The First Birthday Grab
"Mwaaah?"
Noona and I set So-eun down on the table together, and she opened her eyes wide and round and turned her head. She looked for all the world as if she wanted someone to explain what she was supposed to do, so I smiled and—pouring nothing into the gesture but grab whatever you like—clenched my fist in the empty air and opened it again, over and over.
"Pwah!"
So-eun did not grab a single thing she was meant to grab. She clamped her hands at empty air and burst into a bright, sunny laugh. Well, if our So-eun was happy, that was enough. I smiled and gave her plump cheek a light poke.
"Kyah!"
The soft cheek squished under my finger, and So-eun, delighted, threw her little arms up and caught hold of it.
"Ahh, Miss So-eun must like her daddy very much! What a shame, though—Daddy is not one of the things you're allowed to grab!"
At the emcee's words Noona broke into a stifled giggle beside me. So-eun seemed to catch sight of it, because she smiled right back.
"All right, So-eun. Want to try grabbing one of these? Anything you feel like. Whatever you want."
I pointed at the tray crowded with the traditional first-birthday objects and gestured, and her gaze swung back to it. Then she started rolling her eyes this way and that, as if she were genuinely weighing what to pick.
Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun—
The emcee laid down a drumroll with his mouth, and So-eun stared a hole straight through the tray.
And in that instant—
"Huh?"
The emcee's blank, dopey voice landed at the same moment as two others.
"Whatcha doing, sha?"
"Ack! My footpad got poked, sha!"
Il-gito and I-gito, who had been down on the floor, hopped—just like that—and launched themselves onto the table. Onto the very tray So-eun had been glaring through.
No. That's insane. How did they even get up there?
I was stunned. The tabletop sat higher than a grown man's waist, and Il-gito and I-gito had cleared it from the floor in a single bound. There was no way not to be shocked.
What came next shocked me even more.
"Bunniiiies!"
So-eun, still deliberating among the objects on the tray, lit up at the sudden appearance of Il-gito and I-gito and grabbed both of them on the spot.
"Heeheehee! Baby, that tickles, sha!"
She clutched the two rabbits tight and pulled them into a hug.
"So-eun, could you maybe grab an object instead of the Tokkiz?"
"Nnnngh! Bunniiiies!"
The moment I tried to pry the Tokkiz free, she puffed her cheeks and resisted. I took one look at that face and gave up on extracting them.
And at that same moment, the table began to shake.
"I am present as well, Young Mistress!"
"I'm here too!"
"I know not what this affair may be, yet this Yubu can hardly be left out of it!"
They must have been stationed under the table, because the instant the two rabbits were caught, the rest of the animals came tumbling out in a rush.
"Kyah!"
So-eun broke into a sunny laugh and tried to hug every last one of them. Tiny as she was, actually embracing animals bigger than herself was practically impossible, so in reality the animals were the ones piling onto her. Still.
"Uh... er..."
The emcee, taking in the scene, looked profoundly stuck and turned a helpless what do I do gaze on me. I knew he'd been working as an emcee for the event company for quite a long while, and even so, this was plainly a first for him too. I gave a small nod—let's just carry on like this. He caught the signal, thankfully, cleared his throat with a hem-hem, and began.
"As expected, Miss So-eun's true calling must be princess. With animal friends who love their princess like that, how could a pencil or a bit of money ever catch her eye?"
He spun her choice into something presentable, then cued the room to applaud.
Clap, clap, clap—the sound rolled out, and So-eun, startled for an instant, flung her eyes wide and round. A heartbeat later she was beaming again, squeezing Il-gito tight. I watched, thoroughly pleased, and saw that not only Noona beside me but everyone in the hall wore the same fond smile.
Even the people who had set objects on the tray weren't disappointed that theirs had gone unchosen. Not a single one of them.
I spent a little while just watching So-eun giggle and cling to the animals, then gathered her up. She still seemed convinced she had to keep hold of at least one rabbit, and she absolutely would not let go of Il-gito, so I had no choice but to pick him up along with her.
"Everyone. Thank you so much for coming all this way today to celebrate our daughter So-eun's first birthday."
With So-eun in my arms, Noona and I bowed our heads to the guests who had come for the party. I padded our thanks out in this phrasing and that, and then we brought out what we had prepared in advance.
"For everyone who came today to celebrate So-eun's birthday, we've prepared a small gift. We hope it's to your liking, and thank you once again. So-eun, want to say thank you too?"
"Ttah!"
As if she had actually understood me, So-eun flapped up the hand that wasn't clutching Il-gito and burst out laughing.
"Kehek!"
People watching clutched their chests and planted their heads on the tables. A few locked up on their feet, eyes bulging, so thoroughly slain that you could have pronounced them dead where they stood.
Noona and I, long since used to scenes like that, let out a breath of a laugh and started handing out the gifts.
"Oh... what is this."
"So-eun Thumbs-Up."
"...No, that's not what I asked."
