PUPPY 50

“Hey.”

“You two came together.”

“Yeah.”

Seowoo took the now-useless dog translator out of his bag and handed it to Kim Dongwon.

“Try this with your dog at home.”

Kim Dongwon, who had opened the box, widened his eyes and asked Seowoo.

“Oh, I saw this on YouXube. How is it?”

“I don’t know if it works properly, but the dog called me trash.”

At Seowoo’s words, Juwon, who was standing next to him, frowned and showed his discomfort. That translator only displayed less than half of what Juwon had said.

“I think… it’s probably true.”

“Right? Suddenly it’s super credible.”

Hearing Seowoo’s words, his friends snickered and laughed. But Kim Dongwon, perhaps wanting to believe that the dog language translator worked properly, held the translator up to Oh Dongjae’s mouth with a serious expression.

“You try making a dog sound. Let’s see if it works.”

“Awooo—.”

Oh Dongjae playfully imitated a howl. Hearing the sound, Juwon let out a low chuckle, psst—.

“Hey, what kind of dog sound is that? What the… it’s translating?”

“What does it say?”

The friends focused their gazes on the screen, which said it was translating. For some reason, it was intriguing and tense. Not long after, the loading finished and a sentence translating Oh Dongjae’s howl appeared on the screen. It was very primal.

[I am hungry.]

“Isn’t this just the default setting? I’ll try. Woof.”

He was always hungry, so it wasn’t wrong, but it was impossible to gauge the translator’s performance with this.

“It’s not recognizing it. Try again. With a little more soul.”

“Arf, arf.”

Kim Dongwon imitated his Yorkshire Terrier, which he had raised for a long time. He was mimicking the voice that could no longer bark as sharply as it used to due to old age. Juwon, who had scoffed at Oh Dongjae’s howl, this time added a word of praise.

“Oh…. As expected of a dog owner, so realistic.”

“Yeah, it weirdly sounds like a real dog.”

Seowoo also nodded his head in agreement with his friends’ words.

“What does it say?”

[I am extremely tired.]

“Isn’t this just a random lottery? Ryu Seowoo, how much did you pay for this?”

At his friends’ question, Seowoo told them the purchase price. Perhaps because the price was much higher than they had expected, they all looked at Seowoo with surprised expressions.

“Isn’t Ryu Seowoo actually the son of a chaebol family or something?”

“No wonder he spends money on things like this.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Juwon, who had been quiet, chimed in with his friends this time. Seowoo’s mouth fell open slightly in shock. With Juwon, who always praised him with boundless positivity, acting like this, he felt like he really had become someone who spent money recklessly.

“Juwon, you try it too.”

“What.”

“Make a dog sound into this translator.”

Seowoo held the translator out in front of Juwon’s mouth. Juwon looked at Seowoo, grinned with a smirk, and barked as usual.

“Woof, woof.”

“That sound doesn’t match his size.”

“But it really sounds like a dog, doesn’t it? The resonance is different.”

Although it was very brief, the friends were impressed by Juwon’s realistic imitation of a dog’s bark. Seowoo was impressed for a different reason.

“…It’s similar.”

It was because the dog sound Juwon had just imitated resembled the sound of Jjokko, who came to play in his room every day. Juwon, who heard Seowoo’s small voice, pointed to the translator with his chin.

“Is it recognizing it?”

“Yeah, it is. Hold on.”

“What does it say?”

When the notification that the translation was complete appeared, the friends, including Juwon, asked Seowoo curiously. However, Seowoo’s lips, which were looking at the translator’s screen, did not open easily. Seowoo, who had been slightly twitching his lips, looked at Juwon.

“……”

“……”

The gazes of Juwon and Seowoo met in mid-air. Juwon narrowed his eyes slightly, as if asking what was wrong, and the friends, unable to bear the suspense, took the translator from Seowoo’s hand.

“Huh…?”

“This is funny.”

“Ah….”

Kim Dongwon’s bewilderment, Oh Dongjae’s snickering, and Yang Juhyeon’s sigh passed in succession.

Seowoo read the sentence that appeared on the dog language translator once more.

[I like you.]

It was the first positive sentence the translator had ever shown.

“Is it working properly or not?”

Kim Dongwon’s mind, which had been planning to converse with his Yorkshire Terrier at home through the translator, became confused. To say it had no credibility at all, there was also a part of it that seemed to be somewhat correct.

