You hurried out of your apartment block, noticing that you had left home for your job 5 minutes later than usual. As you hurried, you managed to mentally check if you’ve missed out on anything whilst leaving home.
Wallet, check. Hair tie, check. Umbrella…You stopped in your tracks to check on your tote bag, hoping you carried your retractable dark blue umbrella. “Oh my god. Thank goodness it’s here,” you huffed quietly to yourself. You fixed your bag on yourself before proceeding your way to work.
It was like any other day. The street was somewhat less crowded with cars, seeing that it is half an hour to 10 o’ clock. You slowed down your steps as you realized that you weren’t that late yet and decided to just leisurely walk instead.
Buildings passed by, some shops were passed by…you were getting close to your workplace and you still had time to spare. You stopped walking on the sidewalk you had been walking along the past 20 minutes. On your right, you could see the familiar building. The one building that you have made a landmark of when you first moved to the area, only because it was clearly no ordinary building- and also because it was only a block away from your workplace.
The somewhat intimidating building…YG Entertainment’s building. A place where all of the top kpop stars emerged from. You were a huge Kpop fan back in your high school days so you knew a few of the YG artists such as Big Bang, 2NE1, Blackpink, Winner, iKon and their new group was Treasure if you weren’t mistaken- since you’ve heard and followed them on social media. I mean, who wouldn’t? They were such a big hit and you could not not be a fan. You were pretty sure there were other groups from the company that made it big too but you couldn’t seem to pull out their names out of your (foggy) head.
You were busy staring at the building when suddenly--- “meow”
Your head turned 90 degrees to the left swiftly. What was that? Was that a cat? You took a step towards where you think you heard the sound was from.
That’s weird. Why only a single meow? How will I ever know if it’s really a cat or not?
Being the cat person that you are, you were determined to figure out if there really was a cat near you. You know, just in case the cat was in distress. To hell if you were late for work, you thought.
“M-meow?” You called out to the invisible cat. “Meow are you there?”
Nothing.
You took a deep breath. Okay maybe you were imagining things. Yeah okay, the crazy cat lady has gone whacko this time around; you rolled your eyes at yourself for trying to play hero when you were clearly heading to work—which is way more important at the moment.
“meow!”
There it was again! You turned back towards the sound. Well, screw this. You were sure now that there was a cat nearby. Your steps walked fast towards the nearby YG bus parked on the side of the road. Maybe…maybe the cat is under the bus!
You hurriedly walked toward the bus and kneeled down, peeking to see under it. And surely enough, there was a cat sitting down underneath it.
“Oh my god.” You exclaimed when you saw the cat; relieved that it wasn’t harmed in any way.
“Hey. Come here meowie. Here.” You tried to call out to it.
The cat sat there and stared at you, probably wondering who this stranger was and why you were bothering him.
“Hey, come here meowie. Come here, comeeee,” you tried again. You made a gesture with your hand, making it seem as if you were offering a treat for the cat.
The cat, falling for your act, stood on all fours, stretched and walked towards you. You smiled seeing the cute creature approaching you, finally.
You hurriedly pet the cat on its head and started stroking it, making the cat purr and rolling around on the floor- loving the attention that it’s getting.
“Aigoo. You’re a cutie aren’t you?” You cooed at it, smiling happily to yourself now that you’ve found a cute new friend.
The cat rubbed itself against your leg, purring and meowing, loving the attention from you. You started to feel bad that you didn’t bring your small pack of cat food from home. You normally carry a small pack to feed the strays outside your apartment building but since today you left home in a rush, you had forgotten to grab it on your way out.
You continued petting the cat, letting its purr fill your surroundings. What a cutie. Too bad I don’t have any treats to give…; you pouted at the thought of leaving this cat with no token of you to be remembered by. You wanted the cat to remember you, almost like how you did your best in making sure the cats near your apartment block remember you since you frequently feed them.
With your hand still stroking the cat’s head as it purrs with its eyes closed (clearly enjoying the massage your hand was giving), your eyes scanned around to see if there were any shops nearby that might sell some pet food or treat. That’s when your eyes landed at the store located right opposite the front side of YG’s building. That’s it!
