Cat Therapy Chapter 2.1

He had made a resolution, but pretending to like the tiger was not an easy thing.

“You’re glad to be back home again, right?”

“Very, very much···.”

Haedong said while bowing his head. Even when living as a cat, he could at least stand up to the tiger as much as he wanted, but now he absolutely could not do that.

Seo Yongwoo was sharpening a creepy sashimi knife in the kitchen.

Late at night, Seo Yongwoo who had woken up from sleep received a delivery of specially ordered fresh tuna belly. The cat who had been trying somehow to hide raised its tail and followed Seo Yongwoo with a loud meow as soon as it heard the familiar voice of the fisherman. The first high-class tuna that Seo Yongwoo fed it was so delicious that it made him forget his fear.

“Whenever I bring tuna, your eyes turn so gentle.”

Seo Yongwoo muttered while looking at Haedong’s cat eyes with an incredulous gaze.

And then, now he had taken out the sashimi knife from the kitchen. He sometimes cooked for him, but today it seemed like he intended to prepare the tuna himself.

Seeing that, Haedong instantly became quiet. Every time he sharpened the sashimi knife, the muscles in Seo Yongwoo’s arm bulged heavily, and his eyes became sharp. The difference in physique, which made it feel like someone like him would not even be a handful, was strongly felt, so Haedong swallowed hard in tension with a gulp.

At that moment, Seo Yongwoo prepared a seat for him at the head. It was the chair on the opposite side of the long kitchen counter.

“It’s dangerous, so sit here.”

“Just treat me as if I’m not here.”

“Hey, sit.”

It was a conversation that was nothing special, but Haedong’s face became one that had given up on many things.

He had felt it even when he was a cat, but Seo Yongwoo was very dictatorial, and unlike a tiger that is supposed to be individualistic, he kept trying to stick close to him. At least before, it had been to the extent of just sneaking up beside him, but now that they could even communicate with words, he naturally wanted to keep him right by his side. That was tiring, but Haedong smartly sat down in his seat, reading the situation.

Haedong, who had obediently climbed up onto the chair and sat down, gathered his knees together and wrapped his tail around his instep. Since he hated wearing clothes so much, he was still dressed only in Seo Yongwoo’s loose t-shirt and baggy shorts. His gaze was fixed steadily on the tuna, so his desire was clearly apparent.

“Dodong-ah.”

In front of him, Seo Yongwoo who had meticulously washed the knife called him quite affectionately.

“From now on, try answering the questions I ask with ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”

“Why?”

“Why? We’re going to date, aren’t we?”

“How is that dating···?”

That was not dating, it was dictatorship, was it not. Even though Haedong looked at him suspiciously as if he were a madman, Seo Yongwoo remained calm and composed.

“You always ignored me no matter how much I called you in the past.”

“That’s because you kept calling me for no reason,”

“We’re going to date, so now shouldn’t I properly get to know about my partner?”

Seo Yongwoo cut off Haedong’s words and just kept saying his own. Actually, he had only asked a question in return, but because of his characteristic heavy atmosphere, it felt like an order.

Haedong suddenly felt like everything in front of his eyes was dizzy. He had lived his whole life as a cat ignoring useless words, but now that he had properly met his natural enemy, he could not act as he pleased.

“Dodong-ah.”

Without even a moment to catch his breath with a sigh, Seo Yongwoo placed the plump tuna belly on the cutting board and asked.

“What do you like about me?”

From the very first question, Haedong wanted to cry.

Even if it was just preparing the sashimi ingredients, when a tiger asked while holding a knife, he could not help but feel scared. Haedong huddled his knees tightly together with a tearful face. But Seo Yongwoo did not pay it any mind at all and asked back with “Huh?”

In the end, Haedong answered grudgingly with a sense of complete resignation.

“Yes···.”

“I asked what part of me you like.”

“Did you not say to answer with yes or no?”

At that moment, Seo Yongwoo wiped the sashimi knife with a cloth. Unlike the action of neatly organizing the surroundings, the words he spoke were just low and subdued.

“If you are going to live with me, you have to go about it with some flexibility on your own, right?”

Flexibility, asking for something like that from a cat was completely absurd, but Haedong barely calmed his mind while looking at the tuna flesh.

100 million, the 100 million debt that had arisen from his own karma.

Haedong’s nerves were on edge, and his tail had swollen to twice its size, but he held it back tightly. Still, such dissatisfaction was all showing through transparently in his body, but fortunately the selfish tiger was firmly caught in a misunderstanding. Haedong finally gathered his resolve and tried saying a compliment.

“I, I like it that you give me delicious things so well.”

“Tuna?”

“Yes.”

This much was sincere. Seo Yongwoo was quite good at cooking, but perhaps because it required so much effort, he only did it occasionally. It had such a clean taste that even Haedong, who was extremely picky with food, fell for it completely at once, so it had also become the first trigger for him to open his heart to him.

Actually, that heart might have only opened to the tuna.

“······.”

Seo Yongwoo, who had been staring blankly at Haedong’s blatant gaze directed toward the food, tilted his head slightly to one side. Even though he was wearing a comfortable t-shirt, his firm chest and the shoulder line that dropped at a right angle stood out prominently.

The words he spoke with an expressionless and shadowed face were just low and subdued.

“So you like me because I am a can opener.”

“Not to that extent···.”

