I may be looked down on for being small, but I was unmistakably a predator — a Black-footed Cat.
A wild one, at that! Ever heard the saying that the smallest pepper is the spiciest? If I weren’t locked in this cage, I could have broken out of here with ease…! That damn sleeping pill…!
I had once come face to face with a massive predator before. But even then, I hadn’t been afraid — I’d fought back head-on.
Right, think back to that! I wasn’t even an adult yet when that happened!
“Mrao, hrrk, grrrr…!”
You’re nothing but a snack to me! Come here! You’re getting hit too! Take it! Why are you hitting me? Why are you hitting ME?!
My sharp, indignant cries echoed through the quiet space. I huffed and puffed myself up even bigger. But still, no one was the least bit afraid. Being dismissed like this made me furious, and yet somewhere deep inside, a lump of something heavier seemed to be swelling larger and larger.
A predator, trapped in a cage, being sold off as collateral without being able to do a single thing.
I’d figured it out from my father’s attitude a moment ago. He was simply in a hurry to offload me as collateral. He had no intention of coming back for me. As always, it was written all over him — he assumed I’d manage to escape on my own somehow and didn’t think anything of this transaction.
But this time is different. They’re Suin. Escaping won’t be so easy.
We’re the same Suin! Don’t you feel any sympathy?
I wanted to ask that — but from everything I’d observed, it seemed like they had absolutely no idea I was a Suin at all.
Then again, my pheromones were weak, so I’d almost never been found out as a Suin. I’d thought that other Suin would recognize me regardless, but judging by their reactions, apparently not.
That realization drained everything out of me. Too tired to stay on guard any longer, I let it all go — as if turning away from reality — and curled myself into a ball, covering my face and forehead with my tail.
I’m not avoiding this because I’m hurt or scared. I’m just… sad that my father betrayed me again….
“It’s, well… you don’t need to give it any special attention. Like I said, it’ll grow up fine without any particular care. I haven’t been around much myself, with the nature of my work, but it hasn’t caused any trouble. Surely someone like the Executive Director has a mountain or two to spare. Just let it loose out there and it’ll raise itself.”
“Didn’t you just say yourself it was a predator that couldn’t even hunt?”
“W-Well, yes, but… seeing how it got along when I wasn’t around, I figured it must have been catching mice or something.”
My eyes were covered, but my ears were still wide open. I didn’t want to hear a word my father said, and yet my ears kept perking up at the sound of his voice — and I resented them for it.
Who eats mice…! And he has no idea how I actually grew up.
“Snff….”
This is a runny nose. Not tears.
The man said nothing. Just tell him you won’t take me. Why are you accepting me as collateral? I’m just a bothersome animal — you don’t need me. Collateral? You’d really take something like me as collateral? Tell him to take me back.
My father had pushed me at loan sharks as collateral more times than I could count. Of course, it hadn’t always worked out. Some had taken me, saying a rare animal like this was worth money — but others had refused, asking what use a beast like this was as collateral. Deep down, I was hoping these people would be the latter.
“Well, it won’t require much maintenance.”
“That’s exactly what I’d expect from the Executive Director.”
My father’s pleased voice carried over to me. He was handing me off to people he didn’t even know — loan sharks, no less — without a shred of concern.
“Hyung, who’s going to look after something this vicious? It’d be more practical to harvest its organs and cash those in instead—”
“Hyaak—!”
My father’s shrill shriek tore through the air, and my head snapped up on reflex.
“Reow?”
They’re going to harvest Dad’s organs? Then… he’ll die?
A chill ran down my spine and my ears flattened back sharply. My eyes went wide as I looked back and forth between the man and my father. A moment ago I’d been grinding my teeth in fury at him, but he was still my biological father.
Always going on about money — but still my one remaining family.
This wasn’t the kind of empty threat a lackey throws around. The fact that it was said so calmly made it all the more frightening. Ordinary lowlifes usually just threatened to sell off organs without ever having the nerve to follow through. At most, they’d barge into the house and tear the place apart, or walk off with every bit of cash hidden inside.
But these were Suin. And with the smell of blood on them, they were clearly people capable of hurting — or killing — someone. Suin operated in packs, which meant this was likely a large, organized group.
If I’m not taken as collateral, my father will….
