I went to school today, humming a cheerful tune as usual. My life has become a bit more comfortable since the school commute distance geometrically shortened.
Now I understand why people say it’s better to work at a company close to home. If even an elementary school, which I’ll only attend for six years, feels this convenient, how much more comfortable would a company I’ll work at for decades be?
If the commute took an hour, that would mean 2 out of 24 hours of my life just flying into thin air. But now, the distance is so close it doesn’t matter. Taking the bus gets me there in minutes.
Well, if there’s traffic, it might take a bit longer, but it’s still bearable. If it gets too bad, I’m thinking of buying a bike—an electric one, of course. Riding a bike would probably get me to school in about ten minutes.
Back then, it took almost an hour by car.
When I entered the classroom, Jiyu and Yumi were already sitting there. I ran over and sat down next to them.
“Hana, hi!”
“Hey!”
I greeted them in a very MZ-style way and showed them something I wanted to share. It wasn’t anything weird or gross—it was a photo of Nabi I took yesterday. There was even a video. I showed it to Jiyu and Yumi, but their reactions were lukewarm.
“Whose cat is this, Hana?”
“I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before…”
What? How could they not recognize Nabi after we picked her up together! I was speechless. Even though it’s been two weeks since they last saw Nabi, I never imagined they’d forget her.
“Guys, why are you acting like this? This is Nabi, the cat I picked up last time!”
“Really? She’s so big now, I couldn’t recognize her!”
“Wait, do cats grow this fast? She already looks like an adult!”
Jiyu and Yumi seemed shocked by Nabi’s growth rate. Since I live with Nabi, I didn’t notice how quickly she was growing, but Jiyu and Yumi were different. They hadn’t seen her in a while.
I took the opportunity to ask them, “Do you guys want to come over and see Nabi? She’s been waiting for you two!”
“Really? I want to see her!”
“Me too, me too!”
And just like that, our Nabi-visiting expedition was formed. After lightly attending the teacher’s class, we packed our bags and headed home.
“Oh, by the way, Nabi’s Churu is all gone!”
It seemed better for me to refill it before the employees did. I adopted Nabi because I wanted to, so I wanted to lessen the employees’ workload as much as possible. Honestly, other employees might not be too happy about me raising a cat since it adds to their tasks.
Originally, I only had to worry about myself, but after Nabi came along, I had to take care of both of us. So, I decided to handle these small tasks myself. Raising a pet requires at least some sense of responsibility.
I didn’t want to become one of those bad people who get tired of their pets and abandon them. If you bring a pet home, you should take responsibility for them until they pass away, right?
“Let’s go to the pet shop!”
“Okay!”
I took Jiyu and Yumi inside the store. It was filled with all sorts of pet supplies. I carefully looked around to see if there was anything Nabi needed.
I already bought Churu, so I was looking for something else. I could buy plenty for Nabi. Meanwhile, Jiyu was next to me looking at cat supplies, but Yumi was nowhere to be seen. She was standing in the cat food section, looking for something. I walked over and casually asked,
“Yumi, what are you looking for?”
“Oh, Hana. My mom gave me money to buy this Starlight Food brand cat food because it’s so popular, but it’s all sold out…”
Ah, I see. Yumi’s problem was something I could easily solve. I had dozens of Starlight Food cat food bags stored in my room. Of course, they were kept out of Nabi’s reach—last time, I left them on the floor, and Nabi hugged the bag while sleeping. She doesn’t have hands, so she couldn’t open it.
“If that’s the case, I can help you out!”
“Huh?”
“I have tons of that food at home! You can take a couple of bags if you want!”
“Really?”
“Yeah!”
At my house, we have so much of this food that we even store it in a separate warehouse. Giving Yumi a couple of bags wouldn’t be a problem. Though, I wonder what Nabi would think if she saw that…
“Isn’t this cute?”
I managed to buy a new fishing rod toy. This time, it was a mouse-shaped doll. It seemed like Nabi could show off her hunting instincts even more. Cats love hunting mice, after all. It’s a scene even depicted in old folk paintings, isn’t it? It was time to awaken Nabi’s instincts that had been preserved for thousands of years.
So, after getting a few toys, I headed back home. Jiyu and Yumi were also tagging along beside me.
—
Kim Sehee was sitting in a room with a luxurious interior. Across from her sat Tanaka from Karasushi and his subordinate, who would act as the interpreter.
The table was filled with dishes prepared by a top-tier chef. These were the kind of expensive meals that would cost hundreds of thousands of won per serving. But for them, it was just pocket change. And dining at such high-end restaurants had a different meaning beyond just eating.
“Hello, Mr. Tanaka.”
“Good day.”
He greeted Kim Sehee, who was almost like a daughter to him, very politely. He had no choice. Starlight Food was in the position of the “superior,” while Karasushi was in the “subordinate” position. Of course, that didn’t mean Starlight Food was throwing its weight around. They were just conducting trade in a reasonable manner.
“Seeing that you wanted to meet separately, it seems you have good news?”
“Haha, I’ve brought a proposal that I think you’ll be satisfied with, President Sehee.”
Tanaka took a sip from the water glass on the table. He was preparing himself before getting into the long explanation.
“Recently, there was a big typhoon in Japan, right?”
“That’s right. Starlight Food also sent a small amount of support.”
Due to the typhoon damage, donations poured in from around the world. It was similar to the donations collected after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Since Starlight Food wasn’t completely unrelated to Japan, they sent a separate donation on a corporate level. Tanaka looked at Kim Sehee and continued.
“We’re always grateful to Starlight Food. By the way, about the situation after that…”
Karasushi wasn’t just a franchise spread across Japan. It was the number one sushi restaurant in Japan. True to its reputation, it operated a separate VIP room.
And the rice used in that VIP room was exclusively from Starlight Food. Since they started using it, they’ve received overwhelming satisfaction.
The people who used Karasushi’s VIP room weren’t just ordinary folks; most were high-ranking Japanese officials, politicians, and businesspeople. After all, such high-end sushi restaurants weren’t priced for the average person.
Anyway, because of this, Karasushi had access to information that the general public couldn’t obtain.
“The typhoon has devastated Japan’s rice farms.”
“Is that so?”
That much was information Kim Sehee could have known. In fact, it was something you could learn just by watching the news. The news mainly showed footage of farmlands devastated by the typhoon.
“On top of that, the rice reserve warehouses were also affected by the typhoon. I heard that almost all the rice is unusable.”
“That’s quite shocking.”
If the warehouses storing reserve rice were damaged by the typhoon, it made you wonder how carelessly they were managed. Shouldn’t a reserve rice warehouse be sturdy enough to withstand even an earthquake? Of course, that was Kim Sehee’s perspective, and the Japanese government felt unfairly treated. It was autumn, and they had just started a major construction project to expand the reserve rice warehouses when, unfortunately, the typhoon hit.
“So, the Japanese government wants to import rice for food security.”
Of course, the Japanese public didn’t know about this yet. The Japanese government was desperately trying to keep it under wraps.
“This is an opportunity.”
At least, with the warehouses across the country destroyed, the amount of rice they’d need to import would be beyond imagination.
From Kim Sehee’s perspective, it was like blind money was shimmering in front of her. It was money just waiting to be scooped up.
