The Automobile Mari Competition (4)
"Alright! Ride!"
"Yahaha! We made it!"
The siblings rode with all their might.
Doo-doo-doo-doo
The Ddareungi hadn't moved from its spot, but in their hearts they were already sprinting toward the finish line like light itself.
After all, they had set out thinking that simply completing the course at all would be a small miracle. And in their minds, the siblings had accomplished their goal.
Still, the city walls were quite tall, so it took them more than an hour before the gate even came into view.
"Oppa! There's the gate!"
"I see it too! I said I see it! Yahaha!"
Dae-hee's face, which had been deathly dark from lack of sleep, began to brighten.
Once they got inside, wouldn't they finally get to lie down and sleep in peace?
"Huh? But why does it look so empty over there?"
"Right? Didn't they say the finish line was at the gate?"
"Did we really come that late?"
The entrance that drew steadily closer was utterly deserted.
Not that they'd been expecting a welcome crowd or anything, but...
"It's a little... disappointing."
"Yeah, maybe if we'd come earlier it would've been different."
The siblings' mood soured in an instant. It felt as though their exhaustion had doubled on the spot.
"..."
"..."
Even so, the memory of their nine grueling days flashed through their minds.
"No. We finished the race! That alone makes it an amazing achievement!"
"Yeah. That's right—and they said it's held every year!"
"Next time, let's aim for first place—er, the top ranks!"
They really were young, pure-hearted kids.
They had no idea that the people watching the two of them approach the gate, smiling again in no time, were staring at them strangely.
The organizing team members who had seen the participants off from Sinsi and tidied up the site rested for a day, then boarded a train.
They had to arrive at Mudo ahead of everyone else, prepare the venue, and wait for the participants.
Chiiiik
"Ugh... it's so stiff."
"You weren't expecting a bed as soft as the one back home, were you?"
"Haha. Of course not."
"So do we get to rest for five days, then?"
By their calculations, the participants were expected to arrive on the afternoon of the eleventh day.
It had taken five days to wrap things up in Sinsi and reach Mudo, so six days remained.
"Just in case, we should take turns standing watch starting three days from now."
"Aw, come on... no one can get here that fast, sir."
Before releasing the Ddareungi, they themselves had tested just how much performance the machine was capable of.
Factor in time for people to sleep as well, and the organizing team estimated that only one in ten participants would arrive anywhere near the expected time, even with a significant head start.
"Then what will you do if someone actually shows up while you're off resting?"
"Hmm. I suppose we could leave one desk at the entrance and have someone wait there, haha."
And so the staff left a single desk at the Mudo entrance, posted just four employees on rotation, and the rest went off sightseeing and resting.
Little did they know that a pair of troublemakers was already on the way.
And so it was, the morning of the tenth day since the competition began.
"Yaaawn."
"Morning shifts are rough."
"Can't be helped—we rotate, after all."
The employees guarding the entrance from the small hours until morning sat around lazily, yawning.
Soon the shift would change and it would be their turn to go in and rest.
"Seems like the team leader worries an awful lot, doesn't it?"
"Aw, that's just thoroughness. But seriously, imagine if somebody set some revolutionary record. Wouldn't that be a disaster?"
"Like what could possibly manage that?"
"Beats me..."
They worked at Daehan Automobile, after all—they'd run every experiment imaginable, and they'd concluded there was nothing left to squeeze out of the compact engine in the Ddareungi.
And then, to those men dozing with half-lidded eyes, something appeared.
"Huh?"
"What is it?"
"What is that thing?"
Something had appeared on the road in the far distance.
"What on earth is that?"
"It's wide sideways—some kind of carriage, maybe?"
"At this hour?"
It had long been since trains became commonplace and people stopped foolishly risking cargo transport by carriage in the dead of night.
Truly urgent cargo would only ever be a small amount, carried on horseback—and yet the thing's appearance was outright bizarre.
The employees squinted their eyes thin.
