Christmas (2)
Back from dinner, I was sprawled across the bed like a starfish. Bora, of course, informed me that lying down right after a meal was bad for you, and I hauled myself upright again.
She stepped out for a moment and returned with a Christmas tree a little taller than I was — a carbon copy of the one I'd seen at the restaurant, different only in size. With not a single ornament on it, though, it looked rather plain. At a glance it was nothing but a bleak tree.
That opinion changed the moment I saw the big box she brought in next. Inside were decorations of every kind, and whether they'd been carefully stored or Bora had cleaned them herself, not a speck of dust clung to a single one.
She set the box on the floor.
"Hana, you can decorate the tree with these."
"Whoa!"
I plunged a hand into the box and drew out an ornament. The first was a bell. Something rattled inside it, and every time I shook it, it chimed. I tried to hang it on the tree, but I was too short to reach the top, and it refused to go where I wanted. Only after I dragged over a chair and climbed onto it could I finally hook the bell in place.
I lost all track of time dressing the tree. When I reached for the lights, Bora said the wires were dangerous and wound them around the branches herself. She plugged in the cord and switched them on, and the tree burst into glitter — more splendid than any tree I had ever seen. For the crowning touch we hung a Santa stocking enormous enough that my whole body could have fit inside. They said Santa would leave a present in it, and I could hardly stand the anticipation.
By the time the tree was finished, it was the middle of the night. Bora led me by the hand to brush my teeth, and then I climbed into bed. Gazing at the glittering tree filled me with pride. Before long, though, she declared the lights would dazzle me while I slept and switched them off. The little sparks vanished, and the tree looked somehow bleak again — but it was true that all that sparkling would have kept me awake.
I sank into sleep, doing my best to quiet the pounding in my chest at the thought that Santa might bring me a gift.
How long had I been asleep?
"Ack!"
"Haru... can't you see what's in front of you...? Careful..."
Something hit the floor with a thud, followed by a clatter. I woke and tried to see who had come in, but someone stroked my head with careful fingers, and the warmth of that touch pulled me straight back under. Too drowsy to see or hear properly, I wondered if it might be Santa.
At last, on the Christmas Day I had dreamed of, my eyes flew open. I shot upright and yanked the curtains aside, only to find, to my disappointment, that no snow was falling. Yesterday's snowfall still blanketed everything beyond the glass in white, though. I watched it for a while, then turned away. Out in the hall stood Bora, worn and tired, as if she had pulled night duty.
Even on Christmas Day, people were working in the building. Office life really was no way to live. Having to work on a day this good.
Grinning, I headed for the tree. There was a present beneath it.
"Bora!"
I shouted at the sight of the big box under the branches. Santa had definitely been here. The surprising part was that he hadn't put it in the stocking we'd hung on the tree. Had I hung it wrong? I checked again, but the stocking was hanging perfectly. What did it matter now? I went to the enormous gift box waiting below the tree.
A slip of paper no bigger than a business card lay on top of it.
Santa really did know everything — enough to know that I was good.
Bora was already in my room. I picked up the gift box. It was a little heavy, but not too heavy to lift. Opening it under the tree felt somehow wrong, so I carried it to the small spare desk in my room and set it down with a thump. The wrapping was so careful that whatever waited inside had to be extraordinary. Santa's taste in gift boxes ran a little girlish, but I hardly cared about design.
"I wanted to see Santa!"
Something had clattered in the night and woken me for a moment, and that must have been when he came. I regretted sinking straight back into sleep. If I'd stayed awake, I might actually have seen him.
Bora, leaning against the wall, watched me and said, "So you got a present from Santa?"
"Yeah!"
I started peeling away the wrapping. It had been done so neatly that I didn't even need scissors, and as the paper passed through my hands it bared a pure white body underneath. The wrapping was so pretty that throwing it away felt a little wasteful, but it was a necessary sacrifice for the sake of the gift inside.
Once the pink paper was gone, a pure white box greeted me, tempting me to open it at once. I gave in happily and lifted the lid.
"Whoa!"
One look at what lay inside and I had no choice but to fall into a state of pure, delirious excitement. It was a little cold to the touch, but it was the mage's hat Little Magician Rumi went around wearing. I bounced all over the room with it on my head.
"Santa left you something you love, didn't he?"
Bora's words brought back what I had written in my letter. I truly hadn't believed he would actually give it to me. Limited edition or not, getting hold of that hat had been like plucking a star out of the sky. Of course, if I had known Bora obtained it with a single phone call, the thrill would have popped like a balloon — but she had no reason to tell me that.
Still wearing Rumi's hat, which looked just like a witch's, I raised my magic wand high. I pressed the button set into it, and with a cheerful electronic chirp the wand began to glitter.
"I am Little Magician Rumi!"
"Here comes Rumi, forever the guardian of children!"
Reciting the heroine's lines from the anime, I bounced up and down on the blankets. Bora clapped at my magnificent performance and rejoiced right along with me. Christmas really was the best.
Kim Seyoung, president of Starlight Cosmetics, had been savoring life lately. There were any number of reasons, but the greatest of them was surely Hana.
She scrolled through the photos of Hana on her phone, one by one. Hana eating. Hana watching anime on YouTube. Hana, briefly asleep, looking like an angel.
She was beginning to understand why people had children and fell so completely for them. This was nothing like the weary tangle of brothers and sisters. Simply looking at a small child was healing in itself. A few of her siblings were married, of course, but she had never quite warmed to her nieces and nephews — perhaps because she had seen them so often. Hana was different.
Maybe because the girl had grown up without a speck of the world's grime on her, she had a bright, sparkling charm. From Kim Seyoung's point of view, she almost wanted to spirit her away and raise her herself. She had always been lukewarm about marriage, but visiting Hana had slowly changed her mind. These days she even caught herself wanting to seize some decent man and have a child of her own. Her circumstances still weren't quite right, though, so she was putting it off. For now, looking at Hana was enough of a substitute.
The artifact she had given her last time was much the same. It was not the sort of thing easily handed to anyone outside the direct bloodline of the Starlight Guild, but business had been so good lately that Kim Seyoung scraped together even her pin money to buy Hana one. Her bank account was empty, yet one look at the girl and she felt full. Was this what people meant when they said you could be satisfied without eating?
"Perhaps I ought to pay a visit."
This year's plan — wrapping two bottles of Starlight Lotion in luxurious packaging and selling them as a Christmas edition — had been a success. The lotion had already climbed to 300,000 won a bottle, and all she had done was change the wrapping and the name before selling them off at 800,000. The quarterly figures weren't fully tallied yet, but third place seemed comfortably within reach. For a company that had languished outside the top ten, it was enough to bring a lump to the throat. A bleak firm that had reported nothing but defeats in the cutthroat cosmetics war had become one that rang with nothing but victory.
Kim Seyoung decided she would visit Hana again today. She packed a box full of the snacks and candy the girl loved, bought the day before. She had already finished everything that needed doing at the company, so all that remained was to get in the car and go. And so she happily fretted over what photos she might take once she arrived. They were certain to come out cute and lovely.