TL/Editor: looloo
Status: ongoing
Illustrations: posted in discord
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Thursday.
As planned earlier, it was the day to take Sarang to the cat cafe. Because of this, Sarang had been making a fuss since early in the morning.
"Daddy! I want to see the kitties! We said we’d see them today!"
"Sarang, the kitties are still sleeping. Is it okay to wake them up when they're sleeping?"
"No... When do the kitties wake up?"
"After Sarang eats her al and brushes her teeth well, Daddy will wake the kitties up."
"Okay! Sarang will eat! I'll eat my al!"
It was just before noon, and Sarang was chanting for the kitties. Honestly, I could have left a bit earlier, but Heena, tired, was enjoying a rare late sleep. So, I was keeping Sarang entertained while waiting.
Sarang had been talking about kitties all week.
On Monday, when I dropped her off at daycare, she told the teacher:
"Sarang is going! With Daddy and Mommy! To see the kitties!"
"Oh, really? That sounds fun."
"Teacher, have you ever seen kitties?"
"It's been a long ti since I last saw them. Sarang, tell all about it when you see them, okay?"
"Yes!"
"Please take good care of our Sarang today..."
She boasted to everyone she t that she was going to see the kitties with Daddy and Mommy.
At ho, she would ask:
"Daddy, Daddy!"
"Yes?"
"How many nights until we go see the kitties?"
"Three nights."
"I want to see them soon... Sarang wants to sleep three tis now!"
"Sarang, you know it's three nights, not three naps, right?"
Every night, she asked how many more nights until she could see the kitties. It was enough to wear my ears out.
Watching her, I felt a bit guilty for not taking her sooner, knowing how much she loved cats.
-Click
"Sorry... I woke up so late..."
Reflecting a bit on the past days, I was feeding Sarang lunch when Heena ca out of the bedroom, rubbing her eyes. It had been a long ti since I saw Heena sleeping in and looking so disheveled.
It seed like working for a big company was both tiring and busy. It wasn’t easy to see her like this.
"Mommy! You slept like a kitty too!"
"That's right. Now that Mommy's awake, the kitties must be awake too. Sarang has to eat well to go see the kitties, right?"
"Yes! Sarang is eating well!"
"Good girl. That's our Sarang."
As she patted Sarang's head, who was busily eating, I greeted Heena for both breakfast and lunch.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Yes. How's Sarang? She really wanted to see the kitties. Was she okay?"
"Of course. The kitties are still sleeping, right?"
"...Oh, that's right. The kitties must have just woken up and are having their breakfast."
Heena said loudly for Sarang to hear, following my lead. Then she winked at and went into the bathroom.
"Munch munch... the kitties are sleepyheads..."
Sorry for the slander, kitties.
Now that Heena was awake, it was ti for to start getting ready to leave.
After a simple lunch, we went out to the city center on a weekday for the first ti in a long while. Since Heena started working, it had been hard to find ti like this outside of weekends.
With the perfect spring weather, we decided against wearing our usual matching cardigans to avoid getting cat fur on them. Instead, we wore light blue jeans, white sweatshirts, and black snapbacks on our heads.
Although snapbacks were not a type of hat we wore often these days, they made it easy for us to match as a couple, so we wore them quite frequently.
We wanted to dress Sarang in the sa look as us, but today she insisted on wearing clothes with cat characters. So, we dressed her in light blue jeans, a beige sweatshirt with cat patterns, and a black hat.
Though it was a bit disappointing, it still looked like a pretty decent family look.
Perfectly ready, we headed straight to the cat cafe we had found earlier.
"Kitties~ kitties~"
"Do you like it that much, Sarang?"
"Yes!"
Although Sarang could walk and run well by herself now, I carried her because she was so excited and might fall.
When I carried her, she was at least a bit calr.
"Honey! Isn't that big cat costu advertising the cafe we're going to?"
"Huh? It looks like it. The location seems right."
As we were nearing the cat cafe, we saw a giant cat costu holding a sign, promoting the cafe. The costu was a striped tabby cat.
Sarang noticed the big cat too, and she got even more excited, slapping my shoulders with her arms.
"Daddy! Big kitty! Big kitty!!"
"Sarang, shall we take a picture with the big kitty?"
"Yes! Sarang wants a picture! Let's go, Daddy!!"
"Alright, alright."
I approached the big cat costu and put Sarang down. The cat mascot, noticing us coming, bent down and waved as soon as Sarang's feet touched the ground.
Sarang placed her hands on her belly and bowed at a 90-degree angle.
"Hello, kitty!"
-Bow
When a child greeted like that, adults tended to respond the sa way. The cat mascot returned the bow just like my sister-in-law did last ti.
"Daddy! Mommy! The kitty greeted Sarang!!"
"Hehe, Sarang must be happy~ Do you want to ask if we can take a picture together?"
"Yes! Excuse ! Can we take a picture with Sarang?"
At Sarang's cute request, the cat mascot nodded affirmatively.
