Chapter 100: Catnip

I wandered around the house for a while, but couldn’t find anyone.

“No way.”

They all left me behind.

Lost in pessimism, I was about to take out a Churu from the refrigerator when.

I found a note placed on top of the Churu.

-No one’s home today, so play nicely.

‘No one’s home?’

As I picked up the note with a question mark, I found a new note attached below it.

-Bora: New employee (Delphine) training

Raxy: Land sale (in place of Bora)

Jinhyang: Tower

“Aha.”

It was neatly organized.

To the point where there was no need to ask further.

I smelled the note to see who wrote it, and Jinhyang’s scent wafted out.

‘How strange.’

How did Jinhyang know I would come to the refrigerator and put the note on the Churu?

I have so many places where I’m active in the house.

As I racked my brain, a more important fact stood before me.

I had to be alone all day today.

“Ugh.”

There weren’t many things I could do alone at home.

Just chasing my tail or playing games.

Of course, those two were fun enough, but not as fun as playing with Jinhyang and the twin sisters.

‘Should I just go to the Tower…?’

Jinhyang told me to rest more, but I knew my body best.

I was full of energy.

I had been running around for several hours yesterday too.

There was no way I would collapse from going to work now.

‘Okay, let’s go.’

The decision didn’t take long.

I wanted to get to the Tower quickly and meet someone.

However, there were a few things that bothered me about going to the Tower.

I had no means of transportation.

‘It’s a little scary to take public transportation alone, and I don’t have Silver, so I have no choice but to walk.’

It would take about an hour to get to the Tower at my pace.

I had to prepare thoroughly for the long journey.

I went back to my room and took out the penguin bag I bought as a souvenir from the zoo.

I put a water bottle in the bag and about three Churus.

Even so, there was still a lot of empty space.

‘What should I do.’

After thinking about what to put in the empty space, I decided to put in a book.

It was the book ‘The Ecology of Tigers’ that Jinhyang had been reading last night.

“That’s it.”

I’ve filled in the missing ‘knowledge’, so I should be able to survive even in the jungle.

Now it was really time to leave.

**

On the way to the building.

I walked for a full hour, but the building still hadn’t appeared.

‘What is this?’

Looking around, it was a place I had never seen before.

A small park nestled between numerous skyscrapers.

Except for me, everything was new to me.

I had no choice but to sit on a nearby bench and turn on the map app.

I immediately searched for ‘Huntress Building’ and checked the remaining time, and I still had to go for another hour.

The time didn’t decrease by even a minute.

‘That’s strange.’

I’ve never felt like I had a bad sense of direction in my life.

I couldn’t understand why I was lost.

‘Should I go back home for now…?’

It would be difficult to find the building here, but it would be easy to go back home.

I just had to go back the way I came.

“Ugh.”

I sighed and got up from the bench.

I should go back home. Just as I made up my mind.

Someone spoke to me.

“Excuse me, are you Kang Harang?”

“Yes, yes?”

I was startled and turned around to see people I had never seen before standing there.

A man and a woman, one each.

They were clearly a couple, as they were holding arms.

“Kang Harang, I’m a huge fan!”

The one who appeared to be the woman in the couple stomped her feet in front of me.

She was bouncing around almost as if she was running, so it didn’t seem like she was lying about being a fan.

Of course, it was nothing but burdensome to me right now.

There was no one around me to protect me.

And it wasn’t even inside my base, the Tower.

“Yes, yes, thank you…”

I mumbled and answered the woman in front of me.

I gave her an awkward smile too.

I couldn’t turn away someone who was my fan.

“Harang! I joined the fan cafe and donated a lot!”

“Ah.”

So she was a money giver.

The awkwardly blooming smile was becoming more natural.

“Did you know? I got married thanks to Harang!”

“Ma, married?”

“Yes! I wanted to have a child after watching Harang’s broadcast!”

“……?”

What connection was there between watching my broadcast and wanting to have a child?

I couldn’t understand, so I just looked at her eyes.

