Audition.
Audition.
As soon as I logged into Maple Leaf Game, Sheen called me.
-"Yuja, what're you up to lately?"
"None of your business."
-"......"
That signature response of mine had practically become a trademark of Sheen's streams.
There were compilation videos of my reactions on Neotube. I was a star in Maple Leaf Game, too.
The moment I logged on, I checked the auction house—
to keep an eye on price fluctuations and claim the proceeds from what I'd sold.
-"So there's this leftover item I..."
The second I heard Sheen start to mention some item he wanted to trade, I cut him off.
"What is it."
-"Forbidden Necklace, Half Earrings."
"The stuff Uncle was using?"
-"It was my Dark Elf's."
A Dark Elf Sheen used to play.
The items from that character commanded an overwhelming price range, so I got serious.
"Uncle."
-"Yeah?"
"Name your price."
-"Yuja~"
I told him to name a price, and he started cooing my name instead.
"...? Weird fucking bit, man."
-"Sorry."
"Stuff like that's so high-end it won't sell anyway. Tell me what you're thinking. A price where I still turn a profit even if it takes a month to move."
-"Whoa! Trying to freeload off me again?"
"Yeah, so name a price you'd be happy with, Uncle."
-"...900 billion."
"Bullshit, not buying. That's ten percent under list."
-"Hey! If I cut you a deal by 100 billion, that's 3.4 million won in cash!"
"If I buy that and can't flip it, my 30.6 million sits tied up in storage until it sells. Why the hell would I do that?"
-"......"
"I'd rather turn my gold into cube volume."
I kept talking at Sheen, who'd gone silent.
"Even doing volume all day for three weeks, that money produces better returns. You seriously wanna swipe my pocket change that bad?"
-"...Hey, 'pocket change'... isn't that a little much?"
"600 billion."
-"That's insane!!! How the hell do you go from a Grandeur down to an Avante?!"
I sneered at that.
"Then put the word out and sell it yourself."
-"...750 billion."
"Yeah, good luck."
-"I'm... selling two, you know..."
"Huh? That was my price for both, though."
-"HEY!!!! SCREW YOU, I'M NOT SELLING!!!"
I smiled brightly.
"Alright. Call it 650 billion apiece?"
-"...Deal."
I'd reeled in a thirty-two-year-old sucker and freeloaded an item worth a used car.
A little later, I was hunting a boss monster with Park Ji-hoon.
We took down the boss, and just as I was gearing up Ji-hoon's character, Sheen suddenly contacted me out of nowhere.
-"HEY! You little—! How could you!! How could you do that to me?!"
"Do what."
-"I heard you already sold my necklace and earrings!"
"Yeah, and?"
-"Whoa... WHOA!!! You're a total fraud!"
"...Why, what's up? Spit it out, or I might just take that personally."
My response made Sheen think he might've misunderstood, so he asked again.
-"You... already had a buyer lined up, didn't you?"
"Tee-hee."
-"..... Can I curse at you?"
I laughed and put on a cutesy voice.
"Then... Yuja's gonna be sad..."
-"......"
A brief silence hung in the air before the muted Sheen finally spoke.
"Then... just bump it up 100 billion each..."
"The hell are you saying."
-"Wow... we must really be ill-fated... I raised a tiger—no, a hyena."
Park Ji-hoon finally decided the conversation was approachable and turned on his mic.
-"Wait, you're saying the person who knew where to sell it is the one at fault?"
Sheen, who found Park Ji-hoon easier to talk to than a little girl like me, shot back.
-"Hey, you son of a bitch!!! Do you have any idea how much that was worth?! I'm a man trying to make a living!!! I sold that stuff I'd been saving up to buy a house!!"
-"Whoa... calling an eight-year-old a son of a bitch is a bit much...."
-"...Sorry."
-"Even in Tazza, you think the person who got conned is the victim. But a merchant sells something themselves and then complains? Does a merchant have to spell out that they've got a buyer lined up? And we're eight fucking years old on top of that?"
I watched the chat scroll by, flooded with 'lmaoooo'.
Even when he was spouting stuff like that, the guy was a natural at turning it into content.
-"But still, you totally freeloaded off me this time!!!"
I watched the situation for a moment, then laughed and said,
"Ah~ So sweet~ My teeth are gonna rot."
-""......""
"Gonna go brush my teeth~"
I stepped away for a bit and made eye contact with Dad, who was in the living room watching Sheen's stream.
"Si-yoon..."
"Uh... yeah?"
"I think my daughter's been getting a little weird lately..."
"......"
For the first time in a long while, I tagged along to one of Dad's fan meetings.
It was an event CEO Jang Seong-man had arranged, and thousands of people filled the concert hall.
The fact that CEO Jang Seong-man was acting as MC seemed to show just how close he and Dad were.
"Looks like I'll get mobbed again for taking on the MC role."
Everyone knew about CEO Jang Seong-man's friendship with Dad, so the audience laughed at his remark.
"But please don't give me too hard a time. I'm a Ji-ho fan too."
CEO Jang Seong-man looked around and laughed brightly.
"You all know what I'm like, right? I hate dragging things out. Today, Ji-ho has prepared a performance with Si-yoon."
Even though I'd shot up in height now that I was eight, I still made my entrance cradled in Dad's arms.
The cheers for me were louder than the ones for Dad.
When I waved my hand, people screamed.
I climbed down from Dad's arms, and to the accompaniment, we sang the duet song the fans had been asking for.
After finishing the performance to a roar of applause, Dad's autograph session began.
