Chapter 5: Practice First
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
With her eyes sparkling, Ha-eun nodded, seeming pleased.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I don’t know about before, but now I think it’s doable. Because we have you.”
I could understand Ha-eun’s reaction.
With the Animal Communicating superpower, operating a pet café wouldn’t be an issue.
One of the problems that can arise in a pet café is related to the animals’ bathroom habits. But with my ability, I could possibly get them to use designated spots or even train them to use human toilets.
“Animals using toilets? That would make the views skyrocket…!”
And that’s not all. Since I can communicate with animals, I could immediately resolve any issues that come up, and I could prevent incidents like animals attacking customers.
However, there was one problem.
“Ha-eun, there’s an important issue.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know if I can actually do that. Sure, I can talk to animals and seem to get along with them, but we don’t know the exact extent of my ability, right? If they ignore me when I tell them to do something or not to do something, it could end up being just another mediocre pet café. And you know what most mediocre pet cafés are like.”
“Hmm, that’s true.”
Ha-eun nodded, fully understanding my point. But Yeong-ji didn’t seem to get it.
“Then we can’t open a pet café…?”
Seeing Yeong-ji on the verge of tears, I couldn’t help but break into a sweat.
‘Help!’
I urgently sent a signal to Ha-eun for assistance. Maybe she picked up on my telepathy, as she patted Yeong-ji’s head and began to speak.
“We’re not saying we can’t. We just need to make sure of Su-hwan’s ability first. Just like how we need a lot of preparation to raise animals, we need to prepare too. You understand, right?”
Hearing that it wasn’t impossible, a bright smile returned to Yeong-ji’s face. I let out a sigh of relief at the sight.
Although she sometimes appeared a bit scatterbrained, in fact, she was Ha-eun’s cousin.
While she strictly called Ha-eun “boss” at the café and didn’t show any signs of their cousin relationship, that didn’t change the fact that she was Ha-eun’s cousin.
Anyway, if we couldn’t calm her down and she ended up bursting into tears, who knows what kind of revenge a mentally exhausted Ha-eun would take on me.
After confirming that the ticking time bomb had been defused, I took a gulp of my coffee.
The heat from the sudden tension cooled down with the iced Americano.
“So, are you going to proceed with the detailed verification right away?”
“I should. But since the detailed verification will take some time, I need to do some self-testing first.”
“Self-testing? How are you going to do that?”
“Well… Cotton Punch is already a well-trained dog, so there’s no point testing on him…”
The only people around me who had pets were Ha-eun’s parents.
Then, listening to our conversation, Yeong-ji raised her hand high.
“I have a cat!”
“Huh? You have a cat?”
At my question, Yeong-ji shook her head vigorously.
Wondering what she meant by saying she had a cat when she didn’t, I watched as she gulped down her coffee in one go and stood up.
“Follow me!”
“…Let’s go for now.”
Watching her swiftly head toward the back door of the café, Ha-eun and I could only follow in bewilderment.
And when we stepped out the back door with Ha-eun, what we saw was Yeong-ji peeling a sausage for a cat.
The cat looked like a typical stray, but for a stray cat, its cream-colored fur was glossy and clean. It didn’t seem sick or injured either.
“What’s with this cat?”
“This is Nam-cat*!” (t/l note: “Nam” used for male or masculine related words/ male noun)
“…Nam-cat?”
“Male-cat! I named him!”
I couldn’t understand what was going on in Yeong-ji’s head.
“What are you staring at? Never seen a cat before?”
“Why do these alley cats always have such foul mouths…”
Moreover, the cat named Nam-cat, who was glaring at me and speaking, had absolutely no manners.
“Su-hwan.”
“Ah, sorry.”
Under Ha-eun’s stern gaze for using harsh language in front of Yeong-ji, I raised both hands in surrender and squatted down.
I didn’t know where it came from or whose cat it was, but it was the perfect subject to test my ability.
“You said his name is Nam-cat, right? Instead of staying there, could you go over there?”
At my words, the cat that Yeong-ji had named Nam-cat stared intently at me.
Just when I thought it wasn’t going to work— the cat stood up and moved. To the spot I pointed at.
“Wow!”
Seeing Nam-cat move according to my words, Yeong-ji clapped her hands with a bright smile, clearly amazed.
But I wasn’t satisfied with just that. Not only did I have him move here and there, but I also went as far as asking him to fetch things, like you would with a dog.
And the result was inevitable.
“You little punk, am I your errand boy?”
“Ah!”
Unable to tolerate my commands any longer, the cat gave me a cat punch.
Unfortunately, since I was squatting, I was hit right on the ligament area of my knee by the cat punch. My body flinched greatly as my knee reflex kicked in.
“Pfft.”
“Heehee, boss’s boyfriend got hit by Nam-cat!”
The two ladies who witnessed the scene burst into laughter.
How embarrassing.
“What are you doing?”
Ignoring Yeong-ji, I glared at Nam-cat, who had embarrassed me in front of Ha-eun. But Nam-cat didn’t feel the least bit threatened by my gaze.
