Finding a Home Is Hard
Vroooom!
A high-powered engine roared. The car was expensive enough that the way it surged ahead felt anything but ordinary, and Bora understood at once why people said a luxury car felt nothing like the economy models she was used to.
They drove a few minutes more and pulled up at a real estate office. The owner came hurrying out in his stocking feet. Anyone who arrived in a car like that was very likely to buy on the spot.
"Welcome, ma'am!"
The agent greeted Bora warmly. With Hana beside her, he seemed to have taken them for mother and daughter. Bora didn't correct him. If anything, she drew Hana in closer, and at the sight of them so plainly fond of each other the agent broke into a pleased smile. A family that got along like that was practically a cheat code for drawing exactly that kind of smile out of people.
"If I may ask, what sort of home are you hoping to see today...?"
He put the question to Bora carefully. She asked after apartments that satisfied the standards the company had set, and what she pressed him on most was the surrounding area and the security. A poor neighborhood meant a higher chance of the wrong sort of people, and lax security meant something could go wrong later, when Hana was asleep alone. These days almost no one broke into apartments, but she wanted even that small variable erased.
And of course there was a reason to live somewhere good. It was common sense that the better the neighborhood, the better the people who lived in it. The word slum didn't exist for nothing. Wasn't that the whole point of the famous story of Mencius's mother, who moved three times for her son's sake?
A young child was easily dyed by her surroundings. That was why they had sent Hana to Starlight Elementary, a school most children couldn't even get into. If she went to the school attended by children from good neighborhoods, perhaps she would be shaped by them in turn.
When Bora pictured Hana grown into a delinquent, squatting on her heels with a cigarette between her lips, goosebumps rose along her arms. What parent, looking at a small child, could foresee that the child would grow up bad? Most of the ones who went off the rails had probably acted their age when they were little.
She would have to guide Hana carefully, so she didn't grow up that way. Still, looking at the girl's temperament, the odds seemed slim. Bora couldn't think of a single thing Hana lacked, and of the usual reasons children went astray, none of them applied to her.
She had no parents, but an enormous number of people loved her. She was not going to twist out of shape for want of a parent's affection. Hana was growing up soaked in love.
And as for money, Bora was almost tired of saying it. Among children her own age, Hana was probably the richest of all. First in Korea without question, and even set against the whole world she looked like a dark horse not to be taken lightly. Bora had no idea how much money the children of Middle Eastern royalty sat on, with oil gushing out of the ground, but she doubted any ten-year-old had as much as Hana.
Turning all of that over, they made the rounds of the luxury apartments, meaning to visit several and compare. One hard day would be enough. Set against the days of pounding the pavement a home purchase usually demanded, this was a walk in the park. Bora had worn herself out buying a house more than once.
If the money had been there she would have paid without a second thought, but she hadn't had enough to buy a home outright. She'd had to take out a loan. Most people her age did the same when they bought. The only ones who paid in cash were those born with a golden spoon in their mouths.
"Bora, my legs hurt..."
They had brought Hana along to ask what she wanted, but the girl was whining, worn out. Dragging a child's body from place to place, of course she was tired. Bora gathered her up, and Hana went quiet in her arms.
"Just hang on for today, Hana. We have to buy a house you actually like."
At that, Hana found her strength again. It wasn't days of hardship, only one, and that was reason enough to rally.
"Okay! I'll try hard too!"
Set back down, Hana went pattering through the apartment once more. Bora found herself wondering what the girl's standards for a home even were. Only Hana knew, of course.
By domestic production alone, Korea was a strong country, holding a place around tenth in the world. People living there forgot that only seventy years earlier it had been a backward nation where they could not even eat a proper meal. The country had grown so fast that its own citizens no longer felt how quick the pace had been.
From America's point of view, though, Korea was a small country. Americans, as a rule, showed little interest in anything that was not America. America alone was country enough: tourism, sports, everything unfolded inside a single nation, a cheat-map of a country. In a small country, no matter how far apart two places lay within the borders, half a day would cover the distance. America was different. You had to drive for days just to circle from one end of the land to the other. Thinking back to the age of walking, it was a wonder anyone had managed to hold a country like that together.
And there were American citizens who did not even know where Korea sat on a map. Mix-ups with North Korea turned up often enough. Some people did not know a country called Korea existed at all.
That a gate material capable of treating hair loss had come out of such a small, unremarkable country struck them as a groundless lie. A scam, in the usual phrase: talk, and nothing more. It was easy to picture the scene. Exaggerate some tiny effect on baldness in an advertisement, rake the money in, then take it and run. Hair loss was a disease no one had conquered yet.
So James, sent to Korea on business, was already dissatisfied. Was he supposed to fall for another boast? Among all the countries that had shouted they had found a medicine or a food good for hair loss, he had never once found the real thing. Even so, after all that running in circles, his feelings on the subject were sincere, and chasing good news about baldness around the world was part of his work. He was a bald man whose scalp shone.
But when he got up in his hotel room and caught sight of himself in the mirror, he could not help crying out.
"Oh my God!"
The face in the glass was no different from yesterday's. A night's sleep did not rearrange a body. The dramatic change was on his head. In the mirror, James's scalp was packed with hair, sprouting thick as the leads of a mechanical pencil. He had despaired of being bald and eaten everything that was supposed to help, and still nothing had grown. He had given up on hair more than ten years ago. Looking at himself now, he could not hold back a cry of wonder.
He had gotten back the hair he had wanted and wished for so badly. He barely stilled his trembling hands and touched his scalp. The bristly new growth was vivid against his fingers. Thinking it might be a dream, he slapped his own cheek. It hurt. Not a dream. James looked at himself in the mirror and grinned. The day had come to put an end to a wandering of several decades.
"Something good happen, James? Why are you grinning like that? It's creepy."
Leila was one of the employees who did not take her boss's smile as a good sign. The days he smiled that creepily were the days something unpleasant had happened.
"Today, I experienced a miracle."
"A miracle?"
What on earth was he talking about? Had he fallen in with some cult overnight? Leila could only conclude that her boss had lost his mind chasing a cure for baldness. They had come to Korea to import specialty goods from Starlight Foods, products whose reputation had not yet spread overseas. She had heard the company made a great many foods that were unusual and remarkably effective. But Starlight Foods still lacked the capacity to export, so they had no choice but to come to Korea themselves and hope for a distribution deal. In this relationship, Starlight Foods held the upper hand.
Leila had come out on a special trip from Walmart with her boss, carrying full authority to negotiate, but unfortunately it seemed the business would end right here. Her boss had lost his mind. Then James took off his hat, and she could only stare in shock at what she saw.
"Oh my God."
She had no choice but to echo the words James had spoken. On his head, she saw a miracle.