Chapter Text
As Chwe Hansol awakes one morning from uneasy dreams, he finds himself transformed in his bed into a small tabby kitten.
He doesn’t realise it immediately.
He had spent the whole day practicing and the whole night in the studio yesterday, even working late into the night after the composer hyungs left. It was one of those days – something gets stuck inside his head sometimes and he cannot let it go without figuring out what that really is. He had dropped himself onto the bed upon finally coming home, body more than ready to sleep, but brain still determined to keep him awake.
It was after dawn when he finally slipped into unconsciousness, so when he opens his eyes to find his vision a little bit paler and bluish, he thinks he probably just managed to sleep until evening so that the sun has already set again.
Then he reaches out towards his phone to check the time, but he can't reach it.
Because it isn't his hand that tries to reach out. It's a paw. A white, small paw.
His paw, probably. Apparently.
He sits up in a panic, trying to make sense of the world in the middle of the enlarged objects all around him. His queen-size bed is enormous, his blankets look endless as the ocean, even his pillow looks like a small mountain to climb. The phone he tried to reach seems a kilometer away instead of being an arm's reach. His room, though nothing more than ten square meters, looks like the entrance of some historical European building when he raises his head.
Holy shit, Hansol thinks. Maybe he is still sleeping? Or maybe this is a funky dream one sees after being too high, or exhausted enough to pass as too high.
He tries to pinch himself to make a reality check, only to remember again that – right. He has paws now. The best he can do is maybe scratch himself, but he needs to find out how to get his claws out first. He laughs to himself at the thought, but instead startles when a hissing sound he has never heard before comes out of his throat.
Holy shit, he thinks again. What the fuck is he going to do now?
Heart hammering with genuine panic now, -or maybe because cats have a quicker pulse?- he tries to understand how small he exactly is. And what he looks like. And how to use his new body and walk on four legs.
The third problem seemingly solves itself when Hansol tries to stand up on his legs and move to the edge of the bed. While still a foreigner to his new body, he sees that at least it knows how to do what his brain commands.
He looks down the bed then, and almost feels like looking from the roof of a two-storey house. He knows it is said that cats land on their feet no matter what, but he doesn't feel like testing it today. He takes a shaky step back and sits on his bum.
And this brings him to the first problem. He is a cat, alright. But he doesn't think he is an adult cat when he looks down at the size of his body again.
His paws and belly are white, and he has a long, racoon patterned black and brown tail – same colour with the rest of his body, which consists of light and dark browns from creamish to black. He seems to resemble a regular tabby cat.
But he is… small. Tiny.
Although never living inside his pets’ bodies, he has had enough experience as a cat butler to be pretty sure he is more of a kitten-sized cat right now, six to seven months old, probably.
Great, Hansol thinks. Turning into a cat on a random morning, and not even having the body long and fit enough to carry him on top of doors or something.
He continues his discovery around his surroundings for quite some time.
He tries to go down using the tail the askew blankets create, but one of his nails gets caught in a loose thread. He panics when he can't get it out and tries to lift himself up, grabbing whatever surface he can get his paws on, and rips the bedsheets this time as he pulls himself onto the bed. But at least his claws are free, and his body is on a flat ground again.
He then tries to jump at the table that he utilises as a bedside table, swearing at himself because just why hadn't he exactly got a real bedside table to place right on the side of his bed. He barely hangs on the table with his small body but manages to pull himself up, already tired and breathing hard from the activity, and walks across it to find another way he can get down.
Upon seeing his phone he taps on it to wake the screen up, and sees that it is almost noon – which means Seokmin would probably burst in his room in about an hour to wake him up if he doesn't get out before that. He belatedly realizes that Seokmin is actually the only way out for him, since he has no way to get out even if he could finally land on the floor without hurting his tiny legs, because the door is fucking closed. And he is… well, he doesn't even know what his standing height is, but pretty sure it is not enough to reach the handle, and even if it were enough, he definitely does not have the strength to use it.
He sighs. Feeling a little less limited inside his body now, he runs on the table and jumps back on the bed. He pushes and presses the sheets until he can create a more comfortable space to lie in, not quite realising he is actually kneading them, and curls up with his tail under his head to wait for Seokmin to come and save him. He is asleep before he can think of anything else.
