The Quiet Ride Home
The car heading home was quiet. Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree had fallen silent from the shock of encountering, for the first time in their lives, a being that truly frightened them. Lee Jun was silent for a different reason: he was turning over in his mind how he might ever get through to Seorak.
Kwak Suho kept stealing glances at the four of them every time they stopped at a light. Unlike on the way to the zoo, the three animals lying back against their pet car seats looked thoroughly worn out. Given the long drive and the hours spent at the zoo, it was no wonder they were tired. And they had seen a tiger with their own eyes, no less. So the three of them sprawled out like that was a perfectly understandable situation.
Those guys must've been exhausted. Well, they've got every right to be. That aside, Jun looks pretty disappointed...
Seeing Lee Jun so deflated, Kwak Suho felt a pang of his own.
Seorak, you stubborn thing. If you'd just listened a little, it would've been better for you and for Jun. Is there any good way to handle this?
Like Lee Jun, Kwak Suho was racking his brain for a way to calm the tiger.
Hmm. According to Jun, Seorak gobbles up beef when you give it to him, right? Then what if we rolled the meat in catnip? He'd like that even more, wouldn't he? He did react to catnip, after all.
The thought tumbled straight out of his mouth.
"Jun."
"Yeah."
"So, uh, you said Seorak ate the beef just fine, right?"
"He did."
That much he could say with certainty.
"So I was thinking — what if we rolled it in catnip?"
"Catnip?"
"Yeah. You know, like rolling a rice cake in soybean powder. If you give it to him like that, maybe he'll like you a little more? There's even a fairy tale that says if you give a tiger a rice cake, it won't eat you. Hand him that and he'll come running, asking for more."
Kwak Suho even invoked one of Korea's most famous folktales — The Brother and Sister Who Became the Sun and Moon — to press his case.
"Something tastier... that's not a bad idea."
"Right?"
"But do you know what tigers like best?"
"Tigers? Meat, isn't it? You said he ate the beef well."
"Yeah, but among meats, there might be a cut he likes even more. You know anything about that?"
"Well... oh, I once saw a lion eating grass."
"Don't tell me it was starving? Or did it have indigestion?"
"Indigestion, I'd guess. I know because the friends I was traveling with at the time were all lion researchers. They said lions pull up grass and eat it themselves when their stomachs are off or they need to throw up."
"Figures. That aside, you really do meet the most random people."
Kwak Suho chuckled as he picked up the thread.
"Well, yeah. Wander the savanna long enough and you run into plenty of people studying animals."
The African savanna, presumably.
"Those friends said the reason lions eat the organs first is that they're tender, sure, but also packed with nutrients. That's how they get their fiber, too — absorbing it indirectly through the grass the prey ate."
"Smart. Then Seorak might like organs too."
"Could be. That's why they feed them whole raw chickens, right?"
"True. Should we hit Majang-dong tomorrow?"
"Majang-dong? Why there? Wait — more importantly, are you off tomorrow?"
"Yeah, it's my day off. Figured I'd swing by Majang-dong and pick up some organ meat while I'm at it."
"Nice. And while we're there, let's grab some beef gopchang too."
"Gopchang's Haengdang-dong, though."
"Right, right. Wangsimni it is. So, gopchang tomorrow? You in?"
"You free tomorrow?"
"Of cooourse. Our Director Lee Jun is going — I have to go too. Can't make our exhausted director drive himself."
Watching Kwak Suho volunteer as chauffeur with a gleeful look on his face, Lee Jun snorted a laugh.
"This isn't just because you want gopchang?"
"We're already going, might as well eat. A man's gotta eat, doesn't he?"
"That's true, but... I get the feeling you're running away from real life. Aren't you supposed to be painting?"
"Ahem!"
Kwak Suho, who'd been grinning ear to ear, suddenly put on a grave expression.
"Art, my friend, is not something you dash off overnight just because you feel like drawing."
"Then?"
"Inspiration has to come. Inspiration."
"Weren't you just painting whatever? I've seen a ton of pictures of lions napping, giraffes and Thomson's gazelles grazing. Oh, and plenty of leopards sprawled out in trees."
"Ahem! Every single one of those has my inspiration in it — my blood and sweat. What are you talking about?"
They all look the same to me.
Lee Jun swallowed that last remark, certain Kwak Suho would start breathing fire if he said it out loud. Instead:
"Then paint Seorak."
"That's what I'm saying! I was going to paint Seorak. A Siberian tiger — how magnificent is that? I want to paint Seorak standing proud on a rock dusted with white snow!"
