Part one of a one shot which became so long, enjoy!

Ps: Excuse all the poopie bits.

Jung Eunji was furious. It’s been exactly a year, three months, two weeks and six days since she took in the striped brown Tabby which she instinctively named as ‘Pepper’ into her ‘Pets-not-allowed’ apartment, and after all these years of keeping him a secret over her life, Pepper has managed to finally escape. It all happened when the unfortunate event of a wrong delivery appearing at her house which was followed by a series of unfortunate events which included her having to repeat on and on the telephone number of his neighbor who was new to the place and whom she had no idea about, then having him not picking up the call and then having to keep the package at her place to deliver to the neighbor herself, and during the process of it, by hook or by crook, Pepper had managed to slip through the crack of the door. Eunji knew that it would be the death of her if he was caught by any chance. Her landlord wouldn’t have mercy on either of them; it would be either moving out of the complex and living under a bridge, or throwing Pepper out to go and live under a bridge by himself. She could afford to do neither of them, so she had to locate the cat’s whereabouts before it was too late.

Pepper hadn’t been out of his confines for the one whole year or so of his life. Except for the occasional vet visits and escapades which didn’t go beyond the hallway, Pepper had no idea out and about so Eunji assumed that he hadn’t gone far, and she just wished so too. It was as if her entire life depended on it. Maybe it did; her apartment was her life, Pepper was her life, and she wanted them both.

So that’s why she decided to take drastic measures, putting her sanity at great risk and crouch down on her all fours to search through every nook and cranny of the hallway, hissing his name under her breath.

“Here pepper boy! Come to mama! Pepper! Pepper boy!”

Pepper was an arse-hole, he wouldn’t listen to her unless it was about Noms. If being on her all fours wasn’t humiliating enough, she hated that she had to call out names even under her breath. There were only about six apartments in her floor in count, all of them occupied, and as much as they all despised Eunji for her late arrivals and drinking habits, she didn’t think they’d appreciate it if they happen to find Pepper looming about their area, sniffing at things and scratching off on cushions. He wasn’t just an ordinary arse-hole, he was one of the worse kind. Pepper would go and pee in people’s underwear drawers like he was supposed to do so, for all she knew.

And then, while she was going through the embarrassing process of searching for the cat, she found her neighbor’s door ajar, and she felt her blood descending from her face. Of course Pepper would have found his comfort in slipping into other people’s houses, of course he’d find it fairly necessary to pee on their belongings. She was screwed, whoever lived in that house, Eunji’s life was completely and utterly screwed.

As it seemed to her, however, the said neighbor had left the door ajar and gone on his way. He must have disappeared to somewhere close by and would turn up sooner or later, which left her few seconds to spare and run inside to rescue the cat and also her dear life. She was counting to three and just about to stand up and run in when a pair of feet clad in leather boot scampered into the house before her and closed the door behind them, depriving her of all the chances of locating her dear old cat. It left her with no option, she had to either let them adopt him, which was rather unlikely, or she should get herself into the house somehow without mentioning about a cat and get him out. She thought hard, considered all her excuses, and finding none, she simply went and knocked on the wooden door. She knew she had minimal chances of locating her cat and slithering out clean, but there was no choice so she waited, and when the door didn’t budge, she knocked again.

There was a sound of scurrying footsteps on the other side and the door unlocked. Soon she was faced by her rather annoyed neighbor whose head with a tuft of dark hair was sticking out the parting of the door.

“Um…Hi?” She said with a little wave before getting into business. The neighbor looked at her as if she had just landed from out of space and said. “Can I help you?”

“Can I come in?”

There was silence, and she was sure the neighbor thought she was borderline insane. “Err…what?”

Eunji sighed and quickly made up a story. “Err well…it’s like, there’s something rather serious I need to talk about and we can’t do it here so can I like…come in?”

“Ugh…” The neighbor hesitated, stepped away from the door and looked to his sides as though he was checking if she had come to him with an army of armored aliens, and finally let out a sigh. “Okay fine, come on in”

The house was no different from hers, except that the sofa was smaller and it was facing the proper, right side, it had beige walls and was much cleaner. The neighbor whose name she couldn’t recall was a young man who seemed to be a few years of his senior. She could vaguely remember him wandering the hallway with a guitar case slung on his back; except for that, she hadn’t much knowledge on him. They didn’t matter to her at that moment either anyway, she only wanted to see if her cat was inside and also pretend that it was a stuffed toy on battery rather than a living organism and escape.

