Superpower Verification (2)
"Fer... something-or-other is that cat's name?"
"Yeah. That's the one. And get this—he said he usually calls me his butler..."
"Th-this time, it's this one!"
Whether he'd caught the conversation with Ha-eun or not, the staff member came back with a golden retriever and a face gone faintly red. His voice trembled, just a little. He'd heard every word of it with Noona. No question.
"The conditions are the same as before!"
He looked so desperately hopeful that the previous topic would never come up again that I couldn't help a quiet snort. I turned my attention to the golden retriever.
Whatever that alley-cat attitude had been—Fernandio Alexo Diablanca Jonathan IV, a name so long I could barely hold it in my head—this dog carried himself in a completely different way.
"Huff, huff—who are you? You feel really nice!"
"What am I supposed to say to that...? For now, let's go with I just dropped by to play."
"Ooh, nice!"
He was a big dog, no two ways about it, but the grin on his face was so bright and guileless that a laugh slipped out of me before I knew it.
"Mind telling me your name?"
"My name is Yuchae!"
Yuchae—a name that called to mind a yellow flower, the same warm color as his coat—offered it up with the gentlest manners imaginable. A world away from that alley cat who'd opened with a curse. Watching him, I started to understand why people went around sighing god-tier dog, god-tier dog like it was a prayer.
Before I realized it, my hand was on his head. Whoever looked after him had done it well; the fur under my palm was soft, whispering as it slid past my fingers.
Whoosh—whoosh—
Far from minding, Yuchae wagged like my hand was the best thing that had happened to him all day. Hard enough that I could hear his tail cutting the air.
"Wow, look at that tail go. He's adorable."
Noona, who loved any animal that walked on four legs or otherwise, was already melting, cute this and cute that without a pause. I still had a verification to pass, though, so I lowered the hand that had been stroking his head.
"Yuchae. Just one question. Is your owner a man, or a woman?"
"My owner is a woman! Her name is Han Ayeong! She's that mister's older sister, the one right over there!"
I huffed a laugh at the way he volunteered a whole biography nobody had asked for, gave his head another pat, and looked over at the staff member.
"The two of you have naming senses on completely opposite ends of the spectrum, huh?"
"...This time, it's a bird."
He didn't answer me. Face still red, he brought over a birdcage. Inside sat one small yellow bird, curiosity written all over it, cute in a way that left no room for argument.
"A canary, right?"
"A canary?"
"Yeah. They're cute, and their song is nice to listen to, so a lot of people keep them. I saw it on Mytube once."
Noona subscribed to animal channels and actually kept up with them, so I nodded along without a fight. I couldn't have told you the species at a glance, but if she said so, that was that.
"All right. Will you tell me your name too?"
"I'm Yellow!"
"...Yellow?"
"Yep yep!"
The canary, Yellow, bobbed his head at the question and went pattering across the floor of the cage in tiny, busy steps. Just as Noona had said, he was ridiculously cute. Even in a conversation that short, the voice itself was a pleasure to hear.
"My owner's a girl!"
And then—maybe because he'd been watching the first two—he went ahead and answered the question I hadn't asked yet. For a brain that ought to have matched that tiny body, he was sharper than I'd expected.
"Oh. Thanks."
"Hehehe!"
Pleased with the thanks, Yellow fluttered around inside the little cage, wings beating, the very picture of delight.
"This one's name is Yellow, and the owner is a woman."
"Correct. We'll conclude the basic verification here."
Maybe because there were no animals left to test, the staff member stepped out of the verification room and promptly shooed my girlfriend off with him. He did say we could go back to the person who'd guided us in, but the feeling of being chased out was hard to miss.
"...He's definitely like this because we teased him for giving that cat a weird name, right?"
Noona seemed to have landed on the same impression.
Either way, the two of us headed straight back to the employee who'd first handed us a number ticket.
"Would you mind waiting just a moment? The verification records haven't come through yet. Wait a little and I'll call you."
Was it because Animal Communicating was such a rare superpower? The moment he saw me, he seemed to know exactly who I was. At his word, Noona and I sat down in the chairs set out for people waiting and picked the chatter right back up. Awakenings didn't draw crowds often enough to make the place busy, so we could talk without worrying about anyone.
