𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚛𝚘𝚊𝚍𝚜

honestly, seongmin's had enough of this damn dog.

it's always something. a fake limp, a roll through the mud, senseless barking... maybe he should scold her less, because now? while he's standing here bent over, hands on his knees with her leash clutched in one and gasping for breath? all of those other instances seem pretty minor.

he's reached the part of his search in which he's starting to consider calling in backup. there's only so far she could go, and most people in town know her by her ugly mug. they ought to know she's his and that if she's unattended, it's not intentional. sighing, he stands straight and wipes the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

"god, this is such bullshit," he grumbles, slowly resuming walking. much less energized than before; he's accepted that at this point, he should start asking people if they've seen her and, if they haven't, to look out for her. he's almost to the square. he turns a corner, and he sees the damn dog.

"kkabi!" he calls sharply. she turns to look at him, but she is not particularly obedient, or loyal. she doesn't come. she stays where she is, and she looks away from him within seconds, either unaware or completely unbothered by all of the hell that she's put him through this morning. she's sitting at the feet of ahn gayoung, her tail wagging lazily. the sight sickens him.

he approaches in quick strides, and, though kkabi doesn't appear to be trying to go anywhere, he snaps the leash to her collar immediately, lest the chase break out again. only then does he address gayoung. "hi, i'm... i'm sorry, i've been chasing her all morning."

he looks at kkabi and sighs again, out of relief this time.

as she sat down on a bench, she pulled out her notepad to review the questions she wanted to ask. she read through the first one, then the second - but her attention didn’t linger long. from the corner of her eye, she spotted something moving. at first, she assumed it was someone she might recognize, but when she looked in that direction, she didn’t see anything that caught her attention.

returning to her notes, gayoung tried to refocus as she scribbled a few more words onto the page, though her thoughts kept drifting back to the movement she noticed earlier. when she looked up a second time, there was still nothing unusual that she began to question herself. “no, maybe my glasses are dirty.” she reasoned while taking them off, only to see a blurry figure approaching her. her eyes widened as she quickly wiped her glasses with the hem of her shirt and put them back on. this time, she saw it clearly - a dog. caught off guard, gayoung wondered if this had been what she’d noticed earlier.

“hey, buddy,” she greeted, a bit unsure whether the sapsali dog was friendly. she slowly held out her free hand, letting the dog sniff her. once it seemed comfortable, she gently began petting its head, her notepad momentarily forgotten at her side. “i’ve never seen you before! you’re a-” her words were interrupted when she noticed someone approaching. her mind raced through the names of everyone she had met or heard of in town.