Archive of Our Own ^beta

Home is supposed to be a haven for most people, a place to rest the body and soul after the grueling reality of the outside world. 

It’s also applied to Jincheong of course, but only for about a few months. Until a certain scamming devil found where he lives and decided to use his house as some sort of place to meet and play around. Jincheong who just came back after weeks of unending stacks of paper works instinctively feels like something is about to go wrong. 

These past few weeks have been nothing but an unfortunate series of bad luck for him. His newest projects have been a bust, his competent underlings are unavailable and most of all he needs to clear up the mess after joining one of Kiyoung’s plays. 

Fortunately for Jincheong, he hasn't seen or heard of that bastard for these past weeks. Lee Kiyoung seems to be recuperating after doing his last play.

Entering his office, he found an unlabeled mysterious box lying innocently on his table. He tried to inspect it with magic but found nothing. 

An ominous feeling has risen inside him. 

There are only a few select people who know where he lives, and he didn’t feel a disturbance on the protection magic he put in for intruders when he was out. If there is a likely culprit, Jincheong already has a person in mind.

 ‘It must be one of Lee Kiyoung’s pranks.’

Jincheong thought about just dumping it outside but he also felt curious about what’s inside. He hasn't seen that bastard in a while, he was a little bored these days. It wouldn’t hurt to see what he’s been up to. 

Feeling confident in his skills to protect himself with whatever mischief Kiyoung prepared inside, he pulled up a barrier and opened the box.

It's empty.

“Huh ?......That’s weird.”

But when he closed the box, he received a notification on his status window.

[You have been cursed.]

[Duration: 6 hours.]

 “Wha-!?“ 

 *POOF*

Immediately, his surrounding becomes much larger. No, it seems he’s the one that has become smaller. When he looked down he didn’t see his hands, instead he has white fluffy paws with tiny black spots. When he looked anxiously at the floor tiles, the silhouette of a white-black spotted feline with the same purple eyes as his reflected within his sight. 

 “MREOWWW !?” The unfamiliar sound came out of his own mouth. 

  ‘LEE KIYOUNG THAT MOTHERF*CKER!!, NOW I KNEW WHY HE’S BEEN SO QUIET THESE DAYS!’

‘F*cking cheating scammer bastard. Every time he finds something new to torment me with-’ 

Jincheong continued cussing out Kiyoung in his head for about 10 minutes.

After calming down a bit, he pulled up his status window and was relieved when he found that all of his stats stay the same. 

He tried to use basic magic and it works, he can still use it. (Good) . 

He tried breaking the curse with magic, but unfortunately, it did nothing (Not good) . 

He considered calling his subordinate, but then he realized his lack of opposable thumbs prevented him from operating most machinery. Jincheong’s pride won't let him ask Benigore or Jihye for help. So for now he can only wait until one of his assistants come to bring him some reports.

‘There isn't that much change besides my physical body, it's just one of that little sh*t’s silly pranks. Kiyoung won't use a strong curse to keep me in this form for a long time. That is if he didn’t want to do my portion of paperwork too….Not that I would complain if he really do that.’

‘So all I need to do is to wait for my subordinate to come or the curse fades out on its own. As long as no one sees me like this, this incident doesn't have to go out. Especially to Kiyoung. That bastard, I can already hear his annoying laugh-‘

*Brrt brrrrt*

His goddess's mirror showed an incoming message from Kiyoung. 

-Cheong-hyung! I'm coming to your place in a minute, please prepare some refreshments. 

 Love: your favorite boss and superior, Lee Kiyoung. 

 ‘F*UCK!!! THAT BASTARD HE’S COMING TO ADMIRE HIS WORK!’

Jincheong's unfortunate, unlucky streaks seem to continue. He considered running away and hiding. But…

‘That bastard still has that accursed telescope, not to mention that crazy woman tracking magic is already on another level of creepy. if Lee Kiyoung dropped as much as a single tear, his crazy dogs would come to hunt me in a minute. I'm not going to put my faith onto Benigore not to leak him my location too.’

Asking Kiyoung for help is definitely out of the question.

‘He will keep bringing it up for at least six months until he gets tired of it.’

