Cat Therapy Chapter 1.7

The guy who turned an innocent person into an abandonment criminal, but now says he can’t take responsibility. In that case, a clever move came to mind to grab him somehow, and on top of that, to turn back the karma Haedong had accumulated all this time against him.

“You clearly said you stayed by my side because you liked me.”

“…That was.”

“And earlier too. You showed such repulsion toward compensated dating.”

Seo Yongwoo stood up from his seat for a moment and washed his hands at the sink. The clear sound of running water echoed somewhat eerily in the quiet space.

In between, Haedong muttered something like he wanted to explain, that it was not liking, but rather, but as expected of a cat beastman not good with words, he could not cut off Seo Yongwoo’s heavy words.

“You lived well even in the hard cat form… So wouldn’t it be good for you too if you stayed by my side like that again?”

“But earlier when I said I liked you,”

“The words that you like me, I’ll take them seriously too.”

“……”

In that instant, Haedong’s face became utterly dumbfounded.

In fact, it was what Seo Yongwoo had intended. If Haedong had deceived him all this time, then he just needed to deceive Haedong in return. In a somewhat mean direction.

Seo Yongwoo dried his hands with a towel and, while picking off something stuck to Haedong’s hair, said quite amiably.

“Now that we’re living together, we can gradually get to know each other.”

“…Why?”

“Why, you say. Does dating need a reason?”

Seo Yongwoo said it very calmly and instead looked at Haedong as if he were the strange one. From the beginning, a thief had no right to choose, so retorting that he disliked it was cheeky.

On top of that, hearing that the guy who had been his cat actually found living with him uncomfortable made his stubbornness rise repeatedly.

‘Why should I be the bad one.’

Such childish thoughts made his mind twist naturally. Seo Yongwoo wiped the smile off his face as if he had never been amiable and said through his low growling breath.

“Or is this because you’re planning to repay the 100 million with your body directly…”

“……”

Seeing those tiger eyes, Haedong rolled his eyeballs and trembled violently.

Perhaps because his eyes were large, Haedong’s emotions seemed all visible. He wanted to run away, but behind him was the cliff of 100 million. And in front of him, the tiger was blocking solidly. Since he had said with his own mouth that he liked him, he was telling him to live together without further ado, a threat that was not quite a threat.

In the end, Haedong chose temporary survival.

“I’ll follow as you say, Mister.”

“Good.”

“But just don’t kiss me…”

“……”

One of Seo Yongwoo’s eyebrows twitched faintly on the side where he had been smiling leisurely.

Suddenly, his cat had learned to speak, and now he said he hated kisses. He had raised him prettily and preciously, but the response was this. Far from feeling hurt, feeling indignant, Seo Yongwoo deliberately countered calmly.

“You must like slow progress.”

He had said it quite amiably, but tremendous fatigue showed on Haedong’s face. Soon, he even hiccuped and shuddered, making him seem somewhat pitiful. Seeing his grubby face and dust-stuck cheeks made him look even more pitiable.

Seo Yongwoo reached out his hand to soothe him in his own way.

“You said you’d follow what I say, right?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Then bring your face closer.”

“Yes?”

Seo Yongwoo rolled up his sleeves. Under the shirt, his thick and solid forearms were revealed.

Sensing something, Haedong who had lifted his head gasped in surprise and urgently called, Mister. Seo Yongwoo ignored it and firmly wrapped one hand around Haedong’s small nape, turning on the water in the bathtub.

“Come on, I was wrong, ugh…”

The body of the cat beastman sensitive to skinship stiffened completely, fully shown on his expression. He got scared prematurely over nothing. Just like seeing a blood-soaked bathtub from a movie.

Still, pretending not to know, he personally wet his hands and roughly washed his face. As water touched his pale face, Haedong’s trembling was fully felt through the hand supporting his nape.

“Kid. Stay still.”

“Splutter, co-cold, hate,”

He wet his hands again and wiped every corner of the small face. Haedong struggled with a face as if he was undergoing the most horrific thing in the world. He grabbed Seo Yongwoo’s stone-like forearms tightly with both hands and pushed, but it was useless in terms of strength.

“I was wrong. St-stop!”

“Don’t move. You’ll swallow water.”

Even as he soothed him in his own way, Haedong kept flailing, and in an instant, his size shrank. The hand that had been supporting his nape emptily brushed the air.

Soon, something round struggled and popped out from under the pile of clothes in the bathtub. The pitch-black cat ran with loud claw sounds on the slippery bathtub, then, trying to grab it, dug his claws into Seo Yongwoo’s chest and leaped up, sticking flat to his chest.

Grr, mew.

“……”

Seo Yongwoo was at a loss for words from the absurdity, more than the pain from the claws pricking his flesh.

The cat had a face as if he had evacuated from a fire, startled and shrunken prematurely. Just from making him wash his face once.

“…You hate water?”

Nod nod.

The pitch-black cat hanging in his arms hurriedly nodded his head. Seeing that, Seo Yongwoo let out an absurd laugh. He was a water-loving tiger himself and had forgotten the other was a cat.

But Seo Yongwoo soon returned to a cold face and started washing him thoroughly.

“Well. You said you’d listen well.”

For things that became his, he had to disinfect them clean before bringing them into the house.

Last time, he had endured and left it because he thought it was a sick cat, but this time was different. He could not stand not washing Haedong, who had rolled around in the dust pit of a warehouse.

