“Haaaaaah…”
I let out a sigh as Maru dried my hair. It felt so refreshing. Maru seemed to have a genius-level talent for drying hair. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been this cool.
*Slurp*
I sipped on some banana milk, fully enjoying this paradise. Honestly, banana milk after a bath is way better than any other beverage, and I stand by that.
“Hey, Hana, feeling refreshed? Now that your hair’s dry, let’s get dressed!”
Maru, who had just finished drying my hair, was already dressed and ready to go.
“Okay~”
I followed Maru’s lead and grabbed some clothes from the closet. It was just a hoodie and some long pants, so nothing fancy. As I stepped out of the bathhouse, I felt a little empty inside.
Maybe I should’ve soaked in the hot tub a bit longer. I was so out of it that I rushed through the bath.
“Bye-bye~”
I waved goodbye to the part-timer at the entrance and tossed the empty banana milk carton into the trash.
—
“What kind of bath is this? What color is it?”
“Isn’t it a green tea bath? It’s green.”
“Oh my, oh my! Look at that pretty color! Our local bathhouse must be adding bath salts now.”
The ladies who stepped into the bath after Hana left apparently got rejuvenated skin or something.
—
“Ugh…”
After returning from the bathhouse, I flopped onto my bed. My body felt so relaxed after being in the hot water. I had done everything I needed to do today, so now all that was left was to watch TV and sleep. Or maybe do some homework.
But honestly, the homework would only take 30 minutes. It was all easy stuff for a third-grader. No adult would stress over elementary school problems.
Of course, if it were higher-grade elementary or middle school problems, it might be tricky for someone who hasn’t been in school for a while. But I’m in third grade, and third-grade problems are a piece of cake if you have basic common sense.
As I lay on the bed, I must’ve dozed off for a second. I felt my consciousness slip away, only to be pulled back by a voice calling me.
“Hana~ Time to go eat!”
Maru, who had just come back from the bathhouse, called me, now dressed neatly. Her outfit looked better than before. It’s like the difference between work clothes and casual wear—such is the struggle of working adults.
“Hot!”
I wiped the drool from my mouth and checked the time. It felt like I had just gotten back, but two hours had already passed. Time flies when you’re doing nothing. It felt like the day was ending already. Once dinner’s over, it’s like the day is done.
“I’ll be right out!”
I quickly changed out of my clothes and into my dinosaur pajamas. Since there weren’t many people in the building during dinner time, it was the perfect time to rock my unique dinosaur pajamas. Morning and evening were the best times to wear comfy dinosaur pajamas, so I lived in them during those hours.
“Hana, do you really love those dinosaur pajamas that much? Don’t you want to try other ones?”
“Yup!”
To me, the dinosaur pajamas were like a second skin. Even in summer, I could wear them because our building had the AC cranked up. I didn’t wear them outside anyway, so it didn’t matter.
As we took the elevator down to the first floor, an unexpected sight greeted us. The usually crowded restaurant was completely empty.
I was puzzled, but soon realized why.
“Huh? Oh no, the restaurant’s closed for inspection today…?”
The restaurant was closed. No way! This meant no delicious food for us. I started hopping around Maru in a panic.
“Maru! What do we do?”
“It’s okay, Hana. We’ll just cook something ourselves.”
Our floor had all kinds of facilities, including a kitchen where we could cook.
“How about pasta?”
“Pasta sounds great!”
It was one of my favorite foods. Maru stopped by the convenience store to grab some ingredients for the pasta…
I was buying ingredients. I also scurried behind Maru and successfully grabbed the beverage I wanted, checking out together.
Growing plants requires a lot of care and effort. Of course, there were plants that stubbornly survived even without water, like weeds, and even thrived when sprayed with pesticides. But growing rice also demanded a lot of effort and dedication.
After transplanting the moderately grown rice into water-filled paddies, the work didn’t stop there. You had to remove weeds that stole nutrients or deal with pests and bugs that gnawed on the rice… There was so much to do just for rice farming.
Even in modern times with advanced farming techniques, this rule didn’t change. Rice farming still required human effort. But the rice grown from Hana’s seed was different. While the process of growing the rice was the same up to a point, once transplanted into the cold paddy, various steps were dramatically skipped.
It grew without a care for pests, and weeds, instead of stealing nutrients, ended up stunted because the rice took everything. The process was drastically shortened. Normally, farming starts in spring and harvest happens around September or October, but this rice grew as if it was being filmed on a camera set to fast-forward, growing noticeably taller every day.
Even the farmers invited for consultation couldn’t believe what they were seeing. After the Gate appeared, many strange phenomena occurred, and no one knew why. While this could be considered part of that, it was still a shocking sight for farmers who had spent their entire lives farming.
Kim Sehee was certain that if this scene were posted online, botanists would come running with fire in their eyes. Whether it was cherry tomatoes or coffee, the yield of these plants was unmatched by any other.
However, the downside was that the plants couldn’t grow beyond a certain range from their host plant. For Kim Sehee, this was actually an advantage. Even if other spies or ordinary people tried to grow these seeds, they wouldn’t get the desired results.
In fact, they’d likely just waste more money on research. Kim Sehee smiled at the thought of rival companies pouring money into fruitless efforts. There was nothing sweeter than watching others struggle in vain.
She didn’t have to worry about the inevitable loss of market value due to rival companies copying her products. Nothing could be better than this.
Kim Sehee watched her employees diligently working on the farm today. She had hired people specifically dedicated to farming, paid a salary, and assigned staff to manage them. Since it wasn’t a security-sensitive task, she could hire ordinary people for the farming work.
Thanks to their hard work, they were able to meet the volume demanded by the Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry was probably waiting anxiously for Kim Sehee’s call. Without the rice she supplied, rice in South Korea would become scarce. Chaos would ensue. The public would criticize, and the Ministry’s officials might face demotions.
“I think it’s time to give them a call.”
Kim Sehee looked at the warehouse filled with rice and smiled. Just thinking about how each grain would turn into money made her feel good. For a businessperson, there was nothing better than digging into the earth and making money. Of course, Kim Sehee wasn’t sure if she was a farmer or a CEO of a major corporation anymore.
Lately, wearing a straw hat and patrolling the farmland had become part of her routine. Just seeing the cherry tomatoes ripen, the coffee berries grow in clusters, and the rice fields mature made her feel content. She wondered if farmers felt the same way she did.
