What Makes a Good Teacher
Whether Lee Jun was watching them or not made no difference. The three of them sprang into action at once.
Hoesaegi padded upstairs with a cheerful bounce in his step and turned to the other two.
"Kids-ong, let's go ask our friends-ong."
"Let's do that. Let's ask them, okay."
Hoesaegi had blurted it out with no explanation whatsoever, and Sapsaree had agreed without a second's hesitation.
Gkamnyangi looked back and forth between the two of them.
"Ask them what? Sapsaree, do you even know what we're supposed to be asking?"
"I know, I do. We're gonna ask our friends what kind of teacher they like, that's what."
"Whoa!"
Gkamnyangi was genuinely stunned. How could anyone parse a statement that vague so perfectly?
While Gkamnyangi stood there frozen in surprise, Hoesaegi and Sapsaree slipped right into the inpatient ward.
The first room they entered was the one where the dogs were staying. Seven of them were hospitalized there. Two didn't have the strength to get up, so they just lifted their heads in greeting. The other five sat up to welcome them.
Hoesaegi greeted each friend one by one, meeting every pair of eyes.
"Friends-ong, did you sleep well-nyaong? Did you eat-nyaong?"
"Yep, we ate. But that one couldn't eat. So the teacher held him like this and fed him! My mom used to feed me like that too, when I couldn't eat."
The Shih Tzu with a bandaged leg pointed at the Maltese lying down, too weak to move, as he spoke.
"The teacher fed him. It was really nice. Hehe."
The Maltese was lying there weakly, but he still added a word, grateful to Kim Jaeyeon for feeding him.
"Hehe. And the teacher gave me a shot and it didn't hurt at all."
The Shih Tzu beamed and agreed that Kim Jaeyeon was a good one.
Listening to the two of them, Hoesaegi filed it away. They like a teacher who gives shots without it hurting-ong. They like being fed, too-ong.
Another inpatient spoke up. It was a poodle friend with a tightly bandaged body and a head of tight little curls.
"A good teacher did stuff to me and it didn't hurt one bit? They did this-and-that, and it didn't hurt at all."
He meant the dressing on the belly surgery from the day before — and that it hadn't hurt in the slightest.
Hoesaegi had had his own leg dressed before, so he answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"When Hyungnim did this-and-that to me, it didn't hurt either-ong. That's just how it's supposed to be-ong."
The moment he said it, the bandaged Shih Tzu startled and raised his voice.
"No! That's not true. It hurts a lot!"
Everyone turned to stare at him with wide eyes.
The Shih Tzu's name was Kongji. He was a friend who had come to Mongmong Animal Hospital for the first time for this surgery.
Hoesaegi's eyes went round.
"Kongji-ong, did it hurt-nyaong?"
"It hurt a lot, did it? Which teacher was it?"
"Yeah, tell us. I'll go ask them to make it not hurt."
The other two chimed in after Hoesaegi, their faces full of worry.
"Ah, it doesn't hurt now."
Tip, tip. Hoesaegi tilted his head to the right, then to the left, and looked at Kongji.
"Kongji-ong, it shouldn't hurt when they do this-and-that, either-ong."
Not hurting now wasn't the point. It shouldn't hurt when they disinfected and wrapped the bandage, either.
"Ah, hehe, that didn't hurt. It hurt a long, long time ago."
"A long, long time ago? What's that, I say?"
"You know. This part used to owie too. So they did this-and-that to it. But back then it hurt really bad. I mean before I came to Mongmong Animal Hospital."
The three of them — and every other friend in the ward — looked at Kongji with pity. That meant he'd already had surgery on one of his legs before. And all seven of the friends in that room had been through surgery. They all knew exactly how much it hurt beforehand.
"Kongji-ong, that must have been so hard-ong."
"Yes. It hurt really, really bad. And the this-and-that they did after hurt so much I cried every single day."
It had hurt before the surgery, and it had hurt terribly afterward too. Every mouth in the room pushed out in a sympathetic pout.
