“I cannot make toys.”
“Why?”
“In my family, only creations with use and value have meaning.”
“What’s that supposed to be?”
- That’s strange.
Gidan and Geuru grumbled in sullen voices, and Serhi, who had been listening quietly, popped his bubble gum.
“I can roughly tell what kind of atmosphere that house has.”
Thinking that Serhi might have overlapped Haruna with his own past, Gidan muttered.
“That house must be seriously no fun.”
Geuru chimed in with a gravelly voice, going, “Boo, no fun.”
Only Haruna did not know what “no fun” meant and asked back.
“No-jaemu?”
“Your house is not funny.”
“……Huh?”
At Gidan’s answer, Haruna soon burst into laughter.
No fun. Where in Japan would anyone describe the Inoue family as no fun?
At school, even when she could not play with them, the other children only understood that of course it had to be that way.
“Haruna can’t play today either?”
“Haruna’s busy with family matters.”
“She’s the daughter of an amazing family, after all.”
“Can’t be helped. Fighting!”
It had been the same through elementary school and middle school. And when she entered high school, no one asked Haruna anymore.
Because everyone knew that was the kind of child Haruna was.
But in Korea……
- A house that won’t let you make toys is bad.
“It deserves the death penalty.”
- The death……! I hadn’t thought that far.
“You have to dream big in everything.”
- Understood. Death penalty for Inoue.
The endless stream of absurd remarks was translated and reached her ears.
She had to say it was not a bad house.
She had to make excuses for how great the Inoue family was.
And yet, for some reason, Haruna felt comforted by the continuing voices of complaint.
Even though she was watching children her own age insult her family, ironically, she felt refreshed inside, and as if a weight had lifted from her shoulders.
As Haruna lowered her head and grinned, Serhi glanced at her and smiled.
“You’re not going to make one? We might lose.”
“Huh?”
When Serhi picked up a piece and fitted it together, Haruna nodded as if she understood what he meant.
At that, Geuru, who had returned to focusing on making the drone, finished assembling the chick drone’s head and perked up its ears.
‘Th-this isn’t the time!’
She had meant to teach Haruna the joy of making things, but once she started making it, she had ended up enjoying it alone.
‘An S-rank toy!’
Geuru turned her sparkling eyes toward Haruna.
She had been full of anticipation, curious as to what Haruna would make.
But Haruna was still hesitating, not having fitted even a single piece together.
Whenever she tried to fit a piece, a crash rang past her ears.
Along with the stern face of her grandfather as he threw her work away.
“Yours isn’t even worth evaluating.”
Haruna’s hand, holding a toy piece, trembled faintly.
She did not want to disappoint anyone.
With her hands, lacking both talent and skill, no matter how hard she tried, she could not make anything impressive.
Just then, a round teddy-bear hand grasped Haruna’s wrist.
Haruna spoke as if she were a candle dying down.
[“……I’m scared I’ll ruin it.”]
She was afraid even of making a single toy.
Afraid that because she could not make something impressive, she would fail to be acknowledged again.
[“Being the Japanese representative or whatever, I can’t do it.”]
Geuru stared intently at Haruna.
After thinking for a moment, Geuru pointed at Gidan.
The sight of Gidan concentrating was enough to put a professional to shame.
But……
- Gidan is making a potato.
He was making something lumpy and round.
- And Serhi is making a sweet potato.
Serhi’s was rather smooth, but it was about the same level as Gidan’s.
Both of them had serious expressions the entire time, so Haruna had to bite down hard on her lip to keep from laughing.
- What the next table made is a monster with eyes on its stomach.
Haruna turned her head.
The eyes really were on its stomach.
When she widened her view, she saw the people in the experience zone. Everyone was making a complete mess of their works and enjoying themselves.
- Of course it’s fun to be praised for making something impressive.
Geuru knew how good it felt to receive five stars, and how many fireworks the worms in one’s chest set off when Dad praised you.
- But that sort of thing only lasts for a moment.
The joy that comes from being acknowledged only lasts then. Soon it vanishes with a psssh, like a deflated balloon.
