Kwaaang!
The massive sound shook the entire movie theater. The booming audio of the theater was blasting into my ears like a punch. My ears were practically numb. Watching the Little Magician Lumi’s animation at home was nothing compared to the vividness and immersion of seeing it in the theater.
[Lumi!]
In the final highlight scene, Lumi was holding her magic wand and defeating the villain. It was my second time watching it, but I couldn’t help but clap unconsciously. Lumi was truly amazing. She was worthy of being my idol.
As the movie ended and the credits rolled, I felt a wave of emotion, though not as strong as the first time. I wiped away a few tears. I had teared up the first time I watched it too, and now it was the same… I really made the right choice coming to see this movie.
I glanced around. The uncles who came with me were also smiling, looking pleased. I thought they’d cry too, but it seemed I was the only one wiping tears. My pride took a hit, so I focused on my facial muscles to stop the tears. If they started flowing down my cheeks, it would’ve been a disaster.
After the movie’s cookie scene ended, the uncles and I left the theater. With a gloomy expression, I said,
“Uncles… can’t I hang out with you guys too?”
I’d grown really attached today, and it felt bittersweet to part ways. But seeing me like this, Uncle Cheolho knelt down to match my eye level and said,
“Hana! Just because we’re parting ways today doesn’t mean it’s the end, right? We’ll always be at the gallery.”
“Really?”
“Yep. If Hana wants, we’ll come running anytime!”
“Ooh…”
Hearing the uncles’ reassuring words somehow comforted me. That’s right. Just because we’re parting ways at the theater today doesn’t mean we’ll never meet again. It’s not like we’re some separated family. If another meetup is scheduled at the gallery, we’ll see each other again.
“Then promise me you’ll come when the next movie comes out!”
I raised my tiny hand as I said that. My hand was so small—less than half the size of the uncles’ hands. But promises are important. Uncle seemed to understand my feelings and raised his hand too, then hooked his pinky with mine.
“Promise!”
“Hehe!”
Thinking that we’d meet again, my earlier gloominess vanished. Just like Lumi said in the movie, there’s no such thing as a forever goodbye.
“Then I’ll take Hana home now!”
“Bye-bye!”
I got into the taxi Uncle Cheolho called and headed home. I felt a bit sad. I wish I could’ve gone for a second or third round… Time really needs to hurry up. When I grow up, I’ll be able to do so much more. I wish I could grow up faster.
By the way, I wonder what it’ll be like when I grow up. I hope it’s not like that time I briefly turned into an adult. That time, my chest felt way too heavy.
—
“Eut-cha!”
After getting out of the taxi, I walked into the building. It’s great that it’s so close. It felt like I barely spent 10 minutes in the taxi before arriving home… If it were my old house, it would’ve taken over 30 minutes.
“Hello!”
“Oh, Hana’s back? Did you have fun?”
“Yep!”
I greeted the security guard uncle and entered the building. Normally, you’d have to go through various security procedures to enter, but I was an exception. My green hair acted as my security pass. The guard uncle said it was a special pass that was easily recognizable from afar.
Well, there aren’t many people with green hair, after all. I’m probably the only kid in Seoul with green hair. Even if people dye their hair, they go for yellow, brown, or other neutral colors—never green.
But I had no plans to dye my hair another color. My hair gets cut every day anyway, and I really like my green hair. It matches perfectly with my green dinosaur pajamas. It’s a match made in heaven.
You’d think I bought the green dinosaur pajamas on purpose just to match. Smiling, I headed to my room with the special gift the uncles gave me.
I placed the Lumi mascot illustration somewhere visible. It was worth going to see the movie a second time. If I hadn’t watched the movie…
Lumi would have to be alone without a mascot.
“Hehe!”
As expected, if there’s another chance, I wanted to attend the gathering. Since the Little Magician Lumi was a popular animation, it wouldn’t take long for another movie to come out.
If it doesn’t work out, I can just wait. I’m not sure about my lifespan, but I heard it’s longer than the average person. That’s what Linea told me when I went to the Other World. Of course, she said I couldn’t live for a thousand or ten thousand years.
—
Starlight Food, having purchased enough dairy cows, fed them Starlight Rice Straw. The cows looked at the straw with interest, sniffed it, and then started eating it like crazy. At a glance, it seemed almost insane. An employee watched with a satisfied smile.
“How tasty must the straw be for them to eat like that?”
“Right? I used to raise cows, and they usually don’t eat straw because it’s tasteless. But the straw made by Starlight Food, they’re devouring it like it’s possessed.”
If the cows hadn’t eaten the straw well, raising them would have been unimaginable. But now, there was no need to worry. The cows were eating the straw so well that such concerns seemed unnecessary.
The cows that had eaten the straw were ready. The milk they produced before eating the straw wasn’t very tasty. But now, it would be different. Enough time had passed since they started eating the straw, and the effects of the Starlight Rice Straw must have fully spread through their bodies.
“Bring the milking machine!”
“Here. Just a little help!”
The employees were busy. They attached the milking machines to the cows and began extracting the milk. A savory smell spread across the farm. It was the smell coming from the containers holding the milk extracted by the machines. It was on a whole different level from the milk sold in regular supermarkets.
“Such a savory smell. I’m already looking forward to it.”
“Right? I wonder what kind of magical straw Starlight Food is getting.”
They had already tested the straw on a few cows and saw remarkable effects. Surprisingly, the nutritional content was much higher, and the best part was that even people with lactose intolerance could drink it without issues.
Some people think they don’t have problems with milk because they don’t drink much of it, but over 70% of Korean adults have lactose intolerance. In that sense, those without lactose intolerance are the unusual ones.
People who consume too much milk feel their stomachs boiling and experience diarrhea or stomachaches. But Starlight Milk was different. No matter how much you drank, lactose intolerance didn’t kick in. They confirmed that even people with severe lactose intolerance could drink a liter of Starlight Milk without any problems.
Thus, Starlight Milk became a milk that was bound to be popular with both children and adults. Even without the lactose intolerance issue, Starlight Milk was incredibly savory and delicious on its own.
If they could establish mass production, the imported milk used in South Korea would disappear.
The milk we commonly drink in supermarkets is mostly domestic. But the milk and dairy products used in cafes and other food establishments are mostly imported because they’re cheaper than domestic milk. Starlight Food planned to target that gap.
They intended to first conquer the market for foods and beverages containing dairy products before entering the consumer milk market. It seemed a bit harsh to immediately push out domestic milk producers.
If they entered the domestic milk market right away, the government would likely intervene, and after considering the pros and cons, it seemed better to take a step back and observe the situation.
And so, Starlight Food entered the dairy market. The dinosaur had arrived.
