Ooom! So… So Mmmy! The Tuna's Melting in My Mouth!
If you asked me what the biggest change that came with raising Chuchu was, I'd say it was that I started working harder.
After all, I now had a child I was responsible for.
If I didn't work, I couldn't keep my promise to make Chuchu happy, so I never slacked off for even a single day.
Though honestly, a big part of it was that I no longer spent any time watching cat videos or scrolling through cat photos.
Having an utterly adorable cat who talks like a person, looks like a person, and acts like a person sitting right beside me will do that.
“Chuchu, time to get up. It's morning.”
“Mmmmh… five more minutes…”
It was always me who woke up first, and I'd let her sleep about an hour more before waking her. And Chuchu always spent more than thirty minutes of that just squirming around.
“You have to get up. It's already nine.”
“Sleepyyy…”
She pulled the blanket all the way over her head and curled herself into a ball.
“Then just a little more sleeping, okay?”
“Mmmhmm…”
They say cats need more than twice as much sleep as humans, so living around my schedule must be incredibly hard on Chuchu.
Leaving the blanket-burrowed Chuchu behind me, I sat down at my computer and organized what I needed to do today.
“Ah, I have a meeting today.”
My scheduler confirmed I had a remote video conference.
Since I'd need to send Chuchu out of the room while the meeting was going on, it seemed like a good idea to teach her how to keep herself entertained in the meantime.
“Come to think of it, she's never watched TV yet.”
Personally, I thought TV was the best way to experience how humans live and our culture.
News, dramas, variety shows — there were so many different kinds of programs to explore.
“Time to work.”
I grabbed a cup of coffee to shake off the last of my sleepiness and started preparing the materials I'd need for the meeting.
Even with the clatter of my keyboard and the clicking of my mouse, Chuchu lay perfectly still under the blanket, fast asleep. Then I heard the sound of shifting fabric, and I glanced back a moment later.
“Huh? Pfff—pfft!”
The sight in front of me forced a laugh out of me.
“Something huge is sticking up over there?”
The blanket had risen into a peak like a mountain summit.
When I got up from my chair and peeled back the blanket, I laughed even harder.
“Whose butt is this, hmm?”
She was lying face-down with her rear end thrust high into the air, a posture that immediately brought to mind a cat doing a stretch.
“Mrrnyaah…”
“Did you try to wake up and fall back asleep? Chuchu, sleeping like that is bad for your back. Lie down properly, come on.”
When I gave the faintly wriggling butt a few playful pats, the movement stopped and she slowly began to lower herself down.
“Mmmnn…”
Since she only mumbled in reply without moving, I rearranged her into a proper lying position myself. And when I tucked the blanket back over her, she curled up on her side and began to purr softly.
“Agh, you're too cute.”
I knew full well Chuchu wasn't going to get up. That was exactly why I kept trying to wake her.
The look on her face during those brief moments of waking was just too adorable. Cute enough to legitimately destroy the planet.
Best of all, this was the one time I could take photos to my heart's content.
“Mmm, another satisfying morning.”
Only after snapping more than ten photos of the soundly sleeping Chuchu did I finally sit back with a satisfied smile.
At some point, my phone's gallery had become completely filled with pictures of Chuchu.
My wallpaper was Chuchu, and my messenger profile picture and cover photo were both pictures of Chuchu and me together.
When my older sister saw them and asked who that was, I once told her it was my daughter.
“Ha, work never felt so good.”
If you're going to raise a cat like this one, you simply have to work harder.
So that she'd never envy anyone else, and so that she'd never even think of her previous owner again.
By the time Chuchu came to her senses and woke up, it was getting close to noon.
“Huaaahhmm… slept so good.”
“Chuchu, you're up?”
“Mm-hm, I'm ups. Did the Butler sleep good too?”
“Yep, slept great. Want to have lunch now?”
When she padded over with her eyes still drowsy and climbed into my arms first, I planted kiss after kiss on her cheeks, her forehead, and her lips.
“Kithes are so cute…”
“That's Chuchu's own fault for being so cute.”
She climbed onto my lap and rested her chin on my shoulder for a moment, then promptly started nodding off again.
“You're such a sleepyhead, Chuchu.”
“Sleepyyy…”
Chuchu loved being brushed, so I picked up the nearest brush within arm's reach and slowly combed her hair along its natural flow.
And she smiled as if she loved every second of it, her tail swaying lazily from side to side…
So this is your plan to destroy my heart first thing in the morning, huh.
“I wike this…”
“You like it? You really love being brushed, huh.”
Curious how she'd react — she loved it this much, after all — I'd once brushed her hair against the grain.
Oh, the tantrum she threw that day.
If I'd neglected her even a tiny bit more, I probably would've taken a cat-punch straight to the face.
“If you don't get up now, no lunch for you.”
“Carry me, Butler…”
Left with no choice, I carried Chuchu to the kitchen like a child.
Today, I'd decided to make Chuchu human food instead of cat food.
The menu: raw tuna rice bowl.
I'd originally planned to serve her the real deal, but starting her off on something like that might upset her stomach, so I settled on a tuna rice bowl seasoned almost not at all.
That's why I'd ordered fresh, never-frozen raw tuna just to make this.
People who raise animals always want to feed their babies better food than they eat themselves — and I was no different.
“Chuchu, sit here and wait. I'll make your lunch.”
“Mmkay…”
While she bobbed her head like a sick baby chick, I pulled out two frying pans.
One was for the fried rice I'd eat, and the other was for sautéing the ingredients that would go into Chuchu's rice bowl.