🐈⬛
“Vernonniee~!”
Hansol startles awake with Seokmin's voice. For a second he is confused about where he is, because his room is still big and hue-coloured and his door is still tightly shut but he can still clearly hear his friend's voice and smell the food he probably readied in the kitchen.
“Non-ah! C'mon, get up, let's eat something and leave or we'll be late!”
Hansol blinks his eyes a few times, and rubs his nose with a paw. He puts his head back on his tail where it is curled, and simply waits for his flatmate to finally lose patience and come to get him.
He needs to wait only for a couple of minutes more before Seokmin barges in.
“Oi, Hansol-ah, you're good?” Seokmin opens the door and pushes his head in, before walking inside completely. Hansol watches him from where he is lying quietly with heavy eyes.
Seokmin looks confused when he doesn't see anyone at first glance. His brows furrow as he gazes through the room. He sniffles once, mumbling about not knowing why his nose is ticklish suddenly, and walks to open the store curtains and the window to let clean air in. He turns back to the room, looking around again.
“Did he go out already? I didn't hear anything though?” Seokmin wonders to himself out loud, eyes passing above the person he is searching for. Hansol could laugh at his level of unawareness if he was a human right now. But for now, he just meows.
Seokmin screams.
“What the fuck?!” Seokmin exclaims with a hand to his mouth, and takes a couple of steps towards the bed – which is all that it takes in Hansol’s very humble room to reach it, actually, in a preferable human body.
“Oh my God,” Seokmin makes all kinds of exclamations as he gets even closer to Hansol, who is still lying curled up in the middle of the bed. “How did you get in here? Oh god. Where did you come from!”
Seokmin reaches a hand to pet his head absentmindedly. “You're so small! Hi baby, hi! Did Vernon get you in? Has he been hiding you from me?”
Hansol meows.
“Oh my god you're so cute!” Seokmin shrieks with a smile so big that Hansol feels kind of weird for being the cause of it. “You're a baby, aren't you? Were you abandoned by your mama?”
Hansol gets up on his legs and stretches. Seokmin makes noises and pulls up his phone to take his pictures. He almost takes Hansol in his hands before he suddenly sneezes. Twice.
“Oh shit, right, allergies. Forgot about them. Uh,” Seokmin looks around, then quickly goes to close the window, probably afraid that the kitten that Hansol is would go off and jump down the building. Unaware that he has been struggling with just jumping down the bed.
“Aish… where the fuck is he now?” Seokmin mumbles to himself again as he puts the phone on his ear. Hansol's phone on the table vibrates. Both of them turn to look at it. “Great,” Seokmin sighs and turns to look back at Hansol again.
He seems to weigh his options. He sits on the foot of the bed and dials someone again.
“Hey, Jihoonie, what're you doing?”
“Nothing much, why?” Hansol hears Jihoon's voice as if he is on speakerphone.
“Um, can you maybe come to ours?”
“Why? Aren't you coming to practice?”
“Yeah! Yeah, we will- I mean I am, and Sollie will too, probably?”
“Min-ah,” Jihoon cuts Seokmin’s rambling off.
“Sorry, uh, see, we have a situation. Kind of.”
“What happened?”
“There's a small kitten in Sollie's room. And he's not here now, don't know where, he's left his phone behind.”
“What? Kitten?”
“Yeah, and I don't know what to do with it? I can't exactly put it in my bag and come to the company, the room has already turned stifling enough for me,” he sniffs. “And I have no idea where the hell it came from, so can't put it out on the streets either.”
Hansol meows in protest to the idea of being put on the streets. Seokmin absentmindedly strokes his head with his thumb.
“Well, duh, don't do that of course,” tsks Jihoon.
“Also,” Seokmin takes a look at Hansol again, “you know, its food, and toilet, and I don't know if it has fleas or such-”
Hansol meows louder in protest.
“Oh,” comes Jihoon's voice, probably having heard him.
“Okay, no fleas, I guess,” Seokmin laughs.
