I, Kang Han-seong, Succumb to Capital.
I, Kang Han-seong, Succumb to Capital.
Dad had somehow gotten his hands on two Norwegian Forest cats, and he was holding them carefully in his arms.
He was so cautious, afraid he might hurt the palm-sized kittens if he gripped them too hard.
He was stroking a kitten's head with his index finger.
"The spotted one's the little sister, Beta. The white one's the little brother, Alpha."
"Which one's older?"
"They said Alpha was born first."
Just looking at them, they had a high-class look. These were clearly not your average cats.
I stared intently at Alpha and Beta.
"How much?"
"Huh? Oh, I got them from Ji-eun~"
I gave Dad a suspicious look, but he wasn't the type to invest money just to raise fancy cats.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Then I spotted Alpha sucking on my tiny finger after mistaking it for a nipple.
"Cute."
Dad's face melted when he saw the kitten sucking on my finger.
"Wow... almost as cute as Si-yoon..."
Dad pulled out his phone and snapped a picture.
"Almost as cute as me?"
"Yeah!"
I glanced at the cats and spoke to Dad, who was clearly delighted.
"Nah, I don't think they're quite that cute."
"...You... think so? Haha..."
When I saw Dad's reaction and made a move to spring to my feet, he panicked and scooped me up fast.
"Of course our Si-yoon is the prettiest in Daddy's eyes!!!"
I narrowed my eyes at Dad, who was holding onto me.
"...?"
"...Sorry."
I looked at Dad, who was wound tight with nerves.
It was the first time I'd ever seen Dad's leg shaking like that.
Dad was doing nothing but refreshing the Watermelon charts—highlighted in orange—and Neotube.
But his expression sure looked like he was losing his mind with happiness.
"Dad."
"Yeah!?"
I spoke to Dad as he looked at me, his face still flushed from staring at the screen.
"You look like a pervert."
"...Huh?"
Dad looked utterly shocked, and he asked me again, his voice trembling.
"D... Daddy... looks like a pervert?"
"Not right now. But just a second ago, you looked like you were peeking up my skirt."
"....."
Apparently grasping the gravity of the situation, Dad quickly grabbed a mirror and studied his own face.
"I'm joking."
"...You're really joking?"
"Yeah."
Meanwhile, Dad's song must have gone live, because he hurriedly looked at his phone.
And that perverted expression started creeping back onto his face.
When the real-time premiere went up on Neotube, Dad's song hit five million concurrent viewers.
In the music video, Dad was wearing training clothes, walking alone down a dark path where you couldn't see ahead, singing. A moment later, he spotted me walking out, went up to me, and knelt down.
Dad walked through the darkness, holding me in his arms, and looked around as the surroundings gradually brightened. The screen shifted from black-and-white to color, Dad's clothes changed, and all around us, musical instruments and photos taken with me filled the space.
Holding me, Dad walked with the certainty of a man clutching a sturdy lifeline. The path before him was filled with hope.
There wasn't anywhere you could really call a highlight in the song, but the reactions exploded anyway. At the end, the music video finished with a shot of me glancing at the camera.
-Is that Ji-ho's daughter?
-Whoa, is that baby really that gorgeous?
-Is it even right to call a kid gorgeous?
-Wow... mom and dad are both final bosses in the looks department, and she just cherry-picked all the good stuff...
-Insane...
-The baby's voice and Ji-ho's voice are total opposites but they work so well together... legendary...
-Ji-ho's voice sounds a lot huskier.
Reading the comments, I put a palm to my cheek and spoke.
"I'm so pretty~ My looks are my weapon~"
"...Where did you hear that song?"
"Dunno."
Dad, who always swept the Watermelon charts, wore a proud look as his ranking shot up this time, while I was reading the comments on the Watermelon chart.
"So Dad was a genius too, huh?"
"Not compared to our Si-yoon~"
"Well, that's true."
Dad's puffed-up pride deflated right back to normal at my words.
"....."
I climbed off Dad's lap and spoke.
"Let's sleep now."
"Huh? It's 6 p.m.?"
"They say beauties need lots of sleep."
"...Alright, let's sleep."
Dad laid me down on his bed and held me.
Maybe it was because it'd been repeated for four years, or maybe I was unconsciously wanting that ticklish feeling called family—either way, I felt comfortable sleeping like this.
We'd been asleep for a long while when the doorbell rang.
Dad, looking rumpled, answered his phone.
"Hello."
A woman's voice spoke, picking up on Dad's groggy tone.
-"Oh, were you sleeping? I'm Da-yeon's mom~"
"Ah... yes, ma'am, what's the matter?"
-"Da-yeon said she misses Si-yoon, so... I tried contacting you early this morning, but you didn't pick up..."
