Safe Little So-eun
For a while I stayed right where I was, Noona and So-eun gathered in my arms, soaking in the simple joy of family — until a pointed ahem drifted in from behind me.
No need to look. Deputy Jang Il-woon, eaten up with envy at the sight of us, had clearly reached the end of his patience and was angling to pry us apart. I was not, of course, the sort of man to fall for a ploy like that, so I kept holding them a while longer.
"Hngh... I hate to interrupt a family's happiness, but I'd be grateful if you'd let go of each other now."
A request that direct, though, I couldn't very well ignore. With real reluctance, I let go of Noona and So-eun.
"Auuuu!"
So-eun thrust her hands toward me as if pleading with me not to leave. I smiled and offered her my pinky, and her tiny hand closed around it in a fierce little grip.
The look on Deputy Jang Il-woon's face — a man dying of envy — was deeply satisfying. It didn't last. In a blink it was gone, and his usual slick smile was back in place. A shame.
"Your daughter has been confirmed as an Awakened Individual, but that confirmation carries no legal force on its own. If you wish, you'll need to finish the registration process at city hall."
"That's a relief. I wasn't planning to register her right away anyway."
I had no intention of registering So-eun as an Awakened Individual. Registration wasn't without its advantages, but for a baby who couldn't even crawl yet, it was next to useless.
"Suit yourselves, then. We'll be on our way. On the drive back I think I'll take it nice and easy — the speed limit, every light, a proper bit of goldbricking. Changjae, there's an ice cream shop on the route, isn't there? Let's stop there first. My treat."
So he hadn't meant to strong-arm us into registering after all. Deputy Jang Il-woon tossed the joke at his subordinate and started packing the equipment away.
"Ah, Deputy. Would it be all right if I had the Apple-Apple Pineapple?"
"Obviously not. You get the Astronaut. I'm the one paying."
"Tch..."
These two were dead serious.
I was still wearing a look of pure disbelief at their exchange when the pair finished up and turned the engine over. A rough rumble rose with it, and Deputy Jang Il-woon stuck his head out the window.
"We'll be off, then!"
The bill had already been settled back when I'd called them in for the verification, so the deputy gave his subordinate in the driver's seat a couple of taps and told him to go. The vehicle rolled forward at once.
"He was serious about taking it slow, too?"
They were only at the mouth of the parking lot, but they crept along so slowly that the car actually caught on the speed bump and stalled for a moment, like someone had wedged a wheel chock under the tire. Even after that, their progress out through the alley was leisurely in the extreme. At that pace, an angel riding in the car behind them would have watched her wings turn pitch-black and started swearing.
"That man. He was like that the last time I saw him, too. I think he's a little odd."
"I think he's very odd. So-eun agrees, don't you?"
"Kyaang!"
So-eun laughed as if she were answering me. I brushed a hand over the plump cheeks bunched up by her smile, then brought Noona and So-eun back to the café.
"Young Mistress! I waited, ma'am!"
"You little— I'm your master. You weren't waiting for me. You were waiting for So-eun, weren't you."
"S-sorry, sir!"
At that, Cheongho slammed his head to the ground in a panic. And where on earth had he learned to do that? I couldn't quite hide how absurd it was, but it felt uncomfortably like animal abuse, so I hauled him back up in a hurry.
"And where did you pick this up?"
"The humans at my old post used to do it, sir! Seemed like what they did when they'd made some kind of mistake, sir!"
"Ugh... Don't do that anymore, all right?"
"Yes, sir!"
Having thoroughly thrown me off, Cheongho turned his attention straight back to So-eun. There was the faintest smirk about him, as if he'd aimed for exactly this... but I had no proof, so I had to let it slide.
"So-eun, do you want to go see the bunnies?"
"Auu!"
Seeing So-eun reach for the rabbits, Noona set her back down in the wagon already packed full of them.
"Kya!"
Delighted beyond words at the reunion, So-eun clutched the rabbits tight. Once Cheongho saw her properly buried among them, he quietly laid the wagon's lead where he could get a good grip on it with his mouth.
"Departing, ma'am! Young Mistress!"
Lead in his mouth, Cheongho bolted straight for the lawn. Yubu, who had been resting on his perch — whether he'd been watching the whole time or not — flew over and appointed himself a living parasol and fan.
"That really is because of a superpower, isn't it?"
Watching So-eun receive such devoted care and attention among the animals, Noona studied her with open wonder.
