So-eun in Wonderland (2)
"Cheongho!"
So-eun had made her way to where the dogs and cats were, and the moment she spotted Cheongho—the first animal in sight, and the one she knew best of all—she called out to him, bright as anything.
"Hurgh?!"
Cheongho, however, nearly jumped out of his fur.
And no wonder. The dogs and cats gathered there were the exact opposite of their usual selves.
"Woof, woof, woof."
"Mraaow."
Cats were barking like dogs and lashing their tails at a frantic clip, while the dogs meowed the way cats ordinarily did, sitting prim and proper as they licked their own coats.
"Mmm?"
Faced with a sight she had never once seen, So-eun tipped her head, plainly unable to make any sense of it. Dogs that were not cats were grooming themselves, and the cats were not giving their tails a gentle sway so much as whipping them as if they had lost their minds. None of it added up for her.
Caught in the act, Cheongho startled and scurried over to her side.
"Ah, Young Mistress! This is, well... th-that is...! A-anyway, setting that aside, won't you ride?!"
He had started in on some excuse, only to stumble over his own tongue, then turned his back and lowered himself so she could climb aboard.
Whether she had already forgotten his strange reaction, So-eun scrambled onto his back with a sunny smile. She had ridden this same Cheongho dozens of times, hundreds, and she caught a handful of his fur with easy, practiced hands.
"Young Mistress! I'll show you around!"
"That's my job! Who d'you think you are!"
"Quiet."
The two of them bristled over So-eun. Rattle against stroller—that was the match.
The standoff did not last.
"No!"
Sensing they were about to scrap, So-eun slid down off Cheongho and seized both their muzzles in a firm little grip. Her hands were still small, so on Cheongho she managed only to pinch his lips, but she clamped Daepodong's snout shut so he could not open it at all.
"Daddy said no fighting!"
She was utterly firm about it, all but ordering them to make up, and the two of them groaned and made their peace. Cheongho and Daepodong pressed their front paws together as if shaking hands. Satisfied, So-eun laughed bright and clear and climbed onto Cheongho's back once more.
"Go!"
Ogito in one hand, Daepodong's leash in the other, her legs locked tight around Cheongho's middle, she shouted with pure delight.
"Right, then... moving out."
Cheongho matched his pace to Daepodong's and set off at an easy walk.
The place they came to next was where the animals ate.
"This here's where we eat, see. Go on over there and tasty stuff just comes pourin' out."
At the center of the dining area stood a neat, square structure. A rectangular slot opened along the bottom, like the dispenser of a vending machine, and above it sat something very like a great big button.
"Food?"
"Young Mistress, are you hungry?"
"Mmm... a little!"
She patted her plump little belly as she said it, and Cheongho went straight to the machine.
"Press this part stickin' out here, and you'll get something to eat. Take a bowl from the side and hold it underneath!"
"Yeah!"
The moment she heard him, So-eun grabbed one of the bowls nearby and marched up to the structure. She set it into the slot below, and on the button—which had been poking out just a little—her own round face appeared, plump as an emoticon. It might as well have been saying that if she pressed it, it would give her exactly what suited her.
"So-eun!"
Recognizing herself, she broke into a delighted laugh and pressed the button. Hard.
Ch-ch-chk!
The instant she pressed it, something like machinery whirred to life, and a handful of the snacks she loved tumbled down into the bowl.
"Ooh!"
Wide-eyed at the sight, she immediately mashed the button again and again. Rat-a-tat-tat!
With a rustling rush, snacks piled up until the bowl she had set down was full to the brim. Having won a mountain of her favorites, she beamed, flung even Ogito aside, and scooped the bowl up in both arms.
"Cast aside for snacks, am I...?"
Shock and betrayal chased each other across Ogito's face, but So-eun had eyes for nothing but the snacks.
"Mmmph!"
She grabbed a handful, tipped it into her mouth, and—finding it that good—cupped her cheeks and wiggled with joy. Watching her, Daepodong quietly helped himself to a bowl and dispensed the kibble he usually ate.
While he made short work of his feed, So-eun carried on her snack feast with theatrical relish, and once she seemed nicely full she climbed back onto Cheongho.
"Mmf, mm-mmf!"
"...Young Mistress, kindly finish eating before you speak."
She was saying something, but with her mouth packed full of snacks, not a word of it came through.
"Mmf!"
"Er... are you telling us to move out?"
"Mm!"
At her nod, a faintly reluctant look crossed Cheongho's face, and he started off at a careful pace.
"Ack! I-I ain't done eatin' yet! N-no!"
Daepodong, still demolishing his kibble, had no choice but to be dragged along by the leash looped around So-eun's wrist.
The place they arrived at next was where the birds had gathered.
"Yubu! Pe-eng!"
Yubu and Pe-eng were there, along with a great host of magpies and crows. And those birds looked, for all the world, like devotees conducting a rite in honor of devils.