Seowoo was just as confused. A person had imitated a dog, and it translated that as ‘I like you’…. To dismiss it as complete nonsense, it was a statement he wanted to believe too much.

“Isn’t the translator working properly? You two are doing a lovestagram, aren’t you?”

Oh Dongjae said to Kim Dongwon in a teasing voice.

“Ah, right, it’s a bigger Republic of Korea. I, making such a narrow-minded statement again.”

“I’m going to try it today. Thanks, Ryu Seowoo. Ah, but have you guys seen the picture that was posted in your apartment complex?”

Kim Dongwon carefully put the translator Seowoo had given him into his bag as if he had made up his mind. Then he asked his friends who lived in the same apartment complex.

“The management office made an announcement yesterday.”

“I thought it was just about the cats, but did you see the added CCTV picture next to it?”

“Yeah, stealing a dog? It was tied up in front of the supermarket and they just took it. It was so fucking creepy. We should report it to Unanswered Questions, for real.”

It seemed to be quite the hot topic in the apartment complex, as the Dong-Dong-Ju trio were discussing it with serious expressions.

“What’s going on?”

Cats, dogs, CCTV, and so on. Seowoo couldn’t grasp the full context from just the words, so he asked his friends for an explanation. Juwon seemed to be just as curious, as he crossed his arms and looked at the Dong-Dong-Ju trio with a serious expression.

“A lot of cats live in our apartment complex, right? There are people who feed them. This is also a constant source of fights and chaos, but… anyway, someone supposedly stole the cats that those people were taking care of. They put up a flyer asking for witnesses to contact them.”

“All the cats?”

Seowoo’s expression grew serious as he listened to the explanation. He recalled the image of his grandfather looking at the yard with a worried expression the other day.

“No, not all of them…. A few of them disappeared.”

“But then some person came forward saying they lost their dog. And they posted a screenshot of the CCTV footage, and they said it seems to be the same person who stole the cats.”

“The guy wearing a hat pulled down low, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Isn’t he a total psychopath? Psychopaths always start by torturing animals.”

The friends talked about the rumors circulating in the apartment complex about the culprit: that it might be a homeless person, not a resident; that they might be holding a grudge; that they might be a psychopath, and so on. As Seowoo listened to the story, something flashed in his mind.

“Have you guys heard that rumor too?”

“What?”

“A dog meat trader has been going around our neighborhood for a while now….”

Seowoo confessed the rumor he had heard from Seo Jaeha and had not told anyone else to his friends.

🦴

When he came home after studying late at the study room, not only were his family members there, but also the lady who lived in the house at the end of the alley. Coco was nestled in the lady’s arms, but unlike usual, she had a leash on.

“So, you shouldn’t let this one sleep outside if you can help it.”

“Oh dear…. What is really going on.”

He could hear the lady and his grandmother sighing and talking. But he couldn’t hear exactly what they were talking about.

“Seowoo is here. I’ll be going now.”

“Oh. Okay. Be careful on your way home.”

“Make sure to tie him up, or at least bring him inside the entryway.”

The adults seemed to be trying to hide the conversation they had just been having from Seowoo. Good news is announced loudly, but ominous rumors and bad news are all whispered quietly.

The moment Seowoo realized from the words added to their farewell that the topic of conversation had been Gureum, he instinctively knew that this was related to the rumor about the dog meat trader.

“Seowoo, hurry up and go to your room.”

“…Yes. I’ll go in now.”

Normally, his grandparents would have asked him kindly if he was tired or what he had eaten, but seeing them urge him to go in, it seemed something was definitely up. It didn’t seem like they would answer him even if he asked now, so Seowoo slowly climbed the stairs.

“Seowoo goes in and out of the front door, so maybe it’s better to keep him in that small room.”

“That seems better. We’re not keeping him forever, just for a day or two….”

Seowoo listened as attentively as possible to the conversation his grandmother and grandfather were having in the yard. Before long, Seowoo realized that his grandmother and grandfather were discussing the issue of bringing Gureum into the house.

It was clearly because of the rumor that had shaken not only the small residential alleys but also the large apartment complexes. He could hear Gureum, held in his grandfather’s arms, letting out small, whining, whimper-whimper, sounds.

For the first time, a furry animal had entered his grandmother and grandfather’s house. Although it was a choice made by his grandmother and grandfather out of compassion, it held a much greater meaning for Seowoo.