Ch. 1 How To Be A Cat (1)

Hi, good morning.

I don’t really like breakfast, but I love to sit by the sunny window and stretch. It’s pleasant to doze by the morning sun. After all, one should live a leisurely life.

“Hmm~”

As I lounged around in the morning, the two men who lived together in this house started to stir from their rooms. I think it’s about 7 in the morning. I’m used to it now, but strangely, the two of them had a habit of sleeping shirtless. They should at least wear something underneath.

I began every morning studying the two men’s well-sculpted, nude torsos. Anyone would be envious. Both were really good-looking guys.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Mmm.”

And they both loved me so much.

If they found me dozing on the couch in the morning, they would come to me in turn and kiss me. I was willing to accept the kisses from the owners, but I didn’t really like them. What’s more, this guy’s white hair was worse than a magpie’s nest today.

“Do me.”

He put his face near me for a kiss, but I turned away. I knew my refusal wouldn’t last long, however. I tried to avoid him as he held me, but in the end I couldn’t beat a man’s strength. If I didn’t accept it, he’d hold my face and pour kisses everywhere. No place was left untouched—my nose, my eyes, my cheeks and my forehead. Now he was messing up my fur! I couldn’t help but be helpless to his affections.

I endured it, and finally he pulled away. He had a broad grin on his face.

“Have I improved?”

“Mmm!”

“Then one more time…ah! Okay, okay!”

He tried to plant another kiss on me, but I bared my teeth at him. I’ve had enough for now.

Anyway, after receiving my kisses from the two men, it felt like my morning finally began. I didn’t know what else to do to kill time today. A day alone was very boring.

“I’ll be back.”

“Me too.”

I watched the two men leave the front door for work. Before long I was alone in the empty house, and I was so sleepy that I could yawn my heart out.

Although I am a cat now, I was not a cat from the beginning.

What am I talking about? Since I’m bored, shall I tell you the story? Well, if you’re curious, you can stay there. I might tell you when I feel like it.

It’s just like a cat to be fickle, isn’t it? Sometimes I’m undecided these days, too.

I was originally a person. Really.

***

Kkiiiig!

“Oh no—!”

My eyes squeezed shut. I must have hit the brakes, but the car didn’t stop. Why?

There was no time to question it, however, as the car screeched towards the edge of a cliff and the fear of imminent death overcame me.

Kwaang!

The car collided with the guard rail and was thrown off the road. For a moment I seemed to hover in midair, until the car fell off the cliffside and rolled into the dark forest below. I couldn’t tell up from down as I was jolted violently despite my seat belt securing me.

Suddenly, in my despair, I saw a small white bird. It seemed oddly clear to my terrified eyes, and it even seemed to be watching me.

“Ah…”

I didn’t have time to question the strangeness, however, as the car continued to roll and my body was lurched from its seat.

The thought of dying grew horrifyingly as I was attacked with an agonizing pain. My short life flashed through my head, but it quickly disappeared until nothing remained but the fear of death.

A sharp wind blew through the shattered window and whipped through my hair. As my locks covered my eyes, I gave up even the fear. Death seemed less like a possibility and more of an inevitability.

Kwaang!

The car gave one final, brutal crash towards the forest floor. My surroundings where a violent wreck, and my seat was broken and shattered.

“A-aaah!”

Both my feet seemed to be crushed, along with my body. I realized for the first time that my ribs were broken. The horrible sound of bones creaking and cracking echoed in my ears, and blood welled up in my throat.

There was nothing else except intense physical pain, and well as mental anguish as to why I was in this terrible situation in the first place. I could not breathe, let alone moan in the face of excruciating torture. I was far past the point of surviving.

“…!”

I had crashed down a cliff from a remote road. No one would come to rescue me.

Sadly, I already knew better than anyone else that I wouldn’t live.

A thin stream of blood trickled across my cheek like a tear. I hadn’t been able to live my life fully.

A fleeting moment. Mom, mom. As my consciousness faded away like a weak flame, my mind was filled with only one thought. Rather than not wanting to die, I was the type of person who would be completely distraught and would cry when dying.

[Name, Park Hae-in]

Something small and white flew in front of me. My vision was blurry because of the blood, but I knew it was the white bird that I saw when I fell off the road. The strangely vivid image stopped me from closing my eyes.

[Born in the hour of the dog. Father Park Sang-in, mother Lee Hae-young. Your father died ten years ago, correct?]

“…Kollog, ug!”

My body wracked with coughs. The voice I had heard wasn’t human.

I did my best to narrow my eyes and look around, but there was only the bird. It was a bizarre entity that shone whitely among this distorted, hideous wreck.

I had no choice but to accept it was talking to me. But why?

[I am an emissary from the next world.]

“Haaa…?”

[It is my job to extradite the dead. Since your destiny is completed, you and I will go to the next world…]

I shook my head as hard as I could, but it was barely the distance of a hair’s breadth.

“Ah…no…wrong…” I croaked.

The hours of the dog were 7 to 9 PM, but I was born at 6:05 PM. While I did not believe in superstitions, I had seen fortune telling before and remembered it clearly.

“N…no! I’m…born…rooster…heub, haa, haa!”

My head fell forward as I vomited blood. I kept whispering “no” in a faint breath, but then I couldn’t say anything more. My eyes kept closing.

Each time I said a word, I knew I was dying. Blood ran from my mouth as I struggled to speak. At this point, I was so broken that I couldn’t even feel pain. I knew that I couldn’t live in this body anymore.

[Wait, rooster? It can’t be?! You’re clearly born the hour of the dog…huh?]

The angel of death in the form of a bird suddenly looked alarmed. There was a flapping sound, and I heard it come closer.

Somehow, my body came out of the car. I felt strangely at ease. The pain was gone, and the heavy sensation that weighed down on me disappeared. My body felt light enough to take off.

No, not my body, my soul.

[Is this a substitute?]

It wasn’t just my body that was relaxed. My vision became clearer, but all I saw now was gray. It was as if I were in a bottomless space. How did I get here?

Meanwhile, the bird remained firmly planted in the center of my vision. So it became clear that it was responsible for everything. It was that creature who took out my soul that was attached to my body.

[…Human, I’m sorry.]

[What did you do to me?]

I shouted at the bird, barely containing my sobs. Did…did it kill me?