Pet King

Sihwa looked down and examined the photo. She zoomed in and out of the picture with what Zhang Zian had taught her, looking to the left and right, but she wasn’t satisfied. The picture was not able to faithfully reflect her unparalleled beauty. Her fingers that were doing the peace sign seemed to be too far apart… it looked a little fake. Fina wasn’t even looking at the camera; it seemed to lack interest in taking the picture.

“This photo isn’t good… shall we take another one?”

Although she had agreed to take just one photo, she had automatically changed it in her mind to, “Only one photo that looks great; the lousy ones are not included.”

She was about to call Fina over for another picture, but Fina had already jumped to the entrance of the bathroom, obviously not interested in taking another picture. Fina also did not respond to her, so she could only give up the idea.

Forget it; this photo is okay… There will be more chances in the future. I shall take as many pictures as I want after the phone is fully charged.

With her thoughts running, she moved her gaze to the battery icon and got an immediate shock.

“Oh no, this is terrible! Taking pictures really uses up a lot of battery!” She scratched her head, and cried out regretfully, “Is the battery for this phone fake? Why is it depleting so fast!”

Fina stood by the entrance; it did not leave immediately. Even though it really wanted to just turn and leave, it still asked coldly, “If there is no battery, why don’t you just charge it? Do you have to get this depressed?”

The hidden implication was: “Why are you so stupid?”

Sihwa complained. “I’m aware that I can just charge it, but that stingy person just wouldn’t hand me the charger. He kept saying that there would be an electrical leakage if it came in contact with the water. Does he think he’s lying to a child?”

Fina hesitated for a moment, then jumped back on the edge of the bathtub.

“Haha! Do you also want to take another picture?” Sihwa thought that she had seen through Fina’s thoughts. “But no, we can take another one tomorrow. There’s only a little bit of battery left and I still want to play with the live broadcast tonight!”

Fina snorted with disdain. “Hand the phone over to this queen.”

Sihwa was stunned. She did not know what Fina wanted the phone for… Could it be to make it its own?

“Hurry up! Don’t delay this queen’s nap time!” Fina said fiercely.

Sihwa did not want to hand the phone over to Fina because she was afraid that Fina would not come back, and the phone was her only entertainment. Without her phone, she was going to go crazy in the small bathroom.

But… Fina was her friend––her first friend––and Sihwa was the one who took the initiative to be friends with it. But now her friend had a request, so was she going to reject it?

Sihwa had not come in contact with the real society, but she had watched a lot of dramas. In those dramas, friends were always loyal—at least most of them were, though there were also a few bad friends who would do things to harm the main character behind their back.

Then, was Fina a bad friend?

Sihwa was unable to make up her mind.

The only way to get the answer was for her to take the risk and hand the phone over to Fina.

If Fina were to run away with the phone or smash the phone onto the floor with an evil smirk, she was going to lose two precious things in a single day––her phone and her friend.

Sihwa rubbed the back of her phone with her fingers. Her palms were sweaty from her mental struggle.

“Then… okay then, I’ll lend it to you, but you have to return it to me, okay?” Sihwa reluctantly handed the phone over, but she didn’t know how Fina was going to receive it.

Fina was already annoyed from waiting. She took the phone in her mouth, turned around, and ran out of the bathroom.

“Ya! My phone!” Sihwa exclaimed.

She felt that it was the end. Fina’s teeth were very sharp; she was definitely going to damage the phone, or maybe even shatter the screen with her teeth.

After Fina ran out, there was no more sounds or movements.

Sihwa stared at the door. She tried to call out, “Fina?”

There was no response.

It was quiet outside of the bathroom. Sihwa could only hear the sounds of the monkey outside typing on the keyboard and flipping through the pages of a book.

“Fina, where did you go?” she asked again.

There was still no response.

“Fina? Don’t scare me! Come back! That’s my phone! The cheapskate bought it for me and I’m only lending it to you, not giving it to you! If you want a phone, too, you can get him to buy you one!

Wu. How did things become like this!”

Her bad premonition seemed to have come true. No matter how much she called, Fina neither responded nor reappeared. She really felt like she had lost both her phone and her friend at the same time.

She looked down and started weeping; her tears poured into the bathtub. Sihwa had never cried, even at her worst when she was bullied by Fina. Of course, the tears from the chili powder didn’t count.

It turned out that no matter how happy one was when they made a friend, it was going to hurt worse when betrayed.

Maybe because of her crying, the typing sound from outside stopped. The swivel chair creaked and just moments later, a monkey’s face appeared at the bathroom entrance.

“Zhi zhi?” It leaned against the wall and started gesturing.

Sihwa wiped her eyes that were red from crying. She shook her head and said, “I can’t understand you.”

She seemed to recall that its name was Pi––what a weird name––and it was always sitting in front of a computer, typing away every day. It never seemed to get bored.

“Zhi zhi.” Pi scratched its head and cheeks. It awkwardly looked to the outside before it left.

