Hwindung-i
"What's going on? Did something happen?"
"It's noisy outside. Is it something serious?"
Dohee and Seungwan asked as they entered the office.
They looked like they had just woken up because of the commotion outside.
Dojin answered their questions.
"It looks like someone climbed over the wall again. The security team members who were on standby are all heading out because of it."
Dojin said, pointing at the CCTV screen.
His voice was quite hoarse, unlike usual, which was the result of unwanted overtime.
Dojin was reluctantly cooperating with the desperate request of the man who claimed to be the leader of the hawk capture team.
After all, he couldn't leave the CCTV monitoring to an outsider.
"But wasn't the person who just left the capture team leader? He looked furious."
"I'm not entirely sure, but it looks like the intruder attacked the hawk. He saw that and went running out in a rage."
"Hmm, if they attacked the hawk right in front of him, they're going to have a hard time dealing with the aftermath."
Dojin shrugged at Seungwan's words.
That wasn't something he needed to worry about.
Right now, his only thought was to go back to the night duty room and sleep.
"*Yawn...*"
Dojin stretched, letting out a massive yawn.
Since the capture team leader wouldn't budge from the CCTV, Dojin had been stuck here too.
Now that the culprit had left, he planned to loosen up his body.
But Dojin couldn't.
He saw a familiar face on the CCTV screen.
Why is he here?
At first, he didn't recognize him.
All three of them had similar builds and fashion.
But as soon as the phone's flashlight shone on him, he knew.
No, there was no way he couldn't know.
Na Seok-uk!
He was slightly younger than in his memories, but it was definitely him.
The third-rate thug who lived like a parasite, sucking the lifeblood out of his wife.
Dohee's eldest brother, who would constantly show up at her workplace to extort money with all kinds of threats and violence.
He said he found out where we moved, and he actually showed up.
Grind.
Watching the screen, Dojin ground his teeth without realizing it.
His last encounter with the man flashed through his mind.
"Hey, look who it is. Isn't this Brother-in-Law Baek, the one my bitch of a sister couldn't live without? Did you come to pay your respects? Well, even if you're divorced, a wife is still a wife. Since we go back, I expect a generous condolence gift."
Having said that, Seok-uk brought the bottle of soju he was holding to his mouth. Even though his sister was dead, there wasn't a single trace of grief in him. After emptying half the bottle in one go, he stared at Dojin with greasy eyes.
"Brother-in-law! I've never been married, so I wouldn't know, but isn't there a saying? Once you marry, your wife's parents are your parents too. Doesn't that make us your family, brother-in-law? That bitch Dohee used to give us living expenses every month, but now that she's dead, we're in a tight spot. What do you say? As family, why don't you cover our living expenses from now on—ack!"
Seok-uk couldn't finish his sentence.
Dojin, unable to take it anymore, had thrown a punch right into his jaw.
Dojin, who had held back until then for his wife's sake, completely lost his sanity that day for the first time since becoming an adult.
The father-in-law who was addicted to gambling.
The mother-in-law who was an alcoholic and committed domestic violence.
Even the second brother who ran illegal sports betting sites and exploited minors.
Dojin trampled and crushed every single one of the demons who had driven his wife to her death.
Because of that, Dojin was dragged to the police station as soon as he arrived at the funeral home.
Fortunately, with Seungwan's help and because he was a first-time offender, he avoided detention.
And on the day he returned home, he regressed.
That was why just looking at that face made Dojin's blood boil.
But there was someone showing an even more violent reaction than Dojin.
Tremble, tremble.
"Dohee?"
"Hey! It's okay! Breathe, take a deep breath!"
Seeing Dohee's body shaking violently, Dojin and Seungwan quickly tried to comfort her.
But Dohee seemed unable to hear anything, her eyes locked onto the CCTV screen.
"He... he came in here... No... No..."
"Dohee, snap out of it!"
As her shaking worsened, Dojin grabbed her shoulders firmly.