Just thinking about Kiyoung bugging him about his blunders and gullibility make his stomach twist and blood pressure raise.

*BANG*

 “Cheong-Hyung!!! Did you miss me?” Lee Kiyoung nonchalantly barges into Jincheong’s house like he owns it. 

‘Speak of the devil and he shall appear.’ Jincheong thought disdainfully. He saw Kiyoung still clad in his white priest uniform. It seems he just got back from the church and came back to pester Jincheong for fun in his free time.

‘Talk about bad timing!’

**********

‘Where’s that unlucky bastard? Is he hiding from me now?’

Lee Kiyoung, who can't find Jincheong's figure anywhere in the house, spotted a young snow leopard cub on the floor of Jincheong's office. White fur with black spots, piercing purple eyes, and its expression, which can be categorized as disdainful, looks very familiar to a Republican soldier he knew so well.

‘Since when did that bastard have a pet? And it’s a snow leopard too.’

‘Wait a second……. Mind’s Eye.’

[Name: Jincheong]

[Overview: How unlucky, he seems to have gotten cursed for the next 6 hours. Try not to bully him too much, can you?]

To his surprise, using his Mind's Eyes he found out that it was Jincheong.

“.......”

It was so absurd that he barely kept himself from bursting into laughter, especially at the indignant anger in those purple eyes.

‘Pffft…Puhee…..Hehe… Serves that bastard right. Got cursed with a cheap spell. Too bad its effect only last for 6 hours.’

Honestly, what would the soldier have done if Kiyoung didn’t come? Someone else could have picked this rare snow leopard cub and sold him on the black market.

Really… Cheong-hyung should be thanking him.

‘But how did that arrogant prick who boastful about his ability get cursed like that? I need to know who did it. It would be great to learn a thing or two from them.’

Lee Kiyoung put a barrier on the room to block any escape attempt and walked up to the tiny kitten. But, whenever he took a step closer Jincheong also took a step back. 

‘Look at his darting eyes. He’s trying to find an escape route. How cute…’

“Grrr….”

They kept doing that until Jincheong's back is to the wall. Kiyoung does little hooray in his head for trapping him there.

“GRRRR……..MREOWW!!”

‘BACK OFF YOU HEATHEN BASTARD!!’

“Awww….Its okay….Here kitty, kitty”

 “MROWWW, GRRRR MROEWWW”

‘LEE KIYOUNG YOU F*CKER!’

 “Arent you a good kitty ?.....Here..psst, psst.. psst”

 “GROWWW,  MROEWWW, MROWWWW GRRRRR!!”

‘I KNOW YOU'RE THE ONE RESPONSIBLE, TURN ME BACK RIGHT NOW!! YOU MOTHERF*CKER!’

Kiyoung can't understand what he’s saying but can guess what it would be. He just giggles and then scoops up Jincheong with little difficulty, cradling him to his chest. 

‘Why didn’t he just force his way out? He should have enough strength if the really struggles hard… I see. Pfftt…you know you can't hurt me even in this form, puheheh.“

Delighted that his opponent has no way of resisting, Kiyoung snuggled Jincheong tightly and cooed.

“Awww what a cute kitty, is your owner a sad middle-aged man in his thirties who is still maidenless to this day because he's an arrogant prick who wears a frown as a default setting? ~ Do you know where he is?~”

“GRRRR MROWWW MREWWWW-”

‘MOTHERF*CKING, SON A OF A BITC-‘

‘Pfft….. He's so cute like this. his fur is not quite soft and a little coarse, but still feels nice to run through…’

‘It’s…..Not bad…… And..Smelled nice……’

‘...Is this how his hair feels like?...’’

*********

This is a nightmare. 

Jincheong already knows how shameless Lee Kiyoung could be but being in his arms and getting molested by that sleazy scammer's grabby hands really hammer home the point that death would be a much better option here. But weirdly….

‘It feels nice.’

Wait, No. 

Kiyoung running his hand through his body is not nice. It's just because he’s in a cat's body. Yeah, that must be it. Still…..

“Does widdle kitty want some love for his owner? Yes, yes~”

‘This bastard is going over the line.’

“Kiyoung will give you lots of love and affection, yes he will!”

