When Lee Minho invited you to the house party on Friday night, you didn't expect it to end up with you staring in shock as he absolutely teared up the dance floor. Which, when looking at the grand scheme of things, was an underwhelming patio in the backyard surrounded by drunk people shouting with excitement. You watched in awe as he executed sharp moves that matched perfectly with the beat. Never over-dancing and always looking clean and awesome. When he started bodyrolling you had to put a hand up to your face to hide the blush (not that anybody was looking at you).
The song ended and with a raucous cheer and an epic final pose, he sidled away from the crowd, finding his way next to you. "How long have you been hiding that?" you asked as you gave him a light punch with the hand that wasn't holding the cup full of dubious liquid.
"Hiding what?" he questioned easily as he leaned against the wall next to you. He didn't even break a sweat, not that it was easy to tell from the feeble porchlight several feet away.
"Your sick dancing skills?" you gestured to him wildly.
He had a devious smirk on his face as he looked at you, "you thought they were sick?"
"I mean yeah," you busied yourself with taking a sip of your drink, "that was amazing."
His smile softened and he shyly ducked his head like one of his cats that he adored, "thanks. Not many people think so."
You choked on your drink, "what?" you wiped some of the liquid from your drink and let out a couple coughs, "who am I beating up?"
He let out a laugh, "with your scrawny arms?"
"Hey!" you shouted in protest and tried to tackle him into a head lock, "these scrawny arms are gonna drag you back home!"
He continued laughing as he easily batted your arms away, "you can hardly lift your backpack half of the time!"
"Shut up!" your cup was sitting abandoned on the table next to you as you tried to tackle your friend. Key word being try.
Eventually you gave up and you fell into a comfortable silence as you watched a guy in a horse mask attempt some kind of noodle-arm wave in the center of the dance floor. Most of the crowd was too wasted to even notice how bad his dancing was as they excitedly cheered him on. "Hey," you poked Minho's side and he immediately flinched back with a light squeak, "when was the last time you drank water?"
"When was the last time you drank water?" he countered.
"You're the one who just had a dance session over there," you jerked your head to the rowdy 'dance floor.'
He sighed and pushed himself off from the wall, "all right. I'll find some water," he glared down at the liquid in your cup, "don't drink that. I'll get you some water too."
"Thanks," you smiled as he left your side and you put down the sketchy cup. He did have a point, it was not a good-tasting drink, but you wanted something to do with your hands. You watched the party rage on in silence. The sky was dark and the lights from the porch drowned out most of the stars. The last time you checked, the party inside was getting a little out-of-control as people started chugging beer and throwing the empty (and not empty) bottles around. You decided to save yourself from a potential injury, you'd flee outside.
"Heyyy," you cringed as a drunk fellow made himself comfortable in the place where Minho was standing, pushing himself closer into your personal space.
"No thanks," you replied and inched towards the light. You'd brave returning into the house if that got you away from this creep.
"Aww come on," you could literally smell the alcohol on his breath, "you're alone. I'm alone. How about we do something fun."
Now you were taking actual steps back towards the house, "not interested." You told him as forcefully as you could.
"Your boyfriend," you felt a hand grab your wrist and your heart rate jumped. You twisted your hand around and used the flat side with your pinky as leverage to force his hand off of yours, "he doesn't need to know." You had to give him credit for being able to finish his sentence, but a lunge towards you made you leap back in fear.
"Too late for you," you turned and felt security wash over you as you saw Minho standing by your side with two sealed waterbottles in his grasp, "because he already does." Upon seeing Minho's dark glare the drunk guy scampered away.
"Thanks," you replied with relief as he handed you a waterbottle.
"Do you want to head out now?" he asked as he jerked a thumb in the direction of the front door.
"If you're ready." You shrugged non committedly, not wanting to take the fun out of his night, especially since he was the one who invited you.
He gave a nod, "let's go." The two of you made your way through the house out the front door, waving goodbye to friends (Seungmin seemed to be the only sober one left out of all your friends) and stepping carefully away from fallen cups, cans, and people. "Thanks for coming with me," he smiled as the two of you walked through the streets back to your homes.
You smiled, "thanks for inviting me! It was fun!" He fixed you with a disbelieving look, "okay, the most fun part was watching you dance." You finally conceded.
"Are you okay with crashing at my place for the night?" he suddenly asked and it was your turn to fix him with a concerned look, "it's closer." He offered, and after a second of you contemplating it he added, "Soonie, Doongie, and Dori miss you."
You couldn't help the squeal from your lips as you thought about his three cats, "aww, I miss them too!"
A hand slipped into your own and the two of you carelessly swung your hands around, enjoying the quiet night and the calm, dark atmosphere. It wasn't long until you arrived at his apartment and he quickly unlocked it, the click of the deadbolt almost echoing down the hall.
As to be expected of cats, when the two of you entered his home, they were nowhere to be seen. Making you doubt Minho's statement that they missed you. "Do you want to shower first?" he offered after the two of you ditched your shoes at the rack near the door, "I'll find you a towel and you can borrow some of my clothes."
