Called by Name
"Hello, Mr. Namgoong?"
"I heard from my secretary. You've done something truly wonderful, I understand?"
"Ah, yes. Things worked out better than I expected."
"Oh! You must have done a fine job persuading that farm owner. That's Director Lee for you."
"I wouldn't say I persuaded him, exactly. But he did shut the place down."
They had leaned on threats and a formal report, it was true — but the farm owner had given the farm up, and that was a fact.
"You're as humble as ever. So — have you decided where those dogs will go? My secretary mentioned there were about a hundred of them."
Lee Jun laid out the plan for Namgoong Hyun, who asked with genuine concern in his voice: they would use Uriteul Shelter, the basement of Mongmong Animal Hospital, and shipping containers set down in Uriteul's large-dog playground as temporary kennels.
"Oh! That's a clever approach. Containers these days have decent heating, so that should work just fine. The big dogs may complain they can't run around for a while — but at least the playground will be going to a good cause."
"We'll just have to tell them to play at the shelter instead."
"Haha, that works too. The Uriteul dogs are all sweet-natured, so they'll play just fine. By the way, Director — what were you planning to do about the containers?"
"The writers are looking into it right now. They said if we go used, we should be able to buy them right away."
"Used, is it… In that case, I believe I can be of some help."
"…You, sir?"
"Haha. Have you forgotten what I do for a living? While we're on the subject, I'll have the work finished by tomorrow morning."
"T-tomorrow morning?"
"Yes. So please tell those kids to hang on just one more day. I'll also have vibration-free vehicles arranged by tomorrow morning. I'll send the cages loaded on the trucks as well."
Lee Jun forgot how to speak. The containers, the cages, the vibration-free trucks — the writers had been searching and calling until their phones ran hot, and here it all was, solved as if it were nothing.
"I… Mr. Namgoong. Thank you so much."
Lee Jun bowed from the waist, as if Namgoong Hyun were standing right in front of him. That was how grateful he was.
"Not at all. You're the one who went to the site and did the hard work, Director Lee. Thank you, truly. You've saved nearly a hundred precious lives."
The voice coming through the phone's speaker was thick with sincerity — real gratitude for what Lee Jun had done.
"O-oh, I didn't do it alone. The PDs and the writers, and Dr. Go, everyone pulled together…"
That was when it happened. The writers' and the PD's voices rang out across the raised-cage yard, full-throated and bright.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Namgoong!"
"Mr. Namgoong, thank you — truly, thank you so much."
Click. Shhk. A slow trickle. Tap.
Click. Shhk. A slow trickle. Tap.
A gentle ASMR drifted through the quiet raised-cage yard. And if the timing seemed absurd — well, it was the sound of drawing blood.
Lee Jun, Go Gi-jin, and Writer Yeom had fallen into a seamless rhythm. The dogs, too.
Lee Jun would call a name, and the dog who owned it would settle into position and hold out a front paw. Drawing from the jugular vein in the neck would have been cleaner, but Lee Jun chose the cephalic vein in the foreleg, mindful that this was the first time any of them had ever had blood taken.
However it was done, once a dog offered its paw, Lee Jun drew the blood in a smooth, easy pull. He passed the filled syringe to Go Gi-jin, who transferred it into a collection tube and let a drop fall onto a test kit. Both the tube and the kit already bore the dog's name — written, just beside them, by Writer Yeom with a name pen.
Before long, every last dog had been tested.
Maknae PD, who had been filming the whole sequence from the side, let out a sound of pure astonishment.
"Wow. How is this so easy?"
"That's Director Lee for you."
Kwak Suho, shooting nearby with an action cam, answered with a grin.
"Ah — right. I know Director Lee is fast, and I know he's good, but it still startles me every time I see it."
"I feel the same, I do."
Go Gi-jin answered as he lined up the filled tubes.
"If even Dr. Go, who watches this every day, is saying that — well, that says it all."
"I'm not even surprised. It's Director Lee, after all."
Writer Yeom said it brightly, then kept going.
"So you can all stop being amazed and go get the food ready. The kids must be starving."
"That's right."
