“Hrrk!”
Trapped inside a rattling cage with my fur standing on end, I was trembling with a sense of betrayal. I glared at the middle-aged man carrying the cage, my eyes as fierce as I could make them.
The middle-aged man’s hair was an absolute mess, matted and tangled — as if he hadn’t been able to wash properly. His clothes were filthy, like he’d just crawled out of somewhere he’d been locked up, and his eyes were bloodshot red, as though he hadn’t slept at all. What dwelled within those bloodshot eyes was an unmistakable hunger he couldn’t hide.
Stupid Doha. You got fooled again? Again? I thought things were finally starting to change, but in the end, it’s the same thing all over again…!
“Doha, I’m sorry. Once I get some money — once I hit it big — I’ll come back for you! I’ll really give you the good life then.”
“Mrryaow!”
Don’t lie to me!
I was no longer a child who could be taken in by lies like that.
Even as my body was tossed around inside the swaying cage, I gnawed at the iron bars with my teeth. The cold, hard metal only hurt my teeth, but I didn’t give up.
I huffed and swallowed down my tears. I was so furious at my own stupidity that I couldn’t even feel the pain.
The reason I’d been shoved into this pathetic cage was obvious. He’s planning to sell me off. Just like he always does!
The middle-aged man walking with a hopeful expression on his face — he was my father.
No matter how much I cried out that I didn’t want this, he wouldn’t pay any attention. He couldn’t understand me to begin with. He was human, and right now I was in my animal form.
My one remaining family member — someone I’d thought countless times I wanted to cut out of my life entirely, yet never could bring myself to.
He had never once acted like a father. Since I was little, he’d drifted from gambling den to gambling den, constantly chasing the next big score, living day to day.
Because of his gambling addiction, I’d had nothing but hardship from a young age. But recently, after losing a huge sum and with his credit completely ruined so that no one would lend him money anymore, he’d promised me he would quit gambling and live honestly.
Of course, I hadn’t believed him from the start. I told him to show me he’d actually changed and decided I wouldn’t help him until I was convinced. He’d tricked me with his lies enough times that I’d given him money more than once already. So this time, I’d told him I couldn’t trust him and refused to give him anything.
After that day, my father changed.
Every morning he woke up at the same early hour as me and headed out to do day labor. Even when he came back injured from the work, he never let on how hard it was. He even comforted me, saying I must have had a rough time all these years.
Late one night, my father took out a photo of my mother and stared at it for a long, long time before finally shedding tears filled with regret. The hand gripping the photo trembled faintly. The moment I saw that, whatever suspicion had remained in my heart crumbled away helplessly.
Just this once, I decided. I’ll trust the one family I have left in this world.
After that, I handed over part of my savings to my father. As I gave it to him, I told him to use it to pay off all his gambling debts. I said I would trust him one more time, and that this time, we were really going to live like a proper family. It felt like there was a little hope in sight.
I was an idiot for believing that.
My father had acted diligent in front of me, but behind my back he’d kept on gambling and had been searching for people who would lend him money.
No — when did he even go out? We were eating and sleeping under the same roof! Everything he showed me up until now was just a performance to lower my guard!
And when the money he’d borrowed had ballooned to a point he could no longer manage, he’d devised a plan to dump me as collateral. That’s why he’d put on such a thorough act in front of me.
Everyone always says that when things get truly hard and lonely, all you have is family. But not for me. This had happened time and time again — I should have told him I didn’t believe him, that someone like him wasn’t even family to me, and walked away without looking back.
But because I hated the thought of being left all alone, I kept holding on to that thread, and ended up here again.
“It’s what we always do. You’re still cute, so it’ll be fine.”
“Mrao, reow!”
Cute? What’s cute about any of this!
This man who called himself my father had drugged his own son’s coffee with sleeping pills, knocked him out, forcibly turned him into a Suin, and was now trying to make him do something I never wanted to do again.
When I was young and didn’t know any better, there were times I’d stepped forward on my own, wanting to be useful to him — but not anymore. It wasn’t just the danger I was being put in. In the end, wasn’t this the same as going along with my father’s con? Maybe I hadn’t known better as a child, but now that I was an adult, I absolutely refused.
And he knows that perfectly well!
The wave of betrayal crashing over me made my whole body shake. But just as quickly, a tide of resentment and sorrow surged in like a tsunami.
