A Special Child.
A Special Child.
Dad stared at the director and Kang In-seong, his eyes trembling.
"Let's pause filming for a moment..."
Dad's sudden declaration to halt filming.
When the director looked at Kang In-seong, Kang In-seong nodded.
"Si... Si-yoon, do you really remember?"
"Yeah."
Dad, as if he couldn't wait a second longer, pulled out his phone and opened a piano keyboard app.
Then he got down to my eye level, leaned his face close to me like a puppy, and placed the phone in my hands.
The moment my small hands started pressing the keys on the phone, Dad's pupils shook.
"That's it! That's it!!! This is it!!!"
Dad hugged me in excitement.
"You're crushing me."
But Dad ignored me and hugged me even tighter.
"I knew it, my daughter really is a genius!!!"
Dad, who had been fiddling with his phone to save the recording, looked around and realized where he was.
"Ah... I'm so sorry!!!"
"Not at all, it happens."
"A real genius really is different~"
Faced with Dad's intense focus, everyone just nodded silently,
and Dad ducked his head, face reddening.
"Ahaha... I'm truly sorry. I couldn't remember the melody at the time... If it ever becomes a song, I'll give an album to everyone here!"
""Please include Si-yoon's autograph!!!""
Since filming was already interrupted, we took a short break.
Dad received the script and was memorizing the lines he had to say.
Then came the cue.
Most of the questions for Dad and me were prepared in advance.
Kang In-seong delivered one of them.
"Si-yoon, aren't you scared of bugs?"
I sat in my chair and stared blankly at Kang In-seong.
"Bugs?"
Dad laughed awkwardly and answered Kang In-seong's question in my place.
"Si-yoon... went on a field trip once."
Everyone's eyes focused on Dad.
"We were told the fruit hadn't been sprayed with pesticides, so Si-yoon ate a strawberry, right?"
Dad flinched as if he still got goosebumps thinking about it.
"She took one bite, and there was a caterpillar, cut in half..."
"".....""
I looked at Dad, then continued the answer myself.
"They told me not to eat it because there was a bug, but I said that was the bug's problem—it had gone into my mouth and died—not mine."
There were plenty more stories about bugs besides that one.
For some reason, Dad is really scared of bugs.
No, it seems like most people living in this day and age are scared of bugs.
'I don't think I ever saw anyone in the past who was scared of bugs...'
As various chatter went back and forth, a short man holding two admission applications spoke up.
"You know what you have to do to get into our school, right?"
"Yeah, so Si-yoon and I prepared something."
Dad put me down, and a staff member handed over a wireless mic.
My backpack was uncomfortable so I took it off and handed it to Dad, then gripped the mic, which was as big as my face, with both hands.
Music started playing, and I began singing the first song I'd made with Dad.
Dad smiled and met my eyes, scooping me up with one hand,
and the two mics got too close, their sounds overlapping and interfering with the notes,
but Dad didn't care at all.
As if the sound wasn't what mattered.
After appearing on Next-Door Hyungnim, I became a superstar.
Not just in words—literally a superstar.
Overseas, I became a massive sensation as the daughter of genius composer Kim Ji-ho and was introduced as Korea's Barbie doll.
The things I'd said circulated as memes, and all kinds of variety show appearance offers flooded Jang Seong-man.
"Oh... Superstar~"
That bastard Park Ji-hoon knows I can't do anything to him and keeps getting under my skin.
Ji-hoon, who acts like that but is perfectly respectful when we're alone—every time I see that, it makes my stomach turn.
"Haa... go away..."
Da-yeon had pasted a photo of me into her notebook.
Whatever made her so proud, she was kicking her legs excitedly while looking at a picture of me in my school uniform.
"Si-yoon!"
"Yeah?"
"Can I come over to your house today?"
I thought about Dad for a moment, and the image of him focused on his work, making music based on the melody I'd given him, came to mind.
"Hmm... I'll go to your house, Da-yeon. Dad's busy."
Da-yeon nodded vigorously, and I got moving while the idea was fresh.
I got up from my chair and headed to the director's office. When I opened the door, the director was staring at her computer screen and spoke.
"Come in~"
When I entered, the director's eyes met mine and she greeted me warmly.
"Oh my! Si-yoon, what brings you here?"
"I want to call my dad."
"Ah, of course, go right ahead."
I spoke to the director, who was about to turn back to her computer, apparently meaning to get back to work.
"Please leave the room."
"O... Okay."
Once I confirmed the director had left, I called Dad.
-"Yeah! Si-yoon, what's up?"
"I'm going to Da-yeon's. You call them and ask them to come get me."
-"Huh? But Daddy should take you~"
"I'll ride in Da-yeon's family car. Just make your song."
-"Alright..."
I hung up, opened the door, and found the director waiting.
"All done with your call?"
"Yes."
"Anything else you need?"
"No."
"Alright, have fun playing~"
"Okay, thank you."
I closed the door and headed back to the Sunshine Class.
Da-yeon, apparently hooked on a new comic now, was reading a new comic book intently.
"Is it fun?"
"Yeah!"
"You'll ruin your eyes."
"My vision is 20/10!"
