Cat Therapy Chapter 2.5

‘That’s enough.’

“···This is the first time I’ve seen a cat that can’t groom itself like this, really.”

Click.

Of all moments, it captured the instant when Haedong was glaring at Seo Yongwoo.

In the study, Haedong was sitting on the tablet PC and getting angry, and the impudent cat combined with the owner’s relaxed smile that simply found it cute resulted in a fairly affectionate photo.

It was not the tender concept he wanted, but the photo was much better compared to the ones Seo Yongwoo had taken randomly. It was not a burdensome frontal face like an ID photo, and it was not just showing the eyes of the black cat.

‘Look.’

The cat hugged Seo Yongwoo’s wrist and checked the phone, then made a dissatisfied face but still gave it a passing grade for now.

Seo Yongwoo also liked the photo quite a bit, so he sent it to his agency and looked at Haedong sprawled on the desk. Perhaps tired from completing the task, the cat was curling up his body like an ink bun. On Seo Yongwoo’s laptop, no less.

As he stroked that small head, Seo Yongwoo asked.

“But when you were a cat, you used to stand up to me well?”

Nyaaang.

“You take photos better than I thought.”

Seo Yongwoo asked while reorganizing Haedong’s body whose fur had become a mess again. Haedong, who was just receiving the touch pleasantly, glared at Seo Yongwoo as if he could not understand.

‘Why is he suddenly praising me···?’

Since praise was unfamiliar, Haedong felt suspicion first. Perhaps reading the reluctant expression in that glaring gaze, Seo Yongwoo explained again.

“You have talent in photography. Didn’t you know?”

‘Better than Mister···.’

Haedong blinked with his two eyes wide open.

He could not take photos but had an eye for them, perhaps. It was not a very credible statement, so his reaction could not help but be lukewarm.

In front of him, Seo Yongwoo picked up his phone and showed a photo he had taken as a test when Haedong was in human form.

“This one. This is the one you took earlier.”

The photo was of Seo Yongwoo in the study feeding the giant tank and sitting on a chair looking at the tablet PC.

Blending with the dim surroundings, it turned out to be a photo that quite stimulated the imagination. In the back tank, fish were opening and closing their mouths, swarming upward toward the food, and in contrast, Seo Yongwoo’s expressionless face was shown as he sat loosely with his back to it, looking at documents. Moreover, the blue light from the tank illuminated half of his face, highlighting his cold and curt gaze. Because of that, even the large tank seemed to represent the world he owned and played with.

In fact, at that time, Seo Yongwoo had just installed a fly-catching game on the tablet PC to try with the cat. He had not expected Haedong to capture that scene in such an artistic photo.

As if embarrassed by the praise, the cat turned his head haughtily and grumbled.

‘I just took what I liked. The fish···.’

“You can’t take a photo that stimulates the imagination just anyone.”

“······.”

“I’ll give you a camera. From now on, try taking various photos.”

Purr.

Since praise was unfamiliar, Haedong tucked in his front paws and wrapped his tail around his body. But he could not help the purring sound that kept coming out, so he tried to look only at other places.

At that time, Seo Yongwoo got up from his seat and brought a large camera that he had only opened once. It was an expensive camera he had bought when Haedong was pretending to be a cat and living like that, but it was an item that had never been used even once because Haedong had run away before he could properly take photos with it.

Haedong stared blankly at the camera that was as big as his body and flicked his tail. It looked heavy at a glance and seemed difficult to operate, but since Seo Yongwoo was telling him to try it with smooth words, he became half doubtful.

‘Is this also part of clearing up the theft···?’

As expected, there would be no right to refuse. Haedong just used the camera as a chin rest and observed Seo Yongwoo. The tiger with broadly spread shoulders was changing his phone wallpaper to a photo he had taken together with him. Haedong ended up looking at him with a sense of strangeness, as he kept treating him affectionately like before and even giving praise.

‘···Do I really take good photos?’

Still, the words that Seo Yongwoo had said he had talent somehow tickled the round tips of his paws.

That morning, Haedong, who had returned to human form, started taking photos beginning with his favorite things. The first thing he took was the sunlight seeping through the window gap and the large fish tank.

It had been ten days since he started living together with Seo Yongwoo again before he knew it.

What Haedong felt in the meantime was that Seo Yongwoo was a very cunning tiger.

‘He really does all sorts of things.’

When living with Seo Yongwoo, that phrase rose to the tip of his tongue at least once an hour. This tiger used all sorts of clever tricks to tempt him, who was a cat. Haedong had noticed several kinds just by himself.

First, he wanted to always be close to Haedong. That seemed to be because he was a beast and grew up a bit lonely, so he let it pass and ignored it, but the problem was that Seo Yongwoo tempted him in ways he could not ignore.

‘The house is too cold···.’

Outrageously, even though it was late autumn, he kept the house very cold. To the extent that Haedong, who was a medium-long haired breed, had to bury his nose in his tail to sleep.

Then, outrageously, he only warmed his own box-shaped bed very warmly.

‘Only sleeping in a warm place by himself.’

This played a big part in why Haedong ended up sleeping with the tiger on purpose. In a luxurious house overflowing with all sorts of expensive things, only one bed was warm. The cat, who had been shivering like a stray and wandering around the house, had no choice but to settle in the box-shaped bed. Still, since the fluffy bed was to his liking, Haedong always fell asleep with his whole body spread out flat like a green onion pancake.

