The luxury apartment complex stood tall in the heart of the city.
Just as Haein had expected, everything around Taeil’s apartment was completely unfamiliar to her.
It was nothing like the outskirts near the mountains where she used to live in Seoul.
She’d managed to roughly figure out the location by stealing glances at his mail, but as a cat, there wasn’t much she could do with that information.
“Ugh…”
The only place she truly knew how to get to from here… was Si-yul’s animal clinic.
After a moment of hesitation, Haein set off in that direction.
Si-yul knew she could talk, after all. At the very least, she ought to say goodbye.
Her steps were still light for now. She couldn’t have imagined what was waiting for her.
________✧⑅˖♡∘˚˳°↝^._.^_________
Hiding behind the large tree across the street from the clinic, Haein waited for Si-yul to come out.
It was Wednesday today—his shift after Tuesday night duty, which meant he’d only work the morning.
They’d seen each other often enough that, unintentionally, she’d memorized his schedule.
“…”
She narrowed her eyes, staring at the clinic door, running simulations in her head.
If she told him she was leaving, Si-yul would probably insist she stay with him. She could already hear it.
And if he begged enough, maybe… maybe she’d reluctantly agree to stay at his place.
He was weak to talking cats like her, after all.
But that didn’t mean she liked him. Ugh, how annoying he could be! He could seem trustworthy one moment, and then the next… just an unreliable, perverted nuisance.
Licking her paws, Haein tried to calm the mess of feelings swirling in her chest. It usually helped when she felt this conflicted.
Thinking about Si-yul always left her feeling… complicated.
________✧⑅˖♡∘˚˳°↝^._.^_________
“I’m off!”
Ding.
Si-yul pushed open the clinic door, the small bell ringing overhead.
It was about 10:30, half an hour past his scheduled finish.
Haein perked up, stretching her tail high and preparing to walk toward him, ready to call out—
“Myaa—”
“Oppa!”
Oppa? Ugh, pervert fits better.
Turning toward the voice, Haein spotted a woman waving energetically at Si-yul.
Her steps froze, then quickly retreated behind the tree.
The petite woman with a cute face had been lingering near the clinic for a while now. She’d been waiting for him too.
College student?
Judging by her heels, she was about Haein’s human height.
But unlike Haein, her voice was overflowing with sugary, nasal charm.
Si-yul didn’t seem to mind one bit. His tolerance for that nonsense was impressive.
“You’re here?”
“Mm-hmm! How long’s it been since you promised to buy me dinner?!”
“That long?”
“Yes! I almost got upset, you know. You never answer when I call.”
“You really think I’d ignore you on purpose? I’d buy you dinner every day if I had time. I’ve been busy.”
The way Si-yul casually accepted her flirting made Haein’s stomach twist.
Of course. Pretty girls get whatever they want.
Narrowing her eyes, Haein glared daggers at the pair as they walked off together.
“Still mad, though! You have to make it up to me, okay? I saw these shoes I really want…”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“And maybe a new bag too?”
“We’ll see how you behave.”
“Aww, oppa!”
Haein shuddered, fur prickling in disgust.
Gross. Another one of those couples.
Oppa, oppa, she mimicked mentally, gagging inside. She couldn’t stand hearing that word right now.
Si-yul had been her backup plan, her one remaining option, but seeing him act all smitten… Forget it.
It was nauseating.
I barely admitted I liked someone, and already I’m dealing with this disaster, she sulked.
She glared at the lovey-dovey pair before spinning around, tail flicking in frustration.
Yeah, asking Si-yul for help wasn’t a good idea after all.
I’ll handle this on my own!
With forced confidence, Haein marched off in the opposite direction.
________✧⑅˖♡∘˚˳°↝^._.^_________
Thwack!
“A black cat!”
“Hit it!”
“Kyaaa-ong!” (These little brats!)
Lost in thought, Haein hadn’t noticed the kids approaching. The stone hit her square in the back, and her fur bristled in alarm.
“Whoa, scary!”
“Throw a bigger one!”
“Hissss!” (Back off, you little punks!)
Ever since running away from home, Haein’s vocabulary of curses had grown significantly. The harsh world toughened her up whether she liked it or not.
“Get it!”
“Witch cat!”
“Run, it’s getting away!”
The boys didn’t scare easily. Her bared teeth only encouraged them to throw bigger rocks, and when she fled, they shrieked and chased her.
Haein scrambled up the wall, leaping onto a low rooftop, then higher and higher, desperately seeking refuge.
Out of necessity, she was overcoming her fear of heights.
“Myaa-ong?” (Try and catch me now!)
Her feline body was adapting with each passing moment.
More flexible, more agile, sharper senses—she could see farther, leap higher.