“Alright, Min-ah, I'm already at the company right now, but… Call Wonwoo or Junnie. If they can't make it, I'll come for you. I'll search the building in the meanwhile, maybe Vernonie is already here. We can ask him then,” Jihoon says.
“Mm,” Seokmin confirms, “okay. See ya then, thanks, hyung.”
Hansol watches as Seokmin hangs up and starts to type away on his phone. Probably texting their group chat, if the way Hansol's phone buzzes on the table is a clue. He sneezes twice during his messaging, and then turns at Hansol again.
“One of our resident cat butlers is coming to get you, little thing,” he says with a soft voice and soft eyes.
Hansol thinks Wonwoo is summoned to take care of him, and isn't surprised to see him walking in the apartment with Jun and Minghao in tow half an hour later.
Seokmin has let him out of the room before going to wash his face and hands and popping up an antihistamine, so Hansol simply trots over to them as they lose their shoes in the hyeongwan.
“Oh! He is even cuter than in the photo!” Minghao says, reaching over to lift him up in his arms. Hansol tries to resist being restrained again, but lets go fairly easily once Jun scratches under his chin from the other side.
Hansol can't believe being a cat is this easy. Maybe he can stay as a cat. Once he grows a little bit more, he will even be free to wander around as he likes. He wouldn't like to make Seokmin's life harder by staying here, but he thinks he would like being Jun's cat. Oh! Or maybe he could be sent to his parents, and even be friends with Dodam and Venus!
His thoughts are cut short when Wonwoo starts talking to Seokmin about Hansol’s whereabouts.
He tries to tell them that he is here, right in their arms being shamelessly petted, but can only meow. His friends coo at him before returning to their conversation.
Wonwoo asks for bowls, and puts some dry kitten food in one as Jun puts water in the other. They set it down next to the door, and Minghao levels him down near them. Hansol hasn't noticed how thirsty he was, it seems, because he nearly runs to drink the water, splashing it all over the place. His friends laugh at him, Seokmin pulling out his phone to record again.
Wonwoo asks for something like a washbowl so they could use it as a temporary litter box. Hansol trots over as Wonwoo pours the litter he brought into the bowl, sniffing it. He is softly scratched on his neck after he sneezes when some dust catches on his whiskers.
“Any word from Jihoon?”
“He said Hansol's in none of the studio rooms. Hyungs also haven't seen him since yesterday.”
“Could he be napping somewhere random again,” Minghao asks. Hansol makes a noise of protest. He is not that much of a sleepyhead!
“Nah, don't think so.”
“Seungkwan doesn't know either?”
“No, he said no idea.”
Of course he wouldn't know, Hansol thinks. What does he even know about Hansol lately?
His friends look at him, and he realizes that he has let out a sad mewl with the thought that passed his mind. Seokmin frowns, so Hansol ducks his head down and walks away to wander around the flat. His tour lasts relatively short even with his extra small body though, the only places to see being the open kitchen and the living room area. He trots back to his friends begrudgingly.
“So… do we leave him here? Or bring him to the company?”
“I dunno, is it safe to just leave here? What if he makes a mess?”
“Well, what's he gonna do if he has to pee in the studios, do it on your hands?”
“There are lots of potted plants there, y’know…”
Four sets of eyes turn to look at Hansol, as he plays with a thread hanging from Jun’s pants. Minghao coos again.
🐈⬛
Hansol peeks out of Minghao’s hood, of the hoodie which has been worn backwards and turned into a transport seat for the kitten, and starts to squirm around to be let down.
“Omo-!” Jeonghan exclaims as Minghao levels him down again, and Soonyoung all but runs to meet him when he meets the ground with four paws.
“I can't believe you actually brought him here,” Seungcheol says, looking unsure whether to laugh or to scold them.
Hansol walks past Soonyoung to jump directly onto Jihoon's open hands, and lets him lift and cradle Hansol into his arms as his friends discuss plans concerning him. He does not bother to catch on with their talks. Nothing actually concerns him currently, you see, considering the fact that he is a cat in the literal sense of the word.
He is nearly asleep when the door opens and the last two members of their group walk in.
“He's nowhere,” Chan announces. “Nowhere. No one's seen him. No one's heard about him.”
