Genre: Humor

Summary: Billionaire heiress Kwon Eunbi finds herself down in the dumps and in a moment of weakness decides to confide her problems to a fast food restaurant’s costumed mascot. It’s easier to tell your problems to a stranger, isn’t it? This will definitely NOT be a decision that will come back to bite her in the .

Word Count: 9232

Hashtag: #KkubiFestival_LoveWith9Lives

Love With 9 Lives
by theonlyhans

Everybody has rough days.

It’s a part of life. Where there are ups, there will be downs. The late, great, Frank Sinatra said it best when he said you could be riding high in April, just to get shot down in May. Yeah. It’s normal. It’s normal to go through hard times.

....It’s just that, Kwon Eunbi was not just anybody. She wasn’t a normal person. She would have liked to think that the problems of normal people did not apply to her, and that the rules that the others are forced to follow and conform to were nothing more than mere suggestions to her.

Because Kwon Eunbi was rich. She was the first daughter and heir to her family business, which owned a chain of fast food restaurants that dominated the greater part of Asia. She would even be so bold to say that her family’s only competitor was that infernal brand of burgers with a clown for a mascot. A bloody clown. Insufferable. Her family would dethrone them soon enough, but that was besides the point.

The matter that needed to be addressed immediately was not McDonald’s looming presence over her family’s burger chain. It was that Kwon Eunbi was having what she considers to be a rough day, something that was incredibly foreign to her. Rich people don’t have problems, right? Rich people pay other people to face the problems for them. Rich people did not suffer. Above all else, rich people DEFINITELY—

—definitely did not break down crying in one of their own burger franchises, face buried in her hands for everyone to see and make fun of.

Kwon Eunbi was struggling. She was suffering. There was a hole in her chest in the shape of the person that had left her, and she wasn’t sure if she could ever be rid of this feeling. She’s read enough young adult novels to know that this was just temporary. Heartbreak was not a lifelong illness, and that this would eventually come to pass. Pain was never permanent.

...Pain was never permanent, but tonight, it was killing her.

Eunbi feels a pair of eyes on her. She was perfectly aware that everyone in this restaurant that she owned recognised her and was currently doing their best to avoid staring at her having a breakdown, so who would be so bold to openly display interest in her suffering?

She looks up, and to her surprise and complete shock she sees not a person, but a bipedal cat costume staring at her from a ways away. An orange uniform with dark brown stripes, the mascot of Buenos Aires Burgers. Eunbi locks eyes with the cat’s beady black ones and finds herself narrowing hers in suspicion.

“Are you staring at me?”

The moment the question leaves her lips she finds the cat immediately turning it’s oversized head away from her, realising it had been caught in the act. That confirms it. This cat mascot had been watching her cry. 

On one hand, Eunbi knows that the shop’s mascot probably couldn’t help but stare. She was making a scene, sobbing loudly into her hands in a fast food restaurant but Eunbi could hardly care. She owned this bloody place, and with that, the scene that comes with it.

The cat starts to shift awkwardly, and Eunbi lets it get back to whatever it is mascots do. Burying her face back into her palms in an effort to nurse her wounds lasted only a few short minutes before a tap on her shoulder makes her look back up in annoyance.

Through teary eyes she sees the cat again, this time standing right in front of her with an arm outstretched. Resting in the middle of the large furry paws were....a pack of tissues?

Eunbi looks up into the cat’s beady eyes and the mascot nods it’s head awkwardly, insisting for her to take the tissues. With a sigh, the heiress obliges, accepting the tissues as well as the fact that she must look more pathetic than she thought. 

“Thank you.” Eunbi says, trying her best to offer a courteous smile.

The cat seems to pause for a second to stare at her, creating a brief moment where Eunbi was caught in a weird staring competition that she had no hopes of winning, before the mascot nods it’s oversized head once and turns to return to it’s post.

“Wait.” Eunbi calls out to it, before she could even really think of a reason why. “Would you please sit down with me?”

What.

Why did she just ask—good god was she THAT lonely? The bloody cat mascot must have been thinking the same thing because it just stood there, halfway between turning to face Eunbi and continuing to walk towards it’s post as if unsure of what to do.

“I can’t.” The cat finally says, voice slightly muffled by the costume.

A female voice. Eunbi should have guessed, based on the way the costume hung over it’s wearer’s body.

Still, rejection was not something Eunbi was in the mood to tolerate at the moment. Especially not from someone under her employment.

“Do you recognise me?” The woman questions the cat simply, as to which the cat nods once again.

“Of course.”

