Traveling almost from one end of Korea to the other by high-speed train only takes three hours.
And going from Daegu to Seoul takes an hour and a half.
After the first hour of Leo's trip had passed, the scenery reflected in the train window had changed.
As he got closer to Seoul, the green fields outside the window turned into white mountains.
There wasn't a heavy snowfall, but it was enough to paint the ground white.
Since the white landscape reflected the sunlight, Leo felt bothered by it and took out his sunglasses from his backpack and put them on.
Leo was so lost in the view that he hadn't realized he was not being ignored as much as he thought.
Many passengers sitting in nearby seats were secretly glancing at him from time to time.
Some even secretly took his picture and searched for him online because they thought Leo was a K-pop star.
But no matter how much they searched, they couldn't find any results.
Because of that, a few young girls decided to take a photo with Leo in it.
One of the girls had the newest Samsung model, and it really had a great camera.
Leo was sitting in a single train seat, one leg crossed over the other, his black sunglasses lowered almost to the bridge of his nose as he stared at the white scenery outside.
The front of his black jacket was open, showing the black T-shirt he wore underneath, and he had black jeans on. On his feet were black boots.
Except for the small logo on his jacket, he was wearing almost nothing with a visible brand, and this was one of the things that boosted the overall quality of the photo.
And finally, there was the white cat placed next to Leo's feet inside the backpack. The white cat had woken up and tilted its head while looking at the girl who was taking its picture.
The young girl did not take the concept of copyright very seriously.
Seeing how beautiful the photo was, she first set it as her phone's lock screen and then sent it to her friend group.
As one might expect, the speed at which the photo spread was much faster than the high-speed train itself.
The train entered Seoul, and the passengers slowly began gathering their things. At that moment, a small, adorably cute girl came to Leo with a cookie in her hand.
Leo felt someone poke his knee. When he lowered his head, he was met with the smile of an incredibly cute, slightly chubby little girl.
Leo felt his heart skip a beat, and, losing control of himself, he pinch the girl's cheek.
A second later, thinking he had gone too far, Leo immediately let her go and apologized to her.
At that moment, the little girl's mother arrived. The woman's hands were dirty with something like fruit juice.
When she saw a stranger pinching her daughter's cheek, she was uneasy at first, but then she was surprised to see that her normally very shy daughter wasn't running away at all.
And when Leo realized his mistake and apologized to the girl, the woman smiled and asked Leo to hold her daughter for a moment while she went to the restroom.
Leo noticed that the woman seemed tense even as she handed her child to him. She kept glancing around as if wondering whether there were enough witnesses around in case Leo tried to kidnap her daughter.
At that moment, the little girl revealed the actual reason she had come.
"Oppa, is this your cat?"
Leo smiled at the kind of question only a child could ask and bent down to take the cat out of his backpack.
"Wanna touch it?"
The little girl looked like she might jump with joy, but at the same time, she seemed scared to touch the cat. Her tiny hands, held out toward it, were clenched into fists. It was as if she were afraid the cat would eat her fingers.
To be fair, she wasn't wrong, because the cat was just as scared of the girl and was waiting on alert, ready to attack.
Leo knew this kitten's teeth hadn't fully developed yet, so he wasn't worried. And he had also trimmed its claws just the other day. So no matter how aggressive it was, the chance of this kitten defeating this little girl was zero.
"You don't have to be scared. It's teeth haven't fully grown yet, so even if it bites, it won't hurt."
"Owww, so cuuute…"
Leo frowned and turned his head to find the source of the voice.
One of the double seats nearby had been rotated backwards, meaning four girls were traveling together as a group. The four girls had stood up from their seats and approached Leo.
While Leo held the cat with one hand, he gently rested the head of the little girl—who was busy petting the cat—against his shoulder. And while the girl stared at him in confusion, he covered her exposed ear with his free hand and politely reminded the girls in the nearby seats to keep their butts in their seats.
The little girl didn't understand what was going on, but she didn't think too hard about it, because she felt something wet on her hand and saw the kitten licking her.
"hehe look here, oppa! It licked my hand. It really licked my hand."
"Yes, I saw. Very cute."
"What's its name?"
"Whose name?"
"The cat's."
Leo stared blankly at the little girl for a while and didn't answer. Not until the girl started waving her arms in front of him and calling "Oppa, Oppa!" over and over.
"Do you want to give the cat a name?"
"Reeeally?!"
"Yes."
"Should it be Snowball?"
"That one's too ordinary."
"Then how about Snow? It's snowing outside, too."
Leo had never been very enthusiastic about naming the cat anyway. Since "Snow" was short and easy to pronounce, he accepted without much resistance.
"Should we call it Snowy then?"
"Is it a girl cat?"
With embarrassment once again, Leo lowered his head, ignored the kitten's resistance, and checked its gender.
"Yes, she is."
"Oppa! Is this really your cat?"
Hearing the little girl's suspicion made Leo so embarrassed that he couldn't bring himself to deny her.
Just then, what saved Leo was a calm female voice making an announcement.
*This station is the final stop; Seoul, Seoul Station.*
*The exit door is on the left. Passengers transferring to Line 1 or Line 4, or those using the Airport Railroad, should get off at this station.*
*Thank you for choosing the fast and comfortable KTX. Goodbye.*
When Leo saw that the passengers around him were gathering their belongings and starting to get off, there was still no sign of the little girl's mother.
...
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