even the unknowns ; chenji

moral of the story

chenle

Turns out, Bowtie had an untreated UTI and a very-nearly fucked kidney. Jisung went with the Lims to the vet — Chenle might have gone as well, but after half an hour at the coffee shop, fielding Mr. Lim's legal questions, he was done with people for the day. He floated back to the suite, dodged the brigade of fresh baked goods, and holed up in their room with his earbuds in, playing a mindless game on his phone.

What Nibbles said is stuck in his head. Maybe he's a hypocrite, maybe he's not heeding his own advice, telling Nibbles to stop smothering the kittens when Chenle has always let his mother control his time, his life, his future. This lawyer thing was part of the plan from the beginning. Not just part of the plan, the shiny gold star at the top of the vision board. He's only now starting to realize how fucked up it is that he's having panic attacks in public bathrooms because of a job he doesn't even want.

He loves his mother. Sometimes. No matter how bad she makes him feel. It's always been easier to do what she tells him, go where she tells him to go, easier than stirring shit up and apologizing later. He doesn't want to break and betray himself, not again. He's starting to think that it'll be worth the drama. That he has something to offer the world, even if he hasn't found it yet. Even if it's not part of the vision board.

It's after dark next time he looks up from his phone. He can hear Jisung through several walls and the hum of Nanny Park's foot massager. He's almost yelling. Chenle can't hear what about, but he has a pretty good guess. He turns up his music.

A while later the door flies open. Jisung runs in and jumps on Chenle's mattress.

"Oh my God, you're going to pop it," Chenle whines.

"Dude!" He drops down and plucks Chenle's earbuds out of his ears. "Listen to me. Bowtie's going to be fine — because of me!"

He gets up, tosses himself over the couch and reappears with a sheet of paper. "This is what the vet said — 'Bowtie may have suffered fatal consequences if his condition had been left to deteriorate.'"

"Is that Bowtie's chart?"

"Yeah, I asked for a copy. The vet said it was his hips that made it hard for him to jump, they didn't even consider a UTI, but I figured it out in half a freaking hour!"

Chenle smiles a little. "That's awesome, Jisung."

"It's not awesome, it's fate! This was all supposed to happen — coming here with the kittens, Nibbles showing up, cooking with Mrs. Lim — this all happened so I could find my calling, and I did."

He's pacing back and forth, obviously riding a high. Chenle is trying not to be grumpy. He knows he should be happy, thrilled, and he is, but Jisung's career-related breakthrough is flying a little too close to his own career-related shit show.

"I'm going to be a veterinarian," Jisung says. "A cat specialist. And I'm going to study hard, for sure, but I already have a pretty huge leg up because" — he lowers his voice, still somehow sounding like he's screaming — "dude, I can freaking talk to cats!"

"You have experience in cat midwifery too."

"Right! All I have to do is get the cats alone and they can tell me, like, anything they want to! Whether something hurts or itches, what kind of food they like better, where they like to be scratched. I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner, I mean, cats never try to talk to me, and I've never tried to, I don't know, start a dialogue, not even with that one that bit me in the corner store. Oh my God, I think this is the best day of my life. Like, the actual best day of my life."