Chapter Text
Jay wakes up to sunlight sneaking through the gap in the blinds right into his face and a man on his chest instead of a puppy. He blinks the sleep out of his eyes groggily—and more confused than he probably should be—and pats Sunoo on his back to wake him up.
"Are you squishing my dog?" he rasps when Sunoo's eyes flutter open and promptly squeeze shut again.
"Is that what you're waking me up for?" he complains grumbling and buries his face in Jay's chest. "At least say good morning to me first, hyung."
"Good morning," Jay sighs, "Are you squishing my dog?"
"No, he's on the floor sulking."
"Thanks."
Jay rips the blanket off, exposing both Sunoo and himself to the cold of the room, and pushes the other onto his side so he can roll over him and throw himself to the floor with a loud 'thud'. He lands on the wooden floor groaning, face already full of Baekgu's fur.
Baekgu has his back turned to him and his paws tucked under his body. He's already fully awake and would usually be all up in Jay's arms trying to lick his face. This morning however, he just huffs loudly and puts his head down on the cold floor. Shuffles so he's fully turned away from Jay.
"Are you mad, baby?" he coos and wriggles on the floor until he can comfortably pull Baekgu to his face, "When did you fall off the bed?"
Baekgu just kicks out with one of his stubby legs, probably to hit Jay in the face, but it's so short that it just swipes across the floor and stays stretched out from his body. He huffs quietly again and stretches out his second leg which doesn't hit Jay either.
"Okay then," Jay chuckles, "No good morning kiss."
"You can give it to me," Sunoo chimes in, to which Baekgu squeaks loudly and scrambles to wriggle himself around to face Jay, "No, too late for you! Move!"
Sunoo meanwhile rolls off the bed and drapes himself across Jay's back while laughing like a little kid.
"Ow, watch it!" Jay cries out under Sunoo's sudden hit and twists his shoulders to glare at him. Sunoo stays unaffected, grinning brightly at him.
"Morning, hyung!" he chirps and plants a wet kiss on his cheek.
Baekgu immediately jumps into action, throwing himself against Sunoo's face to push him away and lick at Jay's cheek with loud whines. He pushes his snout into his face and swipes at Sunoo when he tries to push him away again, while all Jay can do is lay on the floor and let his own face get smushed against the cold ground.
Okay. So a lot of morning kisses it is.
"Are you guys done now?" he asks after a while, "I want breakfast."
"Fine," Sunoo rolls off Jay's back and gets up from the floor, dusting off the knees of his pyjamas, "What's for breakfast?"
"I'll make kimchi pajeon for you," he says and pushes himself off the floor, Baekgu quickly following suit and getting on his hind legs to jump up Jay's leg. "Oh, now you want to be held, hm?"
He whines loudly and presses his ears flat to his head. Sitting down, he stops jumping but he still paws at Jay's ankle pitifully and whines again. When all Jay does is stare down at him, he makes another sad sound and whines louder.
"Fine," Jay relents with a sigh as Sunoo slips away to the bathroom, "I'll hold you. But only until we're in the kitchen."
Baekgu hops into his hand with a happy little bark and sprawls out with his tail wagging. He pushes his cheek against Jay's palm, sighing in content as he carries him to the kitchen. For someone who was sulking just a few moments ago, he sure is happy to be pampered by Jay again.
He lets Jay put him down on the kitchen tiles without any complaints but sticks close to Jay's ankle the whole time as he shuffles around the kitchen and prepares breakfast for them. Only once does he bump his head against Jay and whines but quiets down immediately when he scratches him behind the ears.
"You need a lot of attention, hm?" Jay murmurs and flips Baekgu onto his back to pat his belly, "So needy."
Baekgu doesn't protest. Not at all. In fact, he seems to enjoy that Jay thinks he's needy and paws at his hand to keep it close to his stomach. Jay complies happily, even if he's probably burning the kimchi pajeon by now.
"You baby," he chuckles, and Baekgu yips, seemingly in agreement.
"Jay-hyung," Sunoo calls out as he shuffles into the kitchen, a towel draped over his wet hair, "It smells burnt."
"Sorry, I'll eat that one," Jay shrugs and flips the pajeon. As expected, the side on top now is burnt to a crisp. Maybe he won't eat that one either.