"But Suhwan. You quit your job. What are you going to do now? Are you really planning to make money with Animal Communicating?"
I gave her a light nod and laid out what I'd already been turning over.
"The main thing I'm thinking is Mytube."
"Mytube? You mean filming animals and posting them, like the other animal Mytubers?"
"For now, yeah, that's the idea."
"Will it work? I know animal channels are supposed to be easy to grow, but..."
She looked at me like she was genuinely worried. Plenty of people jumped onto Mytube after hearing how much Mytubers made, and not nearly so many of them actually earned enough to live on. I wasn't worried.
"Noona, think about it. I can film what other people call a unique video every single day. All I have to do is make a deal with the animals! Give them a treat and ask them to move the way I want—that's it, right? It's about time animals learned that a snack you earn yourself tastes better."
Behold: this is capitalism. The animal edition.
"A cat that stops refusing baths if it means getting Churu. A dog that flings its bowl across the room because it wants dinner. I can film as many of those as I want. Not a shred of animal abuse in any of it. Good for me, good for the animals, good for the viewers. A win-win-win strategy, you could say."
Noona nodded slowly. The kinds of videos I was describing were exactly the ones that racked up huge view counts.
"And it's not like that's all I can do. I could make content where I figure out why a subscriber's pet is acting strange and help correct it. That's practically good enough to put on TV."
"All right. Give it a try. I'll cheer you on. When you make the channel, tell me first. I'm going to be your very first subscriber!"
"Obviously. My first subscriber was always going to be you."
"Mr. Shin Suhwan!"
The reply was barely out of my mouth when a staff member's voice called my name. Noona and I walked up to the window, and he told us it was all done, sliding a few sheets of paper across.
"You've passed the basic verification. Since you're already registered as an Awakened Individual, your information will be updated. You can issue the superpower certificate online later, and your rank will require a separate follow-up verification from a higher agency."
I'd been through the same process once already, back when I'd registered the superpower that adjusted water temperature, so I nodded easily and walked out of city hall with Noona. At the same moment, a text arrived on my phone.
I checked the message confirming the update and grinned, already picturing the golden future stretching out ahead of me.
"...You're not sick or anything, are you?"
"Hey! Why do you keep doing that?"
She'd been watching me with worry, but at my irritation she laughed and said she'd only been teasing.
"I know, I know. From here on out, you're going to walk nothing but a flower path..."
The smile didn't last. She quietly slipped her arm out of mine and went small and gloomy all at once.
"Noona. What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"..."
She hesitated for a moment, then settled onto a nearby bench and started letting out what she'd actually been holding in. And once I'd heard it, I scowled and sent my palm flying at her forehead.
Smack!
Maybe it was the little snap I put in my wrist, but the sound that rang off her forehead was wonderfully crisp.
"Ow! What are you doing!"
"You were thinking useless thoughts, so I cleared some of the junk out."
She stared at me like she'd been deeply wronged. That protest was never going to work on me.
"Does that even make sense? Your boyfriend gets a good ability, and instead of being happy with him, you're worried we might break up? You think I'd start neglecting you just because I picked up a power and a little money?"
"Buuut..."
"But nothing. Not a king-sized but, not any kind of but. I told you to stop watching those trashy melodramas, didn't I? You thought I'd throw you away because I awakened a superpower that makes money? It's because those shows are always full of doctors and judges and prosecutors dumping the girlfriend who supported them the whole way, isn't it? That's what got in your head."
Noona turned her face away, just slightly. That was exactly how she looked when I'd hit the mark.
"Don't waste your time worrying. Even if you say you don't want me, I have no intention of letting you go."
"...Suhwan!"
Whether the words had moved her or not, she threw herself into my arms.
"Aigoo! The world's gone to ruin... tsk, tsk, tsk."
Some old man passing by shook his head, but that was none of my business. I gave Noona's back a light pat where she clung to me.
"Noona."
"Yeah."
"From now on, if you want to watch a drama, you get my permission first. I'm screening the plot before you're allowed to see it. The second a person so much as watches a drama, they—aaagh!"
She pinched my side hard for ruining the mood.
That's going to bruise! No—it already bruised! I'm sure of it!