The instincts of survival fine-tuned her body beyond its limits.
Finally feeling somewhat safe, Haein slumped onto a rooftop, inspecting her injured hind paw.
“Ow…”
The wound from saving Si-yul still hadn’t healed.
She could walk, sure—but every step had her limping, and any intense movement sent sharp pain radiating up her leg.
As if being a limping, black cat wasn’t already bad enough… no wonder people target me.
Haein had no choice but to keep avoiding humans.
But her mind wandered back to Taeil—the warmth of his hand petting her, the way he praised her black fur.
“Good girl, good girl. My pretty little kitty.”
So gentle…
She realized just how comfortable life had been at Taeil’s place.
Hunger was nothing but a mild nuisance back then. He made her feel safe, lazy, content.
But now, gnawing hunger stabbed at her relentlessly.
Maybe it was because she’d become more in tune with her feline form—or maybe it was exhaustion—but everything felt ten times harder now.
The only certainty was that life sucked.
“Myaa-ha…” (Sigh…)
Haein tilted her head, squinting up at the blazing sun.
The season hovered between summer and fall, but it still felt like full-on summer.
The rooftop burned beneath her paws, the heat seeping through. She shuffled uncomfortably before leaving the spot.
Her body, no matter how sturdy, was still a cat’s.
Staying in the sun like this would exhaust her completely.
She couldn’t roam rooftops all day. Maybe at night—but not now.
“Hissss!”
“Whoa, crap!”
Startled, Haein leapt back. A huge tomcat had burst from the shade, fur puffed, teeth bared.
She hadn’t noticed the scent beneath the overpowering trash smell.
‘Real’ stray cats didn’t welcome black cats reeking of human scent into their territory.
They were territorial and hated anything that smelled unfamiliar—especially humans.
“Fine, I’m leaving!”
Three cats emerged from the shadows, blocking her path. She retreated quickly.
There was no way she could fight them off.
Haein scouted around, but no matter where she went, a dominant cat or a hostile dog had already claimed the space.
Getting chased away was becoming routine. She was a punching bag for the whole neighborhood.
Hours passed as she wandered. Only near sundown did she find a quiet little village.
No aggressive dogs, barely any stray cats, clean streets—few kids.
Finally… a decent spot to sleep after three days on the run.
The sun dipped low as Haein perched on a fence, licking her swollen hind paw.
How far did I even walk…?
Her tongue rasped against her battered paw, frustration building.
There’s no way I can survive like this for a year. I need to gather enough negative energy to stay human for at least a day.
Only then could she return home—
“Nyoong?”
Suddenly, a strange scent tickled Haein’s nose, making her head snap up.
But having only recently ended up on the streets, Haein’s skills as a stray were still at rock bottom. She couldn’t immediately tell what the scent meant.
She perked her ears forward, then sideways, sniffing the air cautiously. But nothing unusual stood out, so she let her ears relax back into place.
The next moment—
She was already caught in a huge net, like the ones used for catching bugs.
Whoosh! The world flipped upside down.
“Gotcha!”
“Myaaa?!” (What the hell?)
Startled, Haein struggled wildly. She hadn’t even noticed when she’d been caught. It took her a second longer to register what was happening.
“Alright, let’s wrap it up for the day!”
They were workers from the animal control center. They looked satisfied, having snagged one more stray just before the end of their shift.
Of course, for Haein, it was nothing short of a disaster.
“Nyaa!” (Let me go!)
“Feels like we caught fewer than we expected.”
“Yeah. Someone reported a cat with kittens, but…”
“Where could she be hiding?”
So that’s why this neighborhood felt so quiet.
Turns out, people here frequently reported stray cats and dogs. Apparently, there were more people than she thought who couldn’t stand seeing animals wandering near their houses.
Haein, completely unaware of that fact, had stumbled into this town and gotten herself caught.
She had only just learned how to avoid other animals—but she still hadn’t mastered how to avoid humans.
Even though she stood on the thin line between cat and human, her mind was unmistakably human.
“How many have we caught today?”
To the animal control workers, an untagged stray like Haein was easy prey. Her body, scratched and bruised from life on the streets, only confirmed their decision.
“Mya, mya!” (Please let me go!)
She pleaded, but it was useless.
Even though she knew it was hopeless, her cries escaped her lips anyway.
Inside the semi-transparent net, she twisted and struggled, but it didn’t ease her situation.
She couldn’t let them take her away like this.
If she got lucky, she’d be sterilized and have part of her ear clipped as proof.
If she wasn’t lucky? She could be euthanized.
And that was only after making sure they didn’t find out she wasn’t a normal cat.
A chill shot down her spine, her body stiffening involuntarily.
