Chapter Text
The 1978 summer heat was brutal to eleven-year-old Lee Un Jeong.
The white handkerchief his mother had pressed into his hand before they left Seoul was already soaked through with sweat, heavy and useless. For the last four hours on the intercity bus, Un Jeong had been trapped in what felt like a mobile, diesel-fumed oven. With no air conditioning, the only relief came from keeping the heavy glass windows slammed all the way down, which didn't actually bring cool air—it just blasted humid August air and thick coatings of rural road dust directly into his face.
Un Jeong always dreaded the annual summer trip to his mother's faraway hometown of Haeseong City. He was an introverted, quiet boy who liked his predictable Seoul neighborhood. Instead, he was currently covered in a gritty layer of sweat and road grime, walking into the bustling chaos of the famous Hearty House restaurant for a quick lunch.
The restaurant was already packed to the brim with the peak afternoon crowd. The rhythmic, heavy thwack-thwack-thwack of giant, green-bladed industrial floor fans whistled from the corners, doing battle against the thick steam rising from boiling cauldrons of soup. Local laborers in dusty overalls, families clinking metal chopsticks, and trendy college students in bell-bottom jeans listening to acoustic guitars on a portable radio filled the room.
Fortunately, they managed to snag a small table in the corner. Hearty House was famous for a reason—the delicious food arrived almost instantly, and the family ate in starved, exhausted silence. But Un Jeong’s luck ran out with the seating. He had been relegated to a dead zone where the breeze of the wall fans failed to reach. Within minutes, his shirt was glued to his back. He resorted to pulling tissues from the plastic box on the table, frantically dabbing his forehead, feeling a growing dread that his father would scold him for wasting the restaurant's paper supply.
He was mentally counting down the seconds until they could leave, go to his grandparents' house, and wash off this miserable day. But just as his mother set down her empty bowl, a loud voice shattered Un Jeong's hopes.
"Jang Yun-hui?!"
Before his mother could even swallow her barley tea, a woman gasped across the room. Un Jeong’s father let out a booming, surprised laugh, instantly recognizing her. His father leaped up from the table with excitement, while his mother’s eyes widened in gentle surprise. She rose gracefully, a warm smile spreading across her face as she recognized her old school friend.
His mother turned to him, softly asking if he wanted to come over and say hello, but Un Jeong politely shook his head, knowing how long and animated parent reunions could get. Understanding her introverted son, she gave him a reassuring nod and followed his father over to the premium booth across the room, where they immediately squeezed in with their friend right beneath a giant, whirring fan.
Un Jeong was left by himself at the small corner table. He let out a deep sigh, sitting rigid as he continued to sweat bullets. God knew how long this reunion would take. Adults could talk for hours. He genuinely wished he could just leave them, walk to the house alone, and let them stay in this humid restaurant until nighttime for all he cared.
Meanwhile, six-year-old Eun Chae Ni was pacing the restaurant floor, radiating the supreme confidence of a tiny, self-appointed general.
In one hand, she carried a small stack of side-dish bowls; in the other, she lazily swung a flat, rigid plastic hand fan. It was a bright blue promotional piece stamped with a giant, colorful logo for a nearby neighborhood pharmacy, complete with a tiny printed calendar. Her grandmother, who usually supervised the kitchen, was currently sweating over the stoves due to the rush. Normally, Grandma was a massive worrywart, constantly hovering over Chae Ni and telling her to sit down, concerned that her failing heart condition would flare up if she overexerted herself. But Chae Ni knew she could take care of herself just fine. Grandma was just too much of a softie!
As Chae Ni scanned her kingdom, her eyes locked onto the rigid, lanky boy sitting alone in the corner.
To Chae Ni, he looked exactly like a plastic bottle of ice-cold cider left out in the sun—just leaking water from every visible pore. But he clearly wasn't cold. He looked miserable, staring at the table like a defeated ghost.
Chae Ni marched straight over, slammed a bowl of pickled radishes onto his table with a loud clack, and leaned in so close her nose almost touched his arm.
"Wow. Are you a water monster? Why are you leaking so much?"
