The Ultra-Luxurious Playroom
It had been a week since they rescued the cat family from the corner of the playground.
Unusual noises were echoing through Sekki House, a place that usually only heard the sounds of weeding or painting the exterior walls.
Whirrrr.
Clack-clack-clack.
Thud, thud.
"Finished! Dohee, pass this to Seungwan, please."
"Okay!"
"Dojin! The one you gave me earlier is too long. Please cut off twenty centimeters."
"Got it!"
Next to the annex, in a space that had once been used as a practical workshop but had since been left empty and abandoned, the commotion had not ceased since morning.
The three of them were going in and out so much that the threshold was practically wearing down.
The problem was that the work, which had started in the morning, showed no signs of ending.
"Oppa, this doesn't fit right! Trim it a bit more!"
"Okay! Leave it here."
"Dojin, how did you tell me to assemble this earlier? Could you show me one more time?"
"Bring it over. You do this here, like..."
At Dojin's adept instructions, Dohee and Seungwan moved busily, nodding in understanding.
In contrast, Dojin hadn't left the workshop once.
Unlike the other two, his hands were constantly occupied.
Whirrrrrr.
Screeech.
Pshhh! Pshhh! Pshhh!
"Whew, that's one more shelf finished."
Checking the product that had just come out of the machine, Dojin smiled with satisfaction.
It had been a while since he had done any wood milling, so he had struggled a bit at first, but now he had definitely gotten the hang of it.
It looked incomparably cleaner and sturdier than the pieces he had made at the beginning.
"Whew, thank goodness most of the things I worked on this morning were pillars. If I'd messed up, I would have had to start all over again."
It was true.
Even if Dojin didn't display master craftsmanship, they currently had an inspector who was stricter than anyone else.
Just like right now.
"Dojin~ I think you'll have to shave down the main pillar again. Considering the structures on top, the symmetry is a bit off."
"Okay!"
Dojin tried to go out at the sound of the voice from outside, but Seungwan was already entering the workshop.
She was dragging a wooden pillar that reached up to her chest with both hands.
"Oh dear, you should have just called me. You carried this all the way here yourself?"
"You're busy too, Dojin. It's better for me to move around. Besides, we have a ton of other things to make."
"...Well, that's true."
Dojin spoke as he looked at the blueprint hanging on the workshop wall.
There's still so much left.
They had been moving diligently since morning, but the progress rate hadn't even reached fifty percent yet.
The reason the work was progressing so slowly was partly because Dojin had only just gotten used to the milling work.
But more than that, it was because the absolute volume of work was simply massive.
After all, they were decorating two entire classrooms into themed rooms.
"But do we really need to make it this big? The scale seems a bit too grand just to make a cat playroom."
"Oh, what are you talking about? I told you during the meeting. The concept of this construction is an ultra-luxurious cat playroom."
"I know, but..."
"If we're calling it 'ultra-luxurious,' we need at least this much scale. Honestly, I feel like even this is a bit lacking. If I could, I'd turn the staff room into a cat playroom right now..."
At Seungwan's stubborn words, Dojin nodded weakly.
In truth, he hadn't expected his argument to be accepted anyway.
If her stubbornness could be broken by something like this, it would have broken days ago.
As he trimmed the pillar Seungwan had brought, the meeting from a few days ago drifted into Dojin's mind.
"Dojin! Let's have a meeting!"
Dojin, who had just returned from spraying herbicide, tilted his head at Seungwan's sudden declaration.
"Huh? A meeting?"
"Yes! A content meeting! We can't just keep pulling weeds and painting forever."
"Well... that's true."
Since he had just sprayed herbicide, he couldn't even weed anymore.
There was no other place to paint for now, so it was about time to start thinking about the next content.
"Should we do it here? Or in my workshop?"
When Dojin pointed to the classroom he was using as his workshop and broadcasting studio, Seungwan shook her head firmly.
"No, since we're doing this, let's set up a proper meeting. Come to the office in ten minutes."
"Okay, I understand."
