The Strawberries Were Perfectly Ripe
"Hana!!!"
At the sound of that familiar voice I dropped my homework and ran outside. Homework could wait.
"Boss!!!"
Kim Sehee had come, both arms loaded with delicious snacks. That was one of the reasons I liked the boss so much. Every time she visited she arrived buried in gifts—and only the snacks I loved!
Bora never actually stopped me from buying snacks or food myself, but it still felt a little awkward to do it too freely. Snacks the boss brought, though, were different. Out of respect for the thought behind them, I had to eat every last one. I took the bags from her and giggled.
"Hana! It's been so long—let your big sister give you a hug!"
"Okay!"
I slipped right into her arms. She scooped me up and buried her face against the crown of my head. My classmates did the same thing, and so did the people at the office; they all insisted I smelled wonderful. When I tried sniffing myself, though, I couldn't smell a thing.
Maybe the one giving off the scent was the last to notice it. Skunks couldn't smell their own stink, could they? I was probably something along those lines. The person producing a smell never knew what they smelled like.
"Hana. Didn't you miss your big sister?"
She said it while pinching my cheek. Lately she kept insisting I call her big sister, which—given the difference in our ages—was a thoroughly shameless request. I ought to have been grateful she wasn't making me call her Auntie. Even so, she only said it because she liked me, so whenever I was in a good mood I called her big sister once in a while.
Then she would beam and stroke my hair. Say something nice, and something nice came back. That was how it worked.
"Of course I missed you!"
"See!?"
With that, Kim Sehee set me down and went into the office to greet the staff. A chairman of what was now, by any measure, a major corporation trading hellos with the junior researchers was hardly a common sight anywhere else—but around here, it was perfectly ordinary.
"Please look after Hana... and also..."
"If you ever come by our company... I can promise you a very good position..."
It sounded like the sort of grown-up conversation I wasn't supposed to overhear, but I didn't care. I was the most important person here. Nobody could stop me! Well... Bora was scary when she got angry, but still.
After greeting the staff for a while, the boss came back, and I held out the strawberry I was proudest of. I knew she had never tasted one—it had been ages since her last visit—and I was dying to see her try it.
The office staff had already eaten as many as they wanted, so their reactions weren't nearly as explosive as the first time. Not much of a show anymore. They still said the berries were delicious and kept eating, of course.
"A straw...berry?"
"Yes! I grew it myself!"
"Did you? Then I'd better eat it!"
So saying, she popped the strawberry into her mouth in a single bite. And chewed.
She barely seemed to chew at all before her eyes went wide.
"Hana, you've been hiding strawberries this delicious?"
"I can give you enough to eat until your stomach bursts, Boss!"
"But where are you growing them...?"
Right—she still didn't know about the garden. I caught her hand and led her there. She must have been hooked already; she kept gasping in delight as she ate.
I showed her my own little plot behind the building, and at the sight of it she clapped and praised me.
"Hana, you're amazing~ You tend this garden all by yourself?"
"No! The staff help sometimes too."
Whenever they helped, I gave them armfuls of strawberries. I wasn't growing enough to sell, but it wasn't so little that I couldn't share with the employees.
"Want some more, Boss? They're really, really good!"
"They are? Then... may I give some to the boss's friends, too?"
"Okay!"
I rolled up my sleeves, ready to pick more. But she caught me as I dashed off.
"Leave that to your big sister~ I can just call the staff."
"But still... picking them yourself is the best part!"
"Hana has to play with her big sister!"
With that she dragged me back to my room. I flailed my arms at the garden falling away behind us and bid it farewell.
This typhoon had dealt the livestock farms a heavy blow as well. Cattle were swept off in the floodwaters and died, or the barns themselves collapsed under rain that would not stop. The Choi father and son, fortunately, had gotten off comparatively lightly.
Their barn had been built sturdy against typhoons, and it was still fairly new besides. Even so, a few head of cattle had been carried away by the river.
When word came that the farm next door had lost its barn outright and the whole herd had been wiped out together, the two of them heaved sighs of relief and congratulated themselves on renovating. If they hadn't, they would have met the same end as their neighbors.
Father and son had been working around the clock, day and night without distinction. By the time the typhoon damage was more or less repaired, the father spoke.
"Son. Do you know a company called Starlight Food?"
"Starlight Food? I know the Starlight Guild, but I don't think I've heard much about Starlight Food."
"Anyway, I hear they grew rice over there, and that the rice is something special. The grains are enormous and solid, and they say it took no damage from the typhoon at all."
"Really?"
"And every crop Starlight Food sells is supposed to have incredible effects."
The son could already guess where this was going. Bring up rice, and of course there was a byproduct, wasn't there?
"I'm planning to buy the bale silage that comes out of it. The government subsidy covers part of the cost—how great is that?"
"Wouldn't it be better to just feed them regular fodder, Dad?"
"Let's buy some bales, feed it to them once, and decide from there, son. If the rice weathered a typhoon, how good do you think the straw will be?"
"Then I don't have any particular reason to object. Let's just buy a month's worth. No sense buying in bulk and regretting it later."
The Choi ranch purchased a month's supply of the bale silage Starlight Food was selling. The son was learning for the first time that they sold bale silage at all. He had thought they only made snacks and instant foods, and here they were in the farming business too...
As it turned out, they also sold cherry tomatoes, coffee, and other foods that touched everyday life. There was even Starlight Green Tea, which the son drank regularly.
"So this was made by Starlight Food, too."
After they had sorted the bale silage delivered by truck, the son said it over a cup of Starlight Green Tea with his father. The tea they drank on short breaks really was excellent. Every time that deep fragrance and the gentle green-tea flavor spread across his tongue, he felt like shouting, This is what green tea is supposed to taste like!
Of course it was expensive, so one or two cups a day was the limit. The Choi ranch made a decent living, and even so the tea ran pricey. Still, the taste was good and the aroma was good, so it hardly mattered. They weren't earning so little that the price of tea would leave them gasping.
Out in front of the ranch, on the flat ground, the father tore open one of the bales and let out a cry of admiration.
"Son, look at the color of this rice straw. Doesn't it glitter like someone gilded it? That's a color the cattle are going to love."
"You're right. Set it next to the bales we bought before, and it's completely different."
The son could tell this bale was no ordinary thing. The color was rich, the stuff looked substantial—feed that to the cattle, he thought, and it would do them a world of good. The quality of the bales Starlight Food sold was that impressive.
Father and son hauled the rice straw over and dumped it into the troughs where the cattle lived. The animals took one sniff, then put out their tongues and set to eating in earnest.
They devoured the straw as if they had gone hungry all day, inhaling it. The straw from the bales they used to buy had made them hesitate after a sniff before they ate, and they had spent a long time chewing their cud over it. This straw looked a little different.
They were raising several hundred head, so simply filling the troughs took the better part of a day. Even so, watching the cattle eat so well, the fatigue of hauling and portioning it all out seemed to melt clean away.
"They're eating incredibly well, aren't they, Dad?"
"They are. I never thought they'd take to it like this."
Bellies full of rice straw, the cattle began to chew their cud. The Choi father and son smiled with satisfaction and headed for the house. Having eaten, the herd would ruminate for the next six to nine hours. In the meantime, the two of them went home to fill stomachs left empty by the work.