Un Jeong flinched backward, his face flushing crimson. Deeply embarrassed to be perceived in such a pathetic state, he cleared his throat and forced out his most sophisticated, overly polite Seoul accent to brush her off. "I'm fine. It's just... It's hot in here."
Chae Ni snorted with a sharp, ungraceful sound. "You speak so weird!" She threw her hands on her hips, looking him up and down. "You look like you're about to pass out. You can't even handle a little August air? How weak!"
Un Jeong’s eyes widened. He stared at this tiny girl who had just shattered his big-city dignity out of nowhere. Normally, an eleven-year-old middle-schooler-to-be would never stoop to arguing with a child who barely cleared the table, but the heat, the dust, and the sound of his father cackling across the room had broken his filters.
He scowled, leaning forward. "For your information, Seoul isn't an oven like this. We actually get a breeze. This city is just... way too humid."
Chae Ni raised a single, judgmental eyebrow and Un Jeong’s mouth fell open. How could a kid even make that kind of expression?
Before he could process it, Chae Ni spun on her heel and belted out a screech across the noisy dining room toward the kitchen pickup window.
"Garlic Imo! Quick! Bring the biggest bowl of ice water! This Seoul boy's face is turning into a red pepper and he's melting!"
Without asking, she slid into the chair right across from him, sitting down with a satisfied plop. From the depths of the roaring kitchen, a loud, raspy laugh echoed back. "Aigo, our little boss is ordering me around again!"
A few moments later, a middle-aged auntie who smelled powerfully of freshly crushed garlic trotted over. She set down a massive, condensation-covered brass bowl filled to the brim with ice water.
The auntie beamed at Chae Ni, pinching her cheek gently. "Our Chae Ni is already better at managing the customers than her Halmeoni!"
Chae Ni grinned proudly, basking in the praise. The second the auntie walked back to the kitchen, Chae Ni pushed the heavy bowl forward. Un Jeong didn't even hesitate. He grabbed it and took a massive, desperate gulp. The sweet, freezing relief washed down his throat, and a visible expression of pure salvation spread across his face.
Chae Ni watched him closely, her eyes dropping to the plates his family had left behind. She shook her head solemnly.
"You look... like you don't eat vegetables." She pointed a tiny, accusing finger at the leftovers, which consisted of scraps of marinated pork and beef. Not a single green sprout had been touched. "I bet you'd handle the heat better if you just ate a balanced diet. Grandma always tells me to eat mine so my body stays strong."
Un Jeong closed his eyes in sheer exasperation, pressing the cold brass bowl against his forehead. Why, out of all the tables in Haeseong, did he have to get trapped by this child?
Chae Ni went back to lazily flapping her plastic pharmacy fan. Un Jeong chose the path of silence, he set the bowl back down onto the tabletop and pointedly looked away toward the far window, blatantly trying to ignore her, hoping she would get bored and wander away to terrorize another table. Instead, Chae Ni stopped fanning herself, reached across the table, and aggressively shoved the rigid plastic handle into his hand.
"Here," she said matter-of-factly. "You clearly need it more than me. You're still dripping."
Un Jeong blinked, startled by the sudden gesture. He looked at the fan, then at her. "Thanks," he muttered, finally beginning to wave the plastic sheet. The artificial breeze felt like heaven.
"My name is Eun Chae Ni! I'm six years old this year," she introduced herself, flashing a wide, unbothered grin that proudly revealed a missing front tooth. "What's your name?"
Un Jeong fanned himself a bit faster, mumbling under his breath in his quiet, introverted voice. "Lee Un Jeong."
But the exact second the syllables left his mouth, the restaurant’s front doors flew open. A loud, boisterous group of local construction workers stampeded in, cheerfully roaring greetings to the staff. Their booming voices completely swallowed Un Jeong’s small voice into oblivion.
Chae Ni blinked once. Twice. Then she burst into a loud, belly-shaking laugh, clapping her hands together.
"Ondol? Your name is Ondol?" She giggled so hard she nearly fell off her seat. "Wow, Seoul names are really weird! But it fits you so well! Haha!"
