“No matter how well Auntie treats you, she’s someone who’ll stay only for a while and then leave. So don’t get too attached. Let’s keep a proper line, okay? Especially—never go near Grandpa. Got it? Especi—ow, that’s cold!”
Toward Han Jun, who was fogging up the glass door with his breath, splish—water droplets flew. Chairman Joo, who had been watering the garden, was glaring at him while gripping the end of a rubber hose tightly.
“Seriously, our Grandpa’s ears are sharp as ever.”
Unexpectedly drenched first thing in the morning, Han Jun shook off his clothes and headed down the garden steps. Yi-hyeon stood blankly by the door until Han Jun disappeared from sight, then slowly lowered himself and lay flat on the floor.
“Huh? What’s this, Louis? Is that thug really your ‘hyung’ to you? You know he’s gone now, so you’re feeling down, huh?”
Watching Yi-hyeon, Auntie told him to wait and went somewhere. A moment later, she returned holding a round, pretty, pale-yellow golf ball in her hand.
“Louis, look at this!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Yi-hyeon saw the golf ball rolling. At that moment, the little cotton-ball butt wiggled. Soon, the pelvis at the end of his smoothly curved spine shot high into the air.
His black eyes darted left and right as his tail swayed gently. He wiggled his butt for quite a while, then finally couldn’t resist the temptation—todadak! Yi-hyeon sprinted toward the golf ball.
***
Ugh, I’m tired.
Maybe because he was possessing the body of a puppy that hadn’t yet become an adult dog, even a little running around made drowsiness crash over him immediately. Once his eyes started to droop, he’d fall asleep in no time, so he picked up a golf ball in a color he liked and headed to a spot with the best view of the front gate.
Then, dodak, dodak, he moved all four legs to diligently smooth out the ground before curling his body into a neat little ball and lying down.
I hope Jun’s here when I wake up.
Rubbing his cheek against the golf ball he hugged close, Yi-hyeon drifted into a lazy late-morning nap.
***
Gurgle, gurgle.
Sensing something ominous from his body, Yi-hyeon, who had been lying on his back with his belly fully exposed, flailed and quickly righted himself.
Ah… did I drink too much water?
Startled by the dull pressure weighing down on his lower abdomen, Yi-hyeon sprang up and dashed toward the front door. He scratched at it mercilessly, but over the scritch-scratch sounds, he heard slow, steady breathing. Looking around, he saw Mi-jin asleep in a massage chair.
“Ang-ang!”
He tried barking, but Mi-jin only shifted in her sleep, not waking up.
Once she fell asleep, she slept so deeply that even if Han Jun turned on a speaker next to her and swore loudly, she wouldn’t wake.
What do I do? I can’t bark anymore. It’s about to come out.
Each time he made a sound, his stomach tensed, and he quickly reached his limit. As if the world hadn’t completely abandoned him, the tip of Yi-hyeon’s nose caught a whiff of fragrant grass. Thinking it was a scent drifting in from an outdoor space, Yi-hyeon began trotting toward its source.
With every step he took, a sharp twinge shot up to his shins.
Realizing the scent was coming from a side door connected to the kitchen, Yi-hyeon didn’t stop to think. He shoved his head through the narrow gap. His fluffy head popped through with a pop, and he wriggled out, grinning again.
The laundry room’s huge.
In a space larger than Yi-hyeon’s own room, four washing machines lined up facing each other, laundry spinning round and round inside. Watching them made it feel like his own mind was spinning too, so he squeezed his eyes shut.
Determined to escape this zone of chaos as quickly as possible, Yi-hyeon ran—and clang!—tumbled off somewhere.
After flailing his tiny four paws, he barely managed to find the ground, which felt fragrant and soft. Before he could properly gather his senses, the world suddenly shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck.
What the—? A ride? Am I floating in the air?
Overwhelming his panicked inner voice, someone’s voice rang out. It was very close.
“I’m telling you, it’s just sad for Miss Mi-yeon and the youngest young master, that’s all.”
Hearing human voices above him, Yi-hyeon rubbed his head against the white cloth wrapped around him. As he wriggled and made a gap—peek—he stuck his head out of the basket, and his eyes were met with a clear view of the outdoors, where several clothes-drying racks stood in a row.
