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When the last bell for the day rings I slip out of the school like a top secret agent, sneaking around corners and hiding behind trash cans and walking in a crouch to hide easier.

I look like a total crack head.

It's all pointless considering Namjoon has my number and knows where I live. But if I can annoy him, just for a little bit, I'll do it. I'm still angry and I still want to hold a grudge.

I'm not dramatic.

I'd expected he would be waiting at the car for me but he's no where around and my mood droops just the slightest bit. Whatever! Fine, Namjoon, just leave me. Go on with your strangely attractive weirdness and your heavenly hugs. I don't need you!

That last thought hits my heart painfully.

Stupid heart. What do you know anyway.

Instead of being stalked by my not-a-boyfriend-cause-we're-on-a-break, I end up at dad's restaurant with Eun-ji and In-guk. Well, not dad's restaurant because he doesn't own it. He's the main chef and runs the kitchen and as long as he works here I get free food.

"Your boyfriend was looking for you at lunch." In-guk says as we pour over our homework while we wait for our food to arrive.

"He's not my boyfriend. We're on a break," I mutter without looking away from this stupid five thousand word essay I now have to write.

Eun-ji makes a sound as though she wants to scream but In-guk, probably from knowing her for so long, foresees this and smartly traps a hand over her mouth.

When she's calmed down she smacks it away and gasps. "What do you mean?!? Why are you on a break? You were together for less than a week! What happened?"

I couldn't very well tell them what happened. The thought of that conversation makes me want to laugh at the absurdity of the truth of it, while at the same time makes me want to cry over the cluster fuck that is my love life.

I know I've asked this before but WHY IS MY LIFE LIKE THIS?

"He's too clingy." I decide on an excuse that they would believe.

"Oh." Eun-ji buys it right off. "But is that a good enough reason to break up?"

"We didn't break up. We're on a break. I just want some space."

"She's lying." In-guk proclaims and I shift my attention to glare at him.

Eun-ji slaps him upside the head. "Obviously, but you don't need to point that out."

I jerk my head in her direction. "What do you mean, obviously?"

"I just know you." Eun-ji waves me off and goes back to writing something in her notebook. "Anyway, Namjoon should be here any minute-"

"WHAT-"

"-he said he'd meet up with us after an errand." she continues, completely ignoring my interjection.

"Eun-ji what the fu-"

"Hello, Kitty!" Namjoon arrives right at this moment and shoves a bouquet of multicolored carnations in my face, actually letting them go so they fall in my lap and I have to catch them. Smooth. Forcing me to accept them.

Eun-ji and In-guk both greet him happily, as though they're all best friends now. What the hell? In-guk even reaches over to pull out the chair between us for him to sit in, citing he would never let a brother down. Whatever that means. Eun-ji giggles and asks Namjoon if he got his grandmother's cookie recipe for her.

I was gone for one day.

What the fuck happened at lunch?

And they all completely ignore me, getting lost in their conversation as I gape stupidly at them. What is happening?!? It's hard enough for me to understand what's going with my own emotions without this. I'm mad at him but don't want to be away from him? I want space so I get pissed when he bothers me. Then he leaves and I'm sad he isn't bothering me anymore. Fuck my life.

Eun-ji starts up a whole new conversation once the food comes out. "So, Namjoon-oppa-"

WHAT

"-Y/n says you got clingy so now you guys are on a break. True?"

Namjoon turns to me with a grim smile on his face. I return it with an unfriendly scowl. "It's true. But there's so much more to the story, if she'd listen."

The chopsticks make a pinging sound as they're dropped back into the bowl I'm eating from. I hold nothing back in the glare I have for the dog boy next to me.

"She would have listened, if you had made the effort to tell her earlier."

Namjoon has also abandoned his food in favor of staring back at me. "She might not have understood earlier, and it wasn't the right time."

"So the right time is only after an unfortunate event?" I argue.

"He didn't mean for the unfortunate event to happen." he counters. "But she wouldn't know that she since won't listen."

I laugh, but it's entirely without humor. "Speaking of not listening, whose your girlfriend, Namjoon? Cause I think I said it wasn't me."

"I heard what you said and I rejected it."

"You can't reject it."

"I can and I did. The end."

"That isn't how it works, you imbecile."

"I can do anything I set my mind to. Right now I'm setting my mind to making you forgive me. The end."

I facepalm and groan tiredly. Why is he like this? Of course it makes me happy to know that he's this devoted to the relationship, to me and to wanting to patch things up. He's kind of psycho but he makes me happy, as weird as that sounds.

But dammit I'm still mad. And this coming to the restaurant and arguing nonsensically with me about it isn't helping.

"Why don't you guys talk it out?" In-guk smacks his food annoyingly as he speaks, as usual.

Shut-up In-guk! No one wants to hear your common sense.

"That would be nice but someone wants to act childish." Namjoon answers him right away.

That's it. Yes, I'm being childish but coming to someone's house and licking their neck—twice—isn't exactly acceptable either. So I come up with the best response I can think of at the moment, and one that isn't untrue at all.

"I am not acting. Dog."

Finally, finally, Namjoon starts to look annoyed. His tongue makes a smacking sound against his teeth. His jaw shifts around uncomfortably as his eyes move to glare at the ceiling instead of me. This brings me far more joy than it should.