‘Wait…..Why is his face getting closer?....’

‘..NO…Stop..’

‘F*CK!!’

Feeling Kiyoung breath on his cheeks, he can already feel his soul leaving his body as Kiyoung lips touch his forehead and cheeks as he smothered the poor kitty with kisses. With every kiss, Jincheong can feel his body getting warmer, especially on his face. His high blood pressure must be rising again.

He squealed and squirmed trying to get away. Even though his stats are pretty much the same, Jincheong doesn't want to accidentally hurt Kiyoung because he knows, if he as much shed one drop of blood, all of his crazy dogs will have his head. Trying to run away is also impossible. Knowing Kiyoung, he would have already put a barrier so he can't get out.

All he can do is just accept it and try to erase whatever going on from his memory forever after this is over. 

‘Hopefully, it will be soon…’

“Fufufu, such white fur you got here. I shall call you Snowball from now on~”

“…….Grrrr….”

‘….Please let it be soon….’

*********

Kiyoung is having the time of his life making fun of and teasing Jincheong, knowing how he would feel being coddled by him. But also…

‘Petting and hugging him is pretty relaxing….’

Kiyoung spent the rest of the afternoon petting and cuddling Jincheong.

And just like that , 2 hours went by.

*GROWL*

Then, the sound of stomach growls can be heard. Kiyoung can see a tint shade of red on the cub's fur.

“Awwww…..are you hungry, my little Snowball?”

‘Pffft, don’t worry Cheng-hyung. This boss of yours is going to take good care of you.’

Kiyoung then brazenly went to Jincheong's kitchen to prepare meals for them. He put down ‘Snowball’ who immediately fled underneath a cabinet. 

Cooking a meal is something he hasn't done for a while. Ever since the ‘Zen’ incident, he hasn't gone into a kitchen again. He tried to make something a few weeks ago when he was still in forced recuperation by the guilds, but he got shooed off by the other employee, saying that he needed to rest.

‘All of them are being too much, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Hee-young and Elena already healed most of my injuries. there isn't even a scar left.’

Kiyoung admitted, maybe that last play is a bit too much and made their traumas resurface again.

‘But, the divinity earned is just too good to pass up.’Regardless of how much pain it caused, we need at least that much to cover up another hole on this blasted continent.’

Before he know it, Kiyoung had already almost finished making their meals. It seems cooking is a good activity for him to try when he would get another forced confinement. The meal is simply grilled beef for Jincheong and some soft rice with chopped vegetables for him.

‘It's still hard for me to stomach something…’

Kiyoung set up the table and contemplated for a minute whether to put Jincheong's plate on the ground like a dog or on the table. He decided to be merciful this time and give him a respectable meal on the table.

“Snowball!! Meal’s ready!!”

*******

Jincheong who is glad to be put down and immediately went under the furniture to hide. He feels a little annoyed that Kiyoung cooked in his kitchen like he own the place.

‘Wait…….’

‘...Does that bastard know how to cook?....’

‘……..’

‘.....Please don’t set the house on fire….’

Just to be safe, Jincheong kept a close watch on Kiyoung cooking. He seems to be doing well and is pretty good at it.

‘But still……’

‘Focus when you're cooking, you damn fool!’

He saw Kiyoung's face which seems to be in deep thought while holding a knife and begin to chop vegetables. Jincheong felt his anxiety rising whenever the knife almost brushed Kiyoung's fingers.

‘If you're that determined to lose your fingers, you should have lost the first time we played and bet ours!’

He doesn’t know what is swirling in that swindler's head but fortunately, no accident happened. He only watched just to make sure Kiyoung didn’t set the whole house on fire, not because he's worried about that madman getting hurt.

‘He has divine power to heal himself. Heck, he must have a healing potion on his bag.’

He saw Kiyoung putting down the meals on the table and called out for "Snowball". Jincheong cringed at the name and was simultaneously embarrassed. He tried to ignore him but….

*GROWWLLL*

‘Ughh……’

After three days of nothing but just downing potions as a source of energy and nutrients, his stomach demanded nourishment and real meals. With defeated paws, he walked over to the table. thankfully that bastard gained some sort of conscience and decided to set his plate on the table and not on the floor.

