Chichi & Dongo 1

#1
It had been raining all day. Chichi was sitting in the bush, curled up. He didn’t eat anything today. It was getting harder and harder to find food as it became colder. Chichi didn’t want to do anything right now. It had already been half a year since he left his home to become independent.

At first, he was filled with excitement, looking around everywhere; there were so many new things that he had never seen before. He enjoyed it only until he realized how the world looked at him. There was nothing more annoying than living as a hedgehog. Wherever he went, he would often hear that he was sensitive and violent. They always said that he was just the way he looked.

Chichi thought that it was unfair. Although he was a little sensitive, he didn’t think he was violent. If it was because of the cape that he had on his back, there was nothing Chichi could do. What could he do? He was born with it. He just didn’t understand what was wrong with being a hedgehog. He didn’t even let his spines come out at anybody! He just did it once in a while when he was a little nervous or uncomfortable. Well, he did let them come out pretty often recently.

“AH-CHOO!”

His spines came out while he was sneezing. He didn’t intend to do that, though. Shuddering, he felt that energy went out of his body. He was starving, and the wet bush made him feel colder.

He became drowsy. But then all of a sudden, someone said,

“Chestnut?”

Chichi knew that someone was calling him that. Chestnut bur would be more accurate, but a chestnut was a good way to describe his small body. Actually, Chichi had to let his spines come out in this kind of situation. It was a moment of crisis when a stranger popped in. But still, Chichi could not move an inch.

“Oh my! Are you trying to die?”

Of course, Chichi wanted to live, but he couldn’t control his body anymore. Right then, Chichi lost his consciousness.


#2
A huge body, a black sharp cape, fat legs, a big belly like an armor! Unbelievably, the one who Chichi saw when he woke up was another hedgehog. He had met many hedgehogs, but he had never seen one like him. He was really, really . . .

“Ugly!”

What was in his mind came out of his mouth. Surprised, Chichi quickly apolo-gized to him,

“Oops! I’m sorry!”

“Don’t worry. I hear that often.”

The ugly hedgehog’s name was Dongo. Dongo didn’t stop surprising Chichi by his unexpected behaviors. He cleaned his house every day, and his hobby was to take care of plants while humming. He even got scared of a worm that he was about to eat.

Dongo always went out at sunset, and when he came back home, he cleaned grass roots and fruits and put them in front of Chichi. He was quiet, timid, and nice contrary to the way he looked.

Chichi got so weak from not eating, but thanks to Dongo’s care, he became strong enough to go out and find food by himself. Feeling sorry to Dongo, Chichi went out to find some food and came back home. He tossed it to Dongo. Dongo was startled but then he smiled and said, “Thank you. It looks delicious.”

Chichi gazed at Dongo’s innocent face. Then he asked him something that he had been wanting to ask him.

“Are you happy that you’re a hedgehog?”

“Am I happy?”

‘Am I happy to live as a hedgehog?’ Dongo was confused about Chichi’s question. He didn’t know what to say. First, it was a profound question, and second, he had never thought about that kind of matter before.

“What about you?”

There were always little hedgehogs who unfortunately could not survive, being unable to adapt themselves to the life of hedgehog. The day Chichi was curled up in the wet bush, he almost became one of them. Although Dongo hadn’t had much conversation with Chichi, he got to know some things about Chichi.

As the size of his body shows, Chichi was still a little kid. There were many fruits that he hadn’t tried yet, and he was clumsy at cleaning them before eating them. He was also unskilled at hiding himself, and he didn’t know how to use his spines; he let them out once in a while when he sneezed or felt down, but that was all.

It was okay, though. He was still a little kid. He could learn while growing up. But one thing that Dongo noticed about Chichi was that he didn’t try to know or learn anything. He didn’t seem to have any fervor to live his life. What Dongo felt from Chichi was correct, because Chichi was making a critical decision around that time. As an answer to the question that Dongo asked him back, Chichi replied, breaking the silence,

“I want to quit being a hedgehog.”

“You want to quit being a hedgehog?”

“Yes.”

“What do you mean?”

#3
Chichi, who was born a hedgehog, wanted to be something else: a rabbit or a squirrel . . . whatever it is! He just wanted to be anything else except a hedgehog.

In his viewpoint, he had to eat humble pie to live as a hedgehog. Most of the hedgehogs he had met were living like that. None of them tried to speak up against the groundless rumor and blame that they are violent and threatening, or to resolve their misunderstanding.

Dongo seemed no different from them. He was definitely a good hedgehog. But he seemed to seclude himself from the world, not trying even once to prove to the world that they are not violent or threatening at all. In Chichi’s eyes, Dongo looked pitiful.

Maybe, all the hedgehogs had given up proving because they didn’t know where to begin. So Chichi made up his mind, thinking that it would be better to say goodbye to the world of hedgehogs if his life could be no different from all the other hedgehogs.

On the other hand, Dongo was thinking of Chichi’s story a little differently. Not to mention that Chichi’s plan was ridiculous, Dongo thought that this little kid was too drastic.

Dongo totally understood the hurt feelings that this little adventurous hedgehog got while living his life though he hadn’t lived that long. There was one thing that Chichi guessed right: It was that Dongo got more misunderstandings than any other hedgehogs. It was true. Dongo lived his whole life, always getting misunderstandings, more than any other hedgehogs, because of his threatening look and introverted character.

His life was so fierce that he didn’t even have a moment to stop and think if he was happy. But he didn’t think he was unhappy. Although he had been suffering from other animals’ wrong viewpoint, he never tried to hide himself from them. Dongo left home at sunset just because it was cool and nice outside around that time. He believed that other animals’ misunderstanding about him would be resolved naturally if he kept on doing his best to live as a hedgehog.

Unfortunately, however, Chichi didn’t want to live like that. Dongo had no choice but to try his best to fathom Chichi’s feelings.

“You know, we always get misunderstandings just because we are hedgehogs . . .”

Chichi’s face got stiff. Dongo got a little nervous.

“Let’s say that you’re going to quit being a hedgehog. I don’t know if it is even possible, but even if you become a rabbit or a squirrel, what is going to change?”

Chichi squinted. Dongo swallowed and continued,

“Don’t get upset, but listen. I heard that rabbits are cute, but they become whole different animals when they get angry. I heard that they just act innocent. What about squirrels? I heard that they are little but they store up food a lot because they hibernate just like we do. They just store up food to prepare for winter, but they have
a reputation to be greedy because of that.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“So, what I’m trying to tell you is that it’s not a big problem to get misunderstand-ings. I don’t think you need to be too sensitive about what other animals say about us, because they don’t know.”

Chichi was not ready to listen. He felt like Dongo was looking down on him. Huh! Chichi snorted and sprung to his feet. His spines were coming out, and it startled Dongo.

“Chichi! You shouldn’t use the spines like this!”

“I know!”

Chichi yelled at Dongo.

“Anyway! You said that it’s not a big problem to get misunderstandings, right? Then why do you hide yourself? You’re a coward! You don’t have any right to tell me what to do. Look at you! You’re ugly and have no nerve to do anything! And you’re just so slow-witted!”

“What?”

It was true that Dongo was uglier than most other hedgehogs. He stayed home most of the time because he didn’t feel the need to go out. Well, that may cause misunderstanding that he hid himself. About his being slow-witted . . . Dongo was confused. He was very shocked by Chichi’s sudden blames which had some facts and misunderstandings as well.

Chichi had already left the room, but Dongo still wanted to say something at least to himself,

“I used to be cute . . . And I’m still not that ugly.”

Looking sad, Dongo mumbled in the air.