I Thought This Was Chapter 154 (1)

I scratched Cheongho until his tail was whipping the air, and then a question struck me. Whatever he'd been trying to get out, it had pent him up badly enough that I wanted to know what it was.

So-eun wanted to play, so I sent her off to amuse herself nearby and turned to him.

"So what was it you wanted to say? You said there was something you absolutely had to tell me."

"Ah. That, sir."

At my question, Cheongho began. Only the story started a little further back than I'd expected — in the past.

"You know the place I used to be, sir."

"The military dog training center?"

"Yes, sir. Part of what I trained for there was finding things by scent, sir."

I nodded. I'd seen it myself at the center when I went to bring him home, and I knew they trained the dogs on all sorts of dangerous materials — explosives and the like.

"But why bring that up?"

"I caught that scent when I was out with Ma'am, sir. Whenever I found it, the humans would go tense, so I judged it couldn't be anything good. I was trying to report it to you, sir."

"Really?"

I looked genuinely taken aback. Most of what a military dog sniffs out is dangerous.

"Anyway, that's why I tried to keep them from going that way, sir. But if you can't talk to someone, how are you supposed to stop them, sir?"

No matter how much he barked, they'd only ask what was wrong and press stubbornly onward. Cheongho let out a sigh.

Fair enough. On a trip you usually just follow the fastest route on a map app, so there wasn't much they could have done. If you don't know something dangerous might be waiting up ahead, of course you follow the path in front of you.

"So what did you do?"

"The Young Mistress happened to spot a cat nearby and took off after it, sir. So I ran with her and drew Ma'am into following us, sir."

"Good work."

It might not have been dangerous at all, but he'd still steered them clear of even the slimmest chance of harm, and that deserved praise. It was exactly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what I'd come to expect from the most reliable animal in our family.

I gave him a thick slab of jerky and pulled out my phone to look up incidents and accidents on Jeju Island.

There were plenty of stories about ship fires and capsizings, and a fair number of other incidents besides — a villa going up in flames, someone raising a ruckus at a tourist spot. But among all those headlines, a few articles caught my eye.

"Was this it?"

It occurred to me that the scent Cheongho had picked up might have been the explosives in that article. The posting date lined up, too — the stretch of time I'd spent on the uninhabited island, while Noona was on Jeju.

If the article was right and the whole thing had moved through the mail, Noona and So-eun had almost certainly never been in any real danger. Even so, the fact that Cheongho had judged the risk for himself and led them away from it was more than enough to earn my praise.

"I'm counting on you from here on out."

"Not to worry, sir."

Cheongho swished his tail with a proud, gallant air, as if to say just trust me.

I was still scratching his head and feeding him a few more pieces of jerky when the phone in my pocket buzzed. It was Noona.

I agreed to her request without a second thought.

"So-eun, want to go see Mom?"

"Mmm..."

She hesitated. She'd stuck close to her mother the whole time they were on Jeju, but she'd been apart from the animals.

"I wanna play with them!"

She threw her arms around the neck of Bboni, the little horse she was riding, and hugged her tight.

"Then go on and play."

"Yeah!"

I watched her ride Bboni off toward the other animals for a moment, then headed for the office where Noona was waiting.

It was the office that handled everything from the zoo's taxes and expense processing to the rest of the administrative work. I gave a light greeting to a few of the staff and stepped into Noona's private office.

"What's going on?"

"A request for cooperation came in for you."

"A request for cooperation?"

"Yeah. Looking at it — the police, the prosecution, the port authority, aviation... a whole bunch of places sent it in together, like a consortium."

She handed me a sheet of paper as she spoke, and sure enough, a long list of agencies was written across it.

"But why are they asking me?"

"It'll make more sense if you just look at it yourself."

She beckoned me over as if to say come see, so I walked up and pulled her to her feet. For a second she looked puzzled by what I was doing, but when I took the chair she'd been sitting in and settled her onto my lap, her face went flat with disbelief.

"I said come look ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠beside me. I didn't say put me on your lap."

"What's the difference?"

"Hyat, that tickles!"

I drew her gently into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my arms and ran a hand along her side, and she twisted away, insisting it tickled.

"Should I ask Mom to keep So-eun overnight?"

"Don't say weird things."

"Hey, if you're going to sit on my lap and squirm like that, you think I can hold back? I can't."

"Be quiet. Did I sit down? You sat me down. Just look at this."

Her face faintly flushed, Noona pointed at the monitor. I laughed lightly and looked at her instead of the screen, and she pinched my thigh. I yelped — and only when I turned to the monitor did the pain let up.