You got up from kneeling, making the cat open its eyes- wondering why this human stopped petting her. You brushed your pants down, making sure there weren’t any dirt stuck on it.
“Okay meowie, you wait right here okay? I’ll be right back. Stay!” you said, as you backed off slowly from the cat. The cat looked like it understood what you were saying so you decided to hurry before the cat changes its mind to wander somewhere else.
Without any time to waste, you ran across the street to buy some treats for the little cutie.
*
Hyunsuk was walking casually towards the YG building, where he had a day-filled schedule waiting for him ahead. His hands were tucked in his pants’ pockets, keeping them warm since the weather seemed chilly this morning. He was about to make a turn towards the main entrance of the building when a girl he’s never seen before was half-walking, half-running, passing by him and crossing the street beside him.
He stopped to see what was going on. It seemed that the girl was hurrying to the convenience store in front of his building. He shrugged to himself, maybe she had forgotten to buy something.
Hyunsuk fixed his headphones, taking out his phone to choose another song to listen to. His walk to the practice room takes around 6-7 minutes plus-minus him greeting the staffs on his way there so he reckoned that it would take around 3 songs for him to arrive there.
He was about to make his way towards the entrance again, when the same girl dashed before him, literally crossing his path again. She ran towards the YG bus and kneeled on the ground beside it.
Hyunsuk frowned. The heck is wrong with this person? Why is she kneeling in front of the company’s bus? As much as he wasn’t the type to judge, it was kind of…rare…to see anyone kneeling in front of their company’s empty bus.
He decided to maybe just approach the girl, to see what she’s up to. Maybe just keep a safe distance, in case she’s a zombie or something; he told himself.
Hyunsuk walked up towards the girl slowly, still having a huge distance between them. Step, step, step…and suddenly the girl stood up. Hyunsuk froze in his spot. Clearly the girl was oblivious about him approaching, since her back was facing him, but Hyunsuk was worried that it would be obvious he was heading towards the girl.
The girl backed away from her spot, still having her back facing him. It seemed like she was talking or muttering to herself. Hyunsuk stayed put. He didn’t realise it but he felt like he was holding his breath.
And then it happened. The girl turned around. But then again, Hyunsuk couldn’t even catch what she looked like because the moment she turned around, she was already running away from the building. It happened so fast, Hyunsuk swore that it felt like he missed looking at her in just a split second.
Hyunsuk turned around, watching the girl’s figure slowly fading as she turned right, probably heading towards another building or another block ahead. Shaking his head, he decided to just make his way towards his practice room.
*
You ran across the street, back to where the cat was, in hopes that it didn’t leave the spot earlier. You arrived in front of the bus and kneeled down once again. Thank god the cat was still there!
“Hey…Hey there cutie. Look what I got you~”, you called out to the cat whom was sitting under the bus like before. The cat’s ears and eyes perked seeing what you held in your hand.
“That’s right~. I got you some kibbles my little one~.” You smiled whilst saying it in a baby-talk manner.
You shook the packet of the kibbles and the cat immediately got up and approached you. You smiled to yourself again. You couldn’t help but feel really happy seeing the extremely cute creature rubbing its head against your thighs, making faces as it asks for the food from you.
“Oh alright, I’ll give it to you now!” You surrendered to the cat. You poured some of the kibbles onto the ground and the cat immediately gobbled it up.
“Oh gosh…you must be really hungry…Here, have some more baby!” You said dramatically, pouring more of the kibble towards the cat.
You watched as the cat ate through the kibbles you poured for it. The cat is super cute. Okay maybe it’s because you’re a cat person- that made you so obsessed and so happy whenever you get to interact with a cat. But it’s also because you believed that the only companions that you’d ever want to have for the rest of your life are cats. It’s not like you’ve never dated or been in any relationship before too, you had, and you had enough of them failed relationships.
You sighed. Maybe all those failed relationships had made it harder for you to fall for anyone at the moment. You had been avoiding outings with your colleagues simply because you knew they were trying to set you up with the people they know--- people who they think would ‘fit’ to be with you, also because they told you that you had no social life.
