Furrballs

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I am sorry if you stayed up for this update. I am a bit late than usual and again I hope you like it.


"I recently discovered that my cat has been treating your apartment as a second home, so first of all, I apologize, and second of all, can I have her back please?"

Yongsun blinks at the woman in front of her. Only minutes ago, she'd been deep asleep in an impromptu nap, and with its abrupt ending, everything feels more than a little unreal. And this? A gorgeous stranger at her door talking about cats? Completely unreal.

The woman, her neighbor, apparently, shifts a little when Yongsun doesn't respond right away. She's about to speak again when Yongsun puts her eloquent verbal skills into action. "Wait, what?"

The woman huffs, just a hint of irritation that Yongsun can't help but think is cute. "My cat? I know she's here," she says, eyeing the sliding door behind the short-haired occupier of the house, cracked open just enough to grant a cat access.

The mystery cat had appeared for the first time about a month ago, sitting outside the glass door of her balcony glaring in at her with a fierce determination. For what? Yongsun wasn't sure. Maybe milk or something, she supposed.

But when she let the cat in and poured some milk into a bowl, it just frowned at it before frowning even more at her . Do cats even like milk? she wondered. "Stereotypes, amirite?" she tried to joke, but the cat wasn't having it. "Okayy, water then?"

The cat frowned at the water too, before squinting up at Yongsun. "Come on," Yongsun groaned. "I'm not trying to poison you..." To her relief, the cat actually started taking tentative licks at the water, and Yongsun took advantage of its position, trying to figure out the cat's gender.

Unfortunately, its black fur was so fluffy that she had no luck. "Well, I don't want to stereotype you again, and everyone says cats are feminine ," Yongsun said. "Maybe you're a boy cat." The cat glared up at her. "See, but you make that face all the time. I don't know what you're trying to tell me."

The cat only turned back to the water. "I wish I knew what your name was..." Yongsun said, watching the cat drink. "Wait! Do you have a collar?" Yongsun suddenly asked, crouching next to the cat and reaching to pet it. But the cat hated that more than the milk as the fluffball swatted at her hand with a quick hiss.

"Okay, fine ," Yongsun huffed. "I'll just give you a new name." Yongsun frowned down at the cat in thought who frowned back up at her in what was probably annoyance or hatred or... anything really. "You're not helping your case with these cat stereotypes you know. You're lucky I don't call you Grumpy."

She regarded the squinty creature for a moment longer, deciding she wasn't going to give in and name it something like Asshole or Darth Vader . It took her a minute, but the corners of her mouth tilted up as she smiled down at the fluffy cat. "I'm gonna call you Jjing Jjing."

At that, Jjing Jjing turned and left.

He didn't come back for another week.

It took a while, and Yongsun was never sure exactly why Jjing Jjing was there, because all he seemed to do was glare or squint at her whenever she so much as moved, and when she tried to pet him, he would swat and hiss. He seemed to learn early on that when she said Jjing Jjing , she was talking to him. It made her wonder if that was actually his name, but the coincidence was likely too great. Especially cause she still wasn't totally sure Jjing Jjing was a boy cat at all.

But he continued coming back, and weeks later, he finally let Yongsun pet him. She thought she heard him purring, but it was over before she could be sure.

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