The Chaebol Heiress's Secret Worry
Seah Kwon wasn’t just some gamer with a lot of money.
The fact that I could stroll into the Galaxy Train Pop-up Store whenever I felt like it, while everyone else had to stand in line and wait their turn, was genuinely a wonderful thing.
Honestly, you couldn’t even call this the power of money alone. It was something only Hanseong Group’s youngest daughter, Kwon Seah, could do.
...But there was one rather minor problem.
The talk about my speech pattern that Siyoung had brought up when we were on the phone kept nagging at me.
No matter how I think about it, I’m pretty sure I know Lee Eunbyul, the chief of staff...
I couldn’t be certain, since I didn’t have any of our old chat logs left, but her position told me a lot.
Lee Eunbyul.
That woman was the chief of staff at Hanseong Lifestyle—the company where Seah’s mother had once been CEO.
No matter how I looked at it, there was no way Lee Eunbyul and Kwon Seah were meeting for the first time.
If anything, there was a good chance they were even closer than my cousin Siyoung.
Even if this isn’t really about whether we’re close or uncomfortable with each other... we clearly know one another. If my tone or the way I act is too different, something’s bound to go wrong.
In front of Siyoung and the relatives, I’d had a kind of rookie’s immunity.
There had been sympathy from waking up out of a coma after a month, and from the fact that my parents were dead.
But now things were a little different.
When it came to this sort of thing, it was always best to assume the worst.
Just like at the Love Kimchi Festival, when I’d casually explained all the ingredients in one of the dishes and then gotten slammed the next day with a flood of complaints about whether we’d used Chinese imports for tax evasion or what the hell—!
The worst imaginable thing could happen at any time!
“If rumors start going around that I’m a completely different person now, I might get institutionalized.”
At the end of the day, I was still the youngest daughter of a chaebol group that moved money around.
If my entire existence started being treated like I was just some woman who’d gone crazy after her parents died, I honestly couldn’t imagine that leading to anything good.
So to properly learn about the real Kwon Seah, I started digging through the news.
...Honestly, last time I didn’t even think to search for interviews because I had no clue what kind of woman Kwon Seah even was.
I’m not stupid!
How was I supposed to know what kind of person a woman was if she’d lived her life scrubbing every conversation from existence?
“The Power of Character IP, as Explained by Hanseong Lifestyle’s Director Kwon Seah...”
I clicked on an interview video I’d found through a search.
Kwon Seah appeared on screen in a black suit, radiating the elegant aura of a true young lady.
She wore a watch, earrings, and a necklace in just the right balance. Just looking at her made me think I could use a few of these videos as references for choosing my own clothes when I went out.
Unlike me, who had absolutely no idea how to do makeup, the Kwon Seah on screen was perfect down to the last detail.
“Mmm~~! So, you see! Contrary to what many people worry about, character IP really does have enormous power!!”
“Reporter-nim... Ah! You see this little one? Doesn’t it look totally soft and jiggly, like jelly? When you look at it, don’t you just want to poke its cheeks and think it’s so ridiculously cute that you can’t help but smile?”
“The character IP industry is full of things like this that give people happiness. Cute, lovely, joyful, fun, sad, moving... When you look at society these days, don’t you feel like it’s gotten kind of bleak?”
“The various projects our company is pushing right now are meant to use not only the IP we already hold, but also characters from a range of outside IPs, to give customers great happiness and all kinds of emotions.”
In the video, Kwon Seah was the very image of a bright, sunny rich girl brimming with positive energy.
Her expressions were incredibly lively, and maybe because she’d lived abroad at some point, she moved her hands and body constantly as she spoke.
She felt like someone who’d stepped straight out of a foreign animated series.
...Next time I meet Siyoung, I’m definitely going to need to brace my stomach.
Even after looking through several more interviews, the same energy and brightness remained.
So from now on, when I meet people, am I supposed to talk this brightly?
“Just imagining it is exhausting... no, from now on I should try to do my inner monologue like Kwon Seah too, I mean, shouldn’t I?”
Either way, I might as well put my lonely habit of talking to myself to use.
It wasn’t like I’d lose anything by acting and speaking the way Kwon Seah normally would.
“But...”
“Ah! You mean this doll, right? Hehe, I absolutely love this one. My mom bought it for me as a graduation present from elementary school, and ever since then I’ve kept it by my bed and slept with it all this time! I have plenty of other dolls too...”
