"You think Mina will like the food we picked out?" Momo asked, looking at the pizza unsurely. "She seems like the type of person who's too sophisticated for this stuff."

"Of course she'll like it! I saw her eat some while playing video games with Jeongyeon! Besides, we have to celebrate her promotion!"

"You know that I can cook, and yet you still get takeout. Why, you little ?"

"I know that you can cook! It's just more expensive buying ingredients for a nice meal compared to this buy one, get one free deal at Sbarro's every Tuesday."

"...True, but—"

 "M-Mew..."

Momo and Sana froze. What was that?

"Mew." 

Momo and Sana realized the sound came from the creepy alleyway next to them. 

"Should we check it out? What if it's a stray kitty?"

Momo looks at the younger incredulously. "No. ing. Way. What if it's not a cat and some creep luring some young pretty girls like us to his trap by playing cat sounds on his phone?"

"Eh? What kind of movies do you watch with Nayeon-unnie? But just in case you're right..." Sana dug through the bag of food, finding two plastic knives. "Ta-da! Weapons!" She hands one to Momo. 

Momo shrugs and takes it. "Good idea. Simply kicking the isn't enough anymore."

The two enter cautiously, Sana pointing the knife like a gun while Momo shakes her head.

"Mew." It seemed louder this time.

"Ah-ha! C'mon and fight me! I'm not some stupid and defenseless girl!" Sana says, turning around...

...and finding Momo holding a tiny kitten in her arms.

"Oh no, I'm so scared, I in my pants." Momo deadpanned, the shivering kitten's fur.

Sana ignored her, instead looking at the kitten. The kitten's silver fur was dirty, and its eyes were wide with fear. It looked so scared and innocent.

"Oh my God, is the poor kitty okay...?"

"Seeing as her fur isn't that dirty and her fear, it seems like she's been recently abandoned. But she's freezing and terrified."

"Eh? The kitten's a she?"

"I, uh, accidently glimpsed down while picking her up." Momo explained. "Not proud."

"Ah."

Momo looked around, fear in her eyes. "Great, we found what we're looking for. Now can we go home?"

"Wait, what about Mina?" Sana remembers, grabbing Momo's arm. "She can't know about this! She might make us get rid of the kitty!"

"Can we come up with a plan outside of this alley? It's pretty ing creepy."

"Okay, okay. We're leaving now."

 

---

 

"WE'RE HOME!! HI, MINARI!!" Sana greets totally normally.

"Hi...?" Mina greets back, confused. She turns to Momo. "Did you guys drink?" She asks, voice low for Sana not to hear. Sana's really sensitive when drunk.

"No, I didn't, and she... I think she probably did before I picked her up." Momo replies, eyes briefly darting to the kitten smuggled in her coat pocket. "Anyway, we got pizza for dinner."

"Oh, you guys got pizza?" Mina looks at the bag in Sana's hands. Momo and Sana noticed the kitten was starting to squirm. She must've seen Mina and now she wants to meet her.

"Ha! Told you she'd like it!" Sana exclaimed. Both girls were unbothered. Mina luckily not noticing the kitten because she was occupied looking at Sana like she grew a third eye.

"Mina, we'll, uh, freshen up first."

"Okay. While you do that, I'll go heat up the food."

"Great!" Momo says, giving Mina the food, grabbing Sana's arm and rushing to the bathroom.

As soon as Sana closed the door, Momo gently carried the kitten out of it her pocket, cradling the little thing in her arms.

The kitten looked at Momo with her big eyes.

"You're so cute," Momo coos, scratching the kitten's chin.

Sana nears the two, petting the kitten's ears, earning a purr. Momo and Sana are trying so hard restraining their urge to scream at the cuteness.

They then realized something.

"Wait a minute, how the do you bathe a kitten?"

"Won't it be the same as bathing your dogs?"

"It's different. Also, Boo and Dobby weren't this young when I got them."

"Girls, the food's ready!" Mina calls.

Momo and Sana look at each other, unsure of what to do.

"What do we do now?" Momo panics.

Sana wasn't panicking, instead she was thinking of an idea. "I think... we have to leave the kitten alone for a bit..."  

"What?! We can't leave the poor baby alone! She'll think that she's the first kitten to be abandoned twice!" Momo protests.

"I have no better ideas. We can't really bring her with us. Because Mina can't know. I don't want to devastate her because of cat care and make us return her back to the streets."

"But... does Mina really not have to know? Sana, she's like a little sister to me. I can't lie to her..."

Sana raised an eyebrow at that. "What about that time you and Nayeon-unnie had a pool party in the living room while she visited relatives in Texas?"

"That wasn't a lie. I just didn't tell her." Momo scoffs, pulling her phone out. "But ignorance is bliss, plus we cleaned up afterwards, replaced the furniture we broke, and the new video console I'll get her should be worth... oh, ing no."

