PHUW 38

“Uh…”

He was just about to scream.

“Stay still.”

Jeong Mok,who was sitting next to him, grabbed Haeri’s shoulder and squeezed it. The others around the table froze, their eyes wide open.

Even though it was a convenience store nestled on a two-lane road bordered by bushes and fields, how could it suddenly appear when it was nowhere to be found no matter how hard they searched? And how had no one noticed it coming close enough for its nose to almost touch the blue table’s edge without even lifting its head?

Looking closely, the dog’s whole body was covered in mud, but there was a long white marking running from around its mouth, over its nose, and up to its forehead. Its chest was dirty with mud too, but it looked like it was naturally white.

Whether they were shocked or not didn’t matter. The dog meticulously sniffed Haeri all over. It lifted its head and stared at his face for a long moment before moving to Jeong Mok and sniffing him. Then it checked the other three, one by one, before coming back to poke its fist-sized nose into Haeri’s side and sniffing again. Its limp tail swayed gently.

“Looks like it likes you, Haeri,” Janggun’s owner whispered.

The vet nodded. “It’s a Bernese Mountain Dog. A herding breed. It’s not common in Korea. But how can it be this big? I think it’s mixed with something like an Ovcharka.”

Haeri had no idea what an Ovcharka was. He just swallowed and sat frozen.

No one dared to move. A bite could result in serious injury. The vet saw a bag and tranquilizer gun left by the convenience store entrance. All the other equipment was there, too.

The dog, who had been sniffing Haeri, loitered for a moment before sitting down on its haunches. Then it placed its basketball-sized head on Haeri’s thigh. Everyone was astonished once again.

“Oh, my. What is this? This dog never goes near people.”

“The leash. Leash.”

Janggun’s owner’s husband pushed his chair back as he spoke softly. The dog immediately raised its head up, baring its teeth and growling. Everyone froze again.

“What should I do?”

Haeri was on the verge of tears. His heart was pounding and his stomach churning.

“First, Haeri-ssi, give it some jerky,”

The vet said, handing him a piece. This time the dog growled and bared its teeth. When the vet hesitated, Jeong Mok took the jerky and slid it toward Haeri instead. The dog still lifted its head, displeased, but it didn’t growl.

“While Haeri-ssi’s feeding it, Jeong Mok-ssi, you stand up slowly and get the leash,”

The vet instructed. As Jeong Mok moved carefully, the dog’s ears flapped in response. It was a difficult mission, even with the jerky right there. But it was something Haeri couldn’t refuse. He couldn’t let this continue, could he?

He grabbed the whole the whole pack of jerky and pulled it onto his lap. That alone got the dog to plant both front paws on his thigh.

“Ah…”

It was incredibly heavy. He felt like his bones would break if he stayed like this.

The dog wagged its tail happily, burying its nose in the bag. In the meantime, Jeong Mok quietly stood up and reached for the leash. But before he could attach it, the dog finished the jerky in one gulp and turned to stare at him.

“Haeri-ssi, try to appease it,”

The vet said.

“Me? How?”

“Hold your hand out like this.”

Haeri held out his hand as told. The dog stepped down from his thigh, sniffed his hand, then licked it. A surge of electricity shot from his fingertips, up through his head, and radiated into the air. The dog licked and nuzzled Haeri’s completely frozen hand before bumping it up with its massive head.

“It wants you to pet it. Scratch behind the ears.”

“Scratch behind the ears” Since the vet was the expert, Haeri did as told, rubbing the ear that felt like a thick dumpling. The dog seemed pleased and rested its head back on his thigh. Its broom-like tail swished, scattering gravel.

He never knew affection could feel this suffocating. Honestly, it was killing him.

Jeong Mok approached carefully with the leash. The calm dog suddenly lifted its head and even raised its hindquarters. The vet quickly stopped him.

“Haeri-ssi, you do it.”

Now he was supposed to attach the leash? What if it suddenly got angry and bit him? He wanted to yell, but kept quiet, afraid of startling the dog.

“I’ll do it,” Jeong Mok said, moving to Haeri’s side.

The dog noticed him but didn’t bare its teeth. But when Jeong Mok reached out, it pulled its head back.

“It doesn’t want to be touched,” Jeong Mok said.

When he reached a little farther, its mouth twitched and its teeth showed just a bit. The vet shook his head.

“You’ll get bitten. And without gloves, that’s bad.”

Too dangerous. The dog, for whatever reason, seemed fine with Haeri, resting its head on his thigh again. He wanted to ask why it liked him so much.

His face was drained of color. His back was cold, and his palms were damp with sweat. He was terrified. But they couldn’t stay like this forever. Someone had to leash this bear in a dog’s body.

“I’ll just do it.”

“Are you sure?”

Jeong Mok expressed his concern.

“If it goes wrong, you might get bitten, hyung-nim.”

