PUPPY 24

“Whine…”

As Juwon glared at the puppy with icy eyes, the puppy burrowed even deeper into Seowoo’s body.

“For a little thing, its paws…”

…are so brazen.Who does it think it’s being held by.

Knowing that Seowoo would look at him strangely if he said it out loud, Juwon clenched his teeth and held back the rest of his words. He had applied so much force that the masseter muscle in his jaw stood out. Juwon let out a deep breath once and then spoke to Seowoo.

“It’s still very young, its mom and dad must be looking for it.”

At Juwon’s words, the little puppy shivered. It looked more frightened than cold.

“Why is it suddenly doing this?”

Seowoo, who had been stroking the puppy’s fluffy brown fur, unzipped his hoodie, held the puppy inside, and then zipped his clothes back up.

“Is it a little warmer now?”

“…Ha.”

Juwon, who had been staring at the puppy held tightly in Seowoo’s arms with an incredulous expression, looked up at the blue sky. Letting out a deep sigh, Ha—, Juwon directed a low, threatening voice at the puppy.

“Grrrr…”

“Yelp…”

The puppy, which had been looking triumphant in Seowoo’s arms, lowered its eyes at Juwon’s single threat. Seowoo, perhaps thinking Juwon’s growl was a joke, laughed and said, ‘What’s wrong?’

Watching that, he felt a strange sensation. Seowoo’s bright smile was nice to see, but his chest area felt itchy and stifling, as if a hot fire had spread there. He had no idea how to express or define it.

He had asked Junseok hyung, ‘My heart feels like it’s going to explode when I’m with him, what should I do?’ but he hadn’t received a clear answer back. He’d been told that if it felt like it was going to physically explode, he should go to a veterinary hospital, and if it felt like it was going to psychologically explode, he should find the answer himself.

How could he find the answer himself when it wasn’t a clear-cut math problem or an English question he could solve with his eyes closed?

He felt so hopeless that, for the first time since he was born, he regretted being a therianthrope.

Am I clumsy with human emotions because I myself am half dog?

He was at the point of tearing his hair out over such useless thoughts.

“What are you going to do with him?”

Juwon said, pointing with his chin at the puppy snuggled in Seowoo’s arms. Still, there was one thing he had learned for sure this time. That he hated the sight of Seowoo holding another dog.

It was, precisely, the emotion of jealousy.

“Well…”

“You’re not thinking of raising him, are you?”

At Juwon’s question, Seowoo thought for a moment before answering.

“…I don’t know.”

In truth, the answer to this question was already decided. His grandmother and grandfather were staunchly against raising furry animals inside the house. Seowoo also respected his grandmother and grandfather’s opinion, but…

The puppy in his arms looked so small and fragile that it seemed to desperately need someone to take care of it.

“Looking at how its ears and claws are groomed, it seems to have an owner.”

“Yeah, I need to find its owner and send it back home.”

“Yelp!”

At Juwon’s words, the puppy in Seowoo’s arms suddenly let out a scream. The shiver that ran through its body again was felt fully by Seowoo.

“Seowoo, do you want to raise a puppy?”

Seowoo fell silent at Juwon’s question.

“……”

Since he wasn’t in a situation to raise one, he felt like he shouldn’t even say that he wanted to.

Seowoo rarely complained or whined. This was less an innate trait and more something learned during his upbringing.

Even as a child, Seowoo had moments when he wanted to be stubborn, get annoyed, and whine. The problem was that those moments were when he was receiving treatment or medication to cure his illness, so a child’s whining didn’t work at all. From a certain point on, he was just so exhausted that he would blankly receive his treatments.

As he grew up, the reason he couldn’t assert his own will changed. It was because of guilt.

Seowoo knew how terribly his family cherished him, so he had rarely been stubborn and pushed his own way.

From small things like drinking juice full of carrots without a word, to big things like accepting the future plans his elders had already laid out for him without complaint.

“I won’t scold you even if you say you want to raise a puppy. I’m just curious.”

Juwon said, shrugging his shoulders up and down. His tone didn’t feel gentle or kind, but strangely, Juwon’s words had a power that made him want to confess honestly.

“…I think I want to.”

“You do?”

“Yeah.”

Seowoo nodded. His eyes crinkled into soft crescents as a smile slowly spread across his face. Juwon watched him and smiled along, then firmly shook his head.

“Still, not this one. It’s too immature. And it’s ugly.”

