After swimming, I finally felt free. Of course, it only lasted 10 minutes before I got in trouble again.
Next time, the teacher gave me a stern warning not to go to such places. I could only nod. If I had acted recklessly as Teacher Kim Yeon-woo said, I could have drowned. It was my fault.
“Hana, why did you get scolded by the teacher?”
“Obviously, she caused some trouble! Hana’s a troublemaker, after all.”
Jiyu’s sharp words stabbed my heart. I felt depressed by her factual attack. Seeing my expression, Jiyu didn’t press further.
Growl—
“I’m hungry…”
Feeling down made me hungry. It made sense—I had been swimming so hard, so of course, I was starving. And lunchtime was coming soon. Hearing me, Jiyu and Yumi quickly said:
“Let’s go eat, Hana!”
“Yeah! Hana, when you’re like this, eating will make you feel better!”
I nodded at their words. Indeed, delicious food was perfect for stress relief. I smiled and said:
“Let’s go, Jiyu, Yumi!”
Seeing me like this, Jiyu and Yumi exchanged glances and nodded. I don’t know why they act like this sometimes. Maybe because we’ve been friends since kindergarten, they just know what’s up by looking at me.
I left them behind and ran to the cafeteria. I came to school for delicious food. Studying or other sports were just the same old thing—nothing could stimulate my brain. But food was different. Delicious food strongly stimulated my brain.
“Uh…”
I could only stare blankly at my tray. Our school’s cafeteria food wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t bad either. But looking at the tray now, I couldn’t say that.
A dried-up fried fish, some mysterious stir-fried vegetables, and crushed kimchi. This wasn’t real. Even the soup was terrible—it was supposed to be soybean paste soup, but there were no ingredients in it.
Seriously, shouldn’t there be at least one meat dish? Jiyu and Yumi seemed to think the same, as their expressions weren’t great. Actually, none of the students in the cafeteria looked happy. I put my tray down and said:
“This doesn’t seem right, guys.”
Even from a rational perspective, the food on this tray didn’t make sense.
“Right… It’s been getting worse since last week, but today it hit rock bottom.”
Jiyu poked the poor fish with her chopsticks. Yumi, also in disbelief, said angrily:
“This isn’t right! Even if it’s free school lunch!”
In the end, we couldn’t eat it. We couldn’t even finish it. Why the sudden drop in cafeteria quality? Maybe there was some adult issue behind it.
The only solution was the snack shop. Leaving the cafeteria and heading to the snack shop, it was packed like a stadium. We barely managed to buy some small bread. Everything else was already sold out.
“Sigh… If the food’s bad, life feels meaningless.”
“Right.”
Jiyu and Yumi were also lamenting. I thought I should report today’s incident. Since this is an elementary school with the name “Starlight,” maybe telling Boss Sehee Kim from the Starlight Group would help.
Now, I could see the boss every day by just taking the elevator to her floor. Before entering the boss’s office, the desk employee greeted me. There was a separate desk managing access to the boss’s office. Is this what a big company is like?
The desk employee said to me:
“Hana, you’re here? The boss isn’t in right now… She had some business and stepped out. She should be back in 30 minutes.”
“Really? Then I’ll wait inside the boss’s office.”
I just went into the boss’s office.
Kim Sehee and dozens of security personnel had caught Kim Chun-bae and his gang while they were extorting money. It was impossible for the elderly to escape from young, healthy security guards.
“We caught them all, Boss. We have solid evidence. There’s no way they can wriggle out of this.”
“It won’t be possible.”
“Well done. Let’s hand it over to the police.”
The villagers couldn’t move a muscle because of the theft. The elderly were overwhelmed by the muscular, robust bodyguards and couldn’t say a word. Even if they tried to resist, it would be useless. The villagers were outmatched both physically and in age.
When Kim Sehee reported it to the police, they hurried over. Since Starlight Food had already done some groundwork, the police were somewhat aware of the situation. The police were shocked when they checked the basket that had been used to carry Tangle home. They also reviewed the CCTV footage that Kim Sehee’s employee had recorded.
“This seems pretty serious. It’s not just a petty theft. Did you suffer any significant losses?”
The police, knowing Kim Sehee’s background, spoke politely. They were bold and shameless with powerless people but polite to those backed by conglomerates like Kim Sehee.
Kim Sehee’s secretary chimed in, “Well, it’s hard to calculate the exact amount, but it’s definitely over a hundred million. If you dig into Village Head Kim Chunbae’s account, you’ll probably find the money. He’s been stealing for over a month, so there should be a lot of money in his account. Don’t forget to investigate the stores that received Tangle as well.”
“Ah… understood.”
The villagers were arrested on the spot for trespassing. There was plenty of evidence, and since they were caught trespassing on private property, they had nothing to say.
“Oh no…! Miss!”
“But it was them who trespassed into our village. Why are only we being arrested?”
“Miss, we were really wrong. Please give us another chance! We won’t even come near the Tangle farm again!”
The villagers wailed as they were taken away by the police. But Kim Sehee felt no sympathy for them. They weren’t just one-time thieves; they had been stealing consistently, which made them despicable.
Kim Sehee was actually disappointed.
“Trespassing, crop theft, and acting as a group… even if you add it all up, it won’t be that serious.”
Only the ringleader, Kim Chunbae, would serve time, while the rest of the villagers would likely get suspended sentences. It was obvious that only Kim Chunbae, the village head, had secretly pocketed the money. Plus, their advanced age had to be taken into account. Korean law tends to be a bit lenient toward the elderly.
“Actually, this turned out well. Since it’s come to this, let’s just bulldoze this village. It’s useless anyway.”
Kim Sehee looked at the small village of about 30 people and spoke. The villagers had all been arrested, turning it into a ghost town. Having a village so close to the Tangle farm wasn’t pleasant, so using this theft incident as an excuse to demolish the village didn’t seem like a bad idea.
If they offered to settle the theft case on the condition that the villagers move to another village, they would probably accept.
“Shall we do that?”
“Yes, please go ahead, Secretary.”
The villagers, who had been living peacefully, were about to be driven out to another place. It was their own fault. If they hadn’t committed any crimes while living near the Tangle farm, they could have lived well, but that wasn’t the case. They made the worst choice and were now facing the consequences.
And so, the theft incident at the Tangle farm ended with it being handed over to the police.
—
After resolving the incident, Kim Sehee returned to the building. She was tired from running around the farm all day. The workload kept increasing, and it felt like she’d need to split into two people to handle it all. The farm’s growth depended on Hana, but there were still many people who could replace her if she left.
Kim Sehee took the elevator to the floor where her office was and read her secretary’s glance. It was a signal that Hana was inside. Kim Sehee cleared her throat and entered the president’s office.
