Everyday Life Returns

After coming back from the deserted island, I slipped into my old routine again.

If anything had changed, it was So-eun. Whether she had quietly hated those two weeks apart or not, she now clung to my side and refused to be peeled off.

"Whew. This is nice."

Noona, who had spent the fortnight looking after So-eun while traveling with her friends, wore the look of someone finally set free.

"So how was Jeju?"

"Unlike you, I can't talk to animals, so I only took Cheongho, remember? So-eun must have been bored, because the second she saw an animal she tried to follow it. And whenever she spotted anything even vaguely horse-like out there, she flat-out refused to go anywhere else."

Noona let out a long sigh—if it hadn't been for Cheongho, So-eun would have chased a stray cat the moment anyone looked away—and poked the little girl's cheek.

"Heehee!"

So-eun only laughed, as if her mother's hand were the best thing in the world.

Noona clicked her tongue at the sight, gave that cheek a light pinch, and got to her feet.

"Where are you going?"

"I played around too much. There's a mountain of work piled up."

Wearing a glum face as she muttered about everything waiting for her, Noona headed straight for the office.

I wanted to stay with her a little longer after two weeks apart, but I set the regret aside and stood as well. If I was being honest, I had work of my own. The construction, which had somehow already entered its final stage, needed checking.

I scooped up So-eun—she had latched onto the back of my neck and was dangling there—and set off on a tour of the zoo.

"Mm. Coming along nice and clean."

The canal being built to wrap all the way around the zoo was nearly finished. All that remained was the water equipment: motors to push a current through it, purification systems to keep the water clean, and the rest of that sort of thing.

Once I'd confirmed the construction and heard that full completion was only a few days off, I started making the rounds of the whole place. I wanted to see for myself whether anything had gone wrong with the animals during the two weeks I'd been gone. The keepers had told me over the occasional satellite call that there were no real problems, but I needed to check with my own eyes.

I started with the two animals who demanded the most careful attention in the entire zoo: the rhinos. They were northern white rhinoceroses, and these two were the last of their kind left anywhere in the world. If they vanished, the species would vanish with them.

"Get along all right without me?"

Seeing me and So-eun for the first time in a while, the rhinos sidled over and rubbed their bodies against us. The shove of those huge, solid animals nearly knocked me off my feet, but the first thing I felt was relief. They looked healthy.

They were pregnant now, by artificial insemination and methods like it, so I checked them over once more with extra care before moving on to the others.

"Aaah—I want to mate—!"

Bbwoobbwoo, bored from not getting enough conversation with people while I was away, had relapsed into being a Gyokkiri—a mating-crazed elephant all over again. Among the large animals, though, that was about the only problem.

No. That wasn't quite true.

"……Why do the tigers look like they've lost so much weight?"

"Ah. They got robbed again, sir."

"Namcat and the raccoons?"

"Yes."

The tigers, whose food was stolen as a matter of habit, had been put on a forced diet. The keepers ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had even started giving them more, but the animals lost their appetites anyway, on the grounds that it would just get taken. That was the larger part of it.

Still, with me watching they had nothing to fear, and their appetites came right back. I could call that no problem at all.

After that I went looking for the others one by one, starting with the Tokkiz, some of So-eun's very favorites.

"Tokkiz!"

Noona had taken no animals but Cheongho, so So-eun had been parted from the rabbits for about two weeks, and she threw her arms around them in pure delight. She gathered all five at once and rubbed her face against them, beaming. The Tokkiz were just as glad to see her; noses twitching, they clung right back.

"You like them that much?"

"Yeah! Only Cheongho was there, so I was booored!"

Insisting she'd been bored without the animals, So-eun would not let the Tokkiz go. Even as she latched onto me again so I could check on the others, she held on to at least one of them to the very end.

"Daddy, who're we gonna ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠see now?"

"Hmm…… Is there a friend you want to see?"

"Platypus! Platy!"

I decided to do as she wished and go see the platypuses.

At the turtle enclosure where they lived, the platypuses were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠getting along just fine with the turtles. The turtles basked lazily in the sun, and baby platypuses had climbed up onto their shells and were flailing around up there.

"Helloooo!"

So-eun dashed into the enclosure, gave the turtles a light pat, and said hello to the babies. Then she picked up the biggest of them and plopped it squarely on top of her head.

"Heehee!"

A baby platypus perched on her head, Il-gito hugged to her chest—she was so cute I snapped a photo before I even thought about it. Maybe she'd learned it at kindergarten. She went pui and held out a little V with her fingers, and that made me press the shutter all over again.

