– 00: COLD WINTER NIGHTS –
song: boa - who are you

It was one of those boring days again: coming back from university and going all the way home to my apartment which was in the middle of nowhere. Poor students just can’t afford to live in Seoul’s city center. I am one of those poor students. 

Just a while ago, my heating just happened to fail, in the middle of probably the coldest winter I have ever experienced. While I was here in the outskirts of Seoul, freezing my off, my parents were enjoying their re-marriage honeymoon in Malibu. Big sigh. What a life.

“So you won’t come to the party at Hoseok’s tonight?” my friend, Yura, on the other side asked. “You’re definitely missing out, Seyoung. I mean, Jimin will be there too!”

“Jimin, blah blah blah. He isn’t even interested. He just smiles at me all the time, that’s all,” I replied in a rather bored  tone, trying to warm my free hand which wasn’t holding my phone in the pocket of my jacket.

I heard Yura laugh at the other end. “He smiled at you! That means something, ay.”

Grimacing, I turned into a tiny alleyway, kicking the snow under my feet away. “Maybe next time.”

“Next time, you always say that! Hyeri, Sojin and Minah are always waiting for you to come as well. I bet Jimin is just waiting for the moment to dance with you.” I literally heard the sulk in her words but I just waved her off.

“I got things to do.” A lie that rolled off my lips surprisingly easy. “I need to do the essay Professor Han gave me and I also need to get my heating fixed.” The last part was the truth, at least. 

“Hm, alright. See you on Sunday then? To welcome the freshers?” 

“Yeah, I’ll be there.” Yura sighed a last time before hanging up and I stopped to check if I had received any messages. None. Not even from my parents. Too busy reliving their marriage again, I suppose. I breathed against my fingers in attempt to warm them but just ended up wetting the display of my cellphone. 

“Nice,” I muttered to myself before burying it and my hands inside my pockets again, transforming into a penguin clothed in a neon blue parka. 

“Mao.” 

I stopped dead in my tracks. What was that? Am I hearing things again? Ever since I moved to my apartment, away from my parents, I heard strange noises. I even started talking to myself because I was so lonely. Turning around, I checked the with snow covered alley but found no one behind me. 

“Whatever,” I said and started walking again, just the be interrupted after one step.

“Mao.” 

What the actual. Am I paranoid? I took off the hood of my parka, my breath forming little clouds of mist in front of my face. “Who is this?”

“Mao.”

My eyes wandered along the walls that lined the alleyway and stopped at a couple of boxes that were standing next to half a dozen of trashcans. 

“Mao.”

This time, the sound was much louder. It sounded like–

“Mao.”

Slowly, I approached the cartons which were covered by a bigger piece of cardboard. Holding one arm out while standing in safe distance, I flicked the cardboard away with a swift movement, jumping back in panic that the thing might attack me. 

“Mao?” 

It was a high-pitched sound that came from the inside of the carton, then, suddenly, the box started to move and eventually toppled down into the snow. Holy cow–

“Mao, mao.” I almost screeched after overcoming my fear and eventually flicking the carton away too. 

And there it was, the probably most innocent being I have ever seen in my entire life. So helpless. And lost. I crouched down into the snow, feeling the cold against my knees. 

“Hey,” I said in a soft tone and held out my hand. 

The kitten had brownish to orange colored fur though it was hard to tell because it was drenched in dirt and water from the weather. It was tiny, very tiny, maybe as long as my underarm minus my hand. It shuffled away and almost fell over, that’s how weak it was. 

“Don’t be scared,” I whispered and held my hand stretched out.

After a while, it came a little closer, first sniffing my fingers carefully from afar, then making another tiny step to sniff a little more. And then, it rubbed its head against my knuckles. 

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