The warm sunlight greets me… I woke up soaked in emotions after a long time.
Now, it seems they don’t wake me up in the morning anymore. Well, from Bora’s perspective, it must’ve been quite a hassle. Still, there’s a slight sense of disappointment.
The weather is starting to get colder. It’s at the point where you can see your breath outside, “ho ho.” Seeing the trees shed their leaves makes me feel like I’m losing energy too.
It’s not like my hair will fall out like leaves from a tree in winter, right? The image of the bald man staying in the office popped into my head.
I teased him so much about being bald, but the thought of me becoming bald is something I don’t even want to imagine. I’d rather die.
Korea’s seasons aren’t spring, summer, fall, and winter. It’s summer, summer, winter, winter. Fall passed in the blink of an eye, and the streets were filled with people wearing thick clothes.
I don’t go out much in this building, so I’m not very sensitive to temperature changes. Even now, the heater is running smoothly. Standing in front of the machine blowing hot air, zoning out, is my hobby.
After seeing the round morning sun rise, I went to the office to hang out. It wasn’t because no one came looking for me even though it was way past work hours.
It was just to check if they were properly coming to work. As the superior who feeds them, it’s only natural for me to confirm whether my team members are coming to work normally or not.
Moving my shortened legs, I went to the office, and only Haru was there. Seeing her typing away at the computer like last time, it seemed she still had a lot of work left.
I ran over and poked Haru’s side, saying, “Haru, hi!”
“Huh?!”
But Haru looked at me as if she’d seen something she shouldn’t have and was startled. What? Do I look that scary? But Haru quickly composed her surprised expression and smiled warmly.
“Hana, hi~”
“Yeah. But where did everyone else go?”
Bora and the bald man were nowhere to be seen. Only Haru was in the office.
“Well… they went to buy something nice. Hana’s kind, so you’ll wait, right?”
What am I supposed to wait for? I didn’t understand Haru’s cryptic words, but I nodded vigorously. However, no matter how much I asked where they went, she just gave vague answers.
After staying by Haru’s side for a few hours, Haru checked her phone and saw a message. Then she grabbed my hand and headed somewhere.
We passed through a modern room and entered a room filled with pink lace. I don’t like rooms like this… But Haru couldn’t hide her smile and grinned as we went.
Is it because Haru’s a girl that she likes rooms like this? I didn’t notice the slightly open door and was led by Haru’s hand to stand in front of it.
Why are we stopping here? I couldn’t imagine what was inside. As soon as we entered the dark room, the lights turned on, and the sound of fireworks echoed.
“Whoa!”
Startled by the sudden fireworks, I hid my small body behind Haru. Whether Haru’s big or I’m small, I fit perfectly behind her.
“Happy birthday, Hana!”
The bald man and Bora were waiting in my room. Bora came forward holding a large cake.
The bald man was awkwardly clapping, to the point where it would’ve been better if he didn’t.
I looked at Bora with a confused expression. Since I never had parents, I thought birthdays were just days when I’d get a congratulatory message from my phone carrier. But it seems there’s more to it.
“We wanted to do it on the day we met Hana, but it would’ve been too late~”
As she said that, Bora placed a cake with one candle in front of me.
“Today is Hana’s birthday! I hope Hana remembers today.”
I blew out the candle on the cake Bora brought and said, “Today’s my birthday!”
Now that I’m in a different body, my birthday could totally change. It’s enough to consider today the day I was reborn. Originally, my birthday meant nothing to me, but now it’s different. I smiled brightly and enjoyed the modest birthday party.
—
“Oh? The test results are out?”
Go Seung-taek, the president of Seodong Foods, received news that the results had come in from the research institute. Given the tough market conditions lately, he was pleased.
However, the research director delivering the results had a grim expression. Seeing that expression, President Go Seung-taek felt something was off.
It became intuition.
After receiving so many results, I could roughly guess whether it was a success or a failure just by looking at the facial expressions. Looking at the current lab director’s expression, it seemed like the results weren’t great.
“Um… the analysis results didn’t show any special ingredients. It’s just the same green tea components as the one we released last time. The only difference is that the quantity has been reduced by almost half.”
“Wait, I personally drank Starlight Green Tea, and I know for a fact that it has effects. How can you say there are no special ingredients?”
President Go Seung-taek had personally tasted the Starlight Green Tea brought by an employee, so he knew its efficacy. That’s why the researcher who brought the test results had a look on his face that said, “This can’t be right…”
They must know something is off. They clearly know the tea has effects because they drank it, but the test results show no difference from the green tea we sold before.
“Well… we ran multiple tests, but no special ingredients were found in the green tea. It’s just a regular green tea bag with green tea ingredients.”
How can there be nothing special? That’s ridiculous. The previous failed Starlight Green Tea had the same ingredients, yet it produced these effects? Even a passing dog would laugh at that.
“Seems like your research work has been easy lately, huh?”
“Huh? Absolutely not.”
“What do you mean ‘not’? You bring me these test results and expect me to believe this? The efficacy of Starlight Green Tea is clear, but you’re saying the composition is the same? Even an elementary school kid could tell the difference. Looking at these results, it seems like your research is too comfortable, huh?”
Go Seung-taek scolded the lab director who brought these results. He was already stressed because Starlight Green Tea was causing their tea bags to sell poorly, and seeing these results made him furious.
“If the company is paying you, shouldn’t you at least deliver value for that money?”
“I… I’m sorry!”
President Go Seung-taek scolded the lab director until he was drenched in sweat. It was obvious the lab director would go back and scold his subordinates. But since his words would spread to all the employees in the research institute, he couldn’t say much.
After scolding the lab director for several dozen minutes, Go Seung-taek checked the time and finally sent the apologetic lab director away. Scolding people doesn’t immediately bring answers, after all.
After sending the lab director away, he had to listen to the sales performance report, which made his stomach churn just hearing it.
“Our tea bag green tea sales have been cut in half.”
That was just the beginning. The reports that followed were so bad they made him want to scream. One after another, nothing but bad news.
The green tea market is a zero-sum game. If other green tea brands sell, ours don’t. People don’t suddenly get thirsty and decide to drink an extra cup of green tea.
From that perspective, Seodong Food’s tea bag green tea has taken a fatal hit from Starlight Green Tea.
When Starlight Guild was selling byproducts from monsters in the Gate and dominating related industries, it didn’t matter much.
Why? Because it had nothing to do with green tea. Starlight Guild was failing in almost everything except raid-related businesses, so it wasn’t a concern.
But now it’s become a problem. Starlight Green Tea exploded in popularity after its market release. Before we could even respond, it had already captured the public’s attention.
Even if we wanted to go negative, the opponent was way out of our league. Throwing a jab could mean getting countered hard.
If a small or medium-sized company had released such a product, there would have been various ways to handle it. But with Starlight Guild backing it, there was no timing to act.
The only saving grace was that they either lacked production facilities or were short on mysterious ingredients, so they weren’t producing green tea in explosive quantities.