After a few more shots, I went back to making the rounds.

I found Bboni moping, openly disappointed that So-eun wasn't around. The moment the miniature horse saw her, she whinnied—hee-hee-hing—and plastered herself against the girl.

"I like you! I like you!"

I set So-eun on the back of the little horse who kept insisting she liked her, and Bboni wiggled her hindquarters, pouring her joy out through her whole body. I burst out laughing and kept checking on the rest.

The wolves living peacefully among themselves in their enclosure, and the red foxes busy raising pups in the habitat, were no different from usual. I looked over the free-roaming ones too—Pe-eng, the camels, the deer, all the animals left to wander as they pleased—and not a single one was in bad enough shape to worry about. They were the ones with the most contact with visitors, so I'd been quietly concerned, but the worry turned out to be for nothing. They were almost exactly as they'd always been. If anything, seeing me and So-eun after so long only made them livelier.

Not every animal, of course.

"Oh. You're back. Tch."

The Podongis, who had spent my absence running wild and enjoying themselves to the fullest, greeted me with distinctly lukewarm enthusiasm. They had been stealing the tigers' food at will and plundering the visitors' belongings to their hearts' content. I was the only one whose scolding they actually understood, so my time away must have been heaven. Get caught by a human speaking words they couldn't follow, stare blankly for a bit, get turned loose—that was the end of it.

Regretting that I'd come back, they produced a car key they'd been hiding and held it out. And when did they steal this one?

The announcement blared at the very moment the key changed hands. I let out a small sigh, called over a nearby employee, and passed it along, telling them to return it to the owner—and to add a little compensation on top.

And there was another one who reacted differently, much the way the raccoons had. Namcat.

I found him at the pamphlet rack in the visitor information center near the entrance, and his reaction was utterly absurd.

"Namcat. Been doing all right?"

"……The hell you talkin' about?"

"What do you think I'm talking about. I'm asking if you got along while I was gone."

"Gone where?"

"……."

Whether he simply hadn't cared where I went, Namcat looked as if he hadn't even noticed I'd been away. How could this guy pull his alley-cat thug routine every single day and still not realize I wasn't there?

Don't tell me he doesn't even care, and just picks a fight because I happen to be standing in front of him…….

I couldn't hide how dumbfounded I was. Namcat, for his part, sent every pamphlet on the rack cascading to the floor and walked off just like that.

"Ha……."

The sheer nerve of that shameless tom stunned me for only a moment. Then I remembered this was exactly how he always was, and I set about tidying the pamphlets. So-eun helped with all her might, her little hands working hard, and we had them sorted in no time.

"Daddy, whadda we do now?"

"Hmm. What do you want to do?"

Having checked on most of the animals, I picked So-eun up and started wandering at an easy pace, killing time. I dropped by the office where Noona was working and lent a hand with a few simple things, and I traded greetings with fans who were glad to see me back after so long.

In the middle of all that, I spotted Cheongho. He had just appeared after training with the bodyguards—part workout, part drill.

"Cheongho."

I'd already seen him with Noona on the way back into the country, but he came running anyway, tail whipping back and forth, practically as if we were meeting for the first time. Worn out from the long flight, I'd passed out before I ever got the chance to properly reunite with him.

"Master!"

He planted his front paws on me, reared up, and licked my face in wet, eager slaps. Maru and Chikin-i, whom I'd seen a little earlier, had done the exact same thing, so I took it in stride. I scrubbed my hands all over the dog who was showing how glad he was, and waited for him to settle.

Once he'd calmed, he wiped away every trace of that frisky excitement and stood there showing off the proud bearing of a military working dog.

"It's been a while. You've been well, right? I was so tired yesterday I didn't even greet you properly."

"It's all right, sir. That's just how it is when you're tired, isn't it, sir."

As if to say he understood completely, he swept his tail in a gentle wag.

"You worked hard too. You went along with Noona and So-eun and looked after them properly, didn't you."

"That's my job, sir."

He gave a short, firm bark, as if it went without saying. But then he lowered his head, just a little.

"Still, it was a bit rough, sir. The Madam and the Young Lady ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠aren't like you, Master. I can't actually talk to them, sir."

"That's true."

"There were things I absolutely had to get across, but when I told the Madam she couldn't understand a word, and it was incredibly frustrating, sir."

Aside from that, he whined, there hadn't been anything particularly hard. I told him he'd done well and roughhoused a hand over his head.