The Doljanchi
Once the worry Noona and I had been carrying—So-eun learning to walk—was finally behind us, the cafe flourished, and Mytube flourished even harder.
A baby is a cute thing even lying perfectly still, but she was cuter still in shoes that squeaked and flashed with light, tottering along in a little pit-pat. That plump, diaper-padded bottom swaying side to side as she walked was happiness itself.
Noona and I couldn't spend all our time just watching her, though. There was an event sitting right under our noses.
"Yes, yes. I'll book it for then. The headcount? Uh... just put us down for the maximum you can take. Don't worry about the price."
"Did the reservation go through?"
"Yeah. It's a pricey place, so they still had an opening."
"Thank goodness... We got so wrapped up worrying about So-eun walking that we nearly let her first birthday slip by."
That was it. The event in front of us was So-eun's first birthday party—her doljanchi—with a little over a month still to go.
Around the time new shoots pushed up and a green flush began to return to the bare trees, So-eun's first birthday arrived.
Today was her first birthday, and it was her doljanchi day besides.
"Yo! Congratulations!"
"The congratulations ought to go to So-eun, not me. It's her birthday."
"Well, you know. A doljanchi's basically that thing. Celebrating one year of survival and... all that."
"What is this, the Joseon dynasty?"
At the entrance of the hall we'd reserved for the doljanchi, I was greeting the guests I'd invited. My friends showed up first, offered their congratulations on So-eun's birthday, and promptly dumped an armload of gifts on me.
Damn. How am I supposed to get all this home?
The money from Mytube and the cafe was already more than enough to live on, so I'd told everyone we wouldn't take cash gifts—and an equivalent mountain of presents had piled up in their place. Near the entrance the bundles were stacking so high I was honestly starting to think I'd have to call a moving truck. Baby supplies like diapers, of course, and even strollers. The strollers alone already came to three.
Just then the elevator chimed—ding—and the doors opened.
I'd been expecting more guests, and when I saw my parents and Noona's parents step out, I bent into a polite bow. I'd told them they didn't need to help, that I could manage just fine on my own, so they'd come at their ease, like any other guests.
"You're he—"
But Dad and my father-in-law were already striding out ahead, and the welcome died on my lips in an awkward smile. No particular reason. The two of them had simply blown straight past me.
"Aigoo, what am I supposed to do with that man?"
"...Why is Dad like that?"
"Why do you think? He wants to see So-eun. Aigoo... On a normal day that man's lazy unto death, and you should have heard him nagging me to hurry up and go see her."
Mom sighed and gave her head a shake. I glanced at my mother-in-law beside her and found the very same look on her face. I couldn't help a small smile. I already knew Dad and my father-in-law were hopelessly smitten with So-eun. Their messenger profile photos had been pictures of her for ages, and even now they hounded me every two or three days to send more photos and videos.
I'd been smiling at the thought when the two of them came striding back out and poked me.
"Hey, kid. Where's So-eun."
"Son-in-law Shin. Where's So-eun at."
"...Why are you looking for So-eun from me?"
"You're the kid's dad."
"You're her father, aren't you."
"I mean... that's not wrong, but..."
They matched each other line for line, as if they'd rehearsed it, and the words stuck in my throat.
Then Dad, his patience scraped clean to the bottom, seized my shoulder and rattled me. Shaking me is not going to make So-eun appear!
"Where is So-eun?!"
"Ack—! Over there! There!"
I jabbed a finger toward where she was, if only to escape the shaking, and only then did Dad's hands let me go.
Dad and my father-in-law turned at once, making for the spot I'd pointed out. A moment later they both went rigid.
"Th-that's..."
"Wha...?"
"Is something the matter?"
I stared at the two of them, suddenly frozen solid, and asked it with pure bewilderment.
"Well, I'll be... I heard your ability was something else, but you can do that, too?"
"Do what? Oh—Cheongho and Yubu?"
I followed the tremble of Dad's finger and nodded.
There was Cheongho, wheeling the stroller So-eun was riding in. He wasn't hauling it from the front. He had his forepaws up on the handle and was pushing from behind, hind legs working in a full bipedal walk. And perched with supreme dignity on the very top of that stroller, Yubu kept watch on everything around them.
Even standing, Cheongho's eyes sat at about the height of the stroller, so Yubu was serving as his line of sight. In truth, a stroller that already came with a canopy and a fan mount had put him out of a job, and this was a career change: from living parasol-and-fan to a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree surveillance radar.
"So-eun had so many little ones crawling around her that she barely wanted to walk. So I told those two to get around on two legs, and now look at them."
"You told them to do that?"
"I didn't tell them to do it like that. They're doing it because they adore So-eun. Voluntary hardship? Sure, you could call it that."
Faced with how utterly unbothered I was, Dad and my father-in-law couldn't hide their disbelief. It didn't last. Disbelief or not, what mattered to the two of them was seeing So-eun.
"So-eun! Grandpa's here!"
"Other Grandpa's here, too!"
The two grandfathers stepped up in front of the stroller Cheongho was pushing and greeted her.
