http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ToIP7P2oE

 

 

“I’m leaving, Myungsoo.”

Lee Sungyeol collected his stuff and put them in his bag before he walked toward the door. Myungsoo just nodded and followed him. They have prepared materials for their meeting tomorrow. After long preparations, they were ready. Myungsoo closed the door, turned around and walked to the kitchen. He made a glass of chocolate milk. He must sleep early tonight. He had to arrive at his office at 8 in the morning. It’s a problem for him since he always overslept. But no, he couldn’t do the same. Tomorrow is a big day for him.

He has finished drinking as he heard knocks at his door. Sungyeol forgets something? Myungsoo thought. He scanned over his surrounding to find any Sungyeol’s stuff. Finding nothing, he walked toward the door.

“Yah Sungyeol, do you forget some―”

He didn’t find anyone in front of his door. He furrowed eyebrows. He still got confused as he looked down at the floor. He was surprised to find a little grey cat looking at him. Whose cat is this? He thought. He bent down and the cat’s head lovingly. The cat closed its eyes in pleasure. He had no interest in cats, by the way, but he must admit that this cat is beautiful.

“How can you come here in front of my door? Where’s your owner?” Myungsoo asked the cat. The cat just looked at him, it didn’t meow. This cat is bit weird, he thought. He looked around and didn’t find anyone in the corridor. Is it his neighbor’s? Myungsoo was pretty sure his neighbors didn’t have any cats. They had dogs, fishes, and turtles. They didn’t have cats. Oh, maybe one of them started to keep a cat, he thought.

“You can come in.” he carried the cat. “I will ask my neighbors tomorrow after work. It’s too late.” He shrugged and closed the door. He put down the cat on the floor. It’s weird that it always followed him and it’s weird that he talked to it. It wouldn’t reply and understand anyways. “Are you thirsty?” he asked the cat as he went to the kitchen. He made another glass of milk. He poured the milk to a small plate and put it down on the floor. He looked at the cat. It just looked at him with its big green eyes. Myungsoo liked to stare at people and now he didn’t like the way this cat staring at him.

“You can drink the milk.” He pointed at the plate on the floor. He found the cat looking around in confusion. Myungsoo looked around and sighed. “You see my messy flat.”  He then looked at the cat again. “Don’t make my flat messier, you know? Don’t pee  anywhere. The washroom is over there.” He pointed at the washroom door. Surprisingly, the cat looked at the direction Myungsoo showing. He furrowed eyebrows. Really, he didn’t need to say this stuff to a cat.

“You can sleep everywhere you want. Drink your milk, okay?” he bent down and the cat’s head. He then walked toward his room as he felt sleepy. The cat once again just stared at him.

 

--

 

Myungsoo hurriedly went to his office without having breakfast. He gave his attention only for the meeting at 9. Thanks God the meeting was successfully held and the staff agreed to apply their design. He and his fellowmen have waited for it for a long time. They were so happy and couldn’t help but smiled widely. Sungyeol then told Myungsoo to have brunch together with him and the others to celebrate it. Sungyeol picked a fancy restaurant near their office. Since it was fancies, Myungsoo disagreed. He changed his mind after Sungyeol told him he would pay everything. Sungyeol was the happiest man on earth today.

He came home at 6. He was dead tired, but he didn’t mind. Stuff about the meeting always made him smiling along the day and he felt his tiredness gone. He the lights. He just remembered that he kept a cat from last night. Where is it? He walked around his flat and then found the cat was sleeping peacefully on the sofa. Myungsoo smirked. He thought it had been escaping from his flat, but it was impossible, right? He then remembered he had to ask his neighbors. He walked up to the door. When he opened the door, he heard some noisy sounds. His twin neighbors just came home.

“Where do you keep the key, Daeryong?”

“I forgot. Maybe in my bag. Oh, no! It’s in my pocket!”

“Oh, seriously. Where is it?”

“Hi, Hyungs.” Myungsoo interrupted the moment. The twin looked around and saw him. They smiled.

“Oh, hi, Myungsoo! It’s been a while I didn’t see you.” Jung Daeryong said cheerfully.

“I’m just busy.” Myungsoo replied and smiled a little.

“You’re always a busy guy.” Daeryong laughed. Jung Soryong beside him also laughed. Maybe if these guys don’t have different hair styles, I can’t distinguish them, Myungsoo thought.

“Ah, do you guys keep a cat now?” Myungsoo asked them. The twin plastered the same confused expression on their face.

“A cat?” Soryong blinked.

“Hey, why are you asking that, all of sudden?” Daeryong asked, blinked in confusion just like his twin brother.

“I found a cat in front of my door last night. I thought it was yours.” Myungsoo explained.

The twins shook their heads. “No, we don’t have a cat.” Soryong said.

“You know that we just have a dog, don’t you?” Daeryong laughed.

Myungsoo nodded. “So whose cat is it?”

