A Special Child.
A Special Child.
I resolved to get revenge for Dad's new parenting methods,
and approached him in the workroom he'd set up at home.
Sensing my presence, Dad turned around.
Smiling, I held out the dozens of sheets of A4 paper in my hands.
".....?"
"You told me to do it, so I organized it."
Maybe he wanted to look mature, because Dad silently stared at the game list report I'd put together.
"....."
Dense handwriting—Dad, dizzy at the sight of paper crammed with writing for the first time in ages, skimmed it and nodded.
"My daughter worked hard on this~"
He seemed to be planning to just gloss over it, so I met his eyes and spoke.
"I'm pretty serious, so I wrote nothing but this for five days. I put in the effort like you said, so you have to show me yours. Don't just skim it. Memorize it. There's going to be a test."
"...Huh?"
I'd stuffed the report full of technical jargon to make it hard for Dad to understand.
"Ten thousand won allowance for every question you get wrong."
"....."
Dad still hadn't grasped the situation.
He probably thought I was joking. I absolutely wasn't.
"There are five hundred questions total."
"Si-yoon?"
"I already made the test. I've got the content memorized, and this... you brought it on yourself."
"....."
"I researched and wrote it over five days. If you don't take it seriously, your daughter might be disappointed, so study."
"...Daughter?"
"I'll give you as much time as I spent researching. The test is in five days."
Dad couldn't bring himself to refuse.
Because he'd watched me typing up the report at the computer with such a pleased look...
I glanced at Dad, whose expression had shifted to utter despair, hummed a tune, grabbed my phone, and headed up to the second floor.
Kim Ji-ho took the printout his young daughter had given him and headed to the house next door.
-"Who is it~"
"It's Si-yoon's father."
-"Ah! Come in."
The door opened, and Kim Ji-ho took heavy steps forward.
"Mister!"
Ga-yeon came running and greeted Kim Ji-ho.
And in case Ga-yeon fell, Da-yeon was watching from behind him.
"Hi, Ga-yeon~. Good to see you too, Da-yeon~"
And Lee Jin-seok met Kim Ji-ho's eyes.
Lee Jin-seok, who read Kim Ji-ho's expression in an instant, nodded.
"Honey, I'll be in the study with Ji-ho."
"Okay."
Kim Ji-ho followed Lee Jin-seok into the study with slumped shoulders, like he was being dragged to a slaughterhouse.
Inside the study, Kim Ji-ho stayed silent for a moment, then spoke.
"Jin-seok..."
Lee Jin-seok had already spotted the printout in Kim Ji-ho's hand.
"Wait... don't tell me..."
Kim Ji-ho wordlessly handed the A4 sheets to Lee Jin-seok.
The cover read, in neat bold letters, Game Report.
Lee Jin-seok flipped through a few pages and fell silent.
Anyone could see it was a report designed to give her father a giant middle finger.
Even to Lee Jin-seok, who was accustomed to reports, it was filled with terms he'd never seen before, packed densely in what looked like 8-to-10-point font.
Put bluntly, it looked harder to read than a dictionary or the Bible.
"....."
"She says there'll be five hundred questions..."
"...From in here?"
It looked about fifty pages; with ten questions per page, it was basically telling him to memorize the whole thing.
"Yeah..."
"...I'm sorry."
"No... I was the one who told her to do it. Having watched Si-yoon making this all day long from the sidelines... I couldn't bring myself to say no."
"....."
"As Si-yoon's dad, I should study to repay her effort... but I've never really studied before, so..."
Lee Jin-seok silently looked at Kim Ji-ho, slumped in dejection.
"Five hundred questions... leaving aside how to study... you'd have to just memorize all of it..."
"Haa..."
"How much time?"
Lee Jin-seok had asked to help, or at least offer some advice, but Kim Ji-ho's answer only made things darker.
"Five days... she's giving me..."
"Huhhh... it'd be easier to sneak a look at the test..."
Kim Ji-ho stared at Lee Jin-seok with hollow eyes.
