst of nervousness.
you smile softly, almost in a reassuring way, and he relaxes. “let’s go?” you ask, walking right next to him.
you stand right in front of him, and you notice the height difference, it doesn’t have any significance of some sort—just a quiet observation. you notice how he actually has to look down a bit just to look at you, which gives you those little butterflies in your stomach.
“yeah, let’s go.” he says, and you both begin to walk, leaving the building. the grocery store is not that far actually, it’s a good distance to have an excuse to finish 10k steps a day of yours. but you both will definitely take a cab after the grocery shopping.
“how was work?” he asks, spiking up a conversation, his tone a bit rushed, like he was brainstorming ideas on how to make a conversation with you before voicing it out.
you walk alongside him, one hand petting coco, whilst you’re thinking. “wouldn’t say it was peaceful today, wasn’t that hectic either.” you reply, a corporate job can always be high or low or both, just like those stats you see in every (boring)meeting.
“so… so-so?” he smiles, at himself though, he thinks that pun/joke is quite funny.
you laugh at what he said, genuinely finding it funny. “i see what you did there, but yeah, it was so-so.”
he watches you as you laugh, cute. you finally reached the grocery store, and you both grabbed your own carts, and you placed coco down on the baby compartment of the cart, his fur just seeping out from the metal bars of the cart, which you find adorable.
“oh my gosh yushi look at coco!” you excitedly point out, tugging yushi’s sleeve, since he was about to start walking around the store.
he looks at coco, and he looks so comfortable in the cart, and his body is just taking up all the space of that baby seat, his chubby body needing more space, but you guess he likes the cool effect of the metal bars.
“coco looks cute.” he compliments, striding his cart next to yours, like he just perfectly parked a car.
“he is cute,” you corrected, in a snarky tone. “now let’s go shopping.” you drag your cart inside of the grocery store, the sound of mothers an elderly getting the specific kind of meat and pounds can be heard visibly, the wheels of the carts screeching time to time.
you move your cart in a slow pace, casually strolling around the store, with yushi following you around like a lost puppy.
he never ever buys groceries, not in the way you should at least. whenever he comes into this store, he buys two different instant ramen packs, spam, instant rice, and the majority of his meals are just delivered via a food delivery app. but for some reason, seeing you grab one of those big carts made him grab one as well, now he doesn’t know how to fill the cart without emptying an entire aisle of instant ramen.
“so yushi,” you say, looking on your side, “whatchu buying?” you ask, grabbing a two kilogram rice and putting it in your cart.
“eh…” he begins thinking, should he tell the truth? or should he lie so he would look good in front of you? “ramen, i usually just buy that.” he tells you the truth.
you hum in reply, “you can live with just instant ramen?”
“no, i just don’t… cook.” he admits, looking so bashful. you chuckle when you get a good look at his face, shaking your head. you drag your cart to his holy grail aisle—the instant ramen aisle, which is aisle 23.
“guess this is your area huh?” you say like you’re touring kids in an amusement park, which made him even more bashful.
he watches you as you try to choose which ramen pack to pick, and you’re doing that with coco being the judge. “this or this coco?” you hold out two different brands of instant ramen, coco’s eyes not even looking at either of them, but at yushi.
you sigh, your shoulders dropping from almost sulking over a cat, “yushi can you do it?” you ask, turning around, since he’s literally just following you from behind.
he perks up, standing more straight now, “do what?” he asks, then he sees that small pout of yours, and those almost-sulking eyes, then he gets the message.
he smiles and does his signature small laugh, abandoning his (empty)cart, he stands next to you and grabs the two packs from you, holding them out in front of coco.
“pick one coco,” he says, jingling the packs like they’re keys, but coco still doesn’t choose. coco’s head is tilted, his pupils dilated, staring at yushi. “coco, you gotta choose, y/n is sulking behind me.” he whispers to the cat, but loud enough for you to hear.
