♫ Junny - By My Side

“In the end, you’ll know which people really love you. They’re the ones who see you for who you are and, no matter what, always find a way to be at your side.”

- R. K. Milholland

“Not again Kkura-ya. I don’t want to fight about this anymore.” Eunbi said while sitting at the kitchen table, rubbing her temples.

“Can we just eat in peace please?” She added.

“You’re always brushing this aside! Why can’t you just answer me?!” Sakura yelled, frustrated at the older girl.

It has been the same argument between the two for the past few weeks. It all started with Eunbi canceling her plans with Sakura again. Sakura figured it was because of work, it always was. Being the CEO of a big accessory company comes with many late nights and sudden unexpected problems. Except this time, Sakura found that the reason was different. 

Sakura was going to surprise Eunbi at her office with her favorite snack, ice cream. However, as she arrived at the office, she saw Eunbi clinging to her secretary, Lee Chaeyeon. Sakura confronted Eunbi about it, but still had doubts since the two were quite close to each other. Then, Eunbi started to complain with her own concerns. Eunbi argued that Sakura has been playing games nonstop lately. Even when she actually made sure she stopped all of her work to spend time with her. Sakura would always reply with “I’m almost done,” but that always ended hours later and by then, Eunbi had to head off to bed.

Eunbi tells Sakura that she’s too addicted to gaming and that she needs to control herself, but Sakura just brushes her off. After that, they fought about the same thing almost every other day. Today was the peak of it all. They both exploded.

“I told you! There is nothing going on with me and Chaeyeon!” Eunbi yelled, slamming her hands on the table as she stood up. 

“Yea? Well you two are pretty chummy for being in a company setting.” Sakura snapped back.

“Yea I may be her boss, but she’s also a really important friend.” 

“Important friend, right...” Sakura sarcastically said with her air quotations and eye rolling.

“I don’t get why you’re complaining. I know I didn’t do anything wrong. Besides, what about you? Every time I make sure to make some time for you, you blow me off to play games with Hyewon. Not to mention you’re pretty chummy with her too!” Eunbi replied, crossing her arms.

“What are you insinuating?! Are you trying to blame ME now? Are you making me out to be the unfaithful one?!” Sakura screamed as she also slammed her hands on the table and stood up.

“Well you obviously think I’m always in the wrong and don’t believe me, so what do you expect me to do? I’m not going to just blindly listen to you and agree to cheating on you when I’M NOT CHEATING ON YOU!!!” Eunbi screamed back as she walked away from the dinner table.

Eunbi entered their bedroom and came back out with a coat in hand. 

“Where are you going?!” Sakura asked as Eunbi stomped past her.

“I need some air! I can’t stand being in the same room as you right now!” Eunbi yelled as she walked out and slammed the door shut behind her.

Tears began to roll down Sakura’s face as she felt frustrated and helpless about their situation.

“Fine. If you want it that way, why don’t we just break up then.” Sakura said to herself.

Sakura walked into their bedroom and grabbed an empty suitcase out of the closet. She began haphazardly throwing whatever she could grab into it. As she made her way to the dresser, a picture frame on top of the counter caught her eye. It was a picture of her and Eunbi taken 3 years ago during their 1st year anniversary. She picked up the picture frame and looked at it for a moment before tossing it. The glass shattered as the frame hit the ground hard. After grabbing a few more items, Sakura tried to zip up the suitcase, but she was having trouble from the bits of fabric that was sticking out. 

She frantically tried to stuff the bits back in, but before she could, the doorbell rang.

“Ugh! Who is that at this hour?” Sakura grimaced as she headed towards the door.

“It’s probably Eunbi. I’ll bet she forgot the key.” She scoffed.

Sakura opened the door, but found no one there. She looked up and down the hallway, but there were no traces of anyone. Before she closed the door though, she saw something sitting on the floor by the door. She picked up what seemed to be a little pink wine bottle and examined the note that was attached to it.

For Eunbi <3

“What the?” Sakura questioned as she scrunched up her face in disgust.

“This is probably from that sly homewrecking secretary. How dare she have the gall to do this?” 

Sakura’s blood began to boil as she thought about what could be going on behind closed curtains. 

“I’ll show you Lee Chaeyeon. I won’t let you have what you want.” Sakura said as she twisted the cap off and down the entire bottle. 

After tossing the empty bottle in the trash, Sakura returned to their room to finish packing. However, something was wrong. She began to feel light headed and her vision began to blur. 

What’s happening? Why do I feel like this? Was it because of that bottle I drank? How much alcohol was in that tiny thing? 

