「 CHILD SUPPORT 」 Minsung

Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ７

The tepid air engulfed Jisung, making a sharp contrast with the building's freezing corridor, and he suddenly was glad to be inside the silver haired man's apartment.

Minho let the ginger cat skiddadle skidoodle out of his arms, squirming then landing on the floor. Jisung, feeling uninvited, waited for Minho's directives and shifted his weight from one foot to another. He started to look at his beat up Converse, hastily slipped on so that he could give Soonie back as quick as possible. I wonder if Herbert is okay, he thought, hoping for his own cat to not trash his home. Even if the only thing he'd be able to trash were the still-not-opened cardboard boxes from Jisung's moving in. And maybe his cat food, probably his litter, definitely his cat tree.

Minho's apartment was quite simple, with dark blues and browns and whites. Yet there was a significant amount of diverse bits and bobs everywhere. Printed pictures from vacations, small figurines, a lot of random stones at random places. Few pairs of shoes were stacked, various styles of coats and umbrellas—quite an impressive collection—, dried flowers were littering small parts of the floor besides the rocks. This part might've been Jisung's favourite; the candidness emanating from it was very entrancing. Small pieces of nature, random found objects and simplicity reigned.

"- Please come in, is water fine?" Minho's honeyed voice snapped Jisung out of his contemplations.

"- I, uh, yeah! Sure, water is fantastic. I love water. Water tasty," he said, disoriented from this harsh snap back to reality. That's one very enthusiastic way of accepting water, Jisung thought. Yet, once again, even with his dramatic—and unintentional—choice of words, Minho hadn't said anything. His eyes had crinkled with fiery sparks, gaze lingering a bit on Jisung, and he even seemed amused of it. If Jisung had read Minho's expressions correctly that is.

While Minho was away he took in the rest of the apartment's assortment. The dried flowers and stolen rocks weren't as prominent as in the entrance. The most surprising feature was the amount of cups lingering everywhere. They all seemed to have been used at one point, and some still had some liquid in it. As he was trying to inspect the identity of one of those cups, Minho came back, with Soonie and another cat in his trail. The silver haired man seemed to feel Jisung's confusion over what the fuck was inside this cup?

"- Please don't mind the coffee cups," ah, so it's coffee, "I tend to put the cup I'm drinking somewhere, and then I forget about it. It results in a lot of half emptied coffee mugs, and I would highly recommend you didn't try to drink it. The one you have in the hands must be one week old. The youngest of them all," he explained, as if leaving coffee cups for more than a week was a totally normal thing to do. Jisung put the mug where he had found it, not wanting to hear any more about the age of it—nor the age of the coffee inside.

The second cat jumped on the couch where Jisung was and sat beside him. The yellow eyes of the cat were piercing holes through Jisung's very soul, gaze becoming more unbearable every passing seconds. The animal looked as if he knew all Jisung's secret, giggling in glee at the embarrassment they'd put Jisung in if said secrets got exposed. His whole body shook in a shiver.

"- Hey, uh, is that cat okay?" He asked, not really needing an answer. The navy haired was trying to notify his neighbour that his cat was creepy as fuck. Wait no; the two cats were creepy as fuck. Jisung was far from forgetting the little balcony 'misadventure'. At this question, Minho turned towards said cat, and just shrugged.