🐈🐈🐈

This morning I'm awakened gently by a purring BooBoo who wants pets and absolutely refuses to take no for an answer. Drifting in and out of consciousness for the next ten minutes, I still somehow manage to keep petting him until my phone dings. Groaning, I peak one eye open to look at the screen.

NJ? Who...oh. That's right.

"Does that mean you'll go out with me?"

"Sure."

My ears feel hot as I remember the cute smile he adopted after I agreed to go out with him. Why the hell did he insist on being that cute? That grin never left his face after that, not even when I was pushing him out the door because I wanted to avoid having to explain his presence to my dad.

Truth be told, I'm still hesitant about jumping into a relationship. My main reason for not wanting one in the first place was because I was positive no one could accept me for what I am. Namjoon, however, washed that reason down the drain because for him, being what he is, it's a moot point. Even still, those old insecurities linger; they aren't something that could be forgotten so easily. Before he left yesterday we shared a brief, but understanding conversation where we both agreed to take it slow.

I can feel my lips twitching as I glance at his text once more. Beautiful? Carefully, so that I don't jostle BooBoo too much, I sit up and peek at my reflection in the standing mirror across the room.

Dear god.

Whatever, he doesn't need to know the truth. I start to reply with a good morning when the orange cat in my lap decides that I've ignored him for too long and headbutts the phone.

Immediately I start to panic, scrambling off the bed (sorry BooBoo) and rushing out the hall and into the bathroom. Shit! I forgot boyfriends wanted to do stuff like spend time together. Strange how that happened.

Anxiety crawls up on me while my brain goes into overdrive about what I should do with my hair and what clothes I should wear. We're just going to school so it shouldn't matter, right? But I don't want it to seem like I didn't try at all. Or do I? It's our first day 'together' so I should put some effort into my appearance. But...I don't have any makeup. I have one hair tie. My newest school uniform is in the wash and now I can't find my toothbrush.

So this is what my life has become. Basic morning rituals have become complex calculus problems and my cats probably hate me because they didn't get their morning cuddles.

EventuallyI just said fuck it. My hair is in messy bun with a strong emphasis on messy and my uniform is the one from last year that's faded in color. You don't like it, Namjoon? FIGHT ME IN THE PIT.

🐈🐈🐈

Has the entire world always been so perfect? The coolness of the breeze. The colors of the autumn leaves. The smell of the sunrise. Birds sing their morning songs once the sun rises and my wolf urges me up and out of bed, long before I would usually think of exiting.

When did everything get so beautiful? Probably after my mate said she likes me. Me. She likes me. My mate said that. My mate. Mine. She's mine.

I can't help the excitement I feel. But Y/n is perfect. Everything she does makes the whole world better. I don't trust myself to be able to text and walk at the same time so I stop and pull out my phone to message her. I smile remembering as she protested the amount of heart emoji's by her name but approved of the cat emoji.

✅

An unearthly sound that could only be attributed to giddiness comes out of my mouth and I don't try to stop it. Nothing can bring me down now.

"The guys will never let it go if they hear you making noises like that." Jin's voice says from behind me. His smirk comes into view when he reaches my side. "Nice band aid."

The brightly colored, cat decorated bandages Y/n reapplied for me last night serve as a reminder of our interactions yesterday. I only beam in response to my hyung's gentle teasing and stroke the strip of pink latex on my still sore wrist.

"Namjoon-ie~" Jin sings. "Something good must have happened to make you smile that stupid."

"Yes, hyung." My face hurts. All this smiling for the past twelve hours is probably the most workout my facial muscles have ever gotten. "I'll see you at school." I send him a wave before practically skipping out of the house and towards Y/n's home.

My wolf urges me on, the closer I get to her house the more keen we both get to see her. Even so, once there I make an effort not to bounce on the balls of my feet while standing by the front door after knocking. I should seem at least somewhat composed.

Then the front door swings opens and that thought gets dumped from my head.

Yesterday while in wolf form I'd done something very...ungentlemanly. It was exactly as she'd said. Animal instincts. I shouldn't have had my nose there in the first place, because that proved to be far more tempting than I could handle. Once I'd gotten to bury my nose in her neck every thought I had went out the window. Her scent was like a drug, one that I couldn't help but get a little taste of.

And now...I hadn't marked her. But my scent had been placed right over where her natural essence emitted from, causing both scents to weave together in a harmonizing, warm way that made my chest swell with pride and caused my mouth to salivate at the same time. Not a marking, but just enough to send a message to any other wolf within the vicinity: mine.

I'm not sure how I ended up leaning over her with one hand on the now closed door but I appreciated the sight of her flushing face so close.

"Back off, dog." she teased in a playful manner but I could tell she was nervous.

"Sorry." I cleared my throat and took a step away to help her feel more comfortable. "Good morning."

"Good morning." her fingers fiddled the straps of her bag and she shuffled her feet a bit. "Did you sleep well?"

I let out a sound of agreement. "You?"

"Yeah."

The chirping of morning birds seemed louder in the short silence that followed. I forced my brain to think of something—anything to say.

"Are you ready?" I'm a genius.

"Yeah."

Silently we started our trek across the lawn and then down the sidewalk, our arms occasionally brushing against one another.

"Y/n?"

She hummed in acknowledgment and glanced over at me. My heart jumped a bit. Were her eyes always that pretty? Yes.

