A Princess, a Whale Dance, and a Palace Full of Applause
“Honestly, I’m raising an angel.”
Mom patted my back as she said it.
“My Gongza, you only said those wonderful things to give Mommy courage, didn’t you?”
W-well, sort of.
“Did I look anxious? Oh, how embarrassing. Gongza, Mommy is strong. If I’ve got fruit, I can even squeeze it by hand now!”
Y-yes, I’m aware. I did use the coin, after all.
Still, being physically strong and stalling onstage are two very different things, in my opinion.
Mom brushed her hair back and laughed.
“Trust Mommy, Gongza.”
Ahahaha.
She thumped her chest and declared, “If it comes to it, I’ll just do the whale family dance and buy us some time!”
Huh?
No, no, that’s a little much!
Ma’am, right now your image is that of a cool, glamorous warrior woman. Are you sure the whale family dance is going to work?
If anyone’s doing it, I’d rather it be me.
Of course, afterward I’d probably be lying in bed and kicking my legs for three hours straight.
Just then, a staff member said, “It’s time.”
Mom took my hand and stepped forward.
The lights grew brighter and brighter. The moment we walked onto the stage, a roar of cheers crashed over us.
The backstage and the stage really are on completely different planets.
Bright lights poured down. I looked out at the audience and smiled.
“Saboha! Saboha!”
“Gongza! Gongza!”
Flags and placards stood out in the crowd.
-I love you, Gongza
-Gongza is so cute
I smiled toward the side with the placards and waved. At once, a wave of women in hijabs burst into cheers.
Wow…
It was my first time ever seeing placards up close.
They like me this much just for looking at me… and they’re people from across the sea!
Back when I was Lee Hanjo, this would’ve been unthinkable.
Thank you.
I beamed, and the host, watching me, said, “Our Gongza is popular, isn’t he? Ms. Ma Soo-jung, little Gongza, please say hello.”
Mom smiled with easy grace and said, “Marhaban! Hello, I’m Ma Soo-jung.”
People seated in the audience cried out,
-Kyaa!
-She’s gorgeous!
Mom, you’re popular.
Well, of course—my mom is strong and beautiful!
I puffed up with pride, my shoulders lifting without me even meaning to. Mom, still smiling calmly, looked out over the audience.
“Thank you for welcoming us. Personally, I’m honored to have been invited to such a precious event.”
Another round of applause rose. The host asked, “Gongza should greet everyone too. Can you do that?”
Of course.
“Yes!”
“Oh, what a good answer. Gongza, let’s say hello!”
I placed both hands on my belly and bowed my head.
“Marhaban! Hello! Gongza!”
At that instant, an even louder wave of cheers filled the stage, dwarfing the earlier noise.
-Kyaaah!
-Kyaaaak!
-Gongza! Gongza!
Wait, why are they so happy?
Then I should give them something in return.
It was nothing much, really.
I smiled and waved again. One person in the front shouted, “Jadibon!”
That means I’m cute, right?
I smiled brightly and met that person’s eyes. They shook their shoulders and shouted again, “Jadibooooon!”
The people from the Middle East were just as passionate as everyone said. When the cheers finally died down, the host resumed the event.
“Ma Gongza is our country’s treasure.”
Wow.
Since when did I become a national treasure?
Are they going to designate me as an official cultural asset too?
I’m not really a fan of all that empty flattery, you know.
I lifted my head slightly. Across from us, in the front row of the third-floor seats, I could see the presidential couple talking side by side with the Arab king.
Hm. Hearing myself called a treasure makes me feel like I ought to be patriotic or something.
Uh, what can I do?
They did say I needed to stall for time.
What could I do to stretch things out?
As I racked my brain, I spotted the minister from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in the third-floor seats. He was looking my way with a bright smile.
Come to think of it, he knew about the whale family dance too.
Learning it had felt like a life-or-death struggle at the time, yet somehow it had become unexpectedly popular, which was a relief.
If I danced that, could I easily burn five minutes?
I immediately shook my head.
Well. If I throw away my dignity, I could do it, but there’s no music.
I could dance without accompaniment, sure, but then they’d probably think I was a weird kid…
And this wasn’t just some ordinary screening. There were important people here, so no way.
That was clearly going too far.
While I was lost in thought, the host was diligently carrying on with the event.
“You’re really adorable. Now, let’s welcome Ms. Jung Nuri, who has brightened this occasion with her beautiful voice.”
Clap, clap, clap—
Another round of applause rolled through the hall.
The interview is after this.
Jung Nuri, dressed in a white dress, stepped up beside the host. He asked right away, “How do you feel?”
“I’m very honored to have been invited to an event that promotes exchange between our two countries.”
It was a textbook-perfect answer. Probably the best way to wrap things up. But the host absolutely had to stretch this out by a few more minutes.
“Ms. Jung Nuri, you’re also the main vocalist of the group All Right. How is it? Is solo work different from group work?”
Wow, what a random question.
“It feels very different. I tend to feel a lot of pressure, so I guess that’s why I miss my members.”
“I see. As expected, anything you do alone is hard. When we can cover each other’s shortcomings, we can move toward a better path.”
It was a desperate diplomatic answer. Maybe because the lights were so intense, the sweat shining on the host’s forehead looked especially bright.
He’s having a rough time.
It must be hard, trying to connect everything to the friendship between two countries.
The host asked Jung Nuri another question.
“This is a little personal, but have you taken up any new hobbies lately?”
Oh no.
That’s a hard question to answer.
She might not have any hobbies at all.
