Han Jun straightened his back and looked at the towel Yi-hyeon was holding out. The blue towel, embroidered with Congratulations on Madam Choi Malsuk’s 60th Birthday, was completely covered in fuzz from wear.
“I washed it yesterday and brought it today. It’s clean.”
“Yeah. Looks clean.”
Han Jun stretched his long, solid arm over the water fountain and took the towel.
“Earlier, that was really—”
“There’s no need to thank me. I didn’t help you—I just couldn’t stand watching that bastard’s behavior. That’s all. It was a coincidence. So I’d appreciate it if you didn’t misunderstand.”
“Yeah, I won’t. I know you didn’t help me on purpose, but it still helped either way. I just wanted to say thank you.”
Han Jun stared silently into Yi-hyeon’s eyes for a moment, then wiped his face with the towel. After that, he handed it back and turned away.
A faint scent drifted up from the towel, and without realizing it, Yi-hyeon brought it closer to his nose. As he thought it smelled similar to the scent he’d noticed a few days earlier in the half-open equipment storage room, Han Jun was already far away.
Han Jun had firmly brushed it off as a coincidence, but Yi-hyeon didn’t see it that way. It happened too often—frequent enough to feel almost inevitable—for it to be mere chance that Han Jun kept helping him. An inexplicable itch lightly tapped across Yi-hyeon’s thin skin before fading away.
***
A decent part-time job posting popped up.
It was for a pet-friendly café located between his school and the orphanage, and both the hourly wage and the hours suited him perfectly. Still, Yi-hyeon couldn’t help but wonder—had a café like that always existed there? It was a road he’d walked for three years, but this was the first he’d heard of a pet café being there.
Either way, it was too good an opportunity to pass up, so Yi-hyeon headed straight there after class. He hesitated briefly over whether it was right to work part-time as a third-year, but having dreamed of stepping onto a university campus even for just one semester, he decided to avoid the worst-case scenario—getting accepted but being unable to attend due to lack of tuition.
Getting into college is the goal. If my grades slip a little, I’ll just apply to school with lower cutoffs.
When he opened the café door, a woman who seemed to be the owner greeted him warmly with a smile.
“Then you’ll just need to bring a consent form from the director.”
“Yes. Then I’ll see you in a week. Oh, by the way—how long has this place been here?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I passed by here just a few days ago, but I don’t remember seeing it.”
“Maybe it hasn’t been long yet. And the interior doesn’t really catch the eye—”
Grrrgle.
It had been a long time since Yi-hyeon had heard his stomach make such a loud noise. He’d overslept that morning and skipped breakfast. Then, at school, a sudden fight broke out during lunch, and his tray got knocked over.
Since he was already eating for free, he felt awkward asking for another serving and headed back to the classroom instead—leading to this situation.
At the unmistakably loud sound, the owner went over to the display case and gathered a few items.
“Take this and eat it with your friends.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll eat as soon as I get home.”
“Then you can eat it after dinner.”
“You really don’t have to—thank you so much.”
“What’s there to thank me for? We’ll be seeing each other often from now on.”
Her generous kindness warmed Yi-hyeon’s heart.
Leaving the shop, he headed toward the bus stop while imagining the delighted faces of the younger kids when they saw the desserts. After walking for about three or four minutes—
“Please. Just until that child’s birthday—please let me stay by their side until then!”
Startled by the desperate voice, Yi-hyeon stopped and looked around. He didn’t see anyone in immediate danger, but a small Pomeranian without a harness was darting dangerously close to the road.
It was beside a four-lane road where cars sped by relentlessly—if someone didn’t act fast, something horrible was bound to happen. There was no owner in sight, and strangely, the people around seemed utterly indifferent to the dog.
The Pomeranian, which had been running frantically, suddenly froze as if it had seen something terrifying.
“Please. I’m begging you. I won’t ask for anything else.”
Again—the same desperate woman’s voice.
