Kyungri sighs, collapses down onto the couch with an undignified noise but she’s too tired to care. Today was hell; Chanmi somehow managed to confuse the shredder with the copier… again, and they lost nearly a month’s worth of payables that are going to take at least two weeks to recover, plus the date she’d been looking forward to for weeks had ended badly when the woman had slid her hand casually up Kyungri’s skirt and asked if she wanted to come back to her place.

There’s a sound of rustling as a grey furball suddenly launches itself around the hall corner and throws itself at her stocking clad feet, batting at her toes without claws out. It’s so cute that Kyungri can’t help but smile, softly, and she leans over to pick up the cat from the floor.

Baekhee looks back at her with a slightly cocked head before Kyungri puts her down in her lap, not even caring that Baekhee is going to get cat hair all over her skirt. The cat jumps off her lap but settles down right next to Kyungri’s thigh, turning in a circle a few times before she curls up, leisurely reaching out her paw just enough that it’s resting against the side of Kyungri’s leg. She’s purring softly, and Kyungri runs her fingers over the top of her head absentmindedly, barely noticing when the cat shifts closer.

Feeling content for the first time all day, Kyungri lets her mind wander back to her date: it had started off well enough, dinner at a casual family diner by her work that had some of the best burgers in town, and they had hit it off, laughing about college experiences and telling silly jokes. Unfortunately, everything Kyungri thought had been going well turned sour when the woman’s hand ended up her thigh, creeping upward, and she’d gone in for a kiss. Kyungri had turned away, shook her head to the woman’s proposition, and quickly excused herself.

‘So much for that,’ she thinks, trying not to feel bad for herself and not really succeeding. ‘Is it so hard to ask for just wanting to hold hands or even get to know someone before I’m expected to jump into bed with them?’

Not that Kyungri would be jumping into bed with anyone anytime soon, or ever, really. She’s been self-identified aual since she was 16, and despite what everyone thinks about it, she’s never been a victim of self-loathing or despair. She’s more than comfortable in her own skin.

“It’s not me that I need to worry about being comfortable,” she mumbles to herself, scratching her short nails down the curve of Baekhee’s spine and being rewarded with louder purring.

Her dating life has never been particularly vibrant, and it’s become practically nonexistent since she’d started working at her current job straight out of college. She had spent the first year in a miserable, lonely state, and it had only been from the advice of her colleague Tao that she’d decided to get a cat.

Needless to say, it had been one of the best decisions of her life, and Baekhee is the only permanent fixture in her life almost 2 years later (besides her job, but even that can be rocky).

“You’re the only one who understand me,” she sighs, shifting on the couch so she can curl into a ball and rest her cheek lightly on the top of Baekhee’s warm, furry head, where she soon falls asleep.

--

“What do you mean you lost them?!”

Kyungri doesn’t even look up as Juyeon marches through the office, following a rather sheepish looking Yixin, who isn’t quite running away from Juyeon but might as well be.

“I didn’t lose them, they were sitting on my desk when I left last night!”

“Well they’re not there now, and they disappeared from your desk-“

“I’m sorry!”

Yixin nearly flings herself over the side of Kyungri’s desk, practically hiding under it, and Juyeon in a deep breath between her teeth that would probably have even Kyungri cringing if she hadn’t already been on the wrong end of Juyeon’s ire, multiple times, and lived to tell the tale.

“Juyeon.”

The CEO looks up at Kyungri, flush beginning to crawl down her neck as she tries to stifle her anger, and Kyungri simply hands her a stack of papers without a word.

Juyeon looks down, confused at what she’s being handed, and glances back up with a raised eyebrow.

“What are these?”

“The reports Yixin lost.”

(“I did not-!”)

Kyungri watches with fascination as Juyeon’s entire demeanour changes, as she straightens her shoulders and spine and tips her chin up, looking far more composed and dangerous than her 5’2” stature and the previous situation would warrant.

“I found the digital copies on the server,” Kyungri explains, sitting back down in her chair and kicking lightly at Yixin, who ducks back around the side of the desk and rubs at the back of her neck.

“I’m sorry, I should have thought of that.”

