Ch. 27 A Cat With A Lady’s Heart (2)

“Don’t you want to talk?”

“No!”

“Anyway, after all this trouble, I’m sure you realize that staying with a human is safer. Bow Meow.”

I looked at myself. I really was a pitiful-looking cat, with gauze on my front paws and a bandage wrapped around my hind leg.

As a human I originally had an easy-going personality, but the longer stayed a cat, the more my emotions devolved into something more basic and ferocious. My sensitivity to everything spiked. It was an inevitable side effect of not only my change in species, but in my surrounding environments. Anyone who could maintain their composure in these circumstances was unusual.

“Don’t call me that!”

“Tell me your pretty name.”

Si-yul switched tactics, and spoke in a sweetly tempting voice. It was the first time I had ever heard him speak so seductively. Now he was looking at me like a woman! This man must be a player.

I narrowed my eyes at him. Giving this man information was dangerous, and I couldn’t let my guard down around him.

Si-yul remained smiling. “What are you so hesitant about? Okay! I won’t ask. How do you feel after running away? Normally I’d feed a pet after this kind of ordeal, but you don’t eat, do you…? What do you want? A massage? Or do you want me to drive somewhere?”

I looked at him incredulously. “…Y-you’re asking what I want?”

“Yeah, normally I’d open you a can of tuna, but I think you’re different.”

Instead of trying to figure out my name, he changed gears and was now trying to find out my preferences.

“What do you need? What do you like?” he prompted.

He smiled as if he would listen to anything that I said, but I still looked warily at him.

“…Um.”

“You’ve been through so much, so tell me what I can do for you.”

It was such a seductive phrase. I began to agonize over it. I couldn’t let myself be swayed by him again.

Actually, there was something I needed.

After a long moment, I finally spoke. I could barely meet his eyes in embarrassment.

“Lend me some money…” I said in a very, very small voice.

“What?” Si-yul said, unsure of what he heard.

“…Lend me some money!”

There was a moment of silence, and then Si-yul burst into laughter.

I scowled at him. “Don’t laugh! I’m serious! Why do you keep laughing?”

I needed money to buy a dress when I turned into a person, as well as money for writing a letter and calling my mom by phone. Because I was broke, and Si-yul was the only one I knew I could turn to.

However, despite the sincerity of my request, he laughed at me! He dropped his forehead to the wheel, wheezing so hard that the car shook and tears streamed down his cheeks.

“Hahahah?! A cat…asking for money!”

“You told me to tell you!”

“Oh, this is priceless. So how much? 1,000 won? 2,000 won? Are you going to buy anchovies? Or do you eat mackerel? Keukeugeuk.”

“I don’t want to borrow money from you! I quit!”

However, the only way I get could money was from him. Si-yul knew that. Arrogance wouldn’t let me buy stuff.

He finally stifled his laughter and patted me on the head. I couldn’t tell if he was making fun of me or trying to soothe me.

“Sorry, I’ll lend you some money…keugkeug, really. I’m sorry, I won’t laugh, okay? “

“You’re still laughing.”

“I won’t laugh anymore, I promise. Instead, just tell me what you’re going to spend the money on. I’m just curious, and you won’t have to pay me back.” Si-yul was deathly curious what a cat would need money for.

“I…I’ll pay you back as soon as possible! Really!”

I would pay him any amount when I fully became a person again. Si-yul looked doubtful, but he continued on sweetly.

“So, what do you want?” he said, as if he were asking a human woman.

“…”

“Well? Say it.”

When I listened to him, he seemed to laugh again. But I was forced to speak.

“…Clothes.”

“Clothes? Cat clothes?”

“No! Human clothes!”

“Why do you need that?”

I was obviously too embarrassed to say it, so why did he keep asking? Oh, right, so he could embarrass me more.

I looked away, tears welling in my eyes as I puffed my cheeks. A realization came to his eyes as he remembered my human form.

“I’ll buy you clothes, if you show me how you look in them?”

“…Nope.”

“Alright, then I won’t buy them.”

“Okay! Okay!

Inevitably, I surrendered.

***

There was a women’s clothing store nearby that was close to closing for the night. The brand was mainly targeted for women in their 20s, and offered elegant, flowing clothes in pale tones. It was a very feminine place where most men wouldn’t want to go. However, the brand model had a hit movie this year, and as a result, many girls dragged in their unwilling boyfriends to the pink and fluffy shop.

Today was the first time a male customer came in alone. The clerk gave him a welcoming smile. The customer was as handsome as a model, although he was wearing a medical coat and slippers.

Si-yul spoke in a cheerful tone. “Is the store closed?”

“…No, not yet,” the store clerk replied.

“Good.”

The store clerk blushed. The man had an extremely attractive smile that would make the hearts of many women stop. Indeed, at the veterinary clinic where Si-yul worked, he had many young female customers, many of them hanging on to his words as he spoke in his distinctive professional and sophisticated tone.

The clerk responded eagerly. “I can help you. Are you buying a present?”

“Um…well, something like that.”

“Well, how about this one, sir. The line this season is every exciting—”

The clerk’s explanation went inside one of Si-yul’s ears and out the other, but then his expression lightened when he spotted something suitable.

Strangely, although he had only seen Hae-in’s body once, the memory of it did not leave his head. An incident as shocking as that was not easy to forget. He remembered her thick lashes, pink lips, fully exposed soft shoulders, a lovely collarbone… From that, he chose a dress that he thought she would look good in.

“This one,” he said.

“Oh, do you need to check the size?”

“This is the right one. And do you sell underwear here?”

The clerk nodded. “Yes. But I’ll need to know the size as well.”

“Maybe 80B? That’s roughly what it is.” Si-yul had no intention of forgetting what he saw at that time, but if Hae-in knew that, she would blow up at him.

The store clerk, however, had a different idea why he would know someone’s underwear size. “Aha! You’re here to buy something for your girlfriend.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Girlfriend.”

“I’ve never heard anything so funny,” he deadpanned.

The clerk bowed her head and apologized for her mistake. However, it was usually lovers that knew each other’s underwear sizes.

“It’s not like that,” Si-yul denied. “It’s for a cat.”

“…O-oh. I see,” the clerk stammered.

Maybe he had a cat for a girlfriend?

“Nonsense,” the clerk muttered to herself.