A Spanking
I mostly stuck the glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs on the wall beside the bed. The ceiling was out of reach, short as I was, and anywhere else felt much too far away.
Hehe.
I carefully pressed the glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs Kim Bora had bought onto the wall. Just picturing them glittering in the dark sent a tremor of excitement through my whole body.
I liked this room. It felt modern. The other one had been plastered in fluttering lace, as if whoever decorated it had decided I was some little girl. I slept in there now and then, out of respect for the trouble they'd taken making it, but the truth was it still put me off.
Once I'd stuck them all up in a frenzy, I suddenly realized Kim Bora was nowhere to be seen. I must have poured far too much energy into the dinosaurs.
Maybe she'd stepped out to the bathroom. A single closed laptop sat alone on the desk.
I got up quietly, opened the door, and whipped my head left and right, scanning the hall.
Bora had told me not to go out, so good little me had every intention of staying put. In truth, I could never have admitted that the real reason I wasn't leaving was fear of Kim Bora's punishment if I got caught.
I'd only stepped outside for a moment, to see whether Bora was coming. The wide hallway, though, was utterly deserted.
Once I'd confirmed she wasn't out there, I went back into the room. Then, wearing a wicked grin, I climbed up onto the chair.
Earlier Bora had been hammering at the laptop keys for hours, and I'd been dying to know what she was writing. The chance in front of me was perfect.
Curious what she'd put down, I flung the closed laptop wide open.
Sleep mode should have lifted and the desktop should have appeared, but unfortunately the screen was locked. The lock screen greeted me.
What's the password?
Quietly, I typed Hana into the password field. It told me I was wrong.
No way...
If it was Bora, of course she would have made my name the password. She hadn't. Not even close.
Furious that my name wouldn't go in, I lost all reason and pounded the keyboard without mercy. I'd been so sure Bora would lock it with my name!
"Ah!"
I'd hammered so enthusiastically that the vibration toppled the tumbler beside the laptop straight toward it, and whatever was inside splattered across the keys.
It wasn't even clear water. It was an americano. Americano had gone into the laptop's keyboard. A few seconds later the machine let out a roar, and then the screen shut itself off.
"Eh..."
Flustered, all I could do was stand there with my mouth hanging open. The document Bora had spent hours working so hard to write had vanished in a single second.
I was certain this would not end with a simple scolding.
I was ransacking my outstanding brain for a way out when—
Click.
The door that had been shut tight clicked, then swung wide open with a creak.
Everything else in the room was the latest model, but the door alone groaned as if it had been built ages ago. That was the very reason Bora had fought with the people who made this room.
At the sound, I whipped my head around, searching for somewhere to hide.
I climbed onto the bed, yanked the blanket over myself, and hid. She would never find me.
"Ugh... I'm exhausted."
Bora came in muttering under her breath, sounding tired.
"Hana, what are you doing?"
Once she stepped inside, she could see the blanket on the bed bulging upward. Green hair poking out between the covers made it obvious it was me.
She came over slowly and pulled off the blanket I'd buried myself under. Feeling my shield disappear, I hurriedly jammed my face into the pillow.
Seeing how suspicious I was acting, Bora started looking around the room. I pulled the blanket back over myself.
As she glanced about, she found the laptop, the smell of coffee rolling off it in waves. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for the wave about to hit. A terrible disaster was clearly on its way.
"Hana."
I didn't answer. Bora's voice, a chill practically drifting off it, was too frightening.
She quietly approached the bed and sat down beside me where I lay under the blanket.
I poked only my face out from under the covers and checked her expression. From down here, she didn't look angry.
But then she pulled my blanket away and spoke.
"Hana. You did something wrong, didn't you?"
I only lifted my head and watched her mood, praying it would end with a scolding.
Looking at me, Bora patted her own knee.
"Hana, come here."
I hesitated, then went to her. Wouldn't she just stroke my head, tell me never to do it again, and soothe me?
When I got close, Bora picked me up and gently set me down on her lap.
What is she trying to do?
Full of questions, I could only turn my head in a daze and stare at her.
But with one hand she pulled my pants down, and with the other she raised her arm high into the air.
"Eh..."
By this point even I could tell. She had my body pinned tight, though, and I couldn't run.
Smack!
Bora's hand struck my bottom. Feeling my backside blaze hot, I wailed.
"Eeeeeeeeng!"
Perhaps because Department Head Kim Jaeman had been running himself ragged, the press had come to understand, at least to some degree, just what Starlight Green Tea was.
The money spread among the outlets was no small sum either. Setting aside the commercial shoot and its incidental costs, they had spent close to two billion won on advertising.
Starlight Institute, poor to begin with, began squeezing out even the last scrap of strength it had left and throwing itself into the promotion. They had made up their minds that if they only succeeded, the ad spend would come right back.
And so, over lunch, the media staff who had taken advertising from Starlight Food—the company partnered with Starlight Institute—gathered and started to talk. On any other day it would have been the usual: badmouthing the boss, cursing the government, and all the rest of the everyday chatter. Today was different.
"I hear Starlight Food is coming out with a new green tea?"
"Didn't that Starlight Coffee they put out last time flop spectacularly? Seeing them launch something again, it must be nice having a major guild in your corner. One slip from us and we're out on our ears."
"From what I hear, the response to this green tea is incredible. I've been making the rounds at the companies, and they say once it hits the break room, it's gone in less than a day."
"Don't we have some at our company too? I think I saw it in the break room the other day..."
"Neither Starlight Institute nor Starlight Food is exactly thriving, but seeing them team up like this, they must have some trump card."
After chewing the gossip over, the employees returned to the office and went straight into the break room, hunting for the box of Starlight Green Tea.
The box was there. Inside, though, there wasn't a single teabag. It was completely empty.
"Wait, there aren't that many people in our office who even drink green tea, are there?"
"There's one teabag left in the corner. But seriously, who drinks this much? It came in today, and they've already gone through a hundred?"
But the employee who came back out to the office found their almighty boss drinking a familiar brand of green tea.
And now that they listened, the sound of something being sipped was coming from every direction. The instant-coffee wrappers in the break room hadn't even been torn open, so they could tell that whatever everyone was drinking was green tea, all of it.
"Is everyone drinking green tea?"
"Look at their faces. They're completely blissed out. It's like they took some kind of drug."
Hesitant in the office's suddenly changed atmosphere, they still pulled out the teabag, poured hot water over it, and set about brewing a proper cup.
"The color on this is gorgeous."
"The smell is amazing too. Did they put some kind of additive in it? This isn't like any green tea I've smelled before."
Wearing a dubious look, the employee took a sip of the tea, vivid green through and through.
A refreshing, intensely fragrant green tea spread through their mouth. Lunch hadn't been long ago, and their head had still been foggy, but one sip left them clear-headed, as if they had just woken from a deep sleep.
Everything before their eyes felt incredibly sharp, too. It was probably their imagination, but it seemed as if their eyesight had gotten twice as good as before.
"This tea is seriously delicious, and the aroma is so deep. I think it's the best green tea I've ever had."
"Did they mix in some kind of tonic? I only took one sip, and I can feel the energy surging."
"I need to check Starlight Food and the Institute's stock. Fast."
But the stock had already priced it in. It had hit the daily upper limit.
The media staff had received the information ahead of the retail investors, but the game had already been over the moment the tea was distributed to the companies.