The Cat Café
Seo I-eung, Isabella Chambers, me, Professor Santoto, and Instructor Suptoto.
Five people in total.
The club’s minimum membership had been filled. With that, we had averted the disaster of failing to found the club for lack of members.
“What? Hahwi joined the Animal Love Club?”
“Did Seo I-eung lie? That crazy bitch.”
“Honestly, I probably would’ve lied too. Anyone who only wants to join because of Hahwi doesn’t look good, right?”
“Exactly. Who’d want to accept someone that transparent? I get where Seo I-eung’s coming from.”
“Same. The ones trash-talking her right now are the real idiots.”
“I’m sorry…”
I’d been a little worried, but thankfully not many of the girls were badmouthing Seo I-eung. There were more level-headed ones than I’d expected.
“Alright! Everyone move to the clubrooms of the clubs you just joined!”
At Professor Santoto’s command, the students poured out of the lecture hall in a noisy rush. The clubrooms were in the building right next to the lecture halls. Each club already had its assigned room—confirmed on the academy app. Clubs with large memberships got spacious rooms; those with fewer members were assigned the smaller ones.
“Looks like it’s just us left, carrot.”
Professor Santoto, perched on the lectern, surveyed the now-empty classroom. Only five people remained—all members of the Animal Love Club.
“Let’s head to our clubroom as well, lotus root.”
We left the lecture building and started toward the one next door.
“You got our help, so treat us, carrot.”
“Pat our butts for us, lotus root.”
Santoto and Suptoto clung to my shoulders and whispered. I simply nodded. If you receive help, you repay the favor. That was only natural.
Our clubroom was, as expected, cramped. Probably because we only had the bare minimum members—it was about the size of the studio apartment I lived in. Still, it had most of the necessities: a sofa, a table and chairs, a fridge, and an air conditioner. The facilities weren’t particularly old either. The previous 65th class had clearly cleaned thoroughly before leaving; the place was spotless.
“Seo I-eung. Explain what today’s club activity is going to be, carrot.”
Crunch, crunch. Professor Santoto lay sprawled across the table, munching a carrot as she looked at Seo I-eung. Asking her what we would be doing was only natural—Seo I-eung was the club president. For the moment, both Santoto and Suptoto were mere members.
“I thought about it a bit back in the lecture hall… How about we go to a cat café today?”
There was no cat café on academy grounds. In other words, she meant going outside. That was fine with me. We didn’t have to use academy facilities. Cost wasn’t an issue either. I’d heard that when clubs conducted activities off-campus, the academy provided activity funds separately—around 100,000 won per person, if I remembered right.
“Carrot. Not bad.”
“I love cats! Lotus root!”
“I like them too.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to me. I answered by nodding. Getting out would be good. There was nothing to do here. Especially in a place with no animals, what activities could an Animal Love Club even have…
Ah. There are animals here, though.
Santoto and Suptoto were animals before they were monsters. Loving them, however, was a bit of a stretch. They looked adorable, but their behavior wasn’t particularly lovable. Intelligent animals were weird like that—they acted more like humans than animals.
“Then let’s head out right away.”
Seo I-eung pushed her chair back and stood.
“I’ve already decided where we’re going, so just trust me and follow.”
Thorough preparation and decent leadership. The more I got to know her, the more charming she seemed. Her poor social skills were a drawback… but I was in no position to criticize anyone on that front.
“Carrot carrot~”
“Lotus root lotus root~”
The moment we left the academy, Santoto and Suptoto started humming. They looked excited about the outing. Were they normally unable to go out? Even though they were a professor and an instructor, they were still monsters—I had the feeling they might be under some kind of restriction. Curious, I asked whether they were unable to go out unless there were special circumstances.
“Carrot? We’re not prisoners. Why wouldn’t we be able to go out?”
“We can leave freely whenever we want. We’re just usually too busy to have the time, lotus root.”
I must have misunderstood. Once they sided with humans, they probably already possessed equal rights. They simply seemed elated because it had been a long time since they’d gone out on a nice day.
Guided by Seo I-eung, we made our way into the busy commercial district. After walking a little farther, a sign painted with a cute cat came into view. Seo I-eung stopped in front of the building it hung from.
“Here.”
“Don’t use casual speech, carrot.”
“I wasn’t talking to you, Professor.”
I looked up and slowly examined the building’s exterior. It was five stories, and the entire building appeared to be a cat café. From the first floor to the fifth, every glass window was stamped with a cat logo.
“Anyway, I’ll cover the cost for now. The president’s the one who has to file for the activity funds anyway.”
With that, Seo I-eung went inside and quickly finished paying. The way the staff recognized her suggested she had visited many times before. Isabella, apparently here for the first time, looked around awkwardly and let out soft sounds of admiration.