A short while later, the dogs were given kibble heaped in clean basins. Beside them, clean water sat in broad tubs filled nearly to the brim.
Chomp, chomp, chomp.
Munch, munch, munch.
The dogs ate. They didn't bolt their food. They didn't growl to keep it for themselves. They ate at their ease, and every so often a soft ggung-ggung-ggung, a quiet woof-woof, a small ruff-ruff mixed in with the sound of chewing — murmuring, It's good, it's so, so good. The water smells so nice. The water's delicious.
"You kids."
Lee Jun smiled as he watched them eat. Beside him, Writer Yeom stood looking at the dogs and let out a short sigh.
"I can't get my feet to move, knowing we're leaving them here."
"I know. I keep thinking, why didn't we come sooner? If we had, they'd be somewhere comfortable tonight."
One of the writers picked up the lament and turned it over like a stone.
"That's true — but it's a blessing we came today at all."
"That's the truth right there. We showed up today, and that's how we pulled Ggungggung-i through, ain't it?"
Go Gi-jin stroked the enormous face of Ggungggung-i, who had finished eating and was gazing up at him. Ggungggung-i made an utterly adorable expression and leaned his whole body against Go Gi-jin's leg.
Maknae PD watched and opened his mouth.
"The way he does that… it's exactly like my dog at home."
"It is exactly like that. They only happened to be born here, and to live here. That's all."
Sorrow had crept into Lee Jun's voice.
"These kids are the same dogs you see walking in the park with their people. No different at all."
Everyone nodded, slowly. Because he was right. These were not some other kind of dog. Being here did not make them different. Not in the slightest.
"It hurts when there's nothing you can do. But now there is. So don't dwell on the sadness — focus on what we can give them."
Lee Jun spoke to the group as they stood looking at the dogs with heavy hearts.
"Okay…"
Time passed, and Lee Jun said goodbye.
"I'll come tomorrow. Sleep well."
Awoooo~!
The dogs lifted a howl high into the air, a farewell aimed at Lee Jun and his companions.
Park PD, walking toward the van, touched his ear.
"Huh. Is something wrong with my ears? That howling sounded like have a safe trip."
"I heard it that way too. Like see you tomorrow. Just like that."
Writer Yeom said it with startled eyes, and Maknae PD added his own.
"I heard take care."
Lee Jun, following behind them, let the corner of his mouth lift. You all heard it just right. Because that was exactly what the dogs had said. He turned his head, waved to them, and called out.
"I'll bring something even tastier tomorrow."
Arooo~!
Listening to that bright, ringing howl, the group climbed into the van and headed home, promising each other a clear, strong tomorrow.
In a secluded mountain hollow in Namyangju, people were bustling from first light.
They had gathered to move the dogs from the raised cages to a new place to live. Lee Jun bowed from the waist to the rescue team, who had come running the moment they could be of use.
"Thank you for coming all this way."
"Hahaha, not at all. You should have seen us last night when we heard the news. If it had been up to me, I'd have driven out then and there."
"He's right. Thanks to you, Director Lee, there's one less farm in the world. We're the ones who should be thanking you."
The rescue workers bowed.
"No, no. I barely lifted a finger. I'll keep doing what I can."
"Thank you. Having someone like you with us — that's more than we could ask for."
"That's kind of you to say. Shall we go, then?"
A short while later, the dogs welcomed Lee Jun's party as they appeared.
Woof-woof-woof-woof. Arf-arf-arf-arf. Bark-bark-bark-bark.
A fierce, joyful clamor, maybe ten seconds long, drawn straight from the heart. Then the dogs gathered their voices into one.
Awooooooo!
A welcome howl. A ceremony. And after it, a silence so complete that the rescue workers' faces went blank with confusion.
"What in the…! That's Director Lee for you. How does it go quiet that fast?"
"He must have taught them. Look at them — they're all smiling at us. He probably told them ahead of time."
"Well, I'll be. Doesn't look like we'll have much work to do."
"When we got the call last night I was thinking we might have to ask HSI — Humane Society International — for backup. Doesn't look like we needed to worry."