I sat beside him for a while, then grabbed a mic and said,
"If you get my dad's autograph, I'll sign mine underneath~"
It was impromptu, but the crowd cheered even louder.
I signed my name underneath Dad's autographs.
-The Boss's daughter, Kim Si-yoon★.
People absolutely loved the line, which seemed to capture my personality perfectly.
Dolls and snacks began piling up on my table.
Handing out autographs to several thousand people was more grueling than you'd think.
People who saw I was struggling naturally stopped lining up in front of me.
"Si-yoon, are you tired? Do you want to go in and rest?"
"Nope."
I put on a rabbit-eared beanie I'd gotten as a gift.
When I pressed my hand down, the rabbit ears flopped.
I took the hat off and, because I found it fascinating, was examining how it worked.
'Looks like it uses the pressure from your hand to channel air.'
When I touched and pressed near the ears, they inflated via air pressure.
People were watching me do this.
Dad spoke cautiously.
"Si-yoon?"
"Hmm?"
"Don't tear that, okay...?"
"Yeah..."
After living together for eight years, Dad was already predicting my next move.
Before I knew it, the break was over and I'd started going back to school.
It was our first music class after the new semester began.
The teacher was teaching us piano.
Maybe because it was a private elementary school, there was a piano for each student.
The teacher walked around, inspecting how we played.
"Si-yoon, why aren't you playing?"
They couldn't memorize any of the other kids' names, but every single teacher in this school knew mine.
"The other kids will lose their motivation."
"...?"
I gave the music teacher the exact same line I'd given the swimming teacher.
For the benefit of my uncomprehending teacher, I got ready to play the piano.
BANG!!!
The kids, startled by me suddenly crashing down on the keys, all stopped playing.
From the tips of my tiny fingers, the Howl's Moving Castle OST began to flow.
A familiar melody from the very first note.
It was no great piano, but the music teacher got goosebumps from the sound Si-yoon was coaxing out of it.
In this moment, the sound of that piano under Si-yoon's fingers was more beautiful than any other piano in the world.
The teacher gaped in astonishment at the sound, so sweet it was as if the original composer, Hisaishi Jo, were playing it himself...
During those roughly ten seconds of playing, not a single breath could be heard.
""......""
The piano teacher stared at my hands with her mouth agape, unable to believe that sound was truly coming from a small child's delicate, soft fingers.
At lunchtime, the music teacher rushed into the first-grade teachers' office.
"Is the teacher for Class A-2 here?!"
A-2 was Si-yoon's class.
"Yes?!"
"Si-yoon... you have to put her in music!"
"Why... what's this about...?"
On the heels of the swimming teacher before the break, Si-yoon's homeroom teacher felt a headache coming on because of the music teacher who'd burst in over Si-yoon.
And then there was yet another teacher looking for Class A-2.
"Homeroom teacher for Class A-2!!"
""...?""
This one was the art teacher.
"Si-yoon... Si-yoon! I need the parents' contact details!"
"...Excuse me?"
"Art! Si-yoon has a natural gift for art!"
"No! She has to go into music!"
Just then, the swimming teacher, who'd heard the commotion, showed up and said,
"She's overwhelmingly good at swimming!"
Si-yoon's homeroom teacher showed them the evaluation sheets she'd been filling out to gauge each student's individual level.
Straight A-pluses for Si-yoon.
Every subject had a comment from the teacher, and they were all the same.
-Shows the highest aptitude for math......
-Should go into languages......
-Physics......
. . . . .
""......""
"And... swimming teacher, you heard it from Si-yoon's father yourself."
"I know, it's just so regrettable..."
The homeroom teacher spoke to the teachers who had gathered around.
"They said not to push her unless Si-yoon wants to do it."
""Ah...""
The arts and athletics teachers—some of whom had once been renowned within Korea, a few even worldwide—simply wanted to make Si-yoon their own disciple.
I was spinning a pen holder and reading a novel.
"Whoa... that body is seriously so OP, isn't it?"
"Haaard work."
"...I dunno about that. I knew you were always a good swimmer, but music? This is the first I'm hearing of it."
"You just never tried. Could be you were hiding a huge talent..."
"Whoa... must be nice."
"Hmph."
As the break was about to end, Ji-hoon pulled out the textbook for the next period.
"It's math. Not getting your book out?"
Without a word, I put my novel away and tapped my temple with my finger, as if to say I'd just remember it.
"...You're so damn obnoxious."
A while back, while I was chatting with Park Ji-hoon, the teacher caught us. When she told us to read a few pages, I'd recited an entire page without a second thought, without even looking at the book.
Maybe the rumor had spread, because even though I now made a point of opening my book and participating, not a single teacher gave me a hard time about not taking notes.
"Hey, Ji-hoon, ask your parents to get you some jumping stilts."
"All of a sudden?"
"I wore some for a movie recently, and they were fun."
Ji-hoon looked baffled by my comment.
"...? A movie? What movie?"
I put a finger to my lips for a moment and thought.
"Didn't I tell you?"
"...?"
"Eh, it's nothing. I shot a movie over the break."
"...?! What the—I thought you were working on a song?"
I nodded like I couldn't be bothered to elaborate.
"Anyway, it's nothing. But speaking of which, since your parents like me so much, my dad said he'd like to meet them. Let's get some jumping stilts and go to the Han River."
"...Haah."
"This is your parents' fault. Why do they send so many gifts? Dad's busy, but he says he feels obligated to return the favor no matter what."
"...When I see you in-game, you're always at home."
"Then would Dad leave me there alone and go out? With a parent's heart, could he do that?"
"......"
I smirked and opened my math book.