He wondered if she really had to go that far, but Dojin readily nodded at Seungwan's words.
Though he was living like a semi-unemployed person, since he had decided to become a YouTuber, he absolutely needed core content.
Since he had let the editor bring up what he should have said first, he could easily accommodate this level of request.
However, this thought of his began to shake violently the moment he stepped into the office.
"Seungwan, what is all this..."
Dojin's voice trailed off sharply as he entered the office.
A camera, set up who knows when, was pointed right at him.
There was also a camera placed on the meeting table. It seemed she planned to turn the entire process, from his entrance to the meeting itself, into a video.
Just then, Seungwan, who was sitting behind the camera, spoke firmly.
"I am the PD."
"Pardon?"
"From now on, please call me PD Jo Seungwan, or PD Jo."
Her strict, solemn, and serious demeanor was, how should he put it...
Cute and trivial.
It felt like a fresh graduate trying to imitate a young, rigid boss.
From the perspective of Dojin, who had already lived ten years and regressed, no matter how much weight she tried to throw around in her mid-twenties, she was just adorable.
However, he couldn't show that, so he just played along.
"Ah... then I'll just call you PD-nim. Since there's already another famous PD Jo out there."
"Call me whatever you like, and please take a seat here."
"Okay."
Dojin meekly sat down as Seungwan requested.
Since it seemed she had drawn up a big picture she hadn't shared with him, he decided to go along with it.
Sure enough, the moment Dojin sat down, Seungwan began building up the atmosphere.
"Lately, there's been a lot of talk among the subscribers. They say the content is too static. Some even ask if this is Country Diary."
"*Cough*, Country... Well, it might look that way. Since buying the closed school, all we've done is a site survey, weeding, and painting."
"There's one more thing."
"One more thing?"
"You also rescued the stray cats. We can't leave that out."
"Huh? Is that going in a video?"
At Seungwan's words, Dojin was surprised for the second time since entering the office.
He hadn't expected that the video of rescuing the cat family would be uploaded to the channel.
That was just caught by chance.
He had been wearing a chest cam while weeding, and he just happened to find Samsaek-i and the kittens then.
The situation had been so urgent at the time that he had completely forgotten about the camera, but looking back later, the whole event had been captured perfectly on the action cam.
Unlike his original intention of just shooting a daily vlog because he lacked usable footage, it had captured a highly dynamic video.
I didn't expect her to suggest uploading that.
Even when he shared the accidentally captured video with the two of them out of fascination, Seungwan had shed tears while watching it.
Saying her heart ached because Samsaek-i's family was in such poor condition...
So he couldn't help but be surprised when she naturally suggested uploading it to the channel.
He had thought she would be the first to get angry if he suggested uploading the video.
"How could you think of using sick animals to get views? I didn't think you were that kind of person. I'm disappointed!"
Something like that.
But instead, Seungwan replied to Dojin's words as if she found them absurd.
"Then should we just discard it?"
"Maybe not discard it, but... just keep it as a memory between us..."
"You couldn't capture a video like that even if you tried to script it. A landlord who rescues sick cats and even gets them treated. How warm-hearted is that?"
"It's not that big of a deal..."
"I believe that when this video goes up, people will realize how fragile cats are and how much they need human help. Cats are friends of humanity that must be protected."
"..."
At Seungwan's rising voice in her excitement, Dojin wore a face that said, 'Of course.'
Seungwan just wanted to take this opportunity to upload another video evangelizing cats.
Ignoring Seungwan, who was excitedly preaching the necessity of cats, Dojin fell into thought and soon nodded.
Well... it doesn't really matter.
It wasn't a video of abusing cats; rather, it was a rescue video.
Besides, they weren't just any random cats, but the ones that had appeared in the site survey video, so there was some connection. It seemed fine to upload.
"So, is today's meeting about uploading the video of rescuing Samsaek-i's family?"
Samsaek-i was the nickname Dojin had given to the cat with the black, white, and gray calico pattern.
He had just called it that because it felt awkward to keep saying "kitten, kitten," but at some point, even Seungwan and Dohee started calling it that, and it became its name.