You rolled your eyes to yourself. Pfft. Me? No life? I have a job that I enjoy doing, I get to stay home whenever I’m free, I have my own go-to supermarket that’s not far from my home,, aaaand I get to meet cats every day! I don’t need anything else in my life. I’m contented this way. (Yeah okay girlfriend, keep telling yourself that lmao)
The cat was still munching on the food when you decided to check what time it was. Shoot! You stood up quickly. Never in your life had you ever stood up that fast— you felt your head spin for a second or so. You were running late for work!
You walked backwards slowly, afraid that if you dashed off, you might startle the poor cat and it would run away. So you backed yourself away from the cat slowly…
The cat noticed you moving and looked up at you. “Oh! Oh nothing meowie. I just need to leave now. I’m late for work. I’ll be back tomorrow okay? I promise. Just continue eating yeah?”
The cat continued staring at you for a couple more seconds. “Go on. Eat up baby. I’ll be back tomorrow okay?” You noticed the cat no longer having its gaze on you so you hurriedly ran away from the spot.
You ran as fast as you could, ignoring the fact that the wind would mess up your hair eventually once you arrived at work. Luckily, your workplace was just a block away from the YG Ent. Building so you showed up not being all too sweaty at work.
“Gosh, what happened to your hair?”, a colleague asked.
You tried to quickly comb it with your fingers. “Oh nothing, I didn’t realise I was running late so I ran all the way here.”, you said, slightly panting from the unexpected cardio you had just done.
“Oh okay. Well you better sit at your table before Boss-nim makes his round here.”, your colleague said as she focused back on her laptop.
You nodded and went to your table. You took off your jacket and hung it onto your chair. Plopping into your chair, you took out the handouts you’ve made for your students and started checking for any printing or typography errors.
It seemed like any ordinary day, with the same tasks at work, you thought. But maybe the difference today was that you had made a new cat friend and it definitely lifted your mood for the whole day. You smiled. You couldn’t wait to see the cat again tomorrow. I’ll make sure to wake up early tomorrow so I can feed the cats at the apartment ground and the cat I met today! Now, I’ll just focus on work! Hwaiting y/n!
…Little did you know that you were going to have more random encounters in the nearest future.
*
5.00 pm. You noticed the time on your computer stating that it was time for you to leave work. Getting up from your seat, you started packing up your bag and cleaning up your desk, not wanting to leave it in a mess (not like you to mess up your work desk though). You lifted your head slightly to peek the rest of your colleagues and you notice that they were practically doing the same thing as you.
After you were done with everything, you left your desk to go and clock out at the machine located near the exit of your department’s floor. Beep. You smiled to yourself. Another productive day done and over with.
“See you all tomorrow!”, you said cheerfully at the line of colleagues waiting for their turn to clock out of work as well. With that, you turned your heel and left for home.
*
You were on your way back home, and as usual, you would be passing by the YG Building. Your steps were slow, almost like you were taking a stroll but in reality, it was just you taking your time to cool off your feet from the pain the you got from wearing heels all day at work.
Damn I should’ve brought some slippers in my bag. At least I would’ve been able to change into it after work. You nagged at yourself for thinking of this millions of times and yet you never seem to be bothered to bring your slippers with you to work.
Just as you passed the building, you passed by a guy whom was holding up an ice cream cone in his hand. He looked pleased to have the ice cream cone—okay but who wouldn’t be happy with ice cream? You eyed the cone in his hand as the both of you passed, without realizing it, he was eyeing you on his part.
Why is she staring at my hands that way? Is it that weird? Hyunsuk stopped in his tracks as you passed him by after the brief eyeing moment you both shared. He checked out his other hand that wasn’t holding the ice cream cone. He fisted it and glared at his hand for some time, that is, until someone called out his name.
“Hyunsuk-hyung! What are you doing staring at your hand like that?” It was Junkyu, his group member who was walking up towards him. “Your ice cream is melting hyung. Why aren’t you eating it?” He asked, obviously sounding like he was weirded out by his hyung’s weird behaviour.