The bustling street was relatively quiet compared to the weekends, being a weekday afternoon. Sarang bowing and shyly standing in front of the mascot drew so attention.
So passersby smiled and comnted on how cute she was, which I overheard. It wasn’t just because she was our child; objectively, Sarang was indeed very cute.
Sarang mostly took after Heena in appearance, with features resembling her. Her gentle, cute deanor was enhanced by my signature smiling face.
Honestly, with Heena's looks, Sarang couldn’t help but be pretty.
Sarang, stealing the attention of passersby with her adorable face, made a V-sign in front of the big cat costu. The mascot matched her pose, squatting down for a better picture.
"One, two, three! Sarang, say cheese~"
"Cheese!"
-Click! Click! Click!
"Thank you. Have a good day~"
"Goodbye, big kitty! See you again!"
After taking several photos, Heena and I took turns taking more pictures with Sarang. Then, Sarang hugged the mascot once more and said goodbye.
Today, instead of this mascot, we were going to show Sarang real cats to her heart's content.
After leaving the cat mascot and walking a bit more, we soon reached our destination. Going up to the second floor of the building, we saw the entrance to the cutely decorated cat cafe.
What surprised us was that we didn’t check the opening hours, assuming it would be open around this ti. We found out that we had arrived just 30 minutes after the cafe opened.
If Heena hadn't slept in, we probably would have arrived too early and wandered around for an hour or two.
-Ding!
"Welco~ Please read the notice before entering!"
-ow! ow!
As expected of a cat cafe, as soon as we opened the door, we heard cat ows from all around. Following the staff's instruction, I looked ahead and saw a square notice on the shoe rack.
It wasn't anything special, just a reminder not to forcefully grab the cats and to be cautious of the aggressive ones.
"There are kitties!! Mommy! So many kitties!"
"Do you like all the kitties?"
"Yes! Wow... Ah! Look! There's a spotted one and a white one! Just like at our house!"
"They must be friends with Spotted and White~ Sarang, give your feet~"
Heena sat Sarang down to take off her shoes, while I went ahead and paid for our entry, which included three drinks.
I also received two blankets for Heena and Sarang, put on slippers, and we all headed inside. Since it was just after opening, we were the only custors.
We took a seat at a spacious table, and I gave Sarang so instructions.
"Sarang, do you see the kitties sleeping over there?"
"They're sleeping soundly!"
"Since so kitties are still sleeping soundly, we need to be quiet here, okay?"
"Yes! Yes... Sarang will be quiet."
"And if you touch them too hard, the kitties might get scared. You have to touch them gently."
"Okay."
One of Sarang's strengths was her enthusiastic responses, though I wasn't sure how long the quiet would last. For now, she was just looking at the cats, wiggling in her seat.
She had seen cats while walking around before, but it was rare for her to get this close to touch them. So, she hesitated to approach.
"Mommy! The spotted kitty is looking at Sarang!"
"Maybe it wants to be friends with Sarang."
"Sarang wants to be friends with the spotted kitty too..."
"Hehe... Honey, take a picture of Sarang."
"I'm always ready."
It was the perfect chance to capture Sarang's fascination with the cats. Many people asked for photos or videos of Sarang, so whenever we went out, I aid to take at least a thousand pictures.
While Sarang was engrossed in watching the cats and Heena and I were busy taking photos of her, the drinks we ordered arrived.
"Enjoy your drinks~"
"Thank you. By the way, is there a calm cat around? Our child really wants to pet one..."
"Oh, sure! Please wait a mont."
The kind staff mber went to the cat tower and soon returned with a fluffy, slightly chubby cat.
She placed the cat next to Sarang and gave a brief explanation.
"This is Happy. She's the calst and gentlest cat in our cafe. As long as you don't bother her too much or touch her roughly, she won't move."
"She's big! Daddy! The kitty's fur is so fluffy!"
"Shh, Sarang. You'll scare the kitty."
"Oh! Sorry, kitty... Can Sarang pet you?"
"If you gently stroke her and say 'good kitty~', like this on her neck and back~"
The staff mber demonstrated by gently stroking the cat's back. Sarang followed, carefully placing her small hand on the cat.
I recorded the historic mont on video.
"Good kitty~ Kitty is good... Hehe! Daddy! Sarang is petting the kitty!"
"You're doing great~ Is the kitty pretty, Sarang?"
"Very pretty! Kitty, what's your na?"
"Her na is Happy. Try calling her Happy."
"Happy~ But Happy seems sleepy. She's not moving at all!"
Despite saying that, Sarang didn't stop petting the cat. Seeing her look so happy while petting the cat was, well.
I wanted to pet the cat too. Honestly, ever since I walked in. But taking care of Sarang was more important, and if I got too engrossed in the cats, Heena might get upset. So I tried my best to hide my desire.
But Heena, as if she knew everything, spoke up without stopping the filming.
"Honey."
"Yes?"
"You want to pet the cat, don’t you?"
"......"
Was it that obvious?
Author’s Note:
Calm down. It’s not ti for the second child! Calm down!!
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