Yi-hyeon decided to save the dog first and think later. He ran over and scooped up the trembling white fluff, shaking violently with fear.
As the puppy squirmed frantically in his arms, trying to escape, Yi-hyeon soothed it, patting its back and telling it everything was okay.
That was when it happened.
Screeech—CRASH!
A car suddenly swerved onto the sidewalk and slammed straight into Yi-hyeon.
***
As Yi-hyeon shifted restlessly, a cool, refreshing scent brushed against his nose.
That scent…
The one he’d smelled in the gym storage room, and again at the water fountain with Han Jun. Wondering why he was suddenly smelling it now, Yi-hyeon slowly opened his eyes.
Where am I that it smells like Han Jun?
“Whiing. Whiing.”
At the sound of a whining puppy, Yi-hyeon jolted and tried to sit up, only to let out a low groan. His muscles throbbed painfully as he struggled to prop himself up on the floor.
What is this? A dog’s paw?
On the floor where he’d placed his hand—no, where he’d leaned—were two small clumps of white fur, ridiculously tiny in size. They seemed to belong to the owner of the whining he’d just heard.
But… paws shouldn’t be here.
From anyone’s perspective, it looked like Yi-hyeon had been lying on top of a puppy. Startled, he tried to lift himself again—
“Whimper.”
Something felt deeply wrong. He stared at the fluffy cotton-like lumps again—and then noticed they moved whenever he did.
When he stopped, the cotton stopped. When he wriggled, five tiny toes tipped with little claws wriggled too.
“Woof! Woof!”
AHHH! What the hell is this?!
Yi-hyeon’s body flopped wildly on the cushion as he panicked. A loud dog’s bark burst out from his own throat.
No way. This couldn’t be happening. He checked again—those two limbs, hands or feet he couldn’t even tell anymore. He flipped them over.
There—soft, squishy paw pads pressed into both palms. No, paw bottoms.
He hadn’t imagined it.
This is insane! How does this make any sense?!
At first, he thought he must be dreaming.
Wasn’t it absurd? He saved a puppy, got hit by a car, and turned into a puppy himself? What kind of webtoon nonsense was this?
But every time he clenched and unclenched his fists—no, paws—the squirming sensation felt far too real.
And that wasn’t all. They said you couldn’t feel pain or smell things in dreams, but every movement sent sharp aches through his body, and the cool, fruity scent filling the room was unmistakably vivid.
If—by some miracle—this wasn’t a dream, Yi-hyeon tried to briefly retrace his past.
…Did I die after getting hit by that car?
Was this heaven? Or had he been reincarnated as a dog?
As he seriously contemplated his own death, a man’s furious shout rang out from somewhere.
“Are you fucking insane?! You psychopath!”
He hadn’t even grasped the situation yet, but the sudden yelling was enough to startle him. Still, what shocked him more was his own reaction—without thinking, he shoved his face under an absurdly cute rabbit-quilted cushion.
Stunned by himself, Yi-hyeon let out a hollow laugh.
“If something like this happens again, I swear—I’ll really kill you with my own hands next time!”
Heavy footsteps followed—thud, thud. There was the grating sound of metal, then the distinct friction of screws grinding against steel.
Come to think of it, he’d been hearing a faint whirr for a while now.
Wind? No way.
Seeing the curtain flutter in the breeze slipping through a slightly open window, Yi-hyeon’s heart began pounding wildly at the strange, unfamiliar changes to his body.
Just as fear swelled—
Swish. Swish.
The sound of slippers dragging abruptly stopped right in front of the door.
Wanting to minimize any encounters until he could make sense of what was happening, Yi-hyeon hurriedly moved his four small paws. Each step made the rice-grain-sized claws at the tips of his toes tap against the marble floor.
Tap-tap. Tap-tap.
Screeeak.
The moment he shoved his small, chubby body behind the desk chair—
The door opened.