"But now it doesn't hurt at all. Hehe. Meongmeong Teacher even told me why I had to get the shot. And when they do this-and-that, it doesn't hurt one bit!"
At Kongji's next words, those puffed-out little mouths slowly settled, and the corners of them lifted. They were glad it didn't hurt — and glad, too, that their new friend liked Mongmong Animal Hospital, the place they all loved.
"That's a relief-ong."
A relief that it didn't hurt. A relief that he'd come to their Mongmong Animal Hospital. Kongji understood exactly what that meant.
"Yes, hehe. I love my mom so much. I used to cry and cry that the other animal hospital was too scary, so Mom said we should come here."
Kongji had had surgery at his old clinic and developed a full-blown veterinary phobia. The moment he got near an animal hospital, all four legs would start trembling. His body remembered the pain of being hospitalized after surgery, and it reacted on its own.
"That's a relief. But if it hurts, you have to tell us! I'll go tell our Hyungnim."
Gkamnyangi said it like he was extracting a promise, and Kongji nodded happily.
"Hehe, okay. And also, our Mongmong Animal Hospital food is really, really tasty. So I ate the whole bowl."
That was why Kongji had answered so quickly when Hoesaegi asked if he'd eaten. Kongji thought the food at Mongmong Animal Hospital was delicious. The kibble itself tasted good — but even more than that, he loved how the teachers watched him so kindly while he ate. It might have felt even better by comparison with everything he'd been through before.
After talking with all seven of them and checking how their conditions had changed since the day before, the trio moved on to the next ward.
The cat inpatient room. They heard similar stories there. Everyone liked the teachers. And they heard about the teachers they didn't like, too.
"Ugh. I hate the teacher who just yanks my legs up out of nowhere!"
"I totally hate the teacher who spreads my front and back legs wide open!"
"When my nose hurts and they just shove me onto my back like this? The worst."
"I-I hate the teacher who jams the medicine in like this. It got stuck in my throat and I thought I was headed for the cat star."
"I hated the teacher who grabs you like this."
The cats had far more dislikes, and they were far more specific. The trio packed every last detail tightly into their heads.
Having made their rounds of the wards, the trio reported back to Lee Jun.
"The friends smiled like this-ong."
Hoesaegi stretched his mouth into the widest grin he could manage. Fastest, most accurate expression possible.
"Oh, so the friends are doing better than yesterday?"
"Mm. They said it doesn't hurt."
"That's right. Everyone ate well, they did. Oh, and they said they liked that the teacher held them and fed them, I tell ya."
"Ah, is that so?"
Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree — the trio — had not reported on their friends' conditions alone. They recited every scrap of material they had gathered on good teachers and bad teachers.
Hoesaegi went first.
"If they just shove you down, that's a bad teacher-ong."
Gkamnyangi nodded along and picked up where he left off.
"Yeah, yeah. And if they go like this and like that and it hurts, that's a bad teacher."
"If they lay you down like this when your nose hurts, that's a super-hate teacher, I tell ya!"
Sapsaree flopped belly-up onto the exam room floor to demonstrate, then bounced right back onto his feet.
"We're going to our friends-ong."
"Me too."
"I'm going too, I am. Elder Ttangkhongi's here, isn't he? I heard his voice, I did."
"He's here. I can smell him."
"Let's go-ong. Let's go ask him-ong. Elder Ttangkhongi knows a lot of things-ong."
With that, the trio whisked off toward the playground. The three of them padded along toward the 1st Floor Animal Playground. For Sapsaree, and for Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi too, it had been a truly long time since they'd visited the first-floor playground.
Watching them go, Lee Jun smiled.
"These kids. Who knows what they're going on about! That aside, though — it's good to see them lively like they used to be."
Just the day before, they had gone straight to the window cat tower after visiting the wards. Sapsaree had settled into his spot beneath it, and all three of them had done nothing but watch the outside. Hearing them say they were heading to the playground first thing in the morning put Lee Jun in a wonderful mood. That's right. Play around there for a bit, then go up to the second-floor playground and get some sleep.