“Then you should realise that you won’t get in trouble for sitting down with me. I’ll talk to your manager if anything happens.”

That should do it. She’s Kwon Eunbi, billionaire heiress! She had no idea what possessed her to invite this stranger in a costume to join her at this table and she had even less of an idea as to why she was still so insistent on it but by gosh if this cat would just obey her and—was that—was the cat shaking it’s head?

At her? At Kwon Eunbi?

“Oh no. I literally can’t sit. This costume is stiff.”

Oh.

Eunbi was not expecting that. Now she had all this fury inside her that she had nowhere to direct. This cat was already exhausting her.

“Ah.” Eunbi says before pausing awkwardly for a brief second. “You mean you’re forced to stay standing? All the time?”

The human in the suit does what could be best described as an attempt at shrugging in reply. “You get used to it.”

“I...didn’t realise we were torturing our employees.”

“The pay is great, though.”

Eunbi raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “Really?”

“Really. You’re actually overpaying me, if I were to be completely honest.”

The cat laughed at her own statement, and Eunbi briefly contemplated why she was even willing to pursue this any further. This person did not seem like the type that would provide a stimulating conversation, but she couldn’t deny that there was something...comforting about talking to someone who did not appear to walk on eggshells around her. Perhaps Eunbi had use for this one yet.

“Then...would you like to earn a little more today?” It was asked in a low tone, in an attempt to not attract the attention of any curious onlookers to which there were a few. It’s not every day you see a billionaire heiress talking to a person in a shabby cat costume.

Perhaps the tone used created an opposite affect however, as the cat appeared slightly alarmed by Eunbi’s proposition. The heiress belatedly realises how seedy she sounded.

“...I’m celibate.” The cat replies flatly, and gosh Eunbi wonders if she were to murder this person would it be classified as manslaughter or animal cruelty?

“No.” Eunbi says to clear up the misunderstanding and to derail the cat’s current train of erse thoughts. “Be my shrink for the hour. I need someone to talk to. Or more rather, listen to me talk.”

“Ma’am, I’m standing in a mall dressed up as a cat. I think you’re bringing your problems to the wrong person.”

There was truth to that. It sounded crazy, but at the same time there was a quiet comfort to be found in confiding in faceless strangers. She didn’t know who the person behind the cat costume was, so the words should leave easier. It didn’t matter if this person judged her, she didn’t know who this person was anyways and will probably never find out.

“Humour me. I’ll make it worth your while.” Eunbi insists with a small playful smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, making her look more sad than anything else.

A quiet pause, where the self-conscious parts of Eunbi’s mind was sure the person under the cat head was staring at her with pity in her eyes. The brief staring contest lasted for only a short minute before the cat mascot eventually shrugged again.

“I already get paid to stand here anyways. Isn’t an extra effort to keep my ears open as well.”

The mascot repositions herself so that she was standing right next to Eunbi’s table, and it starts to hit the heiress just how ridiculous this whole thing was. At least the person she was going to confide in had the decency to look away from Eunbi as she told her tale. It would’ve been a hell of a lot more awkward to have those big cat eyes judging her as she went on.

“So there’s this girl.” Eunbi begins, only to correct herself immediately. “Was. There was this girl. There hasn’t been a girl for the last...2 months. It’s been 2 months.”

“Did she die?”

“No. Keep quiet, I’m just getting started.”

Eunbi takes a breath, before she opens up to the faceless stranger. Her tongue seemed to have a direct connection to her heart as the words effortlessly spilled from her lips. The story of her perfect life with Kang Hyewon, and how she eventually caught the love of her life with someone else in their shared bed. How Hyewon had blamed her on their failed relationship, chalking it up to Eunbi’s penchant for perfection and the pressure it caused Hyewon. They fought on the porch of the mansion they once called their home, throwing verbal insults and potted plants at each other before Hyewon stormed off, but not before calling her a “controlling monster”. 

She realised the perfect life that she had spent the last 4 years living was nothing but a fallacy. It had been nothing but rosy, but only in her own mind. The girl she loved, the girl that she had given her heart to had been suffering in silence, tolerating her way of living. That left Eunbi more than torn because...

...because this was what she knew. This was everything she knew how to be. Strong and decisive, independent and always in control, but she had no idea that behind her back, without her even realising it, she had become a monster.

“...and then I left. I just...I left her. I wish I could say I didn’t look back but I did, and she had already driven off. Like I didn’t matter to her one bit.” Eunbi finishes off her story. She cleares her dry throat and wipes the tears that had painted her cheeks with the back of her sleeve, only to realise that her confidant had been quiet for quite awhile.

