What Can I Do?
Kwak Suho stared at Lee Jun with a look of utter bewilderment, then pointed at himself with his own hand and asked again.
"Me?"
"Yeah. You."
Lee Jun answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. A snort of laughter escaped Kwak Suho.
"Hey, Lee Jun, I'm not you. How am I supposed to communicate with Tata?"
"Why not? You just figured out what she was feeling."
"When did I?"
"When Tata tapped the drawing with her trunk, you said she seemed anxious."
"That? That was just how it looked, so… ah!"
Only then did Kwak Suho understand what Lee Jun was getting at.
"Wait. Are you saying I should… with Tata, through drawings…?"
He was too incredulous to finish the sentence, but the meaning reached Lee Jun perfectly.
"Yeah. Drawings."
Lee Jun's face was bright with expectation. Kwak Suho looked from him to Tata and back again, then let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Lee Jun, talk sense. How do you communicate with an elephant through pictures?"
"I think Tata could do it."
"Could do it, my foot! You do it. Who else do animals follow the way they follow you? What's-his-name—Seorak would do anything you said."
"That's because Seorak…"
Because he could talk. Lee Jun couldn't bring himself to say it. If Tata could speak the way Seorak can, would I be asking you? No. Still… I think we need this guy anyway.
Even if he could converse with Tata, they would still need drawings. At the very least, they had to know the baby elephant's distinctive features before they went looking. Or we could take photographs and show them to Tata. No—there would be so many calves at the sanctuary. Could we photograph all of them?
In the end, to raise their chances of finding Tata's baby, they needed to know its features. Which meant Kwak Suho was essential.
Having reached that conclusion, Lee Jun spoke.
"Hey, Kwak Suho. Wouldn't it be easier to find the calf if we knew its features going in?"
"Ah…!"
Kwak Suho's face lit up as if he had just received a great revelation. He sat with that expression for a moment.
"Yeah. You're right. There's no way we'd know which of all those elephants is Tata's baby. They'd all be equally adorable."
He said this, then looked at Lee Jun. His eyes sparkled.
"Lee Jun, you're really smart. Seriously smart. How did you even think of that?"
"Well, Tata was showing interest in your drawings."
"R-right? See, I really am amazing. A painting by this body of mine moved even an elephant!"
Suddenly Kwak Suho was puffed up with pride. Looking at him, Lee Jun was reminded of someone—namely the three who would be holding court at Mongmong Animal Hospital right about now: Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree. They made that exact face when they were playing interviewer. Recalling the three animals' expressions, Lee Jun chuckled, then spoke right away.
"Your paintings must have something that stirs the soul, Kwak Suho. Even Tata got drawn in."
Kwak Suho, his mouth stretched in a grin from ear to ear, said haughtily,
"Of course, of course. Don't worry, Lee Jun. I'll pin down every last feature of Tata's baby."
"Obviously. Who else would be doing it?"
Hooked by Lee Jun's deft handling, Kwak Suho answered with total confidence. But a moment later he spoke like a man who urgently needed the bathroom.
"But Lee Jun… if I take that sketchbook away, all hell's going to break loose, right?"
Tata, perhaps because she had just watched the pages of the sketchbook flip from her own breath, was turning them one by one with her trunk, looking at the drawings. That's not just playing around. She's really looking at the pictures. Lee Jun was certain of it, watching Tata's expression, the set of her eyes.
Tata was appreciating the drawings Kwak Suho had made.
He had drawn quite a lot on the way here. They were sketches, but there were lions, oryx, leopards—many animals filled that sketchbook. Sometimes landscapes, too. Among all those drawings, Tata showed interest only in the elephants. And specifically, the baby elephants. Even now, she was looking at a calf drawing and grieving.
Take that sketchbook away from her? Even Lee Jun felt a chill run down his spine at the thought.
"Yeah, I think so. Kwak Suho, you don't have any other paper?"
"Right now? You think I do? It's all in my bags."
"Yeah, fair enough."
"Should I go get it?"
"Get what?"
"Another sketchbook."
"Thirty minutes there, thirty minutes back. You think Tata's going to wait that long?"
"Probably not, huh?"
"Just draw on your shirt."
"My shirt?"