“Seven today, I think? Anyway, this neighborhood’s pretty much cleared out.”
“So, what’s next…? Where are we getting all those reports from again?”
Click.
The man holding Haein’s net looped it over his shoulder and chatted casually, smiling beside a gray pet carrier.
To him, this was routine work. To Haein, it was pure terror.
She fought with everything she had to avoid being shoved into the carrier.
“Huh?”
The moment she ended up inside that gray carrier, it was all over.
Noticing her unexpected strength and stubbornness despite her small size, the man skillfully flipped the net upside down, shaking it roughly over the carrier.
There was no way to resist when gravity was forcing her down.
Clinging desperately to the carrier’s opening, Haein tried to hold on, but all she got for her efforts was a sharp whack.
“Keugh!”
Thud.
Her head smacked into the carrier, and she tumbled inside, rolling helplessly.
Moments later, they tossed the carrier into the trunk of the vehicle.
As the car started up, Haein found herself tumbling again with every movement.
The moment the engine roared to life was horrifying.
While the car rumbled down the road, Haein trembled uncontrollably, as though a heavy weight was pressing down on her chest.
The gazes of the other animals around her were unbearable. Their eyes were filled with the hopelessness of those who knew they were going to die.
“Woooowoooo…”
“Myaa, myaa!”
The cries of the other creatures in their carriers sounded like a funeral procession to Haein’s ears.
It was horrifying.
Help me… I want to go home… Mom, Dad… Sis…
Some cried desperately for their owners, others for the homes they lost, the sorrow clawing at Haein’s heart.
Being able to understand their words only deepened her panic.
“Whimper… whine…”
The flood of fear and despair from the other animals pressed in on her, threatening to crush her sanity.
If she weren’t human on the inside, she would’ve broken completely by now.
She froze for a long time, finally regaining her senses after what felt like forever.i
Reaching her paw toward the small opening in the carrier, she tried to squeeze through.
The gap was so tight, she thought the fur on her paw might rip off entirely.
Click.
“Ngh…”
Even as a cat, with a human’s intelligence, it took all her effort to work the latch.
Her wrist ached badly from bending it the wrong way, but eventually, the carrier door creaked open.
Grimacing, Haein crawled out on three legs.
She wanted to collapse right there, but she couldn’t afford to.
If she gave up now, she really would die.
Forcing her aching body upright, she shifted forms, her body gradually growing.
As her figure expanded, the other animals fell silent.
The sudden transformation stunned even the creatures around her.
On her knees, Haein took in her surroundings.
Roughly a dozen carriers filled the trunk—about half of them holding other animals.
“…Sorry.”
It broke her heart, but she couldn’t save them all.
She whispered a small apology, waiting for the car to slow down.
When it finally did, she took a deep breath, thankful the door could be opened from the inside.
Listening carefully, she grabbed the handle and pulled.
Creak.
She peeked through the gap. Looked like they were in the middle of a road.
Without wasting a second, Haein flung the door open and shook her head vigorously.
As her long black hair cascaded down, her body shrank—she returned to her cat form in an instant.
Whoosh!
She leapt from the car into the road.
The street was packed with vehicles—it was rush hour.
Every car looked gigantic, threatening to crush her into a bloody mess.
Fast, aggressive, terrifying. Those spinning wheels didn’t care what they flattened.
“Mommy! A kitty!”
A child poked their head out of a car window, pointing at Haein.
Haein glanced their way briefly before bolting toward the green pedestrian signal.
The four-lane road felt impossibly vast compared to her tiny body.
It seemed like even running all day wouldn’t get her across.
Huff, huff!
No matter how hard she sprinted, the end never got closer.
Suddenly, the signal changed—the sound of screeching brakes pierced her ears.
In the middle of the darkening street, her feline eyes glowed.
Screeeech!
Honk! Honk!
Even though yelling at a cat was pointless, drivers blared their horns furiously.
Terror and panic brought tears to her eyes, but she had to survive. Haein dashed for the sidewalk with all her might.
Her injured paws, her back—they all burned with pain, slowing her down.
To the onlookers, it probably looked like she’d already been hit. She was in such bad shape.
Limping, she barely managed to drag herself onto the sidewalk, gasping for breath.
She turned her head to look back.
“What the hell?! Who left this door open?!”
The animal control van sat in the middle of the road, hazard lights flashing.
They hadn’t realized she’d escaped yet. They were panicking over the open door.
Haein scrambled into a narrow alley, heart racing.
Tears welled up again—not from pain, but from how pathetically weak she felt.
So this… is how small and fragile a cat’s life is?
And people… people are terrifying.
Sniff…
She missed Taeil. She missed Si-yul.
She missed everyone… but she’d strayed too far to find her way back now.
