Australia (2)
"Awwived!"
Soeun hopped down the stairs linking the plane to the ground and set foot on Australian soil in a way that called to mind a certain variety show from years back. Grace, who had come all the way out to the landing site to meet us, welcomed her and the rest of the family with a bright smile.
"Welcome to Australia."
"If there's someone waiting to greet you like this, maybe going abroad isn't so bad after all."
"Hmm... At this rate, you might even find yourself wanting to live here before long."
"Pardon?"
Something in the way she said it left me uneasy. I couldn't begin to guess what she had prepared that would make me want to live in Australia, but she didn't seem inclined to explain. She only smiled softly and began guiding our family along.
We had come at the Australian government's invitation, so we slipped through immigration on something very close to a free pass—and soon enough, I understood what Grace had meant.
The moment we cleared inspection and stepped through the arrivals hall into the airport proper, a tremendous cheer rose to greet us. A crowd of several hundred, easily, had gathered to look our way, cheering and snapping photos. It was exactly the scene fans put on when a famous celebrity lands.
"Suhwan, pretty sure they're all your fans."
Just as Noona said, most of the people packed in there looked like fans of mine. Some held signs painted with my channel's icon; others waved big boards printed with my face. A few, of course, had Soeun's face on them, and—rare, but present—a handful bore Noona's. Being my wife, she was something of a celebrity in her own right. Standing before a crowd that seemed to be welcoming our entire family left me with a strange feeling. Plenty of people had sought me out calling themselves fans before, but I had never once imagined a mob would swarm an airport to greet us like idols.
I was standing there blankly, face slack with surprise, when Grace spoke up beside me.
"The Druid's popularity in Australia is fairly high. This country has the highest rate of pet ownership in the world, so interest in animal MyTubers runs especially deep. And since the cost of hosting you comes out of tax money, we had no choice but to make part of the schedule public."
That explained it, and I nodded. Even among the foreigners who already made up a large share of my MyTube subscribers, the ones from Australia had always been a sizable group. It was a place full of fans, and word of my visit had gotten out on top of that—of course they had come.
"Besides, people know you were invited so the areas still recovering from the bushfires could be properly restored. I imagine quite a few of them came for that reason, too."
It wasn't only my fans out there. People who thought well of what I was doing had gathered as well, and the thought sent a foolish little swell through my shoulders as I raised a hand and waved.
"Waaaaah!"
The wave only drew a brighter welcome, and when I answered it with a small smile, Soeun decided she would join in and started flailing her arms for all she was worth. I could see the crowd fussing over how adorable she was, but unfortunately we had to say goodbye. Flight fatigue had a firm hold on me, and all I wanted was to reach the lodging and sleep.
Leaving our welcoming party behind, we made for the vehicle Grace had arranged in advance.
"A limousine? They're really pulling out all the stops for this welcome."
It was the first limousine Noona had ever ridden in, and a hint of anticipation showed on her face. I was no different. Heart picking up, I climbed in after her.
"Daddy! The car's so long! It's a train!"
The moment Soeun got inside, she started bouncing on the long bench seats, pouring her wonder out with her whole body. Noona and I weren't the only ones watching; even Grace wore a warm, satisfied smile. The driver, unable to see any of it from up front, started the car, and we left the airport behind, bound for the lodging.
Soeun raided the limousine's fridge for juice while Noona tapped my arm over and over, insisting I look at this and that outside the window. The ride lasted as long as you would expect across a country that size, but the unfamiliar scenery kept the time from dragging.
Then, just as Soeun began to nod off, we arrived.
"...Grace. This is really where we're staying?"
The moment we got there, the words caught in my throat. Something about the place was off.
More precisely, it wasn't so much the lodging that was strange as everything around it. The house had the tranquil air of a mountain log cabin, the kind you might see in a film, and one glance said it was clean and newly built. The trouble was the land it sat on.
Not a tree, a blade of grass, or a single flower grew anywhere nearby. A sparse few stood some distance off, and even those looked as though they had quit growing halfway.
"I—I'm so sorry..."
Grace seemed to read the feeling straight off my face. She turned her head slightly aside as she apologized, only to launch almost at once into an excuse that wasn't quite an excuse.
"It's just—the restoration work is centered on this area, and someone suggested we might house you here... The building itself only went up early this year, so it's impeccably clean. There's also the thinking that if a superpower is going to take proper effect, it's better for you to remain in the area continuously, and it isn't a long way from here to the tourist sites, either..."
