Embarrassed
Fortunately, I seemed to have completely captured the woman's heart. Instead of wariness, her eyes were full of curiosity and affection as they rested on me. The woman's name was Han Yuyeon, and she had only just turned twenty.
If anyone asked how I could possibly know her name and age so precisely the moment I first saw her, the answer was simple. I had clearly spotted the resident registration card left carelessly strewn across the floor.
And a quick glance around the house revealed a state that perfectly matched the phrase "an absolute disaster zone." Underwear and bras that had never been put away lay scattered across the floor, and the thick blanket wasn't folded so much as unceremoniously jammed into a corner of the room.
It wasn't a trash house that would make the evening news or anything... but by my standards, it was more than dirty enough.
Honestly, compared to my own place, this was a garbage dump all on its own.
"Meow..."
Feeling somehow embarrassed and awkward, I crouched down on the floor.
It was that form cat lovers commonly called the loaf position.
Front paws neatly gathered and tucked snugly against my chest, hind legs tensed and ready to spring at a moment's notice—a peculiar posture.
The incredible part was that I had taken this pose instinctively without even realizing it. My body had locked into place before my mind could process anything, so thoroughly that I couldn't even register that I was baking a loaf.
Just as humans breathe without thinking, blink without noticing, and never bother monitoring the position of their tongue, I, now a cat, was naturally obeying the laws of a feline body.
"Kitty, kitty!"
Just then, Yuyeon stepped toward me and came right inside. The pressure of a giant approaching made me flinch in surprise, and I darted swiftly into the dark gap under the bed.
Lying there under the bed, completely enclosed on all sides, somehow made my heart settle and left me feeling secure.
Seeing me like that, Yuyeon said,
"Aww, I'm not gonna eat you! You need to eat—food!"
"Mrow."
The moment the word "food" hit my ears, my perked ears twitched involuntarily.
Grrrrgle—
Come to think of it, ever since turning into this ball of fluff, I hadn't put a single proper meal in my mouth. My stomach clock had long since been blaring its noisy alarm.
Maybe that was why I couldn't help falling for the food talk. Eating wasn't just a human instinct—it was the instinct of every living creature.
No creature existed that lived without eating. Without charging energy in some form, living things starved to death. That was simply what it meant to be alive.
Clatter-clatter-clatter!
Hard kibble pellets poured into a round food bowl.
Ah, right—my current form was that of a cat.
Of course she had brought out special cat food, not steaming white rice with meat side dishes.
"Meow..."
Of all things, she was offering me this hard kibble to eat! I felt my dignity as a human crumbling in an avalanche. This was, quite literally, a moment of human disqualification.
But I had no other choice. I couldn't wave my front paws and ask for a hot stew or rice that humans ate, and since only meows came out of my mouth, there was no way to communicate anyway.
If I didn't want to starve, I had to grit my teeth and chew that stuff.
Yet as I trudged out from under the bed, my thoughts began to change the closer I got to the bowl.
"Huh?"
I sniffed at the scent brushing my nose.
The savory, slightly salty aroma of the kibble in the bowl, which strangely stimulated my appetite... it smelled so good it nearly paralyzed my sense of smell.
It was like the fragrance of fish grilled carefully by a mother, or a lavish dinner spread laid out in full.
Like someone—no, some cat—under a spell, I slinked toward the bowl. Then, tossing all dignity to the dogs, I buried my face in it and began vacuuming up the kibble in a frenzy.
Crunch crunch!
This can't be...!
Tasting the marvelous flavor of the densely chewy kibble, I couldn't help but go wide-eyed. Contrary to my expectations, it was pretty good—no, incredibly good.
If I had to compare this subtle, addictive texture by human standards, it was like munching on crispy cereal still unmixed with savory milk.
A salty umami filled my mouth.
I was able to eat until my belly was round and full.
It was my first time eating cat food since being born... and it wasn't bad.
"Kitty, is it that tasty? Eat slowly."