“I even checked the locations of his electronic devices, they all seem in his room, even his watch is there, I have no idea where he could be,” Seungkwan talks rapidly, concern obvious in his voice. Hansol opens his eyes and turns to his way instinctively. “It's like he turned into dust and flew out the window overnight.”
“Okay, well, uh, should we… I dunno, ask his family or other friends or something? Maybe he stayed out yesterday?” Joshua suggests.
“No, he did come home yesterday,” Seokmin shoots that idea down. “I definitely heard him arriving. I didn't hear him leaving though, but I might’ve been deep asleep, I don't know…”
Hansol tries to squirm out of Jihoon's arms this time, and pads towards Seungkwan when he is gently set down on the floor. He tries to catch the worried boy's attention by trying to climb on his legs, and manages to do so when his claws catch on the trousers.
Seungkwan crouches down upon noticing him and starts to pet his head and body gently. Hansol feels the urge to rub his cheeks and neck on his hands and knees, and does not hold back from acting on his urges. He hears at least five of his friends making cutesy noises at his behaviour (which he thinks is totally normal – he is a cat, you know).
“Aww, looks like he has chosen his new owner,” Mingyu says, watching with hearts in his eyes but staying a few good steps afar with Seokmin, lest his allergies are triggered too.
“We should name him,” Chan says, sitting crosslegged and offering support on Hansol's bum as he tries to climb and settle on Seungkwan’s lap by forcing the poor boy to sit down too. “I suggest ‘Daepyo-nim’. He looks like he takes what he wants and is ready to pay taxes for it. More than our CEO does, at least.”
“Guys, I don't think we should name him as if we're keeping him, let's just-” Seungcheol tries to intervene as the others laugh at the suggestion, but is overruled instantly.
Because Seungkwan has finally given up and sat with legs in front, and Hansol has settled comfortably on his thigh, facing the small crowd, his paws and tail tucked underneath him.
“Oh my God. Look at him loaf,” Soonyoung whimpers. “I suggest ‘Bread’!”
“But look at his eyes, let's call him ‘Matcha’,” Jun points at him with triumph.
Hansol coolly checks his friends out from where he sits. Most of them perform expressions which scream that cuteness has already overloaded in them, expressions as if they want to jump on him but are holding back. He sees Seokmin and Minghao have already pulled their phones out and are conducting a photoshoot for his kitten-self again. He also sees Jeonghan is looking softly, but calculatingly.
He locks eyes with him. Jeonghan’s eyes narrow a little.
In any case, it seems his friends are distracted with the cat names enough to once again forget about human Hansol's wellbeing. Well, Hansol thinks, they would need to file a missing person's report at the very least if they don't find out where he is in the next few days. He can spend his time blissfully resting in the meanwhile.
He doesn't notice his eyes are already closed again, as Seungkwan and Chan's soft ministrations following the stripes on his nape and chin with their fingers make him drowsy, when Jeonghan offers his two cents into the name discussion by speaking his name.
“Vernon.”
Hansol blinks his eyes open.
His friends simultaneously turn to look at the door.
“Aish, hyung,” Chan tsks as he turns back at him. “I thought you saw him.”
Hansol looks back at Jeonghan, too, only to find his eyes still set on him.
“I think this kitten resembles our Vernonie,” Jeonghan says, without cutting eye contact. “What d'ya think?”
The confused silence following the question is cut short when their dance teacher, choreographer, and one of the managers step into the studio.
“Alright guys! Are you all warmed up?”
“One, two, three… eight, nine… twelve? Who's missing?” Youngjoon, their choreographer asks after a quick headcount.
“Where's Hansol?” their manager asks in lieu of an answer. Then his eyes catch on the kitten on Seungkwan’s lap. “And what the fuck is that doing in here?”
“Hyung! That's our new kitten. Don't talk to him like that, you're mean!”
“Chan.”
“Uh, hyung, he's harmless, really, we can just put him on the side and-”
“Guys. Where's Vernon?” Youngjoon repeats again, obviously not caring about the cat.
The members look at each other.
“We honestly don't know,” Seungcheol steps into his leader's shoes with a sigh of acceptance.
