#leejuyeon

︶ ֢ ⏝ ֢ ︶ ୨୧ ︶ ֢ ⏝ ֢ ︶

The day passed in the best of ways, the children all introduced themselves to the newcomers and, as taught, managed to integrate them without too much trouble.

You were certainly glad to have such a diligent class.

After several activities and many dances with as many songs, the parents began to come one by one to retrieve their children, who with their little hands smeared with colors happily greeted by shouting a " See you tomorrow Teacher!" to which you happily reciprocated.

And as the classroom emptied there was Isabelle who, now alone, was coloring on a sheet of paper.

Glancing slightly at the clock you noticed that the end of school time had long passed and Vivienne had absented herself to help the other teachers clean the classrooms.

So you approached the little girl, sitting next to her on one of those tiny chairs.

"Isa! How was the first day?" you asked her, taking one of the now undone braids to put it back in order.

The little girl smiled happily as she looked at you.

"Good! I met so many friends! I like it!" she replied before returning back to her drawing.

You smiled as you saw the genuineness with which she happily colored her drawing, with disheveled lines.

The concern for her, however, remained constant within you.

"Should I call someone? I don't even have her parents' phone number..Should I ask her? Oh y/n stop it she is 5 years old what can she know about phone numbers."

The thousand thoughts were interrupted by the little girl's voice.

"Daddy!" she squeaked in her slight voice, getting up in a rush.

"Oh I'm so curious to meet this fool who leaves his daughter with someone-" but the moment you turned you head, your thoughts became cloudy.

And all the words you wanted to say died in your throat, now as dry as the desert.

In front of you, with the child in his arms, stood perhaps one of the most handsome men you had ever seen.

With a height to make models envious and with a face just as heavenly, you could finally understand where Isabelle's sweet face came from.

Trying to tidy yourself up slightly, you approached the two who were chatting on the doorway.

The man, noticing your presence, turned to look at you, and without meaning to, your heart missed a beat.

"Are you this famous teacher y/n?" he asked, smiling at you.

"Yes, yes I am, it's a pleasure" you replied, extending your hand, which was promptly shaken by his.

A too big, too soft and too strong hand.

"Lee Juyeon, Isabelle's father, thank you for helping my daughter today and I’m deeply sorry for the delay, I had several problems at work and could only get free now, I'm really sorry."

Suddenly every bad thought you had had about him was gone.

Only little hearts surrounded your thoughts.

"Oh! No problem really, Isabelle is a lovely child and being with her doesn't get me tired at all." you replied looking at the child as well, giving her a sincere smile.

"Teacher y/n is so nice! She even re-did my braids, look daddy!" the little girl said, taking her braids to show them off.

The man made an astonished face as he played along with the little girl.

"How beautiful sweetie! Surely they came out better than mine" he said laughing slightly.

"No no!" you said putting your hands forward, shaking them "They were gorgeous this morning too, they got slightly messed up during the dancing and I fixed them, nothing more!"

The man in front of you smiled slightly at you before returning his gaze to the little girl who was slightly nodding.

"Alright then, come on Isa, let's free the teacher to go home," he said, leaning her down to let her walk on her own.

"Say goodbye and thank you" he finished by prodding the little girl who turned around making a slight bow in thanks and then shook her little hand in greeting.

"See you tomorrow Teacher!" Isabelle said.

"See you tomorrow Isa!" you replied smiling at her and then turned your gaze to the man next to her.

"See you tomorrow Teacher" he also said smiling and causing you to miss a beat.

"See you tomorrow Mr. Lee" you replied slightly embarrassed by the angelic smile of the man who was now walking away hand in hand with the little girl.

With your hand over your heart you tried to calm the quickening pulse as that gossip girl of Vivienne popped up at your side.

"Damn he's so hot," she only said.

But beyond her tightly knitted space of freedom, she wonders what exists outside. Every summer when she goes down to swim, she meets the same lifeguard that saw her take her first steps into the water. And apparently y/n isn’t the only one he has followed through their childhood. He was born at the nearest hospital and has then lived his entire life here. The lifeguard is a sweet guy, but last summer y/n confessed to her friend; “What if I also end up living here forever?” She knitted her eyebrows and turned so her chin met the warm stone. “What do you mean, you don’t like this place?” Y/n turned to her and the setting sun covered their humid skin. “No, I don’t mean that, I just…” 

Their conversation didn’t go much further than that. She understood y/n was feeling rather blue so she took her to her house for home cooked food. Y/n didn’t bring it up again, she hasn’t asked but clearly she could spend her entire life and more in this place. So she faced the sea for herself, and dreamt of a place far away, and now she’s here. Despite her very worried parents and not outstanding academic experience, she got into a university in Seoul and with her parents help bought a tight studio apartment. Her room was far from empty when she left for the train, so it’s definitely not the last time she has her feet on this land. Even now, she thinks about their melancholic expressions as they wave her off. Realization that their little girl is about to take on the world on her own. 

The first step out of the train was rather overwhelming. Seoul was overcrowded and she could feel the skins of people brushing up against her own as she struggled her way out of the train station. But even when experiencing suffocation at every corner, she somehow falls in love with it. Her new life opens up in all directions and even though her apartment is smaller than her room back home, she has never felt a freedom like it. 

She got herself a part time job at a restaurant to spend her time on the weekends. As much as she would have loved to tour Seoul with a girl friend by her side, she doesn’t expect much social interactions on her part. That’s a problem she faced before deciding to go to Seoul and still haunts her when she comes home from the restaurant. When balancing five plates and talking with at least one person every second, your thoughts kind of goes silent. But between her four walls in her bed and the only sound coming from the open window in the heating season, the loneliness eats her up from the inside. 

It’s Saturday night and the place is about to close. Y/n cleans the last table and her colleague comes up to her. 

“Finally done, I might fall asleep before I get home.” He says and stretches. Y/n continues sweeping the table while nodding. 

“Yeah, me too.” 

“Hey, Y/n!” A voice comes from the kitchen and she looks back. “Can you take this out for me?” She holds a big plastic bag in her right hand and Y/n goes to her and takes it. 

“Thanks!”

“No worries.” 

There’s no light as she steps out of the backroom and opens the door to the outside. A slight breeze hits her when the moonlight shines over the depressing garbage area. As if the moon watches her every move, Y/n stops at the staircase and lets the door close shut behind her. As weird as it was, she has this strange feeling in her stomach. A yearning for her past life. The place she died to escape from seems so much easier than her current one out on the staircase. Back home, she knew everyone and everyone knew her, it has always been that way. But in the overcrowded city, she stands skin to skin with strangers and a simple greeting will not take you far. 

