PUPPY 16

“Do you take Juju for walks too?”

“Sometimes?”

“Can I go with you?”

Caught off guard by Seowoo’s question, Juwon hesitated to answer.

“Well, the thing is….”

The human Cha Juwon and the dog Juju, whom Seowoo had just seen, could not exist in the same place at the same time. While Juwon was racking his brain for an excuse to avoid a three-way confrontation, a brilliant idea flashed in his mind.

“I’ll just tell Juju to go over to your house to play.”

“My house?”

“Yeah. Juju is very independent, so he wanders around on his own just fine. And I saw there’s a doggy door in your wall.”

“How did you know there was a doggy door?”

Seowoo asked with a surprised expression at Juwon’s words. Indeed, in the wall of his grandparents’ house, there was a small hole that only small-bodied animals could pass through.

“I saw it.”

“That’s amazing. It’s small, so it must be hard to see.”

Weeds grew in front of the wall, and the hole was so small that it was almost unnoticeable unless you bent down to look closely. Seowoo marveled at Juwon’s keen eye. The hole was small, but it was big enough for Juju to get through. The problem, however, lay elsewhere.

“Ah… But I can’t bring a dog into our house.”

He could probably sneak one in, but if his grandmother or grandfather caught him, he would get an earful of worried nagging.

“Why? Does someone in your family have allergies?”

There was a time when he had respiratory complications when his health was very poor. For a while, he lived with a constant cough, so his family was obsessive about cleaning.

They made sure that dust didn’t accumulate even in hard-to-reach corners, so there was no way the entry of a shedding animal would be permitted. Although his grandmother and grandfather had been consistently preparing water and food for cats for several years, they always remained firm on this point.

“It’s not allergies… just something similar.”

Not wanting to bring up the fact that he had been sick as a child, Seowoo mumbled his answer.

“Hmm… I’ll just come over to your house to play again.”

“Okay.”

“But where are the other dogs? Aren’t there five of them?”

Seowoo’s gaze shifted to the dog photo hanging in the living room—that is, Juwon’s family photo.

“My hyung, I mean, Juju hyung, lives on his own. Um… the other dogs bite. So we don’t let them meet other people.”

“They bite?”

Seowoo looked surprised at Juwon’s unexpected explanation. The dogs in the photo looked as harmless as angels; it was surprising that they bit so badly that they couldn’t meet anyone other than their owner.

“Yeah, all their teeth are super sharp, so if you get bitten, your finger will get cut off.”

Seowoo spoke as he recalled Juju’s tiny teeth, which were lined up neatly like little grains of rice.

“Really? Juju didn’t seem like that.”

At Seowoo’s words, Juwon narrowed his eyes. When they met while he was in dog form, Seowoo had petted him so cautiously; when on earth had he inspected the inside of his mouth so thoroughly?

“He’s the prettiest one.”

He said, pointing to his own image in the family photo where the five dogs were gathered.

“Can I take a picture later?”

“A picture?”

“Yeah, of Juju.”

“Sure.”

At Juwon’s permission, Seowoo smiled faintly. Juwon, who was leaning back comfortably on the sofa with his arms crossed, asked.

“Do you like taking pictures?”

“Sometimes. Wanna see?”

Turning on his phone screen, Seowoo showed him his photo gallery. Other than the picture of the pork cutlet they had eaten together last time, almost all of them were photos of birds or cats that came to play in the yard. His interest plummeted.

Juwon, who had been looking at Seowoo’s phone with an impassive expression, shifted his gaze to Seowoo. He looked at the soft hair, the curve of his ear, and the soft cheek that still had peach fuzz on it, then opened his mouth.

“Should we take a picture together too?”

“A picture?”

As Seowoo turned his head, his face drew closer, and Juwon could feel his faint breath.

“Ah… sorry.”

“…Yeah.”

When their eyes met, Seowoo apologized and gently pushed Juwon away. Juwon didn’t understand why Seowoo was apologizing, but the atmosphere turned awkward, and he just cleared his throat.

“I have a Polaroid. Let’s go take one in the yard.”

The short silence, which had felt particularly long, was broken by Juwon’s words. Getting up from his seat, Juwon went into his room and took out the Polaroid camera and film he had kept in a drawer.

The Polaroid camera Juwon had belonged to his older sister; she had been sponsored with a new model and had tossed the old one to Juwon. Juwon threw on the school uniform shirt that he had left crumpled on the floor and came out.

“Where should we take it?”

