Why Do You Keep Dropping It! I Caught It! I Caught It, Aaaah!!!
Since Daeun was on her way to meet up with us, my conversation with Chuchu ended after just a few short exchanges.
Having failed to give a proper explanation, it seemed the Chuchu in Daeun's head had now been officially classified as a slightly unhinged girl with a few screws loose.
"Butler, it turned green."
"Yep, now we can cross."
"All the cars stopped."
"When the crosswalk light turns green, the cars have to stop. If they don't, people get really badly hurt."
"Ohh. So if a car hits you, it hurts a lot?"
"It could even kill you. So you always have to be careful around cars. Got it?"
At the words could even kill you, Chuchu nodded her head with all her might, trembling like a leaf.
To Chuchu it was a terrifying word, but I'd said it knowing full well what it was.
Because only by making her truly understand how dangerous it was could I keep it from turning into a real accident someday.
"Butler, what's that? It smells delicious."
What she pointed at with a curious finger was the egg bread being sold out of a food truck.
Maybe because she was a beastkin, even scents that humans would find appetizing seemed to get a big reaction out of her.
"Ah, that's egg bread. Want to try one?"
"Yes!"
"Excuse me, one egg bread, please."
The food truck owner nodded at the order, then glanced sideways at Chuchu. And for a good while, he couldn't take his eyes off her.
"She's a little sister I know. She loves cats, so I take her everywhere with me."
I gave him the exact same excuse I'd used on Daeun, but Chuchu couldn't resist the delicious smell and fired up her tailcopter.
"Chuchu? You need to keep that tail calm."
When I whispered in her ear, she finally remembered herself and let her tail droop.
Watching Chuchu's tail move with her emotions reminded me of a dog.
I'd heard cats don't wag their tails as expressively as dogs do, but her personality did seem closer to a dog-cat than anything.
"Chuchu, this is egg bread. It's bread with a whole boiled egg inside. It's hot, so—"
"Hahp! Hoohahhoohahoohahhah! H-hot! It's hot!"
"I was trying to tell you to be careful because it's hot."
"My tongue... I burned it..."
So the whole cat's tongue thing isn't just an old saying, huh.
"But it's tasty! Mmmf, mmf... Mmmm!"
"Thank goodness. It's hot, so eat it slowly."
"Mmhm! Huh? Butler, there are so many phones."
Chuchu's next object of fascination was a phone store. Seeing all the phones on display in the outdoor showcase, she actually tugged on my hand and dragged me over to get a better look.
"Chuchu, do you want a phone?"
"Hmm... are you going to buy me one?"
Having already forgotten about her tail, Chuchu swayed it gently back and forth as she looked up at me.
When she bats her eyes at me like that, how am I supposed to say no?
But a phone was still too early for Chuchu.
It wouldn't be too late to buy her one once she'd gotten a little more used to the way people live, and once I was confident she wouldn't go overboard with it.
"I'll buy you one later."
"Okay, got it."
Without so much as a single whine, she gave up easily and took my hand again.
Thankfully, she didn't seem all that attached to the idea of a phone.
Chuchu's questions kept coming without a single break after that.
She asked what the buskers were doing, asked what the drink people carried around in their hands was, asked how people spent their time out here.
Of course I answered each innocent question patiently, step by step. And before I knew it, a mother's smile at a child just now discovering the world had spread across my face on its own.
"Butler, something amazing is over there."
"That's a claw machine."
"There are so many pretty dolls."
"You use that machine to grab whatever doll you want. Want to try it?"
"Yes, I want to try!"
We went into the gacha shop with the claw machines and let Chuchu pick out whichever doll she wanted.
It didn't take her long to decide.
And her choice, of course, was a cat plushie.
"There are so many cats!"
"There really are. A whole ton of them."
"Butler, I want to play."
At the word butler, everyone around us turned to look as if on cue.
Chuchu already stood out just from her looks, and now she was calling me her butler in public — those stares were only natural.
"Chuchu, don't call me butler when we're out. Call me something else."
"Why?"
"When people hear the word butler, they're going to stare at us like crazy. And then we won't get to enjoy our special time together, will we?"
"Then what do I call you?"
I pondered for a moment what she should call me in public, and a smile crept across my face.
After all, this was a golden opportunity to indulge my own selfish little wishes.
"How about Unnie? You can call me Yerin Unnie."
"Unnie?"
The way she tilted her head at the unfamiliar word made my heart start pounding so hard I thought it might burst.
"Urkh...!"
Who knew the word "Unnie" could be this devastating?
Every time anyone had called me Unnie before, it had been mere courtesy.
This is what a true Unnie sounds like.
This resonance. This emotion. this trembling.
Ah, it's perfect. It's all so perfect I could cry.
"Yerin Unnie?"
"Ugh...! Y-yes... Chuchu. You can call me that."
"Okay, got it! Now will you show me how to do it?"
With great effort I pushed down my rioting heart, paid for five plays, and covered Chuchu's hands from behind to guide them toward the lever and the buttons.
"This thing here is the lever. When you move it, the crane in front of you moves in that direction."
"Wowwaaang. Oh, it does!"
"And when you press this button, the crane drops down and grabs the doll. If your position is off, you won't catch it — so getting the position right is the important part."
"Okay, I'll try!"
When Chuchu's eyes went wide with focus, the tail that had been swaying so playfully went stiff and still.
