The Vanished Third Wish
Click, click.
"Ughhh!"
Dohee, who had been checking the monitor, stretched.
Her body felt stiff after checking comments all morning.
Seungwan was standing beside her, having approached silently at some point.
"How are the comments looking?"
"Huh? Seungwan, you done with your call?"
She had been on the phone for a long time, suggesting it was quite important.
She was on the phone for a whole hour.
Checking the time, Dohee looked at her friend with an impressed expression.
Dohee's job was a customer service representative.
She knew all too well how draining phone calls could be.
Yet her friend looked perfectly fine, without a single trace of exhaustion.
"Yeah. The writer kept begging, so I had a hard time turning them down."
"Huh? A writer? What kind of call was it?"
"It was a casting call from a broadcasting station. You know Animal Heaven, right? The one hosted by Shin Don-yeop."
"Oh? They contacted us for a casting? That's huge!"
"It is huge, but doing a broadcast would be tough. I think they reached out after seeing the videos of Bo-ri and Ttorang-i, but honestly, neither of them is in any condition to be on TV."
"True..."
Compared to Ttorang-i, Bo-ri and Samsaek-i looked relatively fine, but they still needed stability.
That was why entry to the main building had been forbidden even when they opened the playground.
When they wanted to go for a walk, they were taken to the playground, but even then, Bo-ri and her kittens kept a strict distance from other people.
Ttorang-i was even more sensitive than Bo-ri's family.
She was a bit better now, but in the beginning, she would tuck her tail and run into her crate at the mere sound of Dohee or Seungwan's voices.
The only person Ttorang-i felt safe around was Dojin.
Filming a broadcast in this situation?
Not only was it impossible, but for the sake of the animals, it shouldn't even be considered.
"Still, it's a bit of a shame. It was a chance to show off our babies' charms to the whole country."
"We can do that plenty on YouTube, so it's fine. I'm sure Dojin thought the same, which is why he rejected it first."
"Huh? Oppa rejected the casting call first?"
"Yeah. He kept rejecting calls coming in from all over the place, so I just told him to forward the calls to me. It's not really fitting for the channel owner to handle casting calls directly anyway."
"Oh! Seungwan, you're a highly competent employee. So cool!"
"Tsk, tell me about it. Why am I even doing this? I was originally hired as a simple editor. This is all because of you, girl!"
"Kyaah! Seungwan is attacking me! No! I'm a taken woman!"
"Is that something you should say in front of a single person? You're just asking for it!"
And so, Seungwan's battle of revenge began.
Having provoked her friend to the end and failed to escape, Dohee had to endure being tickled for a full ten minutes.
"Pant... pant... Seungwan, you're too rough... To ruin me like this, you cold-hearted woman."
"...I'm asking you seriously, what on earth have you been watching lately? What, are you sexually frustrated? Are you sleeping with Dojin tonight?"
"Kyaah! Sleep with who, you crazy girl! Don't say things like that!"
After bickering with Seungwan one last time, Dohee sat back down at the computer and hit refresh.
Even though she had only been away for barely twenty minutes, the comment count had increased by several hundred.
"A million views is no joke. The comment section is on fire."
"I know. Honestly, I didn't expect such a massive response for an animal video, especially since it's not a female streamer channel..."
Seungwan, sitting next to her, agreed with an unbelieving expression.
Back when she was betrayed by the BJ she trusted, she had been planning to apply as an editor for a rival BJ right away.
But then, Dojin's offer was better than expected, and she liked the working environment, so she joined the Sekki House channel as an editor...
Sometimes I forget this is even a job.
The video she had practically made while playing around got picked up by the algorithm.
Now, it had become a channel that pulled in a million views purely on its own weight, without any special blessings.
Compared to the workload and stress of her previous job, this was simply unbelievable.
It's all thanks to having a good friend... Wait, what is she doing now?
Seungwan, who was about to make Dohee a cup of coffee out of gratitude, tilted her head at her friend's sudden behavior.
Dohee, who had clearly been checking the monitor just a moment ago, was now staring intently at a strange piece of paper.
"What's that?"
"This? An amulet."