"Oh? It's a Ddareungi!"
"Huh? Two of them riding side by side?"
"No, sir. There's an auxiliary seat mounted on the side."
The employee with the sharpest eyesight was making out the details.
"Wait—but they're here already?"
It was a full day and a half faster than their estimates, so it was hard to believe.
"Do you suppose they rode a train partway and got off?"
"If they had, they'd be here even faster."
"Ah. So a record's already going to be set, then?"
The situation was sinking deeper and deeper into mystery.
Doo-doo-doo-doo
The distinctive engine note of a Ddareungi began to reach their ears as well.
"Whoa. It's real?"
"Wow... how on earth did they get here so fast?"
"Judging by the engine sound, it's bone stock. So how did they actually pull it off?"
"I hope they hurry up and get here. I've got so many questions."
"Me too."
Fire returned to the previously languid employees' eyes.
They burned with curiosity about what revolutionary technology had allowed the pair to arrive so fast.
Doo-doo-doo-doo—skreeee
"Wah! We made it!"
"Yahahaha! This is awesome! We finished the race, we did!"
And just as the siblings pulled up to the entrance and basked in the joy of completion—
"Hey! You two!"
"Yes?"
"What's the meaning of this!?"
"We're a bit late, aren't we... we're sorry."
The siblings had assumed they'd tarried while every last participant was accounted for, and they cowered apologetically.
"No, that's not it! How did you get here so fast?!"
"Huh?"
At the employee's urgent interrogation, the siblings' eyes went wide as saucers.
"We're in first place?"
"Really?"
They double-checked, but looking at the employee's face, they had no choice but to believe it.
"That's right—you two are first! So tell me right now how you got here so fast!"
"Eep!"
Wasn't this what those old tigers that came down from the mountains and devoured travelers must have been like? The pair staring at the siblings like they were about to eat them alive were slightly terrifying. Just a tiny bit.
What a shame it was, really—that there was supposed to be a welcome ceremony and a crowd of well-wishers, but these two had simply arrived too fast.
"Let's go inside and talk! Do you have time?"
"We're tired—can't we go sleep first?"
"No! We're going, right now!"
And so the siblings were abducted. To a warehouse somewhere, of all places.
"So this is that thing called a transmission?"
"Yes. You change gears to alter the rotation speed depending on the situation."
"Good heavens..."
Once they opened it up, the principle was astoundingly simple. The hard part was merely keeping everything meshing together smoothly without slipping.
The slightest error would jam the gears and leave them perfectly poised to shatter.
It was something the siblings—or no, something Dae-hee—had truly built brilliantly.
"This is remarkable."
"It's truly superb..."
"Ehehe. Thank you very much."
The Daehan Automobile employees couldn't help but marvel.
They'd had ideas about gear changing themselves, but she had built it using an approach entirely different from the one that had kept them stumped.
Clunk
"Dae-il! Dae-hee!"
The warehouse door swung open, and in came Dong-ja with a face like a goblin, and Mari on the verge of tears.
Bellowing their children's names with every step.
"Ah! Mom! Dad! Sob—"
"We won, Mom and Dad! Sniff—"
After days of suffering out in the wilds, the siblings ran to their parents the moment they saw them, eyes brimming with tears.
"Huh? Sir? You're their mom and dad?"
The employee who'd hauled the kids in stood there dumbfounded. Weren't these the boss's own children, then?
"You two!"
THWACK
CRACK-CRACK
And then rang out the sound of somebody's head being busted and a smack on the rear.
"GRAAAAGH!"
"KYAAAAAAAH!"
Dae-il rolled on the floor clutching his head, while Dae-hee stretched her hands piteously toward a rear end too far away to cover.
It was clearly hurting—a lot.
"Do you have any idea how worried we were!"
"You brats haven't let us sleep a wink since!"
The faces of the couple, who had spent sleepless nights drowning in worry, were a wreck too.
