What a Cute Family
"Hey, look at that guy."
"What? Who?"
A woman lifted her head at her friend's words, and the first thing to enter her field of vision was an enormously tall man.
"Whoa, look at the size of him."
He was so tall that in an amusement park packed shoulder to shoulder with people, he seemed to tower there all alone.
When the woman joked that at that height he had to be a telephone pole, her friend heaved an exasperated sigh.
"No, not the tall guy—the person next to him in the hat. Doesn't he give off celebrity vibes?"
Turning her head at her friend's words, she spotted a slim-looking boy standing beside the towering man. Hat and mask hid his face, but…
"Now that you mention it, he does look like a celebrity."
Something about the air around him was simply different.
When the woman readily agreed, her friend's eyes lit up.
"Should we go say something to him?"
"Don't you dare. What if he's not a celebrity?"
"If he's not, he's not~ And if he is, we hit the jackpot."
The woman turned serious at her friend's flippant tone.
"If he's really a celebrity, he's here to unwind. Just leave him alone."
"Aww…."
"None of that aww business. Be an adult about it."
"How can you be… so heartless…! Kids like you are exactly why the national economy is collapsing. I'm only saying this for your own good, so don't take it the wrong way—"
"Hey. Now that's too adult-like."
"Pfft—haha!"
The two of them dissolved into giggles.
They spent a long while riding the attractions and wandering around, and then the people from earlier caught her eye again.
"Hey. I don't think that guy from before is a celebrity."
"Huh? Why not?"
"Look over there. There's a kid with them. Looks like just a family out for the day."
"Ohhh. Huh, you're right."
Her friend clicked her tongue in disappointment. The woman chided her for expecting anything in the first place, but still stole a sidelong glance at them.
The tall man sat slumped on a bench looking utterly spent, and the boy with his hat pulled low seemed, for some reason, to be at a loss.
And the little boy clinging tightly to the boy's side was laughing without a care in the world.
When the ice cream in the little boy's hand began to melt and drip, the boy startled and hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief to wipe it for him.
Watching the scene, the woman found herself thinking, without meaning to:
What a cute little family.
"Thanks for wiping it. Yeonjae—."
"Haram. What did I say about using names here?"
"Oh, right!"
Haram let out a sheepish laugh, saying he'd forgotten. In his hand he still held the ice cream, more than half of it remaining.
'See? I told you you couldn't finish it.'
When we arrived at the amusement park, I'd meant to start by buying Haram some food. Then he laid eyes on someone holding an ice cream that had to be a good twenty centimeters long, and his eyes practically rolled back in his head.
He begged and begged, insisting he wanted one too, so I caved and bought it for him.
'Half of it's still left.'
What was I supposed to do with it? I hated the idea of making food waste. And worried that someone might recognize me, I couldn't easily pull my mask down either.
As I stood there floundering, caught between impossible options, a voice like it was half dead drifted over.
"Actor-nim. Give me that…."
It was Jinbae hyung.
I regarded him with open disapproval as he reached out a pale, trembling hand.
"Why on earth did someone who can't even handle the Dragon Coaster suggest an amusement park?"
"……Ten minutes of rest and I'll be fine."
Tsk. Fine, my foot.
'Then, Actor-nim, to lift your spirits—shall we go do something fun?'
'Something fun?'
'Let's go to an amusement park together.'
After Lee Euntaek left, Jinbae hyung's sudden suggestion of an amusement park had caught me off guard, but there'd been no real reason to refuse. He'd clearly chosen his words with care, in his own clumsy way.
He even made a point of sweeping up Haram, who'd come over to the apartment for the weekend, and off we went.
And then, astonishingly, the gloom that had been weighing on me simply vanished.
'I'm not a child, for heaven's sake….'
My mood lifted so completely it was almost embarrassing.
Back in elementary school, there'd been a day the whole class went on a field trip to an amusement park. I, convinced some accident was bound to happen, stayed behind for self-study instead.
I hadn't felt particularly disappointed about it. I hated crowds anyway.
It was almost laughable now, remembering how I used to think—my first amusement park in my entire life had been thoroughly, unreasonably fun.
Standing still amid all that unmistakable excitement, I felt my own spirits rise without my permission.
'……This is nice.'
The funny thing was that Jinbae hyung couldn't actually ride any of the attractions. He'd been the one to suggest coming, yet the moment he boarded anything that climbed even a little, the color drained from his face. Watching him crawl off a ride looking half-dead, then pant on a bench trying to catch his breath, pulled an involuntary snort out of me.
"Hyung, you don't have to ride anything else. Just breathe for a minute."
"No, Actor-nim. I'm perfectly fine."