Lee Jun watched with a fond face as the animals-only door to the 1st Floor Animal Playground bumped and swung.
Even after arriving at the playground, the trio's data collection continued.
"I never did like a teacher who picked me up like this, I wouldn't."
At Ttangkhongi's words — a dog with a wide range of animal-hospital experience — the trio and the six friends already at the playground all pricked up their ears.
"Picked you up how-nyaong?"
Ttangkhongi looked as though he were about to hoist both legs high, then stretched his front paws straight up. Everyone stared. Their eyes, however, were full of confusion.
Reading those faces, Ttangkhongi returned to his original posture and let out a long sigh.
"Hoo. That won't do."
He swept a look around, then toddled off somewhere and came back with a Mr. Cow plushie in his mouth. He clamped the doll firmly between his two front paws.
"Like so, I mean."
What Ttangkhongi was trying to show them was the act of slipping a hand between the front legs and lifting straight up. Done that way, the armpits hurt terribly. It was a way of picking up a dog that even veterinarians — let alone guardians — rarely used anymore.
Everyone's eyes went round, and they spoke up one after another.
"That's too much. That hurts so much!"
"Whoa, I been through that too, I have! Hurt somethin' awful, it did. Even now I won't look at 'em if they walk right by, I won't."
Kakkong-i shook his head hard as he said it, a deep frown carved right into his forehead.
"I got helded like this too! It was so scary!"
At Mongi's mention of being grabbed by the scruff, everyone grimaced all over again.
Ttangkhongi looked at Mongi, then spoke as if something had just occurred to him.
"I don't care for having my ears jabbed, either."
What dog in the world liked having their ears messed with? Everyone's faces twisted in horror. Mongsil the Pomeranian, who had once suffered through a long ear infection, crumpled her face the hardest of all.
"It hurt so much…"
She was quiet by nature, and her voice was small, but everyone heard her.
"That's so. Hurting is bad enough, and having something cold go sliding in felt just awful, it did."
"That's right. But now it's nice. Meongmeong Teacher doesn't hurt at all."
"That's true-ong. Our Hyungnim doesn't hurt-ong."
"That's the truth. Meongmeong Teacher doesn't hurt a bit. And it isn't cold, either."
He meant that the ear cleaner was warmed a little first, then the insides of the ears were wiped gently. Mongsil smiled at that.
"Hehe, it's nice and warm."
Listening to their friends, the trio gathered material that was a little more specific.
They spent the entire morning going here and there, stacking up data piece by piece. After lunch, the three of them settled in a circle on the 2nd Floor Cat Playground.
"It has to be a good teacher-ong."
"They have to be gentle."
"A kind teacher is good, I say."
"They should hold the friends just a little-ong."
"They must not jab the ears."
"They must not give anything that tastes bad, I tell ya."
They wanted a teacher who was affectionate with animals, who handled them without causing pain, and who, even when treating them, made sure it hurt as little as possible. Their animal friends had said so, and the three of them wanted that kind of teacher too.
In short: they needed to hire a newcomer like the teachers already at Mongmong Animal Hospital. That was the kind of newcomer they had to pick.
The three of them settled their thinking firmly on how to choose a new teacher, and they waited for the veterinarians who would come in for interviews.
And the first of those was Lee Seongwoo.
Three days after Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree had fully put on the mindset of interviewers, at seven-thirty in the evening, Lee Seongwoo visited Mongmong Animal Hospital.
It happened to be his day off.
Lee Seongwoo looked up at the Mongmong Animal Hospital building from across the street. Whew. Nice. This place just feels good. An animal hospital that lifted your mood the moment you saw it.
He smiled at Mongmong Animal Hospital, its lights glowing brightly, and the three of them came to mind as naturally as breathing.
"I finally get to see them in person. I wonder how cute they are. I heard the kids are really sweet and affectionate."
He'd heard they mostly stayed by the window. If he went over, they'd greet him, right?
Thinking that, Lee Seongwoo crossed at the crosswalk with a light step.