He wanted to deny it, but it was also somewhat accurate. To live in a tiger’s den, one had to know how to flatter a little, but unfortunately, flattery was the one thing Haedong was worst at.

It felt like his soles were sweating from the tension. Haedong glanced sideways with wary eyes, constantly observing the tiger’s demeanor. Seo Yongwoo, who had been quietly watching that appearance, suddenly muttered in a deflated manner.

“Doing everything while only watching my mood. You are definitely my cat.”

Because of his monolid eyes, it sounded a bit mean-spirited. Haedong could not understand such a tiger at all, so he just kept huddling his body.

He had already experienced it when living as a cat, but Seo Yongwoo sometimes fussed over him in his cat form to the point of annoyance. And when he did that, it became dangerous. Now he was fussing about dating and such, and he no longer had the confidence to endure it. Tired to death from the questions, Haedong asked what he was curious about.

“But, was it not because of that controversy that you brought me along?”

“Right.”

“Is it okay to be playing around so leisurely like this···?”

In response to the question, Seo Yongwoo readily nodded his head. He had thought it was strange that he seemed excessively relaxed for some reason, and he pointed with his chin to the tablet PC on the table and said.

“I have already released the article.”

“When?”

“I handled everything while you were sleeping soundly for a long time.”

Already? Surprised, Haedong’s eyes twitched sensitively at the corners.

Haedong had been tormented by hard labor lately, so he had slept deeply and woken up late at night. In his half-asleep state, he had thought Seo Yongwoo kept stroking him and being annoying, so was that when he had created some news material?

‘What kind of article did he release?’

Out of curiosity, Haedong picked up the tablet PC. Actually, after the theft, when he had seen the cat abandonment controversy, he had been shocked, so his feelings of guilt were great.

Haedong got permission from Seo Yongwoo with just a single nod, and he pressed the password that he had sneaked a peek at back when he was a cat to turn on the tablet PC screen. As if Seo Yongwoo had been checking it continuously even before starting to cook, as soon as he unlocked it, several community sites popped up.

[Today’s BEST Posts]

Among them, he checked the best post that was placed most prominently in the main section. The hugely uploaded photo, which was larger than the text itself, caught his eye first.

‘M, my god.’

Haedong forgot even about the tuna and stared at the screen in complete horror.

There were two photos uploaded to the article, and they were photos of Haedong in his sleeping cat form taken together with Seo Yongwoo. Up to that point, it was somewhat okay.

The problem was that it was his own unsightly sleeping appearance with his eyes half-open.

The accumulated fatigue from that time had come all at once, and he had fallen into a trance-like sleep, so because of that, he had lain down completely like a person with the whites of his eyes rolling around wildly, which made it look just like he had fainted. Moreover, perhaps because the photo’s color tones had been adjusted poorly, his black body only showed its outlines, which made the fainting-like sleeping appearance stand out even more.

“Um, excuse me.”

“In reality, it is much cuter···.”

Whether he was sincere or not, Seo Yongwoo glanced at the photo once more and smirked with a sense of pride. Haedong’s fist clenched tightly on its own.

‘He took it so only he himself looks handsome.’

The cat next to him was sprawled out like a drunkard, which created an especially stark contrast.

Horrified, Haedong checked the reactions on the tablet. For such a desperate photo to spread like this. Even before, Seo Yongwoo had been so bad at taking photos that he had always hit him on the head to tell him to get his senses together, but he still seemed completely unaware of the problem.

Haedong quickly scanned the article and the reactions.

[☆Hot Topic Post]

[Title: Cat Dodong was just isolated to prevent stress because he was sick··· Abandonment is completely groundless]

[Content: (Photo) Actor Seo Yongwoo shared an update saying, ‘I hesitated to share the news that Dodong was sick, but he is slowly adapting to the house and getting better.’

Also, Seo Yongwoo said, ‘The reason Dodong is small and thin is because he is very picky with his food, so I am struggling every mealtime. Actually, I am paying more attention than to my own meals and making a daily menu for him,’ and he uploaded various meal photos to show his dedication toward the cat.]

[*Photo Source: Actor Seo Yongwoo SNS]

[└ I knew it would be like this]

[└ Where did all the people bashing Seo Yongwoo go lolololol]

[└ Well, to pretend there was no cat, he must have hidden all the supplies completely, it was a bit suspicious after all..]

[└ If the house was noisy because of the filming, the cat would have been really stressed, so the isolation was handled well]

[└ But why does the cat sleeping look like.. like he came back after a week of hard manual labor lololol]

[└ 222 lolololol]

[Title: Handsome man + cat combination is delicious]

[Content: (Photo) But I feel like this is the first time I have seen Seo Yongwoo smiling, it is so strange lol]

[└ Even in a photo like that, he looks fucking handsome..]

[└ His facial features have an insane presence all on their own]

[└ Even the black fur and the contours, it is like Seo Yongwoo sucked it all up]

[└ lololololololol]

In just one day, the reactions in the community had completely flipped.

As it was a topic that had gathered hot interest, the clarification article had already spread quickly across the web. For Haedong, who was the type to browse communities a lot, this kind of attention was to the point of being astonishing.

But the photo taken in the dim bedroom was a mess no matter how many times he looked at it.

“But why is the photo like that,”

Before his words could even continue fully, tuna sashimi was held right in front of Haedong’s nose. It seemed to take into consideration Haedong’s small mouth, as it had been cut into small pieces, and the wasabi was placed on it just moderately.