How to Tame This Cat
Cecilia woke up a full four hours later.
"Mmngh…"
A small voice drifted from the bed, soft and almost petulant. I set down the book I'd been reading and looked over.
There, Cecilia was in the middle of surfacing from sleep, her expression still dazed. Her hair stuck up in every direction, and her ears twitched restlessly.
"Sleep wel—"
"Eek!"
The moment I opened my mouth to offer a simple greeting, her body went rigid. She looked like someone who'd been seized by sudden terror. Those twitching ears and her tail had gone completely stiff. The abrupt change was enough to startle even me.
"…Did you sober up?"
It was the only reason I could think of. As if confirming the guess, Cecilia answered in a mumbled voice.
"…Yeah."
"Do you remember what happened?"
"Yeah…"
"Okay."
She hadn't been blackout drunk the way she had been the day before, so it seemed her memory was intact. That was a relief, at least.
"Aren't you hungry? Let's get something to eat."
I stood up from the chair and spoke in a deliberately light voice.
"Ah—yeah?"
"I got some rice and instant soup… You seemed to dislike strong flavors, so I bought a few mild ones. Which do you want?"
"…Anything…"
"Okay."
Without hesitation, I picked up a cup of instant bone broth soup and tore open the packaging. It was the kind you just poured boiling water into. The world really was convenient.
"And this."
While waiting for the powder to dissolve, I picked up something I'd left on the table and held it out to her. Cecilia flinched and hesitated, then took it and mumbled the words printed on the package.
"…Cotton T-shirt?"
"Clothes. You don't have anything else to wear besides what you've got on, right?"
I pointed at the worn, threadbare clothes she was wearing. Leaving her like that indefinitely simply wasn't an option.
"I bought it cheap. Change into it later."
A free-size cotton T-shirt. I'd picked it up while I was at the convenience store getting the soup—two for ten thousand won on a buy-one-get-one deal.
"…Why?"
"What do you mean, why? You're not saying it's more comfortable to keep wearing the same clothes forever, are you? Even so, you should change at least once a week…"
"Th-that's not it!"
I was checking on the soup when a faintly agitated voice came from behind me. I turned.
Clutching the shirt in both hands, Cecilia was staring at me with an expression of pure incomprehension.
"Why… for someone like me…?"
Her voice, which had risen slightly, dwindled smaller and smaller toward the end. Both her voice and her eyes were trembling. The anxiety was written all over her.
"I… I don't have anything I can give you…"
"I don't need anything, and I'm not asking for anything. …Come to think of it, I never asked you something important."
I set the instant cup down with a soft tap. Moving slowly and carefully so as not to provoke her anxiety, I approached her.
"Cecilia?"
"Y-yeah."
"You said you didn't really have anywhere else to go, right?"
At my blunt words, she flinched again. After a brief silence, she nodded.
"…Yeah."
"You also said something like it didn't matter where you went."
"…Yeah. I…"
"Then."
I cut off her uneasy words and spoke first—casually, as if it were no big deal, so she wouldn't feel any unnecessary pressure.
"If it doesn't matter where, then my place should be fine too, right?"
"…Huh?"
"Yeah. Exactly what I said."
Cecilia's eyes, which had first looked bewildered, gradually widened. Her ears twitched a couple of times, and the tip of her tail trembled faintly.
"…I-is that really okay?"
"Yeah. You've already stayed one night. A few more won't make much difference."
I answered lightly. And that was genuinely how I felt.
I'd already finished thinking about living together while she was asleep.
She's cute to look at.
If she has nowhere else to go anyway, living together wouldn't be so bad.
She's wary, but… once we get closer, it shouldn't be a problem.
That was the conclusion I'd reached after thinking it over.
"You don't need to pay me back. If it really bothers you, just tell me some stories about the other world later. Honestly, I'm curious."
The other world. A place with different countries and different races from this one. Even after hearing the news that it actually existed—and with an actual member of that world standing right in front of me—I still couldn't quite wrap my head around it. If possible, I wanted to hear about it. That could be considered another reason for proposing we live together.
"…That's all?"
"You don't want to?"
I turned the question back on her as she hesitated.
"Ugh…"
At some point, Cecilia had started nervously fiddling with her right ear. Her head was bowed, her expression scrunched up. She seemed deep in thought.
"…I don't have anything to give."
"I told you I don't need anything."
I answered flatly. I wasn't looking for compensation. I didn't want anything from her. I just wanted this unusual connection we'd made to last a little longer—
"…Really?"