A rattle from the garbage container snaps her out of thought and she looks down to her right. The plastic texture moves around and Y/n tilts herself closer. The last thing she needs is some sort of parasite-sickness, so she grabs the plastic tighter to get ready to crush whatever creature jumps out. With a last loud struggle something actually does come out between the black plastic. A yellow cat. Y/n instantly notices the collar on its neck and lets the bag fall to the ground. While inspecting it, she notices hairless spots under the necklace and the extremely thin silhouette coming up from the bin. Without much thought, Y/n reaches out her hand to it. She jumps back as the cat the same second shows its teeth and jumps off the container and hides behind the fence further away.  Sorry, Y/n thinks for herself and finally throws the bag. Before walking in again, she looks behind her shoulder. The frail figure of the soft creature caused her to stay a bit longer. The shining plate on his neck indicates that he has a home, but the hairless spots and irritated skin says otherwise. Y/n bites her lip before turning back to the door and closing it. 

Her colleagues are done with the closing. 

“Do you lock, Y/n?” He asks her at the door. Y/n nods while pursuing her lips and he gives her a thumbs up. When the bell goes off with the door, Y/n takes two deep plates and fills one of them with water. Rummaging through the cupboards, she finds a depressing pack of white bread. She stares with big eyes at the plastic packaging. Will she somehow kill the cat if he eats this? She thinks for herself. With her left hand she scratches her scalp and then takes the bread. With a light grip she separates the slice in small pieces and walks back out to the garbage area. 

On her next shift, the plate out on the concrete was certainly empty, but she couldn’t be sure if it actually was the yellow haired cat or the seagull family on the rooftop. Either way, Y/n couldn’t help but feel sympathy for it. So she has built a new routine to hide away a small portion of the customers leftovers. So on a green paper plate before night comes and Y/n gets the task of throwing the garbage, she puts the plate about a meter away from the container. 

Her new routine seems to bring comfort in her young adult life. She finds herself looking out the kitchen opening to see if the cat comes along. But Y/n always end up needing to close the restaurant before the cat visits the plate. Two weeks pass from their meeting, but life seems to move on without any new cross in paths. For each shift, her excitement over him vanishes, the only thing left is the fact that the plate is empty every time she comes back. 

On a Friday, some hours after lunch, Y/n throws on her waitress outfit and stands quietly in the kitchen to listen to the group meeting. Her colleagues spew words that barely form meaning to her and she notices how they laugh and she quietly does the same. Her nail on her long finger is cracked and ready to fall off from how much she bends and flips it. Eventually the meeting is over and they get ready for opening. 

Y/n quickly runs out to the garbage area. She opens the door and bends down to pick up the plate. As she looks up to stand again, two eyes meet hers some meter away. Beside the fence slightly covered by the ventilation box sits a small yellow cat. Y/n freezes as it may get scared and run away, but to her surprise it's still there. With big brown eyes the cat watches her standing up slowly. They never break the contact as she takes a step back. What does the creature before her think right now? Somehow she reads those eyes as curious and innocent. To be completely honest, Y/n doesn’t want to go running back between tables at the moment(she never does), but duty calls and she eventually closes the door behind her. 

About once every hour she looks out the kitchen opening to see if it’s still there. During the first hours, the cat actually sat in the same place looking at the door where she had left. But as evening came around, the cat seemed to have lost interest and walked its way. She’s definitely disappointed and a bit surprised over how happy she was during those few hours. Fishing up the best leftovers and eagerly watches seconds move closer to the end of her shift. 

The summer night has set and Y/n walks out to leave the trash and plate. When her right hand hovers above ground, she hears a clean, light chime. And once again, the yellow silhouette stands before her. It must have jumped over the fence. The creature stands closer this time and watches her and the plate intensely. The pupils are even bigger at night time and the yellow fur seems to reflect the moonlight. With it so close, she can actually read the silver plate on his collar. 

Juyeon, just Juyeon. 

“Hi, Juyeon.” She quietly whispers and the ears move up with her voice. Her expression radiates fondness as her eyes soften and lips curve into a crescent. “I guess you're a ‘him’.” 

As it’s still one and a half meter between them two, Y/n place it down in front of her before pushing it to him. She wonders if he’ll feel comfortable eating when she’s watching or if it’s better to leave him alone. But without standing up, Juyeon starts eating off the leftovers. Her arms hug her legs in the kneeling position and her head tilts on her knees. Somehow, this scene before her feels incredibly comforting. It’s with the realization that this is her first interaction without pressure of fitting in since she left home. It feels stupid, but the loneliness she's been piling up like bricks, falls just in this instant. Maybe it’s full of sadness or she’s about to have her period soon, but a single tear breaks free from her eyes. The fond smile is now gone and tears roll down in silence as she watches Juyeon eating comfortably. 

The world looks rather blurry now, but she catches how Juyeon looks up from his plate. His small head tilts to its side. A cat can’t understand feelings like a human does, but something tells her by the way his eyes stare into her figure and how he slowly walks forward to brush his body against her legs, that he feels her sadness. Even though she understands he can’t gripe why there’s tears running, she appreciates the fact that he does notice. 

“I’m okay…” She sniffles quietly. 

The single fact that a heart is beating so closely to hers, though not human, makes her feel just a bit less miserable. Y/n sniffles quietly and wipes away the tears with her wrists. With clear vision, the distance has shortened and they’re now body against body. Having him so close, she notices the red bruises between his light furr. Y/n frowns a bit as he takes another sway around her legs. It could be her imagining things, but feels as if there’s more bruises than the first time she saw him. To be fair, he’s very small, very skinny, and very fragile. It probably doesn’t take much to accidentally make ugly marks. 

“Are you okay?” Y/n asks and looks deeply into the eyes of her new found friend. Not expecting an answer, she does get a ‘meow’ back. Which, she can’t help but smile at. One hand that comforted her legs is now placed on Juyeons head. The second her skin touches his forehead he nuzzles back in and lets out something that sounds like satisfaction. 

“It’s okay…” She whispers, “We’ll be okay.”

Y/n expected Juyeon to move on with time. That sooner or later the color of his fur would be a vague picture she would keep for herself. On nights at 23:45, she would look between her ceiling and windows, wondering where he was, or if he even was real. But the world never fails to show her the most unexpected sides of life. 

Every time she opens the door to the garbage area, he would sit there, looking up at her with big eyes. While looking into them, she wonders how much time he has spent there waiting. All those moments of picking up and putting down the same plate, she stays a second or two. Quietly wonders if she means to him what he means to her. 

Clearly you’re a different kind than me, but I do find myself feeling comfort around you. In this city, I’m quite lonely. When my past life seems so far, you’re the only one that brings even a smallest bit of joy. 

Does he feel that way too? She thinks. Or is the creature with tall ears even capable of emotions like hers? When sitting on the small elevated steps to the door, she quietly watches juyeon eat. At those moments, she truly hopes their relationship is based on something stronger than food. 

But on a Saturday evening under the moonlight, her yellow haired friend seems to have vanished from earth. For every shift since that first day, juyeon has been waiting for her beside the fence. Sneaking out upon hearing her specific way of walking. But right now, she stands alone with the green plate. Y/n in silence looks behind every box and bin, trapping air in corners, but there’s nothing alive beside herself on this porch. 