“What are you doing? If you’re going to boss me around like some lackey, you should at least give me something. I’m only listening because I can talk to a human, but who do you take me for?”
Staring straight at me, Nam-cat looked like he was ready to give me another cat punch at any moment, so I shut my mouth.
And I realized once again that my ability wasn’t to control animals, but to communicate with them.
‘Well, I’d be pissed too if someone ordered me around without any reward.’
Fully empathizing, I reached over and snatched a sausage that was peeking out of Yeong-ji’s pocket.
“Ah! My sausage!”
“I’ll buy you a tastier one next time.”
“Then since you’re taking this one too, buy me two!”
Unable to resist the promise of something tastier, Yeong-ji handed me the sausage from her other pocket as well.
I looked at her in disbelief for a moment, but I quickly peeled the sausage and offered it to Nam-cat.
Chop chop chop—
The sausage, stripped of its plastic wrap and held out to Nam-cat, disappeared into the cat’s mouth in an instant.
Munching away at the sausage, Nam-cat sat down, satisfied, and assumed the familiar “loaf” position, tucking its paws under its belly.
“Wow! Boss’s boyfriend! Can I pet Nam-cat?”
“Huh? Haven’t you petted it before?”
“He comes when called and eats when I give him snacks, but I haven’t been able to actually touch him yet.”
Watching her fidget her fingers eagerly, clearly wanting to pet the cat, I found her extremely cute.
“Nam-cat, is it okay if she pets you a little? She won’t hurt you.”
“…Sure.”
Perhaps because Nam-cat had received plenty of snacks from Yeongji, he hesitated but then agreed. I nodded at Yeongji.
Seeing my nod, Yeongji immediately started petting Nam-cat with both hands.
Her face lit up with joy, and her giggling made it obvious just how happy she was.
“Yeongji, are you that happy?”
“I’m so happy!”
Yeongji nodded vigorously with a look of pure bliss in response to Ha-eun’s question.
“O-Okay, that’s enough…! Not there, no!”
However, as Yeongji’s petting became more and more vigorous, Nam-cat began to resist. She was petting him everywhere — maybe a bit too much.
“Yeongji, stop now.”
“Aww.”
“Nam-cat doesn’t like it. You wouldn’t like it either if someone started poking your belly, right? Nam-cat feels the same way. You have to be more careful when petting him.”
Reluctantly, Yeongji withdrew her hands, leaving Nam-cat free. He quietly scooted away from her, understandably wanting a little space after that overly enthusiastic petting.
If Yeongji had been using fluorescent paint, Nam-cat would probably be glowing head to tail by now, so I could understand his reaction.
“Still, it seems to be working, right? Doesn’t this show we have a good chance?”
“Yeah, I think so too. But just to be sure, we should run a few more tests.”
He’d followed basic commands like walking here and there and fetching things, but we needed to experiment with other tasks to fully test my ability.
“Should we keep him here for a while then? I know we can’t bring him into the café itself, but this area should be fine.”
“Yes! Yes! Let’s keep him!”
Yeongji enthusiastically jumped up and down, waving her arms in excitement.
‘Did she get possessed by the ghost of someone who couldn’t own a cat?’
Faced with her excited demands, I could only nod my head in agreement.
Despite her personal wishes, Nam-cat’s training proceeded quite smoothly.
○ ◑ ● ◐ ○ ◑ ● ◐ ○
“Paw!”
“Meow.”
‘Why is she so obsessed with cats, anyway?’
I shook my head, watching Yeongji crouch in front of Nam-cat near the café’s back door.
Ever since Nam-cat’s training started a few days ago, Yeongji had been spending all her free time outside the café, playing with him whenever there were no customers around.
‘Well… I guess playing with a well-trained cat is fun.’
Not that I couldn’t understand the appeal. A cat trained to follow commands like “paw,” “sit,” “lie down,” and “play dead” like a dog was pretty entertaining to interact with.
“Play dead!”
“Meooooow…”
Letting out a long meow, Nam-cat slowly collapsed to the ground, letting his head flop to the side in an exaggerated display of “playing dead.” It was quite an amusing sight.
‘I mean, I trained him, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.’
“You’re watching Yeongji again, huh?”
While I was absorbed in watching Nam-cat and Yeongji, Ha-eun approached with a cup of coffee and a slice of cake.
“Honestly, it’s kind of cute, isn’t it?”
“…You do know Yeongji is my cousin, right?”
“…?”
“I-I don’t watch those scandalous drama shows with affairs, okay!”
My sister’s unexpectedly flustered reaction puzzled me for a moment, but I was distracted by the vibration of my phone.
[Mom]
“Mom’s calling.”
“Why are you so happy about that?”
“J-Just answer it! Your mom’s waiting!”
Because of Ha-eun urging me, I had no choice but to pick up the call.
“Hey, honey~ I’m in front of your company. Can you come out for a minute?”
“Uh…?”
Hearing my mom’s voice from the speaker, I froze for a moment.
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t told her I quit my job yet.
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