An owl cries in the late hours at the Seocheon Flower Garden.
The nights of Seocheon, where people rise and sleep early like any rural village, should be lit only by the lonely moon… but there was one exception: a single hut.
Mujae sat on his blanket, neck craned as he stared intently at his laptop.
On the screen, a man was holding a single peach.
“This is the famed heavenly taste—nectarine peach! They say the Monkey King once tried to steal it and got into huge trouble?!”
Crunch, crunch—the man ate with relish. He gave a thumbs up and shouted,
“Ah~ It melts on your tongue! Don’t be fooled by imitations, or the Jade Emperor will be furious!”
Mujae’s eyes sparkled.
This was the kind of simple content he thought could work for the Seocheon Flower Garden. Somehow, he had ended up on the Promotion Team, even though he knew nothing about it; he pictured himself introducing the flowers.
Shooting the scenery of Seocheon Flower Garden, making vlogs for the SNS manager… But there was one problem.
‘I can’t actually touch the flowers myself.’
Mujae looked at his hands.
They looked normal, but he couldn’t forget the sight of all the grass withering and turning yellow the instant his hand touched it.
Still, he couldn’t give up before even starting.
‘First, I’ll get a map…’
After searching for a map of the Seocheon Flower Garden, Mujae still couldn’t fall asleep for quite some time.
As dawn broke, Mujae rubbed his eyes and headed out.
He practiced filming here and there with his camera and soon ran into Shinsomi, who was on her way to work.
“Good morning! May I ask where you’re headed?”
“?”
Shinsomi tilted her head, puzzled by the stranger’s appearance. Mujae quickly introduced himself.
“I’m Mujae, from the Promotion Team, working under Ggotgam Officer!”
“Ah, the Promotion Team….”
“If it’s not too much trouble, could I walk with you on your way to work? Where do you work?”
“I’m at the Salsal-i Flower Field. I belong to Farming Team 3.”
Although it was awkward, Facilities Team Shinsomi answered with her own introduction and matched her pace to Mujae’s. As Mujae raised his camera, Farming Team 3 waved her hands in surprise.
“You’re not filming, right? My bare face isn’t ready for the camera.”
“R-right! Sorry about that. I’ll just ask questions.”
“Are you trying to film the commute?”
Though filming was refused, the atmosphere was not bad.
Curious about the Promotion Team, whom she’d only heard about through rumors, the farming team member asked a question.
“That’s fine! I’m new to Seocheon Flower Garden myself, so I wanted to look around first.”
“Aha… In that case, want to join us for seedling planting?”
Seedling planting. That literally meant taking the seedlings and planting them in the soil… but Mujae couldn’t explain his situation, so he laughed awkwardly.
“Unfortunately, I don’t really know much about farming…”
“You’re on the Promotion Team of Seocheon Flower Garden but don’t know much about farming?”
Apparently, this was a shocking revelation for the farming team. Unaware that Mujae’s face was turning redder and redder, she offered a gentle alternative.
“Oh, you said you’re new. Then why not sign up for the ?”
“…?”
“Yes, it’s required for all souls who come to Seocheon Flower Garden. They teach you the basics of farming, so you can do well in your next life.”
It was the first time he’d heard of this.
It sounded especially enticing to Mujae, who had recently taken a liking to learning.
But, as always, his [Brown Thumb] gave him pause. Would he even be able to learn farming with these hands?
“I’ll… think about it.”
At Mujae’s answer, the farming team member’s expression hardened strangely. Apparently, Mujae’s awkward response conflicted with her core values.
“If you go about things that way, it’ll be hard for you to live here.”
Her tone turned cold. Mujae responded with feigned surprise.
“Pardon?”
“The most important thing in Seocheon Flower Garden is farming. If you dislike farming, you can’t do anything here.”
She turned away so coldly, it was hard to believe she had been so kind moments ago. She quickly picked up her pace.
“I have to get to work!”
Watching the farming team member’s retreating back, Mujae scratched his head. Making sure no one was around, he reached toward a wildflower growing by the road.
