A Cat Mom Worse Than Garbage
Aah… ugh!
I stretched my arms high above my head and let out a big yawn.
‘10 straight hours of one-on-one matches really is taking a toll on me, no matter how tough I am.’
As I thought that, I fought off the temptation of the custom room chat window begging me for just one more round and returned to the lobby screen.
Honestly, if I really wanted to, I could’ve kept going for at least another six hours.
My condition wasn’t perfect, but my stamina was still plenty and the fatigue from burning out my brain was barely at the limit of what I could handle.
The sweat soaking every inch of the VR trackers felt gross, but I could put up with it.
And my soul demanded more.
My fingers twitched with the urge to hit the start button.
It was like smelling the savory smell of deli sandwich at the subway station on a day when I hadn’t eaten for ages.
But I desperately suppressed the craving for another soul-shattering match.
Desires have their own hierarchy.
The simple want to do something is like a weed pushed in front of the sharp blade of a hoe before the primal, instinctual hunger of a human.
In short, I was starving.
So starving I couldn’t stand it.
As expected, I hadn’t eaten a single thing all day today.
About an hour before afternoon, I woke up a bit earlier than usual and, without even thinking about filling my stomach, checked the Kelin gallery because of the photo I had just uploaded and started one-on-one matches.
And that’s how I ended up here right now.
Normally I would’ve gone to the big supermarket this morning to do grocery shopping.
But the current time was 9:54 PM.
This area’s big supermarket was about to close any minute.
So I’d probably have to go to the convenience store again.
‘Ugh, convenience stores are just ridiculously expensive.’
But it was fun anyway, so I didn’t care.
Yeah, sure.
Looking back on it, over the past few days… no, in my entire 21 years of life, this was the first time I had felt this happy.
Thanks to that, I had been humming a tune all day even though it didn’t suit me at all.
The grand, sharp music flowing from the lobby screen was transformed into my thin, soft humming and filled the room quietly.
I removed all the VR equipment and stored it in the locker.
I took off my sweat-drenched clothes and went into the bathroom.
I wrapped my long black hair that reached my waist tightly with a towel and fixed it up.
Then I turned on the shower and stood under the warm water until it came out.
The cold water pouring from the shower bit at the warmth of my slender fingers.
The warm water, which came a bit late today, felt like it was trying to wash away the fatigue.
Suddenly I looked straight ahead.
Just as I was trying to ignore the person in front of me, our eyes met in the mirror, and I stared awkwardly at the figure in front of me.
Beyond the shattered, crack-filled giant glass lay countless versions of me.
Like the eyes of a giant monster with too many eyes, or like being divided into tiny pieces locked inside hundreds of prisons.
The shape of the young girl that peeked out from the broken shards was incredibly beautiful.
Even though my hair was wrapped in a towel, the cuteness spilling from my features didn’t get any blurry.
Rather, the delicate beauty of the fine details like the jawline and facial contours, which had been hidden by my hair until now, stood out even more.
My eyes, sharp yet innocent-looking, and my nose that had grown so tall it seemed impossible for it to come out this way were both astonishing to me.
My lips, which clearly showed a faint pink color, and my skin, transparent and clean with no spots at all.
Clearly what I was looking at was me.
But I didn’t see any sign of ‘me’ anywhere.
The ‘something’ who had been me up until now was standing here.
The gap coming from there was so strong it shook my body wildly and was impossible to endure.
Only when the warm water touched my fingertips did I wake up and come back to my senses, rushing out of the mirror.
I hurriedly lowered my gaze and poured the hot water over my body.
Swoosh…!
The stream of warm water wrapped around my body and washed away the fatigue that had built up.
A deep sigh naturally escaped my body.
Warm showers are the best, I thought.
I stood under the water for about twenty minutes, then turned it off.
Normally I could’ve stood like that all day, but-
Gurgle gurgle gurgle!
My stomach was growling so loudly it threatened to twist my guts if I didn’t go out right now and buy food.
I’ve never been very hungry to begin with.
Before this body, I only ate the bare minimum.
I’d eat some snacks and nothing else for the whole day many times.
Maybe it was because of the habit of not moving much and staying cooped up in my room.
Back then, when energy consumption was extremely low, I was the type of person who would say, “How do you even stay alive eating that?”
But this body was screaming as if it would slit my throat if I didn’t fill it with something right now.
It had terrible fuel efficiency, so even if I ate until I was full, it would beg for more food like a baby bird just a few hours later.
This body was really… just annoying.
Three months had passed, yet I still wasn’t used to it at all.
Haa…
I let out a long sigh and put the shower back in its original place.
I took off the towel I had used to wrap my hair and wiped my wet body.
I roughly wiped the water flowing down my body, which had a soft, hourglass shape different from my old one, with the towel.
Then I went back to the room and picked up my clothes piece by piece.
I skillfully put on my bra.
I hadn’t learned how to wear women’s underwear separately.
Since I already knew how, it didn’t matter.
After all, I had been wearing women’s underwear since I was very young, shuddering at the thought.
As proof, my closet was full of the women’s underwear I had used back then.
In short, I had been wearing clothes like these since long before my body changed.
If I said it like that, it would sound like I was a crazy man who loved cross-dressing.
But that was a completely wrong misunderstanding.
In that sense, I was purely innocent.
I hadn’t chosen to wear women’s clothes of my own will.
It was perfectly forced by others.
By someone tied to me by a bloodline and an unbreakable curse.
…Puu.
I thought I had somehow escaped these clothes.
But now I had to wear them again.
Not out of coercion, but out of my own will.
And in a form I couldn’t refuse.
Life really… I have no idea what’s ahead.
After changing clothes slowly, I sat on the bed for a moment to enjoy the freshness right after the shower a little longer.
No, it would be more accurate to say I was preparing my mind to go out.
Only after my stomach growled three times, shaking my insides, did I finally get up from the bed.
I struggled to open the front door.
When I came out in front of the house, the first thing I saw was an awkwardly made cat feeding station.
A bold warning sign saying it would face legal punishment for damaging public property with its claws.
A plastic sheet with many holes and scattered cat food all over the place.
Next to it, four or five long-haired cats were lying peacefully.
Murruuuuwuuuung!
Uooooong!
Kkuooooooong!
Letting out strange, eerie cries like strange living beings.
‘A cat mom worse than garbage.’
I thought that and sent them an annoyed look.
…Should I just smash them all?
That impulse kept flickering inside me.
Strong anger and irritation gripped my heart tightly.
It had been five years already.
The land had changed half of it over the years.
How much longer was I supposed to endure the horny cries of those garbage furballs?
Listening to the cat’s operatic concert every night, I almost wanted to throw away my humanity and just give up.
Probably every person living around here was carrying a sharp dagger and a Tylenol in their heart.
That was true for me too.
It was a miracle that no one had stabbed a cat yet.
The patience of the people here was truly amazing, no matter how many times I thought about it.
Was it because they loved life?
That couldn’t be right.
They just didn’t want to cause trouble because they got caught by that ‘crazy woman’ for no reason.
This neighborhood really had an extreme cat mom.
A middle-aged aunt in her forties with a weird personality.
If you looked at her personality, she would have been cut off from her family.
It was obvious without even looking.