Chapter Text
In the village of Hoguryeo lived a woman beautiful as can be, with hair spun of gold and honey. She was sought after by many men who desired to have her hand in marriage and they tirelessly pursued her, lavishing her with gifts and praises.
Tired of suitors who only craved her for her unmatched beauty without caring to get to know her, the woman devised a curious plan to fend them off: if someone was able to befriend her honey-coloured cat and take the key hanging on a collar around its neck, they would be married without delay...
or so Lisa had heard when she first moved to the little mountain village tucked away from the rest of the world.
To her knowledge, the cat hadn't yet been caught, but in the two weeks since Lisa's arrival, she had heard plenty about the feline's daring escapades from the village gossip at her workplace and on the streets. It seemed to be a popular topic to spark up conversation when the chit-chat was in danger of dying out in between the old women haggling at the marketplace.
Apparently, the cat taunted the men that chased after it with nets and traps, effortlessly eluding all their best attempts to capture it. The cat seemed unnaturally clever.
It wouldn't be the first time that many a young man ended up with a sprained heel or a broken arm after the cat had mischievously tricked them to walk into their own traps.
Many people complained about this mysterious cat and how it was costing them strong able-bodied lads who were more interested in chasing a cat to win the hand of a girl than working with the flocks or in the fields.
"The shaman should drive it out of the village," some said, "it's been only trouble since that girl hung a key on its neck and set it loose on us. That's not a normal cat."
"It's just bad luck. I don't want my son to get mixed up with that girl for sure. Did you know that her parents left her on the doorstep of old Hanna? I'm telling you, bad luck since the start," said others, nodding their heads.
Lisa heard it all but never engaged in the discussion as she quietly loaded the supplies on her cart and plodded out of the square with her market wares.
Despite Hoguryeo being small enough to traverse in a day, Lisa had as yet to meet either cat or its mysterious owner.
>
Lisa stopped at the flour mill, because the bakery where she worked at had their order of flour and grain to pick up.
Lisa grunted as she loaded up the sacks, sweat trickling down her temple and making her bangs stick to her forehead. It was a glorious summer day and she was parched already.
"All set, Lisa?" said the miller's son, Jungkook. His apron and hands were dusted white with flour.
"That should be all, thanks. Jisoo said to tell your dad thanks for the millet from last week."
"Ay, I'll tell him."
Jungkook was a brawny lad with a roguish smile and rugged looks that attracted the attention of every girl in the village. However, he had no interest for them, not since the cat chase had begun. Lisa heard it had been three years already since wedding bells rang out in the village.
Judging from all the drunken grumbling and muttering Lisa had caught whenever she passed by the tavern, tempers were soaring as patience ran thin. She had already witnessed two brawls break out as inebriated drunkards declared their superiority and decided to duke it out to back their claim.
Jungkook was one of the fools who joined the fray soon after and the next day, he greeted Lisa with a nasty bruised eye when she rolled up in her cart.
"Whoa Kook. I thought you were one of the top brawlers in these parts?"
"Don't even start," he grimaced, "I've been avoiding the old man all morning, I don't need another row. No sir!"
Lisa held up her hands, doing her utmost to contain her smile. "Can I just say, the colour really suits you, it goes well with your uh...apron. Did you even put some meat on it at all?"
Jungkook snorted but grudgingly allowed Lisa to tend to him with her emergency poultice kit as he complained about how his timing was off because the tavern was so cramped he had no space to swing his arm.
"What men do for love, eh? You have no idea what we'd go through for the likes of you, Lisa. Our devotion knows no bounds, yet, all you do is laugh in our faces," he had lamented.
Lisa paid him for the grain, silently thanking her lucky stars that Jungkook was way too besotted with someone out of his league to notice that she didn't show the slightest interest in him. He was probably one of the handful of people that talked to her without any condescension.
Hoguryeo's inhabitants didn't seem to take too kindly to strangers so any scrap of friendliness that came her way, Lisa lapped it up gratefully. Jungkook was one of these people and so, Lisa tried to be more understanding of his plight, wishing she could help him.
