Something in the Treats
Yeo Un-hyeok let out a hollow laugh at Eom Jin-han's words. Is Senior Eom actually telling me to go get a job there? Then what about the graduate program he was currently in? And studying abroad?
"What kind of nonsense is that? I have to graduate."
He meant he needed to finish his degree.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. So what if graduation gets pushed back a year or two? Does being a little late even matter? What matters is how good you actually are."
"……You've got a point."
"While we're on the subject — is there anyone who understands animals as well as Senior Lee? Have you seen those videos with Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi, or haven't you?"
"I have."
"Doesn't that hit you somehow? Don't you want to go learn from him? Wait — is this because Senior Lee came out of surgery? Not animal behavior?"
"That's not it."
"There it is. That's it. People are so narrow-minded. If you want to learn, just go learn."
When Eom Jin-han tossed the remark at him, teasing, Yeo Un-hyeok let it slide with a laugh. Instead, he asked the question that had been sitting on his mind about Lee Jun.
"Does Senior Lee use medication, by any chance?"
"What kind of meds?"
"The kind we use for behavioral treatment."
"Not that I know of."
"I saw it on the Kwak Suho Channel. There were about ten dogs, big ones and small ones, and they weren't fighting at all — they were completely quiet. There were cats there too. Is that even possible? They're not even from the same family."
"It seemed possible to me. I've been to Mongmong Animal Hospital a few times. They've got this playground where the animals hang out, and the big dogs and the little dogs play together just fine without fighting. They don't even bark."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I don't know if it's because they're well trained, but from what I saw, Senior Lee can tell what a dog or a cat wants just by looking at their face."
"Come on. No way."
"I'm serious. This guy doesn't believe a word I say."
That was what Yeo Un-hyeok said out loud. A part of him, though, did want to go see it for himself. Should I go check it out?
Watching his face, Eom Jin-han went on.
"I'll talk to Senior Lee for you, so just go. Think of it as a month-long dispatch to another lab. I'm pretty sure the professor would tell you to go too."
"Aigoo, how many applications is this? Didn't you say you were only hirin' one person, hyung-nim?"
Go Gi-jin broke into a wide grin as he looked over the résumés Lee Jun had printed out and stacked on the exam table.
"Yeah, I did. But if there are some good ones in here, I'm thinking of taking one or two more."
"You're only pickin' that handful out of this whole pile? Tsk tsk, poor kids. That aside, our hospital's popularity is off the charts, ain't it? Let's see here — how many we got?"
Go Gi-jin kept talking as he turned through the applications one by one.
"Looks like every junior with a license went and applied. Hold on — there's even folks still in school?"
"Yeah, looks that way. First-year master's students, second-years too."
"Won't that be hard on 'em? They gotta graduate first, don't they?"
"That's right. Their professors won't let them go anyway. Gi-jin, set the currently enrolled applicants' files aside over here."
The exam table in the director's office had, without anyone quite planning it, turned into a document-screening station. Three rectangular baskets sat on top of it — white, red, and yellow. The one Lee Jun pointed to was the white basket. The files that went in there were ones he meant to ask Eom Jin-han about later. They might be juniors he would have a chance to work with after they graduated. Or they could go work at Namgoong Animal Medical Center. This field is a small world.
Lee Jun set the currently enrolled applicants' papers aside as well, skimming as he went.
"Well, look at that. This one applied."
"Someone you know?"
"I don't know him well, but I've seen him around a few times. He used to hang around in Ji-heon's room."
Go Gi-jin was talking about his classmate, Ryu Ji-heon.
"Ji-heon — that's behavioral medicine, right?"
"That's right. But this kid said he wanted to go study abroad. Plus he probably hasn't even graduated yet."
Lee Jun took the file from Go Gi-jin and answered as he looked it over.
"Oh. I think this might be the one."
"Who?"
"Eom Jin-han mentioned a junior of his once. Said he was in behavioral medicine…"
"Could be him, yeah."
"It is. The last name's unusual enough that I remembered it. Yeo Un-hyeok. He's majoring in behavioral medicine, but I heard he's rock-solid in internal medicine too."
"That so?"
"Yeah. I never heard anything about him studying abroad, though…"
"Must've slipped your mind."
"True enough. He might be trying to get a job to save up for it. Working a year or two in a local clinic and then going abroad wouldn't be a bad idea at all — you'd raise the tuition and build a résumé at the same time."
"It ain't cheap, so that could be it."
Lee Jun scanned the documents and was about to drop them into the red basket — the one that meant rejection. He might be a good fit for us, but if he's going abroad… What Lee Jun wanted was skilled colleagues whose temperaments matched his own, people he could work with for a long time. On that count, this didn't fit from the start.
