READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 235
Even after returning home, the pure white fluff still lingers in my mind.
Late at night, Siyeon, who had been drawing until late, absentmindedly plays with her hair from behind the chair back.
Fluffy, the texture is nice, but it feels like something is missing.
“…Mari?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s wrong? You’ve been touching my hair without saying anything.”
“No, it’s just…”
After a while of just touching her hair, Siyeon tilts her head back and looks at me, sensing something odd.
It felt awkward to say, “I was comparing the texture of your hair to a dog’s fur,” so I just mumbled and let go.
My hand, now awkwardly hanging, loses its target and ends up ruffling my own hair instead.
After awkwardly leaving Siyeon’s room, I grab Gomteng in my own room.
“Gah, gwaaah…”
“Hmm.”
Unlike touching Siyeon’s hair, my hands move without hesitation.
I let out a dissatisfied groan at the stiff, artificial feel of the fur.
It’s like touching the permed hair of a 60-year-old aunt—curly and stiff.
Feeling completely unsatisfied, I toss Gomteng back to his original spot.
“Kek!”
“Hmm.”
Then, another ambiguous groan.
It’s almost bedtime, so I plug my smartphone into the charger and lie down on the bed, half-asleep, lost in the internet.
As I fiddle with my phone, a grumpy voice comes from the cushion.
“Hey, if you have a problem, just say it!”
“Huh? No, nothing.”
Gomteng, who seems annoyed by all the touching, yells out, even cursing.
Since I don’t really have any complaints, I just tap my phone indifferently.
“Seriously, you’re so clueless…”
Gomteng, looking exasperated, grabs his waist in mid-air and frowns.
Whether Gomteng curses or not, I feel strangely indifferent.
What should I call this feeling? Emptiness?
The obsession with fluffiness carried over to school the next day.
I kept asking my classmates if they had pets.
“We have two dogs at home—”
“We have one cat.”
“I don’t have a dog or cat… but I have a hamster.”
“A parrot, have you heard of a cockatoo?”
“Long ago, I had a hedgehog, but the smell was too much, so I gave it to a relative…”
Everyone shared their different experiences, filling the air with stories about their pets.
What I learned was that more households than I thought had various kinds of pets.
Dogs and cats were common, but there were also homes with hamsters, parrots, and even hedgehogs.
Among them, the rarest were the parrots with specific breeds and something called a sugar glider, which I had never heard of.
It’s some kind of flying squirrel, I guess.
After listening to everyone’s pet stories for a while, Hyewon suddenly draped her arms over my shoulders from behind and asked.
“But why? Do you have a pet, Mari?”
“No, not really…”
As I held Hyewon’s arms, I hesitated before answering.
The word “no” has been stuck to my lips since yesterday and today.
Should I say I have one? Or that I plan to get one?
The scales in my heart just won’t tip to one side.
“Want to see pictures of my dog after school?”
“Yeah, show me!”
Even as my internal debate continued, the pet talk kept flowing.
Since I was the one who sparked the conversation, I couldn’t help but be part of it.
Anyway, it’s always “I don’t have a cat” or “I don’t have a dog.”
Feeling oddly left out, I couldn’t join the conversation…
“Our Mimi keeps picking up stuff during walks.”
“Oh, that… if you give her treats when she does that, she’ll stop.”
“Really?”
After hovering on the sidelines, my mouth moved on its own.
I thought it was good they were talking among themselves without involving me, but my big mouth just had to chime in.
“Hey, Mari, do you have a dog?”
“Uh… no, I just walked a dog for a friend once.”
“Really? What kind of dog?”
“A white Pomeranian.”
The lies flowed effortlessly, and the conversation continued.
Just knowing the dog’s name and breed was enough to keep up the act.
“Do you have any pictures?”
“Uh, yeah…”
I regretted not taking any pictures last night in Bucheon.
I should’ve taken at least one.
After school, on the way home, I noticed dogs on leashes that I usually wouldn’t pay attention to.
Even the stray cats with their light steps seemed to catch my eye today.
“……”
“Mari, Mari?”
Lost in thought, I hear Siyeon’s voice beside me.
Her repeated calls make me lift my head, which had been slightly lowered.
She must have called me a few times, but I didn’t hear.
“…Huh, yeah?”
I quickly answer, stumbling over my words.
Siyeon’s face shows a “really?” expression.
She looks at me, blinking, and then asks casually.
“Do you want a cat?”
“No, why would I want a cat…”
Though the animal type was a bit off, her question hit the mark, given my recent behavior.
I reflexively shook my head and denied it, but deep down, I wasn’t entirely against the idea.
They say the mouth says no, but the body is honest—this must be what they mean.
Scratching the bridge of my nose, I quicken my pace home, hoping to move past this.
Somehow, I managed to suppress my desires and the pet talk eventually faded.
…Of course, I knew it would.
By mid-May, the craving for fluffy textures slowly faded.
But then, it suddenly barged into our lives.
“Mari, Mari! Look at this!?”
“Meow?”
…Well, to be precise, Siyeon brought it.
A cat, carried under her arms, dragged into our house.
Stray cats usually wouldn’t allow such handling, but this one just sat calmly in Siyeon’s hands, blinking.
With a “What’s up, humans?” expression, it looked around, checking out its new home.
A white cat with orange patches, commonly called a “cheese cat.”
Siyeon, struggling to hold it, tried to put it down by the shoe rack.
“Hey, wait, wait, wait!”
Panicking more than ever, I stopped Siyeon in her tracks.
Why does she keep doing things without thinking lately?
Since she already brought it home, I couldn’t just kick it out. Plus, strays might have ticks or something.
I told Siyeon not to bring it further inside and ended up going to a large supermarket to buy cat supplies.
I got a carrier and some snacks to make it easier to take the cat to the vet, then headed to a nearby animal hospital.
After a while, the vet gave us the cat’s health report.
“…For a stray, it’s quite healthy, and there are no ticks. It’s already neutered, so just give it a bath when you get home.”
The cat was surprisingly healthy and clean for a stray.
It was even neutered, which I didn’t know about.
I was worried about ticks jumping onto our blankets, but thankfully, that wasn’t an issue.
The vet suggested just giving it a bath, so I asked a few more questions.
“Do you have special cat shampoo?”
“We sell that here too. If you don’t have any, you can buy it along with the other stuff.”
“Okay, thank you.”
I bowed and left the examination room.
After paying the bill and picking up some basic cat supplies, we headed home.
Thanks to Siyeon’s impulsive act, we now had a cat in the house.
In a past life, I bought chicks from a school vendor and they all died within two days. Now, a cat?
Back then, I didn’t know chicks needed a lot of heat.
Anyway, since we’ve taken it in, we can’t just abandon it.
‘Cat supplies… how many do we even need?’
Feeling resigned, I started searching online.
Carrier, a small blanket for the carrier, dry or wet food, food and water bowls, treats, litter, litter box (one more than the number of cats), litter scoop, cat tree, scratcher, toys, nail clippers, brush (depending on short or long hair), collar…
‘Why are there so many?’
I almost fainted at the variety of litter options—bentonite, wood pellets, crystal, cassava, tofu litter… What even are these?
Wow, raising a cat seems harder than raising a kid!