"Are you sure?" you were nervous about feeling like you were intruding and he took a moment to fix you with a deadpanned look.
"Why else would I offer?"
You ducked your head in embarrassment, "okay. Thank you."
He let out a sound that was somewhere between the click of a tongue and an adoring coo as he pulled you in for a hug, "don't worry about it. You're not a bother." You comfortably wrapped your arms around him, burying your face in his hoodie that only slightly smelled like sweat. "Now go take a shower," he gave you a light shove in the direction of the bathroom, "I'll find the towel and clothes and put it outside the door." It wasn't your first time in Minho's apartment, so you easily found your way to the bathroom, and as you shut the door behind you, you could've sworn you heard him mumbling things under his breath.
You quickly changed out of your clothes and hopped into the shower, wanting to go quick so Minho didn't have to wait as long. The warm water felt nice, it washed away the chaos and sweat from the day and the bodywash you used felt like a warm hug. Probably because it smelled like Minho and he reminded you of warm hugs.
When you emerged from the warm stream of water and into the foggy room, you found he had already slipped in a small stack of fabrics with a toothbrush on top. The shower curtain was opaque, so you didn't worry he saw anything. Plus, the way it was crumpled made it look like he shoved it in without looking at what products it knocked off the sink.
You quickly finished cleaning up and came out of the shower wearing one of Minho's hoodies and sweatpants. You found him preparing the sofa with some pillows and blankets, while Dori supervised. "Hey there," you smiled as you made a beeline for the gray cat and began running your hand over Dori's soft fur.
"Told you they missed you," he gave you a soft, somewhat tired smile as he watched you play with one of his babies.
"Where are the other two?" you asked as Dori purred in your hands and you couldn't help but smile and coo at the youngest cat.
"Soonie's asleep over there," he pointed to the scratching post with a little house perched on top in the corner of the room, "Doongie's eating food." He vaguely pointed towards the kitchen, where the cat food also had a permanent spot. "Jisung is going to show up at some point." He explained as he got off the sofa to take a shower
Ah, that explained why he set up the pillows and blankets, "what's wrong?" you asked as you curiously tilted your head to the side.
"Something about being scared of the dark and Chan not having enough sofas." He shrugged before disappearing into the bathroom. You planted yourself on the sofa with one hand still absentmindedly petting Dori before turning on your phone and browsed through the chat messages from the group chat.
There was an annoyed meow from Dori before the gray cat scampered away, probably upset from you removing your hand to send the text. "Doongie!" you called out into the apartment, getting off of the couch to find the ginger and white cat. Just like Minho mentioned, you found the cat by the food, eating some of the dry pellets. "Hey there," you smiled as you rubbed the striped cat, who happily nuzzled into your hand.
Your attention was broken by a knock on the door and you quickly headed over to retrieve your drunk friend. When you opened it, you saw Chan looking bedraggled as Jisung clung to his side. "At this point maybe you should let Felix crash here." You frowned as you took note of how tightly Jisung was holding onto Chan.
"He's passed out in my car," the dark haired man explained, "I don't know how he'll take waking up to a place he didn't expect to be in."
You gave a shrug, "I mean, he's been here before."
"Are you telling me I dragged his butt up here only for you to tell me to get the other kid?" Chan joked as he shook his arm that was captured by Jisung.
You laughed, "no, I won't make you do that. Hey, Ji," you tried to shake Jisung awake as Chan led him through the apartment to the sofa. The dark haired boy grumbled a bit and clung to Chan's arm as he tried to pry him off.
You sniggered at the situation and tried to help with the situation, "I'm glad I won't be Jisung in the morning."
Chan let out a sigh as he finally got himself free by replacing his arm with one of the pillows, "me too." Jisung let out another groan and buried himself into the corner of the sofa as you took the blanket and pulled it over him. "Thanks for taking him." Chan mentioned as you walked him back to the door.
You shrugged, "it was really Minho. Good night Chan." You gave him a quick hug in farewell.
He gave you a little wave as he headed back down to his car, "night (y/n)!"
The door to the bathroom opened the same time you locked the door to the apartment and you turned to see Minho smirking at Jisung, "he called me rhino."
"It was more like ree no." You disagreed as you went to the kitchen to fetch a cup of water and a pain killer. Chances are you and Minho would wake up before Jisung woke up, but you decided it'd be easier if he didn't have to scrabble around the kitchen.
"How much do you want to bet that we'll be woken up by something breaking?" Minho asked as you filled up a cup with water and he rattled a bottle of pills around to get out a couple.
"Let's not entertain that thought." You muttered as you switched off the tap, "I got a plastic cup for a reason."
"Okay, then it'll be the sound of him falling off the couch." Minho snickered after the two of you placed the items onto the coffee table and headed farther in the apartment to his bedroom.
"That I believe." You laughed as the two of you crawled into his bed.
Minho let out a content hum as he wrapped his arms around you, "good night (y/n)."
You smiled and tried to burrow into his hug, happy to be in his warm embrace, "night Minho."