“What?” their manager focuses on him immediately.
“We, uh- we can't get a hold on him. Since morning. All his stuff is here, but he's gone. We don't know.”
“What the hell?” their long-suffering manager hyung curses and grabs his own phone.
“But he knows we need to work on choreo, we won't have the time for it after your tour. Where would he even go right now?” Youngjoon wonders out loud.
“Dunno. He came back home last night, Kyeomie says, but no one's heard of him. Or seen him. After that.”
Their staff look at the members in disbelief, causing an uncomfortable silence to settle on them as everyone thinks but avoids speaking.
“Oppa,” their dance teacher dissolves the silence with a quiet voice unlike her normal roars, to ask the unwanted question bugging everyone's minds. “What if something… happened?”
Hansol feels a shift under him and looks up at Seungkwan, and lets out an involuntary mewl when he sees the boy's eyes shining with unshedded tears. Seungkwan, and the rest of the room, honestly, turn to him at the sound. Hansol deloafs and turns around himself to put his front paws on Seungkwan's belly. Seungkwan chuckles wetly at the gesture.
“Aish… stop talking nonsense,” Jeonghan takes the conversation in hand. “He'll crawl back from wherever he's went to, we can reprimand him then. Now let's work on whatever we need to, ‘kay?” He eyes the uncertain crowd as he gets up with a groan and walks towards the computer set-up. “Maybe the kitty will fill in for him today, who knows.”
Minghao snorts, and just like that, the question marks and the sullen mood dissipates enough to let them work.
🐈⬛
Hansol, decidedly, does not fill in for his human-self's place. He might have lost his body, but not his mind – he knows he would definitely be stepped on if he jumped under their feet!
Instead, he sleeps on the sofa for some time – it seems his small body requires much of that. Then he jumps down -turns out he can easily jump down from that high when he trusts his instincts- and strolls around the studio. He then loafs up before the mirror next to their dance teacher to watch his members practice, and imagines how it would look like if he ever tried to do the moves on four legs.
Jihoon sits next to him on their water break and feeds him some paste that smells fishy but tastes awesome. As he gulps it down, Hansol thinks about the treats he has given to his pets so far, and decides to ask Jihoon the brand of this one later so his babies can taste it too.
If he can manage to turn back into a human again, of course.
As the group goes back to practice, he suddenly gets fairly disturbed by the loud music his friends are dancing to, which sounds ten times louder today to his cat ears. So he scurries to hide under the sofa, and snoozes again for some more under the pseudo-protection he has created there. His friends don't bother him even during the long break they take unbeknownst to the sleeping cat.
When Hansol wakes again, he finds a strip of paper rubbish underneath the sofa, and proceeds to play with it for a long amount of time. He flops down, holding the paper with his front two paws and kicking it with the back two, pushes it back and forth and follows its movements, throws it in the air by raising his front paws and jumping up with the back ones, then takes a couple of turns before coming back to it again when it falls. He doesn't remember having this much fun in a long time. (He also doesn't realise that his members have taken a short break from practice again to watch him, with Mingyu and Seungcheol recording his kittenish escapades the whole time.)
When he tires himself out again, Hansol heads back to where his friends’ belongings are splayed around. He starts to sniff them one by one, starting from the ones on the ground, then raising his head to the ones on chairs and bars and the sofa, and finds a grey hoodie that smells the most familiar and the most relaxing to his kitten senses. He jumps up to pull it down from the bar it is hanging on, and settles on it comfortably once he kneads it into the position he wants, the faint smell getting even stronger with the motions of his paws, making something tingle inside him.
It is how his friends find him at the end of their practice – Seungkwan’s hoodie crumpled on the floor with Hansol napping on it comfortably, amidst all the clutter around.
“Awww, he seems to love you the best, Kwan-ah,” Seokmin says, voice dripping with honey. “Look at him all comfy there. You might have to gift the hoodie to him.”
“Look at his paws,” Minghao whispers closer to Hansol then, a slender finger stroking the top of his extended paws softly. Hansol's ear twitches. “It's like he has socks. Cute, white socks. To go with his cute, white belly.”
