After Mr. Miller and the farm owner, Mr. Jeffrey Holland, hurried off with the bee carcasses to investigate, the remaining kids sat blankly in front of the hives for a while before trudging back toward the bus.
Ever since Uncle Jeffrey mentioned Silver Oak Farm, I’d been inwardly grinning from ear to ear, but I was too busy keeping my expression under control to open my mouth. The others, however, were not.
“Neo... what was it? Brian!”
Chloe’s voice snapped me back to my senses, and I turned my head.
“Yeah?”
“What was that earlier? Neo...”
“Neonicotinoid?”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“If you looked at the bee carcasses, there was white powder on their bodies.”
“They didn’t look like that at all.”
“That’s because you didn’t look closely. I thought it might be there, so when I looked for it, I could see it. That’s why I swept the entrance of the hive earlier too—to find it.”
“You could see that?”
Most ordinary people probably wouldn’t be able to see it. Not because it truly wasn’t visible, but because even if they saw it, they wouldn’t know it was neonicotinoid, so it wouldn’t register. But I was someone who had conducted countless experiments with all kinds of pesticides. If I saw it, I could make a rough guess.
“Well... I was just making a prediction.”
“Why did you think it was that, of all pesticides? Neo... whatever it was.”
“If honeybees have a problem because of pesticides, the first thing you usually consider is neonicotinoids.”
“Re...ally? We haven’t learned that in school yet.”
For a moment, I wondered whether this kind of material hadn’t been taught in 2003, but since I couldn’t check right away, I played dumb.
“I studied it separately. Maybe they haven’t taught it in Agriscience Club yet.”
At that point, Jacob cut in.
“But it might not be that, right? Is that what made you sure?”
This time, he wasn’t picking a fight. His eyes were sparkling, and he looked genuinely curious.
“You saw the ones beside the dead bees earlier, the ones that couldn’t fly and were just twitching around, right? Neonicotinoids act on insects’ nervous systems, so even at relatively low concentrations, they can cause death or abnormal behavior. Flight impairment is one of those symptoms. Even if the bees don’t die instantly, it causes irreversible nerve damage. Other classes of insecticides are relatively less toxic, so it’s harder for bees to suffer fatal harm, and they usually don’t lead to mass die-offs.”
As I explained, Jacob was writing it down in a notebook he’d somehow pulled out. Seeing that, I let out a small laugh.
“Guess even something a yellow monkey says is worth writing down, huh?”
Jacob’s huge frame flinched, and he let both arms droop awkwardly before saying,
“I’m sorry...”
I stopped walking and turned around sharply. Jacob flinched, and the other kids stopped as well.
“Do you know what farmers do when something happens that they’re sorry about?”
“Huh? What do they do?”
“They come and work for you. They lend you farm equipment, and when you’re short on hands, they come help. Are you really sorry?”
“Huh? Uh...”
“Then do you want to come work on our farm for just one week?”
Naturally, I thought he’d say no, but Jacob nodded.
“Okay. I’ll do that.”
Chloe and Jaden looked even more surprised than I was. Their eyes widened as they stared at Jacob like they were wondering if he was sick or something.
“Good. I’ll call you when I need you.”
I held out my hand, and Jacob took it with a hand twice the size of mine. After we finished making peace like that and I started walking again, Jacob followed right behind me and asked,
“Then how are honeybees exposed to neonicotinoids?”
“That’s because neonicotinoids are quickly absorbed into the inside of the plant and distributed evenly throughout the leaves, flowers, and sap. When bees collect pollen or nectar, the chemical is transferred to them as is, so they’re much more likely to be exposed to it than to externally sprayed pesticides. Other pesticides usually remain only on the leaf surface and are quickly washed off or broken down, but neonicotinoids stay inside the plant and persist for a long time. For honeybees, neonicotinoids are an extremely lethal pesticide.”
“Silver Oak Farm grows grapes, right? Then why exactly would they spray neonicotinoids? And is this pesticide illegal, by any chance?”
“No, using neonicotinoids isn’t illegal at all. They’re used as a soil treatment right after planting young grapevines to prevent root or stem pests like grape phylloxera or melon aphids. I just think they were probably careless when using it. If there was an almond farm nearby, they should have been extremely careful.”
Jacob nodded and diligently wrote in his notebook. Chloe stared at him blankly for a moment before saying,
“You really learned all of this studying by yourself at home?”
“I told you I did.”
“Then didn’t you not need to join Agriscience Club?”
“For college... I need to get a degree so the wine I sell will sell well, don’t I? And later, I’m going to become an even bigger farm owner. To do that, I need to know a lot and have a wide network.”
As I was speaking, we arrived, and perhaps word of the incident had spread, because the kids who had come for the volunteer work were already gathered around the bus.
“Everyone, get on!”
Once I got on the bus and took a seat, Jaden with the dreadlocks immediately took the seat beside me and asked,
“Do you know a lot about corn too?”