Un Jeong bit his lip so hard it turned white. Ondol? She had just named him after the ancient Korean underfloor stone heating system. He was a human boy, not a piece of clay-and-stone flooring used to warm a house in the dead of winter!
He opened his mouth to correct her, his cheeks burning. "No, it's Un—"
But a six-year-old on a mission is an unstoppable force. Before he could finish his sentence, Chae Ni lunged across the table, snatched his sweaty wrist with iron-like grip, and physically hauled him out of the corner.
"Come on, Ondol. You're still too hot. I'm taking you to the secret zone."
Un Jeong was too stunned to resist. He was an older brother figure to this child, yet he was currently being manhandled and dragged down a quiet hallway that connected the roaring dining room to the residential house side of the building.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the noise faded. The air suddenly grew crisp and cool, away from the heat of the kitchen stoves.
Built directly into the hallway wall was a massive, wooden-framed freshwater aquarium—the absolute height of luxury for a booming business. It glowed with a soft, hypnotic green-blue light from a fluorescent bulb, and the gentle, rhythmic bloop of the air pump replaced the chaotic roar of the industrial fans.
Chae Ni grabbed a small wooden stool, placed it directly in front of the glass, and gave Un Jeong a firm shove on the shoulder to make him sit.
She planted her hands on her hips, nodding with immense satisfaction. "See? It's cold here. Look at the fish, Ondol. It keeps your brain from melting."
Un Jeong, still out of breath from being kidnapped by a first-grader, found himself leaning his forehead right against the glass. It was beautifully, shock-inducingly cold. Inside, a few fat and lazy orange goldfish were floating aimlessly around bright green plastic water weeds.
"They look like they're melting too," Un Jeong mumbled under his breath, his aloof armor finally cracking as a particularly round, chubby fish swam up and blew a bubble at his nose.
Chae Ni giggled, dropping right onto the polished linoleum floor next to his stool, crossing her tiny legs. "That one is Garlic Imo's favorite. She says it looks like a pork dumpling, so she promises not to cook it."
Un Jeong couldn't help it—a small, genuine smile finally slipped onto his face. The cool air and the quiet space let him relax for the first time all day. "Do you come here every day?"
"Duh! It's my house," Chae Ni rolled her eyes and turned to him. "Where do you live, Ondol? In a giant palace in Seoul?"
"No," Un Jeong said, adjusting his grip on the plastic fan. "My grandparents' house is actually just a few blocks away from here. On the hill near the old pharmacy."
Chae Ni’s eyes lit up like lanterns. She leaped to her feet, re-energized. "Wait! You're staying for the whole summer? Wow, you're so lucky. I am officially choosing you to be my sidekick. I'll be your local guide and your bodyguard!"
Un Jeong looked at her tiny frame, skepticism written all over his face. "My bodyguard? You're six."
"Hey! No one messes with me in this neighborhood!" Chae Ni declared, puffing out her chest like a proud rooster. "All the bad kids run away when they see me coming."
In reality, the neighborhood children only ran away because Chae Ni’s grandmother was notorious for chasing troublemakers out of her restaurant yard with a heavy wooden rice paddle, but Chae Ni was entirely convinced they were terrified of her own raw power.
Un Jeong didn't have the heart—or the energy—to argue. He sat on the stool, listening to her talk his ear off about the local comic book shop, the best place to steal persimmons from the neighbor's tree, and how Sesame Imo always gave her extra sweet potatoes. For a quiet boy, it should have been exhausting, but the constant, bright chatter actually made the afternoon fly by.
"Chae Ni-yah! Is there a boy from Seoul back there?"
Pepper Imo peered her head into the hallway, wiping her hands on her apron. "Your parents are looking for you, little man! They're leaving!"
Un Jeong stood up, his limbs a little stiff, and walked back into the main dining room with Chae Ni trailing right behind him like a loyal shadow. His mother, spotting him from the booth, hurried over. She offered him a warm, apologetic smile.
"Oh, Un Jeong-ah, there you are. I'm sorry we took so long," she said softly, reaching out to lightly brush a stray drop of sweat from his forehead. "Were you able to find a cool spot to rest?"
