Cat Therapy Chapter 1.4

The more it went on like that, the more Seo Yongwoo wanted to resolve this matter on his own.

Just the agency meddling in it already soured his mood, but thinking about articles spreading made him feel nothing but repulsion no matter how he considered it. He knew that no matter the circumstances, someone would hear whatever they wanted and spew reckless abuse. For a tiger beastman who was individualistic, that in itself was a huge stress, and the profession of actor had essentially muzzled his entire life.

Time that drained the life out of him passed like that, and it was around dawn.

[Yongwoo, this is a cat beastman, right?]

The contact he had been waiting for arrived.

It had taken some time, but it seemed he had definitely found him. Seeing the information that arrived along with a youthful high school graduation photo, Seo Yongwoo let out a hollow laugh.

His name was Do Haedong.

He was a fresh 21-year-old, a whopping 11 years younger than himself.

Other information stated that he had done quite well academically in high school, but his whereabouts after graduation were unknown. His mother had passed away, his father’s whereabouts were unknown, and he was currently living with his grandmother and younger sister. He had once been scouted on the street but had declined the offer due to family circumstances.

His situation was pitiful, but it was also the typical unfortunate family background.

Because of that, Seo Yongwoo was more interested in his real name than his environment.

‘His real name is Do Haedong?’

So, when he had called him a thief, had he startled because he thought it was his own name?

He recalled the first time he had rescued the guy. Even while huddling in fear, there had seemed to be a glimmer of expectation in those yellow eyes for a moment, but what kind of feeling had that been? Until he confronted him directly, he could not know the true nature of what kind of guy he really was.

Even though it was late, Seo Yongwoo grabbed his car keys. He got into a sports car with heavy tinting in the parking lot and sped quickly along the dawn road. His vertically slitted golden pupils stood fierce as he stared out the car window.

‘If I catch him, there’s no mercy.’

Seo Yongwoo resolved himself and gripped the steering wheel tightly with one hand. Throughout the drive, thick veins on his forearm stood out as prominently as lightning striking down.

*

Nearly ten days after he had fled, he found Dodong. In the corner of a dim bar warehouse.

The pale and skinny guy was struggling to organize heavy boxes of liquor bottles. Seo Yongwoo clenched his phone that kept vibrating incessantly and strode forward. Under the pulled-down cap, his smooth jaw tightened with anger. As he approached, the narrow warehouse lit only by a cheap yellow bulb came into view.

Clack.

Seo Yongwoo stood in front of the warehouse door. With his sturdy build and tall height blocking the door, there was no room left to escape.

“……”

When he stood still and watched, the guy finally sensed the chilling presence and turned his head.

Dodong in his human form was truly consistent.

He was still wearing the stolen oversized clothes of his, and when he looked warily, the round startled eyes and the black ears flattened tightly back on his head were exactly the same as when he was a cat. On top of that, the moment he saw the pitiful frightened face, he could be certain it was his cat. The widened pupils in shocked eyes were extremely familiar.

“Ah, Mister.”

He did not know why those words sounded like a meow. In that instant, the strength drained emptily from Seo Yongwoo’s hand jammed in his pocket.

But he only hesitated for a brief moment, and Seo Yongwoo reminded himself that the guy was a thief.

“Ah…!”

“Stand straight.”

He pushed the shoulders of the guy who was looking around as if searching for an escape route, forcing him to stand with his back against the wall.

Seo Yongwoo sat obliquely on a stack of liquor boxes in front of him. Even though Dodong had turned into a human form and he had lowered his posture, the height difference was so great that he still had to look down. Seo Yongwoo stared at the guy with lowered eyes in resignation, silently and crookedly, then asked with a hollow sneer.

“You committed theft and all, and you’ve been working in a warehouse like this?”

The stolen items were worth nearly 100 million won. On top of that, just the cash alone was ten million won. It was unbelievable that instead of living in luxury, he was grunting away in such a rundown place.

When he stood still with his hands in his pockets and glared, Haedong trembled with his face drained white. Under the oversized T-shirt he had stolen and worn, his thin pale arms stood out. It was a wretched sight that made the bold theft seem out of place.

Dodong, no, Haedong stammered with a frightened face.

“I, just, report me… The stuff I stole from you, I’ve already spent it all.”

“Report?”

It was absurd. In any case, Seo Yongwoo now had nothing to gain from reporting this guy. On the contrary, it would only make public opinion endlessly noisy and tiresome.

On top of that, it was ridiculous that the thief was bringing up reporting first instead of an apology.

“What should I report first? That you’re a beastman but pretended to be an animal?”

“Th-that.”

Seeming to know it was shameful, Haedong gripped his clasped hands tightly, his ears turning red to the tips.

A beastman pretending to be an animal was clear-cut fraud. From ancient times, pretending to be an animal to hide one’s identity had led to spying, assassinations, all sorts of romantic entanglements, so beastmen pretending to be animals was classified as a serious fraud crime.

As such, Seo Yongwoo’s sense of betrayal was strong.

The cat he had carefully cooked for and let into his territory like family had actually been a male all along. For a tiger, for whom the only true human relationship in a lifetime was marriage, it was worse than betrayal. Naturally, Seo Yongwoo’s expression twisted roughly, and even his fangs began to show.

“Why did you pretend to be a cat.”

“M-Mister.”

