The Penguin Habitat (1)
"Th-this is..."
The guide, who had been wound tight as a horde of sea lions came surging in, looked as if he couldn't begin to make sense of what he was seeing. Fair enough. No matter how long he had been guiding tours around the Galápagos, a sight like this had to be a first.
I gave Noona a small wave to tell her it was all right; she was still watching with worry written across her face. When it came to animals she trusted me completely, and her concern fell away in an instant.
"Papa! Ung?"
So-eun pointed at the sea lions, plainly curious about them. True to a child who loved animals, she was more delighted by these new creatures than afraid of them.
"These are sea lions. Sea lions."
"Lions?"
She echoed only the tail of the word and stretched out a hand, as if she wanted to touch one. I thought for a moment, then walked up to the sea lion that had brought a fish first.
"Stick your head out."
"Ehheng, heeeheng!"
At my words the sea lion let out a bizarre noise, twisted itself into knots, and timidly offered its head.
"Touch!"
I held it out just far enough for her to reach, and So-eun opened her tiny palm and pat-patted the sea lion's head.
"Uheheheheng! I'm losing it!"
The sea lion that received So-eun's blessing—no, her touch—went utterly limp, as if it had fainted on the spot from the mere brush of her palm. The guide rushed over in alarm to check on it, looking as though he feared something had gone wrong.
"Don't touch me!"
"Hrk!"
Unwilling to let any other human lay a hand on the head So-eun had touched, the sea lion threatened him instead. Barking and thrashing, it sent the guide toppling onto his rear.
I let out a short laugh and turned my gaze to another sea lion—the one that had arrived with a Galápagos penguin clamped in its mouth.
"Put that down."
"Mmph-mmph-mmph!"
"Save meee!"
The sea lion answered me, and the penguin shrieked to be spared. Barking and squawking, the racket was unbearable, and the stares already gathering on us only multiplied.
"Honestly. So-eun, this one wants you to pet it too."
"Kya!"
So-eun patted the sea lion's head as if it were the easiest thing in the world. The moment her hand landed, the sea lion spat the penguin out—ptoo—and rolled across the ground.
"Aheheheheng! This is heaven!"
"......"
Faced with sea lions carrying on as if they had been drinking hard, I could only shake my head. I shut them out entirely. Their behavior was something I could neither understand nor wanted to, and the penguin sprawled on the ground, limp with relief at still being alive, was what mattered.
"You all right?"
I set the sprawled penguin upright and ran a quick look over its body. Luckily, though a sea lion had been holding it in its mouth, there wasn't a scratch on it.
"I'm fiiine!"
The little one insisted it was fine too, springing up and wobbling as if it meant to walk.
"Pe-eng!"
So-eun, who had been watching closely, seemed to remember a character from a video she was shown now and then. True to a child who locked onto that video every time it played, she reached for the penguin and squirmed, her whole body declaring that she had to touch it this instant. I smiled and set her down. The Galápagos penguin's beak looked a little sharp, but a bird barely half So-eun's height didn't seem especially threatening.
"I like youuu!"
"Pe-eng!"
So-eun pulled the penguin into a hug, and the penguin burrowed into her arms in return. It wasn't quite on the level of the Tokkiz, but she seemed to like it nearly as much. I was watching the scene with quiet satisfaction when the Tokkiz quietly wedged themselves in.
"You mustn't forget us-sha!"
"That's right-sha!"
"Bunnies!"
As the Tokkiz came over, So-eun gathered them into her arms as well. Even half-buried under them, she couldn't bring herself to give up the penguin, and she kept a grip on its flipper.
"Who did she take after, being this greedy?"
"You, maybe?"
"Fair point. I am pretty greedy. I'm even starting to want a second one. What do you think?"
"I think you shouldn't talk nonsense."
Noona laughed lightly and left a palm print on my back.
"Krghhh..."
Of all places, the print had landed somewhere my hands couldn't reach, and I had no choice but to squirm. Writhing under the sting, I swore that the moment So-eun was sound asleep, I was going to pay Noona back for this.
And the instant I made that vow, a sudden uproar broke out.
"Just let me lick it once!"
"Get lost!"
"Just one lick, that's all!"
"You think I'd let you lick the touch of love?!"
The sea lions had started beating on one another. More precisely, the two So-eun had petted and the others gunning for those two heads had started a fight.
"......I've lived here a good long while, and I never thought I'd see a sea lion brawl."
