Starlight Elementary School was right next to Starlight Middle School and High School. This meant that once you enrolled in elementary school, you pretty much wouldn’t leave this area. After all, middle school and high school were also here.
“Wow, you’re so cute~”
“Your eyes are so sparkly, like a doll~”
Even though I held Bora’s hand, I got caught by a group of high schoolers and ended up being teased. Bora didn’t even try to stop them. So, I got mercilessly pinched on the cheeks by these high school girls. Seriously, why do they keep squeezing my cheeks? Even if my cheeks are a bit chubby, it’s not like they’re that irresistible. But for some reason, people just can’t keep their hands off me.
“Ughhh!”
I quickly escaped from the high schoolers and clung to Bora’s leg, glaring at them. I mean, who just casually pinches someone’s cheeks like they’re kneading rice cakes?!
I tried to give them a fierce, lion-like glare, but it didn’t seem to work. The girls didn’t seem intimidated at all.
“Bora, let’s go somewhere else.”
“Okay!”
The only option I had was to retreat. After all, retreating is also a strategy.
“Can you go alone from here?”
We arrived at the main building. Just a few steps up the stairs, and I’d reach Class 1 of the 3rd grade. I held Bora’s hand and looked up at her.
“Can’t you come with me, Bora?”
“Well… I have something to do. It won’t take long! I’ll come up right after!”
“Ugh…”
If Bora said she was busy, what could I do? I nodded and entered the building. I kept glancing back, but all I saw was Bora waving at me.
I stood in front of the classroom after climbing the stairs. I took a deep breath and opened the door. The classroom was relatively quiet. Maybe because it was the first day, everyone was just fiddling with their phones.
‘Hmm…’
Since it was my first day too, I decided to set a vibe. Acting like an elementary schooler would make me lose some dignity. This time, my concept was “cool and chic.” My goal was to always be confident and maintain a cool attitude.
I walked over to the desk with my name on it and placed my bag, which had Lumi’s illustration, on it. The kid next to me seemed to notice my bag and started sparkling with excitement. She must’ve been a fan of Lumi, who was super popular.
As I sat down, the girl next to me leaned over and whispered,
“Do you… really like Lumi?”
I couldn’t help but smirk. Sorry, Bora and Haru, but those two had never watched Lumi’s anime. They probably only knew the character.
Most adults are like that. They remember the names of the characters their kids like, but if you ask them anything detailed, they’re clueless.
“Of course! Do you like her too?”
Now that I’d met a fellow fan, there was no need to keep up the cool and chic act. Fellow Lumi fans shouldn’t hide anything from each other.
“Y-yeah! I really like her!”
Luckily, the girl sitting next to me was also a Lumi fan. I quietly unzipped my bag to show her. I reached inside and started pulling out items one by one.
The little girl next to me widened her eyes as she saw all the Lumi-themed items coming out of my bag.
“Wow! You have so much stuff!”
“Lumi is my idol!”
From my pencil case to various writing implements, everything had Lumi’s illustrations on them. It was only natural.
“My name’s Yumi…”
We ended up introducing ourselves while chatting.
Her name reminded me of a cat, but I wasn’t the type to tease someone about their name, so I just smiled and said,
“I’m Hana!”
We actually got along pretty well. We talked about Lumi and other things, and even though it felt a bit lower-level compared to my conversations with Bora and Haru, it was fine.
Wait, did my mental age drop or something? Lately, I’ve been feeling like Bora and Haru’s conversations are getting harder to understand. Is it a generation gap? Well, this body is only 10 years old, so maybe it’s the baby hormones flowing through me. Unavoidable babyfication.
Anyway, someone who looked like a teacher was talking about school life moving forward.
“Hmm?”
It seemed like it was time to hand out textbooks. Some middle school seniors came into our class carrying textbooks. They looked at us and smiled like we were cute, which hurt my pride.
These kids with no life experience…! Well, I don’t have much either, but still!
But.
Textbooks with colorful covers for subjects like Korean, English, and Math started piling up in one corner. With only 20 people, the stack wasn’t very high.
Back in my day, I remember the stacks towering over my height… But with fewer people, there were some perks. It was easier to distribute things when there weren’t many people.
Then, one by one, we went up and took a textbook each. Being in the 3rd grade of elementary school, the number of textbooks was less than half compared to middle or high school.
I casually pulled out the math textbook to check what we’d be learning. I just wanted to skim through the table of contents. I was curious about the difficulty level. It had been almost 20 years since I was in elementary school, so I wondered what had changed.
[What is 356 + 402?]
[How many cm is 1m?]
Looking at the math problems, I couldn’t help but laugh. Three-digit addition and unit conversions—problems so easy I could solve them in my head. Clearly, 3rd-grade math was a yawn-fest for someone like me.
I finally understood why regression protagonists in novels always thrive after going back in time. Being in their shoes, this was like swimming in shallow water. Even with my average knowledge, I was a disaster-level existence in the 3rd grade.
I was even capable of high school math, making me a potential candidate for the gifted class. Though, if I studied with them for even a year, I’d definitely fall behind. My brain was just too ordinary.
—
Starlight Food made a big splash with the launch of Starlight Coffee, starting with a massive ad campaign. They spent a whopping 10 billion won on advertising. Green tea had a niche market, and word spread quickly without much advertising.
But coffee was a different story. With countless alternatives and franchise cafes competing, getting the word out to the public was urgent.
Of course, with green tea, they didn’t have the money back then. If they had the funds they do now, they would’ve gone all out with ads and market launches.
As the number of products grew—green tea, cherry tomatoes, and now coffee—Kim Sehee felt a sense of pride swelling in her chest. Even though she was living off Hana, it was something. At this very moment, countless entrepreneurs were desperately trying to sell their products.
Their annual revenue had already surpassed 1 trillion won. With more effort, they could even challenge big corporations.
She had taken a struggling small business and turned it into a major corporation. The 10 billion won ad budget was approved with a big stamp by Starlight Food’s top brass. Media outlets and broadcasters happily accepted Starlight Food’s ads.
The Starlight Guild was already famous, so the money was legit. No media outlet would pass up such a golden opportunity for ad revenue.
“Starlight Food is going all out. But I remember their previous coffee launch was pretty bad…”
“Wasn’t that the coffee drink you took one sip of and threw away? You said it tasted like ditch water or something…”
“Oh, right! That’s true.”
“We’re just here to do our job with the ad money, but do they really have confidence in this coffee? Spending this much on ads…”
“True. Lately, Starlight Food’s products have been so good, I’m kind of looking forward to it.”
But the two media employees weren’t too hopeful. Coffee drinks are all the same, aren’t they? And they had to compete not just with supermarket coffee but also with café coffee.
The demand was huge, but so was the supply. If you walked down the street, coffee shops were everywhere. If it used to be phone stores, now it’s coffee shops.
The only reason to dive into this red ocean was if Starlight Food truly believed in their coffee.
