Cat-Eared Girl and the Lone Wolf
A girl with pale silver hair was perched atop a huge black bear plushie, her cheeks flushed red as she took the people around her into account, but she didn’t refuse any of the tasks her friends set for her.
“So cute~ So cute~♬ Too cute. Cute!”
Click. Click.
Yu Somi was hammering away at the shutter button from every angle, determined not to miss a single shot of Lee Narin.
And Han Sia, smiling the whole time, was arranging Narin’s poses for her.
“How about we set the bear plushie against the wall this time and sit down beside it? Yes, that’s right. Keep your gaze toward Somi’s camera, and turn your tail forward so it shows well.”
At first, the cat-eared Narin had looked displeased... but after being told over and over by Yu Somi and Han Sia that she was cute, maybe she had started to feel a little better without even realizing it.
Though she was shuffling along as if she were reluctantly obeying Han Sia’s instructions, the corners of her mouth were subtly lifted. It seemed she didn’t hate this situation quite as much as she pretended to.
Her body might have been saying no, but her mouth was honest.... Ah. Or maybe that wasn’t it?
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.
.
After the girls’ photo shoot ended, we tidied away all the food we’d eaten and gathered in the living room.
Han Sia and Yu Somi sat on either side of Narin, stroking her hair or kneading her palm as they talked to her.
Watching them touch her without a moment’s rest, I thought Narin would be justified in getting annoyed and telling them off by now, but instead she seemed to have grown used to her friends’ persistent hands. She’d gone loose and let her body sink naturally into their attention.
...
Then, as the conversation went this way and that, something came out of Han Sia’s mouth that made Narin bristle.
“I’m an only child, so when I was little I used to wish I had a younger sibling. When I’m with Narin, it feels like I’ve gained a little sister.”
“...What are you talking about, nyang. You and I are the same age, nyang. Depending on our birthdays, I might even be the older sister, nyang.”
“Hehe. I’m just saying. If I had a little sister too, I’d have dressed her up in something this cute and then tormented... I mean, spoiled her to my heart’s content.”
“...Normally, people don’t make their little sister wear cat ears and a tail, then pat her head or knead her hands. Nyang. You’ve got some seriously wrong ideas. Nyang.”
Whether siblings got along or not depended on the family.
But as Narin said, there was no way a sister relationship could involve putting cat ears and a tail on a younger sister, making her tack on “nyang” to the ends of her sentences, or petting her while breathing hard.
Of course family ties could be strong, but since they met so often, they were bound to clash now and then. The idea that a sisterly bond might grow into something beyond friendship was, in truth, just fantasy.
Yet Han Sia seemed unwilling to agree with Narin, and, as if seeking confirmation from Yu Somi—the one person here who actually had a younger sister—she asked her opinion.
“Somi, what do you think? Do sisters really not do this kind of thing? If you had such a cute little sister, couldn’t you imagine doing it?”
After a moment’s thought, Yu Somi answered Han Sia’s question.
“Hmm... my little sister is a little unusual, so she’s not a great example, but it’s normal for family to fiddle with each other’s hands or pat each other on the head.”
“...??”
“Of course, I do think it’s a little much when my sister comes into the shower with me, says she’s helping wash me, and then casually touches weird places; or when I wake up in the morning and find her somehow lying in the same bed as me; or when she deliberately buys the same brand of underwear as mine so our laundry becomes impossible to tell apart.”
“....?!??!?”
“Still, when you’re at home, hugging each other for no reason, feeding each other snacks while watching TV, or even burying your nose in someone’s hair to sniff it—that’s the kind of thing everyone does. And if you don’t even fiddle with each other’s hands or pat each other’s heads, isn’t it a little hard to call that family?”
“...Somi, I think you need to call the police first, nyang. You’re so far outside the realm of common sense that you’re not helping at all, nyang. Even if I don’t have any siblings, I can still tell that’s weird, nyang.”
Narin’s speech grew faster, as if she’d been shocked by Yu Somi’s sudden confession of criminal victimization.
But... of everyone present, Yu Somi was the only one who actually had a sister, so her account of what she’d personally experienced had a weight of its own.
“Hehe... that’s because Narin doesn’t have a sister. Everyone’s just not saying it out loud, so you don’t know. If sisters get along well, that’s the kind of skinship they do.”
“Somi’s right. You don’t have a sister, so your idea of sisters is only a guess, isn’t it? If Somi, who actually has a little sister, says so, then that must be how it is.”
“No! Nyang! Han Sia, I saw you getting flustered after you heard Somi talking too! Nyang! In the first place, I’m not your little sister or anything, so you should seriously stop... gyaahh!”
Narin tried to say something, but Han Sia cut her off by rubbing her cheeks against Narin’s face.
After that, Han Sia and Yu Somi’s “Narin petting time” went on for a little while longer, and it only ended when Narin finally reached her limit and grabbed the Samdanbong.
- From Lee Narin’s perspective
Exhausted from Han Sia and Yu Somi’s relentless touching, I headed straight for my bed after the visitors left.
