episode_0003

Ah. So that’s why they keep pets. Narin thought as she slowly stroked the hair of the girl who was sleeping while eating her bungeoppang.

Hamshik, who had been crawling around on the floor, must have noticed that Narin was being kind to them. He came up next to him and stood tall, wagging his nose, as if asking to be petted.

So, Narin and Hamshik stroked the girl together. However, Hamshik’s goal was not to stroke Narin, so he just ran along the floor.

The direction was the black plastic bag that originally contained the bungeoppang. It seems like he smelled the bungeoppang and went looking for it.

“Hamshik-ah, I ate it all. That’s an empty bag. … … Oh, are you going to use it at home? I see. Hamsters like dark places. ”

Now that I think about it, I have to build a house for it. It would be a big problem if it falls asleep while sleeping in the same bed as me, but I can’t let it sleep on the floor or at the desk.

Although she was already feeling complicated about spending more money, looking at the two cute little creatures, Narin decided that it was worth it.

Narin, who had been staring at the two with that kind of feeling, turned her head towards the box and her expression darkened.

Hamsters are originally pets, but how cold-hearted of a person would you have to be to raise a child as a pet who is intelligent like a little girl and can even talk?

She is a fairy-like child, but she doesn’t have wings. If she’s like that, she could be a different race that came through the gate from another world. Then she could get an ID card.

If a child doesn’t even have a name, he or she doesn’t receive the benefits that are legally guaranteed. No, not even benefits. It’s a basic human right.

It’s a bad taste. Those in power and the rich used to try to enslave beautiful elven races.

Did you take this child in and raise it because you wanted a cute and pretty intelligent being as a pet, even though it didn’t have that level of ability?

Then, if I raise these kids, won’t I become just like them? Even if it’s okay because they’re hamsters, this little girl… … .

Bad thoughts were running rampant in Narin’s head. But if she were to let him go, he would be thrown into the cold world without even the most basic knowledge of modern civilization, so she couldn’t do that.

In the end, Narin made up her mind. She should be registered as a younger sister, not a pet. Her parents also had a name that they said they would give her if she had a younger sister.

“Namin. Let’s go with Inamin. Hamshik, what do you think of this name? Inamin.”

When you say it, the pronunciation gets muffled and it sounds like Mini. I wondered if it wasn’t a good name for a small girl. With that thought, I asked Na-rin Ham-shik for his opinion.

As expected, Hamshik didn’t react. He just popped his head out of the plastic bag for a moment when he heard a noise outside, then wiggled his nose and went back into the bag.

I guess he did like that delicious smell. It was funny how he turned over with his hind legs out like that.

“Hmm. Anyway, it’s a better name than Hamsooni, right?”

“Kkiiik!”

“Ahahaha. Yeah, yeah. You really understand what I’m saying, don’t you? Or do you not like the sound of Hamsoon?”

“Keee!”

“Okay, okay.”

Whatever the reason, it was probably a name that didn’t sound bad to Hamshik’s ears. Hoping that the girl would like this name, Narin brought the box that had arrived by courier and started to fold it.

I can’t buy you a nice house right now, but I think there should be a space where Na-min and Ham-shik can feel comfortable.

First, make the entrance round. Make a door that they can come in and out of, so they can open and close it whenever they want.

Hamsters like dark places, so I was thinking about not making a window, but I thought it might be a bit stuffy for Namin, so I made one with a square hole.

Square, square. Curious about the sound of the box being opened, Hamshik came out of the plastic rustling and looked at Nalin.

As if he knew that it was his house just by looking at it, he came crawling up to it even though it wasn’t finished yet and started climbing up Narin’s legs.

“Hey, Hamshik. Can I come in here? It’s not finished yet.”

Although she said it in surprise, Narin didn’t expect Hamshik to understand what she was saying anyway. There’s no way a hamster could understand human speech.

Still, since I had managed to get the basics together, I let the ham go into the box.

The sight of her legs slowly crawling up, sliding down her thighs, and then sliding into the box. Seeing that, Narin smiled without realizing it.

“Okay, let’s make the rest tomorrow. I have to wash up and go to bed now… … . For now, should I put some toilet paper in here? Even if we just have that, it’ll be a little cold in our house, no matter how much we heat it.”

If there’s a ham inside, you can’t turn the box around and cut it with scissors. You can try to do it, but the ham inside will roll around and suffer.

Well, she might like it, but she didn’t know how stressful it would be to tease a speechless animal just because it was cute, so Narin decided not to play such a prank.

