After a gig, the sisters find the cat they met on a rainy night. They try calling it by a name, but it only has eyes for the business card in Seolmeari’s hand.
This was before the sisters met the cat.
A crack appeared in a mint-green egg. One white paw poked through.
The little cat planted its front paws on the shell and puffed out its chest. The shell rolled. So did the cat, a few inches to the side.
The cat stayed there a moment, then got to its feet. The orange ornament on its head and its two green leaves wobbled a moment later.
This time, it walked around the shell.
As we came out of the venue, I caught hold of the strap of my older sister Sesangbit’s bag.
“Look. Over there.”
A white tail stuck out from behind a folded sidewalk sign. It was the cat that had watched us on that rainy night. Today, the ground was dry.
“There it is again.”
We crouched a few steps away. The cat yawned, making the green leaves on its head bob.
I narrowed my eyes at the cat. It did the same.
“I think it remembers me.”
The cat closed its eyes the rest of the way.
“I think it’s sleepy.”
“It can remember me and be sleepy.”
My sister pressed her lips together to keep from laughing.
The cat’s ears pricked up at the sound of the bag unzipping. She took out a small notebook to check when our next rehearsal was. As she opened it, a business card slipped from between the pages onto her lap.
“You still have that?”
We’d been given the card at our last show. One corner was bent, and my penciled note was still on the back: ‘Film a video after the show.’
“I put it in here and forgot about it.”
“That was the day we kept laughing through our introductions.”
“I just remember not being able to get the words out.”
She smoothed the bent corner with her thumbnail. The crease stayed.
“But you didn’t delete the video.”
“You said that one felt the most like us.”
I took the card and turned it over.
“You won’t delete it now, will you?”
“No.”
She caught the notebook as it started to slide off her lap.
The cat took a step toward us. It spent longer looking at my hand than at our faces.
“We should give it a name.”
I lowered the card toward my knee.
“What about Ieum?”
“Why Ieum?”
“It means a connection. Seeing it again got us talking about that night.”
The cat licked a front paw.
“Ieum.”
The cat looked up.
I looked at my sister. She was watching my hand.
“Try moving the card.”
I moved it to the right, and the cat looked right. I moved it left, and its head turned left.
“I thought it knew its name.”
She laughed. I reached over to slip the card back into the notebook.
The cat brought its nose close. I thought it was only sniffing. Then its little mouth snapped shut on the bent corner.
“That’s not food.”
Startled, I let go of the card. The cat turned and went behind the sign with it still in its mouth.
“Wait.”
While my sister closed the notebook, I leaned around the sign. The cat was right behind it. The card wasn’t in its mouth or under its paws.
“Did it drop it?”
She shone her phone’s light on the ground. I peered under the sign. The cat sat down in the spot I’d just moved out of.
The cat looked down at its front paws.
Rainwater pooled beneath them. Drops fell from the edge of the eaves. The venue door opened, and two people came out.
The older sister, in a dark jacket, shifted her bag. The younger one crouched a short distance from the cat.
“Don’t go any closer. You’ll scare it.”
“I know. Just eye level.”
The younger sister didn’t reach out. She left the cat room to come out, too.
The cat lifted one front paw.
The sound of rain stopped.
“Ieum. Can you move over for a second?”
The cat looked up at me. When I pointed to the side, it moved a little. There was no card where it had been sitting.
“A bit more than that.”
The cat moved a little more.
My sister laughed as she shone the light beside it. I started laughing too. There was still no sign of the card.
“Doesn’t it look like it knows where the card went?”
“A minute ago, you said it remembered you.”
I lowered my hand to the ground in front of the cat.
“We don’t know about that yet.”
I kept my hand still and waited. The cat came over and touched its nose to my fingertips.
This time, my hand was empty.