She stands still and tries to deny the saddened fact. The green plate now stands on the same spot it usually does. Y/n doesn’t turn her back just yet, instead she takes a seat on the elevated concrete and holds her hands in her lap. The scene is motionless, but for some reason she keeps looking. As she sits there, she wonders where he has gone.  Breaking such a consistent pattern could be a warning sign, but at the same time, he could’ve just been bored. After all, the food was the golden lining between them, though she felt as if it was more than just food that connected them in this city. 

When she takes power to walk off and close for the day, she hears a cry from the other side of the fence. It’s pitched like a child, but the last part makes it certain what made it. Thereafter, continuous struggles and rapid sounds of air getting cut follows. A voice from a person loudly complaining and screaming at someone. Y/n stands in the same position as when she was about to walk away. She looks between the gap of where the fence ends and sky starts, wishing for it to tell what goes on behind. The cold summer breeze seems to go right through her and takes her breath away with it. The countless scenarios that go through her head and they all end up with Juyeon blood stained and broken. Y/n makes no hesitation and runs to the door to get out of the restaurant. 

On the sidewalk outside her job, she runs around the complex to find an opening. Doing about two turns around the cluster, she stands before the driveway up to one of the buildings. Y/n watches a woman with an empty bottle, swinging and kicking against Juyeon. Her door is open and she has nothing more than socks on. Her voice is filled with rage and cracks that only a broken heart can do. It’s impossible to make out sentences as she spits and trips by each word. Juyeon is tightly cramped between the wall, and for every step she takes closer to him. His figure seems to be getting smaller. Not moving any closer, she shouts. 

“Please, stop!” 

The lady hesitates from kicking again and looks over to Y/ns side. The woman starts with unstable steps, comes closer to Y/n and she backs away.  

“What do you think you’re doing, lady!” 

Y/n brings her hands closer to her chest and stares into the woman's eyes, “Please, don’t hurt him.” She repeats. 

“It’s my fucking cat, mind your own business!” 

“No.” 

The bottle in the woman's right hand could come crashing down on her at any moment. And Y/n stares into her red filled eyes but nothing beside misery looks back at her. The person in front of her is not a person, just a shell of who she once was. 

Y/n clutches her fists and pushes her body forward, “I said, don’t hurt him!” 

Their faces are centimeters apart. She basically tastes the lingering alcohol from her. After a few moments of silence the woman lets out a frustrated sound and throws the bottle right onto the concrete. A loud shatter echoes on the driveway and green flakes splatter against the corners. A few hit her bare legs. But right after, the woman goes her way, ignoring the cat and shuts the door. The area around basically shakes with it and she hears a twist of the lock on the other side. 

Y/n still looks at the same spot, left in the same position. Warm liquid paints streaks from her upper calf to her heel and her rigid breath can’t seem to slow down. But a smooth feeling across her lower legs takes her out of it. Y/n looks down to see Juyeon lovingly pushing his face against her bruised legs. 

Y/n breathes out and bends down slowly, “I’m sorry.” She strokes his fur and pulls him tightly to her. Now she falls onto the concrete and sits with a glass splitter around her, but he’s safely placed between her arms. As her hand feels spots without fur on his body, she realizes where they came from. 

“You’re safe now, Juyeon. No one can hurt you.” 

The evening ended long before she sat up from the concrete floor outside the woman's door. Decisions have never come easily to her, so she waited for a sign. But Earth continued spinning and she looked down in her lap. Her arms caged him tightly to her body, but for a moment she let them loose. He was free to go. The streetlights showed him the path away from this place, but he sat relaxed between her legs. 

Getting under fire for theft was the last thing she needed. But Y/n left the driveway with Juyeon in her arms, hugging him to her chest. And now, she quietly walks up the stairs to her apartment, whispering to god not to let Juyeon utter a sound. And for her fortune, she closes the door and the four walls surround them both. When usually coming home from work, the room looked rather gray with dark spots on her furniture. The single chair in the corner told her that no one else was expected. But tonight, this space seems warmer and the moonlight illuminates the hidden corners and soft fabrics. 

Y/n looks down towards Juyeon. She sees his head observing the dimensions of her room. Does he like it, Y/n thinks for herself as she lets him down onto the carpet. He taps on the carpet a few times before taking a few steps on it and goes to her plant under the window. He sits down to pull the leaf down with his paw, just for it to jump back up. After he lost interest in that he jumped up on her bed, staring and sniffing at her stuffed animals. The fake seal beams towards Juyeon and he confusingly pats its face. Y/n still stands at the entrance and watches with a small curve on her lips his curiosity. It’s something very healing about watching him like this. 

Y/n got ready for bed as Juyeon went on an exploration around the room. She felt a bit bad having him in a closed off area, but for the time being, Juyeon seems to find a lot of new things. As she walks out of the bathroom, she finds him curled up in the two person sofa. His yellow fur blends together with the beige fabric of the furniture and the light from her lamp paints him lovingly. Watching him like this, she realizes it’s a lot of things to fix if he will live here. She sighs and walks over to him. Despite being very attached to Juyeon, her current life will not handle another living being in her house. So she’ll eventually find a new home for him. 

Y/n turns back around, walking away from the sofa and to her drawer. Juyeon seems to notice the sudden change in behavior and looks up. Y/n digs deep in between her clothes and lets out her breath with the stop of movements. She comes back to the sofa and Juyeon curiously watches the thin fabric in her hands. Y/n takes off his orange collar and lays it on the coffee table. 

“You’re mine now, right?” She whispers and ties a yellow ribbon in the spot the collar sat. By adjusting it, the bow sits now at his front. Y/n looks down at him with fond eyes and laughs quietly. 

“Why are you so pretty?” She pats his head before taking out a hair tie with a matching ribbon attached to it. She puts her hair up in a half up-do before turning her head slightly for Juyeon to see. 

“Now, we’re matching. Cute, right?” 

It’s hard to say if he understands her implications, but either way he does meow. Even sits up and brushes his head against her stomach. Again, for her own sake, she imagines him being very excited over their matching accessories. With light hands she cups his face and reaches down to his forehead. With a simple kiss she says goodbye for the night and walks to her bed. 

While the sun covers the walls and showers her plant, Y/n rubs her eyes before sitting up. Outside the glass, the Seoul horizon folds out in full view. There’s small circles of water on the surface and she feels an urge to go out and smell the city after rain. It’s Saturday, no one tells you what to do on Saturdays so she finds it is an amazing opportunity to go and buy some stuff for Juyeon. As per automatic, she turns to the sofa where she left him last night. Her smile drops nearly instantly and she pulls her covers closer. Where it should be a fluffy, yellow figure stuffed between her pillows. It instead lays a full person with their back facing her. 

Y/n sits there for some time, just staring at the stranger thinking they’ll disappear. Time moves and they haven’t faded from view. Are they dead, she thinks worryingly. Y/n finally takes off the covers and cautiously takes a step closer to the stranger. On her way she takes the lamp from the coffee table and takes out her phone, ready to just press one button for an emergency to come running. 

