Junhui: Noodles
Characters: Junhui x female reader
Genre/warnings: badboy au, strangers to friends to lovers, fluff, some crack-y moments, very slight angst, mentions of smoking, implied violence
Word count: 6,079
Summary: Junhui’s the kind of person parents warn their daughters to stay away from but you’ve never had the inclination to go near him anyway. But it’s not until he comes into the animal shelter looking for a kitten named Noodles that you start to learn more about the mysterious Wen Junhui.
a/n: I really felt like writing a badboy au and there aren’t a lot for Jun and I had this idea and @sadienita really liked it so this is kinda for her :] merry christmas 💕
You couldn’t care less about the boys that hung out outside the dive bar on the street corner. It seemed every girl was always squealing about how cute they were or every parent was warning their kid to not go near them. But you didn’t care. You didn’t wonder what they were like despite that being a hot topic with a lot of your friends -- seriously, it was like they never shut up once they got started, which was why you now hated when they wanted to go to that stupid bar but it was the only one in your stupid, dinky town.
Alternatively, Wen Junhui and his friends didn’t know shit about you nor did they recognize you. Wonwoo recognized one of your friends because she always seemed to stare at him whenever they’d pass by them, and Mingyu would wink at the one who would bite her lip and eye him up and down shamelessly. But you always rolled your eyes and minded your business, never sparing them even a passing glance. So none of them ever noticed you or thought anything of you.
Despite this, you still definitely knew who he was. At least, you’d heard the stories. The thirteen rowdy boys were always causing trouble. If they weren’t causing it, they were looking for it. Your parents had also jumped on the “stay away from those boys” bandwagon, and you listened without question because you didn’t have the desire to approach them anyway. You weren’t afraid, you just weren’t interested in knowing more.
Besides, with the amount of cigarettes they smoked, you would’ve sooner strangled yourself than stand anywhere near them. Actually, strangling yourself would probably be the equivalent of being around that much smoke.
However, your disinterest for the group of boys didn’t stop you from running into one of them. You had just decided to volunteer at the animal shelter on weekends because your parents refused to let an animal into the house despite the fact you insisted you would care for it solely and they wouldn’t have to lift a finger. Volunteering at the shelter was the next best thing. It was your first weekend there, and while you were excited, that excitement died down when you looked up as they front door opened.
Even if you weren’t interested in knowing the thirteen boys, it didn’t mean you didn’t recognize Wen Junhui.
“He’s so beautiful!” your friend, Mari had squealed so many times it made you want to jam scissors in your ears so you’d never have to hear it again.
But yes, Wen Junhui was beautiful. He, for some reason, dyed his hair a lilac color which brought out his brown eyes that looked up from the floor to you. Instead of a cigarette between his lips, he had a toothpick that hung out the left corner of his mouth. His classic leather jacket was looking as dingy as always, but it matched his ripped up black jeans and scuffed boots.
‘What could he possibly want at an animal shelter?’ you wondered to yourself.
You wanted to tell him to get lost, but you knew you weren’t supposed to do that -- even if this was Wen Junhui.
Junhui strolled up to the counter, his hands in his front pockets. He leaned up against the counter with one arm on the top of it, looking at you as he cocked his head to one side. You half expected him to say something about recognizing you even though you weren’t sure why he would recognize you anyway.
But instead, he asked, “Do you know if Noodles is here?”
You blinked at him a few times as you processed his question before finally asking, “...What?”
“You new?” he asked you instead.
“Yeah…?”
He sighed as if he were growing impatient with you, but his eyes were kind as he explained, “Noodles is a little orange tabby cat that was sent here a few weeks ago. Do you know if she’s still here?”
“O-oh, uh…” you looked down at the computer in front of you, typing in the name. “Yeah, she should still be in the cat room.”
“Cool, thanks,” he said simply before walking away toward the cat room.
That was your first encounter with Wen Junhui, and it definitely wasn’t what you were expecting from him.
