Are you okay?

Are you okay?

“Grr!”

Yuna seemed to like the plastic bag, as she kept wearing it while chasing Cotton.

I was happy to see Yuna, who usually has a calm personality, enjoying herself so much, and I followed her while giggling.

Cotton, unable to take it anymore, puffed up its fur and climbed on top of Yuna’s head.

“Peep!”

Then, showing a clearly sulky reaction, it buried its face in Yuna’s head (on the plastic bag).

Seeing this, Yuna became flustered and didn’t know what to do, then squatted down on the floor and said to me.

“Cotton is angry.”

“Peep!”

“I don’t know why…”

“Beep!”

Somteol continues to be angry, seemingly unable to calm down.

Seeing this, Chae-a and I exchange glances and decide to have a meeting to figure out how to appease Somteol.

“Hey, what should we do!?”

Chae-a urgently approaches me and whispers in my ear, asking what to do.

After pondering for a moment, I suggest that we could try doing things Somteol usually likes to help calm him down.

“Things Somteol likes…? He loves food!”

Chae-a giggles and gives a simple but accurate answer.

I’m impressed by Chae-a’s quick response and start patting her head vigorously.

Yuna looks at us glumly while taking off her plastic bag.

I reach out my hand to help Yuna up, then.

I whisper to Yuna what we should do.

“… I like that.”

Yuna seems to like my suggestion, nodding her head quickly and wagging her tail.

*

The plan to cheer up Somteol was very straightforward.

It was simply to do all the things that Somteol would like.

So we planned to get food and toys to give to Somteol, but.

We faced one big problem.

Since Chae-a’s clothes were confiscated(?), we didn’t have any snacks left.

‘To be precise, they weren’t our snacks but Somteol’s snacks.’

So we were all gathered together, racking our brains about what to do.

Yuna came up with a good idea.

“How about the convi… convenience store? Let’s buy something there.”

The idea was to buy something from the convenience store as a gift for Somteol.

I thought that sounded good, so I nodded and my eyes sparkled.

‘I’ve saved up my allowance well, so I can use that.’

I pondered for a moment, wondering how much would be enough.

I continued speaking as I crumpled a 10,000 won bill into my pocket.

‘This should be enough.’

Thinking that 10,000 won would make me the king of the convenience store (or not), I spoke to Chae-a and Yuna.

“Then shall we go to the convi store?”

At those words, Chae-a hesitated for a moment, then spoke to me in a worried voice.

“But if we go to the convi store, they scold us saying big adults like us aren’t allowed. What should we do?”

Adults scolding us? That can’t be right.

Confused, I asked again, and Chae-a told me about a previous experience.

“When I tried to go into the convi store with Pigeon Uncle, they pushed us out with a broom.”

Hearing the story, it seemed that Chae-a had been chased out along with the pigeon.

‘I don’t think they were trying to chase Chae-a away…’

From Chae-a’s perspective, it must have felt no different from being driven out.

I felt a little sad as I looked at Chae-a, who was watching our reactions.

I held Chae-a’s hand and said:

“Don’t worry Chae-a, if anyone tries to chase you away, I’ll protect you!”

Chae-a nodded with a bright smile at those words.

I feel like I acted mature for the first time in a while…

No, I shook my head thinking it’s not after a long time since I always act maturely.

‘Anyway, the important thing is.’

To cheer up Somteol.

I decided to go to the convenience store and buy various things, so I held Chae-a and Yuna’s hands and moved forward.

*

Since it seemed a bit unsafe for just us to go alone.

After asking the counselor to act as a guardian, we headed straight to the convenience store.

‘As an adult, I could take Chae-a and Yuna by myself.’

But being prepared for any situation was more important than anything else.

So rather than being stubborn, I decided to compromise and move forward with the counselor, when.

The counselor made a suggestion to us.

“I’ll wait outside the convenience store. Why don’t you three go buy things by yourselves?”

It seems they’re making this suggestion for our independence.

I don’t mind, but wondering if Chae-a and Yuna might be scared, I glanced at them.

“I want to eat ice cream again.”

Chae-a seemed unconcerned.

“It feels totally like being an adult.”

Yuna’s eyes were sparkling, as if she thought it was grown-up to run errands without adults.

After confirming this, I nodded, thinking it would be fine for us to go without the teacher.

“Then the teacher will stay here, so go ahead and try. If there’s any problem, make sure to tell the teacher, okay?”