Thanks to that, the trembling subsided slightly, but her overall condition was deteriorating.
Her face turned pasty, almost gray, and she kept muttering something under her breath.
Finally, unable to watch any longer, Seungwan raised her hand.
Slap!
"..."
"Get a grip, Na Dohee! You're not alone! You have your husband-to-be here, and you have your friend! You're not the high schooler you used to be!"
"...Seungwan..."
Only then did Dohee's eyes, which had been completely unresponsive to whatever Dojin and Seungwan said, begin to focus.
Seeing this, Dojin pulled her into a hug.
"It's okay. I'm here. No one can touch you. Trust me."
"Oppa..."
"How long are you going to stay trapped at seventeen? You're already twenty-four! You're old enough to ignore a piece of trash like him."
"*Sob...*"
With Dojin's warmth and Seungwan's words, tears began to well up in Dohee's eyes.
Her time, which had been frozen in the helpless high school years when no one could help her, began to flow rapidly along with her tears.
Eighteen... nineteen... twenty-one... twenty-three.
And finally, twenty-four.
At the age that was finally ticking forward properly, Dohee wept.
But the meaning of her tears was completely different from before.
They were no longer tears of despair from being unsaved, but tears of joy at finally becoming an adult.
Watching her, Dojin and Seungwan also sincerely celebrated her growth.
At the same time, their expressions as they looked at the CCTV were colder than ever.
They could never forgive the culprit who had broken Dohee like this.
If Seok-uk and his accomplices hadn't been arrested by the police right then, they would have faced a much harsher retaliation from the two furious people.
A week after Seok-uk climbed the wall and was arrested.
Peace had returned to Sekki House as if the commotion had never happened.
The people who had been visiting the place for a while had all withdrawn.
"Hwindung-i, let's have a snack."
"*Kreee!*"
At Dojin's call, a familiar cry echoed from afar, and something dropped down in front of Dojin in an instant.
It was the hawk that the capture team had tried so hard to catch.
The pure white creature sat on the raptor perch Dojin had set up, looking at him.
Dojin had specially designed it to be at eye level, making it easy to make eye contact.
"It's this easy, yet those self-proclaimed experts couldn't do it. You've had a rough time too, haven't you? Here, have a snack."
"*Kreee!*"
The hawk, responding obediently to Dojin's words, quickly snatched and ate the jerky Dojin offered.
It was unsalted jerky that Dojin had specially ordered for the hawk.
"Is it good, Hwindung-i?"
"*Kreee!*"
"It's so strange. First Bori and the others, then Ttorang-i, and now this. It's like you become friends with animals in the blink of an eye, Oppa."
"I know, right? I think we should start calling you an animal trainer instead of a dog trainer now."
Dohee and Seungwan spoke in amazement.
No matter how many times they saw it, they couldn't get used to it.
"All those self-proclaimed experts failed, so how can you do it, Oppa?"
"I'm starting to worry. Can we even edit this and upload it as a video? I feel like we'd get complaints from those experts."
Officially, the association and the capture team had given up on capturing the hawk.
They had thrown up their hands after months of failure.
Numerous experts had visited Sekki House, each trying to capture the hawk in their own way, but none had succeeded.
Far from succeeding, they had left behind disastrous results, unable to even touch a single feather.
In comparison, what did Dojin do?
Nothing.
Yet the hawk followed Dojin as if it had received professional training.
"...Didn't they say hawks don't usually get very close to their owners?"
"Yeah. Those experts said they're even more aloof than cats."
"Then why is he like that?"
Dojin shrugged at Dohee's question, indicating he didn't know either.
"Ask Hwindung-i. Ask him why he likes me."
"Sigh, are you really going to stick with that name? I just can't get used to it, no matter how many times I hear it."
Seungwan shook her head and asked.
She felt that giving a hawk a name normally reserved for a white puppy was a bit much.
But Dojin had no intention of changing the name.
He felt there was no better fit.
"Why? He acts just like a puppy, it's great."
