Cat Ears and Fantasy
"You're buying booze first thing in the morning?"
The convenience store, right in front of the counter.
As the register beeped and the clerk rang up my items, he tossed the question my way.
It wasn't just some random clerk sticking his nose in. This was the convenience store where I worked part-time myself, and the guy behind the counter was my coworker.
Nam Jaeseop. My senior — he'd started working here before I had.
"And look at this haul. Booze, instant ramen, sliced pork, dried squid, jerky… planning a morning drinking session or what?"
"Just… a little."
I couldn't come up with a proper answer, so I settled for something vague.
"Well, alright then."
Jaeseop didn't press any further. He just nodded and kept beeping items through the register. It might have looked dry and indifferent on the surface, but I knew this was his own brand of consideration.
"Just don't overdo it. As long as you're functional when we switch shifts, that's good enough."
"Got it, hyung."
I handed over my card, finished the payment, and took the plastic bag. I was about to bow and head out when he suddenly called me back.
"Oh, right. Hey — be careful on your way home."
"…Huh? Oh, sure. Did something happen?"
"Nothing major, really, but…"
Trailing off, he fished his phone out of his pocket, tapped the screen a few times, and held up a news article for me to see.
"Take a look."
"…?"
I stepped closer, checked the screen — and flinched.
Beneath the headline was a photo of people who looked for all the world like elves or beastkin, gathered at a police station.
"I'm home."
I muttered a quiet greeting as I stepped inside. Setting the bag on the table, the first thing that caught my eye was Cecilia sprawled across the bed.
"…Welcome back."
Her voice came out a little drowsy. She didn't seem to have been fully asleep — more like she'd been dozing lightly.
"Want something to eat?"
I asked as I laid out everything I'd bought across the table. Cecilia carefully climbed down from the bed and leaned her face in close to inspect the spread.
"There's a lot of stuff I've never seen before."
"Yeah?"
"But I recognize a few. This one, for instance."
The first thing she picked up was the jerky.
"And this. It's dried, right?"
Next she grabbed the dried squid. Both were foods humanity had been eating since ancient times — that much they had in common.
She fumbled clumsily with the packaging, her hands trembling slightly, then — rip! — tore it open from both sides.
"…Can I drink this?"
She pointed next at a can of beer. When I nodded, she said a soft "Thank you," took the can, and cracked it open.
A sharp pssst filled the room.
"Dried snacks and beer. Sounds like some middle-aged guy's drinking spread."
"Hm?"
"Nothing. Just talking to myself."
Leaving a puzzled Cecilia behind, I cracked open my own beer can. Another pssst rang out. For the record, the side dish I'd chosen — well, more like breakfast — was the sliced pork.
"Aum… gulp."
I'd just put a piece of meat in my mouth when a cute little sound drifted over from across the table. It was Cecilia, swallowing beer with her small mouth. The way she held the can in both hands was oddly endearing.
"Good?"
"Bitter. Still is. …But it feels nice somehow."
She seemed like the type who enjoyed the buzz more than the taste. Then again, she'd said yesterday was the first time she'd ever had alcohol, so she might not even know her own preferences yet.
After a sip, Cecilia reached for the dried squid. She snapped off a leg, popped it in her mouth, and chewed… then immediately flinched, her face crumpling. Behind her, her tail gave a startled twitch.
"S-sweet. And salty."
"Not a fan?"
"It's not bad, exactly, but…"
Despite her words, she hurriedly lifted the can and chugged more beer, as if trying to wash the taste out of her mouth.
"Pwah. …Weird flavor."
"Here, try this."
I offered her some of the sliced pork. Her ears drooped as she carefully eyed the meat, then put a piece in her mouth — and her expression brightened. Seemed she liked it well enough.
"So, I've got a few questions."
I swallowed the pork I'd been chewing along with a mouthful of beer and opened my mouth. I couldn't just sit here forever, relaxed and thoughtless. There was a lot I needed to ask about the woman sitting across from me — who she was, what she was doing here.
"Hm?"
"Those ears and that tail — are they real?"
"Mmph… gulp. Mm-hm, of course."
"…Where did you say you were from originally?"
"Southern Ritter Continent. Inland."
The answers came without a moment's hesitation. I pressed a hand to my forehead. No matter how I looked at it, she didn't seem to be lying. Which meant, inevitably…
"Can I ask a question too?"
"Hm?"
"…Where is this? What region?"
Cecilia glanced around the room as she asked. Her eyes lingered carefully on the walls, the furniture — especially the electronic devices.
"…Korea."
"Is that a village name? Or a region?"
"It's a country."
"Never heard of it. Hmm."
Exactly the reaction I'd expected.
I was turning over how to explain this when Cecilia spoke up first, beating me to it.
"…Is this another world?"
The words were so precise that I flinched involuntarily.
"Judging by that reaction, I guess I'm right. Heeh, so that's how it is…"
She nodded as if she'd already accepted it on her own. Her composure was almost unnerving.
"…You're taking this better than I expected."
"The concept of other worlds is pretty universal. I don't know when, how, or why I ended up here, but still… well."
She sipped her beer, eyes narrowing. Then, in a voice laced with a sigh, she murmured:
"…Wherever it is, nothing's going to change all that much."
For a split second, it felt like every emotion had drained from her eyes. Before I could ask what she meant, she looked at me and spoke first.
"Do you have any more of this?"
She gave her already-empty beer can a light shake. She'd polished it off remarkably fast.
"That's all. I only bought two cans."