Huh.

Eunbi turns to see the mascot with her shoulders slumped over, as if a slight breeze could knock the cat over. 

“...Hello?” Eunbi asks cautiously. Did this cat even hear a single word she said?

“I’m sorry Ma’am. I’ll be right with you in a sec.” 

The large costumed figure looming over her table sways slightly, and Eunbi was about to ask if everything was alright, before the cat just...falls.

To the ground.

With a dull thud.

Eunbi stares, mouth agape at the cat sprawled inelegantly on the restaurant’s grimy floor.

It wasn’t moving.

What the fuc—

Does she call a doctor or a vet?

“Ah , not again.” A woman’s voice cuts through Eunbi’s thoughts and she looks up just in time to see a woman with shoulder-length red hair disappearing through the staff doors, shortly followed by a loud voice booming from the backroom.

“CAT DOWN! CAT DOWN!”

*******

Eunbi was...for lack of a better word, perturbed by this development. She had expected a no-strings-attached confidant when she chose to open up to the stranger in the cat costume. She definitely was not expecting to end up in the waiting room of Seoul University Hospital at 7pm on a Monday.

She couldn’t possibly have just left the scene. Every single person who worked in Buenos Aires Burgers were technically under her employment, and with all those watchful eyes observing her every move she couldn’t just leave an unconscious member of staff to be by herself.

It did take her by surprise however when the store manager took the large cat head off of the unconscious mascot to reveal a girl that was a lot older than Eunbi was imagining in her head. Sure enough, once the manager of the restaurant handed Eunbi the employee’s file, she could see that the unconscious cat-person was already 24 years old, 3 years younger than Eunbi herself. She had no idea why but she imagined the person underneath the costume to be a lot more...younger. Like a teenager working a part-time job.

Eunbi also had no idea why she felt partially responsible for the girl losing consciousness.

As if she could talk someone into fainting.

When the branch manager finally reads to Eunbi the doctor’s report, the answer was just about as unbelievable as everything else that’s taken place the entire day.

“Exhaustion? Really?!”

“Yes, Miss Kwon. I’m terribly sorry you had to see that happen.” 

Something in the manager’s tone made Eunbi wonder whether the woman was apologizing for having one of her employees pass out, or apologizing for it happening in front of her boss’ daughter.

“Does it happen...often...?” Eunbi asks cautiously, almost afraid to hear the answer.

The manager— Kim Chaewon, as her nametag says—seems to shift uncomfortably in place. “I wouldn’t say often...Maybe twice a month at the most?” 

“We have cats COLLAPSING in our stores every few weeks?!” Eunbi’s eyes nearly fall out of their sockets from how big she opened them. This was a lawsuit waiting to happen. There were WITNESSES! It was a shop FULL OF PEOPLE!! Ridiculously inadequate of the staff members. She would give herself a facepalm on their account but she liked her face too much for that.

“...They get paid well...? And they’re not REAL cats!” Chaewon reasoned, and Eunbi was suddenly highly inclined to palm a certain short-haired manager’s face instead.

“Oh for Heaven’s—We’ll work on this. We shall work on this. Get back to your store, Miss Kim. I’m going to make sure we don’t have a lawsuit on our hands.”

The young manager scrambles away the moment Eunbi winds her hand back, the paper file containing the unfortunate mascot’s details being held like a weapon in her grip. Once she was satisfied with seeing the manager run for dear life out of the waiting room, Eunbi releases a long sigh, wondering how she was going to smoothen out the situation.

She begins walking to the ward where she was told the employee was recuperating. Along the way she starts reading the file in her hand, in hopes of better knowing this person whom she was trying to butter up. Her earlier plans of keeping her confidant anonymous has flown out the window.

Miyawaki Sakura. Japanese. 24 years old. Migrated here with her family 15 years ago, currently studying Animation at Ewha Woman’s University. Eunbi is ever-so slightly taken aback. That’s a very decent university. She wasn’t expecting that out of the girl that dresses up as a cat 4 days a week.

She finally arrives in front of the room that her overworked employee is resting in. They got the girl a private suite, thanks to Eunbi’s pull with the hospital. She’s sure that will help earn some brownie points. The heiress clears before knocking on the door twice.

“Hello? Miss Miyawaki? Are you decent?” Eunbi asks, slowly opening the door once she starts to hear rustling on the other side of it.

“Depends on who’s asking~” Miyawaki Sakura starts to sing, although the song stops immediately once she turns around and sees who had just entered the room. “Oh shi—Hello Miss Kwon!”

