Cottonfist's Side of the Story
"Noona. I quit my job."
"……What are you talking about, all of a sudden? Did something happen?"
I'd tossed it out mid-sip, a bomb dropped over coffee, and worry flooded the face of my girlfriend—Ha-eun. Noona, as I called her. The look only made me grin.
"……Suhwan. You haven't lost your mind, have you?"
"Hey, Noona. Isn't that a little harsh? Asking your own boyfriend if he's crazy?"
"Boyfriend or not—nobody in their right mind quits their job and then sits there grinning about it."
She had a point. I just couldn't bring myself to agree with her. Not now.
"Anyway. What happened, that you'd suddenly up and quit?"
"Ah, well. Something did happen."
"Nothing serious, right? Did someone pick on you? Or did you get in a fight?"
"Noona. How many times do I have to say it? I'm not a kid……."
"Save the nonsense and answer me. What happened?"
She had that firm, out-with-it look on her face, so I grinned again and opened my mouth.
"The truth is, I awakened a superpower a few days ago."
"……A superpower? Didn't you already have one?"
"I do. A completely useless one. What kind of superpower is getting the water temperature exactly right?"
At that, the worry left her face and a smile took its place. She already knew about my ability. Of course she did—she was the one who made use of it more than anyone.
"Useless? Do you have any idea how good it is when I wash? The second I sink into water that's just warm enough, the fatigue melts right off me."
I shrugged.
"So what? It's not like I'm going to go around setting bathwater for people."
"Why not? There are folks out there whose whole job is setting chopsticks and spoons. How is going around getting the bath just right any stranger?"
"Ugh……. It's not on that level, that's why. Even you don't really miss it when I don't get the temperature right."
She turned her head, just slightly. She could talk about fatigue melting away all she liked, but the effect was nothing dramatic. Nice to have. Not something you'd sorely miss if it were gone.
"So what new superpower did you awaken? If it's enough to make you quit, it must be something incredible."
"Changing the subject?"
"I have no idea what you mean. Just tell me about the superpower."
I let out a short laugh, drew a neatly folded sheet of paper from my pocket, and handed it to her.
"A superpower verification application? Let's see……."
When you awaken a new superpower, you receive a verification application so its level and the rest can be assessed. Noona took the form and started reading at once, skipping the personal details she already knew and going straight to the middle, where the type of ability was filled in.
"Animal Communicating? This isn't… that, is it?"
"Heh heh heh. Why wouldn't it be?"
Shock was just beginning to creep across her face, and I curled my mouth into the smuggest smile I could manage. There was a reason. Animal Communicating wasn't common, but people who had it did exist—and every last one of them was famous, and rich.
"Really? Actually really? You're serious?"
"Yeah. I told you, it's real. Supreme Rank, even, I'd bet. I was seriously shocked a few days ago. I was walking home after work when someone called out, and when I turned around, some stray cat was calling me."
"A stray cat? What did it say?"
Noona loved animals, and spent her free time hunting down animal videos on MyTube. Curiosity lit her whole face.
"Said if I didn't want to get the shit beaten out of me, I'd better hand over something to eat."
"……."
"I-I'm serious!"
She was staring me down with eyes gone cold and flat, and I had no choice but to scramble. Hold my ground like this and I'd end up pinched all over until it hurt, or stuck coaxing a sulking Noona back into a good mood.
"I was a little hungry leaving work, so I'd bought a sausage and was peeling it open. The cat saw that and told me to hand it over. And when I didn't, it actually hit me with a Nyangnyang Punch."
"Mmm……. That's hard to believe……."
"This is so unfair. Oh—I know! Then let's go to your parents' place. I might be able to talk to Cottonfist, too."
"……Should we?"
That caught her interest. Cottonfist was the Maltese her parents kept. When they'd first brought him home as a puppy, his little body had been no bigger than her father's fist—a puff of cotton—and so the name had stuck. Now that she was hooked, she sucked down what remained of her coffee in one pull and sprang to her feet.
"Let's go!"
"Oh……. That's some force."
"Be quiet! Yeongji! I'm stepping out for a bit!"
Unable to hold the curiosity in a moment longer, she grabbed my hand and hauled me straight out of the café.
I hadn't even finished mine……. My coffee…….
"Aigoo, our Mr. Shin is here? So. Did you come today to get permission to marry? I'd allow it myself if it's you, so go get the say-so from my husband."
"Ahahaha……."
The easy welcome her mother gave me every time I visited was something I was deeply grateful for. Those particular words, though, showed no sign of ever becoming something I could get used to.
"Mom!"
"What, you brat! You'll be thirty any day now! You've got to get married too!"
"I'm still twenty-nine! And it's not even a holiday, so drop the marriage talk! I said I'll handle it myself!"
