Churu for the Angry Guide

3

Siwoo skillfully landed on a tree, not at all intimidated by the height of the five-story building. Seeing this, the team leader clutched his startled chest, shouted angrily, and then closed the window. He seemed to keep forgetting that Siwoo was a cat beastkin.

“Why does he keep yelling? It hurts my ears.”

Siwoo, panting, rubbed his ears that were throbbing from the team leader’s bellowing. Then he quickly massaged the ears that had popped out from among his white hair.

The pointy triangular ears slowly retracted. Ears and tail could only be hidden by directly touching them like this.

That’s why he was careful not to let his ears or tail pop out in front of others as much as possible. The ears were one thing, but he didn’t want to stroke his bottom to hide his tail in front of others.

As he quickly climbed down the tree, something irritating caught Siwoo’s eye.

“What are you doing?”

What caught his attention was a squirrel hanging from a thin branch. At first, he thought it was a mouse, but up close, he saw its tail was bushy with fur.

“Hey, aren’t you one of those winged ones?”

Siwoo addressed the squirrel trembling at the end of the branch. Judging by the thin skin under its arms, it wasn’t just a squirrel, but a flying squirrel.

“Why aren’t you flying? Are you hurt?”

He carefully picked up the fist-sized flying squirrel by the scruff of its neck and placed it on a sturdy branch. Despite his gruff tone, his handling of the small creature was quite gentle.

“Let me see.”

He gestured for it to lift its arm, but the ungrateful flying squirrel ran away without even a grateful “squeak.”

“Ah!”

It didn’t just run away; it bit Siwoo’s fingertip before disappearing.

“After I helped it!”

An irritated Siwoo glared at the flying squirrel rapidly descending the tree. Even though he was faster and more agile than ordinary people, he wasn’t faster than animals.

Siwoo fumed until the flightless flying squirrel disappeared from view. Regretting climbing the tree with a body weakened by hunger, he mentally cursed the flying squirrel.

If it was going to leave, it should have just left. Why did it have to bite?

“I hope you trip and fall flat on your face.”

He sucked on his fingertip where a red drop of blood had formed, trying to cool his anger. Perhaps due to seeing blood, he felt even hungrier.

Other new recruits often got treated to meals and coffee by their seniors, but given Siwoo’s personality, he would rather extort than accept handouts.

“And why is the weather like this…”

Siwoo, rubbing his hungry stomach, now glared at the cloudless, bright sky. He seemed displeased even with the good weather.

In the sweltering summer, it would have been better if it rained heavily. That would cool things down and reduce the cheerful groups wandering around in the clear weather.

Swallowing a deep sigh, he first climbed down from the tree. To avoid wasting unnecessary energy, he quickly looked for a place to sit. In fact, he had been feeling weak since leaving the dormitory. He was hungrier than he thought. Climbing up and down the tall tree had drained his energy even more.

Siwoo, regretting his impulsive jump out the window, searched for a place to sit.

Walking through the lush green grass under the blazing summer sun, he spotted a quiet bench nearby. It was the perfect spot for a nap.

Grumble, gurgle, rumble.

Being the type to get hungrier when angry, his stomach growled even louder.

“Be quiet. Just be quiet.”

Slapping his flat stomach, he looked around. After confirming that no one from the nearby buildings was watching, he quickly stripped off his clothes.

Hidden behind the bench, he took off even his underwear, crouched down, and placed a few stones on top of his neatly folded clothes. Then, squeezing his eyes shut, he changed his form.

From human to cat.

He consumed less energy as a small, light cat than as a large human. Because of this, even during his unemployed days, when there was absolutely nothing to eat, Siwoo would transform into a cat and sleep all day.

Perhaps because his stomach also shrank, he felt a bit less hungry as a cat.

Grumble.

But that didn’t mean the hunger went away completely.

Phew, sighing through his small nostrils, he hopped onto the bench. He planned to catch a couple of hours of sleep before moving. Since he had to save money even for bus fare, it would take over 30 minutes to walk back to the dormitory in this scorching heat.

He didn’t want to return to the dormitory anyway, as it was about time for his roommates to come back. The fan’s breeze oddly never reached Siwoo’s spot, making the inside of the dormitory even hotter.

Moreover, for some reason, only Siwoo’s bed made creaking noises, so he couldn’t move freely. Whenever Siwoo tossed and turned even slightly in his bed, his roommates would deliberately sigh loudly. It wasn’t uncommon for them to openly scold him for being noisy.

At such times, Siwoo would close his eyes without a word, lying still like a corpse. Though his pride was hurt, he couldn’t argue back because he acknowledged that his bed was particularly noisy. How annoying.

Grumble, rumble.

Ah, so noisy, really.

Even with his reduced size, the hungry sounds from his stomach didn’t stop. Siwoo licked his belly as if to soothe it, leaning against the bench.

After licking his belly thoroughly, he sprawled out lifelessly like melted ice cream. With his snow-white fur stretched out, he really looked like a soft-serve ice cream someone had left behind.

Siwoo was really white.

Gurgle, rumble, grumble—.

He was really hungry.

Meow…

With his weak front paw resting on his belly, he muttered curses not worth interpreting. If there were cats or cat beastkin around, they might have understood, but since he was alone anyway, he freely used harsh language.

Meow, meow. Me, ow.