As Dojin spoke and reached out his hand, Hwindung-i rubbed his beak against it, acting cute.
"Wow, look at him playing nice. Anyone who didn't know him would never guess what his nickname is."
"Nickname? Ah, the one the association people gave him? Was it 'The Meat Grinder'? But didn't they ask us not to talk about that?"
It was a nickname the capture team had coined after seeing the hawk humiliate Seok-uk and the other tattooed thugs.
For Dojin and the others, who held a deep grudge against Seok-uk, it was a rather satisfying nickname.
However, a short while later, the Wild Bird Association had requested to keep the incident quiet.
Their reasoning was that if this became public, the hawk might be put down, even if it was a Class 1 endangered species.
"The population of hawks inhabiting South Korea has already decreased significantly compared to the past. If possible, we would like to save this hawk."
For Dojin, it wasn't a bad proposal.
After all, wasn't this cute creature the one who had taken revenge on his nemesis on his behalf?
Once Dojin agreed, the association and the capture team all withdrew.
They had already failed too many times, and capturing a bird of prey that attacked humans was a burden for them as well.
Fortunately, the hawk that appeared here did not attack the owner or the staff, so they could withdraw without any worries.
Thanks to that, Dojin was able to keep the Class 1 endangered wild hawk.
"Hwindung-i, don't go to the annex after eating this. Got it?"
"*Kreee?*"
Hwindung-i tilted his head at Dojin's words.
Rather than not understanding, he seemed to be asking why.
"We're going to use pest control smoke bombs there today. If you eat bugs or mice that died from the smoke, it'll be dangerous for you too."
"*Kreee!*"
Hwindung-i pondered for a moment at Dojin's words, then nodded.
While catching bugs and mice hiding in the building was convenient, there was plenty of prey elsewhere anyway.
Mice targeting the crops frequently appeared near the vegetable garden, and the mountain behind the property was full of food.
There was no need to go after poisoned prey.
Hearing Dojin's words, Dohee asked.
"Oppa, are you spraying pesticide in the annex?"
"Yeah."
"Why? It's mostly empty, is there really a need to do that?"
It was a natural question for Dohee.
Unlike the main building, the annex was completely empty except for a few classrooms used by the security team.
She wondered if it was necessary to use smoke-type pesticides, which required a lot of cleanup afterward, in such a place.
But Dojin had no choice.
"I'm planning to turn the annex into lodging. The kids from the orphanage are coming in two weeks, and we don't have any place suitable to use as lodging right now."
"Ah..."
The two of them nodded.
They also knew about the contract.
"Is that finally starting?"
"Yeah. We were supposed to start earlier, but it's only starting now."
Originally, it should have started a long time ago.
However, as the COVID-19 situation worsened and various events occurred at Sekki House, the schedule had been pushed back.
"First, I'm going to clear out all the bugs and completely remodel the annex classrooms. A single classroom is too big to give out as a lodging room."
"True, that makes sense."
Seungwan agreed with Dojin's words.
The classrooms in the annex had been built for special purposes, so most of them were very large.
While the main building was a four-story structure with eight classrooms per floor, the annex had only three floors but boasted twelve classrooms.
Furthermore, the classrooms were 1.5 times larger than those in the main building, so using a single classroom as a lodging room was indeed too inefficient.
"I heard the security team is using four classrooms, which is way too inefficient. I'm going to split the classrooms into thirds and make the first floor a dedicated zone for the security team. The second and third floors will be more than enough for the kids' lodging."
Both Seungwan and Dohee reacted positively to Dojin's plan.
In their eyes, the security team's current lodging was also highly inefficient.
Thus, just a few days after peace had returned, Sekki House became noisy once again.
The remodeling of the annex had officially begun.
Two weeks passed.
Dojin and his group were welcoming the forty-seven orphanage children and their chaperones as they passed through the main gate.
This is the image I referenced when designing Hwindung-i.
A white bird somehow reminds me of the British wizard boy's mail carrier...
But isn't he quite handsome?