"You've got a man and you keep dodging! Ten years you've been together, you've already done everything there is to do—just hold the ceremony! You planning to show me a grandchild after I'm dead and gone?"
"Aaaaah!"
Noona shrieked and clapped her hands over her ears, done listening to another word. I heard her mother sigh, but there was nothing I could say. Whichever side I took, I was certain it wouldn't end well for me. I needed to steer the conversation somewhere else. For my own survival, if nothing else.
"Mother. Is Cottonfist around?"
"Eh? What do you want with our little mutt?"
"Well……."
I gave her a brief explanation. The moment I said I'd awakened a superpower that let me talk with animals, curiosity filled her face too. So that look of Noona's was genetic. It was identical. I smiled faintly and followed as she waved us on ahead into the living room.
A frantic patter of claws.
"Huff, huff, huff, huff!"
Past the entryway and into the living room, what came to greet us was a Maltese tearing over at full speed, tail whipping back and forth.
"Raise a daughter or raise a dog, they say it's all a waste no matter how hard you try……."
"Why is he suddenly like that? It's not like this is the first time he's seen Suhwan. He's ignored him until now."
And not just running—the Maltese had planted his front paws up near my knees and locked his eyes on me. He'd come to me. Not to Mother, who saw him every day and fed him, and not to Noona, who dropped by now and then to play. Mother looked hurt. Noona couldn't hide how absurd she found it. I laughed awkwardly and scratched my cheek. As Noona said, this wasn't the first time I'd seen Cottonfist. It was the first time he'd ever acted like this.
Completely ignored me all this time, and now he's losing his mind?
Unless you were waving a treat, he wouldn't even come close. Watching him trot up and wag his tail was a genuinely strange sight.
"Does Animal Communicating come with some extra ability that makes animals like you? Why is Cottonfist really doing this?"
"Beats me. People with Animal Communicating are rare enough that you could count them on one hand, in the whole world."
I shrugged at her words and gently stroked Cottonfist's head. That peculiar puppy feeling—bone beneath thin skin—met my fingers.
"More, pet me more! I like it! More!"
The instant I touched his head, human language burst out of Cottonfist's mouth. Or rather, not quite. His whimpering little cries reached me as if they were human speech. On any other day it would have startled me, but I'd already heard the same thing from a stray cat a few days ago, so I answered without missing a beat.
"All right, all right. I'll pet you more."
He was so plainly delighted that I dropped straight down onto the floor and ran my hands gently over his whole body.
"What, what? Did Cottonfist just ask you to pet him more?"
"Yeah."
"Whoa……."
I hadn't said much of anything, yet Noona looked back and forth between me and Cottonfist, thoroughly amazed. Mother was a little different. She looked just as amazed, but she also looked like there was something she wanted to say.
"Mother? Is there something else you're curious about?"
"Well……. A few days ago Cottonfist suddenly tore the sofa all to shreds. Would you ask him why he did that? He's never done anything like it, so it's been weighing on me."
At her words, my eyes went on their own to the sofa in one corner of the living room.
"Whoa."
I couldn't help but be impressed. The underside of the right armrest was, quite literally, in tatters. The leather had been ripped every which way, and the wooden frame inside showed through, completely bare.
"Aigoo. One look at that thing and the sighs just come bursting out."
"Ha, haha……. I'll ask him."
The sigh she let out then was even deeper than the one she'd spent scolding Noona. I gave an awkward laugh and turned my eyes back to Cottonfist, who was still staring at me.
"Hey, you. Why'd you do that? You can't just turn a sofa into a rag."
"Master did wrong! She said if I acted cute I'd get a treat, and then she never gave it! I did every cute thing I know, and still no treat!"
"……."
At that, I couldn't help sneaking a glance at Mother.
"What's Cottonfist saying?"
"Well, the thing is……."
Curiosity was written all over her face. I hesitated over what to do—then decided there was nothing to gain by covering it up, and told her the truth.
"Oh my! So that's what it was! Aigoo, what am I supposed to do, I feel so sorry for our Cottonfist!"
"Mom, why'd you do that? Have you been getting forgetful lately?"
"You brat, what's that look you're giving your own mother! You suspecting me of dementia?! I was about to get his treat when your aunt called, that's why!"
She'd been stroking Cottonfist's head and murmuring apologies when she caught the look in Noona's eyes and opened fire. The scolding began with you weren't like this as a child and ended with raising you was a waste. Just hearing it from the side, I could feel exactly how much Noona was suffering. I quietly looked away from her, taking the full brunt of the barrage, and fixed my gaze on Cottonfist—who, for a Maltese with scarcely any patience to his name, was enduring the whole thing remarkably well.