In the end, Lisa merely shook her head pityingly and left. She picked up the handles of the cart and started her trek back down the slope.
Lisa didn't know much about love, but she knew that love wasn't about the declarations and the relentless chasing, the selfish expectations and the possessive demands for the other person to love them.
She didn't know much about love, but she knew it would take more than that, to the point of destroying all that you cherish if you're not careful, because love burned like a hungry fire that consumed you whole.
The well of bitterness threatened to overflow whenever her thoughts strayed dangerously to the past, making Lisa shake her head and snap out of her thoughts. The past needed to stay in the past if she was going to try and move forward, and thinking of foolish notions like feelings and the lengths one would go to prove their love just wasn't going to help.
"Oi, Lisa!" Jungkook called after her now. "You didn't happen to see that dratted cat around these parts, did ya?"
"I haven't even met it yet. It hides well."
"Sure does! Well, you keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you do," Jungkook said loftily. "Jimin and Chanyeol have teamed up and are trying to get the key together."
"The carpenter's nephew and the councilman's son, right?" Lisa asked, still getting used to the names.
"Ay. Getting all buddy buddy now, they said we gotta band together to get it, but I don't trust'em. I mean, what they gonna do if they do get the key? Share the girl? No sir!" Jungkook scoffed. He tossed his head. "They've been lurking around these parts an awful lot lately, I keep me bow around at all times now. Can't have them taking the cat on my own turf. No sir!"
"I'll chase it away if I see it around here," Lisa offered then paused, pity surfacing again when she saw him nod dejectedly, mighty shoulders hanging. "You know Jungkook, maybe chasing the cat isn't..."
But he had already stalked back into the mill to brood. Lisa shrugged and with a grunt, dragged her cart behind her as she headed towards Snowdrop, the bakery owned by Jisoo and Jennie.
>
Just before she turned the bend to reach her destination, she was stopped by none other than Jimin and Chanyeol themselves, accompanied by half a dozen disgruntled men armed with nets, cages, rope, picks and pitchforks.
"You there!" Chanyeol barked, puffing out his chest as he strode towards Lisa. "Have you seen the cat?"
He was taller than even Jungkook, solidly built with a distinct jawline, and an authoritative voice on village matters since his father sat on the council, therefore he was forever prancing around like a colt and puffing his chest importantly whenever a girl walked by. Most of the village seemed to agree that if anybody got the girl, it would be Chanyeol—he had the looks and the power to sweep any girl off her feet.
Any girl but a honey-haired one apparently, and it seemed to infuriate him a great deal, making him more determined than ever to win her.
He had a strong contender in Jimin, who made up for his short stature with his charm and manners—the elders were all atwitter whenever Jimin walked into their midst. He took their bags and escorted them here and there on his arm as they clucked and blushed, praising him to high heavens and saying what a good match he is, too good even for 'that girl, and he would just smile.
Lisa was always left with an uncanny sense of unease whenever she spied that smile of his. Something was unsettling about it, like when a snake slithers towards its unknowing prey before it snatches it up in its jaws. From what Lisa observed, Jimin seemed to be more in it for the thrill of the chase than anything—Lisa had seen him flirt with girls at the market and leave with two on his arms from the tavern late at night so he wasn't wanting for company.
Yet day in, day out, he was one of the dedicated few who tirelessly chased the cat.
Why Jimin and Chanyeol teamed up, or even how, was a mystery to Lisa. But desperate times did call for desperate measures, as they say, and the village was nearly into its third year of these shenanigans.
"Are you deaf?" Chanyeol barked. "Or just dumb?"
"No sir, I haven't seen any cat," Lisa answered demurely.
"Well you make sure to keep your eyes peeled and report any sighting immediately," Chanyeol ordered, jabbing a finger in her face. "Understood?"
"Yes sir."
"Are you quite sure you haven't seen it at all?" Jimin asked lightly, blasting Lisa with his smile. "We heard it seems to frequent these parts. Surely, you must have seen—"
"No. I'm quite sure. I haven't even seen it in the two weeks I've been here. Maybe it left?" Lisa shrugged.