Being just a few centimeters away, she pulls her face closer to the silhouette. Finally revealing their identity, she meets a calm face with their eyes closed. It’s a guy that she would guess grew up with the same TV shows as her and an appearance that looks too good to be a thief. She has a hard time imagining the man on her couch breaking up her window and taking a place on her couch. Is he crashing Juyeon while sleeping? Y/n thinks and tries to catch a piece of fur under his body. 

A single detail pulls her out of it though. The guy has a yellow, silk ribbon tied loosely around his neck. The bow is perfectly placed under his chin and he looks very peaceful and innocent. With no trace of Juyeon anywhere, Y/n feels her mind wandering to places only in tv shows and she needs to look away from the couch. 

She stares at him again. Y/n puts the lamp back on the table and clicks her way out from the 911 number. The stranger doesn’t seem like an intruder, but she’s still suspicious of waking him up. It doesn’t take much more than though, since he opens his eyes slowly. Y/n backs away and reaches out for the lamp again as the stranger lifts his arms up and yawns slightly. Y/n points the lamp right at him and he simply looks at her. His big brown eyes clearly remind her of Juyeon and the way he sits so timidly and looks up at her, like he’s asking what he should do. 

“Who are you?” Y/n asks confused. The man tilts his head and stays like that for a few seconds. He inspects every movement of her face as if waiting for her to change. He then finally smiles. 

“You’ve already forgotten me?” 

Y/n squints at him. While he sits with crossed legs on her couch, she looks down at his ribbon. She closes her eyes tightly, feeling the urge to physically swift her arms around the room. Her eyelids stay closed as her mind once again spirals in what the hell happened this night. Somehow this is worse than waking up from a drunk night, wondering what scene you caused. 

“Are you more comfortable with me in my cat form?” Y/n opens her eyes and lets the lamp fall beside her hip. His smile is now gone, but head is still tilted. He pouts a bit and twiddles with his fingers while looking down at them. 

“You seemed more comfortable…” 

Y/n now stands straight up and scratches the back of her neck. Her eyes move between the floor and the man in front of her. The apartment feels rather claustrophobic at the moment. There’s too much thought for this space and she looks out the window in hope for some of them to go. Y/n sighs and slowly walks over to the sofa. He feels the weight of the sofa shift a bit and he peeks up between his fringe. As their eyes meet once again, Y/n looks away and pokes at the lamp in her lap. 

“So…” She nods with pursed lips, “...you’re Juyeon.” It comes out rather strained and hard. He simply nods while still peeking up and Y/n gives one back. Juyeon still pouts. There’s a bothering point that itches on his recent happiness. It makes him want to run away and hide under the table. 

“I’m sorry, I can switch back to my cat form. I didn’t know it would happen.” He says quietly and Y/n side eyes him and at this point, he’s not looking at her anymore. Juyeon fiddles with the ribbon and she jumps a bit closer. 

“Don’t say sorry, you can stay…” Y/n awkwardly uses her arms to point on his human figure, “...like that. It’s just-” She sighs and scratches her neck again. Juyeon looks up again. 

“I didn’t know you could do that.” 

Juyeon inspects his own skin. He spreads his hands in front of him and leans back, “I didn’t know I could do it either…” He puts his right hand just a centimeter away from his face. Y/n inspect quietly as he continues putting every feature of his body up close. The way he keeps his eyes from closing just to watch each piece of his skin. When he actually blinks, it nearly looks like he’s afraid he’d missed something, as if his body would pull something unexpected when he wasn’t watching. 

“...I never thought I could change again.” 

Y/n tilts her head, “You could change before?” 

Juyeon nods. 

Having a fantastical creature on her sofa would rather intimidate her. Thinking of herself from an outsider perspective, why isn’t she driving Juyeon out of her apartment? Who knows what other mystical tricks he is capable of. But instead she tries to lean her mind somehow closer to his. What does this creature think? What more has he experienced? Is there a glitch in evolution? Worse, did his ancestors fuck cats? At this point her mind starts spirling, so much that Y/n hasn’t noticed herself physically coming closer to him. 

Juyeon tenses up and leans towards the armrest. He feels quite naked, a bit vulnerable by her very obvious intrigue by him. Juyeons cheeks are stained pink and he scratches his leg and looks around the apartment. 

As he moves in his seat, Y/n realizes their closeness and she immediately backs off and sits up. While standing she tries to remember her usual routines. In the mess she has woken up to, maybe she can find some comfort in her normal life. 

“I’ll make u-us?” She hesitates, “..some food?” Sounds like a question, but she wants nothing less than an answer from whaterver’s behind her. So Y/n starts walking to the small kitchen area. While reaching for the yogurt she feels a sudden warmth behind her. Y/n peeks behind her shoulder and Juyeon inspects the inside of her fridge. She makes up such a detailed and intricate plan for  breakfast it might get a place in an art museum, and she still feels his very presence move intact to hers. 

At first it feels like Juyeon just follows her because there’s nothing better to do, but when she starts cutting up the vegetables, he leans in closer. At this point he has his head on her shoulder and Y/n nearly focuses more on keeping her shoulders still than actually cutting correctly.

By the left side of her view, a single finger moves closer to the tomato and silver knife. Y/n stops cutting and holds the knife away from his finger. The tomato leaks seeds and transparent juice, the knife is decorated with a spectrum of color after the cutting. A slight excitement and sudden spark within Juyeon takes him to poke the stuff on the counter. Y/n somehow takes an interest in his natural curiosity and lets him explore the cutting board, but soon he takes his finger on the knife blade. 

“No!” Her hands form a grip on his wrists and bring it to herself, but on closer inspection and the whimper from Juyeon, there’s already forming a thin red streak. 

“Juyeon.” Y/n sighs slightly and takes him to the bathroom. Still holding his arm, Juyeon drags his feet in her direction. The variation of boxes and bottles over the sink, he tries to remember them all before she shuts it. In her hand, she has a bandaid, but the man before her won't make it easy for her to put it on.  As Y/n peels away the plastic Juyeon quietly pokes the sticky side of the bandaid with his finger and picks it up. 

“I-give it back Juyeon, you need it.” Y/n reaches for it and Juyeon obediently listens to her by shaking his finger to get it off. 

Y/n catches it before it lands on the carpet. She reaches out for his hand again and wraps it neatly around his finger. Juyeon’s quiet, but she realizes you don’t have to spend that long of a time with him to predict what he’ll do next. 

“Don’t touch it.” As his eyes meet her stern ones, Juyeon slowly lets his hand fall back to his sides. 

Y/n looks over his arms for more bruises and catches a glimpse of the razor beside the shower head, will he hurt himself with that too? As her thoughts race, she looks up and sees Juyeon looking down at her with pure eyes. He has a surprisingly warm effect on her like this. A cat or a man, Y/n has this comfort gently knitted against her heart and by that, she is about to reach her hand out to brush his hair to its sides. Though, her hand only gets about two centimeters up from her hip before she sneaks under him to get out of the bathroom. 