Up to there, he had gotten used to it now, but recently, he learned one more of Seo Yongwoo’s outrageous schemes. It was when Seo Yongwoo was watching a movie, which was one of his hobbies.

“Dodong. Want to watch a movie together?”

‘···What’s that light shining on the mountain···.’

When he was a cat, Haedong sat on the cat tower and observed the light shining from the transmission tower on the mountain. He ignored Seo Yongwoo’s words by flicking his tail once.

The movies Seo Yongwoo watched were far more often not to Haedong’s taste. He watched variously from difficult French films to boring flops without discrimination, so there were many times when Haedong got sleepy.

When the cat just ignored him, a sound of placing something light down came from behind.

Thud.

Looking back slightly, there was a box placed next to Seo Yongwoo. It was an upside-down tissue box.

Again.

Seo Yongwoo often placed boxes nearby, but only after realizing that the position of the boxes was gradually getting closer to Seo Yongwoo did Haedong notice that it was the tiger’s scheme. Moreover, once he saw him taking out liquor late at night and preparing an empty box instead of snacks, he was convinced it was on purpose.

‘Childish.’

After noticing that, Haedong ignored it because his pride was hurt.

He just looked down from the top of the cat tower with uninterested eyes. In the dim living room, his facial lines occasionally followed the TV light occupying one wall, appearing green or red. Seeing him like this, one could understand why he became an actor, with his distinct and handsome features. His unique languid and emotionless atmosphere really resembled the owner of the mountain, a tiger.

But to Haedong, more than the impressive face, the appropriately sized box placed in front of him kept catching his eye.

‘A new box···.’

Seo Yongwoo always brought new sizes of boxes like a ghost and aroused his curiosity. It looked just narrow enough to be more to his liking.

In the end, the cat glanced a few times and then succumbed completely to the temptation, jumping down from the cat tower and entering the tissue box.

Purr.

The satisfaction of his whole body fitting tightly made the purring sound come out naturally. In contentment, Haedong purred and ended up watching the movie together after all. It was a bit outrageous that Seo Yongwoo was stroking his back from behind, but since the warm and large hand was to his liking, he always ended up forgetting his pride.

Still, the movie Seo Yongwoo was watching today was quite interesting.

‘Black Road?’

It was the crime movie ‘Black Road’ where Seo Yongwoo starred and delivered an outstanding performance. It was a movie he had already seen, but since it was a masterpiece, Haedong watched it again attentively.

‘He suits suits well.’

Since the first viewing had been shocking, the content of the movie that Haedong remembered was interesting.

In the movie ‘Black Road,’ Seo Yongwoo was a perfect and competent businessman, but his other side was a psychopathic killer.

The killer, from childhood, was adopted by a wealthy elderly couple and outwardly lived loved, but grew up receiving subtle discrimination from the biological child born later.

Moreover, the biological child did not hide the sense of superiority arising from that discrimination toward the killer, and even pretended to pity him while despising him.

‘Why did your mom and dad abandon you, hyung?’

‘······.’

‘Poor···. But hyung is so smart like this.’

Because of that, as the killer grew up, he increasingly doubted the love of his adoptive parents and yearned for true love.

As an adult, even after becoming a successful businessman, he met various people to fill that void and acted as the perfect lover. But there was no partner who reciprocated his feelings to that extent, and instead, they cheated or gradually showed disappointing sides.

‘I give such perfect love.’

Why, why, why.

In the end, the killer, who tested and doubted the affection of every partner he met, killed them to keep them by his side whenever he saw signs of them trying to leave him. However, he soon lost interest in the unresponsive corpse and buried it in his own ranch.

Then one day, the killer happened to reunite with his younger sibling’s friend who had particularly followed him well in childhood.

‘Hyung··· Can’t you let me stay just for today?’

The boy, who had grown beautifully, was in dire straits due to poverty, and the killer felt interest and brought the boy home, spending a lot of time together. And as the boy awkwardly tried to show only good sides to him, who was just a past connection, he gradually felt interest.

But one day, the boy suddenly disappeared.

The killer chased after the boy to reclaim his new amusement and finally caught him. However, as the boy kept hiding something, he ended up repeating the same mistake as before. Only after committing the murder did he belatedly discover a gift containing a tie pin and a small note in the boy’s possession.

[Hyung, I never had any dreams or desires in my life.

But this feeling toward you since ten years ago remains the same, so it was confusing and strange, but after meeting you again, I think I know.

You were my first love, and that feeling hasn’t changed even after time passed.

I did have one dream that I truly wanted.]

The killer, who discovered the boy’s love, smiled broadly as if truly happy. Covered in blood all over his body.

‘Perfect.’

After that, the killer brought the boy’s corpse home, preserved it, and kept it taxidermied.

And after time passed, one day, the younger sibling came to the house to borrow money from him. The younger sibling, while in a position to ask for help, still showed pity toward his brother.

At that, the killer impulsively showed the taxidermied boy’s corpse like a trophy and said proudly.

This is my greatest achievement.

The movie ultimately perfectly portrayed the tragedy of the killer who never knew true love until the end through Seo Yongwoo’s outstanding performance, sweeping various awards. Since Haedong had watched it with interest, he concentrated on the movie again, wanting to see the mad killer’s appearance once more.