Soeun's Debut (1)
The photographer hammered the shutter with such fervor that he burned through three high-capacity memory cards. His assistant stared at him the way you'd stare at a lunatic.
"Haa……. These are the finest photographs of my entire life!"
Having turned out work of that astonishing caliber, he swept a single bead of sweat from his brow and looked thoroughly satisfied. Perhaps it was the satisfaction that moved him, because he then brought up something interesting, calling it a special proposal.
"Would it be all right if I took a family portrait as well?"
"A family portrait?"
"Yes. I've never had a shoot this joyful, or this satisfying. It's all thanks to Soeun, and thanks to the animals. I wouldn't quite call it repayment, but…… I'd like to take a family photo for you."
He was the one doing the persuading — insisting he simply had to shoot it once, and offering to have it printed large, set in a frame, and given to us as a gift.
"Then would that photo end up in the magazine too?"
"Unfortunately, that would be difficult. No — if you truly want it, I'll find a way to get it into the magazine somehow."
At how determined he was to capture our family no matter what, I laughed lightly and shook my head.
"I don't care whether it goes in the magazine or not. Just take a good one. I'm counting on you."
The photographer broke into a bright smile, told us to leave it to him, and opened the costume room.
"What are you going to wear?"
"Hmm……. Hard to say."
Noona had gone into the costume room and asked as if she meant to match me. Try as I might, though, I couldn't think of what we ought to put on.
"Bya!"
Right then Soeun, still in her rabbit onesie, babbled and flailed her arms and legs. It wasn't that the sound meant anything in particular — more a babble she'd half let slip without even realizing it. Watching her, though, I knew what we should wear.
"Let's wear these."
In a flash I'd pulled out two outfits.
"Animal onesies? They'd suit us, I'll give you that. So you're planning to bring all the animals into the shot too, right?"
"Obviously."
What I'd grabbed were the clothes people usually call animal onesies — the adult version of what Soeun had on now.
"But isn't it too cliché? Tiger dad, fox mom, rabbit daughter. I feel like I've heard this one before."
"So what? That's exactly why people will get it at a glance."
"I can pass for a fox, and Soeun's cute, so a rabbit makes sense. But you, Suhwan? You're not exactly scary like a tiger."
"Tsk. Trying to get yourself scolded again after all this time?"
Noona burst into a light laugh and pulled the onesie on right over the clothes she was already wearing. They were cut to be worn in every season, so even layered on in the middle of summer they weren't particularly hot.
Dressed in the tiger onesie and the fox onesie, we headed straight outside.
"Ooooooh—!"
Taking in me, Noona, and Soeun between us, the photographer let out something perilously close to a shriek of pure admiration.
"Hwaaaaaang!"
And right on cue, Soeun burst into tears. The sudden, unhinged yell had startled her. I scooped her up in a hurry and rocked her gently until the crying eased.
"There, there. Did the weird mister yell and scare you?"
She'd only been frightened by the photographer's shout, so she settled quickly. Of course, settling her all the way still meant pressing one of the Tokkiz into her little hands.
"I-I'm sorry……."
Having made Soeun cry without meaning to, the photographer bent deep at the waist in apology. A baby crying was only natural, when you thought about it, so I told him to make it up to us with a good photograph and went to stand where nothing but nature would fill the background.
"You all come over here too."
At my word the animals came straight to my side. For a moment Yeongji looked as if she wanted to come too, though she didn't seem to have any intention of squeezing into a family photo. I promised I'd let her take one later, with Soeun among the animals, and arranged the rest of them around us. Geese ringed the outer edge, the other animals filled the spaces between, and our family stood at the center. At the very heart of it, Hanmu had settled belly-down on the ground, and Soeun was riding on his back.
"All right, look this way!"
Once he'd confirmed we were in place, the photographer gave the signal, and Noona and I turned toward the camera with easy smiles.
"Ppua!"
In the instant before he pressed the shutter, Soeun flung both hands high, beaming with a bright, innocent smile. Because of her, our own smiles grew even brighter as the photo caught us.
After that we changed outfits and concepts and took several more shots, then checked the results at once.