At Juwon’s enthusiastic question, Seowoo looked out the window and answered blankly.

“…On the wooden porch?”

“Stand there. Lean against the pillar….”

“Like this?”

And by the time he came to his senses, Seowoo was awkwardly clutching the pillar and looking at Juwon.

“No, don’t look straight at me, look into the air.”

“…Like this?”

It was a rather baffling direction, but Seowoo did as Juwon said and stared blankly into the air.

“Taking it now.”

Saying that, Juwon stepped back. He lowered his body as if he were about to lie down on the yard floor and took the picture.

“I think it’ll turn out well.”

Soon, with a whirrr— sound, the Polaroid camera spat out the film. Seowoo, who had been leaning against the pillar, came down into the yard and looked at the film Juwon was flapping back and forth.

“You’re good at taking pictures.”

“…I practiced a lot.”

Juwon gave a bitter smile at Seowoo’s compliment. Juwon’s older sister, Cha Hyewon, the eldest of the three siblings, was a mega-influencer who ran a dog channel called ‘Genius Dog Grace’ and a human vlog channel called ‘Now, Hyewon’s Time’.

Nowadays, his sister’s filming team or manager took her pictures, but before she became this famous, Juwon and his hyung, Dowon, had been in charge of filming.

Juwon had more of a knack for taking pictures than his hyung, Dowon, so he had taken photos from all sorts of angles while his hyung, Dowon, silently held the lighting. Perhaps because he had been doing shoots every day for several years, lying on the floor when taking a full-body picture of someone had become second nature to him.

“Now let’s take one together.”

Seowoo, who had been looking at the photo in which his legs appeared twice as long as in real life, said to Juwon.

Again, their faces were suddenly close, and Seowoo held his breath.

When they first met at the convenience store, not at school, Juwon had immediately noticed that Seowoo had a shy personality.

As they spent more time together—walking to and from school every day and studying at the reading room—Seowoo seemed to be slowly letting his guard down, but lately, he had become cautious again.

He wasn’t jumpy or seemingly mindful of his words and actions like before, but whenever they got close, he would hold his breath or step back, trying to maintain a certain distance.

Seowoo’s cautious behavior was starting to become more and more noticeable.

To Juwon, Seowoo was his best friend, someone he wanted to be with from morning to night, and if possible, hang out with on the weekends too. He had never had a friend who evoked these feelings before, but it wasn’t a relationship that could be defined or explained in any way other than as friends.

This is all because Ryu Seowoo is so pretty that it’s getting to me. If it had been any other guy, I wouldn’t have given a damn whether they had a nosebleed, their face turned red, or they held their breath, and I would have forgotten about it right away.

Juwon casually slung his arm over Seowoo’s shoulder. He had made a preemptive move before the atmosphere could get awkward again. Although he was trying his best to act natural, Juwon could feel his heart pounding. His heart rate was already a bit on the fast side… but this was excessive. Was it malfunctioning?

“…Where should we take it?”

As Juwon muttered in a small voice, a large tree in a corner of the yard caught his eye.

“Should we take it in front of that tree over there?”

“Okay.”

Seowoo nodded at Juwon’s suggestion. Though it was still chilly in the mornings and evenings for it to be called spring, the large, deep-rooted tree that had endured the cold winter was already sprouting green leaves.

Juwon and Seowoo stood side by side in front of the tree. Juwon placed one arm on Seowoo’s shoulder and raised the camera.

“Taking it now. One, two….”

Three.

The camera shutter clicked at the same moment Seowoo gave a faint smile. Whirrrr— and a piece of film began to print.

The two of them stood in front of the tree, their arms still around each other’s shoulders, waiting for the photo to print.

“This one turned out well too.”

When Seowoo said that, Juwon raised his shoulders as if it were a given. Seowoo, who had been looking at the film held between Juwon’s long, straight fingers, this time took out the cell phone he had put in his pocket and said.

“Let’s take one with my phone too.”

Most of the pictures he had taken with his friends until now were just funny photos that served the purpose of making fun of each other. He had never even imagined taking a selfie with their faces close together, but Seowoo, right now, wanted to capture this very moment on his phone too.

“Taking it now.”

Juwon, holding Seowoo’s cell phone, stretched his arm out long. This time, without counting, Juwon pressed the shutter button in the middle of the screen unexpectedly.

Click-click-click-click-click-click-click.

With a frivolous sound, hundreds of burst shots were taken in an instant.

“Pick the best one out of these.”

This, too, was a piece of life wisdom he had learned from his influencer sister.