the door of mark's room had been closed and locked this time.

jeno and jaemin were standing, arms crossed in front of it, glaring at mark who was seated on the queen-sized bed of the room. haechan was hiding inside mark's bag as he could, but his tail was poking out.

"are you out of your mind?!" jaemin argued. "you told us you had left him at the animal nursery!"

"i couldn't! he's injured!" mark replied.

"but he won't feel good here!" jeno sighed.

"i'll take care of him."

"we're here to go on excursions mark!" jaemin informed the boy. "we leave in the morning and come back in the evening. your cat won't appreciate you leaving him in a place he's not familiar with for so long."

"then we'll bring him with us." mark said after thinking for a moment.

"what? no."

"jeno! we have to!" mark exclaimed.

jaemin sighed before walking to the bag and picking the cat up in his arms and sitting on the bed next to mark.

"this stupid boy brought you in a shitty situation..." jaemin told the cat, caressing his head.

mark scoffed. "well, he wanted to come." he mumbled.

"yeah, and blame everything on the cat. typical mark..." jeno clapped, sitting next to his boyfriend to pet the cat as well.

"but don't worry little haechan, even if your master is one stupid human, jeno and i will take good care of you and make sure you'll enjoy your stay in the mountains..." jaemin said as haechan snuggled in his arms.

^.^

"come on guys! today's activity is hiking!" the teacher exclaimed happily. "we'll walk up the mountain to admire the beautiful panorama, and hopefully, we'll have a picnic up there." he added, pointing at the top of the mountain where the sun was shining bright.

he started walking in front, the students following him like lost puppies.

mark, jaemin and jeno were at the very end of the group.

"you brought haechan?" jaemin whispered, slowing down so that they could talk about the cat comfortably.

"yeah, he's in my backpack." mark replied.

jaemin opened the zip to reveal the small animal sleeping at the bottom of the bag. "hello little one!" he squealed, scratching behind the cat's ear.

the cat purred in response, loving the attention he was receiving.

"why can't you be this affectionate with me?" jeno groaned, walking next to mark and glancing at his boyfriend.

"are you jealous of a cat?" jaemin scoffed, closing the bag.

"cat my ass." mark muttered.

"and what if i am?" jeno raised a brow. "i am your boyfriend. i deserve a bit of attention."

"stop whining..." jaemin rolled his eyes before snuggling into jeno's side and interwinding their hands.

mark looked at them from his peripherical vision, wondering if one day, he'll find someone like this as well. ideally hina, but judging by the way she was glued to minsun right now – he was another of their classmates who had come to the trip – mark was slowly losing hope.

^.^

they arrived at the top of the mountain after a bit more than two hours of walking. their teacher was right, the view from there was beautiful. breath-taking actually.

they could see the many hills and mountains surrounding them, the valleys and small villages that had been built there.

"well, let's have lunch! it's almost 1p.m., and we have things to do after!" the teacher said.

hopefully, the place where there were was a viewpoint, meaning it was kind of flat and made for people to picnic. there were few picnic tables, some trees that provided shadow zones and the ground was covered of green grass.

"make yourselves comfortable and have a well-deserved lunch! but please, don't go too far." the teacher warned before sitting at one of the tables with the two other teachers of the trip.

soon, all the picnic tables were filled and some spots on the grass were as well. mark, jaemin and jeno decided to sit under what looked like a pine, a bit far from the rest of the class.

mark sat, back resting against the tree in order to see if any student approached them. jaemin and jeno sat in front of him, side by side.

mark immediately opened his bag and took haechan out.

"stay here haechan, don't let the others see you, okay?" he said to the white cat.

the cat immediately ran to jaemin, rubbing its small head against jaemin's leg, making the boy coo.

"look at this cuteness... he wants me to pet him." jaemin pulled the cat on his lap.

mark glared at the cat before taking his lunch out of the bag as jeno did the same for jaemin and him.

"this asshole spent the whole hike with his butt on my sandwich." mark growled, showing a flattened sandwich.

"don't curse at this poor animal." jaemin engulfed the cat in a hug.

"but this is not a fucking cat!" mark exclaimed, not realising what he was saying. however, he didn't continue what he was about to say when he saw the cat looking at him with big eyes.

"h-he's a monster here to make my life a living hell." mark mumbled, making jeno and jaemin laugh.

"he just needs some attention. and you're obviously not giving him enough." jeno said.

"i'm not affectionate towards people. and i hate cats, you know it very well."

"but you could make an effort for renjun..." jaemin made puppy eyes.

mark shook his head.

jaemin took the cat in his hands, a bit like rafiki holds out simba in the lion king, and put the cat millimetres away from mark's face.

"look at this cuteness... you can't let him die... you need to cherish him and take care of him..."

mark eyed the deep brown eyes of the cat, feeling himself drowning in them.

well, maybe this cat was worth it? it was cute when you looked at it from this close.

maybe mark could actually start to like cat if he started to treat haechan better...

the cat took this opportunity to lick the tip of mark's nose, making mark let out a disgusted noise and making the couple giggle.