Dusk falls, without the notice of Miyawaki Sakura. There were few customers today and they mainly came for grandma's umeboshi. Her internet promotions seemed to have worked a bit although there are still not enough sales to sustain the grocery store.

When Sakura walked outside the store to collect the advertisement banners, the street lamps suddenly went on. She looks up. The sky is still painted with strips of greyish orange and has not gone totally dark. It is beautiful. She has been working all alone in the store this afternoon, busy dusting goods and reorganizing the shelves, and she somehow feels happy about it.

She closes the shutters. Chaeyeon has the keys to another entrance on the shop floor, but what worries her is that grandma has not been back yet. She texted her but she didn't even bother to read.

It took Sakura 3 minutes to finish the sales summary and she walks back down the basement, alone this time.

Images of Lee Chaeyeon walking backwards down the stairs keep popping up. She did not expect her to be this kind. She is lucky to have such a nice person to be her first guest. It gives her more confidence to receive future guests. 

But there is something more. There is a sense of familiarity in the foreigner she just met a few hours ago. Maybe this shows the power of the internet. But she feels it is not just that...

While deeply engaged in her thoughts, Sakura suddenly feels her feet slipping a bit. That pulls her back to reality. She must stay focused on the steps from now on, she warns herself. 

Since grandma is nowhere to be seen, Sakura decided she will make dinner for herself. She cooked some soba and mixed a box of natto with a dip of umeboshi paste, and filled a bowl with pickled vegetables. 

While she was cooling the soba with ice cubes, she heard the noise of a car approaching, then it stops. She knows grandma is coming back, at last.

Rino looks quite tired as she approaches the kitchen with a big shopping bag. 

"What happened grandma, why do you look so tired? Are you okay?"

Rino does not answer but just grabs a seat at the dining table.

"Have you eaten?"

Rino shakes her head. 

Something is not right. Sakura thinks. 

"I cooked some soba..."

"You eat." Rino cuts Sakura off. Her voice is a bit hoarse.

"Something is wrong." Sakura stares at Rino sharply.

"It's not like what you think," Rino returns the glaze.

"Then what am I thinking of?" Sakura raises an eyebrow.

Rino is startled, "you win."

Sakura can't help but smiles, "what are you talking about!"

"I said my Saa-chan is so smart. Nothing can escape her eyes."

"But you're so obvious!"

"Okay, I want the soba." Rino declares. 

"Hey, you are changing the subject!"

"I'm hungry."

"Okay." Obediently, Sakura dries the soba and puts it on the dining table. 

"Soba sauce. I don't want your weird natto paste."

Sakura rolls her eyes and opens the fridge.

"What's that smell?" Rino rises and moves towards the fridge. 

"What..."

Rino peeks into the fridge and laughs, pointing to Chaeyeon's kimchi box.

"Your Korean girl!"

"Hey, you should not be prejudiced...and...it's delicious!" Sakura pouts.

"Delicious!" Rino exclaims. "You can never eat anything bitter or spicy, and now you say kimchi is delicious! Did I hear it wrong?"

"But," Sakura decides she has to defend kimchi this time. "If you wash away all the pepper and chop it into fine pieces, it's very delicious."

Rino smirks, "who did this for you?"

Sakura feels herself blushing. 

"So Saa-chan finally got a friend?"

Sakura feels her face burning up and she cannot stop her grin, so she quickly turns her back against Rino to make another portion of soba.

"She is just a guest." She says after a while.

With her back facing grandma, she could not see how Rino is covering laughing in silence.

Rino deliberately eats slowly while waiting for Sakura.

"So how are today's sales?” Only after Sakura finished half of what she has prepared, Rino began to ask.

"There were 4 customers. 1 elementary school kid bought a bag of milk candy, another 3 bought 4 packs of umeboshi and 1 pack of chips. 2 expensive packs and 2 cheaper packs of umeboshi were sold."

"So Satoru's idea works?"

"Yes. With your genius grandaughter's hard work."

"Yes, my genius grandaughter, sure, thanks, dear." Rino laughs and then says casually. "Guess we should really start to think about changing our business model."

Yes! Here we start! Sakura cries "bingo" in her heart, but doesn't show any emotion on her face.

"Should we do it slowly?"

"No. 16 years have been slow enough."

Sakura eyes widen. She never expected these words to come out from grandma's mouth.

"I should have thought about change after your grandfather had a ...but you know..."

"Yes, I understand." Sakura reaches out to hold Rino's hand.

"No. It's not like what you think." Rino's tone is resolute and without any emotion, "taking care of your grandfather was a hard job, so the business actually took my mind away from my sufferings, at least for a few hours a day."

Sakura nods, "yes, I agree. I felt much happier after I could climb up the stairs and help you."

"But I dare not change anything after he passed away. Don't think that I am very sentimental, I am not. I just don't know what to do. Only by keeping the store I can have some money to repay his debts. If I have any other choice, I will not keep this store."

Sakura looks at Rino and cannot say a word.

"So, Saa-chan, do you have anything in mind after being the manager of the Miyawaki Grocery Store for 2 months?" After a long silence, Rino tries to restart the conversation in a playful tone.

"Hey, since when did I become the manager of the Miyawaki Grocery Store?"

"Oh, I am the CEO and I have appointed you to be the manager!"

"Grandma!" Sakura cannot hold back her laughter, "what else is on your mind?"

"Seriously, I want to do a startup. The government is now providing funding for it."

"How do you know these buzz words?"

"Well, the coop has many good seminars."

Sakura drops her jaw. But there is no law against a 64-year-old to do a startup. She suddenly understands why grandma looked so tired when she came home. She must have gone through a TMI day in the coop, or have been talking to a lot of people about her store and the startup thing.

At this time, there is a noise of a door opening from the shop floor.

"Your Korean girl," Rino says, pressing her voice down.

"Hey, she has a name!" 

Rino giggles and waves Sakura off. "I'd better take a shower first and get to bed. You organize the grocery – there is no bitter melon. Good night, Saa-chan."

She then stood up and left.

*******************

For the whole afternoon, Lee Chaeyeon has been walking around the Taniyama neighborhood. She believes the only way to explore the community is to see it on foot, to observe and talk to people, and visit local shops.

She wikied and found that Taniyama only became a city in the late 1950s and then being combined into Kagoshima City in the late 1960s, so its urban development pace is far slower than the northern part. And this actually made it interesting. Although most buildings are not as old as Chaeyeon has expected, irregular small grids and narrow allies mark an organic and human scale of development, and it is one of the best inspirations for urban planners. Also, only under this slow pace of development, old buildings like the Miyawaki Grocery Store can be kept.

Oh, Miyawaki again! Chaeyeon suddenly realized she has been unconsciously tracing Sakura's footsteps. When she was walking past an elementary school, she would picture the young Sakura going to school in a cute uniform and sun hat. When she entered a convenience store, her legs would bring her to the snacks section and picked 2 packs of dry Konbu seaweed with plum flavor. Then she would never forget to ask people she talked to if they knew the Miyawaki Grocery Store.

Unexpectedly, granny Rino is pretty popular, especially among the older generation.

“We were classmates. Sasshi is a very smart woman. She is capable of doing anything! She always ranks number one in school.” In the park, one old woman told Chaeyeon.

“Sasshi?”

“Yes, her maiden nam