Chapter 1

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Byulyi is dating a cat. Or - rather - was dating a cat if one were to take into account the back-and-forth screaming match that had just taken place not five minutes ago in the middle of this sedate little neighborhood park with the duck pond.

Echoes of her last words, shouted out yet choked with tears, bounced around the stoic trees dotting the park: “Fine! Let’s just end everything. Clearly nothing I do will ever satisfy you.”

Even as the words left her own mouth, even as she could feel her own heart drown in the ugliness and acidic feelings pouring out from all the anxiety and insecurity that dragged their relationship down to where it is now, a small stubborn part of her ached to grab onto those words, to take it back. Especially when she saw Yongsun’s beautiful brown eyes, wide in shock and lips agape in an expression Byulyi would’ve found funny in any other situation if her own eyes weren’t swimming with tears and heartache.

Before the regret could really set in, a ‘poof!’ the volume of a dramatic, whisper-shout went off before her eyes. A light blue ball of smoke separated her from Yongsun and left her coughing and choking.

When the smoke cleared, Yongsun was gone. What remained was a pile of her clothes and a squirming, little form underneath.

Heart thudding in her chest as her brain cells tried to kick themselves into processing what she just saw and what she was seeing right in front of her, Byulyi’s knees folded in on themselves and she’s left hesitantly reaching for where Yongsun disappeared.

“Yo...Yong?”

The squirming intensified when suddenly a tiny light brown, furry paw shot out of the folds of Yongsun’s beige blouse, nearly scratching Byulyi’s knuckle and setting off Byulyi’s embarrassingly high-pitched shriek. At Byulyi’s voice the paw struggled harder when with a muffled hiss, the rest of the squirming creature freed itself from the trappings of the blouse: a frowny, light brown, striped face, ears flickering with agitation, and brown eyes darting this way and that.

When those brown eyes met Byulyi’s wide-eyed confusion, the pupils narrowed into dagger points and the cat hissed, back arching and fur standing on end.

Byulyi slumped forward, heart thudding a marathon in her chest. Clearly it was oxygen deprivation from their shouting match causing her to hallucinate this. Right. Of course. There’s no way - of course not - no way that cat was…

“Yong?”

The cat hissed and whined, claws unsheathing and digging into the blouse underneath it, the glare from its brown eyes so, so reminiscent of the glare Yongsun had leveled at her just a few minutes ago.

How the hell did this happen? How did they get to this point? Byulyi was faintly aware of her hands trembling.

They were just meeting up at the park to talk things out, like they did all the other times they fought. They would’ve pushed-and-pulled and maybe Byulyi would’ve left the conversation still slightly grumpy and maybe Yongsun would’ve been too harsh and blunt in her words, but they’ve would’ve walked away from this park with the fight behind them. Like they did with all their other fights.

Where did they go wrong?

Well, to really dig into that one would have to go back: before this quiet neighborhood park with the duck pond, before their current spat, before their other spat last month about Byulyi’s passive aggressive tendencies, before their other, other spat two weeks before that about Yongsun not pulling punches when giving advice to an already mopey Byulyi; one would have to go all the way back, past when they decided to spare a little bit of rare honesty and move together into a relationship. One would have to start when Moon Byulyi first met Kim Yongsun.

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Nearly a year and a half ago when the novelty of her job was just beginning to wear off, Byulyi was assigned by her advertising company to work with a small, up-and-coming travel agency on a joint project.

It was supposed to be like any other project: Byulyi would go and meet the clients, make meaningless smalltalk before sitting down to discuss what kind of image the clients want to project for their business. Byulyi would take notes, ‘hm’ and ‘haw’, take some pictures, and then head back to the little cubicle she shared with her friend Wheein back at the office.
They’d work together with the clients to coordinate the perfect marketing message to get the young company off the ground and Byulyi would spend each and every minute of it questioning if this is really what she wanted to do with her life. Then Wheein would photoshop a picture of her cat into Byulyi’s pictures and they’d have a little laugh before they let reality set in and went back to work. Rinse and repeat.