The class president, whom I'd also run into at the reunion, stared at me as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"It's a scented candle. Custom-made, so it's not illegal or anything—don't worry. For the record, rather than burning it, just leaving it as it is gives off a gentle scent."
I foisted the candle, cast straight from the shape of So-eun's thumbs-up, onto him. Along with it I loaded him down with a gift bundle holding things like a towel stamped with her footprint.
"Still. She really is cute."
Looking at So-eun in my arms, the class president gave a fond smile. Right up until the friend waiting behind him shoved him aside.
"Wh-what are you doing!"
"I have brought the iron hammer down upon a class president who, unable to forget his school days of colluding with the student council to run rampant, persists in his rampage to this very day."
"What kind of cra—... no. Did your mind clock out?"
The class president had been about to fire off a curse point-blank, then glanced at So-eun and Noona and sanitized his language.
That courtesy did not earn him the slightest attention from the one who had shoved him.
"Hoo... to finally meet her. I have no regrets left in this life!"
My friend gazed at So-eun, overcome with joy.
Right. This guy was a So-eun fan.
Remembering it, I offered an awkward smile and handed over the same gift set I'd given the class president.
"Oh, ohhhhh! Princess merch!"
I had nothing to say to that.
The moment he saw the candle modeled on So-eun's thumbs-up, he lifted it in both hands as reverently as if he were enshrining a sacred ancestral tablet. He raised it to eye level and grinned and grinned.
"Ah!"
He blurted it and thrust a hand out toward So-eun—only after scrubbing it hard with a wet wipe he'd pulled from his pocket.
Understanding the reaction, I looked at So-eun. She stared for a moment at the hand being offered to her, then quietly reached over and took it.
"Hnnngh! I am never washing this hand again."
"...Get lost."
I pressed the gift into the hands of my friend, who looked thoroughly unhinged, and sent him off. From here on, that one was banned from So-eun's airspace.
After seeing off the friend who doubled as a So-eun fan and seemed to have lost his mind entirely, I kept handing out gifts. People came up one after another, took their presents, greeted So-eun once each, and went home with their arms full of joy.
And so Noona and I, after a first-birthday party that had been tiring in its way and wonderful all the same, looked at So-eun with thoroughly contented faces.
So-eun, who had greeted the guests one by one and played along as if she were receiving them herself, had at some point grown tired. She was sprawled across Cheongho's back, fast asleep and snoring softly.
"My back is... soaked, sir."
"See, this is why I told you to put her in the stroller."
"I cannot, sir. I bear a duty to attend the Young Mistress!"
"...Nobody ever gave you that duty, you know?"
Afraid that if he so much as moved, So-eun would slip and fall, Cheongho held perfectly still and looked fiercely devoted about it anyway.
I watched him for a moment, then went over to the event-company staff waiting on me—to settle the remaining balance, of course, and to collect the photos and videos the photographers had taken.
With all of that handled, Noona and I started getting ready to head home.
Having a baby was reason enough, but traveling with more than ten animals was something that required preparation. On top of that, we had a mountain of So-eun's birthday presents. Still, because I'd promised an extra fee, hauling the gifts wasn't much of a problem.
The real problem was the more than ten animals. Even if we could talk to them, dragging around creatures overflowing with curiosity about anything new was not easy.
Somehow I got them loaded into the vehicle, looked them over, and called out.
"Cats, sound off!"
"Two!"
"Threeee!"
"Four."
"...?"
There was a problem. Namcat, who was supposed to answer for one of the cats, wasn't answering.
I hurriedly scanned every corner of the car for him. Namcat was nowhere to be seen.
Once I realized he hadn't boarded at all, I urgently started checking the others as well.
Maru, who loved to run and had a habit of causing trouble, and Jjamong, who loved people so much she sometimes trailed off after complete strangers—every one of the dogs was in place. The numerous Tokkiz and the geese were all accounted for, too, not one of them missing. Yubu, Hanmu, and the rest went without saying.
But there were others gone besides Namcat.
"Raccoons, sound off!"
Not a sound came back.
The raccoons had vanished.
"Where did those bastards go!"
The living rattles—the ones who went around carrying rattles—had disappeared.
Pick uuup the phooone—the phooone—pick uuup—
And right then, the phone rang.
"Sir. You're looking for one cat and two raccoons, aren't you?"
"Are they there?"
"Ah, yes... There was a noise in the box truck, so we checked. They're inside."
"Hoo..."
It was the event company, already on the road ahead of us, and I could finally breathe.
"What are they doing in there..."
"We're not really sure how they got in, either... From the look of it, you received baby snacks as gifts? They're eating those."
That told me exactly what had happened. The party had gone on, I hadn't managed to get them anything proper to eat, and they'd helped themselves—right up until they drifted into the company's box truck.
I couldn't hide how absurd it was. But the company had already left ahead of us, so we agreed to meet at the house, and I got the car moving. Something was going to have to be done about that appetite of theirs. Turning it over, I headed home fast.