The guide looked thoroughly dumbfounded. Hearing the reason would only dumbfound him further, so I spoke up at once.
"Those guys are carrying on because they want to lick the spots So-eun touched. It isn't a sea lion turf war. It's a pack of perverts being perverts."
"......"
The guide stared at the sea lions as if they were hopeless. I snickered at the look on his face, then scooped So-eun up. She refused to let go of the Tokkiz and the penguin, which was briefly awkward, but there was a way around it.
"So-eun, want a snack?"
"Snack!"
She let go of the Tokkiz and the penguin at once. To So-eun, a snack was worth a little more than animals she could hug whenever she liked.
"W-we lost to a snack-sha...?"
The Tokkiz were briefly stunned at being beaten by a snack, but once I had So-eun in my arms and started off with Noona, they had no choice but to follow. There was just one problem.
"Um...... what would you like to do about the penguin? It's following you."
The penguin the sea lion had caught was trotting along behind us. Waddling without a pause, chasing us for all it was worth, it was almost pitifully cute—but a problem was still a problem. From the way it tagged along every time we moved, it clearly had no thought of turning back.
"We can't just take it home and raise it, can we?"
"I'm not sure about that part myself. What I do know for certain is that it's an endangered species."
"Hmm...... Then let's go to where the penguins live first thing tomorrow. We can drop this one off while we're at it."
"Shall I push the schedule back by a day?"
"We'll have to."
The guide nodded and said he understood. So-eun was already dipping her head, sleepy, so I started walking again.
"Coming toooo! Coming toooo!"
Behind us the penguin chased with everything it had. It was at least a little faster than Hanmu, the slowest of the lot, so it managed not to fall behind. And so, with one new penguin added to the party, we returned to the lodging and were asleep in no time.
"Suhwan. You don't think that thing believes this is its house, do you?"
Noona had been woken at the crack of dawn by So-eun fussing that she was hungry, and after setting out a tasty bowl of baby food she stared in disbelief at the penguin sprawled asleep on the floor. Unlike the other animals, which slept on their bellies or curled up, it had its flippers flung wide and was lying in a full spread-eagle. It was sleeping so deeply that it didn't stir even with people moving around beside it and the other early risers padding past.
"This isn't about to announce it's following us all the way to Korea, is it?"
"......That would be a real problem."
A flicker of unease crept over me at Noona's words. But the time we had agreed on was drawing near, so we ignored the penguin and finished getting ready.
"Anything else we ought to pack?"
"Sunscreen? It's an untouched stretch of shore out there, so I don't think there'll be much shade. I heard it's mostly rock."
"Mm-hm. And?"
"A change of clothes should be enough. They said they'd have most everything else ready. Oh—and let's pack a few more of So-eun's snacks."
At my words Noona plucked just the sunscreen and the baby snacks from the suitcase and slipped them into the bag.
"Shall we go?"
Having gathered everything we needed, she looked at me. I nodded and got to my feet.
"Hey. Get up."
I started poking the penguin sprawled on the floor. I meant to leave most of the other animals behind, but the penguin was not one of them.
"Kyureek."
"Quit making weird noises and get up."
It wasn't waking from the sleep I had told it to wake from—just making bizarre sounds—so I grabbed its beak and gave it a vigorous shake.
"Gwek! Oh nooo! I'm awake-wake!"
"There. Good job."
Only once I had shaken it by the beak did it get up. I lifted the penguin and left the lodging with Noona.
The guide and the bodyguards were already waiting, and when we reached the harbor, dozens of people were standing by with all manner of gear. As we approached, a stern-faced man with sun-darkened skin came over and held out a hand. He said something in Spanish. I couldn't catch a single word.
"This is Roberto. He manages the penguin habitat here in the Galápagos, and he's also in charge of leading the people behind him."
Thanks to the guide at our side, the conversation wasn't a problem. I shook hands with Roberto, the man in charge, and we boarded the boat at once, bound for the penguins' habitat.
We rode for a while, cresting waves that threatened seasickness without quite delivering it, until a beach of rock—the penguins' habitat, they said—began to come into view in the distance.
"Is that your home?"
"How'd you knowww?"
I lifted the penguin so it could see the rocky shore clearly as I asked, and it looked startled. Satisfied we had found the right place, I watched the handful of penguins beginning to appear far off. Birds that looked exactly like the one beside me were swimming and basking in the sun.