“hey i heard that!” you glare at him, who looks back at you and laughs, so you just smack him.
coco finally cooperated, sniffing the pink ramen pack. “oh finally coco, took you so long to think,” you say, grabbing the pink ramen pack from yushi. “you ponder as long as yushi does.” you add, and yushi almost chokes from thin air.
well, coco was yushi’s first anyways, so coco acts like yushi. but—you don’t know that.
“okay, have you picked out your ramen, yushi?” you ask him, who is standing so ridiculously close to you, and you notice. you get a whiff of his perfume, floral yet musky, which is oddly a nice scent to smell.
“oh yeah i will—“ he turns around to see his cart is not on its spot anymore. “eh?”
you turn around as well, seeing zero carts behind you. “maybe a worker took it back, it was empty.” you explain, which is what happened. “it’s okay, just dump them into my cart.” you offer, a huge smile on your face.
he nods in agreement without arguing any further, grabbing his top three favourite ramen brands, dropping them into your cart. you whistle from the amount of ramen he just bought, he eats this much of ramen yet he looks so…. fit? must be a gym god.
“that’s it? seriously just ramen?” you ask him, almost came out rudely, but it’s from pure curiosity.
“well i just order online most of the time.” he explains, bashful once again.
you laugh softly, patting his shoulder, “i’m not judging you yushi, don't worry.” you reassure him, dragging your cart to the meat section, “i just want to get to know you better.”
his heart thumps harder, his hands feeling all clampy from the sweat, did you mean that romantically or platonically? why is yushi thinking about it romantically anyways? either way you guys are just neighbours.
he catches up to you, seeing you right in front of the meat displays, tapping your foot lightly while cooing coco, who just enjoys every bit of attention you give him.
“attention seeker,” yushi mutters, seeing how coco is purring from you rubbing the back of his ear. “sorry i kind of spaced out there.” yushi says as he walks up to you, making a half-truth half-lie excuse.
“no worries! nothing to apologise about,” you say, your eyes darting at his. you rest your forearms on the handle of your cart, leaning against it a bit. “i was actually thinking,” you pause for a moment, hesitating, because you really don’t want him to decline this.
his ears perk up, looking down at your figure with raised brows, “hm?”
“you wanna eat at my place? i’d feel bad if you eat just ramen or delivered food tonight…” you finally blurted out, which almost came out like a rap, you met his wide eyes, like you can clearly see him malfunctioning.
the butcher hands out the meat you had requested, “you don’t have to say yes really, i’m just offering.” you say as you grab the meat, thanking the butcher. “so? what do you think?”
“eh…” he continues to malfunction, well it’s not like it’s going to be his first time entering your apartment, but the circumstances are different. last time it was to help you, this time it’s for dinner, it just sounds so… domesticated.
he walks beside you as you continue to do your grocery, and he still hasn’t replied to your offer, so you stay silent. you can see from your peripheral vision that he is deeply thinking about it, you almost feel bad for offering such a thing.
you get the last of what you need, and he still hasn’t answered. “yushi? so do you want to?” you ask him one last time, already dragging the cart to one of the cashiers, even coco is looking at yushi, probably waiting for his answer as well. who knows.
“eh… yeah, sure.” he finally comes to a conclusion, and you sighed in victory, no rejection and you get to hang out with him, it’s a win-win.
“okay phew, i thought you were gonna need three business days to reply.” you joke, and he laughs. you begin placing down the products on the short conveyor belt, placing them down by the colds, snacks, hygiene, and extras.
yushi notices the order of the groceries, you must be that experienced with groceries, which he finds interesting. he realises he’s not doing anything, so he walks to the other end, grabbing empty boxes and putting the products in, by the order you did to them just seconds ago.
you haven’t noticed it though, since you’re busy paying, but after you paid? you finally did. you see four boxes lined up, in the same order you placed them earlier. your heart melts at the tiny detail, it could have gone unnoticed if you didn’t care, but for some reason you had hoped that he would do it, and he did.