Trying to soothe his sensitive stomach with curses, he absentmindedly looked up at the sky. In the annoyingly clear sky, he saw a string of foods he wanted to eat right now.

The thing he most desperately thought of was, of course, that. The thing Siwoo liked even more than rice.

Meow…

‘I want Churu…’

He wasn’t asking for much, just wishing for even one to fall from the sky. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had tasted Churu.

Because Churu was expensive.

Churu was a treat, not a meal. It tasted good but didn’t satisfy hunger. Rather, it stimulated the appetite, making him even hungrier.

Mmm…

Siwoo, who had fallen asleep without realizing, groaned and shifted slightly. He thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep because of hunger, but as soon as he closed his eyes, consciousness slipped away.

He fell into such a deep sleep that he lay on his back like a person, with his pink tongue sticking out.

However, his appearance, breathing heavily with his mouth wide open, looked uncomfortable. It was natural to be struggling in this hot weather, sprawled out in a place without shade.

The fact that he didn’t wake up despite this showed how exhausted he was. How pitiful.

“If you’re hot, you should move to the shade.”

A man looked down at the white cat melting in the heat. He plopped down on the bench and rummaged through the black plastic bag looped around his thick wrist.

Given his imposing tall figure and sharp features, one might expect a weapon to come out of the bag.

However, what the man pulled out was a plastic water bottle. Cool barley tea freshly taken from the convenience store refrigerator.

The man pressed the bottle against Siwoo’s back, which was stretched out horizontally like a scarf. He also blew air, pursing his lips and going “hoo, hoo—”

‘Ah, that’s so cool.’

Siwoo, making a pleased purring sound, swished his fluffy tail back and forth. Enjoying the cool sensation on his back, he turned around with his eyes closed.

‘I might live.’

He kept purring, tightly hugging the long bottle beaded with water droplets. With the breeze blowing on his head and stomach as if a fan had been turned on, he could breathe easier. Where was this breeze coming from?

“You like that?”

At that moment, recognizing an unfamiliar voice, Siwoo’s eyes snapped open. At the same time, his gaze met sharp eyes staring down at him.

‘What the hell!’

If Siwoo were human right now, he would have shouted a curse in surprise. However, the only sound coming from cat Siwoo’s mouth was a cute meow.

Meow!

The man, who had been casually resting his arm on the bench, furrowed his brow as he watched Siwoo suddenly stand up. His already fierce expression became even more intimidating as it crumpled.

“Why is this little one so weak? Is it starving?”

As the large hand approached his face, Siwoo instinctively curled up. Too weak to run away immediately, he could only avoid the hand.

No. I still need to run away.

Siwoo gulped as he looked at the man with an unusual aura. Although he was still an inexperienced new guide and couldn’t read an Esper’s wavelength, he had good instincts.

This man was clearly an Esper. And his gut told him it was a fucking strong Esper.

Siwoo glared at the muscular arm that looked like three of his own combined, wiggling his bottom. He was looking for the right moment to escape.

New guides had the same precaution drilled into their ears daily: If alone, always avoid Espers.

They were told to run away without even exchanging words, especially from high-ranking Espers. This was because there were ill-intentioned Espers who targeted vulnerable newcomers.

And this man sitting right next to Siwoo… didn’t seem like he had ordinary bad intentions. Siwoo gulped as he looked at the man’s fierce eyes.

Let’s run away quickly.

Gathering his courage, Siwoo leaped off the bench without hesitation.

Me, meow—!

However, his body, momentarily suspended in the air, was caught firmly by the man’s hand. As expected of an Esper. Stunned by the man’s quick movement, Siwoo struggled a beat late.

“Shit…”

The man who firmly grasped under Siwoo’s front legs cursed. At this, Siwoo meowed even louder and frantically kicked his short legs.

‘Who are you calling shit? I’m the one who should say shit! You thug-like bastard!’

He tried to transform back into a human right then, but he didn’t have the strength.

Siwoo’s energy was already depleted to its limit. It hadn’t been this bad even this morning… This was all because of that damn team leader and the flying squirrel.

“Why is it so skinny? It’s all fur.”

The man securely held the loudly meowing Siwoo and felt around his body. There was nothing but bones under the fluffy fur.

He pressed the skinny body with no fat onto his own sturdy thigh. Siwoo bared his predator-like teeth, hissing vigorously.

‘Hey! Hey, you! I’ll bite you! I’ll really bite!’

Having never seriously bitten a person before, he just made threats while puffing up his fur. The man, unfazed by Siwoo’s fierce hissing, just roughly held and pressed down on his skinny back.

“Tsk, stay still. Where do you think you’re going with no strength?”

Finally realizing that this situation would only end in bloodshed, Siwoo opened his mouth wide. He was in a position where he could bite the man’s thigh hard and run away if he wanted to.

‘I’ve clearly warned you.’

Hiss! He glared at the man one last time with a sharp sound. As expected, the man showed no intention of letting go.

Just as Siwoo was about to sink his teeth into the rock-hard thigh…

Rustle, the man’s thick hand rummaged through the black plastic bag. At the rustling sound, Siwoo’s ears perked up instinctively, and his body momentarily froze. Of all times, at this crucial moment.

As he regained his resolve and bared his teeth towards the man’s thigh again, the large hand held up a red, elongated object in front of Siwoo’s face.

“If you keep hissing, I won’t give you this.”

It was Churu. A premium Churu with a picture of a happy cat on it.