Momma's Waiting

Lee Jun's foot came down, and he stepped forward.

Another step.

And in that instant—

Gone.

The two ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gray shapes vanished in a flash. A dangling trunk. A pair of chubby, pillar-like legs. The elephant had caught Lee Jun moving and ducked out of sight.

It didn't want a human coming any closer. It was afraid—just like the calves at Reteti, who had flinched from every unfamiliar face.

A heartbreaking sight. And yet Lee Jun's expression said otherwise. A gleam lit his eyes as he stared at the spot where the baby elephant had disappeared.

"It might be Tata Junior."

Hope stirring in his chest, Lee Jun considered his next move.

"If that little one really is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Tata Junior, going closer will only make him hide farther away."

He shook his head.

"No. Not with this. He'll take an interest."

He gave the hip pack slung across his front a couple of pats.

So how to handle this? Just walk over and brute-force it? And if the little one bolted?

Even if he runs, there's a fence. He can't go far.

So even if Lee Jun gave chase, the calf wouldn't become an orphan wandering the savanna all over again. But the trauma would only deepen.

A little one too scared of people to even come close would only hide more thoroughly after that.

Lee Jun hesitated.

Walk over waving this scrap of cloth?

If he waved the cloth that carried Tata's scent, the smell would travel farther. And if the hidden calf really was Tata Junior, he would have to react.

Then another idea struck him.

What if I smear this on myself and walk over—like that time Seorak finally relaxed?

Not just the cloth. Tata's dung might work too.

Elephants have incredible memories and an even better sense of smell. He'd remember his own mother's dung. She produces a hundred kilos of it a day—there's no way he wouldn't know, after spending every hour of every day right beside her.

Bolstered by a confidence that bordered on self-hypnosis, Lee Jun kept his eyes on the place where the calf had vanished and reached for the zipper of his hip pack.

Then something stirred in that very spot.

"Huh?"

The corner of Lee Jun's mouth curled up.

It was an elephant's ear. And not only that. Just like that time Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree had hidden in the kitchen to peek into the living room, a single black eye peeked out.

It was adorable, and the thought that the little one was showing interest in Tata's scent made him smile. But the smile faded just as quickly.

Wait... those ears don't look all that big.

He couldn't be sure, but the ear he could see hung limp. Not the round, puffed-out kind—more like a folded umbrella. And the tip was curled inward.

"Ah... maybe not?"

Disappointed, Lee Jun let out a sigh.

"What's not?"

Kwak Suho asked, having appeared at Lee Jun's side without him noticing.

"I thought that little one over there might be Tata Junior, but I don't think so. The ears are too small."

"Where?"

"Ah, it's gone. Hid again. Probably because you started paying attention, Suho."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. A little one was peeking from over there. Wouldn't come out, though. So I stayed put and just watched."

"Must be scared of people."

"Seems like it. That's why I was watching—wondering if it might be Tata Junior. Anyway, did you finish checking the others?"

"For now. Doesn't look like he's here."

"Ah... really?"

He said it like a question, but there was no strength in Lee Jun's voice. He'd already suspected Tata Junior might not be at Ian House. Hearing it from Kwak Suho still knocked the wind out of him.

"Yeah. Still, we should film all of them just in case. And the keeper here said they didn't bring every calf out. Some are sleeping, and some never come out to a place like this at all."

"Is that so? Then let's look around and find them."

A flicker of hope returning, Lee Jun unzipped his hip pack, just as he'd been about to do a moment ago. He pulled out two pouches, and Kwak Suho asked,

"What are those for?"

"Who knows? Maybe the scent will carry better if I hold them."

"They're not even sealed. How much stronger could the smell get?"

"You never know. It might come through a little stronger. You know how it is—rub it and the smell gets more intense."

Lee Jun shook the pouch of dung, and Kwak Suho recoiled in horror.

"Y-you... you're not about to smear that on your clothes like you did with Seorak, are you?"

"That's the plan."

"Ugh, hey. No. Absolutely not. You're going to get in the car like that?"

Kwak Suho stared at him as if he'd just witnessed something unspeakable, then added,

"Dude, we don't even have a plastic bag to seal anything in! Where are you going to put the stinking clothes?"

"Elephant dung doesn't smell that bad."

"Doesn't smell that bad, my ass! I threw those clothes away and I still had to wash the car how many times? I thought I was going to freeze to death riding around in the middle of winter with the doors wide open!"

"Well, this should be better than last time. We're already driving with the windows down."

"What? Would you just—just stop talking!"

Leaving Kwak Suho grumbling behind him, Lee Jun started walking. The calf hiding in the distance showed no sign of coming any closer. And honestly, Lee Jun had already given up the hope that it might be Tata Junior. So he decided to just go.

That was when George came walking over with a member of the Ian House staff.

"Suo, you're going to look around, right?"

"Yeah. We need to check every calf here."

"Please follow me."

As the staff member walked ahead, Lee Jun glanced toward where Go Gi-jin was. He didn't even need to look around. Wherever the baby elephants clustered, that was where Go Gi-jin would be. Just like at Reteti, Go Gi-jin was a hit with the calves here too—busy stroking them, scooping them into his arms.

"Suho, he's better off staying over there."

"Yeah, that's probably for the best."

The two of them followed George and the staff member. One step. Two. With every stride Lee Jun took, the distance to the hidden calf shrank.

They had come to about five meters from where the calf had been standing when a voice reached Lee Jun's ears.

Lee Jun's eyes flashed.

Wait. Could it be... Tata Junior?

