The Cat hides its Claws

The word ‘princess’ made O Shin’s lips twitch. Although others didn’t notice it, Myohan did, and he laughed silently. Although O Shin still remained cold and emotionless, he kept responding to the word princess. He sighed to hear Yuja call him ‘princess.’ The boys had been calling him princess for some time now.

“Oh, look at all this money. It’ll be enough for me to become a princess.”

“Ha!”

In the end, Myohan couldn’t help laughing. O Shin said ‘oh’ way too calmly, and it was just too funny.

The man gazed at him fiercely. Myohan giggled with a hand covering his mouth, his shoulders trembling.

Myohan thought that O Shin wouldn’t cooperate, but to his surprise, he was seriously into the play. He read his lines quite naturally.

Still, there were a few problems. He was the tallest boy in the class, and his voice was just too…masculine to play a princess.

“Oh, our Snow White!”

“Our beautiful princess as white as snow!”

“Princess, please open your eyes!”

Dwarves 1, 2, and 3 said their lines in turn. O Shin was lying on a few desks put together, and Myohan could see his eyes twitching. Myohan, still trying not to laugh, took a step forward.

“Out of my way.”

“Oh, it’s the prince of the neighboring kingdom!”

Sinsul, whose role was a dwarf, said his line with great effort. Myohan stood in front of lying O Shin sighed deeply, his smile long gone.

The man’s eyes were still closed. Myohan hesitated, and then Yuja harshly hit his shoulder.

“What kind of prince sighs like that in front of his princess?”

“Hey, don’t you have eyes? How can you call this a princess?”

Myohan pointed at the man as he said so. O Shin opened his eyes and looked at Myohan. Yuja crossed his arms and looked back and forth between Myohan and O Shin. Then he looked at O Shin’s feet that were in the air as the makeshift bed was short for him.

“The princess can be a little tall.”

“….A little?”

Chookjae, who was dwarf 7, rubbed his chin. Now O Shin was the center of everyone’s attention. He said slowly, “If you’re going to make me lie here for long, at least give me a pillow.”

Sinsul took pity on him, rolled up his jersey, and put it under his head. Now that O Shin felt much more comfortable, he closed his eyes again, feeling a lot better. Yuja sighed.

“Myohan, just do it unless you want to be the princess yourself. I let you be the prince only because I knew you would really get mad if I made you be the princess.”

Now Myohan had no choice but to put a hand right next to O Shin’s face. Yes, I am the prince, but he’s the princess. I’m not the one who’s suffering the most here.

He told himself so, put the other hand on O Shin’s left cheek, and covered where the lips were supposed to meet with his thumb.

Yuja had taught him the fake kissing method without actually kissing. The audience would never know if their lips really touched or not. O Shin flinched when Myohan’s hand touched his cheek.

“Your Highness, please save our princess!”

Myohan leaned down with dwarf 4’s line. The man’s long eyelashes were getting closer. When it was close enough, Myohan stopped, counted to three, and then put his head up. O Shin’s eyes slowly opened.

His dark eyes quietly stared at Myohan. The moment his red lips opened, Myohan frowned hard.

“My prince?”

‘Cat…?’

His head started to ache. His ears buzzed and he could hear a familiar voice. He fell to the floor, feeling great pain. He grabbed his head with both hands, but it didn’t make the headache go away.

“O Myohan?”

“Are you okay?”

“Are you sick or something?”

Unknown memories kept flooding in. Blue sky, green forest, leaves flowing on the river and the fear he had felt at the time.

‘You’re a cat.’

He took a deep breath. He couldn’t hear his classmates. A series of scenes went through his head.

“Myohan.”

O Shin, who had come down from the desks, hugged him from behind and put a hand on his head. Then he started to slowly stroke his hair. He softly whispered.

“Don’t think.”

Myohan’s mind was now blank. The voice started to fade. Myohan gripped O Shin’s shirt hard, and he spoke once again.

“Don’t try to think.”

That made the last bit of the headache disappear. Myohan couldn’t even recall what he had been thinking a second ago. When he looked up at O Shin, breathing hard, he was looking back at Myohan, his eyes as mysterious as usual.

Yuja was really worried about Myohan so he sent him to the sickbay, but not before saying if he hated kissing that much, he could take the rest of the day off, but only for the rest of the day.

When Myohan arrived at the sickbay with O Shin’s help, the school nurse assigned him to a bed without any doubt since he looked deadly pale.

“I heard you fainted while practicing.”

“No, I walked here.”

“They’re saying the princess’s kiss has defeated the prince.”

“Shut up.”

While the school nurse was gone for a while, Jagyeom came to visit with Sajun behind him. They had run into each other when they went to Myohan’s homeroom. Although they hadn’t met before, Jagyeom was able to put the pieces together, with the name Kim Sajun and his appearance. Also, there was an instinctive fear he felt for predators as a rat.

“I wish we were in the same homeroom.”

Sajun smacked Myohan with his words, even though Myohan was still tired. As soon as he said that, he got two fierce gazes. One from Myohan on the bed, and the other from O Shin. But Sajun didn’t mind and continued, “Then I would be able to kiss instead..”

“I’ll pull your tongue out if you say another word.”

Of course, Myohan immediately put a stop to it.

“So, why were you looking for me?”

“I wanted to meet you and…”

“Not you.”

Even after getting all those warnings, Sajun just wouldn’t stop trying. Myohan just ignored him and pointed at Jagyeom. Jagyeom started by saying it was probably nothing. He sounded unsure.

“I saw a student jump over the school gate a while ago.”

“What?”

That made Myohan get up immediately. Jagyeom was startled by the unexpected reaction. He put a hand on his chest and frowned, ready to yell at Myohan not to surprise him, but Myohan asked somewhat anxiously, “How did he do it?”

“He hopped, like this.”

Jagyeom tried to imitate the rabbit, bending legs and then jumping lightly. It exactly matched what Myohan had seen a few days ago. Myohan closed his eyes, half-lying and half-sitting, and muttered.

“I saw him too.”

“Really?”

“He’s probably the rabbit.”

“Oh, no, you see…”

But Jagyeom couldn’t easily agree with Myohan. He recalled what he had seen.

“He might not be, because…”

He was washing a mop, just as usual, and then someone jumped over the school gate. He jumped high like a rabbit, and no ordinary person wouldn’t have been able to do it. He wondered if it was the rabbit, but then he was really confused to see the student move rather slowly.

“He limped after the jump.”

After jumping over the school gate so nimbly, he limped. He even fell down after a few steps, probably because of landing incorrectly.

“That’s one clumsy rabbit,” Sajun commented.

“Right?”

So they were back at square one. Heavy silence filled the room. The three were all wondering the same thing. Could someone who sprained his ankle so easily be the rabbit?

“A rabbit…”

O Shin spoke calmly.

“…has weak bones. When it falls from a high place, its bones are easily broken.”

At the same time, the door of the sickbay was opened. They all looked at it.

“Nevertheless, a fully-grown rabbit can jump up to a meter high.”

A student came in with an ankle cast. He limped, totally afraid, and he was startled to see four sets of eyes looking at him. He cowered somewhat pitifully.

“And it’s also frightened easily.”

His round eyes were full of fear. His white face reminded them of a certain animal. His nametag read Myo Cheong. He froze, unable to move, but then he started to walk back.

“Hey, you.”

Myohan got down from the bed and took a step toward him, but…

“Ahhhh!”

The student jumped up high, and then he ran out.