#&decisions

a high-pitched cooing voice assaults jaewon’s ears just before he feels and hears midas stop purring, and he plants a falsely-pleasant smile on his lips that reads get away from me right now plain as day to anyone looking at it. the woman in front of him is it, and neither is the friend behind her, whose incessant cooing is even higher-pitched and more headache inducing than the first woman’s. “ooooh, it’s so cute!” the first woman cries, and jaewon feels midas tense up -- he’ll start hissing if these idiots don’t bring their voices down an octave or so. jaewon can’t help but bristle too -- these are the exact kinds of people he hates at this cafe. animals aren’t its -- they have feelings and thoughts and desires just as much as humans do. they aren’t just some pretty toy to have around to coo at and snuggle with when it’s convenient. 

“can i hold it?” the second woman asks, and jaewon shrugs. 

“if he’ll let you,” he says simply, carefully enunciating on the he. midas would cooperate a lot more if jaewon took him off his head himself and handed him over, but he doesn’t entirely want him to cooperate right now  -- he’d be perfectly fine with the cat scratching their faces off. the woman lifts him gently from jaewon’s head, and damn, it looks like she’s held a cat before. midas is weak to a good ear scratch, too, so he melts as soon as she has him settled and scratches his ear. 

“aww, he’s purring!” she says, and jaewon can’t help but scowl while both women’s attention is on midas and not him. “is he up for adoption?” the forced smile is back on jaewon’s face before she even turns her head to look at him, but he’s a professional at faking it and she doesn’t notice a thing. 

“no, i’m afraid not,” he replies without thinking, though he doesn’t regret the lie from the moment it leaves his lips. “he’s already spoken for. we have plenty of other cats and kittens who are available, though,” he says in his best customer service voice, gesturing to the room at large, which is quite literally filled with cats lounging about. 

“well, i hope he’s going to a good home,” the second woman says, looking back to midas and smiling fondly as she scratches his ears. jaewon almost feels bad about lying to her, until he remembers that midas getting adopted would mean jaewon would likely never see him again. he doesn’t let himself feel bad after that. 

the woman soon sets midas down on the table and gives his back a long stroke before she and her friend walk away to find other cats to play with. jaewon immediately gathers midas in his arms, ignoring the cat’s meows of protest. “i have to go see haseul,” he says to the cat, petting him absently as he gets up and carries midas back to his usual tower in the corner. “don’t let anyone near you unless it’s me or haseul, alright?” he tells the cat, knowing that midas is smart enough to understand him and listen, and possibly to understand the significance of what just happened and what jaewon’s planning to do. “don’t let anyone take you away, got it?” he adds, giving midas’s ears one last scratch as he deposits him on the shelf of the tower. midas mews in response, and jaewon leaves without signing out on the front desk’s volunteer chart. 

he has to get to the dog cafe, and he has to pray that haseul is working right now. if she isn’t, he’ll wrangle her phone number out of someone and call her. he can’t do this without her -- it might be weird that they’re near strangers but they’ve already pretty much agreed to adopt a cat together but, hey, it’s a weird world that they live in.