“we should grab a cab since it will be hard to carry all these if we just walk back.” he suggests, placing down the boxes gently on the cart, coco meows at him, like saying ‘good job!’.
you didn’t think a trip to the grocery store would give you a chance to get closer with yushi.
and you didn’t think you would yearn for more.
you put your groceries into their spots, rummaging through the boxes with almost everything in the kitchen open, while yushi plays with coco, since you asked him to.
yushi actually wanted to help you out, unintentionally thinking of making a move on you (by taking initiative), but he could never say no to any of your requests or favours. plus, it’s been awhile since he last saw coco, and played with him.
from a third person perspective, you look like a domesticated couple, first time renting an apartment together, first grocery shopping together in your new apartment, it is that un-platonic to look at you guys.
you sort of knew that, judging by how strangers were looking at you guys earlier, even the butcher guy, he had that weird happy smile while he was eyeing the both of you. weird.
you check up on coco and yushi, and coco is laying on the floor, stomach just open for rubs, and yushi is sitting like a five year old kid playing with his legos. you chuckle at your sight, “seems like coco likes you a lot.”
“i would hope so,” he says, “i got him for you.” he adds, he finally got the hang of lying.
you laugh, already in the midst of cooking. “that is true, i’m glad coco likes you.” you say, turning your back on them, since you’re about to use the stove.
yushi ponders for a bit, before standing up, he walks up to you, standing right next to you. “you need help?”
you look up at him, about to decline, but you see his eyes. his pleading eyes, practically pleading you to just make him do something.
“can you wash the cabbage and cut it thin?” you instructed, and he immediately takes action, quickly grabbing the cabbage from the counter, washing it by the sink that’s right next to you.
“where’s the cutting board?” he asks, his eyes wandering around, as if he has x-ray vision to see what’s inside of the cupboards.
“in there,” you point to the cupboard to his left, he opens it, grabbing the said cutting board, he grabs the knife that’s already on the counter, about to cut the cabbage, but stops midway.
“uhm y/n,” he calls out for you, you hum in reply, looking at him. “how do you cut a cabbage?” he asks, very innocently.
“you don’t know?” you ask, he shakes his head, showing his teethy awkward smile. you chuckle, patting your hands on your apron before approaching him. “i’ll teach you.”
you gently grab the knife from him, demonstrating how to cut the cabbage. you cut it in half, only using one of the half. “just cut it thin like this, make sure to be careful with it though, so just take your time with cutting it, okay?” you instructed, cutting it in the size you want it.
he watches in awe, he didn’t know cutting cabbages could look attractive. he nods as a sign of him understanding all of it, all he needs to do is cut the cabbage, and not get hurt.
soon, you both finished cooking, and you both placed the food down on the dining table. you both took your seat, which is the opposite of each other, grabbing your servings.
“thank you for the food y/n.” yushi says, smiling at you, genuinely thankful.
“thank you for helping yushi.” you thank back, which made the both of you laugh. you take a bite of the food, and you just began to savour it.
“wow y/n, this is really good.” yushi compliments, who is overly enjoying the food you had made, you guess it’s that good.
your heart starts beating faster again, faster than yusain bolt, over a compliment you have heard a thousand times from different people. you nod as an acknowledgement to his compliment, since you have a mouth full of food.
coco meows, catching both of your attention. coco walks up to you, rubbing his body against your leg, then to yushi’s. you roll your eyes playfully, seeing how coco is trying to get both of your attentions, and he did succeed.
“such an attention seeker coco,” you say, watching as coco meows so loud, every second. yushi giggles at coco, even with you he’s still such an attention seeker.
“maybe you should eat with us, right coco?” you stand up from your chair, walking to where coco’s food and water corner is, filling up his bowl. coco follows behind, his purring getting louder, “master is satisfied.” you mutter, watching coco eat his food.
yushi watches you from the table, seeing how well you’re taking care of coco—aka his cat, makes him feel relieved. well he knew already you would take care of coco pretty well, he wonders how it would be to co-parent coco with you.
his own thoughts made him choke on his food, which alerted you quickly. you run back to the table, reaching for the water so he could drink it.