“But Harang, what are you doing here alone?”

I hesitated for a long time at her question.

I was a little embarrassed to say that I was lost.

But I had no choice but to say it in the end.

“I, I’m lost…”

I fidgeted with my fingers and lowered my head.

My ears were drooping with embarrassment.

“Where are you going?”

“I, Huntress Tower…”

“You should take a taxi to Huntress Tower. It’ll take a really long time to walk.”

She was right.

But I didn’t want to take a taxi alone.

“I want to walk.”

“Hmm… If you’re going on foot, you’ll have to go east for an hour.”

Aha.

I had to go east.

I nodded and looked to the right.

“Harang, that’s west.”

“Huh?”

When I looked at the cardinal directions in a picture, east was on the right, so shouldn’t I go to the right?

As I stared at my right hand with a bewildered look, the man next to her opened his mouth.

“Sejin, usually you should tell them to go right or left, not east, west, north, and south.”

“Ah. Is that so?”

At the man’s words, she pointed to the left.

‘Left was east?’

Why had I been mistaken until now?

Maybe this was also an effect of becoming an idiot.

‘Left is east. Left is east.’

After imprinting it in my head so that I wouldn’t get lost again, I bowed to the man and woman.

Now it was really time to arrive at the Tower.

**

Two and a half hours.

That was the time it took me to arrive at the Tower.

This was also thanks to the help of people.

It was really strange.

The location of east kept changing from left to right, so I had no choice but to get lost.

It wasn’t like the world was spinning around, so why was it like that?

I was curious, but I decided to ask Jinhyang later, and I entered the Tower.

I met Kim Eunhyuk at the entrance of the Tower and had a light conversation.

After talking for about ten more minutes, I went up to Jinhyang’s office.

I should surprise Jinhyang.

With that in mind, I threw open the office door without knocking, but there was no one inside.

“Aww.”

My energy drained away.

The fatigue from walking for several hours was finally catching up to me.

I lay down powerlessly on the sofa.

As I was lying there replenishing my energy, a pleasant scent wafted in from somewhere.

‘I’ve smelled this scent somewhere before…?’

My memory through smell was quite good, so I was able to realize it quickly.

It was definitely the smell of catnip that Jinhyang said she would give me later.

‘Catnip is a no-no.’

Not doing what I’m told not to do was my motto.

I should never touch it.

I closed my eyes tightly to resist the temptation, but for some reason, the scent of catnip was getting stronger.

“Huh…?”

My body was moving on its own.

As if being controlled by someone.

I shouldn’t go.

I should stop now.

I struggled to control my body somehow, but my body was steadily moving towards the cabinet.

“Th, this is…”

The cabinet I arrived at.

Even though it was tightly closed, it was giving off a strong scent.

Just coveting that speck of scent was enough to make my brain tingle.

“Wh, what is th, this…”

What should I call this?

Even if I retraced the words I knew and my past experiences, there was no way to explain it.

All I could do was open the door of the cabinet.

A very small gap, about the size of a finger joint.

I had only opened it that much, but my body trembled at the scent of catnip that rose up.

“Hngh!”

It was blissful.

An unknown pleasure was gently stroking my whole body.

I thought the room was hot, but it was just my body temperature that had risen.

‘H, hot.’

When I rubbed my forehead, sticky sweat came out.

It was so sticky that I could feel the adhesion.

‘F, first, sit on the sofa and th, think, think.’

I somehow dragged my trembling body and managed to get to the sofa.

‘F, first put it h, here…’

I was about to put the catnip container on the table in front of the sofa, but I couldn’t control my strength properly.

I was trying to put the catnip container down somehow with my trembling hands.

The catnip container slipped from my hand and crashed onto the table.

Bang-!

The catnip container overturned and the lid flew off.

At the same time, the well-dried catnip was scattered all over the table.

“Ca, ca, cat, cat.”

My head was strange.

Each and every cell was coming to life, tinglingly massaging my body.

But it didn’t matter.

Because I realized that this tingling sensation was my ‘essence’.