"Whoa……. Is this really us? Nobody even retouched these, and they look like this?"
"They say that photographer over there is an Awakened Individual. Intermediate Rank."
"Seriously?"
At my words, Noona looked over at the photographer as if she could hardly believe it. She could hardly help it. The way we appeared in the photos was us, and yet somehow not quite us — a rather uncanny in-between. They gave off the feeling of an edit that someone with tremendous retouching skill had labored over with everything they had. The little blemishes had vanished clean away, our skin had gone a touch fairer, and there even seemed to be a correction that smoothed off any extra softness.
"Incredible, isn't it? Our teacher goes by the nickname the Human Photoshop. Thanks to his superpower, the photos he takes already look retouched. The correction even shows up when he shoots on a film camera."
"Ooh……."
Marveling that it held even for film, Noona and I looked through the rest of the photos. Every single one was a picture we loved, so choosing was painfully hard — but somehow we managed to settle on one.
"I'll have this printed in whatever size you'd like and sent to your home. Just get in touch separately."
"Thank you."
"No, I'm the one who should be thanking you. Thanks to you, I've done the most satisfying work of my life."
Only after the photographer and I had traded a few warm words could we finally part.
Soeun's pictorial went public three full days after our family photo had been delivered.
"Suhwan! The response is incredible!"
"Yeah?"
Noona, tense on her own account because it was Soeun's business, had been going through the reactions online one by one. Then, as praise started sprouting up everywhere at once, she smiled in relief and lit up with joy.
"Most of them are just saying she's cute?"
"Well, of course they are. It's Soeun."
I had no argument against that. Between a shot that already looked heavily retouched, coming from an Awakened Individual's camera, and a final product retouched all over again, there was nothing to find in the Soeun on the page but cuteness. Buried among the animals, she was cute. The solo close-up of her face was cute too.
Before we knew it, Noona and I were ordering the pictorial and paying for it. We knew perfectly well they'd promised to send us a copy, and we still couldn't stop the checkout.
"Th-this one's for the collection."
"……Sure. Let's say that."
Having cobbled together a bit of self-justification, we spent a while just admiring Soeun's pictorial.
"Bya!"
And as if she knew the photos were of her, Soeun reached toward the monitor we were staring at and babbled away.
Ding!
"Mail?"
I'd only been admiring Soeun's pictorial for a moment when a mail alert suddenly sounded. Lately all kinds of proposals had been arriving by email, so I'd set it to notify me whenever something came in — that was why it had chimed. Even thinking I still have Soeun's pictorial to look at, I set the regret aside and opened the mail.
"Noona. I think our Soeun's debut landed exactly the way it should."
"Debut? What are you talking about now?"
"There's a company that wants to sponsor baby products for Soeun. They've already seen the pictorial. They say she has real potential, and they're hoping for a favorable answer."
Noona, who'd been glued to our daughter's pictorial, whipped her head toward me.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Look."
I held out the phone I'd been reading the mail on. When she'd taken in the message sitting there in full, Noona looked at Soeun with a face full of feeling.
"Our Soeun is incredible!"
"Eh!"
Mom was smiling and hugging her lightly, so Soeun put on a bright, innocent look, as if that alone made her perfectly happy.
But that was only the beginning.
A few days after Soeun's pictorial went public, my inbox was piled mountain-high with mail about sponsorships and model castings. Animal-related sponsorships and casting requests had already been stacking up, of course, along with every other kind of message, so it didn't stand out all that dramatically — but there was no question that Soeun had begun to claim a share of my inbox.
Even so, Noona and I ignored most of those offers. Plenty of the food products had never had their safety properly proven, and the greater part of the proposals were things that would put Soeun through real trouble.
I wouldn't quite call it a substitute, but Soeun finally started appearing on my MyTube channel. People who had seen her pictorial were demanding she show up in overwhelming numbers, and there was no ignoring that.
Her first appearance was her buried among the rabbits in the cart Cheongho was pulling. Thanks to it, Cheongho picked up the nickname the Stroller-Pulling Dog, and the rabbits picked up Airbag Rabbits. Soeun, of course, didn't so much earn a nickname as simply come to be called cuteness itself.