The Cat Was There
Something tickled my cheek. I shook my head and was just about to drag the blanket back up when a soft little laugh slipped out nearby. I opened my eyes, went blank at the pretty face lying quietly beside me, and only came back to myself when that face drew closer and a pair of lips touched my forehead.
"……You're awake?"
"Yes."
"Since when?"
"About ten minutes ago."
"You should've woken me."
"……You looked too cute when you were asleep, oppa."
"The cute one was you, yesterday. Don't you remember?"
At that, Hyunji's face went scarlet in a single breath.
"I-I'm sorry. I d-didn't know it would feel that good……."
"It felt that good?"
"……Yes. It felt like my head was melting."
"Let's do it again next time."
"Really? D-did you like it too, oppa? M-my… inside. I-it wasn't weird, was it?"
"No. It was incredible."
"You mean it?"
"Have you ever seen me lie?"
"You tease me, though."
"I'm not teasing. I mean it. It really felt good. And I was happy that I was your first."
Only then did she believe me. She edged a little closer and curled into my arms, and I looked at her a moment before quietly kissing her. Salt touched my tongue. Come to think of it, Hyunji's face was a wreck of tear tracks and drool—and still that beautiful. Young ones really were the best. When I stroked her cheek, she surrendered her face to my hand the way a cat would.
"I want to stay like this with you all day."
"You have school."
"I don't want to. I'm not going. Don't go home either."
"Don't be a baby. Go to the bathroom."
"……Okay."
"Don't scream too loud. You'll hurt your throat."
"What?"
"You'll see."
Even after that she dawdled in my arms for a long while before slowly climbing out of bed. Standing there, gathering her hair, her back was like a painting. Her shoulder blades lifted as if spreading wings, and following the clean line of muscle down her spine brought me to the sharp definition above her hips and tailbone. Thin as she was, her hips still held a quiet, understated curve, and beneath them her long, snow-white legs crossed. Morning sunlight glittered over all of it. It wasn't a voluptuous body so much as a purely visual beauty, and I couldn't look away. Hyunji must have felt my gaze. She asked, shy.
"……Am I pretty?"
"Yeah. You're pretty. Can I take a picture?"
"Mm… okay. Only you'll see it, right?"
"Obviously."
She lifted both arms, the hair tie caught in her mouth, and glanced back at me. Faced with a pose like that, I took the photo without a word. Hyunji scurried over, climbed onto the bed, and checked my phone.
"Wow, it came out great. No wonder you wanted to take it. Send it to me too."
"Yeah. Kind of a smug thing to say, but I'll own it."
She laughed, a bright little peal, and slipped off the bed. I watched her head into the bathroom and quietly covered my ears.
"Kyaaaa!"
Using Hyunji's scream as background music, I picked up the gown and towel left on the bed and went out to the living room. From somewhere, a pure white cat leapt off the sofa and rubbed its head against my leg.
So there really was one.
Hyunji's face and words from yesterday came back to me. She'd been cute. I crouched toward the cat, gave it a stroke or two, and stepped into the bathroom she'd pointed out; the cat vanished at once, as if it had never been interested. I turned on the hot water, braced my hands on the sink, and was just about to sigh.
……?
Something was different. I leaned closer to the mirror, frowning, and turned this way and that.
……What is this?
The shoulder running out from my collarbone had swollen firm. Those shoulders had been utterly bare and skinny, and now they had actual contour. They'd always been narrow enough to make my head look too big, but that impression was gone. That wasn't all. My soft chest had risen, solid, and the upper pec that had no business existing was faintly swollen. Even my stomach showed the outline of abs—not cleanly split into an eight-pack, more the suggestion of six, plus the arch of a line beneath. Spare fat was nowhere to be seen. When I pinched, only skin came up. But the more important change was somewhere else.
……Who are you?
This was not my boy, who was supposed to be cutely shriveled. Whenever he'd decided to bulk up, the thickness was a little different, and the way he rested against the precious pouch below felt different too. It wasn't a dramatic change to the eye, but I was the father. I knew. This was not my son. Still, what was I supposed to do about the fact that he was attached? I quietly lifted him and let go. He dropped with a thunk. Not a bounce. Not a tap. A thunk. Thunk. I tried it several times. The weight was different.
