Waiting for His Master?
The first thought that crossed Sapsaree's mind was this: Is he waiting for his master? After all, Sapsaree himself had once waited just like that, gazing out the window for his person to come home.
Looking back on it now, he knew what that time had been.
I was lonely, I was.
Desolate, too.
The memory set Sapsaree's paws moving of their own accord.
Tap, tap, tap.
He walked toward the old man. He couldn't quite bring himself to sit right beside him, though. Sapsaree's manner with people had improved a great deal, but the wariness woven into his nature had not vanished entirely. He had grown affectionate only toward those who treated him kindly and welcomed him — and so he watched the old man from a little ways off, hoping the man would turn, look at him, and smile. Hoping that if the man said come here, he could bolt to his side at once.
But the one calling him was not the grandfather gazing out the window.
"Bangwool-i's friend! Come over here."
"Handsome puppy, come here!"
From behind him, grandfathers and grandmothers called out in warm, gentle voices, and Sapsaree's ears pricked straight up. He was still wondering whether to go when another voice reached him.
"Ttorongie, come here."
"What's a Ttorongie supposed to be? Ttorongie."
"Our dog was a very clever boy, you see. His name was Ttorongie. Bangwool-i's friend looks plenty clever too, so he's a Ttorongie as well. Ttorongie."
Sapsaree's ears gave a little flutter. Bangwool-i's friend — that was him. Only they hadn't called him Sapsaree. They'd called him Ttorongie.
"I'm Sapsaree, I am."
He announced his name with a small, soft woof.
"Aigoo, how clever. He answered right away."
"He really did. Must be because he's Bangwool-i's friend. Sharp as anything."
"Bright-eyes, come here."
"Heh heh. Handsome, come here."
"Sparkle, come on over!"
Sapsaree's ears fluttered in quick, tiny beats. Whatever name they gave him, being called meant he was needed. And so, listening to the voices summoning him from behind, he looked at the old man who sat staring blankly out the window.
The old man did not react at all. He did not even turn around.
Watching him, Sapsaree felt as though he himself were not even there.
Droop.
The ears that had perked up so happily at the grandfathers' and grandmothers' calls sagged flat.
That was when he heard the voice of the Hyungnim he loved most of all.
"Sapsaree, the elders are calling you."
"His name is Sapsaree?"
"Yes."
"That's a bit of a name. You should've given him a nicer one."
"Right? Sapsaree is so cold. How about Handsome? Handsome."
"What's Handsome supposed to mean? Make it General. General."
"Hahaha, shall we?"
"How about Treasure? His fur shines like silver thread all bound together."
"Hahaha, that's a wonderful name. Sapsaree. The elders here say you ought to change your name."
The talk of changing his name lifted Sapsaree's spirits at once. Hoesaegi Hyung-nim and Gkamnyangi Hyung-nim both got their names changed, they did. And that meant becoming a real family.
His ears pricked up again. He turned and walked toward his Hyungnim.
Tap, tap, tap.
Retracing his steps, Sapsaree glanced back before he reached Hyungnim's side. The old man was still staring out the window, and nothing else. If he would only call for him once — just once — Sapsaree would run to him that instant and stay right there beside him.
He swallowed. Then he walked the rest of the way to Hyungnim.
"Aigoo, would you look at that. How can fur be this beautiful?"
One of the grandmothers beside Hyungnim stroked his coat. He flinched once, but when Hyungnim patted his head, the good feeling came flooding back. He lifted his face and looked up. Hyungnim was smiling down at him.
"Hehe."
Sapsaree laughed out loud.
"Even his smile is lovely. Just lovely."
"A big dog like this, smiling — it's so sweet. Sapsaree, let this granny have a turn too. May I pet you?"
"Yes. That feels good, it does!"
In high spirits, Sapsaree nodded. Careful, tentative hands found his back, his head, his sides. His eyes met those of the grandmother stroking him right in front of his face.
