Wearing faded blue jeans and a loose button-up shirt, Chloe stood at the entrance to the farm, feeling the wind blowing through the leaves as she took a deep breath. The white latex gloves on her hands looked strangely out of place.
“Are you guys ready?”
Behind her, Armando and Jacob stood awkwardly, then glanced at each other. Jacob grumbled.
“Ready? What kind of preparation do we need to go catch ladybugs?”
“Well, I do need a little preparation.”
Armando took a deep breath just like Chloe, and Jacob spoke in disbelief.
“I hate bugs too, but you’re a bit much, you know?”
“Before... I mean, everything else is fine, but spiders really scare me. As long as we don’t run into spiders, I’m good.”
“That... I’ll give you.”
Chloe rolled her eyes lightly and ordered the two of them.
“Stop complaining and follow me. The staff said there are a lot of ladybugs near the cedar thickets over there. Let’s move quickly.”
The three of them arrived at the cedar thicket leading to the back of the farm. Beneath the tall trees, dense, overgrown bushes had taken root. Wearing her gloves, Chloe carefully slipped her hand between the bushes, only to recoil in horror and back away.
“Aaah! A mantis!”
At Chloe’s scream, her two friends were startled and jumped back with her. Armando stared at Chloe with eyes wide like a startled rabbit.
“A mantis? Was it huge?”
“It was insane! Something this big climbed onto the back of my hand!”
“... So what about the ladybugs?”
“There weren’t any?”
“......”
When the two boys stared at her with dumbfounded expressions, Chloe shook her head briefly, then clenched her teeth.
“That’s right, get it together, Chloe! It’s my farm, so I have to do this.”
“...”
“What is this? Is she acting?”
Ignoring the boys’ muttering, she began pushing her way through the woods. Then Chloe spotted a small red ladybug. Slowly, she bent down and approached it.
“Come here...”
She slowly reached out, then at the last moment, cupped both hands over it. The sensation of the tiny insect moving around in the hollow space between her palms was so unpleasant and strange, but Chloe did not shake it off until the end.
“Oh... nice.”
“You’re pretty good at catching them.”
When Armando, who had been watching from behind, asked, Chloe furrowed her brows.
“I’m fine with ladybugs. And one at a time is even better.”
Steeling herself, Chloe carefully placed the ladybug into the plastic container she had brought. Watching her, Jacob also bent his large body and picked up a ladybug with the tips of his fingers.
“They’re actually really cute. Some have lots of spots, and some only have one.”
Although Jacob disliked bugs, once he got started, he caught them fairly well, and Armando also collected them while checking now and then to make sure there were no spiders.
“Armando, if you want to eat with Christina, shouldn’t you pick up the pace?”
“O-okay, I get it!”
Looking as if he might cry, Armando began speeding up his bug-catching as well, but before long, the sun tilted westward and their surroundings gradually grew dark. Seeing that they had caught fewer ladybugs than expected, Chloe sighed with a regretful expression.
“We didn’t have enough time. Tomorrow, we have to come out early. Got it?”
When Chloe spoke seriously, her two friends nodded at the same time with expressions that said they had no choice.
The next dawn, just as morning sunlight began to shine over the farm, Chloe was already near the cedar thicket. Unlike yesterday, her eyes were filled with firm resolve as she captured bugs quickly.
“Chloe! You were already here?”
Jacob, arriving late, asked in admiration. Chloe gave a complicated smile and nodded.
“It’s my farm and my trees, so I have to work harder. But ladybugs are easy. Lacewings are hard.”
With Chloe working that hard, the two boys could not slack off. As a result, the three of them naturally caught an incomparable number of ladybugs compared to the day before.
By afternoon, Chloe finally carried the container full of ladybugs into the cherry orchard. Standing in front of the trees suffering from aphids, Chloe spoke with a serious expression.
“You guys have to save our trees. I’m counting on you, little ones.”
She gently opened the container and carefully placed the ladybugs on the trees with her fingertips. Armando and Jacob followed suit, scattering ladybugs onto the tree branches.
Before long, the ladybugs began moving among the aphids in search of food. The sight of the ladybugs, natural enemies of aphids, dealing with them carried the tension of a battlefield, and Chloe quietly smiled as she looked at the trees.
“Ah...”
How could she describe it? The sight of the small red ladybugs slowly devouring the aphids tormenting the cherry trees felt mysterious and admirable. Until now, she had thought all bugs were disgusting, but now ladybugs no longer looked disgusting to her.
“Did you catch a lot?”
Startled by the voice behind her, Chloe turned around.
“Brian! When did you get here?”
“Just now. I came by for a moment to see how things were going.”
After answering casually, I glanced over the ladybugs Chloe had released and said,
“You caught them well without injuring them. But this won’t be nearly enough.”
“I know.”
I spoke to Chloe, who had grown gloomy again.
“Don’t worry too much. You’re not planning to end it with just what you caught today. You know you’ll be catching them all week, right?”
“I know!”
When Chloe’s face twisted sharply, I smiled faintly.
“And on top of that, the ladybug packs Armando brought alone should be a decent amount, and the office will help too. If we secure more from the office the day after tomorrow, pest control will speed up. Oh, what did the Cherry Association say?”
“It looks like we’re not the only place where aphids have broken out. They said it won’t be easy.”
“I guess there are more farms using organic methods than I thought.”
I thought of Pierce Morgan, whom I had met yesterday. If it were him, he would undoubtedly recommend the natural predator method to farm owners when something like this happened.
“What if we miss the harvest season like this?”
“Then there’s nothing we can do. You made a choice—to take the method that will make things healthier in the long run, even if this year is a little difficult. If you’re upset about losing, then spraying pesticides would be the right answer.”
