Chapter 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Ways to Escape the Orphanage
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I'd had that thought once before.
I think it was back in middle school. On a night when the fact that I didn't have a mom suddenly hit me like a wave of sorrow.
I didn't want to watch my dad scrambling awkwardly to fill that empty space in front of me, and even though my friends never made their casual mom jokes around me, that subtle sense of isolation still stung.
So in that moment, I thought maybe it would've been better if I had no parents at all—maybe I'd even go off the rails that way. It was just a fleeting thought.
Of course, I knew it was a crazy idea, so I quickly shoved it out of my mind. Now, it's resurfacing because I've become an orphan myself.
Thrown into a situation where I'm being raised solely within the confines of an orphanage, with nowhere else to turn, I can't help but wonder if this is punishment for that idiotic thought back then.
"Actually, that's not what matters. Suddenly reincarnated..."
And with a gender swap, no less.
Right now, I'm an elementary school girl with a strikingly cute appearance.
My face is on the smaller side even for a kid, and my eyes are so huge they seem to take up half of it.
My black hair, tied back, gleams with a natural shine, and my irises—some mesmerizing blend of blue and black—draw you in like an abyss.
"I could be an idol in this life."
Even to me, someone who'd managed countless idols in my past life, my current looks are undeniably adorable.
Gazing at my changed appearance naturally brings back memories of the past.
A little while ago, I died.
The blaring horn of a truck. The screams of onlookers.
Then, my body floating... and the excruciating pain of my skin scraping against the pavement.
That disgusting, horrific sensation is still etched into my body.
"If this is punishment, then at least it's better than nothing."
I swallowed a hollow laugh and stared down at my slender little girl's fingers.
Who would've thought that childish middle school wish—better off alone than missing just one parent—would come true like this? No parents, no relatives, no career to prove who I am. A perfect zero.
But in my head, tens of thousands of scores and rhythms still pulse with life.
That alone makes me feel like I still exist, breathing and whole.
"Does having this make my situation better than straight-up transmigration?"
Is this a curse, or some twisted opportunity from the gods?
In my past life, I died the moment I grasped my trophy. Here, I'm a blank slate, nothing written yet.
"And after checking around for a month, this world is way different from my original one."
It's an orphanage, and the era is the late 2010s. No smartphones, naturally.
They give everyone a phone when you hit middle school here, but it's the outdated budget model, of course.
That meant dragging myself to a PC bang for research, which was a real hassle with my pocket money and time—but in the end, I figured out this world is pretty different from my past one.
It's the year 2018. None of the idols that should exist here do.
No weirdly named guy groups sweeping the world, no rival groups forming tense showdowns with them.
Even the Big 3 Entertainment Companies have different names, and all the artists dominating the charts right now—total strangers.
Even the president is different from what I remember.
After the 90s, hardly any politicians' names ring a bell.
This world is like my original one, but with little differences everywhere. A parallel world, basically.
"Seo— the start of popular music history—is the same... but after that, it's all jumbled up."
In my past life, I was a pretty successful composer.
Despite a tough upbringing, I graduated from an arts high school and started working as a composer for a major entertainment company in my early twenties. By my early thirties, I was head producer at a mid-tier label.
Music was my life. My life was nothing but music.
'Though, never getting around to dating because of it is kinda regrettable.'
It wasn't like no one was interested, but I wanted to solidify my position first before diving into romance.
I was just too busy to give anyone the attention they deserved.
Rising fast meant constant envy and jealousy, and dealing with every bit of it would've wrecked my body and mind.
In the end, the little guy between my legs vanished without ever fulfilling its true purpose.
And now, in its place...
"Feels so empty..."
Whatever. That's not the point right now.
Well, it is important, but something even more pressing has appeared in front of me: a senior with a venomous glare.
She looks like the type who'd be super into guys.
"Oh, Seo Siyeon. You haven't folded the blankets yet? Got all weekend to lounge around, huh."
"...I'll do it now."
Right now, the most important thing is escaping this hellhole.
Evergreen Sky Nursery (they changed it from "orphanage" because of the bad connotations) is a pretty big facility.
It gets tons of funding, has a long history.
Even its sponsors are loaded—they remodeled the building a few years back.
Unfortunately, though, Evergreen Sky Nursery is in the wrong damn place.
It's in Incheon's old downtown. You know, that infamous "Demon Realm Incheon" meme online.
But despite the rep, Incheon's actually pretty livable. It has everything you need, good universities, nice apartments aplenty.
Close to the airport, close to Seoul.
Busan? Hour and a half by plane.
Still, some spots live up to the "demon realm" hype—completely rundown areas.
And the nursery's in one of those.
Hills packed with middle and high schools, churning out delinquents left and right, boys and girls alike.
Hell, there's even a webtoon about the infamous high school here. Says it all.
For kids whose parents barely pay attention, it's the worst place to raise them—plenty of good ones go astray.
And for kids with no parents at all living in a place like that... well, it's obvious how they'll turn out.
By the way, the "blanket" that girl—two years older than me, name's a blur—mentioned isn't mine. It belongs to the other girls in the room.
They dump cleanup on me because I'm the youngest.
And there's even a middle school delinquent in here. No hope. Why the hell am I, a second-grader, rooming with middle schoolers? Total mystery.
After a month here, I've concluded I can't survive another ten years of this childhood.
The neighborhood's bad enough, but the nursery's culture and vibe? No way a grown adult's mind can handle it.
No matter how "adult" I am, I can't master the petty power plays between girls.
Hell, as a lifelong bachelor guy, I have zero clue about that stuff.
The original Seo Siyeon wasn't feisty either, so the seniors bossed her around. Possession hasn't changed much.
Getting ordered around by elementary brats sucks no matter how you slice it, but these roommates are all older, and the nursery staff babies them.
Why? They actually have parents.
You might wonder why kids with parents are in a nursery, but it's more common than you think.
Kids dumped here at birth because parents couldn't afford them or didn't want them get extra close monitoring.
Parents might change their minds and come back anytime, and if treatment here caused issues, the director takes the heat.
So yeah, kids with parents get preferential treatment overall.
Not a huge gap, but they definitely get more love from the staff than a total orphan like Seo Siyeon.
"To get out of here, I need to succeed."
Become super famous, or filthy rich.
One or the other to break free.
And there's only one path to that.
Can't buy Bitcoin—no guardian consent, no money anyway.
Studying for scholarships and boarding middle school? Nah, not for a meathead like me.
"Guess I'll have to do music again."
I'm not passionate about it anymore. Honestly, music was just a way to make bank for me.
I did love it once, but that's ancient history now.
Doesn't change the fact that I have the memories, though.
Years of top-tier composing know-how, and hit songs with no owners in this world.
If this were regression instead of possession, I'd hesitate on ethics to steal past hits. But like this? No guilt over people who don't exist here.
"First up, let's make some money."