Even the already simple day became even simpler.
With a cast on my leg, it was my world. I could lie in bed and do nothing. It was a day where I could deeply feel why being a bum is so appealing. Lying there, watching the Little Magician Lumi’s animation, I got bored.
Lying around all day was, in a way, exhausting. It wasn’t exactly a good thing. But with the cast on my leg, walking around was a bit of a stretch. As I idly killed time, I suddenly felt like going outside.
Of course, the more you’re told not to do something, the more you want to do it. I sneakily got up from bed and prepared to go out. It was lunchtime, so there was no one outside. This was my chance. Actually, moving my leg with the cast was somewhat possible.
Walking around caused a bit of pain to rise from below, but it was bearable. As I hobbled along, I noticed something on the hallway floor.
“Huh?”
It was a book with a provocatively dressed woman on the cover. I glanced around, picked it up, and thought, “Well, I’ve got nothing else to do, might as well go back to my room and check out this magazine.”
So, I took the book back to my room, lay down on the bed, and got ready to read it comfortably. Up until now, the books I’d read were fairy tales or picture books. They were surprisingly fun. You might think fairy tales are predictable and boring, but the more you read them, the more you realize they’re the real deal. The final moral lesson always gave me a thrilling sensation.
But this book was different. Aren’t swimsuits supposed to be worn at the beach or pool? Yet the woman on the cover was posing in a swimsuit.
“Hmm…”
As I flipped through the pages, a whole new world unfolded. Men were wearing only swim trunks, and women were in bikinis just like the men. But why were they taking photos half-naked? The actors looked freezing. It was the middle of winter with icy winds blowing, and here they were shooting in swimsuits…
Of course, the actors in the book didn’t seem to feel the cold.
“Wow…”
Every single model had an amazing body. The men were muscular, and the women had slim figures. Maybe I should start working out? A desire to have muscles like that shot up like a chimney.
As I got absorbed in the magazine, lunchtime ended before I knew it. Outside, I could hear the laughter and chatter of office employees returning from lunch.
“Hana, what are you doing?”
Bora came into my room after eating. Either Bora or Haru would take care of me for about an hour after lunch. I’m a self-reliant kid who doesn’t need anyone’s help, but still.
However, Bora made a strange face when she saw the magazine I was reading. She had a “Why is this here?” look. As she approached the bed, she asked,
“Hana… where did you get this?”
Huh? Isn’t this just a normal magazine? Bora made a face I’d never seen before and spoke to me. I suddenly felt like I’d committed a crime.
“It was lying on the hallway floor!”
I told the truth. It wasn’t like I stole it or anything. I just happened to pick it up off the floor. The atmosphere around Bora was off, just like when I drank beer last time. So, I confessed.
“This is something Hana shouldn’t see yet.”
With that, Bora snatched the magazine away from me. I had no choice but to let her take it. I tried to say something, but seeing Bora’s expression, the words just died in my throat. She looked really angry.
“No… if Hana gets caught… it’s over…”
Listening to Bora mutter to herself, I felt even more self-conscious. It felt like I’d committed some terrible crime I shouldn’t have. But then Bora patted my head and said,
“Hana, if you find weird magazines like this lying around, you should tell me first, okay?”
“Okay!”
After hearing my answer, Bora took the magazine and left the room. I thought I heard her yelling in the office, but I decided to let it slide. It was time to watch the Little Magician Lumi.
——————————————————
Kim Sehee busily went around inspecting factory sites. Since Starlight Food had attached itself to Hana, the finances had become abundant. If Hana were to suddenly disappear or lose her hair, a terrible disaster would strike, but there was no need to think about that yet.
All businesses assume the worst-case scenario because otherwise, things just don’t work out. What if an earthquake suddenly hits and the factory collapses, or a war breaks out and a nuclear bomb drops? People who predict these kinds of things and still run businesses aren’t entrepreneurs—they should be fortune tellers.
Anyway, Starlight Food was clearly on an expansion spree. They were hiring way more employees than before, and their revenue had skyrocketed hundreds of times compared to the past. All of this happened in just a few months.
Rumor has it that even the key figures in the Starlight Guild might know about this. Still, there was no reason to take back what had been given. Plus, since Kim Sehee had a firm grip on the stocks, as long as she kept her eyes wide open, there was no chance of anything being stolen.
So, Kim Sehee was out in the field herself, and her employees were running around to scout locations for new factory sites. After completing their research, they had to make the final decision on where to build.
“This is the location for the new factory site.”
After unfurling a large map of South Korea in the meeting room, an employee pointed to a circled area.
“Honestly, I’d love to build factories in every major city, but we had to be realistic, so we’ve selected suitable locations separately.”
Currently, Starlight Food only had one factory in Gyeonggi Province. Originally, one factory was enough to supply the demand, but now they had hit the production limit of a single factory. And since the business was clearly going to grow even more, building more factories wouldn’t hurt.
They also had plans to gradually launch products other than Starlight Green Tea. The efficiency of a single strand of hair had improved over time. If one strand used to make 10 cups of green tea, now it could make 20.
They had a sufficient stockpile of hair strands and enough surplus funds to venture into other businesses. It would be a huge loss to only make green tea with such a valuable resource.
“No matter which region we choose, there are pros and cons. Based on our criteria for selecting factory sites, building a factory in Paju would solve the demand in Seoul, and building one in Daejeon would handle the demand in the provinces.”
Building a factory in Paju for Seoul’s demand and one in Daejeon for the provinces seemed very reasonable. Unless they built factories on remote islands or in inconvenient locations like Gangwon Province, there were always pros and cons to any location, so there wasn’t much to agonize over.
However, the pressure of having to decide on the construction of a multi-billion-dollar mega factory weighed heavily on Kim Sehee. She had only felt this kind of pressure during family gatherings on holidays like Chuseok…
But as the boss, she knew she’d have to make countless decisions like this in the future. When Kim Sehee signed off on the final decision, she felt a thrill she had never experienced before.
She had thought Starlight Food would remain just another mediocre company until her death. It was like a zombie company barely surviving, but everything changed the moment she met Hana. Not only had their revenue increased hundreds of times, but the future also looked incredibly bright.
Since her siblings’ businesses were in completely unrelated industries, she didn’t have to worry about them taking over. Sure, her sister Seyoung used a strand of hair, but that was something she could tolerate.
In industries like heavy machinery, vehicles, or weapons for hunters, a strand of hair was useless. What use would a strand of hair have in making cars? Or in shipbuilding? While the strand could potentially create other effects, nothing like that had happened yet.
In finance or insurance, money-related fields, the strand of hair was also useless. Not many people in the Starlight Guild could even use the strand of hair. In a way, she thought it was a blessing.