Ji-hoon was doodling beside me.
"You bored?"
"Haa... I wanna grow up faster~"
"Why? Enjoy it, man."
"Enjoy what? I'm sick of people calling me a genius just for exercising a bit."
"You're not even as good at sports as I am."
"...Now that I think about it, this is so fucking unfair, damn it."
Da-yeon heard Ji-hoon curse and spoke up.
"Swearing is bad!"
"Haa... fine..."
I smirked as I spoke.
"What's so unfair?"
"I mean, I look like this, and we're probably about equally smart, so why did you turn out like that?"
"Being reborn and growing up again is a blessing to someone, you know. Learn to be content."
"...I used to think all that reincarnation, past life, regression stuff was bullshit."
Da-yeon said with an angry face.
"I said swearing is bad! I'm telling the teacher!"
"Haa... fine... go ahead. Go over there and politely tell her exactly what I said, word for word, kiddo..."
Da-yeon, furious at his sarcastic tone, glared at Park Ji-hoon.
To calm the angry Da-yeon down, I stroked her hair and looked at Park Ji-hoon.
"You wanna die? Why are you talking to Da-yeon with that attitude?"
"...Ah... come on, really..."
One day, the daycare took us to the pool again.
Maybe the pools were divided by age, because the water depth at the place we went this time came right up to our height.
Only Ji-hoon and I were swimming, like kids training to be athletes.
"Boss."
"What."
"Isn't this really weird?"
I said while floating in the water.
"What's weird?"
"No matter how much faster girls grow than boys... I can't understand how you're stronger than me when I've been doing a decent amount of training."
"Oh yeah?"
Ji-hoon floated his body in the water next to me.
"And, for your age... your strength is... really..."
"Jealous?"
"Fucking jealous."
I smacked Ji-hoon right on the top of his head.
"Agh! Don't hit my head while I'm still growing, damn it! I'm already not that smart."
I hit Ji-hoon's head again.
Then I naturally made my way over to the young teacher.
"Si-yoon, what's wrong?"
"Pick me up."
"Are you tired?"
"Yes."
I'd grown bigger, but the young teacher obediently picked me up and set me down outside the water.
Before I knew it, the kindergarten graduation ceremony was approaching.
"Si-yoon, we have to take pictures!"
Wanting to be part of these children's memories, I even went up to kids I wasn't close to and asked to take pictures together.
Da-yeon, unlike her usual self, was crying.
"Mommyyy!! I wanna go to the same school as Si-yoon too!!!"
"Oh dear... Da-yeon. You see Si-yoon at home too, don't you..."
Kim Seon-hwa was flustered by the first time Da-yeon had ever acted so spoiled,
and she looked no different from the other little kids around us.
"Da-yeon..."
"If I don't go to the same school as Si-yoon, I'm never seeing Mommy again!!!"
"Haa..."
I approached Da-yeon, who was wailing.
"No more tears."
"Si-yoon... huwahh... Mo... Mommy said..."
"Da-yeon, you and I are next-door neighbors~ You can just come over to play a lot~"
Despite that, Da-yeon kept crying.
I went over to the crying Da-yeon, hugged her, and said,
"From middle school on, let's definitely go together~"
"R... Really?"
"Of course~"
"Promise me!"
Only after Da-yeon and I sealed the promise with our thumbprints were we finally able to take a picture together.
Dad was watching Da-yeon's outburst with an amused, affectionate look.
Da-yeon followed Jeong-yeon to Gangnam Private Elementary School, where tuition was about 10 million won.
Da-yeon's parents couldn't bring themselves to ask me to go to the same school as Da-yeon.
Our family's financial status was top-tier, so they probably couldn't even bring up offering to pay our tuition.
Above all, I'd realized not long ago that our family's wealth was far more staggering than I'd thought.
Dad's acquaintance... that man who occasionally showed up at our house and gave me ridiculous gifts like Secret Jouju merchandise.
When I learned about the buildings Dad owned through a conversation with that man, I couldn't hide my shock.
In the end, I realized...
I was not a platinum spoon but a diamond spoon—a perfectly brilliant gem...
The school I ended up attending was Seoul Private Elementary School.
Dad looked at me in my school uniform and called me cute.
Dad was drinking coffee, and I stared at my fluttering skirt and sighed.
"Haa..."
"Why? Don't you like it?"
"No, it's better than the clothes you buy me..."
"...You know I'm known for dressing well, right?"
"That's because you always wear clothes like Suton Island."
"...It's actually hard to look good in that stuff, you know?"
I was holding onto the fridge for a moment, then looked at the excessively fluttering skirt.
Suddenly, an American meme I'd seen on Neotube popped into my head. When I twitched my butt, Dad's pupils shook.
The year I turned eight, I showed Dad what twerking was, and he spat out the coffee he was holding in his mouth.
Coughing, he rushed over to me and stopped me from shaking my butt.
"Why?"
"Cough... you... never, ever do that anywhere else..."
Dad must have gotten something down the wrong pipe; he kept turning his head away and coughing.
"This?"
I was about to twerk again. For the first time in this life, I witnessed Dad raising his hand to strike.
And then, for the first time in this life, I got spanked.