Aong-Awoong~
It was a cry so small and sweet that anyone hearing it without seeing the source would have sworn it belonged to a house cat. Sprawled on his back with a delighted grin plastered across his face, the leopard mewed and mewed like a kitten.
Lee Jun let out a helpless laugh. What is this, a giant Hoesaegi? No—wait. Short fur. Maybe I should call him Gkamnyangi. An apex predator wearing an expression that adorable, moving in ways that adorable… The tension that had been coiled tight in his chest melted away like spring ice.
Beside him, Team Leader Nam Hoseong was blinking as if his eyes had short-circuited. Heavens. What am I even looking at right now? Beongae was famous for a blunt, razor-edged temperament that never let anyone close. The scene unfolding in front of him was so rare, so utterly bizarre, that Nam Hoseong found himself thinking that if he ever described this to a fellow veterinarian, not a soul would believe him.
The thought lingered only a moment before the corners of his mouth began to curl. At this rate, we might actually get the anesthesia in without a fight. The treatment, too. The vague hopes he had pinned on Lee Jun hardened, in that instant, into conviction.
Kwak Suho's eyes were rolling in their sockets as he stared at Jun—an action cam already in his hand, though no one had seen him turn it on.
"Jun. Him. Why is he like that? Team Leader Nam, is Beongae normally a dog-cat? Wait—a dog-leopard? That charm is exploding off the charts."
It was impossible to tell whether Kwak Suho was asking a question or simply exclaiming. He looked at Beongae and his mouth stretched into a grin.
"Aww, he's cute. He's too cute! He's just a giant dog-cat. A dog-cat."
"Hardly. If that were the case, we would have attempted treatment a long time ago."
Nam Hoseong answered with a still-dazed expression, then pointed at Beongae, who was still mewing and wriggling his back against the floor.
A correction, actually. The leopard who had been scent-rubbing his back against the ground was now rubbing himself against the cage bars—the bars directly in front of where Lee Jun stood. Every inch of the motion said he wanted to get even a little closer.
"Look at this. Beongae doesn't even register that I'm standing right here. Ordinarily, the moment I appear he bares his teeth, growls, and can't put enough distance between us."
That was the temperament Nam Hoseong had described only minutes ago. To Lee Jun and Kwak Suho, who were meeting Beongae for the first time, that briefing was starting to feel like a lie. The leopard showed not the faintest trace of aggression.
"Wow. A vet who tames tigers really is on another level. Beongae's gone full house cat. A dog-cat."
I know, right? Why is he like this?
Lee Jun had honestly figured it would take several visits before a leopard like Beongae warmed to him. And yet here was this reaction at first sight—before he had even taken out the things Seorak had loved. He was, inwardly, a little thrown. So it was real.
He slid the backpack off his shoulders and set it on the ground, his gaze dropping to the bottle pockets sewn on either side. They were meant for water or drinks. What sat in one of them was not water. Inside was a liquid he had prepared in a hurry, and that, it seemed, was what had turned Beongae into this. On the way to the enclosure, Jun had dabbed a little of it onto his clothes. If a single drop produced a reaction like this…
Ziiip.
He opened the backpack and pulled out the fish toy Hoesaegi had packed for him with such ambitious confidence. It was stuffed with catnip. Beongae did not so much as glance at it. Seorak showed some interest in catnip, sure—but he liked elephant dung more. Beongae's behavior made sense, then. His brain was in no condition to be seduced by catnip. The scent currently flooding his nose and lighting up his skull had him entirely in its grip. Alright. He likes this smell. Time to check the wound.
And at this distance, a recording would show far more than the naked eye.
Jun pulled the bottle from the side pocket, twisted off the cap, and dabbed the mouth of it against the fish toy again and again as he spoke to Kwak Suho.
"Suho. When Beongae lifts his leg and the wound shows, get a good shot of it."
"You get him in position and I'll shoot it like we're looking through a microscope. That said… the smell around here is incredible. Did someone smash a bottle of perfume?"
As if. It's this, obviously.
Jun smiled, holding up the fish toy, which was now radiating fragrance like a smashed perfume counter.
