Chapter 11: 10

Chapter 10

Abandonment?

Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil

 

When Bai Yao actually wakes up the next morning, he’s completely forgotten about the silly little sea otter.

His person is awake, but his brain is not. He spends a while gazing up into nothing before getting up. He thinks he had a weird dream, where a sentient sea otter that refuses to turn into human has latched onto him, ate through all the supplies of his most expensive scallops, and squeezed onto his bed at night to hold hands with him.

Bai Yao scratches his head. What in the world…?

Every day, Bai Yao wakes up just before seven. Oftentimes, he has to buy fresh catches at the port, or do some simple market research at the seafood market and check out the quality and prevalence of seafood dishes there to improve his own menu. He rarely has days when he’s free enough to sleep in.

His circadian rhythm is mostly fixed, so he’d wake up early even if he was actually free.

With sleepy eyes, he glances at the clock at the bedside. It’s barely a few minutes past six. Still, he probably won’t fall back asleep for long if he lied back down, so he gets up to wash, bundle up his hair, before preparing to leave.

The storeroom door next to his master bedroom is ajar. Bai Yao walks past it, but then immediately turns around. He normally has this locked, so why…

He pushes the door open, and a sea otter is lying in a corner of the room, with a blanket on top. Only his white little head is visible emerging from the blanket, and he is currently blanking out staring into space.

“Fucking hell.”

It wasn’t a dream after all.

Memories also start flowing back, and Bai Yao finally recalls what happened after seeing the little sea otter in the middle of the night last night.

After he woke up aware of what was happening, with his paw holding Bai Yao’s palm, he made a frightened squeak, and rolled off until he fell off the bed. It sounded painful, but he quickly ran for the door on all fours.

He was, for lack of a better term, the perfect representation of ‘fucking off.’

Bai Yao was confused, of course. Maybe the little thing had a nightmare. He thought about following after, but he was still too tired to leave the bed. After about a second, his eyes closed and he fell asleep, his brain wiping any memory then and there.

The little sea otter has reacted to Bai Yao’s presence in the meantime, by moving his head out of his little paws and squeaking in greeting.

Bai Yao stares at him for a while, before finally asking, “… you’re still here?”

He thought the little sea otter would have just left his restaurant to return to the sea, given how frightened he looked. So he just went back to the guest storeroom to sleep, huh.

No answer comes, as expected, and Bai Yao opens the window to refresh the air a little, while gesturing towards the little sea otter, “let’s head downstairs.”

Having tumbled over yesterday, the little sea otter is extra careful going downstairs. He’s tilting himself, only taking a step when he’s sure his webbed feet is firmly on the ground.

Bai Yao, meanwhile, goes to make a cup of coffee for himself in the kitchen. He drinks black coffee without sugar or milk, and holds it in his hand, while leaning on the door of the kitchen, deep in thought.

Is he really going to keep the guy around? Never mind the cost of food for him, but he appears no different from a sea otter to others for whatever bizarre reason he refuses to transform. That’d make him appear as a wild animal – that he has no business keeping without some appropriate license.

Bai Yao is also still suspecting him of being a beggar who’s staying as a sea otter just to beg for some food. Honestly, it’s unfair how cute he is.

Still, humans and himself belong on land.

A sea otter belongs in the oceans.

Bai Yao observes the sea otter with narrowed eyes. He’s found a nondescript corner after descending the stairs, and is now grooming himself lying on the floor.

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He really is indistinguishable from a wild animal; his paws move down little by little on his head. He keeps brushing the fur down, until his head is smooth and puffy. He is also rubbing his webbed feet together.

When he becomes tired, he just lies down flat to take a breather before doing it all again.

He still hasn’t finished by the time Bai Yao is finished with his coffee.

“Let’s go. We’ll get you home,” Bai Yao puts his cup into the sink, then puts his hands into his pockets and heads for the door, ruffling the little sea otter’s head as he passes by, messing up the smoothed hair.

Meanwhile, the little sea otter’s whiskers shake a little at the question. Then he flips himself around on the ground like a pancake flipped to scorch the other side. The sea otter carpet is acting dead.

A few seconds later, hearing nothing, he sneakily opens one eye only to see Bai Yao standing by the door with his arms crossed, looking at him. He closes his eyes again immediately.

Bai Yao stares at his resolute form for a while.

The little sea otter is acting like he doesn’t understand.

But no. He cannot. The little sea otter must go. His restaurant isn’t a tavern; he might keep a stray puppy or kitten around, but no more than that. That’s final.

Bai Yao’s gaze then lands on the large refrigerator to the right side of the kitchen, and gets an idea. He pulls out a box of fresh frozen oyster that clangs as it is moved.

“We haven’t finished the oyster yesterday. They’re still fresh; this’ll be the lunch today.”

It worked. The little sea otter immediately opens his eyes and turns around. He looks slightly hesitant, but gulps at the sight of the box of oysters.

Bai Yao takes the biggest of the bunch out, and walks backwards for the backdoor, loudly proclaiming, “nice weather today; I’m gonna eat outside.”

The little gourmet sea otter immediately gets off the ground, and unsteadily follows with eyes fixed on the oyster.

Bai Yao’s trick is working. He shoots off a sneaky smile, while heading down the gravel path to the beach, glancing back to ensure the little sea otter is following him.

He is moving slowly – not just because of his webbed feet, that means he has to take a rest every few steps, but also because he is easily distracted whenever there’s an interesting rock on the road. He’d lift it up with his little paws to take a look, and put them in his little pocket if he likes them.

All in all, they’re only halfway there after quite a while.

The little sea otter is fixedly heading for the food in Bai Yao’s hand, like a donkey following a carrot on a stick. Perhaps he is convinced he is getting closer with every step taken.

Soon enough, the man and sea otter moves right next to the stairs that connects the restaurant’s entrance to the beach. The sand is alright in sight.

The little sea otter, determined to reach the oyster in Bai Yao’s hand, looks up and suddenly spots the azure waves lashing behind Bai Yao’s back. He stops, confused, and realises that Bai Yao is already standing with one foot in the sand. His eyes widen.

After that, he immediately takes a step back, and makes a whimper. He looks like he’s been devastated that the free oyster comes with an abandonment clause attached. He is sad and tearful from being betrayed.

Poor, poor little sea otter. Woe is he whose whiskers are drooping down. He rubs his paws in front of his chest a little, looking like he might burst into tears.

Bai Yao heaves a weary sigh, and scratches his head.

The little sea otter isn’t dumb where it counts. That’s why he’s sentient.

“So you’re not a dummy, huh,” Bai Yao leans onto the fence for the staircase, and decides to think it over. There is a moment when he entertains the idea of lifting the sea otter up and throwing him right into the ocean, out of sight and out of mind, but he only leans there longer, not putting his thought into action.

He can’t steel himself to actually chase the poor thing away when he looks like that.

Fine, fine. He’ll keep a pet. He can ruffle the fur when he’s bored, and throw him right back out to sea when he misbehaves.

“Ok, ok, let’s go home then,” Bai Yao says, putting the oyster on the sea otter’s head, and puts his other hand right back in his pocket, “you win, little guy.”

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