She had clearly devoted every last nerve to that claw machine.
"Now!"
She nudged the lever a few times and confidently pressed the button, but...
"Uwah!"
Alas, the cat plushie slipped free of the crane.
"Chuchu, you've got four more tries. Keep going!"
"Okay!"
She focused again, then slammed the button with tremendous force.
"Got it!"
"Oh, you did? Does our Chuchu have a talent for claw machines?"
On only her second try, the crane clamped onto the cat plushie and started trundling toward the chute.
The whole way there, Chuchu stomped her feet in place and pressed her face so close to the glass that her nose squished flat like a piggy's.
But as is the fate of all claw machines, just before reaching the chute, the crane dropped the plushie.
"KYAAAAAAAAAH!"
Chuchu's ears and tail shot straight up as she let out an absolutely volcanic hiss.
"Ch-Chuchu...?"
"Unnie, this is so annoying! It dropped it on purpose!"
"Chuchu, claw machines are supposed to—"
"I'm just gonna smash it and take everything!"
"AAAAH! Chuchu, calm down!"
She'd made it all the way to the wall on the far side of the machine before I dove in, and I only just managed to grab her around the waist.
"Let go of me!"
"Chuchu, if you do that, we're in big trouble!"
"Why does it keep dropping it! I caught it! I CAUGHT IT, AAAAH!!!"
"Chuchu, you still have three tries left. Three!"
"No! I'm done!"
Trapped in my grip, Chuchu flailed midair for a while before losing interest and turning her back on the machine entirely.
A cat's attention span is usually ten to fifteen minutes.
And apparently it gets even shorter when something annoys her.
"Chuchu, let's calm down and hold Unnie's hand nice and tight."
"Hmph! I don't even want to look at you!"
For all her grumbling, she gripped my hand tightly and waited patiently all the same.
We spent the remaining three tries trying to win her the cat plushie she wanted, but as a certified disaster at claw machines among claw-machine disasters, I failed in the end.
"Chuchu, I'm sorry. I couldn't win it for you."
"It's okay, Unnie. I didn't like the way it looked from the start anyway."
"O-oh... really?"
"Look at those slanted eyes. It looks super mean, doesn't it?"
Says the girl with the exact same slanted eyes.
"Huh? Unnie, what's this one?"
Just when I thought she'd lost interest in the machines for good, she pointed at one holding an enormous cat plushie.
"You have to stop the timer on that screen at exactly the right moment to open it."
"Stop the time?"
"Yep, you have to stop it at ten seconds. But it's not just ten seconds — you have to land on the double-zero right after it, so it's super hard."
"I want to try this one!"
Not only was the difficulty steep, the machine was so notoriously brutal compared to its neighbors that most people didn't even bother trying it.
But because Chuchu showed an interest, I paid for five plays.
"You press the button and watch the numbers on the screen, and when you feel like it's hit ten-seconds-and-double-zero, you press it again."
"Okay, got it."
And so Chuchu's new challenge began.
Since it was her first attempt, I was certain there was no way she'd succeed on the first try.
But—
—Clunk!
"Huh? I did it, Unnie."
"What?!"
She'd done it. On her very first try.
"How... how did you...?"
"I just pressed it when I saw ten seconds and double-zero, like you told meee?"
There was something I'd briefly forgotten.
That a cat's reflexes are three to five times faster than a human's.
The timer registered her perfect stop, the door swung open, and the giant cat plushie tumbled into Chuchu's arms.
"Wowwaah! Unnie, I won the plushieee!"
Hugging the white blue-eyed plushie — a mirror image of herself — tight against her chest, Chuchu wagged her tail happily, practically bursting with pride.
It was, quite simply, otherworldly levels of cute.
"This one's so cute! I'm going to keep it by my side forever!"
The sight of an adorable child looking at something adorable and declaring it adorable.
So she'd made up her mind to detonate my heart, had she.
"That's amazing, Chuchu. You did so great!"
"Right? I told you. This great self is different from all those other cats! Hah!"
"It was only possible because it's you, Chuchu. You really are something."
"Ehehe. But can't we win more plushies from this machine now?"
"After a while, the owner will put new plushies in."
"Then I wanna win more!"
Among all these claw machines, that one was probably a nice, steady earner for the shop.
It was only a matter of time before Chuchu made it onto this store's blacklist.
"Cats are so cute."
Hugging the cat plushie with one arm and swinging my hand back and forth with the other, Chuchu rocked us side to side.
I felt truly lucky that her first taste of the world had given her such a special memory.
"Unnie, I'm hungry."
"Hmm, then shall we head home?"
"Yes!"
Just as we were about to head back after her first outing, a cluster of pet shops came into view further down the street.
There were sure to be plenty of cat toys and supplies in there.
As a memento of her first outing, I wanted to buy Chuchu whatever toy she wanted and browse for some good cat gear, so I kept walking forward.
Thinking about how happy she'd be, my legs moved as if spellbound.
"Chuchu, let's go over there and buy you whatever toy you want. If there's anything you want, I'll get it for you."
What should have followed was, naturally, Chuchu's voice buzzing with excitement. Instead, no answer came at all.
"Huh? Chuchu?"
I thought she must have been so absorbed in her plushie that she hadn't heard me.
"Ch-Chuchu...?"
Chuchu, who had been walking right behind me hand in hand just moments ago, was gone.
"Chuchu, where are you?! Chuchu!"