Playground

Playground

 

“Then I want to go find mommy and daddy.”

Yuna’s brief statement.

At those words, Seo-rin and I froze and started looking at each other uneasily.

‘I don’t know what to say to Yuna.’

There’s a possibility that Yuna’s parents are alive.

As someone who has read the original novel, I knew that possibility was extremely low.

Above all, even if they were alive, there was a high chance they wouldn’t be in good condition.

So, when I was confused about what to say,

Seo-rin, trying hard to suppress her flustered appearance, spoke to Yuna.

“Y-Yuna, if you want to find them, you should. But, um…”

Seo-rin hesitated, her lips quivering as if unsure what to say.

Eventually, unable to say anything, she bit her lip tightly and covered her face with her hands.

As I was thinking I should help Seo-rin,

I noticed Han A-rin approaching us with quick steps from afar.

“Kids? Big sister is here.”

Han A-rin was about to spread her arms to hug us,

But upon seeing our serious expressions, she awkwardly lowered her arms and asked us the reason.

“What’s wrong with everyone?”

In response to her question, a nearby counselor quickly explained the situation.

The moment Han A-rin heard this, she froze and crossed her arms.

“… Hmm.”

Han A-rin also seemed to have difficulty coming up with an answer, showing signs of contemplation as she remained frozen.

As I looked around at the increasingly quiet surroundings, just as I was about to speak up,

“Yes! Shall we go look for them?”

Chae-a grabbed Yuna’s and my hands, smiling brightly.

“Since Chae-a is good at finding things, I’m sure we can find them!”

At those words, Yuna’s eyes sparkled as she nodded quickly.

I closed my eyes tightly, feeling the sensation of my tail gently brushing against my face.

‘What if the result isn’t good?’

I could search as much as they wanted.

For Yuna’s sake, it wouldn’t be difficult to keep searching everywhere until we found them.

The problem is that I vaguely anticipate the result.

Still, unable to say no, I was being dragged along.

Yuna looked at us and said.

“But Yuna has never seen mommy and daddy. Can we still find them?”

“Huh?”

“Mommy and daddy weren’t there since I opened my eyes.”

At those words, Han A-rin’s expression hardened significantly.

Seeing Han A-rin’s expression, I asked Yuna in a calm voice.

“You’ve never seen them?”

“Yeah. That’s why I want to find them.”

It’s a cruel story, but perhaps it was fortunate.

Because loss doesn’t come from nothingness, but from having something.

As I felt a tightness in one corner of my chest, I was fidgeting restlessly.

Chae-a, who was nearby, tilts her head and says to Yuna.

“But why do you want to find your parents? Chae-a doesn’t have a mom or dad either, but I’ve never really wanted to find them!”

At these words, all the adults around cough as if they’re about to vomit and turn their gazes away.

I smile bitterly at this scene and pat Chae-a’s back.

‘But I guess it’s natural if you think about it. After all, Chae-a is a spirit.’

Just as I was thinking that her way of thinking might be fundamentally different from humans.

“Because…! Chae-a has Ha-eun, Yuna, Seo-rin unnie, A-rin unnie, teacher, and Spirit User Uncle… They’re family!”

A pure answer was heard.

Hearing these words, Yuna’s eyes sparkled as she asked Chae-a.

“Family?”

“Yeah. When we’re together like this, we’re family…!”

“Then Yuna doesn’t want to find mom and dad. It’s okay if I have family.”

It seems the reason she wanted to find her parents was because she envied the concept of family.

I’m holding Yuna’s hand tightly at her words.

Han A-rin, watching us, was about to say something but just smiled bitterly and nodded.

* * *

When we returned to the hospital room, we gathered closely and had a discussion on one topic.

The topic of discussion was ‘What is family?’

We decided to discuss this quite profound and difficult philosophical subject.

Anyway, as soon as this topic came up, Chae-a was the first to speak.

“Chae-a knows! Family is when you cherish each other, hug each other, and give kisses!”

With those words, Chae-a alternately hugs me and Yu-na tightly while giggling.

I find Chae-a’s behavior cute and laugh along.

 

Yu-na, who was next to us, chimed in with sparkling eyes,

“I saw it when trapped in ice. Family shares tasty things and walks hand in hand.”

 

After saying that, Yu-na shared some nearby snacks with us and then held our hands tightly.

I’m not sure what to say about Yu-na’s actions, so I just smile awkwardly.

 

Chae-a, seeing me like this, asked me about “what family means.”

‘Family, huh…’

 

To be honest, I don’t really know about family since I never had one even in the past.

So I just open and close my mouth, unable to say anything.