No way was he letting Jeong Mok take the bite. This wasn’t a small dog, it was a bear. One wrong move and a wrist could be ruined. Not that his own wrist was safe, but if one had to go, better the unemployed guy’s.

“If my wrist gets destroyed, you’ll have to take responsibility for me for life.”

“Don’t talk like that. Wrist or no wrist, I’ll take care of you until you cross the rainbow bridge.” A mythical location in the afterlife where pets who pass away wait for their humans to join them so they can enter Heaven together.

Is it possible to respond so seriously to a joke? But Haeri still felt relieved.

“Loosen the leash a lot and just slip it over,”

The vet instructed.

The leash they had prepared was less like a dog leash and more like a thick rope meant for some kind of wild animal. It wasn’t a buckle clasp, but a looped snare design that tightened around the neck the more the dog struggled.

He pulled the rope wide so it could easily slip over a head the size of a basketball. The dog sniffed at the dangling leash, then stared straight at Haeri. Its clear eyes looked innocent.

If he put this leash on, it will be taken away and put down.

When he thought about it, all it had done was tackle him roughly. Probably because it had caught the scent of the burger and was hungry. Now that it had eaten the entire set, it wasn’t agitated, just calm.

“Hurry and put it on,” Janggun’s owner urged. She had been nervous since earlier, her eyes darting around uneasily. She was clearly afraid. This thing was a big threat to other people and dogs. For the neighborhood’s safety, it had to be caught. Then it would be dressed up under the label of “rescue,” kept at a shelter for a while, and then disposed of.

Shelter.

The place Haeri had been was like that too. He was safe from euthanasia because he was human. Just because he had no guardian, strange adults had shown up, dragged him out of grandma’s house, and put him in a facility. In a good one, he might have grown up well cared for, but Haeri hadn’t been that lucky. His memory was fuzzy, but the fact that something terrible had happened there was clear. That was probably why he had run away from the facility before graduating high school.

‘Ah, right. I’m a high school dropout.’

He remembered overhearing that without a resident registration card, even part-time jobs were hard to get, so he ran away as soon as he got one. It had been early in his second year.

“Haeri?”

Jeong Mok’s voice pulled him out of his daze. Everyone at the table was looking at him. Even the bear of a dog.

Those clear, barley tea–colored eyes quietly fixed on him. The leash in his hands felt more like something for an execution than for leading a dog. He couldn’t not put it on, but it felt far too cruel to do it. His eyes stung and the bridge of his nose tightened. His hand holding the rope trembled.

He had that one hundred million won compensation from Jeong Mok. He could use it to rent a house with a yard nearby. Out on the outskirts of Gyeonggi, once you got past the wealthier area near the country houses, there were plenty of cheap empty homes. He could switch from working at home to commuting, buy a used scooter, and live here with this guy.

“If you’re scared, I’ll do it,”

Jeong Mok offered, mistaking his hesitation.

Haeri shook his head. He had decided. He was looking at the bear-like dog with just a touch of fondness when the dog moved and slipped its own head neatly into the loop. There was nothing for him to do.

He pulled the end of the rope to tighten the leash. The dog didn’t seem to mind at all, still looking only at Haeri. The bridge of his nose throbbed, and he blinked rapidly to keep tears from spilling.

“Good boy. Good boy.”

He scratched behind the ears just like the vet had told him. The bear of a dog rubbed its blunt nose against Haeri’s solar plexus.

“I figured it was probably raised by someone since it’s purebred, but it’s really used to people,” the vet said.

“Maybe Haeri looks like its owner.”

“What do we do? I feel like I’m going to cry,” Janggun’s owner said, wiping at her eyes.

Once the leash was on, the dog didn’t care if anyone else moved. Even when Jeong Mok came over and petted its head, it only kept staring at Haeri. When Haeri reassured it, it sniffed at Jeong Mok and allowed him to pet it too.

The vet stood and brought over his bag. He took out a diagnostic kit and syringes. He gave the dog a quick exam and drew blood on the spot. Even while the needle went in, the dog only whimpered and tried to burrow between Haeri’s legs, never making a scene. Fortunately, the rabies test came back negative.

“It probably hasn’t been abandoned long.”

“That’s odd. It’s been roaming the neighborhood for over two months.”

“Maybe it escaped from a nearby farm.”

The vet pulled out a small scanner and ran it along the dog’s neck.

Beep.

“As I thought, there’s a microchip.”

Haeri exhaled. He had been planning to live with it for the rest of its life, but it turned out to be a runaway. The absurdity left him speechless. The dog, oblivious to his sense of betrayal, just wagged its tail happily.

“Where did you come from, huh?”

He tapped the giant head.

It was too late that day, so the vet would track down the owner and contact them tomorrow. Until then, the dog naturally became Haeri’s responsibility.