"It has to be. But what kind of ability is it, exactly? I've never heard of a power that gets a reaction like that."
"Hmm... A cuteness superpower? So-eun is just that cute. The ability itself makes people find her adorable."
"Is that even possible?"
"Who knows? But isn't So-eun's cuteness about on that level?"
I let out a short laugh at Noona's bashful smile and watched So-eun circling the lawn in the wagon Cheongho was pulling. Then something occurred to me.
"What about this?"
"What? Did you think of something?"
"She's loved by animals. Has So-eun ever been hurt by one of them? She hasn't. Baby or not, it's not unheard of for animals to go after something smaller than they are. We worried about that ourselves."
At my words, Noona's eyes went perfectly round.
"I've never actually seen them do anything bad to So-eun... have I?"
"Right. And I think people count as animals, too. Honestly, whenever a video of So-eun goes up on my MeTube channel, there isn't a single nasty comment. Just cute, adorable — that sort of thing."
"But isn't that dangerous? There's been a lot of unsettling stuff on the news lately..."
Noona looked faintly worried. Stories about obsessive fans and stalkers had been turning up in the news now and then, and that seemed to be what was catching at her. I shook my head.
"I don't think it's that kind of love. Hmm... Fondness? Yes, fondness will do. People simply look kindly on So-eun. Because of that fondness, they want to protect her since she's still a baby, and she comes across as cute. Something like that?"
"Mm. That does sound pretty plausible."
Noona thought it over for a moment, then nodded. The longer she considered it, the more she seemed to land on the same conclusion I had.
In the end we were of one mind, and we defined the superpower So-eun possessed as the ability to earn the fondness of animals. No one had ever manifested anything quite like it, so the deliberation had dragged on, but we'd managed to settle the question somehow. Deciding it ourselves didn't make it an official category in the superpower system, of course — still, at least we had a standard of our own.
And once we understood that So-eun held an extraordinary superpower, the relief was enormous. Not only would it help her tremendously as she grew up — with a power like that, she would be safe. Because it earned her the fondness of animals first of all, even if danger did arise, the animals could step in to help her, and the chance of danger arising in the first place was vanishingly small.
"I'll go call Mother and my mom, then, so keep an eye on So-eun."
"Sure."
I nodded at Noona's words and watched the wagon working busily across the lawn. Now and then a stubby little hand or foot popped into view, or a rabbit's pointed ears shot up and sank back down.
And then, in that instant, dozens of magpies and crows perched along the wall launched into the sky as one.
"Eek! You scared me!"
"Why'd they all take off at once?"
"Somebody must've startled them."
"Whoa. But it really does feel different from a flock of pigeons going up together."
The guests playing with the animals on the lawn, and the ones watching them frolic from inside the café, all looked startled. Dozens of birds — birds bigger than pigeons — rising all at once was a hard thing not to flinch at.
But while I was studying the birds that had taken flight, something came fluttering down out of the sky and dropped beyond the wall.
"...A pigeon?"
Whatever was falling toward the ground resolved itself into a pigeon. I hurried out of the café and ran toward where it had landed.
"You wanna die?! How dare you, to Big Brother's daughter!"
"You piece of shit! You blind?!"
"Territory management's been slipping lately. Trash like this running wild."
"Pigeons just born to shit in somebody else's territory, are they?"
What I found on the far side of the café wall was dozens of magpies and crows ringed around a single pigeon, menacing it.
"What are you doing? And why are you bullying that pigeon?"
"Ah, Big Brother! It's nothing at all! No need for you to concern yourself, Big Brother!"
"Looks like something I ought to concern myself with. What happened all of a sudden?"
At my words the magpies and crows hesitated a moment, then owned up.
"Well, you see. This pigeon was about to drop a load on Big Brother's daughter from up in the sky. We could hardly just stand there and watch a thing like that."
One of them edged forward and showed me something whitish smeared across its back. Only then did I understand why the magpies and crows had moved so suddenly. A pigeon flying overhead had done what birds do and relieved itself in midair — and of all places, it had been headed straight for where So-eun was. The birds had read the situation coming, thrown their own bodies in the way to block it, and then set about thrashing the culprit.
"...Right. Carry on."
"Leave it to us!"
I shook my head at the magpies and crows lifting their right wings in something like a salute, and turned back toward the café — thinking, as I went, that wherever So-eun happened to be, this sort of thing was probably going to keep happening.