At the thought of becoming a tree person again, her eyes grew red.
“Geuru wants to stay a person just a little longer…!”
If she became a tree person, she might end up with stiff tree-bark skin and a head full of lush leaves.
Then would Dad not recognize Geuru anymore?
“……?”
Jurim had been struggling with all his might in front of a flowerpot, but when Geuru approached him with sad eyes, he looked at her and narrowed his gaze.
“Why?”
“What if Dad can’t recognize Geuru…….”
“What?”
Geuru shook her head forlornly.
“But I have to.”
“Have to what?”
“Dad, you can’t forget Geuru…….”
“Out of nowhere?”
Leaving the bewildered Jurim behind, Geuru went into her room and closed the door.
“……?”
It was when nearly a month of worrying and fretting had passed.
One day, a letter had been tucked into the signpost of Geuru’s potato field.
*
To my dear ‘On Geuru.’
I write to inquire after your well-being.
Things have been abuzz around you of late; are you faring well?
It was only after lunch at the potato field that I realized we had never exchanged names.
So I looked into you a little. I apologize if that was unpleasant.
I would have liked to offer an apology over a fine dinner, but something requiring me to leave Korea for a while has come up, so that too is no longer feasible.
Therefore, I have prepared a small gift.
If you only write your name on the documents sent as a gift, the transfer will be completed, so you need not worry about complicated procedures.
I hope this is of some small help.
Ah, I have started learning Korean these days.
I find learning not very difficult, so I am relieved.
I hope that at our next meeting, we may communicate in Korean…….
Then, looking forward to what follows.
Your potato friend, Reiji :)
“Potato friend Reiji…….”
So it was that foreign Interpol mister from back then!
Geuru, crouching in front of the kindergarten potato field signpost reading the letter, brightened.
“Present, present.”
The gift was a document envelope.
Pulling out the bundle of papers from inside the envelope, Geuru looked at the place marked with a post-it.
On the post-it, in neat and pretty handwriting, was written: ‘☆Write your name here☆.’
‘Oh.’
Mister Reiji said he had only just started learning Korean…….
‘I wonder who wrote this for him?’
With a question mark floating over her head, Geuru set the bundle of papers down on the dirt floor and pulled a pencil case out of her bag.
Teenieping pencils popped out from inside the cute bear pencil case.
Geuru grabbed a pink pencil, lay down on the floor, and carefully wrote her name.
“O……n…… Ge……u……ru…….”
Without even realizing someone was watching her.
*
The man watching the child as she lay on the dirt floor writing her name sent Reiji a text saying the documents had been safely delivered into the child’s hands.
Now the child would receive a transfer of 48% of SSPED’s shares and become the majority shareholder.
Because that was the gift of Amakusa Reiji, the founder of SSPED.
On the surface, it was a gift to apologize to the child, but in reality, the matter of Amakusa Kazuki had likely had a great influence.
Because the Korean government had been weighing Amakusa Kazuki’s naturalization against export restrictions led by SSPED.
Now that SSPED’s management rights had fallen into Korean hands, the Korean government would accept Kazuki without hesitation.
Thanks to Reiji’s nasty sense of humor, that enormous thing had ended up in the hands of a five-year-old child, but.
He let out a small laugh.
The child, who had pressed down hard as she wrote her name, stood up fluttering the paper.
She put the letter away safely inside her bag, waved the paper like a flag, and ran pitter-patter into the sitter’s arms.
The sitter, looking at the paper, read it over and over to confirm whether what she was seeing was real.
Then she started making a call somewhere.
“Geuru’s father, Geuru received something called a transfer document. Yes. No. It’s not Sprout Bank, I think it’s real……! Yes yes, I think you need to see it yourself.”
She thumped her chest, apparently frustrated that the person on the other end didn’t believe her.
Meanwhile, the child was spinning round and round the sitter with a bewildered face.
Hanroun watched the child’s cute gestures for a long while, then turned his back.
*
After receiving the letter and signing the documents.
Led by the sitter’s hand, Geuru went straight to her grandfather’s house and opened her mouth wide.
“Roof meow?”
So, Grandpa had kept saying this and that, this and that, and that’s how Geuru became a “roof meow.”
Onsuhyeong simply nodded, apparently proud that his granddaughter had creatively interpreted “share transfer” as “roof meow.”
“Yes, that’s it.”
“Geuru, is she a meow?!”
“Yes, yes.”
So she’d become a kitty who climbed onto the roof.
So.
What was that?
Geuru rolled her eyes around, then stuffed the documents back into her bag.
“Why do you ask?”
“Geuru doesn’t need a kitty.”
Geuru rolled her eyes the other way again and, pretending to be a prodigy granddaughter who had understood everything, said, “Geuru can’t become a kitty either…….”
For now, she liked Gudetama better.
“Yes, that is fine too. Then Grandpa will take care of it.”
Onsuhyeong patted Geuru.
He had been about to make a move against those insolent Japanese bastards who dared to block his children’s future.
He didn’t know who the potato friend was, but the prank was excessive; still, they had been of great help this time.
Judging by Jurim’s reaction, he seemed to know them…….
Just as he was about to contact the SSPED response team, Geuru whispered carefully.
“Grandpa, what about Dad? Where did he go?”
“…….”
Geuru checked the watch on her wrist.
It was already 9 PM.
At this hour, Jurim would normally have already put Geuru to bed and then some, but upon receiving the letter, he had hardened his expression, left Geuru with Onsuhyeong, and gone out.
‘He has every reason to…….’
After a brief silence, Onsuhyeong stroked Geuru with his large hand.
“He’ll be back soon. Shall Grandpa put you to bed?”
“Yes!”
“Then let’s find a book to read together.”
“Yay!”
*
Jurim sat on a building rooftop railing and folded the letter.
The moment he squeezed his eyes shut, his magic power surged, and a blackout occurred (a phenomenon where electrical supply is cut and the vicinity goes dark).
Blink, blink.
The city lights went out simultaneously.
Hoo. When Jurim exhaled deeply and opened his eyes again, the rooftop had become a snowy field.
He looked back.
As always, the owner of the 99th floor sat in a chair with a bored expression, extending his index finger to point at Jurim.
- Danger. Geuru.
“I know.”
He knew. It was a warning about Jurim himself, who struggled to control his magic power.
But that was precisely why he had come outside. Because he didn’t want to appear as a dangerous existence to Geuru.
Jurim unfolded the letter again.
And he looked over the handwriting in Amakusa Reiji’s letter about transferring shares several times.
This was unmistakably On Ijo’s handwriting.
His jaw clenched.
Where could Amakusa Reiji be?
He knew more about Amakusa Reiji than most.
He wasn’t one to lay hands on a child, nor did he act differently on the outside and inside. Rather, it was more accurate to say he felt no need to do so in the first place.
But Amakusa Reiji called my daughter a friend and was toying with him using On Ijo’s handwriting.
Jurim immediately pursued Amakusa Reiji’s whereabouts after he left Korea, but no matter how hard he searched, his trail was traceless after the airport.
His jet-black eyes sank.
It felt as though his throat was being squeezed.
There was no way to know. If he found him and tore him to pieces, would he feel better?
Or else…… Ha. Jurim let out a stifled breath.
The letter turned to dust and scattered from his hand.
Once more, a blackout struck Seoul.
The nightscape fell into complete darkness for a very brief moment before beginning to sparkle again.
Chasing the dead always left a filthy feeling.
Jurim took a deep breath and controlled his power.
The rage burning blue refused to subside easily.
A shiver—
Just then, a vibration rang out from inside his pocket.