Side Story: Domestic Travel?
Side Story: Domestic Travel?
Arini held my hand and hummed a little tune.
We were at Lee Min-ho's house for the first time in a while and waiting at the front gate.
Lately, he'd been saying he was busy filming travel content for Ulleungdo, but apparently he got home yesterday and was taking it easy.
So he'd contacted us, suggesting we meet up after so long.
Though "after so long" only amounted to about two weeks.
His sense of time just didn't seem to improve no matter how old he got.
Clunk.
As I covered my mouth to stifle a huge yawn, the impossibly heavy door swung open.
Hadn't he said something about beefing up the verification procedures after some incident a while back?
"Daddy, let's go in."
"Alright, alright."
Since I'd been mid-yawn, Arini took hold of my hand and pulled me inside.
She took after her mother—possessed considerable brute strength from a young age.
I met Lee Min-ho at outdoor cafés more often than at his house, so I took a look around the layout of his place, which I hadn't seen in a while.
As expected, it was impeccably maintained, with stunning decorative pieces that clearly cost a pretty penny.
But Arini paid no attention to any of that—she just beamed and dashed ahead.
Was she that happy to see the kid after so long?
"Lee Min-ho! Your hyung is here!"
When we reached the front of the building, I called out to Lee Min-ho in a quiet voice.
Speak of the tiger and it appears—the door clunked and swung wide open.
There stood Lee Min-ho, grinning wryly.
"What do you mean, 'hyung.'"
Lee Min-ho stuck out his tongue, retorting something about me being a frozen-to-death hyung.
Right in front of my daughter, too... he really did act like a child.
"You know I was the one who helped you plan that Ulleungdo travel content this time, right?"
"Huh? Really?"
Lee Min-ho had completely transformed from a Qtuber who filmed weird food review videos into a travel Qtuber.
And in a Young and Rich concept, no less.
It seemed he'd initially wanted to start with overseas travel, but I'd talked him out of it, so he was currently touring domestic destinations.
He'd been hopping around here and there, and I remembered hearing that the sea around Ulleungdo was beautiful, so I'd tipped off the PD.
"Anyway, no point chatting at the door—let's go inside."
"Where's Ji-ye?"
"In the living room. She's been making a huge fuss asking when Arini was coming."
"Then why'd you tell her and make her wait?"
The thought that she was still just a kid brought a smile to my face before I knew it.
Come to think of it, Ji-ye had been five when she got lost and ended up a missing child, hadn't she?
Back when she used to cling to me so happily, she was incredibly cute.
Well, she still tried to stick close to me even now.
It was just that shyness came with it, so she couldn't be as openly enthusiastic.
I trudged into the living room.
I'd thought our place was incredibly spacious, being a penthouse in a hugely expensive apartment building, but compared to Lee Min-ho's house, it was a drop in the bucket.
His living room alone was probably bigger than our entire apartment.
"Unnie!"
"Arin-ah!"
The moment she spotted Ji-ye watching TV in the living room, Arini ran over and threw herself into a hug.
She held her tight like a real little sister, stroked her hair, then looked this way and greeted me.
"Hello, Seong-hwan oppa."
"You been well? It's been a while."
"Hehe, I've been great."
Ji-ye scratched her head and laughed, looking a bit embarrassed.
She was eleven now—basically all grown up.
"Ji-ye. Oppa's going to head out for a bit, so play with Arini."
"Where are you going?"
"Just to the café out front."
"Okay. Are you eating lunch out?"
"Yeah."
Ji-ye and Lee Min-ho's exchange was remarkably straightforward.
Was this what conversations between real siblings were like?
I'd expected them to be more clingy, given the big age gap.
There was a sixteen-year difference, wasn't there?
"Arin-ah. Daddy's going to head out front for a bit."
"Okay!"
"Have fun playing with Ji-ye unnie."
"Okay!"
That also felt pretty straightforward.
Whatever happened to my daughter, the one who used to burst into tears and beg me not to go?
"...Arin-ah. Daddy, kiss."
Smack.
I tapped my cheek and asked for a kiss, and Arini came right over and planted one on my cheek.
Maybe a little embarrassed, she gave a bashful smile and then flung herself into a tight hug.
***
"Haaah... maybe I should get married too. I want a daughter like Arini."
"What are you waiting for, still not doing it? Minji just got her license, so you should go ahead now."
"Right? Guess it's about time, huh?"
Lee Min-ho had already been dating Minji for five years.
I'd thought it wouldn't last long, but they were still going on proper dates every single week and getting along great—that was genuinely impressive.
Especially considering how his ex-girlfriend before Minji was absolute trash.
"But should I wait for Minji to propose first?"
"Hey, guys propose a lot these days too."
People's attitudes had shifted so much that there were even TV variety shows dedicated to helping men propose.