"Petting Sapsaree like this... I feel so good. So at ease."
She said it, and then she beamed. Seeing that face, Sapsaree felt wonderful too. Oxytocin — the happiness hormone — was flooding both the grandmother's brain and Sapsaree's, lifting their spirits and settling their hearts. Sapsaree rested his head in the arms of the grandmother who smiled at him, and he smiled right back.
Watching Sapsaree nestle into the grandmother's arms and grin, Lee Jun smiled softly. That's the first time that kid's ever opened his heart to someone he's just met.
Kim Kang-hoon came up beside him as he stood there smiling at Sapsaree.
"Sapsaree's quite the popular one."
"He really is. Honestly, Sapsaree's always been pretty wary of strangers. I brought him today hoping we might work on that a little — but I was worrying over nothing. He's doing wonderfully."
"Wary? I didn't get that at all."
Kim Kang-hoon tipped his head, thinking back to the first day he'd met Sapsaree. Lee Jun smiled at him. That's only because I explained the whole situation to him beforehand. Sapsaree followed anything Lee Jun said. No matter how much a situation made him want to hang back, if Lee Jun had told him to do it, he did it.
"The results are even better than I expected."
Lee Jun was already thinking that after giving Sapsaree a few more sessions of this, if it still suited him, he would recommend the work in earnest.
"Looks that way."
Kim Kang-hoon agreed, then went on.
"There are dogs who genuinely love to work. And they take it seriously, too — with real responsibility. Sometimes you look at them and think they love the job a whole lot more than we humans do."
Lee Jun thought of Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi, of Norangi and Milo — animals who poured themselves into their packs with a devotion that bordered on sacrifice — and nodded.
"There are. Dogs like that would be wonderful at this kind of work."
"If they get the right training, they really are. Guide Dogs for the Blind, police dogs, military dogs — those are that type. And the attention-seekers are great at it too."
"Attention-seekers?"
Lee Jun's eyes widened at the sudden word.
"Attention-seekers are perfect for this job. People praise them, clap for them, fuss over how pretty they are — what's not to love?"
At his senior's words, two faces sprang immediately into Lee Jun's mind. Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi. Were there any animals on earth who loved being the center of attention more than those two?
"Hahaha. That's true enough."
Then which type was Sapsaree? The fiercely responsible kind? The kind that loved being fussed over? Or perhaps...
Lee Jun watched Sapsaree beaming, pressing eagerly from elder to elder, and thought, Maybe he's affection-starved from not getting enough love when he was little... Even with all the care Lee Jun had given him, he couldn't have filled a heart-pocket that had sat empty since puppyhood. Bringing Sapsaree here today, he decided, had been the right thing. And he felt deeply grateful to the elders who adored Sapsaree without a shred of prejudice.
His senior's voice continued at his side.
"Anyway, I think bringing Sapsaree today was a really good call. Look at their faces over there. Bright, right?"
"Yes. They look like they're in wonderful spirits."
"They do. They look so much happier than when I used to come with just Bangwool-i."
Kim Kang-hoon kept his gaze on the grandmothers and grandfathers as he went on.
"A lot of those folks struggle with pretty serious depression, you know. They live alone. They wait all week long just for this hour."
"Ah..."
"When you run animal-assisted therapy with people who have high levels of depression, the depression drops by half, they say. That's what the numbers show, anyway. Stress indices fall off a cliff, too."
"I see."
"Sometimes the numbers plummet to a quarter, even a fifth of what they were. But hearing that the numbers changed doesn't really hit you, you know? Look at their photographs, though, and it hits you all at once."
"Photographs?"
"Yeah. We always take pictures for them when a session ends. Elders don't have many occasions to get their photos taken, right?"
"I suppose not."
"Compare them with the first pictures we took and the difference is obvious. They were so dark at the start. Now they're just... bright."
"Because they're pouring out affection and receiving it in return..."
"That's why I love this work so much."