“It’s okay,” Juyeon says, calmly, once again back to her levelheaded self, and the look Yixin sends Kyungri once Juyeon thanks her assistant and walks back into her office is so grateful that Kyungri almost feels bad.

“I’m sorry Kyungri,” Yixin apologizes, again, and Kyungri shakes her head dismissively.

“Don’t be sorry. Just use your head, ok?”

Yixin nods, and then leans over the desk, into Kyungri’s space. She smells nice, like something floral, and the lack of distance between them would bother Kyungri if she wasn’t so used to Yixin’s inability to gauge social situations and personal bubbles.

“Can you please show me where to find those on the server?”

--

Kyungri unlocks her door, jiggling the key when it sticks like it always does, and throws her shoulder against the wood of her front door. She nearly falls into her apartment, like always, and she grumbles to herself, making a mental note to talk to the landlord about it.

She listens for the telltale pitter patter of tiny claws on her hardwood floor and frowns when there is none, kicking her shoes off by the rug and unwrapping her scarf from around her neck.

“Baekhee?” she calls, not caring that all of her friends make fun of her for calling her cat; more often than not though, Baekhee comes running, usually is already waiting by the door for her when she comes home, and the fact that she’s not makes Kyungri worried.

“Here, kitty kitty,” she tries again, walking lightly through the house and checking all of Baekhee’s favourite hiding spots, just in case she’s sleeping.

Not on top of the refrigerator, not in the windowsill, not on the fluffy heart shaped pillow, and now Kyungri is kind of freaking out. In a subtle way, of course, because Kyungri does not freak out, but she’s definitely concerned.

“Here, kitty kitty kitty,” she calls, one more time, making her way to the back of the apartment and into her bedroom, panic beginning to set in.

Oh god, what if Baekhee managed to get out, what if she ran away? What if she’s dead in the middle of the road somewhere? What if someone stole her? What if-

And as these thoughts race through Kyungri’s head, she’s completely oblivious to the lump on her bed, stirring slightly like it’s coming out of sleep.

Right up until she sits down, right on top of it.

“Ow!”

“What the -“

Kyungri throws herself off the bed like she’s been burned, not noticing the impact of her knees on the hard floor, and scrambles into the corner, back to the wall.

The lump under the covers shifts, still grumbling slightly, and the blankets fall from over its head.

Kyungri freezes, hand on the hardcover book she’d grabbed from her nightstand and prepared to throw at the lump.

Sitting on her bed, from the waist down and rubbing at their ribs, looking at Kyungri woundedly, is the most beautiful woman Kyungri has ever seen.

Dark brown hair that cascades down her back in beautiful waves in contrast to Kyungri’s ragged mop, pale, lightly freckled skin, and what seems to be eyeliner curling around her sharp eyes. Kyungri nearly gasps, but then the reality of the situation hits her, and she picks up the book her hand was on.

“Who are you?” she hisses, panic really beginning to set in now, because this stranger is in her house and her cat is still missing.

The woman blinks at her, slowly, and the her head to the side. She leans forward, stretching her arms out in front and extending and curling her fingers into the comforter, looking for all the world like she’s content and not a possible burglar in Kyungri’s house.

“Please don’t tell me you don’t recognize me. I’m hurt.”

Kyungri growls, low in , and chucks the book as hard as she can at the woman, who simply ducks, and it hits the wall across the room with a resounding and terrifying final “thump”.

The woman looks at Kyungri with hurt flashing in her dark eyes, and the look does something terrible to Kyungri’s chest.

What the .

“Tell me who you are, now, before I call the police.”

Kyungri is inching her way towards the door, shifting up onto her knees, and the woman makes a sound in her chest that is vaguely familiar.

In a flurry of movement, Kyungri pushes up onto her feet and sprints for the door, and the woman springs from the bed with an unearthly amount of grace and nearly body slams into Kyungri, pinning her to the floor, and Kyungri yelps.

“Let me go!” as fear and a certain amount of dread settle in Kyungri’s stomach, because she knows. This is it. This is how she’s going to die.

(It doesn’t hit her until later that the woman isn’t wielding a weapon, has no place to hide one even if she was, and doesn’t make a single threatening move towards her.)

“Why don’t you recognize me?” the woman’s voice is muffled where her head is buried against Kyungri’s neck, batting it with her forehead lightly, and almost sadly.

