The Cat Mom Upstairs
After thoroughly kicking the little bear around, I sank into a night's sleep sweeter than hot chocolate and honey bread.
Those rare days when staying sprawled in bed as late as I wanted was allowed. The quiet slide from Saturday into Sunday, or the scant handful of public holidays we got.
An apartment day so still that even a smartphone alarm never rang. A room where the lights stayed off and the curtains sealed every scrap of light outside. Nothing at all to disturb sleep.
Instead of even thinking about sitting up, I simply rolled over and—
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
…?
An unwelcome noise from the ceiling forced my eyelids open when I hadn't the slightest intention of getting up. Those half-lidded eyes had already begun to close again under the hush and stillness. Something must have happened upstairs for a moment. Time to shut my eyes and sink back under.
This drowsy haze was the absolute best condition for drifting off again, and yet—
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
Son of a bitch…
The upstairs footsteps came pounding again, impossible to ignore. I finally sat up, cursing under my breath. Still seated, I hung my head low and made no effort to hide how thoroughly my good mood had been ruined by the interruption of such a fine sleep.
I grabbed my phone and switched it on; the bright glare stabbed my eyes. Squinting one eye shut and cracking the other open just a slit, I checked only the time blaring across the screen.
8:49 a.m.
Not even the deep afternoon past lunch—almost early morning.
What fucking bastard is…
The palm that had been pressed to my forehead rubbed down my face and settled over my eyes.
Thump-thump-thump-thump. Full-power running footsteps from upstairs again. This time I heard them crystal clear. My bunk bed already put me close to the ceiling, so the noise I hadn't cared about before came through even sharper.
Thinking it over carefully, I remembered a moving truck parked at the apartment complex yesterday. Right above our unit, for sure.
"Oh, for fuck's saaaake…"
I scrubbed both eye sockets with the heels of my hands, twisted my whole body, and let out a groan of pure misery. Now I had to worry about the upstairs neighbors on top of monster alerts? Don't even joke about that. Seriously.
Time crawled past while I stared at the ceiling with open eyes, all the way to eleven in the morning.
"Hwaaah…"
It was about the time Siyeon would wake up—she never heard a thing around her once she was asleep. I greeted her with the light good-morning that starts an ordinary day.
"…Sleep well?"
"Yeah. Did you sleep well too, Mari?"
The automatic reply to my casual greeting. There was no way I could answer that formal little exchange with a yes.
"No."
"Huh? Why not?"
Siyeon asked back at the unnatural answer. Right on cue, thump-thump-thump-thump—the noise that set a person's nerves on edge rang out again. While it kept going, both our irritated gazes drifted upward on their own.
"Because of that."
Figuring that answered her question, I propped my chin on the low desk and pointed at the ceiling with my free index finger.
"Ah… someone said a new person moved in, right?"
"Haaah."
Siyeon's short sigh of understanding. No further explanation needed; I just let out a brief breath of my own.
The teddy-bear mascot, sharp enough to read the deep sigh, brought over a glass of cold water and threw in a few words of his own.
"Maybe they have a kid?"
"Has to be."
My mind was so hollowed-out I didn't even have the energy to get properly angry; I just went along with him. Then, in that half-awake haze that hadn't managed any sleep, I spoke the honest truth sitting on my tongue.
"If it's an adult pulling that shit, we should just kill them already…"
Running around like a maniac is a nuisance to the unit below. That's basic fact, and unless you home-schooled your manners, even an elementary-schooler knows you don't go tearing around inside the house—it's the bare minimum of being a decent human.
I didn't want to believe the source of those footsteps was an adult. No—it simply could not be an adult.
"Please restrain yourself…"
The teddy bear reacted to the talk of murder, sidling up near my legs and clinging as if to stop me.
"I'm still holding back for now."
"Isn't there some way we could settle this by talking?"
At the mention of holding back, Siyeon's mascot drifted up near my head, spinning in lazy circles while offering its own solution. Being the pure-hearted mascot of a pure-hearted magical girl must have left its mind just as pure and empty.
"I'd love that too, but…"
I let out a long breath, along with a hope I didn't even expect to come true, and gave the mascot a short lesson on the inconvenient truth about the human species.
"Normally, if someone had that much basic culture and common sense, they wouldn't let a kid run around like that in the first place."
"…Ah!"
"Ugh."
The mascot's eyes went round with realization. Faced with that painfully obvious common sense, my anger collapsed straight into resignation and another sigh. I'd just have to go to Daiso and buy earplugs. If you can't avoid it, adapt with tools. Tool use is the hallmark of humanity, isn't it?