Huh?
And looking down at him, the view of the floor felt slightly off—that strange, unbalanced sensation I'd had in high school, when I'd shot up all at once. But that was absurd. There was no way I'd get taller at thirty.
It is subtly different, though. Must just be morning dizziness. This isn't even my place.
Steam was already rising off the water, and I was about to look away from the mirror when my feet stopped. The faint blemishes on my face had vanished without a trace—the mole by my eye, the sparse hairs that used to grow around my face. The light stubble had drawn a clean beard line. My chin used to be all jagged patches with bare gaps in between, a chin I couldn't even dream of growing a beard on. The shaving scar under it, from when I'd cut myself as a kid, was gone too. And this sharp jawline. Had I ever had something like this?
What on earth is going on?
I watched the mirror cloud over, then forced my eyes away. Hyunji would need to leave soon, and I felt bad dragging it out any longer. I finished the shower and went back into the bedroom. The cat that had disappeared was loafing on the bed, yawning. Hyunji, already dressed, sat at the vanity doing her makeup. When our eyes met in the mirror, she shot me a glare and pouted.
"……You're really too much."
"Still sulking?"
"You could've warned me. Ah, I'm so embarrassed."
"I told you it was pretty. I knew the second you kissed me."
"……Hmph."
I quietly slipped off the gown, and I could feel her gaze stealing over my back.
"It's already past nine. You need to hurry."
"Ah, okay."
Even so, she seemed to have trouble looking away. When I pulled on my underwear and stood, she spoke.
"……I'll buy you some underwear. I didn't think of it."
"Eh, whatever. Home's right around the corner."
"What are you doing today?"
"Go home and sleep a little more, for starters. Maybe work out in the afternoon?"
"I see."
"You?"
"I have practice until this evening. The performance prep is in the final stretch……."
"Hang in there. Text me."
"Okay. Um……."
"Yeah?"
"……We can see each other again, right? Us……?"
"We said we'd go shopping. Did you forget?"
Only then did the hesitation and fear on her face give way to a bright smile.
"Yes!"
"Just hurry up. I'm leaving first?"
"No way, you're already dressed? W-wait. I'm done too."
Maybe it was because the base was already stunning, but her makeup went on absurdly fast. Then again, it looked like she only did lips, eyeliner, and a bit of foundation.
"Shall we go, then?"
"Yes. Aren't you hungry?"
"I know you're already late."
"I-it's fine. Morning practice is optional……."
"No. Let's go."
"Hnn, okay. Do you want to leave that badly?"
"I don't want to make you feel awkward at school. That's all."
"……Okay. Hehe."
When I quietly indulged a bit of simple whining, that alone put a happy smile on her face. We left the apartment and headed for the main gate, and Hyunji looked up at the sky, spread her arms, then turned to me with a smile. If this had been a magazine shoot, it would've been the hero frame.
"……I'm happy."
I walked up to her and took her shoulders in a gentle grip. She tilted her head at me, and I whispered.
"I thought you were about to fly away."
"……Oppa."
Laughing, happy, she wrapped her arms around my neck, held me for a moment, and then drew back.
"Seriously. Why did we only meet now?"
"I know."
"……I really love how you always say such pretty things."
"Everything's too good and too happy with you, huh."
"Yes. Because it is good."
She came into my arm again. I almost stroked her cheek, then held back—people were starting to appear.
"Does it hurt?"
"……It hurts a little. But I'm okay."
"There was a fair amount of bleeding, so if you have time today, go to a clinic."
"Okay. Thank you for worrying."
"Don't thank me. I look after what's mine."
"……What?"
"You heard me."
"Say it again. I want to hear it again."
Why did they all want to hear that twice? I let out a light sigh, looked at Hyunji as she pestered me, and gave her the extra.
"You're mine now, so take good care of yourself."
"……Yes. Oppa."
She squeezed our interlaced hands. I hesitated a moment, then asked as casually as I could.
"What will you do if you get pregnant?"
"I'll have it. Really, why didn't I think of that? I hope it took today."
