I felt my sphincter muscles relax. It was over now.
Splish-splash-
Luckily, I was inside the bathroom. My sphincter wasn’t the kind of weak muscle that would just give up anywhere. I let out a big sigh. I almost peed myself outside before I could sit on this toilet.
Since I hadn’t peed outside since I was a kid, this was even more important. And now, Jiyu and Yumi were here. If things went wrong, I might’ve gotten a new nickname like “Pee Boy.” Anyway, I finished cleaning up perfectly and came out of the bathroom.
Today was going to be a hectic day. Starting with a crisis like this, I couldn’t even imagine what kind of big developments would unfold later. So, I came out of the crowded bathroom. Earlier, I heard they were buying food at the rest area.
Looking around, I spotted Jiyu, Yumi, and Maru. We’ve been together for so long that I could recognize them from afar. It’s like how you can tell who your close friends are just by their silhouettes.
“Jiyu! Yumi! Maru!”
I called their names and ran over. Jiyu and Yumi waved back, welcoming me.
Jiyu and Yumi were already holding food. I drooled as I quickly scanned what they were holding. Spicy rice cakes and potato balls. Of course, these were must-buys at a rest area. I said to Jiyu and Yumi:
“Let me have a bite! Just one bite!”
Pointing at my mouth, Jiyu and Yumi nodded as if they understood. Then, Yumi used her toothpick to stab a potato ball. The potato ball stuck to the toothpick and came up. I took the potato ball Yumi handed me and ate it in one bite.
“Hot! Hot!”
I blew on the potato ball in my mouth. Steam was rising from my mouth like a roasted sweet potato machine.
“Sorry, Hana! It must be hot!”
I chewed the potato ball. It wasn’t that hot. Maybe because it had been sitting out for a while, or maybe the cold winter weather had cooled it down. If it were summer, it would’ve been hotter.
“No, it’s not hot! But it’s super delicious!”
I chewed and finished the remaining potato ball. Then, my eyes went to the spicy rice cakes Jiyu was holding. Jiyu seemed to read my expression and handed me the rice cakes. She also used a toothpick to hand it to me.
“Yum!”
This rice cake was also delicious. I smiled happily. Rest area food always tasted good. I don’t know what seasoning they used, but maybe the location made it even tastier.
As we were sharing the food, Maru was watching us with a smile.
“Maru, do you want some?”
Maru shook her head. Sadly, Maru didn’t eat.
—————————————————-
“Everyone, are we all on board?”
“Yes!”
Maru was checking on us just in case. She didn’t want to leave anyone behind at the rest area. Seeing that we were all seated, Maru started driving. Now, it was a straight drive to our destination. There was no reason to take any detours.
The snow kept falling. It was snowing much more than when we were in Seoul. It seemed like the effect of wishing for more snow last time was showing. Watching the snow fall so heavily, I suddenly felt sorry for the people who would have to shovel it.
Maybe, somewhere we couldn’t see, people were preparing for battle against the snow. Still, wishing for no snow didn’t feel right. Anyway, I pressed my face against the passenger seat window and soaked in the snowy scenery.
Looking at the world turned pure white, my emotions welled up. I wondered what poets or novelists would think when they saw this scene.
While I was lost in these pointless thoughts, the car kept moving. Driving through the snowy road, our car suddenly arrived at the ski resort.
———————————————————-
What was the goal of Starlight Food?
At first, there wasn’t a specific goal. Before meeting Hana, Starlight Food was just running somehow. Just keeping the factory running was exhausting back then.
At that time, I seriously considered shutting down the business.
It wasn’t great. But after meeting Hana, everything changed. Now, among food companies, if you just look at net profit, we might be number one.
Starlight Food has only been seriously expanding its business for a year, but the growth rate is so fast it would make others gasp.
The current goal was clear. The aim was to make it impossible to fill the dining tables of South Koreans without Starlight Food. The goal was to dominate the dining tables of South Koreans.
And beyond that, even the chaebols.
It’s safe to say the goal was already halfway achieved. We’ve conquered the market for wheat, the most commonly used food in daily life. Of course, due to government intervention, we haven’t fully started selling yet, but eventually, people will have no choice but to eat Starlight Food’s wheat.
As for rice, if it weren’t for the talk of saving farmers who grow rice, we would’ve already conquered South Korea’s rice market. Not only is the production volume high, but the taste is also outstanding. People are willing to pay more for Starlight Rice.
We’re expanding like an octopus, but South Korea isn’t putting up much resistance. If this were the U.S., the company might’ve already been torn apart by antitrust laws. In times like these, I’m grateful to be doing business in South Korea.
And for Hana, I have no intention of splitting the company. Unlike U.S. companies, the goal is to keep Starlight Food as a single entity. Of course, Tangle is a bit different, as it’s under Starlight Wellbeing, but that’s it. And Starlight Wellbeing isn’t even a stock company.
I have no plans to create other companies in the future.
And Starlight Food isn’t some parasitic company that only grows by sucking up domestic demand. Most of our revenue comes from overseas exports. Frankly, even if South Koreans started boycotting Starlight Food today, we could still survive just on overseas sales.
In fact, we could even abandon the South Korean market. Overseas, more and more people are becoming addicted to Starlight Food’s delicious products. As the saying goes, “Words travel a thousand miles without feet,” and Starlight Food’s products are slowly spreading even in Europe, not just the U.S.
From Tangle, which treats baldness, to Starlight Cherry Tomatoes supplied to the U.S. military, and even rice exported to Japan—there’s nothing to throw away.
While Kim Sehee lays the foundation for achieving the goals, the operational teams flesh it out and expand the business. So today, the business division is busy moving forward with another expansion.
The next target is ramen.
With such great flour, it would be a shame not to make ramen with it.
Isn’t ramen the largest market in the domestic wheat industry? Given that almost every South Korean has eaten ramen, it’s a market we can definitely enter.
Of course, the ramen market is tough for new players because competitors are already firmly entrenched. But from Starlight Food’s perspective, it’s no problem at all.
—
We’ve already acquired a ramen factory. It wasn’t a major brand, but a no-name ramen company that went bankrupt. The price wasn’t much—around 10 billion won. And along with the factory, we also took over the employees working there.
After all, it’d be awkward if there was no one to run the factory.
We even set up a separate business division for ramen. It’s an organization that will focus solely on making ramen moving forward.
