The Cat hides its Claws

Although they found the rat much easier than Myohan had thought, they didn’t make any progress after that for a month. Jagyeom kept chittering and protesting about their lack of progress, and Myohan wondered if he should pour a bucket of water on him. In the meantime, time went by quickly, and Myohan got a strange worry.

“Myohan! Let’s go to play soccer!”

That stupid sport. Sinsul ran out to the schoolyard to play soccer whenever he had time to, which made Myohan wonder if he was possessed by a ghost who died before he could play enough soccer. As usual, he was trying to bring Myohan into his team again.

As a cat, Myohan had great reflexes, so he was really great at soccer. When he got the ball, no one could take it away from him, and when he didn’t have the ball, he took it from the other team in no time. He was that good even when he played reluctantly, so imagine how good he could have been if he played with a bit of enthusiasm. Sinsul’s final goal was to make Myohan play soccer at the big sports festival in June.

“I have to go to clean the library.”

Of course, Myohan had no time for balls. On the day he rescued the wet rat and took him to his home, he forgot two things. One, the mop he left by the taps. Two, his distinctively bright hair color.

“Are you going to play soccer after that?”

“No, I’m going home.”

It wasn’t meant to be a water fight, but it ended as one, and Myohan ended up taking all the credit for it. His teacher was really mad and sentenced him to cleaning the library, and although Myohan thought it wasn’t fair, he had to clean the library every day after classes.

“Why are you always so eager to go home? Come on, let’s play soccer!”

So was Myohan worrying about Sinsul and his passion or soccer or his library cleaning duty? No. He let out a deep sigh and then abruptly looked back.

“What is it?” Sinsul asked with wide eyes. The hallway looked just as usual. Myohan studied every part of it, but then he narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Do you feel like playing soccer now?”

“No, not at all.”

“But why? Please, let’s go!”

But Myohan just smacked Sinsul’s head and ran down the stairs while he was in pain. Sinsul didn’t follow him, so he must have given up for today. When Myohan looked up, he could see him telling a joke to a student who had been passing by. Myohan ran down the stairs and looked up at the windows again when he was outside. No one was there, but he couldn’t help feeling troubled.

The library was in the new building for freshmen instead of the old building for juniors. Its name was the Space for Dreaming, and Myohan thought the real dreaming he needed was the one he did while sleeping as he organized the returned books.

“….”

Then again, he felt someone staring at him.

He put down the book with a thud and slowly walked around the library. He was the only one there. Students borrowed books mostly during lunchtime, and they tended to go to other places, such as home, after classes. He had to be alone in there, and it was creepy that he could feel a gaze.

He checked no one was there and picked up a book again, but then someone put a hand on his shoulder.

“What the, why are you trying to hit me?”

“….Oh.”

The yelling was Jagyeom’s. Myohan let out a sigh to see him raise his hands in defense. Then he put down the book he’d been holding. He had raised it instinctively.

“Why did you surprise me?”

“I just put a hand on your shoulder. It was wrong of you to be so surprised by it!”

Chitter, chitter. He was talking in human language, but somehow it sounded like a rat’s chitter. Myohan lightly hit his head to make him shut up, only to get a fierce gaze in return.

“Since when have you been here?”

“I was here before you came in!”

“Oh…”

Then I must have missed you because you are so small. But Myohan didn’t say that thought out loud. Jagyeom was a lot smaller than him, and he was extremely sensitive about it. Myohan had once called him small, and he got to learn he, a cat, could actually be threatened by a rat.

“Was anyone else here?”

“Huh? No, who would come to the library after classes?”

“Well, only a bookrat like you would.”

“Don’t call me a rat! What if someone hears us?”

Then he would think ‘rat’ was Jagyeom’s nickname, but Myohan just nodded. It seemed like Jagyeom hadn’t been the one who alerted him. Jagyeom had been looking at Myohan for about twenty minutes at most, but Myohan had felt that gaze at least twice before. There was a maniac stalking him, but it soon disappeared like always, so Myohan decided he didn’t have to care about it much.

