Jaehwan wondered if he could
be as brave as the cat.

His mom, an overbearing, somewhat germophobic woman, eyed the wet ball of fur curled in his folded arms warily and gave a dark look to Jaehwan, warning him without having to say anything—This is what you're doing, so you have to take responsibility. He smiled brightly and excitedly and then his mom watched him scamper off with a concerned (annoyed) glint in her eyes.

Jaehwan knew about responsibility. Although he wasn't the only son in the family, a lot was still expected of him. Even though they lived out in the middle of nowhere, where houses were at least an acre or two apart, there was a good bit of competition between he and his brothers to see who could bring home the most. Might as well start somewhere, right?

In the restroom, Jaehwan the water to the sink, putting in the stopper to make a small, warm water bath. He grabbed a bottle of shampoo and a few towels and then when the water was just high enough, he gently set down the shivering mop of fur. There were mews and whines of protest and Jaehwan was as gentle as he possibly could be, keeping the soap out of the shiny, big watery eyes.

When he was getting the towels from the closet, the front door slammed.

Sighing contently, the brown-haired teenager settled his littlest guest into a pile of warm blankets and laid down next to it as it squirmed around, mewing and seeming to giggle the whole time—or maybe that's just what he wanted to think. Once it was comfortable, it sort of flopped down and didn't move for a little while again, when Jaehwan was bringing in something he thought it could eat—hopefully, anyway.

The next few days passed with Jaehwan rushing home from school to take care of his little friend, who would mew happily upon seeing him and they would spent a while playing together on the carpet. Sometimes, Jelli (that was what he decided to name her) would flop down, and he thought she was just playing dead for the fun of it. Most of the time they were sitting outside on the porch while Jaehwan blew bubbles for her to hop around and pop, and then they would go inside to eat.

One of his favorite times was when it was late and Jaehwan and Jelli sneaked out into the warm night to see what felt like millions of glowing fireflies everywhere. Together, they ran through the tall grass and jumped around, Jelli swiping her growing paws at the sparkling bugs while Jaehwan waved around a jar to capture a few.

They did this for what was probably hours and then the both of them tiredly but happily flopped onto the porch; Jelli was still too excited and jumped around Jaehwan, pouncing onto his chest and around his body. She occasionally knocked over the jar of fireflies and he would laugh, her head and closing his eyes. He forgot to poke holes into the jar cap.

The fireflies were dead when he woke up the next morning.

He looked around and Jelli was gone. She did this sometimes; she would disappear for a part of the day (mostly when he was in class or had a friend over) and then come back later. When he rubbed at his eyes and looked around, seeing if he could maybe find her anyway, he spotted her little creamy fur with its ashen tips sitting next to the empty road, her head turned in the direction of the main road that lead to the highway.

With a frown playing at his lips, he leaned back onto his palms and watched her. Just a few minutes later, he heard angry voices inside the house—probably in the kitchen. What was it this time? Was it him? His grades? His choice in friends? Just him?

He listened in a little more. It was just him.

His focus trained completely back on Jelli. Her tail slowly swished back and forth as she seemed to wait for something. A motor started coming near and Jaehwan saw a car drawing up the road in the distance. He watched it get bigger and bigger and his eyes flickered to Jelli who didn't make any moves. His frown grew bigger the closer the car got—until it came to pass and he saw Jelli's head turn again to watch it continue to drive down the road.

He went inside and sneaked past the kitchen, where his parents were still having their yelling match about him (always him, never his brothers or anything) and carefully shut his door, slipping his headphones on and blasting the music on full. A little while later, Jelli joined him and his mood improved a little.

So what if he was struggling in school? Grades weren't everything. He had friends who made him happy. He had Jelli. His parents wouldn't stop though.

Coming home from school again, there was no sign of Jelli, but Jaehwan didn't have to worry about finding her because after he showered and grabbed a glass of orange juice, he stepped onto the porch and looked to the side of the road—the same exact spot from the last few days—and there she was again, her head turned towards the main road.

His dad had left yesterday in a really ty mood and hadn't come home since. His mom aggressively busied herself with cleaning the house but snapped at her sons—and especially Jaehwan if he even tried breathing in her direction. If he walked away quickly enough and then hid behind the wall, he could hear her muttering under her breath Worthless child. Worthless runt of the litter.

It was coming to the point where she wasn't even cordial to his face anymore. He kept Jelli by his side pretty much all the time unless she was out by the road.

Hakyeon spit in his face the next day about some dumb rumors that were completely untrue, but not even by Hongbin's urging did he even try to clear the mess up. Hakyeon started avoiding him, and by extension, so did Wonshik and Taekwoon.

Jelli yawned widely on his chest as she rolled around. She wasn't as small as she used to be and his stomach dipped in every time she lifelessly flopped onto him, staring distantly past his room walls – in the direction of the road. She twitched with life slightly when things outside his room started being slammed around, but he just gently laid an arm across her back and she would relax slightly, her gaze never leaving the wall.

His oldest brother came in and Jaehwan lazily tilted his head to meet the piercing glare. He slowly began to Jelli's back for comfort as he watched his brother's lips form harsh words that were obviously about him and their parents. He didn't hear a single thing.

Jelli meowed and his face when the door flew closed.

The split lip was no big deal. The forming black eye was no big deal. The bruises that were going to be completely purple the next day were no big deal. Hakyeon spitting in his face—again—however, was the problem.

After they (more like just Hakyeon) ended their years-long friendship (just like that), Jaehwan thought all of that was over and done with. Was it still the rumors? Hongbin looked at him with pity as he treated his few cuts and put ice up against his cheek.

When he got home and flopped lifelessly onto his bed, Jelli joined him and wouldn't stop his cheek.

She didn't go to sit by the road that day.

The weekend came again and the fireflies were out once more but Jaehwan didn't feel like frolicking and apparently neither did Jelli. All they did was sit side by side on the porch and watch all the little flickering lights fly around. Jaehwan fell asleep there again.

As he thought, Jelli wasn't by his side when he woke up sometime in mid-afternoon. His eyes (the blackened one was just starting to heal up) immediately fell to the spot on the side of the road. He leaned forward with interest and watched her tail swish back and forth. Probably dumb as it was, he kind of figured Jelli knew he was watching her.

The familiar sound of a car started drawing near again. And he glanced down the road and watched it come. His eyes drew back to Jelli and she seemed different somehow. She was crouched, her tail swishing low to the ground and she looked like she found something to catch, but from where Jaehwan sat, he couldn't see anything. The car kept coming.

It sort of looked like she was flying, maybe (would cats ever be able to fly? That would make them more free than they ever were—no one could really tie a cat down to one place. They were elegant, self-preserving creatures and did as they pleased and what they had to survive [or maybe just be happy—could cats be happy?], being able to do those things without passing a second thought to how they might affect others.), as she leaped through the air and then landed, graceful as ever, onto the road, right in the path of the incoming car.

There were vile, cringe-inducing cracks and squelching and squeaking—but even then the car didn't stop.

Jaehwan stared. All of his injuries throbbed. A headache pounded in his head while his heart hammered against his chest.

And then, all of the pain stopped.

Jaehwan started laughing, and laughing . . . and laughing—to the point where his stomach began to feel overworked, where his lungs started to burn and it hurt to even try and breathe, when thick tears formed in his eyes and began to clog up his vision. He laughed until he fell back onto the wooden porch, clutching at his stomach while his face contorted in some way that it was impossible to tell if he was in massive pain or had never been more elated in his life.

Even he couldn't decide that at this point—but there was one thing he knew.

He had never seen anything as freeing as that in his life.