"Yeah. Your T-shirt's white. Draw on that."
"This?"
"Yeah."
Kwak Suho looked Lee Jun up and down, then yanked his shirt off in one motion. From nearby came sounds of confusion—Uh, what's he doing?
Thinking something might be wrong with Kwak Suho, Jerome, who had been standing off to the side, came over and asked,
"Suo, what's going on?"
"Gonna draw."
"Draw?"
Kwak Suho recounted his conversation with Lee Jun. Jerome looked at the two of them with startled eyes.
"I-is that even possible?"
Lee Jun cut in.
"Jerome, you said you haven't seen any baby elephant carcasses recently, right?"
"I haven't. Haven't heard any news of that kind, either."
"Then isn't it possible? You said there are quite a few elephant calf sanctuaries."
"That's true, but…"
"Isn't it worth a try?"
Kwak Suho chimed in from the side.
"Jerome, let's try. In the state she's in, there's no hope otherwise."
"That's true too. All right, let's try it. I'll put together a list of sanctuaries in a bit. Suo, draw on this."
Jerome held out a tablet loaded with medical charts. Kwak Suho shook his head.
"This is too small. Tata won't be able to see it well. Don't they have poor eyesight?"
Kwak Suho really had been a prodigy, steeped in African wildlife since childhood. He knew well that elephants have excellent hearing and smell, but their vision is not particularly good.
"I'll just draw on this, then."
Come to think of it, the drawings in the sketchbook were dark and bold—he had used a permanent marker. Watching Kwak Suho plop down and settle into drawing position, Lee Jun spoke to Tata.
"Tata. We'll find your baby for you. So could you tell us your baby's features? So we can find your baby among all the other little elephants."
Tata, who had been looking at the drawings with her trunk curled around the sketchbook as if hugging it, lifted her head. A questioning look sat in her eyes—but it was not a wary one. Good. They say elephants can hear what we say and distinguish intent, hostility, that kind of thing. Tata seemed to have accepted Lee Jun's heart. The heart that was trying so hard to find her baby.
Lee Jun explained a little more carefully.
"We're going to find your baby. But we've never seen your baby, so even if we see a little elephant, we might not realize it's yours."
Prrungh!
A puff of breath burst from her trunk.
Piiik-piiik!
A sound they had never heard from Tata before.
"I think that's a sound of anxiety. When elephants are anxious, they make sounds like kiiik-kiiik."
"Must be because even her vocal cords are infected. That's why it came out like that."
"From vocal cord paralysis?"
"Probably. Listening to you, I think she's anxious—like, how could we not recognize her own baby?"
"Yeah? Now that you mention it, that does seem right. You really do understand how they feel, Lee Jun."
Leaving the admiring Kwak Suho behind, Lee Jun spoke to Tata.
"Tata, you'd recognize your baby even from very far away, wouldn't you? Right, Tata? So could you help us recognize your baby too?"
Shiiik-shiiik.
Tata's breathing grew rapid. She was getting impatient.
"W-why is Tata suddenly like this? She's not angry, is she?"
"I think she wants to teach us what her baby looks like. Suho, hurry up and draw some elephants."
"I've never seen Tata's baby."
"If we knew what it looked like, would we be doing this? We'd already be out looking. Anyway! Draw every baby elephant you can think of. It's not like you've only seen elephants once or twice."
"R-right."
Kwak Suho started drawing on his white T-shirt. A plump, adorable baby elephant appeared on the white fabric. An elephant with a short trunk. One with its trunk curled inward in a circle. One whose trunk was a mass of wrinkles. By the time he had drawn that far, the shirt was packed full—not a scrap of empty space left.
Kwak Suho immediately flipped the T-shirt inside out and drew more. An elephant with long ears. One with round ears. One with broad, flat ears. One with ear tips folded inward. One whose ears were rolled completely inward. This time, too, once he had drawn that far, there was nowhere left to draw.
"Uh…"
Kwak Suho shook his head and scanned the surroundings, hunting for something he could draw on. Lee Jun, equally impatient, looked around as well. As he was glancing about, something caught his eye: a sack stuffed full of leaves.
"Ah, that's perfect. How did I not think of that? Suho. How about that?"