"That's the truth, Leader. I've never seen dogs this calm."
One of the workers, a man who had walked through more farms than he could count to pull dogs out of them, said it to the Rescue Team Leader with a smile.
"No kidding. Anyway — today might actually be easy."
The leader answered, then turned to Lee Jun.
"Director Lee, we'll be counting on you going forward. I've never seen dogs this quiet."
"I'm the one who should be asking for your help. They ate about an hour ago, so we can move them right away."
"Good grief — what time did you even get here?"
Lee Jun answered with a smile instead of a time, and the Rescue Team Leader, smiling back, went on.
"They're this well-behaved, so I hope they'll cooperate too. A lot of dogs are terrified of even stepping outside the raised cages."
"Then we'll just have to get them to come out."
Lee Jun said it while looking at the dogs, who were watching him approach with bright, expectant eyes. Liking him and walking out of a raised cage were two different problems. We opened the doors yesterday to feed them, and they still wouldn't come out. Same thing this morning. Ggungggung-i, who had been outside, had refused to go back in, and the dogs inside had refused to come out. Ggungggung-i had only gone back in after Lee Jun talked him into it.
"Once they're out, they'll know it's all right — but they'll be afraid."
"They will. These are kids who know that going out means dying."
Just as Lee Jun and the Rescue Team Leader had feared, the moment the cage doors opened, the dogs slipped backward, deeper inside — the same dogs who had been standing at the threshold, smiling at Lee Jun with their whole faces.
It was simply what they had learned. The door opens, you get dragged out, and then… They had watched friends vanish that way more times than they could count. That was why. To these dogs, the door was the door that ended a life.
Lee Jun's group had only met them the day before. One day of good food and gentle hands would not erase a lifetime of terror overnight. Even Ggungggung-i, who had toddled after Go Gi-jin around the yard yesterday, kept taking one step out from the corner and then backing up again, over and over — the wish to go to Lee Jun and Go Gi-jin warring with the wish to flee the door.
Watching the dogs shove their friends aside as they retreated, one of the rescue workers let out a sigh.
"They're gentle, but this isn't going to be easy."
"Gentle is plenty. Let's just go in and carry them out."
"Then I'll go in."
Go Gi-jin stepped forward.
"That'd be a great help. We'll hold the crates open out here."
"Will do, then."
Go Gi-jin was just about to step into the raised cage when Lee Jun spoke.
"Gi-jin. Hold on."
Lee Jun stopped him, then called a name.
"Ggungggung-i, come here!"
The workers, who had been wearing puzzled faces ever since Lee Jun held Go Gi-jin back, tilted their heads — and in that same moment, Ggungggung-i, who had been cocking his own head, began to walk slowly forward. Only a few steps. But he came on his own, and poked his face out through the open door.
A little peek.
Go Gi-jin broke into a huge smile at the sight of him.
"Aigoo, Ggungggung-i."
Go Gi-jin gathered him up and settled him into a crate — a crate labeled Ggungggung-i, Mongmong Animal Hospital.
"H-huh?"
"Th-that one came out on his own!"
Lee Jun spoke to the astonished workers.
"They have names, you see."
"Aigoo, that's remarkable. You named this many dogs in a single night."
"That's amazing enough, but… how do they recognize their own names after one day?"
"That is genuinely weird."
The workers looked back and forth between Lee Jun and Ggungggung-i with stunned eyes.
"Come now! It's Director Lee. Of course he managed it."
"Still. It's too strange."
Lee Jun answered their praise, though only in his heart. I didn't give them those names. Those are the names they already had. Their friends called them by those cute, pretty names every day, in voices full of affection. How could they not know a name like that?
He had no intention of telling the astonished people that particular truth. He simply called the next name.
"This time, want to come, Dangdang-i?"
The Boston Terrier's ears pricked. He walked out, careful and slow. Lee Jun gathered Dangdang-i into his arms, and Go Gi-jin opened his own at the door.
"Aigoo, then you come on too, Pallangi."
A Tosa came walking over, ears flapping with every step.