‘Or I'm just looking too pitiful even for him….’

Jincheong looked over their meals, and saw Kiyoung’s plates that consisted of only porridge and chopped vegetables. Is he not going to add any proteins or meat in there?

‘Is he on some kind of diet? Or is he just not hungry?’

‘…..Can that be called a meal?’

Jincheong filed that thought away and went back to eating

************

After eating, Kiyoung went back to grabbing hold of Jincheong like a teddy bear, who's finally relented and gave up on running or hiding. Kiyoung went around Jincheong's office and began snooping around.

‘What the- stop touching everything with your dirty hands!’

“Wow, all of the furniture is symmetrically placed, it seems Cheng-hyung has some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder. He should get treatment for that.”

“Mreowww mrowwww…”

‘It's not like that you moron. I just like to be tidy……’

“I'm gonna move some of it.“

“Grrrrrwww !!…”

‘Don’t you dare move any of it!!…….’

Kiyoung went around Jincheong's office and tried to peek at confidential documents on his desk

but turn away at the last second because Jincheong growled hard at him.

Kiyoung then got an insidious idea to tease Jincheong more. He looked into his eyes and innocently asked.

"Wait, are you a boy or a girl?"

‘...’

And to Jincheong’s absolute horror, he lifted the cub's body whose entire body has suddenly hardened, and tried to take a peek.

********

Jincheong who had already been contemplating killing himself (again) finally snapped and wiggled around trying to break free from this psychological torture that he had been enduring for hours.

“GRWWWL MREOWWW MROWWWWW!”

‘SH*T, YOU MOTHERF*CKER, HAVE YOU NO SHAME?!’

“Wah- hey calm-AAAH!!“

He finally got out of Kiyoung's arms and zoomed under the desk, trembling furiously and glaring at the culprit. 

But suddenly, his sensitive nose caught the smell of iron.

He looked at his claws. There was blood.

‘Sh*t’

Stunned, he saw Kiyoung figure kneeling while holding his right arm that was drenched in blood. His claws accidentally went into Kiyoung arms. The wounds seems pretty deep. The blood is now pooling underneath Kiyoung's figure, staining his white uniform red.

‘F*ck.’

Feeling a little guilty, Jincheong went to Kiyoung who's still kneeling on the floor looking a little out of it and seems to get paler each minute.

“Mrowww mrewwww grrrrwwwlll mrewwww.”

‘It's your fault for trying to do that, why would you do that anyway?’

“…..Ouchh…..Aghhh….Hurts….”

“Mrowwww mrewwwww.”

‘It's not my fault. You're the one who went over the line, right?’

“……..”

Jincheong the criminal, kept making sounds even though Kiyoung wouldn’t understand any of it. and just to make sure he was still conscious and not pass out. Kiyoung looked at him for a moment. 

“……..”

Seeing him look at him without any blame in his eyes made a sense of shame fill Jincheong’s heart.

Smiling a little, that fool reassured him that he was okay and went to get the potion in his bag.

Jincheong left Kiyoung and hurriedly went to the bathroom to get a first aid kit. When he got back he saw Kiyoung and a half-used health potion beside him. His wound is healing slowly.

‘Why is he not using all of that potion?’

Jincheong looked back and forth between Kiyoung and the potion with a questioning look. 

Kiyoung saw the gesture and said, “It’s not that bad. Using all of it would be a waste. A little bit of divine power and first aid would do just fine.“

‘…….Wha-...‘

‘What the f*ck is this bastard saying?.....’

‘Is…..Is he serious ?.....’

Although divine power would heal it just fine, Kiyoung is not in a good condition to use it. He would just exert more energy and pass out before he can heal that deep wound. The first aid kit is just filled with wound cleaners and bandages.

Jincheong stare at the bastard hard and saw the wounded arm, he can almost see the white of the bone there.

‘How the f*ck is that not necessary to use a single potion?’

He looked at Kiyoung’s face which have gone pale and the amount of blood that had pooled on the floor. His eyes are already closed.

‘It must be the blood loss. That nonsense he's spouting must be because of that.'

He really, really hopes that’s the case.

Jincheong grabbed the potion and unscrewed the lid with his mouth, pouring all of it on the wounds. 