Whoosh—
Again, smoke rose and the plant withered instantly.
He tried touching the grass nearby, but it met the same fate.
Mujae’s lips jutted out in frustration.
At this rate, if he entered the flower fields, he’d surely be punished and kicked out.
He walked on, eventually reaching a hill. Mujae picked up his camera and tried filming the flower fields spreading out below.
The Seocheon Flower Garden on his screen was beautiful.
He recalled the surveillance bird Facilities Team Shinsomi had shown him on his first day.
‘It’s too far—I can’t see the flowers properly.’
He didn’t think he’d get the shot he wanted this way.
This time, he took out his tripod from his bag, set the camera up, and posed in front of the flower fields.
“Hello! This is the Seocheon Flower Garden Promotion Team. See those flowers in full bloom?!”
He filmed about five seconds, then checked the video. But at that distance, there was no way the flowers could be seen.
In the end, Mujae went back down the hill.
‘I want to shoot the flowers close up.’
The flowers he’d researched from Seocheon were truly strange.
There was the Joints Flower, with stems like little bamboo shoots, or the Salsal-i Flower, with rough leaves and smooth petals.
He wanted to film those, but there was no way to do so from afar. Still, Shinsomi’s cold attitude earlier weighed on his mind.
‘Judging by her reaction, if I don’t help with the farming, she might kill me.’
And if he revealed his [Brown Thumb], she’d probably freak out even more.
He even considered asking Sara to do the filming for him.
“Huh?”
At his feet was a single crimson glove. He picked it up—thick leather, looking almost like a rubber glove.
Did the farming team drop this earlier?
‘Maybe…’
A new idea sparked with hope. Mujae slipped the glove onto his left hand; the cuff reached up to his elbow.
Heart pounding, he reached for the nearest grass.
The moment his fingers brushed a leaf, he held his breath.
One second, two seconds, three…
Nothing happened.
“Whoa!!”
Mujae couldn’t help but shout. Just then—
“Hey!”
In the distance, the farming team member Shinsomi came running.
Unlike before, she seemed truly in a hurry, practically sprinting to Mujae’s side, panting for breath.
“Huff… That’s my glove….”
“Where can I get one of these?!”
“Huh?”
Faced with Mujae’s teary, desperate gaze, the farming team member was left speechless.
“‘Gardening gloves,’ huh. You found a good solution.”
Ggotgam Officer, who had again come in for work at the end of the day, checked the footage Mujae had shot.
The monitor showed a strange, fuzzy seedling being filmed up close. Mujae appeared wearing crimson gloves on both hands.
-Seocheon’s pride, the ‘Salsal-i Flower’ seedling!
Mujae’s genuinely bright smile was a bonus. But the present Mujae, standing beside him, asked anxiously.
“Is this okay?”
“We’ll see how it goes. If not, you could always glue the gloves to your hands.”
“I almost feel like doing that.”
He’d been so anxious the seedling might wither during filming.
As Mujae let out a sigh of relief, his superior spoke up ominously.
“But you know…”
At Ggotgam Officer’s unusually serious tone, Mujae’s pupils flickered with worry. But thankfully, the next words brought good news.
“A teammate you’ve been waiting for is scheduled to arrive.”
“Really?!”
Mujae’s big round eyes sparkled in anticipation.
Seeing his frog-like expression, Ggotgam Officer let out a raucous laugh.
“He’s a foreign student from the West. A proper young master.”
“A young master?”
“Yeah. He wants to learn wheat cultivation, and his situation is similar to yours.”
What did he mean by ‘similar to yours’? Mujae’s eyebrow arched skeptically, but Sara laughed again.
“He doesn’t have any real abilities either. You’ll see when you meet him.”
Having finished today’s work, Sara stretched and stood up.
“He’ll arrive tomorrow, so maybe you should go welcome him.”
“Tomorrow?!”
It had already been five days since Mujae came to Seocheon.
His very first teammate was set to arrive on Friday, right before the weekend.