Sunoo cackles at him when he decides to dump the pajeon into the trash and start a new one instead, rummaging through the kitchen to find everything he needs to set up the table for them.
Baekgu sticks close to Jay's ankles all the while, staring up at him with his big eyes and a wagging tail. Always happy to be there.
—
They leave for class soon enough. Since Jay actually has to sit in a lecture hall this time, he makes sure that Baekgu doesn't climb into his backpack again.
His little pup has a lot to say about it.
"I know, I know," Jay tries to calm his howling down, to no avail, "You don't want to stay home alone. I'll pick you up after class, okay?"
Baekgu cries out miserably and clings to Jay's ankle.
"Woah, he's throwing a tantrum," Sunoo gasps and swaddles himself in a scarf. "Does that really work on you?"
It does. Almost.
Jay almost gives in to Baekgu's consistent whining and lets him climb into his backpack. But he can't have that. He's already spoiling him too much.
"Look," Jay coos at his miserable baby and scratches him behind his floppy ears, "You got your snacks and toys here, hm? You're a big boy now." He nudges Baekgu with the cat plush he seems to like the most and squishes it against his snout. Baekgu only harrufs annoyed and pushes it away with his paw, climbing onto Jay with more whining until he's sitting on his foot.
"You can always just sit in the back," Sunoo suggests, eyeing the miserable puppy with pity in his eyes, "Nobody questions anything there. I dyed my hair in class last time."
Baekgu yowls once Sunoo is done talking and paws at Jay's leg again, then points one of his paws at Jay's backpack. Okay. Oookay.
"Okay," Jay sighs and crouches down to pluck Baekgu off his foot. His puppy's mood switches immediately from distressed and whiny to the usual happy puppy that Jay knows from him. "But you have to be quiet, okay?"
Baekgu doesn't bark. He nods diligently, an awkward, jerking movement, and licks Jay's hand.
—
For being such a little screamer, Baekgu somehow manages to stay silent in all of Jay's classes. He insists on poking his head out of the backpack and stare at Jay, or occasionally climb onto his lap and snuggle up against his stomach, but other than that, he behaves well. Sometimes, Jay could swear that Baekgu turns his head to the front to listen to the teacher with twitching ears.
It's only in Jay's last class of the day—history of polka dots—that Baekgu becomes a problem. But this time, it's not even the puppy's doing.
He's not exactly sure why Heeseung wants to learn about the history of polka dots when he's a music student, but Jay doesn't really want to know either. At this point, he's just glad Heeseung talks to him at all, considering the first time they met, Jay had absolutely humiliated himself by knocking a container of tteokbokki out of his hands.
"Jay!" Heeseung greets him like they don't occasionally bump into each other in the hallways and elevator of their apartment building. And at work. But Heeseung tends to the tables in the front of the restaurant while Jay washes dishes in the back. "Are you ready for 'Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini'? Because I'm not. I hate it. It's one of those commercial like songs that really gets stuck in your head."
"For... For what?" Jay repeats, unsure if he could repeat all the words that Heeseung just said to him. He clutches the straps of his backpack.
"The 1960's polka dot trend after Brian Hyland released his hit song?" he offers unhelpfully and raises and eyebrow at Jay as he takes his seat next to him. "About a woman in a polka dot bikini that somehow made every other woman also want to wear bikinis with polka dots? And made it socially acceptable to wear bikinis at all?"
"Okay, but why do you know about that already?" Jay complains and sets his backpack down. "Besides, I don't think I want to talk about bikinis."
"We kind of have to," Heeseung leans back in his chair with a sigh, "Even the Apple emoji of a bikini has polka dots."
Jay slumps in his seat with a sigh, unzipping his backpack to take out his notebook and pencil case and instead releasing Baekgu into the classroom. His little pup uses his regained freedom to hop onto Jay's seat and into his lap, squishing his snout against his abdomen with a happy wag of his tail and staring up at him. He stays quiet, much to Jay's relief.
Heeseung, however, gasps so loudly that the next four rows in front of them turn around to look at him. Jay quickly opens his laptop to hide his face behind the screen, not at all comfortable with all those eyes on him while Heeseung ignores all of their classmates in favour of staring at the puppy in Jay's lap. It takes a while for Jay to realise, but it soon dawns on him that his classmates in front of him can't see what Heeseung sees.
