episode_0019

I’ve never heard of Narin’s phone number, but she left me her contact information so I could call her if anything happened.

There were only three names in my contact list. One was for Na-rin. One was for the police station. And the last one was for the fire station.

If anything happens, call Narin. But if something really urgent or dangerous happens, call the police, and if there’s a fire, call the fire department.

It was a request that only children would give, but I took it to heart. No, it was already common sense, so I didn’t really need to worry about it.

Anyway, I left the two contacts that I hoped I would never need to use, and pressed down on Narin’s contact with my palm.

“Hamshik-ah, Hamshik-ah! I’m going to call Na-rin-ee now. It’s lunchtime, so she’ll pick up, right? She won’t be working so she won’t not pick up.”

“Tick.”

“Hey, right. Just stay still. You didn’t let me in when you were playing with the box, but now you want to play with me when I touch my phone. Are you a cat? You’re a hamster.”

I just waited for 12 o’clock to come. I was going to call Narin and tell her that we were taking good care of the house.

I was thinking of doing that so we could see each other’s faces, but Hamsik kept pulling me from behind.

Hamshik used to wrestle with boxes, but he wouldn’t let me touch it, so I left him to play by himself and just rolled around.

Look at the symbol that can’t stand to see me playing by myself while doing something else. He’s just a hamster that needs love and attention.

But what can I do? I’m the smart one so I’ll have to give in. This is all just Hamshik throwing tantrums.

“Okay, let’s call Hamshik too. Uh… … . That’s not it? What do you want to see?”

I thought he just wanted me to play with him, but it seemed like Hamshik wasn’t asking me to look at him, but was trying to drag me somewhere.

So I followed him to see where he wanted to go. It was the kitchen, which was so obvious that I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it.

It’s lunchtime. And Hamshik is always hungry. Even Hamshik, who can’t understand what’s being said, knows who can feed him.

“Aha, Hamshik wants to eat. Right? Oh, then let’s go up there and call my sister! My sister will be eating right now, so if we eat while video calling, we can eat together.”

I forgot about that. Well, they say even geniuses forget things sometimes. I guess I can do that too.

Anyway, the idea that came to mind thanks to Hamshik was really great. I could eat with my coworkers, but the more people I eat with, the better.

I know because I ate alone in the hospital. My mother and father couldn’t always be by my side anyway.

And unless it was an emergency, I didn’t really need a caregiver. So when the nurse brought me food during mealtimes, I often ate by myself.

It would be better if there were other patients in the next bed. Even if there were, they were all sick, and it wasn’t often possible to have a proper conversation with them.

Even that was often empty. That’s understandable, since cancer patients were considered seriously ill and were grouped together with other sick people.

From the doctors and nurses’ point of view, it is efficient to admit sick people to one room and check on them frequently, and it is also better for the patients.

But since they are all sick people, there were times when I also got depressed by the mood of those sick people. Maybe that’s why I also darkened other people’s moods.

Anyway, that’s why I want to eat with Narin. See her face and talk to her.

I said I’d be okay with just eating with Hamshik, but when I saw you yesterday, Narin was eating alone. Wouldn’t she be lonely?

So I held the rope with one hand, carrying the cell phone for Narin and Hamshik.

The goal is up there, the rice that Narin took out. And the microwave. All I have to do is microwave the rice in the covered bowl.

“Hamshik-ah, can you go up again like before?”

Of course, there was no answer. But Hamshik also knew that I was climbing up the rope, so he went up ahead of me without looking back.

If you look closely, the hind legs also seemed to be holding the rope well like hands and were going up alternately, so it felt more like hands than hind legs.

It was also funny how the blunt, round tail twitched. So I chuckled, but then I looked at Hamshik’s expression, thinking that maybe he heard that sound since he already has good ears.

But anyway, he can’t turn around here with his body, right? Hehe, what would he do if he heard that? He’d laugh even harder.

Hamshik continued to wiggle his butt as he climbed onto the sink. Then he stuck his head out towards me.