It was quite a sight Eunbi had just walked in on. Sakura appears to have been halfway through fixing her room’s curtains when the sudden appearance of Eunbi had caused her to panic and now the girl had one foot in a garbage can while staring at the heiress as if she had just seen a fish sprout legs.

“Were you...expecting someone else?” Eunbi asks, unsure how else to break the awkward silence.

“Not reall—I guess—I don’t know what I was expecting to be honest.” Sakura laughs lightly while rubbing the back of her neck, her foot still wedged ankle-deep in the trash can.

Eunbi takes a moment to subtly give the girl a once over. Sakura looked like your average girl, nothing quite extraordinary worth noting except for maybe the large ears and awkward smile to match. The girl’s dark black hair falls just past her shoulders, making Eunbi think that it must be uncomfortable to have hair that long while wearing a costume as stuffy as the one Sakura wears.

“Are you feeling better?” Eunbi asks, although she could see that just by being conscious Sakura was already doing better than she had been earlier.

Sakura shrugs. “Yeah. Just needed a nap I guess. It happens from time to time.”

It appears Sakura finally realises that her foot was stuck in the garbage can, as she was obviously trying to subtly shake her foot loose without Eunbi noticing. Eunbi of course, noticed.

...but she shall not mention it and spare Sakura the pain of being humiliated for a second time today. 

Collapsing in front of your boss’ daughter while dressed as a giant feline was bad enough.

Eunbi clears , preparing to enter her corporate mode. “I regret to inform you that I was only just made aware of the mascot uniform’s poor design elements. I shall ensure that this problem is brought forward in our next company meeting, and we shall present to you an improved uniform as soon as possible.”

Eunbi pauses, checking Sakura’s reaction as she says the next line. “That is, if you are still willing to be under our employment.”

Sakura nearly bugs out at the insinuation of her wanting to quit her job. “Dude—I-I mean Miss Kwon—It’s fine! I really don’t mind it! I mean that costume is kinda warm and it starts to smell after awhile but that just makes it realistic, y’know? All cats smell bad!”

Sakura frantically waves her hands and jumps around, which in turn inadvertently shakes her foot loose and the next thing either of them knew the garbage can was sent flying across the room, missing Eunbi’s face by just mere inches.

The heiress takes in a shaky breath through her nose. It’s...hard to ignore that one.

But she does. By gosh she somehow manages to ignore her employee’s accidental attempt at decapitating the billionaire heiress by way of trash receptacle.

“This incident does not meet the standards I expect for our company. I apologize deeply.” Eunbi bows her head in apology. The brief moment where she couldn’t see Sakura as she bowed was worrisome. God knows what else this crazy girl was going to fling towards her head?

“Yo...I-I mean, you run a fast food joint man...how high can the standards be?” Sakura jokes, but Eunbi snapping straight up to a full standing position to look Sakura dead in her eyes promptly shuts the Japanese girl up.

“What was that?”

“Sheesh you’re scary.” Sakura wheezes under her breath, which in turn causes Eunbi to raise an eyebrow and Sakura freaks out again. “I said of course I’d like to stay employed! I get paid to stand around and scare kids in a cat costume. Sounds like Disneyland to me!”

Good. That was good. It didn’t appear as if there would be a lawsuit over the horizon. Eunbi almost releases a sigh of relief. “Then at least allow me to make it up to you.”

“Yea? You don’t have to. Like I said, it’s chill.”

Eunbi glares at Sakura again, and like the Gorgons in Greek legend she manages to petrify Sakura with just a stare. “Nobody turns down a Kwon, Miss Miyawaki.”

“Yeah? I mean I know plenty of other Kwon’s that get turned down a lot...”

“What was that?”

“Geez! Okay! Make it up to me if that makes you feel better! Go ahead! I’m all yours!” Sakura raises her hands in surrender, and Eunbi actually finds herself almost having her first genuine smile since she got dumped by Hyewon 2 months ago.

Almost.

“You are wising up, Miss Miyawaki.”

********

It was perhaps a mistake, expecting Miyawaki Sakura to appear on time to a formal function such as this one.

There were galas, there were charity events, and then there was this. The annual dinner hosted by the prestigious Lee family, of the Samsung Group. The cream of the crop, THE place to bump shoulders with celebrities and major political figures. Kwon Eunbi had decided to extend her invitation to include Sakura, thinking that the girl would be thrilled by the idea of meeting all these singers and actors. It was a grand opportunity! Eunbi could name at least a dozen people who would sell their own sister for the chance to network and mingle with South Korea’s e