“Yes…!”

“And Ha-eun, make sure to hold your sisters’ hands tightly so you don’t get lost.”

“…?”

At those words, I opened and closed my mouth before finally keeping it shut.

Still, I couldn’t help feeling a bit gloomy, so I was tapping the floor with my tail when Yuna grabbed my hand tightly and said.

“I’ll show you the way, sister.”

Yuna’s hand was slightly sweaty, probably from nervousness.

Seeing Yuna like this, I thought that for the little ones, such an errand could be a huge challenge.

So without saying much, I smiled and patted Yuna’s back as if to say “cheer up”.

*

As we entered the convenience store, the part-timer greeted us.

“Welcome… huh?”

Perhaps because my, Chae-a’s, and Yuna’s heights were very short, they couldn’t spot us and looked around.

With a puzzled expression, they frowned slightly and muttered.

“Did ghosts come in?”

At those words, I tried to wave my hand to greet them.

But because Chae-a and Yuna’s expressions were quite stiff due to tension, it was awkward to call the employee.

‘I expected it from Yuna, but I didn’t think Chae-a would be nervous too.’

I guessed that they might be tense, wondering if they would be kicked out again like last time.

I held their hands tightly to reassure them and started looking around for food to give as a gift to Somteol.

‘I wonder what Somteol likes?’

The three of us crouched down on the floor and began to have a rather serious discussion while looking at the dog treats, cat treats, and pet food placed below.

“This looks like something Somteol would like.”

She pointed at the cat treats and offered her opinion to me.

Chae-a, who was next to me, nodded with sparkling eyes, then pointed to the dog treats nearby and said.

“But wouldn’t something this big be better!? Chae-a likes big things like this!”

I nodded as Chae-a’s point certainly made sense.

After all, a big gift was usually exciting due to its sheer size.

As I was looking at the dog treats, thinking it might be a good choice, this time Yuna pointed to the pet food nearby and said.

“This one has pictures of puppies and kitties. They look happy, so it seems nice.”

Hearing this, Chae-a’s eyes widened as if she had realized something, and she started nodding vigorously, agreeing with Yuna’s words.

“Yuna is so smart…! I think you’re right!”

Yuna seemed pleased with being called smart and started wagging her tail excitedly.

As I was patting Yuna’s head, thinking how glad I was that she was happy.

“Ah! You startled me!”

A scream and a startled voice came from behind us.

Surprised by the sound, the three of us immediately lay flat on the floor.

As we trembled, thinking that an adult yelling was somehow scary.

A flustered voice echoed from behind us.

“Uh, um? So, Ha-eun and Chae-a… and Yuni’s group?”

It seems Yuna is not familiar with the names since she hasn’t been with the association for long.

He called our names one by one with a confused look, then awkwardly smiled and greeted us.

“So, um… hello?”

Seeing his hand waving awkwardly, we looked at each other and blinked.

As if we had planned it, we greeted him in order.

“Hello?”

“Hello.”

“… Hi.”

As we greeted him, the man smiled as if he was very happy and asked us a question.

“Yes, hello! Do you need anything? If there’s something you can’t reach or need, just let me know anytime. I’ll help you!”

At those words, Chae-a’s eyes sparkled, and she ran towards the man, flapping her hands.

“We need to buy something yummy for Somteol…! Because Somteol went ‘peep’ and got angry, so we need to give him something yummy to make him feel better. But Somteol is cute even when he’s angry. He’s all white and his fur is so soft, I really like him. Do you like Somteol, uncle? I really like him.”

The part-timer seemed dazed by the flood of words, looking blank for a moment before awkwardly nodding and agreeing with Chae-a.

“Y-yes, Somteol is cute.”

“Right…! He’s really cute! He’s so cute that when I hug him like this, he goes ‘peep’ and likes it!”

“Uh-huh? Yeah.”

“And…”

It seemed like the conversation would go on endlessly.

So I thought it would be better to calm Chae-a down first, and I grabbed her hand and pulled her towards us.

“I apologize.”

She bowed her head slightly, meaning she was sorry for bothering us when we were busy.

She was trying to quickly buy something that Somteol would like.

Yuna pointed at the pet food and spoke to the clerk.

“Is this delicious?”

“… Huh?”

“The dogs and cats look happy. So it seems delicious. Right?”

The employee looked at Yuna with a very confused expression at such a question.