"By any chance... what time is it right now...?"
-"It's 10 a.m....?"
Dad checked his phone and was flustered to realize he'd slept for about fifteen hours.
"Right now... ah... you're in front of the building... just a moment."
Dad took the phone away from his ear and called for me.
"Si-yoon, wake up~ Da-yeon's here."
Still in my pajamas, I started wrapping the blanket around myself against the cold air and saw Dad, who had gotten up first, watching me.
"Where're you...?"
When I asked groggily, Dad answered.
"Da-yeon's here."
"Haa... mother and daughter, what a nuisance~"
"Hey, you shouldn't say things like that."
"Okay."
Dad unlocked the door with his phone, then washed his face and quickly rinsed his hair.
Then, while drying his hair, he changed his clothes.
"Si-yoon, let's get you changed too."
I answered while rolling around on the bed.
"Too lazy."
"Aren't you embarrassed?"
"Less embarrassing than the clothes Dad buys me."
"....."
I was wearing bear pajamas.
Pajamas that drooped like a flying squirrel.
I hated them at first, but they're comfortable once you wear them.
The front door opened, and Kim Seon-hwa came in, her hands full of clothes for me.
"Si-yoon!!!"
Da-yeon looked for me the second she walked in.
I wriggled my way out, body still wrapped in the blanket. Dad greeted Kim Seon-hwa, then hugged Da-yeon before spotting me squirming around.
"Si-yoon, you've gotta leave the blanket and come on out."
"Okay..."
I left the blanket behind, rubbed my eyes, and came out with my pajamas flapping.
And I greeted Da-yeon's mother, Kim Seon-hwa.
When I bowed my head, the pajama hood fell over my face.
"Hello~"
"Hello~ Oh my! Si-yoon, you're so cute~~~"
After greeting me, Kim Seon-hwa looked at Dad and spoke.
"I guess you were sleeping... I'm so sorry."
Dad, who had been spacing out, spun around at Kim Seon-hwa's words and answered.
"It's fine."
"Da-yeon, you should say hello too."
"Mister! Hello!"
"Hello to you too, Da-yeon~"
Dad found Da-yeon quite adorable.
Still wearing my bear hood, I stumbled over and lay down on the sofa.
Da-yeon lay down on the sofa too, following my lead.
"I saw your new song."
Dad seemed to wake up a little and finally started paying attention to what was happening.
"Ah! You saw it?"
"Wow... now I see why people go on and on about 'Ji-ho, Ji-ho,' you know?"
"Aha-ha, thank you."
Kim Seon-hwa started pulling out the clothes she'd brought, one after another.
"I was looking at Da-yeon's clothes, and I just kept thinking of Si-yoon, you know? These are clothes for when Si-yoon turns five~"
"Oh no, I just keep receiving things..."
Lying on the sofa, I pulled out my phone and cut Dad off.
"Just take them. The clothes Dad picks out suck."
"....."
"...Pfft."
Kim Seon-hwa clearly knew how to pick clothes that were my style.
It was like she knew exactly what styles I liked. Cute but not over the top, eye-catching but natural—the style Kim Seon-hwa wore herself was my ideal.
Kim Seon-hwa smiled at my words.
"As I thought... I really envy this apartment."
Kim Seon-hwa looked out the giant window and continued.
"The brand, the view, even the amenities—everyone agrees it's unquestionably the number-one apartment complex in Korea, right~"
"Is it...?"
"Of course~ I want to live in an apartment too, not a house, so I've been waiting until a spot opens up in this building."
An apartment that even the family behind Hanseong, Korea's second-largest conglomerate, was waiting to get into... That suddenly piqued my interest.
"If I'd known the competition was this fierce, I should've bought one even if I wasn't going to use it... but back then, Jeong-yeon was a newborn."
Well, Tower Palace was an apartment that exceeded any standard I knew.
Even at four years old, there were rooms here I'd only been in a handful of times. One room was so full of shoes you could tell how many shoes Mom and Dad had collected.
"Would you like me to reserve a unit for you?"
"Oh my? Really?"
Dad suddenly started having a very unusual conversation with Kim Seon-hwa. I'd been holding onto the lazy assumption that "surely this apartment isn't actually in Dad's name." Grandma had definitely asked Dad, in a conversation, if he even had the money to raise me. I briefly considered that Grandma might not know Dad was this rich, but... Thinking about it, that seemed exactly right, given Dad's personality.
Dad, who wore training clothes every single day.
I did know he had quite a bit of money. Dad was so famous that people overseas even said they trusted and listened to a Ji-ho song.
Kim Seon-hwa, who'd been looking around the neatly kept house, spoke up.