I shook my head and pushed the thought away. But a suffocating weight settled over me. I let out a low, strained sound and tapped the floor of the cage with my front paw. Tap. Tap.
What am I supposed to do…?
Then I heard a sigh. The man seated in the chair tilted his head and lowered his voice toward the subordinate beside him — like a warning.
“Anyone listening would think we actually go around killing people.”
“Huh? Yes…? Hyung?”
“We don’t even have a body forfeiture agreement signed. Why are you getting ahead of yourself?”
“W-Well, that’s true, but—”
“We’ll take this instead.”
The subordinate looked flustered, but the man paid no attention. Seeing that the final say rested with him, he was clearly the one in charge.
“R-Really? I knew you’d make the right call! Just look at that little face, those round eyes. Isn’t it adorable? It’ll definitely fetch a good price. But… to be frank, a predator this rare is worth even more, don’t you think…?”
The man let out a short laugh.
“You want to borrow more money?”
“I-If you’d be so generous!”
I stared blankly, mouth hanging open.
“Wh… what…?”
I had been worried they were going to gut my father, and yet my father, with me dangled as collateral, was thinking about borrowing even more money.
This meant I was about to end up in the hands of a dangerous organization as collateral. No — I was already in their hands. My mind went blank and I couldn’t even think to protest. I just stared at my father in a daze.
“The money we’d prepared for someone else. Give him that.”
“Y-You’re actually giving it to him?”
“Hurry up.”
Unlike the leader, the subordinate’s skepticism was plain on his face, but he held out the bag sitting beside him to my father. My father opened it with eyes full of expectation. Inside, the bag was stuffed to the brim with fifty-thousand-won bills.
“A precious… little one can’t be measured in money.”
“Y-You really are extraordinarily generous!”
My father had gotten his hands on more money than I’d ever touched in my life.
The debt was already an unimaginable amount, and now he’s borrowing more? He said he’d come back for me once he’d paid everything off — but now he’s borrowing more on top of that? How is he ever going to repay these people? And they’re Suin, so getting out like before won’t be easy!
I slammed my paws against the bars of the cage in disbelief.
“Mrao! Hrraaak!”
I thrashed against the bars screaming, asking if he was really going to send me off as collateral — but my father was human. He couldn’t understand a word I said in my true form.
Worse, my father wasn’t even looking at me. To him, money was more important than I was. The strength drained out of me little by little. And then the leader’s words drove it home like a nail.
“The debt from before, plus the money borrowed today. Unless all of it is repaid, you cannot take this child back. Are we understood?”
“Of course!”
“…….”
My father answered with full conviction. Then he looked at the bag of money and grinned from ear to ear. I slowly, limply let my paw drop. My tail, which had been held stiff, gradually fell and hung low.
Having a man like that as a father — being betrayed like this not for the first time or second time, and yet still believing he was family — I felt pathetic. Was my father expecting me to escape on my own again, like always? No. No, that wasn’t it. He was simply overjoyed at the sight of money, and nothing else.
“…Euwng.”
A mournful sound slipped out from somewhere deep in my throat, but my father never once looked back at me.
His eyes, to the very end, held nothing but money.
“Now that your business is done, go. Oh — the repayment period is three months. If it isn’t paid back by then, this child will….”
You know what happens next. The leader murmured it in a low, warning tone, leaving the rest unsaid. My father, who hadn’t even heard everything, shouted back with full confidence.
“Yes, of course!”
My father left, clutching the bag of money tightly to his chest as if terrified someone might take it from him.
He never held me like that. Not once.
It felt hollow. As I breathed hard and clenched my teeth against the tears threatening to spill at any moment, the cage rattled. All the tension and vigilance had worn me out, and without realizing it, my body had gone completely flat against the floor.
My gaze fell naturally to the bottom of the cage.
A moment later, the cage was turned around, and I found myself face to face, with no way out of it, with the leader of this group — a dangerous man. His firmly pressed lips made him look even colder, and his sharp, luminous eyes pierced straight through me.
On instinct, I thrust my paw through the bars and tried to claw at him.
“This little thing — who do you think you’re showing your claws to?”
“Hryaow!”
At that moment, one of the man’s subordinates yanked the cage holding me sharply upward, sending me sliding inside. My side slammed hard into the bars.
