Chick 258
by Cristae258
“Ah, I didn’t get my stamps!”
“Stamps?”
Groo pulled out a laminated sheet, about the size of a notebook, from her bag.
On it, there were three spaces drawn, waiting for stamps.
“If I become a good police officer and get all the stamps here, the PR team manager will give me a present.”
“Give it here. I’ll stamp them all for you.”
When Joorim tried to snatch away the sheet, Groo clung to his arm and shook it vigorously.
“N-nooo~ Don’t do that~!”
In the end, having wrestled her sheet back, Groo glared at him with narrowed eyes, like a cuttlefish.
With you always trying to take the easy way out, it’s no wonder there’s no one to help you when you’re in trouble.
“You have to live honestly, Daddy.”
Joorim, feeling oddly chagrined, replied half-heartedly,
“Who could be more honest than Daddy?”
Groo turned her head away in a pout, completely ignoring him, then pulled a cart from her bag.
It was loaded with an assortment of drinks.
Groo, reading from her script, recited stiffly,
“Daddy, try this. It’s really cool and sweet. I’ve never tasted anything like it before.”
With a solemn attitude that seemed to proclaim to the world she was shooting a commercial, Groo handed him the product.
She also gave Joorim the script.
The script described in detail exactly how to film the PPL segment.
Joorim looked thoroughly displeased as he read the script, but he couldn’t refuse the camera-wielding Groo’s insistent gaze, and so he played along.
Following the script, he drank the beverage, then recited his line.
“It’s true. My thirst is gone in an instant. For quenching thirst, nothing beats ‘O2 Vitamin Water.’”
“Cut!”
Groo shouted and waved a hand in disapproval.
“You’ve got no soul, no soul at all.”
“And where did you pick up that line?”
“On a shoot.”
“…….”
I’ll make sure she never goes on set again.
As Joorim silently swore this to himself, Groo made him shoot the PPL scene over and over.
Joorim thought it unfair to be singled out for poor acting, but under the director’s constant nagging, he had no choice but to perform with all the soul Groo could desire.
“Great!”
Finally, when Director Groo gave her OK, Joorim slumped onto a bench in the hallway and bowed his head.
Groo came bouncing over, bent down, and peered up at him.
“Daddy, are you crying?”
“……I’m crying.”
Groo hugged him tightly and patted his back, comforting him.
“Cheer up, Daddy. There are some things in life you have to do, even if you don’t like them.”
“…Yes, I know.”
At that moment, as Joorim sounded truly on the verge of tears—
“Guildmaster, there you are! But, your outfit…”
Chief Yoon from the secretariat, having found him, trailed off as he took in Joorim’s attire, as though he now understood it all.
“We have a call from Japan. You’ll want to take it.”
“From Japan?”
Joorim straightened up.
“Daddy has to go do some work. Will you be alright?”
“Yesh. I have P-P-P to shoot, so it’s okay.”
“That’s PPL.”
“Mmhmm, that stuff.”
“Daddy will be busy for a bit. Will you go with the gentleman?”
“Alright.”
Joorim took the stairs back to the Guildmaster’s office, while Groo, trailing obediently after Chief Yoon, mulled over her stamp sheet in deep thought.
“Chief, where are there lots of people who need help?”
“Help…? Probably the lobby, I’d say. There are a lot of people unfamiliar with Orchestra coming and going there.”
“Aha!”
Inoue Genzo, automatic interpreter earpieces in his ears, studied a building in Yeouido.
At the sight of the Orchestra logo, his granddaughter’s words echoed in his mind.
[- The truth is, making things hasn’t made me happy for a long time.]
Genzo knew better than anyone how timid his granddaughter truly was.
But something must’ve happened to her in Korea, for she had told him this.
Not only did she no longer enjoy creating, but she had no talent for it and was thinking of giving up entirely.
She hadn’t had the courage to say it face-to-face, so she’d called—but that, in itself, was a remarkable step forward.
Very well, he thought; whatever else, it was good. It was galling that she’d felt that way, but it meant she’d faced something and finally regained her resolve.
But Haruna’s bombshell did not end there.
[- When I graduate, I want to go to Orchestra in Korea.]
She dared to say she would not return to her family? And for that reason, to go to Orchestra?
Orchestra’s infamy was well-known even in Japan.
Yet to think the very reason his granddaughter refused to return home was Orchestra itself!
‘Is that why Orchestra hasn’t disclosed that Haruna isn’t S-rank?’
