Wedding (2)
Wedding (2)
"Kki-ing kki-ing..."
"Wow... they're totally a baby."
I'd come to this private home to adopt a puppy through Lee Min-ho's introduction,
and looking at the puppy, I was falling into a whole new kind of adorable.
When I'd adopted Lil' One, he'd already been a somewhat grown baby dog, but the puppy I was adopting this time was a baby in its purest form.
How young? It couldn't even bark properly yet.
"Will I be able to take it home and raise it well...?"
"Just soak the kibble until it's soft and feed it that."
The owner sending the puppy off answered.
She was a woman who looked around 24, but apparently she was older than she appeared.
"Doesn't it drink milk?"
"It's already weaned. Seong-hwan-ssi, you're more of a worrier than I thought."
"Haha..."
The owner, who claimed to be a long-time fan of mine, said she'd been a fan since I appeared
on A-ra's broadcast, even before the channel was created.
"Baby, come here."
"Kki-ing..."
The baby puppy walked over to me calmly.
That sight alone was deeply satisfying.
"It's following you well."
"Maybe it's because I smell like dogs?"
"Now that you mention it, you said you already have a Pomeranian, right?"
"Yes, named Lil' One."
A smile spread across my face as I thought of our little cutie.
I'd completely turned into an over-the-top doting dad.
"Dogs get jealous, so you have to give them plenty of affection."
"Is that so? I think our dog even gets jealous when my wife hugs me."
Though I wasn't sure if it was truly jealousy.
Whenever A-ra held me, he'd just climb up onto the sofa and snuggle into my arms.
That sight was just so adorable.
"Oh, that kind of jealousy gets better as they grow up."
"Is... that so?"
"And Lil' One is still young too, right? They might grow up getting along well together."
It'd be a problem if they didn't get along.
Because our Lil' One is going to be his husband, after all.
"So, when would it be okay for me to take him home?"
"You can take him today."
"Really? What about preparations and such..."
From the owner's perspective, sending a puppy off meant sending away a family member.
She might not be ready to just send it off like that.
"I've already taken photos, and the last goodbyes with the mother are finished."
"Hmm... well then..."
With that, I held out the carrier that was sitting to the left.
It was a bit large for the puppy, but with toys and various other things placed inside, it would be comfortable.
"Baby, let's go in."
"Kki-ing...?"
The baby puppy tilted its head as if not understanding what was going on and approached me.
Then it slipped right into the carrier.
And then... it started sleeping.
What's this?
"It's because they sleep a lot."
"Ah... well, it is a baby after all..."
"No, aside from being a baby, it just sleeps a lot."
Apparently, it just slept more than average.
That made sense.
Lil' One was the type that slept very little, after all.
If we could split the difference, it would've been the perfect balance.
It seemed God preferred to go all-in on one trait, apparently.
*
"Little wriggler, come this way."
"Meong!"
I'd brought the baby puppy home, set it on the floor, and called Lil' One.
It was time for the two dogs to meet for the first time.
Or wait, was "first meeting" the right term?
They were still tiny babies — did I really need to think about that kind of thing already?
"Baby, come on out."
"..."
"Baby?"
I peered inside the carrier and found the baby puppy still sleeping.
Lil' One was also peering inside through the holes in the carrier.
After looking inside, Lil' One looked at me and began tilting his head.
It was the look of a dog who had no idea what was going on.
"Lil' One, he's a friend."
"Meong?"
"You could say he's your future husband!"
A dad who even finds his pup a husband — how moved he must be.
Lil' One tilted his head for a while, then slowly approached and rubbed his head against my leg, asking to be held.
"You can't come to Daddy. Lil' One is a big sister now, so shouldn't you take care of the younger one?"
Still, I picked him up, held him in my arms, and stroked his head while speaking to Lil' One.
He probably wouldn't understand, but I hoped that since they were the same breed, he'd look after the new puppy well.
"No biting or anything like that, okay?"
"Meong!"
"That's right, that's right..."
Even if the words didn't get through, he probably understood.
I hoped they'd get along well.
***
The baby puppy... I'd named the second dog Pipsqueak.
I'd remembered the word 'kkomul,' meaning 'pipsqueak' or 'little wriggler,' from back in school when I was young, so I'd used that.
I didn't really remember the exact definition, but anyway, I'd used it because it was cute.
And had it been about a week since I'd brought Pipsqueak home?
At first, I'd been worried that Lil' One might hit Pipsqueak out of jealousy or something like that,
but it had been a completely needless worry.
Pipsqueak followed right on Lil' One's heels as if Lil' One were his mom or dad,
and Lil' One went over to Pipsqueak and took care of him like his own child.
As if licking his whole body weren't enough, he even gently stroked his head with one paw, swish-swish.