To them, Heeseung is just looking at his lap for a reason that made him audibly gasp. They can't see Jay's little puppy curled up against his stomach and hiding his wet nose in his hoodie.
"Stop staring!" he hisses at Heeseung and slaps away his hand that keeps slowly creeping closer. The girl sitting two rows in front of them straightens in her seat.
"Why is it so small?" Heeseung asks him, hand still creeping closer to Jay's pup in his lap. The girl in front of them gasps quietly, hunching over with shaking shoulders.
"Why would you ask me that?!" Jay whispers back harshly and slaps his hand away again. Baekgu glances at Heeseung from the corner of his eyes, huffs quietly, and tucks himself closer to Jay's stomach, turning his head away from Heeseung.
"But it's so tiny," Heeseung continues in awe, wrestling with Jay just to be able to get his hands anywhere near the puppy in his lap. "That can't be normal." The girl in front of them chokes on her own laughter.
Someone please come and kill Jay right now.
—
Heeseung spends the entire lecture petting Baekgu and scratching his ears. He even switched his pen to his left hand just to do so. And usually, Jay would let him. It only makes sense, to pet a cute dog. Baekgu at least shows no signs of discomfort. He even closes his eyes and dozes off thirty minutes into the lecture.
No, Jay's only problem is that Baekgu is still in his lap, squished against his stomach, which means that Heeseung's hand is basically also in Jay's lap, entirely too close to his manhood. This by itself also poses no problem to Jay.
Jay's real problem is that Heeseung's hand is warm every time it so much as graces Jay's hoodie, and belongs to the guy Jay has been sort of crushing on from the seat next to him ever since the semester began early September and they started sharing this class.
When the lecture ends, the commotion of all the students packing their bags and getting up to leave disrupt Baekgu's nap who wakes with a long yawn.
"So cute," Heeseung coos quietly and finally pulls back his hand. His notes are illegible scribbles on paper, but he stuffs them into his backpack all the same. Jay would be surprised if Heeseung actually studied for any of their tests. History of polka dots has to be one of the easiest classes to pass even without studying. "I'll see you at work later?"
Jay nods at that and lets Baekgu carefully climb into his backpack again before slinging it iver his right shoulder. There's only two more things to do before heading to work—work some more on his designs and then drop off Baekgu at home.
Heeseung walks out of the classroom with him, half a step behind so he can keep his eyes trained onto Jay's backpack where Baekgu is sticking his wet nose out of the little hole that Jay kept in the zipper to let him breathe. Even after the checkpoint where they usually part ways—Jay to his studio, Heeseung to the exit of the building to home—Heeseung trails after Jay, which is a little funny. Usually, it's the other way around.
"Hyung," Jay calls back and stops to send a glance over his shoulder. Heeseung freezes in his tracks, eyes flicking up to Jay's face with a flustered smile on his lips.
"Yes?" he squeaks and puts both of his hands behind his back.
"Do you want to chill in the studio and play with him before we go to work?" Jay offers him reluctantly. It's probably a weird offer. What sane fashion design student brings their dog to school anyway? But Heeseung lights up, grinning brightly at him and nodding enthusiastically.
"Yeah!" he accepts and jumps forward to stand next to Jay before awkwardly clearing his throat and repeating, quieter this time, "Y-Yeah, sounds good to me."
Jay nods wordlessly and adjusts his backpack on his one shoulder, jostling Baekgu inside who complains only a little before quieting down again and huffing loudly. Heeseung coos empathetically and slightly pulls the zipper of Jay's backpack back until Baekgu can stick his entire head outside and sniffs at Heeseung's hand. He sticks his nose against his palm and stays like that for a few moments before huffing again and crawling back—deeper—into the backpack.
"Ah," Heeseung sighs but it's lighthearted, "I don't think he likes me very much."
"Don't mind him," Jay jostles the backpack agin, just to mess with Baekgu a little, "He doesn't like a lot of people. He fought Sunoo yesterday."
"Let me guess," Heeseung chuckles, "Sunoo lost?"
Baekgu yips loudly from inside the backpack before settling down again. Something inside Jay's backpack rustles quietly, followed by a quiet whine.
"We should get to the studio," Jay suggests, "So he can get out and stop eating my papers."
They make it to the studio in silence. Usually, Jay would ramble on about whatever their class was about but he hardly paid any attention because someone had their hand in his lap. So maybe he walks a little faster than usual. What about it? He has shirts to work on.