I was stabbed and immediately screamed.

“Oh my gosh, are you mad because I laughed? Are you going to cut the rope? No!

Of course, Hamshik never did that. But when he took a deep breath, it felt like he was sighing as if he was feeling pathetic.

I think he was just trying to see if I was doing well, but somehow, when I saw that sigh, it felt strange because it felt like Hamshik was treating me like a child.

But if that was really the case, wouldn’t he have accepted my phone first? He was just hungry and used his extraordinary physical ability for a hamster to get up here.

When I successfully rappelled to the top, Hamshik was already waiting in front of the container containing food.

Even though he’s a ham, he doesn’t know how to use a microwave. I was proud of that.

“Hehe, you need me too? Then I’m going to microwave it now, so ham-shik, stay away. I’ll make you some food!”

To be exact, I’m just reheating the food that Narin has already prepared. But anyway, I’m the one feeding Hamshik.

Put the container in and close the microwave door. Then set the time. 1 minute seems too short, and 2 minutes seems too long, so 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Beep beep beep, Hamshik’s nose perked up at the sound of each button he pressed while hanging on the microwave handle. Can he hear it with his nose?

Anyway, all I have to do is wait, now I have legally obtained my freedom from Hamshik.

1 minute and 30 seconds. Isn’t that enough time to make a phone call? So I brought a container filled with some unknown liquid and used it as a stand, leaned my phone against it, and called Narin. Through a video call.

After a couple of monotonous ringtones, Narin’s face appeared on the screen.

[Namina! Are you eating lunch?]

“The microwave is on now! Hamshik and I came up to eat. Hamshik, I’m Na-rin’s sister. Say hello.”

Of course, Hamshik didn’t listen to me. Instead, he was preoccupied with staring at the microwave with its orange light flashing.

Do you think spinning around like that could hypnotize you? But if you spin around while lying down, you won’t get dizzy.

Well, I wouldn’t listen even if I dragged Hamshik over and tried to introduce him. I spoke while stroking Hamshik’s soft fur on his back.

“Hehehe. Hamshik seems to be curious about the microwave. Are you having lunch too, Unnie?”

[Yeah. I came down to eat now. How are you two doing?]

“Of course. Oh, I also went grocery shopping earlier. I was going to order 100 packs of ramen because they were selling them cheap, but I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish them all that quickly, so I ordered a box of cup rice, detergent, and 10 packs of fabric softener. Oh, and I also made a house with the ham and the box.”

I wanted to show you that I wasn’t just playing around. I couldn’t show you what I ordered online because it wouldn’t be delivered right away, but I could show you the hideout that Hamshik made.

So I turned my phone screen around to show her the house made of boxes. Narin’s expression was unusual.

[Oh, um. It’s well made. I was going to use it for recycling, but you guys are free to play with it. But how many bottles of detergent and fabric softener are there…?]

“Ten bundles! Ten each!”

[Uh… … . It takes about three months to use one of those. If I had ten… … . Yeah, it would be good to use them for a long time. Thank you, Namin.]

“Hehe, what!”

Maybe it was a bit burdensome because there were so many. But I felt proud when he said thank you.

And when he heard Narin’s voice from this side, Hamshik also became interested and crawled over to look at his phone screen.

Narin waved to Hamshik and showed him the plate she had received.

[Sister, you’re going to eat now. Should we eat together? Is your phone battery enough?]

“Okay! There’s still a lot left, but it’s okay because I know how to charge it when the battery runs low. Hey, Hamshik, that’s not for eating!”

Was it because the food beyond the screen LCD looked so delicious? Suddenly, Hamshik stood up, holding the phone with both hands, and started licking the phone screen with his tongue.

“Ugh. Spit on the screen! Hamshik, Hamshikaaaah!”

Hamshik never listens to me no matter how hard I try to stop him. Narin doesn’t know what I’m doing and is just busy laughing out loud.

Hamshik’s tongue stopped only after the microwave made a ding sound.

“Keeek!”