“jesus yushi, are you okay?” you ask, instinctively rubbing his back as he drinks, and he jolts a bit from the sudden contact.
his cheeks burn from your motherly act, so he continues to jug the water, till the glass is empty. “i’m fine, just a tiny accident…” he mutters, but you caught on.
“yeah well don’t eat too fast, yu.” you chuckle softly, brightening up the mood, and he just smiles back.
the sudden loss of contact from you removing your hand off of his back made him slightly shiver, like a part of his warmth isn’t there anymore.
motherly instincts, plus food, attentiveness, ways to a man’s heart.
you may have just found your way into his heart.
oh man, lying is eating yushi every day.
for someone so honest all the time, lying is his top one weakness. he may have improved over the almost two months of knowing you, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy now.
not to be the man that exaggerates things but—he really gets nightmares of how you will react when he tells you the truth. so he asked for help,
from his two not so reliable friends.
“well do you like your neighbour?” sion asks, tossing a popcorn to jaehee’s mouth, but misses.
“eh… yeah i do like her…” yushi replies, watching his friends sit in the middle of his living room, the kitchen lights and the big tv screen being their only light source at this time of the night.
“no yushi,” sion looks at him, “do you like your neighbour?” he asks again, this time emphasizing the word that could be contradicting.
he stays silent, fidgeting with his fingers, he knows the answer to that question already, it’s just—embarrassing to admit to his friends; his closest friends at that.
jaehee and sion stops fooling around, just waiting for yushi’s answer, who is looking anywhere but them.
“so you like her, got that.” jaehee says, shrugging. either way, answering and not answering just says the answer.
“yeah yeah…” yushi huffs, watching jaehee tossing popcorns to sion this time, “but i don’t know how to tell her that coco is actually my cat…”
“i can’t believe you haven’t told her the truth,” sion says, loudly munching, mostly to annoy yushi. “hasn’t it been almost two months?”
yushi nods, and both his friends laugh. “it’s not funny! i’m asking for help here…” he whines, covering his face with a pillow.
“yushi all you gotta do is tell the truth and confess, that’s it.” sion says simply, like it’s the easiest thing to do.
“okay but how exactly do i do that?” yushi asks, and his friends just shrug.
“we really can’t help you with that,” jaehee says, and sion agrees with him.
“if we do, it wouldn’t be as sincere as it should be.” sion adds, and yushi just plops down to his couch, looking really defeated.
“i don’t know how…” he drawls out.
“wanna practice on us?” sion suggests, and jaehee just combusts into fits of laughter, pounding the floor from how funny he found sion’s suggestion is.
“you’re sick man,” yushi looks at sion with disgust, his face forming an expression he hasn’t made in such a long time.
“what—oh you guys are stupid! bunch of weirdos.” sion says out of feeling he’s been wronged.
yushi knew his friends wouldn’t be of help that much, since they love being that ominous, for some reason. but he took what they said to heart; tell you the truth and confess.
he just doesn’t really know how.
you lounge on your couch with coco on your lap, mindlessly giving him pats, his purr as loud as the tv volume. then your phone dings.
yuushi kitty neighbour : hey y/n, are you free right now?
your heart begins to race, your mind filled with thoughts, a thousand reasons as to why yushi would message you and ask that question.
y/n girl next door : i am! why?
yuushi kitty neighbour : you wanna go take a walk at the park?
being the woman you are, you squeal over his chat, accidentally dropping coco to the couch when you stood up, jumping up and down.
y/n girl next door : yeah sure!!
yuushi kitty neighbour : alright, bring coco too :)
“coco, you’re coming with,” you say, grabbing the cat leash then putting it on coco. “oh don’t you look adorable,” you coo your cat, who is now walking next to you.
you leave your apartment, surprised to see yushi already waiting by his door, this time wearing jacket that fits the cold weather, a white shirt that has cite scribbles on it, pairing it with sweatpants.