It's fine I'm a teenager I don't have to be mature. Though my dad will argue me on that point.

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"He's lost it." Hoseok's voice mutters from the sofa where he, Jungkook, and Taehyung all are situated as they watch with varying emotions, ranging from worry to incredulity.

"Completely lost it." Taehyung replies.

"Hyung," Jungkook's eyes are wide in wonder as he gazes up at me. "Which one is mine?"

"We AREN'T keeping them!" Jin-hyung interrupts as soon as I open my mouth to answer. I never thought this would be easy, so as he launches into a speech, reminiscent of almost every parent ever, it doesn't take me by surprise.

"You!" His finger points at my chest and I try my best to appear pitiful. It isn't hard. My mate is upset with me and refuses to speak. It's been two days and she still won't budge. I never knew she was the type to hold a grudge but I suppose being a cat herself, the trait fits her.

"I understand that you're going through something," Jin sighs and spreads his arms wide, "but this is too much."

"I do your laundry, I do your dishes, I cook your food, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and this is the thanks I get? All I ask of you people is that you keep your own rooms clean and do your homework on time, but this is how you answer my hard work? Do you not appreciate me? Is that what this is? Namjoon. Do you realize that before I moved in here, Yoongi hadn't changed his bed sheets in over a year? That all of the house plants your mother loves and asked you to keep alive were on the brink of death before me? That Jimin didn't even know how to cook toast before I came along? Hell, Hoseok had forgotten what vegetables were by the time I moved in. And now you want what from me?"

"Hyung," I speak in a quiet voice, feeling more like I'm speaking to a parent than a friend. "I'll take care of all them if I have to-"

"Namjoon!" Jin snaps, "you can't bring home seven cats and expect me to sit quietly!"

"But...I brought home one for each of us."

It was true, and maybe Hoseok was right. Maybe I'd lost it. But I was becoming increasingly desperate and this was the only thing I could think of to lure Y/n back in. Cats had worked in the first place to get her attention, so surely they would work again.

Perhaps...well, no, definitely seven cats was too much. I don't know what had come over me. Probably my Y/n Kitty was rubbing off on me too much because when I'd answered the ads for free kittens and then gone to look at them, I couldn't decide. Then it was a like a spell had been cast over me. The longer I stayed there, admiring them, the less inclined I was to walk away from them.

As I looked into the eyes of a pitch black cat I saw Y/n reflected back at me. The one time I'd seen her other form, she'd looked almost exactly like this.

I stared at this cat and saw her, and in my mind's eye could see her on the first day I'd asked her out. Her smile that day had been genuine and full of joy. She'd been so beautiful it hurt. Remembering that pure happiness and the sparkle in her eyes, made me think.

One cat had caused that. One cat had been good.

Seven cats would be better.

In that moment I could hear her in my head approving of this decision and that was all it took. There was a stretch of time on my way back home, sitting in the back of an Uber with seven pet carriers that part of me wondered about the direction I was taking with my life. And how my house mates would react.

Jin, I knew wouldn't initially be happy but once he became attached there would be no going back. The others I wasn't so sure about but there was only one way to find out.

Jin reacted exactly as I'd predicted and now stood in front of me, infuriated and huffing in anger. Wordlessly, I reached into one of the pet carriers and pulled out the smallest of the cats, the runt of the litter. A gray spotted kitten with a round head and a pink bow around her neck swiveled around to gaze at her new surroundings.

"This one is for you, hyung." I said, carefully moving closer to Jin-hyung.

His eyes trailed from the kitten's round head that I know would make Y/n squeal, to it's pink bow, then down the length of it's minuscule body and back up again, his face softening.

His chest rose and fell again as an exaggerated sigh left his mouth, and in the next second he'd snatched the kitten away from me.

"Fine. But you each take care of your own cats, and Namjoon, you're on litter box duty."

Jimin and Yoongi chose that moment to enter the living room, arriving home from wherever. A happy and skipping Jin passed by them on their way in and their curious gazes followed him as they continued making their way inside.

"What's up with-" Jimin had begun asking but trailed off when met with the sight of six cats (now being let out of their carriers by an enthusiastic Jungkook) in the living room.

I quickly explain to them that this was a gift I'd brought home for everyone, despite knowing they weren't about to buy that excuse. They all knew by now that Y/n was a crazy cat lady and I was looking for any resource to get her back.

To show them how friendly the kittens were I bent down to pet the one sniffing at my shoes, the only other black cat in the litter, except that this one had a single white spot over one eye.

In exchange for the gentle petting the kitten then turned and hissed, swiping at my hand and actually drawing blood.

No sooner had I drawn away in shock, had Yoongi came in and swooped this cat up in his arms. "This one's mine." he said shortly, paying no mind to my dumbfounded expression, or the blood dripping down my finger, as he walked out, cuddling the now docile cat.

I went in the closest bathroom and cleaned the small cut. By the time I arrived back in with the others, they were all bonding with the new kittens.

This is when it hit me. I just brought home seven cats. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH SEVEN CATS? I've never owned a single pet in my life, let alone SEVEN CATS. I don't know the first thing about taking care of cats! I barely know how to take care of myself.

My parents are going to kill me.

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Edited 7/2/21