I Got Cat-tacked-nya
“Hoo… haa…”
I took a deep breath, then opened the door.
Like a Northern Faction operative on a stealth mission, I scanned the surroundings in total silence.
Okay. Nobody around.
I eased the door shut and headed for the elevator, pressed the down button, and waited for the car to climb back up to the fourteenth floor.
First floor, second, third… thirteenth, fourteenth.
Just as the number 14 was drawing near and I stepped up to the elevator doors—
“Huh?”
I watched the display jump from 14 to 15, then from 15 all the way to 20, and swallowed hard.
Is someone getting on?
Or getting off?
There was no way to know without looking.
I pulled my hat down tight, hid behind the corner of the hallway, and waited for the elevator doors to open.
Ding-dong.
Doors opening.
I peeked my face out and checked inside the elevator.
“Whew.”
No human silhouette. Thank god.
I stepped in and hit the button for the first floor. The doors closed and we started descending.
14, 13, 12… 5, 4, 3…
Then—
Ding-dong.
It stopped on 2.
“Eek!!!”
Doors opening.
I ducked my head and pressed myself into the corner. A pair of human legs entered my field of vision. From the look of them, a little girl.
My heart clenched. Then, out of nowhere, a question hit me.
…Why am I even doing this?
My head went blank for a second. There was absolutely no reason for me to be this scared. My ears were mashed flat under the hat, and my tail was stuffed inside my shirt.
Why should I be the one hiding?
As long as I don’t get caught, I’m fine!
“Ahem.”
I sheepishly twirled a strand of hair around my finger. Before long, we arrived at the first floor. The little girl who’d gotten on at the second floor bolted out, and I carefully set my own foot down.
The convenience store was inside the apartment complex, so it was only about a three-minute walk. I squared my shoulders and strode along with confidence. Right now, nobody would know I was a cat beastkin. Sure, my 150-centimeter frame and ill-fitting clothes might draw a glance or two, but it wasn’t like anyone was going to walk up and yell, “Hey! You’re a beastkin, aren’t you?”
Come to think of it, it had been a long time since the world sat this low in my field of view. It felt like I’d gone back to childhood. Kids were running around the playground in the complex. The little girl from the elevator was there too. Watching them play so happily even in the sweltering summer heat, I… kind of wanted to join them.
In that instant, my mind snapped awake.
“…?!”
What did I just say?
I wanted to run around and play with them?
Insane. Make some sense, you idiot, Kim Seon. You’re not a cat. You’re a person!
I slapped both cheeks with my hands to snap myself out of it and kept walking. Eventually I reached the convenience store. The trip that should have taken three minutes had taken five. Shorter legs meant a shorter stride.
Before going in, I checked my body.
Ears: hidden. Tail? Good. Can’t see it.
The biggest checkpoint of all: the convenience store. Through the glass doors I could see two men and a female part-timer standing at the counter. I waited for the two guys to come out. Time under the scorching sun crawled by at a glacial pace.
How long had it been? The two men finally came out together.
“Man, it’s seriously freaking hot.”
“Let’s just get home. You left the AC on, right?”
“Our place always has it running, so we’re good.”
Their eyes flicked in my direction for a moment, but only a moment. The height difference meant they couldn’t see my face, and with my hat pulled down so low, I managed not to catch their interest. I walked straight into the store.
“Hwaaah.”
Cool air. Bliss.
“Welcome!”
“Hik?!”
The female clerk spoke to me and I jumped a full foot in the air without meaning to. I ignored her and bolted through the aisles. That was when the hem of my shirt lifted and my tail made its grand appearance.
“Huk!”
I whipped my head around, checking if anyone had seen. Was this how a shoplifter felt? The anxiety of almost getting caught was intense. I stuffed the tail back in with lightning speed, let out a sigh of relief, and lifted my head.
And then—
“…?”
At the end of my line of sight sat a convex security mirror. The kind that showed the entire interior of the store.
!!
Wait, wait, wait!
No way…?
She didn’t see it, right? I casually glanced toward the clerk. Fortunately, she had wireless earbuds in and was watching a video on her phone.
“Whew.”
Buy what I need and get out, fast. Two tuna-mayo triangle kimbap and a pack of sliced cheese. Cup ramen was already at home, so that was fine. A thousand-won strawberry milk and a sausage hot bar. And finally, a Spicy-Sweet ice cream.
Done! That should be enough.
I carried everything to the counter and set it down. Beep! Beep! I slotted my card into the terminal.
“Payment complete. Please remove your card.”
Just under ten thousand won. A cheap meal for one.
“Heh-heh.”
I was about to walk out with the now-heavy bag when—
“Have a nice day!”
“Thanks for your hard work-nya. Hup!!!”
“…Nya?”
The words had slipped out unconsciously. I clapped a hand over my mouth and bolted straight out the door. Was it the dopamine from shopping? My guard had dropped without me realizing it, and I’d actually answered the clerk.
“Haa…”
This is hard. Now even a convenience store run required surgical precision.
What a wretched fate.
The heat seemed to be draining what little strength I had left. I unwrapped the ice cream and took a bite.
“Dororong.”
Yeah. That hit the spot. Even as a cat beastkin, my taste buds were the same. Truly a blessing.
Just get home already.
I had a lot to do. And so I walked along, licking my ice cream, one plodding step at a time.
But that was when the real incident began.
