Junhee’s not sure what to think when he arrives at the scene of the ‘crime’.
Had he overestimated Minji’s abilities as a detective? Had he underestimated his own unluckiness? Yes, hoping for an immediate clue to his identity was probably too much of a coincidence, but he’d been hoping for something a little more exciting than a lost cat.
“Don’t look so glum,” Minji reassures him. They’ve just left the client’s house with a solemn promise to find the lost cat, but the client, a middle-aged woman with at least a dozen cats, seemed a little skeptical of Minji’s credibility and Junhee’s abilities as a detective’s sidekick. Or maybe she just thought he was strange for covering pretty much his entire face. “I’ve had a lot of missing pet cases before. I’m really good at predicting where cats tend to run off to.”
“That’s great! Uh, good for us?”
“Really good, because it means we have more time to solve other cases which pay better! Usually, I get around three to four small cases a day, and sometimes I get a pretty big one which the police hire me to solve and pays me if I’m lucky.” Minji laughs awkwardly when Junhee stares. “I know you’re probably rich, since basically everything you own is designer brand material, but I’m broke. Girl’s gotta eat and pay rent, you know.”
The two of them laugh, awkward and stunted. Junhee really wishes he remembered just something, anything about his past life, just so he could have something better to say. He can’t even think of anything to comfort Minji with.
“You have a pretty good face, and I did think if you’re gonna be my sidekick maybe I could sign you up for modeling gigs on the side or something-”
“What?”
“What? You do have an objectively good face, even if I’m not interested! Modeling for big brands pays pretty well, you know? But I have this feeling that wouldn’t be a good idea right now, and by the look on your face and the way you reacted, I think you feel the same.”
Junhee nods. His reaction was strong enough to surprise even himself. He glances at his hands, his fingers long and nimble and covered in guitar string scars. He knows he’s in relatively good shape, too. A little bit on the thin side compared to his height, but he’s got enough muscle not to look lanky or malnourished. He remembers the polaroid on his phone, the microphone in his hand. “I’m sixty percent sure I was a musician,” he murmurs, “but I don’t think I did any modeling. If I did, it probably wasn’t a good experience.”
Minji stays silent for a moment. “When you recover your memories-”
“I like your confidence.”
“Shush, let me speak. When you recover your memories, regardless of what you actually did before the accident, maybe you should consider officially joining my detective agency.”
“Isn’t your detective agency just you in your apartment? Is it really an agency if it's just one person? I'm sure there are supposed to be more people to have an agency.”
“We don’t talk about that! Anyway, it looks like you’ve got a pretty good head on your shoulders. I came to the same conclusion you did about the music thing and I’m ninety-six percent sure we’re both right, even if I guessed it within five minutes of talking to you and I’ve just been confirming it since.”
“How?” Junhee’s not entirely interested in this detective business, but he can’t help but be curious. “I don’t think I’ve done anything in particular to confirm being a musician?”
Minji stares at him blankly. "I'm a professional detective, I notice a lot of things. The drumsticks and guitar pick were kind of a dead giveaway. Guitar picks are small and it's easy to leave them in your phone case or bag and forget about them, but I can't imagine anyone who would casually carry drumsticks around except seasoned professionals who are also in pretty high demand."
"That makes sense," Junhee admits.
Minji puffs her chest out proudly. "I'm always right! Also, when we’re not talking, you’re always humming, and it’s only a hit song from the radio half of the time. I don't even listen to pop songs on the radio, so it surprised me that I knew what you were humming sometimes. You know, you even frowned at me when I tried deliberately humming along slightly off key. Only people with perfect pitch would realize that and make faces, and only people who have at least a decent amount of musical talent can make up melodies on the spot and correct themselves immediately when it doesn't sound perfect.”
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh. Did you not realize?"
"Not in the slightest," Junhee confesses. He doesn't think this is the first time this has happened.
Junhee-ah, are you listening to me?
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Junhee shakes his head. He's not sure how exactly memory works, but he knows it doesn't really mean anything if you remember familiar voices and phrases in your head but can't recall who or where they came from.
What a pity.
Minji takes them past a fancy residential area, through a park, and… under a bench?
“What are we doing?” Junhee hisses as they crawl through a bush.
“Shh,” the detective tells him. “You don’t want to scare the cats.”
Cats?
Junhee finally manages to wriggle through the tiny gap between two hedges, and when he finally catches his breath, he finds himself face to face with a cat.
It’s a furry, gray little creature, a runt of a thing with giant curious eyes. It noses at Junhee, who tries very hard not to blink at the feeling of whiskers against his eyelashes. “Hi,” he whispers.
