The cat wandered around the shop, peeking at everything curiously. As if it were on a little tour.
After making a full round of the shop, the cat sat down on the floor and looked up at her.
“Now that I look at you, you’re quite a pretty thing, aren’t you?”
Newly struck by the cat’s appearance, Aria smiled softly.
The cat didn’t jump up on anything, didn’t run around, didn’t hide. It simply sat with quiet dignity, making its requests without a single word.
For this distinguished guest, she poured a bowl of water and set it down. Only then did the cat lower its head and lap it up with little splashing sounds.
Not wanting to disturb the cat while it drank, Aria stood back and watched in silence, not touching it at all.
“My first customer today being a pretty little thing like you — that puts me in a good mood. Are you hungry?”
“Myaang.”
“Just a moment… let me see if I have anything a cat can eat.”
She tore herself away from watching the cat and went into the kitchen. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could find that would be suitable for a cat.
“Sorry about this. It’s the stew I made this morning — would you like some of that?”
She scooped a little onto a plate and set it out, and the cat crouched down and began to taste it.
“How is it? Does it taste alright?”
“Uwawung, wawunguwu—”
Thankfully, it seemed to suit its palate — the cat ate away, making enthusiastic sounds.
“You’ll even eat human food? I wonder if someone’s been raising you after all….”
The cat paid no mind to Aria’s murmuring and buried its face in the plate, eating with abandon.
When the cat finally lifted its head, the reddish-orange stew had gotten on its whiskers and fur. Aria let out a small laugh and wiped its face clean with a damp handkerchief.
She kept the cat with her through the evening, then carried it in her arms as she walked through the village.
She knocked on door after door asking whether anyone knew the cat, but everyone shook their heads and said they’d never seen it before.
“Hmm, where did you really come from?”
She set it down on the ground, and the cat sat quietly and simply looked up at her.
She’d half-expected it to find its own way back to wherever it lived, but the cat just stood there without going anywhere.
With nothing else to do, Aria started walking first. The white cat trotted right along after her. When she paused for a moment, the cat overtook her as if escorting her forward, then stopped in front of her teahouse and cried out.
As if asking her to open the door.
Was this… a royal selection? Aria broke into a small laugh.
“If you’re alright with it — would you like to live with me?”
“Myaaaa.”
The cat let out a long cry and its tail quivered with a little trembling flutter. It looked happy.
An overnight addition of a new family member to be responsible for — but Aria felt more wonder than dread. It felt like fate, somehow.
She even found herself thinking that maybe this little one would bring her good luck.
“I’m in your care. Now, what would be a good name for you?”
Aria smiled and stroked the cat’s head — with no idea whatsoever of the scheming thoughts hidden inside that white cat’s mind.
At first, I thought this was the worst possible bad luck. Not a person — a cat!
But… the longer time passed, the more I settled into this body, and the more I thought — honestly, this is way better than being human?
Getting a flexible body in place of one that was always stiff and aching — it was a whole new world.
My legs could go all the way up past my head! This body stretched like taffy, so supple and agile that there wasn’t a single kink anywhere.
Just how much of a wreck was my old body, that it was always screaming I’m going to seize up if I don’t stretch right this second?
But more than anything, the thing that made me happiest was this: being a cat meant I didn’t have to work.
Growing up in an orphanage, I’d always had to work nonstop. Part-time job after part-time job — handing out flyers, convenience store shifts, fried chicken place, loading and unloading cargo.
It was hard, but I had no choice. I needed money to survive on my own.
But if I’m a cat — I don’t need to earn money. I can just live as someone’s pet, nice and easy…?
The moment that realization hit me, I couldn’t have been happier about becoming a cat.
The question was whose coattails I was going to ride — and in that moment, there was only one person who came to mind.
The protagonist of this very story: Aria.
The Aria I knew was a female lead with modern-day knowledge and common sense, backbone, and a strong sense of responsibility.
This webtoon had a firmly sealed happy ending. Villains and antagonists appear and cause trouble along the way, but in the end, the female lead and the male lead find their way to each other and live happily.
By the finale, the female lead becomes a duchess. In the rigid social hierarchy of a fantasy romance, that’s the equivalent of breaking into the top ten wealthiest families in Korea.
I needed to claim a spot by the side of a female lead with a guaranteed future. Becoming her pet cat? That was practically winning the lottery.
