Chae-a Playing the Flute

Chae-a Playing the Flute

 

I lowered my phone for the embarrassed Yuna and slowly approached her.

Yuna quietly moved away from the sculpture and said to me.

“The dinosaur is cute. The dinosaur is like a baby.”

It’s both cute and funny when a baby calls another baby cute, so I found myself laughing without realizing it.

Yuna stared at me blankly and said.

“Ha-euni is like a dinosaur too.”

“…?”

I thought I wasn’t sure about that and tilted my head.

As I raised my phone to apologize for suddenly lowering the screen, I noticed several chat messages coming up.

[Seo-rin Seo-rin – Dinosaur Ha-eun might be cute. Ha-eun, do a roar for us!]

[Strawberry milk is yummy – Ah, I want to buy her some snacks haha]

[Mumbling – Ha-eun, there’s an ant sculpture next to the dinosaur, go check it out! I think Chae-a will like it.]

During such chat, I slightly turned my gaze to the side upon hearing about the ‘ant sculpture’.

‘Wow… it’s big.’

As the viewer said, I can see an ant sculpture of similar size to the dinosaur sculpture.

Of course, since it’s a sculpture installed for children, it looks more like a cute, imaginary ant rather than a real one, but still.

Even so, I think Chae-a would like this, so I turned around to call her.

Pitter-patter pitter-patter

I heard someone running towards us at an incredibly fast pace.

I smiled brightly at the sound and called out to Chae-a.

“Chae-a…!”

Chae-a smiles cheerfully and jumps up and down when I call her.

As I blink, hearing the pattering sound getting faster and faster.

Chae-a approaches me and shouts something loudly.

“There’s the Ant King…!”

Ant King?

It seems she’s calling it the Ant King because it’s such a large ant.

I nod, thinking I understand, when Chae-a grabs my hand tightly and says softly.

“Wow, I wanna see it up close.”

For some reason, she seemed shy about going straight to see the giant ant sculpture.

So I grabbed Yuna’s hand, who was watching us, and walked towards the giant ant sculpture together.

*

I thought it was just a simple sculpture, but looking closer, I noticed there was a slide for children installed inside.

Chae-a seemed to really like the sight, as she clung to the sculpture just like Yuna had done earlier.

“Wow! Amazing. Ant King, you’re really amazing…!”

She must have liked it so much that she hugged it tightly and rubbed her cheek against the slide.

Seeing Chae-a so happy made me feel happy too, and I was smiling to myself.

Han A-rin, who had followed us, screamed and rushed towards Chae-a.

“Chae-a! Don’t rub your face there! It’s hot, hot!”

At those words, Chae-a made a slightly pouty face and shook her head vigorously.

“It’s not hot!”

Then, as if to show she was angry, she stomped her short legs, trying to look as threatening as possible.

But from the side, it just looked cute, and I was trying hard not to laugh.

“… Scary.”

Yuna, seemingly frightened by Chae-a’s anger, trembled and held my hand tightly.

Watching this, I thought it was similar to the story of how other species aren’t scared when red pandas try to be threatening.

But other red pandas are scared, so I patted Yuna’s back to comfort her.

As I was watching this scene, I bowed to the phone to thank the viewers for recommending places Chae-a might like.

Various place recommendations started to pop up quickly.

[BearJelly – There was definitely a dinosaur playground around here, right? It might be good to check it out!]

[MingMing – Yuna being scared is really so cute ㅠㅠㅠ I really want to poke her cheek just once.]

[DontBeAJudgeForReal – There should be a sandy beach nearby too.]

Dinosaur playground and sandy beach.

Both are things Yuna likes, so it might be good to go see them after we’ve fully explored this place.

I smiled at Yuna, who was perking up her ears, and gave her a choice.

“Which do you like better, the dinosaur playground or the sandy beach?”

At this question, Yuna blinked her eyes and looked at me, seemingly pondering various options.

She started wagging her tail quickly and crossed her arms, thinking.

“I like the dinosaur playground because there are many dinosaurs. But I like the sandy beach because I can make such a big castle there. Which one should we go to?”

Then, as if contemplating the most serious problem in the world, Yuna closed her eyes and spoke to me as if she had made a decision.

“I want to go to the dinosaur playground. Seo-rin unnie made a castle for me before.”

It seems she’s relatively less interested in the castle since we made one at the jjimjilbang last time.

I was nodding, fine with going anywhere, when.

From far away, Chae-a approached urgently and shouted something to us.

“Babies…!”

Babies? Something seems odd about her way of speaking.

I’m guessing she’s just repeating what Han A-rin said.

I was giggling because it’s funny for a baby to call us babies, when Chae-a pointed to the foot of the ant sculpture and said.

