(II)

“This is beautiful. Oh my god!”

She hears another exclaim coming from the back seat as soon as they’ve arrived in their assigned place. Seulgi peers behind and sees her best friend supporting an awestruck look, having her head nearly over the window. She shakes her own head at the antic and pushes the door open. The said blonde has been gushing throughout their trip, exclaiming whatever it is that catch her attention and Seulgi wonders how her best friend manages to stay awake all the time.

Seulgi has to admit that the journey around really offers a very beautiful sight and so far, the weather turns out to be nice. It’s perfect for her observation activity and she really has a good feeling about it. She steps out of the car and joins the driver who goes to the back to get their belongings out.

“You can continue marveling around after we settle first in the cottage. You know, Mr. Kim is having a hard time pulling your giant luggage off the trunk.” Seulgi motions at the back and laughs as she watches Seungwan rushing out to the said man with a string of English apologizes being spoken in inhuman speed.

She continues to pace alone on the pavement filled with small stones as she fastens her grip around her hiking bag. Unlike Seungwan who probably shoves everything inside her luggage, Seulgi only packs necessary things inside so she only settles with a 65 liter of carrier bag and a small duffle bag to support her temporary stay.

The woman takes in a view of the calm water and smells the nice refreshing scent of it wafting in the air around them. The forest nearby is quite dense, consisting of pine trees that will last through winter in its evergreen glory.

Seulgi then roams her eyes through the greenish blue view of the mountain at the back, surrounding the lake almost in a protective way. It feels like a mass cage, but it must be her body lacking a sleep. Though it does give off a slight of mysterious vibe, she blames it on her brain’s affinity to make such an absurd hypothesis whenever she goes around against her biological clock. She has been pulling an all-nighter for the past few days to finish a deadline and it starts to show some symptoms.

Seulgi laughs it off in the end and looks over at the other direction, spotting the place she has been meaning to reach before getting a bit carried away with her mindless observation.

Their cottage is located on the upper side so they have to take a few small stairs made of crafted wood in order to reach their place and the sight can’t be any better by the time she arrives there.

Seulgi places her bag at the front door of her new house and walks towards the wooden railings to see more of the scenery.

“You didn’t even help me bring it up?!”

She whirls her head to see the crown of Seungwan’s head first, popping up from the direction of the stairs before the petite woman finally appears with a scowl on her face.

Seulgi is so used to her best friend’s complaining side and instead of answering, she probes her with another question. “Where is Mr. Kim?”

“He said he needs to go back first because something comes up. He also said that we can use the jeep and motorcycle in the garage anytime we want.”

She nods in acknowledgment and is about to scan around again, but Seungwan has beaten her from doing just that. “Back to the topic, why didn’t you help me with my luggage?!”

“There’s the highlight point, it is your luggage.” Seulgi cheekily blurts out as she ties her hair in a ponytail. She then pulls out a pair of small binoculars from her side pocket. She hangs its safety rope around her collar and turns to her best friend. “I will go around and probably be back before sunset. See you later, Seungwan.” She pats her shoulder and leisurely descends the stairs with a newfound of adventure rush pumping on her blood system.

—

“Oh, this is such a good spot to take a photo.” Seulgi remarks as she catches a sight of a big stone near the shaded place in the rim of the lake after walking aimlessly around for thirty minutes straight.

She slowly makes her way to the place and when she deems it safe enough thus Seulgi then decides to climb up.

It turns out to be way more difficult than what she had originally thought. She finds herself breaking into a bead of sweats just after stepping upward to set her footing on the said stone.

“Oof...” She pushes herself and sits with a relieved expression after getting her fair share of being slipped with kissing the ground amidst her struggle to grab a hold of the stone for the past minutes.

Seulgi props her hands backward to support her body and observes her calm surroundings. The throbbing pain in her doesn’t hinder her from enjoying the scenery before her eyes. The warm amber color of sun shining humbly down, already on its way to the west to end its duty of the day.

She can feel her lids getting heavier by the time the breeze starts lullabying her with its gentle touch on her face.

She yawns and fights the urge to stay awake, noticing that it has gotten darker than the last time she left her cottage. And as she is about to comply with her inner desire and takes a quick nap despite her earlier promise to go home before sunset, the sound of something dropping on the water quickly chases her sleepiness away.

“Plonk!”

Seulgi casts a quick glance at the right direction where she’s sure that the source of the sound coming is not far from her current sitting place. She stares for a while but finds nothing weird, so she decides to shrug it off as nothing.

She engrosses herself to watch the view again, but when another sound striking up from the same direction and for the second time, Seulgi can’t help herself from being curious at the strange repeated sound. She has to see what the cause of it for herself out of curiosity flicking in the back of her mind.

