Six Years Old
Round eyes, a sharp little nose, and even the charming curve of her mouth when she smiled.
And that wasn’t all.
For a child her age, she had surprisingly deft fingers, and she was bright enough to understand what adults said almost immediately.
Every now and then she even tossed out an adult imitation or two, which was proof enough that she was a genius.
Is there really another creature in this world as lovable as our daughter?
Lee Jeonghwan believed it with complete sincerity.
Not because he was hopelessly besotted with his daughter, but because he was objectively, seriously convinced.
Knock, knock.
“Princess! Time to wake up.”
It was a pity that a six-year-old already had to be woken up by knocking, but what could he do? Kids these days grew up fast.
Creaaak—
Just then, the bedroom door cracked open, and a small figure emerged, rubbing sleepy eyes with one hand and dragging herself out in a fuzzy daze.
“Did our princess wake up?”
The room had been decorated with meticulous care: pale pink wallpaper, seafoam curtains, and a cloud-shaped mobile that drifted above the headboard like spun sugar.
This was the kind of room a princess ought to live in.
The room had been prepared even before she was born, and it was still pink from wall to wall.
“……”
Instead of answering, his daughter Lee Chaewon stuck out her lower lip.
She glared up at him as if something had thoroughly offended her.
Even that expression was so cute it barely registered as sulking and came off more like endearing pouting.
Wasn’t it practically cheating for even her annoyed face to be this adorable?
Jeonghwan, already showing severe symptoms of daughter-fool syndrome, was interrupted from his idle thoughts when his daughter mumbled, tiny but clear, “I’m not a princessss….”
In her other hand, a teddy bear she’d slept with all night hung limply.
He smiled fondly at his daughter’s utterly unconvincing protest.
If you like it, you could just say so.
She was always so stubbornly honest about not being honest.
“Okay, okay. Want breakfast? Should I bring Mr. Teddy too?”
“Ew… why is this in my hand…!”
His daughter’s face crumpled even further, but even that was lovely beyond reason.
***
When I first opened my eyes, my mind was as hazy as though it had been wrapped in thick fog.
Unfamiliar faces crowded my vision, and I couldn’t move even a single finger the way I wanted.
Let go! Let go of this!
After a while of flailing helplessly, two things gradually became clear.
First, for some reason, I was a newborn baby.
Second, the man and woman grinning foolishly in front of me were apparently my parents.
Huh…?
But why do I know all of this?
Even as I wriggled inside this tiny, soft body, I couldn’t help finding it strange.
I focused hard, trying to understand what was happening.
And then I found the memories of my past life, scattered through my mind like shards of broken glass.
A cramped single-room rental.
The glow of a monitor burning through the night.
The game I’d clung to day and night—more precisely, the trading I did inside that game.
A huge event had sent the game’s popularity soaring, and I’d gotten so excited I stayed up for several nights in a row.
And then I guess I just… dropped dead. Dying in my twenties, seriously?
I could barely remember my own name.
For a moment I wondered if I’d finally lost my mind, but there was no other explanation for the kind of information that had no business being inside a newborn’s head.
So these people are my parents?
“Gaaah— peekaboo!”
I stared blankly at the man who thrust his smiling face toward me with an expression full of warm delight.
Thanks to growing up in an orphanage, I honestly didn’t even know what a parent’s love was supposed to feel like.
And on top of that, I had to carry all this bizarre leftover memory around too.
Well, now what.
Unlike my own bottom-tier life, my parents looked incredibly bright and cheerful.
Still…
As I quietly watched that gentle smile, something in my chest began to tickle.
If this really was a second chance granted to a life that had ended in misfortune, then maybe—just this once—I could live differently.
Yeah. If I’m going to be a good son, I should live this life right.
I was making a rather dependable, almost absurdly mature resolve for a baby when—
“Aww, our daughter! Who do you take after to be this pretty?”