And after that, the names kept coming — a parade of them. Every dog inside the raised cages was called, and every one of them allowed themselves to be held, quietly, and settled into a crate. Like Ggungggung-i, like Dangdang-i, like Pallangi — every last one, scooped up in human arms.
They weren't anxious. They were grinning, heh-heh-heh. The dogs smiled, and the people smiled.
One of the workers, easing a dog into a crate with a look of deep contentment, spoke.
"It's amazing."
"What is?"
Writer Yeom, who had been writing names across the tops of the crates, asked him.
"Until a moment ago I thought of them as pitiful things. Pitiable dogs. But then you call their names, and they hear it and walk over… they really feel like dogs."
"…That's it, isn't it. Not some fate of being fattened up without a name until they vanish one day — but beloved dogs who get called by name."
The Rescue Team Leader, a man built on the same scale as Go Gi-jin, said it with a sniff. He looked moved. Writer Yeom looked at him and spoke.
"A name is an incredible thing. Director Lee gave them names yesterday, you know? Just one name each — and they all started looking different. Honestly, at first Ggungggung-i and Pallangi looked the same to me."
She turned toward the row of crates, searching for the ones Ggungggung-i and Pallangi had gone into.
"Now they look completely different. Ggungggung-i's eyes are like this, and Pallangi's droop a little. His ears are a bit longer, too."
She brought her hands to the corners of her own eyes, tracing the difference in their gazes.
"That's just it. Precious, adorable kids like this, and just 'cause they're big…"
Go Gi-jin turned his head and looked up at the sky. The tears, most likely, had been about to fall.
"That's why my heart gets heavy every time we rescue these friends. They've been hurt so badly that a lot of them avoid our eyes and tremble even as we're saving them. But these friends today look happy. They're settled. That's Director Lee Jun for you."
Pat-pat-pat-pat-pat.
Everyone applauded with closed fists, a muffled, careful sound, in case the dogs might startle. And all of this — every bit of it — had been made possible by the Bokjumeoni, the fans who cherished Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi.
"Most of them need a long time to adjust, but these ones won't need it. They're all so good-natured."
That was when Writer Song opened her mouth.
"They're so good it makes them even more pitiful. Shouldn't they hate us for locking them up? Shouldn't they resent us? Then why. Why are they like this… Kids, hate us instead. Hate us!"
Writer Song, overflowing with feeling, said it in a voice that had gone thick, and Writer Yeom joined her.
"You've only known me since yesterday. I gave you one round of treats. And you like me this much? That's cheating, isn't it?"
Lee Jun, who had been listening to both of them, spoke.
"They're angelic friends who still don't hold it against anyone. I think we're lucky we could rescue them even now. From here on, we just have to treat them well."
"That's right. Shall we start moving them?"
At the Rescue Team Leader's words, every gaze turned toward the crates. They would be carried to the vibration-free truck parked a short distance away.
"All right. Let's move them."
At the leader's word, everyone lifted a crate and filed out of the raised-cage yard. Smiles bloomed on the workers' faces as they walked with the heavy crates in their arms. Names were written across the tops. Destinations, too.
Lee Jun carried a crate of his own, and he was smiling.
The Rescue Team Leader, walking ahead of him with a crate, spoke.
"I've never had a day like this. The people are smiling, and the dogs we rescued are smiling too."
"Is that so?"
"Absolutely. I hope it can be like today when we shut down the remaining three thousand farms."
"Three thousand… that's a lot."
"It'll be more. That's only the ones that have been surveyed."
"Then we'll have to keep working."
"We will."
They had only just met, but something kindred passed between Lee Jun and the Rescue Team Leader. They were looking toward the same goal, and that was probably why.
Lee Jun turned his head for a moment and looked back at the place where the raised cages stood. The spot where dogs had worn gloomy, sorrowful faces. Now it was empty, and only filth and rust and squalor remained. That's right. Let's leave the sad, hard memories here. Together with all that dirt. So that from now on, they would live holding only happy ones…
Looking at the empty raised cages, Lee Jun wished that for them. And it occurred to him that it was an honor — that he would be the one to write the first page of those memories.
Holding that feeling, he spoke.