On Christmas, the emotional white trash falling from the sky.
A daily landmine that causes more traffic accidents everywhere and lays out icy mats that make people slip and crack their heads.
Despite being such a nuisance, it becomes popular among the kids, and as the snow covers the world in white, Shiyeon’s fussiness grows along with it.
Thanks to this, the playground that we were dragged out to in the middle of the night.
I thought being dragged out because of snow would be the last time during military service.
‘But it doesn’t matter since it’s vacation…’
“Jaehyun, isn’t it not supposed to be done with the snow piled on the car?”
On a late holiday night, a sudden white Christmas took place.
I turned my head here and there when I heard voices from around.
Suddenly fallen pure white snowflakes.
I wasn’t the only one dragged out to the playground by the children’s insistence.
Flowers beds, railings, and streets covered in soft white snow.
Watching Shiyeon near me packing snow with her bulky gloves, I tried to pack some snow too.
Noisy voices of kids echoed around the playground and the parking lot in the middle of the night.
“Shiyeon, look at this?!”
Among the kids gathered at the playground, a girl who was relatively friendly with Shiyeon came over to talk.
Her name was Hayani, I think?
Anyway, she brought a strange-looking plastic clip and started bragging to Shiyeon.
When I looked closely with my eyes half-open in the dark, a duck-shaped mold that could be filled with snow was attached to the end of the clip.
If I fill that mold with snow and just take off the clip?
“Wow!”
A pure white, smooth duck-shaped snowball was completed, enough to impress Shiyeon.
This snow duck clip was even on the news lately as a trend among the kids.
Thinking about how kids who love snow could use it to clear the snow and even think about making money from it.
Business needs to be thought out wisely.
“Do you want to try it too, Shiyeon?”
Hayani seemed to want to share her fun experience and handed the plastic clip to Shiyeon without hesitation.
If it were just boys, they’d probably enjoy the exclusivity saying, ‘You don’t have this, do you?’
The soft world of girls makes my heart feel at ease for some reason.
“Yeah!”
Shiyeon had no reason to refuse and immediately took the clip, starting to look for a place where the snow was piled just right.
And at the end of where Shiyeon was headed was the snow neatly piled on the hood of a car, untouched by human hands.
I was startled and hurriedly stopped Shiyeon.
“Ah, don’t do it on top of the car!”
“Why?”
When I said it was not allowed, Shiyeon asked why instead.
How can I explain this to children who don’t yet understand the value of a car?
Just scratching that car’s front hood would be enough to buy dozens of snow duck clips.
Still, rather than trying to make the kids understand the concept of money, instilling fear seems to work better for now.
“If you scratch the car while gathering snow with the clip, the owner uncle will come out and scold you.”
“Ugh!”
Shiyeon startled, pulling the clip away from the snow piled on the car, shocked by my words.
This strategy might only work on kids, but I wonder how many more years it can be used.
And so, at midnight, with kids and adults mixing together, snow ducks began to take shape in various places of the apartment complex.
At first, I thought, “Why are we even doing this?” but as their numbers started to pile up…
“A duck army…?”
Railings, stairs, the tops of cars, every level ground had been filled with them, and after it was all piled up, it took on a grand appearance.
The dark playground, already with few distinct lights.
In the midnight, the blank-eyed snow ducks began to sprout their gazes from all around, which in a way felt like a scene from a horror game.
The snow duck party that the kids spontaneously held gradually extinguished by dawn.
Starting with Hayani, who had lent the snow duck clip going home, the kids who had been clamoring around also got dragged away by their parents with yawns.
As I held Shiyeon’s hand and walked home, she briefly mentioned tomorrow’s plan.
“Tomorrow, let’s come out and see the ducks!”
“Let’s do that.”
I affirmatively answered, glancing back at the snow ducks piled on the playground, flower bed, stairs, and so forth.
Was that duck originally looking this way?
While at night it’s scary to see the gazes of the snow ducks, it might be a little different during the day.
However, the promised duck viewing for the next day didn’t happen.
It wasn’t because the temperature suddenly warmed up and melted everything.
Some twisted human being destroyed all the snow ducks that the kids had made with pure hearts overnight.
Honestly, just seeing the destroyed snow ducks made me feel terrible.