“Oh nothing haha.” Hyunsuk gestured Junkyu to walk along with him back to the building. “Why’d you come out here? Did Jihoon send you out to call me?”
“No, Jihoon-hyung was busy doing the harlem shake in the practice room so I came out here so that you could stop him.”
Hyunsuk lets out a laugh. “Okay, okay I get it. Let’s get inside quickly.”
*
The next day, you hurried out of your apartment block earlier than yesterday, making it a point to bring your pack of cat foods along in your tote bag. You looked forward to meeting the new cat friend again today.
Step, step, step, before you knew it, you reached in front of the YG building again. Your eyes roamed around the area, searching for the cat. You didn’t want to simply go near the building and be caught trespassing—I mean, that would be stupid, being caught trespassing the YG premises simply because you were searching for a cat—not a human, a cat.
Okay but to be logical, how would you even find the cat? Should you call out to it? But you didn’t know the cat’s name, that is if it had a name to begin with. You bit your bottom lip. Should I just call out to it? Like, just call out “meow meow”?
You took a step forward. Okay maybe one step forward won’t hurt? You took another step forward towards the front entrance of the building. “Me-meow?”
No sound. You felt stupid for calling out to a random cat in public. A cat that barely knows your existence. But you were already standing there so you might as well do your best and call out to it right??
You took a deep breath. “Meow! Meow where are you? Hellooooo here, here, meowie!” you called out to the cat whilst shaking the bag of kibbles in your hand.
“Meow!”
Your eyes widened. Bingo! The cat was still here! “Meowwww where are youuu”
“Meowww!”
You turned around, leaving the entrance of the building and walked towards a tree not far opposite the entrance itself. “Hey, are you here? Hey hey I’m here meowie!” You called out near the tree and bushes.
Suddenly, the cat showed up from behind one of the bushes. It seemed scared to approach you, so you knelt down in front of it to ensure that you wouldn’t seem intimidating to it.
“Hi. It’s me again.” You smiled at the cat. Not like the cat could understand you though lol.
The cat backed away a little, still not recognizing you.
You hurriedly opened the cat kibbles in your hands and poured it a safe distance towards the cat. “Okay here you go. I promised to come back didn’t I?” you said softly.
The cat sniffed the food, slowly approaching you. At this point you were desperate to have the cat eat the food poured out that you backed away from the spot you were in initially. The cat, having seeing you were backing away, slowly made its way towards the kibbles and gobbled at it hungrily.
You pouted, feeling sorry for the poor little thing eating away like that. You walked up towards it slowly. The cat flinched, noticing you were near again but continued eating the cat food. You poured more of the kibbles onto the ground beside the cat, not wanting it to feel hungry anymore.
This time, you tried to extend your hand to touch the cat. Seeing that the cat is focused on eating, your hand slowly pats its back. The cat purred, loving the gentle touch you were giving it. You smiled a little. “You poor thing, you must’ve been really hungry waiting for me. I’m sorry. I wish I could give you more than just these…”
*
This morning, Hyunsuk planned on working on the new dance moves he learned yesterday. So he decided to leave the dorms early and be the only one using the dance room. As usual, he wore his headphones whilst walking towards the YG building.
Hyunsuk reached the building not too long after his brisk walk there. As he heads toward the entrance, again he saw a girl he’s never seen before there. His eyebrows furrowed. Is this the same girl as yesterday? And if so, why is she kneeling nearby the tree this time?
Hyunsuk decided to check out if there was anything wrong with the girl since he had plenty of time before his self-practice. Taking off his headphones, he walks towards the girl whom was a few meters away from him.
*
You were busy smiling to yourself, feeling happy that the cat was comfortable with your presence again. You didn’t realise that a guy had approached you, being curious about your presence in front of the building he works at.
“E-excuse me,” You heard a voice called out behind you. Your shoulders jumped slightly, not expecting anyone to be near you, also not realizing anyone had approached you.
Still kneeling on the ground, you turned your head to face the voice that had called out to you.
You felt your eyebrows raise a little, not expecting to see the person in front of you- talking to you. Is that…Choi Hyunsuk?
Seeing that you hadn’t respond to him, Hyunsuk proceeded to ask, “Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere?”