Now, the travel agency and the two young women who owned and operated it were all nice and well and as far as projects went, Chorong and Bomi were far from the tiresome clients Byulyi was used to dealing with. Only thing was, Chorong and Bomi were new at this business thing so they insisted on running everything by a friend of theirs: Kim Yongsun.

Yongsun… How does one begin to describe Kim Yongsun?

Kim Yongsun was a breath of fresh air. Kim Yongsun was hardworking, was ambitious, was willing to step outside of the box and be boldly weird. From what Chorong told her as she introduced Byulyi to the friendly, bright-eyed woman before her, Kim Yongsun was a bit of a freelance everything: she modelled, she vlogged, she danced, and she travelled - which was how she met the two young business owners.

She was enthusiastic about helping her friends and helping Byulyi and Byulyi was amazed by every bit of it.

Of course they had their differences even back then when Byulyi made the embarrassing assumption that Kim Yongsun was her young friend Wheein’s age and that led to an awkwardly cold and stiff first week on the project.

That wasn’t their only disagreement; there were the usual creative differences that crop up between people with vastly different approaches to things. Kim Yongsun wanted something loud and bold and in your face. Byulyi was a subscriber of the subtler approach: something mellow but just as attention-grabbing. Byulyi liked free rein for the creative aspects of her projects. Kim Yongsun wanted a list of everything Byulyi was planning and thinking and her firm hand on the stamp of approval. They were at a blockade they couldn’t quite clear; Byulyi usually found it too troublesome to fight with clients and eventually gave in to her clients’ demands, but something about Kim Yongsun woke every cell of stubborness inside herself.

Then by some miracle of god, they figured things out. Like two gears finally clicking into place, their different creative visions and personalities somehow got ChoBom Travel Agency the influx of customers and attention the two young women wanted.

ChoBom found success, Byulyi’s company found another satisfied client, and Byulyi found Yongsun.

It took a while though. There was the first few weeks of awkward ‘are we co-workers or are we friends’ back and forth but as Byulyi had cheekily pointed out: they might’ve worked on a project together - and Yongsun worked on it purely in an unofficial capacity as she was doing her friends a favor  - they technically weren’t co-workers and since they weren’t co-workers, why not be friends?

For their differences, they had quite a few similarities: they liked videogames and movies and foods that coddled their low spice-tolerance. They liked quiet nights in piled on Yongsun’s couch with warm take-out and suspense-filled horror shows. Well, Byulyi found a few of those too much for her own tastes but it was kind of cute to watch Yongsun’s eyes glued on the tv, absolutely rapt with attention even as she had Byulyi’s hand clamped in a fearful vice grip.

Yet despite those few similarities, sometimes the differences between them would grow too strong. The same miscommunication issues that plagued their first meeting was a staple in their disagreements. It wasn’t exactly something Byulyi could fix about herself; if it were that easy she would’ve done it a long time ago and then maybe her present self would be less weighed down by fears and regrets. But that’s besides the point. The point was that Byulyi knew she had a tendency to clamp down and shut herself in: fixating on her work, on her hobbies, on photography when she didn’t want to deal with an issue.

And Yongsun hated that. Byulyi could tell; everytime she brushed the other girl off, citing that she didn’t have the energy to argue with her, Yongsun’s brown eyes would flash and her lips would draw down in displeasure. Byulyi wanted to sooth that displeasure away but she knew herself to be set that way just as she knew Yongsun was set in her own ways: blunt and straightforward, nearly cruel in her honesty.

Yongsun was direct and her words struck the chords in Byulyi with pinpoint accuracy. Not all of it was bearable.

Still, they found themselves drawn to each other, no matter the subject of their disagreements. The silence never lasted more than a few days.

“hey”

“what”

“my bad. wanna get barbeque on sunday?”

