“Uwaaah!”
I got caught by Jiyu. While trying to escape from her, I stumbled and fell. Jiyu climbed on top of me, wearing the expression of a ruthless murderer, and said:
“Be a good sacrifice for the whipped cream!”
“No… no way!”
“Yes, you will!”
Jiyu mercilessly started smearing whipped cream on my face. My already pale face became even whiter with the whipped cream. I struggled to break free from Jiyu, but it was no use. Being smeared with whipped cream in this helpless state was utterly humiliating.
“Hehe!”
Jiyu grinned mischievously and was about to smear more whipped cream on my face when a savior appeared.
“Enough! Didn’t I tell you not to play with food?”
The teacher had arrived at just the right moment. Jiyu quietly got off me. Her face was also covered in whipped cream. So, naturally, both of us got scolded. The other kids were perfectly fine, after all! This was different from the flour incident last time. Back then, the kids who got scolded hadn’t even been playing around. It was a learning experience.
But for me and Jiyu, it was a useless lesson. So, after getting scolded by the teacher, we washed our faces at the sink in the practice room. The whipped cream smeared all over my face was washed away by the running water. I felt a bit empty. But at least Jiyu and I managed to return our faces to their original state.
“That’s why I told you not to do it!”
When we returned to the table, Yumi’s nagging continued. I should’ve listened when Yumi told us not to do it earlier… But telling us not to play around at all was just too much. Maybe it was because of this body, but I was filled with the urge to cause mischief. If I didn’t cause some trouble at least once a day, it felt like thorns were growing in my mouth. I wondered if this mischievous streak would only disappear when I became a middle or high school student.
And so, Yumi’s nagging finally ended. There’s no such thing as an eternal nag. We chatted and prepared to eat the new cake we had made. We made three cakes to take home and one to eat right then. It wasn’t a bad idea to try the cake we had made ourselves.
“Let’s cut it into pretty star shapes!”
I said, holding the cake knife. Hearing this, Jiyu and Yumi panicked and stopped me.
“Hana, just cut it normally!”
“Yeah, yeah! You can cut it into star shapes later at home!”
“Ugh…”
I had the cake knife taken away by Yumi. Yumi, now holding the knife, cut the cake into eight ordinary slices.
I pouted as I picked up a slice of cake with a fork. But since it was a delicious cake, eating it would surely lift my gloomy mood.
“It’s delicious!”
“Right? It’s so good because we made it ourselves!”
Jiyu and Yumi, who had already taken a bite, gave it high praise. Well, cake is a food everyone loves, after all. I also cut a piece with my fork and took a bite.
“Whoa!”
The sweet taste of whipped cream and the savory flavor of the bread combined perfectly, filling my mouth with delight. I quickly devoured the rest of the cake.
—
I packed the whipped cream cakes for the office staff into a box. Then, I hurried to the building.
Ding-dong.
“Meow.”
As soon as the elevator doors opened, Nabi came out to greet me. Does she have some kind of sixth sense? I wondered how she always knew exactly when I was coming. But I couldn’t pick her up because I had to carry the cake box.
As I headed to the office, Nabi followed me with her tail held high. Was it okay to give Nabi some whipped cream cake? I heard animals shouldn’t eat human food, but I wasn’t sure if it was okay to give her some. When I opened the office door, there were only a few employees. It was lunchtime, so not many were around.
I approached Maru, who was sleeping in a chair. Our company had an incredibly long lunch break of one and a half hours. So, people often slept during the extra time. I stood next to Maru, placed the cake box on the desk, and picked up Nabi.
“Meow!”
I placed Nabi on Maru’s thigh. Nabi seemed to understand my intentions and started delivering a flurry of paw punches.
Thud! Thud!
The dull thuds echoed. Nabi’s paws were faster than the eye could see. The rapid-fire paw punches left afterimages, and Maru…
The snow that had been sleeping gently opened its eyes.
“Hmm…? Hana, are you here?”
“Yeah!”
I hugged Nabi again and said,
“Today, we made a cake at school!”
“Really?”
Maru looked at the cake placed on the desk and said,
“Wow… Back in my day, we only studied. Elementary schools these days are different.”
“Hehe!”
Maru patted my head and said,
“Can I share this with the office staff?”
“Yeah! I already ate one cake, so I won’t have any!”
As I said, I had already eaten a whipped cream cake with Jiyu and Yumi, so I didn’t need to eat anymore. After saying that, I left the office. I felt a bit embarrassed to see them eating the cake I made. Maybe my skills weren’t that great, so I wasn’t sure if it would suit the staff’s taste.
After all, these employees are used to eating food made by chefs.
—
Starlight Aquaculture didn’t take long to start full-scale operations. The facilities were already complete. The only thing missing was the fish. And the missing fish were bought at a high price from other aquaculture farms.
Kim Taepyeong, along with the hired employees, was scattering the compound feed provided by Kim Sehee to the fish. The flatfish and mackerel were eating the feed as soon as it was scattered. Even when live feed was given, they didn’t eat this aggressively. It was hard to understand how delicious the compound feed must be for them to eat so frantically.
Originally, fish don’t usually eat compound feed this well. And it was clear that the fish were growing day by day.
“Is this even possible?”
Kim Taepyeong couldn’t help but marvel at the flatfish that had grown so large in just two weeks. Normally, flatfish are raised for 10 to 18 months before being shipped. The growth rate of the flatfish at Starlight Aquaculture was unbelievable.
Of course, they hadn’t bought fry or small flatfish. But with this growth rate, even fry would grow into adults in just two months. It was then that Kim Taepyeong began to understand why Kim Sehee insisted on using the compound feed they made. With such effects, it would be strange not to use it.
And knowing the incredible effects of the products made by Starlight Food, the employees accepted this situation as if it were natural. They had seen the potential of Starlight Food.
After all, this was a company that created rejuvenating apples. Speeding up the growth rate of fish was a simple task for them.
“I think we can ship the flatfish in this area now!”
Feeding these already grown flatfish was becoming a luxury. There was no reason to keep them at the aquaculture farm any longer. Kim Taepyeong and the employees began moving the fully grown flatfish. Starlight Food would handle the distribution and other aspects.
The people working at Starlight Aquaculture only had to focus on raising the fish. It was actually better this way. Raising fish was one thing, but handling the sales and other tasks was more difficult. All they had to do was feed the fish and make sure they didn’t get sick, but securing sales routes to sell the fish was challenging.
With Starlight Food handling that part, it was a relief. Outside, tanker trucks were waiting to load the fish. Although the aquaculture farm hadn’t been operating for long, the first batch was already being shipped.
The plump fish looked so comforting just by seeing them.
After loading the flatfish into the tanker trucks, they were distributed nationwide. Starlight Food handled the distribution directly, bypassing middlemen.
This was possible because of the distribution network Starlight Food had built. If it were just an ordinary aquaculture farm, they would have had to sell the fish to middlemen.
