The Pride of Territory Leaders
Shock and despair had seized Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi.
If Sapsaree came any closer and so much as tapped their hiding spot, they would be found out. It was a hair-trigger moment. They had to make a choice: intimidate Sapsaree into staying away, or bolt out of hiding right this second.
Even if they did come out, nobody would say a word. The same went for Sapsaree. Not a single member of the hospital family knew that Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi were pouring themselves into stakeouts, tailing, and stealth — all to awaken the wild instincts that had gone dormant inside them.
So if they jumped out now, nobody would even notice. On the contrary, they would be praised for coming when called, and they would get to eat that delicious chicken porridge!
But Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi did no such thing.
Who did they think they were? Were they not the great Territory Leaders who had once ruled vast domains, revered by countless cats?
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi bared their teeth.
Hssssss!
Grrraaah!
They hissed — but very, very quietly. At the same time, they glared up at Sapsaree.
A fearsome light flashed in their eyes, and Sapsaree's front paw slowly lowered. Then, ever so casually, he turned his head away.
The sight filled Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi with a rush of satisfaction.
Heh heh. Sapsaree folded under my presence, ong.
Kahaha! Crumbling at my intensity!
The cats rejoiced, convinced that Sapsaree's spirit had been crushed by their charisma.
But Sapsaree was thinking something else entirely.
The hyungnims are amazing, I tell ya. They play hide-and-seek so hard it looks like the real thing. That's why they're holding back even though they wanna eat so, so bad.
Play it like the real thing. Sapsaree was struck all over again by how great his cat hyungs were.
I'm rooting for you, hyungnims!
Sapsaree padded away, sniffing as he went.
I couldn't hold back something that tasty, I tell ya. I'd just eat it.
Thinking how admirable it was that his cat hyungnims could resist something so delicious, Sapsaree approached the food bowl. Then he lapped up the porridge all by himself, his tongue going slap-slap-slap.
Gulp. Smack, smack.
All while listening to his cat hyungnims smacking their lips in longing.
The cats stayed hidden until Sapsaree had finished every last bit — and in all that time, Strong Hyungnim never found them. Convinced their stealth mission had been a success, they slowly emerged.
Go Gi-jin greeted them at once.
"Aigoo, where in the world've y'all been? It's all gone cold by now. Eat up, eat up!"
"That's right, I tell ya! Eat up, hyungnims! It's so, so tasty!"
Sapsaree wagged his tail lazily as he welcomed the cats as well. Watching Go Gi-jin and Sapsaree greet them, the cats stretched their bodies out long and luxurious, working out a thoroughly satisfying stretch.
"Mrrraaah-ong!"
Hoesaegi stretched his right front paw forward and his left hind paw back, lengthening his spine.
"Mrrrowww-hoooh!"
Gkamnyangi thrust both front paws forward, hiked his rear end up, and stretched and stretched and stretched. The crouch-cramped body felt wonderfully refreshed.
Then they sauntered toward the porridge bowls with the unhurried gait of true Territory Leaders.
"Ahem! Shall I do you the honor of eating this, ong?"
"Hmph! I'll eat it for you!"
The cats put on their most arrogant expressions in quite some time and brought their tongues to the porridge. A single lick — in a thoroughly haughty, leisurely manner.
It didn't last.
Whoa!
"Th-this is delicious, ong!"
"Ugh! Th-this is too good— chomp chomp chomp."
Gkamnyangi didn't even finish his sentence. He buried his face in the bowl and shoveled porridge into his mouth. Hoesaegi was no different. Slap-slap-slap. Slurp-slurp-slurp. The two cats wolfed down the porridge like they hadn't eaten in three days.
Beside them, Go Gi-jin watched with concern.
"How come they went and slept through somethin' they like so much? Don't they need a tonic or somethin'?"
"Why? A tonic? Is someone sick?"
The voice came from behind Go Gi-jin. It was Lee Jun, just walking out after finishing a surgery.
"Surgery go all right?"