“Take after who? Me, obviously.”
……Wait.
Our daughter?
“She hasn’t cried at all. Is that really okay?”
“Of course. She cried when she first came out, remember? She’s fine.”
“Phew. Maybe it’s because our daughter is just so composed.”
No, hold on, I’m a so—
“Daddy decorated your room beautifully. You’ve worked very hard, princess.”
Was it because of the sudden change in environment, or because something down below suddenly felt strangely empty?
……Am I a girl?
“Oh my?”
I tried desperately to swallow the tears welling up in my throat.
“Waaahhh!”
“Oh dear, what a very healthy little daughter you have.”
“Haha, don’t cry, don’t cry—”
Maybe it was because my body was so weak, but my tear ducts refused to listen to me.
I was doomed….
...
……Oddly enough, all that worry turned out to be unnecessary, because the next six years went astonishingly well.
With surprisingly skilled fingers, I clicked the buttons on the remote.
Heh. Stupid Dad.
To think he’d dare put on Pororo for me and then leave the room.
Adults were so careless sometimes.
I wasn’t some helpless infant anymore; operating electronics was child’s play for me.
“Oh, hweh.”
While I was flipping channels, I briefly got distracted by a cartoon I’d never seen before.
But I shook my head hard and quickly moved on to something else.
Haaah…. Children’s cartoons are way too addictive.
What kind of adult mind couldn’t even hold out against a single cartoon episode?
Wasn’t this a bigger problem than alcohol or cigarettes?
Exposing kids to such terrifying addiction… adults are truly insane about money…!
I’d uncovered one of the world’s cruelest secrets.
I’d never even had the chance to see them in my previous life, so I’d had no idea.
It was despicable how Mom and Dad would put on cartoons whenever they were busy and disappear.
I’d just be watching, thinking, What is this? and then, whoa—time would be gone before I knew it.
Those tiny little characters were on screen, so what was supposed to be so fun about them?
Lately, I’d even found myself playing with the cartoon character plushies Dad had bought, and it had startled me.
This is dangerous. Very dangerous. Cartoons are monsters.
If even someone like me—a proper adult—was being affected this badly, then for actual children… horrifying.
I gathered my resolve and switched the channel to the news.
It wasn’t exactly entertaining, but…
For me, it was necessary research.
The date in the corner of the screen.
The anchor’s wording.
The captions scrolling along the bottom.
Everything belonged to the past.
Not only had I been given a new life.
I’d also landed in a different point in time.
How shocked I’d been when I learned the year after living carelessly for so long.
Ever since then, I’d been secretly collecting information by reading newspapers and watching the news whenever my parents weren’t looking.
Tsk. I should’ve taken investing more seriously in my past life!
What good was the grand advantage of having come from the future?
The truth was, aside from my own affairs, I’d had the slightest interest in stocks or real estate or any of that stuff.
Well, at least I knew enough to survive in the future—messengers, portalsites, that sort of thing. Wasn’t that something?
Crypto? I feel like that was a trend too.
Once I got to elementary school, I was going to ask them to open a stock account for me.
Maybe I could just buy in there, right?
“Haaah.”
A sigh escaped me on its own.
My memories of my previous life were growing hazier by the day, and since I’d never written anything down ahead of time, there wasn’t much I could remember anyway—I'd been a man who’d made money only by playing games for a living, after all.
Ugh! If I’d known, I should’ve at least paid attention to the news!
Just as I was agonizing over it alone, Dad, who had stepped away for a moment, came back with something hidden behind his back.
“Chaewon—ta-da!”
Today was Christmas.
Last year, my parents had waited until I fell asleep and then sneaked a present beside my pillow, insisting it was from Santa.
—Santa doesn’t exist. Daddy’s dumb.
After I’d told them the truth, they’d been forced to wait until I was asleep with great difficulty, so this year I was receiving the present right in front of them.