“I…What?” You tried to keep yourself focused on the guy standing in front of you. “Oh, yeah I’m fine! What- I mean, why are you asking?”
Hyunsuk smiled slightly. “You’re…kneeling on the ground…”
“Oh! Oh, sorry, I was feeding this cat here,” you chuckled. You moved slightly, showing Hyunsuk the cat that was eating beside you.
Hyunsuk laughed slightly. “Oh, I thought you were hurt or something. I’m sorry for bothering you.”
“Oh no it’s fine,” you smiled back at him. You thought it was sweet of him to be concerned of a stranger like you. He’s indeed a nice guy, you thought to yourself.
“Alright, I’ll leave you to it then,”
“Yeah, thank you for checking up on me—“, you stopped talking as you notice a streak of water hitting your blouse sleeve.
Your eyes widened. Did the cat just--?? Your wide eyes met Hyunsuk’s. He looked just as shocked as you.
You were too stunned to move. The cat….sprayed on you…The cat that you fed….sprayed it’s pee on you….on your work clothes….
Suddenly you heard Hyunsuk’s voice, “Watch out, I think it’s gonna-“
Psst. You felt the front side of your blouse growing wet this time. Your mouth made an ‘o’ shape. You were more shocked than ever. The cat looked up at you and rubbed its head against your knee, purring.
You couldn’t move. You were too shocked and embarrassed to do anything to be honest. If the cat was grateful enough for the food you gave, you were pretty sure that peeing on you wasn’t the right way to say thank you! And this happened right in front of Hyunsuk too! An artist that you just met!
The cat rubbed against your knee for a while before leaving you, disappearing behind the bushes again. Your eyes moved to Hyunsuk who was still standing near you. A safe distance from you of course.
Hyunsuk’s eyes were still wide, not really sure if what he saw really happened.
*
“Watch out, I think it’s gonna—” Hyunsuk said as he saw the cat’s tail perk up and facing you.
Psst.
He was too late to warn you.
He fell silent as a few minutes passed with you still kneeling down on the ground, seemingly shocked by what had happened. The cat left and he saw your eyes looking at him. You looked like your soul had just left your body. Or maybe, you looked like a lost kid at an amusement park, clueless and wide-eyed.
Hyunsuk couldn’t help himself. He quickly turned around and covered his mouth with his hand. He wanted to laugh. He wanted to laugh so hard. He couldn’t believe himself; he actually finds the incident to be funny! The girl literally got sprayed by the cat’s pee TWICE!
Still holding his laughter to himself, he heard a loud sigh behind him. He decided to turn around to face you again.
You were already standing up when he turned around. You were brushing your skirt with your hands, dusting off the dust that weren’t visible in his opinion.
His lips trembled as he tried to not laugh at you. Instead, he asked again,” A-are you okay?”
You looked like you were too baffled to speak, but you answered him, “I…I think? I don’t know what happened. Oh my god.” Truthfully, your eyes were getting teary. You felt embarrassed. You couldn’t believe this happened to you, today. You could see Hyunsuk’s expression, all awkward just staring at you.
You decided to hurriedly leave the place. “I uh, I should leave now. I need to get to work.” You fixed your tote bag on your shoulder.
“Wait, like that? You’re going to work just like that? With…” Hyunsuk tried not to laugh out loud. He swallowed a breath before continuing, “With cat piss all over you??” It took all his might not to laugh when he said the word piss.
You let out an exasperated sigh. You blinked back the tears that were forming in your eyes. “What else is there to do? I’m not running back to my apartment. I can just get changed into my sweater that I left in my office. It’s no biggie really.”
Hyunsuk actually felt sorry for you. What luck for a girl like whom wanted to feed a stray cat and ended up getting peed on- twice. Suddenly, he had an idea.
“Wait, let me help you.”
“Huh? How?” You looked at him questioningly.
To be continued.
Author’s note: Hi! I hope you guys enjoyed reading this fic. I’m working on the second chapter at the moment so please forward to it! Also, if the chapter is too long, let me know yea? I’ll try making the future chapters shorter :’) Take care everyone! - Rin
