Chapter Text
According to Nakamoto Yuta, cats were created by the devil himself.
They always left a mess, smelled awful, got hair on everything and were the meanest creatures on earth. Yuta would be minding his own business and a cat would hiss at him, even if he wasn’t remotely close to one.
In short, Yuta absolutely hated cats.
“Why are they so rude,” Yuta complains to his friends one day when they had to move their study group to their university’s library instead of Johnny, Jaehyun and Taeli’s apartment. Johnny’s cat ended up acting up the second Yuta stepped foot inside. “I’m telling you; all cats are evil! No matter what you guys say,” he pouts, sliding down on the couch he was sitting on.
Johnny laughs, patting Yuta’s shoulder. “Oreo is the sweetest cat ever; what did you do to make him hate you?”
Yuta looks up and gave him a pointed look. “The words “cats” and “sweetest” shouldn’t be put in the same sentence. And I didn’t do anything to him! He’s just evil! Like all cats!” He wails, shooting up and flailing his arms.
“Now, that’s just being rude to all cats,” Taeli points out. Yuta ignores his comment and sighs. “What made you hate cats anyway?” He adds as Yuta melts back into the couch.
“Didn’t you get scratched by one when you were eight?” Jaehyun smirks when Yuta shoots him a glare from his slumped position.
“Thanks for laughing at my trauma,” he mutters, rolling his eyes. “It wasn’t like I “just got scratched”,” he says, emphasizing the words with air quotes, “I got attacked! I have the scar to prove it!” He sits up and points to the barely visible mark on his left eyebrow.
Taeyong shakes his head.“It’s just one cat; you shouldn’t hate all of them just for one bad in incident,” Taeyong says, “they’re really cute.”
Yuta scoffs, “you guys wouldn’t understand,” he sighs dramatically, flopping back down on the couch.
“ ‘Sup guys!” Yuta looks up from his slumped position and sees Ten and another boy he recognizes but doesn’t know the name of, standing behind him, holding a stack of flyers. The group greets the duo with a chorus of “hello”s as Yuta turns around. “You guys studying?” Ten asks, signaling to the opened, yet untouched textbooks in front of the five boys.
“Well we should be, but we’re just listening to Yuta complain about cats,” Jaehyun supplies, laughing at the indignant “hey,” of protest that escapes Yuta’s lips.
Ten’s eyes brighten at the mention of cats. “Oh yeah! Kun,” he turns to the boy next to him and he hands Ten one of the flyers. “So we’re walking around campus handing these out! Kun and I are working at this cat cafe that’s about to open up nearby! You guys should check it out. The cats are cute and the food’s going to be really good!”
He gives Yuta, of all people, the flyer and the group crowds around him. The flyer is decorated in bright pastel colors printed on light yellow paper. It has cutely drawn pictures of cats, most likely drawn by Ten, on the bottom. On the top of the page in cute bubbly font are the words “Purrfect Parlor, a cat cafe.” It’s pretty cute except for the fact Yuta can’t stand cats. It’s definitely a place girls would love to go to, he thinks to himself.
Taeyong snatches the flyer out of his hands to get a closer look. “This is so cool; we should all go!”
“Oh great!” Ten claps his hands with excitement.
Kun looks at the group and smiles warmly, handing each of them flyers. “We’re opening the cafe Friday but it seems like we’ll be packed for a few days so I recommend coming a week or so later so you get to have more time with the cats.
“The directions to where the cafe are on the flyer, but you could always ask Ten about it,” Kun instructs. “I hope you guys can make it!”
“We gotta hand out the rest of these though, so see you guys later!” Ten waves happily goodbye to his friends as Kun politely bows, before leaving the library.
Yuta gives Taeyong the most offended look he could muster once the duo leave. “You’re kidding, right?” Yuta says, bewildered. “I was literally just saying how much I hated cats and you want me to go to a cat cafe? Are you get senile on me, you grandpa?”
Taeyong ignores the grandpa quip and scans the flyer in his hands.
“Maybe it’ll help you get over your fear of cats? Taeli suggest, shrugging his shoulders, “being surrounded by them might help?”
Yuta sputters in response, “I’m not scare of cats! They’re ugly and mean and evil, I’m telling you. Evil!”
“You’re so repetitive with your, “cats are evil talk,” Johnny rolls his eyes. “Visiting this place once won’t kill you.”
“How can you be so sure,” Yuta scoffs, crossing his arms across his chest. “I got attacked once; I’d rather not have it happen a second time, thank you.”
“Stop being so dramatic. You’re not even allergic to them and if one does attack you,” Jaehyun says, giving Yuta a look when he opens his mouth to add a complaint, “it’s not like you’re going to be there alone.”
Yuta huffs, turning his head away, haughtily. “You can’t make me go and that’s final.”
The rest of the group, used to Yuta’s overdramatic tendencies, drop the subject entirely and move onto something else, much to his relief.
