Exploring Other Cat Servants' Homes
"Nabi! Unni's going to give it everything she's got!"
"Yeah. I'll give it everything I've got too, Yuyeon."
We locked eyes, our gazes meeting head-on. Two looks heavy with resolve tangled together in the air between us.
A collab with a mega YouTuber who commanded a million subscribers. Opportunities like this did not come around often. Calling it an opportunity was generous — it was closer to winning the lottery. The kind of thing that sprouted once in a blue moon, or more accurately, the kind of oasis you stumbled across in the middle of a desert.
And a YouTuber of the million-subscriber caliber bowing their head first to ask for a collab? That virtually never happened. Under normal circumstances, it was the Hako creators like us who had to pour every ounce of sincerity into a desperate plea, and even then the whole thing might fall through.
In this world, the ironclad hierarchy of YouTube was decided by a single number: subscriber count.
Have a lot of them, and you were treated like royalty. Have too few, and you faded into nonexistence. Sure, the highest law of the land — the Constitution — declared that all people were equal… but reality was nowhere near that accommodating.
As long as humans formed groups and built societies, hierarchy would always find a way to exist. Kill one form of it, and it simply put on a new mask and rose again.
And so we prepared to welcome Isol, the million-subscriber YouTuber.
Truthfully, Yuyeon barely had anything to prepare. From her perspective, all she needed to do was act the way she always did on stream — natural and unforced.
The one who really mattered was me. The only reason Isol was bothering to set foot in our shabby little place was a single thing: the existence of a certain cat. Me.
Without me, a collab offer this ridiculously generous would never have existed in the first place. The success or failure of this entire collab hinged entirely on my shoulders.
Fortunately, I had a secret. I was not some ordinary animal — I was a cat who still carried a fully intact human mind. So fretting over unexpected situations? Not a chance. You could scrub the whole room with your eyes and still not find a single worry.
If I had been a real wild cat who knew nothing? The second those camera lights flicked on, I would have bolted into a corner or clawed the stranger to pieces, and the whole shoot would have descended into pure chaos. But I had perfect reason. I was never going to pull an amateur stunt like that.
And then Isol arrived at our house.
It felt like meeting a celebrity I had only ever seen on a screen, now standing right in front of me in the flesh. A strange rush of excitement and heat surged up from somewhere deep in my chest. As a hardcore subscriber who had checked her channel every single day, the sheer fact of receiving this giant YouTuber in person sent a full-body chill through me.
"Hello!"
Yuyeon bent at a perfect ninety-degree angle, greeting her with polished eagerness.
"Hello, Yuyeon~ I'm Isol."
Isol returned the greeting with equal courtesy. At her level, she would have been well within her rights to act high and mighty toward a Hako creator…
But Isol seemed to have genuinely good manners.
She was holding a camera, ready to film today's content: Exploring Other Cat Servants' Homes.
I had assumed that a million-subscriber creator would show up with at least a few staff members handling the camera, but Isol had come alone, shattering that expectation. A clean, professional move.
I had already finished transforming from my hybrid form into a perfect cat. The only person who knew I was a beast-human was Yuyeon. Part of me was quietly curious what kind of horrified expression Isol would make if she ever learned my real identity.
But I left that to the imagination. There was no telling what might happen if I casually revealed my hybrid form.
"Meow."
I slipped out from behind Yuyeon's legs. Isol's eyes lit up the moment she saw me — the look of someone who had just encountered an extraordinary cat.
"Kyaaa, you're so cute…!"
Isol could not hold it in. Her reaction exploded out of her. The fingertips she stretched toward me trembled. You could practically see her fretting over whether she was allowed to touch me, whether she might startle me.
I tilted my head up just slightly and shot Yuyeon a look.
Stay put. I'll handle seducing this million-subscriber YouTuber myself.
That was the message. I would charm Isol on my own.
Yuyeon seemed to catch on to the plan, because she gave a small nod.