 

Then, I voiced a wish born from never having had a family.

“Always believing in each other…?”

 

At those words, Yu-na stroked my back with her tail and said,

“Yu-na does that well.”

 

Then she looks at me with eyes full of determination and nods.

It seems that for Yu-na, believing in someone means stroking their back and looking at them with (supposedly) trustworthy eyes.

 

I’m feeling a bit shy and smiling awkwardly when Seo-rin, watching us, says,

“You’ll include big sister in the family too, right?”

 

To that question, I nodded.

 

Seo-rin let out a sigh of relief and sat down next to us, saying,

“Shall we talk about something else now?”

It seemed that Seo-rin was uncomfortable with family-related topics.

I blinked as I watched Seo-rin trying to hastily change the subject.

‘Come to think of it, Seo-rin has never talked about her family.’

Even in the original story, the topic of family was glossed over.

While staying at the association, no one who could be called family had ever visited, and Seo-rin didn’t seem to make any effort to look for them.

I thought Seo-rin might have experienced some loss regarding family.

Having reached this conclusion,

I decided to set aside the family topic and hugged my tail while meowing.

‘This might be better to discuss when everyone’s grown up.’

Even as an adult, it was a difficult topic for me, so I decided to postpone it for now while looking at Seo-rin.

Seo-rin looked at me and continued speaking.

“Chae-a said she wanted to go to the playground earlier, right?”

At the mention of the playground, Chae-a’s eyes sparkled and she nodded vigorously.

Then she quickly approached Seo-rin, grabbed both her hands, and pleaded,

“Chae-a wants to play at the playground. It’s my lifelong wish…!”

“R-really? Then shall we go? There isn’t one at the association, but we could go to the park across the street.”

“Really!? Then can we go?”

Chae-a, eager to go to the playground right away, grabbed my and Yuna’s hands and started urging us to go quickly.

I found Chae-a’s eagerness cute, so I stood up, meaning to say “Let’s go quickly.”

Fluffball, with his mouth covered in pet food, came running towards us with a confident “Peep!” smile.

Then he started jumping up and down, saying something.

“Peep! Peeep!”

(I know how to play at the playground!)

I didn’t know before, but it seemed Fluffball knew very well how to play at the playground.

Everyone was delighted by these words and looked at Fluffball.

Fluffball then started bouncing away towards the outside, as if telling us to follow him.

‘I guess it’s okay to go out?’

Thinking that it should be fine since I was wearing the hairpin Grandma Lecia gave me, I followed Fluffball.

*

The park was right across from the association, so we could arrive quickly.

As I looked around, thinking that I had seen it a few times in passing but never visited directly like this,

Seo-rin pointed to the center of the park and told us,

“The playground should be over there.”

At those words, Chae-a, with a very excited voice, started jumping up and down like Fluffball and urgently said to us,

“Woah! Chae-a is so happy…! So I wanna go quickly! Shall we go now?”

Then she quickly walked forward.

I ran forward with Yuna to keep up with Chae-a.

When we arrived at the playground, what we saw were various play equipment,

Among them, what particularly caught my eye was the trampoline installed on the ground.

‘How fascinating…’

Looking at this, I think a lot has changed these days.

As soon as we arrived at the playground, I asked Chae-a, who was showing signs of nervousness.

“What do you want to ride first?”

In response to that question, Chae-a looked around at the playground equipment and then pointed to the swing, saying.

“That…! I’ve always wanted to ride that but never got to!”

Thinking that’s nice, I nodded and approached, but ran into a problem.

‘… It’s high.’

It’s so high that I can barely reach it even when straining to lift my hands up.

I wanted to climb up onto the swing seat.

But it kept swaying side to side, and I thought I might fall if I wasn’t careful, so I was wondering what to do when Seo-rin lifted me up and said.

“Remember, only one person on the swing at a time, okay? It’s dangerous otherwise.”

Then, as she was about to seat me on the swing, I shook my head and said.

“Let Chae-a go first.”

Since Chae-a seemed to want to ride it much more than I did, I thought it was right to let her go first, so I refused.

Chae-a’s eyes widened in surprise and she shook her head.

“It’s okay! Ha-eun, you go first!”

Then, as if to say she would push the swing for me, she raised her hands up with a proud expression.

As I looked at Chae-a like that, I reluctantly decided to ride a few times before giving her a turn, and sat on the seat.

While I was sitting there, Chae-a looked at me and brought up a story from the past.

“Chae-a, I wanted to ride the swing. But there was no one to push me. Now I’m happy because I have someone…!”

Then, with a truly happy smile, she started pushing my swing chair with all her might.