The Scam Duo
I-sol quietly watched Nabi right in front of her.
It was an undeniable fact that he was far cuter and more doll-like than any ordinary cat. Nestled obediently in her arms, grooming himself with those fluffy cotton-ball paws, he looked for all the world like an angel come to earth.
It truly felt as if an angel cat had descended and manifested right here!
He was so adorable it made her heart ache. And the way he adored people—showering even I-sol, whom he was meeting for the very first time today, with such angelic affection without reserve.
Normally cats would hiss or at least stay wary around strangers. That was only natural.
Yet here was a cat who would so readily, so defenselessly, offer up his soft belly to someone he had just met. This was the kind of miracle that might appear once in a hundred cats… no, once in a thousand, if at all.
Even by human standards it was only natural. Plenty of people were painfully shy around strangers; how much more so for a territorial animal that still carried wild instincts? Guarding against outsiders was pure instinct for a cat.
"Yuyeon, could you show me that thing from Animal Farm?"
I-sol couldn't hold back any longer. Her eyes sparkled as she made the request first.
Yuyeon tilted her head.
"Which part would you like to see?"
During the Animal Farm shoot Nabi had shown so many varied and astonishing things that the question was only fair. I-sol smiled sweetly at Yuyeon's reaction and spoke.
"You know! The part where Nabi turned on the computer himself, grabbed the mouse, and clicked open a website!"
"Ah, that."
It was a realm of intelligence no cat on earth could dare attempt.
Of course, pressing the power button on a computer tower with a paw might happen now and then. That was simple physics—just one protruding button to push.
In fact, countless cat-owner YouTube videos were filled with mischievous cats who shut down the computer mid-soul-crushing ranked match or important work by hitting the power button. Given a cat's body structure, it wasn't that hard.
But precisely manipulating a mouse to click open a specific website? That was an entirely different dimension of impossibility.
Using the mouse as a toy and batting it around with cat punches might be doable…
But placing a finger exactly on the left mouse button like a human and clicking to open a site? No genius cat in the world could manage it. The very causal process of moving a mouse to activate an icon on the screen simply did not exist in a cat's brain.
No matter how much training you piled on, a cat's intellectual limits were clear. Yet for Nabi, that impossibility was possible. I-sol herself had been left speechless when she saw that scene of Nabi on the TV program Animal Farm.
He had looked so truly human! You could almost say he was a person rather than a cat, the way he moved with such human-like presence.
"Nabi! Turn on the computer! And…"
"Ah! Wait a second."
"Yes?"
Just as Yuyeon, excited, was about to speak to Nabi, I-sol hurriedly stopped her. Nabi also paused mid-step. He had been rising to turn on the computer at Yuyeon's command.
When Yuyeon looked at her with a puzzled expression, I-sol, reading her face, asked a little awkwardly.
"Besides the shopping mall… can he open other sites too?"
On the broadcast, the only site Nabi had opened was that particular shopping mall. A reasonable suspicion still lingered in I-sol's mind: maybe he had just mechanically practiced and memorized the location of that one shopping mall icon?
At those words, Yuyeon nodded.
"Yes, of course he can. Which site would you like him to open for confirmation?"
"Hmm…! Then, would it be possible for him to open the YouTube site himself?"
"Yes! I'll show you."
Yuyeon decided to meet the subtle doubt in I-sol's eyes head-on and charge straight through it with confidence.
Of course, the one who actually had to operate the computer with almost supernatural skill wasn't Yuyeon—it was Nabi himself in cat form.
"Nabi. Turn on the computer and open the YouTube site for us!"
"Meow."
Nabi slipped reluctantly out of I-sol's warm arms.
In that instant I-sol felt a hollow ache in one corner of her chest, as if something had been emptied out. They had known each other for less than an hour, yet she felt a deep bond, as if they had shared decades of joys and sorrows as family.
It was probably only possible because Nabi was such an extreme people-cat. If it had been any ordinary cat instead of Nabi, could she have felt such a rich emotion? Not at all.
Click—!
Without hesitation Nabi pressed the power button on the tower firmly with a neat front paw. With a low hum the computer whirred to life, and soon the monitor lit up brightly.
"Wow… that's really amazing."
Even just the simple act of turning on the computer was wondrous and surprising enough. I-sol kept exclaiming in admiration as she pressed her camera lens right up close to Nabi and continued filming.
It was something Yumi, the cat she raised at home, could never do. Honestly, Yumi was pretty much like any ordinary cat. You couldn't call her intelligent or clever the way Nabi was.
It was a pity, but it was the truth. As Yumi's owner, she knew exactly what Yumi was like.
"Meow."
Nabi calmly watched the monitor screen, waiting patiently for it to boot.
These days technology had improved and SSDs were common, so booting a computer didn't take long at all.
In the old days you might have stared blankly at the boot screen for over a minute… but now the desktop appeared cleanly in a mere ten seconds.
"Meow!"
The moment the familiar desktop appeared clearly on the monitor, Nabi placed his adorable cotton-ball paw on the mouse and began moving it with precision.
And then, instead of the shopping-mall icon he usually clicked, he found the YouTube site icon without the slightest hesitation and clicked it open exactly. His eyes were sharp and intelligent, as if he truly understood exactly what YouTube was!
"Wow…!"
I-sol was so startled she clapped both hands over her mouth. Nabi was essentially demonstrating a perfect understanding of the high-level concept of a website!
He looked far more intelligent and clever than the version shown on the previous Animal Farm broadcast. And she could now be certain that what she had seen on that show was no special production or fabrication unique to television.
In the broadcasting world, after all, magical cross-editing could turn even a clueless dumb cat into a genius cat in an instant. There was a reason people talked about "devil's editing."
But the Nabi unfolding before her eyes right now was on another level entirely! He was displaying the true majesty of a genuine genius cat, as if wielding some kind of supernatural power.
Having successfully brought up the YouTube main page, Nabi stared straight into I-sol's camera lens with a proud, majestic air.
"Meow!"
It was the kind of look that seemed to say, Praise me.
Yuyeon approached with a fond smile and gently stroked Nabi's head.
"Aigoo, good boy, good boy~"
Yuyeon and Nabi—this perfect con-artist duo's seamless performance was perfection itself.
And the pure-hearted victim, I-sol, with her clear, unknowing eyes, was completely enchanted by that perfect play! On top of that, Yuyeon rode the momentum and continued showcasing Nabi's other genius specialties one after another.
I-sol tumbled headlong into the depths of this terrifying two-person scam. Just like a victim of voice phishing, she filmed Nabi and Yuyeon's every move as if under a spell, without a single shred of suspicion.
She felt certain that this week's episode of "Exploring Other People's Cat Owners" was going to be a massive hit and an enormous success.
Not only the computer skills—the genius displays Nabi put on all around the house were enough to send chills down her spine!
Nabi's looks, and the looks of his owner Yuyeon as well, were easy on the eyes!
People had always loved pretty women and pretty cats.
Subscribers would far prefer a doll-like cat like Nabi over videos of weird long-nosed cats on YouTube.
And Nabi's owner Yuyeon was pretty too, for that matter.
But more important than any of that…
"Na… Nabi!"
"Meow."
…was the fact that she had to leave him behind.
"Please come play again anytime, I-sol. Nabi will always be waiting."
"I… is that really okay?"
"Yes."
I-sol bid Nabi farewell with tears in her eyes.
It was the first time something like this had ever happened. A farewell that made her chest ache.