Eye to Eye with Seorak
The two of them were staring at Lee Jun so hard they might have bored a hole straight through him.
He thought he knew what was going through their heads. They're wondering how I'm going to get the drops in, aren't they?
He was wrong.
Seorak's that worked up, and he still says he's going to put the drops in. I called him here, so I suppose he's saying he'll find a way somehow, but still… Park I-chan felt both grateful and sorry for the friend who had summoned up his courage for his sake.
Keeper Ji Hyun-woo, meanwhile, was busy being astonished by Lee Jun's bold, spirited bearing. Whoa. He's got a lot more guts than he looks. Seorak's glaring like that and he isn't backing down an inch. So that's why even the bears listened to him so well.
Of course, both of them had it completely wrong.
They had no idea that Lee Jun's limbs were shaking, that he wanted to bolt that very instant — and that he was barely holding his ground on the hope that Seorak would be comfortable again, that the tiger might go on living in peace.
Layered in misunderstanding from every side, Lee Jun answered.
"Yeah. If we leave him like that, it could progress to glaucoma. We have to treat him before it gets there."
Even in a situation like this, he hadn't forgotten a veterinarian's duty — he'd even laid out the prognosis. Park I-chan's gratitude and guilt tipped over into outright admiration.
"I know that. I know, but honestly — putting eye drops in a guy that agitated isn't going to be easy, is it?"
Park I-chan said it and looked to Ji Hyun-woo beside him for backup.
"Wouldn't you say so, Keeper Ji?"
He wanted to give Lee Jun a legitimate out — to establish that if he gave up here, no one would think it strange. It would be the most natural thing in the world.
"That's right. It's hard. When he's that agitated, even I, who see him every day…"
Keeper Ji Hyun-woo let out a short sigh and finished the thought.
"I'm scared."
"Right?"
And with that, Park I-chan reached his conclusion: of course Lee Jun couldn't put drops in Seorak's eyes. He turned to his friend.
"Looks like we'll have to give up on treatment. We can't anesthetize him every time we put the drops in. Better to just…"
"That's out of the question. We can't give up without even trying."
Lee Jun cut him off. He knew exactly what Park I-chan had been about to say.
If they couldn't treat him, it would progress to glaucoma, or he would go blind. Even if it became glaucoma, the end of that road was still blindness.
Then wouldn't it be better to give up on his vision and just make sure he didn't hurt?
That was the line of thought Lee Jun had just blocked.
"That's true, but…"
"You know this too! No — you'd know better than I would. What happens if Seorak goes blind. No, wait. Keeper Ji would know even better than we would."
Lee Jun looked at Keeper Ji Hyun-woo.
"Yes, that's right. Daily life would become much harder, after all."
Ji Hyun-woo answered with a bitter expression, and Lee Jun picked up the thread.
"Dogs and cats, when they lose their sight, they get by on hearing and smell — but they still become slower, and less active, than when they could see. Wouldn't a tiger be similar?"
"That's correct. Their personality becomes timid, and they barely want to move. Even in an environment they've lived in their whole lives. They could even lose their footing."
"So we have to treat him. Before it gets worse."
Even as this grave conversation unfolded, Seorak drove his claws into the bars and growled.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
The loud, irregular clang of the lock striking the iron gate said everything about how agitated he was.
Park I-chan glanced at Seorak — who was glaring as if he might burst through the bars any second and tear them apart — and asked,
"But how are you going to put eye drops in a guy that agitated?"
"That's exactly why."
Lee Jun nodded toward the tiger glaring at him. Raising a finger here would only work Seorak up further.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"He's agitated, and he's glaring at me. Even that closed eye is opening a little when he does."
Just as Lee Jun said, whenever Seorak glared at the three of them, he opened his eyes wide. He glared especially hard at Lee Jun — a stranger who had invaded his territory.
"Ah! So?"
"Plus his eyes are bigger than I expected. I think I can get it in."
"Still… you think that's possible?"
"We'll have to try."
At Lee Jun's unflinching answer, Park I-chan, in a fit of frustration, almost raised his hand — then stopped. Aigoo. I almost scratched my head out of habit.
Park I-chan's original plan had been simple: Lee Jun, who had tamed even bears, would tame Seorak too, and then putting the drops in would be easy. The instant he saw Seorak go berserk at the sight of Lee Jun, that plan had flown off into the distance.
He had completely forgotten why he'd even called Lee Jun here, and for a moment the stress of listening to this friend spout reckless things shot straight to the top of his skull. That was why his hand had been about to go up.
