There's a Thief
I looked at the mountain of snacks piled on the floor and broke into a grin. Snacks were always right. Snacks had never done anything wrong. I stole a glance around to make sure no one was watching. They had to be hidden somewhere only I knew—if I got caught, I was the only one who'd be in trouble.
"Hehe~."
I unzipped the big stuffed animal and opened it up. Tuck them in here, and no one would ever find them. The dolls were mine to touch, after all. I'd meant to stuff them into Rooney's back, but the filling inside was packed so tight I had to give up on that plan.
Once every snack was safely inside, I turned an interested eye on the leftover instant coffee mix. In my past life I'd drunk coffee until I was sick of it, but since I'd become this body, I didn't think I'd had a single cup. And I didn't even have to wonder where to get hot water.
There was a water purifier out in the hallway that dispensed it. I put it to good use now and then.
I took the mug printed with an illustration of Little Magician Rumi and filled it from the stream. I stared blankly at the hot water trickling out, already in a good mood at the thought of the coffee to come.
Back in my room, I set the mug on the floor and poured the mix into the hot water. I stuck the emptied stick into the cup like a spoon and gave it a stir. The sweet, delicious smell rose up, and my mouth watered. It really did feel like the first coffee I'd had in a very long time.
Last of all, I plucked a single strand of my hair and dropped it into the mug. The moment it touched the water, it melted away with a soft hiss, the way sugar dissolves. Watching that, I found it strange that my hair didn't melt when I washed it.
If a little water were enough to make it vanish, I would have spent my whole life bald. Living bald was horrifying. I didn't even want to imagine it.
I took a long slurp of the coffee that held my hair, and my eyes went wide. It was nothing but ordinary instant coffee with a strand of my hair in it, and yet the taste was heavenly. No coffee in the world could possibly taste as good as this.
I blew on the steaming mug and drank what was left. I'd brought back plenty of sticks, so I could drink without a second thought.
"Ooooh!"
The coffee with my hair in it sent energy surging through my whole body. I felt like a tiger that had just eaten a bowl of cereal. I hurried to the sink, washed the empty mug, and destroyed the evidence.
If Bora or Haru saw, they'd scold me for sure. Then again—would they really scold me over a single cup of coffee? That was only my imagination. They might just let it slide. Still, it never hurt to be careful.
A problem arose, though. When night came, sleep wouldn't. I pulled the blanket up to my chin and shut my eyes, but the sleep I wanted refused to come.
One sheep... two sheep...
I pictured a pasture and closed my eyes, imagining the sheep bounding around. Before I knew it, though, the sheep in my head were perched in a nest up in a tree, drinking coffee. Wait—they didn't even have hands. How were they drinking coffee?
"Hnnngh..."
I tossed and turned on the bed for a full hour, trying to fall asleep, but it wouldn't come. There was nothing for it. Still in my dinosaur pajamas, I stepped outside. It was already eleven at night, and the hallway was lit but empty.
Normally people would have been coming and going, trading greetings. Lately, though, more and more visitors had been turning up at the office. The staff hadn't grown, but unidentified figures in sharp suits kept coming and going, as if some kind of business were underway.
It was night now, so no one was there. The moment I stepped into the hallway, I got the feeling a ghost might appear at any second.
With nothing but the lights on down that long corridor, I couldn't help imagining some terrifying ghost emerging from the far end. This wasn't my fault. It was the architect's, for making the hallway so long.
I walked to the office anyway, fear and all. Thankfully, the dinosaur pajamas seemed to help me endure it. The office door stood open, and sure enough, Haru was sitting in a chair, drinking coffee and browsing the internet.
I killed every trace of my presence and crept up behind her. The office was big and I was small, so it was possible. Haru had no idea I was coming; she just kept surfing. Once I was at her back, I got ready to startle her.
Time to show her how scary this dinosaur could be. Like a lion charging a rabbit, I lunged at her with a roar.
