Ch. 17 A Benevolent Cat (2)

This was my last full day at this pet hotel. Tomorrow would be the day Tae-il would return from his trip and grant me glorious freedom.

At the moment, Si-yul lifted me into his arms and set me down in the examination room. He seemed a little miffed that I had the nerve to live in his office without so much as a thank you.

I curled up in a lower cabinet yawned widely. Today was going to be another lazy day.

“We need to fasten this up a little,” Si-yul explained to an owner.

“Oh my God, how bad is it?”

“Not too bad. Hmmm…but not enough to need anesthesia.”

“But wouldn’t it hurt?”

“It will, but not to the degree that anesthesia is necessary.”

Si-yul explained that the cost of anesthetizing animals varied from hospital to hospital, but it was roughly 100,000 won. (TN: about $110)

He would assess the animal’s condition first, then factor in the risk and cost. Statistically, out of a hundred dogs, five would not wake up from anesthesia. Even if a drug was approved for animals of a certain species, each one had individual biological differences just as humans did.

Humans were legally required to have pre-anesthesia tests administered to them, but in the case of animals, the owner can refuse the tests in the name of saving money. With the possibility of the pet not waking up around five percent, the 100,000 won might not be worth the cost for the owner.

“You mean the injury isn’t that bad?”

“Yes, it’ll be over in no time. If you could step outside for a while, please.”

To Si-yul, anesthesia was not worth justifying unless the procedure was serious. When general anesthesia was used on animals, it was said to have a large effect on the body, even causing behavioral changes.

However, that meant Si-yul was the one who ended up bloodied by the animal patients. Because he did not always use anesthetic, his hands bore the scars and scratches of rough animals. Si-yul also could have made more money by recommending anesthesia, but he chose to take a more straightforward treatment instead.

“Okay, doctor…How long will it take?” the owner asked.

Si-yul took a moment to think. “We can finish in half an hour. Don’t worry, it won’t be too long.”

When the owner left, my eyes swiveled back to the anxious white Persian cat on the exam table. The familiarity of the scene made me think we were quite similar.

On second glance, however, the cat was a far more lovely sight than me, with its long white hair and diamond blue eyes. What an elegant and pretty creature it was. It looked so opposite of my short-haired, black-furred self.

My heart weakened as I looked at the princess-like Persian nervously study its surroundings. It was not trying to get away from Si-yul. One of the requirements of a vet was to know how to be able to handle animals, and he worked to calm the pretty cat’s trembling.

“Myang?”

Then out of nowhere, the Persian cat screeched and dove towards me.

“Myang-yaaaang!”

I was able to dodge it in a split second, thanks to my sharp vision and quick reflexes.

After landing heavily in the empty space where I was only a moment before, the Persian bounded up to the top of the tall cabinet. Si-yul reached out his hands to try and grab it, but it simply jumped back down from the cabinet and sprinted away.

The examination room quickly turned into a scene of chaos. Si-yul didn’t expect that the trembling Persian would turn out to be a wild goose.

Frightened by the strange place and the absence of its owner, the Persian cat streaked through the examination room, knocking over beakers and picture frames from their positions. The frenzy in the room was only magnified by Si-yul’s attempts to capture it.

Ujangchang!

“This nuisance!”

“Umyamyamya!” the cat squealed.

Si-yul finally managed to capture the Persian with both his hands. It was acted far more aggressively than I did, and attempted to continue its attack. Si-yul was forced to hold the cat at a distance, but he did not let go even as the cat tried to claw at him.

He tried to calm the Persian to treat it, but it was so freaked that he may have to resort to anesthesia after all. Its inner thigh was cut from a fight with another cat, and he couldn’t risk it injuring itself further. However, he found the Persian more difficult to handle than usual, despite his usual competence in subduing animals.

If I was being honest, I was entertained watching Si-yul struggle. It was a kind of schadenfreude for all the times that the human teased me.

“Myaaaaang!” the Persian screeched.

“Ugh! Stop!”

Si-yul continued to struggle against the Person’s desperate attacks, and he took an instinctive step backwards. One of his slippers slipped right off his feet without him realizing it.

He attempted to negotiate peace with the Persian, but the cat wasn’t as intelligent as I was. It had seemed to have lost all its reason and wouldn’t stop.

“Kyaang!”

“Son of a—ouch!”

“Syaaag! Ukag!” the Persian spat at him.

I watched their fight with my heart pounding with excitement, but then a glint on the floor caught my eye. The Persian had knocked over a beaker earlier, and a sharp glass shard was sticking up from the ground like a blade behind him.

“Huh? Hey! Watch out there!” I cried out.

However, Si-yul showed no indication that he heard me. He was still trying to calm the Persian cat.

“Myaaa!” I jumped from the cabinet to the top of the table and cried out to Si-yul again. However, he seemed unable to hear me from under the cat’s horrible shrieks.

I nervously turned on the table and watched Si-yul’s feet. The glass shard was as tall as an index finger, and its sharp edge was certain to cause serious bleeding.

“Hey, hey! Over there! Mya!”

But despite my warnings, he kept gradually retreating towards the waiting trap.

What should I do? My golden eyes widened.

“Listen! You can’t step there!”

The shard of glass glinted as ominously as a knife. I felt nauseous. My head spun as I imagined the blade shoving into flesh and piercing right to the bone.

I tried to reach out to stop him, but my hand was only a cat’s hand.

“Gaaah!”

“Yaaaa!”

Just then, the Persian bit his hand, and he lost his balance and started to fall backwards.

To my sharp eyes, it was like slow-motion.

If Si-yul fell, it wouldn’t be his foot that would get pierced by the glass. The shard would gouge right at the back of his head.

“Danger—” My cry of warning was swallowed up by the fierce Persian’s yells. I made a split-second decision.

“Kaaoong!” the white cat screeched.

“Stop that, you—!” Si-yul yelled. He was forced to release the Persian cat after it bit him and ran away. However, he found that he couldn’t move. “Huh?”

I was holding on to him from behind with all my might.

“…Don’t…don’t look back.” My voice came out as a tremble.

Even though he was clearly told not to look back, he turned his head instinctively towards the soft presence that embraced him from behind. He was certain that there was only him and the two cats in the examination room. However, there was a woman’s voice, and someone hugging his body.

“…Huh?” Si-yul looked at the scene behind him, and was a hundred times more shocked than when he first heard a cat speak. He thought he had lost his mind.

Because slightly shielded by his sky blue coat, there was definitely a human holding him from behind.

A naked human woman with a pale, soft body.

Her voice was the same voice as the black cat he had been paying keen attention to lately.

“Don’t…don’t look!” I begged.

My face was red.

Why couldn’t I just ignore whether he was horribly stabbed or killed?

Why did I have to be naked when I transformed?