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chapter 58
It had been two years since she moved into this house. Linette tapped lightly on the teddy bear she had brought along. The bear, handmade by her maternal grandmother, had not originally been hers—it was made for her mother, Marcia. Her grandmother had sewn it herself so that her grown-up daughter wouldn’t fall into depression after marriage.
That was why Marcia loved the bear dearly. And that day, it had only caught Linette’s eye because her mother was carrying it in her hands.
It had been a stormy night filled with thunder and lightning. Seven-year-old Linette woke up frightened and crept toward her mother’s room. When she opened the door, she saw something she would never forget—Marcia, holding hands with a dark, unfamiliar man, walking toward her.
“L–Linette!”
Startled to see her daughter, Marcia quickly released the man’s hand. Rushing over, she pulled Linette into her arms, patting her back and gently stroking her hair.
“Mom, where are you going? I got scared, so I came here. Can’t I sleep with you?”
“Oh, my sweet Linette…”
Whispering her daughter’s name over and over, Marcia began to cry softly and peppered Linette’s cheeks and forehead with tiny kisses.
“Are you that scared? Then sleep hugging this teddy bear.”
“No, I want Mommy. I’ll sleep with you. But… who’s that man over there?”
“Hmm? Ah, he’s someone who protects Mommy. So don’t worry about him, alright?”
Marcia handed Linette the teddy bear she had been carrying. Then, lifting her up, she carried her back to her bedroom. After laying Linette down, Marcia lay beside her and gently patted her back. With her mother beside her, Linette quickly drifted off to sleep.
“To think she put me to bed just to run away afterward… Did she hate Frueina that much? Or did she just love that man more?”
Recalling that distant past, Linette smiled bitterly. She could almost hear the last words her mother had said to her.
“No matter where I go, Mommy will always love Linette the most.”
If she had known that Marcia was planning to run away with that man, she would never have fallen asleep. But the little Linette hadn’t understood—and the next day, the house was in chaos.
When Linette told her father, Kenneth, that she had seen her mother with another man, he said nothing. He couldn’t blame her; even he hadn’t been able to stop it. How could his young daughter have done so?
As Linette absentmindedly brushed the teddy bear, a chubby orange cat—Cheese—leapt onto the bed and sat in front of the bear. It was as if he wanted to be hugged. Linette chuckled softly and stroked his head and neck.
When she rubbed the soft belly he had exposed, Cheese suddenly stood up, acting all aloof—as if to say he had instantly turned into a “cool city cat.”
“Then why’d you show me your belly if you didn’t want me to touch it? Every time you do that, your little peanuts show.”
“Meow. Nya.”
He approached her and rubbed against her chest, as if to say he wanted to go to the café.
“No way! You’re too heavy. I told you before—if you want to come along, you need to lose some weight.”
“Meow~.”
He looked up at her with sparkling, pleading eyes. Linette sighed, picked him up, and felt the weight in her arms—heavy, but not unbearable.
“You feel like a grandchild left with his countryside grandma.”
“Oh, Miss, really! Don’t call yourself a grandma. Still, it’s better than being some skinny, jerky-like stray.”
It was Katrin, who had come in carrying sandwiches, speaking in mock outrage. When Linette had first taken Cheese in, he’d been scrawny, but she hadn’t expected him to grow this big in just two years.
“If he gets sick from this, what will we do? He really needs a diet. I heard obesity can even affect reproductive health.”
At that, Cheese visibly twitched.
“Still, he should have at least one litter before that. But I guess he’s already a peanutless boy now. If that’s the case, maybe it’s better to just remove the useless ones.”
“Meow! Myaow!”
Cheese stood up, placing his soft pink paws on her shoulder, rubbing his head against her face. His affectionate antics made Linette laugh as she lifted him up.
“You’re taking Cheese with you?”
“Yeah, he kept pestering me to come, so I gave in.”
With the hefty cat in one arm and the sandwich basket in the other, Linette said goodbye to Katrin and left. Cheese behaved quietly as she carried him to Iklelim Café, ignoring the stares of passersby.
“Aren’t you spoiling him like that?”
“It’s fine. He’s still manageable.”
People smiled as they saw the cat nestled in her arms.
“Would you be interested in letting him mate with our cat?”
“Hmm, only if Cheese wants to. He’s a free spirit—I’d rather let him live happily with whoever he likes.”
Cheese was an unusually beautiful cat. If there were a feline beauty contest, he’d easily win—if he lost a bit of weight, that is.