Sakura thought to herself. Before she knew it though, her body had hit the ground and she could see nothing but darkness. 

•~•

“Dang it. I ended up staying out the whole night.” Eunbi mumbled to herself as she stood in front of the door, unable to enter the apartment. 

“Last night was definitely not good. How am I going to face Kkura now?” 

Eunbi questioned herself. Seconds turned into minutes as she contemplated what to do or say. Bad things started running through her mind, but the worst thing she knows she doesn’t want to happen is the end of their relationship. 

“Come on Eunbi, no more stalling. You need to get in there and talk it out once and for all with her. You can do it.” Eunbi said, hyping herself up with words or encouragement and some slaps to the face. 

She took a deep breath and entered the apartment. As she entered, there was no sign of Sakura. The dinner table was still covered with food from last night. Eunbi wasn’t going to complain about it though. Who in their right mind would clean up when they were just in a huge argument?  

She must be in our room. 

Eunbi reasoned as she headed towards the room.   

•~•

Ugh, my head hurts. 

Sakura thought with a pounding headache. 

That’s the last time I down a bottle of something weird. Even if it’s small and cute looking and out of spite. 

“Kkura-ya.”

Sakura heard Eunbi calling. She was still in a bad mood so she didn’t exactly want to see her girlfriend at the moment. Her plans were to leave for a while and figure it out from there, but they were foiled and now she’s dreading what was going to happen next. 

“Kkura-ya.” 

Eunbi called again. 

Sakura sighed as she came to the conclusion that there was no avoiding it now. They needed to talk things out. 

Well, let’s get this thing over with. 

“Kkura!” Eunbi yelled. 

“Can you stop yelling please?! I hear you loud and clear!” Sakura yelled back annoyed as Eunbi’s voice was piercing her ears. 

“Where are you?! Stop messing around with me.” Eunbi suddenly said, with a tremble.

Sakura could hear shuffling and frantic footsteps running around the room. She opened her eyes to see that Eunbi was panicking. She was still calling out and looking around the apartment for Sakura. But after searching every room, Eunbi plopped down on the bed with defeat. 

“I guess you left. I should’ve figured.” Eunbi cried as tears began to fall. 

Sakura looked at Eunbi with confusion. 

“What the hell are you talking about? Have you gone crazy, woman? I’m right here!” Sakura said as she looked straight at Eunbi.

“If you’re doing this as some sort of twisted joke or revenge I won’t forgive you!” Sakura cried, desperate for Eunbi to stop messing with her.

All of a sudden, Sakura heard no more cries from the older girl as she made eye contact with her. 

“Ha! I knew you were messing around.” Sakura said, trying to sound as if nothing happened. 

However, something was off. Instead of a look of amusement on Eunbi’s face, Sakura saw a look of bewilderment as she stretched her hand towards her. 

“What are you doing here?” Eunbi asked. 

Before she knew what was happening, Sakura was in the air as Eunbi held her up. 

“Why are you hiding under these clothes? In fact, how did you even get in here, kitty?”

Sakura’s mind went blank at a certain word. 

K-k-kitty?

Sakura was dumbfounded. She didn’t find Eunbi’s joke funny anymore, but she couldn't help but notice a few things after calming down. Eunbi’s face was larger than normal, her entire hand was wrapped around Sakura’s body, and Eunbi’s expression was totally genuine. 

T-there’s no way…. right? 

Sakura gulped as she slowly twisted her head around in the direction of the dresser mirror. She didn’t understand how or why, but as of that moment, she was a cat. 

•~•

It’s been 3 days now, but Sakura was still a kitten. No matter how much she tried to wrap her head around the situation, nothing made sense. The only thing she was sure about was that the little wine bottle she drank that night was what turned her. Even though she was a kitten, there were features of her human self that she kept. As she had short grey silver hair as a human, her fur was short and grey as well. As for the breed, she was a Siamese cat since their ears are big and so was hers. Her paws were also small and dainty like her human hands. 

She doesn’t know if or when she’ll turn back so she guesses she’ll take it easy until she finds a solution. She’s just happy to get to laze around and do nothing. The only downside was that she couldn’t play any of her games. The other thing she’s been doing whether it’s a cat’s natural behavior or her own intentions, but she’s been giving Eunbi hell. She tears at the furniture and Eunbi’s favorite piglet plushie and would smack the back of her head every time she walked past her on the sofa. 

Even though Sakura was having fun, she could tell Eunbi was not. After picking up all the clothes the other night, Eunbi discovered the broken picture frame. She cried her eyes out that night, had sleepless nights and hasn’t gone to work sinc