Churu for the Angry Guide

10

The next morning. Siwoo opened his eyes on the large bed and buried his face in the pillow. He had ultimately failed to leave the Baekya Guild’s guiding room yesterday.

‘Why is life like this?’

Despite his lamentations, his form sprawled on the soft bed looked comfortable. Having slept for ten straight hours while tightly hugging a mouse plushie, his body was bound to be relaxed.

It was his first time sleeping in such a nice bed, so he fell asleep almost as soon as he lay down. And he had slept in the same bed as that fool.

‘How annoying.’

He turned over, slapping the spot where Geonho had slept with his tail. Siwoo had slept in Geonho’s room, the largest of the guiding room’s chambers. He had mentioned there were many rooms, but to think there were even private bedrooms.

The facilities were ridiculously good. At this rate, he’d want to use it as lodging rather than a guiding room.

‘Haah.’

He wished he could kick everyone out and use it alone. He sighed, harboring an impossible dream. He licked the squeaking plushie in his arms while admiring the large window.

I need to leave quickly, but how?

There had been no chance to escape because the strong but foolish Geonho had been watching all night. To be precise, Siwoo had fallen into a deep sleep and couldn’t leave, but anyway. It was all the fool’s fault. He was the one who brought me here.

‘Where did he go now?’

Getting bored, he stretched. He got up from the bed to check on the fool who wasn’t in sight. Now that he had eaten his fill, he absolutely had to leave this place today.

Squeak―.

He hid the mouse plushie between the pillows and hopped down under the bed. He had also hidden plenty of Churu under the pillow. He had gathered them all in one place deliberately to make them easy to grab when leaving.

Click, click, click. He scratched at the gap in the door to open it. Even in a cat’s body, he could easily open doors. He even knew how to pull and turn doorknobs on closed doors.

‘Where are you, you fool!’

He meowed, looking for the fool. Even after eating so much yesterday, he felt a bit hungry after sleeping. He boldly demanded food, intending to eat as much as possible while he could.

‘Give me food!’

The fool was lying on the sofa. Seeing no reaction with his eyes closed, he seemed to be asleep.

If you’re going to sleep, do it in bed. He glared disapprovingly at the fool lying on the sofa instead of his own bed.

I’m hungry…

But he wasn’t hungry enough to wake a sleeping person. Siwoo approached the sofa, carefully muffling his footsteps.

Ah, he’s in the middle of receiving guiding.

Upon closer inspection, a long wire was connected to the fool’s body. It was the same machine the crazy maknae had used yesterday.

With so many good ones available, why use the smallest machine? Siwoo hopped onto the sofa to examine the guiding machine more closely.

The fool had received guiding yesterday too. While Siwoo was eating dinner, he had seen him sit on the sofa with a glum expression, inserting his hand into the guiding machine Jihan had brought.

The one he used yesterday looked like the highest-performing machine. Given that it required direct hand insertion, it seemed to have effects quite similar to actual guiding.

Siwoo had watched the guiding with curious eyes. He had pushed aside his emptied food bowl and observed the quietly proceeding machine guiding.

No noise could be heard from the machine. It truly befitted an expensive machine. The standard guiding machines Siwoo had seen always made some noise, big or small.

Just as he was thinking, “Money really is good,” the guiding machine suddenly toppled backward. With a loud ‘thud!’

[Are you okay?]

[Hyung, are you alright?]

Jihan and Seojun immediately cleared away the guiding machine and checked on Geonho’s condition. Covering his mouth, Geonho retched and immediately ran into the bathroom.

He felt a strong aversion to artificial machine guiding. It wasn’t for mental reasons, but his body simply rejected it.

This was why Geonho kept postponing guiding. Even guiding medication caused nausea, so he chose to regulate his wavelength on his own as much as possible.

It was a problem that could be solved by meeting a guide, but he happened to dislike people.

Geonho only conversed with his brother, Jihan, Seojun, and the secretary. He wouldn’t even make eye contact with anyone else. Even if they were beings that could suppress his wavelength.