In Korea, they would have wanted to draw on Japan’s national power, so it was in their interest not to reveal that Haruna wasn’t S-rank.
That way, they could claim to have recruited a Japanese S-rank.
For Japan, it would also be difficult to backpedal and admit that their supposed S-rank was a fake.
‘…What a mess I’ve made.’
His involvement in making a fake S-rank had been out of nothing but pride.
The fact that the Inoue family had failed to produce an S-rank crafter still weighed on him like a stone.
He’d thought that even if it came out that she wasn’t S-rank, the family could cover everything up by rallying and producing an S+ rank soon after.
They just needed to buy time—yet the truth had come out so easily.
With the family’s honor in tatters, on the very brink of ruin…
[“You want to go to Orchestra? Have you lost your mind?!”]
[- There is someone at Orchestra who’s taught me to love making things again. I’ve made my decision, Grandpa.]
To suddenly say she wanted to go to Korea—let alone to Orchestra.
‘Someone has taught her to love making things again?’
Ha! Genzo snorted in disbelief.
It must have been terribly easy to win over a naïve child who knew nothing.
If On Joorim, with his slick, evasive face, had sidled up and spun a web, it made a warped kind of sense.
‘On Joorim… Kazuki wasn’t enough, so now Haruna too…!’
Even if she was a bit lacking, Haruna was a direct descendant of the Inoue line.
‘I can’t leave her in someone else’s hands.’
Today, he had come to give On Joorim—who had seduced his child—a sharp lesson.
And to take Haruna back to Japan.
Tread. Tread. Tread.
He entered the Orchestra headquarters.
‘Where might On Joorim be?’
Genzo, fuming, surveyed his surroundings with a piercing gaze—
When suddenly, someone gently tugged on his sleeve.
“Grandpa! Do you need help?”
“What?”
It was a child’s voice, sounding perhaps five years old.
The child wore a uniform like a security guard and looked up at him, eyes shining, asking, “Help? Need help?”
“Orchestra has even children like you working as security?”
Not understanding, Groo stood there, mouth agape.
Well, they had made her work for Orchestra.
Nod, nod.
Tsk tsk, Genzo clicked his tongue.
“As sly as their reputation suggests.”
“Kansa? Kamsahamnida—thank you!”
“You can’t even understand properly…”
“Kamsahamnida!”
“Alright, then.”
Groo smiled widely.
At that smile, Genzo felt his anger melt away and chuckled helplessly.
“Grandpa, Groo can show you anywhere you want to go.”
“Alright then. I want to see On Ju—no, wait…”
“…?”
Genzo stroked his chin, cutting off his words.
What he truly wanted was to storm over and roar at On Joorim.
But haranguing On Joorim wouldn’t be enough to bring his granddaughter back of her own accord.
Indeed, for a girl like Haruna, once set on something, a challenge would only make her more stubborn.
So, Genzo thought, it might be better to calmly show her the reality of Orchestra and persuade her.
If they made children do security work, surely their crafting support was just as lacking.
If she had come to love her craft again, she had to know—the only place where that spirit could truly blossom was the Inoue family, with its long, proud tradition of master artisans.
Definitely not with some fly-by-night group like Orchestra!
“Very well, child. Where is Orchestra’s equipment workshop? Lead the way.”
“Gasp! The workshop… Not just anyone can go in there…”
“Is that so? Then never mind.”
Resigned to fall back on his original plan—give On Joorim a piece of his mind—Genzo paused as Groo, intent on her stamp sheet, suddenly grabbed his hand.
“I’ll take you! But, Grandpa, you have to give Groo a stamp.”
“Stamp?”
Groo held up the sheet with both hands.
“This one.”
“Alright, why not.”
“Heehee!”
Genzo quirked up one corner of his mouth.
Groo took the lead, guiding him onto the elevator.
As soon as the employees inside saw her, they greeted Groo with smiles and asked for photos, lavishing her with affection.
‘Is this child… some kind of mascot for Orchestra?’
Genzo, for once, found himself thinking the company had chosen a cute mascot.
He followed Groo out at her stop.
[Crafting Lab]
As they trailed down the corridor, Groo opened the door with a keycard while Genzo folded his arms, face set, ready to find fault with whatever he saw.
Beep—
Finally the doors opened, and as Genzo stepped into the crafting laboratory, he grumbled under his breath,
“…What is all this…?”