Pet King

Fina refused to get close to the bathtub ever since Sihwa had moved in. Even if it did, it only approached the tub to sprinkle cat litter or chili powder into it.

It thought that the side of the tub would be wet, yet it was surprisingly dry, with the faint scent of Zhang Zian lingering. Maybe he had sat there recently.

It was hard to stand on the side of the slippery tub, but it was not a problem to Fina, whose body had maximum balance and flexibility.

After standing firm, it relaxed itself. Its body was not as tense as it was before because there was no way to stay away from her water splash in its current position.

But it didn’t need to run. Simply stretching out its claws and scratching her shoulder would do the trick, causing both of them to suffer.

After seeing it pop out next to her, Sihwa was indeed startled. She had never been so close to it. Its sharp teeth and claws looked terrifying. Its green eyes were like bottomless ponds of water, making it impossible to figure out what it was thinking about.

She shrugged her shoulders. Despite the fear in her heart, she said with her head up, “Do you want to play? Be careful and don’t touch the water. This cell phone is waterproof, but I can’t be 100% sure.”

As she spoke, she activated the screen and put the phone in front of Fina’s face.

Fina glanced at her, then lowered its head to look at the phone. It clicked on the screen with its front paw.

It could not separate its fingers like a human. It didn’t even know which icon it had clicked on. The screen suddenly switched. A golden cat with dark golden streaks and spots was looking straight into its eyes.

Fina was astonished and retracted its claws quickly.

“Haha! Don’t be afraid. This is the camera. You just touched the camera button. This is for selfies!” Sihwa laughed hard, teaching Fina all that she had just learnt from Zhang Zian.

Fina’e eyes turned slightly serious. Was her real intention to just startle it then mock it?

Yet, her laughter was genuine––there was no mocking in it.

“Press that button again and you’ll get yourself a picture!” she hurried. “Just click it. The camera drains the battery fast.”

So, what kind of trap is this?

Fina glanced at her again and stretched its paws out. Now there was only one big button at the bottom of the screen––it could not miss it.

A picture of itself appeared on the screen. It looked cautious and curious in the picture. The camera focused on its face. The stretched out claw had turned blurry since it was closer to the lens.

“…What kind of sh***y phone is this? This picture doesn’t look like me,” Fina finally said as it glanced over the picture.

In the picture, its eyes were extremely big. Its chin was too sharp. Even its light golden hair was turned white and yellowish.

“The phone is not sh***y! You turned on the retouch function!” Sihwa grabbed the phone, recalled the procedures, and turned off the retouch function. Then she pointed the front camera at Fina and clicked the capture button.

The new picture looked much more like Fina––it was much better than before. In the previous picture, Fina was barely recognizable by its own mother…

“Humph! Humans just love such pretentious and deceiving things!” Fina vented with contempt.

“I don’t like retouched selfies either. I’m pretty enough myself!” Sihwa took another selfie with confidence, then looked at it with content.

She took another selfie from a different angle, then another one with scissor hands next to her chin, like a girl on the street.

“Humph!” Fina mumbled, but it didn’t utter anything sarcastic.

“Didn’t you say that the camera drains the battery? Why are you taking one after another?” It could not stay silent anymore after it saw her taking endless selfies.

“Wow! I just took a few pictures and the power is down so much!” After seeing the battery bar going down, Sihwa quickly turned off the camera.

What a simple-minded idiot. I overestimated her by assuming that she could set up a trap… Fina thought in silence.

This is boring!

Fina shook its head.

Sihwa was a bit odd today. Maybe she took the wrong medication. Could she have swallowed all the fish medicine that Zhang Zian had bought?

Anyway, it was none of its business. Since she was not starting a fight, it would let her go for now, then head downstairs for a digestion nap.

Fina swirled its tail and turned its body, ready to jump off the bathtub.

“Hey… hey!” Sihwa yelled behind it.

There were only two of them in the bathroom, so she was obviously calling for Fina.

“What?” Fina turned its face and asked impolitely.

For a moment, it sensed that her abdomen was contracting. It thought that she was finally about to tear off the pretentious kindness and start an attack.

It held back and didn’t attack first because of a thought raised by its common sense–– even if she was an idiot, she should not be stupid enough to call the enemy before starting a sudden attack…

Sihwa didn’t strike a sudden attack. She wiggled her body with shyness. Her cheeks and forehead were as red as a cooked lobster. She whispered in a shy voice, “Fi… Fina, is it? It’s a pretty name.”

