Homecoming

"Only a few days left here now."

"I know……. Hearing you say it makes it feel a little sad."

Noona and I sat on the two-person swing in front of the lodging, idly chatting, and both of us felt a sharp pang at how little time remained before we had to fly home to Korea. It hardly seemed real that we had already been in Australia for nearly two weeks.

Between restoring the wilderness and sightseeing all over the country, the days had shot past. We had stood before the colossal rock at the heart of Australia, more mountain than stone, and wandered islands like Tasmania, crowded with every kind of living thing. With that much ground behind us, it was no wonder the time had vanished.

"What if we bought this place and made it our vacation home?"

"A vacation home?"

"You know how it is. Rich people always have at least one. What's stopping us?"

Noona nodded. Plenty of billionaires paid a small fortune every month—sums well into six figures—just to board a single animal at the zoo in the style of a hotel. Thanks to them, we were in no position to pretend we weren't rich ourselves.

On top of that, our MuTube subscribers had passed fifty million and were closing in on a hundred million. Word that the restoration of Australia's wilderness was succeeding had sent the number of Australian subscribers soaring, and interest across Europe had climbed right along with it.

The baseline income from those subscribers was staggering on its own. We were pulling in enough that we could buy a new supercar every single day and still not go bankrupt.

And because she was my wife, and because so many photos ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of So-eun went up, Noona had become an enormous social-media influencer in her own right. Sponsorship offers poured in for clothes, food, children's products—everything imaginable—with a single post drawing proposals in the six-figure range.

The conclusion was simple. Buying the place we were staying in would not strain our finances in the slightest.

Noona must have reached the same conclusion, because she nodded before long.

"I'd like that. We couldn't come often, but…… still, I think it'd be nice to have a getaway like this."

"Then let's talk to Grace. Tell her we want to buy it. She won't turn us down. If I drop by even once in a while, everything around here will grow that much faster, won't it?"

I said it with complete confidence, and I had reason to. We had been here a little under two weeks, and already trees stood that towered well over my head. With results like that, selling us the lodging ought to be an easy yes.

Maybe it was the thought of owning a vacation home overseas, but Noona looked oddly excited, swinging her feet where she sat and wearing a soft smile.

"Oh, Suhwan. Where's So-eun, though?"

"Out playing. There are a lot of animals around here now."

"By herself?"

"No, she took everyone. Just in case, a bodyguard who speaks English went along too."

Noona looked relieved at that. Yubu was as good as a multipurpose helicopter, Bboni could outrun just about anything on legs, and Cheongho was so formidable that not even the bodyguards had ever beaten him—so there was nothing to worry about. And with a bodyguard along on top of all that, there was even less reason for concern.

"Honestly, I was worried there wasn't much here for a child to do, and that So-eun might get bored. Guess I worried for nothing."

"Heh. Our girl doesn't get bored over something like that. Give her animal friends and she's thrilled. This place is probably heaven to So-eun."

"Still, she was bored for about the first day."

"That's true. There were hardly any animals back then. It was lucky she at least had the bunch we brought from home to play with."

What So-eun loved most here was roaming in search of the animals that had begun to appear, one by one, as the wilderness recovered. She liked hunting for creatures around the lodging even better than visiting famous sights and trying all the tourist things.

Which was why we had already gone two days without leaving to sightsee. Noona and I took our rest at an easy pace, while So-eun, bursting with energy, charged around with everything she had.

"Daddyyyy! Moooommy!"

They say even a tiger comes when you call it. So-eun, who actually rode tigers, came barreling toward us as if she had sensed we were talking about her.

"All done playing?"

"Nooo!"

I had asked because I assumed she was finished, but she shook her head so hard it blurred. She wasn't done at all. So why had she come back?

"Daddy, Mommy! Come on!"

Still shaking her head, So-eun caught both our hands and started to pull.

Noona and I met each other's eyes and nodded. Then we got up and let So-eun lead us wherever it was she wanted us to go.

After a short walk, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠realized she was heading for the river we had visited not long ago.

"Suhwan, look over there."

I was walking with So-eun's hands in ours, Noona on one side and me on the other, and I turned at Noona's words. A great crowd of animals was huddled together along the bank.

"……What is this?"

Kangaroos, koalas, wombats, echidnas, and more. Every animal you might spot in the bush had packed into one spot, fidgeting and shifting. There were even emus and cassowaries, with no telling when they had arrived. It felt as if every creature Australia was known for had gathered in a single place.

So-eun was clearly making straight for them. I swallowed my curiosity, drew closer, and then I understood.

"Baby platypuses?"