“What're we gonna do with him? Should we all just adopt him and look after him in turns?”
“Why? You wanna be the first, Shua hyung?” Chan asks, and starts a new session of bickering.
Hansol opens his eyes lazily, and sees that his friends are all gathered around him like he is an art piece in a museum. He mentally sighs, but it turns into a kittenish yawn as he tries to do so physically, causing a bunch of noises to rise from the guys circling him.
He gets up with a long stretch, and looks around. His eyes catch Seungkwan’s, and he instinctively pads to him again, making him laugh at being chosen once again.
He loves the sound of his laugh, Hansol realises, even with cat hearing. Maybe even more so.
“I think Seungkwan's gotta be the first if we're gonna do that, look, our kitty seems to have preferences already.”
“C’mere baby,” Seungkwan calls sweetly, instead of answering to Soonyoung.
Hansol feels himself preen at the petname. He jumps on Seungkwan’s hands to be carried up, and rubs himself all over his shoulders and chest where he is cradled.
“Wow,” Jihoon says as Seungkwan drops a kiss on Hansol's head when he is settled fully leaning on him, carried like a baby. “None of my kids were this affectionate when they were little.”
“Well, we just assumed he was a stray, but maybe he had an owner before,” Jun says.
“Yeah, we should take him to a vet for them to check,” Wonwoo suggests. “Plus his vaccines and such.”
“Good idea,” Seungcheol nods. “If you can take him to your vet, Wonwoo-yah, with the ones that don't have a schedule set already we can try to look for Hansol again.”
With the mention of his name, the mood of the group changes again. Hansol belatedly notices that their manager and dance teachers have left already. He wonders if they are going to ask around the hospitals to look for him. He wonders if they will ever notice that he is there, right under their noses.
Maybe he should actively try to do something to make them aware, after all.
He looks around to find something that could be helpful. Can he draw? Write? He isn't sure if he can hold a pen in his paws, though. Maybe write on someone's phone by touching the screen? Yeah, that could work. But how can he make them open a screen for him and let him randomly track a keyboard with his paw?
He doesn't need to think too much, though, as Hansol's worries regarding letting his members know about his existence turn into dust after a moment.
“I don't think we need to look far to find our Vernonie,” Jeonghan says.
“Huh? What d'ya mean hyung?”
“What I mean is, Channie-yah,” Jeonghan pauses dramatically, making them all turn to look at him. “I don't think he would go somewhere without taking his phone and headphones with him. Do you?”
The group makes various sounds in agreement.
“So what?” Seokmin asks. “Was he hiding under the bed or something? I searched everywhere, hyung.”
“Hmm,” Jeonghan hums distractedly, a lazy closelipped smile on his lips. “This kitten resembles our Vernon so much, doesn't he?”
“Aish… stop with the-”
“Don't you think so too, Hansol-ah?”
Hansol slowly shifts his eyes to Jeonghan at the direct question. Jeonghan is already looking at him with a half smirk.
Hansol meows. Jeonghan grins and takes a step towards them, and bends a little forward until his face is right in front of Hansol's.
“Hi, kitty. What do you want us to call you? Bread, Vernon, Hansol? No? Then… Daepyo-nim?”
Hansol snorts inside his head, and makes a tiny meowy sound out loud.
His friends lose it.
“Oh my fucking god!?”
“Vernon-ah?!”
“No fucking way, you guys read too much fiction-”
“Hansol-ah!?”
“He chose the name I suggested, hah-!”
“How can someone become a cat overnight-”
Seungkwan holds Hansol under his arms and raises him into the air to face him. Hansol thinks this is probably what Simba has felt like when he was being presented in Lion King.
“Look at me,” Seungkwan says, voice a little hysterical. “Are you really him? Hansollie? Is that you in there?”
“Once for yes, twice for no!” Joshua adds hurriedly.
The room is quiet as if everyone is holding their breaths to hear a judgment. Hansol looks straight into Seungkwan’s eyes, all large and shocked and suspicious, and meows.
“Holy fucking shit,” Seungcheol groans the most distinctive among others. “Like we needed a cat cuz dealing with thirteen guys wasn't enough already.”