Ch. 21 A Cat Runs Away From Home (2)

At dawn, Tae-il was fast asleep, unaware that his cat would soon run away.

Kkiiig.

I opened his door and stepped into his room. My pale knees settled right next to Tae-il’s softly slumbering form.

I was human at the moment. I was worried about Tae-il’s cheek, and after he had fallen asleep, I transformed and picked up some things from around the apartment.

As I studied his peaceful face, I noticed that the wound had already formed a slight scab. He had been indifferent about it, but I couldn’t let his face be. I dabbed my finger with ointment and carefully applied the medicine onto the scratch.

“…I’m sorry.”

I tried to offer a small apology, but it was nothing more than secret words that would never be heard. I couldn’t look into his eyes and apologize to him, or tell him that I hoped he would get better, or say that I liked him so much that I thought my heart would burst right out of my chest.

I was just a cat. Only a pet to him.

The more I thought about my reality, the more depressed I became.

I wanted to stand in front of Tae-il as a person like Ha-eun. I wanted to speak to him in human language, and I wanted him to say my name in a familiar way.

“Haaa.” Tae-il breathed out a sleepy sigh.

At this moment, I was happy to have my ten fingers so I could apply medicine on his cheek. Being able to do things as a human one day a month was a precious opportunity, and who knew when I would become human again?

I kept my touch as gentle as possible as not to stir him.

But I made a mistake. While I thought he remained deep in slumber, Tae-il’s eyes fluttered opened and he looked at me.

I completely froze as our eyes met.

“What…are you doing?” he murmured.

It was too late to turn into a cat, and I started to tremble. Thank god I was wearing his T-shirt.

His breath caught and he blinked his eyes several times, as if to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

“How—how did you get in here?” he slurred in his half-awake state.

What should I say? Should I tell him I was his cat, or would he think I was a mental patient that invaded his home?

My cheeks flamed, as this was the second time I failed my disguise around him. I yanked his blanket over his head, dove underneath the bed, and returned to the body of a black cat.

I hoped that he would treat me as a hallucination as a result of alcohol and fatigue.

***

“What the…?”

Tae-il batted away the sheets on his face, and rose up from his bed and looked around. He went to the living room and found no one there. He inspected the bathroom and closets as well, but there was not a soul hiding in his apartment. The door to the balcony was locked and he hadn’t heard the sound of anyone going out.

Was it a ghost? No, the figure he saw looked too solid for that.

He still stood in the middle of the living room with a sheet rolled in his hand, and he pressed his other hand against forehead. His head throbbed from a hangover, and any sudden movements felt like a hammer to his skull.

Did he really see someone there, or was it a dream? He settled on the conclusion that it must have been a dream. Any other explanation made no sense.

He scrubbed his face roughly. “What the hell?” A sticky substance clung to his hand. Did he put ointment on while he was drunk? He went back and forth between doubt and understanding, but could not make sense of the situation through his alcohol-addled brain.

He convinced himself that he must have put some medicine on, and clutched his head and returned back to the bedroom. He was drunk and tired, and it was probably because of loneliness that he saw that fantasy. He quietly sat on his bed for a moment before opening his mouth to speak.

“Bow Meow.”

“…Yaong?”

At his call, the black cat crept out from underneath the bed. He gestured for her to come to him, and she jumped onto the sheets. This was better than an illusion. Tae-il put his hands underneath Bow Meow’s armpits, raised her small body, and looked into her eyes.

They were like sparkling gold.

“You have the same eyes, don’t you?” he asked. Although the color was different, it reminded him of the same eyes as the woman.

“Myaang?”

“That must have been the reason for it. “

Tae-il dismissed it as a dream. It had to be, right? Cats didn’t turn into humans.

Bow Meow was licking the back of her paw now, and it would be strange to imagine a person in her place.

***

When the next morning dawned, I escaped from Tae-il’s apartment.

He had left for work and hadn’t closed the door correctly, leaving an open gap. It turned out that it wasn’t that difficult to escape in the first place. I should have done this from the beginning, but I dragged my feet for too long. It had already been a month since I indebted myself to him.

All the while of course, I tried to live as his pet cat. That was a dangerous mistake. I wasn’t an ordinary cat, and there was no way I could possibly live like one. Tae-il might try to find me, but I had no choice. From the moment I became conscious of my dual natures, it all became too much to handle.

“Mom?!”

I climbed down the stairs and tried to avoid as many people as possible, but I inevitably ran into a few. They were all shocked that a cat was going down the emergency stairs, but I successfully made my way out.

I took my first step into the harsh world. I still didn’t know how I would get home.