#15 Drawing. Curiosity about scary things (1)
My 8-year-old son has uneven development.
For him, as the language barrier is high, drawing has become one of his tools for expression.
Every day, he diligently fills sheets of A4 copy paper with his drawings.
This is the first installment of the 'Curiosity about scary things' series. Please enjoy the drawings along with the story.
Son: 'Dokoka-ko-shi-piyasumida♪'
It was about half a year ago that he started chanting some kind of mysterious spell. A strange spell heard from the video of some YouTuber? TikToker? My son watches it, laughing so hard he can't even make a sound. I tilt my head, wondering what his sense of humor is all about. I just assumed the mysterious spell was a self-made sound effect, like a rhythmic gag from a YouTuber. It was recently, a few months later.
Son: 'I'm going to play Squid Game! It's scary.'
Could it be that Netflix Korean drama?? No. He shouldn't know about it. So I asked,
Me: 'Is Squid Game a video game?' 'Are you talking about Mario's Blooper (the squid character)?'
I asked. Then,
Son: 'No. Dokoka-ko-shi-piyasumida, that's Squid Game.' Me: 'Isn't that from a YouTuber?' Son: 'Squid Game, it's the same. It's scary.'
Me: 'What kind of story is Squid Game?' Son: 'Squid Game is about a girl. Red Light, Green Light. If you move, your head goes bang like this and blood comes out. It's scary.'
Could it be that he is actually talking about the famous 'Squid Game'? I haven't watched it, so I don't even know if that's really the story. Having heard that horror plot from my son, I understood for now that Squid Game is a scary story, and replied, 'Squid Game is scary, isn't it? Mom isn't good with that.' I was curious if the mysterious spell was Korean, so I looked it up... It wasn't 'Dokoka-ko-shi-piyasumida', but to be precise, it seems to be the pronunciation of 'Mugunghwa kkochi pieotseumnida (The Rose of Sharon has bloomed).'
So close!!! I learned something new.
Since then, my son has been making a proposal early in the New Year. Son: 'Dad, Mom, and me, the three of us. Let's play Squid Game! If you move, your head bleeds. It's scary.'
Yes. I decline.
Horror plots are a no-go. Let's go with a safe, soft version. So, I tried playing 'Red Light, Green Light' as a test. He didn't seem to understand the rules when he was in his last year of preschool, but now as a second grader, he seems to have understood them. But... He's moving around super wobbly!! If it were Squid Game, wouldn't it be 'bang' by now!? I was just glad that there was no horror-like development where blood would come out of my son's head early in the New Year as he laughed his head off, and I thought to myself that horror should remain fiction.
Well then.