Suddenly, Cecilia leaned toward me. Her delicate features. Soft pink lips. As her body tilted forward, through the gap in her open shirt, a glimpse of fair, smooth skin peeked through.
"Really?"
"…"
"…I've never seen kindness without a price."
Looking down, she murmured sadly. What scenes those eyes were recalling, I had no way of knowing.
"I… really don't have anything to give. Truly…"
Deep-rooted distrust. Suspicion. Timid yet cautious behavior. What had made this girl this way?
"I…"
"Okay, okay. Let me rephrase."
I let out a small sigh at her stubborn attitude.
"If you insist on kindness that comes with a price, then in exchange for letting you stay, pay with your body."
"My body…?"
A puzzled voice. I answered.
"Dishes, cleaning, laundry. I'll ask you to do light housework. That should be enough, right?"
I lifted my head and looked straight into her sky-blue eyes as I said it.
I had no ulterior motives. I was sincere. We still knew each other far too little to dare harbor such feelings.
Because I don't know her, I want to.
"What do you say?"
The question I offered; Cecilia deliberating. It was the same scene as before. But unlike last time, this deliberation didn't last long.
"…Please take care of me."
"Great."
Nodding firmly, I set the finished bone broth soup on the table. I heated the rice and set out the dishes—two servings, including my own.
"Think of the clothes as a welcome gift and just take them. The food too. You can't live without either of those, right?"
Saying that, I sat down first. Soon Cecilia also sat across from me, her ears twitching.
When I picked up my spoon, she picked up hers too. In the quiet stillness, we began to eat.
"…"
I glanced up. The two ears atop Cecilia's head were twitching in a way I'd never seen before.
"This is a vacuum cleaner."
"Vacuum cleaner."
"This is a washing machine."
"Washing… machine…"
Two voices alternated, filling the room. After finishing the meal, I was explaining the names and uses of various things to Cecilia.
"This is a refrigerator. Think of it as a box that keeps the inside cold. Most of the food is in here."
"Keeps the inside cold… Does it run on ice magic?"
"Not magic. Uh… something like magic. Yeah."
I glossed over the explanation vaguely. Cecilia opened the refrigerator door with curiosity and peered carefully inside.
"Oh…"
"If you leave it open, it costs money, so try to keep it closed."
Hearing the door close with a soft thud, I moved on to the next explanation.
"This is the bathroom. A bit small, right?"
"Bathroom? A place to wash?"
"Yeah."
"There's a lot of strange things…"
"I'll explain slowly. First, this."
I handed her the showerhead from its holder and continued.
"Showerhead. A tool that shoots water."
"…This doesn't use magic either?"
"None of the tools here use magic. Not just the ones here—none of the tools in this world do."
"Huh? Then how do you live with how inconvenient that is?"
The genuinely novel question left me speechless for a moment. How do you live without magic because it's inconvenient? I'd never even thought about that…
"Well, you know once you live it. …Want to try turning on the water?"
Unable to find a proper explanation, I changed the subject. Following the direction I pointed, Cecilia also turned her attention to the faucet. Then, holding the showerhead in one hand, she slowly raised the faucet lever.
"…Ah, wait—right, our faucet has strong water pressure, so be caref—"
But just as I hurriedly raised my voice, having forgotten to warn her…
WHOOSH—! Water blasted out of the faucet with full force.
"Kyah?!"
"Pffah…! The lever! Lower the lever!"
The jet of water hit me square in the face first. Before it was cold, it hurt.
While I was sputtering, the stream left my face and moved to my body. I could feel my clothes getting thoroughly soaked, wet and heavy.
"W-wait…!"
Under the strong pressure, Cecilia staggered while gripping the showerhead, and the water stream swung even more wildly. With a powerful whooshing sound, everything got wetter and wetter. It was pure chaos.
"Argh…!"
Pushing through the intense stream, I somehow managed to slam the lever down. Whooosh… the water died down. With only the drip of water droplets remaining, peace returned to the bathroom.
"Ugh, we're completely soaked. I should've warned you first. Sor—"
I turned my head while peeling the wet clothes and hair stuck to me. And what met my eyes was…
…Cecilia, her wet clothes clinging to her body, her figure fully revealed.
"…Uh, well."
Actually, if it had just been that, it might have been somewhat okay. No—not okay, but relatively speaking. What was worse than simply her figure being revealed was…
…the fact that Cecilia wasn't wearing anything underneath that single thin layer of clothing.