“Ahem.”

Geonho coughed dryly and woke up, squinting his eyes. Perhaps due to taking sleeping pills, his eyes wouldn’t open easily.

As he rubbed his eyes, he suddenly felt a weight on his chest and looked up. Thinking his wavelength might have gathered, he found something white like a rice cake lying on his chest.

Ah, this is seriously cute.

“Are you an assassin?”

He laughed, patting the snow-white bottom threatening his heart. Seeing a cat’s round bottom first thing upon waking, there was no greater heaven.

“Why are you shoving your smelly bottom at me? You should show your pretty face.”

As he teased while stroking the white back, he was promptly smacked on the mouth by a tail along with a sharp meow. Taking it as a command to shut up, he chuckled and gave the cat a back massage.

The smell comment was obviously a joke. The cat had an amazingly good scent. It wasn’t soap, but rather an indescribable fragrance.

Geonho moved the cat onto his thigh as he sat up, grabbing its long tail and sniffing. Indeed, a pleasant scent seeped into his nose. How strange.

“Did you perhaps have an owner?”

Come to think of it, even though it couldn’t have bathed, its fur was white and clean. The cat was seriously thin, but as Seojun had said, it didn’t look starved.

Thanks to the silky, voluminous fur and high-class looking face, it appeared to be a well-cared-for cat on the outside. Ah, could it be?

“Was it abandoned by someone who was raising it?”

Frowning at the sudden thought, he lifted the cat. Relaxed from the massage, the cat didn’t resist, just swaying its tail gently. It stayed still, just turning its head to the side.

“That can’t be…”

No one would abandon such a pretty cat. If they had properly functioning eyes, they absolutely couldn’t do that.

If so, there were only two possible answers.

Either the owner had lost it, or it was naturally good-smelling.

Geonho, putting the cat back down, accepted the latter as the answer. If it had an owner, it wouldn’t have become this thin.

“Want some food?”

Meow―.

He laughed, seeing that the cat seemed to understand the word “food” already.

“You’re not only pretty but smart too? Aren’t you something.”

After sufficiently petting the round face, Geonho went to prepare food.

Although it was a guiding room, the environment wasn’t much different from lodgings. With individual bedrooms for everyone and even a large bathroom, it lacked nothing to be used as accommodation.

So, Geonho decided to stay in the guiding room for the time being. Unlike the dorm, Taebeom rarely came and went here.

Taebeom, the only one using a personal office, received guiding there. His office was equipped with the most expensive guiding machine.

Geonho decided to wait for when his brother’s condition improved. He planned to bring up the subject again at the right time. About keeping the cat.

“Drink some water too. You drank well yesterday, didn’t you?”

He pushed a water bowl next to the cat that was gobbling up the cat food. He had thought it disliked water. He was surprised to hear that it had emptied an entire bowl of water when with Seojun.

“You actually like water, don’t you? Why don’t you drink in front of me?”

For a moment, the cat chewing on food exhaled deeply through its nose. It might be his imagination, but it sounded just like a sigh.

Maybe it’s not drinking because I told it to?

Geonho tilted his head and stopped urging it to drink. Although he often played with stray cats, this was his first time raising one, so there was still a lot he didn’t know.

“Alright, do as you please.”

The thought of getting to know this cat one by one filled him with endless joy. Moreover, for some reason, the guiding seemed to have absorbed well, and his body felt light.

Maybe it’s thanks to the new sleeping pills. Thinking he should take this medication and receive guiding from now on, he headed to the bathroom.

“I’m going to wash up, so eat and play while I’m gone.”

He took off his top even before entering the bathroom. As he was about to carelessly lower his pants, he suddenly stopped and turned around.

‘W-what are you looking at?’

Siwoo, whose eyes met his at the same time, averted his gaze. Pretending not to have seen anything, he tried to leave but was caught by the fool.

“Let’s wash you too.”