Yuyeon looked down at me as she spoke. I nodded. Seeing me like that, she smiled and said,
"Whew, Unni's sorry she's a broke job-seeker right now... Later when I make lots of money, I'll buy you tuna cans and give you really expensive imported food, okay?"
Just getting fed was more than enough to be grateful for. There was no need for her to apologize like that...
"Come to think of it, I can't just keep calling you 'kitty' forever, can I?"
After thinking hard, Yuyeon smacked her palm with her fist and said brightly,
"Nabi! From today, your name is Nabi. Nabi, do you like it? Got it?"
"Meow..."
Nabi, huh. That ultra-common Nabi that half the cats in Korea used. The thought crossed my mind that for someone with such a pretty face, she had zero sense when it came to naming.
But my belly was full and my back was warm, so I decided to endure it.
She had fed me, after all—my patience had increased.
"Meow..."
A small, quiet cry slipped from my throat. Unbelievably, I was currently experiencing a cat's life secondhand... no, experiencing it raw and direct.
Rolling around all day on the warm floor, doing nothing productive whatsoever, yet being showered with praise and compliments for being cute—a bizarre phenomenon.
If a human lived like this?
It wouldn't be strange to be called an unemployed trash shit-making machine. And I had lived hard enough until now that I could think I'd been working diligently.
But it felt like I'd suddenly been given a vacation.
Or maybe it felt weird somehow that I wasn't doing anything...
"DPS DPS DPS! More DPS!"
I watched Yuyeon from atop the bed in the loaf position.
Originally, she was a neighbor I should have only exchanged greetings with.
No—these days it was an individualistic society, so people didn't even greet much. Even if our paths happened to cross when going outside, we'd just awkwardly lock eyes for a second before turning our gazes back to our smartphone screens.
Thinking of how neighbors used to be almost like friends, I could feel how much society had changed.
Back then, people would even bring food over from next door... and sometimes sleep over, too.
"Ack! Retreat, retreat!"
I'd only watched Yuyeon's life for a few hours, but...
At least, it seemed a bit much to call herself a job-seeker.
Could a job-seeker play games just to clear her head?
She was bursting with energy at her age, so a little fun shouldn't matter. If she was still glued to the monitor like that in her mid or late twenties, that would definitely be a serious life problem—but for now, thinking of it as a short vacation from life, it wasn't incomprehensible.
Then I felt a pain in my belly.
That's right. For any living being, bodily functions were inevitable. But I couldn't very well pee on the perfectly good floor. Growing desperate, I rolled my round eyes and looked around.
But nowhere in Yuyeon's room was there anything like a cat litter box.
She had taken me in suddenly today, so that was only natural.
"Meow... meow!"
I climbed up onto Yuyeon's thigh.
"Huh, Nabi, what's wrong!"
"Meow meow!"
I scratched at her thigh to let her know my condition.
"One sec, guys. My cat's interrupting..."
"Meow!"
Interrupting?! This was my rightful claim. Finally, with her headset around her neck, Yuyeon looked down at me with a troubled expression.
"Nabi, is something wrong?"
"Meow meow."
Only meows came from my mouth. Ultimately, it was time to speak with my body.
I ran to the bathroom door and scratched furiously at it with my front paws, yowling in a tearing voice. Fortunately, my tearful body language got through—Yuyeon watched me carefully, then slapped her knee.
"Ah, you need to go potty?"
Yuyeon opened the door. I rushed inside in a hurry.
Yuyeon's gaze remained fixed through the bathroom door crack, observing me. She didn't even seem to think of closing the door.
Sensing crisis, I bristled every hair on my body.
"Haaack!"
I spat out a sharp hiss, desperately crying Please close the door, human!—but Yuyeon, who had no animal language certification, just chewed right through my shout and gaze with eyes that said, Wow, a cat using the toilet is so cool.
"Meeow..."
In the end, unable to hold it, I showed another person my bathroom business for the first time in my life.
The dignity as a human I had built for over twenty years shattered miserably. Across my entire cat life—no, my entire life—it was the most humiliating, face-flaming-red moment.