But now that I was actually getting it this way, it felt a little dull…
The magic of surprise is gone.
I realized it too late, but who could I blame?
Santa in our house had been killed by me.
As I stared blankly at the wrapping paper, Dad peeled open the box.
Inside was a bead accessory-making kit.
A set for threading colorful beads onto thin string to make bracelets or necklaces.
“What do you think, our princess? Do you like it?”
“…Nope.”
Of course I wouldn’t like it.
“Come on, don’t be like that. Want to make one with Dad?”
It was always like this in this house.
Ugh, what am I, some girl who’d be excited over this…!
It might’ve been a step up from last year’s dress-up doll set, but the spirit remained the same.
I’ll need to become independent, honestly!
……Still, the person had gone to the trouble of buying it, so I would at least give it a try.
I wasn’t really a six-year-old brat, after all.
I shouldn’t be doing this to my parents.
Feeding them a token defeat, I sat down and fiddled with the beads.
Oh…? The shine’s actually kind of jewel-like.
I began picking up beads one by one and threading them onto the string.
Black was manly, so that should be the main color.
Hm, no. Somehow that felt too drab.
How about purple for a decent compromise?
Not bad.
Oh. What’s this? This pink is really bright.
This would look good on me.
As I carefully strung them together, it turned out to be strangely satisfying.
So this is why Legos are so popular with adults?
Dad… might actually have some sense.
I was engrossed in it when Dad quietly sat down beside me.
“Princess.”
“……”
“Aww, you really like it, huh.”
I didn’t want to admit it, but I slowly nodded.
It’s bad to be an unfilial child.
“Why?”
“Chaewon, can you listen while you keep making that?”
“Mm, I’m list’ning.”
“How old are you, Chaewon?”
“Siz years old.”
Why was he asking my age?
“Right, but usually at that age, all the kids in the neighborhood go to kindergarten.”
“Only the dumb ones.”
“Gasp! Where did you learn such nasty words?”
“I learned them from Dad.”
“Huh? A-ah! Ah! Honey, no, that’s not it. It’s a misunderstanding! Don’t hit me—ack!”
I was about to finish off the annoying Dad and focus on making my bead bracelet, but—
“Lee Chaewon.”
“……”
“You should look at Mom.”
Being called by my full name was dangerous.
I could resist Dad, maybe, but resisting Mom was harder.
Why? I didn’t know why. It was instinct.
My mother, arms crossed, spoke.
“You need to go to kindergarten so you can make friends before you enter elementary school.”
“…I don’t need friends.”
“You can’t play only with Mom and Dad forever. And Mom has to go back to work now, so I can’t leave our Chaewon home alone in the mornings.”
“I can play alone just fine. And I was playing with Mom and Dad.”
After a few small objections, I lowered my head at the sharp look my mother shot me.
“You think that’s all? The kids your age are all friends from kindergarten. Mom’s worried whether our daughter will be able to adjust well when she goes to elementary school.”
“……”
Oh. That’s what this was?
She was worried that her perfectly normal daughter might have weak social skills.
From six years of experience, I knew that if I threw a tantrum here, I could probably get away with it again.
But if I want to move around comfortably later, I need to show them there’s nothing wrong with me…!
To be filial, and to build trust.
“Okay, I’ll go….”
When I obediently nodded, both of their faces visibly brightened.
“Good, good. That’s my girl.”
“See? Our princess understands everything if you explain things calmly. Honestly, I don’t know who she takes after to be this mature.”
“Doesn’t seem like she takes after you.”
Honestly, it wasn’t even that big a deal.
My shoulders puffed up before I could stop them.
I shouldn’t be happy over this….
By the day, I felt like my mental age was walking backward.
Ah, right. Kindergarten, huh.
“Haaah, I guess I’ll have to go entertain some brats….”
A sigh slipped out on its own.
“……You’re a brat too, you know?”
I ignored my mother’s quiet comeback with ease.
---