Then another thought surfaced. No — wait. If he's good, if he's a decent person, and if he clicks with me, even a year or two of that kind of work would be something. The more he turned it over, the funnier it seemed to assume that hiring someone meant they would stay forever. How many staff members have Senior Yoo and Senior Cha worked with over the years? They built a team that actually fit out of all those people. I should take this slowly too.
Lee Jun called up what Yoo Daehyun had told him — You just have to meet a lot of people, and find the right ones among them — and set the file in his hand into the yellow basket.
A few days later, Yeo Un-hyeok arrived at Mongmong Animal Hospital for his interview.
He stepped through the doors already full of anticipation. If Senior Lee really can read animals' faces that well, that's wonderful. And if he happens to be skilled with medication, that's wonderful in a different way. Either way, I'll learn something.
He opened the door on that thought.
Ding-a-ling.
A clear, bright chime rang out as the door swung open. And then came the sound that ought to have followed — woof, woof, bark, bark. You always heard dogs barking when you opened the door of a veterinary hospital. He had been expecting it. Instead, the place was utterly silent.
Yeo Un-hyeok's gaze swept the interior, and the strangeness only deepened. There are five dogs wandering around the lobby alone. Should it really be this quiet? He had seen the videos and heard the rumors, but this was excessive. He could almost have wondered whether he was in a veterinary hospital at all.
And it was not a small clinic, either. It occupied a fairly large building — the first floor, the second, and part of the third. Even a glance was enough to count more than fifteen guardians sitting in the waiting chairs along the lobby. Which meant there were more than fifteen animals in the building as well. No matter how he looked at it, this did not resemble an ordinary animal hospital.
Look at the ones walking around. Some dogs were pacing the floor with their noses down, sniffing. Others were heading off somewhere with apparent purpose. Every last one of them was perfectly well-behaved. Not barking was one thing — he couldn't even see any of them running.
They look like children who've had thorough manners training. And where is that one going? To the playground, maybe? He guessed based on what he had seen on Myeotube. Anyway, this place… is too weird.
Even if there was a separate playground, these were still dogs. Wasn't the normal thing for them to bark wherever they pleased and pee wherever they happened to be standing? And it's so clean. There was not a single drop of urine on the floor, and the air smelled fresh.
If the guardians picked their dogs up the moment they walked in, maybe. But the dogs are walking around free. How is it like this?
That was when it happened.
A brown poodle ambled over at an unhurried pace, stepped onto a puppy pad, and did its business. Then it trotted off, nails clicking briskly against the floor, straight to the reception desk. The dog looked up at the receptionist, tail swaying gently from side to side. The way the poodle regarded the staff member was so natural, so easy and familiar, that Yeo Un-hyeok read the signal at once. It's asking to be praised.
While he was still watching, another dog went to the puppy pad and did the same. And a moment later, something even more remarkable happened. A beagle came padding over, climbed onto the pad, took care of its business — and then padded right over to stand behind the dog already waiting at the desk, tail whirling. Its face was one enormous smile. It looked thoroughly, unmistakably delighted. The two of them were standing there the way people stand in a line.
Wh-what?
Beagles were supposed to be the kind that tore around like maniacs, weren't they? He had already thought it strange that the poodle was so well-behaved. And now a beagle, too? Hmm. Are they just that well trained? Or…
A faint, nameless sense of unease kept prickling at him.
A moment later the staff member showered both dogs with a storm of praise. And then the grand finale: something was popped into each of their mouths. Treats, almost certainly. Yeo Un-hyeok watched them eat with enormous, smacking relish — and a thought arrived uninvited. What if those treats have some kind of weird drug in them? Something to keep them calm. Or something that made them obedient.
Come to think of it, none of the dogs walking around are looking outside. Most dogs loved watching the world through a window. Not a single one here had any interest in what was beyond the glass. He didn't even see any of them going to their own guardians. They either stood with their heads together, or they wandered the hospital at their leisure. Right — a walk. And not just any walk. The unhurried kind elderly people take. These kids are genuinely strange.
He looked at the dogs and wondered. Is what I'm seeing the result of Senior Lee communicating with them? Or is it the result of medication?
It was in the middle of that thought that he realized he hadn't seen Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, or Sapsaree. And where are the little cuties, anyway? In the videos they were sitting on that cat tower over there. Are they in the playground?
He had been so busy thinking that he lost track of time. It was twenty minutes after he had walked in before he finally met Lee Jun.
Lee Jun had just finished a consultation and was coming out into the lobby with a black cat in his arms. Yeo Un-hyeok's eyes lit up — he had been wondering where Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree were. The light went out of them almost at once. Ah. That's not Gkamnyangi. Gkamnyangi was black all the way down the neck. The cat Lee Jun was holding had a white scruff.
