Sky Lounge
Sky Lounge
"The Animal Friends club activity has been quiet lately."
After the semester ended and vacation began, the Animal Friends group chat—which had been so lively it was almost hard to keep up with all the messages—had gone quiet.
I figured it was because everyone was busy with school life, but... was it a little boring now that things were quiet?
This semester, too, a lot of new members had joined, so there were plenty of people to talk to, and that had been fun.
It was a bit of a shame.
"Hedgehogs are cute... and hamsters are cute too..."
Since it was an animal-related club, all sorts of animals were posted in the group chat.
Not just dogs, but starting with creatures like guinea pigs and rabbits,
all the way to aquatic life like fish and turtles.
There was even someone who raised quails.
"Mini quails were super cute."
I had once gone to the house of a member who raised mini quails to see and pet them.
They were smaller than regular quails, so they were called mini quails, but their appearance was so different from regular quails that it was hard to believe they were the same species.
"Tsk... still, raising one would probably be tough."
Since our house is a penthouse, it's spacious and convenient for raising animals.
They had said they would give me one if I wanted to raise it, but I figured a chirping bird would be too difficult, so I gave up on the idea.
You might ask how I could raise two dogs if I'm sensitive to noise,
but our little ones were beyond being just dogs, so they didn't bark or whine much.
Even when they did bark, it was just a single "Woof!" and that was it.
"But speaking of that... the next-door neighbor is something else..."
They took advantage of the penthouse to raise an alpaca.
Occasionally, they would take the alpaca for a walk on the ground-floor trail; it was so gentle that it stayed still even when you touched it, and once it got used to someone, it would walk up with its little trotting steps and rub its head against them, asking to be petted.
"Hoo... since I thought of it, maybe I should go for a walk."
"Woof!"
"Mung."
When I brought Lil' One's leash and fastened it to his collar, Pipsqueak sat down and looked like he was about to cry.
He was sulking because I wasn't taking him along.
He was barely two months old, and he already wanted to go out for walks so badly.
"Sigh... can't be helped. Pipsqueak, come here."
"Mung."
Only then did he toddle over and let me hold him.
With Pipsqueak in one arm and Lil' One's leash in the other hand, I headed outside.
***
The walk had now become a fixed part of my daily routine.
I had clearly come out to walk the dogs, but somehow I found myself in a strange situation where I was the one getting more exercise.
And that wasn't all. There was often this weird feeling that Lil' One was enduring the hardship for the sake of my exercise.
For reference, Pipsqueak was still too young to walk on the street, so the middle and high school students were looking after him.
The sight of a puppy sitting on a lap, receiving touches from all directions, was truly living the life of Riley.
Was it because he was male?
Strangely, it seemed like he liked women.
"Huff...."
"Woof!"
"Lil' One, you're satisfied now, right? Daddy's tired, so let's rest a bit."
After getting Lil' One's permission, I headed to where Pipsqueak was.
Maybe because they were middle and high school students, they were making a huge fuss over Pipsqueak—still like a little ball of fluff—and found him incredibly cute.
It was a complete commotion, with squeals of delight everywhere.
And that wasn't all. They even had something like a dog chew in their mouths, bought from who knows where.
"Kids, I'm here to take Pipsqueak back~"
"Oh... oh! Thank you so much for letting us hold him."
"Thank you!"
When I approached to take Pipsqueak, the female students who had been carefully looking after the puppy bowed their heads in greeting.
These were the same friends I had seen at the arcade before, so I figured they were trustworthy enough to leave him with.
"By any chance, do you like dogs?"
"Yes! I really love them!"
"My mom has a fur allergy, so we can't raise one at home..."
Well, I had heard that a lot of families couldn't raise dogs for that reason.
In that case, this might be a good opportunity to spread the word about how cute dogs are.
"How about I buy you guys some coffee and we go talk some more at the Sky Lounge?"
"R... really!? I'd love to go!!"
"Me too!"
"Anyone who wants to come can come, since everyone can go together. Let's go."
Getting along with the neighbors was a virtue.
Even if they were still in middle and high school.
*
Our apartment had a Sky Lounge on the upper floor.
It was a bit small, but it was made entirely of glass, so it was nice for looking at the scenery outside, and its high ceiling offered a sweeping view of Seoul.
And this place also sold coffee, orange juice, and simple food.
