Cat Therapy Chapter 1.5

“Anyway, you hated me. Whether I run away or say I’m quitting, you’ll curse me the same.”

Whether he was quick on the uptake or just used to being hated, he was surprisingly good at grasping the situation.

Why on earth would a guy like this commit theft? Seo Yongwoo got into the driver’s seat with a face that said he could not understand it.

*

“Yeah, I’m bringing him home right now.”

[Just report him! What are you going to do bringing the thief back home again!]

The agency president was making a fuss over the phone.

Seo Yongwoo was having the call while parking at a gas station for a moment. Hearing the sharp voice made his head throb.

“I’ll talk when I get there.”

After saying he would be there soon, Seo Yongwoo knocked on the passenger door. He could see the outline of Haedong startling inside. With no intention of soothing him, he told him to come out and took the kid to the unmanned convenience store attached to the gas station.

He had felt it when raising him, but the kid was so skinny that he seemed like he needed to eat something.

“There’s no food at home. Pick whatever you want now.”

“……”

But Haedong did not pick up anything even when told to choose roughly. Whether he had nothing in particular he wanted to eat or he was watching his reaction, his whole body was stiffly rigid. In the end, Seo Yongwoo picked snacks as they caught his eye on his own. Among these, there would be at least one that suited the kid’s taste.

When he stood in front of the checkout counter, Haedong held out something with a tense face as if he had been waiting.

“I’ll buy it.”

It was three or four crumpled ten-thousand-won bills. When Seo Yongwoo glanced down at that hand, Haedong looked at him hesitantly with a youthful face. With the black cap pressed down and his tall build, he seemed intimidated.

“Kid.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t mess around.”

Seo Yongwoo pressed that hand down and paid with his own card. In that suffocating atmosphere, he came out holding a large bag and got into the car.

The first thing he did was sort out the form of address.

“Your name is Do Haedong, right? Twenty-one years old.”

“…You looked me up?”

Who did he think he was, a gangster? It was real information he had learned through people, but the misunderstanding as a gangster made him fed up, and his thoughts naturally twisted. Accordingly, his words came out bluntly and roughly without mercy.

“Keep calling you Dodong.”

“But I’m Do Haedong…”

“That’s what I’m used to.”

Seeming to know it was a name taken from thief, Haedong showed dislike but answered with a face of resignation somewhere as if being sold off.

“Do as you like, Mister.”

Mister… At the unfamiliar form of address, Seo Yongwoo pressed his forehead with the hand supporting the window frame. It felt like playing a game he could not win.

Throughout the drive, he could feel Haedong glancing sideways at him as if watching his reaction. Seo Yongwoo drove the car silently with a face that had given up on many things.

His characteristically prominent nose bridge and roughly extended thick eyebrows stood out. With his mouth firmly shut, it seemed hard to start a conversation easily, but Seo Yongwoo, who was familiar with such an atmosphere, just left him to adapt on his own.

Soon, Haedong, unable to hold back his curiosity, asked slyly.

“But… why didn’t you report me?”

“Didn’t you see the articles?”

“I did.”

“Then.”

Just then, the car hit a signal. To grab a snack, Seo Yongwoo rummaged through the large bag Haedong was holding. As the hand the size of a pot lid approached, Haedong, startled, pressed his body tightly to the opposite side and his eye corners twitched.

And when his pupils met the tiger eyes with narrow pupils, he smoothly averted his gaze. Between feline beasts, prolonged eye contact meant a fight, so he seemed to be cautious. He knew to fear the tiger, but how on earth had he committed the theft? He was once again dumbfounded.

Haedong, with his body pressed tightly to the opposite side, said.

“I thought you would naturally report me, Mister.”

“Why?”

“Because if an article comes out that the stray cat you took in was actually a thief, you’d get a ton of sympathy public opinion.”

“Good grief.”

Were all kids these days like this? Or was it because he was a cat? Seo Yongwoo said as if it was absurd.

“Why would I report a sloppy thief like you?”

“……”

“You already said you spent it all, so it’s not like the money will come back. Even if I get some sympathy opinion, where would I use it? You’d be socially ruined, and that wouldn’t make your mind at ease either.”

Seo Yongwoo glanced at Haedong, who was pressed to the opposite side leaving half the passenger seat empty. Then, the guy who had been looking at him with clear wariness quickly turned his head.

Was it because he had raised him as a cat for a few days? Everything he did kept looking like a cat. Even though they could talk now, the way only his own frustration burst was exactly the same as before.

“Just be grateful and follow if I say let’s collaborate. Got it?”

Still, since he was his cat, he said it in his own way nicely, drawing out the end of his sentence.

But the guy seemed to hear even that as a threat, and he followed with difficulty like a broken machine, saying “Thaaank you.” They had only exchanged a few words, but for now, his social skills were zero.

Haedong, who had been silent for quite a while, muttered to himself belatedly.

“…It’s just like a movie.”