"Oh reeeally? Then there are other tigers too. You could paint them."
"W-well, inspiration doesn't just appear overnight..."
"So what you're saying is you don't want to paint."
"When did I ever say I didn't want to paint? I'm simply waiting for the inspiration to strike."
"Sure, sure. That inspiration of yours."
"Honestly, neither this guy nor that guy understands an artist's anguish, an artist's torment."
"This guy" was Lee Jun, and "that guy" was Choi Woo-jin. And just as Kwak Suho said, Lee Jun did not understand their anguish and torment in the slightest.
Lee Jun turned to look at the back seat and snapped a photo. Capturing Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree still unable to shake off the shock, he said:
"You could paint them looking like that. Might be good."
"Ohh! That's a great idea. Our Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi hugging Seorak's legs and laughing, and Sapsaree nuzzling his face against Seorak's lowered head! Jun, that's good. Isn't that good?"
Lee Jun looked at Kwak Suho, who was practically shouting as if he'd already seen the scene with his own eyes, and let out a sigh.
"If only."
"Right? It's good, it's good. I'm going to paint it today."
Lee Jun thought, as usual, that this guy was a real weirdo, and gave a halfhearted reply.
"Go ahead. But you haven't even seen Seorak."
"What, do I have to see him to paint him? If I look up Seorak on the zoo's Myeotube, he'll be there."
At Kwak Suho's answer, Lee Jun felt as if he'd been struck on the head with a hammer.
That's right. If I watch those, I can learn Seorak's original personality.
To get close to someone, you had to know their true nature. The approach changed depending on personality.
Why didn't I think of that?
Lee Jun grew impatient. He had something to do once he got home.
Kwak Suho seemed to feel the same, because the moment Lee Jun and the three animals stepped out in front of Golmokjib, he zoomed off. Still, he at least left these words behind:
"Jun, I'll come by tomorrow morning. Let's go to Majang-dong."
Once home, Lee Jun immediately searched for videos of Seorak. Fortunately, tigers being popular animals, there were videos to be found.
"Oh, there they are."
To observe Seorak's expressions in detail, Lee Jun pulled up Myeotube on the living room television. The sound that came through at once:
Aoooough!
The moment Seorak's enormous roar filled the living room, the three animals who'd been lying on their respective cushions bolted upright at the same time. Then they scrambled off somewhere. Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi dove into the curtains by the window, and Sapsaree hid under the sofa.
The curtains were trembling — they must have been shaking inside. Sapsaree, who'd stuffed himself under the sofa, hadn't quite managed to hide his tail. The tail sticking out was quivering.
The video continued. But Seorak's roar did not come again.
Seorak strolled around his spacious enclosure, savoring his leisure. Ambling along, he stopped in front of a rock. There was a yellow pumpkin sitting there, and Seorak sniffed it.
"Ohh, a nosework toy?"
They must have hollowed out a big pumpkin and stuffed meat inside. Lee Jun watched the video with interest.
Seorak batted at the pumpkin with his massive forepaw, showing curiosity, then finally leaped up onto the rock and knocked the pumpkin to the ground. Still looking dissatisfied, he lifted his head and seemed to sink into thought.
"Wondering how to get at what's inside, huh."
Lee Jun watched, fascinated.
"He'll bat it with his paw, or roll it against that rock, right?"
And smash it that way. But contrary to what Lee Jun expected, Seorak apparently decided to just keep rolling the pumpkin. He rolled and rolled it, and eventually a piece of meat dropped out through the hole.
A grin. Seorak smiled as he popped the meat into his mouth.
Watching that, Lee Jun felt a pang.
"A guy who smiles that brightly..."
How did he end up suffering like this now?
"That aside... is Seorak a scaredy-cat?"
To Lee Jun's eyes, Seorak looked cautious. In other words, he was highly wary of new things.
"Ah, so that's why he might have resisted the training too."
If so, the best approach for Seorak was simply getting used to things. Lee Jun was certain that his decision to go see Seorak again would produce good results.
"Good thing I watched the video."
Lee Jun was watching the television with satisfaction when Seorak approached a structure made of cardboard boxes taped together. It was a device built like a hiding cubby, for behavioral enrichment.
Just then, Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi wriggled out from behind the curtains. Sapsaree poked his head out from under the sofa too. After the roar, there had been no further sound, so they must have gotten curious.
"Seorak's scent isn't here-ong."
"Yeah, it's not. He must've left."
"Seems that way-ong."
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi whispered, then, looking relieved, padded over to Lee Jun with little thump-thump steps. When the two of them came over, Sapsaree emerged from the sofa as well.