Seo Yongwoo stepped forward half a step. At the same time, Haedong gasped in surprise and pressed himself against the wall. With the man whose chest was twice as thick blocking the front, Haedong held his breath in fear and desperately tried to avoid his gaze.

Seo Yongwoo outright grabbed the guy’s collar and pinned him against the wall to subdue him. Veins stood out even on his thick forearm as he pressed down on Haedong’s shallow chest area.

“If you were going to steal, why didn’t you just ransack the house right away? Why did you hide your identity and live for a whole month?”

“It was just, ugh…”

“Were you approaching me from the start to stalk me?”

“Back then, I was hurt so in human, ugh…!”

He did not even listen to excuses like that. Whether it was stalking or whatever, invasion of privacy was something Seo Yongwoo, who had lived his whole life as an actor, felt deep disgust toward.

He was already a tiger sensitive to territory, living in a house at the foot of a mountain on the outskirts of Seoul. For such a place to be brazenly infiltrated by someone pretending to be a cat. No matter the intention, Seo Yongwoo found it hard to forgive the thief.

Accordingly, strength tightened in the stone-like arm gripping the collar.

“Won’t you answer properly?”

“It’s, sob. My, breath, is…!”

As his shallow chest was pressed, Haedong urgently grabbed that arm. But it was useless in terms of strength, and his pale face twisted in pain.

Haedong, who had been struggling with his collar grabbed, soon squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.

“M-Mister liked it, that’s why!”

“…What?”

“My stomach was, so hungry… and my beaten body hurt, but being by Mister was com, comfortable and nice.”

“……”

Seo Yongwoo’s strength drained away emptily.

Haedong, finally able to breathe, timidly huddled while insisting it was unexpected, and that he was sorry, rattling it off like a machine gun. Listening to that quietly, Seo Yongwoo belatedly let out a wry smile.

“Ah, because you like me.”

He did not believe a single word of it.

Just looking at his face, he could tell it was something the young guy had blurted out in fear. From the beginning, beastmen with diverse body language communicated more through expressions or actions than words.

But even while glaring fiercely at Haedong, Seo Yongwoo could not bring himself to get angry. He had no hobby of bullying a scrawny kid. And though hiding his identity was outrageous, he seemed to know his own fault, so it felt hollow.

At that moment, Haedong spoke with difficulty.

“I’m sorry, really, even if you report me, I have nothing to say.”

“Reporting you won’t bring the money back anyway. Why would I bother reporting you.”

“……”

“Rather, it’d be more convenient for me to handle you directly.”

When he said it in a low voice, the guy’s face turned frightened. And yet, seeing his cat in the fluffy-furred youthful face, Seo Yongwoo’s chest felt stuffy.

“Ha.”

In any case, losing that much money was no issue.

Rather than that, bringing this guy back as a cat and quelling the abandonment controversy that had arisen right away would be far more convenient.

With his mind complicated, Seo Yongwoo rubbed his dry face with a weary expression and said.

“Forget it, you live in my house for the time being.”

“……”

“Then I’ll let the theft slide as if it never happened.”

At that, Haedong slightly lifted his head and met his eyes.

While glancing sideways at Seo Yongwoo, whose eyes were barely visible under the pressed-down black cap, he pitifully furrowed his brows and pursed his lips. In the characteristically cheeky cat eyes, wariness showed.

“…Are you proposing compensated dating?”

It was a face that could not hide at all that he found it repulsive and scary.

“You’re a super famous actor, Mister. Is this okay…?”

“…Ha.”

It was so ridiculous that Seo Yongwoo felt like letting out a hollow laugh.

With a sigh, he looked up at the ceiling. The tiger’s low growl that came out only when angry rumbled thickly in his throat.

‘What the hell am I doing.’

He wondered why he had to forgive this thief again, and found himself absurd for forcibly holding back his anger.

From his squared shoulders to his arms, tension stiffened rigidly.

There was no time to explain now. Even his main phone, known only to family, started ringing noisily, and on his work sub-phone, he saw provocative article titles sent by the manager.

[Actor Seo Yongwoo, cat abandonment controversy… Where on earth is Dodong?]

For now, he had to somehow get this guy babbling about compensated dating back to the house. Seo Yongwoo said to the young one one last time, as if gently admonishing him.

“If you don’t live in our house, this Mister will be in a lot of trouble, that’s why.”

Seeming to hear it as a threat, Haedong’s eyes took on a bright yellow gleam and trembled thinly. He seemed so scared that he could not even control his beastman transformation. His face had also gone deathly pale, but even so, the way he could not ultimately hide his dislike was exactly the same as when he was a cat.

“…I’ll do as Mister says. But as a cat, it’s hard, so I don’t think I can live like that anymore.”

With a trembling voice, he added that he was sorry, and Seo Yongwoo felt a sense of defeat even though he had done nothing wrong. He had clearly come to catch the thief, but suddenly it felt like he had been thoroughly beaten. He knew now that he was no longer his cat, but he had doted on him and raised him carefully all that time, so he did not understand what exactly was so hard that he could not do it.

“Don’t talk nonsense and get in the car.”

At this point, Seo Yongwoo gave up on persuading. In a sense of resignation, he dragged Haedong out of the musty warehouse and headed to the car. Haedong followed obediently but kept glancing back at the liquor store.

“What. You want to quit?”

“…No.”

Haedong had only looked at the store for a moment, then soon gave up and headed to the passenger seat on his own.