So-eun had grown enough to recognize people now, and her stock of words had swelled along with her. She welcomed them happily.
"Gwampa!"
"Bwahaha! You hear that? She called me Grandpa!"
"Don't make me laugh. That was for me."
The same age, and thick as thieves by now, the two of them squabbled over which grandpa she had meant. There were times their looking more like friends than in-laws was a pleasant sight. This was not one of them. Everyone's staring. What are you two doing...
I let out a small sigh and started toward them to break it up. I would have, if Mom and my mother-in-law hadn't moved first.
"Aigoo, you old fool."
"I told you before we got here. Don't go running your mouth."
"Aaaagh!"
In beautiful unison, the two of them had their ears seized. That's what they got for not showing a little restraint.
"Gamma!"
"That's right, it's Grandma. So-eun."
"Aigoo. I can't fathom how our little poop-puppy got this cute."
Each of the grandmothers took one of So-eun's hands and gave it a gentle shake. Then, still towing the grandfathers along by the ears, they headed into the hall where the party would be held.
They started calling each other sisters, and now they're turning into the same person.
I felt a pang of sympathy for Dad and my father-in-law as they were dragged off. The sympathy didn't survive the next old classmate, who showed up right after.
And so I went on greeting the guests I'd invited, until somehow it was time to begin.
"So-eun's father? We'll be starting shortly."
A staffer from the event company running the doljanchi came to tell me. I checked a mirror, smoothed the part of my hair that had gone wild, and stepped into the hall.
My friends, Noona's friends, and friends of both sets of parents. A crowd that could have passed for a wedding reception, every table already claimed.
I made my way past them to the long table at the very front. Noona was already waiting there, So-eun in her arms.
"Papa!"
"Get over here. They said they're starting."
So-eun had spotted me and was welcoming me with a wild flailing of arms and legs. A proud smile came over me all on its own, and I sat down beside Noona.
"It's already been a year since our So-eun was born."
"I know. Feels like just the other day I nursed her for the first time."
Beyond the table stretched a sea of people, and hanging over them was the birthday banner my friend—a self-proclaimed So-eun fan—had made. Looking at it, the truth finally landed. So-eun was already a full year old.
We'd only been sitting with that thought a moment when the host's voice came through the speakers.
"Ahem—we will now begin the doljanchi of Shin So-eun, daughter of Mr. Shin Suhwan and Ms. Jung Haeun."
At those words the murmur filling the hall subsided, and the party began. It opened with congratulations on So-eun's first birthday, dressed up in every flowery phrase the host could find.
"Next, please enjoy a growth video—a record, you might say, of the year Miss So-eun has lived since she was born."
What followed the birthday greetings was the footage Noona and I had filmed so diligently. It began with So-eun swaddled tight, only her face peeking out as she giggled, and ran all the way through her first steps to the clip of her squeaking along in those squeaky shoes. Call it a record of her entire growing-up and you wouldn't be exaggerating. The video alone ran about thirty minutes.
And yet, for as long as it played, not one person looked away. Even the host, who was supposed to be hosting, and the event-company staff meant to be running the lights and the sound, watched with soft, fond smiles.
"Uh... ah..."
When the video ended and the screen went black, the host stared blankly for a beat, then snapped back to himself.
A gift presentation followed, but we'd already received so many presents beforehand that it didn't take long. After that, the birthday celebration proper began. There was the cake no birthday could do without, and the blowing out of candles, and all of us together sang the birthday song with So-eun's name tucked into the words.
Whether she understood that all of this was for her or not, So-eun answered a whole room singing with a bright, clear smile.
"Ah, I could go on looking at Miss So-eun's smile forever. But the most important part of a doljanchi is still ahead of us, so let us set our regret aside for a moment and proceed to the doljabi."
At the host's words, a tray that must have been waiting in a corner—luxurious silk spread across it—was set upon the table, already crowded with objects. The doljabi is the old custom of laying things before a one-year-old and letting the child grab one, a playful guess at the life ahead. The usual staples were there: a pencil, a book, a spool of thread. So were a stethoscope, a microphone, a ball, and more.
But the host declared even that insufficient, and turned to the people packing the hall.
"When I was a child, people said this much was plenty for a doljabi. But what age are we living in? An age when things you wouldn't believe could be jobs become jobs. And so... if any of our guests today have an object you'd like to add to the doljabi, please come and place it!"
A murmur rose, and then people came up one by one to set things on the tray. One parent snatched a game console out of their young child's hands and added it. Someone laid down a USB stick, announcing that information was as good as money. After that came a toy sword, a calculator, a paper airplane, a harmonica, and on it went. By the end the tray was packed so full there wasn't a gap left.
"Well then, it seems we have no one else waiting to add an item, so we will begin the doljabi in earnest. Father, Mother—please allow Miss So-eun to take whatever she wishes!"
Noona and I set So-eun down on the table where the tray waited, and she stared at the things arranged there as if every one of them were a wonder.
"Now then—which object will our So-eun choose?"
Just as the host said, I was desperately curious what she would grab. I couldn't wait to find out.