"Oh…"
"But, uh, just in case, I did pick this up…"
Trailing off, I pulled another bottle from the bag. A glass bottle with a bluish tint. Soju.
"It's a bit stronger than beer. Want to try it?"
"Okay."
For her curious gaze, I went to the kitchen and brought back a glass. I set it in front of her and poured. I had a shift that afternoon, so drinking soju myself felt like a bad idea — I only poured for Cecilia.
She stared at it, sniffed it, her ears twitching, and then started sipping the soju.
…To cut to the chase: that was a mistake.
"Ehehe…♪"
Yeah. I really should have seen this coming.
That was the thought running through my head as I looked at Cecilia, sprawled across the bed and laughing with complete abandon.
Her face, which had only been lightly flushed before, was now completely undone. Her eyes were dewy, and her voice was sweet, almost coquettish.
Her tail swayed gently back and forth. Just like when we'd first met.
"Mm~? Eunhyuk? Eunhyuk…?"
Cecilia, who'd been rolling around on the bed, suddenly started murmuring my name. Not calling me, exactly — more like testing how it felt on her tongue. …It was a little embarrassing.
"…Eunyuk♪"
And of course, she got the pronunciation wrong.
A warm, fuzzy feeling bloomed in my chest. Pushing it aside for now, I started tidying the table. I finished off what was left, rinsed the bottle and packaging once, and tossed them in the trash. A final wipe of the tabletop, and cleanup was done.
"Eunyuk~♪"
"Yeah, what is it?"
Her voice came from behind me. This time she was definitely calling me.
I turned around to find a pair of playful sky-blue eyes looking right at me.
"Mm♪"
"?"
Lying on her side, she spread both arms wide. There was something triumphant about her expression. Behind her, her tail swished lazily.
"What?"
"Hug!"
"…"
I genuinely wondered if this was the same person. No shame at all, wearing those thin clothes and acting like that… my own face was burning. I deliberately turned my head away.
"Don't wanna hug?"
"It's not that I don't want to, it's just a little sudden—"
"Then I'll just do this♪"
Her voice was suddenly close, and a soft, yielding sensation pressed against my back. A pair of small, gentle hands had wrapped around my stomach before I knew it.
"Squeeeze~."
"Hey, wait, seriously—!"
"Ehehe. You're embarrassed…"
The feeling of her nuzzling her nose against my back was ticklish. Ah, this was dizzying. Realizing this couldn't go on, I spun around, scooped up her small body, and—
"Kyah!?"
"Hup, cha…!"
—tossed her onto the bed. A soft whump sounded as she landed.
"Wh-what?"
Cecilia lay face-down on the bed, staring up at me with round eyes. Before she could try anything weird again, I seized the initiative and flung a pillow at her.
"Mmph."
"…Could you just stay like that for a bit while I finish cleaning up? Please?"
I said it in a weary voice, and Cecilia seemed to think it over for a moment. Then she buried her face in the pillow and nodded.
"…Okay."
"Good."
Seizing the brief window of calm, I hurried to finish the rest of the cleanup.
I dampened a dishcloth and gave the whole table a thorough wipe. Then I rinsed it, washed it lightly with soap, wrung it out, and hung it nearby to dry.
In the middle of all that, I glanced over at Cecilia, half-expecting her to have snuck up on me again.
"…Sss…"
What I found instead was Cecilia, somehow already dozing off in that short span of time, her head resting against the pillow, breathing easy and content.
"Smells nice…"
She murmured those words — whether half-asleep or half-drunk, I couldn't tell.
"…It's just store-bought laundry detergent."
I turned off the sink, muttered to myself, and dropped into a chair.
"Haaah…. I'm exhausted."
The moment I sat down, a voice thick with fatigue slipped out of me unbidden. I was genuinely worn out. All she'd done was cling to me for a moment, but with a figure like that, the impact was… well. Never mind the physical side — it was my mental stamina that was suffering.
Going forward, I probably shouldn't give her soju. No — I probably shouldn't let her get that drunk at all. Sure, she was adorable when she was tipsy, but if she kept latching onto me like that, my self-control wouldn't hold. Some kind of limit was clearly needed.
The thought crossed my mind that maybe I should set some house rules. Things like: clean up after yourself when you eat. Don't cling too hard. That sort of thing. Didn't sound half bad. Odds were she wouldn't stick to them at first, but with enough repetition…
"…No, wait. How long is she even planning to stay at my place in the first place?"
And with that thought, I let out another thin sigh.
When I'd first brought her here, I'd only meant to get her off the street for a little while — just temporarily. Had I been charmed by that cute face? Somewhere along the way, I'd started acting like I was fine with her settling in for good. It was a strange situation.
"Still… it should be fine, right?"
I thought it over for a moment. But the conclusion I reached was simple. At my roughly muttered words, Cecilia — now fully asleep — gave a faint little wriggle.
"It's not like I'm short on food money. And there's enough space."
Her getting clingy when drunk was a headache, sure, but if I just managed the alcohol, that wouldn't be an issue. No big problem there.
"…She said she had nowhere to go. So, well… until something comes up, she can stay."
If I had to put it into words, it was like temporarily fostering a stray cat with nowhere else to go. That was the framing I settled on as I murmured to myself. …Yeah. "Until something comes up," that is.
I quietly pulled out my phone, tapped a few times, and opened the news article Jaeseop had shown me at the convenience store.
The headline read: Sudden Appearance of Otherworldly Races — Fiction Becomes Reality?
And below it, in the body of the article—
Reading it, I quietly propped my chin on my hand, hazily trying to predict what might come next.