The rest of the morning kind of goes like that. Like in his cat form, he never leaves her side. For every short turn in the kitchen, Juyeon is closely after. Y/n tries to get him away from the small fireworks of oil, but Juyeon insists on having the first row. Though it doesn’t last long, when the oil splatter and lands on his hand he quickly hides behind Y/n and peaks out from her shoulder. 

Though he’s very much a 6ft tall man, college age, she finds him endearing. His presence in her home makes her rigid and square, but for each minute that passes, Y/n realizes he’s still very much a cat. In reality, he doesn’t pay much attention to her, it seems. While eating they sit at the coffee table while Y/n takes up her fork and knife to separate her egg into pieces, Juyeon looks back and forth between her and his plate. He grips the plate gently and shakes it to catch the yellow circle wiggle. Y/n smiles as he does it again and this time it breaks and paints the rest of his plate. 

She plans on taking him out for a stroll around Seoul. Though he doesn’t need cat food or a box, he’ll probably need some clothes. Juyeon continues standing against her back as she picks out today's outfit and Y/n turns around so they stand face to face. She scratches her neck and coughs. Juyeon continues standing like a tree and as if waiting for an order. 

“I…could you maybe go away?” Y/n asks gently. Pointing with her clothes to the kitchen area. Juyeon doesn’t move just pouts. But obedient as he is, he walks slowly over. Though, Y/n bites her lip, feeling like a bad person as his figure walks away. 

“Or Juyeon…you can be here but just turn around…okay?”With that Juyeon smiles brightly and nods his head. His fringe follows those movements. 

Even when Y/n says she’s done Juyeon stands with his back against her. She awkwardly watches him like this before saying he can turn around. Those eyes he has given her the entire morning, it’s a look of fondness as if she’s the one who brought him to life. Until his smile fades. His dough eye glistens as he tilts his head and a dissatisfied pout forms. Y/n tries to understand his change in expression as he walks closer and takes her hand. 

“Why did you take it off?” He says softly. 

He brings Y/n's hand up and her yellow ribbon divides the space between them. 

“I usually have my hair down when being outside.” Though, it isn’t a lie, she has caught onto the fact that juyeon doesn’t see the world like she does. The thought of going side by side with a cute guy and matching items has her heart turning. 

“But I like it.” He fiddles with his own ribbon against his neck. 

She bites her lip before taking the fabric up to her hair again, “Okay, I’ll have it on.” 

The leaves fade from green to shades of brown before plummet down onto the earth. Some months have passed since that day, that day he turned into a human. Y/n seems to have settled her mind on waking up to someone else and cooking two eggs every morning instead of one. Despite now being a human like the rest of the eight billion population, his life is very much like a home cat. While going to college, Juyeon spends those same hours in her apartment. In the beginning it was fairly easy to entertain him while she was gone. His mind is similar to someone who just got dropped off by earth, therefore she gives him small tasks like doing dishes, cleaning windows and after some good amount of time washing their clothes. 

But her way of making him spend his time is a bit one-dimensional, she thinks. He is after all as much of a living being as herself.  From time to time when studying she looks behind her back to see him diligently wiping the floor. The world must look incredibly dull after still doing that after three months. 

And it is. Juyeon doesn’t say it out loud, but he insists on participating in everything she does. Even when she studies, she feels his presence from behind and he leans over to look at her screen. “Do you need help?” he asks. Y/n simply answers, “I would be thankful, but I think it’s a bit hard to help.” 

But his incredibly dull routine isn’t the only obstacle facing them at the moment. Despite now taking on a human form, he's clearly not one. His physique tells others that they’re the same, but people quickly turn an eye when he gets focused on birds outside or runs behind her when someone talks a bit loud. And last, in his cat form he was clingy. Nuzzled his head between her hands every time she came out with food. But now, he’s never closer to her than standing behind her back. Y/n can’t help but think it’s her fault for his change in behavior. That night when he transformed, she was incredibly bothered by this. Juyeon has seemed to pick it up too. But when reading wikipedia articles on Thursday nights, she learns that cats can be understimulated.  Some owners who work regular 9 to 5 have trouble not giving them enough company. 

Y/n looks up from her computer screen to the small kitchen area. When shopping, she kind of let Juyeon look around for himself. Despite his very height, she noticed he gravitated towards oversized clothing. Sweaters that drape over his arms and let him curl inside them. So from her angle, he looks incredibly pocket sized in his new sweater. 

“Juyeon?” 

When the first sound of her gentle voice reaches his ears, Juyeon turns. It’s a certain melody that comes out when she’s speaking and he’s enamored by it. The yellow ribbon follows the sudden turn of his head and she can basically see his imaginary ears poke up. 

“Do you want to sit with me?” She makes room to the left on the couch. 

Her initiative makes him waddle over to her. He sits incredibly vertical, bending his head down to see what she’ll say. 

“Do you like living with me?” Honestly she doesn’t know what to tell him. What do you even talk with a cat about, she remembers thinking about their first days. Their usual topics are what Y/n has been up to. She feels just a bit egoistic for surrounding their conversations about her, but Juyeon seems genuinely intrigued by her life and silly anecdotes. When her days have been boring, she tries to teach him an idea or activity that isn’t familiar to him. Though it’s incredibly simple, it feels very comforting to come home to someone and talk about your day. 

Juyeon nods without hesitation, “I really like it.” 

"Why? What do you like about it?”  Y/n falls back into the couch and angels her head to see his face. 

“Well…” Juyeon starts, “You take good care of me” he says while staring up at the lamp. “You make good food. I like it when we do it together. Then it’s also nice when you introduce me to new things and take me outside.” Juyeon's smile is gentle and sincere, a warm spot forms at the surface of her skin and spreads out like a blanket over her heart. 

“What’s your favorite thing we’ve done?” She asks curiously. 

His lips form into a pout and his head tilts up just a centimeter, “When we went to the big house with many things and people, it was fun.” His answer takes her aback. Y/n made the assumption back then that their shopping trip to the mall was kind of a stressful moment. Juyeon kept clinging onto her jacket and couldn’t hold his head in one direction for more than two seconds. 

“The TV is nice too.” To be fair, their adventures aren’t longer than going to the grocery store, but Juyeons appreciation for mundane things is affecting her a lot. 

“What do you like to watch?” 

“Those where the woman and the man follow each other and in the end they’re happy.” 

“You like romcoms?” Y/n smiles brightly with a small chuckle. Juyeon smiles too, “Yes.” 

He doesn’t quite know what exactly a romcom is, but the way her face lights up makes him want to tell her that he absolutely adores romcoms. 

“I’m glad you like living here.” She finally says and looks up, “But you don’t feel, I don’t know…” Y/n keeps waving her hands and articulating nothing in hope that the one in front of her would finish her sentence. But Juyeon stares as usual with his doe eyes as she lags. 

“...alone?” Badly articulated. 

“Less?” He tilts his head. 

“Like, not enough attention?” She waits for him to answer, but the left side eye closes a bit and his lip purses inwards. “I pet you a lot as a cat, but I haven’t done that since then. I don’t want you to feel bad.” 

