A New Family
Once A Cat's Day went up, the response hit immediately.
Every animal on screen had its dialogue laid in as subtitles, with narration added on top of that, and people said the whole thing felt like nothing else out there. They loved it. Riding that reaction, I kept making videos from then on.
The very next Pet-Drama was I'm a Raccoon?!
Daepodong, one of the two raccoons, starred in it. The story followed a raccoon who realized his past life had been human, and the highlight was his face—mouth dropped wide open in pure shock as he stared down at his own two front paws. The clip of him reeling even started making the rounds as an internet meme.
That was hardly all of them. I turned Pet-Dramas out whenever I had a spare moment. Once they got popular enough that I could actually call on a cast, I was free to make a much wider range of videos. I filmed the one I'd fretted over most at the start, The Dog I'll Make Happy, and a present-day take on The Tortoise and the Hare—a twenty-first-century version where the rabbit mocks the tortoise mid-race and promptly gets hauled off by the police.
I also made A Magpie's Way of Repaying a Favor, a down-to-earth retelling of the grateful magpie. When the person who'd done the magpie a great kindness was about to have a raccoon lift his wallet, the magpie called in the rest of the flock and they mobbed the thief in a group beating. Not a moral anywhere in it—just a magpie playing the thug, and the lesson that nobody wins against getting jumped. A Pet-Drama built for nothing but laughs.
While I was busy making all of those, time flew. Enough for the seasons to turn, more than once. Summer and autumn passed, the cold of winter went with them, spring put out its new shoots, and the days were warming all over again.
A lot had changed in that span.
Subscribers had blown past a million ages ago and were climbing past five. During reserve duty I'd gotten a sparrow to pick wild berries for me and come away with the nickname Sparrow Sorcerer, and fan clubs had sprung up around each of the animals.
The biggest by far belonged to the raccoons. Maybe that old cartoon hero Raccoon Man had something to do with it; either way, once the righteous-outlaw image stuck, a whole crowd took to following them. Next came Namcat. Plenty of people had fallen for that tough act of his, beating even the predators that should have had him.
And one change felt bigger than any of those. A new member had joined our household.
It wasn't a new animal. The new family was the child Noona and I had finally brought into the world. Her belly, swollen as far as it would swell, had gone slim again with the birth.
"Kyauuuu!"
"Suhwan! What's So-eun saying?"
A new family. And with So-eun—the daughter Noona and I shared—joining us, one more thing had changed.
My ability worked on a baby, too. Maybe a little baby is closer to an animal than to a person; whatever the reason, I could catch the rough feeling behind the babble she let out. It wasn't clean conversation, the way it was with the other animals. Only the general sense of the babbling came through. I still heard the sounds as babble, but the meaning registered—that was about the level of it. When she babbled the way she was babbling now, what reached me was I'm hungry.
"I think she's hungry."
"Yeah? Our So-eun! Time for num-nums!"
At that, Noona lit up and gathered So-eun into her arms.
True to a name we'd chosen to mean a little Ha-eun, the two of them were practically copies of each other.
"You're not heading out?"
"What's it matter. I wanna watch my wife's ches— no. I wanna watch my daughter eat."
"Hmph."
I threw my shoulders back and put on my most confident face. Noona shot me a sulky glare and started feeding So-eun, and for no reason I could name, a warm happiness rose off the sight of it.
The meal seemed to wrap up in no time. Noona lifted So-eun and softly stroked her back, and after a moment of that So-eun let out a tiny burp. Only then did Noona break into a bright smile and meet her eyes.
"Ah, honestly. Whose daughter is this cute?"
"Mine."
"She's my daughter, I'll have you know. I carried her. I gave birth to her."
"......I'm her dad, I'll have you know. When So-eun sleeps, she sleeps with her left arm up, just like me."
"I'm her mom, I'll have you know. So-eun looks exactly like me. You're the one who said she takes after me, and that we should name her So-eun."
Watching So-eun, cute past all reason, Noona and I teased and squabbled, light as anything.
Right in the middle of it, the door creaked and swung slowly open.
"What are you lot doing here?"
Through the opening came the animals of the house, pouring in all at once. A raccoon turned the knob with those front paws he used like hands, and the first thing I saw was Cheongho—opening, with that fine strength of his, the very door the raccoon was dangling from.
"We wanna see the baby too!"
"Yes, sir! We want to see the Young Mistress too, sir!"
"Your child—how terribly curious I am!"
"............Baby."
"Right-sha! Wanna see the human baby-sha!"
The whole crowd clamored to be shown So-eun, a protest that wasn't quite a protest.
They still hadn't laid eyes on her even once. Letting a newborn meet the animals right away might not have been wise, and even on the first day we'd brought her home she'd arrived bundled up tight, so they'd never gotten a look.
"They want us to show them So-eun, don't they?"
"Oh...... How'd you know?"