"Right. You look perfectly fine."
I smirked at the dark circles shadowing his eyes.
"Have some water."
"Thank you…."
"Yeon—no, hyung! Let's go ride that one!"
A bright voice cut in between us. It was Haram, roughly two hundred times more worked up than usual.
'Someone's excited.'
Maybe because I didn't have a shred of acrophobia, the rides I tried for the first time didn't do much for me. "Chaotic" was about the extent of it.
The most thrilled of the three of us was Haram. He'd climbed out of the car wearing a face devoid of expectation, but the instant he finished his first ride, the dam burst.
The tiny creature bounced around fearlessly, demanding to try everything, and Jinbae hyung's face turned an even deeper shade of green with each demand.
"What do you want to ride?"
"Me, that one! The one that spins around and around?"
"The carousel?"
"Yeah! Quick!"
"Let's rest a bit first. Catch your breath."
"……"
"I'll buy you churros instead."
"Mm-hm."
"Good boy."
I bought churros from the stand right beside us and fed them to Haram one bite at a time. With my free hand, I patted the back of the nearly deceased Jinbae hyung.
'How strange.'
The truth was I'd barely ridden any rides at all. The hat and mask made everything feel stifling, too.
And yet, somehow, the corners of my mouth kept creeping upward.
'So there really is such a thing as the atmosphere of a place.'
It being the weekend, the park was packed solid no matter where you looked. Blaring music poured from the speakers mounted everywhere.
The jangling noise, the discomfort, the crowds that looked exhausting just to look at—all things I hated.
But it was good.
"(Yeonjae. Are you smiling right now?)"
Haram whispered it in a small voice. I smirked at him, sugar crumbs smeared all around his beaming mouth.
"(Yeah. It's fun.)"
"(Good.)"
Haram smiled, and I smiled too as I wiped around his lips.
Ah. I've really changed.
'It's okay to be around people.'
It was okay to stand this close to this many strangers. No misfortune factor would leap onto anyone. No one would get hurt because of me; no sudden accident would claim anyone.
Feeling that change sink into my whole body was more electrifying than I'd expected.
It felt like being alive.
Before I knew it, the sun had begun to set.
While I stood quietly watching the sunset wash over the amusement park like a tide, Haram poked me in the side.
"I need to go to the bathroom."
Why are you whispering that, exactly?
Puzzled, I told him okay and got up.
"Jinbae hyung, Haram and I will go to the bathroom."
"No! I can go by myself!"
Says the child who can't reach the sink without a stool.
I shook my head at Haram's tantrum.
"I have no interest in airing a lost-child search broadcast."
"What's a lost child?"
"(A little kid who got separated.)"
"(I'm not a little kid!)"
I placated Haram as he snapped at me in English, looking positively scandalized. He kept insisting he truly could go alone, so I finally compromised.
"(Fine. I'll wait right here. Come straight back the second you're done.)"
"(Okay!)"
I sat down on the bench with a clear, unobstructed view of the bathroom entrance and fixed my gaze on Haram's back until he disappeared inside.
'Only one way in. Should be fine.'
Losing a child—not even my own child, technically—at an amusement park was simply not an option. So just in case, I never took my eyes off the entrance, and mercifully, Haram came out quickly.
He was briskly patting his wet hands on his pants—so he had washed them properly after all—and the sight made me smile.
That smile vanished the instant I saw a man walking toward Haram.
'What the—'
I shot up off the bench and broke into a flat-out run.
"Haram!"
Just before the man's hand could reach him, I wedged myself between them.
"Yeonjae—."
"Come here!"
The moment Haram's hand touched mine, I yanked him back behind me, hard, and fixed my glare on the man in front of us.
"Who are you?"
Great, I'm out of breath from one short sprint.
Determined not to let my ragged breathing show, I kept my guard up, watching the man carefully.
He had a gentle, honest face, and he was flailing his hands around in visible panic.
'Why isn't he saying anything?'
Watching him flounder, hands waving this way and that in utter disarray, my temper flared—who touches someone else's kid?—but then I caught the shape his hands were making and froze mid-breath.
He tapped the side of his own ear, then crossed his arms into a firm, unmistakable X.
"……Are you hard of hearing?"
I touched my index finger to my temple, then opened my palm forward as I asked. I'd even pulled my mask down in case he read lips, but he seemed to be watching my hands rather than my mouth.
When his face brightened further and he signed That's right in Korean Sign Language, I gave a small nod.
Still, my wariness didn't budge an inch.
'There are adults everywhere around here. Why approach a child?'
When I asked him in Korean Sign Language what he wanted, he held his phone straight out to me.