Cheshire Cat

The wind was tugging the nice braids Seungwan had carefully tied in her hair apart. It had been a little over three months since she had been found; summer days had ended and autumn was now upon them. She had been going to school for two weeks now, sticking close to Seulgi and Moonkyu, a family friend, like a silent shadow, as they fended off any questions about where she’d come from. People kept trying to find out more about her, eyeing her with curiosity and more than a little bit of disapproval at her sullen face and skinny form.

Truthfully, Yulhee hadn’t particularly wanted to be close to Seulgi or Moonkyu: she just wanted to be left alone from the barrage of pitiful looks. The last three months had passed with little interaction with the people who were meant to be her sisters because Yulhee didn’t know what to make of them. That had changed when she had been quietly sitting by herself in the school canteen, and Seulgi had plopped herself down across from her without a word of warning. A boy with messy hair and glasses joined her. Yulhee raised both eyebrows as Seulgi placed her lunchbox on the table but continued to chew, watching them.

“Can we join you?” the boy had the politeness to ask. Yulhee blinked and then gave a barely perceptible nod. As long as they spoke amongst themselves, it would be tolerable. She’d been a little naïve to believe that.

“Ah, you’re way too skinny!” Seulgi muttered, using her chopsticks to transfer a large portion of her lunch to Yulhee. She gave a small squeak of surprise. “Mum says you need to eat more! Moonkyu, give her some of yours!”

“I won’t have any left then – sorry, Yulhee, but I don’t have as much food as Seulgi.”

“Don’t say sorry to her like it makes it better!”

“Why are you being so unreasonable? My dad got fired last week!”

“Well my dad’s dead!”

Yulhee looked from one to the other. Wordlessly, she cut the portion into two and dropped one half in front of Moonkyu. Then she stuffed some food into as though nothing had happened. Moonkyu blinked at her, his awkward-looking glasses sliding a little off his nose. Then he grinned. “I like her.”

Seulgi whacked the back of his head. Yulhee hid a smile behind her hand. “Ah – you made Yulhee smile! I’ve never seen her do that before! Do it again!”

“Seulgi, stop pulling at my face.”

“But you look really cute!”

And on they went.

Today Yulhee had been forced to stay back later than usual; there was too much material that she needed to learn and extra classes had been scheduled. Up ahead was the elementary school’s playground, and there were still children playing there, since the playground was open to the whole town. The town was too small and increasingly underfunded for more. She held her bag close to her chest. The wind tugged at her braids again, and with one hand she held the dark strands away from her face. Some strange compulsion told her to look upwards, and with that one motion, everything changed.

Nothing lasts forever.  

The Cheshire Cat was sitting on the top of the playground structure a few yards off.

She did not know how she knew what its name was. It was conceivable that she had always known it. It sat there, head tilted back towards the clouds. Yulhee regarded it, still holding her hair back with one hand. The wind lifted the edge of her skirt. Why was he sitting there? What was he? 

A classmate was walking behind her, his name was Kibum, she remembered. With a hesitant hand, for she’d never spoken to him before, she tugged at his uniform sleeve. He blinked at her, coming to a halt. “What it is?”

“Do you see that?” she asked softly, pointed with one long finger.

Kibum gave her a look as though she was stupid. “The playground?”

“No, the cat - the man sitting on top of it.”

“Are you joking?”

“I’m serious,” Yulhee said, and maybe he registered something in her voice, because his expression changed from one of someone reluctant to be in on a joke, to someone altogether more afraid. “Don’t you see him?”

By now, another classmate named Woohyun had joined Kibum. “There you are – what are you two staring at?”

“Nothing,” Kibum said, inching away a little from Yulhee, “There’s nothing there. Are you feeling alright?”

In the back of her mind, the first prick of suspicion made itself felt. Surely they had to be tricking her; the Cat was right there, sticking out against everything else like a bright smear of colour. “Please don’t tease me. The man – or Cat – he’s right there! Can’t you see it?”

Their slightly terrified faces were her only answer. “Yulhee…” The gentle, soothing tones of Kibum’s voice were contrasted by the fact that he was creating a distance from her, like trying to tame a wild animal. Her skin crawled. Why had she spoken? “There’s really