Mina was right. The supermarket is nearly empty, except for some employees. It’s Sunday morning after all. Mina likes this. She can stroll around the aisles without having to squeeze through people. Don’t get her wrong, she doesn’t hate people, she just hate interacting with them, especially with many of them at the same time. That’s why she lives in the outskirt, chooses a job near here, although there’re many better offers for her in the city. On some nice days, she can take a walk in the park nearby, which has more animals than people. Just like the wood in her hometown. Besides, she chose this place for Chaengie to wander.

Speaking of the cat-girl, now Mina knows where the cat has been disappearing to, the magic world. The word Magic sounds so… peculiar and mysterious. It’s strange, but not a foreign concept. It brings back her childhood memories, summers spent with her grandparents and their folk stories. A happy time that she wants to go back so bad.

She loves her grandparents dearly, who saved her from the dark, lonely house and brought her to a world full of colors, laughter, and mystical stories. She spent her summers discovering beautiful world of rural Japan, where her grandparents lived. Mina didn’t like crowd, but she joined with the kids huddling around her grandma, keenly listening to the stories, the folklores where the spirits lived among humans, where deities can perform magic to either help or lure the human from their path. They learned about myths, about why children must not wander around at night, why they must respect nature. That is when she gobbled up tales of adventure and dreamt of having her own someday. But it lasted for only for a short time.

After her grandparents’ death, her summer was revolving around going to ballet classes, playing video games, and sometimes wandering to the nearby wood, alone. Now, knowing Chaengie’s real identity and her magic world, Mina wonders if she can visit there someday. Not that she wants to live in it, it was just a child’s dream, but she would like to see how it functions. Maybe Chaeyoung will take her there to visit someday, if she asks.

She takes a left turn to the pet aisle as a habit, and scans through the items. She winces when looking at the dry cat food rack. No wonder Chaengie doesn’t like cat food, it must taste terrible. Mina was warned that human food isn’t good for cat but Chaengie refused to eat cat food. So now she’s used to cooking for two, and thankfully, the cat shows no symptoms of malnutrition. Of course, she still avoid feeding Chaengie foods that are poisonous for cats like chocolate or raisins. But if Chaengie is human, she wouldn’t have to do that, right? She’ll ask the cat girl later.

Mina didn’t make a shopping list this time, too occupied by earlier incident, and forgot to ask Chaeyoung if she needed anything. Maybe not in this aisle. Mina doesn’t know what the girl will bring to “move in” but she grabs a bath towel, a toothbrush, and a comb, remembering the girl’s unkempt hair, just in case, before going to the food area.

When Mina arrives home, the younger is not back yet. They left at the same time; Mina went to grocery shopping while Chaeyoung went to take her stuff for moving in. Moving in, Mina muses at the thought. Chaengie has always been here. She never thought of not having Chaengie with her.

She’s in middle of cooking lunch when Chaeyoung comes back; bringing a bag, which Mina guesses is her belongings. It’s much smaller than Mina expected, but the girl said she didn’t have much stuff so Mina doesn’t look much into it.

She almost has a heart attack when turning back from her cooking and seeing a Chaeyoung looking at her attentively. It’s weird at first, but then the younger starts blinking slowly and Mina almost bursts out laughing. It’s a too familiar scene, Mina would cook and the cat would sit on the couch or on top of the dining table, look at her closely. Like a judge on a cooking show. She doesn’t laugh, but instead says to the younger.

“Help me set the table?”

It takes the girl a few seconds for the words to sink in but then she springs on her feet. Like it’s just dawn on her that she’s human, not a cat. The younger runs to the cupboard, hiding her face from Mina, but the blushing ears betray her. That’s cute, Mina thinks.

Chaeyoung doesn’t need to be shown where the things are, she’s been staring at Mina staying in this house so long to know all that. Still, it’s an entirely new sensation, preparing the meal together. She did try to accompany Mina in cooking before but her paws aren’t really made for it so she settled with watching the older. For moral support. Don’t get her wrong, she’s familiar with work, it’s just different doing with Mina instead of a bunch of loud kids in Jihyo’s place. She doesn’t mind the change, not at all.

They fall to silence again indulging their meal, but not as awkward like breakfast. Mina doesn’t talk much when she eats, and Chaeyoung, most of the time she eats in cat form so talking is out of the question.

“This is nice. You haven’t cooked chicken katsu for a while.”

Chaeyoung puts her chopsticks down and lets out a contented sigh.

“I had time. You woke me up early in the morning.”

“Sorry, it’s my habit.”

“No, don’t be. I’m used to it, really. Besides, it’s nice to go grocery shopping early.”

“Yeah… Let me clean this up. You cooked the meal already.”

Still awkward, Mina thinks as she looks at Chaeyoung’s retreating back. She’s not exactly good with people in general, let alone someone who just popped up from nowhere and now they have to live together. Only in this case it’s not some random person, it’s Chaengie, her cat. She doesn’t know what to think, or how to approach the girl about all this. She has questions, lots of questions. Who doesn’t when your cat just turned to human? But Mina doesn’t know where to start.

“Mina?”

“Yeah?”

“Which one is the dishwashing soap?”

Chaeyoung can feel footsteps approaching her from behind, soft. Mina’s footsteps are light, even when she waddles around the house, which she does a lot, like a penguin. A very cute one. Not that Chaeyoung has met another penguin to compare with Mina. Still, she doubts other penguins can match Mina’s beauty. Some other time, when the older is practicing or receiving guests, she carries herself gracefully like a swan (Chaeyoung met some swans and they definitely cannot compare with Mina.).

“This one” Mina points at the green bottle, next to the blue one. “The other is for handwashing”

“Thanks”

“I thought you would know. You watch me closely every time I’m in kitchen”

“I just pay attention to the food” And you.

“Hmm. No wonder I see the canned chicken disappeared quite quickly.”

“You was unconscious and I needed to eat!”

“Hey, no worries. I’m not accusing, just saying.”

…

“You really like chicken, do you?”

The girl lets out a groan and Mina chuckles. She can’t help it. She can see the tip of Chaeyoung’s ears redden and she just wants to tease the girl to no end. A hint of dimples forming on the girl’s flushed cheeks.

“How old are you anyway?”

“Just one year younger than you. What? Do I look younger?”

“You look like a kid.”

“I’m not!”

Now her dimples are finally showing, together with that pout, which doesn’t make her previous statement believable at all. Mina chuckles as she turns and walks to the couch, suddenly remembers something. She is fiddling with a bag when the other girl settles down beside her.

“What’s that?”

“Sorry I forgot to ask if you need anything before going to the supermarket.”

“No worries, I have all essent