Once again, time flew by in the blink of an eye, and a month had passed.
“Brian! The aphids are almost all gone!”
Chloe shouted excitedly at school, but considering the number of ladybugs and lacewings she had collected herself and received through support, I thought it was only natural.
“That’s good. At least you caught them pretty early, so the trees weren’t damaged too badly. The harvest should be fine, right?”
“Exactly. Thanks so much.”
“No need to thank me. I did it all for myself.”
“Actually, my dad said your opinion was really impressive. And when I told him that if I win, he has to give me one ton of cherries at cost, he said even two tons would be possible. I did well, right?”
I tilted my head.
“Two tons?”
By my calculations, roughly 1.2 to 1.4 tons would be enough to make about a thousand bottles of cherry wine. So two tons would, in theory, let us produce around 1,500 bottles. The problem was whether our farm’s storage facilities could handle that much.
“Yeah! What do you think?”
She seemed to be subtly hoping I would be delighted, but I simply thanked her calmly.
“Yeah, thanks.”
“You don’t seem that happy.”
“I am happy. Thanks to you, we should be able to get through this year. If you win, of course.”
Chloe, who still hadn’t fulfilled the condition of actually winning the bet, looked uneasy. Then Armando came running in and spoke up.
“Huh? Chloe. Ethan was looking for you outside.”
“Really?”
“Ethan looked pretty stiff. Did you two fight or something?”
“He was being annoying, so I told him off. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
After saying that, Chloe tossed her hair primly and disappeared.
“Guess they fought.”
As expected, Armando was very interested in other people’s business.
“Guess so.”
“Aren’t you curious? About why they fought?”
“Not really... More importantly...”
I took a small bottle out of my bag.
“What do you think this is?”
“What is it?”
“Vinegar we made on our farm.”
“Oh, this is that stuff?”
“It’s almost finished now, so we need to bottle it, but we have to make a label. I was wondering who to ask. Do you know anyone?”
At my question, Armando gave me a strange look, as if to say, What’s wrong with this guy?
“What? Why?”
“You know better than anyone.”
“I do?”
“Aren’t you close with Rachel?”
Rachel from Taiwan? I tilted my head and tried to recall old memories, then soon let out a quiet exclamation.
“Ah...”
I had only remembered that Rachel later became a lawyer, but then I recalled that when she had been in Taiwan, she had studied art. She had also seriously considered going into design.
“Go ask her.”
“Okay.”
After all the classes ended, I carefully took a bottle out of my bag. The purplish liquid inside the glass bottle sparkled when it caught the sunlight. My target was Rachel, who had just come out of math class, her straight black hair neatly tied back.
“Rachel.”
She raised her head, and her eyes scanned me for a moment. Her slender fingers closed her locker.
“What is it?”
“Do you have a minute? I want to ask you a favor.”
When I slightly lifted the bottle, Rachel’s impassive gaze followed it, then immediately returned to my face.
“What’s that?”
“That’s why I want to talk to you for a minute.”
“... All right.”
I led Rachel into an empty classroom and poured some vinegar into a paper cup for her. The sharp grape scent that wafted out when I opened the bottle soon filled the classroom.
“Wow, is this vinegar?”
“That’s right. I made it with grapes from our farm. Try it.”
“Me? Why?”
“Just try it first.”
She looked slightly suspicious, but perhaps because she decided I wasn’t some weirdo, she soon brought the vinegar to her lips.
“Mmm~ It’s good.”
“Right?”
“Yeah. Since it’s vinegar, I thought it would just be really sour, but... it’s kind of... should I say it has a rich flavor? It feels high-end.”
“Exactly. That’s it.”
“But why did you make me drink this?”
“Actually... this is the first vinegar coming out of our farm. So we don’t even have a label for it.”
“Don’t tell me...?”
“That’s right. Our farm is lacking in a lot of ways, so we don’t have the money to hire a professional company... Could you maybe do it for us?”
“Hmm...”
Honestly, she had no reason at all to do this when she was preparing for college applications. Even so, the reason I could ask with confidence was that this situation wasn’t exactly a loss for Rachel either.
“Think about it. We’re an immigrant-owned farm, and you’d be donating your talent for a farm like ours. Even more importantly, I’m planning to get this into South Coast Plaza, the best department store in the region. In other words, the label you make could be sold at South Coast Plaza.”
“Really?”