‘It’s just a potion. He’s an alchemist so it’s not like he can’t make more.’

Since that bastard can't think straight, it was all up to him to keep that fool from dying in the most avoidable and dumb way possible.

***********

Kiyoung, who's not expecting Jincheong to accidentally clawed him, admitted that maybe trying to peek at his genitals as a joke, even if it's not his real body, might have been a little too far.

“Hishhhh…..Ouchhh….Ughhh…”

He squeaked a little and hissed from the sudden contact with his wound. Tears leaked out of the corner of his eyes, even when he tried to hold them in. Using that potion is such a waste since it's one of his high-end potions.

‘It would be better to use the failed one. But I don’t have one on me right now.'

‘Still…..’

‘Why is that prick suddenly getting aggravated? Wasting a good product for a meager reason is not good for business, especially when I have to watch the guild funds because of Hyunsung’s latest spending…'

‘Ugh…..Whatever…My head is already spinning from thinking too much………And probably from the blood loss.’

After bandaging the wounds, Kiyoung laid down on the couch while Jincheong stayed on the table beside him. Feeling a little bit dizzy, his mouth opened and started to babble anything he can think of.

“Heyyy~ Snowball, Cheong-hyung is such an arrogant bastard. I definitely won our last match. It's not my fault he can't keep up with me…..”

“…….”

“……Cheong-hyung really doesn’t like when I called him Cheong-hyung, his face goes all funny and red. Puhehehe, Cheong-hyung, hyung, Cheong-hyung~~~”

“……..”

“…..and then Jihye noona went BAMM and throw the cups on the floor saying she overestimated Cheong-hyung to keep an eye on and play with me. Pffft, she's just being dramatic, I'm obviously very capable of taking care of myself. Didn’t I- *Yawn* -already tell her that the most important thing for me is my own safety?...”

“……”

“…… Need an..other… *Yawn* ..manager..ial….po..siti…on……”

“……”

“……”

*************

‘Finally. Some silence.’

After ten minutes of babbling Kiyoung finally closed his mouth and passed out. 

‘...For once, it doesn’t seem like my curse is this bastard’s fault. He doesn’t even realize who I really am.’

He remembers how Jihye glared at him during their last mission when he went along with one of Kiyoung plays where Kiyoung got hurt. Really bad.

…………

“Jincheong you unreliable bastard!!. It was wrong of me to trust your ability to take care of Kiyoung-ah!!”

“Wha- we already have agreed on the plan and calculated the loss and profit. YOU have approved it too!!”

“The plan is not the problem here! You're supposed to be there to make sure there is no other variable that can jeopardize the plan!!”

“I did do that and make sure the plan can continue, we both found a variable and worked around it!”

“The problem is not the variable existence or you working with Kiyoung to improvise around it. It’s the fact that you played along with Kiyoung plan knowing it would cause him serious harm!!”

“He's already an adult, and he knows the risk….We’ve also counted the probability of him dying and made some backup plans….”

“Tch….leave. I don’t want to see you right now. If you have any business you want to go through, use your assistant to contact me.”

…………….

He admitted now, maybe agreeing to it was not ok. Since he now saw how much Kiyoung didn't take care of himself and how much self-harm he can administer to his own body knowingly or unknowingly. He can understand how Jihye became so mad at him since Kiyoung is one of her important people too. 

Looking closely at Kiyoung's pale face, he can see heavy eye bags that are covered with thin makeup and powder. He also seems a little thinner from the last time they met.

‘……….’

‘…..Was his injury from before really healed......?”

Sighing, he went and dragged out a blanket and covered Kiyoung up to his neck. He wants to bring him to bed, but regrettably, he can't do that without waking him up and with his tiny paws. 

Suddenly, he felt his body grabbed and found himself in Kiyoung arms again, snuggled between his chest and the sofa. It's really hard to get out without disturbing him.

“……”

‘F*ck.’

And with that, he just sits there listening to Kiyoung breathing and heartbeats.

“……”

*Thump thump*

‘It’s warm.’

*Thump thump*

Feeling the warmth of Kiyoung body, he started to doze off and then fall asleep.