"Yeah, it went well. He's coming out of anesthesia now — Dr. Yu is keeping an eye on him."
"That's a relief."
"So far, anyway. But what was that just now? Is Director Go unwell?"
At the suggestion that his father, veterinarian Go Panseok, might be ailing, Go Gi-jin shook his head firmly.
"Aigoo, a fella as sturdy as my old man? He could eat iron, that one. Not him — it's these two."
"These two? What's wrong with Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi?"
"They wouldn't even come sniff at somethin' they love this much — just holed up in that far corner, sleepin'. And when they finally walked over, they were draggin' themselves along like they didn't have a scrap of strength left."
In a single breath, Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi's stealth training and Territory Leader dignity were thoroughly disparaged. Fortunately, the two cats were so absorbed in their porridge that they didn't hear a word of it.
"Think it's because the weather's getting hotter?"
"Could be. That's why they pass out so hard at night?"
"Well, they have been sleepin' awful deep lately, that's true. Eat their food and they just flop right over."
After spending all day on stakeouts, tailing, and stealth work until their energy was wrung dry, Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi would come home to Golmokjib, eat, and pass out on the spot. Go Gi-jin and Lee Jun worried over the two of them.
"Let's keep an eye on them. If they look even weaker, we can give them an extra nutritional supplement then."
"I'll watch 'em myself."
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi had, quite unintentionally, become the picture of feeble cats. Utterly unaware that such a conversation was taking place about them, the two threw themselves into their next round of training.
After licking the porridge bowl until it gleamed, Hoesaegi spoke to Gkamnyangi.
"Gkamnyangi, ong. Let's tail Hyungnim now, ong."
"Let's. We'll watch him without letting him notice."
The two of them sauntered after Lee Jun. Watching from behind, Sapsaree's eyes lit up.
The hyungnims are following Benefactor Hyungnim, I tell ya. They're playing a fun game of detective!
A phrase he'd learned from Benji, the former search dog: detective play. Sapsaree murmured that splendid phrase to himself as he followed his cat hyungs.
Watch from far away without being noticed, all casual-like, I tell ya.
Recalling what Benji had taught him.
Inside the animal hospital, Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi trained hard at stealth and tailing — and threw themselves into scent work as well. The scent training wasn't anything fancy. They went to the ward and tried to guess, by smell alone, who was going to get itchy. It was a matter of checking who showed signs of getting better.
Sniff, sniff, sniff. Snuffle, snuffle.
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi went into the ward and started sniffing. First stop: the cat ward. There, a cat who'd broken a leg jumping and undergone surgery lay beside another who'd swallowed thread — needle and all — and had his belly opened up for the operation.
The two sniffed the hospitalized cats as they greeted them. Ordinarily, they would have asked after them — whether anything hurt, whether anything itched. But having entered special scent-training mode, they mentioned none of that. They only asked whether the food had been tasty.
Next they visited the dog ward. Three dogs who'd undergone surgery were there. The cats sniffed carefully, then stepped back out. They crouched in a corner of the hallway and compared notes.
"Gkamnyangi, ong. I think Chichi's the itchy one, ong."
Hoesaegi pointed to the cat who'd had leg surgery.
"Yeah? Same here."
"Is that so, ong? As expected — we are outstanding cats, ong."
The cats were delighted that their opinions matched, and they had not the slightest doubt that Chichi would be the first to roll around from the itch. Behind them, Sapsaree muttered.
"I think Jinbok hyungnim's gonna be the one tumblin' around, I tell ya."
Sapsaree pointed to Jinbok, the Chihuahua who'd had surgery for a ruptured cranial cruciate ligament. Unlike the two cats, Sapsaree alone had a different opinion. He hadn't thought much of it — but the two cats swallowed hard.
This is our chance, ong.
We'll find out how much of our wild instinct has come back.
The two cats' eyes gleamed once more as they watched the ward with intense focus.
And then, at last, someone cried out.
Mraaaooow! Mraaaooow!
