Stop Thief!

Stop Thief! is the sixth chapter of The Two Cats and was published on July 11, 2019.

Expi's Morning
Expi wakes up late one day before work after forgetting to change the batteries in her alarm clock. On top of rushing to get ready, she has to go on a new route due to a sinkhole appearing in her normal route to work. The rest of her morning she feels weaker than usual, and realizes she forgot to make herself a lunch. She doesn't have enough time to walk back to the apartment, so she goes to Al's Yummy Burgers.

Samuel and Matthew
Expi walks into the nearest Al's Yummy Burgers where she finds two boys getting chewed out by the owner of the restaurant for digging through the trash can, threatening to call the police on them if he catches them again. Expi notices their tathered clothes and assumes they are poor, and buys three of the same meal so she can give it to the kids. She then invites them to dinner at her apartment.

That night, the kids come for dinner and Mariko opens up the door for them. While eating, Expi talks to the boys who reveal themselves as Samuel and Matthew and discuss their lives. Turns out, they were abandoned by their parents at a young age and given to an orphanage that failed to take care of them after taxes were cut in 2021, not feeding them well. Expi decides to make a deal with them to meet them every Tuesday at 12:00 to give them a bag of food she and Mariko don't eat. This plan is kept for a few weeks, however is stopped after an incident happens.

The Laundromat
Expi gets a stain on her shirt, and stops at the laundromat to wash it after changing. When she comes back, a commotion has occured where a couple boys were caught stealing clothes - those being Samuel and Matthew. Expi then is called into the court as an eyewitness, but isn't sure whether to tell the truth - if it would make her look bad, and if it wouldn't help at all. She talks to Mariko, and she tells her to just tell the courtroom about the boys and their lives. During the testimony, Expi just does this - telling about the boys' lives and what had been going on with them. Following the case, an investigation occurs regarding the orphanage and it turns out that what Expi said was true. The orphanage is then shut down and the kids inside are moved into foster homes with better service. The chapter ends with Expi being sent a letter from Samuel and Matthew, thanking her for helping them get better care. The letter comes with a picture of both of them, which Expi hangs on the refrigerator.

Trivia

 * Despite being considered uncanon, An Unforgettable Luncheon is referenced in this chapter.
 * The restaurant "Al's Yummy Burgers" is properly introduced in this chapter, and it is a reference to a place in one of ExpitheCat's Roblox places, which in of itself is a rebranding of a restaurant found in a previous place by ExpitheCat.