The quality wasn't bad, so it was good for grabbing a quick meal, and the prices were decent, making it a place the apartment residents frequented.
"Pick whatever you want to drink and eat."
"R... really?"
"You know I have a lot of money, right?"
I had even bought Pipsqueak a treat, so how could I not buy them this?
If someone does you a favor, you should return it.
I told everyone to pick what they wanted to eat and chose a drink for myself too.
Here, an iced Americano and a sandwich were the most convenient and delicious thing to have.
"Did everyone choose?"
"Yes!"
"Then shall I pay?"
Everyone looked at me with wide eyes and expressions of admiration, so I felt a bit embarrassed.
There was only a 5 to 7 year age difference between me and you guys.
I finished paying, led the kids, and sat down at a spot with a nice view outside.
Maybe because it was still daytime, there were no people around, and it was quiet and cool, so it felt like I could actually relax a bit.
"By the way, don't you guys go to school?"
"We're still on vacation. Our schedule got pushed back a bit due to some circumstances."
"Really? Then it must be tough to keep up with the exam material."
I was curious about what kind of circumstances caused their vacation to be delayed, but I decided to let it go.
If I paid attention to things like that for no reason, I felt like I wouldn't be able to do my own work properly.
"It's nothing special today, I just wanted to know what you guys think."
"About what?"
"Don't tell me, it's about the Qtube channel?"
"How did you know?"
This is why I didn't dislike... sharp kids.
I had been worried about how to bring it up, but since they had already guessed, it made it easier to talk about.
"I was thinking of uploading stuff like my daily life with Lil' One and Pipsqueak on Qtube, you know?"
It was a preference survey for the new channel I had recently created.
The channel where I uploaded non-meat dishes and game videos.
On top of that, I was even uploading card pack opening videos, and I was worrying about whether it would be okay to post dog pictures on the sub-channel, which was slowly turning into a mixed bag.
"Dogs..."
Looking at them playing nicely together, licking each other inside the large cage placed on the table,
their faces suddenly started turning red.
They were probably imagining what it would be like to see the cute Lil' One and Pipsqueak on the Qtube channel.
"I... I don't think it would be bad."
"But wouldn't weird people pick fights if dog videos appeared on a food channel?"
"I guess so..."
Originally, there were quite a few weird people on Qtube.
I had gotten chills seeing how they spread strange speculations and rumors as truth.
If I uploaded dog videos, crazy people might leave comments asking if I eat dog meat and how I could eat that kind of thing while raising a companion dog.
"So, I think it would be better not to do it."
"I see... thanks."
Of course, I wasn't going to decide just by asking these kids.
Still, being able to directly ask the viewers who watch my channel for their opinions was important, so it would be a factor in my decision.
***
In the end, I just decided not to do it.
Because I had also heard that if I dug too deep in various directions, the antis might increase.
What was the saying, that fans create antis.
I heard there are cases where people come to hate someone not because of the person themselves, but because of the fandom.
"That's kind of similar to politics."
So that's why they said Qtube was no different from the political scene.
I never knew there was that kind of meaning behind it.
"Seong-hwan-a!"
As I came out of the Sky Lounge and was sitting on the first floor, A-ra burst out of the elevator.
She had apparently finished work and come up from the parking lot.
"Did work go well today?"
"Yeah, it went well. But why are you carrying a cage?"
A-ra peered inside the cage I was holding and asked a curious question.
When she saw Lil' One and Pipsqueak sitting and sleeping nicely together inside, a wide smile spread across her face.
"I went to the Sky Lounge with Lil' One and Pipsqueak today."
"Were there not many people?"
"There weren't many."
As expected, A-ra started off by worrying about me.
She was the one who said I didn't have to wear sunglasses or a mask inside the apartment building, so why was she worrying so much?
"Seong-hwan-a, I talked a bit with the Director today."
"About what?"
"Would you ever want to appear on a cable TV variety show with me?"
"...Me? As in, me?"
I had thought it wouldn't be bad to appear on a TV show with A-ra someday anyway, but I didn't expect her to ask me first.
"Yeah, it's a show where we'd appear together."
"What kind of show is it...?"
"They film the cast member's daily life and the MCs talk while watching it. How about it?"
"Hmm..."
It felt like something I had heard about somewhere...
Was it really okay for me to go on it?