Juwon said, tapping the puppy’s chin with his finger. Grrr. At the word ‘ugly,’ the little puppy made a vicious expression, different from before.

“Maybe it can’t recognize people because it’s still young. Who are you growling at?”

It must have grown up hearing ‘so pretty, so pretty’ so much that it lost its fear and talked back at a single word of ‘ugly.’

“It’s not ugly. Look, it’s cute.”

Seowoo tried to lift the puppy and bring it in front of Juwon’s face. But he couldn’t, because the puppy tried to resist from within Seowoo’s arms.

“It must be cold, it keeps trying to be held.”

As Seowoo muttered as if to himself, Juwon raised one eyebrow slantedly. Then, he held out both his hands to Seowoo.

“I’ll hold him. My hands are warm, you know.”

“You will? Thanks.”

Seowoo, having said that, handed the puppy to Juwon. Juwon’s hand, which brushed against his, was warm just as he had said.

Perhaps because his body temperature was on the high side, not only Juwon’s hands but other parts of him were also hot. Whenever he put his arm around his shoulders, a pleasant warmth would spread along with the weight.

He had even thought that the breaths Juwon exhaled when their faces were close were hot. And his lips too…

Seowoo, whose thoughts had reached that point, shook his head, and changing the subject, he asked.

“By the way, how should we find its owner?”

“I have a way.”

Juwon, holding the puppy securely with one hand, said to Seowoo. The distance between the two, which had narrowed as he took the puppy, remained as it was, not widening.

“What is it?”

“There’s a veterinary hospital I go to often…”

Before Juwon could finish his sentence, the puppy began to bark as if it were screaming.

“It must not want to go to the hospital.”

It was fascinating how a puppy that was still so young could understand the word ‘hospital’ and detest it. Seowoo felt a sense of kinship at the sight and smiled.

Juwon stared blankly at the way Seowoo’s long eyelashes gently lowered.

“…I’ll ask if they’ve seen anyone looking for him.”

Ugh, his heart was pounding like a crazy bastard again. Juwon clutched at the t-shirt over his chest with the hand that wasn’t holding the puppy.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“There’s no… Ah, just check on apps and stuff to see if there are any posts looking for a brown-furred puppy.”

Juwon, who was about to say there was no need to help, corrected his answer. If he did nothing, Seowoo, with his personality, might just worry by himself.

There would probably be no trace of this mutt on any app. Unless it was reported as a missing child…

“Okay. I’ll look for it.”

“Ah, I’ll have him sleep at my place tonight.”

“…Why?”

“It’ll be more comfortable for him to sleep inside than outside.”

“That’s true.”

Seowoo nodded in agreement. No matter how many hot water packs he put in or how much he wrapped him in a padded jacket, it wouldn’t be able to block out the cold night air. Juwon readjusted his hold on the puppy, which was limp as if it had resigned itself to its fate.

“Bye.”

Just as Juwon was pondering how he could stay here longer, Seowoo bid him a farewell that was like an order to leave. Thinking it was a shame but unavoidable, he turned to leave, but Seowoo called out to him.

“Hey, Cha Juwon.”

“Huh?”

As their eyes met, both Seowoo and Juwon closed their mouths as if on cue. The first to gather courage was Seowoo.

“You know.”

“Yeah.”

Juwon answered as if nothing was wrong, but he felt like his mouth was going dry. It would have been nice if he could have answered a little more coolly. Answering with ‘Huh?’ while holding a dog in one hand seemed so lame.

“Last time, we.”

“…Yeah. Why?”

Seowoo, who had closed his mouth at Juwon’s question, shook his head. Then, he smiled with his eyes and gave a simple farewell.

“It’s nothing. Just, bye.”

“…Yeah. See you tomorrow.”

After saying that, Juwon ran his hands through his hair frantically, said ‘See you tomorrow’ again, and then disappeared out the main gate.

Is everything okay now?

Did we just go back to being friends like before? No, the expression ‘go back’ itself wasn’t right. There was never a time when they weren’t friends.

In fact, when he looked at the other guys, they would get so physical with each other that something like pressing lips to a nose would seem like nothing. Of course, a phrase like ‘You crazy bastard, get lost,’ would follow like a set.

So, what happened that day was all a mistake.

A ridiculous mistake where they both missed the timing to resolve the awkward atmosphere and laugh it off. Seowoo stared blankly at the empty yard.

Even though the awkward atmosphere with Juwon, which had been his biggest worry recently, had been resolved, he didn’t feel relieved.