"No, the Samsaek-i video has already been decided to go up."
"Ah... so it's decided..."
Ignoring Dojin's 'When on earth did that happen?' expression, Seungwan continued.
"Since we rescued the kids, they need a place to stay."
"A place to stay...?"
When Dojin made a face that asked, 'Why do they need that?' Seungwan, behind the camera, flew off the handle once again.
"Then, are you just going to leave those kids neglected?"
"If I had to put it in words, releasing them would be more accurate, right? They were originally wild animals."
Although Samsaek-i was cute and he had rescued them by chance, Dojin hadn't thought about adopting the stray cats.
Even if the kittens were fine, the mother cat had already become a feral cat, and it was obvious she would reject human touch.
And separating the kittens from their mother would be a cruel thing to do.
Unless the mother brought the kittens and moved in as house cats, Dojin had no intention of forcing them to be raised indoors.
While being a house cat was safer, he had heard that many cats preferred to live freely.
However, it seemed Seungwan's thoughts were different.
"I hear what you're saying, The Baek. That certainly makes sense, but..."
"Wait a second. The Baek? Who is that?"
"You, Dojin. We can't keep writing 'Dojin' in the videos. For now, I temporarily went with a name based on your last name. Do you not like it? Or do you have another stage name in mind?"
"Uh... no. Let's just go with that."
Recalling the flashy YouTuber names that came to mind for a split second, Dojin nodded in satisfaction.
'The Baek' was simple and easy to remember.
"Anyway, while your point makes sense, Samsaek-i's family needs temporary protection. Even if they become stray cats again later, shouldn't we look after them until they are fully cured and healthy?"
"Hearing you say that, PD-nim, you have a point. Then what do you want to do?"
At Dojin's words, a smile bloomed on Seungwan's face.
But for some reason, Dojin felt uneasy about that smile.
Whenever Seungwan smiled like that, the result was always something born of madness.
"Since there are still many empty spaces in this closed school you're using, I was thinking, while we temporarily shelter Samsaek-i's family, why don't we make a dedicated room for the cats?"
"A dedicated room for cats?"
"Yes, decorating it with things cats would like, such as cat towers and cat wheels. Since they're stray cats, they'll probably get highly stressed indoors, right? We can relieve that stress while also letting them exercise."
"Cat towers and cat wheels..."
At Seungwan's words, interest sparked on Dojin's face as well.
He didn't dislike cats either.
In fact, he liked them enough to bring snacks for the cat raised in the factory yard.
Come to think of it, there were a few structures in the corner of the factory that the cat could climb.
Other employees who liked cats had made them using leftover materials from manufacturing products.
The cat, which had shown no interest at first, had used it a few times and ended up enjoying it so much that it would climb up and down whenever it was bored.
"That sounds good. Then let's use Classroom 1-6. It's the room at the very end of the hallway, so they'll probably get the least amount of stress there."
"The end of the hallway, sounds good."
"How should we purchase the cat wheel and cat tower? Should I look into it? Or you, PD-nim? Since you're more interested in that area than I am, it might be better for you to look into it."
"Ah, about that..."
Dojin felt a sudden chill run down his spine.
Seungwan's smile, which had been making him anxious, grew even wider.
"I was thinking, why don't we make them ourselves?"
"We... make them ourselves?"
"Yes. Except for things we physically can't make due to structural reasons, making them ourselves would be meaningful, and the process of building the structures itself can be content."
"That's true, but making just a few of those wouldn't really make for much content..."
*Shiver!*
Dojin, who was speaking, shut his mouth instantly at a sensation that went beyond a chill and felt downright eerie.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
"I knew you'd say that, so I prepared in advance."
With those words, Seungwan pulled out a blueprint she had hidden under the table.
To Dojin, however, that blueprint looked like the Grim Reaper's scythe.
And indeed, the contents of the blueprint were quite similar.
"Ta-da! This is the blueprint for an ultra-luxurious playroom of the cats, by the cats, for the cats!"