The place he’d fallen into was a pile of fully dried laundry.
Thank god I fell onto soft fabric. That could’ve been really bad!
The conversation among the employees continued for a while as they set down Yi-hyeon’s basket and hung up laundry.
“So in the end, the engagement was broken because of the Chairman?”
“There was an election coming up. They dressed it up nicely, calling it a ‘capital investment,’ but at the core, wasn’t it just loan-shark money run by a former gangster back in the day? A man aiming to be a National Assembly member couldn’t exactly marry a gangster’s daughter.”
“My goodness…”
“He became an Assembly member at such a young age, his family background was outstanding, and he was good-looking too. I heard proposals were flooding in from everywhere.”
When someone suggested that perhaps he’d chosen a family that would solidly support his power rather than Mi-yeon’s beauty and graceful character, another employee slapped the speaker’s arm sharply.
“Watch your mouth. Miss Mi-jin isn’t at work today.”
While the employees put down the laundry and collected the clothes hanging on the racks, Yi-hyeon slipped out from between them and quickly hid himself among nearby landscaping vines, careful not to be seen.
So that’s what happened. But… is it really okay for me to hear such private family matters?
The family history of Han Jun, which he’d learned by chance, made Yi-hyeon uneasy. Even if he returned to his original body, he wouldn’t grow close to Han Jun—and even if they somehow did become close, Han Jun would never reveal his entire story so openly. If Han Jun ever found out Yi-hyeon knew all this…
…I might have to face those cold eyes I saw on entrance ceremony day again.
Shivering as a chill ran through him, Yi-hyeon firmly resolved that even if he returned to a human body and ended up in the same class as Han Jun again, he would never—absolutely never—let on that he knew.
But more importantly… with this many people watching, where am I supposed to poop?
Even though he’d become a puppy, the soul inside him was still nineteen—the most delicate and sensitive age of his life.
As Yi-hyeon scanned his surroundings, a fairly decent-looking tree caught his eye. It was reasonably large and sat in a blind spot, out of sight from where the laundry was being hung. On top of that, the CCTV camera was pointed in a different direction. If he was going to take care of his bodily needs, now was the time.
As soon as the person hanging laundry in front turns around, I’ll go.
Flattened against the dirt, Yi-hyeon flicked his tail back and forth while keeping his eyes on the employee.
As he waited, he began to feel a gaze fixed on him from somewhere. There was no way a person could be hiding in these cramped vines, and the employees hadn’t seen him sneak in. With the uneasy feeling growing stronger, Yi-hyeon slowly—swish—turned his head toward where the gaze seemed to be coming from.
A triangular-headed creature perched on a nearby branch was staring straight at him. When their eyes met, it tilted its head ninety degrees and raised its scythe-like forelegs high.
Even ordinary mantises you run into on the street are scary—now imagine one as big as your own body.
“Kyeng!”
A scream burst out of him reflexively.
The mantis was way too big. Of course, Yi-hyeon had shrunk—but he could even see the dew clinging to the creature’s enormous eyes. As Yi-hyeon bristled, his hackles standing on end, the mantis swished its forelegs—shik, shik.
G-Gross!
As if possessed by some wriggling parasite, the thing was disturbingly clever.
Realizing instinctively that Yi-hyeon was afraid, the mantis raised its forelegs even higher and swayed its body side to side. Then it unfolded its wings and made them tremble parrur. When Yi-hyeon lifted himself to run, the mantis must’ve thought he was charging—it flung its triangular mouth wide open and phududuk! flew straight at Yi-hyeon’s face.
“Kkyaeng!”
Startled out of his wits, Yi-hyeon squeezed his eyes shut and bolted. Bursting out of the rough dirt where the vines were planted, he raced across the soft lawn—then thud! crashed into something.
At once, warm, familiar comfort wrapped around him tightly.
“What happened, Louis? Where’s Auntie?”
Han Jun asked, holding his precious companion animal in his arms.
At Han Jun’s voice—soft and drowsy, like midday—Yi-hyeon’s stiffened body melted and went limp.
He didn’t know why Han Jun was home at this hour, but right now, that wasn’t what mattered.
“Whiiine. Whiiine.”
Jun, please—get this thing off me.
“What is this? Why do you have something like this stuck on your face?”