Whether he was honest, or just young, or both. He was taking the thief, but somehow it felt like he was being played by the guy’s tune.

Still, since the guy had shared his impression of him, he got a bit interested. Seo Yongwoo asked casually.

“Have you seen my movies?”

“Yes.”

“Which ones.”

“The one where you were the murderer. Black, Road or something.”

“It was acting as a murderer.”

If he meant the movie ‘Black Road’, it was exactly like the scene where the murderer now lured and took the boy. Remembering that, Haedong had wrapped his long tail sticking out over his pants around his waist like a seatbelt and was timidly huddling his body.

“…You act well.”

“……”

“You really seemed like a psycho murderer.”

At words that could be praise or insult, Seo Yongwoo twitched his brow and quietly turned to look at the guy. Hearing the fed-up words made his mood even worse.

He would have split halfway if he had not said anything.

Seo Yongwoo returned the not-praise praise in kind.

“You look like that victim too.”

Of all things, the final victim in the movie was also a beautiful boy. Remembering that, Haedong’s face turned ashen.

In fact, for an introverted cat beastman to talk this much was evidence that he was making a great effort to converse. However, Haedong had zero talent for small talk to a hopeless degree. Since he spoke while desperately maintaining a safe distance with wary eyes, his efforts did not shine much.

It bothered him, but with no mind to soothe him, he left it alone. His anger from the betrayal had not fully subsided yet.

Still, when he left him unattended indifferently, Haedong seemed to relax a bit in tension.

Rustle, rustle.

He thought he was rustling the plastic bag because he was hungry, but glancing over, he was only licking the outside of the bag a little. It was a grooming habit often seen in young cats.

‘This guy’s really a kid.’

Seo Yongwoo let out a hollow laugh while driving with one hand and pressed his throbbing forehead with his hand.

Throughout the way back home, the dry rustle rustle of the plastic bag filled the car.

*

When they arrived home, it was well past midnight.

As soon as they arrived, Seo Yongwoo was busy. The manager and agency president who were already at the house were glaring at his cat with venomous eyes, so he had to sort out the situation first. Seo Yongwoo pushed Haedong into the shower room, telling him to wash up for now.

The president looked at the fresh-faced Haedong being taken care of personally by Seo Yongwoo as if it was absurd, then bared her black claws and glared at Seo Yongwoo as if to kill him.

“You crazy bastard, are you trying to do compensated dating?”

The agency president was Seo Yongwoo’s blood-related older sister.

Baring her tiger fangs and approaching with a build as tall as Seo Yongwoo’s to interrogate him, compensated dating, of all things. Having the absurd misunderstanding twice now, Seo Yongwoo felt wronged. Haedong looked so young that he could pass for a student, but it was absurd that she thought of him as such trash.

“No, what compensated dating would I do?”

“You don’t even touch anyone unless you’re dating them!”

Seo Yongwoo let out a deep sigh.

Of course, he did not touch anyone unless he was dating them. Feline males did not have a specific rut period, but they could go into heat anytime in the year influenced by the pheromones of females in heat.

And beastmen evolved from animals could go into heat even without pheromones from females in heat if they felt strong sexual desire. That was extremely tiring for Seo Yongwoo, so he came to avoid skinship quite a bit.

But with his sister interfering in such a sensitive matter, resentment welled up, and his expression naturally hardened like a fighting cock.

She was always like this. As agency president, she interfered in everything and looked at Seo Yongwoo disapprovingly like their parents. Tiger beastmen commonly had little family affection and did not meet often, but the two clashed endlessly because they were business partners.

With her bringing up even his private life, anger surged up. Seo Yongwoo bared his fangs and said roughly.

“Don’t interfere no matter who I meet or how.”

As he chewed out the words, he suddenly felt a gaze and looked to the side.

His eyes met Haedong, who was half-hiding behind the door and peeking. As soon as their eyes met, Haedong scurried back into the bathroom. Since he had probably heard everything anyway, he just left it. His sister did not care about a stray cat thief either.

“Say that to the public too. Does it make sense to bring back the thief bastard to quell the controversy?”

“Then what should I do?”

“I’ll get you the same cat! Long-haired breeds are rare, but a black cat is easy to find.”

“Ha.”

It was not just annoying but utter nonsense. Seo Yongwoo scowled with his thick eyebrows and glared at his sister with weary eyes. Knowing it was not a problem solved by just bringing a similar cat made his anger surge even more.

“Don’t say crazy things. Do you think the controversy would be resolved that way? How sharp are beastmen’s eyes.”

“Still, if it’s really similar,”

“Similar? Just my sister and my true forms are similar, but everyone distinguishes them.”

“……”

His sister seemed to know that too and firmly shut her mouth.

Since humans had gone extinct in the past, only various beastmen existed in the whole world. And they could easily distinguish even if the animals were similar, as long as they were the same species.

Just as foreigners all looked the same to others but they naturally distinguished each other, animals were the same. Animals or beastmen of the same species quickly noticed differences in features among each other.