“Ducks…”
A day that was supposed to be enjoyable began with Shiyeon’s tearful face.
Her contorted expression and tears, resembling chicken droppings, fell in drops.
“C-cry, don’t cry… we can make them again.”
I hurriedly comforted Shiyeon while ruminating on who the twisted human was that destroyed every one of the snow ducks.
But there weren’t only a few specific households in the apartment to point fingers at, and I couldn’t just grab anyone by the collar based only on suspicion.
If there was any consolation, it was that the snow from the previous night didn’t stop and piled up quite well.
While barely soothing Shiyeon’s tears, I headed to the store.
Seeing her sniffles broke my heart, so I bought not just snow ducks but various types of clips to give her.
I returned to the apartment after getting heart-shaped, snowman-shaped, and duck-shaped clips for around 10,000 won.
“Look at this! It’s a heart shape!”
“It’s pretty.”
With these newly bought clips instead of the borrowed ones, Shiyeon creates various snowballs.
She proudly shows off the completed heart-shaped snowball in front of her, beaming with joy.
Since it wasn’t borrowed, her gestures were even more confident than the day before.
This time, to make sure some unidentified someone couldn’t break it, we decided to take it inside and put it in the freezer.
“Let’s keep it safe and put it in the freezer.”
“Okay!”
Shiyeon carefully keeps the completed snowballs nearby, treating them like treasures.
As long as they were in the freezer at home, they were safe anyway.
It’s a very straightforward truth, and Shiyeon started to create one type of snowball at a time with the clips.
In an apartment complex that was a mess from the broken snow ducks, the snow accumulated again.
The playground quickly filled up with kids coming out to play in the snow, day and night, fitting for the holiday season.
“Shiyeon! What’s that?”
“It’s a heart shape!”
Yesterday, it was Hayani who lent Shiyeon the snow duck clip.
Today, the tables had turned, and she borrowed heart-shaped and star-shaped clips from Shiyeon to play with.
As lunchtime came, after returning the clips, Shiyeon brought one kind of snowball back home.
When I opened the top of the fridge, nothing but emptiness greeted Shiyeon and me.
An empty freezer with no frozen items, just ice trays.
After putting the duck, heart, star, and snowman-shaped snowballs in, Shiyeon finally smiled brightly.
Now, no matter what season comes, she can show off these adorable snowballs.
‘Now, then…’
Skillfully moving her fingers on the smartphone, after ordering lunch.
I pondered deeply about how to deal with that twisted brat who made Shiyeon tear up.
To thoroughly break all the snow ducks that took so much effort from the kids is a sign of a seriously twisted human nature.
If so, they would surely not overlook a carefully crafted huge snowman.
The plan was to start late at night when Shiyeon fell into a deep sleep.
‘Hmm, steady now.’
Usually used for preventing cars from entering, the stone volard.
Some are fixed in the ground, while others are movable.
Fortunately for us, the ones placed in our apartment complex were movable.
“Sun.”
After transforming at home into a magical girl, I buried my unique frilly outfit into my padding so it wouldn’t be visible.
I hid my long hair behind my padding and pressed my cap down so that my bangs wouldn’t be seen.
I stacked the heavy stone volards in two rows and began to gather the snow around them.
As I gathered all the plank-like snow from the hood of the car, before I knew it, the first layer was completed.
Covering the head of the second layer with snow around the volard, I constructed a snowman shape that would crush the legs of that unidentified brat.
‘Satisfaction.’
If I had made this snowman alone as an adult man, I would have been out of breath from its size.
Just imagining that unidentified person kicking this snowman and screaming filled me with pride along with the sense of achievement from its completion.
After this, I had only one task left; making sure no one remained around so that the unknown person could easily kick the snowman.
“Hmm.”
I released my transformation and, with a light yawn, entered the house to lie down on the bed.
On a night when sleep would not come easily, I turned on my smartphone to play a game.
Thinking back, I wondered if what I did was useless in the dead of night, that moment when I felt a moment of clarity…
“Ahh!”
I heard a half-muffled scream blocked by the window, making me realize that the time spent making the snowman wasn’t wasted.
That day, I was able to fall asleep with a happier smile than any other time.