“So, what was it that you wanted to talk?” The neighbor asked, casually making his way towards her. He didn’t look like he wanted to lock her out anymore. He seemed rather nonchalant about it, as though he was getting strange women knocking on his door on a regular basis. Eunji on the other hand was at a loss. She was looking around frantically, her eyes darting around, trying to locate a striped brown being lurking around, but all that she could see were things she didn’t want to think about.

“Well?” The neighbor went again, and Eunji quickly gained her composure to finally turned to find him peeking into her face; all things considered, he actually had pretty nice features. “Well…it’s about the-the…” She was lost, utterly lost, and any moment he was going to throw her out-

And then she saw the cat walking out through the space between the sofa and the wall, looking all smug and undeterred as though he owned the bloody place. She could have ran for it, made a grab for it and escaped; but the neighbor was standing right there, and he was waiting for her to speak.

“Um…it’s about the…” She started again, then the cat climbed onto the sofa and began to stretch out on it, then he scratched onto the smooth brown material, being his usual well imposed self...

And thus she screeched, loud enough for the whole building to hear; “Holy !”

“Wait what?” exclaimed the neighbor and in reflex followed where her eyes were focused onto. Everything happened so fast then, and soon enough Eunji found herself begging for mercy.

“What the is a cat doing here?” He exclaimed, incredulous and immensely shocked by the arrival of the intruder. “There cannot be ing cats here, it’s a cat free environment!”

“Let me explain!” Eunji cried, practically begging him to spear her life. “And please don’t hurt Pepper!”

“So it’s yours?”

“Of course he’s mine!”

The man gave her a mock smile as though she was uttering gibberish and pointed at the cat accusingly who was lumped down in the sofa seat, all composed. “Well then take that thing and get out of my place!”

As much as he seemed like a jolly good fellow judging by how he was dressed and all that, Eunji decided that he was a downright jerk. She let out an exasperated sigh, already regretting having come to his place and made her way towards the sofa. “Geez, you don’t have to be such a jerk”

“Yeah right?” He said in fake mockery and made a loud scoff. “No pets are allowed in the complex. Wait till I inform the management”

Having her worse fears answered, she quickly grabbed the cat off the sofa seat, only to be greeted by a massive scratch mark on its material which she quickly covered with a quilt lying in it. Then she turned t him, her face distraught and really hoping that her eyes filled up.

“Please don’t…” She whispered, holding Pepper against her chest as if he were her biggest treasure. Pepper wasn’t exactly enjoying it, but she held on. “…Don’t tell them…please…”

“What the ? I’m calling” Said the neighbor and reached for his mobile phone which was lying on the coffee table and began to dial, his eyes narrowed in focus. Eunji somehow knew that he meant business. Looking at the state of his apartment, at how clean and orderly he was, she could tell that he wasn’t someone she should be messing with. But she couldn’t let him reveal her deepest darkest secret. In fact, she couldn’t help but feel like she’s been stripped stark , and now like some methodical dude was going to strip her before the public. It had to be stopped.

So Eunji immediately got into action, reached out and grabbed the hand which held the phone. The man was surprised and almost threw her off her feet, but as though just in time she managed to pull a face which would make any man’s heart hurt, if he ever had one. “Please” She whispered, and the quiver in her voice was obvious than she thought. “Spear us…”

The neighbor person looked at her as though she was the most outrageous specimen of females ever to exist, pulled away his hand, ran the other one through his dark lock of hair and drew a long sigh. “You’re impossible”

“Pepper is my older sister’s cat” She quickly added, making up a story which she thought wasn’t an obvious lie. “And she…she has a lung cancer…she loves him dear and-and she can’t have him at hers…”

“What about your parents?” He asked in an exhausted voice, and she faked a soundless sob.

“They live in Busan”

“And your sister?”

“Seoul”

“Alone?”

“At the hospital”

“Oh” He replied after a moment, suddenly sounding sympathetic. Then he eyed her warily, supposedly trying to convince himself that she wasn’t a phony, and finally shrugged before dropping his phone onto the coffee table. “Okay, fine, I’ll let it off”

Eunji, who was immensely delighted by his response gave him her widest smile, pressed her hands together and began to bow. “Thank you, thank you, and thank you!”

“Great, now go and lock that stupid cat in his cage or whatever, I have work to do”

Her hands dropped. “Eh what?”

“Go back, I said”

The neighbor was by far the most outrageously rude person she had ever met. Not that she was bothered anyway, provided that she did not hope to encounter him again under any circumstances. Deciding to completely ignore his attitude towards her, Eunji held pepper against her chest and began to walk out of the house. However, when she was right at the door, with her hand resting on the door knob, his voice sounded from behind her.

“What stinks?”

“Thank you again, bye!” Eunji shrilled on top of her lungs, pulled open the door and simply disappeared back into her house.