“you’re paying”

“ok”

“ok then”

And then Byulyi would find herself slumping all over Yongsun’s complaining form on her couch as they went back and forth on what channel to keep the tv on.

They didn’t say ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’ with words. Yongsun expressed it in her blunt encouragement and admiration of Byulyi’s photography, the ones she was too shy to put online or show anyone else.

“Woah, this is epic.”

“Unnie, no one says ‘epic’ like that anymore.”

And maybe she was teasing Yongsun on her out-of-date vernacular to distract from the warm feelings bubbling in her chest at Yongsun’s praises, oddly close to her heart. When Byulyi feels Yongsun lean her head against her shoulder, sees her finger softly tracing Byulyi’s work on the laptop screen in front of them, Byulyi believes Yongsun’s words and warmth enough to lean closer to Yongsun.

As for Byulyi, she was just as amazed with Yongsun’s work ethic and gumption as she was when she first met the woman. Always chasing whatever interested her without letting her anxiety or doubts hold her back. For someone who clung to a job she grew increasingly dissatisfied with just for the steady paycheck, Byulyi couldn’t begin to understand Yongsun’s fearless freelancing.

When asked about it, Yongsun had spared Byulyi a glance before going back to adjusting her camera angle.

“Of course I worry about things not working out. But I don’t let that stop me from trying. How do I look? Are my chins showing?”

“You look beautiful, Yong.”

If Yongsun had froze and flushed, she was back to complaining and rolling her eyes when Byulyi followed up with, “Triple chins and all. Alright, alright, you gonna pout all day or bake this strawberry shortcake? Your followers are waiting.”

It probably helped that Yongsun came from a well-off family -  one that she didn’t like to mention much of. Yongsun had mentioned that they put her through schooling - some of the best money could afford, but then:

“We’re not really that close,” Yongsun had mumbled into her pillow as they laid facing each other on Byulyi’s bed. “They didn’t really like it when I started modeling and well, every other job after that they liked less and less.”

That’s a shame, Byulyi had thought. Her eyes traced Yongsun’s sleepy features in the dark of her bedroom. Yong’s family was missing out on the best.

“They want me to grow up. But I never had this freedom when I was younger so now that I do, I have to catch up. I feel like a late-bloomer.”

Even fearless Yongsun who stubbornly plowed straight through every obstacle had these things that made her curl in on herself.

So Byulyi would wrap her arms around Yongsun at night in the dark and during the day when Yong was doing something outrageous like shooting three vlogs in between dance practice, Byulyi would wordlessly get her coffee and food, a change of clothes, a gentle brush of her fingers over Yong’s messy hair - the kind of support that the cute, hardworking, late-bloomer needed.

And well, if sometimes during those quiet supportive moments, they found their gazes locked on each other, fingers tangling in a gentle rhythm, neither of them had the breath to say anything about it.

Neither of them said anything, but Wheein did after one too many ‘hang-outs’ that left her third-wheeling. Byulyi had introduced the two to each other not long after her and Yong had settled into a comfortable friendship and while the younger girl grew close to Yongsun and Yongsun herself doted on the younger girl, there was only so much tension she could take when all she wanted to do was get drunk and eat grilled clams.

Finding herself the only one doing the grilling while the two older girls were playfully teasing and swatting at each other after a few shots of soju, Wheein had rolled her eyes and complained loudly, “You know, if you just needed someone to do the grilling for you while you flirt they have restaurants that do that.”

That got their attention and it was almost hilarious how Byulyi immediately tried to take over the grilling while Yongsun - the few shots of soju hitting her lightweight self a little harder than the other girl - blinked at Wheein, red-faced and stuttering, “W-what?”

“I hear they even sell couple sets, unnie.”

Blinking again, Yongsun shyly glanced at Byulyi only to find Byulyi doing the same.

Wheein snorted.

Though they spent the rest of that evening conscious of their distance and gazes, the idea of being a couple stayed with them.

