“Waaaaah!”
Hana was playing hard again today. Wriggling around, she was having a blast playing with Nabi, though it was unclear what exactly was so exciting. Maru watched the scene with a satisfied smile. Ever since adopting Nabi, it felt like the house had gained a bit more life.
While Hana was busy playing, Maru started doing housework. Hana, being a young child, probably had no idea how to do chores. She sometimes tried to help, but her “help” usually ended up being more of a hindrance. Bora, Haru, and Maru took turns cleaning Hana’s room every day.
If they hadn’t cleaned, Hana’s room would’ve probably turned into a garbage dump. But there were no complaints. Cleaning Hana’s room was counted as part of their work hours. After all, doing housework at home didn’t usually pay, which was obvious. Where would the money come from for that?
But now, things were different. Cleaning and doing various chores during work hours were counted as part of their job. So, they were essentially getting paid to clean. It wasn’t bad to spend time doing physical labor instead of just tapping away at a keyboard doing boring tasks. In fact, it was better than sitting in a chair for hours on end. Moving around freely while working felt refreshing.
Maru began organizing the closet. All of Hana’s clothes were stored here. However, something caught Maru’s eye. Winter was approaching, and Hana didn’t have enough winter clothes. Since Hana was sensitive to the cold, warm winter clothes were a must.
Right now, the company building was heated nicely, so thin clothes were fine, but going outside would require thick winter wear. After finishing organizing Hana’s room, Maru returned to the office. It didn’t take too long to tidy up anyway.
“Hey, good job, Maru.”
Bora greeted Maru as she returned to the office. Maru looked at Bora and casually mentioned, “Senior, about Hana’s winter clothes…”
“Huh?”
“It seems like she’s short on winter clothes. We might need to buy some.”
“Really? Then we should get them soon. I’ll report it to President Kim Sehee.”
Anything related to Hana had to be reported to Kim Sehee immediately. Business matters didn’t usually get much of a reaction, but when it came to Hana, she wanted detailed reports. Of course, she didn’t nitpick every little thing.
And so, the office’s suggestion about Hana’s lack of winter clothes was reported to Kim Sehee.
—
The employees of Starlight Department Store entered the mansion in a tense state. As soon as they opened the door, they were greeted by a vast, well-maintained lawn.
Just the fact that someone owned such a large estate in Seoul was enough to tell how wealthy the owner was. Owning even a single apartment in a prime location in Seoul was enough to be considered middle class, but owning a mansion like this? That was chaebol-level wealth.
And more importantly, the owner of this mansion was a direct descendant of the Starlight Group. She was Kim Sehee, the sixth daughter of the group’s chairman.
Although she didn’t hold shares in the Starlight Group, she was the owner of Starlight Food, which had recently shown the most impressive growth in South Korea. And Starlight Food was a company generating billions in revenue.
Perhaps that’s why only veteran employees were sent from the department store. If they made even a small mistake, the repercussions could be severe. In modern times, they wouldn’t face execution or anything, but they could definitely get fired.
Even veteran employees were like candles in the wind when standing in front of the owner’s family.
The employees entered the mansion in a state of high tension. Inside, the staff working at the mansion welcomed the department store employees.
“Welcome.”
“Please take care of us today.”
The department store employees moved like a well-oiled machine, setting up the clothes they had brought. Real wealthy people didn’t go to the department store. Instead, the department store employees went to the homes of the wealthy to set up the products.
“Over here! Bring it carefully!”
“Slowly! No need to rush!”
The department store employees carefully began moving the clothes and other products stored in the dedicated truck outside. These were clothes worth tens of millions of won. If even a scratch appeared on these items, they had no idea what would happen. At the very least, half a year’s salary could be gone. These clothes were imported from overseas…
Since I personally brought over the highest quality brand clothes made in the West.
With over ten employees putting their hearts into moving everything, the spacious living room turned into a department store display. The staff working at the house went out of their way to accommodate the department store employees, bringing them drinks and taking care of various conveniences.
Being fellow salary workers, they had no intention of pulling rank or anything like that, now or in the future. After all, the owner of the house, Kim Sehee, wasn’t the type to just stand by and watch that kind of behavior. Among the chaebols, Kim Sehee was probably one of the nicer ones. There was never any abuse of power or anything like that.
“Everything’s ready.”
The highest-ranking employee from the department store casually mentioned.
Hearing that, one of the employees went upstairs. Probably to call Kim Sehee. Not long after, Kim Sehee came down the stairs. And next to her was a girl with green hair.
Wait, isn’t Boss Kim Sehee unmarried? At this point, curiosity about the girl next to her was growing. The employee had been to Kim Sehee’s house before, though it was last year. Back then, Kim Sehee hadn’t brought a girl with her.
They wanted to ask, but since they were here today as sales staff, they desperately held back.
—
Japan’s rice export was a success. They managed to completely clear out the stockpile of Starlight Rice they’d been gathering for half a year. Since it was rice they couldn’t sell domestically yet, there was no reason to store it long-term. They could sell it as soon as it came in.
Watching the neatly stacked rice sacks, Tanaka felt a sense of pride. The thought that Starlight Rice, sold through his franchise, would make its way to every Japanese household filled him with grandeur.
No matter what people said about Korea-Japan relations, Tanaka believed that delicious things should be shared. It would be interesting to see how Japanese citizens, who had tasted Starlight Rice—far superior to rice grown in Japan—would change.
Normally, reserved rice isn’t released immediately but stored and released to the market when the time comes. However, Japan’s current situation was critical. The rice circulating in the market was on the verge of disappearing. So, as soon as Starlight Rice arrived in Japan, it made its way to the tables of every Japanese household.
And the price wasn’t that high. In fact, compared to Japanese rice, it was cheap.
Tanaka was busy tapping away at his calculator. No matter how delicious Starlight Rice was, the Japanese government had no intention of abandoning Japanese rice. Protecting domestic rice was only natural.
Right now, due to the special circumstances, they were importing rice without tariffs, but once things returned to normal, Japanese citizens would likely stick to Japanese rice over the more expensive Starlight Rice. After all, growing Starlight Rice would cost a lot, making it less competitive in price compared to Japanese rice.
Of course, if Tanaka saw the production cost of Starlight Rice from Starlight Food, he’d be shocked. They produced it at a much lower cost than Tanaka imagined.
No fertilizer or anything else was needed. Just plant the rice, fill it with water, and Starlight Rice would grow on its own.
—
“Is this Korea…?”
A foreigner with lush blonde hair and blue eyes stepped off the plane. Shivering in the colder weather compared to their homeland, the group hurried into the hotel they had booked.
“Korea’s winter is colder than Russia’s, huh? It’s true.”
By mid-to-late November, the temperature had dropped below freezing. Of course, Koreans would say this weather is warm for winter. And they’d be right.