"An amulet?"
In truth, Seungwan had recognized at a glance that the paper Dohee was holding was an amulet.
After all, amulets had very distinct colors and patterns.
The only reason she asked despite knowing was that Dohee usually didn't believe in superstitions, let alone religion.
"Why an amulet all of a sudden? You used to say all that stuff was a scam and didn't believe in it."
"I did. But this one is real."
"Real?"
"Yeah. When we went to Bulguksa Temple on our high school field trip, a very famous monk there gave it to me."
"Oh, really? How much was it?"
"It was free."
"Free? A famous monk gave you an amulet for free?"
"Yeah. I was walking around the temple grounds with my friends when he suddenly called me over and handed it to me. I told him I was fine, but he forced it into my hand anyway."
"How strange."
She knew that some monks wrote amulets, but she hadn't known there was such a monk at Bulguksa Temple.
Above all, why would such a famous person go out of his way to give a free amulet to someone who refused it?
Wasn't it too bizarre?
Even Dohee's behavior, caring about something like this when she normally wouldn't, was strange.
"I thought I threw it away, but I found it recently. I must have slipped it inside a dictionary and forgotten about it."
"True, people rarely look at dictionaries after graduating high school."
"Right? But you know what's funny? Back then, the monk said this amulet would grant three wishes. And two of them actually came true!"
"Huh? That actually worked? What did you wish for?"
At Seungwan's question, Dohee's gaze drifted toward the window.
Outside, Dojin was hard at work installing sprinklers in the field.
"For my first wish, I wished to meet a man who would truly love me. While looking at the beautiful cherry blossoms."
"Ha, what? So Dojin is your destiny? Rubbing it in a single person's face again... Wait. You wished while looking at cherry blossoms? Don't tell me..."
"Yeah. It was when we went to see the cherry blossoms. I wished for it when you went to the restroom and left me alone. And right after I made the wish, Oppa appeared. Crazy, right?"
"..."
"Do you know what the second wish was?"
"What was it?"
"That I wanted to marry Oppa."
"What? You actually wished for marriage?"
"Hehe. Before that, I knew he was a good person, but I never thought about marriage. But seeing him always taking care of me even when he was busy buying and managing this place, I suddenly wanted to marry him."
"..."
"So I made the wish. And guess what happened?"
This question required no answer.
After all, it was none other than Seungwan herself who had helped Dojin with the proposal.
"You got proposed to."
"Yes! Exactly. Do you know how shocked I was? I was walking up the stairs here right after making the wish, and he proposed on the spot. I thought it was a prank at first."
"Wait, you made that wish on that very day?"
"Yeah. Isn't it amazing? I told you this amulet is real."
"..."
Seungwan couldn't offer any response to Dohee's words.
If it had happened once, it could be a coincidence, but with two identical results, even she couldn't help but feel a bit unsettled.
Still, she couldn't keep quiet forever, so she managed to open her mouth and blurt out the first thing that came to mind.
"Well, that's great. Then use the remaining wish to ask for happiness. I mean, you have me and Dojin, but you also have... your family."
The moment the words left her mouth, Seungwan winced.
She had been so flustered that she had spoken without thinking.
I must be crazy, bringing up family to Dohee.
Having spoken, Seungwan quickly checked Dohee's reaction.
Her lips twitched, ready to spit out an apology at any second.
However, Dohee's face, which she expected to be shocked or depressed, was incredibly peaceful.
In fact, it was beyond peaceful—she looked almost hollow.
"Maybe I should have. But I can't make a wish anymore."
"...Why? Is there an expiration date?"
"No, nothing like that. I already made the last wish."
"Huh? You already made it? What was it this time?"
The first was a meeting.
The second was marriage.
Normally, following this flow, the next would likely be childbirth, but looking at Dohee's expression, that didn't seem to be the case.
"Oppa is always so busy. So I wished for him to meet good connections. People who could help him and whom he could rely on."
"Oh..."
Seungwan made a complicated face at Dohee's words.
She had been working with Dojin all this time, but she had never seen anyone like that.
It seemed Dohee's expression was for the same reason.