"Yeah, I was just hanging around the fish tank," Un Jeong replied quietly, subtly glancing back at the tiny girl behind him. "Someone... showed me a good spot."
His mother’s eyes followed his gaze, softening even more as she noticed Chae Ni.
The goodbye process, of course, took an additional fifteen minutes because parents just couldn't simply say goodbye without recounting three more family histories at the doorway. As his father finally guided him out into the blinding afternoon sun, Chae Ni stood on the restaurant steps, aggressively waving her pharmacy fan high in the air.
"Bye, Ondol! Come back tomorrow or I'll come find you! Don't melt on the way home!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, completely unbothered by the stares of passersby.
Un Jeong felt his face burn with embarrassment once again. He really, really should have corrected her about his name. But then again, he was only here for a month, and they probably wouldn't hang out that much anyway. He raised a stiff, awkward hand, waving a silent goodbye as he clutched his father's hand.
His mother, who was walking right beside him, looked back over her shoulder and smiled warmly at the little girl, entirely charmed by her loud energy.
His father walked a few paces down the dusty street, looking thoroughly confused. He glanced down at his son, then back at the tiny girl still waving like a maniac on the porch.
"Un Jeong-ah... why is that child calling you an underfloor heater?"
Un Jeong stared straight ahead into the shimmering heat waves of the road, his face blank.
"Please don't ask." Un Jeong sighed heavily.
.
Days passed, and the suffocating heat wave temporarily loosened its grip on Haeseong City, leaving behind a sky filled with clouds that offered a blessed shield against the sun.
Un Jeong sat on the smooth wooden veranda of his grandparents’ traditional house, happily biting the tip off a jjujuba—a cheap, sugary ice pop frozen inside a twisted plastic tube that was all the rage among kids. You had to chew the plastic top off with your teeth, a satisfyingly savage ritual that Un Jeong normally found unrefined, but today, he didn't care. The breeze was actually cool, rustling through the nearby pepper patches. It was the perfect day to finally read the comic book he had meticulously packed all the way from Seoul.
A soft, shuffling footstep drew near over the dirt courtyard, followed by the familiar, comforting scent of tobacco and old paper. A gentle, calloused hand patted Un Jeong on the head. He looked up to see his grandfather smiling down at him, holding a rolled-up copy of the daily newspaper.
"You should go play outside, Un Jeong-ah," the old man said, his voice a slow rumble. "It’s a waste of your summer vacation to just be sitting here eating ice pops by yourself."
"But I’m okay just sitting here," Un Jeong mumbled around the plastic nozzle of his ice pop. He had zero desire to go play with the rowdy neighborhood boys under any circumstances. Even if the cloudy sky made it a good day, outside meant sweat, dirt, and heat.
His grandpa sat down beside him on the wooden beams, his joints popping slightly. "It’s better if you make a few friends here that you can visit every summer. That way, you won't get bored spending all your time indoors with old people like us."
"I like spending time with you, Grandpa." Un Jeong let out a rare, reserved little smile.
The old man chuckled warmly, deeply touched. It was true that Un Jeong loved these quiet hours. He loved how his grandpa would put on his thick reading glasses to study old books while Un Jeong got lost in the hand-drawn pages of his comics. It was a million times better than the thought of running around until his shirt stuck to his ribs while playing roughhouse games like ddakji in the dirt.
But as the topic of friends hung in the cool air, Un Jeong’s mind drifted. A vivid image of a loud, missing-toothed girl swinging a bright blue fan flashed through his brain. She had demanded that he visit her the very next day.
He bit his lip, his teeth denting the plastic of his ice pop. It wasn't like he made a promise to that kid. She was six. She probably forgot all about him the second a stray dog wandered past the restaurant. She definitely wasn't waiting for him... right?
Un Jeong let out a deep, defeated sigh.
Ten minutes later, Un Jeong found himself walking down the unpaved local street toward Hearty House. The late afternoon sky was cloudy enough to just barely block the stinging glare of the sun and make the stifling air tolerable. High above in the acacia trees, the rhythmic, deafening creee-creee-creee of the cicadas vibrated through the heat. He stared up at the sky as he walked, kicking a small pebble. If it wasn't for this brief bit of shade and the occasional breeze, he told himself, he would have never considered stepping foot outside. This was strictly a walk to clear his head.
