My Pet Cat Turned Into A Boy!

I woke up slowly, and for one glorious moment I couldn’t remember anything. But then I opened my eyes and saw him leaning over me, his face a mask of concern. I squeezed my eyes shut then opened them again – yep, still there!
‘Are you okay?’ he asked anxiously.
I waved his concern away as I sat up on the bed, then my eyes travelled down and –
‘For heaven’s sakes! Have you no modesty!?’
He just stared at me blankly.
‘COULD YOU PUT SOME BLOODY CLOTHES ON!’ I exploded turning my face away.
I could feel a blush creeping up my neck and suffuse my face in an embarrassing shade of red.
‘I don’t have any clothes,’ he mumbled but he pulled the sheet around his waist.
I was not – and I repeat, I WAS NOT going to feel sorry for him…but then I looked at him. He was twisting the hem of the sheet between his fingers and his beautiful eyes were turned downwards, and there was a slight tinge of red on his cheeks – was he…was he blushing??
I stood up and walked over to my closet, his eyes tracking me around the room in a way I found entirely too disconcerting, digging around until I found what I wanted. I threw an oversized t-shirt at him and a pair of sweat pants that were too loose on me.
‘You can wear those for now,’ I explained when he just looked at them dumbly. ‘What’s your name?’
He hesitated then answered softly without looking at me.
‘Jongin. Kim Jongin. Are you…going to kick me out?’
‘I never thought I’d hear myself asking this,’ I said rubbing my face tiredly, still not quite believing what I had seen mere moments ago, and choosing to ignore his question. ‘But how can you turn into…into a cat? How is that even possible?’
‘I was born like this – me and those like me were born this way. They say it’s some sort of mutation in our gene pool, some even say it’s an evolution of the species.’
‘Those like you? You mean there are more people like you?’ I asked feeling dazed.
Jongin nodded starting to pull on the clothes I had given him. I turned away so he could have some privacy.
‘So, why were you pretending to be my cat?’
‘I might have been at first but then…you were so kind to me. You looked after me and…and you cared for me. After a while it wasn’t pretend anymore. I really wanted to be yours,’ Jongin said quietly from behind me.
I still hadn’t turned around which was probably a good thing since my face was probably as red as a ripe tomato. A part of me knew I couldn’t trust him, and that I shouldn’t believe what he was saying, but another part of me was definitely melting. I jumped as I felt his hand wrap around my wrist then slide down to hold my hand.
‘It was nice being your cat, but I would much rather be your human. I wouldn’t mind being owned by you,’ Jongin whispered into my ear making me shiver slightly.
That wonderful smell was enveloping me once again, making it hard to think. But something he said was bothering me more than anything else that he had said so far. I turned around to face him, tipping my head back to look up at him.
‘You can’t own people, Jongin.’
I stepped away from him feeling troubled. He let go of my hand and looked away, his jaw clenching and unclenching with some unspeakable emotion. He looked back at me with dark angry eyes. I drew back in surprise, taking a cautious step backwards and coming up against the wall.
‘If you think that then you’re even more naïve then I thought,’ he said cuttingly.
I looked at him in shock – talk about crazy mood swings! He looked away as if he couldn’t bare to look at me.
‘I wouldn’t be telling you any of this, but I do owe you some sort of explanation. I’ll keep it short,’ Jongin said curtly.
I shook my head at him and put my hand on his shoulder.
‘You don’t have to tell me anything. I get it. You’re running away from someone. You saw an opportunity with me and you took it. We all do crazy things when we’re scared. It’s okay.’
He looked at me in surprise and then asked uncertainly, ‘You don’t want to know the full story? For all you know I could be an escaped convict.’
‘Okay, first of all, I am dying to know the full story, but I want you to tell me on your own time and because you want to tell me, not because you feel obligated. Secondly, you’ve been living with me for over two weeks now, and I figured that if you were going to hurt me in any way you would have done it by now. But you didn’t,’ I said matter-of-factly.
‘You are way too nice for your own good – it’s going to get you into trouble.’
He said it like it was a bad thing, and I bristled.
‘I am not nice,’ I snapped and only got more annoyed when I saw him trying to hide a grin, ‘and if you dare ruin my drapes or any of my other belongings again (he had the grace to look ashamed at that) I will skin you and sell your silky coat to the highest bidder.’
I crossed my arms over my chest imperiously and gave him a superior look before continuing.
‘Now, if you’re going to live here you’re going to have to start doing some household chores, so that means – what? What is it?’
He was looking at me with the strangest expression, his mouth hanging open.
‘I just assumed that, hum, – you’re going to let me stay here? With you?’ he stuttered.
‘I can’t very well kick you out when you don’t even own a pair of socks, can I?’ I said reasonably.
‘Thank you,’ he said softly.
I looked away because the gratitude shining in his eyes was making me feel horribly guilty for throwing a stapler at his head a minute ago.
‘But it wouldn’t be right of me to stay,’ Jongin said with a sad look on his face as he sat back down on my bed.
‘Why? Do you have anywhere else to go?’ I asked in confusion.
‘You don’t understand. The people after me are very dangerous. I don’t want to get you involved in any of this.’
‘It’s a bit too late for that now. Whether you like it or not, I’m already involved. And these people sound horrible. They were keeping you because of your ability, right?’ I guessed.