Seo Yongwoo skillfully caught the flexible thing like seafood even as the cat cried and struggled, washing him spotlessly. Whenever he tried to escape by flopping occasionally, he fixed him with a hand the size of a pot lid, and rubbed the elongated back like washing socks. Each time, the dust tangled in the black fur washed away riding the bubbles.

Mew, mew!

“Stop swearing.”

Throughout the washing, Haedong kept mewing sadly as if feeling wronged. His whole body, soaked like a wet loaf of bread, shrank to half, looking pitiful, but Seo Yongwoo did not care. He had once staunchly defended that his Dodong did not know swears. Now, seeing he could swear well, he had no mind to indulge it.

Haedong seemed to resign for a moment, but whenever a hand touched a sensitive spot, he immediately cried out that he hated it.

Yowl, yowl!

“Well. I don’t want to wipe a thief’s nose either.”

Seo Yongwoo retorted and, after cleaning not just the black nose but even between the purple paw pads on the soles, finally felt satisfied and ended the bath.

Finally, he wrapped the cat, thoroughly soaked and even more shabby-looking, well in a towel and held him in his arms as he came out.

Mew…

Just from being washed, Haedong had a dejected expression with his soul seemingly flown away.

In contrast, Seo Yongwoo felt much refreshed inside. There were blood spots here and there from claw marks on his arms, but such things were fine. Finally, a clean scent emanated from Haedong instead of dirt and dust smells.

Then, Seo Yongwoo suddenly felt this situation was strange.

‘Why am I personally washing a thief and feeling refreshed.’

His own situation felt odd, but he did not dwell on it long. It was because the proverb came to mind that with a cat as opponent, whatever he did, it was a losing game.

*

After getting thoroughly washed and having his fur dried with a large dryer for beastmen, Haedong was busy grooming his whole body madly inside the blanket.

He already disliked skinship, and having Seo Yongwoo wash every corner of his body and even wipe his snot was extremely humiliating. Cats could groom themselves anyway. As expected, the crazy water-loving tiger was different.

Suddenly, Haedong glared at Seo Yongwoo sleeping comfortably beside him. Then, with his ears flattened tightly back, he bared his fangs and lowly hummed.

‘Rat bastard.’

Even swearing, Seo Yongwoo only twitched his tiger ears sprouting above his head pleasurably and did not wake.

He seemed relieved of something and was sleeping comfortably with even his tiger tail out. Beside him, Haedong unwittingly hunted the occasionally twitching tiger tail, then busied himself with grooming again, unable to sleep. He was exhausted to death from the bath, but the unfamiliar shampoo scent lingering on his whole body made it impossible not to groom.

Then, the cat huddled his body like a loaf of bread with a tired face.

His fur shrank pathetically, becoming something like a boiled chicken. Ignoring that as best he could, Haedong recalled the unbelievable events of today.

‘Is he really trying to date me…?’

Did he have to pretend to like the tiger like this from now on?

Haedong pondered depressingly and looked at Seo Yongwoo’s phone beside him. Messages kept coming steadily to the group chat due to the unrelenting controversy, but Seo Yongwoo slept comfortably as expected of a my-pace tiger. Seeing that, he wondered if the real purpose was not himself more than the public’s misunderstanding.

Suddenly, Haedong thought whether he could really repay the 100 million. But for Haedong, who after sending money to family monthly had only about 300,000 won left in hand, it was an astronomical amount.

‘I should be grateful just that he didn’t report me…’

In fact, Haedong had prepared himself to be reported.

When he saw the suspicion articles surrounding Seo Yongwoo, he had a premonition that police would burst in soon. He naturally knew theft was clearly a crime, so he lived day by day in tension and guilt, to the point of not eating properly.

In the end, Haedong had made his own arrangements.

‘Grandma, use this money to pay off debts, and don’t look for me for a while.’

His family had already been terribly tormented by debt collectors. It was better for him to take responsibility for the theft alone. After that, Haedong left his young siblings and grandmother at home and worked part-time at a bar quite a distance away.

But he had not expected Seo Yongwoo to come catch him without police.

On top of that, not reporting and telling him to pretend to be a cat… Haedong wondered if he had perhaps grown fond of him, but recalled that the controversy was that serious.

No matter how he pondered, there was only one way for him to live. For now, he had to follow Seo Yongwoo’s words and see. That reality was bleak, but Haedong had no other choices.

Still, it was fortunate that he had learned Seo Yongwoo’s weakness.

‘I just have to pretend to like him.’

Then, Seo Yongwoo’s characteristic scary and stern expression softened considerably. Even in the warehouse earlier, he had acted roughly as if he would dump him in a sewer any moment, but softened at one affectionate word.

He had sneered as if it was absurd… but still, it was fortunate not to provoke the muscular tiger whose chest was twice as thick as his.

Mew.

Haedong reaffirmed the weapon to deceive the tiger and huddled his body small in the corner of the bed. Though he was curious and suspicious of Seo Yongwoo’s true intentions, he was too tired, and the box-shaped bed was as cozy as ever, so sleep poured over him.

The cat, who had been dozing off while huddling, fell asleep hugging something appropriate. It was Seo Yongwoo’s wrist. Even in his sleep, Haedong felt him stroking his chin with his fingertips and gained the consolation that the tiger’s side was safer than the streets after all.