The twins shrugged in unison. “Have you asked the others? I mean the other neighbors.” Daeryong pointed the other doors. In this floor, there were five doors, two on the right and three on the left. The twin’s flat was in the corner and Myungsoo’s beside theirs. In the left of Myungsoo’s flat was Jang Dongwoo’s. In front of the twin’s was Yoo Jia’s, and in front of Myungsoo’s was Lee Soojung’s.  Althought Myungsoo knew all his neighbors, he barely met them. All people were busy.

“Perhaps the girls have the cat.” Soryong said.

“Yeah.” Myungsoo shrugged. He didn’t know when he would ask his other neighbors. He thought he hadn’t met them for a long time and it would be hard to find a time to ask them. After talking about some stuff and after Daeryong has found the key, Myungsoo came back to his flat. He didn’t realize it before, but his flat was so clean. He was sure he left some empty pizza boxes and dirty plates on the table, and some dirty glasses in the kitchen. He hurriedly went to the kitchen and saw the plates and glasses were clean. Empty pizza boxes were in the trash can. Myungsoo looked down at the floor. The floor was also clean. He didn’t do cleaning today. He didn’t touch anything. So, who cleaned up his flat?

 

--

 

“Don’t you feel hungry?” Myungsoo asked the cat as he gave it cat food. The cat just stared at him. It had been seven days and he never found the cat eating. He has bought some cat foods for it. The cat never touched and sniffed the food. It only drank the milk Myungsoo gave every morning and evening. Myungsoo got confused. This cat is so weird, he thought. Is it sick? Friday afternoon, in lunch time, Myungsoo got home and took the cat to the doctor. The doctor said that the cat had no diseases, it was not sick. It was pretty healthy. The doctor’s words made Myungsoo confused even more. So why doesn’t it want to eat?

He carried the cat. The cat was in his embrace. He was in his way to reach his flat building. He found two guys were busy giving people a paper. They bowed and said thanks. And then Myungsoo saw one of the guys approaching him.

“Hello.” He gave Myungsoo a paper. Myungsoo took it with his right hand. Before he took a look to the paper, the guy talked. “My little sister is missing. It had been two weeks.” He said sadly. He had tiny eyes and Myungsoo thought he saw the guy’s teary eyes.

“Have you called the police?” Myungsoo asked.

“I have. But they still haven’t found her.” the guy said with shaky voice. “If you find her, I hope you call me soon.” He bowed. Myungsoo also bowed. The guy then looked at the cat in Myungsoo’s embrace. “Cute cat of yours.” He weakly smiled and the cat’s head.

Myungsoo just nodded. It was not his cat, not officially. He has asked his neighbors, especially the girls, they told him that they didn’t keep a cat. Myungsoo got curious, whose cat is this? How could it come to his door? That was the big question, wasn’t it? He came back to reality as he heard the cat meowing. He blinked in surprise. It was the first time he heard it meowing.

“Oh, cute cat.” The guy still the cat’s head lovingly. All Myungsoo could hear was the cat’s purrs.

 

--

 

Finally Myungsoo asked some people in the other floors. They said the cat wasn’t theirs. Then Myungsoo decided to make the cat his. He even gave it a name. Its name was Kimi. And when Myungsoo went to an accessories shop, he bought Kimi a bracelet as its necklace. It was a silver bracelet with some infinity symbols. The bracelet was the only one on the display window. It was a limited edition. He smiled as he found the bracelet fit Kimi well. Kimi just stared at him as usual.

Myungsoo was lying on the couch. He then lifted Kimi to his body and looked at it. “Hey, why do you always stare at me like that?” Kimi just meowed. Myungsoo smirked. After they went to the doctor, Kimi meowed like other cats always did. It was great, wasn’t it? Myungsoo was glad to find it out. He was also glad to find a friend in his home. Although Kimi never responded, of course, he always talked to it. He didn’t know why but he always thought that Kimi understood every word he said. The cat was cute and funny anyways. It always played with some papers and pens on the table and always disturbed his work. Sometimes he found some of his papers full of scratch. It was Kimi’s master piece.

“Do you want to have a staring contest with me? I bet you couldn’t win.” Myungsoo giggled. He then started to stare at Kimi. After some seconds, he found how silly his action was and he then laughed to himself. Kimi looked so cute and he couldn’t help but kissed it. Kimi meowed angrily and gave him a scratch on his nose. It then jumped off and landed on the floor.

“Ouch! Kimi, you’re such a bad kitty.” Myungsoo mumbled as he got up. He touched his bleeding nose. He then headed to the wash room and gave his nose a band aid. When he came back, he saw Kimi sitting on the sofa and played with a ball he brought days ago. Myungsoo rolled his eyes. “Look what you’ve done to me, Kimi.” The cat ignored him.

Myungsoo sighed and faced his laptop. He had some works to do. Nearly midnight, he felt sleepy and he went to sleep. In his sleep, he saw a girl with long wavy hair standing in front of his balcony door. Who is she? He never saw her before. Ah, I forgot to close the door, he thought. Wind blew into his room and made the weather colder. The girl slowly closed the door. She then glanced at Myungsoo. Myungsoo didn’t know what he was doing but he didn’t say anything. He heard footsteps and the girl was out of his sight. Where is she going? He was confused. Seconds later, the weather was not that colder. He felt a blanket wrapping his body. He felt warm and it drove him into a deep slumber.