A lump of rock sat in the middle, shaped rather like a cat, and the magpies and crows had ringed it—circling, too, round and round. Magpies to the left, crows to the right.
"Pray ye that this wicked monster of a cat grow weak!"
"We pway!"
"Down with the monster cat!"
"Down with him!"
Yubu stamped the rock and shouted, and Pe-eng, the magpies, and the crows all cried out as one behind him.
The birds Namcat tormented had assembled to pray that he would grow weak—no. They were cursing him. Whenever they got underfoot he beat them and sent them tumbling off the wall, and now and then he stole their treats besides. A grudge had piled up, in its way.
"What're they doin'?"
Watching all of this, So-eun tipped her head and let her curiosity show. The ones thrown by that curiosity were Cheongho, Daepodong, and Ogito.
"...Er. The thing is."
"How'm I s'posed to put this... We oughta tell her straight, shouldn't we?"
"You don't go teaching a baby strange things."
They were all fond of So-eun, and it showed in the way they fretted over how to explain what the birds were doing.
"Aw, hell! Just spit it out! Little miss! What those guys are doin', see, is cursin' Namcat to drop dead!"
"Quiet! Don't teach the baby weird things!"
Daepodong, halfway through the truth, caught Ogito's hind kick and went tumbling end over end.
"Huh? Where'd he go?"
She had only glimpsed him rolling off in a flash of an exit. She tipped her head and glanced around. But her interest faded just as quickly, and she draped herself gently over Cheongho's back.
"Mmm, I want Mommy! And Daddy too!"
"Ah! I'll escort you!"
"The sooner we leave this place, the better."
Perhaps simply because they no longer had to explain the birds, Cheongho and Ogito brightened and hurried into motion.
Leaving the birds behind, they arrived at a palace built in miniature. A long wall, an iron-barred gate before it, and beyond that a mansion that might have stepped out of a fairy tale.
"Honk! Honk!"
Geese stood before what looked like the palace's front gate, and they moved in crisp pairs, for all the world like the royal guards of Britain. They marched in sharp, measured steps, and whenever two parties met mid-patrol, they lifted their right wings in something very like a salute.
"Googer!"
They had been named, roughly... no, named however the feeling struck, from Googer One through Googer Eight, and so when So-eun called them, it was simply "Googer."
At any rate, finding the geese there, she smiled. A moment later she tipped her head.
"Where are Mommy and Daddy?"
"The Sage will see the Young Mistress to them."
"Mm?"
With the puzzled girl still on his back, Cheongho walked on toward the mansion. Two geese blocking the entrance stepped into his path.
"Halt! Who goes there!"
"Very well. We've come to see the Sage, on the Young Mistress's account."
"Pass!"
Naturally, the moment the geese saw So-eun, they opened the way. Cheongho followed the path they cleared into the mansion, and there was Hanmu, settled up on a great chair.
"Hanmu, what're you doing here?"
"Heh heh heh heh."
Spotting him, So-eun waved both hands wildly. She had already met all the others, and Hanmu was the one she had missed, so she seemed especially glad to see him.
"Come here, child. It is time we went back. Heh heh."
"Mommy! Daddy!"
"Yes. Let us return."
So-eun climbed down from Cheongho, ran straight to Hanmu, and in no time was up on his shell. Once he was sure she had settled, Hanmu drew his neck slowly, slowly out.
A wire already fastened to him began to rise, and Hanmu, with So-eun aboard, lifted gently into the air.
"Wow! Hanmu's flying!"
He rose scarcely four inches off the ground, but So-eun looked as if she had witnessed a marvel.
"I-I'm coming too!"
Seeing the two of them lift, Ogito darted over and burrowed into her arms.
"Hold on tight."
"Yeah!"
So-eun hugged Ogito close and gripped Hanmu's shell with both hands. Hanmu seemed about to rise a little farther—and then every light that had been brightening the place went out at once, and darkness swallowed them whole.
"Mmm?"
When the lights came on again, So-eun was standing at the bedroom doorway with Ogito clutched in her arms, looking thoroughly lost. But through the half-open door she saw me and Noona lying there, and she scrambled up onto the bed at once.
"Hehe."
Ogito gathered against her, she settled herself between the two of us, laughed bright and clear, and before long slipped into sleep, breathing soft and even.
"That's a wrap!"
The shot of So-eun asleep was the last of it, and with that the filming was done.
The lights, dim until a moment ago, all came up, and every member of the crew stretched and brightened. I let out a small laugh at the sight and gathered So-eun up from between me and Noona.
She had been making soft little sleeping sounds as if she were truly out, but her eyes flew open, and she nestled into my arms.
"Was it fun?"
"Yeah!"
Whether the shoot had really been that much fun, she nodded with all her might. Well. So long as So-eun had enjoyed herself, that was enough.