Split in Two

Split in Two is the eleventh chapter of the second season of The Two Cats and twenty-third chapter overall. It was published on June 16, 2021.

Intro
While at Furmart - as Expi considers buying a Change Lite Pro after saving up enough - Expi and Mariko hears a mother of a boy insult them for being gay, causing Mariko to respond and get into an argument with the lady. Expi, trying not to get involved and escalate the situation, stays silent while trying to nudge Mariko out of it. The mother finally leaves them alone, and Mariko turns to Expi commenting on her embarrassment - telling her to not give the mother attention.

Forbidden Love?
As Expi and Mariko walk home, Expi asks Mariko if she feels they shouldn’t be together due to how society views them and same-sex relationships in general. Mariko brushes this off, telling Expi that, as she said, people like them don’t deserve our attention, and to “embrace” their love. But as the weekend continues, Expi continues to ponder upon these thoughts, in addition to feeling concerned about the discrimination Mariko has already faced due to her nationality, and asks Mariko about it again one evening - if she ever feels bad about being together. Mariko continues to insist that she loves having Expi around, and that she shouldn’t let the thoughts of those types of people get to her.

However, Expi gets the idea to “split apart” for a day - the following Saturday - and despite Mariko pushing against this plan, she decides to give up, feeling Expi won’t listen to her.

Expi’s Experiment
As Saturday comes, Expi decides to try and avoid Mariko for the day - still wondering if that would make her feel better. Mariko gets up and tries to talk Expi out of it again, but finds Expi has already left. Expi gets further away from her apartment, but despite the lovely spring day, feels something is “missing” - that being Mariko. Expi initially shrugs off these thoughts, and waves at a biker who doesn’t respond.

Expi goes to the park and decides to walk around it, but continues to be reminded of Mariko and her lack of presence. Even as she tries not to think about Mariko, she comes across two birds in a nest that remind her of their relationship, only reinforcing those thoughts. She eventually decides to sit down and try to write, but experiences a lack of motivation and writer’s block, to which she remembers that if Mariko was her, she would’ve helped her become motivated and push through. She then decides to write about her emotions in her journal, coming to the overall conclusion that even despite how mean others might be towards them, she figures it’s worth dealing with as long as she and Mariko are together, ultimately deciding that this experiment was an “awful” idea. But before Expi returns home, she makes one more stop.

Expi Returns Home
Meanwhile, Mariko continues to feel lonely with Expi away, having no interest to do any of the things she wants to. She eventually decides to get on her Change Lite Pro when she finds she got a friend request from Expi - who she finds is standing just outside with a Change Lite Pro of her own. Expi then tells Mariko that her day up to that point had been horrible, and that she should’ve listened to Mariko before she tried to pull an experiment like the one she did, and that she loves being with her no matter what others think. Mariko responds admitting she should’ve done a better job of trying to talk her out of this experiment, and that Expi being away “affected” her. They both then agree to spend the rest of the weekend with each other.

Epilogue
A few weeks later, Expi and Mariko go back to Furmart as Expi buys a copy of Sooper Epic Kart Racers Deluxe to play together. While they are there, they run into the same mother they had run into before, who again makes rude remarks towards them. Expi simply makes an insulting statement (one that Mariko made towards the start of the chapter) and kisses Mariko in front of her. Expi and Mariko laugh as the mother scoffs and walks away.

Characters

 * Expi
 * Mariko

Trivia

 * In a similar fashion to A Couple of Cats, this is a chapter published during Pride Month that has a focus on LGBTQ+ related themes.