When Linette entered Iklelim with him, Angela was tidying up the shop.
“Ugh, Angela, you never listen! I’ll have to add a bonus to your paycheck again this month. Please, just come on time for once!”
Grumbling, Linette handed her the sandwich basket. Angela giggled shyly. She earned 45 silons a month, but Linette gave her bonuses when business was good. That’s why Angela often came in early.
“You brought Cheese today.”
“Yeah. I wasn’t going to, but he gave me those puppy eyes. What could I do?”
Cheese escaped from Linette’s arms and went straight to his favorite box. There was a larger one nearby, but he always chose the small one, curling himself up tightly inside.
“Angela, make sure he doesn’t eat any cookies.”
“Got it!”
Cookies and bread weren’t good for cats, but Cheese sometimes tried to sneak a bite when no one was looking. Even after being caught and scolded several times, he never stopped—like a person who knows junk food is bad but eats it anyway because it tastes good.
Ding-a-ling.
As they finished preparing to open, the doorbell chimed and a customer entered.
“Oh my, Cheese is here today!”
“Yes, he threw a tantrum to come along.”
Though he never did anything, Cheese had somehow become the café’s mascot. He didn’t even glance at the customer, merely flicking his tail once.
“Goodness, he’s adorable!”
With just that one tail flick, he won every woman’s heart. Smiling, the customer ordered coffee and sat down.
“That cat really has it made.”
“Meow.”
Cheese yawned lazily, meowed at Linette, and buried his face under his paw again. What a cute little rascal.
By lunchtime, the café was swarming with customers. Linette and Angela didn’t have a single moment to rest. Only around five o’clock did the rush calm down enough for Linette to finally sit down.
“Angela, just clean the tables and head home.”
“Okay!”
Linette never deducted pay for early departures, so Angela eagerly cleaned the tables, washed the cups, and left. Alone at last, Linette sipped her coffee and nibbled a cookie.
As she exhaled softly over a cup of strong Sefiano, the door chime rang again—Sian had come in. He had night duty soon, but she offered him a cup before he left.
“Have you calmed down a bit now?”
He hadn’t wanted to send her home the night before, when she was drenched and shaken, but with Katrin there, he’d let her go.
“Yes, I’m alright now. You don’t have to worry.”
Sian took her hands across the table, his eyes gentle.
“I shouldn’t say this, but… thank you for coming to see me that night. It meant a lot—to know that you thought of me, that maybe you saw me as someone you could lean on.”
“Ah…”
“So, when are you going to take responsibility for me?”
“What?”
Linette tilted her head at his sudden remark. Smiling softly, Sian continued, mentioning something she had forgotten—words she had once said, two years ago, on that night erased from her memory.
“I told you it wasn’t right, but you insisted you’d take responsibility for me.”
She blinked in confusion.
“I still said no, but then you kissed me…”
As the memories came flooding back, Linette hastily covered his mouth with her hand, forcing an awkward laugh.
“I… I said that to you?”
“Yes!” he replied firmly.
Linette was speechless. She felt as though she ought to handcuff herself and lock herself in a cell. She had broken off her engagement with Fernando—the man who had cheated on her with her sister—only to find herself seducing another man in the aftermath.
What difference did that make between her and her sister?
Well, at least Sian hadn’t been married. Maybe that made it… slightly better?
Seeing her tangled expression, Sian gently caressed her cheek.
“Is it hard to take responsibility for me?”
“It’s just… honestly, I don’t want to tie my whole life to a single night I don’t even remember.”
“Then maybe I could help you make a memory worth keeping. But if you don’t want to, I won’t push. The choice is yours.”
He gazed at her with moist, sincere eyes. Linette shook her head slightly, but Sian didn’t look disappointed.
“I just… don’t have the room in my heart to think about that right now.”
“I understand. But once you’ve sorted things out, will you think about it then?”
“Huh? Ah… we’ll see.”
“Alright then. I hope whatever’s troubling your heart is resolved soon.”
He smiled warmly and leaned forward to hug her—only for Cheese to leap from his box, landing squarely in Sian’s lap. Sian chuckled, holding the cat instead, and took a sip of his coffee.
“Cheese, that’s not for you.”
Sian caught Cheese’s paw just as it reached for a cookie. Unbothered, the cat curled up against his chest again.
“Whoever he takes after, he looks sweet and quiet, but he’s sly underneath.”
Linette said this from across the table, sipping her coffee. Sian chuckled, stroking the cat’s fur.
“Then I suppose he takes after me.”