"The kids' dad prefers houses... I wanted to live in an apartment though~ Thank you."
"Don't mention it. It's only possible if a spot actually opens up, so..."
"Of course I'll be satisfied with priority placement!"
Dad smiled at Kim Seon-hwa. Kim Seon-hwa, now in her early thirties, looked at me and spoke.
"Once we're neighbors, you and Da-yeon will be going to the pool a lot, huh?"
"...?"
"Oh my, didn't you know there's a pool on the 40th floor?"
I glanced sideways at Dad.
The 40th floor? Our place was on the 68th floor, but I briefly wondered, could there really be a pool between apartment buildings? Thinking about it, there had been a few elevator buttons in a different color.
"There are kids' cafés and a ton of other things..."
Dad was watching for my reaction, and I just smiled at him.
"I didn't know until now."
Seeing my smile, Dad was gripped by anxiety.
I smiled at Da-yeon.
"Wanna look around our apartment complex?"
"Yeah!"
The five enormous apartment buildings stood apart from each other except for the bottom four floors, but they were connected by sky bridges here and there. Even when I first saw the building, I'd thought it was incredible, but it had never even crossed my mind that Dad could be the owner. 'I'm... I really am... a golden spoon...'
I looked at Dad.
'Well, come to think of it, considering the speed he churns out songs...'
I learned later that he'd had so much cash and nowhere to spend it that he invested in an acquaintance's project—and that project turned out to be this building. The building had been created through a competition between two giant corporations, Hanseong Trading and S Trading, working with Korea's top architect, but Dad hadn't imagined it would become a landmark. Its market value started skyrocketing far beyond what Dad had envisioned, and by now, four years later, he'd already recouped his principal.
A prime property packed with tenants, with people even lining up for a spot...
Dad, the true landlord-god, even owned the land in his name. Since I still wasn't entirely certain, just as I was thinking it was nothing more than my own delusion, we arrived at the 40th floor.
The door opened, and I was struck speechless by the magnificent sight before me.
I'd heard "pool" and figured it was just a place to swim, but an incredible scene unfolded at what I'd only thought of as a bridge connecting the buildings.
Starting with a pool whose floor and walls were made of glass, overlooking a view of the Han River,
there were wine bars and cafés off to the side—the lights were off, but they must host parties often at night.
Pools spread out around all of it. It was like I was seeing the absolute pinnacle of architectural engineering.
"Th... this is the future..."
"Huh? What did you say, Si-yoon?"
At Kim Seon-hwa's question, I spoke while looking around.
"All this... is Dad's...?"
I was only testing the waters, but Dad awkwardly scratched his cheek.
I began to see Dad differently. No longer a young and clueless novice dad, but a landlord-god dad.
'Oh... God... you took two important things from me... but this kind of repayment...'
I could understand now why Dad had never cared about money. With that much rent pouring into his account every month, why would he care about money? Tower Palace, infamous for its astronomical rent alone. I'd once thought we might even get kicked out of this apartment, but to think I'd had such a pathetic thought... when the owner was that idiotically smiling Dad.
Walking through an apartment with everything from a kids' café to a sauna and all sorts of amenities, I seriously wondered if this really was fifteen years into the future. I should've realized it when he handed me a brand-new 1.8-million-won phone like it wouldn't matter if a four-year-old broke it. I should've known when he bought me a phone with the same casual energy as buying snacks at the supermarket. When he loaded up 1++ grade Hanwoo beef without even glancing at the price—right then, I should've known. When he paid 1.8 million won a month for daycare... I should've realized. In this life, I wasn't just a golden spoon... I was a platinum spoon.
'At this level, his personal assets might rival what Hanseong had twenty years ago... no... maybe more?'
The fact that these were personal assets rather than corporate funds left me feeling hollow.
"Dad...?"
"Yeah?"
"I was rich?"
Kim Seon-hwa was watching me with a smile. Dad looked at me with a playful expression.
"Daddy's rich. But Si-yoon isn't, right?"
"I... I'm Daddy's daughter, though...?"
"If you keep being Daddy's daughter... maybe Si-yoon will get rich too?"
I'd always had the upper hand with Dad, but now his hair—hastily blow-dried after he'd just woken up—started looking like he'd stepped out of a salon. Even the tracksuit he used as pajamas started looking vintage. Normally, I would've said, "Nah, I don't wanna be Daddy's daughter," but...
I, Kang Han-seong, who had nothing to believe in but my pride, my two fists, and my two balls...
I, Kang Han-seong, now stripped of my two most important bits...
Today, I kneel before capital.
I abruptly plopped down onto the floor in my pajamas, and Dad's face filled with alarm.
"This maiden... pays her respects, Royal Father."