With a creature in front of them who would take a raised hand as a sign of attack and get even more agitated — what had he been about to do?
Park I-chan swallowed the urge to rake a hand through the chilled hair at the back of his neck. He sighed instead.
"Let's say you can get it in once. What about twice? You know this too, right? This isn't a disease that gets better from one or two applications."
"We'll have to hope Seorak is smart."
"What?"
"It's going to hurt. We need to settle the pain first."
In truth, putting the drops in once wouldn't make the pain vanish on the spot. But it might get a little better. Lee Jun hoped Seorak had keen enough senses to notice even that.
"Hah. Yeah. Relieving the pain is important. So you're going to put in the mydriatic first?"
"Yeah."
At Lee Jun's answer, Keeper Ji Hyun-woo asked in a small voice from beside them.
"Dr. Park, can eye drops take away the pain in his eyes? Shouldn't he be taking oral medication?"
"Oral meds would be better, but Seorak doesn't have an appetite right now, does he?"
The answer came from Lee Jun.
"That's true, but…"
"So I'm going to put it directly in the eye."
"Painkillers?"
"Similar. I'm going to put in a mydriatic. It makes it hurt a little less. It's also called a cycloplegic eye drop."
"Ah. I see."
Lee Jun offered a supplementary explanation to Ji Hyun-woo, who had answered in a dubious tone.
"When uveitis develops, inflammatory material floats around inside the eye. Then that inflammation can stick to the structures of the eye. It can cling to the lens, or it can go and attach to the iris."
"Then he wouldn't be able to regulate his pupil."
"That's possible. If inflammatory material adheres between the anterior surface of the lens and the iris, the pupil can even become distorted."
"Ah — so you're putting it in so it doesn't stick."
"Yes. We use this mydriatic to relieve pain and prevent iris adhesions."
Watching Lee Jun explain, with a perfectly easy, unhurried expression, why they were using a mydriatic, Park I-chan asked as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"You… are you okay?"
The look on his face said, You're standing there giving a lecture in front of that terrifying beast?
"It'd be good if Keeper Ji knows this."
"I think so. If I ever have to put in eye drops, I won't be lazy about it."
"When you explain to guardians why they need to put the drops in, they put them in very diligently."
Having said that, Lee Jun repeated the request he had made a moment ago.
"So if you could get me a chair or a table. So I can get up there and meet that guy's eyes. Ah — a table would be better, if possible. This guy isn't going to stay still in one spot."
A table that would give him more room to maneuver would be better than a chair. That was Lee Jun's thinking when he added it.
Keeper Ji Hyun-woo looked Lee Jun straight in the eye for a brief moment, then nodded.
"Understood."
A short while later, Keeper Ji Hyun-woo came back with another keeper, carrying a table. When Lee Jun stood on it, he found himself looking down at Seorak's head, pressed against the bars and growling.
That wasn't all. He could also see the claws jutting out between the bars. Aigoo. If those go in…
Just in case, Lee Jun zipped up the puffer jacket he had worn. If it flapped while he moved, it might catch those claws. If I lower my stance, it might catch the hood too.
Since he was planning to try various positions, Lee Jun even pulled up the hood attached to the puffer and fastened the snap buttons on it. Lower my stance a little…
He ran a simulation in his head of how he could get the drops in in a single go. It would be dropping them rather than putting them in, but still. Hmm. First I'll try dropping the drops, and if that doesn't work either, I'll put it in a spray bottle and spray it.
If he sprayed it, the pushback would be even stronger — but there would be no choice if he wanted to get the medicine in. Ah. Come to think of it, wouldn't Feliway help Seorak too?
Remembering the pheromone they always sprayed in the feline exam rooms, he decided he should bring Feliway next time. And catnip too, just in case.
When he came tomorrow, he would bring the things cats liked. As he was thinking that, Lee Jun felt something change. Hmm? Seorak seems a little less agitated than a moment ago.
Had he already gotten used to them? Lee Jun felt a little less scared than before.
The moment he thought that and stepped down from the table, Seorak opened his mouth even wider than before and growled.
"Nope. Same as before. Exactly the same."
Lee Jun muttered it, his shoulders giving a twitch. Park I-chan, who had heard the mutter right beside him, asked,
"What are you talking about?"
"No…"
He'd thought Seorak had gotten a little less scary. It had been a delusion. Still scary.
He was about to say that when an image rose before his eyes — or rather, inside his mind.
The three of them: Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree, wearing enormous, brightly colored hats and giggling their heads off.
"Ah. I see."
Lee Jun understood. He understood why the three of them had always loved wearing big hats. Right. The ones with big heads usually become the bosses.
