The sky turned from bright blue to dark gray in a matter of minutes and the rain began to pour. For Thomas, this was a melancholic day for him. Everything's falling apart and too broken to fix.
His relationship to Beli Lapran collapsed after he was verbally cursed by Kyu. Unrestrained emotions and unfiltered mouth caused Beli to leave him and made Beli raise her voice against him. He felt awful and is aware of what he has done. Thomas pulled something out of his jacket pocket – Beli's last gift before the curse.
Thomas does not personally blame himself for what happened; it was Kyu and that damn HunieBee. He originally wanted to date a girlfriend and have a meaningful relationship with the "perfect one". Kyu met Thomas at the Bar & Lounge and she provided him a cell phone, the HunieBee, which tracks multiple women on the radar as potential candidates, and it highly encourages the "owner" to be with multiple women.
For Kyu, this was an ordinary task to "help" guys get girls, have a one-night encounter, and become the first human being to have sex with multiple women in a very short amount of time. For Thomas, he only wanted to find one woman to be with and expected for Kyu to provide one perfect girlfriend, not seven. He speculated that Kyu was doing this on purpose as a gamble for "unknown parties".
What made Thomas different from Kyu's other clients was that he despises deception from a woman's personality or hidden intentions. Since the encounter at the Bar & Lounge, he despised Kyu and threw away the HunieBee. He broke communications with her and prefers to go dating on his own. Unfortunately, the curse took effect, and his heart became cold.
Thomas took a stroll in the Hiking Trails, but began to rush as the weather was not on his favor. He heard a bell ringing and noises from some bushes behind him. He turned around and saw nothing out of the ordinary. He did feel someone is following him, but didn't had the time to investigate.
Thomas decides to buy a bag of goldfish for Audrey. Audrey wants to have an aquarium at her home and most of the items were already purchased by Thomas. She would be really happy if Thomas brought her the last item. He went to the pet store and brought the bag of goldfish. As he left the store, he notice that there were a good amount of stray cats hanging around near the pet store. There are usually one or two cats, but today is different or rather odd.
The number of stray cats has exponentially jumped to around fifteen. This reason is unknown but for Thomas, he has to run away from the stray cats as they seek the bag of goldfish as its source of food. In a sudden shift, he began to sprint away from the cats and the cats were in pursuit. The longer Thomas sprints, the more likely the bag of goldfish would slip away from his clenched, left hand. Unfortunately, the light rain is not helping Thomas and favors toward the cats. The bag of goldfish fell from his left hand and Thomas did not initially noticed that this happens. In a matter of seconds, Thomas finally notice that the bag of goldfish was no longer in his possession.
"Damn it!" Thomas yelled to himself. He ran back and was shocked to see someone in his vision. It was a humanoid figure who has black cat ears with gray-white fur and a black tail coming out near her backside with a navy blue bow attached to the tip of her tail. The figure has short, auburn hair, golden colored eyes, and a narrow pupil.
Is this person a cosplayer? A person who wears like a cat? Or a "hybrid" he wonders in his conscience.
What made Thomas a bit more shocked was the attire she is wearing. She has a black collar with a golden bell on her neck and wears a short, navy-blue kimono that has white flowers as part of its design.
"Ummm, excuse me?" the humanoid figure said to him in a high-pitched tune. "Did you drop these fishies here?" "If you don't want them, can I have them?"
Thomas began to hesitate and posture himself to keep the situation under control.
"Are you going to eat them?" Thomas asked back to the figure.
The figure immediately answers back.
"Nooo, silly. You don't eat pets. I'll take good care of them so can I have them?"
The figure expected a positive answer from this young man and hopes that the young man would say yes. This prediction would soon turn to false.
Thomas felt a lie from this "humanoid cat". If this "cat" proclaims that she'll treat his goldfishes like pets, then she is mistaken. Cats have a "natural" reaction to catching fish and for her to become some bastion for the goldfishes is pure foolishness. Besides, this person is mentally unstable, and Thomas became paranormally tense.
In his mind, he correlates the connection between cats and fishes and made the obvious conclusion that this "cat" would eat the goldfishes he brought. He would not let her take his bag of goldfish for her selfish needs, especially when he paid it out of pocket. Either way, why would she take something that is not hers to begin with.
"No way, give those back!" Thomas said with a condescending tone, asserting himself against her innocent appeal.
This took her by complete surprise. Any individual would fall for this type of emotion, but not for Thomas. He believes in complete transparency and despise lies from anyone who tries to deceive him. His strongest principles are also his flaws. The flaws on his character are stubbornness, short temper, and his unwillingness to listen to what the recipient has to say, even when he or she is telling the truth.
What surprised him was how the "humanoid cat" did not take his answer as if his response was passive or didn't have an effect on her. She continued to insist on Thomas to allow her to take the bag of goldfish.
"Awwwww! But, but pleeeeease?" she begs.
Her reaction did not calm the tense situation. Thomas was about to use force to take his bag of goldfish away from her gripped, right hand. He was on the verge of losing his cool and was about to enforce his next action until he heard a loud noise.
It was someone's stomach rumbling on hunger. It is not from Thomas, but from the "humanoid cat". She is terribly hungry, and her body is very slim.
He cooled himself and said: "Knock yourself out."