Jimin's smile didn't fade and it was starting to unnerve Lisa. She wondered if his cheeks ever hurt.
"Maybe," Jimin said. "Well, thank you for your help and keep your eyes open, like Chanyeol said. Have a good day now."
She could still feel all their eyes pinned on her as she slowly pulled the creaking cart along the road but Lisa didn't look back, not until she had turned the corner. She paused, straining to hear their voices, then dropped the handles and peeked back around the wall, exhaling in relief when she realised the party had left.
"Nobody's safe from them. Bunch of brainless thugs," Lisa mumbled to herself.
Sudden movement from her cart made her stiffen, thinking she had imagined—but there! The cover blanketing the sacks shifted, pushing up in places as whatever was underneath moved about.
Lisa approached warily, wondering if this was the day she was going to meet one of the infamous demons that the shaman always preached about, the creatures that lurked in the dark ready to snatch you up if you're not careful. Lisa never took him seriously—Hoguryeo was full of superstitious people, unlike the city where she had grown up—but for once, she felt a lump of fear make a home in her heart.
Gripping a brittle branch she found on the wayside, Lisa swallowed tightly as she edged closer, ready for the imminent attack. One final push to steel her nerves and she surged forward, flicking back the corner of the cover to reveal...
a sleek, honey-coloured tabby cat cowering in a corner of her cart, squeezed in between the sacks. Its hackles stood on end and it hissed at Lisa. An ordinary dull key hung from the collar at its neck.
Lisa stood blinking before she lowered the branch and sighed.
"So...you're the kitty cat that everyone's after huh? We finally meet."
The cat showed no sign of calming down, its vicious hisses and spitting warning Lisa to stay away.
"What should I do?" Lisa muttered as she paced. "I'm gonna be late for work, at least three people told me to report to them if I see you and if I tried tipping you out, you'll probably rip my skin off or pierce the sacks."
She looked at the cat again, her eyes catching on to the swinging key.
Was the cat's owner really that special to have all the village men crazy to have her? Who was she? What did she look like? And why did she have to have an innocent animal take the brunt of her romantic problems?
"Poor kitty cat, caught up in all this mess," Lisa said softly. "You're just a cat but everyone is out there making your life tough...I bet you forgot what it's like to be a normal cat huh? I wonder how she treats you..."
The cat's ferocious miaowing quietened as Lisa continued speaking softly.
"I have two friends, Jennie and Jisoo, they run the bakery....well, I'm guessing you know them, you've been around longer than me. What say we go there? I do need to clock in soon."
Great, Lisa thought, I'm talking to a cat. And not just any cat, but the cat everyone is hunting.
"You can hide out at the bakery, but we got to be careful, okay? I think Jisoo and Jennie won't rat you out if those boys come looking for you. You'll be safe. But we have to be vigilant too."
By now the cat had stopped yowling, almost as though it were actually listening. It studied Lisa from its corner, nose twitching and tail swishing back and forth.
"There's a good kitty, good girl," Lisa murmured softly. "Good thing it's summer, you won't feel cold. I'm gonna cover you again, alright? Just in case someone comes by."
So saying, Lisa gently spread the cover on top of the sacks and cart again, relieved that the feline didn't suddenly make a run for it.
She secured the cover, then grabbed the cart and started towing again, wondering if the cat would actually stay inside. Once she arrived at the bakery, Lisa cautiously peeled back the cover, standing clear right away to give the cat some space.
It blinked up at her, still curled up and wary in the corner it claimed. The cat looked healthy enough, her coat having a golden lustre that reminded Lisa of molten honey, but there was no knowing what kind of disease she might carry and Lisa didn't fancy falling ill through a wayward scratch or bite.
However, attacking Lisa seemed to be the last thing on the cat's mind—her earlier panic seemed to have vanished entirely. She poked her head out cautiously. Her whiskers twitched as she watched Lisa round the cart.
"Are you going to come out or...?" Lisa trailed off and shook her head. "You know what, do as you please. I'm not due to unload for at least another half hour anyway."