“Let’s go home, rat.”

“Don’t call me that!”

Thinking about it, it had started about a month ago. He could feel a gaze, but when he looked to its direction, there was no one there. He wondered if it was that man who wanted him to find the twelve animals, but that gaze was slightly different from his. And most of all—

“Oh, hey.”

“How long are you going to stay here?”

The man had been living at Myohan’s for a month now. After they found Jagyeom, he naturally stayed there without asking for permission. Now he greeted Myohan when he came home as if they had always been living together, so he couldn’t be the one watching Myohan.

“Isn’t it time to find the other animals?”

“If you don’t like the slow process, go out and look for them yourself.”

“You can’t find them because you’re wasting your time cleaning the library.”

No, Myohan changed his mind. It had to be him.

“Are you stalking me?”

“What are you talking about?”

Myohan stood right next to the man, who was lying on the sofa, and leaned down to look into his eyes.

“Look at me.”

His black, beady eyes meet the pair of particularly faint eyes. Staring like that, they became close, until their noses met. Myohan didn’t care, of course. He just frowned at the man’s still and steady gaze. He must have taken a shower since he smelled like Myohan’s shampoo.

“It’s probably not you….”

Myohan straightened his back and rubbed on his chin to think. The man didn’t say anything. He looked somewhat in a daze, but that didn’t interest Myohan.

“Has something happened at school?”

“It’s not you, is it?”

“What?”

“I feel like someone’s watching me.”

Myohan regretted saying that the second he said that. He knew it sounded absurd. But the man didn’t say so. His thick eyebrows twitched.

“Watching you?”

“I can feel a gaze. But when I look there, there’s no one.”

“Since when?”

“I don’t know, about a month ago?”

It was quite bothersome, but it wasn’t threatening. Maybe it wasn’t a thing to care about too much. It could have been Myohan’s imagination. So he just shook his head to dismiss the idea, but the man commented seriously.

“You should trust your own instincts, cat.”

That strangely helped. It made Myohan be sure of what he felt.

On the next day, he couldn’t free himself from the mysterious gaze. It kept following him, even to the library. He checked on the returned books, put them in their designated spots, and then stretched his back and frowned.

Someone was there.

His cat instincts were accurate. Someone was watching him. Was it Jagyeom? No, if it had been Jagyeom, he would have talked to Myohan already. Jagyeom never just quietly looked at him from afar like this. There was no one in the library, and it was impossible to be quiet enough to be unnoticed by Myohan. Then it had to be the space that wasn’t close to where Myohan was but where one could see his every movement.

He slowly went to the window. It was only open halfway so that no one would be able to jump from it, but he opened it and stuck his upper body.

“Hey.”

It was April, with spring breezes. It was April, so the day wasn’t long enough. The sky was already dark and it was bright in the library, so he couldn’t look out very well.

“What are you?”

There was only one place possible. It was close enough for Myohan to reach now if he jumped as high as he could. It was a window at the end of the old building’s hallway that was facing the library. The boy didn’t look like he wanted to run away.

He had an arm on the windowsill and his head on it. Then he smiled softly. Myohan had never seen him before.

The soft line of his lips, which didn’t match his fierce eyes, curved prettily. Even Myohan, who always had trouble remembering others’ faces, knew he would never be able to forget that face.

The boy looked down a little. He let out his tongue to moisten his lips, and it gave Myohan chills. He looked at Myohan. His eyes, which were as light as Myohan’s, dangerously sparkled.

“Hi.”

The voice that came with the wind wasn’t that bad, but Myohan wasn’t kind enough to say hi in return. The cool spring breeze blew. The boy smiled again, removing his hair from his face. It was a dangerous smile that made crushed Myohan’s heart down with a thud. He could feel his hair standing up. He noticed the boy’s nametag on his chest only then.

“Nice to meet you, kitty.”

His name was Kim Sajun.