Hyungnim Must Not Forget Us
The two of them stared at each other, eyes wide with alarm.
"Gkamnyangi-ong, Hyungnim must not forget us-ong."
"He can't. I love Hyungnim too much."
"M-me too-ong. I love our Hyungnim so much-ong. He must not forget us-ong."
If they were switched out, some other cat would be sitting at Hyungnim's side in their place. And Hyungnim would never even know. Which meant he would never come looking for them. Not ever.
Gkamnyangi remembered the way home by scent; Hoesaegi, by his keen insight. They were confident they could make the journey back on their own. And yet, beneath that confidence, they had believed with unshakable certainty that Hyungnim—that Lee Jun—would come for them. No matter what.
The moment the thought of a switch crossed their minds, that faith shattered.
Gkamnyangi's voice trembled on the verge of tears.
"H-Hoesaegi, what if Hyungnim doesn't recognize us?"
"Th-that can't happen-ong. Gkamnyangi-ong, our Hyungnim would never forget us-ong."
"You think so?"
"I do-ong."
"If Hyungnim couldn't tell it was us, that Sapsaree would recognize us, right?"
"He would-ong."
The words were barely out before Hoesaegi gave a quick, uneasy shake of his head.
"No—wait. That might not be true-ong. He didn't recognize us-ong."
"R-right? That Sapsaree thought we were the bad guys, didn't he?"
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi let out long, weary sighs, then closed their mouths and said nothing more. For a little while, neither of them spoke. They had said the words—but they could not stop the unease from seeping up through them all the same.
Then the door burst open, and a rich, toasty smell flooded the room.
Churu.
"Here, kids. Eat up."
Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi spoke with their eyes.
When he gives us the savory water, we bite him. Hard-ong.
Got it. Bite him the second he does. Bite and scratch.
Let's do it-ong.
He would howl and make a huge fuss. That would be their chance to run. They laid the plan and waited for the cage to open.
But then—
Ong?
Huh?
It was not a hand that came into the cage. Something strange reached in instead: a pair of metal tongs. While the two of them sat stunned, the tongs withdrew, leaving only a dish of Churu sitting there.
"We failed-ong."
"W-we failed."
The cats were crushed.
"Gkamnyangi-ong, that guy's a real schemer-ong."
"Seems like it. He knew we were going to attack."
"He wrapped you in that warm thing-ong. So you couldn't use your claws-ong."
"He did."
"And he lured me in with that sparkly pretty thing-ong."
"What was that?"
"When Hyungnim does this, a sparkly thing darts around over there-ong."
Hoesaegi mimed shooting a point of light across the wall, and Gkamnyangi nearly jumped out of his fur.
"He did that?"
"He did-ong. I was watching it, and that's when I got kidnapped-ong."
"Hah! That guy's a real bastard."
"He's a bad guy-ong. So let's escape-ong."
"Yeah. But he's smart. How do we get out?"
"Gkamnyangi-ong, trust me-ong. And you're smart too-ong."
"I-I am?"
Am I smart, though? Gkamnyangi tilted his head slightly to the right, considering it—and Hoesaegi's golden eyes gleamed.
"You are-ong. You're smart-ong."
The conviction in that voice won Gkamnyangi over.
"R-right. I am sm-smart! Okay."
"We have to get out-ong. And go to Hyungnim-ong."
"Yeah. Back to Hyungnim!"
The two of them steeled themselves and put their heads together.
"But why's this guy giving us this?"
"I don't know-ong. But Hyungnim said-ong. Don't eat anything a stranger gives you-ong."
"He did."
Gkamnyangi licked his chops once, then clamped his mouth shut. Hoesaegi sniffed once—no, twice—then sealed his jaws tight.
After that they rattled the cage, and tried shaking the door on top as well. And then they found a gap.
"Huh? Gkamnyangi-ong, if we do it like this, I think we can get out-ong."
"Yeah. If we twist it like this..."
They had been dropped in through the top door, and the Churu had come down the same way when the top of the cage was opened. So what they focused on was that upper door—the ceiling, essentially. But the top door was shut tight and would not budge.
The side door, though, looked as if it might give if they just nudged it with their paws. So they pushed at it, sliding and working it with their front feet.
Click. Click.
Just as the closed latch began to shift, the room door burst open again.
"Did you eat it all up—huh? You didn't eat any?"
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. The kidnapper came closer. The instant they heard the footsteps, Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi flopped down inside the cage, and the kidnapper cocked his head at the sight.
"Hmm, they're not eating. They're not sick, are they? Why are they just lying there like they've got no energy? That's no good."
With that, he went back outside.
And immediately, Hoesaegi went for the cage latch. He lifted the hook that had been hanging down, held it so it would not drop, and Gkamnyangi, waiting beside him, eased the door sideways.
Then—shlick. The door opened.
"Huh? That was easy?"
"It was-ong. Super easy-ong."
Plenty of dogs could open a square cage latch without much trouble. For cats, who used their front paws like hands, it was even easier.
The door open, the two of them stepped out and immediately surveyed the room. The first place they checked was the window.
"If we push this, it should open-ong."
"Oh. Yeah?"
They put their strength together and pushed. The window, of course, had an auto-lock. It did not open. They shoved until their faces flushed red, then hung their heads.
"It won't open-ong."
"Can't do it."
Then they would have to look somewhere else. But there was nowhere else.
"Gkamnyangi-ong, it's either over there or over there-ong."
Meaning the window—or the door the kidnapper had been coming in and out of.
"Tsk. Yeah. But that one won't open, and that one's where he comes through."
Just then, Hoesaegi's ears pricked up. Then Gkamnyangi's too.
"He's coming-ong."
"He's coming."