*

The knocking on her door was relentless. It had been going on for quite a while now and she had been in a rather fruitful attempt of being deaf and probably dead, and really hoped that whoever who it was on the door (since she pretended to not to know them while she very well did) wouldn’t consider planting themselves in front of her front door for the rest of their life. By that time, she was certain it was her neighbor, the rude one whom Pepper visited just a moment ago, and while she was irritated immensely by the fact that he wasn’t letting her off, she had no desire to face him and his rude again. There was the minimal chance of him calling the management too, which she didn’t want to think about at that moment. Because really, all kinds of disaster management could wait until she had had her dinner.

And it was dinner that she had, which consisted only of a packet of pork ramyun with an egg in it while Pepper pawed around, sticking his nose on the edges of the pantries which he had previously sprayed his ‘Markings’ on. By the time she had finished her dinner, however, the knocking was gone so she went and watched TV. There was this show where two fat old guys brought in idol singers to a hall with four white walls, and they were telling something funny and Eunji was laughing at it while Pepper sat rather majestically on the coffee cabinet when the knocking started again. This time, however, she decided to kick her feet off of where it was propped up on the stool and trudge off to the door to face her fate.

Just as she had assumed, it was the neighbor guy. Eunji decided that the best way to deal with that kind of adversities was to act all cool and natural, like it’s every day that cats do nasty things on people’s important personal belongings. “Oh, Hello”

The neighbor, despite himself, looked murderous. “I’ve been knocking for two hours”

“Sorry” Eunji said, trying to be polite. “I was in the shower”

“Well that’s funny” Sung gyu said with a crooked smile and glanced down at the sweatshirt she was wearing with a “Cat ladies are single ladies” emblem on it. “Because I’m sure you were wearing the same clothes before, Single cat lady”

She finally let out a dejected sigh, giving into his antics. “Okay, what do you want? If it’s Peppers poop or something, I’ll be there in a while-,”

“Wait, what?” The neighbor echoed.

“Wait, that’s not what you are here for?”

He was giving her a rather baffled look. “I’m here for the parcel, if you are Miss Jung Eunji, that is”

“Ah…right” She said, nodding away and suddenly remembered the parcel some delivery person left with her for the new tenant; but only, she never knew that he was the new tenant of her neighboring unit.  The parcel was a rather sizable cubicle item, wrapped in brown paper and scotch tape, addressed to someone she couldn’t care less to find out, or she did but she couldn’t remember. She had left it on the coffee table where pepper was perched on, his , and when she returned to her sofa to climb in to which she had to throw her feet over the arm rest, she could only find the stretched out, his rear in the air in a rather artistic curve, his hands kneading on the parcel.

“No Pepper boy!” Eunji hissed in utmost terror and grabbed the parcel from his paws although they didn’t so much as hold it; and then while she was engaged in the rather awe-inspiring process of carrying the box and hopping over the armrest, she almost fell on her face (Given that the parcel was as ten times as heavy as pepper, pepper was a fat kitty himself), and she would have, if not for her neighbor who rushed in to rescue his parcel.

“You could have broken it” He complained, propping it up on the kitchen cabinet.

“I could have died!” Eunji returned, outrageous. The man took a briefest glance at her direction, and returned to read through the content of the bill. “Not my concern” He said and lifted his head. “You got a scissor?”

“You don’t care about my well-being and ask for a scissor now? Are you bloody serious?”

“I quite am” the neighbor said and began to walk around the tiny kitchen confines, looking through the drawers without much caring about the fact that he was in another person’s house. Pepper was sitting by her feet, thinking he was going to get his Noms, and Eunji wasn’t elated.

“Ah, here we go!” Came the voice of the neighbor while Eunji silently planned his murder, and soon he was ferociously ripping off the scotch tape as she watched. In fact, she was wondering why such a massive package was delivered to him and why it was so important that they left it with her, so to feed her curiosity she peeked at her rather determined neighbor and asked; “Do you smuggle historical artifacts from Manchuria?”

“What? No” responded the man without a second thought.

“Then is it drugs? Or…oh maybe its human organs?”

He turned to her with a rather exhausted face and let out a sigh. “Can you please shut up?”

She rolled her eyes, quite dejected herself and walked off to pour herself a glass of water. Somehow she ended up cuddling Pepper and giving him Noms and getting her finger hurt by a sharp claw, and while she was busy going through her cupboards for a plaster, her neighbor pulled out a massive china pot from the box.  Eunji who saw it by the corner of her eye quickly made a beeline towards him. “Aha! Stolen historical artifact!”

