Fifth Floor - JooHyuk

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November 1

When we got to the animal shelter, Minhyuk and I followed a female volunteer to a room. The woman left us in the room where around six cats were playing with toys scattered in the small, colorful area.

"They're adorable," Minhyuk commented and started petting a male cat that had begun rubbing against his leg. It was a beautiful creature with gold eyes and a blue-gray-colored coat that seemed to automatically love Minhyuk, not that I could blame him. I sat on the floor next to the older, and soon enough the same cat was rubbing against my knee. This cat was the only one showing any interest in the two of us out of the five. We didn't mind, though, as he wanted much attention.

"What's his name?" I wondered.

"I think they have a sheet by the door with names." Minhyuk got up, accidentally startling the cat, and went to find the gold-eyed cat's name after whispering a short apology to the startled feline. "This says he is a Chartreux cat and his name is 'Arisu like the character from Alice in Borderland.' Isn't that a manga?"

"It's a show too," I answered and proceeded to pet the small animal who was now asleep in my lap. The other cats still didn't care about us as they played among themselves.

"Changkyun may have been right," Minhyuk lightly said as he walked back to sit beside me.

"What do you mean?" I looked up from the sleeping Arisu to Minhyuk.

"The cat bed thing. I think it's just your nature, really. You kind of ooze out this comforting aura, you know? It would make anyone feel safe with you, and Arisu would be the luckiest cat to get to experience that every day." Minhyuk's words had me frozen without notice. Regardless of how simple the compliment could seem, it made me feel like I was special. "I've been pretty lucky too, Jooheon." I wanted to question Minhyuk about this last sentence, but the woman who had brought us there came in.

"I see you've become close with Arisu," the woman had a bright smile, "he's usually quite shy."

Finding out Arisu's usual nature made Minhyuk's statements from before more effective, and was the final thing to help me make the decision.

"Can I adopt him?"

~

After officially adopting Arisu, Minhyuk and I left together once we had found Hyungwon and Changkyun to say goodbye. Minhyuk stayed with me even after we got to my apartment. He knew I was nervous to bring Arisu home.

Despite how my imagination had played the situation out, though, it went surprisingly well. So well that Arisu had again fallen asleep in my lap while Minhyuk and I sat on the living room floor. It was the perfect opportunity to talk to Minhyuk as Changkyun had asked me to do on the way to the shelter. The atmosphere was pretty calm as the two of us had just been admiring Arisu and sending pictures of him to the group chat.

"Minhyuk hyung?"

"Yeah, Jooheon-ah?"

"How are you?" A simple question that Minhyuk knew held a lot of weight as his eyes didn't leave mine.

"Better than last night. Nothing has really changed, but I just feel more assured that it'll be okay?" Minhyuk's response wasn't bad enough to be immediately concerning, but I was worried at how he said the last part as a question.

"How?"

"How will it be okay? I don't know. What's the worst that could happen?" Minhyuk replied without truly answering the question.

Arisu woke up and crawled out of my lap to get food from a bowl I had for him. I watched him in silence with almost literal heart eyes until I broke from my trance to continue the conversation.

"Hyung, you wouldn't lie to me would you?" It wasn't necessary to look at the older to know I had caught him.

"I-" Minhyuk started in an attempt to defend himself.

"It's okay. If you don't want to say it, then that's your business. I'd just prefer if you didn't lie."

"Don't do that, please. You tried so hard to help me. I just don't want you thinking it was for nothing."

"It wasn't for nothing, hyung," I reassured. My gaze stayed on Minhyuk who looked towards the cat still munching on his food.

"I'm sorry," the older responded.

"For what? There's no need for you to apologize." Minhyuk broke his stare to meet my eyes.

"I felt it was the best way to make sure you didn't feel useless again." My eyes widened at the realization of how much sense that made. I had forgotten about telling him such a thing the first night the older stayed in my apartment. I hadn't felt useless since then. I had given him food, let him use my clothes, acted as his pillow, and even attempted to be a source of comfort. It hadn't been with just him either. Helping Changkyun get home, which also helped his husband, telling Kyun he could substitute his lack of a cat with coming to see Arisu, and so on. Minhyuk had opened a source for me not to feel useless without my notice.

"You've already done so much for me. This is about you and your feelings. I don't want to be the reason you hide something like this. So, how are you?" The eye contact between us was still intact.

"The same," Minhyuk finally let out. The atmosphere changed with his response as well, going to a much heavier one.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Convince Chunghyeop to go."

"I'm not doing that."

"Then, no." I gave a sad smile and patted my leg. If I couldn't comfort him with a solution, I could at least do it this way. Minhyuk got the message and moved to rest his head on my thigh as he had done a number of times before. Arisu stopped cleaning his fur by licking the top of his paw to curl up next to Minhyuk's chest as if he was also answering a silent message.

"Thank you for helping me find Arisu, Minhyuk hyung," I said in an attempt to alter the conversation.

"Thank you, Jooheon." Having no clue what the gratitude was for, but not wanting to question the older, I let it go and replied with a simple answer.

"Any time."

~○●○~

Word count: 1067