The woman slides down the stone and turns to her right. She follows the small path and goes deeper into the secluded side of the place.

Realizing the sudden lack of light, Seulgi immediately starts searching for her small flashlight and finds it in the deep of her pocket bag much later. Switching it on to illuminate her surroundings, she then resumes walking to find out the earlier commotion.

She has everything covered up inside her dangling pouch and so, she’s ready to explore some more.

Seulgi stops in her track after a short walk as she realizes something big has prevented her from going further. She directs her flashlight forward and sees a big chunk of old trunk laying horizontally across her, its branches nearly reaching the tip of the water on the left side as well and visibly obstructing the only path this place currently has. One of her brows slowly raises as she catches a sight of a makeshift sign, its surface is scratched and filthy on the base of the trunk, Seulgi almost missed it if she didn’t bend to take a better look.

“Stay away?”

She reads the sign and has considered going back. Noting that this place might be a bit dangerous, the tendency of falling trees or some sort of it to happen is quite plausible.

And this particular fallen tree isn’t pine like the ones that surround the entire place, she has just realized it now.

From the warning itself, it’s as if this place has been abandoned for years and doesn’t mean to be crossed at all.

However, she hears the same plopping noise again and it does coming from the other side of this trunk. Realizing something might be behind it, Seulgi decides to throw caution to the wind and reaches up to pass the boundary. Another struggling moment she has yet to encounter is when her legs get stuck with the amount of climbing plants surrounding the trunk, almost losing her balance as she cuts the plants off with her folded knife. Seulgi can feel the earlier pain on her getting worse as she finally hops down the ground nowhere near any grand pose.

She looks below to see herself stepping on the small puddle, making the front of her sneakers soak a bit. She silently sidesteps and straightens her posture, tightly gripping her weapon and flashlight in each hand when she senses that she’s no longer alone. Seulgi adjusts her vision when she notices that her surroundings have abruptly turned darker than before, she instantly looks up to see the canopy of the forest has consisted of large leaves.

The noise of water being splashed brings Seulgi to aim her attention towards the said spot, obscured from her earlier view by the sight of those thick bushes as high as her knees, it’s where she discovers a white swan struggling in the shallow part of the water when she comes closer to inspect her surroundings.

It’s not a threat at all.

“Hey friend,” Seulgi strikes a small greeting, silently examining the bird’s condition while she stores her weapon back. “Why are you here?”

However, her friendly gesture along with the exposure from her flashlight has probably sent the wrong signal as the said creature begins to violently move, splashing her with water in the process when she gets an inch nearer. Its beak starts opening and closing but no sound coming off.

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

Seulgi coaxes as she bends down, stopping at the safe distance so she won’t scare it away again. She comes to realize that this bird couldn’t even move from its current place despite the earlier defensive movements and it really concerns her.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” Seulgi repeats softly and engages herself in an eye contact with the said animal. “I want to help. Can you let me do that?” She gestures towards its legs and looks up again. “Can I check on you?”

It might be her imagination, but she’s sure that the swan’s head is arched slightly as if giving her the permission she needs after asking. Seulgi smiles a bit and steps closer, kneeling down just before the rim and noticing the amount of aquatic plants around it. She meets its eyes in the process again, minding herself not to aim her flashlight directly on the swan’s face where it still provides her the light she needed. She obtains a clear look of the animal and notices a small wound lining at the upper side of its right eye. It doesn’t bleed and looks like an old wound, much to her relief, though Seulgi’s eyes haven’t stopped oozing out concern.

“You can’t move because it gets stuck on your legs,” she reaches for something on the small bag dangling at her side and brings it out, revealing a small folded knife she has used earlier on her palm. “I will cut it off so you can move again, alright?”

Another splash of water is the answer and it manages to reach her. She wipes her own face as the bird starts to freak out again, flapping its wings around against the water in what she thinks as an attempt to break free. She perfectly understands its frustration.

“I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

Seulgi patiently waits and when she feels that the bird has calmed down, thus she begins to reach down, feeling the tangled plants on its legs with her hand.

“It won’t take long.” She says before she puts her flashlight in between her lips. Her hand swiftly cuts the plants with the help of her knife and within a second, the earlier bird can freely move its legs again.

Pocketing back her knife while lifting the bulrush that once hinders it from moving, Seulgi takes a hold of her flashlight again. A smile starts to form on her lips at the frozen state of the said animal.

“See?”

She lifts its legs one by one to check whether it gets wounded or not, and thankfully it’s not. She releases her grip and watches it hesitantly wiggle its limbs. “You’re all set now.”

Seulgi then throws the tangled plants aside and stands up, smiling still as she bids her goodbye. “I’m going now. You should go back to your family too, and be sure not to get stuck in the middle of foraging again, okay?”