Kwak Suho had already seen what Lee Jun was pointing at, and a gleam lit his eyes.
"Nice. It's big—I can draw a lot."
A short while later, Kwak Suho's drawings began to appear on the large burlap sacks. It was when he drew a baby elephant with enormous ears, like Dumbo, that Tata reacted.
Puh, puh-puup!
"Tata, your baby has big ears."
That was the moment. Tata's trunk poked the drawing Kwak Suho had made. Not once, but several times. Poke, poke, poke.
"Got it. That's one. Very big ears. Then I should draw the ears in more detail."
Having identified one feature, Kwak Suho began adding detail to the large ears. Big round ears. Big ears that stood up. Big ears covered in wrinkles. He drew every kind of ear imaginable. Watching him, Lee Jun and everyone else looking on let out sounds of admiration.
It was not just the people. Tata, too, was now completely absorbed, watching. And from time to time she tapped Kwak Suho's drawings with her trunk—meaning, that's a feature of my baby.
As they captured the features one by one, more than ten large sacks had piled up before they knew it. And at last—complete. A drawing of the baby elephant, assembled from all the features Tata had selected, was finished.
The large ears ballooned in a round swell, and as they descended they wrinkled like an accordion. There were exactly three large folds. The face was plump and round. The eyes sat round and wide on either side. The trunk, too, had exactly three large wrinkles.
"It's cute."
The drawing Kwak Suho had made was truly adorable.
"Right? We should be able to find it with this, yeah?"
"We'll have to look. And ah—baby elephants have a great sense of smell too, don't they? If they catch Tata's scent, they'll react."
Lee Jun repeated to Jerome what he had said to Kwak Suho.
"So I'd like to take something with Tata's scent on it."
"Hmm. What would work?"
"Could we take some dung or something? Or ask Tata to rub her scent on something."
Lee Jun took off his own shirt and held it out to Tata.
"Tata. Could you leave your scent on this? Your baby will be so happy to smell you."
Tata had already been hugging the sack Kwak Suho had drawn on. She took Lee Jun's shirt with her trunk and clutched it tightly to her chest. Then—slurp, slurp, slurp. She licked the fabric with her tongue.
Watching this, Lee Jun gave a bitter smile. With the pulp of her tusk fully exposed like that, it can't be easy… Moving her mouth would be extremely painful. He could feel Tata's desperate wish to find her baby. Everyone watching her grew solemn.
A short while later, Tata handed the shirt back to Lee Jun—with her trunk. But she still clutched the sack with the drawing tightly to her chest.
"Tata. We need that to go look."
Psssh-psssh.
A sound like air leaking. Tata was whimpering as if to say no.
"We're not getting that one. Let's at least take a photo."
"I've got it all in my head, though?"
Kwak Suho asked why they would even need to take it.
"Hey, human memory isn't something you can trust. Let's take a photo at least."
Lee Jun pleaded and pleaded with Tata and barely managed to get a photograph. The moment Tata got the burlap sack back, she hugged it to her chest again.
What they felt from Tata then was hope. Lee Jun said to her,
"Tata. We're going to go find your baby. So you need to get treated."
At the word treated, Tata looked at Lee Jun.
"If your baby comes back and you're in pain, how sad would your baby be?"
Tata understood Lee Jun's words completely. He was certain of it, and he said everything he wanted to say.
"You have to not be in pain. Then you can talk with your baby, and walk together. Wrapping your trunks around each other."
Glistening tears welled in Tata's eyes.
"You'll get treated, right? And you'll eat the leaves too, right?"
Tata wrapped her long trunk around Lee Jun. Very gently. Meaning she would accept treatment.
Everyone nearby was astonished. Wasn't this the same Tata who had disliked and been wary of humans? That Tata had opened her heart to Lee Jun.
And not only that. She gently wrapped her trunk around Kwak Suho, standing beside Lee Jun, as well. Surely meaning thank you for drawing the pictures. Tata had opened her heart to both of them.
"Tata. This person here will be the one treating you."
When he pointed to Jerome, Tata this time tapped Jerome with her trunk as well. She did not wrap him the way she had Lee Jun and Kwak Suho, but it meant she would allow him to touch her.