Chapter 19
Chapter 19
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Mart Sexual Harassment Chaos
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hati-ho senior was checking the shopping list together with Yang Hwa-bin senior.
"Hangover ramen for the kids, booze, bottled water, ah! We need side dishes too!"
"No chocolate meeeh. If any dog beastkin kids eat it by mistake, it'll be a disaster meeeh."
"Of course! Let's start with snacks! Human! Push the cart!"
"Yessir."
Everyone's way of talking is so unique. Yang Hwa-bin senior ends every sentence with a meeeh, and Hati-ho senior, who I thought was normal like Baek Sang-a senior, calls me "Humaaan!" every time.
Does that mean in this shopping party, the only normal ones are me and Baek Sang-a senior?
‘Today I finally feel like I've escaped being the two-eyed blind guy!’
I was a little excited!
Even though everyone had these weird speech quirks, they didn't cause any trouble. Yang Hwa-bin senior and Hati-ho senior would list off the needed items, and Kim Daram-i senior and Mo Myo-mi would fetch them.
I never imagined Mo Myo-mi would help out like this!
So what was Baek Sang-a senior doing?
"Beastkin selling food...?"
"What."
"You'll make fur fly!"
"The fur that flew was from the ajusshi's head."
So reliable! So cool!
Even though beastkin aren't that rare, whenever the racists who exist everywhere muttered loud enough for our party to hear, Baek Sang-a senior would step up and shut them down!
That charisma from her small frame! Solid tanking!
A true display worthy of a 21st-year visual design department head!!
Kim Daram-i senior needs to see this! Where the heck did this sunbaenim go!!
"Human. Cool senior, right?"
"Yes!!!"
"But it's not all good vibes?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"If senior ever flips out and goes berserk on someone, you gotta watch closely."
"Uh. Has she caused trouble before?"
"Of course. She's a great white shark beastkin."
Hati-ho senior perked up her ears toward Baek Sang-a senior.
"Once some human started shit first, they got into a shouting match, and those guys thought she was an easy target 'cause she's a small girl, so one raised his hand?"
"Whaaat?! How dare they to our sunbaenim!!"
"Nah, listen. Senior's nose started bleeding, she got a taste of her own blood, her eyes rolled back, and she straight-up chomped that human!!"
"Gasp."
I'd heard great white shark beastkin have insane bite force you can't underestimate!
In that case...!
"Wh-what happened to that guy!!"
"All I'll say is... he got a fat settlement!"
"No shiiiit!!"
There are no normal people in this party! Everyone except me!!!
"Ti-ho! Don't scare the junior meeeh! Sang-a's mellowed out a lot since then meeeh."
"True true. Financial therapy works wonders."
They paid a settlement big enough to call it financial therapy!!!
As the sunbaenims spilled the tea, fragile human me trembled while pushing the cart along.
Please, just let us finish the grocery mission without incident!! No bloodshed!! Please!! Pretty please!!!!
I prayed so desperately, but no dice! Mo Myo-mi's blue eyes filled with wariness as she glared at one spot! Her tail fur puffed up huge!!
"Myo-mi. What's wrong meeeh?"
"Did the human piss you off again?"
"I didn't do anything!!"
The seniors noticed Mo Myo-mi's flattened ears and looked puzzled too. So was I. Why was this chill cat suddenly on high alert! Let's find out now!!
"Th-that...!"
"That over there!"
"That!!"
Following Mo Myo-mi's gaze, me and the sunbaenims soon figured out why she was pissed!
There was a group that looked like your average ajusshi bunch at a glance, but those ajusshis were sneakily ogling Mo Myo-mi, then gesturing at their chests like "big tits."
Those fuckers for real!!
Those total!!!!
"That's sexual haaaarassment!!!"
"No shiiiit!!!"
The people in the mart, customers and staff alike, all turned to stare at us, and the ajusshi group that harassed Mo Myo-mi started panicking.
The crowd murmured.
"Wh-what? Who screamed like that!"
"Those students over there?"
"Beastkin and humans?"
"Are the beastkin bullying that one male student?"
No!! That's not it!! No way!!!
"But didn't they say sexual harassment?"
Yes!!! That's exactly it!!!!
Like someone who'd eaten a boiled train whistle, I yelled even louder, pointing right at the ajusshi group!!!
"Those!!! Ajusshis over there!!! Sexually harassed!!! My friend!!!!!!!"
Heads whipped around toward where I pointed!
The ajusshi group, now the center of attention, yelled in panic.
"Wh-what nonsense from some young kid!"
"Who harassed who!"
Who what? If you don't know, I'll teach you!!
Point!
"You ajusshis!!!"
Point!!
"My frieeeend!!!"
I helpfully pointed back and forth between the ajusshi group and Mo Myo-mi with my palms. Then one ajusshi's neck vein bulged.
"We were just talking among ourselves, how's that harassment!! Got proof?!"
Proof? Proof? Of course I have!!!
"The victim's tears!!!! That's the proof!!!"
"So you got none!"
Damn, busted!!
‘But they totally did sexually harass her!!’
How the hell am I supposed to record proof of sexual harassment? Do they think I'm a CCTV beastkin!!
But public opinion was already flipping. People who'd been looking at that group like trash were now side-eyeing us!