The more I watched the interview, the more unsettled I felt. Why was that?
I left the room with the computer and went back to the bedroom.
Kwon Seah’s bed was huge and immaculate.
The furniture was all neatly arranged too, but there was one problem I hadn’t even noticed until now.
“...There aren’t any dolls in here... no, wait, there aren’t any?”
No dolls. There wasn’t a single doll, even though she’d bragged that her mother had given her one.
...No, forget dolls—the room wasn’t decorated like a woman who’d been talking about character IP and all that at all.
* * *
“I’m sorry, President Kwon Seah. Things were busier at the entrance than I expected, so you must have had a rough time getting in.”
The Galaxy Train Pop-up Store, occupying a large space on the first floor of Hanseong Department Store, was unbelievably popular.
There were so many people that, to avoid disrupting the other customers in the department store, they’d had to extend the line outside.
Under those circumstances, I couldn’t exactly walk in through the front door, so I’d slipped into the pop-up store through the back like I was sneaking into a warehouse.
“Mm...”
I should speak like Kwon Seah, right...
...Ugh, even imagining it in my head is draining all my energy.
“It’s totally fineee. Honestly, if I’d marched in through the front door all by myself, people probably would’ve pointed at me and caused a whole scene.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
“Still, since I’m here on site, I’d like to hear a little bit about how things are going... how is it? Is it doing well?”
Chief of Staff Lee Eunbyul let out a breath of relief, then nodded in a hurry.
“Yes, we’re seeing about 500 percent more visitors than we expected.”
“Five times? That’s genuinely wonderful, though I’m a little worried the goods we prepared might not be enough. Are we okay?”
Wasn’t five times just a miscalculation? And this wasn’t even the first day open, was it?
“The pop-up store’s purpose is being achieved very clearly, so there’s no need for concern.”
Lee Eunbyul proudly gestured toward the shelves packed with all sorts of merchandise.
The pop-up store itself was a thoughtfully decorated space, big enough that she had every right to be proud of it.
It wasn’t just selling products either; in one corner, they’d set up a large monitor and a space where people could actually try out the game.
But what on earth was that picture on the shelf over there that it cost 450,000 won for one? It was definitely huge, but did it really have that much value?
...Is it a limited edition?! Should I ask for it? I’m the boss, so I should get one, right?!
“Everything has been selling out every single day without fail since two days ago.”
I gave a bright smile for a moment and flashed an OK sign with my fingers.
For now, she was telling me the pop-up store was a huge success, but...
...the users are telling a different story, aren’t they? The seller and the buyer are bound to feel differently.
I pulled my smartphone out of the handbag I was awkwardly wearing and opened the gallery.
Galaxy Train Gallery
“Is that leak really real??? Are clan battles that hard? (5)”
“Why the hell is this pop-up store being run like such shit? Is their whole family dead? (14)”
“Should I skip Seele vs. skip Solomon on the next pickup? (4)”
“Can you even buy stuff at this pop-up store? There are way too many fuckin’ mainlanders here???”
“Gangnam advance team here, and holy shit, I think we’re screwed lol”
“Ugh, this is why they shouldn’t do pop-up stores in this godforsaken place, yeah.”
“Mm... the atmosphere seems totally awful.”
Even the hot posts were full of profanity. Was this really going well?
Is this for real?
I’ve been coming here for three days, and every day the mainlanders standing in front just clear everything out.
Even now there’s one right in front of me, and the smell of malatang is so strong I’m literally crying.
The long mousepad I wanted to buy looks like I won’t even get a chance to see it, and that’s so fucking annoying -_-
Is this even real? Why the hell are they running this thing like such an absolute clown show for three days straight???
“This is exactly why pop-up stores are pointless, fucking hell.”
“Why not just take reservations online and sell it that way?”
...
Was this really helping the brand image?
It felt more like the pop-up store was damaging the image.
“Chief of Staff Lee Eunbyul, could you come over here for a moment?”
As I spoke, I grabbed Lee Eunbyul’s arm and pulled her closer.
She looked quite startled.
“I think there may be some issues with the sales policy for the pop-up store. Do you have any plans to revise it?”
“How would you like it revised, President?”
“First, please limit every product to one purchase per person.”
Lee Eunbyul’s eyes widened in shock.
