PUPPY 47

“Jjokko.”

Seowoo stroked Juwon, who was lying on his back, once and then got up. He brought a box from the corner of the room. Seeing the delivery box with Seowoo’s name on it, Juwon tilted his head in curiosity.

“Woof!”

‘What is that?’

As Seowoo started to open the box, Juwon sat next to him and watched with interest. He sniffed it with a sniff, sniff, but it didn’t seem to be a snack.

“This is a present for you.”

“Woof!”

When the rustling packaging was opened, a bone-shaped toy appeared. At the word ‘present,’ Juwon lifted his head and looked at Seowoo.

“I don’t know if you have an owner, but seeing you come to play all the time, I thought you might be bored.”

Seowoo mumbled quietly, thinking the puppy wouldn’t understand his words.

“You can hide treats in here. Let’s play with this later with something yummy inside.”

“Whine….”

‘Seowoo….’

At Seowoo’s gift, which was filled with delicate consideration, Juwon’s black eyes shone brightly. Seowoo gently stroked Jjokko’s head again.

“You’re cute. Jjokko.”

Juwon leaned his body against the floor, lying at an angle, and looked at Seowoo, who was meeting his gaze. He was well aware that he looked cute in his puppy form, but he hoped he wasn’t seen as just cute.

Even though he looked like this, as a descendant of wild dogs, he had a wild side left in him!

“I hope you have a kind owner.”

Seowoo said while gently stroking Juwon’s head. After meeting Gureum’s former owner, Seowoo had thought a lot about Juwon, that is, Jjokko. He was too clean to be a stray, but he felt sorry that he didn’t seem to be receiving the same devoted care as Jinsooni or Coco. Seeing him come to a stranger, Seowoo’s, house every evening, it seemed his owner didn’t play with him much.

“Woof! Woof!”

‘I like you so much, Seowoo….’

Regardless of whatever misunderstanding Seowoo was building up, Juwon didn’t care and rubbed his body all over Seowoo. When he licked Seowoo’s smooth cheek, Seowoo laughed like air escaping with a pfft.

“That tickles. Stop.”

“Woof!”

‘Thanks for the present.’

Seowoo, unable to understand Juwon’s words, stroked him and asked in a bittersweet voice.

“You’re not sick anywhere, are you?”

Juwon, who had the toy in his mouth, shook his head vigorously to show that he wasn’t sick anywhere.

“It would be less frustrating if I could understand what dogs are saying…. Is there something like a translator?”

“Woof! Woof!”

‘Those things are all scams. You’d be better off asking me when I’m human.’

Juwon barked as he watched Seowoo pick up his phone and search for things like ‘dog language interpretation app’ and ‘dog translator machine.’ He wished he could convey everything he wanted to say with his eyes, but it was a shame it could only be conveyed in the same language.

“Bought it.”

“Woof!”

‘What?!’

While he was distracted for a moment, Seowoo had quickly completed the payment. Juwon squeezed his face between Seowoo’s arms and looked at the phone screen. He tried to press the screen with his paw to cancel the order, but the processing was so fast it quickly changed to ‘awaiting shipment.’ No, a useless toy like this ships this quickly?

Juwon froze with his mouth wide open.

“When this arrives tomorrow, I’ll have to try it on you and Gureum. The reviews are good, too.”

“Woof….”

Juwon shook his head from side to side, looking back and forth between the phone screen and Seowoo.

‘Well, I guess a toy like that could be fun.’

Juwon chuckled lowly, psst, as he usually would, but since he was in his dog form, only a rather frivolous sound, wheeze—, came out.

“My Jjokko, Jjokko.”

Seowoo called Juwon and kissed him on the forehead. Then he gently brushed the top of Juwon’s front paw with his fingertips. He did it because he wanted to see the pink paw pads. But Juwon stubbornly kept his paws planted on the floor.

“I want to kiss your paw pads….”

Seowoo said in a disappointed voice. Although Jjokko sometimes appeared a bit grubby with noticeable dust around his mouth, his paw pads were, strangely, always a pure pink color.

And they had a very nice smell….

Seeing the lingering disappointment in Seowoo’s eyes, Juwon made an awkward sound.

“Woof….”

‘That’s a bit difficult.’

Having his paw pads unilaterally kissed was something he had never considered, so Juwon made a sound of bewilderment. It seemed like it would be best to run away for today. Juwon pulled his front paw out from under Seowoo’s fingers and picked up the toy he had received as a gift.

“Woof.”

‘I’m leaving. See you tomorrow.’

“You’re leaving already?”

Seowoo replied as if he had understood Juwon’s words perfectly. When Juwon nodded twice, Seowoo opened the door for him.