And it's not completely silent. Despite his best efforts, Baekgu obviously and audibly shifts inside of the backpack and rustles against the fabric and the zipper.
Jay can't swing the door to his studio open fast enough. Poor Riki on the floor, sitting crosslegged on the ground in front of the couch and crocheting a tiny sweater, yelps and drops his project and crochet hook. When Jay eyes the little project closer, it's even too small for Jungwon—Riki's favourite free project muse.
"Shouldn't you make gloves for his hands instead of a sweater?" he asks him and puts his backpack on the couch to unzip it and let Baekgu climb out.
"It's not for Jungwonie-hyung," Riki huffs, "It's for him." He plucks a yelping Baekgu off the couch and places him in his lap to flip him over and scratch his belly. Baekgu sneezes loudly but otherwise lets it happen as his eyes close slowly.
"Oh."
Jay turns his back to Riki, Baekgu, and Heeseung who throws himself down next to Riki so he can also pat Baekgu. He gets it though. His baby is so cute.
—
Riki finishes the sweater a few hours later. Somewhere between Jay cutting up his silk roll and pinning it to the mannequin to test the silhouette, Jake, Sunoo and Jungwon join them in the studio.
Jake got right to insulting Baekgu again by calling him weird and twisting him in his hands to inspect his little body like a creep while Sunoo tries his best to avoid getting his fingers chewed off every time Baekgu snaps after them when Heeseung holds him up to them.
Riki wrestles Baekgu into the baby pink sweater, and he ends up looking 'really stupid' according to Sunoo. Honestly though, Jay thinks it's cute how Baekgu's fur sticks out wildly from the holes of the skinny sweater. It's not his puppy's fault that he's more fluff than actual dog.
The only one who ignores Baekgu was Jungwon who's busy trying on all of the new clothes that Riki made him in the last week.
"The sleeves are too long," Jungwon complains and flaps his arms around, almost slapping Riki in his face.
"It's supposed to be oversized," Riki explains softly and fixes the hood with bear ears sewn onto them. "Comfy? Warm?" He rubs Jungwon's shoulders as if doing that would somehow make the sweater jacket fit him better.
"It's really warm," Jungwon whines. "Is the heater on? I'm sweating."
"Turned to highest setting," Heeseung informs him after checking the thermostat behind the couch, "No wonder I wanna take off my hoodie."
"You should," Jake eggs him on, eyeing Jay with a wide, innocent grin. He even stops twirling Baekgu between his fingers just to do so, that asshole. "It's really hot here."
Baekgu howls loudly and thrashes harder in Jake's grip, freeing himself and plopping to the ground with a yelp. He doesn't even bother running away from Jake anymore, simply ignoring him and his grubby fingers in favour of yawning and stumbling over to Jay with quiet whines. With his eyes already closed, he collapses into a tiny heap of fur between Jay's shoes and sighs deeply.
"Aw, baby," Jay coos and scoops him up in his hand that isn't currently trying to pin a piece of fabric to his mannequin. "Are you tired?"
Baekgu whines again and digs his snout into Jay's skin, nibbling at his fingers lazily.
"Alright," Jay sighs and props Baekgu onto his shoulder, putting his last safety pin of the day into his creation. It's coming together rather well, if he dares to day so himself, so it's fine to stop here today. "Let's get you home, hm?"
"Are you not heading to work?" Heeseung wonders and watches Jay pack up his stuff as Riki ushers Jungwon into a cardigan.
"Gotta drop off this little guy here." Jay debates keeping Baekgu on his shoulder but discards the idea just as quickly. He came with his bike, Baekgu would fall off if he hit the brakes too suddenly. And that's not going to be fun. "I'll meet you guys there?"
"Sure." Jake stares at Baekgu as Jay lowers him into his backpack. "Get your man into bed. He seems tired."
Whatever goes on in Jake's head, it finally seems to click. His eyes widen just when Jay zips up his backpack, but he remains silent.
"You look like you have something to say," Jay points out. Jake bites his lips and shakes his head. Okay. Then stay silent. Whatever.
"Oh, Jay-hyung!" Jungwon exclaims when Jay lingers in the door with tge tiny hope that his looming presence will get Jake to talk and the silence stretches on for too long. "Let's have a dog date this weekend! Baekgu can play with Maeum. I'll make sure he doesn't bite him or anything."