She spilled out one justification after another, doing her best to excuse it. In the end, though, she ducked her head and apologized all over again.
"This really is a little uncomfortable for you, isn't it? I'll arrange a new place in the city right away."
No sooner had she offered than she pulled out her phone and started calling someone.
That was when Soeun, who had been nodding off, rubbed her eyes and came awake.
"Whoa! A log cabin!"
Fully awake now, she went pattering into the log-built house at a run and flung the door wide open.
"Mommy! Daddy! Are we sleeping here? I wanna sleep here!"
She had charged inside, and a moment later she burst back out and threw herself into our arms. Whatever she made of the rest of it, the log cabin alone had clearly won her over. She was grinning, loose and delighted.
At the sight of her, I shrugged and looked at Grace.
"We won't be needing a place in the city after all."
"Oh...!"
Grace, mid-call to somewhere or other, killed the line on the spot. She had clearly been in the middle of a conversation, and I wondered whether that was really all right—but it wasn't mine to worry about.
Noona and I followed Soeun, who had taken off for the cabin once more, and went in carrying the bags.
From the outside there was nothing to see but logs, yet the interior looked more modern than I had expected—clean, with the heating apparently well in hand. The view beyond the windows left something to be desired, but the lodging itself was tidy and perfectly fine. Deciding it wasn't a bad choice, I unpacked.
Once I had set aside a place for the bodyguards to rest and turned the animals loose in the living room, it became quite a comfortable spot.
"I'll be back in the morning, so please contact me anytime if you need anything. Someone will be on standby, so it's perfectly fine to call even before dawn."
"Then, when you come in the morning, could you bring some grass seed, and seeds for all sorts of flowers? Seedlings would be fine too, and the faster they grow, the better."
"Yes!"
Perhaps because it was the most fundamental thing a restoration project could ask for, Grace nodded with a thoroughly bright face and took her leave. I spared a brief glance for the bodyguards, deep in discussion among themselves about how they would handle security, then headed for the large room where Noona and Soeun were sorting the luggage.
"Already finished?"
"I only unpacked what we actually need."
When I stepped inside, Noona was changing Soeun's clothes. Soeun threw her arms straight up to get the new ones on, and then, as if sleep were creeping over her all over again, she flopped face-first into the bed. She wasn't the only one worn out. Noona and I were just as tired, and little by little we sank under. The first day of the trip vanished into nothing but the journey and sleep.
"Suhwan. Should we have our second?"
I was lying in bed when Noona drew quietly toward me, dressed in what looked like a state of half-undress. We had shared a bed for years now, and still the sight left me dizzy. Before I knew it, I was nodding.
And the very instant that dizzying Noona climbed up onto me—
"Guhk!"
"Daddy! It's morning!"
I woke from the dream. One look at Soeun sitting astride my stomach told me she had planted herself there, sunny as anything, and pressed down with all her weight.
She was smiling at me, bright and blameless, as if she hadn't the faintest idea what she had done, and a petty sulk rose up in me. I gave those soft cheeks a thorough squish, then got up.
"Hehe, Mommy said to eat breakfast!"
"All right. Let's go."
I gathered up the Soeun clinging to me and carried her out to the living room, where Noona had breakfast waiting. Breakfast, mind you, amounted to nothing more than the cereal and milk Grace had set out ahead of time.
At any rate, we were working through the cereal and letting a little time pass when Grace arrived, her arms full of seeds for every sort of grass and flower.
"Soeun, want to plant some seeds with Daddy?"
"Yeah!"
After that simple breakfast, we meant to scatter the seeds she had brought right away. We had no choice but to stop short.
The barren ground around the lodging stretched far too wide. Never mind me on my own—even if I marched out every last bodyguard, finishing the job in any hurry looked impossible.
"Ah, forget it! We'll play first and figure it out later. Soeun, let's go have fun! Go tell Mommy to get ready."
"Whoa! Mommyyyyy!"
In the end I left Grace with a few more requests and decided the sightseeing would come first.
We began at the Gold Coast, not far from where we were staying—a place of beautiful blue beaches, overflowing with things to see. First among them was Beach World, a theme park where you could watch shows put on by all kinds of marine life, so packed with sights that even a whole day spent there wouldn't be enough.