I was walking along in peace, passing the playground, forcibly suppressing the urge to climb the tall cat-tower-like play structure, heading home. My mood had been melting as sweetly as the ice cream itself.
Then it happened. From behind me came a woman’s breathless, thrilled voice.
“Whoa?! A caaat?!”
I flinched. The tongue that had been about to lick the ice cream froze mid-air.
“A caaaaat?!”
Something had gone terribly wrong. I was afraid to look back. That word — cat — felt like it was aimed squarely at me. But I couldn’t just ignore it. If I’d actually been found out, I’d have to abandon everything and run.
So I carefully glanced over my shoulder.
And of course. Ill omens never miss their mark. My tail had popped out of my shirt and was swaying contentedly back and forth. That tail, apparently, had been extremely alluring — alluring enough for the woman shouting about a cat behind me to pounce.
Shit!
I kicked off the ground right then and there, launching my body forward. But the woman was faster. Whatever kind of body she had, even with a fair bit of distance between us, she closed the gap in an instant and seized me.
Power of Cuteness(F)
“Hgyaaak?!”
It was a tackle that defied comprehension. This was bad.
“Caaaat!!!”
In the end, my hat got knocked off, exposing my pointed ears, and—
“Wh-what are you doing-nya!!!”
—her soft cheek pressed against my squishy cheek as she went—
“Ommyumyumyum!”
—nuzzle-nuzzle-nuzzle-nuzzle.
“Ebebebebeb—!”
I had to endure the most humiliating treatment imaginable. Head pats on top of that, while she held me in a death grip. She smelled nice. The fact that I was still registering her pleasant scent while being vigorously nuzzled was itself embarrassing.
“So cuuute!!!”
“Kyaaaah! S-stop! Stop it-nya!!!”
But my tiny struggles meant nothing to her. This woman had no concept of moderation. She went further and started massaging my ears. Squish. Squish. I was getting full-on ear-squishes.
“Kraaang!!! Get off-nya!”
I will not abandon my dignity! I thrashed as hard as I could, trying to shove her away. But then—
Boing.
Squish.
“…?!”
The sensation under my hands was… wrong. I looked down and found myself pressing into her enormous chest.
“Hik?!”
I recoiled in shock and yanked my hands back on pure reflex. Casually grabbing a woman’s chest? If the perpetrator were a man, that would be a serious crime.
“I-I’m sorry-nya!”
But my cry might as well have been wind for all she cared — she was too busy rubbing her face against me. In the end, I was held captive and subjected to an extended session of forced cuteness until I went limp as a slime toy elementary schoolers play with, and only then managed to escape.
“Hweeeh…”
“Ommyumyumyung!”
As a parting shot, the woman buried her nose in the crown of my head one last time before letting go.
“Snnniff. Haa.”
“Stop it-nya…”
I was completely drained, slumped over like a rag. I sat down hard and flailed my hands at her. Whether my efforts finally paid off or not, she pulled away from me and exhaled.
“Hwaaah.”
Her forehead gleamed with sweat, like someone who’d just finished a brutal workout. I probably didn’t look much better. I could feel hair stuck to my face. I put her on my personal blacklist and checked her features — so I wouldn’t run into her again.
That was the plan when I lifted my head. And then I could only stare in shock. Because her appearance was extraordinarily beautiful. A classic Korean beauty, except her hair wasn’t the usual black.
“Huk!”
White hair. Blue eyes. Which meant—
An Awakened?!
And her face looked somehow familiar.
I’ve seen her somewhere before…
As I tilted my head, studying her, she spoke with the happiest expression in the world.
“Cute little kitty. See you again?”
With that, she shot into the sky with a whoosh and flew into the balcony of an apartment floor.
“Eh?”
The place she’d gone into was my apartment building. I counted the floors of the unit she’d entered.
One, two, three, four…
And finally—
Thirteen.
“….”
I couldn’t close my mouth. The place she’d gone into was the unit directly below mine. How was I supposed to process this? I couldn’t think at all. My dazed gaze dropped, and in my hand was a Churu. She’d left it with me.
I gathered my things in a daze and went home, swearing I would never set foot outside again.
“My life as a cat…”
That evening, after suffering a merciless, no-questions-asked nuzzle assault, I heated up a steaming bowl of ramen and turned on the TV.
“Slurp! Nom nom!”
I watched the news while eating. The story went roughly like this:
“Oh.”
There hadn’t been any news since she cleared Floor 77 half a year ago. Good for her.
I offered a silent congratulations and happily ate my ramen. Then the screen changed, and a woman stepped out for an interview—
“Kehek! Kek! Cough cough cough!”
The moment I saw her, I sprayed every last bit of ramen in my mouth.
“Wh-what?!”
The woman on the TV screen looked exactly like the one who had utterly conquered me. White hair. Blue eyes. And a celebrity-level face. Unforgettable. That was her. The woman who’d ear-squished me!!!
She was a Ranker. Not just any Ranker — World Number One. Her name was Seo Ah-ri. The woman who lived on the floor below me.
Seo Ah-ri was answering a reporter’s questions on screen.
Click.
I turned the TV off right then and there. My mouth clamped shut, I swallowed dryly.
“….”
I stared out the window at the sky bleeding red. And I made the vow all over again.
Absolutely do not go outside.
Yeah. Absolutely not.
A cat lover? You’ve got to be kidding me!