No matter how much time passed, I resented my father so deeply for selling me out for money — and I felt so wretched, being sold off once again. He had always been like this. He’d abandoned my mother and me for money. That’s why my mother ran away, too.
“Miao….”
I forced back my tears. In this world, my Suin form was worth more than my human one. There was nothing worth bragging about when it came to human Lee Doha. Being a predator-type Suin meant people tended to avoid me rather than welcome me.
But on the flip side, my true form was an extremely rare animal. And despite being a predator, there were many people who went wild over how cute I looked. In fact, loan sharks who’d seen my true form often told my father they’d be happy to take me in lieu of the debt.
My father exploited that. Today, too, he was on his way to hand me over to a loan shark as collateral — or more precisely, to sell me. He’d already done it several times before, so he had no hesitation.
I stopped wasting energy on pointless struggling to conserve my strength. Inside the swaying cage, I kept my fur on end and scanned my surroundings.
In the dark night streets, all that could be heard were his footsteps.
Whether my father felt no fear or simply didn’t care, he passed through a secluded alley and headed toward an abandoned construction site. His pace was quick as he walked deeper into a pitch-black darkness. The further in they went, the stronger the smell of rust and the faint scent of blood.
The moment I caught the smell of blood, my head whipped back and forth. Everything around me was silent, yet it felt like something could lunge out at me from somewhere in the darkness at any moment.
My ears, standing sharply upright, overreacted to even the faintest sounds, swiveling in different directions. My tail had dropped low without my meaning it to, only the very tip twitching in tiny trembles. The pads of my paws were pressed to the floor of the cage, but they were tensed and rigid, as if braced to spring at any moment.
The smell of blood grew denser. My nose kept twitching on its own, and my tongue reflexively darted out to swipe across the tip of my nose. My father walked on, oblivious.
Just what kind of people did he borrow money from?
The loan sharks my father had borrowed from up until now were mostly small-time. Since he was the lowest of the low anyway and only ever showed up at gambling dens, dangerous people hadn’t latched onto him. From where I stood, there were more loan sharks who’d been stiffed by my father — borrowing and never repaying — than ones he’d actually paid back. Word about money spread fast, so it was only natural that fewer and fewer lenders were willing to deal with him.
And yet someone still lent him money. This isn’t some really shady outfit he’s gotten tangled up with, is it…?
Most of them had settled for roughing up my father when he wouldn’t pay. Gambler that he was, he’d occasionally hit it big and managed to pay back some debts.
Just how much had it ballooned…? Had it really gotten to a point completely beyond control?
The reason my father had sometimes been able to hit it big and pay off debts was because my mother had been quietly covering the interest from behind, keeping the debt from snowballing. After that, I had been the one helping… and while I’d been turning my back on him….
I shook my head sharply.
I’d almost started making excuses for him. I barely had enough to worry about myself — whose situation was I out here understanding?
My father stopped somewhere and caught his breath. Then he carefully pushed open a rusted iron door. It opened with an ominous creak. Inside was a room full of people who were clearly involved in dangerous work, even at a glance.
I could tell by instinct. These were Suin. And not just any kind — Feline Suin, the same as me.
They gave off a dangerous scent, making no effort to hide the fact that they were predators, but among them there was one man whose eyes gleamed with a particularly sharp light. He occupied a chair at the very center of the room by himself, with other men gathered around him.
The eyes of the man staring at my father and me as we entered through the door seemed to glow a luminous yellow. Instinct told me immediately — I was face to face with predators far more dangerous and powerful than myself.
“Hrrk? Hrrk!”
What is this? What is going on…!
The air around the man seated leisurely in that chair was deeply unsettling. The crooked smile on his lips made it seem like he’d kill my father — or me — at the slightest provocation.
And on top of that, his gaze was fixed squarely on me. That razor-sharp stare felt as though it were slicing right through my skin.
No matter how I thought about it, there was only one reason he was looking at me like that. He had realized I was a Suin. Just as I had sensed that they were Suin.
This is who he borrowed money from? Why, of all people? My father is already notorious as a credit defaulter — so why did they lend him money? Don’t tell me they had a different purpose all along…?
Suin had lived in the shadows for a long time. With humans vastly outnumbering them, it was only natural that Suin who moved on instinct and posed a danger were ostracized by human society. Korea was no exception.
