Crunch crunch!
Every time I bit into the watermelon, its juicy sweetness filled my mouth. This flavor made farming worth it. Of course, I had it way easier than other farmers. If someone who shed blood and sweat every day saw how I farmed, they’d probably laugh in disbelief.
Still, isn’t this better than being turned into a little kid? My original body disappeared, so I figured I deserved some kind of compensation. Maybe it was a gift from the gods. Being stuck in this kid’s body without any special abilities? Total rip-off.
“This is super delicious, Senior!”
A guy I’d never seen before said while eating watermelon. I’ve been at this research institute long enough to recognize most faces, so he was probably a new hire.
“Pfft, this is watermelon even the president can’t just eat whenever he wants. Only people working at our company get to enjoy this.”
He wasn’t wrong. This watermelon was only available because of me. If I didn’t grow it, no one could taste something this good. It was made from my hair, so even if someone took the seeds and planted them elsewhere, it wouldn’t be the same.
“So yummy!”
I devoured the watermelon. I thought about coming here every weekend to hang out. But honestly, once every two weeks seemed enough.
————————————————–
“Ughhh…”
I woke up in bed. My eyes refused to open. Must’ve been a really deep sleep. Like it was second nature, I got up and got ready for school.
Last time, I asked if I could just take the high school equivalency exam and skip school, but that idea got shot down. They said the whole point of school is to make memories and hang out with friends. True, school isn’t just about studying—it’s also about learning how to socialize and live with others.
“Hmm…”
Today, I had to decide which uniform to wear. They might look the same, but they weren’t. One was for summer, the other for fall. The summer uniform was slightly thinner. Fall was approaching, and wearing the summer uniform in the morning made me feel chilly.
But by lunchtime, it’d get hot again. I chose the summer uniform. I could dress myself just fine now. The reflection in the mirror showed a typical third-grade elementary school kid. My proportions and face were so perfect, I could’ve been a model. It felt like this body wasn’t even mine. If I’d had a kid like this, I’d have been the ultimate doting parent.
Too bad I became a kid before I could even get married.
And so, I walked to school like it was the most normal thing. Today, we were making something with balloons. I was excited. Hands-on activities were way more fun than boring lectures. Obviously. Listening to stuff I already knew was the dullest thing ever.
At this age, I was still learning basic three-digit addition and fraction multiplication. It didn’t make sense. I could solve those problems just by looking at them. But the other kids were diligently writing down their steps in their notebooks.
I felt a little bad for them. It felt like I was coasting while they worked hard. No matter how gifted they were, they couldn’t surpass someone with over 20 years of life experience. Even a genius third-grader couldn’t bridge that gap.
Anyway, I walked into the classroom. I greeted Jiyu and Yumi, who had arrived much earlier, and sat down. Another day was starting. Same as always, but with a slight twist—today, I greeted them while standing slightly slanted.
—————————————————–
Kim Sehee decided to give the suffocating civil servant a little breathing room. If left alone, he’d probably pass out from lack of oxygen.
“The predicted crash in the domestic beef market won’t happen.”
“Huh?”
“We’re planning to export our beef overseas.”
“Overseas?”
The manager couldn’t comprehend it. Starlight Food hadn’t even fully entered the domestic market, and now they were talking about exporting? Selling beef overseas without thorough domestic testing? That didn’t make sense.
“Not really.”
“Mainly, we plan to sell in the U.S. And, while we’re at it, Europe too.”
Kim Sehee’s thoughts were like this: Korea was too small to raise up to 500,000 cows. Of course, if told to do it, it could be done, but it would take too much time. It wasn’t something you could just sit around sucking your thumb waiting for.
So, the plan was to sell the beef first to high-income markets. The domestic market was attractive enough, but the cows raised on Starlight Rice Straw were guaranteed to be tasty enough to be sought after overseas. In fact, once you got addicted to the taste of this beef, you wouldn’t be able to live without it. That’s how good it was.
“The U.S. or Europe?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, Boss…”
The manager knew that the boss didn’t have much experience in the livestock industry. Thinking about it, he realized that Starlight Food had only entered the livestock business less than a month ago. To someone like him, who had worked in the industry for decades, Kim Sehee’s actions seemed like nothing more than childish bravado.
“Boss, breaking into overseas markets isn’t as easy as you think. Even our domestic Hanwoo beef struggles to make it overseas.”
“We have confidence.”
“No… think about the countless livestock farms in the U.S. You have to compete with the cows raised there, and it won’t be easy. Plus, the cows there are raised on cheap feed. You won’t be able to compete on price.”
“Do you think we don’t know that?”
This civil servant manager had no idea how delicious the beef from Starlight Food was. If he had known, he wouldn’t have given such advice. But since many people still didn’t know about it, the manager couldn’t help but passionately argue his point.
“No…”
He couldn’t say any more. There was so much he wanted to say.
‘If Starlight Food fails to break into the U.S. and European markets, where will all that beef go? To recoup even the cost of the feed, they’ll have to release all those cows domestically, and the shock will have to be absorbed by the domestic livestock farmers. Starlight Food has many hit products, so the failure of this beef venture won’t hit them hard, but domestic livestock farmers will suffer a blow they might not recover from. At least half of the domestic livestock farms could go under.’
Kim Sehee sent the manager away. She wanted him to taste the beef her company had made. If he had tasted it, maybe he would have supported Starlight Food’s overseas expansion.
In time, even these livestock civil servants might stop chasing Kim Sehee. By then, they might be wondering how they can get a piece of the pie at Starlight Food. It was too precious to release the cows they were raising into the domestic market. Of course, they would enter the market, but only in small quantities. Selling the same cows overseas would fetch more money, so they had no choice but to sell them abroad.
And Starlight Food had the upper hand in price competition. Feeding the cows only rice straw, a byproduct of rice, meant their costs couldn’t be higher than those of overseas cows.
—
James and Layla stepped out of the Korean airport. The cool autumn air greeted them. James looked completely different from before. He was no longer the closely-shaved bald man of the past. His lush, golden hair shone brilliantly under the sky.
“Hmm~ I heard Korean weather is unpredictable, and it’s definitely different.”
“Let’s hurry to Starlight Food, James.”
“Don’t rush me, Layla. A person should have some leisure.”
The fiery-tempered James of the past was gone. Now, only a benevolent James remained, so much so that you’d believe Jesus had descended. Just the presence or absence of hair could change a person.
