Chapter 389: Forgotten Bear

By now, he was already five or six years old.

Converted into human years, he would already be an old cat in his thirties or forties.

However, even a cat in its teens would still be considered an adorable little cutie in human eyes. Joo Joowon found it difficult to regard Byeol as an adult.

Therefore, there was no need for Byeol to transform into a human just to convince him that he was already grown up.

"Meow!" Byeol angrily swung his paw at Joo Joowon, keeping his claws retracted.

He had already told him not to entertain any ideas about becoming his dad!

Weren't they supposed to have nothing but pure siblings affection between them?!

Joo Joowon refused to listen. The way cats and dogs viewed humans was truly very different. Perhaps he could have comforted himself with wishful thinking if he had never understood cat language, but now that he could understand it, he could no longer pretend not to know the truth.

But Hwi already called him Dad! By extension, didn't that mean Byeol was his child too?

Joo Joowon emphasized, "Strictly speaking, you really do count as something I gave birth to now."

Byeol covered his ears.

"There's no use pretending you can't hear me." Joo Joowon lifted him up. "You look exactly like me now."

"Meow!" Nonsense! I'm not nearly as ugly as you!

Joo Joowon: "....."

He really wanted to tell Byeol that, in the world of cats, he was not particularly good looking either.

However, after thinking about it, that might not necessarily be true.

Among cats, females with more varied coat colors were indeed more popular, and those with stronger physiques were also more favored. However, strength could erase all these differences.

As long as a cat fought fiercely in its daily life and won battle after battle, it would still attract admiration, no matter how unattractive its coat color might be in the eyes of other cats.

Strength was the best beauty treatment.

After all, there had never been a shortage of white stray cats getting pregnant, either.

However, white cats did indeed have a higher chance of developing certain illnesses than other cats. Before the apocalypse arrived, whenever Joo Joowon took Byeol to the pet hospital for a checkup over the past two years, he had always worried that Byeol might be unable to hear through the ear on the same side as his blue eye.

White cats with blue eyes had a high probability of being deaf.

Although Joo Joowon knew that cats with more varied coat colors were more popular among other cats, he had never imagined that, in the eyes of cats, humans could actually be considered ugly monsters.

How could they look at the people who fed and clothed them that way? He had already put up with being called a human servant who cleaned up after them, but how could they even complain about his appearance?

Byeol glanced at Joo Joowon's expression. Seeing that his face had not changed very much, he casually shifted his gaze away as if nothing had happened.

He had not meant to hurt Joo Joowon's feelings, but he really could not accept growing up looking like this. Even Hwi would probably laugh himself to death if he saw him.

Joo Joowon did not tease him any further. What would be the difference between that and telling a child that her parents had another baby and no longer wanted her?

However, he had originally thought that he might feel a little uncomfortable when he saw Byeol again. In reality, though, whenever he looked at Byeol, he simply could not connect the black skinned catgirl he had seen earlier with Byeol's current appearance.

If there really was no way to change him back in the future, Joo Joowon felt that he should be able to get used to it... probably?

Of course, if Byeol stayed in his cat form while resting in Joo Joowon's arms, but transformed into a human when helping him clean the house and cook, Joo Joowon felt that he might be able to accept that too.

After all, who would not want a cat that could clean the house and perhaps even cosplay?

Joo Joowon had always been enthusiastic about dressing up his 'daughter.' He had bought Byeol plenty of little outfits in the past, but Byeol simply had not liked them. Whenever Joo Joowon was away from home, Byeol would bite all of them to pieces. He had even gone through several leashes.

Byeol disliked the feeling of being restrained.

After taking a detour around several areas where signs of life could be detected, Joo Joowon finally left the Hwarim Nature Reserve and headed toward his territory.

He vaguely felt as though he had forgotten something. However, since he could not even recall what it was, he figured it probably was not anything important.

After Byeol had used up most of the Star Fiend energy, there was very little left. Naturally, Joo Joowon's original plan to level up was no longer very realistic.

Joo Joowon did not mind. Every now and then, he glanced at Byeol's status panel, worried that something might happen to him.

He did not believe that using a skill that exceeded one's own capabilities could come without a price. But where exactly had the price been paid?

When his territory was already within sight, Joo Joowon finally remembered what he had forgotten.

He had forgotten about Kang Taewoo!

At the time, he had been in such a hurry to take Byeol away that he had completely forgotten to investigate what Kang Taewoo had come there for in the first place.

Joo Joowon glanced at the green dot on the map that had not moved at all, then shook his head.

Previously, he had been quite worried about this flawless substitution technique. Now, however, it seemed that the technique was not particularly clever after all.

The green dot had remained in the same position for so long without moving. It was difficult not to become suspicious.