Chaeyoung sighed, before bringing her hands up to adjust her hat, pulling the strings tighter to avoid annoying droplets falling into her face. Her waterproof coat was enough to keep her dry without needing an umbrella, which is lying inside her bags, next to the packed lunch. The drizzling weather didn’t bother her as much as the fact that it would be hard to find a dry place to have lunch. Maybe she should have stayed home. But again, the purpose of this trip was to get away from that haunted place.

Wanting to stray away from the familiarly daunting scene, she had chosen to venture to the shabbier part of the town. Her house was not in the rich part, but it could not compete with the houses here for the most run-down prize. The house here could be originally painted with different colors, but the common theme was sad gray from the faded paint. Some windows were just one push away from falling off their hinges, barely kept together by a wooden plank. She didn’t know how far she had walked, but it couldn’t be that far from her place. It was just around an hour away and she couldn’t help but be grateful for not living in this area. Or maybe she didn’t deserve to live in the first place. She shook her head, trying to throw the thought away.

Even the road here was in terrible shape. Half of the concrete surface was broken, replaced by dirt, and the other half was full of potholes, where tiny puddles started to form. Chaeyoung had to pay extra attention on where to put her feet to avoid falling face first to the ground. She was clumsy enough on even ground.

She followed that road to the end of that area, where the houses were scattered and further away from each other. There were big trees with large canopies and could provide a space where she could eat her lunch without getting it wet. Thankfully there wasn’t any thunder and lightning in this season, or she could have been struck dead under the trees. While debating if she should get back home early to avoid actually having to wade through this road if the rain got harder, something caught her attention, a movement. It was a cage in front of what seemed like an abandoned house. And it wasn’t empty.

Without thinking her action through, she crossed the road, stepping nearer to the cage to take a better look. The creature inside flickered its tail and a pair of dark eyes staring straight at her. Startled, Chaeyoung stumbled on her feet when she tried to step back and fell flat on her . The creature hissed at her. A cat. No, a hybrid. There shouldn’t be a hybrid in this area. Hybrids were commonly found in richer part of town, where people were wealthy enough to afford these expensive pets. These hybrids were normally fought over and pampered, which clearly wasn’t the case for this one. She looked around, at the patched doors, and the mortar that was peeling off, revealing red bricks. This hybrid shouldn’t be here.

She stood up again, bringing her clean hand up to wipe away the droplets that were trickling down her face to look better inside the cage. The hybrid retreated further inside the tight cage, back arching. A pair of black ears flattened on her head – Chaeyoung figured it was a she, based on the telling curves of her body – and long tail bristled, or the part that wasn’t covered in mud. There was a big lock preventing the feline from running out and attacking Chaeyoung, but that was also the problem. She looked around to find someone, but the road was empty at this time of the day, and the house behind the cage was clearly abandoned.

Maybe the hybrid owner was around here and Chaeyoung did not want to get into trouble. The hybrids were considered people’s property and she did not want to be accused of tampering with someone’s property, even though the owner was doing a terrible job of keeping it right.

“Hey there, are you okay?” She asked cautiously. De