Thump.
Un Jeong bumped into a shoulder slightly lower than his own. "Oh, sorry," he muttered immediately, stepping back.
But as he looked up, he realized the boy he had run into wasn't alone. Standing in the middle of the narrow alleyway were three local boys, all roughly between nine and eleven years old, completely blocking his path. They wore faded shirts and dirt-stained shorts, looking like they spent every waking hour rolling around in the countryside mud.
"Who is this fancy little boy?" the oldest one sneered. He was a chubby kid with a bowl cut, circling Un Jeong like a neighborhood dog guarding a bone. "Are you new here?"
Un Jeong almost raised an eyebrow. It was hilarious for a kid who was an inch shorter than him to call him a "little boy," but Un Jeong kept his mouth shut.
The other two boys laughed mockingly, stepping closer to join the teasing. "Look at his shoes! They're so clean! Did your mommy polish them for you?"
Un Jeong pursed his lips. Great. He knew it. He knew he should have just stayed put on the veranda with his comic book.
"Sorry. I'm just passing through," Un Jeong murmured politely, trying to step around the chubby leader to avoid any real trouble.
But the second boy—a scrawny kid with a permanent runny nose—instantly blocked him, planting his feet in the dirt. "Why don't you play with us first?" he sneered.
As Un Jeong stared at the runny-nose kid, he couldn't help but think this boy had the exact face of those cartoonish, low-level movie gangsters who exist solely to get beat up by the hero and disappear from the screen after two seconds.
"Sorry, I already promised to play with someone else," Un Jeong lied smoothly, trying to slide past them again.
But the leader wasn't having it. With a mean grin, he reached out and aggressively yanked the back of Un Jeong’s pristine shirt, pulling him so hard that Un Jeong nearly lost his balance and fell backward into the dirt.
Un Jeong whipped around, his quiet eyes flashing with a sudden, rare spark of anger. He opened his mouth, about to demand that the kid let go of his clothes, when a bizarre, heavy rumbling sound suddenly echoed from the top of the alleyway.
"LET GO OF HIM!!!"
A piercing, high-pitched screech shattered the quiet afternoon.
Un Jeong felt the world suddenly drop into slow-motion. All three bullies turned their heads toward the sound, their mouths falling open. Sprinting down the rocky hill at a terrifying, breakneck speed was a tiny girl. Her face was twisted into a mask of warrior rage. In her right hand, she was wielding a heavy, mud-caked green rubber slipper like a medieval battle axe.
She didn't slow down. She didn't hesitate. With a wild battle cry, Chae Ni launched her tiny body into the air, leaping off a stray brick, and slammed the flat of the rubber slipper directly across the leader's cheek with a spectacular SMACK!
She landed perfectly on her feet right in front of Un Jeong, instantly planting both hands on her hips like a miniature Taekwondo master who had just finished her final move.
The chubby leader collapsed onto his backside in the dirt, clutching his rapidly reddening cheek. He stared up at her, tears of shock welling in his eyes. "D-Did you just hit me?!"
"You can't bully my sidekick, you fatty!" Chae Ni huffed, her tiny chest heaving as she pointed the dirty slipper right at his nose.
Un Jeong stood completely shell-shocked, his mouth hanging open. The two younger cronies had the exact same horrified expressions, freezing like statues at the side of the alley.
The chubby leader’s face turned almost as purple as a plum. "I'm not fat!" he howled defensively, scrambling backward in the dirt. "My mom says I'm just heavily built! It's rice weight!"
"I don't care about your rice!" Chae Ni barked back, stepping over to loom over him. "Listen here! Ondol is under my protection! If you mess with him, you're messing with Hearty House!"
The scrawny, runny-nose kid blinked, his eyes widening in sudden realization. He leaned over and frantically whispered to the youngest bully. "Hey... hey! That’s her! That’s Buldo! You know? The Bulldozer! That crazy granddaughter from the soup restaurant!"
