From Freeloader to Family
"Ahh... The injustice of it!"
I'd been quietly feeling sorry for Maru when the sight of the owl snapped me out of it—there he was, beating the floor with his wings in pure anguish.
"Hey. You okay?"
"My body is well enough. My pride, however—laid low by a cat, monster though he may be—is anything but."
At my question he insisted he was fine, beat his wings, climbed into the sky, and came right back down. He planted those wings against the ground and stood there in such thorough despair that I had to wonder whether he was an owl at all. Wounded pride or not, he didn't look badly hurt, and that was what mattered. It had to. An eagle-owl is a natural monument. If Namcat had injured him, I was the one who would pay for it.
I was still quietly relieved when the owl scurried over and lobbed a bomb.
"I cannot return like this, beaten by that cat. Until I have my revenge upon that monstrous fellow, I wish to remain here. I must study how on earth he lives, that he should have come by such monstrous skill!"
Having delivered his notice—that he intended to move in and stay—he rose into the air and claimed a stretch of the rooftop for himself. If he was going to live here, he might at least negotiate. What kind of announcement was that? Even so, if someone had asked whether I hated the idea, I couldn't honestly say I did. I'd already agreed to feed him. Sharing the place on top of that was hardly a problem.
Ah. There is a problem.
An owl that's a natural monument isn't the sort of creature just anyone can keep because they feel like it. I turned the trouble over in my head, then decided to wash up first. Under the water, giving it a light think, I found I did have one approach. Or rather, I knew someone who would know one.
"Let's see... Elephant Uncle's number..."
Fresh from the shower and wearing nothing but a pair of boxer briefs, I scrolled through my contacts and found the man I wanted almost at once.
Elephant—no. Zookeeper Ko Gil-hwi was the keeper of the Mating Parrot. No, of the elephant I'd met during the detailed inspection. He was the man who had begged, absolutely insisted, that he had to have my number. We'd kept in touch now and then since, and in our own way we'd grown fairly close. I didn't hesitate. It was a little late, but this particular uncle would pick up. One hundred percent.
"Oh! Kid, what's going on!"
The default ring had barely started before the line connected. A few times, when we'd talked, I'd translated what that Mating Parrot was saying for him, and ever since he answered my calls sharp as a knife.
"Uncle, there's something I wanted to ask."
"I'll tell you anything except my wife's three sizes. What do you wanna know?"
"You don't even have a wife. What wife are you—"
"Hey! It's just a way of talking!"
He bristled, warning me not to look down on a single man.
"Anyway, I've suddenly ended up having to keep an owl. But it's not like just anyone can keep one, right? They're a natural monument, so I didn't think it was allowed... Is there any way?"
"An owl? Hang on. Take a picture and send it."
"One second... Sent."
I photographed him as asked and sent it off. As if he knew he was the subject, he met the lens with quiet dignity and turned his head just so.
"That's a real owl. A Eurasian eagle-owl, no less. Whew. Where do you even pick these up? I only ever saw one of them once, back when I was posted to the front line, and here you are running into one in Busan."
"No idea. He flew to our house."
"Your dogs and cats doing all right? An eagle-owl'll take a small dog or a cat without blinking."
"Oh, that's fine. If you want the details, check my MyTube later."
"Ha! Still plugging the channel in the middle of this? Shameless. Flat-out shameless."
He sounded impressed enough to clap. I still had no intention of just telling him. If I could wring out even one more view, I meant to wring it.
"I'm curious, so let me know when the video's up. For now I just need to help you be allowed to keep him, yeah?"
"You'd handle it yourself? Then I couldn't ask for better."
"Thanks to you, the Mating Parrot—ah, damn it. Because of you, 'Mating Parrot' is stuck in my mouth. Anyway, you did right by him, so I've got to pay you back."
He boomed at me to leave it to him and hung up. I was nodding along—yes, a person really ought to live by helping others—when a long text from him arrived. It opened with the advice that unbled raw meat made the best feed, and from there it was packed with all sorts of information.
Good grief. Plants himself here however he likes, and then he's fussy about the food.
I sighed at the thought of buying yet another feed, just for the owl. I wasn't worried, though. Once, the price of meat would have stung, but keeping a single owl fed was no great burden for me now. And with all the videos he was going to star in, he'd more or less be earning his own meals.
"Kid! How long's it been!"
"Huh? We talked on the phone."
"A phone call and seeing you with my own eyes—those the same thing? Kids these days, I swear."
Elephant—no, Uncle Ko Gil-hwi greeted me like he'd missed me for years. He grumbled a little, the way an old-timer does, but still. He'd come all the way to the house because the favor I'd asked a few days back was finished: the permit to keep the eagle-owl.
"Did it all go through?"
"Who do you think I am? The zoo may be shut down now, but I was the seniority king among our keepers. Something like this isn't even work."