Was that it? But the ears hadn't been big. His thoughts tangled for a moment. Then he sorted them out just as fast.

Well. In a mother's eyes, her own baby is always the most handsome, the most magnificent.

Tata would be no different.

Having reached that conclusion, Lee Jun pulled the handkerchief from the pouch and waved it vigorously, wanting to be more certain. Then he handed it to Kwak Suho.

"Hey, Suho. Hold this and wave it."

"This? I've got one of my own, though?"

Kwak Suho took the handkerchief without thinking—then his eyes went wide.

"Y-you... wait. Wait. You're actually going to smear that on?"

"Yeah. Let's try it."

Lee Jun answered the grimacing Kwak Suho just like that, then scooped out the elephant dung and smeared it on his own arm. Slap, slap, slap.

Kwak Suho, who'd had his head hanging from the moment Lee Jun reached into the pouch, let out a groan of despair.

"Ugh. Nothing in that head of yours except animals, I swear."

Unlike the resigned Kwak Suho, George was thrilled.

"Wow, Jun. That's a brilliant idea. Tata's scent is going to come through so strong."

As he said it, George pulled a pouch from his own bag. Kwak Suho shook his head at the pair's antics.

"Aigoo. I was going to make Jun ride on the roof of the car. Looks like I'll be the one up there."

Having emptied his mind of all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠resistance, Kwak Suho lifted his head. Once you gave up, it was amazing how peaceful you felt. And so he looked at Lee Jun, who was slathering dung on himself, without so much as a grimace—a state of perfect, thoughtless calm.

Then the corner of Kwak Suho's mouth twitched upward. Because Lee Jun had only smeared the dung below his short sleeves, on bare skin.

"Oh! Jun, you've actually got some sense. You only put it on your skin."

And then Kwak Suho's face collapsed all over again.

"G-George, you..."

Because the excited George had smeared Tata's dung on his arms and all over his body.

"Ugh, I can't live like this. A vet who thinks of nothing but animals, and a zoologist who thinks of nothing but animals. You two really found each other. You really, truly did."

Kwak Suho shook his head and started walking. But on the third step, he stopped. Frozen solid might have been the better way to put it.

"Th-that's..."

Kwak Suho couldn't finish the sentence. Lee Jun and George were in the same state. The three of them simply stared ahead, turned to stone.

Great round, puffed-out ears, each with three broad folds. In the middle of a chubby face, an adorable little trunk—and three wrinkles stood out on the trunk as well. The ears were a slightly different size, that was all. Otherwise, the baby elephant from Kwak Suho's drawing was standing right in front of them.

None of them could say a word. They could only look. Afraid that if they so much as moved, it would run.

In truth, even if it ran, they were inside the sanctuary. There was nothing to worry about. They were simply stunned.

Perhaps reassured that the humans weren't coming any closer, the baby elephant babbled, twitching its little trunk this way and that.

The calf shuffled its front feet. But it didn't come closer.

"It misses its mother's scent, but it's still afraid of people."

"Yeah."

Kwak Suho answered like a man whose soul had left his body. Lee Jun spoke to him.

"Suho... you didn't draw a composite sketch. You painted a portrait. How is it that identical?"

The elephant standing before them looked exactly like the drawing Kwak Suho had made.

"Well, Tata described him in ridiculous detail."

Kwak Suho passed the credit to Tata. Lee Jun looked at him for a long moment, then quietly sat down right where he was. The other two sat down after him. If they made a fuss now, the calf standing in front of them would run.

Sitting on the ground, Lee Jun thought. How should he start, so the little one wouldn't be so afraid?

After a moment, Lee Jun spoke to the elephant.

"Your mom sent us to bring you home."

Those already round eyes went rounder still.

The startled calf didn't know what to do, repeating the sound over and over. Of course, to Kwak Suho and George, it sounded like this:

Poh~ poh~ poooh~~?

Lee Jun shook Kwak Suho's hand. The scrap of cloth in Kwak Suho's grip waved with it. The look in the baby elephant's eyes grew deeper.

"You remember this smell, don't you? It's your mom's. Right? And you know this other smell too, don't you? The one you always used to smell. Right?"

The elephant's head suddenly drooped. Lee Jun thought he knew the words the calf couldn't bring itself to say.

He thinks his mother is dead.

He'd been thinking that—and then someone suddenly said his mother had sent them. Of course he was confused.

Lee Jun told him the truth before the calf could think anything else. Because if Tata could have spoken, that was what she would have said. No—she would have said it even more desperately than that.

At the words that his mother was alive, a smile bloomed on the baby elephant's downcast face. But doubt still lingered. Those pitch-black eyes darted this way and that. The chubby face tilted to one side.

Asking why she wasn't here.

"Little one. Your mom is a bit sick. That's why she couldn't come get you herself."

The calf, who had been swinging its trunk and tilting its head, looked Lee Jun straight in the eye. Those already huge eyes grew larger.

The baby elephant remembered its mother crying out for it to run. That desperate cry.

The baby elephant had already guessed. That its mother had gone to Elephant Star.

And yet hearing someone say, out loud, that she was too sick to come—that made it sad. Afraid it was true. That she really had gone to Elephant Star. Afraid that the thing it had only thought, and only been sad about, was actually real. So, so sad.

A fat tear rolled from the eye that had been watching Lee Jun.

"No. She didn't."

The eyes that had been dripping tears went round again. What do you mean?

Eyes that had seemed like they couldn't get any bigger got bigger still. The baby elephant opened its eyes so wide they looked ready to pop, and murmured,

Tears tumbled from the baby elephant's eyes. Tears of hope.