“Meow,” says the kitten. It bats at his mask before deeming him uninteresting and moving on. It turns out there are at least ten cats lounging around the little field they’ve found themselves in, lying in patches of sunlight. There’s a larger gray cat with matted fur, who aggressively licks the small gray one when it leaves Junhee.
They find their target, a fluffy white tomcat called Angae, cuddled up next to a pregnant tabby. “Oh,” Minji gasps, “Angae’s been going missing so frequently because he’s a dad now! I knew he’d be here, but I didn’t know he’d have so much chemistry with Gureum. I swear, five months ago they hated each other.”
“I didn’t realize you paid so much attention to stray cat behavior,” Junhee can’t help but tease. “The way you talk about them is like they’re stars in a TV show.”
Minji laughs awkwardly. “I don’t know if you realized, but I’m not really that good with people, and I’ve been like that since I was young. I used to spend a lot of time here because I was better at interacting with cats than people.”
“Understandable,” Junhee admits. “People are difficult to interact with. Especially on a professional level.”
The detective snorts. “That’s also kind of why the only big cases I get are hand-me-downs from the police. It’s not like any millionaire Karens are going to hire me to stalk their equally-rich husbands who they suspect are cheating on them, because I’m more likely to accidentally insult those Karens two seconds into the conversation, you know?”
Junhee huffs, smiling. “Better to insult them before they get the chance to insult you, I guess?” He crouches down, offering some head scratches to the snow white cat nuzzling his leg.
Minji gazes at him in amazement. “I didn’t peg you as that kind of person. You looked like the polite type, or like those pretty boy idols with 2D personalities, but you’ve actually got a lot more to say now that we’ve actually talked. I mean that like you’re the type of guy to smile at someone while internally insulting the hell out of them.”
Junhee splutters. His fingers are still tangled in cat fur, but now he has both his hands full with petting different cats at the same time. By now, they’re both surrounded by cats, neither of them willing to leave this haven. Haneul, the white cat, is purring incessantly now, pushing his head against Junhee’s palm. “You know I’m probably a professional musician of some kind, so what if I really was one of those pretty boy idols with no personality?”
“Then I’d apologize for misinterpreting the way you behave, because you would’ve had me fooled into thinking you had a personality.”
Youch. “Not even going to think of changing your mind about idols?”
“Nope!” Minji answers merrily. “Oh, I think Haneul wants something, by the way.”
Junhee looks down to where said white cat has been chewing at his sleeve. “What’s up, lil guy?” He asks quietly. “You wanna go somewhere?”
Haneul trots off, walking a few steps forward before turning back expectantly. Hurry up, he seems to meow.
“Alright, alright, I’m hurrying, you go ahead first.” Minji laughs as Junhee almost trips over two kittens playing with his shoelaces. “Don’t wait on my account.”
Haneul meows again, more impatient than last time.
Junhee does hurry for real, this time.
Slowly but surely, they make their way deeper into the clearing, Junhee struggling to squeeze under a hole in the bush when Haneul scoots through with ease. What they find is a kitten, lying still on the floor. It’s heavily injured, but Junhee doesn’t know how long it’s been hurt for.
Haneul meows quietly, nosing at the kitten. The kitten blinks slowly, raising a bloody paw sluggishly. It mews weakly at the sight of Junhee. “Hey,” Junhee whispers. He can hear its breaths rattling in its chest, and his own heart aches. The kitten is another car crash victim, just like him, but he got lucky and this poor little creature didn’t. He sheds his jacket with shaking hands, wondering how to hold an injured kitten. “It’s going to be alright.”
Wings flap next to his ears, and he flinches as a crow lands next to the kitten. There’s something ominous about this crow, and Haneul seems to sense it too, by the way he places himself between the crow and the kitten, hackles raised and hissing.
“Go,” Junhee snaps at the crow as quietly as he can. “It’s not time yet. I can still help.”
The crow just caws at him, and Haneul hisses again, ears flattened against his head. Junhee tries to make himself look as threatening as possible. “Shoo!”
The kitten meows again, voice small and pathetic. “It’s okay,” Junhee whispers, wrapping the kitten in his jacket, “don’t worry. I’m not going to let it hurt you.”
The crow stares at Junhee with its black, beady eyes. Junhee stares back, defiant. Haneul decides to leave the three of them, slinking back to the other cats, perhaps to find backup. Maybe other cats, maybe Minji, who knows. But for now, it’s just Junhee versus a crow.
“I think you should go, crow,” Junhee tells the crow seriously. “There’s nothing for you to eat.”
“I’m not going to eat the kitten, Song Junhee. I was trying to get your attention. Jeez.”
“Oh, shit, what the fuck?”