"Hm?"
Haru wasn't particularly surprised. She even asked what was going on. The wind went right out of me at the sight of her unstartled face, and I burrowed into her arms.
"Why aren't you asleep, Hana?"
She scooped me up and rose from the chair.
I desperately held back from admitting I'd drunk coffee. She might find some fault in it.
"I just can't sleep..."
"Yeah? Then let's play with your big sister."
"Okay!"
Haru settled back into the chair with me in her arms. On the computer, she was watching a variety show. And here I'd thought she was working hard.
I looked up at her, feeling a little betrayed, and Haru gave an awkward laugh.
"I just finished my work! I'm only watching this for a minute to clear my head."
I stared at her with eyes that didn't believe a word of it. Just as I'd thought—there was no such thing as a hardworking office worker. The place was full of people just waiting for a chance to slack off.
Hana's room stood empty. Bora and Haru kept moving across the floor, searching for something that had fallen. Lunch was over, and it was the hour when Hana went off for her massage, so the room was vacant.
They were looking for strands of Hana's hair. It was one of the reasons they cleaned her room every day.
Early on, her hair hadn't been worth much, so they'd simply run the vacuum over the floor. These days, though, each strand had grown so potent that every single one mattered.
"Just as I thought. There's a lot of hair under the desk where Hana spends the most time."
Haru said it as she wedged herself under the desk where Hana did her streams. Her guess was right. Hana's hair lay thickest under the desk where she usually stayed, and across the bedsheets.
Fortunately, it was green, so it stood out. Finding it wasn't much of a strain.
"Do you think Hana knows we do this?"
Bora said it as she picked up another strand. To finish quickly, every employee in the office had gathered to collect Hana's hair. They looked like people gleaning fallen grain.
If that hair had been black, everyone in the office would have had to dye theirs. Otherwise there would have been no telling Hana's from the staff's.
They didn't come into her room often, of course, but the hair of any employee who did enter could still get mixed in.
An ordinary person shed about a hundred strands a day, they said, but Hana had so much hair it was easily twice that. What they gathered like this had to be worth tens of millions of won a day—enough that the money from picking up fallen hair could cover the salaries of every employee in the office.
Once they'd collected all of it, they gave the room a quick cleaning and came out. The air in Hana's room was so refreshing that a few of the employees looked as if they wanted to stay longer. It was one of the reasons Bora and Haru went in so often themselves.
The air was as fresh as if they were standing in the middle of a forest, and it left them feeling clear-headed.
"Bora."
Haru spoke as they left the room and headed into the office.
"Yes?"
Haru didn't answer. She caught Bora by the arm and dragged her into the empty break room, then glanced around to make sure no one was nearby.
"I think someone in our office is taking snacks home..."
Haru was the one who mostly managed the break room, so she'd noticed lately that far too many snacks were disappearing—as if someone were carrying them off.
"Really?"
"Yes. I think they're taking them home. And it mostly happens around lunch—they sneak them then. I got suspicious and checked the amount once, and when I came back from eating, a huge amount was gone."
It was the kind of story you'd only expect to see on the internet. Someone actually taking the break-room snacks home.
But Bora spotted something on the floor.
"Hm?"
She picked up a strand of hair from the break-room floor—a color she had been looking at only moments ago, and one she knew very well. She looked at it, grinned, and said,
"I think I know who the culprit is."
"Really?"
"Let's catch them together tomorrow."
"Still... shouldn't we say something quietly to that employee?"
Taking snacks home wasn't quite grounds for firing, but it could do real social damage. They weren't a beggar, and yet they were walking off with what belonged in the break room. And from Haru's side, this was someone she would have to keep seeing, so she wanted to let it pass at a reasonable level.
"It isn't one of our office staff."
"Really?"
"No. You'll know once tomorrow comes."
Bora said it with a smile. Haru looked puzzled, but Bora spoke with such confidence that she decided to wait until tomorrow.