The two who had come to Lee Jun's side turned their heads to look at the television. In that instant:
"Hup!"
"Eek!"
The cats' eyes flew wide and their whole bodies went rigid. But a moment later, as if the tension had never existed, they snorted a laugh.
"Seorak's a huge scaredy-cat-ong. I'm not scared of paper-ong."
"Right? Why's he scared of that? It looks fun."
"That's right-ong, it's fun-ong. If you go inside the paper, you get sleepy-ong."
Busy watching the two of them, Lee Jun had missed the television.
Why'd they suddenly get so brave? What did Seorak do?
Rewinding the video, a smile bloomed on Lee Jun's lips.
Seorak had looked the box over this way and that, then tapped it. And then he'd startled and scrambled backward in retreat. The box his forepaw had touched had barely even wobbled.
"Hmm. He really is a scaredy-cat."
Curious about new things, but plenty frightened. That was how Lee Jun read Seorak. The cats had reached a similar conclusion.
"Hyung-nim-ong, Seorak's a scaredy-cat-ong."
"Yeah. Hyung-nim, Seorak's so scared he talked really loud."
At Gkamnyangi's words, Sapsaree stamped a forepaw on the floor and chimed in.
"That's right, it is! Scaredy friends talk loud, they do! I talk small, I do!"
"That's right-ong. Sapsaree doesn't make big sounds-ong."
"Hoesaegi, you talk small too."
"Gkamnyangi-ong, you talk small too-ong."
"That's right. We talk small, we do. Seorak talks loud, he does."
Kids, Seorak does seem a bit of a scaredy-cat, but you talking like that feels a little off.
But Lee Jun didn't say it. The three who'd been terrified until now were looking so triumphant as they chattered about the Seorak on the screen.
Better to let them puff up a little, right?
Yeah. Let's do that.
Thinking that, Lee Jun listened to the three of them chatter while observing Seorak's behavior. The conversation of the three, who had been insisting they were fearless and Seorak was a coward, shifted at some point to Seorak's eye disease.
"Seorak's pitiful-ong. He's a scaredy-cat and his eyes hurt too-ong."
"Hmm, that's bad. He needs to get better soon. If a scaredy-cat can't see, he gets even more scared."
"That's right, it is! When you're hurting, it's scary, it is. I was so, so scared, I was."
Sapsaree poured out how he'd felt when he was sick at Bukhansan Ecological Park. This was the first Lee Jun had heard of it. His gaze turned to Sapsaree.
He growled at me back then.
Recalling that memory, Lee Jun was looking at Sapsaree with sympathy when Hoesaegi asked him:
"Sapsaree-ong. Back then, when you glared like this, was it because you were scared-ong?"
Hoesaegi bared his teeth, mimicking a growl.
"That's right. I was hurting so bad I couldn't even run, and a stranger touched me, he did. Hehe — it was Hyung-nim!"
Sapsaree said the stranger had been Hyung-nim, and bonked his head against Lee Jun's leg, laughing.
"That's right. When you can't see, and someone comes close, it's scary."
Gkamnyangi, who until now had been claiming to be the brave one, agreed with Sapsaree.
This guy's been through a lot.
What good kids. Thinking that as he looked at the three of them, Hoesaegi opened his mouth as well.
"That's right-ong. When it hurts so much and you can't move, it's really, really scary-ong. I was scared too-ong."
Huh?
Gkamnyangi's eyes went round. So did Sapsaree's. The bravest of the three, Hoesaegi, had confessed he'd been scared, and they were stunned. But Hoesaegi didn't see the surprised Gkamnyangi and Sapsaree, because he was looking at Lee Jun and grinning.
"Hyung-nim came-ong. Hyung-nim-ong, thank you-ong."
"R-right."
"Hyung-nim-ong, please make sure scaredy Seorak's eyes don't hurt-ong."
"Seorak roared louder because he couldn't see. Hyung-nim, please make his eyes work."
"It's Hyung-nim! Seorak won't hurt, he won't!"
At Sapsaree's words — that because it was Hyung-nim, he would make Seorak stop hurting — the other two looked at Lee Jun. Their eyes were bright and shining, filled with the wish that he would surely heal Seorak.
"Yeah. I will."
Lee Jun answered, then shifted his gaze from the three of them to the screen. While he'd been listening to them talk, Seorak's video had ended. And then another video started, and Lee Jun's eyes lit up.
"Huh? He likes that that much?"
On screen, Seorak was hugging a round ball, looking absolutely delighted — and something was smeared on it.