The Cat Hides Its Claws - Chapter 93

Chapter 93: Chapter 93

Chandeul could have forgotten about it. It wasn’t like they were in the same homeroom. Myohan and the new kid probably didn’t even know him. Nevertheless, he just couldn’t stop thinking about Myohan. He was afraid of him, but for some reason, he kept thinking talking to him once would be fine.

“Oh, where’s my nametag?”

It all started when he lost his nametag. He ran into a cat with fierce eyes on his way back from the cafeteria after lunch and walked fast to leave it behind, and he ended up losing it. The pin he used to fix the nametag on his jacket had been a little loose.

‘I wish this school would get rid of nametags too, more and more schools are doing it these days.’ He thought as he slowly walked to the school store. He had gone there at least three times every day until last year.

“What are you going to do?”

He looked everywhere and couldn’t find his nametag, so he was about to give up. He really didn’t want to buy a new nametag when he had only one more year to go. Then, he heard familiar voices.

“I should return it to him.”

It was the two people he was so afraid of. They were standing in front of the school store and talking while they looked down at something in Myohan’s palm. It was Chandeul’s nametag.

“And you’ll do it yourself?”

“You want me to do it all over again?”

Myohan snorted. He put the nametag in his pocket and came up with a different solution.

“I can just give it to Sajun.”

The nametag said nothing but Chandeul’s name, but still Myohan was saying he would give it to Sajun. He knew Chandeul and Sajun were in the same homeroom.

‘Has Sajun mentioned me to them?’

Chandeul wondered.

“Why bother? Just give it to him yourself.”

“Of course not.”

Anyway, his nametag had been found, so the problem was solved. Chandeul thought so and walked away to go back to his homeroom, but what Myohan said after that made him stop.

“He’s afraid of me.”

He sounded so bitter. Anyone else would have thought he spoke dryly and unconcerned, but it sounded bitter to Chandeul.

Myohan said with a sad smile, “That cowardly piggy.”

Chandeul had thought Myohan didn’t know him. He might have heard of his name, but he was sure he didn’t know he was so afraid of him, but it turned out he had been wrong.

“You’ve lost your nametag, right?”

The next day, his nametag was returned to him by Sajun. He just said someone had found it and given it to him, but he wouldn’t say who it had been.

As Chandeul took it and put it back on his jacket, he couldn’t help thinking about what Myohan had said. How did he know how Chandeul felt about him? And what was that ‘piggy’ thing? Really, it was too complicated.

Thoughts kept coming up one after another. He ended up thinking about it for hours, and after lunch, he went to the school store and bought a pastry as he did often since last year.

“Um, hey, could you call Myohan?”

His heart pounded strangely. Only Myohan, Shihuang, and another boy who was probably the class president were there. The class president with glasses looked surprised to see Chandeul, which was strange.

“You wanted to see me?”

Myohan came out with his eyes full of sleep. Chandeul flinched when their eyes met, but then he gave him the pastry.

“Thank you for finding my nametag.”

He had many things he wanted to know. Myohan acted like he knew him, so he wondered how he would react when he got to see him. He was still afraid, but he knew Myohan wasn’t bad. Myohan looked at him and smiled softly.

“Thank you.”

Chandeul thought he would at least how he had found out, but he said nothing.

‘You can’t keep avoiding it.’

What his grandmother had said flashed in his mind.

“Hey,” So he called Myohan and said something that made no sense as he was on his way from the school store. “I’m going to the school store.”

Myohan looked at him, a little surprised. The scene felt strangely familiar, so Chandeul scratched his cheek as he continued.

“…Would you like to go with me?”

Just like that, their friendship resumed.

The cat was sitting on the bridge and looking up at the starry night sky. It was as dark as black silk and full of stars. It blinked its yellow eyes and gently moved its long tail. He looked faint, as if he was about to disappear at any moment.

“I knew you’d be here.”

Shihuang sat down next to it and looked up at where it was looking.

“Why don’t you say a word?”

But the cat wasn’t interested in the man next to him at all. It just yawned and blinked. But its eyes were too solemn for a cat’s.

“So you won’t even speak to the friend who’s taken away the whole world from you?”

“…You…”

In the end, it finally spoke. Shihuang smiled and hugged his knees. When he turned, he saw long white hair.

“You nasty fellow.”

The cat, no, the god O Shin spoke calmly. The huge moon was shining on him among scattered stars.

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

He couldn’t know since when, but his instincts had told him O Shin had been with them since the very beginning. He had known the god for a long time, and it wasn’t the kind of thing he could just forget after he became a human.

“So, now it’s all over?”

They both knew what he meant by that. The god said nothing.

“There’s still one to go.”

Myohan had demanded that the god erase all their memories. He wanted them not to remember how they had been half-animals, and O Shin wanted to sink beyond the abyss.

But his plan didn’t work, as the merciful god didn’t want his favorite cat to be lonely.

“I think what I’ve done is enough.”

The answer was simple. He didn’t even try to deny he had given back their memories. After a short silence, he went on.

“I’m not as merciful as you think.”

The god knew Shihuang thought him to be merciful. Shihuang’s eyes shined with amusement, but he moaned.

“Therefore, I couldn’t forgive all of it.”

Shihuang could understand it. What had happened to them was a past life to Myohan, but to him, it had happened in this life. As O Shin had witnessed all of it, it had to be even more vivid to him.

“Do you think this much of temper is cute?”

Destroying loving memories with the cat. The only thing that had brought them together was now gone, and there was no way Myohan would come to him first. It was harsh to those who could remember it, but it was nothing to those who couldn’t.

“Yes, it’s really cute.”

It was what O Shin had said to him a long time ago. The god remembered and smiled faintly.

“I couldn’t understand you.”

He sounded too weak, as if he was about to be scattered in the wind. For a moment, Shihuang feared he was about to leave.

“You make the same choice again even when you know you will regret it.”

O Shin wasn’t wrong. Shihuang had lived years of regret and agony before Myohan finally remembered him.

“I shouldn’t have taken him away. I should have warned him. I should have listened to the subjects more carefully. No, I shouldn’t have loved him at all.”

“That is why you thought it would be better to become a human.”

The god probably had known that. He probably thought of Shihuang as humane while he was in agony.

“I thought you and the boy were a good match.”

The god smiled bitterly as he said so. It was the last trace of feelings he couldn’t hide, but he soon got rid of all of his regrets and turned to Shihuang.

“A fool’s company is always a fool.”

“That is why you’re friends with me.”

Shihuang snorted. The god smiled sadly.

“So you’re not going to tell him?”

Myohan was probably going to let his friends recall all of it by themselves, just like he had, without knowing the god loved him so much and had bothered to help them all.

“They say the cat hides its claws.”

If it had been Shihuang, he would have felt it was a little unfair, but the god was different.

“One with talent does not show it easily.”

He smiled softly, his yellow eyes twinkling.

“I believe in beautiful endings.”

This was the right moment. He had solved everything, and Myohan had only good memories about him. The god was still bothered by wounds in his heart, but time was the only cure to it. Actually, he had stayed too long already.