He flashed me a grin, pulled a document envelope from the bag he'd brought, and gave it a flutter.
"Ooh! Elephant Uncle, you're the best!"
"Ack—hey! Don't you start calling me that too! Do I actually have to change my name?"
Uncle Gil-hwi wasn't especially fond of being called an elephant. Rattle off Ko Gil-hwi fast enough and it came out sounding like kokkiri—elephant—which was why, no matter which zoo he worked at, the elephants always ended up his. He didn't loathe it, though. He stuck his lip out and held the envelope toward me. Inside were several sheets of paper, most of them concerning the keeping of an eagle-owl.
"Must be that Superpower of yours. They approved it like it was nothing. Guess a man's worth really is what he can do..."
Muttering that he wanted a superpower of his own, he headed straight for the animals in the yard, who were watching him with keen interest. Starting with Jjamong, who lost her mind with joy at the mere sight of a person, it was mostly the dogs who swarmed him. The cats largely kept up their aloof air, but people-loving Jjamong mixed right in with the other dogs and showed no sign of leaving his side.
"Damn... Suhwan. You said you were opening an animal cafe, right? Okay if I come every single day?"
Boxed in by animals, he looked so purely happy that a bright, sunny smile broke over his face.
"If you're a customer, you're welcome anytime."
"Oh, come on."
He stared at me for a moment as if he couldn't believe it. He mustn't have been all that bothered, though, because he went right back to playing with them. Whether it was the little tricks I'd taught them or not, he laughed out loud and played along with obvious delight.
"Animals like these around, there's no way I could stay away. Seriously."
"I didn't decide to open an animal cafe for nothing."
I called Maru over and stroked her head. She liked it so much her tail whipped back and forth, and she bumped her whole body into me. I was still petting her when the owl, nocturnal to the bone, woke around the time the sun began to sink and came over. Silent flight, if that was the word for an owl's specialty—he arrived so quietly there was hardly a whisper of wings, and settled on the ground beside me. I'd tried perching him on my shoulder once. After that, convinced those talons would bore a hole clean through it, I hadn't let him up there again.
"Whoa... That's a real eagle-owl."
It was his first time seeing the bird in the flesh rather than in a photo, and he turned to me with naked curiosity all over his face.
"Can I touch him? He gonna peck? Scratch?"
"It's fine. I told him I'd feed him, so long as he doesn't attack the animals or any people."
"Yeah?"
Unable to hold himself back, he scooped the owl right up. A keeper's work uses the body more than you'd think. Even an owl with a bit of heft to him came up light in those hands.
"Let's see. Feathers are clean. Beak's solid, and the talons... whoa, look how sharp. These'll shred a shirt."
Keeper or veterinarian, it was hard to say. He was checking the owl over from one end to the other.
"W-what is the meaning of this! Ghk! Why are you prying that open! Spare this owl!"
The owl was horrified, but I knew the man was only checking his condition, so I didn't stop him.
"Sob... I have been defiled..."
Escaped from those hands, he planted his wings on the ground and despaired, exactly as he had after losing to Namcat. Uncle burst out laughing, patted my shoulder, and told me the bird was in excellent shape.
"Take good care of him from here on. And even if you're feeding him, don't give him nothing but meat. Now and then, let him hunt something that's still alive. It's important he doesn't lose the instinct completely."
Having helped me in more ways than one, he said a light goodbye to the animals and left. Not quite shameless enough, it seemed, to cadge dinner on top of everything at someone else's newlywed home. At any rate, thanks to him, a natural monument of an owl could live in our house.
"We'll be living together from now on, so I'm counting on you. Don't cause trouble."
"Worry not. While I live alongside you, I shall do nothing to your harm. My purpose is one alone: to defeat that monstrous fellow."
He thumped his own chest with a wing, as if to say I had only to trust him. Perhaps it was the superpower, but the animals carried themselves so much like people that I let out a snort and scratched the top of his head.
"Yeah. I'm counting on you, Yubu."
"Yubu? What is this thing that sounds as though it ought to be... savory?"
"What else. It's your name."
"Yubu, is it... Well, it will do. I noticed that monstrous fellow had a name of his own. Now that I have one as well, have I not drawn one step closer to him?"
The name seemed to please him well enough. He nodded a few times and took to the air. I didn't need to look. He was off to find Namcat, who would be wandering somewhere about the house in perfect, leisurely ease. From the way he'd talked of closing the gap by a step now that he had a name too, they'd be at each other again.
Speaking of which, how are two cousins so alike they might as well be sisters? Eurasian eagle-owl, so Yubu... Did Yeongji take after Noona, or Noona after Yeongji...
Turning over how the owl had come by the name Yubu, I gave my head a light shake and went into the house. A moment later the crash of cat against owl rang out, but in the well-soundproofed bedroom, not a sound of it could be heard.