Jung Nuri’s pupils trembled. At the same time, the host hurriedly wiped his sweat.
They both looked flustered at a glance.
The host doesn’t seem like he meant anything by it.
It felt like he’d tried to improvise something and stumbled.
He was probably trying his best to buy time somehow.
Still, asking a question that wasn’t even in the script like that all of a sudden…
Jung Nuri’s eyes darted around before they suddenly landed on me.
Huh?
She gave a slight smile, then answered immediately.
“Lately, I’ve developed a new hobby: watching Gongza’s Whale Family. Oh, you might not know it, but the cute little Gongza over there does dances to children’s songs. It was very popular in our country.”
Jung Nuri paused so the interpreter could translate. And as soon as the translation ended, the audience members in hijabs shouted loudly,
“'ana 'aerifu.”
Hm, what does that mean?
The interpreter told us, “They say they know it.”
Huh?
They know Whale Family?
How do they know that? People living in the desert on the other side of the sea.
Ah, is this because of the Korean Wave?
That really is amazing.
Jung Nuri said, “I even learned the song.”
“Oh, then would you mind giving us a short performance?”
At the host’s brightened request, Jung Nuri reluctantly began to sing.
“Little whale~ la-la-la~ deep blue sea~”
The audience clapped along. We’d only asked for a few lines, but somehow the mood had shifted as if she was expected to sing the whole thing.
I looked toward the dignitaries seated above us.
In a moment like this, staying quiet is the textbook answer.
But I’d been given the job of stalling for time. The song was short, and if it ended, we’d have nothing left to say again.
Wow, this is kind of a gamble.
I took a deep breath. In a way, this might be an irreversible mistake.
But I have to stall for time, and I’m still young.
If I messed up, maybe they’d cut me some slack because I was a kid.
“La-la-la~ setting off on an adventure~”
The audience clapped. I stepped forward and began the dance I’d practiced countless times.
“Mama whale~ following along~ sending off the baby whale~ following along~ sob sob sob~”
I bounced lightly in time with the beat. That one-second moment felt like an entire day.
Should I stop now?
I took another breath.
No.
Once you’ve drawn the sword, you might as well slice the radish.
“Let’s run away~ this way and that~”
I stretched out my arms. Fortunately, the audience had figured out what I was doing, and they were all smiling.
I poured every ounce of heart and effort into the dance, then looked up at the third floor, where the dignitaries were seated.
Th-thank goodness.
The leaders of both countries were smiling too.
I was going to quit immediately if they didn’t smile…
Instead, they were watching with genuine interest.
At last, the song ended. As I sucked in a breath, applause thundered through the hall.
“My, how adorable. Gongza, you did well.”
Thank you for the praise, but my stage isn’t over yet.
I panted a little, then crept back to Mom’s side. The host strode over to me.
“Hey now, Gongza. What’s the matter?”
He held the microphone up to me. I spoke a little more softly.
“I’m a little embarrassed…”
The diligent interpreter translated that too. The audience immediately burst into loud laughter.
-Ahahaha!
-Puhahahahaha!
Maybe because the theater was so large, the laughter ricocheted off the walls. I stood in the sea of laughter and caught my breath.
Yes, laugh. Go ahead.
That was as far as I’d prepared.
Standing before the fluttering flags, I muttered,
I’ve done all I can.
I didn’t even do that much, and yet somehow I felt incredibly patriotic.
“Gongza is shy. The work this little fellow appeared in is the drama Inyeon. That drama has spread all over the world, but I’ve heard it’s especially popular here. Perhaps that’s because we share the same emotions.”
The host skillfully got things back on track.
Hm. The immediate crisis is over.
And it bought us time too.
Thank goodness.
I let out a relieved breath and took Mom’s hand. She gave mine a gentle shake.
We came down from the stage five minutes later. After returning to our seats, I quietly fell asleep. I was somehow terribly exhausted.
* * *
This is an unfamiliar ceiling.
I opened my eyes and looked around. It was unfamiliar, but not somewhere I didn’t know.
It’s a hotel.
Mom was sleeping soundly beside me. I got up and slipped down from the bed.
I parted the curtain a little. It must have been dawn, because the sky was red.
So this is what a desert sunrise looks like.
Well, the hotel was inside the city, so it mostly just looked like a big metropolis anyway.
Watching the sun rise brought yesterday back to me. Quietly, I opened the curtain wider and crouched down.
Wow, this is embarrassing.
My face burned hot. I had gone all in because it was time to go all in, but that didn’t stop the shame from creeping up on me.
I did a dance at this age.
And in front of the presidents of both countries, no less.
This is definitely getting archived forever, isn’t it?
Ugh.
I scrubbed my face with dry hands. Why was the embarrassment always mine to bear?
Ahhh.
I let out a silent scream.
Ever since I became an actor, I’ve gathered up every last scrap of embarrassment and thrown it away…
And yet yesterday still made me want to die of shame.
It’ll f-forget me, right?
It’ll probably be left behind in newspaper articles, but not many people saw it in person.
Ah, come to think of it, there were cameras…
Suddenly, sweat ran down my back.
Did they archive the whole thing in video form?
I sat down hard on the floor.
Aaagh!
I dragged in a breath.
Well, as long as it doesn’t become a story back home, it should be fine.
It’ll be fine. Of course it will.
Forget it! I can forget it!
But my face was still burning, and I couldn’t bring myself to stand up. Just then, a soft voice reached me.
“What are you doing, Gongza?”
It was Mom. I dragged myself upright and said,
“I’m being embarrassed.”