Bueno (or Meow)

{1}

"- Mommy! I want to take her home!"

No way, Jungwon wants to hiss.

He has been avoiding grabby hands of noisy kids, and pets on the back and the head from random strangers, especially teenagers.

The Café waiter had closed the door, and no customer was exiting the place, and when finally someone had come in, a little girl had trapped him between her arms.

Why was he so tiny? He is long past 18 years old! Why is he a kitten instead of a cat?

"- Honey, you know what I think about cats."

"- But mommy! She is so pretty!"

She?

Jungwon was a man! He sure became a male when he transformed to a cat. Frankly, he had no way of knowing, yet he wants to believe that he did not become female, with no misogynistic sentiments involved, he liked being a man.

"- I said no."

"- But mommyyyy." The girl cries, stomping her foot on the sleek ground. Jungwon knows that it is sleek because he still remembers the way his paws were gliding dangerously above it when he was trying to _run away_ a while ago.

"- I wanna pet him, too!"

Another kid. If Jungwon could sigh, he would had sighed times uncountable since the beginning of this chaos.

He doesn't like being a cat.

"- NO!!!" The girls shrieks. She gets scolded, and Jungwon's tampons explode.

"- Soyeon!"

"- SHE'S MINE. I FOUND HER FIRST."

For Lord's Sake, he is not a 'her'.

The story is a little insane. Oh, would you believe it if he told you that he was a, in truth, a human being?

Yang Jungwon looked like a cat. Or at least, that is what he has been told all his life. And life is hard, and has been, for a reason or another, tiring, though they were in summer holidays. Maybe, it is because Jungwon hates summer, and because both his best friends were away, spending holidays with their families somewhere nice? Either way, it led Jungwon, Jungwon who does not believe in wishes and the like, to wish upon a star one evening, after taekwondo practice, to become a cat for one week. He looks like a cat, people say, so why can he not just become a cat? Cats sleep all day, get pet, they get cuddled and fed. Jungwon does not want to become an adult yet.

"- Mommyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I want TO. BRING. HER. HOME."

Right. Being a cat seemingly included being kids' favorite toy. For the most part, Jungwon stays remotely still and lets himself be held by the annoying, spoiled, brat. He wants to believe that entering the café instead of wandering outside was better of an idea.

"- Enough, put the cat down."

"- Nooooooooo. It's a kitty! It's small like me... She will grow with me, she'll be my friend."

She squeezes Jungwon further, impossibly close to her chest. It strains Jungwon's inside, and his stomach starts to ache as he finds it hard to breathe correctly.

"- Darling, this kitten is not a toy."

"- I want to show her my room! And introduce her to my other toys! We will play together!" The girl sobs. She does something like cuddling Jungwon to death and presses her cheek to the side of his face until he has to shut his left eye.

He feels like suffocating.

In the end, he hisses and scratches the girl out of instinct.

Jungwon starts running, or at least tries to, because his paws keep gliding on the floor. It slows him down, and some waiter catches him and picks him up. Jungwon does not fight back, thinking the waiter would kick him out of the place because he is causing too much commotion. However, the waiter starts petting him and cooing at how cute he looks. Jungwon is too alarmed and agitated to enjoy any kind of pet. His heart is ravaging his ribcage, and he feels like he is dying very soon.

"- You are sooooooooo adorable. How about I give you to the pet café across this street? They will be so glad to welcome a new cute animal in their family."

Jungwon bites the man's fingers, scratches his forearms, and hisses at him, squirming in all angles until the waiter drops him on the floor with pathetic pained sounds that he very much deserves.

Jungwon rushes out of the door when a new customer enters the café. The café's door has been closed because the AC was ON and the weather was suffocating outside. Jungwon had lost many opportunities to get out of the café because of his new legs and how small they were. Nevertheless, now that he was free again, he does not stop running, not until the sun is fully set, and he feels rather tired.

Jungwon starts sniffing the ground. Wait, why would he sniff the ground? He continues sniffing the ground. He smells a lot of mingled odors that he truly cannot name, apart from asphalt and grass.

He feels curious about everything, and instead of thinking rationally like a human being, he finds himself wanting to get inside everything.

A big building ahead attracts his attention, and though Jungwon has no idea which part of the city he is strutting around, he finds himself inexplicably careless. The door of the building is left ajar, and the very bright lights coming out of the room make Jungwon even more intrigued.

The sounds are scary, and though Jungwon recognizes the ear-splitting sound of balls hitting the ground and echoing through a massive area; a gymnasium. Soles clattering and squealing, balls bouncing happily all around the air. Jungwon shrinks away, ears flattening against his head, though he knows nothing will cause him harm here as long as he stays away from the center of the room.

Jungwon looks around, and feels so tiny; oh, he is very tiny. The ceiling feels infinite; it is no different from a giant's cave in a fairy tale. Jungwon walks along the wall, and no one notices him. There are only boys practicing, split into three or four teams, and Jungwon's neck hurts from looking around and twisting up.

He watches, and it smells of leather and sweat.

Jungwon is hungry. He did not get the chance to be fed in the café? Oddly, he thinks of how unfortunate it is that he got no opportunity to steal food from there, and does not feel an ounce of guilt about thinking that way. It must be because he is a cat. He simply cannot overthink anything anymore.

Jungwon smells chocolate. His favorite flavor. The scent he cannot resist at all, even in his cat form. His nose starts flaring strangely, and with big eyes, Jungwon stares at it, and with small paws, pats it gently.

Jungwon trots and slips and falls, before reaching the sweet smell of chocolate, though it is very faint. Jungwon thinks, and hopes, it is Bueno. He starts sniffing harder until he successfully reaches the source; a bag tossed on the floor, luckily unzipped. Jungwon sneaks inside and starts searching. The chocolate becomes a little more delicate to find because of all the odors that slapped Jungwon's nose and almost made him dizzy. It smells of very strong cologne, and the perfume somehow hinders any other odor.

Jungwon finds the Bueno.

But it is also right at this moment that the bag is zipped closed again.