“Why would I?”

Kyungri is beyond confused now, going through the list of people she knows/knew in her head and trying to figure out who the hell this woman might be.

(Deep in her heart, she knows she’s never met this woman. She would remember a face like that.)

The woman sighs, sounding exasperated, and Kyungri makes an angry noise in .

“I’m Baekhee.”

Kyungri freezes at the name of her cat, eyes peering around wildly because, , where is her cat? And why is this strangely beautiful woman using that name?

“What did you do to my cat,” with narrowed eyes, “I swear to god if you did anything to her-“

“It’s me!” The woman says, rather forcefully, and grabs Kyungri by the shoulders, looking her straight in the eyes. If Kyungri looks carefully, she can see the shape of Baekhee’s eyes in this woman’s face, the curve of her nose looking so similar to this woman’s.

But-

“That can’t be,” Kyungri whispers, turning her head away with wide eyes. “You’re human.”

And gorgeously so, with a tiny waist and long legs on either side of Kyungri’s, perky s pressing into Kyungri’s through the thin fabric of her blouse because holy , this woman is .

The woman huffs through her nose, sounding so much like the way Baekhee sounds when she gets irritated, like when Kyungri gives her the chicken instead of the fish, or when Kyungri gets absorbed in a book and stops petting her, and Kyungri feels like she’s about to cry.

“You can’t be Baekhee,” she says again, and when she twists away from under the woman’s body, she lets her go.

“I am,” the woman says, so simply and assuredly that Kyungri sighs, deeper than she ever has before. Now that her flight or fight instincts are slowing down, because it doesn’t seem like this woman is going to hurt her, her logical brain is kicking in and assessing the situation, and it doesn’t like what it finds.

“How?”

The woman – Baekhee? – blinks again and tilts her head, sitting back on her calves and looking for all the world unnoticed of her blatant .

“How what?” and Kyungri wants to cry again.

“How are you human? You were a cat when I left this morning.”

Possible-Baekhee shrugs, long curls falling over one shoulder, and Kyungri watches the movement of the hair without realizing it.

“I don’t know. I went to sleep for my morning nap as a cat, and when I woke up, poof! I only had two legs.”

Kyungri takes in a deep breath, presses her palms to her closed eyelids, hard.

“I need coffee.”

--

Which is how Kyungri ends up sitting at her dining table with a half clothed beautiful woman – she finally managed to convince the woman to put on at least a shirt and some underwear, please – telling Kyungri that she was her cat.

The more Kyungri thinks about it, the more she realizes that stranger things have happened – like that tree man, remember? or the man who died from a papercut – but that doesn’t make the situation any easier to handle.

Baekhee, supposedly, sits across the table from her, looking very uncomfortable in her chair, and Kyungri sips at her black coffee and lets the silence grow more and more tense.

“I’m sorry,” Maybe-Baekhee suddenly says, and Kyungri looks up in confusion.

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry,” she repeats, eyes casting down at her feet tucked underneath her body, and Kyungri suddenly feels bad.

“Why?”

“You’re mad at me,” and Kyungri pauses with her cup held halfway to her lips, blinking in confusion.

“No I’m not.”

Possibly?-Baekhee is the one who blinks this time, head cocking to the side in a habit that seems unconscious and is so similar to her cat that Kyungri feels a heaviness in her chest.

“You’re not?”

Kyungri sighs, setting her cup down on the table with a ‘clink’ that seems to make the Human-Baekhee perk up.

“No. I’m just… confused,” and Baekhee nods, suddenly fascinated by the curls that bounce around her face when she does. She bats at one of them lightly, scrunching her nose when it comes back to hit her in the face, and Kyungri internally chuckles softly. It’s almost cute, how childlike Baekhee is, and-

Wait. Is she referring to her as Baekhee now? Can this really be her adorable companion, now in bipedal form?

Kyungri casts one last, desperate look around her apartment, just to see if she’s being pranked, if her cat is going to come running around the corner to greet her playfully, but there’s nothing.

“Kyungri.”

The woman looks up from where she’d been absently examining her hands to find Baekhee with her face incredibly close, breathing against Kyungri’s skin, and before Kyungri can say anything, Baekhee turns and nuzzles into her neck, warm nose dragging against Kyungri’s shoulder.