Juyeon, in contrast to the last weeks, doesn't answer her. Instead he tries to find a comfortable position and focuses his eyes on the table and pillows. 

She sighs quietly, “Just tell me if something’s wrong, okay.” 

Truth is, Juyeon is desperate for affectionate touch. Going from children out on the street finding interest in his soft fur and chasing him for a few seconds or even just Y/n letting him drown in the heat of her palms. To now, Y/n being the person who moves closest to him, but even then is just sitting side by side. On good days while watching the TV, their shoulders may touch and Y/n doesn’t move away. 

On nights on the couch he thinks back on how she would brush his hair between her fingers or pet his head. Many times Juyeon has thought about transforming back to his cat form, just so he could get some sort of touch. But life in this form is so much more exciting. He’s become closer to the world and feels almost vivid when walking down the boulevard. At the end of the day, he also sees himself closer to Y/n. She’s a bit different than from the first time they met behind the restaurant and it worried him back then. Now though, he doesn’t completely understand it, but he isn’t just a pet to her, which excites him. 

At dawn, Y/n has gone to bed and stares up at her ceiling. She focuses on the passing voices outside, sirens and cars. She’s not looking but the whole city waves in union over the sun down. Though Juyeon didn’t turn out to be the companion she thought he was, evenings like this have become less lonesome. At nights in the beginning of the summer, it would feel as if she was in another season than the rest of the city. Her room would strangle her in cold winter, but at the same time leave so much room for nothing. Juyeon’s simple presence in her life makes it melt. 

A sudden noise takes her out of thought and she looks to the side. Y/n makes out his tall figure through the dark room. He brings his hand up to the eye and rubs it slowly while speaking softly, as if the room would crumble if he went up a decibel higher. 

“Can I sleep with you?” 

Good thing she looks like a vague figure of her full self, she thinks. Cause when he tied an end to his sentence, Y/n worried if she opened her mouth to utter a word, nothing but butterflies would come out. 

“Of course!” She moves so the wall is in her face and shoves the blanket away from the now empty spot. 

“Thank you, Y/n.” He whispers and the bed shifts as his warm presence fills up the small space. 

The morning sun comes in through the window and reflects on the four walls. When the first leaf of the new day falls, her eyes open. In this silence every move from the blanket and her pillow seem deafening and Y/n pushes herself up. After looking out the sun draped city she turns her gaze down towards Juyeon. By instinct she forces herself closer to the wall, as if the fact that they’re this close can interrupt his dream. 

In the distance, she feels safe to observe his body while he himself is in another existence. The constant rise and fall of his chest creates a new sense of time in this space. The shirt it exists thousands of copies of, becomes his own signature. Despite the true colors of reality, his expression is as if the world is truly peaceful.

He looks really beautiful like this, she thinks. She sees herself hiding behind a pair of bushes in a closeted forest and in complete silence, watching a deer. The deer with no-knowledge of being watched and reacts to the world without expectations on itself, the most beautiful. Y/n reaches out her hand towards his sleep drunken state. With pure adoration she gently takes her palm and smooth out his hair. The curve of his head and silkness of of it. She has his existence gently put against her hand, it feels enchanting. 

And when a minute passes, a sudden change in his expression takes her out of it. His self returns from dreams, when his eyes slowly open. Without thinking, Y/n jerks her hand back and hopes that his morning state will confuse this moment for him. But just as her hand comes back to her body, Juyeon wraps his own around hers. 

“Please, don’t stop.” He whispers and puts her hand back onto the spot on his head. The two of them, locked by the bed like this sent her questioning herself in third person. Juyeons eyes weigh a ton and he fights to get a clear image of her like this. She has fallen into her own thoughts and he quietly sighs before using his own hand to move hers on top of his head. 

As if she’s sitting against the shoreline, and each thought is a wave. But somehow she doesn’t move away.  Y/n can’t make out if those eyes are glistening because of tiredness or pure longing. But either way, she keeps her hand for him to take. He guides it off his head and those last strands tickle the side. Until it reaches his face and Juyeon gently pulls it so he’ll feel her warmth and smell the scent of their shared handwash. 

“Please, touch me Y/n” 

She lets out a strangled laugh with a stressed smile. Frustration swells inside him when she looks as if he’s joking. 

“It doesn’t have to be much, like how you touched me back then.” 

Y/n wants to think he’s the weird one in this situation, but she realizes his far more angel-like than she is. While saying words that anyone would pull a bad dirty joke too. Juyeon lays down with pure eyes and a sincere grip around her hand. 

“Ok.” Y/n purses her lips in before slowly brushing his fringe out the way and continues up beside his ear. He looks very idyllic like this, she thinks. Somehow this scene makes her want to say he’s beautiful and pluck a single flower to put behind his ear. 

They stay like that as the sun climbs a bit higher over the horizon. At some point, Juyeon’s eyes close fully and y/n move over his figure to get off the bed. She makes some extra food and leaves it with a lid on. Even when standing with one hand on the door handle and the other holding her bag, she longs for the spot next to his sleeping figure. Despite finding the situation weird, it felt so special having him like that. 

Ever since that morning, like autumn converting to winter, something changed in their dynamic. Of course he kept following her around as usual, but when watching TV that evening Juyeon sat extremely close. They watched 500 Days of Summer and after an hour passed by, Juyeon let his head fall to her shoulder. His hair tickled her neck, but she didn’t want to move away. 

Now, the ending credits climb up the screen. Y/n’s eyelids feel ten times heavier than two hours ago, he moves his head down to her lap. The vague light from the screen lights up them both in a blue-ish shade. Juyeons lips form a smile so contagious that it reflects in her two. This moment, she looks just like a picture. He could easily replace her with one of the actresses in the movies they watch together, he thought. By burning this moment into his head with the others, he can replay them when she’s gone. 

Quietly Juyeon plays with the strands of her hair that have fallen onto his face. Like a true kitten, she keeps him entertained like that in her lap. Soon enough though, sleep takes the best of her and Y/n drifts away from the couch in the apartment, with her head hanging over Juyeon. But honestly, Juyeon didn’t quite notice it until her head moved to the side and he saw that her eyes were closed. 

With that he sits up from her lap to stand up beside her. He watches her like that for some time before gently bringing his hand under her leg and back. The second she comes up to his chest, a feeling so strong to turn frozen ground to blooming flowers swells within him. At the same time, he’s walking as if he will drop her at any moment. Similar to how he holds a plate with food, he stares at it and takes a step not bigger than five centimeters. But when he finally makes it to her bed, Juyeon lays her down gently and tucks her beneath their shared blanket. 

Juyeon tucks a single strand from her face and feels himself getting tired when seeing her soft breathing. Finally Juyeon lays beside her and moves his pillow a step closer to hers. He falls asleep with his face shifted closer and his right hand gently intertwined with hers under all the fabrics. 