"I'll bring Layla, too," Jake finally speaks up (really, for this?) and turns his head away from Jay. Even after a few more seconds of silence, he makes no promises of preventing Layla, his medium sized Australian shepherd, from beating Jay's tiny puppy up.
"Sure, send me the details later," he agrees with a sigh and heads out.
He almost slips on ice with his bike and gets hit by car, and he definitely loses his nose in the cold wind, but he eventually makes it home in one piece. It's a quick ordeal. He toes off his shoes at the entrance, jogs into his bedroom while jostling his backpack as little as possible, and unzips it next to his bed so Baekgu can attempt—and fail to—climb onto his bed while being half-asleep.
"At least pretend you don't wanna fall off," Jay chuckles in amusement and gives his butt a little push upwards. Baekgu tumbles onto the bed with a tiny yelp but complains no more than that. If he wanted to, he gets interrupted by his own, noisy yawn. "Did you sleep badly or why are you so tired today?"
Jay scratches Baekgu's head gently, a gesture that earns him a content sigh and another yawn. When he pulls his hand back, Baekgu whines softly and scrambles onto four wobbly legs that only drag him to the pillow where he rests his head and rolls onto his back.
"Wanna get tucked in, baby?"
Baekgu's tail wags lazily when Jay pulls the blanket over his tiny body. He reaches for Jay's hand with his paws and wraps them around his index finger with another yawn and tugs it towards his nose. His sneeze rattles his whole body.
"You poor thing." Jay can't help but laugh as Baekgu whimpers miserably. "I'll turn the heater on for you, okay? Be good. Don't shit on my sheets."
Baekgu only sneezes again. Jay will hold him to it.
—
This was probably the worst shift of Jay's entire life. It's freezing temperatures again, and storming outside—you know, where he washes the dishes in the back. He should've applied somewhere else as kitchen or service staff instead. Young, dumb and stupid as he was, he thought he could wash the dishes in his winter coat and pull the gloves over his sleeves. Except he couldn't, so he had to roll the sleeves up and hope they wouldn't slip down and get wet, which they did. Incessantly so.
By the time he and Heeseung were closing up shop, Jay was dripping dish soap water and molten snowflakes all over the floor, which ended in an annoying amount of mopping and maybe some tears because every time Jay mopped a spot, his sleeves would drip over it and he'd have to mop it again. At one point, Heeseung saw that Jay had been mopping the same spot for ten minutes give or take and sent him home.
That wasn't even the worst of the night.
Jay, happy to be on his way home even though the snow storm was biting into his skin and almost pushing him off his bike, had previously prided himself in being able to avoid getting hit by any cars. Tonight, he wasn't as lucky. Fortunately, only his wheel was hit and he got lucky and fell into a pile of snow that feathered his crash. Unfortunately, his wheel is now also bent and unusable. And detached from the rest of his bike. Just his luck, really. At least he doesn't need that dog basket anymore.
Ah. Jay already feels happier just thinking about being able to shove his face into Baekgu's fur and going to sleep.
With a little pep in his step, Jay unlocks the door and hurries inside, shedding his shoes and coat. He left his trashed bike next to the trash container of his apartment complex, so all he has left to do is put his coat into the dryer and wash up before he can snuggle his cute pup to sleep.
The hot shower is a little blessing in disguise after this horrible night, and Jay steps out of the bathroom ready to rot in bed for a while and cuddle with Baekgu.
Here's where it all goes wrong again.
Jay opens the door to his bedroom and keeps the lights turned off. He stumbles in the dark but it's not far to his bed. With one hand already braced on the bed, Jay carefully feels for any furry babies in his sheets—
only to touch warm, naked skin.
"What the fuck?" fully awake, Jake fumbles in the dark and flicks on the lamp on his nightstand. There, right where his puppy lay when he left, was a naked man.
Park Sunghoon.
"Hey," he grumbles and shoves at Sunghoon's or whatever-his-name's shoulder, "Hey, what the fuck!"
Sunghoon startles awake with a gasp, flinching away from Jay's touch, and sits up, clutching the blanket to his chest. He stares at Jay wide-eyed, as if he can't believe that Jay would be in his own bedroom, and stammers a weak,
"A-Arf?"
Genuinely, what the fuck?