The man rolled his eyes. “No, a wedding gift”

“You’re getting married?” She asked straight away. “I feel sorry for the poor girl…”

“No, my sister is, mind your own business”

“You can’t tell me that while being in my house!” Eunji pointed out victoriously, at which point the neighbor put in the china pot back into its holder, closed the box and took it in his hands. “Fine, I’m leaving, Thank you for the scissor”

“And for-!” She started to scream after him but trailed off when she heard the door slam shut. “-Keeping it” She said to herself, and Pepper meowed from behind her as though in response.

“Yeah, yeah, only you and me bud” Eunji finally mused with a sigh.

*

“Poop on my jacket” Was the first thing her neighbor said the moment Eunji opened the door early in the morning next day, still in her pajamas and drool on her cheek. “And on my bed covers, and on my knitted scarf, and on my socks”

It was so early in the morning that Eunji could hardly see through her narrowed eyes. Her brain cells were probably malfunctioning too, that she couldn’t exactly put two and two together of whatever the hell her neighbor was muttering. All that she knew was that it was a Monday morning and she had woken up too early and that she still had ten more minutes before her wake up call.

And also that she disliked her new neighbor very, very much.

So instead of saying anything meaningful, she uttered a set of gibberish which she couldn’t understand herself and scratched her head. Monday mornings were bad for her than any other day (Not that the rest were better either) since her mother wakes her up extra early to report to work a few hours early before the actual thing started. Her mother did catering, and Eunji was a cook, so things couldn’t get any worse for her than starting her week by peeling onions.

Or maybe they could, by seeing her neighbor’s face the first thing in the morning.

Eunji wasn’t so much as responding to him. She just stood there, merely staring at his distraught face, and he was staring back; it was as though they were two people in love, though it wasn’t entirely the case.

“Oh it, I’m going to call the management” said the livid neighbor finally, throwing a hand in the air.

That being the wakeup call for her, Eunji quickly reached over and caught him by his wrist, despite all the germs and dirt in her palm after Pepper had it clean. “Hey good morning! Take me to the poop, dear sir, I’ll clean it for you”

A ghost of a smile appeared on the man’s face. “That’s how you do things, miss single-cat-lady”

*

His name, as he said, was Kim Sung Gyu.

Eunji and Sung Gyu have been chatting over at his place for more than an hour now. Pepper had done a considerable amount of damage to his belongings, and Eunji was already doing the calculations in her mind on how much she’d have to compensate with. They were in his bathroom, the two of them, Eunji sitting on his bathtub, the hand shower in one gloved hand and the stained clothes in the other, spraying the dirt off into the commode, and he was sitting on the sink bench, a pair of gloves in his hands for no particular reason and a face mask covering his nose. The two were talking about work while Eunji washed the poop.

“So what did you say you do?” Eunji asked for the second time, just to make it sure. The neighbor-Sung Gyu had just claimed himself to be a musician. Eunji wasn’t sure what kind of music he did and whether he was popular or not and she really needed to make sure that Pepper hadn’t just ruined designer clothing of a celebrity of some sort. (All for the reason that she was broke).

“I do music” Sung gyu answered in a muffled tone. “I have an indie band, we do rock…”

“So, are y’all like, famous or something?”

Although Eunji expected him to respond to her by a laugh or something, Sung gyu seemed to ponder it a little too seriously.

“I’m in disbelief that you don’t recognize me!” He then said in fake, exaggerated surprise, and giggled at his own joke which, in Eunji’s opinion, would have made people gag. “Nah, we do gigs and ”

“Right” Eunji nodded and sprayed on a huge lump of poop. It flew off the cloth and landed in the toilet bowl. She cleared . “So do you all play for the public?”

“Obviously….we hold guerilla concerts once in a while”

“Do people actually come?”

Sung Gyu slid off the bench and took his mask off in a harsh movement. “Of course they do! We’re not some ty underrated band you know”

“But I thought you said you weren’t popular” Eunji pushed on, and Sung gyu, with great effort and utmost tolerance, in took a deep breath. “They do and we’re pretty ing popular for our own good”

Eunji threw a sour look at his general direction and shook her head, disapproving his attitude towards her. “Geez, calm your horses!”

He just rolled his eyes and climbed back onto the bench. “So what about you? Said you were a cook?”

“For my mother’s catering” Eunji added while vigorously scrubbing washing powder onto the denim jacket. “Not just a cook”

“So like, you don’t own it?”

“My mother does, I work with her. Partnering business, it’s more like the family business”

“Right, so you cook over at your place? With the cat, its unhygienic”

Eunji almost threw the stained cloth at his face. “No ! My mother has a kitchen at the catering service station whatever in Yeouido, and Pepper is not unhygienic!”