“Of course, that’s what I’m going to work toward. It’s not guaranteed. But what do you think? The taste and aroma are genuinely good, right?”
Rachel’s eyes gleamed. South Coast Plaza was the largest shopping center on the West Coast, home to more than 250 boutiques and luxury brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Cartier.
If vinegar bearing a label she made as volunteer work ended up being stocked there, it would surely become an extremely important plus factor when she applied to college.
“It definitely seems a little special... but I’m not a vinegar expert.”
“That’s true. Originally, I was planning to age it for about another month, but I think its current state is ideal, so I’m going to proceed with distribution to various places right away. If the label you make is attached to it then, it’ll be amazing.”
“Hmm... Fine. But I have one condition. Let me put my name as the designer on the label, in small print.”
“Of course I should do at least that much. Deal!”
“Deal!”
Rachel and I bumped fists. As I gathered the bottle and stood up, Rachel asked,
“But are you not seeing Elena these days?”
Rachel suddenly brought up Choi Sujeong, my wife from before the regression.
“Huh? No, I’m not.”
“You two were really close.”
“Ah... Elena is probably disappointed in me. She must have thought I’d go to a university in New York. She probably can’t accept that I’m saying I’ll farm here.”
“... I don’t know. She seems to be having a really hard time.”
I shrugged.
“It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped. I’ve chosen my path, and Elena has her own path. It doesn’t match mine.”
At my cold answer, Rachel flinched slightly, then soon gave a faint smile.
“Yeah. If that’s what you think, then I guess that’s how it is.”
“Anyway, let’s do our best.”
Since I had something else scheduled afterward, I quickly left the classroom with the bottle of vinegar and walked briskly. My next destination was the UC Davis Cooperative Extension. There was someone I needed to deliver the vinegar to.
It wasn’t strange that the Cooperative Extension, which oversaw agricultural education and support in California, existed at one of the most prestigious agricultural universities in the western United States. So it wasn’t difficult to find the office on campus.
“Hello. My name is Brian Choi, and I’m a student at Vintage High School. I came because there’s something I’d like to give Director Pierce Morgan.”
When I visited the office and immediately asked for Pierce Morgan, the staff member standing at the entrance looked flustered, but soon smiled and guided me.
“You’re lucky. You came when Mr. Pierce is in. Could you wait a moment?”
“Of course.”
A short while later, she gestured for me to go inside, and I entered holding the bottle of vinegar.
“Oh, we meet again?”
Mr. Pierce Morgan, who was very tall, had been sitting at his desk, but when he saw my face, he smiled and rose from his seat. He was so tall that I had to snap my head up to look at him.
“Hello. The vinegar I mentioned last time is finished, so I brought some.”
“Is that so?”
He seemed to know that there was some ulterior motive behind my bringing the vinegar in person, but he smiled and gestured for me to sit. When the bottle filled with purplish liquid sloshed as it was placed on the table, he studied it closely.
“Would you like to try some?”
“Of course.”
When I opened the vinegar, the sharp grape aroma instantly spread through the office.
“It smells good.”
“It tastes even better.”
He tasted the vinegar with a teaspoon that happened to be in the office, then opened his eyes wide.
“Wow. This is incredible.”
“Isn’t it?”
He looked into my eyes meaningfully and asked,
“So, I assume you had another reason for bringing this?”
“Haha, yes. Actually, as you can probably tell from our appearance, we’re immigrants. We were working as farm laborers, and then, by chance, a grape farm went bankrupt, so we took over the farm through the SDA, the Socially Disadvantaged Applicant support program for immigrants.”
“That’s an interesting story.”
“We took over and are operating the farm through a low-interest loan, but that doesn’t mean there’s no burden at all. Agriculture is structured so that costs keep accumulating until results come out.”
“That’s true.”
“So we made vinegar, and while I’m confident in the taste, we have a lot of concerns when it comes to marketing.”
He grinned.
“But we can’t sponsor or promote products from individual farms.”
“I know. I was just wondering if you could help us get certified quickly as a farm that uses organic farming methods.”
“You want the certification expedited?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know where organic certification is handled?”
“Of course. It’s handled by the NOP, the National Organic Program, under the USDA. So I know you can’t help directly, Mr. Pierce. But I thought perhaps you could quickly connect us with a certifying agency and an inspector, and consult with us on preparing the documents. What do you think?”
He looked at me with genuine admiration.
“You’re an astonishing kid.”