“President... if we impose that kind of restriction, there’s a chance our merchandise sales will take a major hit...”
“You were just talking about the purpose of this pop-up store, weren’t you? Mm~ I don’t think the purpose I have in mind ends with the simple financial gain from selling all the products, do you?”
“Ah...”
“We’re operating this pop-up store as Galaxy Train’s IP partner right now. But if the people who come here can’t even look at the merchandise and have to go home empty-handed, then instead of helping the IP, moving forward...”
I flicked my fingers and pointed toward the blurry figures visible beyond the glass.
“No matter what event we hold, people will say it’s a waste of time just to come here. This company is terrible at offline events. They should change the agency.” That kind of public opinion would follow us around like a scarlet letter.”
“Understood. I’ll revise the purchase policy and issue an announcement exactly as you’ve said.”
“And~ I’m not saying Chief of Staff Lee Eunbyul did anything wrong or anything like that. You know that, right? It’s just that I’ve got a strong hope that this business does well, so...”
Lee Eunbyul suddenly looked at me, then snorted a laugh.
“Uh... w-why are you laughing? Did I say something weird?”
“Not at all. I just found myself smiling because I thought you’d shaken off a difficult situation so well.”
So we really were close.
Chief of Staff Lee Eunbyul quickly called over a staff member and gave a few instructions.
“Also, don’t stack the merchandise too aggressively. Take as much of it out as possible so customers can buy more.”
“Mm... but we still have to keep the pop-up store open tomorrow. Will that be all right?”
“If there are products with especially low inventory, just make sure to post about them in advance on the official social media accounts.”
I couldn’t exactly call this the best possible decision.
But at least no one could say we were being completely thoughtless anymore.
“Then let’s seeee... maybe I should do a little shopping too.”
While Lee Eunbyul was busy, I turned my gaze toward the shelves.
To be honest, I wasn’t interested in postcard books, colored paper, multi-cleaners, or acrylic stands.
Those things felt too cheap, I guess? They didn’t give me that sense of being expensive, rare, and something I desperately wanted to own.
“A T-shirt? The character’s way too huge on it... A mousepad? I do want one of those... A keyboard? Wow, this actually feels great... An acrylic keyring? I’ve got nowhere to hang it on my phone, so pass.”
Should I grab a mug too?
Or maybe take home one of those big hanging scrolls I saw earlier?
“President? Is there another problem with the merchandise this time?”
“Hmm? Nooo, no, no. It’s not that. It’s just that... there’ll be customers from China coming in too, right? And I’m sure I’ll have to do interviews later, so if I don’t know these products well enough, I’ll probably get laughed at. I figured I should buy some things now while I can.”
“Ah! So that’s what you meant. Please let me know if there’s anything you want.”
“Then...”
I pointed to the long mousepad with a keyboard and the character named Seele drawn in big bold art, and then to the calendar, and finally to the hanging scroll.
“Understood. Would these be enough?”
“Mm~ the products I can see right now seem like enough. Unless you’ve got something hidden away?”
I’d only been joking, but Lee Eunbyul nodded.
...Shouldn’t there not be anything hidden away? Hello?
“What do you mean, what’s hidden? If I buy that, it’s not like I can’t have it, right?”
“No, not at all. Actually, because these are products that break easily, the China side sent us quite a lot of extra stock.”
“Products that break easily? What kind of thing is it? Show me, please.”
Lee Eunbyul quickly led me to the warehouse.
Then she carefully lifted up a set of pure white boxes that looked to number about ten.
“Huh?”
When she opened the box, an astonishing figure stood inside.
It was a knight in black armor, and the remarkably detailed suit was split cleanly in half, engulfed in a mysterious blue flame.
Revealed in the crack between the halves was a female knight with golden hair, and her chest was seriously huge.
And it was a 40-centimeter figure, too? This could absolutely go on display in a glass cabinet somewhere.
...But who is this?
Was I just not far enough into the main story?
“...Who is she? And why are you hiding ten of them so carefully?”
“I don’t know the details either, but I’ve been told it’s a product related to the next promotion. Ah... here it is. Galaxy Train Version 1.1 Promotion—”
“I’ll take this! If I’ve got something like this on display when I do interviews later, it’ll look like I’m actually serious about it, won’t it?”
I didn’t know it then.
I had no idea that the figure I’d just bought would someday get mocked as a “character that gets used all the way until the servers shut down.”