Come Visit My Garden
"What do you want to eat, Hana?"
"Hmm... the safest bet? Bulgogi pizza?"
"Okey, then let's get that!"
There was none of the usual fuss of picking through a menu while shouting next, next! Hana and her friends simply weren't that picky. Hand them anything and they ate it happily. Eating out was like that, wasn't it—most dishes weren't the sort that split people cleanly into love-it or hate-it. Foods with fierce likes and dislikes had a hard time surviving a market that was cruel and cold. A tiny handful of shops thrived anyway, of course.
Hana rose onto her tiptoes and spoke to the woman minding the counter. She was so short that only the top of her head managed to peek over the edge.
"Excuse me, one large bulgogi pizza, please!"
She pointed at the bulgogi pizza drawn large across the menu board as she said it. The part-timer at the counter smiled. Working at a place near a school full of little kids, she knew exactly how to handle them.
"You'll be eating here, right?"
"Yep!"
"That'll be fifteen thousand won."
Hana pulled out a card. The part-timer who took it had no idea, of course, but the card Hana offered was an expensive one whose annual fee alone ran into the millions of won. It came loaded with every kind of perk, though sadly there weren't many an elementary schooler like Hana could actually use. They were benefits meant for the rich, and Hana was still a student walking the halls of elementary school. She had no occasion to board a plane, and no occasion to go abroad. Even if she did, it was doubtful anyone would let her, once they learned what kind of being she was. Leaving the country meant clearing official procedures, and a case like Hana's was utterly without precedent. Long observation had confirmed she was gentle and without a violent streak, but even so, there was no telling how things might turn out.
"Let's sit over there!"
"Yahoo!"
Hana, Yumi, and Jiyu settled at an empty table, set their bags down, and launched into conversation. The topic was which anime they ought to watch. With summer break upon them, the theatrical film of Little Magician Rumi was hitting theaters, and Hana's whole body was burning hot with excitement.
A Little Magician Rumi movie! This was a chance that would never come again. So Hana set about winning Jiyu and Yumi over. Watching a movie alone felt a little flat; a fun film shared was happiness doubled.
"Guys! Next month they're showing the Little Magician Rumi movie—let's go together!"
Hana had assumed, of course, that both of them would want to see it. Little Magician Rumi was a fun movie, after all! But her face soon darkened. Yumi and Jiyu were hemming and hawing.
"Um... Rumi isn't really that fun..."
Jiyu's brutal honesty landed like a blow, and Hana let out a shriek and sank. To say it wasn't fun, and right to a friend's face... And since Rumi was not unfun, Hana promptly pounded the table.
"What are you talking about! Not fun?! Watch it once and you'll change your mind!"
"Mmm..."
Yumi didn't look especially eager either. Hana realized she was going to have to push harder—come on, come on—and was just about to redouble the campaign when a voice from the counter cut it short.
"Your bulgogi pizza is ready~ Enjoy!"
The employee set the pizza on its tray and placed it on the table. At the sight of cheese pouring in thick ribbons, their already rumbling stomachs seemed to raise an even louder fuss.
"Let's eat pizza!"
Jiyu got there first, before Hana could say another word. Hana had been about to press on, but with the pizza sitting right in front of her, the subject changed in no time.
"Whoa, look at that cheese! This is why you come to the pizza place yourself!"
That was one of the reasons to eat pizza at the shop. Order it for delivery and the cheese usually arrived already cooled—not cold, exactly, but it no longer stretched in long gooey strands the way it did when you ate it fresh. This pizza was different. When Yumi lifted a slice, the cheese came trailing up after it in one long pull. It was the kind of sight that made your mouth flood just looking at it, the sort of shot you usually only saw on food-tour shows. Hana and Jiyu, watching, each lifted a slice of their own.
"It's good, it's so good!"
Pizza tasted good because of the cheese, no question. If cheese had never been invented, wouldn't the world be just a little more unfortunate? Most foods with cheese in them were delicious, and to say you couldn't eat such food was the sort of talk that invited divine punishment.
Eating like that, their throats clogged. They ordered a big soda to go with it, and the place became heaven. Heaven was probably somewhere tasty and sweet, wasn't it?
"Pizza really is the best!"
Jiyu said it with a happy grin. Pizza alone was enough to lift the mood, and getting to eat this delicious pizza with close friends made it even better. Good food, as a rule, only tasted better the more you shared it.
They focused so hard on eating that before they knew it the pizza was gone. Large as it was, it was no match for three gluttonous kids. Considering that people with big appetites could polish off a whole pie alone, they probably should have ordered another.
"Hana, what are you gonna do over break?"
Once the pizza was gone, talk time began, partly to let it settle. Yumi was curious what Hana planned to do over vacation. Knowing Hana, she probably wouldn't study—she'd be up to something else. Just as Yumi expected, Hana thought hard before she answered.
"I'm tending a garden right now, and I'm thinking of growing the plants I like."
She didn't yet know what those plants would be. She meant to figure it out little by little over the break. Anything would do, really, but if she was going to plant something, she badly wanted crops the office staff could actually eat. Plants you could eat seemed better than something grown just to look at.
"You keep a garden too? That sounds fun!"
Yumi and Jiyu lived in the city, so they likely didn't know much about growing plants. At most, they'd kept something in a pot. Tending a garden plot in the city was hard, and even if someone did, it would almost certainly be a truly tiny patch. If they saw the size of the garden Hana was tending, they might well be shocked. Once she'd brought in the greenhouses, the place had started to look exactly like industrial agriculture.
Not that every greenhouse was packed with plants. More than half the space had been left unplanted, held in reserve for whatever she decided to grow later.
"Want to come hang out at my garden?"
Hana was proposing to take the kids to her own plot. Break meant they had time to spare, and she really wanted to feed Jiyu and Yumi her strawberries. The two of them had almost certainly never tasted the crops Hana was growing.
The other plants were sold on the market, but kids who didn't drink green tea or coffee would have no reason to try Byeolbit Foods' other products. The things Byeolbit Foods sold weren't aimed at children yet.
Byeolbit cherry tomatoes, of course, were common in dual-income households, so they might have tried those. But cherry tomatoes were eaten as much to fill you up as for the taste, which made them different from strawberries.
When Hana suggested they come home with her, Jiyu and Yumi turned to her with eyes sparkling.
"I wanna go, I wanna go!"
"Me too! I wanna see the garden Hana farms herself~"
The moment she heard them say they'd come, Hana sent Maru a message. Maru's reply was a simple OK. They weren't going to be out late into the night anyway; the closing ceremony had let out early, so there was plenty of time to play at their leisure.
Maru got behind the wheel and went to pick Hana up. She'd left a little late because they were eating pizza, but the timing seemed to land just right. She drove to the spot Hana had sent, and three children were standing at the curb—Hana and the kids, of course. Maru parked with practiced ease. The beginner driver she used to be was gone.
Only Maru the driving expert remained. Driving improved the more you did it, so given enough time, anyone was bound to get good. Unless you had no talent for it, in which case you could drive for ages and still be hopeless. Fortunately, Maru had a talent for driving.
"Hi, kids!"
"Hello!"
The children greeted her politely and climbed into the car. Their destination was the Byeolbit Research Institute.