"Can you tell me about yourself?" I questioned and then continued when she raised an eyebrow. "Like, about your family, and your cats, and things you like. Stuff like that."

Her mouth formed an 'O' in understanding and she nodded. "Mmm, well...my mom died when I was eleven. She had a brain aneurysm." she said shortly and didn't elaborate further. "I'm an only child but I have an aunt and uncle and a baby cousin; he'll be turning four this year. My grandma on my dad's side lives with them. No one in my family besides my dad knows...about me, about what I am. I like...well there's not a lot I do like besides cats."

"You like manga." I point out.

"True." she gives me a speculative look. "You pay attention to detail."

"I pay attention to you." My shoulder bumps hers lightly as I gaze at her pointedly. "I like you." I find myself fascinated by the way she then flushes and splutters.

"Yah! Quit saying that!"

"Why? It's true."

"OK, but who just says that so casually!"

"I do. I like you."

I grin while she rolls her eyes and the corner of her own mouth lifts a bit. "You're so embarrassing. Alright, dog, tell me about you now."

I frown. "First change my nickname."

"I don't take orders from dogs." her teasing tone was back.

Without warning I poked her side, causing her to shriek and jump away from me.

"YAH!"

Was she that ticklish? Mentally I file that information away for later but decide on leaving it for now. I blink innocently in response to her scowl. "Sorry."

Sneering, one hand came to her side and she made sure to put a measure of distance between us. "Sure you are." her voice came out in a grumble.

"Ok, I'll be dog." I said quickly to end the disagreement. "But you'll be cutie wootie pooh bear."

She stares, emotionless. "Do you want to die?"

"No, but I don't want to be dog, either."

"FINE." she griped. "Namjoon, tell me about yourself."

This brat is a year younger than me. She better be glad that she smells so good...and that she's absolutely perfect. My mate. Mine.

"What do you want to know?"

She's silent as we go through a crosswalk, only answering once we're safely on the other side. "I don't know how to ask it for sure, so tell me if I'm wrong. You're a," she made a quick scan around to make sure no one else around was within ear shot, "wolf. So what..does that mean you are?"

I think over the question for a moment. "It means I'm a werewolf."

"Right." she nods. "I'm a werecat. What's the difference?"

"One is a cat and one's a wolf." I point out, earning a glare. Smirking, I go on. "I don't know how it works for you. For us, we run in packs. Usually anywhere from five to ten families will stick together for generations. There are seven families in ours. That might not seem like a lot of people, but this is including parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins. We're told that in ancient times we would form packs to hunt for food, resources, and to fortify our forces in case of any pack wars. Now it's mainly done because it's instinct. Werewolves aren't exactly commonplace so it's best to stick together. That way we can learn to control our more...basic instincts and keep one another in check."

I eye her as she nods in understanding, hoping that I'm not overloading her with all the new information. "That must be nice." she murmurs, almost more to herself than to me. "I never knew anyone else like me."

My wolf whimpers as I think about how lonely it must have been growing up like that. That's not something I think I could have handled well. Especially as a child, growing up and knowing you were different and unable to speak about it. I don't give myself a lot of time to think about it before I smoothly grab her hand, knowing I would chicken out if I had. My face suddenly feels very hot and I look away from her direction, too afraid of finding rejection in her stare, if there is any.

Rather, I feel her grip my hand in return, giving my palm a short squeeze in reassurance. Gaining some courage from her actions I peek over to catch her reaction, but instead see a calm and relatively unaffected expression.

Better change that. "So you think my wolf side is cute?"

A pink blush lights up her face at the same time a scowl darkens it. "Not as cute as my cats."

This time she dodges the finger aimed at her ribs, quite easily since our hands are still interlocked and sticks out her tongue. I open my mouth to retort but am cut off prematurely when a high, shrill squealing fills the air, like someone driving near us has bad brakes.

Soon enough I come to discover Y/n's friend Eun-ji is the one making this deafening sound as she sprints towards us, appearing elated.

"You guys! Y/n, watcha doing?" One of her eyes starts to wink continuously in a very irritated Y/n's direction.

"Eun-ji." she greets in a bland tone. "What happened to Kdrama marathon?"

Eun-ji ignores the question and loops an arm around Y/n's free arm, tightening the hold when Y/n tries to pull away. "I thought you'd do better with a Namjoon marathon. Am I right or am I right?"

"Shut the fuck up."

My eyes widen at this interaction. Why was my mate always so moody? Not that Eun-ji seems bothered by it at all. The girl goes on, pressing Y/n for details and whining loudly when she refuses to say anything.

"Eun-ji, how did you and Y/n meet?" I interject, hoping to change the topic and Y/n's now grumpy mood.

"We met in middle school." she answers immediately. She then launched into a detailed story of how her old group of friends fell apart when one of them was dumped by their boyfriend, who in turn began to like Eun-ji. Long story short they all ended up bullying her because of it.

"Y/n was always standoffish and mean so no one wanted to fight back when she started attacking them for hurting me one day." she giggled cutely as though this were a heart warming tale and not like she just told me that my mate beat three girls bloody with a chair. Yeah.

"And she hasn't stopped following me around ever since." Y/n spoke in an exasperated tone but the look she sent to an unaware Eun-ji was full of affection.

We had reached our destination by this point and as we entered the hall, Y/n slipped her hand out of mine, smiling gently in response to my pout.

"I'll see you at lunch."

I nod but continue to pout, waving until she was out of sight.

—

Edited 7/24/21