The topic of cats and the cat cafe fade from Yuta’s memory as the weeks go by. Even when he hangs out with Ten and the others, the subject of the cat cafe is never brought up, which in itself would seem suspicious if Yuta paid any real attention to it, but he wasn’t the most observant person out there.
(Ten wasn’t exactly known for bottling things up when he’s excited either.)
It’s a Wednesday afternoon when Taeyong busts into his room of their shared apartment as Yuta binge watches anime he’s already seen; boasting about the best coffee he’s ever had and that he would treat Yuta if he came with him to this cafe. That should have been when Yuta realized something was amiss.
(Taeyong was nice, sure, but the way he spoke about this coffee was way too exaggerated; especially when Taeyong himself didn’t like coffee that much.)
With nothing else better to do except finishing the rest of Devilman Crybaby for the second time, Yuta decides to humor Taeyong and leave the apartment. Might as well get a free coffee out of it.
Like leading an unsuspected lamb to the slaughter, Taeyong shows him the way to the cafe with Yuta none the wiser. As they walk down the street, Taeyong was unusually chatty, babbling on about a subject Yuta had no idea what it was about. He normally wouldn’t drown out someone speaking to him, but as he glances around his surroundings, something catches his attention, making him suspicious.
The shops on the street were the typically catered to the students of their nearby university; bars, bakeries and indie clothing stores, but as the two continue to walk down the street, familiar looking flyers start appearing. It became more and more prominent the closer they got to the cafe.
By the time Yuta finally realizes what’s going on, he finds himself standing in face to face with a colorful looking building, balloons shaped like cats greeting him at the entrance; the familiar cutesy font with the words “Purrfect Parlor” glaring directly in front of him.
“Oh hell no,” Yuta spins around quickly, ready to bolt before he got to see a cat in person.
“Yuta wait!” Taeyong yelps, grabbing his arm in a vice-grip. “Hey—Listen—listen to me!” He struggles while Yuta tries to wiggle out of his grip.
“No way! You tricked me!” Yuta grunts, attempt to escape. Taeyong pulls him into an iron tight hug to get him to stay. He was smaller than Yuta but he had the grip strength of a koala.
“We just thought it might be a good idea! You’re always so hostile towards cats that we can’t even hang out at Jaehyun, Johnny and Taeli’s place!” Taeyong protests, not budging from his spot.
Yuta freezes at the mention of his other friends. “We?” He screeches, making Taeyong flinch. “This was planned by all of you?” He pauses remembering how unusual all of them were acting, especially Ten. “Even Ten?” When Taeyong doesn’t respond Yuta groans. “I should have known; you guys were acting so weird!”
With the two causing quite the commotion, bystanders glance uneasily in their direction. Taeyong is still clinging onto Yuta when a quiet “ding” of a bell and a soft sound of someone clearing their throat catches their attention.
Standing timidly at the entrance to the cafe is a boy with a mop of dark brown hair. He looks between Yuta and Taeyong, eyebrows furrowed in concern. He was wearing a bright yellow sweater and a maroon colored apron with white paw prints etched across it, around his neck. “Is everything okay?” He asks, hesitantly, biting his lip. His voice is deeper than Yuta expects, but it was endearing in a way.
They lock eyes for a brief moment, and Yuta, as stupid and clichè as it sounds, feels his heart stutter in his chest. He quickly glances down at Taeyong who still has his arms wrapped around in his grip and shoves him off of him. Taeyong falls with a quiet “oof” as he hit the floor. He looks up at Yuta and glares, but Yuta is isn’t paying attention and looks at the boy in front of them.
“Everything’s fine!” Yuta croaks, mentally cursing when his voice breaks. He coughs when the boy gives him an unconvinced look. “Everything’s okay,” he says more evenly, physically cringing when he notices he tried to deepen his voice.
Taeyong looks between the two, one eyebrow raised in question at Yuta’s odd behavior, before standing up. Something clicks immediately and he smirks before turning to address the boy in front of the. “We’re okay. I was just trying to convince my friend here to go inside the cat cafe, but he’s kind of against it since he doesn’t like ca—“
“I-it’s not like I’m against it!” Yuta’s eyes widen and he stutters, flailing his arms when the boy gives him a sad and disappointed look, similar to a kicked puppy. He doesn’t notice Taeyong smirking next to him. “In fact, what are we doing out here? Let’s go inside, Taeyong!” He says loudly. The boy beams brightly and Yuta almost feels light headed at how absolutely adorable he looks.
“Oh! Please come inside!” He clapps his hands together excitedly, opening the door for the duo. “I’m Sicheng, one of the workers here!”
Yuta couldn’t believe he willingly stepped foot inside a cat cafe, but when Sicheng looks directly into his eyes and flashes him the brightest smile he had ever seen, it wipes all coherent thoughts from his mind.