“Alright!” Sung Gyu exclaimed, holding up his palms and looking like he was holding back his laughter. “I’m sure he’s the cleanest little in the world…how is the jacket so far?”

Sung gyu jacket was of a stiff grey denim material with brass buttons and long sleeves. It didn’t look expensive but more like it had been bought from a junk fair, which, as Eunji speculated, was a fairly acceptable assumption. He might as well throw it or use it as a rug; it wasn’t that nice either. She didn’t dare comment on it, though. Instead she poured in a handful of washing powder straight from its box and began to rub rather vigorously while cursing whatever the sin she had done in her past life to land herself there.

“It’s all good” She said through gritted teeth and rubbed even more. Then she held it under the hand shower and sprayed on the spot, only to be greeted by a massive faded white blotch right beneath the lapel.

And then for her utter horror, before even she could hide it, Sung gyu saw it first.

“, what have you done?”

In panic, she stood up and accidentally dropped the jacket into the commode, and it fell right into the bowl, the poop staining it once all over again. “Oh no!”

Sung gyu looked completely murderous. He would take the hand shower and hammer her head until she died for all she cared. “That….” He began, sounding as patient as he possibly could. “That…is a ing Ralph Lauren limited edition designer jacket which I bought for ing six hundred dollars!”

“Ooops!” Eunji said, bringing her dirt covered hands to her face, and squeaked a high pitched “Sorry!”

Sung gyu just stared at her, his mouth twisted and eyes filled of something in between anger and horror, and then without a single word he simply left the room; at that moment she knew that she was doomed.

*

Sung gyu had made a list of damages done and expenses when Eunji finally returned to his living room after having completed the cleaning. He was sitting on the sofa, his head in his hands and a paper spread out on the coffee table along with a calculator, and the moment Eunji emerged from the bathroom, he exclaimed; “The total damage so far is eight hundred and fifty dollars”

Eunji paused on her tracks and nearly fell off her feet. “Eh?”

Sung gyu in-took a patient breath. “The total damage-,”

“I heard what you said!” Eunji snapped in outrage. “How the hell is it that much!?!”

Then Sung gyu began to read off the list in such a professional manner that she was almost convinced he was being serious, though he apparently was. “Ralph Lauren jacket, five hundred and ninety dollars, Ralph Lauren scarf, hundred and ninety dollars, forty for the socks, rest for dry cleaning, total, 850 dollars”

Eunji took a deep breath and held onto the nearest wall. “Just give me a moment to get my head around it”

“Take your time”

She took one deep breath, then another, and then another and said. “Why the are all your things branded!?!”

He only shrugged as though it was something she was bound to know. “That’s not the point. The point is that you did that much of damage and-,”

“But the socks and the scarf are clean!” Eunji argued for the last throw.

“But I can’t wear that filth, its cat poop!”

Eunji rolled her eyes and perched down on the wooden floor. She took a moment to ponder everything, her mind in a complete mess. It also occurred to her that she hadn’t reported to work and also that she had left her phone over at her place, which in turn implied that her mother was going to murder her. If the day couldn’t begin any worse, she couldn’t think of how it will.

“I’m broke…” She murmured finally, pulling off the same face as before.

“Yes, but I also realize that you lied about your mother and a sick sister so I deserve something for keeping your little secret” Sung Gyu said, and she stayed silent, completely slumped. She couldn’t even imagine the reason why she got herself in such a mess.

Sung gyu stood up then and approached her in slow steps, then he crouched down to her level to meet her eyes. When he spoke, however, he sounded genuinely concerned, regardless of whatever the reason why he should be.

“Look, as much as I want to call the management right now, I won’t because I can understand that the stupid cat is important to you. And my clothes are important to me to so let’s nicely settle things and hope that we never cross our paths again, what do you think?”

Eunji stared back at him incredulously and let out a sigh. “Fine….fine I’ll fork some money somehow”

“I don’t want to be stingy” Sung gyu said.

“But you already are” Eunji reprimanded and glanced at the clock on the wall behind him, it was almost nine in the morning and she had a catering to conduct at ten thirty. Eunji was ceremoniously late. With a dejected expression, she turned to her much despised neighbor.

“Look, if I need to pay you, I need to earn, so I need to do my job.”

“Your mother’s job” Sung gyu pointed out.

She rolled her eyes. “Geez, thank you for reminding”

“Not a problem” Sung gyu said, offering her a smile and held out a hand. “Now let’s seal our deal and you can be off to work”

Eunji took the hand being offered without a word, and they shook on it.

“Deal”

“Deal”