-
On most Friday or Saturday nights, your friends liked to go down to the bar. You weren’t sure at this point if they genuinely enjoyed hanging out with each other every weekend or if they just did it in hopes of getting noticed by the boys who hung around out front, but with your new job at the shelter, you were thankful that you now had a reason to turn them down other than the usual responses that they stopped buying into.
“Sorry, I’m working at the shelter tomorrow.”
Nobody can call you out for that. What, do they expect you to just go into work drunk?
But it was that very next weekend that you saw Junhui again. You thought it was strange the first time he came in, but it was even more strange to you that he came back the very next weekend. He, again, walked over to the counter and asked you if Noodles was still there.
She was.
He went to the cat room.
You continued to stare at the door to the cat room until it closed and you couldn’t see Junhui anymore. What was his deal? Why did he want to see this cat so badly, and why did he even care?
“What’re you staring at?” your coworker, Sam wondered as she came out from the back.
You turned to look at her, “Does a guy ever come in here asking you if Noodles is here?”
“Oh, you mean Jun?”
She knew Junhui? Actually, she knew Junhui enough to just call him Jun? Now you really had no idea what was going on. Was this some sort of alternate universe you were in?
“You know him?” you asked with surprise clear in your tone and on your face.
She chuckled, “Everybody at the shelter knows him. He come in every weekend, but lately, he comes just to visit Noodles. He really likes that kitten.”
Somehow, despite all this new information, you still couldn’t get passed the fact somebody named that poor kitten Noodles.
-
“You work too much, so you’re coming,” Rina decided.
Apparently the “I have work tomorrow” excuse could only work so many times before your friends decided it wasn’t good enough anymore. You really did have to work the next day at the shelter, but Rina already had a death grip on your wrist and was dragging you along behind her toward the shitty little bar that you really didn’t want to go to.
“Do you think they’re there?” Mia giggled.
‘I fuckin’ hope not,’ you wanted to say, but you just let them gush over the boys they hardly knew like you always did. ‘Man, what’s with girls and the badboy type?’
As you got closer to the dive bar, you could see about half of the boys standing under the same streetlight they always were. They were laughing so loudly that you heard them before you saw them, and when you did see them, you could see a few of their silhouettes shoving each other around as their laughter grew louder.
Normally, the boys didn’t pay much attention to anybody who came by. They didn’t care about other people because they knew nobody else cared about them, so they paid them no mind and carried on with what they were doing.
But for some reason, Junhui felt inclined to look over to his right.
“Hey!” you heard him call out.
Your whole group stopped, looking at him like deer in headlights. Nobody from that group had ever said a word to any of you, and the fact that Wen Junhui had acknowledged them and stopped them to speak was sending your friends’ hearts into a frenzy.
You felt fine, even when his eyes locked on yours.
“Aren’t you the girl from the shelter?” he asked with a nod of his head.
You replied to his question with one of your own: “Aren’t you the Noodles guy?”
He chuckled, “She still there?”
“I didn’t work today, bud. Couldn’t tell ya.”
And then you brushed past your friends and led the way inside the bar. They all looked bewilderedly between you and Junhui as they shuffled in behind you like robots that were just doing what they were programmed and not really thinking for themselves.
“You know Wen Junhui?!” Elly gasped.
You shrugged, not seeing it as a big deal, “He comes into the shelter.”
“Is that why you’re so worried about work?” Mia giggled as she nudged your side with her elbow.
“No,” you sighed,” it’s because I actually don’t want to go into work hungover every single weekend and get written up four fucking times.”
You shot a pointed look to Rina who simply shrugged and said, “Party, dude.”
Most of the night consisted of you and your friends sitting at a table together while you drank and ate stale chips with shitty salsa and laughed at fat, drunk men playing darts very poorly. They hit the actual walls multiple times, and one even threw a dart while the other was over collecting his darts from the board, and it hit him right in the shoulder. There wasn’t any blood, but it was still fucking hilarious.
More patrons entered the bar, but you never paid any attention to them. Thankfully, your friends’ attention was gradually pulled away from the windows where they could see the seven boys outside, and you were actually able to have a good time with them.
Then again, maybe if they were staring out the windows and drooling like normal, you might’ve seen the handsome semi-stranger walk into the bar and walk up behind you, tapping your shoulder.