Yeo Un-hyeok rose from the waiting chair with a faintly disappointed look and offered a greeting. Lee Jun returned a slight bow of the head, smiling. Then he turned his attention to the guardian.
"You can give her the dewormer tomorrow."
"Yes, Director. Giving medicine like this is so convenient these days. You wouldn't believe how well our Doobu takes it."
The guardian looked at the cat and smiled, and Yeo Un-hyeok thought, Giving a cat medicine is easy? She must be an unusually gentle one. And then, right on the heels of that: Did they mix something cats like into the medicine? Something that puts them in a good mood, maybe. Once suspicion had a foothold, everything started to look suspicious.
That aside, he had a complaint. That cat is going to be stressed. They should put her in the carrier already. The place was packed with strangers, and dogs were walking around freely, and they had carried the cat out in their arms without so much as putting her in a bag. Stress was the root of all illness. Yeo Un-hyeok believed his own dog, Bori, had only lived ten years because of stress. Maybe that was why it bothered him so much whenever an animal looked like it might be under strain. All he wanted was to make them comfortable, right then and there. Is the guardian being inconsiderate? Or — Senior Lee isn't doing this on purpose, is he? Lee Jun was famous as a veterinarian who communicated exceptionally well with animals. No. Of course not. Don't be ridiculous.
Yeo Un-hyeok shook his head and looked at the cat. Lee Jun was holding her as if she were something precious, and the guardian was watching the two of them with a fond, satisfied expression. Three dogs were walking around nearby. And still the cat looked thoroughly at ease. Hmm. Did they give her acepromazine or gabapentin at home before they brought her in? Acepromazine and gabapentin were used to settle animals that were prone to getting overexcited.
He was still looking at the cat with that thought in mind when Lee Jun spoke to her.
"Alright, Doobu. Time to go home."
"That's right, Doobu. Come here."
And then Yeo Un-hyeok's eyes caught something peculiar. What's she doing? Doobu had locked both front paws around Lee Jun's arm and would not let go. She stared up at him, meowing and meowing. It's like she's telling him not to put her down.
Which was exactly right. Doobu had not seen the veterinarian she loved most in a little over a month, and she did not want to say goodbye. That was, in fact, precisely what she was saying.
"Doobu, you were going to meet your friends and play next week, remember? You'll see the Director again then. Come on, Doobu."
"That's right. Next time, I'll give you a hug this big."
Between the guardian and Lee Jun, they finally coaxed Doobu into her person's arms. From there she went straight into the carrier — like someone in withdrawal. Yeo Un-hyeok was certain. They're definitely feeding them something.
He had just arrived at that conclusion when Lee Jun came toward him.
"Sorry about that. You waited quite a while, didn't you?"
He had already been told that if there were appointments during the interview slot, there might be a wait. Yeo Un-hyeok bowed his head in greeting.
"Not at all. I'm Yeo Un-hyeok, Senior."
"Shall we go in and talk?"
Yeo Un-hyeok followed Lee Jun, letting his gaze drift around the space as they walked. He wanted to know where the three of them were. They didn't seem to be in the playground, either, which he glimpsed on the way to the director's office. If they're not in the playground, then where? In the videos he had watched, Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi had been lounging comfortably on the big cat tower standing in the lobby, and Sapsaree had been resting underneath it or playing with the other dogs. Don't tell me that was just for the camera too. Are they actually locked up somewhere small?
Turning that over in his mind, he followed Lee Jun into the director's office. And there he found all three of them. Ah. So this is where they were.
There was a cat tower in the director's office as well. Hoesaegi was sprawled across it. Gkamnyangi was sprawled on the exam table. And Sapsaree was lying in the chair the director was supposed to sit in, his face resting against the armrest, his tail thumping lazily — the picture of ease. No one looking at them could possibly have imagined they were being confined. The corner of Yeo Un-hyeok's mouth curved slowly upward. All three of them look so comfortable.
Lee Jun smiled and said,
"We were playing with Doobu."
"Doobu?"
"Ah — the cat I just saw. These three are close with her. On a normal day they would have come out with her to see her off, but today she was so sad about leaving them that I told them not to follow."
"I'm sorry?"
What on earth was that supposed to mean? Yeo Un-hyeok tilted his head, and Lee Jun went on.
"If they come out with her, saying goodbye takes that much longer. So I told them they had a new teacher to meet, and to wait here."
At that, the three of them called out to Lee Jun — meow, meow, woof, woof, woof. Every one of their voices was bright and cheerful.