Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Unbelievable.

A four-figure Supreme collaboration vest, and my cat got to wear it before I did.

That, I could have lived with.

But not only had the whole cat suddenly become trendy, even its tastes had changed. It merely lowered its head to sniff the cheap cat food I poured into its bowl, then walked away with a look of pure disgust.

“Hey, snap out of it.” I shoved the little mirror I used for combing my hair in front of its face, trying to persuade it to face reality. “You are not some fancy purebred. You’re just a Fat Orange, okay?”

However, the big fat cat rudely shot me a contemptuous glance, then strode off with its square, dignified steps.

It really did live up to its name.

“Director, oh, Director. You haven’t been sneaking food outside, have you?”

I sighed, bagged up the cat litter in the corner that had already clumped into solid chunks, and poured fresh litter into the box. Because I hadn’t been changing the litter often enough, Director had recently stopped even pooping at home, which gave me a serious sense of impending crisis.

Then I checked the pet shampoo. It was already empty, too.

…Fine. I was an unqualified owner.

The next day.

The weather was clear and sunny. I packed the cat into a backpack and took it to the little pet shop on the street corner for a bath.

The shop was tiny, but it had everything it needed, and the prices were relatively cheap. The employee was a young guy sprawled over the counter playing a game. I went over and greeted him. “Hey, handsome, do you sell cat shampoo here? Something on the cheaper side?”

The guy gave me a lazy glance. “Where’s your cat?”

“Pet shampoo isn’t about being cheap. It’s about being suitable.”

I pretended not to understand and pulled an enormous orange cat out of my bag. He took it, sniffed it, and his expression turned faintly pleased. “Oh? Cucumber scent, huh.”

“Cucumber scent?”

“Yeah. This brand you’re using is pretty good. A little expensive, but it has a solid reputation in the industry.”

I hurriedly lifted Fat Orange up, stuck my nose under its armpit, and sure enough, smelled an unfamiliar fresh fragrance.

If I had to describe it, it was like slicing open a lime in summer, then mixing it with a few pieces of ripe mandarin orange. Sweet but not cloying, crisp and juicy.

But this was not the shampoo I had always been using.

Seeing me freeze for a moment, the guy sounded rather regretful. “Too bad. This scent was discontinued a few years ago. Now they only have rose and citrus left. Do you still want it?”

“…I do.”

If I hadn’t asked, I never would have known that this brand of shampoo cost three times more than the one I’d bought before!

Having ridden the tiger, I had no way to dismount. Heart aching, I paid. The guy smiled so widely his eyes disappeared. “How about this? I’ll give it another bath for free. Consider it an added service.”

After being waited on and bathed, Director puffed out its belly and narrowed its eyes, clearly extremely comfortable.

The guy laughed. “Why does your cat have such a director vibe?”

“It’s all right. Mainly because it’s almost ten pounds.”

“I think it’s more than that.”

As he spoke, he lifted the cat onto the scale.

“Whoa. Fifteen pounds?”

When I cried out in shock, disapproval was written all over his face. “You’ve scooped its poop so many times, and you didn’t even know it was overweight?”

Perhaps deciding I was an unqualified owner, he was no longer quite so warm toward me. Even the warmth in his eyes that had appeared after my expensive purchase vanished. Before I left, he repeatedly reminded me to control its food intake so it wouldn’t end up with high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol.

In reality, I had no idea what was going on. The more I thought about it, the more terrifying it became. What cat could get to this weight on cat food alone?

And then there was that strange fragrance that had appeared out of nowhere…

All of a sudden, inspiration struck. I thought of one possibility.

My cat had someone on the outside.