A young child sat on the soft grass, a little calico cat beside him.
Seeing the grubby little cat, he instinctively asked, "Hello there. Do you not have a home either?"
Whether the little calico understood or not, it merely gave a casual meow.
But the child laughed softly and gathered the little cat into his arms without the slightest distaste.
"Don't be scared. I don't have a home either. We can be good friends."
And so the cat and the child often met on that patch of grass.
One day, the child was about to feed the little calico some ham when a male voice suddenly came from beside him.
"Hey, kid. What are you doing to my cat?"
At the sound, he looked up blankly and saw an older boy standing nearby, dressed in clean, tidy clothes and watching him with displeasure.
He instinctively drew back his hand and asked, "S-sorry. Is this your cat?"
The boy looked him over, then nodded slightly.
The calico circled the boy's legs, sniffing him with familiarity.
Oh...
I'm an orphan...
But you're a little cat with a home...
Seeing the child's dejected expression, the boy frowned slightly and asked, "Do you live around here?"
The child merely nodded, then immediately turned and left.
Watching the child run away, the boy could not help feeling puzzled.
Why did he run off? Did I look that scary?
After that, the child still missed the little calico so much that he could not help sneaking over to see it.
The moment the little calico saw him, it came pouncing over with a string of meows, knocking him onto the soft grass.
It kept rubbing against the child's cheeks.
For many days after that, the child came to see the little calico.
He also ran