Chapter Thirteen: A Brave New World

“But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

                After berry flavored Pop tarts had been consumed by both Gayun and Seunghyun, the human decided that it was time for a bath for pretty much everyone in that room. No one was free of blood or dust or little buts of sugar and sprinkles from aforementioned artificially flavored treat. So, Gayun took the first shower, attempting to wash away the fear and blood from that morning; one of those things disappeared at least. After that, the cats each got their own bath in the kitchen sink while Seunghyun took a shower of his own.

                “You know you’re buying me another dining table set, right?” she asked once the demon had emerged from the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

                “Eh? Why me?” he whined.

                “One reason is because you were dumb enough to get caught up in a chalk circle. The second is for subjecting me to this horrible view.” She gestured to his very nicely toned abdomen which most women would kill to see. Though, no one would really have to try that hard to get the man .

                “Horrible?” he scoffed, “I have, literally, had people pay to see this.”

                “Oh, well then, get those people to pay again and buy me a new table and chairs,” she replied before sticking her tongue out at him, “I want some new plates and stuff too.”

                “Why? We only ever eat out of takeout boxes anyways.”

                “It’d be nice to eat real food though,” Gayun mumbled as she finished drying Minty’s fur. The cat may have hated the bath but he seemed to be happy that he was being dried off. “Though, in order to do that, that would mean that I’d actually have to start reading cooking books for a change.”

                  “I can cook if you want.”

                “You can cook?” he nodded, “Well, that’s nice but you can’t cook while so go put on some pants at least.”

                “You are death to my self-esteem,” he mumbled before turning to head back to the room that half served as book storage and half served as his room. The last time she had been in there was to grab a religious text she had read in college and, at the time, there had been a leather chair and a dresser full of clothing and topped with bathroom supplies.

                “Am I really?” she asked quietly.

                “Are you really what?”

                “That horrid to you,” she answered. Though, she wasn’t sure how to change her usual comments towards him if he answered yes.

                “If my self-esteem solely relied on the opinion of one human, I would be ed,” he responded with a laugh. Her lips quirked up into a smile as he finished the walk towards the end of the hall, humming some sort of tune she vaguely knew.

                Oreo rubbed against her leg. She allowed Minty the chance to escape while she bent down to run her fingers along his spine. He purred as she repeated the action, attracting the other cats with the exception of Minty who still seemed upset over the impromptu bath session.

                “Only ten to fifteen years to save as many cats as possible,” she whispered, “Looks like I’m going to have to start looking for more of you to adopt already.”

                “Don’t you think we already have enough?” Seunghyun asked, startling the female human. She turned, surprised that he had finished changing so quickly but all he had done in the way of clothing was to pull on some gray sweatpants that hung very low on his hips.

                “Aren’t you cold?” The question came out automatically.

                “No. Don’t you think four is enough?”

                “No,” she said as it was the most obvious thing, “A home can never have enough cats and when did this become a ‘we’? They’re my cats.”   

                “I’m going to cook something,” he changed the subject, walking past her to check the fridge for any and all potential ingredients. Per the usual, there wasn’t much to offer but he grabbed a few things and lined them up on the counter, making sure to keep them far from the edge for fear the cats would knock them over.

                “You can cook?” she asked before picking up Pudding. She cradled him to her chest as the cat happily rubbed up against her chin.

                “Sort of,” he shrugged, “I’m not great or anything but I can get by.”

                “Okay,” she nodded, “but why are you cooking now? We already had Poptarts.” While she was willing to admit that Poptarts were not the most filling of things to eat, they usually ordered food or she made rice and something else to go along with the staple ingredient.

                “For someone who reads a lot of books, you can sure be stupid.” He pulled a bag of flour along with some mixing bowls from the cupboards. Everything in her kitchen was mismatched, none of her cooking utensils went together and some of them were slightly bent or broken but he seemed to work with them just fine.

                “What is that supposed to mean?”

                “It means don’t question my generosity,” he sighed before grabbing a frying pan. He one of the only two working burners on her old stove before spraying said pan with Pam. Gayun scratched Pudding’s ears and watched him as he waited for the pan to heat up before pouring the batter he had created in.

                 He attempted to flip the creation over but failed the first time. The second time he got the whole thing on to the other side. “Go sit by the counter or something,” he gently commanded while moving the pan back and forth over the controlled flame.

                “Yes, sir,” she crouched down to set the cat free before following orders. It didn’t take long before an already cut up kimchi-jeon was set in front of her along with two sets of chopsticks. Seunghyun leaned on the counter across from her while they both waited for the food to cool down a little before shoveling it down their throats.

                “This is actually edible,” she commented after eating a little more than half of the pancake-like goody.

                “‘Oh, Seunghyun-sii,’” he mocked her voice, “‘thank you so much for making me this delicious meal. You really are good at everything!’” She rolled her eyes before reaching across the counter to whack him upside the head. He pretended to wince at the almost affectionate action.

                “I don’t think I ever need to worry about hurting your self-esteem again,” Gayun mumbled before stealing the last bit of food off the plate. He smiled, his eyes trained on her face as she stared down at the remaining crumbs, debating about whether or not to try eating them. In the end, she left them for the drain to take before curling up on the couch with an old but still good book, her knees draped across Seunghyun’s lap after he moved the plate to the sink.

                “Tonight,” he began after several minutes of silence occasionally interrupted by the purring or meowing of cats, “do you want to watch a movie?”

                “What movie?” she asked, looking up from the well-written work.

                “I don’t know,” he shrugged, “We’ll find something.”

                “Alright but nothing supernatural; I don’t think I can handle any more of that, real or otherwise, for the next twenty-four hours.”

                “Deal,” he chuckled.