Shiyeon was contemplating whether she was still a child or not.
While deep in thought, she was on her way home from the park.
On the return path, she passed by the playground within the apartment complex.
The cheerful laughter of children and the sound of them running around were engraved in her eyes and ears.
Nearby the playground, she could see a familiar family from afar.
“Isn’t that your older sister?”
Her steps, which had been walking briskly towards home, halted abruptly as she turned to call out to Shiyeon.
There was only one person we commonly referred to as ‘older sister’ in our everyday lives.
Though she half-conjectured it might be Senior Jiun’s family, she couldn’t trust her own eyes and dragged Shiyeon to confirm.
Shiyeon, who had been walking ahead, also stopped and directed her gaze toward the playground.
“Where?”
However, she couldn’t find the figure at once and swayed her head and eyes back and forth.
“Over there, near the slide.”
“Oh, it really is!”
As Shiyeon directed her gaze at the spot, her voice rose, confirming that the familiar sight she had thought was just a trick of her imagination was indeed real.
After realizing this, Shiyeon ran ahead toward the playground, looking as if she was excited to see someone.
Her behavior was much like that of a golden retriever, which greets every person it sees.
Shiyeon, who had gone ahead, started a cheerful conversation with Senior Jiun.
Considering it had been a while since the two girls had met, their conversation didn’t seem like it would end quickly, so I decided to walk over leisurely to the playground.
“Did you come out alone? Is Mary at home?”
“No, she’s over there….”
As I approached step by step, the voices of their conversation became clearer.
Seeing Shiyeon, who rarely wandered alone, Senior Jiun quickly looked for me.
With her neck tucked into the padded collar like a turtle, she ambled into the playground and gave a short answer.
“I’m here.”
“Juwon!”
Before Senior Jiun could recognize, Juwon greeted me first.
Wearing a hooded jumper with fur, he approached while calling out to me with slightly imperfect pronunciation.
At four years old, he could walk well on his own without anyone holding him.
It seemed he had already graduated from squeaky shoes, as they didn’t make a sound with each step.
“Hello, Juwon!”
I greeted Juwon warmly and lifted him into my arms.
The heavy weight settled on my waist and shoulders like gravity.
Juwon, who was getting heavier with each passing day, would probably be too big for me to hold like this in just a year.
“Hey, isn’t he heavy?”
“Not yet… I think I can still manage.”
Noticing how I held him out of habit, the observant Senior Jiun came over to take Juwon from my arms.
Honestly, I had been debating whether to put him down the moment I lifted him….
It seemed she realized I had underestimated Juwon’s weight, as she added a few more words.
“He’s not the Juwon from a few years ago; he’s already a big kid!”
As she held Juwon in her arms, she swayed him up and down a few times, soothing him like one would a baby.
“He’s a big kid!”
“Ugh ugh ugh, that’s right!”
It seems Juwon didn’t like being called a pig and reacted angrily.
However, Senior Jiun, seemingly used to his attitude, continued to treat him like a baby, gently patting his bottom repeatedly.
Then, starting with Juwon being let loose in the playground, we all sat on a nearby bench, getting pelted with soft white snowflakes.
It had been a while since we met in person, so we decided to sit and chat leisurely.
Of course, it wasn’t that we gathered to say, “Let’s catch up!” It all started naturally with Senior Jiun’s questions about each other’s recent lives.
As is often the case with adults, the topic to ask a student was about school.
“From this year, you’ll have the first and second periodic tests, right?”
“Yes, we’ll have midterms and finals from now on….”
“Wow, Shiyeon and Mary are already in middle school, huh?”
Uncle Dae Han, who had been listening quietly from his chair, suddenly let out a sound of admiration, almost whispering to himself.
By the way, while Juwon and Senior Jiun are fine, why is Uncle here in the playground all bundled up in thick padding?
Curious about this, I tossed a question his way.
“But what’s the occasion? Why is Uncle out here in the playground?”
The question was directed toward Uncle, who was sitting one seat over from Senior Jiun.
However, strangely enough, the answer to that question came from Jiun.
“It started snowing, and Juwon kept pestering to go out, so he was dragged along.”
“Aha.”
Uncle Dae Han nodded repeatedly with a frown, as if Jiun’s words were spot on.
Beyond that frown, a longing to return home was evident.