You sighed, figuring you already knew what this was about, so you didn’t even bother turning around. You figured it was some creep trying to hit on you, and you were not about to give any man in this place the time of day -- or night, rather.
“Listen, buddy,” you began as your hand tightened around your glass of beer, “I’m not interested. And if you’re gonna call me an ugly whore now instead, you can go fuck yourself.”
“At least you’re direct,” Junhui’s semi-familiar voice chuckled.
You whipped around, suddenly mortified by your words, “O-oh, I thought you were--”
“Yeah, I know,” he nodded, still laughing at your mistake. “But, I mean, you might tell me that after I say what I’m going to say.”
Your heartbeat picked up and you didn’t like it. What would Junhui say to you that would make you tell him to go fuck himself?
“My friend, Soonyoung thinks you’re really hot,” he told you, slightly sniggering about it. “He’s too big of a pussy to come in and ask for your number, though, so he made me do it since I kinda know you.”
You knew your friends had their jaws dropped at this, but you were looking at Junhui the whole time. Even as your face shifted to one of confusion.
“Who?” you asked.
He turned and pointed out the window, “Black hair, black shirt.”
“Dude, that’s like, three of them.”
“He’s the one with the cute cheeks!” Elly told you as if it was common knowledge. “And his eyes are really distinct.”
You were pretty sure you vaguely knew which one he was talking about. A somewhat fuzzy image of him came up in your head, and you recalled seeing him once eat a piece of gum off of the streetlamp just for five bucks and some laughs from his friends.
“No thanks,” you said flatly.
“_____!” Mia gasped like you were being rude.
But how could it be rude when you didn’t even know the guy and the only memory you had of him was eating ABC gum?
“Honestly, that’s a safe choice,” Junhui chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll break the bad news to him gently.”
You turned away from Junhui as soon as he began walking away from your table. Your ears were filled with your friends scolding, telling you that that was their only chance for an in with them. If you went out with Soonyoung, you could hook them up with Wonwoo and Mingyu -- which were also names you could not match to faces and you were sure you didn’t want to.
But above their whining, right as the door opened, you heard Junhui shout, “Yo, Soonyoung! She said to go fuck yourself!”
-
Where was he? You knew Junhui was going to come in like he did every weekend, and despite it only being your third weekend, you were sure he would be there because he said so when you left the bar.
“Girl from the shelter!” he called, catching your attention.
You really didn’t want to look toward his group because despite not knowing Soonyoung, you were embarrassed that Junhui told him you told him to go fuck himself. But still, you stopped and turned around to see what he wanted.
“See ya tomorrow!” he grinned cheekily.
You only nodded at him before leaving with your friends to go home and get as much rest as you could before you had to open the shelter.
But it was tomorrow, it was around the time Junhui usually showed up, and the boy in question was still nowhere to be seen. Now that you were more sober, you wanted to chew him out for passing along a message to a stranger that you didn’t even give.
“_____, could you give this pill pocket to Pepero?” one of the other workers asked as she handed the little treat over to you. “He needs his medication but Fishstick is being difficult getting his shots and I need to help out.”
As you took the pill pocket from her and began walking toward the cat room, all you could think was, ‘Who names these poor cats?’
You pushed the door open and searched all the cages in search for the one labeled ‘Pepero’. You couldn’t find it in the cages in the front, so you circled around to the back to see if maybe he was back there.
But instead of Pepero, you found the boy you’d been looking for.
“How the hell did you get in here?” you blurted.
Junhui jumped, startled by your sudden outburst. But his face melted into a smile as he laughed lightly and put a hand over his heart.
“You scared me!” the way he smiled and giggled was actually almost...cute -- which was weird since he came across as very cocky the previous night. He stood up from his crouched position and closed the cage he had opened while he played with the cat inside. “Liza let me in this morning. Sometimes I show up a little early.”
“For Noodles?” you guessed.
“Well, this time, yes. But I’ve done it before Noodles. I just like her a lot.”