"They just got born!"

That was why So-eun had fetched us, and why the animals were packed together staring at something: brand-new baby platypuses, wriggling in their mother's embrace.

Animals loved cute things too, it seemed. They gazed blankly at the babies with dopey grins, and a few of the kangaroos were even absently patting their own pouches.

"Cute, right?"

"You brought us so Mommy and Daddy could see them?"

"Yeah!"

I couldn't help ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a small laugh at So-eun's bright, nodding smile, and I stepped closer to the platypus.

"Mind if I take a quick look at the little ones?"

"Look all you want—quack!"

They were her own babies, but she must have trusted me, because she gently nudged one of the three out of her embrace toward me.

I lifted it with great care, so I wouldn't hurt it, and Noona and I admired the wriggling baby together.

"Hnnngh, it's so cute!"

Noona had no defense against anything adorable. The moment she saw the baby platypus, her face went soft and melty, and she looked utterly happy.

We had only been admiring it for a little while when the baby started to cry, as if calling for its mother. I hurried to settle it back in her arms. She gathered it close, and the crying stopped almost at once.

"Cute. It really is cute."

The baby platypus squirming beside its mother was adorable beyond words.

I was staring at the sight when So-eun, beside me, tugged at my sleeve.

"So-eun, what is it?"

"Daddy! Can't we raise them?"

"You want to keep them?"

"Yeah! I think it'd be so nice if they lived at our zoo too!"

At that, I put on a troubled face. These were animals that had been living wild. Was it really all right to take them just because they were cute?

The dilemma didn't last long. Noona was looking at me as if she desperately wanted the same thing—and the platypus, having heard what I said, latched onto me and insisted it was a wonderful idea.

"All right. Let's do it."

They had already told us that if we helped restore the wilderness, we could take Australian animals with us as we pleased, so there was no problem there.

There was, however, one problem. The "them" I had in mind and the "them" So-eun had in mind were not the same size.

"Hehe! We're all gonna live together!"

In one hand she had grabbed both the tail of the kangaroo beside her and a handful of koala fur. With the other she clutched the tail feathers of an emu and a cassowary. A wombat was wedged between her legs, and perched across the tops of her feet were an echidna and a snake.

"……."

"……."

For a moment, neither Noona nor I could find a word. Our daughter's sense of scale is really something…….

Even so, the help I had given Australia was hardly small, and with Grace's assistance we somehow managed to take every one of those animals with us.

Which meant that two days later, as we prepared to head home, we were buried under an astonishing pile of luggage. We had arrived in Australia traveling light. We were leaving with several times the baggage, and several times the company.

A certificate transferring ownership of the log cabin we had been staying in, along with part of the land around it; a plaque of thanks from the Australian prime minister for the restoration of the wilderness; all the souvenirs Noona had bought as gifts—together they took up an enormous amount of space.

"Bye-bye, Australia!"

But once we had somehow hauled every last bit of it onto the plane, we set off for Korea with that bittersweet feeling of being glad and sorry all at once.

The moment we landed in Korea, an enormous crowd was waiting for us. Word that we had successfully restored Australia's wilderness had already spread far and wide.

After a brief round of interviews with reporters from every newspaper and broadcaster, we returned to the zoo and walked straight into another crowd.

It was the first time a koala would be formally exhibited in Korea. The zoo had cared for one before, in the style of a pet hotel, but aside from that, this was the first koala the zoo actually owned.

And it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wasn't only the koala. Kangaroos, emus, cassowaries—animals unique to Australia—were all going on display at once, so of course people came flooding in.

With crowds pouring in to see them, our days turned hectic whether we liked it or not.

Then, in the middle of all that busyness, a call came from Grace.

I cocked my head at the word Nepenthes—a pitcher plant. I'd never had any particular interest in carnivorous plants, so I had certainly never set out to grow one.

I couldn't hide how absurd it sounded—a carnivorous plant eating a rabbit. But Grace didn't give me time to stay bewildered.

She sounded quietly hopeful, and I couldn't find a single word in answer. Poison hadn't been enough against the rabbits, so they had turned to dynamite, and now they wanted to deploy a Nepenthes grown into some kind of monster. I had to wonder what sort of mindset produced an idea like that.

Remembering that the foxes brought in to hunt the rabbits were themselves tearing the ecosystem apart, Grace let out a strangled noise.

In the end Grace didn't get what she wanted, and the call dwindled into an ordinary how-are-you.

More pressing than any of that, I still couldn't get a feel for the true reach of my superpower. How do you turn a Nepenthes—a plant that eats insects the size of flies—into something that eats a rabbit?