"You can tell just by watching them. Look at Cheongho. He's sticking his neck out like a giraffe, trying whatever he can to see up onto the bed. He doesn't dare come closer without permission, but he wants a look."
I looked where Noona had pointed, and a laugh burst out of me on the spot. Neck stretched long to see the top of the bed, whole body leaned as far forward as it would go—it was more than enough to set you off.
Watching him, I glanced over at Noona.
"Hmm...... We could show them soon, couldn't we? We did ask, last time we were at the hospital."
"True. They're going to live with us until So-eun's off on her own. Letting them see her wouldn't be the worst thing."
I gave a small nod, then turned to the animals.
"I'll allow it if you keep one rule. You must not hurt So-eun. Not ever. If she doesn't like something, you back off right away. Understood?"
"Don't worry! Course we know how weak pups are!"
"Boss, just trust me, sir. Anyone the Young Mistress doesn't like, I'll drop them myself, sir!"
"We'll only look-sha!"
"Lest I harm the child, I have even worn every claw perfectly smooth!"
At that they bounced and leapt, joy written all over them.
The joy lasted about a moment before they charged the bed. The ones who got there first hopped straight up and started staring at So-eun. Whether they meant to keep what I'd said, or whether they too understood how fragile a little baby was, they didn't dare touch her. They only looked. Even Namcat, who never hesitated to throw a Nyangnyang Punch at me, was gazing at So-eun, perfectly meek.
"A-euu?"
So-eun, looking back at them now, glanced around with a face full of curiosity. Lying there, rolling nothing but her eyes this way and that—I couldn't begin to say why it was so cute.
"So-eun. You've got to say hello. Hello?"
"Kyau!"
Noona took her hand and gave it a little shake, and So-eun broke into a clear, sunny smile, as if she liked it.
"Huuuuh! How's she this cute!"
"Ah, Young Mistress......!"
"Human baby too cute-sha!"
"What beauty is this, I ask you!"
"............Cute!"
The animals who'd seen that sunny smile keeled over on the spot, every last one of them mumbling about how cute she was.
"Hey. Hey, what's wrong with them?"
"They fainted because our daughter's cute."
"......Our daughter is cute, I'll give you that."
Noona nodded as if this were entirely reasonable, then picked So-eun up off the bed and held her where she could see the animals.
"So-eun, your animal friends all fainted because they like you so much, huh?"
"Kyaoaaang!"
She didn't understand a word of it, but she flailed her arms and legs and stared at them anyway. Babbling while those short little limbs pumped, she was cuteness itself. I felt like I might flop over flat, same as the animals.
"Our girl, do you like your animal friends?"
"Kyaung!"
As if she actually understood Noona, So-eun babbled right along with her. Then she stretched one hand straight out toward something and started squirming all over again.
"So-eun?"
At the sight of her working that hard to wriggle, Noona looked to me in a fluster. I'd already read what So-eun was after in the babble, so I answered with an easy smile.
"I think she wants to touch them. Long as we don't let her bite them, it should be fine, right?"
"Then let's let her. They're not going to attack her just because she touches them."
Babies try to put anything in their mouths. Keeping that in mind, I got ready to pull So-eun off the animals at a second's notice. Contrary to my worries, she didn't grab them and stuff them in her mouth.
That didn't mean there was no problem.
"Save me-sha!"
"S-So-eun? Could you let go?"
"Waaaaaah!"
She'd gotten hold of Sam-gito, one of the Tokkiz, and showed no sign of ever letting go. A rabbit is small, sure, but only a little smaller than So-eun, who still hadn't grown far past newborn size. She had her arms around a Sam-gito nearly as big as she was, and she would not release.
"So-eun, can't you let Sam-gito go?"
"Hnnnn......!"
As if she really did understand the two of us, she heard me and immediately started to cry.
I gave up on Sam-gito. I couldn't watch my daughter cry.
"S-save me-sha!"
"I'm sorry...... Just a small favor. I'll make it up to you with a treat later, so please."
"This is too much-sha!"
I had no choice but to do my best to ignore the look Sam-gito was giving me, the one that said betrayal.
How strong could a baby's grip be, anyway? Sam-gito was only a little rattled. Nothing about it looked like pain. And whatever guilt I felt melted off like snow the moment I saw So-eun beaming, smile after bright smile.
So-eun really is the best!
Right. She wasn't hurting Sam-gito, so there was no need to feel that sorry.
Having more or less convinced myself, I laid her down on the bed and settled the other four rabbits in around her. They kept flaring their nostrils, watching her.
"Kyaaaang!"
Once the rabbits around her had multiplied to five, So-eun broke into a beaming smile, plainly delighted. Noona and I found her so unbearably cute that we fired off photo after photo on our phones without a pause. It was a moment that satisfied everyone—except Sam-gito, whose fur So-eun had in her fist.