You leaned over, peering down at the cage Junhui had opened. Sure enough, it said ‘Noodles’.
“Is that for Pepero?” he inquired, pointing to the pill pocket you were holding.
Not only were you shocked he guessed the cat you were giving medicine to, but he went over to Pepero’s cage without skipping a beat or needing to read the names, and opened it up for you.
“His ear infection is getting a lot better,” he told you as he pet from the cat’s head down to its tail. The fluffy, white-haired cat seemed to like it as he immediately started purring. Junhui plucked the pill pocket from your fingers and held it out to Pepero, who sniffed it for a second before eating it. “Yeah, you’d eat pill pockets just for fun, huh?”
“You know a lot about the cat room,” you noted dumbly.
Junhui chuckled with a shrug, “Just a little.”
“Do you come here often?”
“Every weekend.”
“Why don’t you just work here?”
Junhui scoffed, looking at you like you really were dumb, “Because if I worked here, a bunch of people would throw a fit or just wouldn’t come in. Business would go downhill which would mean a bunch of sweet animals would be fucked. It’s best I just come in to check on them.”
That did make sense. Wen Junhui was Wen Junhui, and people didn’t like him. He was a ‘bad person’. He was definitely a hit with the girls your age, but girls your age were also really into rebelling against their parents for some reason. That, and cute boys. Junhui was basically those two things thrown into one thing, and that meant that parents didn’t like him. If people from town came in and saw Junhui working here, the shelter would no doubt close down within weeks.
But you weren’t here to talk about that. You were waiting for Junhui to show up so you could chew him out for what he did. And now that you had him in front of you, you’d do just that. You didn’t care if he was some tough guy in a leather jacket and ripped jeans or if he still smelled like cigarette smoke. You weren’t afraid of him.
Okay, well, maybe a little afraid.
“Also, what the fuck was that last night?!” you demanded as you whacked him in the chest.
Okay, maybe not that afraid.
Junhui looked almost shocked that you did that, and even a little afraid of you as he put a hand over the spot you’d hit.
“You told Soonyoung I told him to fuck off, and now he’s gonna think I’m some rude bitch or something!”
Junhui only giggled as he grabbed his jacket on either side and gently tugged to adjust it, “Soonyoung doesn’t think anything, he hardly has a braincell.”
“But still!”
He smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest, shifting his weight to one foot so he was leaning into you, “Why do you care so much what Soonyoung thinks of you, hmm?”
You felt your cheeks heating up, leaning away from him, “I don’t care what he thinks specifically. I’d be mad no matter who you said it to.”
Junhui sighed as he closed Pepero’s cage before turning and letting his back rest up against the cages, “You wanna know why I said what I said to Soonyoung?”
You nodded vigorously.
Maybe you were seeing things, but Junhui looked...nervous. He looked down at his feet, taking in a deep breath as he thought over his next words. He ran a hand through his lilac hair before he closed his eyes. He lifted his head slowly, opening his eyes to meet yours.
“I’d say I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I think you’re a good person, shelter girl. I kinda like you,” he admitted, “and you deserve way better than Soonyoung.”
That only caused more questions. What did you do to make Junhui like you enough to protect you from somebody he claimed wasn’t good enough? Why was he friends with Soonyoung if he thought Soonyoung was too shitty to date? Wouldn’t he be similar to Soonyoung if they were close? What did he mean by ‘kinda like you’?
Despite all of those questions you could’ve asked and probably should’ve asked, you said, “My name is _____.”
-
You didn’t see Junhui all week but you knew you’d see him on Saturday. Who you didn’t think you’d see on Saturday was Mari. She smirked as she opened the doors and her little brother excitedly ran in, though it was clear he wasn’t really sure where he was going.
“Over here, dude!” Mari called as she walked up to the counter, her car keys swinging from the lanyard in her hand.
Her brother suddenly made a u-turn and ran right over to the counter, pressing his hands up against the side of it.
“What’re you doing here?” you asked her.
“Kid wants a dog but my parents didn’t want to be the ones to take him,” she explained as she glanced down at the child who was continuously hitting the side of the counter with both hands. “You can probably guess why.”