That was when it happened.
Tok!
The sound of a forepaw striking the cage bars—the same paw that had been mewing and rubbing a moment before.
Tok, to-tok, tok-tok-tok-tok.
The huge forepaw began battering the bars in earnest. It was a begging motion, a pleading one. Beongae's face, as he struck, was naturally turned toward the outside of the cage. The eyes that had been curved into crescents so tight the pupils had vanished were a little more open now—though the gaze behind them was still hazy and dream-soft.
Lee Jun dropped to a seat right in front of him and looked into those half-lidded eyes.
"Beongae! You want this, don't you?"
At Jun's words, Beongae mewed aong-aong as if to say, Yes, I want it—and, in fact, that was exactly what he said.
The tiny, earnest answer only deepened Jun's smile. Seorak used to call me "Newcomer" and talk like he was issuing orders. Beongae, it seemed, had a gentle nature.
"Sure. I'll give it to you. But Beongae—can you flop over one more time? Then it's yours."
Beongae flopped onto his back at once, as obedient as a dog being trained to sit with a treat dangling in front of its nose.
"That's it. Good boy. Now can you lift your leg a little?"
Snap.
Beongae stretched a foreleg straight up.
"Good job, Beongae. Now the other one? Like this."
Still sitting, Jun lifted his own right leg. Beongae watched, then mirrored the pose exactly.
Thud.
In that instant, the wound was laid bare. Even the parts that had been only half-visible when Beongae had been scent-rubbing on his back were now fully, unmistakably exposed. Kwak Suho's silence suggested the filming was going well.
That said… He's in a really good mood. He doesn't even think talking to me is strange—he just does exactly as he's told. But… it's bad. The wound, that is.
Nam Hoseong, watching from the side, let out a low sound in his throat.
"Hnnngh—!"
The entire morning had been one bewildering turn after another. He had already known that Director Lee Jun was gifted with animals. He had marveled at the footage of bears walking into cages on their own, without anesthesia. He had been stunned watching Jun put eye drops into a tiger—the king of beasts—as if it were nothing.
But before that, before those eye drops ever went into Seorak, there had been a long and winding ordeal. Nam Hoseong even knew the behind-the-scenes that never made the videos, having heard it all from Team Leader Park Hyun-joon of Seoul Zoo. And now this man had taken one look at Beongae and turned him into an obedient puppy.
This man is extraordinary.
In Nam Hoseong's eyes, a halo blazed behind Lee Jun's back. The ability on display was the one he had longed for even in his dreams: the power to treat every animal he wanted to treat, as fully as he wanted. If even prickly, sharp-tempered Beongae could be made as cooperative as Seorak—if he could quietly receive surgery, have the wound disinfected, have ointment applied—that would be everything. And now that wish seemed about to come true. Not through his own hands, but through Director Lee Jun, the owner of that tremendous gift.
That was when Jun turned to him.
"Team Leader, where's their feeding hole?"
"The f-feeding hole?"
"Yes. I want to put this through. Ah—it's alright to give him this, isn't it? He won't eat it."
Because I'll tell him not to, Jun did not add.
"It's over there."
"Got it."
Jun stood as he spoke to Beongae.
"Beongae. See the feeding hole over there? I'll put this through for you."
Jun nodded at the joy blazing in Beongae's eyes.
"Yeah. But Beongae—this isn't food. Don't eat it."
A leopard of that size answering like a well-behaved child. Jun couldn't help smiling.
"That's right. Don't eat it. If you eat it, your stomach will hurt—the same way your leg hurts right now."
Beongae's eyes went wide. His pupils darted. The panic on his face was unmistakable.
Stammering, Beongae quietly drew his leg in. The smile on Jun's mouth flattened into a line. He doesn't want to show a weakness. Even the animals living here at the zoo carried that kind of wildness in them. He felt it afresh. You little… if it hurts, just say it hurts. Hiding it like that only let the illness grow. He looked at Beongae, who was pointedly pretending nothing was wrong.