The desire to lie back and watch TV in a warm room.
Yes, I could understand that feeling perfectly.
As school topics arose, my eyes fell on Juwon.
“Juwon will be going to kindergarten next year, right?”
“Right, I’m worried about where to send him… I can’t not send him.”
While Shiyeon and I are facing the shadow of compulsory education, Juwon will be entering that shadow just as we are escaping it.
There won’t be many more days left to see him playing with such innocence and joy.
As I subtly turned my gaze towards Juwon, Jiun suddenly asked another question.
“Where are you coming from?”
Was it perhaps because of the previous question about why we were at the playground?
She too seemed to give off a vibe of asking why we were out.
“I just went for a quick run in the park; it’s almost Seol, you know….”
I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence that I was trying to lose a few pounds in preparation for the holiday.
Although the follow-up question was left hanging, Senior Jiun seemed to understand the meaning well.
“Oh, you’re preparing in advance?”
Without needing to say anything more, she adeptly grasped that underlying meaning.
With a slight tilt of her head and closed eyes, instead of answering, she expressed agreement through her actions.
“Are you all going down to your hometown for the holiday?”
In a shared understanding known only to magical girls and former magical girls, Uncle Dae Han casually threw out a question at the mention of the holiday “Seol.”
“Oh… yes, in a sense, that’s right.”
I gave a somewhat ambiguous affirmation to his question.
It was true we were going somewhere, but it wasn’t our rural hometown.
We didn’t hide the fact that we were orphans, but we also didn’t flaunt it, so everyone around had that same feeling.
Since it wasn’t necessary to reveal, we simply mumbled about it.
As we chatted, the snow was steadily piling up.
“This is going to accumulate a lot.”
With the white flakes now dense enough to cover the world, even while in the midst of conversation, we shifted the topic toward the accumulating snow.
“Juwon must be excited.”
“With this much, we could make a big snowman.”
For some reason, children get thrilled whenever it snows.
Juwon seemed to be no exception; Jiun laughed, thinking that Juwon would be happy, while Uncle said we could indeed make a big snowman with this much snow.
Then, as if Senior Jiun thought of something, she playfully waved her hands, as if holding a giant pair of tongs, saying something.
“What’s it called instead of a snowman? The weird tongs to shape it?”
Only one object immediately came to mind that fits her hand movements.
“Are you talking about snow duck tongs?”
“Oh yes, yes, snow duck tongs. I heard they’re all the rage!”
As she clapped her hands at the mention of snow duck tongs, Jiun confirmed it was correct.
What kind of commotion happens every year around them? The periodic reports of supply shortages of snow duck tongs always seem to surface.
Hearing that there is no article to write, I replied somewhat blandly, as if to say it felt the same a few years back.
“Even during our elementary school days, it was all the rage.”
“Yeah… they’re cute and nice, but every time I went to that store, they were sold out.”
Jiun seemed to have tried quite hard to get them, recalling that the snow duck tongs were out of stock every time she went to the general store.
Since Shiyeon wouldn’t use them anyway, they had become something like a leftover item occupying a corner on our balcony.
Too precious to throw away, but not quite usable, the snow duck tongs had ended up being rather unremarkable in that regard.
“I have various shapes at my house; would you like some?”
“Oh really? Then Juwon and I would love that!”
“Sure.”
As Jiun’s face lit up, a flustered voice came from right next to us.
Turning slightly, I noticed Shiyeon’s expression had slightly stiffened.
“Are you giving that away?”
With a glance at her, I felt a pang of realization that I might have made a mistake.
Since it was also being given to Juwon, I had thought she would naturally accept and let it slide, so her reaction caught me off guard.
“Uh… you said you wouldn’t use it, right?”
“Yeah, that’s true…”
With a voice laced with confusion, Shiyeon brought up the conversation we had during our walk back from the park and asked again.
Even while saying that, she trailed off as if there was something she was missing.
I speculated her reasoning.
Did she perhaps want to make one or two snow ducks since it was snowing?
After taking a short breath, I offered Shiyeon a second suggestion.
“Then let’s give you one or two, alright?”
“Oh, okay!”
Shiyeon happily accepted the second compromise.
Thus, the snow duck tongs were generationally passed down to Juwon.
And indeed, it seems Shiyeon is still a child at heart.
