A Curious Magic
After a long ride in Maru's car, the familiar shape of Starlight Elementary finally came into view. Over vacation the road to school had been empty of footsteps; now it was packed with children. There were fewer of them than there used to be, of course.
"Hana. If anything happens, call me, all right? I'll be waiting right nearby. It's the opening ceremony today, so it should finish early, shouldn't it?"
"Yeah. I'll call you the second it's over, Maru. Don't worry."
"Have a good day, then~"
"Bye-bye!"
I climbed out and waved to Maru. Just as she'd said, today was only the opening ceremony: listen to the principal's lecture, step into the classroom, and step right back out. On an ordinary day third grade let out around two or three, but today they would surely finish sooner.
"Hm-hm~"
Coming back to school left me in a strangely different mood. Unlike the children around me, I barely had any post-vacation slump. I had already graduated from elementary school once, after all. A trifling thing like this, I could shake off without breaking a sweat.
That was what I had firmly believed...
"Ugh..."
The closer I drew to the front gate, the heavier my steps became. It was as if shackles had been locked around my ankles; my legs simply would not move. I stared down at them and tried to hypnotize them into holding on. I could not fall apart here. Just then, a familiar voice called from behind me.
"Hana!"
Jiyu and Yumi had arrived. Jiyu launched herself at me as if she meant to fly, and before I knew it I was giving her a piggyback. Grinning from ear to ear, she announced:
"I knew it—you smell so good! You have no idea how much I missed this scent!"
With that, she buried her face in the nape of my neck. Startled, I tried to pry her off, but she clung like a cicada and would not be removed. In the end I had no choice but to surrender. Yumi came to stand quietly at my side, took my hand, and smiled, bright as anything.
"I missed you too, just like Jiyu!"
"Really?"
This body really was a star. To think children would miss me enough to say so out loud. The tip of my nose stung. So there were kids out there waiting for someone like me.
"Come on, let's get to the classroom!"
Yumi seized my hand and said it like an order to hurry. I couldn't oblige. I was hauling an impossibly heavy load.
"Jiyu's so heavy I can't move!"
She must have grown a great deal over the break; the weight on my back was no joke. By feel, she had put on a solid three kilograms. People said girls shot up fast, and the saying fit her perfectly. She even looked a little taller.
"Hey! I barely gained any weight!"
Jiyu sounded thoroughly wronged. My body's scale, however, did not lie.
"Oh yeah? Then why are you so heavy!"
"Fine!"
Jiyu climbed down. Only then did my body start moving at a reasonable pace. Legs that had refused to work with her on my back got going without a hitch. She plastered herself to my side at once, and I ended up squeezed between her and Yumi. Sandwiched like that, I had no choice but to make my way to the classroom.
"Did everyone have a good vacation?"
"Yes!"
From there, it was the most ordinary school scenery imaginable. We went into the classroom and played until the teacher came in and asked, in a general sort of way, what we had done over the break. Then we filed off to the auditorium for the opening ceremony.
"Yaaawn!"
I couldn't hold the yawn in. Yumi took one look at me and laughed.
"Hana, why do you look so tired?"
She was massaging my shoulders. Every time her hands worked the muscle, a cool, delicious relief spread through me. So this was why people got massages. I had a masseuse of my own back at the building, but Yumi's hands didn't fall short of a professional's.
"Mmm... but I am tired."
"Then just hold out until we go home! You can't nod off in the auditorium!"
"Okaaay..."
I nodded as I answered. I remembered dozing through every assembly in that auditorium, and I had a feeling I was not going to keep Yumi's request. The proof was simple: not a scrap of the opening ceremony remained in my memory. I had nodded off through the whole thing.
And yet, the moment it was time to go home, my mind snapped perfectly awake. A curious phenomenon. Dead on my feet on the way to school, then brimming with energy the instant it was time to leave. If anyone alive could explain it, they would deserve a Nobel Prize.
Kim Sehee studied the uninvited guests seated before her. Then again, uninvited was a harsh word for them. Foreign visitors would do.
The woman was young, white, and beautiful enough to work as a model, with a figure to match. Even Kim Sehee, looking at her as another woman, could have lost her head over a face that striking. She felt a small stab of envy. It wasn't that she meant to be prejudiced, but put an East Asian woman and a Western woman on the same starting line, and there was no denying the Western one came out ahead in figure. You couldn't help the pelvis you were born with, or proportions that differed from the root. East Asian heads ran large. Western heads, by comparison, ran smaller.
She shifted her gaze and found a middle-aged white man in a short, sporty crop. He had the dignified looks of a man who, in his younger days, must have made more than a few women cry. The hair, though, was odd. Simply letting it grow would have suited him, yet he wore a cropped cut that didn't quite fit. Had he sheared it off because looking after his hair was too much trouble? While she was turning that over, the woman introduced the two of them in turn, in fluent Korean.
"James... and Ms. Leila."
Kim Sehee murmured the names as she checked their business cards. The clean design carried the name Walmart in large letters. They had clearly heard the news and come from Walmart.
Watching her examine the cards, Leila said:
"We have come all the way from America with full authority to negotiate on Walmart's behalf. We sincerely hope this can become a relationship that profits and helps us both."
It took more than ten hours in the air to reach Korea. With poor luck, the journey could swallow a full day and more. The distance between the United States and Korea was immense. These two were Walmart people, of course, so they would not have been folded into a cramped economy seat.
I did think someone from overseas would turn up eventually...
The reaction from abroad had been slower than Kim Sehee expected. Then again, few people would spare much thought for food coming out of a small country like Korea. On the world stage, Korea had always played the latecomer, almost never the pioneer. She had assumed the first to arrive would come from somewhere near—China, or Japan—and she had never imagined anyone would seek her out from the United States. It was outside her expectations.
James was muttering something under his breath. Leila moved to interpret, but Kim Sehee answered in fluent English.
"I'm a little busy just now. Let's pick this up again in an hour."
She spoke English smooth enough to startle a native, and Leila's and James's eyes widened a fraction. James smoothed the look away at once and smiled.
"Your English is excellent."
"I went to school overseas when I was young."
"I was fretting over how to get my meaning across to you through Leila today. What a relief that I don't have to. Through an interpreter, one's sincerity never quite comes through."
James's eyes, bright and fixed on her, weighed on Kim Sehee more than she liked. She had done nothing in particular, yet his gaze belonged to a man already brimming with goodwill. Considering she had never done a single thing to earn that favor, the man was, without question, something of an eccentric.
"I'll see you in an hour."
With that, she rose. James and Leila stepped outside as a matter of course. When the person holding the advantage said they would meet in an hour, there was nothing else for it. It had been a long time since James found himself on the weaker side of the table, and he found the sensation quietly refreshing.
"Shall we look around the company while we wait?"
"I'd like that."
With time to spare, they decided to tour the Starlight Food building. Whatever had made Kim Sehee ask them to return in an hour, it had to be something important.
"Hanaaa!"
The instant Kim Sehee stepped into the president's office, she swept Hana—seated on the sofa—into her arms. To think those people had interrupted her while she was in the middle of playing with Hana. She meant to play as much as she possibly could before the girl had to go. In an hour, Hana would be heading home.