The Cat Hides Its Claws - Chapter 19

‘Shit…’

He had been so full of himself. There’s know way he knows what makes me transform, and even if he did, there’s nothing he can do about it. He thought so and didn’t run. He should have known better after looking into those clear, sharp eyes.

His school uniform, which was now too big for him, fell off. Myohan kept staring at him, and Myo Cheong, who was now in rabbit form, felt like crying. So he tried wriggling angrily, but then he heard something unexpected.

“First, let me apologize.”

The long ears flinched. Myohan put the rabbit down on one side of the bed and straightened his costume.

“I’m sorry about your ankle.”

He didn’t exactly sound enthusiastic about the apology, but it was enough to melt Myo Cheong’s anger. Myohan brushed down his cape and lifted up the rabbit with one hand. Myo Cheong didn’t try to fight. He clung onto the hand.

Myohan left the sickbay in triumph, rabbit in hand. Of course, he didn’t forget to take Myo Cheong’s uniform. He thought the rabbit would do his best to protest, but for some reason, he stayed in his hand. He rather looked to be in a daze.

“…You really.”

O Shin was standing outside the building. Myohan had gotten used to him showing up like that a long time ago. O Shin stared at the rabbit in his hand. Then he blurted out, “… Did it.”

He didn’t say what ‘that’ was. Nevertheless, Myohan knew what he meant and frowned.

“I thought this was what you wanted.”

O Shin didn’t seem to be rejoicing. He rather looked irritated, even after finding another one of the twelve zodiac animals. He strangely looked like he was blaming himself. Myohan looked straight at him, confused. He opened his mouth, but then he closed it again. Myohan didn’t know what it was about, so he just lightly bumped on his shoulder and went past.

“You must have underestimated me.”

O Shin laughed. Then he started to walk, following Myohan. Myohan continued triumphantly, “But I always keep my promise.”

He had promised to do his best. Truthfully, it wasn’t like him as even he himself didn’t know why he had made that promise, but still, he had promised. Whether it had been out of sympathy for O Shin, or Myohan’s own whim, since he gave his word, he took it as his responsibility.

O Shin stared at his back and laughed soundlessly.

“Just the same as before.”

Myohan changed out of his prince costume and waited for Myo Cheong to transform back into human form. When he arrived at the stadium again, all the plays had ended. And of course Snow White and the Lazy Prince won the most votes

“Now we have nine more to go.”

Boys kept telling Myohan how they had enjoyed his kissing scene as he took Sajun and Jagyeom to the taps. They kept asking how he had captured the rabbit, but he didn’t answer. He just felt like he shouldn’t.

“And I’m supposed to believe that?”

After Myohan finished explaining everything, Myo Cheong stomped his feet yet again. Then he crossed his arms and glared at Myohan.

“Shit, I’ve never seen anyone else turn into an animal except for me! If you want to fool me, at least put more effort into it!”

“But there are two more here, right in front of your eyes.”

“Make them transform, then.”

Myohan looked at the hose right next to him, and then to Jagyeom. Jagyeom realized what he was thinking and yelled.

“Why me?!”

“Because it’s much easier than making it snow.”

The answer came from O Shin. He grabbed the hose and Jagyeom took a step back, afraid. He knew Myohan might think twice about it, but O Shin wouldn’t hesitate to do it. Myohan sighed. He knew why Jagyeom hated it so much. Then he made up his mind and hardened his face.

“Hey, rabbit.”

“I told you, don’t call me that…”

“Do you want to turn into a rabbit in front of a crowd?”

Jagyeom turned pale, recalling what he had heard at Myohan’s home a while ago.

Myo Cheong must have felt the same as he also turned deadly white and stepped back. Myohan took a step closer to him.

“Well, it’s not like I want to do that to you.”

Shit. They could almost hear Myo Cheong cursing. Myohan put a hand on his shoulder and smiled with ease, just like O Shin. Jagyeom mouthed what he was about to say.

“Then you should help, right?”

Wow, so evil. Jagyeom muttered. Myohan had gone down to O Shin’s level already.

***

“You’re going to sleep?”

It’d been a long day. Myohan almost got beaten up by bullies, did a play, and caught the rabbit. Tiredness took over him the moment he entered his home.

Myohan didn’t say anything. O Shin, who had followed him in as if it had been his home, came. Myohan, who was lying on the sofa, felt his presence and opened his eyes. On his stomach was the kitten he had saved a while ago, fast asleep.

“What?”

O Shin didn’t say anything. Instead, he sat in front of Myohan. Myohan didn’t like the way he was looking at him, so he got up carefully so that the kitten wouldn’t fall.

“What is it about?”

He had been like that for a few hours. More exactly, ever since he saw Myo Cheong had transformed. He kept looking at Myohan, craving something. When Myohan waited for him to speak, he said nothing, and when Myohan kept staring at him, he looked away, pretending it was nothing.

As it was in Myohan’s nature to not like ambiguity, he felt like going crazy. But yet again, O Shin quietly looked at him. And then, he suddenly put a hand on Myohan’s cheek.

“O Myohan.”

His hand made Myohan feel ticklish. He carefully caressed his face and slowly asked, “What were you going to do if you had been wrong?”

Myohan narrowed his eyes, trying to guess what he meant by the question. He was now touching one of Myohan’s ears now.

“What if Myo Cheong hadn’t been the rabbit?”

The man sometimes touched Myohan liked that. He caressed him as if it was only natural. Myohan couldn’t understand it, but what he couldn’t understand even more was himself not refusing his hand.

“What if the kiss hadn’t turned him into a rabbit?”

Their eyes met, O Shin’s thirst more serious than ever.

“What would you have done?”

“I couldn’t have been wrong.”

It felt so strange. Talking while looking into each other’s eyes wasn’t awkward at all. Myohan looked down from the binding gaze.

“It was you who told me so.”

When they first met, Myohan had said, ‘I’ll help you, even I can’t trust you.’ So, what he was saying now didn’t make sense.

“And, even if it was wrong…”

Myohan just placed his trust O Shin without even realizing it. He had accepted his words and even carried them out. He had done it only because he trusted O Shin’s words to trust his own guts.

Provoking Myo Cheong, picking a fight with the bullies, kissing for the first time in his life. How had all of that been possible? O Shin had lied to him only about one thing. But how could he be so sure of it?

“I don’t give much shit to kissing.”

The experience of the moment when the soul leaves the body? Bullshit. While Myohan kissed Myo Cheong and put his tongue in, he hadn’t gotten any kind of feeling. To think about it, even Sajun had kissed him. Myohan knew himself to be quite dull, but there was no reason to take a kiss so seriously.

“Really?”

O Shin wasn’t smiling. Normally, he would have looked at Myohan and smiled, but now he was serious. His hand moved from Myohan’s ear to the back of his head. He rubbed his hair like caressing a small animal, and then he fixed his gaze on Myohan’s lips.

Myohan couldn’t know why, but he thought, O Shin was about to close his eyes, come closer, and their lips were about to meet. He slowly closed his eyes. O Shin whispered, “I guess Plato was a liar.”

It felt like a dream. O Shin tilted his head right where they could feel each other’s breath, and their breaths actually met.