After hesitating for a moment, Chloe shook her head.
“No. I’ll just do it this way.”
I looked anew at Chloe, who was staring at the ladybugs with her lips pressed firmly together and a resolute expression.
“You’re starting to seem a bit like a farmer now.”
At that, she brushed her hair back with a prim expression, as if she had never been otherwise.
“Well, when was I not?”
Just then, the sound of a vehicle came from far away. Turning my head, I saw Chloe’s older brother, Brandon, and the farm manager, Raymond, approaching from a pickup truck that had just parked.
“Why are they coming?”
“I don’t know.”
At my question, Chloe shrugged, then shouted at her approaching brother.
“You should’ve just stayed asleep! Why did you come again?”
Brandon came stomping over with his broad body and shouted.
“You think I came because I wanted to? Dad said to stop this immediately and control the pests with pesticides!”
“What?”
“He said not to ruin things with your useless nonsense!”
“I’ll talk to Dad myself! So don’t you dare lay a hand on my trees! Mr. Raymond, don’t touch them without my permission either!”
Pointing her index finger at Raymond’s face and issuing a firm warning, Chloe stomped off just like her brother. They looked as different as heaven and earth, but was this what made them siblings?
But Brandon, who remained without following Chloe, suddenly looked at me and snorted.
“Hmph! You’re Chloe’s friend?”
How was I supposed to react to that?
“Why? What’s going on?”
Jacob hurried over and stood in front of me, as if worried I might get hit. This guy, he’s kind of cute.
“Is there a problem?”
Pushing Jacob, who blocked my view like a dump truck, off to the side, I asked, and Brandon sneered with his thick lips.
“Don’t ruin the farm with your weird farming methods. Get lost.”
“Huh? But I was under the impression this place belonged to Chloe... We’re friends who came at Chloe’s invitation.”
“Don’t make me laugh! This is my farm!”
At that, I looked at Raymond.
“Is that so?”
“Huh? Uh... Well...”
“Mr. Raymond, if you confirm that this place belongs to Mr. Brandon here, we’ll leave. We can’t stay long on someone else’s land.”
At my words, Raymond became greatly flustered. It was probably because if he said it was Brandon’s land while Brandon was glaring at him, he had no way of knowing what consequences would await him when Chloe returned later.
Besides, Chloe’s father likely had not formally passed down the inheritance yet, so calling it Brandon’s was nonsense.
“It’s my land!”
“Mr. Raymond?”
Raymond swallowed hard and finally had no choice but to say,
“It is land expected to become Mr. Brandon’s.”
“Ah. Then it isn’t yet, is it?”
At my words, Brandon’s face turned red again, and he shouted,
“I’ll show you it’ll be my land soon!”
Then he turned and stomped away, with Raymond following behind him in embarrassment.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Jacob answered Armando, who had appeared at some point.
“No idea. He was furious, though. But where are we eating lunch?”
“Let’s just have pizza.”
Armando and Jacob turned to look at me.
“I hate pizza. I’m sick of it. I’m going home to eat. If you want, you can eat at my place too.”
The two of them looked at each other as if I had suggested something inedible.
“Can’t be helped. Let’s eat by ourselves.”
“Yeah.”
“Hmph! You Americans have no taste...”
I glared at my friends, who did not respect Korean food, then looked at Brandon’s vehicle as it disappeared into the distance.
---
The place Chloe ran off to in anger was the Crockett mansion, about thirty minutes away from the cherry orchard.
“Dad!”
Frederick frowned at his daughter, who was screeching.
“I told you not to shout in the house, didn’t I?”
“Why did you say that to my brother? You said you’d leave it to me!”
The elderly Frederick looked at his daughter with a pathetic expression.
“I got a call from the Cherry Association earlier. You requested insects? They were already worried, asking whether there was a problem with this year’s harvest. Rumors are already spreading.”
“Just for that reason...”
“Do you even know how large the farm I entrusted to you is? Do you know how much fruit comes out of there?”
“That’s...”
“We’re under contract to sell a fixed amount every year. We have to meet that. If we don’t, we’ll suffer a huge loss. I don’t know how smart your friend is, but handling what’s right in front of us is more important. Farming isn’t playing house.”
“I don’t think of it as a game.”
At his daughter’s stubbornness, Frederick Harrison messed up his hair in distress before speaking with difficulty.
“There’s no other choice. It’s bad luck that aphids appeared, but that too is part of farming.”
“What do you mean, no other choice! And since we’re on the subject, the aphids appeared because Mr. Raymond applied far more nitrogen fertilizer than usual!”
“What? He used too much nitrogen fertilizer?”
“Yes. The reason I didn’t say anything was because I failed to check the excess nitrogen too. So I’ll take care of this as well!”
“Chloe!”
“Competition or not, the trees will be damaged!”
For a moment, Frederick could only stare blankly at his daughter’s face.
“If we use chemicals, we can deal with it right away, but the trees will be damaged. Ladybugs and lacewings are natural enemies of aphids, so we can handle it within a month.”
“And if you can’t?”
“If I can’t, I won’t resent you even if you give the cherry orchard to my brother.”
“......”
At that moment, Brandon burst through the door and cut in with a sneer.
“Dad, if you listen to Chloe—”
“Enough.”
At the hardened look on Frederick’s face, Brandon sensed the mood and meekly closed his mouth like a little lamb. Then Frederick looked his daughter straight in the eyes and said,
“Fine. I’ll do as you wish.”
“Thank you. I love you, Dad.”
After hugging him tightly, Chloe quickly turned and ran out again, and Frederick watched his daughter’s departing figure with a strange look in his eyes.