Cats at the Window
It seemed she wasn't considering the possibility that her answer was wrong—she appeared convinced that it was currently eight o'clock.
“Hehe. No, not right now.”
“Then… isn't it eight o'clock?”
“Mm. Right now it's not eight—it's two thirty.”
“Two thirty? Thirty?”
She seemed to grasp what “two” meant, but “thirty” clearly puzzled her.
“Thirty means thirty minutes. An hour has sixty minutes, so half of that is called thirty.”
“…Aha!”
She looked as though she'd only half understood the concept, but that was fine. There was plenty of time ahead for her to learn everything at her own pace.
“All right, then. What would the clock need to look like for it to be eight o'clock?”
Jungwoo had appeared with a pen and paper in hand.
“The clock looks like this…”
He drew a clock face and turned it into a little puzzle: what shape should the hands make at eight?
“The short hand is the hour, the long one is the minutes, and the thin, long one is the seconds.”
“Hour, minute, second…”
Seia gripped the pen tightly, pondering, and was just about to move when—
—the bell above the door chimed, and a customer stepped into Seona's Restaurant.
“Welcome! Come on in!”
The greeting slipped out of Seia on pure reflex now.
“Ah, hello… there.”
The customer looked terribly shy.
But behind her, visible through the restaurant door, were several cats.
“Um, excuse me… did a customer stop by here a little while ago?”
“Ah, yes. Someone did.”
“Could you tell me who it was?”
Jungwoo had no intention of sharing information about his customers. Just because someone looked shy didn't guarantee they were kind. Of course, if those cats outside really had followed this person, he might reconsider—but for now, he kept his answer neutral.
“I'm sorry. I can't give out details about other guests.”
“Oh, right. Of course. I'm sorry.”
An awkward silence settled between them. It didn't seem as though the woman had come here looking for Jungwoo or Seia. She was probably interested in Park Geon-su and Seong Ye-eun, who had visited earlier, but Jungwoo had nothing to say on the matter. She hadn't crossed any lines yet, so he couldn't exactly ask her to leave.
“This seat's nice!”
At that moment, Seia stepped in.
She appeared between the shy customer and Jungwoo, guiding the woman to the window seat she had just finished clearing.
“Huh? Uh?”
“It's Seia's favorite spot.”
Before the customer even realized what was happening, Seia's practiced hospitality had her seated.
“Today's menu is lunchboxes!”
“L-lunchbox…?”
“Yes! Daddy's lunchboxes are the best!”
“Ah, um… then I'll have one lunchbox, please…”
Whether it was because she was so shy or simply because Seia was so effortlessly in charge, the customer found herself completely swept along.
Once the woman sat by the window, the cats outside gathered near the glass. Among them was the cheese-colored cat that both Seia and Jungwoo knew well.
Seia, who had been about to return to her clock puzzle, stopped in her tracks.
“Wow… there are so many cats!”
She counted—four in total.
Four times the cuteness!
Seia pressed herself against the window, half-dazed by the colorful parade of cats. The cheese cat already knew her, so it showed no wariness, but strangely, the other three didn't seem afraid either.
The four cats lined up along the window closest to Seia were, from left to right: black, white, cheese-colored, and calico.
“Hee… they're so cute…”
When she touched her finger to the glass, the cats' eyes followed it. One even placed its paw against the spot where her finger rested. The pane of glass between them let her see their little paw pads clearly.
Seia had never met these cats before, but she could already tell—their paws looked incredibly soft and squishy.
“You know the cheese-colored one, right?”
“Oh! I do! You know her too, miss?”
“Ah, yeah. I just… feed her sometimes.”
“Wow…”
Seia's eyes filled with admiration and envy. Not one cat, but several—how wonderful it must be to have them all following you.
“Can Seia feed them too?”
“Uh…”
The customer hesitated, then looked at her cats. Normally they ignored everyone else, but right now they were acting completely differently. She had fed them, raised them, even bathed them. She was the only human they actually communicated with.
‘…Somehow, this feels a little unfair.’
It wasn't jealousy toward Seia. Until now, she had never thought anyone—or anything—could be cuter than her cats. Maybe that was about to change…?
“Here. They'll love this.”
The woman pulled out several long stick-shaped treats and handed them to Seia.
“Churu?”
“Yeah. It's their favorite snack.”
Their favorite snack, huh?
Curiosity sparkled in Seia's eyes.
“…Humans can't eat it, okay?”
“Okay. Daddy said cats and people eat different things.”
“That's right.”
“Then Seia will go give them the churu!”
Clutching the treats, Seia dashed straight outside.
Through the window, they couldn't hear what she was saying, but her mouth movements were easy to read.