 

--

 

Enough. This was enough. He found again some weird things in his flat. At first he always found his flat clean but he never cleaned up. He found his papers and books placed neatly on the table and he was sure he left his laptop turning on but in the morning, his laptop was turned off. And last night, he thought he forgot to close his balcony door, but why did he find it closed in the morning? He also found a blanket wrapped his body. He didn’t take a blanket from his room. So who gave him the blanket? Weird.

He told Sungyeol about this and his best friend just laughed hard.

“I’m sure you walked while you were sleeping, Myungsoo.” Sungyeol said at that time.

Myungsoo frowned. “Did not.”

“Oh, you did.” Sungyeol said. “You just didn’t realize it.” He still laughed. “So, you woke up every midnight and cleaned up your flat. You also closed your balcony door, turned off your laptop and took a blanket for you.” he tried to make everything clear.

“I slept without waking up in midnight. I woke up in the morning.” Myungsoo said stubbornly.

“You would never know except you start to put a camera.”  He patted Myungsoo’s shoulder, seconds later his expression changed. “Hey, what happened to your nose?” he pointed at Myungsoo’s nose with his chin.

“Ah.” Myungsoo touched his nose. “It’s my cat. It scratched out my nose.”

“Wow, you have a cat? Why do I never know about it?” Sungyeol blinked.

“Uh, I just got it recently.” Myungsoo replied. He remembered he never told Sungyeol about Kimi. He, Sungyeol and his fellowmen only talked about the project in the office and they never discussed it in his flat like they usually did. Everyday Myungsoo got home at evening or night, worked with some data, played a while with Kimi and then he went to sleep. He almost never had guests and no one saw Kimi, even his neighbors.

“Oh, I wanna see it!” Sungyeol said enthusiastically. Then he decided to go to Myungsoo’s flat after work. He also said to Myungsoo that he would take the cat home if it was cute.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Sungyeol.” Myungsoo said and rolled his eyes.

To their surprise, they found Myungsoo’s flat door opened. Myungsoo was frightened. Did someone just break into his flat? He hurriedly entered his flat and found everything’s okay. He just found some tools near his broken front door and his balcony door was opened. What the heck has happened? He did lock his door, all doors. And he didn’t know how his doors were opened and the tools were near the front door. Who did it? Myungsoo wandered around his flat, to see maybe there were some stuffs gone. But he found nothing. Nothing was gone. Nothing but Kimi.

 

--

 

Myungsoo has called the police. The police told him that no one came to his flat. Looking at the broken front door, there were no possibilities that someone break it from outside. And about the opened balcony door, there was no damage at the door. And if someone tried to open the door, how could it be? It couldn’t be opened from outside and Myungsoo’s flat was in 20^th floor. And how could someone come to his balcony? With a wire? The kidnapper must be a spy. The police told Myungsoo they would figure it out soon. And they also promised him they would find Kimi. Myungsoo has given them Kimi’s characteristics and it was pretty bad that he didn’t have a photo of the cat.

He still didn’t understand why Kimi got stolen. Who stole it? He was sad. He felt something wrong when Kimi was not around. He felt lonely. He often talked to Kimi and now he felt that he had no friend to talk with. He often played with Kimi and now he played by himself. Every morning he shared his chocolate milk with Kimi and now he drank the milk for himself. He missed to Kimi’s head, see it closed its eyes and hear its purrs. He missed it. He missed Kimi.

One night he stayed up and he found himself thinking about Kimi. He couldn’t concentrate to his work. He looked at his laptop blankly. His laptop screen turned black after the screensaver gone. He never touched his laptop’s screen and at the day Kimi’s gone, he left his laptop at home. He found something weird. He saw some fingerprints. He looked at them intently. He looked down at his fingers, looked at each of them. He then realized, he was sure that the fingerprints weren’t his. He nodded to himself and he decided to tell this to the police.

Sungyeol helped Myungsoo to make some papers about Kimi and gave them to everybody they met in the streets. Hope people would help them to find Kimi. They also gave the papers to people they met in their way to police station. Myungsoo was about to give some Grannies the papers as he saw a boy and a girl walking across him. He recognized the boy as the guy who gave him a paper about missing little sister about three months ago, the guy with tiny eyes. The tiny eyes guy put a hand around the girl’s shoulder and he talked happily. And the girl beside him had a long wavy hair and she looked as happy as the tiny eyes guy. Myungsoo saw that Sungyeol stopped the couple and gave them the paper. He didn’t know what Sungyeol talked to them but then he found the girl glancing at him. Sungyeol had a kind of long talk with them and then the girl took the paper from Sungyeol.

Myungsoo didn’t believe his eyes because he saw the same silver bracelet he gave to Kimi around the girl wrist. The girl looked up at him once again, stared at him for some seconds and then smiled.

 

 

Fin

August 15^th 2012