The Dinosaur Collector
"Ooooooh!"
I made a tremendous fuss over the dinosaur that had come into being beneath my own hands. Thanks to Yumi's patient coaching, a huge, magnificent dinosaur had been born!
"Hana, you did such a good job!"
Yumi had ended up making a dinosaur of her own while she was teaching me. She'd finished it as a demonstration, folding the paper step by step until the creature was complete. I stole a glance at her. Catching the look, she tilted her head, puzzled.
"Hana, what's wrong? Did you want to say something?"
I stared hard at the dinosaur in her hands. One dinosaur of my own was not enough. I wanted the one Yumi was holding. Anyone watching would have asked why I didn't just make another, but I had no confidence I could. I'd slipped into a trance and folded the thing without thinking; if someone told me to do it again, it would be next to impossible.
"The dinosaur Yumi made... can I have it?"
I turned the most pitiful eyes I could manage on her. Yumi was hopelessly weak to a look like that. Even now, caught in my gaze, she was wavering. Push just a little harder and that dinosaur would be mine for certain. I smirked to myself and pressed the attack.
"I want... one more dinosaur!"
I stared so intently that beams might have shot from my eyes, and before long Yumi looked away and held the dinosaur out to me. She looked exactly like an older sister who couldn't win against her little sibling's fussing. I took it from her and broke into a grin. Operation successful.
"Hana, I don't need it, so you can have it."
"Yay!"
Clutching my prize, I set both dinosaurs on the desk in high spirits. Two dinosaurs. There was no finer sight in the world.
The folding was done, which meant it was time to color. A plain white paper dinosaur was a little too plain. The dull parts needed my own colors breathed into them until they came alive.
"It's a rabbit, so it has to be pink!"
Beside me, Jiyu was coloring her rabbit's fur with a pink pencil. Not a white rabbit, not a brown one — a pink one. If I'd met a thing like that in the wild, the color would have been so astonishing I'd have filmed it on the spot. I put the thought aside, focused, picked up a colored pencil, and began painting my dinosaur with an artisan's hand.
I settled on a safe, pale brown. Dinosaur skin looked more or less like that. I hadn't actually seen one myself, so I might have been wrong, but it hardly mattered. It was mine, and no one else had any reason to care.
"Hehe!"
The more diligently I colored, the more the dinosaur seemed to flaunt its own dignity. In a certain light, what I'd made was threatening enough to breathe fire. I lifted it and held it out for Jiyu and Yumi to see. They simply had to look at my magnificent dinosaur.
"You made it really well!"
"It suits you, Hana!"
I wasn't entirely sure what suits you was supposed to mean, but surely they meant that I was a match for a creature this dignified. There was no one in the world as dignified as me!
When the paper-folding hour drew to a close, the teacher began circulating through the room, admiring what the children had made and praising them one by one. Before long she reached us.
"Jiyu, what an adorable little rabbit! It's so pretty!"
"Hehe!"
Jiyu laughed, shy and pleased. Watching her, I felt ready to burst with the need to show off my own magnificent dinosaur. The teacher looked over Yumi's work and praised that too. Then it was my turn. I held up both dinosaurs for her, perfectly unashamed. She took them in, clapped, and said,
"Hana, you made a wonderful dinosaur too! It looks like it could start moving any second!"
"Right? I knew you'd think so, Teacher!"
I beamed and showed them off again. Praise like that put me in an excellent mood. Later, I decided, I would have to show the dinosaurs to Bora, Maru, and Haru. They would be seeing creatures this vivid and this magnificent for the very first time.
First the glow-in-the-dark dinosaur, and now a paper one — my dinosaur collection was growing by the day. At this rate I might someday own an enormous dinosaur sculpture. Of course, if I wanted one even now, I could have a giant dinosaur statue installed right in front of our company building.
Kim Shintae was reading the room. He wanted this delicious liquor all to himself. Drink this good was meant to be enjoyed alone.
But a friend's request had to be honored, so he wrapped the makgeolli with care and tucked it into the refrigerator. The office dinner was set for the following Friday, and that was when he meant to let his coworkers taste it.
He got through the weekend, then the hamster wheel of work, and Friday arrived before he knew it. He always felt this once he had a job: time flew. People said your sense of time dulled as you got older, and the saying fit him perfectly.
Hours that had refused to pass when he was a student now made him want to grab hold of them and hold on. He'd only wanted to age quickly up to twenty. After that, once the restrictions of being underage fell away, there was no reason to get any older.
Having booked a decent barbecue place, he asked the owner for her understanding and carried the makgeolli inside. He'd already tasted it, so one bottle was obviously not going to be enough. He called his friend Jaecang and came away with a whole load of the stuff.
They lived in the same area anyway, so he skipped the delivery service and drove over to pick it up himself. He even talked his way into a small discount. Paying full price felt like a waste. That was one of the advantages of living out in the provinces. In Seoul, you would never find a little brewery like this.
"Shintae, what are you hauling around this time!"
The section chief called out when Shintae walked into the dinner carrying a box of makgeolli. Then he caught sight of the box, and his face lit up.
"Hey — is that the makgeolli you wouldn't shut up about?"
"Yes! It's so good that if two people drank it and one of them dropped dead, the other wouldn't even notice!"
Kim Shintae set the box on the floor. Packed full of bottles, it landed with a solid, heavy thud.
"Ooh...!"
The other staff were staring at the makgeolli with keen interest. It didn't have a proper name. If someone from Starlight Foods had seen it, they would have slapped on the usual sort of label and called it Starlight Makgeolli, but as it was, the bottles were nameless.
"I only had one bottle at first, but one bottle wasn't nearly enough, so I brought a pile of them! Try it once and you won't regret it!"
As he spoke, he started pulling the bottles out. He set them on the table one after another, and the staff passed them around on their own. By the time half the box was empty, the tabletop was crowded with makgeolli.
They didn't even order any other drinks. Tonight was for this. He did tell the woman who ran the place that they would order more alcohol once the makgeolli was gone — bringing outside liquor into someone else's restaurant felt a little awkward — and he paid her extra for the trouble.
"Smells wonderful!"
Starting with the section chiefs, they began pouring it into glasses. The fragrant aroma of makgeolli spread through the whole room. Even the new civil servant sitting relatively far away could smell it.
Soon every glass at the table was full, and the scent hung thick in the air. Staff who didn't usually drink makgeolli were swallowing hard as they stared at it.
"All right — cheers!"
The section chief lifted his glass and called out, and the others raised theirs with him.
"Cheers!"
Glass met glass with a bright clink, and then the room filled with nothing but the sound of people drinking. Everyone had been dying for a taste.
"Whoa!"
"This is what makgeolli tastes like?"
"Sunbae! Where can I get this? It tastes like heaven!"
No one was on the fence. Every single person at the table was marveling and offering a review. Kim Shintae nodded at the reaction he'd expected.
"A close friend of mine runs a brewery, and this is what they make there! One bottle is over thirty dollars!"
"No way!"
One of the women clapped as she said it. The makgeolli had turned out far more expensive than anyone had guessed. Even so, a few of them thought a flavor like this could easily command that price. Just knowing they could drink something this good made the stress of the workweek seem to melt away.
"Shintae brought us good makgeolli tonight, so we're drinking until we drop!"
The section chief, who loved his drink on an ordinary day, said it with a bright grin. Tomorrow was a day off, so the rest of them could drink without worrying. A hangover would be miserable, but it was still better than having to come in to work.
The makgeolli they'd brought was gone in no time. No one had touched the beer or the soju. They had drunk nothing but the bottles Kim Shintae carried in.