“Wow… There are so many pretty cats…”
“Everyone stop standing around staring. Grab a drink from the counter and hurry after me. The cats on the second floor are cuter.”
Seo I-eung said as she climbed the first step of the stairs. A drink was already in her hand. Those came out fast. We collected our drinks and followed her up to the second floor. The moment we settled into a suitable spot, several cats approached with curious eyes, padding closer little by little. Cats that showed no wariness of humans at all. Most of them were dog-like cats, probably because they were used to people.
“Hehe. So cute.”
Isabella, a cat on her lap, carefully stroked its head with a big, foolish grin.
“You can’t have this carrot! Carrot!”
“No matter how cute you are, I will never surrender the carrot! Lotus root!”
Santoto and Suptoto scuffled playfully with the cats.
And then—
Seo I-eung, a cat held in her arms, glared at me sharply…
Why was she looking at me like that? When I checked again, her gaze was fixed on the cat I was currently petting. She couldn’t possibly be jealous of a cat. Did she just not like this particular one?
While I was still wondering, she suddenly stood up.
“…I’m going to the bathroom for a second.”
Seo I-eung bolted from her seat and dashed off to the restroom. What was with her? She was as hard to understand and impossible to predict as a cat.
While I was in the middle of playing with a cat, another one approached me hesitantly.
“Meow!”
It was the very cute and adorable cat I had run into several times in the alleyway—and the one I had fed churu to just this morning. Why was it here? Was it one of the cats raised at this place? That was the only explanation that made sense. There were no other customers on the second floor right now besides us. So this café let its cats go outside freely. The alleyway was a fair distance from here, but cats could run fast.
I never expected to run into it in a place like this…
This didn’t feel like coincidence so much as destiny. It felt as though that cat and I were connected by an invisible thread of fate.
Anyway, I’d wanted to see it, so the timing was perfect. I carefully set the cat I’d been holding down on the floor.
“Meow…”
“Nyang!”
Seizing the chance it had been waiting for, the cat leapt with all its strength and landed in my arms. I was a little startled. Last time, when I’d pulled it into a hug, it had clearly been uncomfortable and run away. Had it built up some immunity? Or maybe, because this was its own territory rather than an unfamiliar place, its wariness had eased further.
“The way it jumps into your arms the moment it sees you and starts swishing its tail… Quite the coquettish little cat, lotus root.”
“Kang Hahwi. Have you been to this cat café before?”
Professor Santoto asked, looking puzzled.
“No. Today’s my first time.”
“For a first visit, it seemed like that cat recognized you…”
“Ah. I’ve run into this one a few times in an alleyway, that’s why.”
“Carrot? So you two were already acquainted after all.”
After finishing the conversation with Santoto, I looked down at the cat in my arms.
“Purr, purrr…”
The cat twisted its body and rubbed its face vigorously against my chest. It almost looked embarrassed. And then I noticed a thin trickle of bright red liquid from its nose.
What? A nosebleed?
Come to think of it, there had been blood on my clothes last time too. This morning it had clearly been fine… Had its condition worsened again so soon? Or was it a special constitution that made it get nosebleeds whenever it came into contact with people? I started to worry that it might have some kind of human allergy.
Should I ask a staff member? Tell them this one’s condition seems a little off.
Just as I was thinking that—
“Nyang!”
The cat slipped out of my arms and dashed off somewhere in a hurry.
Inside the women’s restroom installed within the cat café, a fluffy-furred cat came rushing in. And then—
Shrrr—
The cat transformed into the form of a human woman and let out a sigh of relief.
“Whew. I got so worked up I almost transformed back while I was still in Kang Hahwi’s arms.”
Physical contact with Kang Hahwi had made her heart race far too quickly. Because of that, she had nearly lost control of her mana and broken the transformation. Having weathered the crisis, the woman slowly regulated her breathing. The excitement still hadn’t faded; her legs felt ready to give out.
As she leaned against the wall, trying to calm her pounding heart—
Creeeak—
The restroom door opened, and three shadows fell across the floor.
“Carrot…”
“Lotus root…”
“Whoa……”
At the familiar voices, the woman’s face went pale. Trembling, she slowly turned her head to the side.
“As I thought, that cat just now was you, carrot.”
“Lotus root. How utterly repulsive. To think you were of the same kind as us.”
“Disgusting, you…”
Santoto, Suptoto, and Isabella stared at the woman with eyes full of revulsion. The woman reflected in their pupils was none other than—
“Uh, that is… Well… Th-this is how it happened……”
Seo I-eung.
Seo I-eung had been caught—the truth that she had been the cat all along had finally come out.