‘Not just me but others – my friends. We planned to escape all together but…only two of us made it out,’ his face darkened. ‘We got separated. I’ve been trying to find him.’
My head reeled with all this new information. But above all I was feeling really bad for him. For the loneliness he must be feeling, having in a way lost all those that understood and shared his pain.
I walked over to him, sat down next to him and put my hand over his. Jongin stiffened then relaxed and turned his hand around, lacing his finger through mine. He looked at me with a determined glint in his eyes.
‘I want to get them out. I can’t leave them there. I want them to be free.’
I didn’t say anything but I squeezed his hand to let him know that I understood.
‘If I had Minseok’s help I’m sure we could come up with a good enough plan to break them out.’
‘I don’t how much I can do but I’ll help you in any way I can,’ I offered.
‘This is help enough. I don’t want to get you involved any further,’ he said then with a shy smile he added, ‘and while I’m here I offer you my protection. I’ll keep you safe in any way that I can.’
I laughed lightly and said, ‘Protection and household chores – I like it!’
He smiled at me and my heart skipped a beat. I noticed the time on my alarm clock and my eyes widened as I jumped up from the bed like I had been shot.
‘I’M GOING TO BE SO LATE!’
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I picked up my coffee from the coffee machine and immediately dropped it when I burned my fingers. The coffee spilled everywhere – good thing it was a plastic cup, so I wouldn’t have to sweep up broken glass.
‘Dammit!’ I murmured as I waved my hand around like a maniac.
I had been like this all day, just dropping things and making stupid mistakes. I knew it was because of Jongin – I was still reeling from everything that had happened earlier.
I quickly grabbed some paper napkins and started cleaning the mess when a pair of shoes stepped into my line of vision, and then someone was crouching in front of me with a cloth. I looked up in surprise to see Yixing, the President’s secretary, giving me a friendly dimpled smile as he started helping me mop up the mess.
‘You don’t have to do that,’ I said hurriedly with a nervous laugh. ‘I burned my fingers on the cup.’
‘Don’t worry about it. Now let’s have a look at those fingers,’ he said while turning my hand around gently.
‘I don’t think it’s going to blister. But I think we should put your hand under some cold water anyway,’ said Yixing, helping me to my feet.
He led me to the sink and put my hand under the cold tap. He was actually quite cute. I had only ever seen him from a distance, sometimes with President Junmyeon and his bodyguard (a tall and dangerous looking guy called Tao), and he had always struck me as something of an airhead. I had at first wondered why such a nice and affable person like Junmyeon would even need a bodyguard, but then I had found out that he didn’t just own this company but a bunch of others as well, which made him an incredibly wealthy man, and incredibly wealthy men always needed bodyguards.
‘I think there’s some burn relief cream inside the first aid kit,’ said Yixing looking somewhat spaced out as he stared at the cabinet where I assumed the first aid kit must be.
‘Thank you, but I don’t think I’ll need any –‘
‘There you are!’ exclaimed a voice from the doorway.
I looked over to see a young man leaning against the doorframe with a slight smile curving his lips upwards. I recognised him immediately, he was the head of the financial department - his name was Kim Jongdae.
‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere,’ said Jongdae with an exasperated look on his face. Yixing looked at him with a vague expression of surprise on his face.
‘But Ch- I mean, er, Jongdae, I told you I was going to the printing room.’
Jongdae closed his eyes, muttered something to himself and opened them again.
‘I went to the printing room, Yixing,’ he said with a tight smile on his face.
‘And you found me,’ said Yixing with a satisfied smile as I tried to figure out whether he was joking or not.
Jongdae face palmed so hard that I swear I felt it from where I was standing.
‘Oh my God, Yixing! You do know you’re not in the printing room, right?’
‘I’m not?’ Yixing looked around him in surprise, realization dawning on his face.
He rubbed his hair ruefully and said, ‘Oh, yeah.’
‘I wander what gave it away,’ said Jongdae sarcastically.
‘I think that would probably be the lack of printers,’ said Yixing straight faced.
Jongdae closed his eyes and let out a short laugh.
‘Anyway we’ve got important business. Junmyeon wants you in the meeting now,’ said Jongdae with a meaningful look at Yixing, then he gave me a nod and a smile, and left the room.
Yixing looked at me and smiled, ‘I guess I have to go. See you around.’
When I got back to my cubicle – with a new cup of coffee – I noticed both Baekhyun and Chanyeol were missing from their cubicles. I shrugged and got back to work – I had more important things to worry about besides those two skiving.
I left work late that night. I was hurrying through the underground car park when I heard boisterous laughter and a bunch of footsteps.
I guess a lot of people had worked late that night.
I got into my car and was about to turn the ignition on, but instead my hand went still, as I noticed the guys who had just walked into view of my rear-view mirror.
I immediately recognised Baekhyun, with his arm thrown over the shoulders of a rather small guy who had very round eyes, and an impressive glare that was directed at a laughing Baek. I was pretty sure he was the President’s resident lawyer, Do Kyungsoo. Him and the Prez were as thick as thieves.
Next came Chanyeol talking really loudly about something only to be silenced by Jongdae who smacked him on the back of the head. Lastly came Yixing with a spaced out look on his face, like he wasn’t sure where he was going or why. They all got into a black van with tinted windows, and drove off.
I gaped after them. Where was that unlikely bunch going all together at this time of night?

Notes