If the current timeline was early in the webtoon, the female lead would still be an ordinary self-employed woman. I had to find her before she became a superstar duchess and get myself attached while I still could.
And so I went looking for her — and it wasn’t difficult at all.
As luck would have it, the forest I’d woken up in was right behind the village where the female lead lived. As I wandered around, I recognized the village scenery matching the webtoon exactly, and I found her shop without any trouble.
The question was whether she’d willingly adopt a cat she’d never seen before.
Because in the webtoon, the female lead didn’t have any pets.
Should I run around on two legs in front of her doing a little happy-happy-happy dance? Sing a mournful song in the rain?
I spent a good while wondering what I’d have to do to get taken in — but thankfully, warm-hearted as she was, the female lead took in a homeless little me in just a single day.
So I thought, now that the female lead has adopted me, my era of success begins — but.
What was this.
…Business was this bad?
The early part of the webtoon was about the female lead fleeing her family, settling far away, opening a teahouse on the first floor of her home, and living a quiet, healing sort of life.
Her financial situation specifically… even I didn’t know the details of that.
Damn — did she pour everything she had into this?
She must have spent every last coin buying this house, because the female lead was eating nothing but vegetable stew every single day. Tomato stew one day, carrot stew the next, cabbage stew the day after, spinach stew the day after that.
Aria! The meat! Where’s the meat?!
Healing my foot — in reality, her teahouse was completely dead, and a creeping sense of crisis began to gnaw at me that at this rate, we were both going to collapse from malnutrition.
If you opened a pretty café, you have to promote it. If you don’t have social media, you should at least go out and tell people yourself!
You can’t just sit inside your shop and wait for customers to wander in on their own!
Unable to hold back any longer, I finally bolted out of the shop myself. I’d become a cat and was hoping to live a lazy, do-nothing life… but for me to be comfortable, the female lead’s business had to do well first.
I approached a group of teenagers on the street who looked to be in their mid-teens. Kids that age probably had decent pocket money.
“Oh, there’s a cat coming over?”
“It’s pretty. Hi there.”
One of the teenagers bent their knees and held out a hand to me.
I stood still and pushed my head toward them. If I want something, I’ve got to give something in return…. Human dignity, set aside for now.
“Careful. What if it suddenly scratches you?”
“It’s just sitting here while I pet it? This one’s super gentle!”
Fingers scratching between my ears and under my chin kept making my head tip back on its own.
Ah… damn it. This feels weird. Don’t touch there — just the head, I said just the head!
“…Uuuung.”
“Looks like it’s happy.”
I made it very clear I was not pleased, but these teenagers, who hadn’t yet developed any social awareness, crowded around me and reached out all at once to take their turns.
If I were a real cat, you’d all be covered in scratches by now.
Once I’d gotten enough of the teenagers’ attention, I slipped out from between their legs.
Then I took off — tap tap tap — and stood a short distance away, looking back at them.
“Oh. Hey little cat, where are you going…. Come play with us more.”
“What’s it doing?”
“Looks like it wants us to follow it?”
“Maybe another cat got hurt? Let’s go after it!”
One sharp kid caught on to what I was going for. I led the four teenagers toward the teahouse.
Just then, I spotted Aria looking around in front of the teahouse. I ran toward her, calling out.
“Waangong, myaang-myaang-mang-myaang!”
Aria! I brought customers!
“Roro! Where did you go? Did you go for a walk?”
No, I was out doing some customer outreach. I worked hard to bring them here, so hurry up and reel them in!
I cried out loudly from Aria’s feet. But she clearly didn’t understand what I was saying, and simply scooped me up into her arms.
“I was worried when you disappeared.”
“…Oh, there’s a shop here? Is that your cat?”
One of the teenagers worked up the courage to speak to Aria.
“That’s right. The name is Roro.”
Aria smiled and opened the teahouse door.
“Want to come in and have a look?”
The teenagers nodded and followed Aria inside.
“What do you sell here?”
“Tea. You can have all kinds — black tea, herbal tea, that sort of thing.”
“I’m not really into tea… it’s bitter.”
One of the teenagers mumbled. Hey, you can’t just say things like that in front of the shop owner! Do you think she’s an NPC?
“Hmm — if you like sweet things, want to try some hot cocoa?”
“Yes! I’d love that!”
“Myaaang…?”
That’s not free, right?
Uneasy, I tapped the floor with my long tail.