Kim Kang-hoon smiled, bright and unguarded.
Sapsaree, squeezed in among the elders for a photograph, grinned from ear to ear.
"Hehehe."
The voices calling him over to their side felt so good, and watching the grandfathers and grandmothers smile as they looked at him felt so good too. It had been strange at first, but before he knew it Sapsaree had tumbled headlong into the love they were giving him. He even made them a promise that he would surely come again.
"Grandpa, Grandma. Next time let's go play at the park together, okay?"
He liked them enough to offer them the thing he loved most in the world: a walk.
"Alright, our Sapsaree. Let's see each other next week too!"
"Yes!"
Sapsaree answered at the top of his voice. Even after he climbed into the car, he waved a front paw until the grandfathers and grandmothers were out of sight. Among the receding figures, he could see the old man who had been gazing out the window only a little while ago. Sapsaree's eyes lingered on him for a moment.
When they returned to Golmokjib, Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi were there to welcome him.
"Sapsaree-ong. Welcome back, ong."
"Was it fun?"
"Heheh, Hyung-nims. It was so, so much fun, it was. I even jumped over poles this high, I did. And the weave poles were super fun, they were."
"What are poles, ong?"
"And what's a weave pole?"
The cats' curiosity made Sapsaree's eyes sparkle. Heheh. Good thing I remembered it all, I did.
"It's jumping over things like tree branches, it is. And..."
He was trying to figure out how to explain the fun part when the toy box caught his eye. Sapsaree pulled toys from the box and stood them in a line, spaced evenly apart. Then he wriggled his body through the gaps, mimicking the way he'd woven through the weave poles, and the cats leaned in with interest.
"That looks fun, ong."
"Oh!"
Their fascination delighted him so much that he went on and told them everything about meeting the grandfathers and grandmothers and playing with them too. The cats listened with their eyes shining.
"Must've been fun, ong."
"Our little brother's popular."
"Sapsaree's always been popular, ong."
Praise from the cat Hyung-nims he loved so much left Sapsaree swelling with pride — and that was when he blurted out the one thing that had been sitting heavy on his heart.
"But Hyung-nims. There's a grandpa who doesn't like me, there is."
"Tell us, ong."
"Why?"
Sapsaree poured out the story of the old man who had done nothing but stare out the window.
"That grandpa was just shy, ong."
"Or he was jealous of how popular you are."
"That must be it, ong."
Sapsaree tilted his head at that.
"He looked lonely, he did."
"He got lonely because popular Sapsaree showed up, ong. This one here said so himself, ong. When I appeared, Gkamnyangi went off to a far corner, ong."
"When did I ever do that?"
"Hmph. Everyone crowded around me, so you got all sulky, ong."
"Yeah, right!"
"Hmph. When Lady Lara came over to my side, you stared from way off with those pathetic eyes, ong."
"That never happened!"
"It did, ong."
"Lady Lara shared her food with me. What did you get?"
Gkamnyangi barked it out.
"I didn't get anything, ong."
"See? Lady Lara liked me."
Gkamnyangi lifted his chin and looked down at Hoesaegi with a thoroughly arrogant gleam in his eye.
"I offered Lady Lara food AND flowers, ong! The only reason Lady Lara gave you food is because she felt sorry for you, ong."
"Guh!"
Gkamnyangi's eyes flew wide. He trudged off to the corner and planted his head against the wall.
"Ghhk... so that's what it was? That's why she turned me down so coldly when I asked her to stroll the park under the moonlight..."
As Gkamnyangi stood there with his head buried, lamenting his fate, Hoesaegi strode over with dignified steps and set a front paw on his shoulder.
"Gkamnyangi, hang in there, ong."
"...Alright."
Watching Hoesaegi tell him to hang in there, and Gkamnyangi answering that he would, Sapsaree thought, I'll tell that grandpa to hang in there, I will.
For the first time in his life, Sapsaree resolved that he would be the one to approach a person first.