“I hate summer so muuuuch…”
Jiyu was completely melting. Even though summer vacation was over, the heat didn’t back down easily. It was almost October, but the temperature was hitting 30 degrees. This kind of heat didn’t make sense. Where did autumn go? It was hiding and refusing to come out.
Lately, experiencing the weather in South Korea felt like only summer and winter remained. Spring and autumn were way too short, disappearing before you could even feel the temperature on your skin. People who bought spring and autumn clothes were probably shedding tears of blood. They couldn’t even wear the clothes they bought before spring and autumn ended.
Hot, cold, hot, cold—it felt like repeatedly going back and forth between a freezer and a sauna.
The only saving grace was the existence of air conditioning, which kept us from constantly feeling the summer heat. Yumi was helping the melting Jiyu walk. But Yumi was also on the verge of melting. And so was I.
The summer sun was a huge obstacle for us, who were only in third grade. It wasn’t something we could easily overcome.
“We’re almost there, guys. Just hang in a little longer.”
In the distance, an ice cream shop came into view. Inside the Baskin-Robbins building, the air conditioning would welcome us with full blast. If an ice cream shop didn’t turn on the AC, it wouldn’t make sense. All the hard-made ice cream would just melt away.
“Whaaa! Heavens!!!”
Jiyu was looking up at the sky and wailing. At school, the AC was blasting, so Jiyu didn’t feel the heat, but once outside, she was really feeling it as she walked.
“We’re here!”
I opened the store door. As soon as the door opened, the cold air pouring out snapped us back to our senses. It reassembled our minds that had melted from the heat. Seriously, the person who invented air conditioning deserved a Nobel Prize. Billions of humans must have been saved by air conditioning alone.
“So cool, so cool!”
Jiyu and Yumi were also delighted by the cool air as soon as they stepped in. Inside Baskin-Robbins, we forgot about the heat and started picking out ice cream. Being short, it was hard to see. I really wanted to grow taller. Being small was so inconvenient. When I was a guy, I was over 180cm, so I never really felt the importance of height.
But now, in this little kid’s body, being only 135cm was such a burden. Because of my height, I couldn’t even ride extreme roller coasters at amusement parks.
“Jiyu, Yumi, I’ll treat you. Pick whatever you want!”
“Yay! Hana, you’re the best!”
“Thanks, Hana!”
I didn’t directly tell Jiyu and Yumi that I had a lot of money, but they seemed to have figured it out. It was obvious, though. I rode a fancy imported car to and from school every day—it would’ve been weird if I didn’t have money. Still, I didn’t treat them every day.
If I paid for them every day just because I had money, our friendship might’ve turned into something weird. It could’ve become a situation where they were only friends with me for the money. Of course, I could say Jiyu and Yumi wouldn’t think like that, but you never know.
“Hmm~ I’ll go with strawberry!”
“Wouldn’t it be better to get a quart or family size and share instead of each getting our own?”
Yumi had a point. Since we could share the flavors anyway, it made more sense to get a bigger size and share, like she said.
“Okay! Let’s each pick our favorite flavors!”
“Okay!”
We could’ve chosen five flavors, but we decided on three. Our stomachs were too small to try all five. I picked chocolate, Jiyu picked strawberry, and Yumi chose Shooting Star. I didn’t know our tastes would be so different.
“Miss, can you pack a lot of these three flavors, please?”
Jiyu was being cute as she talked to the employee. Watching her, I couldn’t help but smile like a proud dad. The female employee seemed to think the same, smiling brightly as she responded to Jiyu.
“Sure, sure~ I’ll pack a lot for you~”
She took out a scoop and started piling it in. Then she took out a family-sized ice cream tub and began filling it up neatly.
We all watched with sparkling eyes as the ice cream was being scooped. We were staring so hard, it felt like beams were coming out of our eyes.
KT&G thoroughly examined the data sent by Starlight Food. The data researched by Starlight Food was valuable for the cigarettes they planned to make in the future.
“What? You’re saying we don’t need to add other harmful substances?”
“With just this one tobacco leaf, we can make a cigarette that’s delicious enough?”
KT&G couldn’t believe the research results. Cigarettes weren’t made with just tobacco leaves. They contained various harmful substances and even toxic materials to control the taste. But the data from Starlight Food stated that such harmful and toxic substances weren’t necessary at all. Based on this data, KT&G started conducting separate experiments.
Even though the data was from Starlight Food, there were many parts that didn’t make sense to blindly trust. Of course, KT&G had some level of trust in the strange foods Starlight Food made. There was probably no one working at KT&G who hadn’t tried Starlight Food’s products. Even now, many employees at KT&G kept Starlight Cherry Tomatoes on hand for overtime work.
Since KT&G’s dinner options weren’t particularly tasty, many just opted to snack on Starlight Cherry Tomatoes to get by. It was also somewhat expected by the company. It was cheaper to give employees money to handle their own meals during overtime than to prepare meals for them.
KT&G tried replacing the tobacco leaves in their existing cigarettes with those from Starlight Food. The results weren’t great.
“Cough, cough!”
“This is way too strong…”
The feedback from smokers in the company was unanimous—the taste was too intense. Even if they tried to tough it out, the constant coughing made it impossible to smoke. KT&G tried again, this time making cigarettes without the harmful and toxic substances, following Starlight Food’s data. Safety tests had already been done, so it was fine to smoke them this way. It was purely to confirm whether the data was accurate or not.
“This is really good!”
“From today, I’m switching to this cigarette.”
The reviews were overwhelmingly positive. Most said they were switching from their usual cigarettes to the ones made by KT&G. KT&G realized that this cigarette was really good. It meant that the data provided by Starlight Food was true.
KT&G felt the need to create a new cigarette lineup. Of course, this cigarette still contained nicotine and wasn’t exactly healthy, but compared to the ones they were making before, it was night and day. Just the fact that it didn’t contain toxic or chemical substances meant it had a huge health improvement effect.
Even though cigarettes aren’t good for you, this one would be much better than others. And what KT&G was really excited about was that the cigarettes made with Starlight Food’s tobacco leaves had an outstanding taste. If smokers consider taste the most important factor, there was a clear reason to switch from other cigarettes to this one.
If it tastes good and isn’t too bad for your health, there’s no reason to smoke other cigarettes.
KT&G also turned their attention to e-cigarettes. With such high-quality tobacco leaves, there was no reason not to use them.
And KT&G was a company that did a lot of overseas exports. They were excited to see how smokers in other countries would react to cigarettes made with Starlight tobacco leaves. If they experienced a special taste they couldn’t find in other cigarettes, they’d likely become loyal fans of KT&G’s products.
After completing various tests, KT&G successfully finalized the contract with Starlight Food for the tobacco leaves. It was a win-win contract for both sides. For KT&G, it was a way to boost the declining domestic tobacco leaf purchase rate, and for Starlight Food, it was also a great deal. A good contract all around.
