She still wasn't awake, and the alarm assaulting his ears wouldn't stop, either. Chen stretches out on the comforter and steps on Esmae's chest, balancing as he crowds closer to her face. When he's close enough, he meows and rubs his forehead against her face repeatedly until she's sputtering from getting his fur in .

"Okay - okay! Chen!" She mumbles and he lets up his attack to calmly his paws like he was innocent. Esmae sighs and blinks around her, taking in the lack of light through the window and yawning.

"Winter. Right." She comments. Esmae lifts her body up slightly and Chen climbs off when she gets out of bed, crouching by a suit case to search for her clothes. She pulls out a sweater and jeans and changes, pulling boots on and taking up a jacket. Chen jumps into the bag and she shoves her wallet and phone into the side pocket before zipping him up and closing the hotel door behind her.

The couple told her to meet them at some restaurant for breakfast. She had to explain they way the people ate in the morning was different from America, where eggs, toast, pancakes and sausage were culturally normal. In Korean, though, they ate just about anything you could eat for any other meal.

After a grueling ten minutes just teaching them how to hold their chopsticks, they finally stomached rice, noodles, bean sprout soup and kimchi for their first meal. Esmae distracted them long enough to slip her chopsticks into her lap, where Chen nibbled on noodles and ate rice off the napkin she had ready.

Next, Esmae spoke about the generals of Korean culture - when to hold your elbow and how to speak on subways. They walked, mostly, because there wasn't a dire reason to rent any car or hail a cab. She also had to calm them down when people stared on the subway or attempted to take pictures. Looking the part, they didn't mind her, but they were interested in the couple's blonde hair.

By the time they got to Gyeongju, the couple was already starting to forget that they were supposed to remain quiet, but they held it in long enough.

"Since they get many tourists here, the guide you hired probably knows English as well." Esmae offers the couple. True to her word, he did, so she had time off to tend to Chen. She promises to meet back up with them in the same area when their tour is over.

The dialect of the region was still retaining the ancient Silla sound, but it wasn't difficult. Her and Chen decide to walk around more of the less historical parts of the city, finding food vendors and small shops. They pick up Gyeongju bread and share it for a while, getting lost in the streets.

There's a bit of commotion and Esmae turns to see a store owner chasing off a sleek creature from his store. The animal - an orange cat with large ears - looks back once and then continues it's escape with a cooked fish in it's mouth.

Chen struggles in the bag and Esmae s it just enough for him to suddenly spring out and run off after the cat.

"Chen?!" Esmae calls after him, but he doesn't spare a glance backwards, so she follows them. The store owner gave up as soon as they mystery cat was away, so she was alone is getting her best friend back.

She watches as his perky tail disappears around a corner and she dashes after them, shuffling between buildings to keep pace as they weave. She loses sight of them and stops, hoping maybe to hear something - the sounds of the street, maybe - but it's muffled.

"Chen?" She calls out and listens carefully. There's a distant meow and she slowly follows it's direction. When she peeks around the corner, they were in some residential area, and Chen was staring at something behind a bush, "Chen!"

His tail stops moving and his ears swivel, so she knows he heard her, so she slowly walks closer to him and kneels at his level, trying to see what he was interested in. Chen meows again, and there's a pause before something responds.

Another meow, somehow lower in frequency than Chen's, echoes the first, and an ear becomes visible from inside the foliage. It twitches when a leaf starts to go inside of it and Chen meows once more, and then Esmae can see the cat's eyes.

He still had the fish in his mouth, his little fangs holding onto it tightly.

"Hello," Esmae greets him in Korean, since, when she spoke to Chen, he responded more in Chinese - the country he came from, "I'm not going to hurt you."

Chen meows in agreement and he sits down, his tail flickering. The cat suddenly pounces from the bushes and Esmae jerks backwards in surprise, but softens when the cat walks up to Chen, his body language comfortable. They seem to have an actual conversation with their assortment of sounds, and then they both look up with a unison meow, eyes blinking at Esmae.

She stoops down again to see that this new cat had the same collar as Chen, but a different tag. It said Chanyeol instead.

"Do you two know each other, or something?" She asks and Chanyeol meows again, but Esmae can't determine what he was trying to say. Instead, she shrugs and stands up, "Then, would that mean that you don't have an owner as well?"

They don't respond in any discernable way, so Esmae bites her lip.

"We'll make posters anyway."

At this, both Chen and Chanyeol make protesting noises. trusting her cat, Esmae squats down to get closer and she pets Chen's head apologetically.

"Okay, okay. But, if someone puts up lost cat signs, then I have no choice. Will you both fit in the bag?"