Ryu Tae-ha tilted his head to the side, even more exaggeratedly than before.
“And why exactly is that so damn awful? As leader, I recommended a different Guide. That's all.”
“At the very least, you should've had someone else do it. It shouldn't have come straight from the leader's mouth.”
The moment Yeo-ul finished speaking, a new mutant monster emerged from the gate. Ryu Tae-ha jerked his chin toward it, a signal to focus on the mission, and stepped back.
“I'm not like you, leader.”
Ryu Tae-ha, who had been forming a teleport gate, turned his head at the sound of Yeo-ul's voice.
“I won't confuse Da-woon hyung, and I won't put him through any heartache. Me? I don't make the person I like suffer.”
Yeo-ul's low voice rang out flat and even, threading through the shrieks of the mutant monster.
Having heard that bold declaration, Ryu Tae-ha left behind a response that was very much like him before vanishing.
“Sure. You go ahead and take all the good things for yourself.”
Around midday, with brilliant sunlight pouring down, Da-woon lay on the bed and gave the toy fishing rod a light shake.
The feather attached to the long stick swayed back and forth, as if taunting. A snow-white front paw stretched out to catch it, weakly batting at the feather, tap-tap.
Lying on his side, Da-woon watched the cat paw at the feather for a long while. Thanks to eating well and sleeping well, the little one's small face had grown somehow even rounder, and a drowsy languor hung over it.
“Still hurting?”
Even though two days had passed since the trip to the animal hospital, the cat still had no energy.
“You're just a youngster, so why's your recovery this slow? What am I going to do with you?”
Clicking his tongue in sympathy, he set down the fishing rod and gently stroked the cat.
The truth was, the one saying all this was running just as low on energy himself.
Da-woon had spent two whole days lounging around the dorm with the cat, yet his condition was anything but good. He'd assumed that, like last time, sleeping deeply and waking up would restore him, but no such luck. If anything, his body grew more and more sluggish, and eventually he even developed a mild fever.
Why did resting only make him feel worse...?
Kneading the cat's body like dough, Da-woon let out a deep sigh. Even the breath he exhaled carried a faint heat.
The cat, glancing up at him, slowly rose to its feet and then suddenly did something endearing.
“Are you really... a genius cat?”
The small body, wriggling along, dragged over the blanket that lay some distance away. The cat had been pushed to the edge of the bed by Da-woon's tossing and turning, and now it pulled the blanket back over him, then burrowed in between Da-woon and the blanket, even taking on the role of a warm little heater.
“You're too adorable, I could die.”
Cracking a smile, Da-woon scooped the soft little body into his arms. Because its fur was so snow-white, it really did feel like handling flour dough.
No. It felt even better than that.
“What are you, to be this cute? Hm? You're this precious, so what am I supposed to do with you?”
Meow.
Swishing its tail, the cat mimicked Da-woon and wrapped its short front paws around his head. It was really no more than resting its paws on him, but the intention to hold him back was conveyed all the same.
Da-woon idly passed the time, handling the little body that stretched out like a rice cake this way and that. Thanks to the cat doing nothing but adorable things, there wasn't a dull moment.
Whenever he touched his forehead over the bothersome low fever or let out a small cough, the cat would diligently groom him as though nursing him, patting him with its long tail.
“Are you taking care of me? Thanks. Aww, you precious thing.”
Of course, it was Da-woon alone assigning meaning to it, but it brought him a fair bit of comfort. He was experiencing, in real time, the much-rumored effects of animal therapy.
“Going to sleep again? Eat first, then sleep.”
The cat's eyes slid weakly shut. Maybe it wasn't hungry yet, having had a hearty breakfast of kibble that morning, because the cat closed its eyes without a hint of reluctance.
Da-woon played with the sleeping cat's front paws for a bit, then stretched and got up.
“Hah, I should at least take a half-bath.”
Thinking soaking his stiff body in hot water might help a little, he climbed down from the bed. At the sound, the cat cracked open one eye, and when Da-woon yanked off his shirt, it shot bolt upright.
Meow-!
“What. You want to wash up together too?”
Having already bathed with the cat often, Da-woon knew well that it liked water. Unable to bring himself to turn away the cat that kept stubbornly squeezing into the shower booth even in its sickly state, he'd smile and wash up with it every day.
They say cats are supposed to hate water, but this little guy was peculiar in all sorts of ways.