"A grown young lady looking like this! What a sight!"
Smack, smack, CRACK
Seeing the siblings in their wretched state, Mari's tears began pouring down in streams. The smacking was a bonus.
To rewind ten days before the siblings' arrival—that is, back to the day the competition began...
"Ahem. Your name's in the competition's title too, you know!"
"Ohohoho. How lovely."
Dong-ja, drenched in sweat, and Mari, wearing a delighted expression, were heading home together.
"The competition runs quite a while, doesn't it?"
"Yes. We'll need to set aside about a fortnight, counting the wrap-up and the trip back."
"Then we'll get to spend some quality time together, just the two of us. It's been ages."
"W-well, yes..."
The couple had finally gotten the chance to travel alone together for the first time in a long while.
Dong-ja had been run off his feet looking after the company, and Mari looking after the children.
Dong-ja privately thought that if he played his cards wrong, a sixth child might just come of this trip...
Click
"We're home!"
"Mom and Dad are hooome~"
"Welcome back."
And when they opened the door and stepped inside, remarkably, all the children were gathered there waiting for the couple.
"Hm~? What's this about? Our little puppies?"
"Um... well, you see..."
The eldest and second children were nowhere to be seen, and the third was hemming and hawing, dodging the question.
"What is it? Did you break something? It's all right—don't worry, just tell me."
Mari was in such a good mood at the thought of spending happy days alone with Dong-ja that she felt ready to forgive anything.
"Here it is."
"Hm? What's this letter~"
She wondered how the kids had known again, and whether they'd written some note telling their father to have a good time on his trip.
And when she opened the letter—
Mother, Father—we have decided to enter the Ddareungi competition. We will return home safe and sound. Please don't worry, and wait for us at home......
There was quite a lot more written below, but none of it registered in Mari's eyes.
"WHAT!!!!!!!!!"
"GYAAAAH!"
"RUN!"
Mari's furious roar exploded through the house, so immense that even the next-door neighbors started worrying.
It was loud enough that Dong-ja briefly assumed he'd been the one to cause some disaster.
"Honey! What's wrong!"
"Dong-ja! Hurry! We have to go catch those brats!"
"Catch who?"
"The eldest and the second!"
Without the faintest idea what was going on, Dong-ja was dragged along and began packing. Extremely rapidly.
He was too afraid to ask questions.
Clatter-bang-crash
"Hurry up!"
"O-okay..."
And so the couple raced off aboard the fastest train available.
"Where are those brats going?!"
All the way there, watching Mari peer out the window searching for someone, Dong-ja grew a little afraid.
Afraid enough that he half-thought making a sixth child might have been the safer bet.
Slide
"Read this."
"What's this?"
And to Dong-ja, still sitting there in bafflement, Mari thrust the letter.
Tremble... tremble...
"Look at these doomed brats! GYAAAAARGH!"
Only then did Dong-ja understand Mari's fury.
Weren't these the children who had never once caused trouble, who doted on their younger siblings and studied hard?
Their second, Dae-hee especially, was so precious he'd gladly take a wound just keeping her in his eyes—so clever that the two of them could talk engines together for hours.
And those children had entered a dangerous competition without so much as a word to their parents.
Worse, they had set off first and left the letter behind with their younger siblings, precisely so no one could stop them.
"Grrrrr."
"Eheehee."
That was why Dong-ja and Mari's eyes had rolled back.
And there, dragged into the couple's lodgings, were the siblings.
Tremble... tremble...
"Ahem. Hands down, please."
"..."
"..."
To the siblings, their parents were truly kind and loving people. The depth of their love for each other was matched by how much of it they poured into their children.
But today, they were terrifying beyond all measure.
Kneeling with their arms raised, the siblings felt their arms might drop off, yet they didn't dare move a muscle.
"We're sorry..."
"We were wrong!"
With their arms aching so badly, the siblings had no choice but to beg forgiveness all night long.