The Stretch-and-Grow Routine
This can't be...
Haru had promised she would count one, two, three, and slam the door my tooth was tied to on three. So I'd braced to scrunch myself up as small as I could the instant she hit three. But Haru didn't wait for three. She shut the door on two.
"Eh...?"
I stood there in a daze, watching my tooth sail through the air. A heartbeat later the pain came crashing in. Of course it hurt. A tooth had just come out.
"Came out nice and clean, didn't it?"
Haru said it as she bent to pick up the tooth that had gone flying. Tears welled in my eyes. The pain was bad enough, but what I really hated was that she had tricked me and slammed the door on two.
"Haru, you liar!!!"
"Huh?"
I shrieked at the top of my lungs and bolted. She had tricked me, and I was going to tell on her. I pounded down the hall to the office, latched onto Bora in a rush, and grabbed her arm.
"Bora, Bora!"
Bora was staring at her monitor with hollow eyes. She didn't even notice me until I was right beside her. Normally she sensed me coming and started petting my head before I ever reached her...
"Hm...? What's wrong, Hana?"
Even so, the head-patting hadn't changed. I was happily soaking it in when I remembered why I'd come. The petting felt so good I had nearly forgotten.
"Haru tricked me!"
"Why would Haru trick you?"
"She said she'd pull my tooth on one, two, three, but she yanked it out on two! Look! It hurts so much!"
I said it while showing her the gaping hole in my teeth. With one front tooth gone, smiling made me look like some gap-toothed cartoon kid. I didn't love it, but there was nothing to be done. Baby teeth fall out whether you like it or not. You can hardly just leave them in.
"It came out nicely. Doesn't it always hurt when a tooth comes out?"
"Eh..."
Bora wasn't wrong. Of course pulling a tooth hurt. Still, Haru had tricked me... and I had trusted her all the more because she had never lied to me before.
"Hana!"
Haru came running in right after. I put on a sulky face and refused to look at her. Until she apologized, I was absolutely not speaking first.
"Hana, I'm sorry! My parents pulled mine like that when I was little, so I just wanted to try it once..."
She apologized on her knees. If she was going to grovel like that, I figured I had it in me to forgive her generously.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Next time I'll wait for three."
"Then we're good!"
I ran to Haru and threw my arms around her. Her embrace was warm and soft, and that felt best of all. Probably because, of everyone here, she had the biggest chest.
Nestled against her like that, I listened.
"Hana, look at this!"
"Hm?"
What she held out was my tooth—the faithful front tooth that had done its job for me all this time. I gazed at it with a wistful look. I wouldn't be seeing it again, after all.
But Haru was looking at something else. She turned the tooth over and showed me the root. A tiny sprout had come up from it.
"What is that?"
Bora said it as she watched from beside us. Then Haru answered.
"You're supposed to throw a pulled tooth up on the roof, right? So I was going to toss it onto the top of the building. But something about the root felt strange, and when I looked, there was a sprout growing out of Hana's tooth."
I examined the front tooth she handed me. Just as she'd said, a little sprout really was growing from the root. Instinctively, I knew what had to be done with it.
"We have to plant this in a pot!"
"Oh?"
At my words Bora got up, went off somewhere, and came back carrying a flowerpot. She must have brought soil too, because she took the tooth at once and planted it with the sprout pointing up.
"I'll take care of it!"
Pot in my arms, my very own front tooth planted inside, I headed back to my room with a huge grin. I had no idea what kind of plant would grow, but wasn't that the fun of it?
I set the pot on the dresser beside my bed, where the sunlight poured in good and strong. Looking at the tiny sprout, I smiled. What would come up? I hoped it would be something tasty. Instinct told me it would probably be fruit.
"Hmm..."
I stood facing the wall. A straight line had been drawn across it in ballpoint pen.
These days, if I had a worry, it was obviously my height. I wasn't growing at all. Still four foot five, exactly. Only my weight had crept up a little.
"Why... won't I get any taller?"
Living the rest of my life as a little squirt like this was just too unfair. I scoured the internet for ways to grow. Most of it was useless, but every so often something worthwhile turned up, a pearl hidden in the mud.