“hey yuu,” you call out, and he whips his head up. he puts his phone in his pocket, walking up to you with a smile.
“hey y/n,” he says with a smile, as if his hands aren’t sweating like a sweat machine right now. “let’s go?”
you nod, and you both walk side by side, with coco walking between you. you both leave the building, walking to the park that’s right next to your apartment, which is really convenient.
the leaves fall as the wind blows in your direction, and you may have forgotten how cold it was going to be today, but yushi noticed.
without saying a word, he slowly holds your hand, his thumb rubbing against your palm while he puts your hand inside of the pocket of his jacket. you look up at him, blinking so fast. it is you who is malfunctioning this time.
“i noticed you’re cold,” he simply says, a small smile on his face while he looks down at you, your eyes glimmering, like you hold all stars in your eyes. “you should really check the weather app sometimes.” he adds, ending with a joke.
you laugh softly, shaking your head. “you’re right, i really should.”
after the laughter died down, you both stay silent, walking on the park’s path, letting coco lead the way, your hands still clasped together in his pocket.
strangers look at your direction, the elderly looking in awe, thinking you both are a couple, the others look at you with jealousy—wishing there’s someone beside them right now. you both noticed the stares, but decided to ignore it.
“so… why’d you want to go out with a walk with me?” you finally ask, your curiosity at its peak.
“uh…” yushi’s mind went blank, which is not what he practised days ago in his apartment. “uh… i have something to tell you.”
yushi stops walking, and so did you. you look back at yushi, head tilted. you both stopped at an area where there’s no people around, just the trees and the bushes that rustle on each other.
“it’s about coco…” he says, his awkward teethy smile visible.
“coco? what about him?” you ask, walking up to him, carrying coco like a baby.
“okay so… coco is actually my pet and when you sent me a pic of him the day he was at your doorstep i couldn’t tell you the truth for some reason because i was too shy and embarrassed so i just said he’s my housewarming gift for you.”
he finally blurts out, sighing after he tells the truth, like the biggest weight has been lifted up off his shoulders.
you stand there, quiet, processing what he had just said. “so… i’ve been taking care of your cat this entire time?”
he nods, his lips turning into a flat line. “eh… i just never knew how to say the truth…” he admits again, scratching his nape.
“oh my god…” you say, “oh my gosh it makes sense! he already had a nametag, a collar—oh my gosh im such an idiot.” you finally come to a realisation, now you know why this cat already had a designated name, and why he’s so domesticated and well-trained.
you gently hand out coco, forcing yushi to grab the cat. “i should have realised that sooner, though you should have told me sooner, yushi!” you exclaim, smacking the side of his arm, and he yelps from the pain.
“i’m sorry…?” he apologises, not knowing what to say. now all he has to do is to confess.
“we’re both at fault, technically,” you sigh, scratching the back of your head from the overloaded information. “i can’t believe you waited this long to tell me the truth—also i can’t believe you just let me have your cat.”
yushi smiles and giggles, patting coco. “if you want, we could co-parent coco,”
“what are you saying?” you ask, not getting his point.
he forms his lips into a thin line again, taking a step closer to you. “well i’m saying that we should go out on a date, y/n.”
“oh—wait what?” you thought you got it for a second, but then his words processed in your mind. did yushi just ask you on a date or maybe you’re just delusional?
“how else could we properly co-parent coco?” he has a point.
“i—“ you begin to stutter, the same guy who is always shy, is asking you out, no stuttering. “okay i wanna know where you got the sudden confidence, yu.”
yushi rolls his eyes playfully, chuckling. “from liking you a lot, y/n.” he confesses, his eyes flickering from your eyes to your lips, just for a second. “so what do you think?”
you don’t reply, you just stand there, a big smile on your face, it’s so cute that yushi starts getting anxious. before he could even say anything, you kiss his cheek.
“i think it will be nice.”
coco meows, looking at the both of you. who knew a slight mishap can bring two neighbours together?
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