The stereotype that proposals were something women did had been completely smashed.
"Still, wanting to be proposed to by a woman... isn't that pretty much the same for all guys?"
"That goes for women too, you know. Getting proposed to by the other person."
"Hmm... yeah, I guess so."
Lee Min-ho nodded as if that made sense and put the straw in his mouth.
Seeing him seriously mull it over made me think he was really considering Minji's feelings—I liked that.
In my case, A-ra had proposed, and then later I'd sort of proposed back to her in return.
A mutual give-and-take felt like the best way.
"Proposal aside, how do we even handle the wedding and stuff..."
"You can just split it fifty-fifty."
"Minji's still a college student. Where would she get the money?"
"Then you cover it all. Or I'll pitch in half."
Could I really not spare some money for my little sister's wedding?
If Minji's mom was our mom too, then wasn't I practically her real dad?
But Lee Min-ho shook his head.
"Forget it, man. I've got plenty of money too, okay? And Mom and Dad will handle things just fine."
"Well, that's true, but... how much money do you actually have?"
"I've passed a million subscribers now too. It's on a completely different level from back when I was just a hundred-K nobody."
"I'm over fifteen million."
"......You lucky bastard."
Lee Min-ho clicked his tongue in envy.
He started crunching the leftover ice in his finished drink cup.
All the same, trying to pick a fight with me over subscriber count...
"What about housing? Are you going to move out?"
"Of course I am. I'm thinking of moving into your apartment complex, actually."
"Really? Well, our place isn't bad, that's for sure."
It was safe, and the community facilities were great.
Plus, being close to our place meant we could see each other often—that would be nice.
"Should I scout out a unit for you first, then?"
"Really?"
"I can just buy it and resell it to you."
"...Nah, I think I'd better just buy one myself in advance."
He patted my shoulder and said it was best to avoid that kind of talk as much as possible—who knew what weird rumors might start floating around.
Was what I said really so wrong?
*
"So, how's the travel content working out?"
To be honest, travel content was something I'd wanted to try myself.
But I was already married and had a kid—there was no way I could just run off to another country alone, was there?
On top of that, foreign countries were pretty dangerous.
A man traveling alone was practically a suicide mission.
That was why I'd recommended domestic travel over overseas trips to Lee Min-ho.
He could film the overseas stuff later when he traveled with Minji.
"It's just pure fun. I don't even do my own editing anymore, so it's comfortable as hell."
"When you set off on a world tour, maybe I'll tag along too."
"You're a married man, what are you talking about... go with your wife."
"Tch...."
He wasn't wrong, so I had no comeback.
If I were going to travel, the best bet would be to take A-ra and Arini to a safe country like Japan or somewhere in Europe.
"Maybe I'll try a little domestic travel around Korea myself? There's no country as safe as Korea, right?"
"That's true. Don't they say that if a guy says he's walking around alone at night abroad, people ask if he's insane?"
There was probably nowhere in the world as safe at night as the Republic of Korea and Japan.
Now this was real gukppong.
But apparently, when foreigners come to Korea, they can't adjust and won't go outside at night.
Since most foreigners consider foreign countries to be dangerous places.
"But is it okay if travel videos go up on a cooking YouTube channel?"
"Why wouldn't it be? If it's overseas travel, you just post videos of the tasty food you ate in that country."
"What about domestic travel?"
"Domestic travel has famous dishes for every destination too, doesn't it? Dakgalbi in Chuncheon, bibimbap in Jeonju, stuff like that."
"But that's a bit cliché. Isn't it way too red ocean?"
True enough...
Domestic travel was, after all, just places where Korean people lived.
Even though my channel had a pretty high percentage of foreign subscribers, Koreans were still the majority.
And wasn't Korea such a small country that people were living in every nook and cranny?
Domestic travel content could be an interesting video for some people, but for others it might just be their ordinary daily life.
It was truly a double-edged sword.
That was why overseas travel content was so hugely popular.
Wasn't it content that let people who couldn't go abroad experience vicarious satisfaction?
"Ah. Now you're making me want to film world travel content. Maybe I should just bolt out there."
"Yeah. If you go without company permission, your MCN contract gets canceled~"
"Grgh..."
No matter how close Lee Min-ho had been with the Director since they were kids...
If he went ahead with something that dangerous without discussing it with the company, getting booted was only natural.
"I'll swing by Jeju this time... then start from Ttangkkeut Village and work my way around the Jeolla Province area."
"How about Bogildo?"
"Bogildo? I think I've heard of it somewhere."
"You know, that place. Where Yun Seon-do was shipwrecked on his way into exile in Jeju and ended up settling there."
It was a place I wanted to visit someday.
Just how beautiful was it that Yun Seon-do had chosen to live out the rest of his life there?