The wound he had just confirmed would be carrying a pain beyond words. Even a thin splinter in a human hand made you want to yank it out at once; even trimming a fingernail a little too short made you wince. Lee Jun felt a rush of pity for the wretched living creature in front of him. He felt sorry for him.
And then another thought arrived. No. Thinking like this is an insult. This guy—Beongae—is fighting the pain with everything he has. He's living through each day by enduring it. What right did he have to pity someone who did not think of himself as pitiful?
He corrected his heart. Not pity. Just the wish to help him be a little more comfortable.
"Beongae, if we treat that spot just a little, it won't hurt at all. You like climbing up that tree, don't you? Even now, you want to grab this and leap right up there, don't you?"
In truth, it was a speech that had little to do with a leopard living in this particular zoo. A leopard's hunting art is ambush. They hide in the trees, then explode downward onto their prey in a strike so sudden it can look like a bomber plunging toward the earth. Afterward they climb back up and dine at their leisure. Do they love the view from the branches? Not quite. They do it to stay clear of hyenas, who catch the scent of a kill and come running. Hyenas have jaws as formidable as a leopard's, and they never travel alone. They move in packs. To escape them, the trees are not a preference. They are the only choice. Still—leopards genuinely love being up in the trees.
But with that leg, Beongae would barely make it onto the artificial rock they had built inside the enclosure. When we got here, he was just sitting on the floor.
Beongae answered in a voice that barely crawled out of him.
"I can help you. With climbing that tree. If your leg doesn't hurt, you'll go back up. How about it—shall I make it stop hurting?"
The eyes that answered him sparkled. It was the look of a hunter locking onto prey. A gaze like that never missed its target. Beongae's target now was a single thing: a leg that did not hurt.
"Alright, Beongae. You can do as I say, right?"
"Shall we take this first, then?"
Jun rose from where he had been sitting. Beongae rose with him. Jun walked toward the feeding hole, and Beongae trotted after him, his long tail—the one that kept him balanced so he would never fall from a tree—swaying lazily from side to side.
Jun glanced sideways. Beongae seemed to feel the look, and his eyes found Jun's. Jun smiled, soft and warm.
"Beongae, your tail is really magnificent. Truly splendid. You're stunning from head to toe."
He had remembered how much Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi loved being praised. And it was not an exaggeration. The plum-blossom rosettes packed densely from the crown of Beongae's head to the tips of his paws were genuinely magnificent.
The giggling face looked exactly like Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi. For a moment Jun let himself imagine it. Those guys. If they add Beongae as a friend on top of Seorak, they'd be truly invincible. He thought of the three of them, who had earnestly charged him to make sure their slightly-smaller-than-Seorak friend got better, and his smile deepened. Watching him, Beongae laughed even more widely.
A moment later, Jun and Beongae arrived at the feeding hole together. Jun slipped the toy through.
"Beongae. It's a present."
Aong!
Beongae gathered the offered fish toy into his arms and hugged it tight, radiant with delight. A little while after that, still clutching the toy, he walked into the large transport cage. Then the truck carrying the cage raced toward the zoo's animal hospital.
At the hospital, surgical preparations were already complete. Once Beongae was under anesthesia, they would go straight in.
Lee Jun and Nam Hoseong changed into surgical gowns. Nam Hoseong looked over at him.
"Director Lee—what is your method for taming animals, exactly? I know we're in a rush right now, but my whole team is stunned. None of us have ever seen Beongae this calm. Same with Seorak."
We had a conversation. That, he could not say. But he could name the thing that had opened the door.
"That smell from a little while ago?"
"Ah. That was wonderful."
"Beongae liked it far more than I expected. Honestly, I brought it half in doubt myself…"
"Hmm. It wasn't elephant dung. Don't tell me it was catnip? No—that wasn't it."
"It's musk."
"Pardon? Musk?"
Nam Hoseong's eyes went wide. Then, as if something had clicked into place, he nodded.
"Ah. I believe I've read a paper on that."
"It's probably the same paper I read."
"S-so Beongae went that calm over nothing but musk?"
Not exactly. But it gave us a way to start talking. And his mood did seem to improve, I'll give you that.
Lee Jun answered Nam Hoseong's question with his eyes.