XIII

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Wonwoo had always dreaded the day he'd actually have to finish the damn marathon, and he had every right to dread the idea.

His mum, like he'd expected, had forgotten what day her son was supposed to make his lungs slog till near-failure. His dad, though, remembered, and Wonwoo threw a good-natured scowl his mum's way seconds before his dad and he left the house in the morning.

Much unlike what he'd expected, Mingyu was also there, as a volunteer at one of the stops handing out bottles of water. Wonwoo had a feeling the boy had made the plan last minute, as an excuse for getting to see Wonwoo more.


By the time the very excruciating two and a half hours had passed, Wonwoo was wheezing, quite literally, and his dad was nowhere to be found. That made him roll his eyes — why had he not expected the man to disappear some time during all of this shenanigan? Nonetheless, Wonwoo shrugged it off, pleasantly surprised when Mingyu was already walking nearer to him as the end line came closer, and snagged him in for a quick kiss. Very Disney-coded, but that's just who Mingyu liked to be.

Mingyu insisted he carry Wonwoo home, getting him all flustered and causing him to stumble over his words. He, obviously, denied, and settled for walking alongside Mingyu.

Mingyu noticed soon enough, and asked Wonwoo about the extra bounce in his steps. "What's gotten you so jittery and excited? I thought you hated all of this,"

"A cat, Mingyu, a cat!"

"Right," he grinned, "I forgot about that,"

Wonwoo shuffled into his side, leading Mingyu to wrap an arm around him as they walked to Wonwoo's house. "I can't wait," he sighed.

--

Wonwoo anticipatedly walked in circles around his mum — who held her phone to her ear, busy contacting the local shelter that Wonwoo had found out about during his first year of high school.

He couldn't suppress the grin taking over his face as he waited patiently — that's a big fat lie, to be honest — for his mum to hang up and give him the delightful news that he'd get to visit the shelter that evening to pick up his new pet.

Truth be told, Wonwoo himself had no idea how he was holding up without support, and without his legs threatening to cave in like jelly. Earlier in the week, he'd promised himself he was going to sleep for as long as he could after completing the marathon, but the idea of getting to meet his very new, very own cat had him on his heels.

His mum nodded, looking solemn, and placed her phone face down on the dining table once she ended the call. A pit of worry grew in Wonwoo's stomach — his mum's reaction didn't seem great.

"Mum?" he gulped, "What happened?"

The woman looked grave, if not regretful, as she looked up at him. "I'm sorry, love, but-"

"Get to the point mum," Wonwoo snapped. He already had an idea of what he was about to hear.

"They said they... They shut the shelter down last year, since they needed a bigger area, or something,"

That was when Wonwoo's legs finally began wobbling from the fatigue of the marathon. "Please tell me this is a sick joke you're pulling,"

"I wouldn't do such a thing, Wonwoo,"

The worst Wonwoo had expected when his mum had set the condition of the marathon, was ending up in the ER.

He hadn't seen whatever this was coming.

---

Poor babie ㅠㅠ

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