Hana the Little Pig
"Jinsu! Peel some more onions over here!"
"Yes, sir!"
Seong Jinsu was a new hire who had spent the past year working in the company cafeteria of the Starlight Research Institute. A year on the job was enough to count for something, but in the culinary world, one year still left you a freshly hatched chick.
He tipped a heap of onions into a big basin and started peeling them one by one.
Honestly, when he first arrived, the cafeteria had been so chaotic that all he'd wanted was to rack up a little experience and escape. The staff's complaints had been loud, and fairly so. The institute had no money, and no attention to spare for a dining hall.
Lately, though, the workplace had changed at a startling pace. Chefs who had worked in hotel kitchens were being hired in droves, and wages had gone up across the board. Of course, a raise on a pittance of a paycheck hardly felt like a transformation.
Even so, the mere fact that pay was rising was a marvel in itself. The number of staff had swollen enormously compared to last year, and the days of working until your nose bled were long gone. Now there was actually room to breathe.
The expansion was finished too, so people no longer went hungry when the rush hit, the way they used to. As far as Jinsu could tell, their cafeteria now had nothing to envy in any major corporation's. If anything, he thought it was far better than those.
"Say, does our institute have a lot of money these days?"
Once the onions were peeled, he turned to the senior beside him. His first impressions of the place hadn't been good, but lately the working conditions had improved so much that he was starting to think he'd landed a fine job after all.
"You didn't know? I hear money's pouring in so fast they don't even know where to spend it."
"Seriously?"
He'd tossed the question out as a joke, and learning it was true caught him off guard. His senior nodded.
"From what I know, our yearly revenue used to sit in the hundreds of billions of won. After Hana showed up, they say we're pulling in trillions every month."
"That's incredible."
Hadn't sales jumped nearly a hundredfold? No wonder the institute's facilities kept getting better. Earn that kind of money and of course you renovate. And even if they replaced everything, would they spend ten percent of the revenue?
"By the way, I've never actually seen Hana. Have you, sunbae?"
"You've never seen Hana? Our institute's mascot?"
"Well... I'm stuck in the kitchen while everyone eats, so I never got the chance."
"I can't believe this..."
His senior pressed a hand to his forehead and groaned as if he'd just heard something unspeakable, then looked at Jinsu.
"Take a look today. You'll be shocked that a child that cute exists in this world."
"That cute?"
"Yeah. If people only had kids like Hana, this country's birth rate wouldn't be anywhere near this low."
"That sounds like a bit much..."
"That's only because you've never actually seen her."
Hearing him go that far, Jinsu decided he ought to see for himself. If the man was making that much of a fuss, maybe she really was adorable.
He kept at the work, and before long lunchtime arrived. Already a line of employees had formed outside, waiting to eat.
Today Jinsu wasn't working inside the kitchen. He was out front—a first. A chance, at last, to see what this child named Hana looked like.
You can live in an apartment for years and never see your neighbor's face; Jinsu had worked here a long time and still never seen hers. He'd heard she had green hair, but so far there was no sign of it.
He was busy serving food when, far off, a child with green hair appeared. Was he finally going to see Hana's face?
She came bounding over, bright as a clear day, tray in hand, and Jinsu nearly dropped the ladle he was holding. She was every bit as cute and pretty as his senior had claimed—the kind of face that, if she went into child acting, would sweep up the love of the entire nation.
The darling girl held her tray out to him.
"Mister, give me lots!"
Mister...?
Jinsu tried hard to deny that he was a mister yet, but a child's eyes were accurate. Deflated, he had no choice but to heap extra side dishes onto Hana's tray.
Loaded up, Hana beamed and went pattering off. She seemed to be eating with the woman employee she'd come in with.
Jinsu didn't particularly like children. He thought of them as noisy little things that only played pranks. But the moment he saw Hana, his mind changed. She was incredibly cute. He felt as if he'd just found a reason to stay at the institute for as long as he possibly could.
Hana's cuteness didn't lose out to anything in the world.
"Euing!"
I stepped onto the scale and my face crumpled. I'd put on a whole two kilograms. Clinging to a shred of hope, I went over to the device beside it, pressed my back flat against the wall, and straightened up to measure my height.
The plastic bar tapped the crown of my head and rose again. I couldn't hide my excitement and hurried to check the result.
"Euaang!"
I hadn't grown at all. I'd debated standing on my toes and decided against it, and this was the cruel reward... If I'd known it would turn out like this, I would have gone to bed early, the way Bora and Haru were always telling me to. I'd stayed up a little late watching movies and cartoons, never dreaming it would come to this.
Not growing taller while only putting on weight was a red flag. I was still within a normal weight, sure, but fat has a way of sticking the instant you let your guard down, so you have to manage it ahead of time. Starting today, I decided, the snacks had to go.
"Hana, you've gained a little weight...?"
Bora glanced at the health checkup sheet and said it straight to my face. I flinched. Hearing those words from someone else's mouth landed like a fatal blow. How could she just say it out loud like that? Bora, it seemed, was still lacking in weight sensitivity.
"Uuuuugh..."
I couldn't think of a single thing to say in my defense. I'd gained weight, and that was that. And considering the snacks I usually ate, it would have been stranger if I hadn't.
What truly defied my expectations was that I hadn't grown at all. Was I never going to escape this tiny little kid body? Anxiety welled up for no good reason.
Seeing the gloom on my face, Bora hastily started rattling off something else.
"You're a growing kid, Hana, so it's fine! The weight all turns into height."
"Really?"
"Of course, of course."
She said it while stroking my head. But I already knew the truth. Weight does not turn into height. If it did, every chubby person would be tall—and yet short, chubby people were everywhere you looked.
I pulled myself together and decided that starting today, I would eat less. I wanted to exercise hard too, but there still wasn't a proper gym, so I would begin with the most important thing: managing my diet. I'd heard somewhere that what you eat matters even more than working out.
No matter how much you exercise, eat too much and it's all for nothing. I finished the rest of the checkup and went back to my room, then pulled out the box from under the bed. It was packed full of snacks. The sight brought back the old army days, when I'd kept a box under the bunk and stuffed it with treats.
I picked up the box and headed for the office. With such a grim look on my face, no one even thought of speaking to me. No—they looked as if they were holding something back. So a scary expression really does frighten people... I let the fearsome face I'd put on relax.
Then I went up to Haru. Seeing me arrive with the box, she asked, plainly baffled.
"Hana, why did you bring this?"
It was an entirely reasonable question. I put on a resolute expression and answered.
"Haru, starting today, I'm going on a diet!"
"You are...?"
"So, um—could you keep this for me? I won't eat any of it for a week!"
I held out the box crammed with snacks as I said it. Haru nodded as if she understood perfectly.
"Mm... You can't come asking for them back later, okay?"
"That will absolutely never happen!"
I shook my head hard from side to side. I swore I would never ask for the snacks back, or sneak any on the sly. My will was iron, and when I decided to do something, I did it. I was not the sort of person to waver over a few snacks.
"But have you really gained enough to need a diet, Hana? You look exactly the same to me."
"I had a checkup today, and I've put on a lot."
"Mm... But you're still growing. Shouldn't you be eating plenty?"
"No!"
I didn't listen to another word. I scurried straight out the door, because the box in Haru's hands kept shimmering in front of my eyes. I'd worked so hard to collect those snacks... and already, I was starting to regret it.