"Hmm... They're running a large-scale program to raise drug and explosives detection dogs, and they want help with the training?"

The request on the screen boiled down to one thing. They were raising detection dogs and wanted help training them — lately, on top of people ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hiding drugs and hazardous materials in personal luggage, there had been problems with cargo on every kind of transport and with the mail, and they meant to use detection dogs to deal with it. Reading it over, I thought back to what Cheongho had just told me, and to the article I'd seen a moment ago.

"Sure, why not. Doesn't look like it'll be hard. They're not asking me to raise and train them myself — just to lend a hand with the training now and then."

It was basically a request to help keep the peace, so I nodded without much hesitation. I asked Noona to send back an affirmative reply and wrapped my arms around her waist.

"I told you it tickles. I keep making typos."

"I don't care. Let's send So-eun to Mom's tonight."

I hugged her tight and called Mom. Noona tried to interfere halfway through, but I dodged her hands this way and that until the call finally went through.

Mom's answer — that she might not put me up, but she'd gladly keep So-eun anytime — stung for a moment. Then I called So-eun over and asked if she wanted to sleep at Grandma's.

"I'm sleeping with Grandma today?"

"You can do whatever you want. What do you feel like?"

"Yay! I wanna sleep with Grandma! Graaandma!"

So-eun was just as pleased at the thought of a night with her grandmother, and she took off at a gallop on Bboni's back.

With our habitual little interrupter sent on her way, I decided Noona and I would clock out early. The house was built inside the zoo grounds, so calling it clocking out was a bit of a stretch, but either way, we got home early.

"Good grief."

I even chased Namcat out of the bedroom he'd claimed and went to Noona as she shook her head. She talked like she wanted none of it — and welcomed me anyway, in her own quiet way.

A few days after the request came in, I set out with Cheongho to help with the detection dog training. They had to handle hazardous materials and house a great many dogs, so the site lay out in the suburbs, where people seldom passed.

"Man, these winding roads are really not my thing."

I grumbled under my breath as I drove the twisting mountain road. One wrong move and it felt like we might go over the edge, and I kept worrying what would happen if another car came the other way.

"Cheongho. Want to drive?"

I was almost envious of him, sitting in the passenger seat and gazing out the window at his leisure.

"Could I even manage that, sir?"

"...Yeah. You couldn't."

Physically, he couldn't even reach the brake pedal, let alone the accelerator, so there was no way I could actually have him do it. Still, the thought flickered through my mind that I might rig something up with a few tools and let him try driving just once.

I kept driving with that admittedly odd idea in my head, and before long we reached our destination.

"Hello. I'm Noh Wooju, chief supervisor of the detection dog training. It's a pleasure to meet you."

He'd been waiting for me at the entrance from the moment we arrived. Welcomed by Noh Wooju, the man in charge, I stepped into the detection dog training center with Cheongho at my side.

Just as the barking I'd heard from the moment I got out of the car had suggested, the place was packed with every kind of dog. Beagles — the ones everybody calls crazy dogs — of course, along with Golden Retrievers just like Maru, and Shepherds like Cheongho, filling the grounds.

"A bit much, isn't it? These are the ones who passed the first screening as detection dogs. They're slated to go out nationwide, so there are quite a few."

"...That's more than a bit."

There had to be three hundred of them at the very least, and these were only the ones who'd passed the first round. It wasn't beyond understanding, though, so I got right to work offering a little help with the training.

What I set out to fix was the reason most candidate dogs never become detection dogs at all — instead of seeking out dangerous things like explosives or drugs, they go after sausages and whatever else catches their interest. I couldn't say how it was for the people who raised detection dogs, but for me it was incredibly easy. Asking someone you can actually talk to to find something is obviously going to succeed more often than asking someone you can't.

I called together every candidate dog at the center and ran a simple lesson, teaching them to remember a scent they'd smelled under a specific condition and then go find it. Stroke the chin twice and let them smell something, for instance, and that meant go find it.

Of course, just as some people are contrary for the sake of it, there were contrary dogs. Even excluding those, nearly two hundred and fifty remained.

"Ha, haha..."

Watching me, Noh Wooju looked almost hollow with disbelief. He'd gone through every hardship trying to make detection dogs of them and had little to show for it, and I'd solved the whole thing with ridiculous ease.

After my lesson, if you stroked a dog's chin twice the way I had and let it smell something, it would track that scent down with uncanny precision. Even with sausages, kibble, and dog chews — all the things dogs love — laid out right beside them, they found exactly what they'd been told to find, and found it well.