"What. Were those kids pranking?"
"Makes sense. Hanging with beastkin."
"You know how fox beastkin love pranks."
"Or just overreacting? Beastkin take everything super sensitively, right?"
No! That's not it!!
I was furious. Mo Myo-mi and I aren't super close, but she's a classmate learning the same stuff under the same roof. My peer got wronged, and not only can't I prove it, she's hearing this crap...!
It wasn't just Mo Myo-mi. Yang Hwa-bin senior, Hati-ho senior, and Baek Sang-a senior all darkened at the surrounding stares.
That was when.
"Joo Ji-hyeok."
"Y-yes!"
Baek Sang-a senior approached me. Up close, baring her sharp shark teeth, she fixed her cold pale blue-gray eyes on me.
"Not lying? You really saw those guys sexually harass Myo-mi?"
"Yes!! It's true!! Right, Mo Myo-mi?! ...Mo, Mo Myo-mi?"
Turning to Mo Myo-mi, I saw her hunching her shoulders and looking away.
Why's she acting like that? Isn't she the victim?
The other seniors were the same. Not one backed up what we'd seen.
Why?
Because they're beastkin?
Had they grown up enduring stares and words like that their whole lives?
Learned helplessness or something?
"Ugh...!"
I yelled even louder at the ajusshi group.
"Apologize right now, you bald bastards!! Or your three generations will go bald and impotent, lineage ends here!!"
"This kid seriously!!"
"Kid, cut it out!!"
"You gonna apologize or not!!!"
I'd had prejudices against furries and beastkin too. Touching them felt gross and sticky. Rat-like beastkin probably lived holed up in some sewer, I thought.
But not now.
My furry prejudices were still there, but not for beastkin!!
"You harass someone minding her business and now you're yelling?! Think volume wins it!!!!"
"Yeah! Apologize!!"
"Right! Apologize... Huh?!"
Baek Sang-a senior!
Baek Sang-a senior was yelling it with me!!
Mo Myo-mi, Yang Hwa-bin senior, and Hati-ho senior all looked at us.
Baek Sang-a senior kept going.
"Beastkin aren't people? What era is this, you're asking for trouble. Which company you ajusshis from? I'll just tip off the news!"
"Y-you damn beast!"
"Where does a beast butt into human talk!!"
Call that words!!
"Then you guys...!"
"Is harassing a beast okay?"
No, that's what I was gonna say!!!!!
‘But whose voice is that??!!’
I whipped my head toward the voice.
Kim Daram-i senior was coming over, hugging a bag of sunflower seeds!
"Kim Daram-i senior! Where were you!!"
"Sorry~ Took a while picking sunflower seeds~"
"Thought you'd gone missing domestically!!"
"Domestic MIA like this~ Kkik-kkik-kkik!"
Kim Daram-i senior kkik-kkik-kkiking as she joined us! While dumping her sunflower seeds in the cart, she said:
"But get this! On my way back, I saw something suuuper shameless! Too good not to share, so I filmed it~"
"Gasp! No way!"
"Kkik-kkik-kkik!"
Kim Daram-i senior pulled out her smartphone, opened the gallery, and played the video.
Th-this video!!
It's footage of those ajusshis harassing Mo Myo-mi!! A full 5 minutes!!!
"Those ajusshis kept at it way longer than I thought~ Couldn't hold back and recorded it~"
Murmurs!
"What. So it was real sexual harassment?"
"They look old enough to know better, harassing a girl half their age?"
"Crazy... Fucking gross."
"Bold as hell, real bold!"
The ajusshis went pale! Should've apologized clean when we told you!!
Kim Daram-i senior straightened her fluffy brown tail with its black stripe and landed the finishing blow!!
"What to do with this vid? Tip off the news? Or YouTube? Either way, you ajusshis won't have normal lives anymore~"
At Kim Daram-i senior's words, the ajusshis' remaining lives and waiting families flashed before their eyes like a montage. Pale-faced, they slunk away.
"Th-this is why kids these days!"
"Run into 'em on the street and they just!"
"Dodging shit 'cause it's gross, not scared..."
The ajusshis grumbled as they left, and people tsked or pointed fingers, cursing them out.
That's right...!
This is...!
We repelled them!!!
"It was gross meeting you, next time we cross paths, you're done for real!!!!"
We wiiiin!!!!!
There was a bit of a commotion, but we cleared the grocery mission safely.
While hunting the rest of the items and checking out, some adults who'd witnessed the earlier ruckus came over to offer sincere condolences. Especially to Mo Myo-mi.
"Kids. Don't take it to heart."
"In this day and age, no one should say stuff like that to beastkin. Pretty girl did nothing wrong. It's those humans who weren't raised right."
"Makes me sad, like my granddaughter! She's a beastkin too."
"Don't get down! Grow up strong!"
Waaah!
A heartwarming scene you can't watch without tears!!
Mo Myo-mi got the most comfort from the adults.
Honestly, thinking of how I'd seen her before, I figured she'd just calmly say "Yes." and that'd be it.
But no.
"......"
Every time an adult comforted her, Mo Myo-mi wiped away tears.
Turns out the cat beastkin wasn't totally stone-faced after all.