“There… There’s something amazing there!”

You can hear her panting, she must have run so fast.

I patted Chae-a’s head to calm her down, then suggested we go there.

*

As we stood side by side and headed to where Chae-a pointed, what we saw was.

It was a wide wall with various stickers attached.

Just as I was wondering if it was okay to put stickers like this, I noticed a sign in a corner nearby.

[Stick stickers on the ant!]

It seems to be a space designed for people to have fun by directly attaching stickers.

As I was looking at such a sign and thinking how interesting it was, Chae-a looked at a sticker nearby and said to me.

“Woah! This is a glow-in-the-dark deer-antlered meow-meow bug…!”

“…?”

The name was so long that I was momentarily stunned.

As I was thinking about the shortened version of the meow-meow bug something, thinking it was an amazing hybrid.

Yuna started to stare at it with sparkling eyes.

“It’s cute.”

Chae-a and Yuna seemed to really like those things.

Hearing that, I thought it would be nice to let Chae-a and Yuna experience sticking stickers, so I looked around.

I noticed a sticker shop conveniently placed nearby.

‘Adult business tactics…!’

Thinking that society is indeed scary, I raised my tail nervously.

I made a suggestion to Chae-a and Yuna.

“Shall we stick some stickers now?”

At that question, Chae-a’s eyes sparkled and she was about to nod.

But then she shook her head dejectedly and told me.

“Chae-a can’t because she has no money…”

That being said, Yuna, who was standing next to me, nodded and followed up.

“Yuna doesn’t have any either.”

Hearing that, I chuckled and took out the emergency money I had stashed in my pocket.

“Here it is!”

I said as I pulled out a crumpled 10,000 won bill.

“If you have this, you can buy something. Come here, okay?”

At those words, Chae-a smiled as if she was truly happy and nodded her head vigorously.

“Ha-eun is amazing…! Chae-a wants to be like Ha-eun too!”

Seeing Chae-a so happy makes me feel good too.

Feeling quite proud, I held the 10,000 won bill tightly in my hand and confidently headed towards the sticker shop.

*

Perhaps because it was a weekday morning, the sticker shop was surprisingly uncrowded.

Thinking it was fortunate that it wasn’t busy, I looked around at the countless stickers on display.

‘… There are so many.’

 

Just as I was admiring the stickers, which seemed to number over a hundred varieties.

Yuna’s eyes began to sparkle as she looked at a sticker with a cute dinosaur drawing on it.

“It’s a baby dinosaur.”

Then she started to stare at it intently.

So I carefully picked one up and said.

“Then this one and…”

As I was looking around to see if there was anything else to buy.

Chae-a came running over and held out a sticker set with insects on it to me.

I was about to take it and walk towards the clerk to buy these two things when.

“Aren’t you buying one for Ha-eun?”

Chae-a asked, tilting her head curiously.

I shook my head to indicate it was fine, but.

Chae-a looked somewhat shocked and said to me.

“Is it because you don’t have money to buy Ha-eun’s?”

At the mention of not having money, the eyes of the adults around us turned to me.

Additionally, I saw Han A-rin, who was watching us from behind, hurriedly taking out her wallet.

So I quickly waved my hands and said that wasn’t the case.

“I have money…!”

“Then why aren’t you buying…? Does Ha-eun not like stickers?”

If asked whether I liked them or not, it wasn’t really either way.

I just didn’t have any particular feelings about stickers.

But it was complicated to explain this in detail with everyone’s attention focused on the situation.

Just as I was about to say I’d buy a sticker for myself too.

“Please give me all the stickers from here to here.”

Han A-rin took out a black card and started doing something outrageous.

“…?”

I tried to calm Han A-rin down to prevent excessive spending, but.

Han A-rin looked at me with a gentle smile and said.

“It’s okay, spending this much is not even pocket change for me.”

As it was a story from such a different world, I was just staring blankly.

The clerk started to show signs of struggling as he poured stickers into a large box.

I felt guilty for causing trouble for the clerk and started to shrink back.

*

A huge box filled with countless stickers.

Actually, having this many wasn’t particularly useful, so I made a suggestion to Chae-a and Yuna.

“Should we share these with other people?”

At that question, Chae-a nodded, grabbed a bunch of stickers.

Then she started handing them out one by one to the children watching nearby.

It was admirable that she started sharing right away without being greedy, so I was following Chae-a closely.

I noticed that children of similar height to Chae-a were gradually gathering around her.

‘…?’

I was bewildered by the sudden crowd of children around us.

Yuna, seeing this, told me somewhat proudly.

“Yuna knows. Chae-a is the Pied Piper.”