“Come play tomorrow too, Jjokko.”

“Woof.”

‘Okay.’

“Tomorrow, I’ll be able to understand everything you say.”

“Woof….”

‘I doubt it.’

With the toy held tightly in his mouth, Juwon raised only his right front paw to wave goodbye. In case he might drop it, Juwon trotted lightly down the stairs with his mouth clamped shut. Then he stood in front of Gureum’s box.

“Arf.”

Because he was holding the toy, the sound came out a bit muffled. The reason he had stopped by to see Gureum on his way home was to show off his toy.

‘Seowoo gave me a present.’

“Whimper….”

Gureum only gave a short reply to Juwon. It was a lukewarm reaction that seemed uninterested, but Juwon was in a good mood.

“Woof.”

‘I’m going.’

Leaving a brief farewell, Juwon raised only his right front paw to wave, just as he had done to Seowoo earlier.

“Whine….”

Gureum also said goodbye to Juwon in a small, fading voice.

‘Seowoo gave me a present.’

He pushed the toy out of the doggy door first, then got on his stomach and squeezed through. Juwon, holding the safely escaped toy in his mouth, began to head home, wiggling his butt.

‘Seowoo gave me a present.’

The sound didn’t come out well because his mouth was full of the toy, but Juwon felt like singing a song. Back inside his house, Juwon looked around before running energetically to the lawn.

‘I have to cherish the present Seowoo gave me.’

With the toy still in his mouth, Juwon began to dig frantically at the ground. The evenly laid grass began to fly everywhere. Juwon dug in a frenzy, and after the hole was satisfyingly deep, he placed the toy inside.

‘This way, no one will be able to find it. Only I can play with it.’

Juwon began to gather the scattered dirt to fill the hole. As the deep hole was filled and the ground became level, Juwon’s breathing also grew more ragged. Exhausted, Juwon lifted his head and looked at the house. The lights were off, so it seemed no one was home. Just in case, Juwon looked around once, shook his head vigorously, and transformed into his human form.

“Ah, I’m tired….”

Instantly naked, Juwon stood on the lawn.

“Hah….”

Letting out a deep breath, Juwon’s head dropped. It was ridiculous that he was tired just from digging a hole not even one meter deep. The moment he felt the soft, cool touch of the dirt on the soles of his feet was nice….

“Ah, my toy.”

Following his animal instincts, he had buried the toy without realizing it. Burying a gift in the ground…. From a human perspective, it was a damn rude thing to do, so Juwon started digging at the dirt again.

🦴

Juwon’s parents returned home after finishing their schedule of visiting an overseas dumpling factory and subsequent meetings. Seeing that the amount of kibble they had portioned out in a container for him to eat was untouched, his parents made Juwon sit at the dining table.

“Ah, I don’t need to eat the kibble.”

Juwon said in an indifferent voice as he scooped up the round kibble, which was sprinkled with white nutritional powder, with a spoon. However, his parents didn’t seem to have any intention of letting him off.

“You went to the vet with a puppy a friend of yours is fostering, right?”

“Oh, that? The previous owner was a real psycho.”

Juwon replied, taking a large spoonful of kibble. He shook his head at the question, ‘Should I pour some milk or water on it?’ It looked like Cocoa Puffs, but the taste was completely different, and mixing it with water or milk made it taste even worse.

“What on earth happened? Do you know how surprised we were when we saw the credit card charge?”

“I sent a text in advance so you wouldn’t be surprised.”

“The text came in right after the charge notification popped up.”

“You said it was a young puppy, what happened?”

At his parents’ question, Juwon took a large bite of kibble, swallowed, and then spoke.

“He said he adopted two from a shop, but one had a defect so he threw it away. The puppy was too young to even understand words.”

“…That’s something else.”

“You did a good thing.”

Although he had condensed a long situation into a very short summary, it seemed to be a sufficient explanation for his parents, who wore bitter expressions.

“Yeah…. It feels like I’m getting a reward for doing a good deed.”

Juwon glanced at his vibrating phone screen and said with a smile. A message had arrived from Seowoo.

Ever since that time on the walking path when they had almost kissed, the two of them had been in almost constant contact. In fact, they were either together or in contact at all times, except when they were sleeping.

As Seowoo had a cautious personality, Juwon was also not rushing things and was matching the pace of his emotions to Seowoo’s. However, this incident had made him realize that he never knew when a ‘kiss timing’ might come, so these days he was practically living with things like mint candies on him.

“Juwon.”

His mom called to Juwon, who was smiling at the thought of Seowoo, in a firm tone.

“What?”

“Don’t just let this go in one ear and out the other. Listen carefully to what Mom and Dad have to say.”