The youngest boy gasped, his face draining of color. In a small town like Haeseong, everyone knew the authority of the Hearty House grandmother. Not only was her restaurant the most successful business in the district, but half the neighborhood parents actually owed the wealthy old woman money for groceries or livestock. If this feral little girl went home and ratted them out to her grandma, their fathers would personally skin them alive with a leather belt before dinnertime.
"Tsk! It's the soup brat," the scrawny one muttered, pulling at the leader's arm. "Come on, let's go. It's not worth it. She'll tell her Halmeoni."
The leader obviously heard them. Gritting his teeth to save whatever dignity he had left, he scrambled to his feet, dusting off his shorts. A bright, blistering red mark in the perfect shape of a slipper was now raised high on his cheek, matching his burning, humiliated expression.
"I'll get you for this, you brat! Just wait until next time!" he cracked, his voice squeaking slightly as he clutched his throbbing face.
As the three boys turned and practically stampeded away down the alley, Chae Ni didn't just let them go. She chased them for three steps, wildly throwing her arms in the air and spouting off a barrage of unfiltered market-style dialect insults she had clearly copied from the kitchen aunties.
"Yeah, run away, you little dried-squid-faced dunderheads! Go cry to your mommies! If I see your ugly bowl cuts around here again, I'll turn your ears into seasoned radish strips!"
She looked like she was about to sprint after them to launch her second slipper, forcing Un Jeong to quickly snap out of his trance. He lunged forward, grabbing her by the back of her shirt to hold her back. "Wait, wait! Stop! They're already gone!"
Chae Ni finally ceased her shouting, turning around to face him. She was slightly out of breath, her cheeks flushed pink, but she looked triumphant. She proudly tucked her muddy rubber slipper back onto her foot.
"See? I told you I'd protect you!" She huffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.
Un Jeong stood there, utterly conflicted. He didn't know whether he should be embarrassed that a city boy like him had just been rescued from a gang of bullies by a first-grader, or deeply amazed by how fiercely terrifying she was.
"Where did you even learn to speak like that?" Un Jeong couldn't help but ask, his voice cracking slightly. But the moment the question left his mouth, his mind flashed back to the roaring kitchen of Hearty House, where Garlic Imo and Pepper Imo screamed friendly insults at the delivery truck drivers. He quickly raised a hand to stop her. "Wait. Don't answer that. I already know."
Chae Ni flashed a wide, toothless grin, incredibly proud of herself. But a second later, her expression suddenly twisted into an exaggerated pout as her memory kicked in. She crossed her arms tightly.
"Why didn't you visit me for the past few days? I waited by the door until my legs got tired! And I didn't know what your house looked like, so I couldn't even go kidnap you! It's a really good thing I decided to patrol the neighborhood today!"
By "patrol," she clearly didn't mean doing neighborhood watch duty. Un Jeong’s eyes dropped to her left hand, which was tightly clutching a small fistful of brightly wrapped plum candies—the exact kind her grandmother had likely banned her from eating. She had obviously just come from a secret convenience store run.
Un Jeong quickly looked away, shifting his feet in the dirt as he scrambled for a face-saving excuse. "I was... busy. I had to help my grandparents with... important yard work. And I had books to read."
Chae Ni stared at his guilty face, her bottom lip sticking out like a shelf. The loud, rhythmic buzz of cicadas filled the brief silence between them. Then, with the classic, chaotic attention span of a six-year-old, her face suddenly brightened into a glowing smile.
"Oh! Okay!"
Before Un Jeong could even process how easily she had forgiven him, Chae Ni reached out and aggressively seized him by the elbow, pulling him forward with that surprising, iron-like strength.
With her free hand, she expertly used her teeth to rip open one of the smuggled plum candies, shoving the shiny sweet into her mouth while stuffing the rest of the stash deep into her shorts pocket.
"Let’s go, Ondol! The sun is going down, which means it’s prime hunting hour!" she announced around the giant lump in her cheek.
Un Jeong stumbled blindly after her, his clean sneakers dragging in the dusty gravel of the alleyway. "Hunting? Hunting for what? I don’t want to hunt anything!"
"Shh! You’ll scare the prey!" Chae Ni hissed, suddenly dropping into a dramatic, low crouch behind a stack of empty plastic liquor crates near the corner store. She peered over the top like a soldier on a top-secret frontline mission.