In that instant, the corners of Hoesaegi's and Gkamnyangi's mouths curled up in unison, as if they'd planned it. Hoesaegi stamped his paws.
"Th-that's Chichi's voice, ong."
Gkamnyangi wiggled his hips as he spoke.
"The i-itching's starting."
Their gazes met in midair, and Hoesaegi said,
"Gkamnyangi, ong. I'm worried about Chichi, ong. Let's go, ong."
"Yeah. Let's go comfort him so he doesn't scratch."
Gkamnyangi answered in an excited voice. The two of them walked toward the ward so fast it was practically a bounce. The moment they stepped inside—
Mraaaaaoooow! Hsssaah!
Chichi was yowling, writhing as if in agony, and raking his claws against the kennel wall. Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi hurried over to Chichi's kennel — and as they walked, those triumphant smiles slowly faded.
Just moments ago, hearing Chichi's cries had filled them with joy at being right. But seeing their friend actually suffering made their hearts grow heavy. Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi comforted Chichi with genuine feeling.
"Chichi, ong! You're going to get better, ong. Just hold on a little, ong!"
"Yeah, you're getting better. The itching means you're healing, so just hang in there a bit."
"Mraaaooow! I-I still can't take it. It i-iiitches!"
When Chichi kept yowling, Hoesaegi said,
"Gkamnyangi, ong. Let's tell Hyungnim, ong. Let's ask him to give a poke so it stops itching, ong."
"Y-yeah. Chichi, hang on just a little."
The cats went to find Lee Jun.
"Hyungnim, ong. Chichi is so, so itchy, ong. Give him a poke so it stops, ong."
"Poke him!"
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi's faces were full of worry as they asked him to give the injection that would take the itch away. They knew all too well how miserable it was to endure an itch.
"Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi are so good. Going around checking so carefully because they're worried their friends might be hurting."
Lee Jun praised the cats, then went to the ward and gave Chichi the injection. A short while later, Chichi settled down as if the itch had never existed. Exhausted from all that yowling, he flopped down in a limp heap, and Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi said,
"Chichi, ong. Get some good rest, ong."
"Get some good rest."
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi offered Chichi their sincere comfort, then left the ward. As they stepped out, they spoke.
"Gkamnyangi, ong. I think our skills are coming back little by little, ong."
"I think so too. From now on, whether it's Sapsaree or Solbangwool, nobody's going to outdo us!"
"That's right, ong."
Click, click, click. Watching Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi stride along with such proud bearing, Sapsaree tilted his head.
"Jinbok hyungnim's gonna be way itchier than Chichi, I tell ya. But that's weird, I tell ya."
In the end, Sapsaree was right. It was simply that Chichi was young and a terrible fuss-maker, while Jinbok was timid and never made a fuss at all. That was the only difference.
But Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi, unaware of this, were buoyed by their successful results and pressed on with their training. At the animal hospital they devoted themselves to stealth, stakeouts, and tailing — plus scent work on top of that. And when they went to the park, they combined it with stamina training, the foundation of hunting skill as well as of tailing and staking out.
Well-developed muscle, exceptional flexibility, keen senses, powerful claws, and a strong bite — that is, a powerful jaw — were the fundamentals of a great hunter. Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi were already excellent hunters. They needed to become even greater ones. And for that, rigorous training had to come first.
Hoesaegi, who had thrown himself into park training yesterday and the day before that, stamped his paws as he looked up at the darkening sky. He knew that once the sun went down, they wouldn't go to the park — they'd go home to Golmokjib.
"Hyungnim, ong. When are we going to the park today, ong?"
"Today? We're not going."
At Lee Jun's words, Hoesaegi's and Gkamnyangi's pupils trembled.
"Wh-why aren't we going, ong?"
"Let's go!"
"No. You two have been exercising way too much lately. Let's rest today."
"We can't, ong. We have to go, ong."
"We're going!"
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi plastered themselves against the door and meowed. Go Gi-jin, just finishing his appointments and walking out into the lobby, saw this and asked Lee Jun,
"Hyungnim, what's got into those two?"