“Uhm.”

“Please don’t be sad,” Baekhee says softly, palms running warmly up and down Kyungri’s arms before settling on her shoulders, fingers clenching and unclenching in the fabric of Kyungri’s work shirt, absent and almost comforting, “I don’t like when you’re sad.”

Slowly, Kyungri reaches up to pet the top of Baekhee’s head, marveling at the softness of her hair under her fingers.

‘It feels like fur,’ Kyungri realizes, and the sound Baekhee makes in the back of when Kyungri slides her fingers down through Baekhee’s hair to rub at the bone behind Baekhee’s ear is such a warm, happy noise that Kyungri can’t help but smile, the first time all day she’s done so.

“I’m not sad,” she murmurs, still reveling at how smooth and silky Baekhee’s hair is, so absorbed in it that she doesn’t notice Baekhee shifting closer until she puts herself squarely in Kyungri’s lap, still making the rumbling happy sound in her chest.

Kyungri squeaks, pulling her hand back, and Baekhee looks up through her eyelashes with narrowed, displeased eyes.

“Why did you stop?” she asks, butting her head against Kyungri’s shoulder, softly but with purpose. “I liked that. It feels different as a human.”

‘This is so weird, I can’t believe I’m petting a strange woman sitting on my lap, still claiming to be my cat,’ but even as she thinks it, Kyungri puts her hand out, and Baekhee presses herself into it, rubbing her face into Kyungri’s palm.

Exactly like a cat.

Kyungri doesn’t know how long they sit like that, Baekhee balancing herself on Kyungri’s lap with hands on her shoulders while she pets herself on Baekhee’s hand, before Kyungri’s legs start to go numb, and she thinks that she really needs some sleep.

“Baekhee,” she says softly, the name strange on her tongue when referring to this woman and not a feline – although the way she moves and the way she speaks and the way she looks is very feline indeed, more so than any human that Kyungri has ever met – and Baekhee stops, eyes opening from where they had fallen closed in pleasure.

“Hmm?” she hums questioningly, blinking slowly, which means so much more now that Kyungri knows – possibly? – that Baekhee is actually her cat.

“I’m getting tired,” and Baekhee nods, like that makes sense to her.

“It is almost time for bed,” she announces, and then slides off Kyungri’s lap and bounds down the hallway, curls bouncing, feet so light on the floor that Kyungri can barely hear them.

Kyungri just sits in the chair for a few minutes longer before she stands, slowly, dumping the barely touched cup of coffee out and then setting the cup in the sink.

As she walks down the hallway, she stops at the curve that leads to her bedroom and looks around, one more time, just in case, before she shuts the lights in the main room off with a quiet ‘click’.

When she gets into her bedroom, her shoulders are sore and her back is beginning to cramp, like all of her aches and pains had been temporarily suspended by the events of this afternoon but are now coming to attack her all at once.

She’s not surprised to find Baekhee on the bed, curled on the right side where she’s slept every night for the past year, but Kyungri feels uncomfortable stripping in front of this woman where she never cared about doing it in front of her cat before, so she turns her back and slips the straps of her bra off.

Kyungri feels Baekhee’s gaze on her back as she pulls her work shirt over her head and off, grabbing a too big pajama shirt from her dresser and sliding it on before she pulls her skirt and stockings off. She pulls her hair out of its bun and lets it fall around her shoulders in loose waves before she finally turns back around to find Baekhee watching her, just as she thought.

She ignores it as best as she can, crawling under the covers and clicking the bedside lamp off, curling onto her side with her back to Baekhee, the way she usually sleeps.

“Goodnight, Baekhee,” also as usual, but she isn’t expecting the “goodnight, Kyungri,” that answers her, and the words send a warmth through her that has Kyungri momentarily reeling.

It’s quiet for a few minutes and Kyungri can feel herself beginning to fall towards sleep when there’s rustling beside her and she immediately snaps awake. Long fingers reaching out and lightly resting on the edge of her thigh, cautiously, and Kyungri tries to relax, still feeling Baekhee watching her.

And it’s there that Kyungri falls asleep, finally, sharing her bed with a strange, beautiful woman, and desperately missing her cat.