‘Kitty! I brought yummy things!’
The treats weren't even opened yet, so there was no smell, but the cats knew exactly what those sticks meant. They had already liked Seia, and now that she had their favorite snack, they were showing affection they rarely displayed.
“…Well, at least I bathed them first.”
“You washed all four of them?”
“Ah—yes, yes.”
Jungwoo, who had just finished preparing the lunchbox and was carrying it over, caught the muttered words.
“Wow… bathing cats must've been really hard.”
“The cheese one listens the best, but even she hates water.”
“I've seen people feed strays, but I've never seen anyone bathe them too.”
“It's… basically the same as raising them.”
Even while talking with Jungwoo, the customer couldn't hide her shyness. She looked unused to conversation with people, and her tension was obvious.
“That's amazing. Taking responsibility for living creatures isn't easy. Well then, enjoy your meal.”
Jungwoo left her with that final greeting, not wanting to intrude on her meal any longer. Running the restaurant had sharpened his instincts—he could often tell what a customer wanted just by their expression. The way she kept glancing at the cats and at Seia playing with them suggested that simply watching was enough to make her happy.
As he headed back to the kitchen, the bell chimed again.
“Welcome—”
It wasn't a new customer. Seia had returned from playing with the cats.
Instead of coming to the kitchen, she went straight to the customer's table.
“Um…”
“Yes?”
“Can you open these for me?”
Seia held out the bundle of churu sticks she had been clutching. She had tried to tear them open herself, but no matter how hard she pulled, they wouldn't budge.
When the customer took them back, she saw the packaging was crumpled from Seia's efforts.
“Haha. You open them like this. See this little tear at the end? You just grab it and pull…”
The packaging came apart far more easily than Seia had managed.
“Like that. Super simple.”
“Wow!”
“Want to try it yourself?”
Following the instructions, Seia managed to tear open a stick with surprising ease—though she must have used a bit too much force, because the churu inside burst out and splattered onto her cheek.
“Ah!”
She looked startled for a second, but she remembered the rule: she wasn't supposed to eat it, not that it couldn't touch her.
“Hehe.”
Seia gave an embarrassed smile. The customer smiled too and pulled out a tissue to wipe Seia's face.
“Shall we open the rest so you can take them?”
“Yes!”
The first one was always the hardest. After that, it became easy. Seia tore open the remaining sticks with growing confidence and ran back outside to the cats.
‘They really do love her.’
By “they,” she meant the cats, not Seia. Even with churu in hand, these cats didn't usually act this affectionate.
“Ah, I should eat now.”
She hadn't come here planning to eat, but somehow a lunchbox had appeared in front of her. The signboard had been cute too—those crooked letters and misspelled words. Knowing exactly who had written them somehow made it even more endearing.
She took a spoonful of the beef bone broth first. Warmth spread through her entire body.
“Phew…”
A contented sigh escaped her. There wasn't any meat floating in the milky broth, but somehow that made it better. It felt like she was eating something genuinely nourishing, with nothing getting in the way.
The side dishes were perfect too. The ones that needed to be served warm were still hot, and the others tasted exactly like homemade food.
Then came the spicy stir-fried pork—the main event.
When was the last time she'd eaten such delicious stir-fried pork? She didn't even eat it often. It wasn't one of her favorite dishes.
But the balance of sweetness and spiciness was perfect, and the rich flavor of the fat combined with the chewy texture of the lean meat created a wonderful synergy. The crisp onions balanced out what could have been an overly heavy mouthfeel.
“It's delicious…”
What else was there to say?
For the customer, it was mealtime. For Seia, it was playtime with the cats. For Jungwoo, it was time to clean up. Each of them spent the moment in their own satisfying way, and by the time the customer's meal was finished, Jungwoo's cleanup and Seia's playtime were also complete.
The bell chimed as Seia returned, her face glowing with a smile that showed just how much fun she'd had—far more than expected.
“Hehe, Daddy!”
“Yes, my daughter?”
“The cats ate everything. The churu.”
“They did?”
“Yes! They even rubbed against me!”
“Hehe. I could tell.”
Seia looked puzzled, but Jungwoo knew exactly why—her clothes were covered in cat fur.
“Wait here a moment, Seia. Daddy's going to run upstairs real quick.”
“Okay.”
While Jungwoo headed up to the second floor, the customer finished her meal and approached the counter to pay.
“……?”
No one was there.
She vaguely remembered the owner saying he had to go somewhere, but it shouldn't take long, right?
“I need to pay… I wonder when he'll be back.”
“I'm right here!”
From below the counter came Seia's voice.
She kept popping up on tiptoes, her eyes appearing and disappearing above the edge.