Un Jeong stood upright, looking down at the top of her head in disbelief. "We are in a dirty alleyway behind a grocery store. There is no prey here."
"Aha! That’s where you’re wrong!" Chae Ni whispered loudly. She reached down, snatched a long, slightly splintered piece of scrap wood from the dirt, and thrust it into his hand. "Hold your weapon. We are tracking the king of the neighborhood."
Un Jeong stared blankly at the dirty stick in his hand. If his friends back in the capital could see him right now—the top-of-his-class, quiet Lee Un Jeong, standing in a rural alleyway holding a weapon given to him by a child who used a slipper as a missile—he would have to move to a different country out of embarrassment.
"Look!" Chae Ni suddenly gasped, pointing her tiny finger toward a sun-baked brick wall covered in green ivy.
Sitting majestically on top of the bricks was a spectacularly fat, incredibly smug-looking ginger cat. The cat didn't look like a fierce wild animal at all; it looked like a giant, bloated loaf of milk bread baking in the twilight sun. It blinked its amber eyes lazily down at them, unimpressed by their presence.
"That's Tiger," Chae Ni whispered, her eyes wide with gravity. "He steals dried fish from the market. He is a hardened criminal. Today, we capture him."
"You want to capture a cat? With a stick?" Un Jeong asked, his tone perfectly deadpan. "He's just going to run away. Or scratch your face."
"Watch and learn, sidekick."
Chae Ni crept forward on all fours, making ridiculous, incredibly loud "pssst-pssst-pssst!" noises that defeated the entire purpose of her stealth crawl. Tiger the cat merely turned his fat head, letting out a pathetic, rusty little meow, clearly demanding a handout rather than fearing for his life.
Chae Ni reached deep into her pocket and pulled out her ultimate secret weapon: a slightly squished, highly fragrant dried anchovy she had clearly purloined from the Hearty House kitchen prep tables. She held it out like a peace offering.
Tiger’s ears instantly perked up. The fat cat let out a surprisingly heavy thud as he jumped down from the brick wall, trotting over with zero dignity.
"Look at how I broke his spirit!" Chae Ni cheered triumphantly, ignoring the fact that she had just openly bribed the animal. She immediately began aggressively stroking the cat's fur, causing Tiger to purr like a loud, broken diesel engine. "Quick, Ondol! Put the stick down and pet the criminal! He’s under arrest!"
Un Jeong hesitated. He looked at the cat, then at Chae Ni, who was looking up at him with a grin so wide her eyes were practically closed. The alleyway was quiet now, shaded by the long evening shadows. The comforting smell of burning charcoal briquettes and savory dinners cooking in the neighboring houses began to drift over the walls.
Slowly, Un Jeong dropped his stick into the dirt. He squatted down on his haunches, carefully extending a single, cautious finger to boop the cat on its pink nose. Tiger immediately rubbed his furry cheek against Un Jeong’s hand, his rough tongue licking at the salty skin of the boy's fingers.
A sudden, involuntary laugh escaped Un Jeong's throat. It was a light, genuine sound he hadn't made since he left Seoul.
"He's... he's really heavy," Un Jeong murmured, his lips twitching into a real, unforced smile as he used both hands to gently scratch behind the cat's ears. "He's not a tiger at all. He's just a thief."
"He's a tiger-thief!" Chae Ni beamed, sitting flat on the dusty ground without a single care for her clothes getting dirty. She looked up at Un Jeong, her eyes sparkling. "See? I told you Haeseong is better than Seoul. We have tigers here."
Un Jeong shook his head, staring at her bright, grinning face. He couldn't help but notice her cheek that was still bulging out like a chipmunk's from the plum candy she was aggressively sucking on. He let out a soft huff, the tight, irritable knot that had been in his chest the past few days dissolving away.
Okay, fine. So he would play with her when he had absolutely nothing else to do. It was only for a few weeks anyway.
"Yeah, yeah," Un Jeong mumbled, his voice soft as he kept stroking the happily purring cat. "Whatever you say, Bulldozer."