Was that really something a dog was supposed to do?
"Pipsqueak, little wriggler. Let's eat."
"Meong!"
"Kki-ing."
I mixed half a can of Cesar into the kibble and gave it to Lil' One.
For Pipsqueak, I'd soaked the kibble in pre-warmed water to soften it, let it cool, put it in a bowl, and set it out.
As usual, Lil' One put his nose to the bowl and sniffed.
And normally, he'd have wolfed down his food right there.
But recently, he hadn't been doing that.
First, Pipsqueak had to start eating, and only then would Lil' One slowly begin eating his own kibble.
I wasn't sure what kind of reaction this was, but from what I could tell, Lil' One only seemed to feel at ease and start eating once Pipsqueak began his meal.
If Pipsqueak didn't eat, Lil' One would bark loudly, as if asking if he was unwell.
Of course, Pipsqueak wasn't refusing to eat — he just didn't seem to register the food as food and stayed still.
But Lil' One really seemed like quite the worrier.
Should I say he was exactly like A-ra?
"Wriggler, hurry up and eat."
"Meong!"
Once Pipsqueak started eating little by little, Lil' One began eating his kibble too.
Watching this behavior recently had left me feeling deeply satisfied...
I was truly grateful that Lil' One was such a smart dog.
"Well then, shall I slowly get our cute little glutton puppy's food ready too?"
"Who's a glutton puppy?"
"Ack! You startled me!"
I turned around to find our glutton puppy...
No, A-ra, standing in the kitchen with her hands on her hips.
Her eyes were smiling cheerfully, but her mouth wasn't moving — frozen in place.
It felt very frightening.
"My husband~ Does your noona look like a dog to you?"
"Th...that's... grandmothers sometimes call their granddaughters or grandsons 'little puppy,' don't they? It's similar to that."
"Is that so? Then why does it feel like it's in a slightly different direction?"
"N...no it doesn't..."
Sweat poured down my back.
I really had only used the expression 'puppy' because A-ra was cute!
Though, admittedly, I did use the word 'glutton.'
"L...let's move past that..."
"We're moving past it?"
"Is there anything you'd like to eat for dinner tonight?"
"Hmm... I wonder..."
A-ra picked up Pipsqueak and Lil' One, who had finished their food and were licking their bowls.
Since hugging just one might make the other sulk or jealous, she was holding both at once.
Both were still young, but there was a size difference between them,
so A-ra stacked the two together, hugged them snugly, and buried her face in their fur.
"Sniff sniff... Lil' One, did you wash him today?"
"Yes. I washed him earlier after his walk."
"What about Pipsqueak?"
"He's still a baby, so wouldn't it be bad to wash him?"
If water got into his ears, it would be a big problem.
Putting a baby that was barely a month old into water was a bit...
"Let's just eat with whatever we have today."
"Then, would you like to have the kimchi jjigae from this morning, plus rolled omelet and braised beef?"
"And nori!"
"Yes, yes, got it~."
Following A-ra's wish to just eat simply, I started reheating the kimchi jjigae.
As for the rolled omelet... I'd probably need to crack ten eggs.
***
"Is it because the weather's hot..."
At night, Pipsqueak played around just fine following Lil' One, but during the day, he lay in the living room under the air conditioner breeze and didn't budge an inch.
As expected for a baby, he seemed very sensitive to the heat.
A-ra was also weak against the heat, so did that make her a baby too?
Our baby A-ra...
"Sigh... have I been affected by the heat too? I'm slowly going crazy."
Since staying in the cold breeze too long would make it easy to catch a cold or get sick from the air conditioning, I'd come out to the terrace by myself to walk,
and sweat was streaming down like rain.
"Sigh... it's hot, so hot..."
Still, since I was already sweating, I wanted to work up a full sweat before going back inside.
In summer, they say you have to sweat it all out to stay healthy for the year, don't they?
So should I leave Pipsqueak alone and bring Lil' One out to walk?
Or maybe I should go on a walk with him...
"But it doesn't look like Lil' One has any intention of coming out either."
Lil' One was sitting under the beach parasol on the terrace, looking this way.
I'd wrapped an ice pack in a towel and set it underneath him, and he looked like he was barely hanging on.
It felt like he was staying outside with me because I was out there.
If he was hot, he could just go inside.
"Wriggler, shall we head inside soon?"
"Meong! Meong-meong!"
"Oh dear... are you that happy? Huh... huh?"
I'd crouched down when I saw Lil' One running over, but I lost my balance and ended up falling over.
And then, symptoms like anemia or orthostatic hypotension started to set in.
My head was spinning and spinning...
If this went wrong, it could be serious...
"Huff... my phone..."
I fumbled through my pocket, but I couldn't find my phone.
......Ah.
Did I leave it in the room...?
This is bad...