You just shrugged, deciding you would make the thumping sound that would soon be the tempo for the headache it would give you seem not as awful as it was, “He’s not so bad.”
“You wanna show us around the dog room then?” she asked with a toothy grin.
While there were other people working, it would be pointless to hand the task off to somebody else when you weren’t even busy. But you knew Junhui would be coming in soon and some part of you really wanted to see him when he came in. But you didn’t have an excuse so what could you do except say yes?
“I mean, I gue--”
Just on time, the door opened, and in shuffled Junhui with a toothpick in his mouth. Mari saw your eyes drift behind her, and she followed your gaze, her eyes landing on Junhui. She looked absolutely dumbfounded seeing the handsome boy casually walk into the shelter, his eyes finding you at the counter before anybody else. But it was after he saw you at the counter that his eyes flickered over to Mari, then down to her brother who was still banging the counter, and then back up at you.
“_____?” he spoke up.
‘Now’s my chance.’
“Um, I actually have to show Junhui something in the cat room,” you told Rina. “But Sam can take you to the dog room. C’mon, Junhui.”
You stepped out from behind the desk and began walking toward the cat room, leaving Sam alone with Mari and her brother despite the fact you felt guilty forcing her to deal with Mari’s annoying little brother. Not to mention your friend would have plenty of questions for you next time you saw her, but that was something you could deal with when you had to cross that bridge.
“What is it?” Junhui asked as the two of you entered the cat room, his voice laced with worry. “Was Noodles adopted?”
“No,” you sighed a breath of relief as you rested your forehead on the cool bars of one of the empty cages. “I just really didn’t want to deal with Mari today and needed an excuse to not help her brother pick out a pet dog.”
“_____!” Junhui whined. “You scared me!”
Why did Junhui genuinely sound upset? You turned around to see him rushing over to Noodles’s cage. He stuck his slender fingers through the bars, smiling softly as the orange kitten playfully batted at them with her paws. Just from the way Junhui looked at the cat, you could tell he absolutely adored her. Hell, he visited the place every weekend asking if she was still there so he must’ve loved her.
“Hey Junhui?”
He looked up from his playing, though the little smile stayed on his face even when he looked at you.
“Why don’t you just adopt Noodles?” you wondered.
“I took in a stray cat that hung out around my apartment like...two-ish months ago?” he replied, trying to remember how much time had gone by. “She’s still nervous around other animals and people. Honestly, she might not ever be used to other animals, and I don’t want to stress her out.”
It seemed like the more Wen Junhui came around the shelter, the less like Wen Junhui he seemed. You were taught he would be scary and aggressive and rude and just overall bad. But he was funny and kind and caring and persistent. You wondered what made people think Junhui was a bad person if he seemed to be the opposite. Was it the people he hung out with? The way he dressed? Was that all it was?
Was Wen Junhui not the person you thought he was?
-
Junhui wasn’t outside the dive bar that night. You were dragged out by your friends once again, but this time without putting up a fight. Another few weeks had gone by, and you were hanging out with Junhui longer and longer when he’d come visit the shelter. The main reason for his visits was always Noodles who still had yet to be adopted, but it seemed he stopped coming in asking for Noodles and started coming in just saying “hey, _____”.
But the one time you decided to go to the bar, hoping to see Junhui, he wasn’t there. None of his friends were there. The only sign that they had been there at all were their cigarette butts and the lingering smell of cigarette smoke that faintly burned your lungs.
“Boo,” Elly frowned as Rina opened the door to the bar and led the way in.
As you sat in the bar for the next few hours, drinking and laughing with your friends, you had almost forgotten about Junhui. You were so preoccupied with the stupid stories and loud giggles and dumb jokes that the fact you didn’t see him like you wanted to had completely slipped your mind. Even when Mia said she had to get home and left first, or when Mari said she had to get back before 11 because her parents were leaving and she had to babysit, or when Elly asked if you wanted her to walk home with you at 1am and you declined. You never once thought about Junhui.
Not until you saw him, at least.