—

“When are you going to start doing your bird activity?”

Seulgi raises her brows while shoving another spoon of rice into . “What?”

“God. Can you chew first before answering? Every bit of these grains is flying away right after you speak.”

She chews her food and swallows it down, properly this time. “You mean start birdwatching?”

“Yeah.”

“Probably tomorrow?”

“Are you nuts? Don’t you feel tired after sitting for eight hours inside the car?”

Seulgi puts her utensils down and stares up at the ceiling. “No. I can’t wait to explore more.”

“You and your weird obsession with birds.”

Seungwan quips and Seulgi resumes eating again, she’s already immune to her remark. “So, what do you plan to do then? Don’t tell me you’re going to laze around?”

Her best friend merely gives her a look. “Correction ungrateful woman. I’m going to settle everything first, unlike someone who’s bent to go around while leaving her stuff all scattered on the front door, I’m quite responsible to mind my own stuff from disturbing the others.” Seungwan swings her chopsticks around. “Besides, we’re going to stay here for three months or so, there’s plenty much time to do everything here.”

“So, what do you suggest me to do?”

“Obviously, take your time. Arrange your belongings, maybe even do some research for your current project, read all those biology books you save in your kindle.” Seungwan raises her shoulders. “Everything but going hard on yourself. I mean, taking a day off is quite acceptable you know. I’m pretty sure your teams are more than glad to have some free time before doing the long-term observation for months.”

Seulgi ponders and stops herself from taking a chunk of rice. “Alright, I’ll notify them to take one day off.”

“Improvement.” The woman across her chimes while nodding. “I’ll probably take my time strolling around here for a week, see what this place offers before having to brainstorm inside my room for the time being.”

“Oh great. Anyway, the lake is amazing, Seungwan. I even found a swan while I was strolling before. That’s partly why I can’t wait to explore more since this lake is known to be one of the destinations in Korea for water birds and raptors during the migrating season. And mind you, the rest of our stay is during that season as well.” Seulgi speaks enthusiastically. “Imagine the number of birds going around here, Seungwan!”

“Hold up, I’m not interested in joining you to worship birds.”

“I should be the one calling you ungrateful, because how can you not appreciate the beautiful creatures God has made perfectly for us.” Seulgi playfully reprimands, before her tone suddenly drops an octave lower. “Actually, as I come to think, we don’t deserve to live alongside the birds or any other things that nature has provided. Humans do nothing but destroy them though.”

Seungwan looks up from her food and chuckles lightly. “This one took a rather serious turn. What’s up?”

“No reason, but I suddenly got reminded of the event that happened years ago.” The taller woman exhales quietly. “That particular day when I failed to save that one bird from the hunter.”

“You nearly got yourself killed, Seulgi.” Seungwan warns from across the table and she denies with a shake of her head in return. “No, I wasn’t. I should have done something better.”

“You had done a great job of notifying the authority, rather than confronting them alone. Besides, you were abroad, alone, with a language you barely spoke. It was the wisest option.” Seungwan elaborates with a serious tone. “You might be fearless, but please think of the consequences as well. What were those mafias capable of? You nearly got yourself tangled in their dark and filthy business, meddling in the wrong place might cost you a life, you know.”

“Even so... I still think it wasn’t enough.”

“You might be failed saving one, but you had saved the rest of the caged birds from being shipped to the other country illegally. Hey, it was heroic man!”

Seulgi digs her head lower, letting her best friend’s words sink. “Why they had to cruelly put them inside those cramped plastic bottles?”

“I know you knew the answer already.”

“But still. It doesn’t occur to me.” Seulgi lifts her face and stares at the blonde friend of hers. “Has everyone had been losing their humanity nowadays? Over money? Or anything else?”

“Believe me, Seulgi, there will always be people like that. Much worse than what you would ever imagine. Plenty of motives that aren’t even making any sense at all.” Seungwan leans forward with a slight smile. “But, not everyone acts like that though. Humanity still exists in people like you. The reason I partly believe why we still exist in this world, despite knowing the fact that we’ve been taking everything for granted. People like you still exist. To selflessly devote your life to do the good deeds, even risking your own life to save them is already proving your love for nature itself. In a way, we do owe you a lot. I wish people like you have the best thing in life.”

“I wish you record this so we can spread it around and do a campaign together.” Seulgi slowly smiles. “Thank you so much, Seungwan.”

“I’ve been mushy. Ew.” The blonde woman curls her fingers in silence, though she laughs it off much later. “But yeah, you’re welcome birdwoman.”

Happy Seulrene day!
And oh! Seulgi is going to appear in the law of jungle!! Wow! What a coincidence xD