I don’t want to be the same person who abandoned them. I will never bully these kids for my own good.

With that in mind, Narin puts tissues in the box that originally contained Namin and Hamshik.

It was ironic that Hamshik welcomed his former owner’s last consideration with open front paws.

It was heartbreaking to have to put Namin in a place like that and let her sleep, but if I put her at the head of the bed and covered her with a blanket just to sleep in the same bed, she might end up getting crushed to death in her sleep.

Narin carefully lifted Namin and put her in the box before getting up from her seat. She was too busy caring about the children to do anything else.

Washed up and did the laundry. Honestly, I wanted to eat something more, but since Na-rin seemed to be going somewhere, I couldn’t eat anything secretly since Ham-shik was quietly sticking his face out the door.

“I’m not going to eat anything. I’m just going to wash up.”

Narin heads to the bathroom holding a cell phone, which is something that modern people can never leave their bodies. After Narin closes the bathroom door and disappears from sight, Hamshik climbs into the box.

Narin would never know that Hamshik was digging up wads of waste paper like he was digging the ground and covering Namin with them.

If I had been there, I might have been able to see what was happening because of the rustling sound. But the bathroom door was closed and the shower was on, so there was no way I would have noticed.

Since there’s no way Narin would know that something like that was happening, I guess the only thing I can do is not regret not taking a picture of it with my phone.

“Um… … .”

After taking off her clothes and waiting for the hot water to come out, Narin searched for information about hamsters.

Namin, although small in size, seemed like a creature just like a human, so I thought it would be okay to just give him an appropriate amount of food to eat.

Hamsters are different. Narin was especially worried because she had heard stories of dogs dying after eating chocolate by mistake, and cats dying after eating lilies.

First of all, almonds are really expensive. I thought they weren’t expensive because my dad used to eat them with alcohol, but when I went to the convenience store, they were 1,500 won for something that didn’t cost that much.

Then you’ll have to feed the hamster food. They say that this costs over ten thousand won for 600 grams.

I couldn’t guess how much that would be, so I did some research and found out that hamsters eat 10 grams per meal, which is about a spoonful.

Assuming you eat roughly three meals a day, 30 grams a day, then it would take about 20 days to eat one 600-gram can.

Feed costs about 20,000 won a month. Just looking at that, it’s easy to think that if you just cut down on unnecessary expenses, you can easily afford it.

Narin’s expression darkened as she thought about Hamsik’s eating habits, such as eating half a bungeoppang because one bungeoppang wasn’t enough.

How many grams is one bungeoppang? No, the weight and everything else, and the size itself, aren’t measured in spoons.

Only then did Nalin’s expression turn serious as she realized how much Hamshik eats compared to regular hamsters. Maybe the previous owner abandoned Hamshik and Namin because he couldn’t afford the cost of feeding them.

Should we estimate the amount of ham diet to be five times that of a regular hamster? No, ten times? Then, it already costs a whopping 200,000 won per month.

It was a difficult amount of money for a fresh graduate to afford. Of course, I could pay it if I wanted to, but the sacrifices I would have to make were too great.

“… … Ugh, I can’t help it. Life is important, not games.”

In the end, what Narin chose was to stop paying for the mobile games she enjoyed playing.

Narin’s only pleasure was picking out the pretty magical girls that were released periodically by purchasing the most efficient but expensive package, commonly called a truck.

If you just pay the monthly fee and season pass, you can collect most magical girls and equip them with decent equipment, unless you’re really lucky.

It was a bit disappointing that I had to stop paying those fees. My goal wasn’t to raise all the magical girls to their final specs like heavy gamers, but rather to give the pretty and cute girls good weapons and good armor.

Narin turned on the mobile game and looked at the white pigtailed magical girl holding a sniper rifle and the red ponytailed martial artist with moist eyes, and muttered in a voice that seemed to have made up her mind.

“Ah, right. It’s okay because it’s a game you can play without paying. If you skip the magical girls with poor performance or the magical girls you don’t like, you can beat the ceiling with just one of the three seasons… … It doesn’t matter because you’ll beat Ghost White and Ruby Cherry anyway! They say that the money you spend here will go to the magical girls, but it’s more important to help the cold and hungry ones right in front of you.”

As if responding to Narin’s determination, the two characters on the phone’s LCD nodded.

It was just a set motion, but Narin felt as if it was cheering her on, and her mind became much more at ease.

Today, it seemed like warm water came out quickly.