Admittedly, this is the best solution for both parties. Giving her the bag of goldfish would calm himself and hope that she would leave him alone. Even though he hates to give away the bag, it'll calm the situation down.
In the back of his mind, however, she is lying to him about taking his goldfishes as pets. If she had told him that the goldfishes would have been "cat food", he would appreciate her honesty and he might allow her to freely take it, without question.
"Yeessss! Thank you! I'll love them forever and ever!" she said in a glee of joy.
With the bag of goldfish issue out of the way, he is curious yet unsettled about her physical attributes. She wears plain white socks and brown flip-flop sandals as basic protection from the shivering wind and the light rain for her feet. Why would she wear those basic clothing concerns him a little, but this was the least of his worries. Her tail and two furry ears look authentic and are not something made from other materials for cosplay purposes and the most bothersome thing for Thomas was how short her blue kimono is.
The attire barely covers her thighs, exposing her silky, thin legs to the public. Heaven forbid if she wore the very short kimono in an attempt to seduce Thomas and that thought made him cringe. He erased that thought from his mind and proceeded to ask a question.
"Is that a tail coming out of your backside?" he asks.
The "humanoid cat" immediately answers with excitement. "Mmmhmmm! It is! I have these furry ears too."
For the "cat", no individuals would ask her about anything, only animosity and sees Thomas as an opportunity to be with him.
Without thought, Thomas began to ask another question.
"So, you are like a cosplayer or something?"
For some odd reason, Thomas's question offends her.
"Cos…? Play…? I don't think so…" I'm Momo! I'm a kitty! Hehehehehe!"
Her giggles were high pitched and annoyed Thomas a little due to her squeaky voice, but her answer is most shocking to him.
She proclaims herself as a kitty, not a human being? Thomas tries to configure logic, but there is no conclusion. Why would this "Momo" say that she is a "kitty", not a cosplayer or a normal human being just wearing a costume for who knows why.
If she was a cosplayer, then his logic fits the mystery puzzle on who she is. For her to say herself as a kitty is beyond insanity, hell, even the fundamentals of rationality. The only plausible theory he can think of is that she might have a personality disorder or an identity crisis, hoping that this is the case but simultaneously, he has a feeling that there is something more than meets the eye.
There was a prolong pause between Momo and Thomas mainly because he was trying to figure out on who she is. For Momo, this is another opportunity to garner empathy from Thomas.
"Buuut...well…I don't have a master…I don't like being a stray kitty…it's no fun…" Momo sympathetically answered as her voice cracked.
He quickly noticed her facial expression. It was sadness. Her lips are shaped like a series of hills colliding together and her eyes were starting to shred drips of tears. Was this deception or pure innocence? He usually can detect deception in a matter of seconds, but this moment is something he has a hard time figuring out.
Every time Momo replies, it is more troublesome by every sentence. Stray kitty? Master? What the hell is this? Was Momo a homeless person? If she was homeless, he should feel sorry for her but his heart and mind said otherwise. A master? It is certain that Momo wants to be his servant and have a place to settle in. He certainly won't let Momo get to him.
"Sorry to hear that…" Thomas spoke to Momo to break the awkward silence.
"Mmmhmm…it's really cold and scary at night…" Momo said quietly in a sadden voice.
Thomas was right all along. This was an attempt from Momo to get him to feel sympathetic and what made him angrier was that he fell for it. Or so he originally thought it was. Momo's responses were true, but Thomas's stubbornness already clouded his mind.
Momo cannot read certain facial expressions and always assumes that the person she speaks to is usually happy and eager to help her. Thomas shakes his head and decides to walk away from this ordeal, letting her keep the bag of goldfish and take a glass of whiskey to clear his mind of this encounter. This must be a weird dream.
"Wait!" Momo spoke loudly.
"I just got a idea! You can be my master! You're super duper nice! You'll take good care of me. Yeah?"
In Momo's point of view, Thomas is the only person who she can interact with and "gave" the bag of goldfish. She scents something inside of his heart, hoping that he will take her away from being a "stray kitty".
He turned around and gave an immediate answer.
"No" Thomas said to Momo, shattering her fragile heart.
An intense sentiment of sadness started to build pressure on her chest. He already disliked Momo because she "refuse" give the bag of goldfish but had to concede it to ease tension and now detest her for acting like a damn cat. In the last pitiful attempt, she tries to pull sympathy from him.
"Pleeeeeease? Mmmmmm…" Momo painfully squeaks.
He won't tolerate this anymore and will have to take a stand on it.
"Leave me alone and have a good day" he firmly said to Momo, walking away from her and entering through the translucent fog.
Ten minutes later, Thomas finally reaches his small, luxurious home. After he closed the front door, he immediately went straight for whiskey and pour himself a glass to calm himself. He was about to consume the glass of whiskey but had noted that his clothes were moist.
He was soaking wet by standing in the light rain and talking to the "cat girl", Momo. The image of her made him quiver because of her demeanor behavior. Thomas took out a bathing towel to dry himself and he put his clothes on the laundry basket. He stares at his large fish tank as many fishes freely roam. The encounter made him sleepy, and the glass of whiskey is the perfect pill to make him pass out. He went to his bedroom, laid on his bed, took a sip of whiskey, and closed his eyes. What Thomas hadn't noticed was that Momo followed him to his house.