In the cat world, the bosses were often large cats with big heads. So when he had put on the puffer hood and climbed onto the table, Seorak had been a bit startled. Huh? This guy's pretty big?
Then, when Lee Jun had gotten small again, Seorak had gone back to growling as before.
But in Lee Jun's eyes, Seorak no longer looked like the terrifying tiger he had first seen. He didn't know if it was because he had thought of the three of them, but if he allowed himself a little exaggeration, Seorak felt like a somewhat oversized friend of Hoesaegi's.
Once he thought that, the vague, nameless fear of a terrifying tiger simply vanished. And perhaps because of that, the Seorak growling and glaring right in front of him was no longer scary.
Which only made him want even more to treat those hurting eyes.
Lee Jun picked the mydriatic from among the eye drops he had tucked in his inner pocket. Then he opened the cap and held the bottle in his hand.
"You had that in your jacket?"
"Yeah. It's going to touch his eye. If it's cold, he'll hate it even more."
"That's true."
To be thinking of even that in a situation like this. Park I-chan decided Lee Jun really was something else, and asked,
"Are you going to put in all three?"
"These two are backups. I might drop the bottle while I'm trying to put it in."
Having said that, Lee Jun immediately climbed back onto the table. Seorak glared at him as he drew closer to the bars.
Grrrah! Grrraaaahhh!
His upper lip twitched, revealing long, pointed fangs.
Lee Jun spoke to him.
"Seorak. I'm going to put this in your eye now. It'll sting a little. But once this goes in, it won't hurt. Okay?"
Clang, clang, clang, CLANG.
Whether Seorak understood the words or not, he pressed himself against the bars and slammed them. Lee Jun didn't budge an inch, and went on.
"Seorak. You don't want it to hurt, right? Then listen well."
Seorak still bared his teeth and glared. Lee Jun looked right back at him.
They held there, eye to eye — and then Lee Jun raised his hand.
Seorak's mouth opened even wider, the twitching accelerating. His whiskers rose and fell as if they were vibrating.
Grrraaahh!
The cry grew quieter. But more ominous. If Lee Jun did even a little more of anything, Seorak looked ready to smash the bars that instant and tear him apart.
Unable even to swallow, Lee Jun slowly — very slowly — brought his hand toward the bars.
But Seorak was not one to miss it.
BANG!
Seorak slammed the bars with a huge front paw. The force of it nearly sat Lee Jun down on the table. Whoa. I thought my heart stopped.
Correction.
Seorak was a tiger. He was absolutely not a cat like Hoesaegi or Gkamnyangi.
The one silver lining was that Seorak, taking Lee Jun's movement as an attack, had pressed his face right up against the bars. Seorak's eye was directly in front of him.
Lee Jun barely held back the breath that was trying to escape, and immediately shot the eye drops.
Not put them in — shot them. He squeezed the entire bottle with all his strength.
That instant—
ROOOAAARR!
CLANK CLANK CLANK!
BANG BANG BANG BANG.
Seorak hammered the bars wildly with his front paws. This was a tiger whose front paws came down with eight hundred kilograms of force. Putting every ounce of his body into it, Seorak shook the bars as if he meant to smash them apart in answer to Lee Jun's attack. His whole body shook with the effort.
So how could the drops possibly have gone in?
Failure.
Lee Jun, not even having registered yet that he had failed, stood frozen on the table like a mannequin. He had grasped it by instinct: he must not stimulate the agitated Seorak any further.
Park I-chan, however, was another matter.
Having watched the whole thing with his heart in his throat, Park I-chan crumpled onto the floor. Sitting on the cold cement on a winter day, he muttered,
"Aigoo. This is a horror movie. A horror movie. My legs have gone so weak I can't even stand."
Ji Hyun-woo was no better. He had never known that Seorak — whom he tended so devotedly, every single day — could be this ferocious. He was thoroughly shaken. Even we who see him every day find that terrifying, and yet… is this really Director Lee Jun?
Looking at Lee Jun, who had not run, who was holding his position on the table and facing Seorak down — Ji Hyun-woo's eyes shone.
Seorak, who had been throwing angry swipes of his front paws toward Lee Jun, now paced frantically inside the enclosure, breathing in sharp, agitated hisses. Hss. Hss. Hss.
Looking at him, Lee Jun swallowed a sigh. Aigoo. I thought I was going to die of fright. Anyway — I failed. I need to get those drops in fast.
Should he try the pheromone and the catnip, the way he had thought?
Lee Jun looked at the thoroughly enraged Seorak with a pang of sympathy.