- Instead, if you find the joy that comes from the process of making it, you can be happy every single day.
Right now, the people in the experience zone were enjoying that process.
Gidan, too. Serhi, too.
Everyone except Haruna.
- So do not stop making things for the sake of that one instant of being acknowledged.
Because the process would give her longer-lasting, greater happiness.
The ugly teddy bear doll smiled, wiggling its eyebrows up and down.
- Do you still not feel like making something?
Haruna shook her head. Then, one by one, she began to assemble the pieces.
*
“A-a robot?”
- A robot!
What Haruna completed in no time was a humanoid robot that looked like it would appear in an anime.
Gidan and Geuru, who were weak for mecha, stared with trembling eyes at the armored warrior Haruna had completed.
At that, Serhi jeered as if he had made it himself.
“Think you can win?”
“You damn traitor.”
- Traitor.
When Serhi said they could call him that all they wanted, Gidan and Geuru’s fists trembled.
At their ridiculous appearance, Haruna bit down hard on her lip to keep from laughing.
“Korea isn’t that easy to beat either, you know?”
- That’s right. This great one’s chick is invincible!
“It looks weak.”
Serhi landed a critical hit with the phrase Geuru hated most: “It looks weak.”
- To think you would attack with words……!
Enraged, Geuru moved the chick and attacked Serhi’s sweet potato.
Papapap!
At the chick’s flapping wings, the slapdash sweet potato collapsed in a heap.
“You!”
“Kkekekeke.”
- Kekekeke.
Gidan and Geuru laughed sinisterly and high-fived.
Haruna smiled as she watched the two of them, now attacking her robot, saying they would show the power of Korea.
It was truly childish and absurd, but it was fun.
She had never thought she would be playing with dolls at nineteen years old.
Still, had she ever had this much fun before?
- Mephisto Kick!
“Go, Viat Type 12!”
Toward the people playing like kindergarteners, Haruna opened her mouth as if she had made up her mind about something.
[“There is something I must tell everyone from Hyeonak.”]
At the sudden serious tone, everyone’s gaze focused on Haruna.
Because everyone could understand the word “Hyeonak.”
Haruna lowered the volume as much as possible and turned on the speaker.
“I am not S-rank.”
- What?!
Geuru’s eyes widened in shock.
Gidan and Serhi also seemed surprised, but they nodded in acceptance in their own way.
Given the timing, even if she was not S-rank, it was not something they would find difficult to accept.
But the words Haruna spoke next were something none of them had expected.
“There is a reason the special exhibition was held simultaneously in Korea and Japan. It seemed Yamaoka Shun had a Plan B.”
Serhi furrowed his brow.
“So, you mean there’s another reason besides ruining the Jjapso pop-up store?”
Haruna nodded.
“It seemed Yamaoka Shun was creating a pretext to come to Korea. I do not know much. I am only a puppet.”
“Yamaoka Shun?”
“He is my guard.”
Haruna smiled forlornly.
After the death of former Prime Minister Takahashi Norio, Yamaoka Shun of the Public Security Department, who had been his hands and feet, instantly became a kite with its string cut.
After that, she knew that Yamaoka Shun had worked tirelessly to come to Korea.
It was also Yamaoka Shun who persuaded Haruna’s grandfather to present her as S-rank.
Whether it was revenge, venting his anger, or whatever the reason might be, even Haruna could easily guess that Yamaoka Shun was plotting something.
Though she did not know what it was.
*
[“Where on earth has she gone, not coming back? Bring Inoue Haruna.”]
[“Yes, sir.”]
At Yamaoka Shun’s order, the man in a suit bowed his head.
Watching the Hunters gathered for the special exhibition, Yamaoka Shun left the main hall.
Soon, Yamaoka Shun, holding his cell phone, simply told his subordinates to begin, then abruptly hung up.
Above the department store where the line for the pop-up store stretched out.
Yamaoka Shun slipped into stealth.
And Dominic, who had been watching all of it, smiled.