Chairman Nam returned two hours later.

“Guru-ya, let’s stop playing now. Uncle’s tired... okay?”

As soon as Jeon Byeongho, who had been clinging to Guru and almost begging with tears in his eyes, spotted her, he shot to his feet.

His neatly tied necktie was nearly undone, his jacket had been tossed aside, and one of his dress shoes was nowhere to be seen.

Seeing his slicked-back hair sticking up in all directions, Chairman Nam chuckled and gave Secretary Kim a glance.

The secretary pulled a document out of his bag.

“Pfft. Ahem. Here, this is the real contract. Just skim it and sign. You know it’s hard to rent the venue in a hurry anywhere else, right?”

“How do I know you didn’t slip in some weird clause?”

“As if. Watching the former CEO’s comedy show was more than enough for me.”

Still smiling, Chairman Nam grabbed Jeon Byeongho’s necktie and yanked it up to his throat.

“Today is your warning not to pull any more pathetic stunts. I’m better at screwing over the former CEO than you are. Got it now?”

He spoke right in his ear, and Jeon Byeongho’s shoulders trembled with frustration.

“So you’re going to let us have the venue? Don’t you think you’re looking down on our side too much? You don’t have an S+ either.”

At that, Chairman Nam let out a short laugh.

“Former CEO, when you do business, try looking at the market a little more broadly. Do we look like our target audience is Hunters?”

“...!”

Only then did Jeon Byeongho realize something, and he furrowed his brow.

“It means we’ve been aiming in different directions from the start.”

Right? Chairman Nam patted Guru’s head.

Guru beamed and waved her magic wand lightly.

***

Chairman Nam’s words were proven true by the crowds that gathered starting the day before the pop-up store opened.

[‘Jjapso’ Proves the Throne of Korea’s Crafting World! Pop-Up Store a Massive Success!]

Wearing a suspicious alien hat and a mask, Guru lowered her phone and looked toward the front of the department store.

Massive success—!

The line wrapping around the department store to get into the pop-up store showed no end.

The article wrote about the strange sight of people setting up spots and waiting in line before the department store even opened.

Compared to how Hunters’ expectations were focused on the Inoue Haruna Special Exhibition, the crowds flocking to Jjapso’s pop-up store were mostly regular people.

And the numbers were on a completely different scale from the Hunters.

In the end, Japan’s interference tactics had almost no effect.

“Guess we really didn’t have to worry,” Gidan said with a tone that suggested he wasn’t entirely pleased as he looked at the long line.

If things had gone badly, he’d been ready to storm into the special exhibition and cause trouble.

Serhi didn’t say anything either, but the disappointment on his face was obvious.

Unlike them, Guru worked hard to calm her heart, which was thumping with excitement.

Up until now, she’d only ever done one-on-one face-to-face sales like a peddler or had sold through online proxies, so this was the first time she’d ever witnessed a crowd gathered to buy items she had made.

Amazing!

A thrilling feeling swept over her, like worms in her chest were setting off fireworks and throwing a party.

Guru squeezed her eyes shut, grabbed Gidan’s and Serhi’s hands on either side, and headed for the first floor.

The moment she stepped into the pop-up store set up on the first floor, she opened her eyes.

“...!”

Her mouth fell open on its own.

Taking up the entire first floor of the department store, the pop-up store was decorated like a magical shopping street out of a fairy °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° tale.

In the center stood a giant, unfinished teddy bear statue, and people were lined up next to it to take photos.

In the air, Porro-X plushie items that boosted stamina were flying around with a buzzing sound.

“Wow, they really went all out,” Gidan said, his mouth agape in surprise, and Serhi poked at various items with his fingers as he looked around.

The pop-up store had everything from hands-on zones like assembling chick drones to demonstrations of various items, with plenty for visitors to enjoy, as well as Jjapso’s products on display.

What people were most excited about, of course, was the transformable magic wand!

A children’s transforming toy being sold for the first time at the pop-up store.

It had captured not only children’s hearts, but adults’ as well.

It was so popular that purchases were limited to one per person, but even so, the plentiful queue tickets had already run out.