"I misspoke... knowing Si-yoon, she wouldn't write it down anywhere. It's all in her head..."
"Even if she had it written down... cheating, as her dad, is a little..."
The study of Lee Jin-seok, head of Hanseong—the group ranked second in the Korean business world—was where all its critical decisions were made.
There, two married men began to agonize over a child's project.
After I used Ji-hoon to block that big kid's confession, the other kids started looking at me with weird eyes.
From rumors that my family was dirt poor, to saying I acted all pretty, to calling me a scheming fox right to my face without a second thought.
There was even buzz going around that I'd had plastic surgery.
'Eight... years old?'
The girls in particular avoided me while stealing wary glances.
"Heh..."
Park Ji-hoon got friendly with the boys during gym class.
A pack of kids clinging to Ji-hoon every break. He sat right next to me, so it was damn noisy.
"Well, their mental ages match, so..."
"If you're jealous, just say you're jealous, loner."
"...?"
I looked around. Yep.
Day eight of going to school... I realized it.
I was being 'ostracized'...
"Huhhh..."
It didn't bother me, but thanks to this dickhead Park Ji-hoon, needling me from the side, I was slowly getting pissed off.
Class went on. I was reading a novel without a care, and the Korean teacher spoke.
"Kim Si-yoon."
Maybe because I'm a superstar among the younger teachers, most of them knew my name.
"Yes."
"You're reading a novel during class?"
The teacher said it with a stern face.
"I'm sorry."
I wasn't bothered by the kids snickering.
But watching Park Ji-hoon making that shitty little face next to me, I was running out of oxygen from sheer rage.
Was this little brat always this obnoxious? I thought about it for a moment.
Then the Korean teacher, thinking I was ignoring him, got angry.
"Kim Si-yoon! Read page 104 out loud!"
"Ah..."
Fine, so the kids around me are snickering.
But watching this bastard next to me cracking up, my blood started to simmer for the first time in a while.
Without a thought, without even opening the book, I recited 'The Rabbit and the Turtle,' the start of page 104.
"".....""
I realized I hadn't opened the book and flipped it open, but I still wasn't looking at it.
Even though I wasn't looking at the book, I didn't miss a single syllable, and the Korean teacher, at a loss for words, made me sit.
To suit the mood that had gone ice-cold from my rude behavior, I bowed my head to the Korean teacher as an apology. Seeing that, the teacher nodded silently and resumed class.
I casually opened my Korean textbook to page 104 and stomped hard on Park Ji-hoon's toe.
"Gaaah!!!"
"What is that noise!!!"
Along with the Korean teacher's fury, Park Ji-hoon was sent out into the hallway.
While adapting to school, the five long-awaited days passed.
For the past five days, Dad had done nothing but wear out those printouts, to the point I had to make him four new sets.
I remember things after one look, but Dad must have set his mind to it, because he genuinely studied.
"This is the test."
"...Okay."
Maybe he had studied even after putting me to bed, because he had dark circles under his eyes.
I spoke to distract him.
"You're thinking about how to get revenge, aren't you?!"
"Come on..."
Dad's expression and reaction looked to me like he was gearing up for Round Two.
"No, it's fine. Whatever you do in response from now on, I'll just keep making more tests. As your daughter, I should follow your new parenting policy, right~"
"...Sorry."
Smiling, I started the stopwatch on my phone.
"Thirty seconds per question. Four hours and ten minutes total."
"Huh?! It's not until dinner?"
"Thirty seconds just passed."
"That's not fair! You're supposed to announce the test time before making someone take it!"
"...I never said it was until dinner... Fine. It's 9 a.m. now, so I'll give you until dinner. Take your time."
I'd just put in my wireless earbuds and was watching a movie when Dad spoke to me.
"...Is this... a question you actually expect me to get right?"
The question Dad was pointing at.
It was definitely a question meant to be missed.
- Maple Leaf Game, boss monster Ryan, dedicated item drop rate.
- Maple Leaf, probability of getting 9% Strength on a Soul Stone among items.
"Yeah. It was all written in there."
"....."