At this point, Y/n’s not fully awake. But when skin touches her own, signals break out through her body, like falling water, something keeps moving up and down her waist, pushing her shirt up in the process. After a few seconds of speaking incorrect sentences, a single spot gets damped on her neck. Y/n's head gets slightly pushed up when someone tries to fit their head between that spot. 

Without much thought, y/n takes her hands up to whatever’s on her neck. She hears juyeon whisper quietly and realizes her hands are now on his shoulders and his head is placed over her chest and her chin gently embraces his head. 

“Juyeon?” His name is strangled to her cords, as if he’s the only one who can help her. 

Y/n swears she hears him breaking under her before the hands on her waist tightens and her body comes pressing up against his own. And soon after he switches position. Instead of resting their sides against the pillow, juyeon lifts her up so she lays over him. 

“Say my name again?” He pleas softly and kisses her. At the same time, the weight of her back gets heavier when juyeon puts his arm around her to play with the yellow ribbon tightly concealing her hair. 

“Juyeon?” 

“Huh?” 

With one hand pushing against the pillow she forces herself up as if someone stands over her, forcing her up. Long strands cover her view as she pats the blanket, feeling the fabric to know if it’s the real world. She realizes juyeon sits up too. Hands rubbing the sleepiness away. Y/n continues searching her surroundings when juyeon faces her with wide eyes and stutters over his own sentence. 

“I-what-did I do something?” 

She awkwardly sits at her own corner of the bed and tilts her head. She didn’t quite realize the way she said his name must have been pretty dramatic as Juyeons extremely distressed. 

“I-no.” She scratches her head before standing up, “I just had a nightmare.” 

“Was I the nightmare?” He asks as she continues up to the kitchen area. Y/n looks back at him. He looks at her with big eyes and a small pout. Y/n starts throwing her hands around. 

“No, you were just in the dream too.” He still looks sad. Dammit, she thinks. 

“I needed to build an Ikea furniture, you were the only one I could get help from, terrifying.” 

Night comes early in this present. But today Y/n doesn’t really mind since it's the weekend. Juyeon too enjoys free days, not because his schedule changes, but because he'll get to spend more time with Y/n. He also notices how she stretches her arms with a bright smile and takes time to stare out the window. On other days she kind of looks like the city view just punched her. Juyeon feels the spot next to him shift and as he turns Y/n stares down at him brightly. Somehow he feels jealous over the smile over her lips, what does Saturday morning have that Juyeon doesn’t? 

“Good morning, Juyeon.” She yawns, “Slept well.” 

He nods with big eyes. Without much thought to it, Y/n brings one hand down to his hair and gently brushes it aside. 

“Something you want to do?” She brings her legs to a criss cross position. While looking at him, his eyes don't show much deep thought. Every time she asks him a question, she prepares herself to wait for a solid two or three minutes. Each and every small decision seems to make a lot of impact for him so she lets him take time. But today he just continues staring up and moving his head closer to her hand. 

“I’ll do whatever you want to do.” 

A small laugh leaves her lips and her back arches so her head faces the ceiling. Her hand has fallen from his fringe and is now over his chest. Juyeons much larger fingers gently fiddle with hers. They spend a lot of time at home. Sometimes she does feel like Rapunzel's mother trapping her daughter in that tower, but instead it’s a hybrid cat in a studio apartment. She feels the urge to make a memorable life for him and just watch him adore this world she herself takes for  granted. 

Y/n opens her mouth, “I want to go to the aquarium.” 

Juyeon tilts his head and strains his eyes, just like he always does when he doesn’t fully get the idea. 

“You know the aquarium?” He shakes his head. 

“You know, fish and water in big tanks and it’s all pretty.”  Y/n moves her hand to visually illustrate the aquarium but Juyeon squints his eyes. 

“You’ll love it.” 

At this stage she has accepted the fact that Juyeon looks a lot like her five year old son(but clearly much bigger) when outside the safety of her apartment. When they needed to cramp together with strangers in the small cart, she felt his hand tighten around her own. If she was the bigger person, Y/n would have taken him to her chest and protected him from the uncertainty, but rather Juyeon pushed his chest up against her face. Y/n tried her best to get his attention and tell him that he’s crushing her nose, but it was to no use. 

But with one nose left and the rest of their body parts intact the two of them stand at the register. Y/n while talking with the lady behind the desk turns over every now and then. Juyeon bends his head in every possible angle to catch each detail of the lobby. Y/n pays quickly before either Juyeon runs away or more likely, gets kidnapped. 

“Here.” She hands him a small sticker, not bigger than two centimeters. It's formed as a simple fish. 

“You put it on like this.” Y/n peels off the plastic on the back and brings it closer to his shirt. But she stops midway and looks up at him. He gives her those curious eyes and she brings the sticker up to his cheek. On the left side of his face, a centimeter or two under his eye sits the small blue fish. When she touches him like this, he jerks away so that his fringe gets over his eyes. Y/n simply smiles and attaches hers to the fabric of her shirt. 

“Let’s go!” Y/n says and takes his hand in hers. She walks with quick steps to the entrance and soon enough, the blue light from the meter high tanks illuminates their features in the darkness. Despite being day time, it feels like the clock may have shifted. At first Juyeon endearingly smiles when watching from behind, her figure running towards those gates. But when this world absorbs them, he was just as amazed as her. 

Standing in the middle of the room, confined between windows to another world, it’s like the world stops for a moment. Groups of people chatter and Y/n, for a short second, turn to a girl pointing at an orange fish. She smiles when (she assumes) her dad eagerly nods. A bit to the left a couple stands side by side. The light from the tank contrasts their dark silhouettes. When standing like that, Y/n blinks a couple of times and feels her arms glue to her sides. She carefully looks at Juyeon after seeing the couple. He’s still mesmerized. She realizes for the other people in here, they may just look like another couple. Y/n gets butterflies by just the thought alone. 

She takes a few steps away from Juyeon and looks behind. He looks at her with those wide eyes that seem more complex in this room, soon he tilts his head too. Y/n smiles and takes his hand again and runs over to the largest window of them all. The glass reaches stunning heights before bending out in a rectangular screen. It’s width meters on end. There’s a stair of five or seven steps before standing in touch with the massive wall. Y/n releases his hand upon coming closer and touches the glass. Juyeon simply looks at her dark contrasting figure to the blue luminance. He sees how her figure eagerly walks up and down the width of the tank. Bending down to take a closer look at the sandfish before reaching onto her tiptoes to reach the sharks. 

Juyeon stands incredibly still. His limbs awkwardly pushing against each other. His posture is basically screaming for someone to show him what to do. But at the same time, there’s a genuine smile on his lips. That scene in front of him, he wants it to last forever. Y/n in the middle of that blue screen, his own movie star. Let him watch her forever. Suddenly her face turns to him and she reaches out her hand and signals for him to come up. Juyeon walks up and takes a spot beside her. They stand so close, he thinks. His hand touches the glass as if it could touch the other side. Just a second after he puts his hand there, a mantaray comes right up to that spot. The glass and his hand lose contact when he flinches back. 