“It smells so good.”
Once the cooking properly began, Chuchu caught the aroma and before I knew it, she was circling around me, sniffing and snooping everywhere.
“Butler, whatcha making?”
“Tuna rice bowl. This one's for you, and this one's mine.”
“Tuna!”
I'd cut the tuna belly into easy bite-sized pieces, and sneaky little Chuchu crept closer, carefully stretching her hand up toward the cutting board.
“Chuchu, I can see you.”
“Urk…”
“You eat food after it's all done. Sneaking bites like that makes you a bad girl.”
“But it looks so tasty…”
Even after that, Chuchu made several more attempts to liberate the raw tuna, but no matter what trick she tried, I caught her every time and her efforts came to nothing.
“Chuchu, lunch time. The tuna rice bowl you've been waiting for.”
“Wooowaaah! What's the Butler eating?”
“Kimchi fried rice.”
The wealth gap between the two bowls sitting on the table was unmistakable.
But that was fine.
As long as my kid ate her fill, that was all that mattered.
“Time to eat!”
“Chuchu, when you eat that, you eat it together with the rice.”
“Like this?”
“Yep, good job. Now try it.”
She'd gotten pretty adept with a spoon by now and managed to scoop up a nice big mouthful of rice, but placing the tuna on top of it still gave her trouble.
“I'll have to teach her chopsticks too.”
Chopsticks seemed like they'd be quite the challenge, so I decided to save that lesson for later and picked up a slice of raw tuna to place on her spoon for her.
“Ha-am! Ooom! So… so mmmy! The tuna's melting in my mouf!”
“Pfft! Where on earth did you learn to talk like that?”
The moment she registered the taste, her eyes went wide enough to pop right out of her head, and the tailcopter fired up for the first time in ages.
“Goodness, my baby's going to fly away.”
“It's really good, Butler! The best!”
“The most delicious thing you've ever eaten?”
“Mm-hm! I only wanna eat this!”
How much harder would I have to work if she wanted to eat fresh raw tuna rice bowls every single day?
No, scratch that — work harder, obviously.
My kid says she only wants to eat raw tuna rice bowls from now on.
“I'll make it for you often.”
“Yay!”
After all, the money I was saving up from working was meant to be spent freely on the cat I'd be raising from now on.
“But I'm curious what the Butler's eating too.”
“This one you'd get hooked on. I'd love to share, but I don't think you could handle how spicy it is.”
“Spicy?”
“Yep, spicy.”
“Still… I wanna try it…”
“…Just you wait.”
What did a little spice matter?
My kid wanted to try it!
“Here, just try this one little bite.”
“Nyaam!”
She ate the small portion on the spoon in one bite and chewed it slowly, savoring the flavor.
Contrary to my worries, she didn't find it spicy at first and seemed fairly calm.
“It's delici— mmph!”
But before long, she clamped her hands over her mouth and shot straight up off her chair.
“It's SPICYYY!”
I couldn't eat spicy food well either, so I'd made it as mild as possible — but for Chuchu, who was tasting any kind of heat for the very first time, it was only natural she'd be startled like that.
“Chuchu, I brought you milk.”
I hurriedly grabbed a glass of milk, and she drained it to the bottom in the blink of an eye.
“Whewaaaah… haah… spicyyy… but… it's still tasty!”
“Right now it's too spicy for you to handle.”
To get used to this kind of food, she'd need to start with the mildest options first.
“Ah, that's right — there's tomato kimchi.”
“Tomato kimchi?”
“Yep, kimchi that isn't spicy at all. You can eat it too.”
It's a kimchi made for young children, and it would be perfect for gradually getting her accustomed to the taste of kimchi.
“Next time I'll make something special for you too.”
“Mm-kay, got it!”
After we finished lunch, I explained to Chuchu that she'd need to stay in the living room while I was in my meeting.
Naturally, Chuchu didn't understand this at all, because she wanted to be right beside me.
“Can't I just be quiet?”
“We look at each other's faces through the camera, so you'd show up behind me. That's why you have to stay out here alone for an hour.”
“Then what do I do alone?”
“I'll teach you how to watch TV.”
I sat Chuchu down on the sofa, sat beside her, and picked up the remote.
Explaining how the remote worked and what exactly a TV was, I showed her all sorts of different programs appearing on the screen.
“Wooowaaah! It's amazing!”
“You can watch TV by yourself for an hour, right?”
“Mm-hm! I can watch anything I want?”
“Yep, anything you want. And you've got cookies to eat too.”
So she could pass the hour smoothly on her own, I placed a bag of cat treats on her lap.
She snatched one up, popped it into her mouth, and started munching away while pressing the remote's buttons this way and that, completely fascinated.
“Hmm, humans have made so many amazing things.”
“I'll come play with you when the meeting's over. Wait just a little for me, okay?”
Even as I said it while stroking her head, she was already absorbed in the remote and the TV and forgot to answer me.
So this is why parents used to call the TV the “idiot box” back when I was little.
Look at her, already losing interest in me.
“Whoa! So many animals!”
“Yeah, there sure are.”
When a variety show featuring animals came on, she set the remote down entirely and watched with rapt attention.
Thankfully, it looked like I had nothing to worry about.
“Off to work, Chuchu.”
Even when I gave her a kiss, her eyes stayed glued to the TV, so I just gave her head a pat and headed into my room to prepare for the meeting.
“Pfft! So cute.”
Watching her sit there so sweetly and quietly — there was nothing better to look at.
No way she'd get into any trouble.