As expected. The same reaction as Rahee. I watched her stroke her stomach with a soft look on her face, then asked.
"What about school? You had plans to study abroad, too."
"……Actually, before I met you, I had a lot of worries."
"Mm."
"A man…… of course I wanted to meet one, and to s-sleep. Ahem. I thought about trying that too. But a child, I wasn't sure. Everyone looked at me strangely for it, so I started to think I must be the strange one. Of course, if it happened I'd have the baby…… but for us, a year in your twenties is precious. And if I thought about stepping away, even for a while, from the dance I've done since elementary school, it felt hopeless……."
It was a natural thing to say. But what she said next left me speechless.
"But…… when you held me…… I knew. I like this better. I feel like I've been born again. And if it's your child, I'll have it no matter what. I'll raise it myself, too. Your child. Just imagining it makes me so happy."
Her face was red, embarrassment written all over it, and yet it was the most determined thing I had ever heard her say. Looking at her like that, I couldn't bring myself to ask anything more.
"……The name. Will you give it, oppa?"
The word name made me flinch. I flicked her lightly on the forehead.
"Ow."
"……Don't get ahead of yourself. It was one time. You think getting pregnant is that easy?"
"I know. But you never know."
"……And what will you do if I hold another woman, too?"
Hyunji's face, if anything, only looked puzzled. She tilted her head at me and answered.
"Of course, if she's someone you like, you should see her. Who am I to keep you all to myself? It's good for men to meet lots of women. Of course, it hurts a little when I imagine it, but th-that's because I'm a bit possessive. And if I have a child, that means there'll be someone to look after you in the meantime. My personality is just like this……. Yesterday, too, my greed put you in danger."
"……All right."
"If someone comes along, introduce me. I'm curious."
She said it so brightly, so innocently, that I felt as if I myself had become the shadow. I wasn't only that good of a guy. We reached the bus stop in no time, and she sighed as if it were a shame.
"We're already here."
"It was right around the corner. I'll wait with you."
"Ah, n-no. It's fine. I-I should be the one seeing you off……."
"If it's a burden, want me to go first?"
"Ah! Absolutely not! I-it's just, people keep stealing glances at you……."
"You worry about the strangest things. How many minutes left?"
"……Three."
I nodded at the regret in her voice as she checked her phone, and we talked about this and that until a bus came into view in the distance.
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
She rose onto her toes and kissed my cheek, and the bus stop stirred all at once.
"……I'll message you."
"Okay. And—"
"Yes? Mmph—!"
Screams broke out across the stop that had already been murmuring. I wrapped an arm around Hyunji's waist and pressed a light kiss to her lips.
"O-o-oppa?"
"A cheek doesn't count as a full charge. Go on."
I watched her, still staring at me in a daze, board the bus stiff as a wooden doll. I watched the bus pull away, and then I turned toward home.
……
I was sorry to Hyunji, but after that strange feeling in the shower, I was nowhere near calm. It felt like staring into the dark of the deep sea—closer to fear of the unknown. I went back over what had happened to me, carefully. All of it was things that should never have happened to me, and the thing I suspected most was that strange, searing Special Internal Energy.
……What even is it.
The first time I'd felt a change in my body was the morning I'd been with Rahee. The second was today. Both times the change had been subtle, but if the strangeness had repeated twice, there was no mistake. Nothing else had stimulated my body. Two sessions of weights could never cause a change like this. And if I factored in what had happened with the future, and what had happened at the theater, that strange energy only rose when I was inside someone. It wasn't proven yet. But nothing else made sense. And when that energy flowed back out of her, Hyunji had climaxed again in the middle of an orgasm. Rahee had been the same. Both of them had looked as if they were feeling multiple orgasms over and over, and in the end both had been left exhausted. The first time, I'd been the same. Last night, too, I'd been so spent that all I wanted was to sleep.
……Since I can't tell what it is.
My own body was changing in a positive direction, so that much I could set aside. But if something went wrong with theirs, this happy life might have to come to an end. I didn't want to fill my own wants at the cost of hurting someone.
I should hold back for a few days and watch.
Especially with the question of pregnancy, taking some time seemed fine. I wondered from how many weeks a test would even work.
That was the moment.