“Oh.” Y/n puts an arm behind him so he doesn’t fall off the stairs. Her smile shines in even stronger brilliance than the tank and he continues looking perplexed by the creature up on the glass wall. Soon, more fish come up to them. 

“He looks a bit like you.” Y/n points at a fish with a face you would’ve thought ran up against a wall. Juyeon pouts before pointing higher up. 

“Oh Y/n! What are you doing there?” She hits his elbow while laughing. 

After pointing at every ugly fish they could find in that tank, Y/n puts her right ear against the glass. She describes to him how the sound becomes tight knitted and if you concentrate enough, it might feel like you’re actually in that water filled side. Juyeon inspects how Y/n leans against the wall and does the same. 

When they lay like this, they make eye contact. Their faces are just a few centimeters apart. Y/n still smiles from before and arch her head slightly back to keep looking at his face. The right side is illuminated by the tank light. The strands of his hair scrunches up a bit by the glass, a couple fall before his eyes so that a single reflection makes it back to her between them. And that blue little sticker moves up when his eyes turn to crescents. It’s packed in the aquarium, but with each second that world closes off from behind and only them and the compact sound of water is in existence. 

When looking at him like this, she thinks he’s truly beautiful. Each feature is carefully wrapped in that blue light. It makes her heart do that again, that thing where she feels like taking his hand and looking into his eyes. Telling him each complimentary word the english vocabulary has to offer while gently tugging those black strands back behind his ear. 

“I want to hold your hand.” As the world is only for them now, his voice is barely over a whisper. 

Y/n’s smile seems to always be on display when he’s like this. She simply nods and Juyeon gently touches her hand. While standing like this, Y/n realizes their connected silhouettes are visible to each passing visitor. It is just a bit embarrassing.

“Is something wrong?” He watches her as if he’s trying to understand her and Y/n drags him closer. She shakes her head and looks down onto the matt black floor. 

“No, let’s go.” 

The day has flown by and at sunset both of them stand at the edge to Banpo bridge as neither of them felt like going back to the apartment. Beneath them sits a few couples and probably a parent and their child. Since it’s winter, it’s not many. The lights have just turned on, guiding the way to the other side of the city. It’s quite steep on this side so Y/n looks over to the stair a bit further away. 

“Do we go down?” Juyeon asks and Y/n nods thinking he will just follow her as usual. But in no more than a second, Juyeon takes a leap of faith down the grass and sprints down. 

“Wait, Juyeon!” Y/n panics a bit. Throwing her hands around before catching herself, before nearly jumping down with him. At the time she regains her balance, Juyeon stands at the end of the steep. He tilts his head and she can picture his big eyes. 

“Aren’t you coming down too?” 

“I am-I just.” 

Y/n flees to the stairs and together they then walk to the grass beside the bridge. She sits down and Juyeon follows. Small talking from the people behind serves as background noise for the cityscape. A breeze comes right at them and Y/n hugs her knees to her chest. Juyeon sees her hugging herself tightly and he brings his long legs up to his own chest. Before getting to hug them, his knees hit his chin and he brings them down instead. 

Usually when Y/n spends time with someone and it gets quiet, she gets this intense guilt over not being able to entertain them with a conversation. But right now, sitting on Juyeon’s left side with nothing but general city noise feels strangely natural, like it’s all her life prepared her for. Y/n looks to her right and sees Juyeon’s side profile. His fringe follows the wind when it hits him and a single point in his eyes shines from the constant city lights. She just smiles. 

During this passing season, she’s been thinking all less about her hometown. That empty feeling between two walls seems to have patched up. She recalls how it was a dread to walk that route home. How she stared at the apartment complex hoping she would remember a task left to do. When she stood there in her room, it was nothing but Y/n and her thoughts. When alone without distractions, worries would come and shake her from sleep and keep her up at night. When out on the rooftop, she would stare at the moon and its millions of stars, knowing they stared back at her with nothing but empty spaces beside her. 

But at the same time, she wonders what Juyeon feels. Courage isn’t on her side and because of that she hasn’t truly asked him where he plans to go. If this place and this moment is just a () in his life. Y/n wants to see him free but a selfish side of her wants to keep him here beside her, like this, forever. 

“Y/n.” Juyeon says suddenly. 

Her name brings her back. The top of her body is turned to him and her eyes waits for him to continue talking as he keeps looking out the horizon. 

“What?” 

“Thank you for saving me.” 

“I did?” Y/n's eyebrows knit together as she tries to read his calm demeanor. Understand what that mind of his thinks about when looking into the endless sea of lights. He suddenly turns to her, with that innocent smile. 

“Yes.” 

Silence fills the space between them. 

“That day I met you behind the restaurant, I thought you would hit me when you took out your hand.” He confesses. Y/n feels her heart wrenching at the thought of Juyeon looking at her in that light, but confusingly enough, he still smiles. 

“But you didn’t.” He gets quiet again before turning back to look at a couple walking hand in hand down the river. 

“You’re a really good person, Y/n. When you talked back to my owner and took me home, I felt really good.” He smiles when talking, but it slowly fades. Y/n watches him, waiting if he wants to continue. 

Truth is, he’s in deep thought. He stares at the city as if it will be able to answer his question. That day, when Y/n took him home. A sensation he couldn’t pinpoint blossomed in him. It was like magic, something completely out of his own reality. And in some ways it may have been magic, he did turn to his human form after all. 

He bites his lip and fiddles with his fingers to somehow form a sentence of his emotions. How do you describe the feeling of someone who brought life back to your existence? 

Y/n scoots closer to him so they now can feel each other's warmth. He sheepishly looks at her as she makes him feel brilliance. A wind blows past them right when she breathes in. Juyeon scratches his neck and shoves his face in between his hands. 

“I don’t know what I feel.” He whines. 

“Is it a good feeling?” She asks. 

He nods and peeks up from his hands to meet her gentle expression. 

“It’s just when I’m with you. There’s no one or nothing that makes me feel like that but you.” 

The sun is at the edge of the horizon, in just a minute or two there will be no trace of it in the sky. And on a morning in a far far future, between April and June, she will fade from this world too. Despite her life, no sign of her existence will be left beside the people who remember her and her handwriting in blue ink. But even those people will fade and the blue ink will dissolve with time. It’s a sad thought, that everything will be gone, but maybe that gives us the freedom to be whatever we want. 

“Then, stay with me.” She says and takes his hand.

profiles !

[yn] chickenless head [juyeon] boyz to men

chapters !

chapter one: you da one

chapter two: get a grip

chapter three: #toxicbehaviour

chapter four: sharing is caring

chapter five: MAYDAY

chapter six: are u a sofa ?

chapter seven: guys where did ningning go :(((

chapter eight: [ dreamily sighs ]

chapter nine: boba

chapter ten: run !

chapter eleven: say sike rn

chapter twelve: reasons, reasons

chapter thirteen: no bad intentions

chapter fourteen: please kill me

chapter fifteen: seaweed soup

chapter sixteen: ouch

chapter seventeen: head in the game

chapter nineteen ( final ! ): point and laugh