“What? I waited for hours, and now you’re saying I can’t buy one?”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

Guru saw people leaving the store disappointed after finally getting inside but failing to get a ticket.

Feeling sorry for them, Guru let Gidan and Serhi drag her farther inside.

Then her eyes were caught by the drone assembly.

It was a hands-on zone where you could assemble a drone from various parts, and families or couples sat at tables, working together to build one.

“Gwuu wanna do dat!”

“Again?”

“You can just make one yourself.”

“Stiww.”

Guru pouted. Her mask hid it, but Serhi seemed to notice she was sulking and pressed down on her head.

“Don’t sulk again. I’ll go to the bathroom and then we can do it.”

“Gwuu too!”

“Fine. Gidan, what about you?”

“I’ll wait here for a seat to open up. Go.”

“Suit yourself.”

Leaving Gidan behind, the two moved to the upstairs restroom.

It was as if the pop-up store on the first floor had sucked up all the people; the second floor was practically empty.

'Massive success!'

Reciting the article title to herself, Guru stepped into the first stall.

She was in a good mood when she suddenly heard someone sobbing miserably in the next stall.

["There are too many people... hic..."]

Huh?

'Bathroom ghost?!'

...Probably not.

The crying didn’t stop, going on and on so loudly that it made her heart ache.

Guru finished up quickly and pressed her ear to the wall of the next stall.

["Uwaaah... I couldn’t get it..."]

A foreign language?

'In dat case...'

Guru took out her phone and opened a translation app.

[I couldn’t get it. There were too many people. I’m really just a useless idiot...]

The miserable voice from the next stall was constantly blaming herself.

If she couldn’t get it, it had to be that.

The magic wand.

The purchase line had been so long that by 11 a.m., they’d stopped giving out queue tickets altogether.

If she was a foreigner, she must have come from far away.

Feeling sorry for her, Guru rummaged through her bag.

She currently had three magic wands.

One was the one she’d always carried.

The other two were for her friends Harry and Hwiyeon.

Guru could always get a few more for her friends later, but the foreign unnie crying next to her wouldn’t have an easy time getting one.

After hesitating, Guru nodded.

***

["Sniff!"]

Inoue Haruna sniffled.

'No time to cry. I have to go...'

She didn’t want to disappoint others with her irresponsible behavior.

She was just wiping her tears with the back of her hand and opening the door when—

click-click-click...

“...?”

Along with the sound of an old bicycle wheel turning, an ugly teddy bear mascot appeared through the half-open door.

'Jjapso?'

Before she could decide if it was really her, the teddy bear looked at her face, gasped in surprise, and let out an exclamation.

— You’re...!

["Ah...!"]

She’d taken off her mask to wipe her tears. Haruna hurriedly put her mask back on and pulled her hat low.

— Inoue Haruna?

At the sound of her name, Haruna’s face went pale and she hunched her shoulders.

She knew exactly how much trouble it caused her family and her country for her to be here.

["I’m sorry. Please don’t tell anyone else. I’ll never show up again. I’m really, really sorry."]

She clutched the brim of her hat and lowered her face, at a loss for what to do.

'I must really be an idiot. Please, just this once, let it go.'

She was praying desperately when—

— Inoue Haruna. Is dis pink magic wand yoos, or is dis bwoo magic wand yoos?

["Eh?"]

Looking baffled, she watched as Jjapso pulled out a phone.

With clumsy teddy bear paws, she tapped at the screen, and soon a translated voice played from the phone.

[“Is the pink magic wand yours? Or is the blue magic wand yours?”]

Magic wand? Haruna lifted her head at the incomprehensible question.

The teddy bear on the bike was holding a magic wand in each hand—one pink, one blue.

“...”

In the end, Haruna also turned on her translation app, typed quickly into her phone, and played the audio.

“It’s neither of them.”

The teddy bear’s paw moved over the phone again, and the translation came back:

[“You are a good kid. I gib yoo both.”]

“Eh?”

Haruna received the magic wands in both her open palms.

With the magic stones attached, they were genuine in every way.