I had decided to turn Isol — this million-subscriber YouTuber — into one of my personal servants. A creator of her caliber was bound to be useful to us. I was sure of it.
"Mrow."
I let out a soft, coaxing little cry and slipped between Isol's smooth legs, rubbing my whole body against her with abandon. It was a lethal finishing move no cat servant on earth could escape.
Naturally, Isol the cat servant melted on contact.
"Haaaaah! Nabi…!"
She looked at me with a completely smitten expression. I grinned to myself. Who knew handling people could be this easy…!
I had thought becoming a cat came with nothing but downsides. Turns out I was wrong.
With the single ability to shift into hybrid form whenever I wanted, I had become the ultimate body — one that could cherry-pick only the finest advantages of being a cat.
Complicated task that a cat's body couldn't handle? Just transform into a hybrid and deal with it. And the perfect being capable of doing exactly that was me.
"C-can I… can I pet Nabi, Yuyeon?"
Isol was practically panting as she turned a pleading look on Yuyeon.
"Of course. Go ahead."
The moment Yuyeon gave permission, Isol scooped me up. I went full noodle — long and stretchy in her arms.
There was a reason a cat's body lengthened so dramatically when lifted. Unlike humans, we did not have a strong lower-body muscle structure bracing the spine upright.
"Nabi, you're too cute!!! Who did you take after to end up this adorable, aaaaah!"
Isol had already sold her soul to my charms.
"Mrow."
I stayed quiet and well-behaved in her arms.
Any other cat would have thrashed and squirmed at the sight of a stranger. I did no such thing.
"Meow, meow!"
I burrowed even deeper into Isol's embrace. Watching me, she wore a look of pure bliss.
"Yuyeon. Nabi is seriously so gentle. A total dog-cat. Absolute dog-cat energy."
"Right…? Nabi doesn't get shy with strangers at all. Nabi welcomes everyone."
"Really?"
Isol stroked my head. I remained perfectly calm in her arms — so much so that anyone watching would have sworn we had lived together for years, not that we had met for the first time today.
That was how overwhelming my social skills were. And so I kept up the assault. A full-scale attack on Isol's heart.
Isol looked down at the small, soft cat nestled gently on her thighs.
"Meow."
This cat called Nabi was the living embodiment of pure charm. Even now, those squishy cheeks and that plush body were rubbing relentlessly against Isol's legs, melting her from the inside out. Her reason had already been completely disarmed.
In this moment, she felt as though she could offer up anything in the world for this cat's sake.
If Yumi — the real pet cat currently waiting alone at Isol's house — had witnessed this scene, she probably would have bristled on the spot, eyes blazing with twin flames of jealousy, transforming into the incarnation of envy itself.
That fox-faced little thief who stole Isol's heart!
Even if the rival in question happened to be a fellow cat rather than a human.
"By the way, you heard about today's content, right? Exploring Other Cat Servants' Homes."
"Ah, yes. I know how the content works."
Exploring Other Cat Servants' Homes was one of the flagship series on Isol's channel — a reliable cash cow that pulled its weight every single time.
Exactly what it sounded like: Isol personally visited other cat servants' homes and filmed the daily lives of their cats.
Even for a top creator with over a million subscribers, showing only her own cat, Yumi, in every single video risked slowly boring the audience.
Subscribers always craved fresh visuals, after all.
In that sense, a series that spotlighted charming cats from other households consistently drew explosive reactions. It was the perfect content — for the viewers and for Isol herself.
Subscribers got a feast for the eyes courtesy of adorable cats, and from Isol's perspective, she barely needed any flashy production. The mere presence of a cat filled out a rich, complete video all on its own. Pure joy.
Especially considering how much effort it normally took just to film a single piece of content with Yumi.
"Well then — shall we take a look at Nabi today?"
Isol's eyes sparkled as she swung the camera lens toward Nabi.
The core theme of today's shoot was simple: capture the daily life of a cat smarter than most people. Today was the day to settle whether the Nabi who had appeared on Animal Farm was the real deal — or not.