Tattling

"Boss!"

"Hana!"

Kim Sehee threw her arms wide. Hana, who had been sitting on the office sofa, read the gesture at once and pattered straight over to be gathered up. Holding her close, Kim Sehee spoke.

"Hana came all the way to the boss's office~ Whatever could this be about?"

It was rare for Hana to walk into the office on her own. As a rule, Kim Sehee was the one who went down to Hana's floor to see her. Hana was a child with a great deal to do, after all.

"Boss, can I ask you for just one favor?"

Kim Sehee's eyes lit up. Here was a perfect chance to look good in front of Hana.

"Of course! If it's a favor from Hana, I'll grant anything at all."

Even if Hana asked her to pluck a star out of the sky, Kim Sehee was ready to say yes. Plucking an actual star, of course, was about as close to impossible as a thing could be.

She could be perfectly certain that even after several thousand years, no one would have invented a way to pick a star. Only a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠vanishing handful of humankind could leave the planet at all, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠harvesting a star light-years away might not be possible until tens of thousands of years had passed. Kim Sehee did not say any of this to Hana. There was no need to dampen the child's spirits.

"Look at this, Boss!"

Hana pulled a phone from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the circle of her arms. Kim Sehee had no idea what the favor might be. The moment she saw the photo, though, she began to get the shape of it.

"This... isn't this a lunch tray?"

"Yes. It was today's school lunch, and it tastes awful!"

"It does?"

If Hana was the one saying so, the meal had to be truly wretched. The cafeteria in this building had been built from the ground up, thoroughly modern and state of the art, and employee satisfaction with it was threatening to punch a hole through the sky.

There were even staff who took breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. That was how outstanding the food in Starlight Food's building had become. Recruiting chefs from luxury hotels on generous terms had been worth every bit of the trouble. Hana herself was satisfied enough that she hardly ever complained.

What Kim Sehee had forgotten was to pay the same attention to the lunches at school. The fault was hers. Looking at Hana, she said:

"If even you're saying that, the person who served a lunch like this is going to get a proper scolding."

Kim Sehee picked up her phone. She meant to call her younger brother, chairman of the board at Starlight Elementary School. Tear into him, and something useful was bound to come of it. When a problem like this turned up, you started with the people at the very top. Crushing the ones below never produced an answer.

She called her youngest brother, Kim Semin.

Kim Semin oversaw Starlight Group's schools, its hospitals, its nonprofit foundations, and its various sports teams. What he cared about most was soccer. Young as he was at twenty-five, he was already president of the soccer association, so the preoccupation was hardly surprising. He did have a great many things that needed looking after. Kim Sehee herself left every business and property aside from Starlight Food in the hands of figurehead presidents. Kim Semin was no different.

Kim Sehee sent him the picture she had taken from Hana. Kim Semin, apparently with nothing to say for himself, went silent.

Kim Sehee had been about to tear into him, and then she stopped. He was old enough now. Flying into a rage the way she had when they were children no longer suited her. Kim Semin held the title of chairman of the board, but it was a title and little more. He would check that the school was running as it should, and he would not look into the details.

"Boss. So now I get to eat delicious food?"

"Of course, Hana. If they still don't listen after I've said so, the boss will scold them herself."

"Yay!"

Hana shot her hands into the air, delighted, and Kim Sehee gathered her in. With her nose buried in the crown of the child's head, a lovely scent came wafting up. Breathing it in set her heart at ease. Perhaps that, too, was one of Hana's abilities.

The domestic coffee market was simple. Sturbucks sat in overwhelming first place. Add up the store sales of every other coffee brand in the country, and they barely cleared half of Sturbucks. The gap was enormous. Slowly, though, it was beginning to close.

Edaya was closing in at a frightening pace. They still had a long way to go, that much was true, but the climb itself was dazzling. The mere fact that the stock had doubled said everything that needed saying. Most shares on the domestic exchange drifted sideways for decades. Outside of junk penny stocks, a company whose value doubled like this was a rare thing.

For a firm as established as Edaya to rise that far meant the same thing as a tremendous piece of good news. And that was exactly what was happening now.

"Man, I live for Edaya americanos. Seriously."

"Their caramel macchiato's good too."

"It's just that the beans aren't like any other brand."

"What beans are they using that it tastes this good?"

"I heard they use Starlight Coffee beans."

"Oh yeah? If it's Starlight Coffee beans, you can trust it. Starlight Food really does make delicious food."

College students walking around with Edaya cups had become an utterly ordinary sight. Cafés near any Edaya that carried Starlight Coffee beans were practically shouting that they couldn't do business at all. That was how strong those beans were.

Sturbucks had been doing its best to ignore Starlight Coffee beans. It could no longer afford to.

"What? Starlight Food signed contracts with other coffee brands?"

Son Jeongyeon, CEO of Sturbucks Korea, slammed a hand down on the desk. The employee who had brought the news flinched, but he still had to say his piece. Lying now would not make the problem go away.

At present, the beans Starlight Food produced were supplied to Edaya alone. The news the employee carried was a bolt from the blue. Starlight Food had announced supply contracts with other coffee brands as well.

From where Sturbucks stood, the house was on fire. Sales had already slipped a little once Edaya brought in Starlight Coffee beans. If the other brands started using them too, he could not begin to imagine how far the numbers would fall. He had to brace for at least thirty or forty percent flying out the window.

"Can't we bring in Starlight Coffee beans ourselves?"

Even as he said it, Son Jeongyeon knew he was asking for something utterly impossible.

Sturbucks Korea was nothing more than a subcontractor that obeyed the home office in the United States. They were required to use beans from the farms headquarters had designated. Any other bean was forbidden.

"Should I pass your request along to headquarters, Director?"

"No. Headquarters will never allow it. Do Americans even know what Starlight Coffee beans taste like? They'll just tell us to use the farms they picked. It's obvious."

Americans still did not know the true taste of Starlight Coffee ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠beans. Most of them probably did not even know a company called Starlight Food existed. From an American point of view, it was nothing but a tiny firm in some far-off foreign country. These days, with the arrival of Tangle, more people were learning the name, but it amounted to the same thing.

If anything, plenty of Americans assumed Tangle was made in the Amazon. Tell them a fruit that cured baldness had come not from the United States but from Korea, a small country in the East, and they would not believe it. Americans so often thought of America as the center of the world.

There were even plenty who could not tell North Korea from South Korea.

"We did try contacting Starlight Food, though..."

The employee had not been sitting idle. He had worn out his shoes getting through to Starlight Food. The price they quoted for the beans, however, was higher than what headquarters currently charged. Accept the offer, and a price increase on the coffee would be unavoidable.

Director Son Jeongyeon's face could only darken by the moment. Looked at a certain way, if things went on like this, Sturbucks Korea might one day vanish altogether. Lose its edge in Korea, and pull out. Some would say the industry's number one was making a fuss over nothing. Consider the taste of the Starlight Coffee beans on sale right now, though, and it was no fuss at all. The flavor was that exceptional.