“Huh? Does your family run a corn farm?”
In the United States, corn farms were truly on a different scale. There were some farms so large they were the size of Gyeonggi Province.
“No, but I wanted to become a farm owner someday too. A corn farm, specifically.”
“Oh—”
“I wanted to learn a little.”
And so, for the entire ride back, Jaden eagerly asked me about how to become a farm owner, and though it was a bother, I answered him properly without showing any annoyance.
‘This is all networking too.’
Feeling Chloe’s faint gaze from behind me and Jacob’s fiery gaze from beside me at the same time, I headed back to school.
---
A few days later, the bee carcass incident spread faster than expected. As local broadcasters and newspapers began taking an interest in the case one by one, news of the damage to the hives swept through all of Napa Valley in an instant, and soon all eyes were focused on Silver Oak Farm.
Bees were an extremely important asset and living part of the ecosystem, so the local community took a great interest in the matter.
“What did you say that student’s name was? Brian?”
“They say he’s an Asian student named Brian Choi. Apparently, he found some strange powder near the hives...”
The news began reporting on the pesticide use incident that had harmed an almond farm. On-screen was Elowen Pike, the owner of Silver Oak Farm, standing before local TV cameras with an awkward expression as she offered an explanation.
“Our Silver Oak Farm adheres to organic farming methods. Pesticides? There is absolutely no such thing.”
However, investigators dispatched by the local agricultural bureau and environmental protection groups had already rushed to the site and begun searching every corner of Silver Oak Farm.
In the end...
【Neonicotinoids Found in Silver Oak Farm Warehouse, Organic Certification Revocation Process Underway】
It was an article in the local newspaper, but unexpectedly, its impact was enormous. Since it was harvest season, the price of grapes from Silver Oak Farm immediately plummeted.
At least with table grapes, they could say they would regain organic certification starting now and sell properly next year, but the drop in price of wine advertised as organic was a major blow. Large quantities of Silver Oak Farm wine displayed in department stores were immediately returned.
At this point, the only way to resell it was to hand it over to a cheap wine wholesaler. And the one who had to endure all of this was not only the farm owner, Elowen.
“See? I told you I was right! I was right! I saw it clearly at the farm! But... still, couldn’t it be sold as table grapes? It should at least taste good, right?”
The tactless Armando was carrying on whether Elaina was watching or not, and I pretended not to know him, keeping my distance.
Then, Elaina suddenly sprang to her feet.
Everyone’s eyes focused on her...
“You!”
The person she came stomping toward wasn’t Armando, who had been prancing around like a mad colt, but me.
“Huh?”
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“No?”
“Yes, you did. What would someone like you even know, pointing to our farm just because some bees died?”
Her hands were trembling with rage, and it looked like she might slap me across the face at any moment, the way Armando had been hit before. I’d rather take a hit from the massive Caden Harper than get hit by a girl, so I slowly slid my chair back.
“I didn’t point to the farm, though? Uncle Jeffrey, the farm owner, was the one who mentioned your farm. I didn’t know anything.”
“Liar.”
“It’s true. Ah, ask Chloe. She’ll tell you right away.”
At that moment, Chloe’s voice came from somewhere; I hadn’t even noticed when she’d appeared.
“That’s right. There were other kids there besides me, but Brian was only interested in the bees’ deaths. He didn’t even bring up Silver Oak Farm.”
“Eek...”
Apparently realizing there was nothing she could do now, Elaina, still unable to vent all her anger, stomped her feet as if she felt wronged and returned to her seat. Dumbfounded, I couldn’t help saying something as I watched her.
“Instead of feeling wronged that you got caught, you should blame your father for farming dishonestly. Isn’t that right?”
“What? What do you know... Go back to your own country!”
I was about to say one more thing to Elaina, who had shrieked at me, when—
“I think Brian is right, though.”
Seeing Chloe step in again, Elaina was visibly flustered. This wasn’t just helping me; it was an outright condemnation.
“H-huh?”
“Your farm deceived people. You gave not just Napa Valley, but the honest farmers of California, a bad image. It’s not like you’ll take responsibility if the price of California fruit drops, will you?”
“That’s...”
“I hope you stop doing low-class things from now on, Elaina.”
After saying that, Chloe left the lecture room together with several girls who followed her around like handmaidens, and Elaina, sitting at her desk, buried her face in it and began sobbing bitterly.
When my eyes met Armando’s, I quietly shut my mouth. But then,
“Be honest. What’s your relationship with Chloe?”
I pushed away Armando, who had whispered in my ear, and forced my voice low as I warned him.
“There is absolutely nothing between us, so don’t go around saying weird things!”
“I’ll keep your secret, my friend. I don’t want to see you become a tomato splattered by Evan Creed.”
“...... Same here.”
“So nothing happened after all.”
“What about you and Christina?”
“Me too...”
Armando and I exchanged a silent handshake.
After causing a storm in the local community like that, time flew by in an instant, passing through winter until spring was already approaching.