Chapter 1

Junhong huddled in a corner of the alley, shivering and watching as people walked past in a hurry to get out of the pouring rain. No one gave him even a glance. Everything was so BIG. Objects that he wouldn’t normally have given a second thought startled him. When he’d been walking the streets earlier, before the rain had started, someone had smacked him on the behind with a closed umbrella to shoo him away. Umbrellas were terrifying, he had decided.

However, they weren’t as scary as the furry object behind him that he tried to forget about, but would startle him and send a chill up his spine whenever something touched it. A tail. A long, sleek tail.

Junhong didn’t know how it happened, but he’d woken up this morning disoriented, and certainly not in his own bed. But the worst part was that he’d woken up not as the human he was, but as a cat. Of all things, a CAT. One of his least favorite animals. He hadn’t been able to take a good look at himself, and to be quite honest, he was too terrified to.

So now he, here he was, in an alley, soaked to the bone, with no idea where he was or what to do. Deciding that just staying in one place wouldn't do him any good, he inched his way towards the entrance of the alleyway, peering out and watching as the occasional passerby hurried past, trying to get out of the rain as quickly as possible.

"Excuse me..." Junhong called out, and jumped in fright. What came out of his mouth was not the words he was expecting, but instead a series of meows.

'Oh right... I'm a cat. Cats don't speak human,' he thought miserably. But a sound had come out of his mouth, and he'd understood it, somewhat.

He decided that a sound was better than nothing, even if he wasn't understood.

"Hello? Is anyone out there who can understand me?" he practically shouted, the sounds coming out of this mouth startling a younger man walking past, who threw Junhong a dirty glare before picking up his pace.

"You know they won't answer you," a voice came from behind him. Junhong twirled around, his hair standing on end. Another cat sat a little ways to the side, peering out from a large dumpster. "I don't even know why you're trying. You should know that," the cat continued. There was derision in his voice. "Unless you're one of those household pets," he spat, disgust lacing his voice.

Junhong had no idea how to respond, practically sputtering. "I... No, I'm not... I'm no pet," he finally stuttered. He wasn't a pet, he just had never been a cat before, if that made any sense at all.

The other cat eyed him, before leaping out of the dumpster and walking towards him, before proceeding to circle him.

"Hmmmm... You certainly don't smell like a pet, but you definitely don't smell like one of us, either," he commented as he studied Junhong. It wasn't hard to guess that "us" meant an alley cat.

"No, you smell..." he trailed off, eyes widening. "You smell like one of them," he exclaimed. "You're from the facility, aren't you? You smell like chemicals and... ugh." He wrinkled his nose before turning on his tail. "Well buddy, I guess that means you’re out of luck. Have fun surviving my world," he threw over his shoulder.

What the cat said finally sunk in, and Junhong scrambled after him, calling "Wait, wait, what is the facility? What about chemicals?" but the cat was already gone.

Junhong stood there numbly, not sure about what to do. The questions never stopped running through his head, the constant repetition of "facility" and "chemicals" never ceasing their mantra.

After some time, the rain started to lighten up, and eventually stopped, and this spurred Junhong to leave the alleyway. It wasn't until he passed a bakery that his stomach started growling from hunger. He couldn't remember when he'd had his last meal, especially he couldn't remember what had happened between him going to the bed the previous night (if it had even been the previous night) and waking up in the alleyway as a cat.

He stared inside the large glass window, the smell tantalizing and teasing him. He watched as the girl behind the counter handed an elderly woman a bag filled with bread and pastries, and his lips. If only he could snatch one of them... But he wouldn't be able to do so without being noticed, so he could only hang his head, the unfamiliar ears on his head drooping.

He turned and slowly continued walking, not really paying attention. At some point he found himself at a playground, filled with children running and screaming. The noise hurt his ears, and he realized that his hearing had become more sensitive. Whimpering, he scampered under a bench and huddled there, watching the kids. Soon he found his eyes falling and eventually he let sleep overtake him.

Junhong was startled awake by small hands grabbing at his tail. His eyes flew open and a yowl tore through his throat as he backed away from the offending hands.

They were the hands of a little girl, who definitely did not look little to Junhong at this angle. She still held onto his tail, and he felt a hiss bubble to the surface. He swiped at the hand, attempting to get free. A cry from the girl as his claws made contact with her hand told him that it had worked, and he back away, his tail curling under him in an attempt to keep it safe.

The girl in question ran away crying, leaving Junhong in peace. He wasn't bothered again, but instead of risking it he back into the bushes behind the benches, shivering as droplets of water fell onto him. His stomach growled, reminding him that he still had not eaten. He groaned inwardly, before leaving teh playground to go look for something, anything, he could possibly eat. He didn't care if they were scraps.

Scavenging for food in a park was not the easiest thing in the world to do, and eventually he resorted to eating grass, even though it did little to ease the pain in his stomach. In fact, he found himself vomiting it later on.

"Note to self, grass is bad," he muttered to himself.

Junhong thought the day couldn't get any worse, but he was wrong. So very wrong. Because in the next moment he was startled by a loud barking sound. It took him a second to realize that a very big, brown dog was running at him, tongue lolling to the side, gaze trained on him. At first he didn't think much of it, but then he remembered: he was a cat. And cats and dogs don't get along together. Finally realizing that he may be in danger, and scrambled to find the safest place, which turned out to be a tree. He clawed his way up the trunk, certain he would make it, only to feel a tug on his tail (which was quickly becoming his least favorite part of this new body). Next thing he knew, he was tumbling back down to the ground with a dog towering over him. He cowered, his back to the trunk, ear flattened against his head, and brought up his paw to swipe at the invading nose that was sniffing at him. Claws met nose, and the dog yelped as it whimpered.

"Bando! Come back here!" Junhong was saved from certain mauling by a desperate voice calling out what he assumed to be the dog's name. The next second the dog was being pulled away by a leash, and Junhong did the first thing that came to mind; climb the tree again.

From his higher vantage point, he watched as a younger man gripped the leash of the dog, who was tugging at it, eyes looking up in the tree.

"Henry, wait up!" another, more feminine voice called from behind them. Junhong did a double take when he recognized said female as