Fina’s body froze for a moment. Ever since it had arrived at the pet shop, nobody had told it that its name was pretty.

“To be precise, it’s Fina Paris XIII,” it said with reservation and pride as it came back to its senses. “It is a noble name passed down from the ancient times. It can only be inherited by the highest royal priest of Bubastis Bastet Temple… That idiot servant thought it was too long and simplified it.”

“I… I also agree that Fina sounds prettier. That full name is too long. I can’t remember it either… ” she said as she scratched her head.

It was not long, okay? You thought it was too long to be remembered because you and him were both idiots!

If all humans were idiots, the creatures that resembled human were also infected with stupidity… Fina thought seriously.

“That… Fi… Fina, is there anything that you want to tell me?” she asked loudly. She gazed upon it with big blue eyes with some kind of expectation, as if she wanted to say, “Kind words! Say some kind words about me!”

Fina didn’t get it at first, but her eyes were too easily understood. After hesitating for a while, it said reluctantly, “…Sihwa is also a pretty name.”

“Right? Right? Sihwa means to bloom with radiant beauty in this world! It’s also an ancient name!” Sihwa shook her head happily.

Do not impose on others what you don’t want to be imposed on yourself. The phrase was corrected if it was said the other way: If you didn’t wish to be treated a certain way, don’t treat others the same way. In other words, if you wanted to be treated a certain way, you should treat others the same way.

Complimenting each other seemed much happier than harming each other!

After she was complimented, her body felt greatly relieved and lightened. After hearing mean words, the heart was about to jump out of the chest with anger…

Sihwa regretted this. Why had not she found out about this earlier?

Fina saw that her face was changing quickly. Once she seemed to be pondering attentively, then she chuckled with stupidity.

So, what were they doing? Wasting their nap time to compliment each other on the pretty names? It was so boring!

No. It could be infected with stupidity by staying with an idiot. Two thousand years ago, it would never do such a boring thing!

Fina arched its back, ready to jump straight to the bathroom door.

“Fi… Fina!” Sihwa called it hesitantly.

“What again?” it asked as it turned its head impatiently.

She stretched out a hand at it. “How… How about being friends?”

Fina stared at her fair-skinned palm speechlessly…

Sihwa said in a hurry, “I saw on TV that friends shake their hands!”

“…Why would we be friends?” Fina asked without taking sides.

“Because… Because I don’t have any friends yet…” She bowed her head in embarrassment, then secretly squinted to observe its face. “Is… Is that okay?”

Fina felt restless for some reason. It really hoped that it was a trap. Having a good fight was much better than being gazed at by her like so. Even being smashed against the wall by water bomb was much more comfortable than their current situation!

“I only have enemies, servants, and subordinates,” it said with arrogance. “In front of me, the enemies will perish, the servants will serve, and the subordinates will fulfill their duties.”

Sihwa didn’t understand, but she felt that its tone was harsh, as if it had rejected her. She retracted her hand in fear with a lot of disappointment in her heart. It took her a lot of courage to ask for its friendship, after all.

“But it’s fine to have a friend…” Fina said super quickly. Then it flung a paw and tapped her in the palm.

Its soft paw pad and her soft palm touched each other then parted.

Sihwa stared at her palm in stupor, as if she was still savoring the touch.

“If you don’t have anything else, I’m going for a rest.” Fina turned its head away without looking at her.

“Wait! There’s one more thing!”

Sihwa quickly took out her phone, turned on the screen, and activated the camera.

“Shall… Shall we take a selfie?” she asked while biting her lip. “I see that friends on the street all take selfies together.”

Fina could not wait to get out of the bathroom so that it could head downstairs for a nap. Maybe dropping by here in the afternoon was a huge mistake.

It asked impatiently, “Isn’t your battery almost dead?”

“So… Hurry up! Don’t waste time!” Sihwa hurried it.

Fina said will ill-temper, “Just one. If you botch it, I’ll leave! Also, no retouch!”

“I know it!”

Sihwa cheered up. She flipped the screen, leaned against the bathtub close to Fina, then lifted her scissor hands and reminded it, “If you put a paw next to your chin, it’s even cuter!”

“Are you taking this or not?” Fina had almost lost its patience. It felt so annoyed that it was about to roar.

“Fine. Don’t move. I’m ready to capture!”

As she pressed down her finger, the screen was captured and froze. Without that light blue fish tail, it looked like a common selfie of a girl with a cat.