……………

Jincheong woke up with a heavy feeling on top of his chest. He lifted his hand and found that he had turned back and freed from the curse. 

He felt a little ticklish underneath his chin and found a tuft of soft dark brown hair. It's Kiyoung who's still asleep on his chest.

Looking at the clock turns out it has been six hours since he got the curse.

“……”

“…..Ughhhh……Hey…..”

“……”

“Wake up…..”

“Mmmmhhh…….”

He tried to wake him up but stopped when Kiyoung squirmed and snuggled into his chest more.

Embarrassed, he decided to just move him to the bedroom instead of immediately facing the awkward atmosphere that would definitely be sprung out.

‘I need to give those blue dogs some heads up before they take my head.’

He sent a message to the Blue guild that Kiyoung would be coming back late. Then called his subordinates to find out who was behind the box. He already knows who it's, but he just wants to make sure he has evidence. After confirming it, he called Jihye and cussed her out.

“You spiteful b*tch. No need to make excuses or defend yourself. I already have the evidence. Did you really have to do that?”

“Pfffttt hahahah!”

“………”

“Haaaa… Don’t worry, Jincheong-nim. This is not me being spiteful.”

“………”

“This is just a little warning….You get what I'm saying?...”

“………”

“You playing around with Kiyoung is a great and very nice gesture, but next time please consult the plan with me first even if Kiyoung says no.”

“…….”

“Or….. you can keep being stubborn and ignore what I'm saying now.”

“.........”

“Then you will really find out how spiteful I can be.”

 “……Tch…Fine.”

“I'm glad we can find a consensus. Ah, I almost forgot. you have been permitted to walk on Lindel ground again.”

“….Go f*uck yourself….”

“You're welcome.”

“F*ck off.”

**********

Kiyoung wakes up a few hours later, stretching. He finds that his wound has healed and his wound has been rebandaged. Looking at his surrounding, it seems he was moved to the Jincheong bedroom

"Wow, what a gentleman."

It seems Jincheong has turned back since he won't be able to move him if he still has little paws. Feeling a little sticky, he decided to help himself and use the bathroom to wash up. He didn't bring any spare clothes so he rummaged through Jincheong cupboard and steal a white button-up shirt.

Going out, he found the house owner in the kitchen making meals. Jincheong looked at Kiyoung coming out and frowned when he see Kiyoung using his shirt. 

Kiyoung just stared back at him innocently and smiled.

“Jincheong-nim where have you been? I've waited for so long here. Ah, I hope you don’t mind me intruding.”

“……I just got back from a meeting…..Is it not a bit too late to say that now ?..”

“Pfftt hey Cheong-hyung, since when did you get a pet snow leopard? You should have told me. He was so cute with his tiny paws, soft fur, and pretty eyes. Oh, I gave him a nickname, Snowball.”

“……”

“Speaking of which, where is he?”

“… *Cough* … I'm not the owner, I was just…..keeping him here for a few hours. He's already back with his owner….”

‘Wow, Cheong-hyung. I thought your acting would have improved by now.’

“I see… that’s too bad.”

Inside, he cackled so much that he almost breaks his poker face. Kiyoung then sat down at the table while Jincheong put the meals down.

“Eat this then get out after you're done.”

“So mean, what a horrible host you are. Keeping your guest waiting for hours and then kicking them out immediately.”

“That would make you a horrible guest for trespassing without permission.”

“Puheheh….Hey~~ Cheong-hyung, can you tell me who Snowball's owner is? I want to meet that cutie again.”

“…..Ugh…..No.”

“Why not? Do you just hate cute things? You do, don’t you - *gasp that's why you're so hostile to me !”

“What nonsense….”

Kiyoung keeps mentioning how cute the cuddly Snowball is and keeps pestering Jincheong to tell him who's the owner and where he can find him. Jincheong just kicked him out after a few minutes of Kiyoung's nonsense teasing and chatter.

*********

The next day.

*Knock knock*

“Why did Kiyoung stay at your house so late last night?” Kim Hyunsung demanded, ready to unsheathe his sword.

“T-tell me why o-oppa is wearing your shirt!” Jung Hayan cried out, already memorizing some spells.

Jincheong just slammed the door in their face.