"They want to go to the park."
"The park? They've been goin' all week."
"Exactly. I told them it would be good to take a day off, but look at them."
"Aigoo, those limp little things can barely drag themselves around. Why are they actin' like this?"
"That's what I'd like to know."
"Think maybe they're rememberin' last year?"
"Last year?"
"Yeah. Those two had a real hard time of it last year, y'know. Tryin' to lose weight."
"Ah, that's right. It's almost been a year."
Lee Jun looked at the cats with a fond smile.
"Is that it? If that's what this is, don't worry. You haven't gained any weight."
Lee Jun could say whatever he liked. The cats were unmoved. If Lee Jun wouldn't budge, they would work on Go Gi-jin. They dashed over to him and wrapped themselves around his legs.
"Strong Hyungnim, ong. Let's go to the park, ong. We're going to train, ong."
"That's right. Strong Hyungnim, take us there. We can't just roll around doing nothing."
When the cats meowed at him so affectionately, Go Gi-jin's eyes vanished — his already-small eyes disappearing into the flesh of his cheeks from smiling.
"Ahahaha, all right, all right. Let's go, let's go. We'll go and then come back and eat somethin' tasty. That'll do it."
Go Gi-jin scooped the two of them up, plopped them on his shoulders, and said to Lee Jun,
"Hyungnim, I'm free now, so I'll take 'em for about thirty minutes."
"Yeah. Looking at them, they'll keep this up if they don't go out. Gijin, take Sapsaree too."
"Got it."
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi didn't particularly want to show Sapsaree their training. But they couldn't quite bring themselves to tell him not to come. In that case, it would be better to show him just how outstanding they were. Thinking this, Hoesaegi said to Gkamnyangi,
"Gkamnyangi, ong. Let's show Sapsaree what we're made of today, ong."
They'd trained and trained — Sapsaree was bound to be stunned by their remarkable abilities.
"Let's. Then he'll know what great and magnificent cats we are."
The cats headed to the park looking thoroughly pleased with themselves. On the way, Hoesaegi said to Gkamnyangi,
"I hope something happens that makes Sapsaree jump out of his skin, ong."
"It'd be perfect if somebody lost something. Then we could go ta-da and find it for them."
Gkamnyangi licked his lips, recalling how Solbangwool had recently found Sogeum-i's toy. Back then, Solbangwool had been the star. Today, he would be the star. So he thought.
Hoesaegi was thinking the same thing.
When he found Sogeum-i's doll, everyone looked up to Solbangwool, ong. But those looks are mine today, ong!
Perched on Go Gi-jin's shoulders, the cats looked at each other with thoroughly self-assured expressions.
"Gkamnyangi, ong. I have a feeling somebody's going to lose a treat today, ong. We'll just find it for them, ong."
"Yeah. Dogs are always drooling treats everywhere they go. We'll find those."
"First we have to smell around the mouth of whichever friend lost the treat, ong. The scent of the lost treat will be on there, ong."
"That's right. That's our Hoesaegi. Amazing. After we smell around that guy's mouth, we have to check the pawprints too. That way we can tell where he's been wandering."
"Ohh! That's our Gkamnyangi, ong."
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi hyped each other up as they entered the park. As they went, Hoesaegi added,
"I hope Solbangwool's there too, ong."
"Right. It'd be so good to show that guy how outstanding we are!"
"Then Solbangwool will look up to us, ong."
"Heh heh. Just thinking about it feels so satisfying!"
The cats were cheerfully making their way through the entrance toward the playground when a cat came into view, hips swaying as it walked. Their eyes flew wide open.
"It's Solbangwool, ong."
"It's Solbangwool."
The cats exchanged a look in midair.
Let's show Solbangwool what we're made of too, ong.
Let's. The chance is finally here!
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi curled their mouths into grins. Then they raised their voices and called out to Solbangwool.
"Solbangwool, ong. It's been a while, ong."
"Solbangwool! Let's play together!"