The Bride of Hobak (TaeGyu) ✔️

The Bride of Hobak

A/n:
The title and the story was actually inspired by a mistake I made when I was going through a list of k-dramas with the highest ratings and I read "The Bride of Habaek" as "The Bride of Hobak" accidentally. After that, the idea just played around in my mind and I had to write this!

Guide!
✿ = Scene change!
❀ = POV (Point Of View) + Scene change!

•••

Kang Taehyun was a busy boy.

University life was hard, and struggling with a part-time job on top of that meant that he was out of his small apartment for 14 hours a day. Socialising hadn't been his thing, as he prioritised studies over the fun and glamour of college life and so he chose to live without a roommate– or rather, apartment-mate.

And when he came back home at 10 in the night, he couldn't deny that he was lonely. He was; he just hid it under the many layers of homework and just work. But at the end of the day, coming back to a small, empty and dead apartment seemed to eat him up on the inside.

And so he decided to get himself a cat.

He had always wanted a cat and as per what he knew, cats sleep for ⅔rd of their lives. And cats weren't big on physical affection or anything so it won't miss him too much. Or atleast, he hoped so. And so, he went to the place where he could adopt a cat and ended up with a large furball named Hobak.

He hadn't named him; Hobak was his name since birth and he responded to that so Taehyun decided to just use it. Anyway, it was a pretty cute name that suited the orangish-brown cat with amber eyes.

And well, our story starts on the third day since Taehyun had got the cat in his small apartment. The apartment was literally small, a cramped room that was a mix of kitchen and living room and another cramped space which was a mix of bedroom and bathroom. But for a university student, it was pretty much a good deal with reasonable rent, so Taehyun wasn't complaining.

It was the middle of November and the weather was getting chillier. Taehyun bent down to look at the cat as he wrapped his blue scarf neatly around his neck. The clock on the stand next to the door was reaching 8 in the morning.

"Take care, little buddy, okay?" He smiled at Hobak, unsure whether the cat could actually understand him. He hoped he got the feelings behind his words, atleast. "I've kept your food like yesterday so make sure to eat when you feel hungry. I'm coming a little early today so you won't be alone for too long! Actually, 12 hours is still a long time..."

Taehyun just lightly patted Hobak on the top of his head and Hobak responded with a quiet little, "Meow" which made Taehyun giggle. He stood up and waved goodbye to him before going out and locking his apartment. He felt bad locking the cat in, but he couldn't risk any theft. He was a university student after all and every penny mattered.

As Taehyun walked down the long hallway to reach the elevator, he thought about his day ahead and his classes– but he never thought about the panic and horror that would settle in him just 12 hours later.

✿

Taehyun's eyes trained onto his wristwatch that showed the time of 8:14 in the night. He couldn't wait to crash into his small two-person couch with Hobak and eat his take-out dinner while scrolling through his social media.

He entered the building's lobby and went straight for the elevator towards the right. Someone was already standing there and Taehyun eyed them quickly, trying to figure out if he had seen them before.

The figure huffed as he turned around and glanced at Taehyun, who was now waiting beside him. Taehyun suddenly recognised the boy. Well, not really, since he didn't know his name, but he knew that the boy lived on the same floor as him. He often saw him and his pink-haired friend going out of their apartment during the mornings and he was pretty sure he also shared a class or two with the boy in his university.