The Cat Cried "Nyaang"
The cat in the erotic game cried, Nyaang. It was a story from back when Harin still wore her high school uniform.
“You really don’t know the meaning of fear…”
The friend sitting with her on the sunny café terrace suddenly dropped the remark. Harin, who had been happily nibbling a sweet cake and sipping coffee across from her, tilted her head.
“…Huh?”
At that carefree reaction, her friend answered with clear exasperation.
“Don’t you remember what just happened on the bus?”
After the long explanation, Harin finally recalled the incident and let out a soft “Ah—” of understanding.
“That pervert, you mean?”
For all the dramatic buildup, it hadn’t been anything particularly serious. A man on the bus had been secretly filming female students’ bare legs with his phone. Harin had shouted at him from behind and reported him to the police.
“…Yeah.”
But the friend who had watched the whole thing unfold beside her still seemed to have trembling hands.
“I mean, we didn’t do anything wrong, but… I could never do something like that. It’s too scary.”
Harin let out a small snort of laughter.
“What’s so scary about it?”
She flashed her sharp canines in a grin, took a big bite of cake, and muttered around the mouthful.
“If they get too close, just kick them away with your foot…”
People always spoke so casually about things they had never experienced themselves.
Her heart felt like it had plummeted to the floor.
At the same time, her body began to shiver uncontrollably. The tips of her fingers refused to move, as if frozen solid by an icy wind.
The Harin who had carelessly told her fearful friend that she should just kick any molester away was gone. Now that an unknown stranger had actually grabbed her wrist, she couldn’t even find the strength to resist.
Yes… she had become exactly like a frog frozen before a snake.
Not only her body but even her voice refused to work. From her trembling lips came only a tiny, strained sound.
“Ah… ah.”
A small, pathetic whimper was all that escaped.
…This is the end.
The thought dragged her heart down into a dark abyss.
If not for the familiar voice that reached her just then.
“Lee Harin… It is Lee Harin, right?”
A voice she thought she had heard somewhere before brushed against her ear. Harin’s mind snapped back into focus. She gathered the last of her strength and barely managed to lift her head.
What she saw was—
“…Yeah, it’s you.”
The face of Lee Hajun, the slightly obnoxious guy who always hung around her best friend Ayoung as her boyfriend.
“So why were you running like that?”
Unlike his usual demeanor, Hajun looked a little flustered as he asked the question. The fear that had built up inside Harin threatened to spill over as tears, but she swallowed them down with great effort and tried to speak.
“Th-that is…”
Hajun listened patiently.
“…That is?”
“Th-that is…”
“…Yes?”
But the tension had drained away too quickly. Harin couldn’t continue.
Hajun looked down at her for a moment, then silently patted her back with a few gentle taps.
“It’s okay now, yeah?”
At the warmth in his voice, Harin felt the real tears rising again. She pushed his hand away for a second.
“D-don’t.”
Still gripping his arm, she took a moment to collect herself before continuing.
“…That is.”
“You’ve already said that three times… Never mind.”
Once the situation seemed to have calmed a little, Hajun tried to lighten the mood with a joke, but the sharp glare Harin shot him made him shut his mouth immediately.
“So today…”
Unlike her usual crisp, confident tone, Harin’s voice was small and slow as she began her story. Hajun leaned in closer to listen carefully.
“I had to stay late at the education center helping the teacher with club admission forms… sniff.”
Whenever she was about to cry, she had a habit of scrunching her nose. Hajun pulled a tissue from his pocket and handed it to her.
“…Blow your nose first.”
Harin took the tissue, blew her nose with a loud honk, and continued.
“I was supposed to walk home with the teacher, but…”
Her plan had fallen through and she ended up walking back alone. That was what had scared her. To be honest, Hajun found the story a bit childish and cute, but seeing how badly shaken she actually was, he couldn’t bring himself to tease her.
“There was still a lot of overtime work left, so I had to walk home by myself?”
Hajun nodded.
“And then?”
“It was fine until I left the education center, but… the moment I entered the alley, suddenly…”
This was the important part.
“I heard footsteps behind me, you know?”
The situation was more chilling than he had expected. Hajun’s expression gradually hardened.
“At first I thought it was just someone going the same way…”
Even talking about it seemed to frighten her. Harin shivered once, then gathered her courage and went on.
“The sound was ‘thud, thud.’ But when I started walking faster—‘stomp, stomp’—the footsteps behind me matched it exactly, becoming ‘stomp, stomp’ too.”
“…Yeah.”
“So I got scared and started running like crazy, right? My heart was pounding.”
Instinctively, Harin pressed closer to Hajun’s side.
“Then from behind, the footsteps started pounding after me too…”
She clapped her hands together sharply to imitate the sound. Just listening to the story gave Hajun goosebumps; he rubbed his own arms.
“I was so terrified I ran without thinking, and… that’s when I ran into you.”
Now that he finally understood the full sequence of events, Hajun nodded. It explained why she had come sprinting toward him with such a deathly pale face. Even if it was a person and not a ghost, anyone would be terrified if someone came pounding after them like that.
Since he could understand the situation perfectly, Hajun said nothing more and simply patted her back a few more times.
“That must have been really scary…”
“Yeah…”
Before she realized it, Harin had accepted his comfort.
“……?”
Then she suddenly flinched and pushed his hand away.
“Wh-what are you doing!”
Startled, Hajun looked at her. Their eyes met, and then they both burst out laughing.
Harin’s laughter came from the relief of having survived a terrifying ordeal. Hajun’s came from finding her extreme sensitivity to physical contact—even in a situation like this—utterly amusing.
After they had both vented their emotions in one big burst, Harin took a step back and carefully offered her thanks.
“Anyway… thank you for helping me.”
Hajun gave his usual sly grin in response.
“It was nothing.”
Looking at him, Harin thought that maybe—just maybe—Hajun was a better person than she had given him credit for. Of course, the way he treated Ayoung still left a bit of a bad taste in her mouth… but still.
“Well, I’ll be going now… Thank you again for today.”
Harin said her goodbye and turned toward the distant glow of the convenience store lights. Hajun watched her retreating figure for a moment, then spoke up.
“…Want me to walk you home?”
“Eh…?”
The unexpected offer caught Harin off guard.
“N-no, it’s fine.”
In truth, she was still scared. But asking someone she wasn’t particularly close to—especially when that someone was her best friend’s boyfriend—to escort her all the way home felt too awkward. After considering all the complications, she couldn’t bring herself to say yes. So she shook her head, trying to look unbothered.
Even after her refusal, Hajun scratched the back of his head, then slowly walked up beside her.
“…Let’s just go together.”
Harin tried once more to politely decline, but—
“I’m scared too.”
“…What?”
The ridiculous statement made her burst into laughter again.
“Then… just walk with me up to that point over there.”
She pointed ahead and murmured quietly. Hajun nodded.
“Okay.”
Harin glanced at the boy who had somehow ended up walking beside her and thought that maybe… just maybe, she could understand why Ayoung had fallen for Lee Hajun.