"Maybe... it just takes time for the wish to come true?"
"I thought so too and waited, but seeing how there's still no news, I guess it didn't work. The other two wishes came true instantly."
"Then did nothing change after you made the third wish? Like someone contacting you, or an email?"
"A change... Well, there was one."
"Huh? What was it?"
Seungwan asked eagerly at Dohee's response.
Feeling guilty about her slip of the tongue, she wanted to cheer Dohee up somehow.
But she couldn't find any words to say to Dohee's next statement.
"We met Bo-ri and her kittens. Right out there on the playground. Right after I made the wish, Oppa called me, so I was secretly excited. But when he said he had to go treat an injured cat, I was a bit disappointed... Well, I adore Bo-ri and the others now, though."
"..."
Unable to find anything to say, Seungwan simply followed Dohee's gaze out the window.
Outside, Dojin, who had just finished installing the sprinklers, was conducting a final check.
Along with Samsaek-i and the other cats they had met right after Dohee made her third wish.
"Oof! All done. Now I can relax."
Having finished the final test of the sprinklers, Dojin stretched his back in satisfaction.
As July began, the heat was starting to intensify in earnest.
The village elders had warned him that crops would wither and die if they weren't watered regularly during this period, so he had rushed to install them. Fortunately, it was a success.
Clinging somehow to Dojin's shoulder, Samsaek-i was engaged in a relentless war of nerves with Ttorang-i down below.
Meow~
Snort!
"Right, right. Cats and dogs are age-old rivals."
Watching the two animals threaten each other at every opportunity, Dojin looked at the top of Ttorang-i's head with a puzzled expression.
Just as Samsaek-i was on his shoulder, there was a kitten sitting on top of Ttorang-i's head.
"Meok-bo, did you decide to make that your spot?"
Mew~
Meok-bo, Samsaek-i's sibling and the friendliest of the bunch, loved food just as his name suggested.
Perhaps unable to forget the hunger of his stray days, he constantly demanded food and treats, turning into a chubby cat who was now sprawled on top of Ttorang-i's head.
As if it were his personal cradle.
Strangely enough, while Ttorang-i disliked Samsaek-i, she didn't seem to mind Meok-bo at all.
"For now, you two... no, three, stay here. I'll go clean up the weeds I pulled earlier."
Previously, Dojin had burned or thrown away all the weeds.
However, a village resident who had visited the playground with their family had stopped him.
"There's a method called weed farming, where you turn weeds into fertilizer. If you're going to farm, you should try it. Chemical fertilizers aren't bad, but using them together is even better."
Hearing that, Dojin had turned the weeds he hadn't thrown away yet into fertilizer.
He planned to take the weeds he had just pulled there as well.
Meow!
Bark!
Mew...
As if they understood Dojin's words,
Samsaek-i, who had been on his shoulder, slid down his clothes.
He had a brief staring contest with Ttorang-i, but that was it.
Both sat quietly, looking up at Dojin.
"Wait just a moment. I'll be right back."
Satisfied with their behavior, Dojin disappeared with his hands full of weeds.
And once Dojin was gone,
Scurry, scurry.
The three animals scattered to different parts of the field.
Even Meok-bo, who had been lounging on Ttorang-i's head just moments ago, hopped down and ran nimbly.
What they did after scattering was simple.
Squeak!
Thwack!
Spotting a mouse, Ttorang-i closed the distance in an instant, knocked it unconscious with her forepaw, and carried it out of the field.
Meow!
Mew!
Samsaek-i and Meok-bo's targets were insects.
Whenever pests targeting the crops approached, they would rush over to catch, kill, or swallow them.
Having finished managing the field during the ten minutes Dojin was away, the three immediately returned to their original spots.
"Did you wait long? Come on, let's go inside."
Meow!
Woof!
Mew~
At the words of Dojin, who had returned after dumping the weeds, the three animals took their positions.
Samsaek-i and Meok-bo climbed back onto Dojin's shoulder and Ttorang-i's head, respectively.
Ttorang-i stuck close to Dojin's side.
And thus, the day's farming for one human and three animals came to an end.