“But you’re really not going to tell me right now, are you……?”
Yellian, unable to contain his curiosity and seeming genuinely eager to know, asked again. Leonard barely managed to open his reluctant mouth.
“……Can you trust me?”
“What does that mean all of a sudden?”
After a long pause, the words that came out of Leonard’s mouth were quite out of the blue.
Yellian was taken aback. Above all, he also felt the shift in the atmosphere, which played a part. With just one sentence, the mood had completely changed. Seeing Leonard’s somehow serious demeanor, Yellian could no longer act annoyed.
“Yellian, I asked if you can trust me.”
“……I do trust you. But what does that have to do with what we were talking about?”
For now, Yellian gave the answer Leonard wanted. Even so, he expressed his unresolved doubts.
“Then trust me and wait just a little longer.”
“……What on earth is going on? You’re making me anxious…….”
“Just trust me. I’m asking you.”
With Leonard speaking to this extent, Yellian could no longer argue. It was because his expression, pleading for trust, looked so desperate and heartfelt.
He liked him. So even if Leonard said something incomprehensible, Yellian had to trust him. Thinking this, Yellian held back his words.
Leonard, facing Yellian who was quietly looking at him, felt a tightness in his chest. It wasn’t that he intended to hide the truth from Yellian. He just wanted to find a solution a bit longer before telling him.
He himself had only learned today that Yellian’s body was deteriorating, and he hadn’t yet sorted out his feelings. Moreover, he felt he could only speak once he had at least tried to find a way to heal him.
“Then, can I go now?”
“Where are you planning to go?”
“To do zoomies with Gamja.”
“Ha……. Am I living with a human kid or a cat kid?”
“I’m a catfolk!”
After throwing a fit to his heart’s content, Yellian strutted off toward Gamja with his short little legs.
When he was a cat, Yellian seemed to get along especially well with Gamja, as Gamja would rub against him a lot. Watching the two play mindlessly, Yellian was nothing short of a cat through and through.
The two of them raced around the room like crazy cats with zoomies. Leonard felt his nerves fraying, but he held back because he knew if he stopped them, he’d hear Yellian’s complaints for ages.
In fact, the last time he sternly told them not to run around with zoomies, Yellian had gone on for almost thirty minutes, saying, ‘What do you expect me to do if you suppress a cat’s instincts! The room is spacious enough, so what’s wrong with running a bit! Then play hunting games with me properly! If you don’t play with me, of course I’m going to run around! What! What!’ venting his dissatisfaction.
Of course, a whining Yellian was cute too, but Leonard didn’t want to listen to grumbling for thirty minutes, so after that, he didn’t stop Yellian even if he did zoomies.
“……This is driving me crazy.”
There was one problem with Yellian and Gamja’s zoomies. That was the fact that Geumdong would join in.
While Yellian and Gamja were relatively small, so it was somewhat manageable, Geumdong was three or four times their size. When a creature like that ran around mindlessly, the household items got smashed, collapsed, and it was total chaos.
Even now, the bedside table Geumdong ambitiously jumped onto couldn’t withstand the sudden shift in weight and collapsed forward with a thud. The vase on top of it also rolled onto the floor.
Since the floor was covered with a soft rug, the vase didn’t break, but the water from the vase soaked the rug.
Leonard, feeling like watching this would only frustrate him, pretended not to see anything and left the room.
Contrary to his complaints, Leonard had been smiling, but his expression gradually hardened. It was because the veterinarian’s words started filling his mind again.
No matter what it took, he would find a way, Leonard thought as he hurriedly walked away.
* * *
Yellian, not even noticing Leonard had left, focused on zoomies for quite a while. Playing with just Gamja was fun, but when Geumdong joined in, the zoomies became even more thrilling and filled with tension.
Since Geumdong was much larger compared to Yellian and Gamja, being chased by such a creature made them run forward mindlessly without looking back.
“Haa, haa.”
After running around for a long time, Yellian’s nose turned red with excitement. Unlike a typical cat, he breathed through his mouth. Cats breathe through their mouths when they’re excited, whether in a good or bad way. Of course, in this case, it was the former.
After catching his breath for a while, Yellian flopped down on the floor. The house was a mess from the enthusiastic zoomies, but perhaps because the room was so spacious, it didn’t look as dirty as one might think despite the chaos.
“What did he mean by that?”
Having stabilized his breathing, Yellian muttered to himself, even though he knew no one was there to answer.
Leonard’s expression was unusual. It definitely seemed like something big was going on, but not knowing what it was made Yellian frustrated.
“He asked me to trust him, so I’ll trust him, but…….”
Since he liked him, Yellian wanted to listen to anything Leonard said. But still, he was curious.
Besides, if it were something good, Leonard wouldn’t have acted this way. It was clear that it was something bad, which was why he couldn’t say it right away and tried to hide it.
If that bad thing was related to himself, that would be a relief, but if something bad had happened to Leonard, that would be a problem. Yellian trusted Leonard, but separately, he thought he should make an effort to find out something on his own.
Knock, knock.
Just then, there was a knock on the door. Yellian looked at the door, widening his already round and large eyes even further.
Being in his cat form, he couldn’t respond carelessly and just stared at the door. It could be someone like Francois trying to enter the room to do something illegal.
“It’s me, Elton. Are you not there?”
“I’m here!”
Fortunately, the voice coming from beyond the door was quite familiar. As soon as he confirmed it was Elton, Yellian shouted back with all his might.
Sure enough, the door swung open quickly. As expected, the ones who appeared were Elton and Larissa.
“Where has my lord gone?”
“Yeah! He didn’t tell me where he was going, just slipped away.”
To Elton’s question, Yellian answered earnestly. At that, Larissa widened her eyes. Only then did Yellian realize he had never spoken in his cat form in front of Larissa.
“Ah, it’s fine. My lord told me, so Larissa knows as well.”
Yellian, inwardly wondering what to do and unable to continue speaking, was relieved when Elton addressed his concern first. Only then did Yellian relax and speak again.
“Leonard is acting a bit weird. He started to say something but stopped, acting like he’s carrying all the burdens of the world.”
He poured out his words, hoping that at least one of the two would know why Leonard was acting this way.
At that, Elton and Larissa’s faces turned quite serious. It seemed they, too, had sensed the gravity of the situation.
“Why do you think that is? Could it be because of that? The rumor, I mean. There’s talk going around that cats spread diseases.”
“He should already know about that…….”
“Even so, he could still be worried. Public opinion is worsening several times a day.”
At Larissa’s words, Elton nodded. Seeing this, Yellian cautiously opened his mouth.
“Is that rumor really that serious? It’s just a rumor, after all. There’s no solid evidence.”
“That’s true, but this time it’s a bit different. Usually, rumors die down over time, but this one gets something new added to it every day. And in a more sensational way.”
“……Could it be that someone is deliberately spreading these stories?”
Listening quietly to Elton’s words, Yellian cautiously asked. At that, a silence settled in the room.
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