"..."
"You probably can't even imagine, The Baek, how many connections I had to dig through to conceptualize this and draw up the blueprint."
Why did you prepare it to that extent?
As Dojin forced himself to swallow the words he couldn't bring himself to say out loud, even more shocking words from Seungwan reached his ears.
"Ah, by the way, this is designed by combining two classrooms. One classroom felt too shabby to be called 'ultra-luxurious.' So, what do you think about turning Classroom 1-5 into a cat room as well, in addition to 1-6?"
Thus, the cat playroom construction, driven by Seungwan's madness, took a full week to complete.
If they had bought finished products to assemble or install, it would have been over in a day, but making and assembling each piece of equipment and shelf individually took a long time.
Dojin even had to separately purchase various tools, machinery, and plywood capable of processing wood for this construction.
It was truly a case of the tail wagging the dog, but surprisingly, Dojin didn't have much of a complaint.
There's actually quite a lot of content to extract from this.
As much time as the construction took, plenty of video footage was produced.
Furthermore, wood processing like this cat playroom construction had quite a few uses.
After all, they needed outdoor tables and chairs right now anyway.
At this rate, it's probably worth the money spent on decorating the cat room.
And the next day, the discharged cats returned to Sekki House.
It was a day in the third week since Dojin had found them and had them hospitalized.
The group took the cages out of the car with anxious hearts.
"Meow!"
As soon as she came outside, the mother cat began to cry sharply.
She didn't seem to like being trapped in a cage and separated from her kittens.
But this couldn't be helped.
This was because the veterinarian had repeatedly urged Dojin when they were discharged from the clinic.
"The mother cat is under a lot of stress, so if you put them in the same cage, she might actually harm the kittens. For now, please keep the kittens separated in a different cage for a day or two."
Following the vet's advice, Seungwan carried the mother cat's cage, while Dohee carried the cage containing only the kittens as they got out of the car.
However, the mother cat's resistance was more severe than they had anticipated.
"Hiss!"
"Meowww!"
"...Seungwan, is she really going to be okay?"
"I don't know. I'm worried she might pass out from stress at this rate."
The two of them watched anxiously as the mother cat cried continuously and paced restlessly inside the cage.
They had even set the cage down on the ground, fearing they might drop it while carrying it.
"Should I carry it?"
"You, Oppa?"
"Yeah. Just in case, I'll put on gloves and carry the cage."
It was right when Dojin, who had returned after parking the car, put on gloves and lifted the cage.
"Meow..."
"Mew..."
"Huh? Why did she suddenly calm down?"
"Oh? Really? That's strange."
At their words, Dojin raised the cage he was holding to eye level.
Inside the cage, the mother cat was quietly loafing, locking eyes with Dojin.
Slowly, she blinked once, twice, three times.
"Meow..."
Having blinked slowly a few times, the mother cat seemed to calm down a bit and buried her head between her paws.
At that sight, the two women burst into excited chatter.
"Oh my goodness! What is this? Oppa, do you have a cat trainer license?"
"There's no way he has something like that, you dummy! No, really, how did you do it?"
"Hey, don't call me a dummy... But seriously, Oppa! How did you do it?"
"Well, I'm not sure either..."
"Meow..."
"Mew..."
"Mew~"
While Dojin was pondering how to answer the two women's questions, cries were heard from the cage Dohee was holding.
Turning their heads at the sound, warm, doting smiles spread across all three of their faces.
Unlike the mother cat, the cute and gentle kittens squirmed and crowded toward the front of the cage.
Every single one of them was sticking their tiny paws out of the cage, and they were all pointing in Dojin's direction.
Although the two women made a fuss once again at the sight, the situation didn't change much.
That day, new family members joined Sekki House.
Contrary to the vet's worries, the mother cat, who had calmed down significantly, and the five kittens were adapting to the playroom incredibly naturally, defying Dojin's concerns.
This is the image I referred to when conceptualizing Samsaek-i.
If a kid like this ran up to me on the street... could I just walk away?