You told Elly should could go without you. You were about to beat this guy at pool and you planned on sticking it out to the end. Sure enough, you ended up winning even if your friends weren’t there to celebrate your victory with you. But you decided that was a high enough note to end your night on, so you shuffled your way out of the bar with various patrons that you’d managed to befriend that night wishing you a good night and a safe trip home. Considering you were a girl walking home at night alone, you definitely valued those wishes.
However, your mind was veered away from your trek home as soon as you left the bar. In their usual spot, Junhui was clinging to the lamppost like it was the only thing holding him up. He sucked a sharp breath in through his teeth, and while he was facing away from you, you knew something wasn’t right.
“Junhui?” you asked as you walked over to him quickly.
“_____?” his voice was pained as he managed to turn himself around, keeping himself leaned up against the post.
As soon as he faced you, you sucked in a breath of your own. His clothes were torn up, his face was bruised and bloody, and his jacket was only hanging off one shoulder. His hair was a mess, sticking out in all directions while his eyes squinted at you like he was trying his hardest to keep them open. He clearly looked like he was in a lot of pain.
“What happened to you?” you gasped.
Despite how beat up he was, he managed to give you a small smirk, his eyes closing, “It’s nothing new. I just need to be cleaned up a bit.”
“A bit?” you scoffed. “Can I help you home?”
He hummed in response, his eyes staying closed. You walked closer, taking his weight off of the post and letting him put it on you. You put one of his arms around your shoulders while you held his waist and guided him in the direction he told you to go. It was a good thing he was at least coherent because otherwise you wouldn’t know where to bring him. You actually asked when you were almost to his apartment if you could bring him to a hospital because you completely forgot that that should be the first idea, but Junhui insisted he would be fine and he just wanted to go home.
His apartment wasn’t in a great part of town. It definitely could’ve been worse, but it wasn’t great. It was one of those places that still made you wary, especially with Junhui not really being himself. You were sure if you had come here with him any other day, you’d feel perfectly safe. But between the two of you, you were the strongest one at that moment. That definitely wasn’t reassuring.
He gave you the keys from his jeans pocket, and you managed to get him in the building. That definitely made you feel better, but it wasn’t until you were actually in Junhui’s apartment that you felt more relaxed. Then you could focus on just getting Junhui fixed up instead of worrying about who could be lurking in the shadows or secretly following behind you.
“Be quiet, though,” Junhui murmured as you led him over to the couch and set him down on the cushions. “I don’t want Minnie to get scared.”
“Is that your roommate or something?” you asked.
“My cat, Minnie.”
‘Right, the stray.’
You’d completely forgotten that Junhui had taken in a cat off the street. Honestly, considering the place he lived, you were happy for the cat -- even if it was hiding somewhere because it was afraid of you.
“Do you have a roommate that can help you?” you wondered.
“It’s cute that you think I could afford an apartment with more than one bedroom,” he smiled tiredly, his head falling back against the back of the couch as his eyes slid closed again.
“Alright, where do you keep your first aid stuff?”
“I don’t have any.”
“Seriously? No bandaids or cotton balls or anything?”
“I have a washcloth and warm water.”
You sighed, figuring that would have to do. So you went to the bathroom and grabbed a towel that was hanging off of the shower rod. You dampened a corner of it with warm water before going back to the living room. You sat beside Junhui on the couch and began dabbing away at the blood on his face. He hissed slightly at first but he started to get used to the stinging.
“Do you wanna talk about what happened now?” you mumbled.
“It’s just something that happens sometimes,” he shrugged. “Parents don’t warn their kids about us for nothing.”
“Did everybody else get beat up, too?”
“Just me. Wrong place at the wrong time. Happens a lot. Lotta people hate us.”
So maybe Junhui really was who you were told he was. Maybe he was violent and scary. Maybe he was somebody who wasn’t to be messed with. Maybe he was bad news.
“Do you need me to call somebody for you?” you wondered.
“Nah,” he replied. “Minnie’s more than enough company. She’ll come out after you leave and sleep on my chest -- she usually does when I come home like this. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be okay.”
But even if he was all that, he was still just like the Junhui you knew from the shelter.