"Alright—I'm heading to Daiso for a bit."
Decision made, I stood right up and got dressed. Getting to Daiso on these short little legs meant a decent walk, so speed was everything.
"I'm hungry…"
Siyeon whined about being hungry. She'd slept the whole morning, so if I picked up tteokbokki or kimbap on the way back it would be right around lunchtime. Perfect timing, I figured, and asked what she wanted.
"What should I get?"
"Tteokbokki… and kimbap!"
She answered so fast it felt like I'd walked into a trap. Fair enough—store-bought did taste better.
"Got it. Watch TV or something while you wait."
I stuffed my wallet into the shallow little pocket that matched my small body and headed out. That pocket stuck out so far it even caught my own eye. I jammed my feet into my sneakers any which way and shuffled, heel-toeing them on properly. Tap-tap—I kicked the toes against the ground and set off toward the market.
The moment I stepped out onto the first floor of the apartment building—
"Huh?"
A small four-legged animal shot past me in a blur and dove into the flower bed. In the middle of a city like this, an animal that size had to be a cat. They didn't usually come all the way up to the entrance—so why here?
I glanced around the area and spotted animal dishes that clearly looked like someone had set them out. One food bowl, one water bowl.
"What the hell is this…?"
An ominous feeling swept over me right then. To put the final cherry on top, a laminated sheet of paper stuck near the entrance caught my eye.
Stray Cats Are Neighbors in Our Urban Ecosystem
1. Stray cats are precious lives.
(and so on and so forth)
2. Stray cats are neighborhood pest-control officers.
(they catch rats, etc.)
3. Stray cats are residents of our neighborhood.
(so don't remove the food bowls, etc.)
"Oh for the love of— I'm going to lose my mind."
Staring at slogans no normal human being should ever come up with, I could only click my tongue in a mix of awe and disgust. Had there always been a cat mom in this complex?
Even if I put identifying the person off for later, the sheer dizziness was already hitting hard. How was I supposed to describe this tangled mess of sighing, admiration, hatred, and rage?
Hold it in. Just hold it…
I clenched both fists tight and tried to swallow the boiling anger. As a juvenile I'd never face real criminal charges, but murder was still something I should try to avoid. I wanted to kick those bowls into next week right then and there, but for now I would endure.
"In… out… in… out…"
Two short, sharp breaths. Recall the old saying of our ancestors: with three acts of patience, even murder can be avoided. Though if the person isn't really human, wouldn't killing them be fine? No… no matter how much they act like a dumb animal, the law still says they're a person. I have to endure. I simply have to endure.
First things first—go buy those earplugs.
I walked a long way past the market and hit Daiso first. I bought a pair of easy-to-carry earplugs and slipped them into the pocket opposite my wallet.
On the way back I only needed one serving of tteokbokki and about three rolls of kimbap. Honestly two rolls would have been enough for just Siyeon and me, but I got an extra one thinking of the little bear and Siyeon's mascot.
"That'll be thirteen thousand won."
One serving of tteokbokki: four thousand. One roll of kimbap: three thousand.
Fucking expensive…
I paid while nostalgically remembering the days when a cup of cup-tteokbokki was five hundred won and a kimbap roll was a thousand. Apparently Americans had finally discovered the taste of kimbap lately—no wonder the price was climbing. Anyway, I headed back to the apartment in a decent mood with two black plastic bags in hand.
When I left there had only been one cat. Now three of them were hanging around the shared entrance. My mood soured for no good reason and I charged at them to drive them off…
True to wild animals, their instincts were disgustingly sharp; they scrambled away in a flash.
"Hey! You can't do that!"
A deep, sharp woman's voice followed right after.
"If you run at them like that, of course they'll run away!"
"Ah, I juuust waaanted to pet them, that's aall."
I forced a smile onto a mouth twisted with rage and looked at that shameless face. Since I was a little kid, she must have seen me as complete trash; she didn't even bother trying to hide that she was a cat mom.
Oh, so it's you.
"Ah—is that so? You have to approach cats slowly, okay?"
"Oh, is that sooo. I've never seen you before—where do you live?"
"Mm, big sister just moved in yesterday. See over there?"
I followed the fingertip she pointed with—straight to the unit right above ours.
"Ahhh—?"
I answered with a lifeless pair of eyes and a sound that conveyed pure understanding. No wonder every rotten thing today had piled up at once. It was all this crazy woman's fault.
My mind had already finished sorting everything out. Cat mom plus interfloor-noise offender—this woman was completely, thoroughly insane. And from the look of her she was at least in her thirties, yet she called herself "big sister"? Even if you have no shame, there should be limits.