They had not even formed an escape plan yet. They could not let him know they had gotten out of the cage. The two clever cats thought as one and leaped back inside at the same time—and they even had the presence of mind to ease the door shut again, paws moving in a quick, careful scramble.
The door burst open. The kidnapper came back through the doorway he had left by, this time carrying a different snack. It went into the cage the same way as before, and once again, neither of them so much as glanced at it.
And so time passed.
Meanwhile, Lee Jun arrived home and stopped short in shock. Sapsaree was in the yard, his whole face a mess of tears, trembling from head to tail. The moment Sapsaree saw him, he let out a wailing howl.
"Hy-Hyungnim-ayo. Hyungnim-ayo!"
"Why—did your brothers pick on you? It's cold out. Why are you outside?"
"Waaaaah!"
Sapsaree wailed even louder, his voice breaking.
"Hy-Hyungnims are gone-dayo. They disappeared-dayo."
"What? Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi are gone?"
"Th-that's right-dayo. Hic."
"W-what are you talking about? Sapsaree, calm down and tell me again. You don't mean they just went outside, do you? Like they went out to play?"
"N-no-dayo. There was a bang-dayo. It was so, so scary-dayo. Hyungnim shouted for someone to save him-dayo."
"He shouted for help?"
Just then, the cats from the Sarangbang gathered around Lee Jun.
"Th-the Boss has disappeared."
When the alley cats said the same thing Sapsaree had, Lee Jun's face went grave.
"Can you tell me everything you know?"
"There was a bang-dayo. It was scary-dayo."
"That's right. There were bang-bang sounds. So we hid."
"It was so scary. So we hid."
They had all hidden in the Hiding Cubbies.
"Then there were more bang-bang-bang sounds-dayo. And Hoesaegi Hyungnim shouted-dayo. So I thought a bad guy had broken in and I ran out-dayo. Gkamnyangi Hyungnim ran out too-dayo."
Sapsaree was so worked up the words tumbled out in a rush, and Lee Jun soothed him.
"Sapsaree. Calm down. Calm down and tell me."
"It was that guy-dayo. I heard that guy's sound-dayo. I smelled that guy's smell-dayo."
"That guy? Someone you know?"
Lee Jun asked because he did not know whether "that guy" was an animal or a person.
"I heard it yesterday-dayo, and the day before yesterday-dayo, Hyungnim-ayo. I heard it when we went to the park too-dayo. It was a thump-thump, thump-thump sound-dayo."
When he described the sound, the cats chimed in.
"There was a clack sound."
"Hmm. Thump-thump sounds like footsteps, and the clack is..."
Sapsaree bolted across the yard to Lee Jun's car, parked in the corner.
"This sound-dayo. The sound that comes from here-dayo."
"The car?"
"That's right-dayo! This sound happened-dayo. Hyungnim shouted for someone to save him-dayo."
"What? He shouted for help?"
Between Sapsaree's account and the cats', Lee Jun pieced it together. His molars ground together.
Someone kidnapped our kids?
If that was it, money was definitely the motive. Rage and guilt seized him at once, and his face flushed a deep, burning red. This had happened because Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi were popular. Someone had planned to kidnap the two of them and squeeze him for ransom. If they had not been famous, none of this would have happened.
"It's because of me."
If he had never put Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi in the videos, this never would have happened. Lee Jun blamed himself. And he apologized to them.
What were they going through right now? They weren't being tortured, were they?
"No. No, they wouldn't."
Whoever it was would not dare hurt them—not if they wanted a high ransom. Then something clicked in Lee Jun's mind.
"Ah—the security cameras!"
That was right. Lee Jun's house had cameras. Inside and out. The ones outside were not his; the district had installed public safety cameras near his house. Either way, he could check what had happened. That was what mattered.
It was far too late at night to go to the district office and ask to see the public footage. Lee Jun called Kwak Suho first.
A short while later, Lee Jun's house erupted into chaos. Kwak Suho. Choi Woo-jin, who had come running the moment he got Kwak Suho's call. And Go Gi-jin, who had been working late and come tearing over the second Lee Jun phoned him. The three of them shouted over each other, voices raw.
"Is this guy insane? This is completely insane. Does he have nothing better to do? Why would anyone kidnap our kids? Kidnap them!"
"What in the world is goin' on? Who'd go and steal our kids, and what'd they do it for?"
"Lee Jun, you know this, right? Kidnappings have a golden hour. We have to find them now. If we mess this up, our kids could be gone forever...!"
"I know. I know."
In the space of a single hour, Lee Jun had gone haggard. He forced the words out.
"Let's at least check the ones in the house first."
Kwak Suho pulled up the footage from the indoor cameras. There were two: one in the living room, the other in the garden, installed so they could check on the three of them when no one was home. They checked both. Neither yielded a single clue.
"Looks like we'll have to go to the district office first thing in the morning."
"It'd be good if we could check the dashcams on the cars parked outside, too."
"Right. Those."
At Choi Woo-jin's words, Go Gi-jin shot up from his seat.
"I'll run over to the neighbors."
"At this hour?"
It was past nine, nearly ten.
"It's urgent. If I explain, they'll understand."
As Go Gi-jin ran outside, something flashed through Lee Jun's mind.
They said they heard that sound a few days ago too, right? Then it might've been caught on my dashcam.
Lee Jun cursed himself for not leaving the car outside today of all days. But he still needed to check.
"I'll grab mine too."
"Yours too?"
"Yeah. I parked it outside yesterday. You never know. He might've come by before the kidnapping."
"He probably did. That aside—how did he even know to come here?"
"How would I know what a guy like that is thinking? Could be someone we know."
While everyone gathered at Golmokjib searched for the culprit with fire in their eyes, Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi, far away, were no less intent—heads together, hatching their escape.