A while later, the typing sound continued.

After Sihwa was interrupted by Pi, she stopped weeping and muttered to herself, “Just like this… Everyone can just leave me alone. I don’t need anyone to care for me, and I don’t want friends anyway… I only need oppa.”

She stared at her long, strong fishtail and wide caudal fin. If only she had legs like a human’s, then she would be able to run out and ask Fina why it betrayed her… No, if she had legs, she wouldn’t even be trapped in the small bathroom. She would be able to bravely pursue her true love like the heroine in the television series.

Right!

I don’t have legs, but I still got my hands!

She turned to look at the small bathroom. It was not even four meters from the bathtub to the bathroom entrance. If it it just that short distance, then maybe I can attempt to crawl out of here…

She wanted to see if Fina was still outside. She was going to give up after she had taken a look.

She acted without delay.

“Hei!”

She tried using her delicate arms as a support on the edge of the bathtub. She tried her best to lift her fishtail out of the water and to push it further out from the bathtub. The water from her fishtail flowed all over the floor.

Her fishtail, which was usually light and flexible, suddenly became very heavy once it was out of the water, and every inch it moved exhausted all of her strength.

Her arms, which were supporting her on the edge of the bathtub, trembled like dead branches in the autumn wind. She clenched her teeth and pulled her fishtail out of the water little by little.

All she wanted was to take a look at the bathroom entrance. She didn’t even consider how she was going to come back after looking, or whether it would still possible for her to return.

It was already so difficult for her to lift her heavy fishtail out of the bathtub… What about lifting it up from the floor? She hadn’t thought about that.

If she was not able to make it back, what was going to happen?

Zhang Zian had already gone out and he would not be back until sometime around midnight. It might not be until he returned that she would be found on the bathroom floor…

“Do you really want to be a dried, salted fish?” Fina’s cold voice rang from the side.

Sihwa looked up in surprise. She didn’t know when Fina had returned to the bathroom, but it was sitting on the cabinet as it lowered its head to place the phone on the counter and coldly stared at Sihwa.

Splash!

Sihwa’s arms weakened from the shock and she slipped back into the bathtub, both body and tail splashing out almost a third of the water in the bathtub.

Fina seemed to have expected Sihwa to try to climb out, so it hadn’t stood at the edge of the tub. It had wanted to avoid the disaster.

Pu!

Sihwa emerged out from the water. She wiped the water off of her face, not knowing if it was the tap water or her tears.

“Fi… Fina, where did you go? Why did it take you so long to come back?” Sihwa asked tearfully. “I… I thought you weren’t going to come back anymore…”

“A long time? This queen has only been away for a few minutes. It is not so exaggerated like what you said.” Fina pushed the phone forwards with her paws. “Your phone––here.”

Afraid that Fina would go back on her words, Sihwa pounced forward with great speed and picked up the phone. Like it was a precious treasure of hers, Sihwa repeatedly checked the phone countless times from the front to the back. She was surprised that there weren’t any teeth marks left on the phone, only some of Fina’s saliva.

What was going on? She clearly saw Fina bite the phone in her mouth and run away…

If Zhang Zian was here, he would definitely tell her that cats were able to hold their kittens in their mouth without hurting them, so how could Fina damage a phone that was much harder than a kitten?

She hugged her phone tightly in front of her chest. She stared at Fina and asked, “You… where did you go earlier?”

“Where did I go?” Initially, Fina did not want to answer the question, but because Sihwa was stupid––so stupid to the point where she was planning to leave the bathtub she depended on to survive––she said, “Of course, I went to look for the charger—since I can’t bring the charger into the bathroom, I can only bring the phone out to charge it.”

“Charge?” Sihwa blinked her eyes. The back of the phone did feel a little warm… It was even a little bit hot.

“Of course I went to charge the phone. Did you not say that the phone was running out of battery? Should I not have charged the phone since there is no battery?” Fina turned her head around. She felt that there was no helping Sihwa’s IQ.

Sihwa blinked her eyes again. She finally thought of unlocking her phone screen to take a look.

“Ah! What’s going on?” She shouted in surprise. The bar of the phone battery was out of the warning line and it was a lot longer than earlier! Even the number that represented the power had more than doubled!

“Did this queen not say that she went to charge the phone? Do you not have a brain or are you lacking knowledge?” Fina angrily asked.

“I know, of course, I know what charging is! But… you only left for a few minutes and there’s already this much battery?” Sihwa was so excited her heart jumped out of her mouth and she couldn’t even speak properly.

“Hmph! So stupid!” Fina felt that it took too much effort to converse with Sihwa––even communicating with an ant was easier than her. Fina deeply suspected that all of Sihwa’s body’s nutrients had gone to her chest…

“Do you not like to watch television?” Fina asked disdainfully. “Have you not heard of an advertisement on the television—’Charge it for five minutes, your call can go on for two hours?'”