↪ SOLO DETAILING A MEMORY EXPERIENCED ALONE THAT SHAPED YOUR MUSE
There’s a window high above the storage shelf in the basement. It’s a tiny thing that is too dirty to allow any light through, and it’s barely big enough for Jongsuk to reach a hand out. Though it doesn’t happen often, on days that the house is empty, he climbs up on that rickety shelf and stretches his hand through the open window until he can feel blades of grass against his fingertips. It’s the only glimpse of the outside world that Jongsuk has been allowed since he was taken from his mother.
One day, Jongsuk is sitting perched on the storage shelf, hand outstretched and eyes closed in content as sunlight warms his fingertips, when he feels something bump his hand. At first, he startles, banging his wrist smartly against the window frame in his haste to withdraw his hand, but then he hears a tiny meow come from above. Transfixed, he rises to his knees to peek outside.
He’s met with a tiny, furry little face and another squeak of a meow.
The kitten is small enough that it slips through the window with ease, chasing Jongsuk’s hand. It’s far too little to be out wandering on its own and is desperate for a bit of affection. The kitten tumbles into Jongsuk’s lap, narrowly missing the shelf altogether, and the instant that the helpless little thing looks up at him and squeaks again, Jongsuk is smitten.
It’s tricky keeping the kitten hidden from the old man. His foster mom doesn’t bother to visit Jongsuk down in the basement, and for once he’s glad for it– if only because that’s one less person to hide his new friend from. He manages to keep the kitten a secret by tucking her away in a beaten up armoire that he cleans out. He fashions her a bed from his spare shirt and shares what food and water he does get with her. Jongsuk feels guilty because he knows that the little kitten needs more than he can give her, but he does the best that he can with the promise that once she’s a little older, he’ll slip her back through the window so that she can have a real chance.
Almost two weeks pass before the old man finds her.