“I'm doing a half-bath today. The water's hot, so it'll be rough on you.”
Meow.
Holding the cat in one arm, Da-woon pulled down his pants. He set the clothes he'd been wearing on the bed, and just as he opened the bathroom door in his underwear to start filling the tub first—
Bzzt.
The phone he'd left on the bed vibrated. Da-woon thought about ignoring it, but at the continued buzzing he finally turned and went over.
[Hyung, did you eat?]
It was a text from Yeo-ul. He'd already gotten a similar one early that morning. Even in the middle of busy work, he worried about the meals of the person lounging at home.
[Yeah, you?]
The instant Da-woon sent his reply, the phone buzzed again.
[I ate.]
[Are you resting well?]
[Aren't you bored?]
“Ah, just send it all in one...”
With the youngest firing off one sentence at a time, the phone buzzed and buzzed without pause.
[Yeah, I'm fine. I'm not bored. You're doing your job well, right? Don't worry about me, focus on your work. You'll get hurt.]
Da-woon was the type to cram his texts densely into a single block. The tone was more matter-of-fact than how he actually spoke, but the content was warm.
It seemed that warmth reached the one reading it, too.
[Wow]
[Are you worrying about me?]
Along with the quick reply, a flurry of loud, delighted emoticons came pouring in. At the parade of cute emoticons that didn't suit Yeo-ul's image in the slightest, Da-woon burst out laughing.
“The youngest is the youngest, all right.”
Da-woon leaned his upper body back against the bed and gave the texts his focus for a moment. The cat rubbed its face against his bare chest and slyly covered the phone screen with its tail.
Meow.
“Yeah, just a sec.”
Just as Da-woon pressed his chin down on the crown of the cat's head, a new text arrived. This time it wasn't a chopped-up fragment but a photo.
“Now what's this?”
Yeo-ul had sent a picture with only half his face in the frame. His handsome features had been deliberately scrunched up into a sulky, near-crying expression, all captured in the photo.
[I don't want to work]
[I want to play with you, hyung]
Emoticons making the exact same face as Yeo-ul in the photo filled the screen in a row. He must have really not wanted to work, because Yeo-ul sent over not just selfies but a whole pile of utterly pointless pictures.
The gate's pitch-black sky, a broken pebble, the word “Da-woon” spelled out with those stones, and even a bizarrely shaped flower.
Looking through the more than ten photos one by one in a frenzy, Da-woon wore a rather delighted expression.
The youngest acting like the youngest wasn't annoying so much as, honestly, fun. It felt like chatting with a little brother.
“And why'd he take this one?”
Chuckling pointlessly at a photo of an empty water bottle, Da-woon glanced down at the cat. It had been quiet, so he'd thought it had fallen asleep again. But the cat was watching him obediently.
“Yeo-ul's funny, huh. He really must not want to work.”
Da-woon held the phone screen up to the cat and showed it the photos.
But the cat paid the photos no mind, gazing only at Da-woon. Unaware of this, Da-woon kept slowly swiping through the pictures Yeo-ul had sent, snickering.
The cat huffed a breath through its nose and leaned languidly into Da-woon's embrace. Its swishing tail gently wrapped around his bared upper body.
After keeping the texting going for several minutes, Da-woon began to wind the conversation down. Caught up in talking about the photos, he'd forgotten that Yeo-ul was on duty.
[Get back to work now. Let's hang out once it's all over. Quit texting and hang in there.]
Yeo-ul, who had been replying in real time, fell quiet for a moment. Watching the read receipt disappear, Da-woon kept the screen up and waited for a response. Sure enough, the reply came quickly.
[Got it]
[Rest well]
[Eat your meals properly]
[Don't eat instant noodles]
“Ugh, so noisy.”
Lightly digging at his ear, Da-woon finally set down the phone. Having stared at the small screen for so long, his eyes had gone all sore.
But contrary to his grumbling words, his expression looked fairly cheerful. Bothersome as it was, he didn't seem to mind Yeo-ul's attention and concern for him.
“Now let's get washed up.”
Meow!
Just as he readjusted his grip on the cat that had waited so patiently and turned back toward the bathroom, the phone rang again.
Bzzzt.
This time it wasn't a text but a call. And the caller was different, too. Though the business was much the same.
“Da-woon, are you resting well?”
The instant he pressed the answer button, Ryu Tae-ha's soft, honeyed voice flowed out, and the crease between Da-woon's brows deepened.