"Don't act so wronged. I made the test without looking at the printout I gave you."
'Bow before this overwhelming memory, my young father. Heh heh heh.'
Honestly, Dad's concentration was impressive.
He had been working through the test for six hours, focused entirely on the questions.
"Phew..."
"I'm hungry."
Even in the middle of our battle of wits, Dad grew visibly anxious as soon as I said I was hungry.
"Huh...? What do I do?"
In the end, Dad tried to get up to feed me,
and I laughed at his reaction.
Right on cue, Da-yeon and Lee Jin-seok came over to our house to hang out.
I already knew they were coming, and Lee Jin-seok's hands were full of food.
Lee Jin-seok handed sandwiches to Dad and me, glanced at the test over Dad's shoulder for a moment, and shook his head.
"Si-yoon... these questions... Good grief..."
"What about them."
When I stared at him with a look that said, 'Say another word and you'll be sitting right there beside Dad,' Lee Jin-seok kept his silence.
"....."
So as not to disturb Dad's test, Lee Jin-seok left coffee and snacks beside him and went away.
Time passed. When six p.m. rolled around, Dad stretched.
"Done!"
Hearing Dad's voice, I took out my earbuds.
"Really? I'm grading it now, okay?!"
"Wait! Before we grade it, let's make a deal."
I stared at Dad.
"One minute of gaming for Si-yoon for every question Dad got wrong."
"I don't like that."
Trying to beat me through sheer stubborn pride, Dad launched what was barely a threat.
"...Then, we'll pretend the allowance never happened."
"Fine. Let's do that."
My cool response left Dad speechless.
"....."
When I tried to look at Dad's answer sheet, he stopped me.
I looked at Dad and said,
"If Dad didn't even get half right, that's more than four hours and ten minutes. You that confident?"
I knew I was born with a diamond spoon. As long as Lee Jin-seok's black card sat in my wallet, money couldn't sway me.
"Si-yoon... four hours is a ton..."
"No, why are you setting a time limit! Just play whenever you've got nothing else to do!"
"...Can you honestly say you'd stop if Dad told you to? You'd just say an hour wasn't that long..."
I folded my arms, propped my chin in my hand, and thought for a moment, then admitted Dad was right.
"...Yeah, true."
"Like we always have, we find a compromise."
"And that's four hours?"
"Two hours."
Like he thought he was Tanus, the villain from a superhero movie.
Seeing the time slashed in half just like that, I caught a glimpse of someone in Dad who should never have shown his face—Park Ji-hoon, that son of a bitch.
"Wow... I almost cussed, Dad."
"....."
Dad must have felt confident he'd get at least three-quarters right.
"Let's do this."
Dad looked at me with dark circles under his eyes.
"Let's leave the test at the allowance. And when Dad tells you to stop gaming, you'll at least consider it depending on the reason."
"...Fine."
"Okay. By the way, why do you need so much allowance?"
My original goal was to buy in-game items proportional to how many Dad got wrong, but I couldn't say that outright.
I quickly hunted for an excuse and answered.
"This is the only way to get you motivated and taking the test seriously."
"....."
"Can I grade it now?"
Only then did Dad take his hands off the answer sheet.
Maybe because his job is writing lyrics, his essay answers were really... emotional.
While I was grading, the first wrong answer came up, and Dad said,
"Isn't that one right?!"
"Page 23, line 17 of the printout I gave you."
Dad fetched the printout, checked it, and was left speechless.
After that, as a rain of red marks began to fall on the test, Dad's face was dyed with despair.
At the sight of me jauntily slashing with my red pen, his pupils shook like he'd developed a trauma.
"Si... Si-yoon, how about we stop? Dad'll give you a lot of allowance."
He'd gotten way more wrong than expected, to the point the confidence he'd had just moments ago seemed to come from nowhere at all.
Maybe the wrong answers outnumbered his own tally, because Dad grabbed the test with both hands.
I held out my little hand, palm up, as if demanding it back.
"Si... Si-yoon?"
"Give it."
Dad squeezed his eyes shut and handed me his test.