Seulgi took one step past the connecting door and entered her own unit. She held out her hand.  “Come…”

Joohyun hesitated for only about a second.  And then she grasped the hand and crossed over.  

“Careful…” Seulgi said.

Joohyun scooted closer to her guide in a dark, alien world.

Seulgi set the candlelight on top of a tall surface. It cast a glow in the entire room and made the details more visible.

Joohyun spotted the notorious bed that frequently banged against the wall whenever Seulgi and her boyfriend indulged in a passionate interlude.  It often caused their neighbor, Joohyun, to be sleepless on the opposite side.

Apart from the bed, there was nothing much that could be expected from the bedroom because Seulgi had converted the space into a private art studio. The floor was lined with cloth splattered with paint. There was her easel holding up a canvass with her recent work. A tall, wooden stool was in front of the easel and on top of it were her palette and brush. And lined up against the wall... like an untidy exhibit, were dozens of Seulgi’s finished paintings.

Holding her own candlelight, Joohyun approached the paintings grouped together in a corner. The overlapping blotches of colors and array of patterns looked weird to her unartistic eye and the composition was different on every canvas. She would not have been able to make sense of the paintings under any other circumstance... but the subject was so dear to her heart that Joohyun almost immediately identified what the paintings were about.

Joohyun’s mouth slightly opened in amazement.  Oh, my... so this was what Seulgi and my cat were doing.

"Now you know,” Seulgi said quietly. Together, they stared at the paintings. And then Seulgi delivered the big revelation in the voice of a lover who had no regret for the crimes she committed. “Da Ling allowed me to paint her in the ...”

That was funny.  But Joohyun did not laugh at the ‘’ model joke.  She couldn’t.  So intense was her awe.

Seulgi saw how Joohyun was beholding each artwork as if they were incredible masterpieces—which they’re not.  Seulgi scratched her neck and self-consciously said, “They’re not that good…”

“SHUT UP!” Joohyun snapped.

Seulgi smiled, touched by the intensity of Joohyun’s retort to defend the paintings against any dissing—even if the harsh criticism was from the painter herself.

Seulgi allowed Joohyun a bit of time to look at each painting closely before narrating.  “I created those paintings for fun because I liked the beautiful grey cat that would trespass into my apartment every time its owner was away. She and I would keep each other company over drinks…”

Joohyun tore her eyes away from one of the paintings to look up. “Drinks?”

“Milk for the cat and beer for me.”

“Ahhh…”

“It was a tame, sweet-natured cat and it always allowed me to her.  One time, I decided to paint her and she proved to be so well-behaved during sittings that one painting session was followed by another... and another. These paintings were definitely not my best works but—”

“They’re incredible!” Joohyun voiced out passionately, her fingers lightly skimming over the hardened paint. “What do you call these?”

“What? The paintings?”

“Yes,” she answered. “Aren't painters supposed to name their work?”

“I just call them the ‘Areum’ series.  There were more than a dozen Areum paintings.”  Seulgi separated the remaining overlapping paintings and rested them against the wall so that Joohyun could better see each image of the same subject. “Areum 1… Areum 2… Areum 3…”

“Areum…” Joohyun uttered. A feminine name that means ‘beauty’.

Kang Seulgi called her cat Beauty.

“I did not know that your cat’s name was Da Ling,” Seulgi reasoned out.

“Areum is a wonderful name. You could not have chosen a better name for this series.” Joohyun lifted one of the larger paintings. “My cat looks so happy here.”

Flowers in a painting, Joohyun could not decipher. But a painting of her beloved cat, she could interpret very well. She could even see the subject’s expression!

“Da Ling is laughing here!  Am I right?”

Nope, Seulgi thought. The cat was YAWNING. Seulgi did not have the heart to correct her. “Yes. You’re right.”

“Oh, wow…you've captured it so well.”

A tear from Joohyun’s eye glistened in the dark, like a crystal droplet racing down her smooth cheek.   

Seulgi was so fascinated by it. Maybe it’s because she never cried.  Min-Jong scathingly told Seulgi she had only four expressions: calm, enraged, sarcastic and ually aroused.

She… Kang Seulgi would cry for no human, much less animals.

But there’s this strange girl... Bae Joohyun, holding a private funeral and shedding precious tears for her dead pet.

“Are you hungry?” Seulgi asked rather faintly, unsure if it’s the right timing to ask about food while  the other person was so worked-up over the paintings.

It was almost comical how Joohyun’s body reacted.  Her body bounced off the floor—BOING!

She was instantly as high-strung as an owl, her head turned to a weird angle and her eyes grew round. “Y-you are offering me dinner?”

“If you want, I can prepare—”

Joohyun was overwhelmed.  She seemed completely mind-blown by the offer. “BUT HOW?” Her breathing was shallow. Her voice, high-pitched. “HOW IS IT THAT YOU HAVE FOOD?!”

What a strange question. “I am not able to prepare a feast!” Seulgi started to laugh but the other girl looked serious as .  Seulgi’s laughter trailed away.  She felt stupid. “Uh… I just have ramyeon.”

“YOU CAN HEAT UP RAMYEON?!”  Joohyun was bewildered— as though Seulgi was about to share some top-secret, brilliant survival tactics in a zombie war. “BUT… BUT WE DON’T HAVE ELECTRICITY!”

It was then that the basic fact hit Seulgi in the gut. Bae Joohyun was hungry.  She must be starving!  She may not have eaten something warm in a while.

Seulgi stood up. “I have a spare gas stove. I keep a small one for emergency situations. We can use that.”

The quirky cat-loving female was gazing up at Seulgi in wonder. The thought of food was like manna from heaven.  And Kang Seulgi was a god.

“Have dinner with me?” Seulgi offered.

“YES!” Joohyun grabbed Seulgi’s leg.  She held on to it mightily as if she were about to be swept away by a flood and tFhat LEG was the only solid thing she could cling on.  “YES… I’LL HAVE DINNER WITH YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!”

**********

Joohyun enjoyed the ramyeon soup like she had never tasted anything more delicious in her entire life.

Pride be damned.  She slurped noisily and without a pause, not caring for how hot the soup was. The strands of noodles continuously disappeared into the tunnel of .

“HOOOHHH… (Oh!)  HOHMAAAIII… (Oh, my!)  HOORRRMAHHGADDD! (Ohmygod!)”  Joohyun exclaimed, trying to consume as much as she could without scalding the roof of .

“Is it good?  Not too hot?”

“Heeth FFFER-FEKKK! (It’s perfect!)”  

Joohyun SPIT out the words. Bits of noodles flew out of , narrowly missing Seulgi’s face.

In full view of her host, Joohyun moan