“And ____?” he peeked one eye open to look at you.
“Yeah?”
One of his hands found yours that was pressed against the couch cushion to support yourself as you cleaned him up. His hand wrapped around yours, giving it a soft squeeze.
“Thank you for helping me tonight. I know this is cheesy to say but I’m glad I met you.”
-
Maybe you were silly. Maybe you were reading too much into it, but maybe it was worth the risk. Besides, worst case scenario was that he’d take it as a friend thing. But what would be so bad about that? Weren’t you already friends with Junhui anyway?
You finally realized that weird need to see Junhui was actually you having a crush on the guy. It was definitely weird, especially considering it had even persisted despite seeing the other side of Junhui last night, but you were just gonna go with it. You knew he wasn’t all bad, and you could make your own decisions anyway. And your decision was that Junhui was a good guy and you liked him and that was that.
So when Junhui walked into the shelter again on Saturday and your heart started racing, you knew why.
Well, there was also another reason.
“Hey, _____,” he grinned. His split lip had healed, but around one of his eyes was still a little yellow. “How’s it goin’?”
“It’s goin’,” you shrugged.
Usually, you would nod toward the cat room and say something like “she’s back there” or “you can go in” or whatever. Something that would let him know Noodles was still there. But when you stopped talking after your short response to his question, his eyes widened.
“I-is Noodles…?”
You shook your head slowly.
Junhui looked distraught, “R-really? ...W-well was the person at least nice? I hope she went to a good home because she’s such a sweet girl and--”
“You can judge for yourself,” you shrugged. “I mean, you did say you think I’m a good person, so…”
As Junhui’s brain tried to piece together what you’d said, you bent down behind the desk and lifted up the small carrier that the small, orange kitten was in. As you set her down on the counter and she saw Junhui, she meowed at him.
His eyes flickered from Noodles to you to Noodles and back to you.
You grinned at him, “I am now a proud cat mom.”
Junhui’s look of confusion spread into a wide, toothy grin as he walked over and stuck two fingers between the bars and let Noodles paw at them, “Why’d you decide to adopt her?”
“Well, you said Minnie doesn’t like animals, and I know you wanted Noodles for yourself so…” you wanted to be bold about this but now that you had to say what you wanted to say to him, you felt shy and flustered, your cheeks starting to heat up. “I just kinda figured if I own her then you could like, visit or something… I mean, you already visit her at the shelter but now there’s no way she could be away from you, y’know? Like, you’ll always be guaranteed to see her now.”
You kept staring down at the counter and at Junhui’s fingers when you talked, but you finally gained the courage to look up at him. His cheeks were stained pink as he tried to hide a smile unsuccessfully.
“So you adopted her...b-because of me?” he asked with a flustered giggle.
“M-maybe…” you shrugged.
This time, he had to look away from you, keeping his eyes on Noodles in her cage instead. He just smiled at her -- or he was still smiling about what you said -- for a moment without saying anything, and it was absolutely torture. But then he finally looked over at you and took his fingers away from Noodles, stepping sideways so he was standing across from you at the desk.
“Do you wanna go out after work?” he asked bluntly, though his face was still flushed and he was still grinning like he was shy about asking.
“Yes,” you blurted, covering your mouth and clearing your throat before saying, “Um, that sounds cool.”
He giggled some more, running a hand through his purple hair, “I’ll pick you up here, then?”
You nodded, “I’ll see you then, Junhui.”
“Y’know, for as long as we’ve been talking, I figured you would’ve caught on to calling me Jun by now.”
“You still call me shelter girl have the time.”
“Touche. I’ll see you tonight.”
He walked out with his hands in his pockets, pulling out a pack of cigarettes before the door closed. But he suddenly spun around and looked at you, a playful smirk on his face now instead, “We should get some noodles in celebration, right?”
All you could think was how you couldn’t care less about Wen Junhui, and Wen Junhui didn’t know shit about you, nor did he recognize you. But now he made your heart feel warm whenever you were near him, and you were going to go on a date with him after work.
All because of a kitten named Noodles.
You nodded, “Right.”