She looks at Sana sheepishly, hand stretched out. "I will keep the cat a secret for ₩628,000.000."

Sana takes her hand, shaking it. "Deal."

"Great! Let's go lie to our surrogate little sister Mina-chan!"

 

---

 

"This is so good! Where you get it?" Mina says, taking a bite of the white cheese pizza.

"There was a new Sbarro store that opened up near my work place." Sana says, when she swallowed the food in .

"I see." Mina looked down for a bit. "Why'd you guys take so long in the bathroom?"

Seeing Momo and Sana looking at each other in a very suspicious way made Mina come to a conclusion. "Never mind. You don't have to tell me." Mina mumbles, face red.

Momo and Sana were clueless about why Mina was blushing but at least she was no longer suspicious. 

After they finished eating, Mina went off to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Momo and Sana were in the living room, looking for a cheaper PS5 to buy.

"Why won't you take it? It's ₩50,000! That's way less expensive than the first one you saw!"

"Because the one selling it is my ex-boyfriend."

Sana cringed. "Fair enough, your ex ."

Something popped in Momo's mind. "Sana, Mina's in the bathroom."

"And?"

"The kitty!"

Sana's eyes go comically wide. ". What do we—"

A scream was heard in the bathroom.

Worried, Momo and Sana run there, and find Mina reassuring someone (probably the kitten) near the bathtub.

"Well, lying to Mina was all for nothing." Momo grumbled.

"Yeah..." Sana agrees, pouting.

"Guys?" Mina says, looking bewildered. "Why is there a cat hybrid in the bathtub?"

"We found her all in an alley on our way home, and we didn't want to leave her alone, so we took her home and—" Sana stops her rant when she realized what Mina said. "Wait, hybrid?"

"You didn't— you know what, that's fair, I mean, how can anyone even tell if an animal is a regular one or a hybrid? The stupid scientists never explained that bull." Mina mumbles, slowly moving away the shower curtain.

There was a girl, her little body trembling and face hidden with the way curled up in the tub, looking even tinier than she already seemed. She had silver hair, pale white skin, and a dirty white hoodie with plaid pajamas that looked way too big on her. The silver cat ears and tail gave away the fact that the girl was indeed a cat hybrid.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sana asks, kneeling in front of the tub.

The girl looks up, at the trio. Her face was as dirty as her clothes, but they could all see that she was beautiful. She had big, shiny almond-shaped eyes, monolids, and a sharp nose that contrasted her round face and other adorable features.

The girl's eyes were really pretty, and the three could stop staring at it. Sana noticed something: they held fear and innocence. Just like the kitten... Hey, wait a minute....

"The kitten we found was a hybrid?!" Momo exclaims, Sana wondering why she didn't say it first.

"Again, nobody explained how to distinguish hybrids from regular animals." Mina grumbled.

"You're not mad?" Sana squeaked out.

"I'm not mad that you basically saved a hybrid before anything bad happened.  What I am mad about is the fact that you two lied and thought that I'd make you get rid of her. We've known each other since high school and you still think what everyone thought of me back then?"

"We're so sorry, Minari!" Momo and Sana exclaim, bowing down.

"Apology accepted... if you buy me a new console. The one I had suddenly stopped working."

"Don't worry, Mina-chan. I'm already planning to buy one!" Momo pulls out her phone. "Unfortunately, the PS5 is hard to find, but luckily, I found a Nintendo Switch worth— WHAT?! ALREADY SOLD?! TELL ME WHO, YOU DUMB APP, SO I CAN TRACK THE SON OF A DOWN AND TAKE IT FROM THEIR DEAD BODY!!!"

A little giggle snapped Momo out of her rage. The three looked at the source of the sound.

It was the kitten hybrid. She was sitting up and staring at them, giggling and smiling, her smile adorable and gummy.

"You look like something out of a cartoon." The kitten says between giggles. 

"I got her to laugh, but at what cost?" Momo mumbled. At least she wasn't scared of them, anymore.

"I'm Dahyun!" The kitten, apparently named Dahyun, introduces cheerfully.

"You're so sweet," Mina coos, scratching her chin. "My name is Mina, and these two weirdos are Momo and Sana."

Dahyun does an adorable thinking pose. "Which one's which?"

"Momo's the one with grey hair and bangs, and Sana's the one with dark hair."

"Sana?" Dahyun points at... Momo. She pouts when Momo does an "X" with her fingers.

"It's alright, sweetheart. I got it wrong when I first met them, too." At least Dahyun wasn't there when Momo had no bangs. It took her months to tell them apart.

Dahyun looks at the floor. "Am I... allowed to stay?"

"Of course!" All three exclaimed.

"Really?" Dahyun asks, trying not to get her hopes up.

Mina hugs the small kitten. "I promise you, we want to take you in. After all, Momo and Sana didn't lie to their friend and hide you for no reason, right?"

When Dahyun nods, they all smile.

"Welcome to our little family, Dahyunnie."