Minsung backhug 🥰

do you know each other?"

mnho's little heart is rabbiting against his chest, and he looks up, paws still tucked beneath him, just as jsng shifts, likely rising up on his tiptoes to peer over to see who the woman is speaking to. mnho stares, willing his ears not to flatten.

jsng stares right back.

order of the rice?" mnho's head snaps up, ears swiveling atop his head, nose twitching in the air. even with the busy streets and too many smells, mnho knows it's him.

the elderly woman starts right away, though she glances at mnho with a small smile, "you perked right up when this young man spoke.

her, and she offers him the back of her hand. mnho's grateful, so he bumps his head against it and meows again, before lowers his head to eat. he's just finishing up the last couple bites when he hears a heart-achingly familiar voice.

"could i have three servings of the grilled lamb skewers and an

drink of water instead. he senses her bending down and almost flinches back, but she simply picks up the bowl and puts another small serving of lamb and rice into it. "you're always welcome back here if you need a meal." she tells him, and mnho wonders if she /knows/. 

mnho blinks. he meows up at

eating with his mouth, but he makes do. he even licks the bowl clean, and he's a little embarrassed when he hears the elderly woman chuckle.

"you were hungry, hm?" she shifts to look down at him again. "did you want more?" mnho hesitates, glancing down at the empty bowl and bows his head to take a

she simply smiles at him, eyes crinkling at the corners, and turns back, shuffles around and places a bowl of water down. then she turns and starts calling out to customers.

there's grilled lamb with some egg over rice and it smells amazing. mnho scarfs if down, and it takes a little used to just

sound and turns to see an elderly woman, who's staring right at him.

"come here little one," she coaxes, shifting slowly to bend down and place a shallow bowl on the floor. "you're much too thin and winter's coming in full force." she nudges it further and mnho creeps forward, eyes on the woman.

grumbles again, a reminder that his last meal was much too long ago.

so mnho slinks his way over to the food stalls he can see lining the streets, wonders if he'll be able to get a free meal if he looks pitiful enough. mnho doesn't even have to go very far, because he hears a little clicking sound

make his way to jsng? what if he can't find his way back to his own apartment? what- what happens now?

the barking of a dog has mnho jolting, whatever cat instincts now in him forcing his paws to move and run even further away. he slows when he catches the smell of grilling meat, and his stomach

pays any mind to him. about ten minutes have passed when mnho realizes that he's very lost. he swore that he'd taken the same path as he did as a human, but apparently, his sense of space and travel time is very warped now.

he feels a little bit of panic welling up inside of him. what if he can't

his ears and nose are so much more sensitive now, and mnho's already on the verge of a headache. a rather unpleasant amalgamation of smells assault his nose and mnho ducks his head and skitters across the pathway, avoiding other pedestrians.

stray cats are common enough in seoul that nobody really

before he jumps.

he lands right in a snowbank, thankfully not one that's packed hard, and he struggles to get a grip a few times, awkwardly frog-marching his way out of the snow and shaking himself off when he finds his way to a paved road. he lifts his head and immediately scrunches his nose.

the thought of jsng getting fed up with mnho and breaking up with him because mnho won't pick up the phone or answer the door or even /be/ in the apartment if jsng happens to come by has his stomach twisting in tighter knots than the height has.

/i'm sorry. please don't turn me away./ mnho thinks,

he's scared. he doesn't know why he woke up as a cat, he doesn't know how long it's meant to last, and most of all, he doesn't like being away from jsng when they're add odds, hates the idea that he can't be close when mnho is physically unable to talk or properly communicate with him.

mnho casts a glance behind him at his apartment, wonders if jsng will even let him in.

sure, mnho's a cat, but jsng has always had an uncanny ability to sense whenever mnho was near. mnho doesn't know where to go and he's so selfish for anything jsng has to give him. and mnho hates to admit it, but

minho's managed to create a big enough gap to then shove his shoulder beneath it and open it further.

he stares through the open window, stomach swooping a bit when he sees the drop. he's on the third floor and even as a human, the height makes him uneasy. as a cat, the distance seems even further.

mnho prays that he didn't have the foresight to lock the windows when he still had fingers and manages to wedge his head beneath the little lip and the windowsill, wiggling and grunting as he attempts to open the window. with a lot of effort and a slightly sore and very ruffled head of fur later,

so still slightly damp, mnho hauls himself onto the windowsill and stills when he feels a slight draft on his paws.

right. jsng keeps telling him to buy those weighted draft stoppers in the shape of long, tube animals to keep his apartment warmer and his bills lower. but it could be mnho's escape.

mnho just has to figure out how to get out of his apartment.

he's not sure how long he brainstorms ways out of the apartment, trying to ignore his grumbling stomach. he managed to get the faucet running to get a drink and fell into the sink trying to turn it off and the flailing only made it worse.

frustrated, mnho paces up and down the length of the counter as he tries to work out a way to... well, escape. he knows his way to jsng's apartment. he usually takes the trains, but it's walkable by foot. mnho briefly wonders if the trek will be faster on four feet and half a foot tall.

possibly.

he doesn't know how he's going to eat. he can probably work the faucet with his paws, but mnho would rather starve than eat the raw onions and potatoes on his counter. it's not like he can get takeout; he'd need a phone, then open the door and drag the food back in before the door shuts on him.

he can't call jsng for help, he's not sure jsng even wants to talk to him. not to mention, there's no way mnho's paws can navigate his phone- his phone that mnho never plugged in the night before. mnho huffs, tail swishing irritably before he stalks out of his bedroom and into the kitchenette.

/jsng would find this hilarious./ mnho thinks, fondness bursting in his little chest before he remembers their fight and watches himself wilt with a pitiful meow. he turns away from the mirror and jumps down on the ground, tail dragging across the floor as he tries to figure out what to do next.

he manages to jump up ontl the counter with surprising ease and

stares.

the tabby looking back at him looks a lot like the one he saw the night before. mnho has to admit he makes a cute cat. he bats at the mirror, blinks a few times. he tries flicking his ears, lets his tail swish back and forth.

mnho's tail curls neatly over his paws. he stares at the carpet. his paws start to make biscuits, which- okay. mnho can't pinch himself so he tries biting and /ow/ that fcking hurts. he panics, running (scampers, really) out of his bedroom, paws sliding on the wood and scrambles to the bathroom.

with much less noise than he anticipated, a startled /yowl/ escaping his mouth.

mnho looks down.

white paws. brown and gold striped tabby legs. 

then behind him.

furry body and a sleek, patterned tail.

what the fuck.

when mnho wakes up the next morning, he stretches, long and languid, jaws gaping open in a big yawn, toes flexing as his tail swishes behind him. he curls back up into a ball, and it takes him a moment to realize that something is wrong. he jerks awake, tumbling off the bed much more gracefully and

⋆˚ ｡⋆୨ 🐈 ୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

hurts the love of his life and then he stumbles across a talking cat. mnho is officially going crazy. he shakes himself and shoves his hands into his pockets as he trudges his way out of the park.

on his way home, he swears he sees the tabby a few more times, peeking just around the corner.