According to YouTube, there were three ways to get taller. First, drink milk. Second, go to bed early. Last, exercise and do gymnastics.
"Aha!"
Now I understood why I wasn't growing. Of the three things YouTube recommended, I wasn't doing two of them. I liked cola better than milk, and I had never exercised or done a single stretch in my life. Of every method they had mentioned, going to bed early was the only one I was actually keeping.
I decided to start with gymnastics. Real exercise seemed like it would be hard where I was, so I searched YouTube until I found a video of stretches for growing taller. A cute little character came on and kindly showed how to do them.
"One, two. One, two."
I copied the exercises on the screen exactly. It was a little embarrassing, but if you want to get tall, you have to endure. I stretched my stubby arms and legs as far as they would go, pouring every bit of my burning wish to grow into following along.
But the longer it went, the more bizarre the moves in the video became. They started looking like a monk deep in spiritual training. I was midway through copying one when doubt crept in, and I checked the video again.
Sure enough, it was some unverified channel's weird exercise clip—Shaolin-exclusive gymnastics. I went hunting for another video. This time a slim woman with a lovely figure came on and did the stretches. This one felt right, so I hit play, steadied myself, and got ready to begin.
Following the woman's counts, I started the stretch-and-grow routine for getting taller. This time it felt good. I could practically feel my growth plates getting worked, and I kept going, savoring the sensation of my back and waist opening wide.
So this was gymnastics...? I felt like I finally understood why people got taller. I was diligently following along with the video when the door opened.
Bora and Haru came in, a paper bag dangling from one hand.
"Hana, what are you doing...?"
"Is this some kind of performance art?"
Neither of them looked like they had expected my height-boosting stretch routine in the slightest. I stared at Bora and Haru with pity in my eyes.
"I'm doing exercises that make you grow taller."
Even as I spoke, I was still working hard, stretching my arms and legs out long. The routine was probably so profound that, to ordinary eyes, it just looked strange.
"Mm... looking cool?"
"Right?"
Sure enough, Bora watched my gymnastics and called them cool. I shot a look at Haru beside her, and with an awkward little smile she chimed in. Yes. This was definitely gymnastics.
"Hana, we brought you something..."
As she said it, Bora drew something from the paper bag. Inside was a height-chart sticker, rolled up tight.
"Waaaaah!!!"
The sticker she had brought showed Rumi standing in full gear. She was a bit tall for Rumi, granted... but anyway, it was a rare sticker that could measure all the way up to five foot seven. Beaming, I watched Haru and Bora put it up.
"Will here do?"
"A little lower..."
The room was bare, nothing in the way of furniture but a desk and a dresser. Even so, with a sticker bearing an illustration of Little Magician Rumi on the wall, the place seemed to glow.
Once the sticker was stuck fast to the wall, I bounced around the room in pure joy. It was exactly to my taste.
"Hana, come here a second."
Bora called to me as I raced around. I trotted right over to her side.
"What is it, Bora?"
"Want to stand next to the sticker for a moment?"
She had me stand where Rumi's sticker was stuck. After I had been there a moment, she held the little magnet from the chart to the crown of my head.
"Four foot five... same as what we measured in the lab."
At that ridiculous result, I opened my eyes wide.
"Bora! Why aren't I getting any taller?"
More than a month had already gone by, and my height showed no intention of increasing. Surely I wasn't going to live the rest of my life like this?
Bora looked at me and said with a laugh,
"No. You'll grow too, Hana. Eat well and sleep well, and you'll shoot right up, just like your big sister. Okay?"
She petted my head as she said it. Under her hand, I answered,
"Then I'll keep doing the exercises! And from now on I'm going to drink lots of milk, too!"
"Then I guess we shouldn't buy the cola and orange juice you love anymore?"
"Ah... aaah!"
My iron resolve wavered in a single second. I could not give up cola and orange juice for the sake of milk.
"Th-that won't work! I'll drink them together!"
That was my answer. And Haru and Bora laughed.