What I Told Her
They were standing beneath a tree, talking.
The old woman felt a surge of joy.
She'd caught up.
The next moment, the old woman stopped in her tracks.
And then?
What difference did it make that she'd caught up?
The old woman smiled wryly.
Why had she even come out here?
The old woman pressed her lips together.
She slowly approached the two girls.
Because of the angle and the trash can, the two girls hadn't noticed her approaching.
The girls' voices drifted through the air.
The old woman's pupils contracted sharply.
She...
What had she just heard?!
A-a big leopard?!
"...You still haven't seen it?"
"No."
"Maybe it was just something I imagined as a child."
"That's what Grandpa and Grandma always told me."
"So they told me not to tell anyone."
"No!"
"...You think what you saw was a hallucination?"
"You've seen it twice, haven't you?"
"...Yes."
"But only twice."
"That's already amazing."
"Most people can't see it even once."
"You're special."
"Jingjing, you think it's real?"
"Of course it's real."
"Why wouldn't it be?"
"Don't you trust your own eyes?"
"They say hearing is believing, but seeing is believing."
"You saw it with your own eyes..."
"Twice, even."
"No."
"...Actually, I saw it three times."
"Three times?"
"Mm."
"But I knew Grandpa and Grandma didn't like me seeing it..."
"So I pretended I hadn't."
"That time, it was night..."
"I fell asleep by accident while playing hide-and-seek with everyone."
"When I woke up, it was dark."
"...Everyone else was gone."
"They'd probably gone home."
"...They'd forgotten about me."
"I walked home alone."
"There was no one on the road, and I was a little scared."
"...I don't know when it appeared, but it did."
"I turned my head and