I grinned ear to ear as I looked at the mountain of snacks piled up on the floor. Snacks were always right. Snacks weren’t bad. I sneakily glanced around. I had to hide the snacks in a place only I knew. If I got caught, I’d be in trouble.
*Humph humph~*
*Ziiip*
I unzipped the back of a large stuffed animal. If I hid them here, I’d never get caught. After all, I was the only one who touched these stuffed animals. I thought about putting them in Luni’s back, but it was too stuffed with fluff, so I postponed that idea.
After stashing all the snacks, I looked at the remaining mix coffee with interest. In my past life, I had drunk coffee to the point of boredom. But since I became this body, I hadn’t had any. I didn’t need to worry about where to get hot water to make coffee.
There was a water dispenser in the hallway that dispensed hot water. It came in handy from time to time.
I grabbed a mug with an illustration of the little magician Lumi and filled it with hot water. I stared blankly at the hot water trickling out. The thought of drinking coffee soon made me feel good.
Back in the room, I placed the mug on the floor and poured the mix coffee into the hot water. I stirred it with the now-empty mix coffee stick like a spoon. The sweet, delicious aroma made my mouth water. It felt like it had been forever since I last had coffee.
Finally, I plucked a strand of my hair and dropped it into the mug. My hair dissolved into the water like sugar melting. Seeing this, I found it strange that my hair didn’t melt when I washed it.
If my hair disappeared just by touching water, I’d have to live my whole life bald. Being bald was terrifying. I didn’t even want to imagine it.
*Gulp gulp*
I drank the coffee with my hair in it. My eyes widened. It was just a simple mix coffee with my hair in it, but the taste was heavenly. No other coffee could compare.
I blew on the steaming mug and drank the remaining coffee. I had plenty of mix coffee sticks, so I could drink without worry.
*Ooooh!*
Drinking the coffee with my hair in it made me feel like energy was surging through my body. It was like I had become a tiger that ate cereal. I quickly washed the mug in the sink to destroy the evidence.
If Bora or Haru saw me, they’d probably yell at me. Or would they yell just for drinking a cup of coffee? Maybe it was just my imagination, and they’d let it slide. Still, it was better to be careful.
But then a problem arose. When night came, I couldn’t sleep. I pulled the blanket up to my chin and closed my eyes, but sleep didn’t come.
*One sheep… two sheep…*
I imagined a farm with sheep running around as I closed my eyes. But before I knew it, the sheep in my mind were sitting in a tree nest, drinking coffee. Wait, they don’t have hands—how are they drinking coffee?
*Sigh…*
I tossed and turned in bed for an hour, trying to sleep, but it was no use. There was nothing else to do. I went outside wearing my dinosaur pajamas. It was already 11 PM, so only the hallway lights were on.
Normally, people would be walking around the hallway, greeting each other… but lately, more people had been coming to the office. The number of employees hadn’t increased, but there were mysterious, well-dressed people coming and going, as if they were working on some business.
Since it was night, no one was around. Walking into the hallway, I felt like a ghost might appear.
With the long hallway lit up, I couldn’t help but imagine a scary ghost appearing at the end. It wasn’t my fault. The architect who made the hallway this long was to blame.
I braved my fear and walked to the office. Luckily, wearing my dinosaur pajamas made the fear bearable. When I entered the open office, Haru was sitting in a chair, as expected. She was drinking coffee and browsing the internet.
I stealthily crept up behind Haru, keeping my presence hidden. The office was big, and I was small, so it was possible. Haru didn’t notice me approaching and kept browsing the internet. Standing behind her, I prepared to scare her.
It was time to show her the terror of this dinosaur. Like a lion pouncing on a rabbit, I lunged at Haru with a *roar*.
“Huh?”
But Haru wasn’t startled. Instead, she asked what was going on. Seeing Haru unfazed, I deflated and snuggled into her arms.
“Why aren’t you sleeping, Hana?”
Haru picked me up and stood from the chair.
I desperately held back from saying I drank coffee. She might nitpick about it.
“I just can’t sleep…”
“Really? Then let’s play together.”
“Okay!”
Haru held me in her arms and sat back down in the chair. She was watching a variety show on her computer. I thought she was working hard, but…
Feeling a bit betrayed, I…
Haru looked up at the ceiling and smiled awkwardly as she spoke.
“I just finished work! I’m just taking a little break to cool my head.”
I looked at Haru with disbelief. As expected, there was no such thing as a hardworking office worker. The place was filled with people just waiting for a chance to slack off.
—
In the room where Hana was absent.
Bora and Haru were moving around, searching for something that had fallen on the floor. It was past lunchtime, and since Hana had gone for a massage, the room was empty.
They were looking for a strand of Hana’s hair that had fallen on the floor. This was one of the reasons they cleaned Hana’s room every day.
At first, Hana’s hair wasn’t worth much, so they just vacuumed it up. But lately, the efficiency of Hana’s hair had increased, making each strand valuable.
“Looks like there’s a lot of hair under the desk where Hana usually sits.”
Haru said as she squeezed under the desk where Hana used to do her internet broadcasts. As she predicted, there were strands of Hana’s hair scattered under the desk and on the bed sheets.
Fortunately, Hana’s hair was green, making it easy to spot. So, finding her hair wasn’t too difficult.
“Do you think Hana knows we’re doing this?”
Bora asked as she picked up a strand of hair. To finish quickly, all the office employees had gathered to collect Hana’s hair. They looked like people gleaning wheat.
If Hana’s hair had been black, everyone in the office would have had to dye their hair to distinguish it from hers.
Of course, they didn’t enter Hana’s room often, but the hair of employees who did could get mixed in.
An average person loses about 100 strands of hair a day, but Hana, with her thick hair, probably lost twice that amount. The value of the collected hair could easily be worth tens of millions of won.
With the money from the collected hair, they could pay the salaries of all the employees in the office.
After collecting all of Hana’s hair, they did a quick clean of the room and left. Hana’s room felt so refreshing that some employees wanted to stay longer. This was one of the reasons Bora and Haru often visited Hana’s room.
It felt like being in the middle of a forest, with the air so fresh and invigorating.
“Bora.”
As they left the room and entered the office, Haru called out to Bora.
“Yes?”
But Haru didn’t answer and instead grabbed Bora, pulling her into the empty break room. She looked around to make sure no one was there and then spoke.
“I think someone in our office is taking snacks home…”
Haru, who mainly managed the break room, had noticed that the snacks were disappearing too quickly lately. It seemed like someone was taking them…
“Really?”
“Yes. It seems like someone is taking snacks home. And they usually do it during lunch. I checked the snack count, and after lunch, a lot was missing.”
It sounded like something out of a story on the internet. Someone was really taking snacks from the break room home…
But Bora found something on the floor.
“Huh?”
Bora picked up a strand of hair with a very familiar color from the break room floor.
Bora smirked as she looked at it.
“I think I know who the culprit is.”
“Really?”
“Let’s catch them together tomorrow.”
“But should we confront that employee directly?”
Taking snacks wasn’t a fireable offense, but it could damage their reputation. It’s not like they were beggars taking things from the break room.
And from Haru’s perspective, since she had to keep working with them, she wanted to handle it discreetly.
“It’s not someone from our office.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You’ll find out tomorrow.”
Bora said confidently, making Haru decide to wait until tomorrow.