‘Why not?’ Byulyi asked herself and wasn’t really surprised to find that she didn’t really have a good answer. She liked Yongsun. And she was fairly sure Yongsun liked her back, or at the very least, liked spending nearly every waking moment in her company.

Sometimes things were that simple.

But not always.

Just because their pieces fit together didn’t mean their jagged edges would disappear.They still had their spats over both trivial and personal matters. Sometimes the sharp edges would cut deep: they’d have their breaks where Byulyi wouldn’t hear from Yong for days on end. Then one of them would give in - usually Byulyi because she didn’t have the energy to keep the cold war on-going, even if it meant swallowing down her still-burning feelings, the same ones that’ll probably fuel their next fight. They’d message each other, then Yong would show up, miffed and fur slightly ruffled. Byulyi would give her awkward, half-smile and Yong would turn away to hide her own.

The ‘i’m sorrys’ and ‘i missed yous’ would be said without words. Byulyi would tug Yong into a tight, warm hug, face buried in the older girl’s dark hair and Yong would nuzzle deeper into the embrace.

That should’ve been enough. It should’ve been enough to keep them from falling apart. If they’d love each other hard enough, if they’d hold each other tight enough, their sharp edges wouldn’t have pushed them apart.

Right?

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For a minute, the cat glared at her, tail whipping back and forth with the same strength and haughtiness Yong would throw her hair over her shoulder whenever they were fighting and she was giving Byulyi the silent treatment.

Byulyi didn’t dare to move, for fear of, what? Fear of the reality of the situation setting in? That her girlfriend - ex-girlfriend - exploded out of existence and was replaced by an increasingly irate cat? An irate cat that looked just a few seconds away from mauling her with those sharp, sharp, finger-knives?

Slowly voices began to trickle in and register in her ears. And Byulyi remembered that they were still in the middle of the park with the duck pond.

It was in the middle of the work day so not many other people were present but this being a quiet and comfortable little neighborhood park (and they had ducks!), there were still a few people wandering around. Those people had courteously, if a bit awkwardly, averted their eyes and tried their hardest to only slightly listen in on their spat. With that little mini smoke bomb going off, a few people were beginning to peer in their direction curiously.

“...what’s going on over there?”

“...i heard an… explosion...there…”

“...other girl….”

More and more voices joined in and before Byulyi’s anxiety could fully paralyze her, she made the quick if stupid decision to reach for the cat.

She had just enough time to register the cat’s ears swivel and flatten back before it struck: dragging its claws mercilessly down the back of her hand and leaving behind deep, bloody gashes.

Byulyi cried out in pain and the cat froze, body stilling as its large brown eyes dilated and quivered at the sight of Byulyi drawing her bloody hand back toward herself.

Seeing the cat distracted, Byulyi ignored the stinging pain and tried to grab at it again, vaguely remembering Wheein doing the same when her Ggomo was misbehaving.

Though it had froze at the sight of Byulyi’s wounds, its instincts kicked in when it registered Byulyi reaching for it again and it immediately scrambled back, away from Yongsun’s discarded clothes and away from Byulyi’s hand.

And right into the duck pond.

With a loud meowing shriek and splash, the light brown, striped cat flopped backwards into the duck pond and if the little explosion that accompanied Yongsun’s sudden disappearance and the cat’s sudden appearance was enough to catch a few people’s attention, this sudden cat cannonball scattering a little flock of agitated ducks certainly brought the rest of the attention over.

Before she could even register what she was doing, Byulyi was on her feet with a bundle of Yongsun’s things under one arm and a sopping wet bundle of angry, hissing fur in the other.

Panting and dodging the cat’s - Yongsun’s? - claw swipes, Byulyi let her feet guide her away from the duck pond and out of the park.

And where was she running to? Byulyi hadn’t the faintest clue and after everything that just happened and was continuing to happen - angrily happen - under her arm, Byulyi had to ask herself: did she ever really have a clue when it came to her and Yongsun?

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Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy. /ᐠ｡ꞈ｡ᐟ\