Chapter 132
I Can Do It All By Myself
"Hah!"
Sunlight hit my face, and my eyes snapped open on reflex. I'd meant to draw the curtains before bed and forgotten completely, so I'd slept with them wide open. Same as always, I climbed out of bed still wearing my dinosaur pajamas.
My sturdy tail swished this way and that. I threw my arms up in a big stretch, then launched into my morning exercises. Nothing shook the sleep off quite like a little calisthenics.
"Hup-two! Hup-two!"
I swung my arms with all my might, exercising so I'd grow taller. Some music would've been nice, I thought. Still, morning exercises were best kept short and simple.
"Yah!"
Finished with the routine, I let out a long yawn and got ready to head out. Shoes on, I pattered into the hallway. Bora and Haru weren't around today, so I had to go eat by myself. There were staff on weekends, but they weren't people I was close to.
Even so, a morning greeting was only polite, so I made my way to the office.
"Good morning!"
"Hey! Hana, you're up?"
"Yes!"
We kept the good mornings short and simple. I traded a few words with the staff, then stepped back out of the office. I was an adult, so getting around on my own wasn't frightening or difficult. Obviously.
Still in my dinosaur pajamas, I stopped in front of the elevator, rose up, and gave the button a firm press. Any shorter, and I wouldn't have reached it at all. Even now the button for the top floor was beyond me—I had to stand on the little step they'd installed inside the car to hit it. That was why I'd never once been to the top floor of the research building.
A chime rang, and the doors slid wide open. It was early enough that I didn't run into anyone. Ride it in the afternoon, and there always seemed to be people...
I went up on my toes and pressed the button for the first floor. Just imagining what breakfast might be had me buzzing. Giddy with it, I wiggled my hips and wagged my tail, and the tail swung side to side as if announcing exactly how I felt.
Of course, I had no idea the camera inside the elevator was catching every bit of it. If I had, my face would've gone scarlet. It was no different from doing something ridiculous on camera.
The doors opened on the first floor, and I hop-hopped my way toward the cafeteria. At the front desk, the staff were getting ready for the day, same as always at this hour. I waved them a bright, encouraging hello.
"Hello!"
"Hi, Hana~"
"Eating by yourself today?"
"Mm-hmm!"
The people at the front desk were happy to greet me back. Sure enough, a proper hello gets you halfway through life among other people. Greeting folks steadily was an excellent way to grow close.
It was morning, and still the cafeteria was packed. When I'd first arrived there had been almost no one, but once the food turned delicious, people started skipping breakfast at home to eat at the company cafeteria instead. My own little dining hall had grown far too big.
Even so, I hadn't wanted it to go back to serving nothing but bland food, so the change couldn't be helped.
I pattered inside, and a whole spread of menus was there to welcome me. Eyes shining, I looked them over. There were three meal sets; I chose the spicy pork stir-fry, with a simple soybean-paste stew for the soup.
Noodles felt like a bit much for breakfast, and so did anything fried. A proper Korean meal really was the easiest thing to eat simply in the morning.
The employees were looking at me. I smiled and waved, and they answered with warm smiles of their own. When you weren't quite sure what to say, a hello really was the comfortable choice. I was starting to understand why celebrities greeted people so often.
Tray in hand, I asked the serving auntie to pile it on. She laughed and heaped the side dishes high. I smiled down at the mountain of spicy pork on my tray.
Company cafeteria food really was the best. Anyone who heard that would've fallen over in shock, but it was only a thought in my own head, so it didn't matter.
I picked up the tray and looked around until my eyes found a seat with a paper taped to it.
The chair and the table were both built exactly to my size. I used to sit at the same tables as the staff, but when I mentioned that the table felt a little big when I ate alone, they'd made this one for me. So kind. I hardly used it when I ate with Bora and Haru, but on my own it came in very handy.
I cleaned the tray to the last bite. Belly stretched tight, I headed back up to my room—though not before ducking into the convenience store for something to nibble. That part was a bonus. A good snack tasted good every single time.
Once breakfast was over, more people were coming in to work, and there were more new faces among them. From what I'd heard, they'd brought in people with a real knack for putting money to work. It seemed that, while keeping the institute running, they were also branching out into other fields.
Knowing we were that comfortable financially left me perfectly content. Back when I was a man, I'd worked an entire month and come home with about two thousand dollars. Now I could loaf around and eat and still bring in hundreds of millions of dollars.
I really did seem to have become someone incredibly impressive. Even standing still, I could feel my nose tilting up. This was my prime.
Humming to myself, I reached my room and opened the bag from the convenience store. It was stuffed with delicious snacks. I slipped my treasure box out from under the bed. The snacks had run out, and the inside was completely empty.
I dumped everything I'd just bought into the box. The fuller it got, the more I couldn't help a pleased smile. The sight alone was enough to make my stomach feel full.
It was Saturday, a day when not many of the staff came in. And yet the cafeteria had held that many people... Maybe everyone who worked at the institute had gathered there.
With the ease of long practice, I jumped onto the bed and rolled myself up tight in the blanket. For a while, I intended to be a caterpillar. I looked at the latest wall-mounted TV and picked up the remote. The screen had kept getting bigger, until somewhere along the way it had grown large enough to claim the middle of the wall.
"Hmm-hmm~"
I spent the morning like I was at the movies—lights off, so absorbed in an anime I felt I might fall right into the screen. No one came to bother me. It was entirely my world. Just like spending a weekend in the army.
Breakfast, then free time. Lunch, then free time. Dinner, then free time. Back then the only choices were watching TV or visiting the base computer room, one or the other. The me of now had slipped free of that kind of control. The thought struck me out of nowhere, and when I glanced at the clock, the hands were already pointing at noon.
Maybe it was the snacks, but I wasn't hungry. I brushed lunch aside and went looking for my schoolbag. The teachers had piled on homework for the weekend. Compared with my university days, of course, the number of assignments was tiny. Probably because we were elementary schoolers.
No teacher was going to dump too heavy a load on elementary students. Study too hard from a young age, and you were likely to burn out before you even became a middle schooler.
I sat down at my desk and started to study. No matter how much of an adult's knowledge I carried, studying was essential. On subjects that were pure memorization, without the knowledge even the smartest person was bound to get them wrong. Sometimes the sight of myself snacking and reading actually astonished me.
I can concentrate like this! Focusing while you studied was basic, of course, but ever since I'd entered this child's body, I'd felt as if I couldn't control myself properly. I'd turn hyper for no reason, or sink into a gloom, just like that.
It was like trying to handle robots that refused to obey. Even so, lately I felt myself settling more the further time went on. I still got strange now and then, but compared with before, it was leaps and bounds.
Before I knew it the homework was done, and I walked to the office to have it checked. It wasn't that I'd solved anything wrong—but a second pair of eyes was more comfortable, wasn't it? And doing it that way made the time pass nicely, too.
Walking down the hall, I suddenly spotted a fire alarm box. My eyes went straight to the red button. Written on it, clear as anything:
DO NOT PRESS UNLESS THERE IS A FIRE
If anything, the warning only egged me on. Like someone under a spell, I slowly reached for the button—then shook my head and came back to my senses. The last time I'd tried to make dalgona candy, I'd flooded the entire building. That could not happen again today. I had to earn the recognition that I could get along just fine on my own.
And so I resisted the fire alarm's temptation and walked on to the office.
To think I'd turned down a temptation like that. I felt like a real adult.