Sojung opened her eyes with lazy movements.

At some point, she had lied down and, keeping Eunbi close to her, drifted into a dreamless sleep. Sojung wondered what had made her wake up and as her eyes completely opened, she realized that Eunbi wasn’t there anymore.

Sojung tried to brush off the sour taste in as caused by the hours sleeping (and not because of the fact that she was yet alone) and, with a low groan, threw her legs out of the bed. The shop owner glanced at her digital clock and frowned--they had arrived four hours ago. I did sleep a lot… where is Eunnie?

Looking around, she noticed Eunbi was nowhere to be seen. Sojung pursed her lips and stood up, feeling her heart turn uncomfortably inside her chest. Something had happened back at that store and she was still worried about it.

Sojung’s human ears were replaced by her furry ones and she tried to relax her muscles as her ears grasped any sounds that indicated where Eunbi was. Soon enough, Sojung started walking towards the kitchen and her soft steps stopped as her eyes fell over the small figure of Eunbi, back towards her, washing last night’s dishes. The girl was wearing one of Sojung work shirts, that being at least three numbers bigger than her, loosely exposed one of her shoulders.

Sojung’s first thought was that Eunbi was probably cold--and her second thought was an urge of hugging her. The shop owner bit her lower lip and let her body rest against the door frame, silently watching Eunbi dry her hands.

Eunbi didn’t turn around, she let her arms fall beside her and a long sigh made her shoulders drop. Sojung’s brow furrowed in concern and she decided it was time to announce her presence.

“Eunnie?”

Eunbi jolted and her heels, looking at Sojung with wide eyes. “Y-you’re up.”

“Yeah,” Sojung nodded and, leaving the door frame, she took a few steps closer to Eunbi. “I woke up and you weren’t in bed, so…”

Sojung meant to stop a few meters away, but when she realized it, she had stopped right in front of the other. Eunbi swallowed dryly and Sojung could almost taste the tense atmosphere hanging over them, but her body didn’t move.

“Are you alright?”

Eunbi took a few seconds to hesitantly nod. “I… I’m fine.”

“Really?”

There was a moment of silence and Eunbi casted her eyes down to the floor. “I’m fine now.”

Sojung wondered if asking it again would be worse, but she knew that she was way too concerned to just let this slide. Gnawing on her bottom lip, she observed Eunbi nervously play with the hem of her shirt. “Eunbi-yah?”

The girl hummed and Sojung led her hands up, gently wrapping her finger around Eunbi’s wrists. “Look at me, would you?”

Eunbi shaked her head and she couldn’t help sighing. “Kitten, I’m really worried, you know? I can’t just leave this be and pretend you didn’t shift in the middle of a store, looking completely frightened.” Eunbi flinched slightly and even though Sojung just wanted to hug the problems away, she felt like if they didn’t talk about it now, then it would never happen.

“I’m not angry or anything,” she reassured with a small smile. “I just… I just don’t want that to happen again and if I can do something, then I want to know, okay? But I need you to talk to me about it first, kitty.”

Sojung, maybe feeling confident by the lack of rejection, slid her fingers down and held Eunbi’s hands. The shirt’s cloth fell over Eunbi’s thighs and the girl finally looked up, slowly meeting Sojung’s eyes, displaying a mix of apprehension and hesitation. Sojung offered the girl a gentle smile and waited.

After a couple of seconds, Eunbi sighed. “Okay,” she answered, voice resembling the weak mewl from hours before.

Sojung let go of one of her hands and tugged the other, guiding them into the room once again. Eunbi sat down on the mattress and fixed her eyes on her lap, staying in silence for a while longer. Sojung, sitting beside her, hand still tightly holding Eunbi’s, decided to wait this time, wanting to not pressure the girl.

Eventually, Eunbi parted her lips.

“I’m sorry.”

Sojung’s eyes widened. “Wh--”

“I’m really sorry, I… I didn’t want to give you any trouble, but…” Sojung wanted to quickly say that there was nothing to apologize for, but she feared Eunbi would stop talking altogether if she did, so the older girl swallowed dryly and waited for Eunbi to continue. “But I didn’t think there’d be so many people…”

Sojung frowned. “The crowd made you shift?”

Eunbi slowly nodded. “I… I never told you where I came from or what I did and I didn’t want to, because… because I just don’t want to think about before. But I used to have an owner who… who made me give shows to people. She always beamed at how rare I am and things like that and I didn’t have anyone to rely on so… I just went with it. But I hated it so, so much. I…”

Sojung tried to ignore the painful turn of her stomach and tightened her grip on Eunbi’s hand.

“I hated the crowd. It felt like it suffocated me. People never actually hurt me and my… previous owner didn’t either. But I had to obey them and the more people there were, the more things I had to do, and… and I just hate it. The way they look all packed and annoyed, the way the air gets hot, the way it’s hard to move… everything about it.”

“Eunbi-yah…”

“I should’ve told you something, but it was the first time I was going out after I ran away and I didn’t want to spoil anything,” Eunbi’s voice was slowly becoming desperate. “I thought since I was with you I wouldn’t mind the people at all and it didn’t bother me at first, but the feeling of being suffocated between all of them came back and it was just getting so hard, I’m really s--”

“Jung Eunbi.”

Sojung’s free hand cupped Eunbi’s cheek and turned the girl’s head to her. Sojung fixed their eyes and the slight fear in the girl’s beautiful, dark irises made her heart painfully clench. “It’s alright,” Sojung whispered and her thumb soothingly caressed Eunbi’s skin. “You don’t have to apologize, kitten. You really don’t. I already said I’m not angry, right? And I mean it. So just take a deep breath for me, hm?”

Eunbi nodded and deeply inhaled. Sojung smiled and led her hand to pet the other’s fluffy hair. “That’s it.”

Sojung watched as Eunbi closed her eyes and melted under her touch.

Shapeshifters were definitely not a common thing and the ones that existed lived under the radar because, sometimes, you aren’t lucky enough to find nice humans to take care of you. Sojung’s owner wasn’t the most affectionate but he was a good guy--he never wanted to make money off her and she was forever thankful to that. She had heard stories about other shapeshifters being exploited and feared to ever be forced to do something like that.

Now, though, she felt something that could only be named ‘anger’.

Sojung was angry that Eunbi had to go through something like that and no matter how the younger girl said they didn’t hurt her, she was furious. Sojung took a deep breath. She could be angry later--now, she had more pressing matters to deal with.

“Kitten,” she softly called and Eunbi hummed. “I’m very happy to have you here, do you know that?”

Eunbi opened her eyelids and blinked.

Sojung smiled. “I mean, it wasn’t like I was unhappy before, but I was lonely. I’d work by day and spend all my nights here, reading something or just looking at the ceiling. Since the day you appeared, things became so much better and I need you to know that. You were never a bother to me and you never brought trouble, kitty. So don’t feel like it and don’t apologize to me. It actually hurts me when you do that.”

Eunbi’s eyes cutely widened and Sojung chuckled.

“Now, let’s get you some socks and a warm drink, ok?” Sojung stood up, hand still glued to Eunbi’s. “We can talk more over a cup of tea.”

The other girl stared at her, looking confused and surprised. Cute.

Sojung, standing right in front of her, let a playful smile cover her face and she leaned down, pressing a light kiss over Eunbi’s forehead. “Come on, Eunnie. The water won’t warm itself.”