...
It was quiet.
Just a moment ago, my house had been packed with people, and the voices of Han Sia and Yu Somi fussing over everything had made it feel crowded and noisy... but now that everyone was gone and the place had emptied out, it felt as though I’d been cut off from the world all at once.
I’d forgotten it for a little while thanks to my friends, but a house where I was the only person had always been this silent and lonely.
In novels or films, people often describe the stillness of a house by saying the ticking of a clock’s second hand sounds unusually loud.
But this house only had digital clocks, so once things went quiet, there wasn’t even a ticking sound to be heard.
So the only sound in my room right now was the faint creak of the bed springs compressing and expanding with the shifts of my body.
I dislike this lonely, desolate house, which is why I usually don’t come straight home after school ends.
I go to the mart to buy things I need, or to a café to study, and lately I’ve been checking out the academies nearby to see if any of them look decent.
Today I’d stayed home only because I was planning to have a birthday party here. Normally, even on weekends, I’d spend the daytime outside.
Evenings were manageable, because I could cook dinner or sort laundry and forget the loneliness for a while... but during the day, it was almost unbearable.
...
Ever since my parents died, being alone in this empty house has felt like an invisible hand is closing around my throat. It makes me feel as if I’m going to lose my mind.
For now I was resting because I was tired, but once my strength came back, I should go outside.
Luckily, Somi had given me some manga as a present, so I could take it to a quiet café near my house and read there.
Having decided that much, I lay in bed for about ten more minutes before gathering three volumes from the manga Somi had given me and heading out of the house.
...I should have checked the mirror before leaving.
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The officetel where I lived was in a busy district, so the road to the café naturally took me through the heart of it.
As was only natural for a weekend afternoon in a commercial area, the streets were full of students out with friends and parents walking along with their children.
As I glanced at the students passing by, several of them seemed to meet my eyes, then quickly look away and drift off.
...
Well, that happened from time to time.
My hair color was impossible to ignore, and I was confident enough in my looks that, if I walked around without thinking too much about it, drawing people’s attention was just part of everyday life.
“Whoa... is that cosplay or something?”
“But she’s seriously cute... is there some event going on around here?”
“Mom! There’s a cat!!”
“Shh! Cats are dirty, so don’t touch it.... Huh? How adorable.”
But something about people’s reactions felt very different from usual.
A cat? I couldn’t see any cat anywhere, so what were they looking at?
I kept walking toward the café, wondering where the cat might be, but the truth only hit me after I arrived.
“Welcome... wow! You’re adorable! But what’s with the cat cosplay?”
“...Huh?”
At the shop owner’s pointed question, I finally turned my gaze to the mirror behind the counter, and there was a girl with white cat ears, wearing a sulky expression while hugging a manga volume against her chest.
...
I’d worn the cat-ear headband and tail decoration throughout the birthday party, so I must have gotten used to them and forgotten to take them off!
Ugh... I can understand the ears, but the tail was fixed to my underwear, so I couldn’t even remove it right now...
And since I was wearing a one-piece dress, I’d have to go to the restroom if I wanted to take it off?
“Um... where’s your bathroom? I’ll just go remove this for a moment.”
“What? There’s no problem with that at all in our café, so you don’t need to take it off. The restroom’s pretty far away, so it’d be a hassle for you.”
“Even so, this is...”
“No, really, it’s completely fine, customer. You came all the way here already dressed up like that, so there’s no need to go to the trouble. You’re cute, so I’ll even give you some service. Just order and take a seat~”
Thanks to the café owner’s bizarre consideration, I ended up sitting down with cat ears and a tail still attached.
Of course, the ears could be taken off right away, but... if I only had the tail on, that might have looked even stranger.
♫-♪~♫-♩
Just as I was about to open my manga after sitting down in the café chair, a message alert sounded on my smartphone.
The contents of the message were the photos Han Sia and Yu Somi had taken of me all day today.
Of course, there were pictures of me blowing out the candles at the birthday party and of everyone gathered together for a group shot, but the largest share by far was of me wearing cat ears and a tail while hugging a bear plushie.
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.
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‘Lee Narin. Was figure skating a joke to you? I’m not even asking you to show a variety of expressions—was smiling really that hard?’
‘Your movements? Fine. But if your expression acting looks like that, you’re not going to place anyway. We might as well give the other girls a chance.’
‘Mom... I want to quit figure skating. It’s just hard now, and it isn’t fun anymore.’
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.
.
Even if I didn’t have much expression, it was an undeniable fact that I looked cute in the photos.
After all, what made cats charming was their aloofness.
Then, as I happened to look around the café, I saw the reflection of a white cat-eared girl in exactly the same outfit as the one in the photos.
A few people inside the café were looking my way, and the smiles on their faces made it seem... they thought I looked cute too.
I’d wound up here wearing cat accessories by accident, but the fact that people were looking at me like this didn’t feel unpleasant.
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