“Hmm…”
I let out a big sigh as I looked at what I was holding in my hand. In my hand was a jump rope. Last time, when I couldn’t carry the groceries at the mart due to lack of strength, I actively expressed my desire to exercise, but what I got in return was a jump rope.
Maybe Bora, Haru, and Maru thought that if I did something like weightlifting, there was a risk of injury, so they gave me this instead. But if I jump rope a lot, won’t I grow taller, and then my strength will naturally increase, right?
My brain finished the calculation. I grabbed the jump rope and headed outside. I could have done it inside, but doing it outside just feels cooler, doesn’t it? Maru also followed me outside to watch me jump rope.
“Hana, don’t overdo it. If it gets too hard, let me know anytime, okay?”
Maru said that and then seemed to pull out her laptop to work on company business. Watching Maru like that, I got ready to jump rope. Back in the day, I had even won awards at jump rope competitions. I was overflowing with talent when it came to jump rope.
“Ha!”
I let out a shout of determination and got ready to jump rope. It was chilly… I grabbed the cool handles and started jumping. At first, I went slow. I wanted to do double jumps, but I held back with all my might.
This was the first time I was exercising in this child’s body. I had somewhat adapted to daily life, but exercise was a whole different story. If I got seriously injured from exercising wrong, the people around me would be sad.
“Yah! Yah!”
I kept jumping while shouting. After about a hundred jumps, I started feeling out of breath. My stamina was so weak. I realized I needed to build up my stamina. Normally, people don’t get tired until they’ve done over a thousand jumps, but I was already out of breath after just 10 percent of that.
“Huff, huff!”
Feeling my breath reaching the tip of my chin, I stopped jumping and gasped for air, looking exhausted. If my stamina was this weak, the answer was to do a hundred jumps at a time, in intervals. If I kept jumping rope, maybe someday I’d be able to do a thousand jumps in one go.
I decided to start exercising seriously from today.
—
“Today’s the day to go harvest strawberries~”
With a joyful heart, I put on my straw hat and stood in front of the office. It was easier to bring at least one person when going outside.
“Hana~ Bora~ Maru~”
I called out their names as I entered the office. There was no one inside. Where did everyone go? Well, the employees all have their own work to do, so they must be busy. Thinking like that, it made sense that no one was here.
“Is no one here?”
I wandered around the office, calling out names. I opened doors to meeting rooms and other spaces, but no one was there. I plopped down in Haru’s usual seat. I decided to wait until someone came in.
As I sat in Haru’s seat, playing with a pencil, I heard a noise from outside. I perked up my ears, waiting to see who would come in.
“Haru!”
Luckily, it wasn’t someone I didn’t know well, but someone I was familiar with. Haru saw me and walked briskly over to where I was sitting.
“Hana? Are you going to the vegetable garden again today?”
She seemed to know where I was going just by looking at me. Well, I had been expressing my desire to go to the garden with my whole body. My outfit—a straw hat and work clothes—was a dead giveaway. I only wore this when going to the garden. Otherwise, I’d just be in casual clothes or my dinosaur pajamas.
“Haru! Let’s go to the garden!”
I held up a small trowel and said to Haru. She nodded and picked me up.
“Alright, alright. Are you going to harvest strawberries again today?”
“Yeah!”
I had seen the strawberries ripening beautifully yesterday, so I was planning to harvest some delicious ones. Yesterday, I was too full to bring any back, but now that I was hungry, my thoughts had changed. I was going to bring back a ton of strawberries. And I’d share them with the employees working in the office.
—
“What’s this, Mincheol?”
Mina asked as she entered the office. She had come to the floor where Hana lived, which she had only heard about through rumors, for some work collaboration, and she saw various fruits placed in the office.
“Oh, these are the crops Hana grows. She harvests them from time to time and brings them to our office employees.”
“She handed them out to everyone. Isn’t she so kind? It would be nice to have a daughter like Hana. All I have at home is a clueless son, haha.”
“Hmm…”
Mina’s mouth watered as she looked at the incredibly tempting strawberry. She had never seen such a visually striking strawberry before. The bright red strawberry seemed to be showing off its vibrant body, as if begging to be eaten. It sparkled under the office lights, as if coated with sugar.
“Mincheol, can I try one of these?”
Mina usually wouldn’t ask something like this, but the strawberry looked so irresistible that she couldn’t help but swallow her pride and ask. It felt like going to another office and asking for snacks from the pantry.
But Mincheol responded casually.
“Ah! Sure, you can have one. But everyone who comes here can’t stop at just one. You can have two or three if you want.”
“Is that so…?”
As she said this, Mina picked up a strawberry and popped it into her mouth. She hadn’t felt such a strong craving since her diet days…
Luckily, the top of the strawberry was already cut, so she could just pop it in. As she slowly chewed, her eyes widened. She had never tasted a strawberry like this before.
With every bite, the juice burst out as if it wasn’t a strawberry from this world. How could a single strawberry taste this good? It was worth swallowing her pride for this.
Seeing Mina’s expression, Mincheol laughed and said, “You’re just like everyone else! Most people who come to our office have the same reaction when they try these strawberries.”
It felt like she was part of some experiment, but the taste was undeniably amazing. A strawberry this good would surely be considered top-tier in the market. People would probably pay double the usual price for it.
And if these strawberries were used in the trendy tanghulu, the profits would be insane. Mina thought to herself that the people in this office must have already figured out other revenue streams. Still, she couldn’t help but ask Mincheol out of curiosity.
“Is this going to be a product your company sells soon?”
Starlight Food had recently been expanding into green tea, coffee, and other food items, so Mina wondered if this was part of their new lineup. She figured Mincheol, who worked in the department handling Hana, would know better than her.
But Mincheol’s response left her disappointed.
“Ah, this is just something Hana grows as a hobby. We can’t sell it. It’s too expensive to grow, for one thing.”
“Really? I’d be willing to pay double the market price for strawberries like these…”
“Haha, double? Even ten times the price wouldn’t be enough. These are strawberries only Hana can grow. No one else can replicate them.”
Reluctantly, Mina followed Mincheol to get back to work. But before she left, she couldn’t resist taking a few strawberries with her.
—
“Huh?”
When I woke up today, I felt something stuck in my mouth. I spat it out.
“It’s a tooth!”
It was the third tooth I’d lost. Now I’ll look like a goof when I smile. It’ll take some time for the new tooth to grow in. Thankfully, since this body grows quickly, a new tooth was already starting to come in where the first one had fallen out.
Clearly, this body isn’t ordinary, as it grows at a much faster rate than a normal person’s.
I naturally picked up the tooth and headed to the office. There was already a sprout at the base of the tooth, as expected.
What kind of plant will grow this time? I hope it’s a plant with delicious fruits hanging all over it!
