While Starlight Food and Starlight Cosmetics were in chaos, the research institute remained largely unchanged.
“Hana, today’s lunch menu is hamburger steak.”
“Wow!”
Whether my hair grows or not, from my perspective, I’ve already earned enough money. It was a bit disappointing that money wasn’t coming in for a while, but as time passes, maybe my hair will grow back, right?
And from Bora and Haru’s perspective, since they hadn’t made any mistakes, it didn’t matter whether my hair grew or not. Plus, as a salary worker, the money coming in was fixed whether I sold my hair or not.
However, they did carefully check if there was something wrong with my health. But the results showed no issues. Was it just a mental thing? With so many things to worry about in Icarus, I just wished my hair would grow back quickly.
“Hana, you know you have to do your homework today, right?”
But Bora, perhaps because I was about to start school soon, often made me study. Though, maybe because I had a brilliant mind, the problems were easy.
Honestly, thinking about it, it didn’t make sense for someone who had been through the military to struggle with third-grade elementary school problems. I had completed the standard education in South Korea and even graduated from university. I was confident there wasn’t a smarter third-grader than me.
“Hiiing…”
But my pride was shattered while solving Korean language problems. I knew the spelling rules, but when it came to solving the problems, I couldn’t remember. It was so unfair that I almost cried.
“Hana, this is wrong.”
Next to me, Haru was holding the Korean workbook and teaching me like a pro.
Even though the company had fallen from grace in the Starlight Guild, it was still a major corporation. So, even the ordinary employees walking around had all graduated from prestigious universities. I heard it took tremendous effort to get in here.
Haru said she tutored to earn money during her college days. She had experience teaching students, so she was good at it. For her, tutoring high schoolers for the college entrance exam was easy, so teaching me elementary school problems was probably a piece of cake.
“Why isn’t ‘외 안되가’ correct? I’ve seen it written like that online…”
“Where on earth did you learn that…?”
I was sure I’d seen most people write it that way in chat during my broadcasts, so I thought it was correct. But it wasn’t. Haru corrected me with the proper usage.
And the challenges kept coming.
“‘금일’ doesn’t mean Friday.”
“‘사흘’ means three days, not four.”
What the heck! The more I studied Korean with Haru, the more I felt like I was sinking into an abyss. It felt like everything I knew was being turned upside down. It was like telling someone who thought the Earth was flat that it’s actually round.
“Haru… the problems are too hard…”
I flipped through the workbook and spoke. It didn’t seem like elementary school-level problems, so I checked the title, but it was hopeless.
[Elementary School 3rd Grade Korean Workbook]
It was a workbook for my age group. The problems seemed like something a sixth-grader would solve… If this got out, it would be clear to everyone that I was lacking in skills.
“Hana, you’re doing well. You’ve improved a lot since last time.”
“Really…?”
“Yeah.”
Haru’s words restored my confidence. Maybe I really am a genius? According to Haru, among all the kids she’s taught, I was improving the fastest. She had no reason to lie about this.
“Let’s do math and English now.”
Once Korean studies were somewhat done, it was time for the subjects I was confident in. Math problems were so easy they made me yawn. To defeat me, they’d need middle school-level problems. I could even solve quadratic equations!
As for English, we were just studying basic words. Even the dog next door knows that ‘apple’ means 사과.
Before I knew it, I was grinning while studying. It was a completely different look from when I was struggling with Korean. As long as it wasn’t Korean, nothing could stop me.
——————————————-
**Starlight Cosmetics**
It was a company owned by the Starlight Guild. However, Starlight Cosmetics was a byproduct of the guild diversifying its business. It might upset the company’s CEO, but it was the truth.
The Starlight Guild had a tight grip on everything related to hunters, from monster byproducts within the gates to hunters’ weapons. They didn’t even have a close competitor, like the CPU companies I Corp and A Corp.
They practically had a monopoly, and if you were a hunter in South Korea, you had no choice but to deal with Starlight.
They were rich enough to buy weapons branded with the Starlight Guild logo. Other companies’ products weren’t even considered because their quality was trash.
The amount of money squeezed from hunters, most of whom were high earners, was staggering. It almost made up the majority of Starlight Guild’s total revenue.
With overflowing cash, Starlight Guild expanded into lucrative industries like banking and insurance. According to one article, hunters’ life insurance was raking in serious dough…
Anyway, among Starlight’s subsidiaries, many companies were making billions in annual revenue. Sadly, Starlight Cosmetics wasn’t even close to hitting a billion, let alone a trillion.
However, after releasing a lotion containing a single strand of hair, their sales skyrocketed.
– This month’s sales reached 160 billion!
– Haha! At this rate, we could hit 1 trillion, no, 2 trillion in annual sales!
– Starlight Cosmetics is the most successful cosmetics company in South Korea, and the sales figures prove it…
– Make more Starlight Lotion, you slaves!
But then, the supply of that single strand of hair suddenly vanished.
– No… No way!!!
– Aaaah! I feel the strength draining from my body!
– I messed up, I messed up, I messed up…
The once-thriving company collapsed in an instant.
– Shock and horror, folks!
The disappearance of that single strand of hair plunged Starlight Cosmetics into terror and chaos. The fear started from the top and spread to every employee.
The factory, which had been running non-stop day and night, came to a halt. The workers were suddenly forced into unpaid leave.
– Aaaaaaah!
Luckily, they weren’t fired, but for workers living paycheck to paycheck, unpaid leave was a massive blow. Of course, it wasn’t completely unpaid—they still got some money from the company, but it was nowhere near enough to live on.
– If the factory’s stopped, isn’t that super serious?
– I swear, just last week, we were all hyped about getting the biggest bonus of the year…
– I heard there’s a shortage of some ingredient? But the cosmetics ingredients are all right there! They’re not stopping production just to avoid paying bonuses, are they?
The workers knew the cosmetics ingredients were still there. They just didn’t know about the crucial single strand of hair, so their misunderstanding was unavoidable.
The meeting room at Starlight Cosmetics was filled with a gloomy atmosphere.
“Boss, with the current stockpile, we can’t last even a week.”
“We got too carried away celebrating record sales and didn’t stockpile enough reserves.”
One after another, the executives delivered bad news. It was an unavoidable situation. Their sales strategy was built on the assumption that the single strand of hair would keep coming, so the current shortage spelled disaster.
On top of that, the single strand of hair was irreplaceable. No matter how much money they offered, they couldn’t buy it.
Kim Seyoung, mentally broken, imagined shaving off the last remaining strand of hair. If she shaved it all off, maybe they could last another week…
But then, Hana, now bald and shiny, would harbor intense resentment, and the sulking Hana wouldn’t give any more hair. In the end, Starlight Lotion would disappear…
“Boss!”
“Y…Yes!”
Kim Seyoung snapped back to reality at the sound of the executive calling her.
“First, reduce the amount of lotion being shipped as much as possible. I’ll go see Sehee. I heard Starlight Food has a reserve of the single strand of hair. I’ll beg on my knees if I have to, but I’ll bring it back.”
No matter what, Kim Seyoung had to use family ties to get the hair from Kim Sehee. The factory had stopped, and with each passing day, the losses were mounting.
