The Kids' Resolve.
The Kids' Resolve.
I made a sour face, but Da-yeon just smiled at me.
"But they say people like you even when you just stay still like a princess, Si-yoon!"
Since the conversation seemed to be going off the rails, I gave Da-yeon a dose of reality.
"I'm not a princess. And you've gotten a lot of confessions too, Da-yeon."
"....."
"Right? Even though you just stayed still like a princess, there were kids confessing to you, weren't there?"
"...Yeah."
While talking with Da-yeon, I suddenly got curious and asked her.
"But why did you turn them all down?"
"...They're too stupid..."
"That friend in the photo is probably stupid compared to you too, Da-yeon."
I wanted to erase that fox-like brat Kim Tae-oh from Da-yeon's heart, but her reaction wasn't having it.
"But he's cool!"
Seeing Da-yeon's expression... I got the feeling she was 100 percent going to confess someday.
I stalled for time, hoping that smart Da-yeon would just see Kim Tae-oh as a stupid friend.
"Even if you think he's cool, you can't show it. You just have to look pretty and go about until the other person comes to you."
"!!! Then will he like me, Da-yeon?"
"Of course~ Even if you stay still like a princess, everyone will want to marry you!"
"Got it! I'll be a princess too!"
I clapped for the 9-year-old kid's resolve.
As I left the room, I gave Lee Jin-seok a look, and having caught my gaze, he naturally went into the study.
The study was a no-go zone for the kids in this house.
It was where Lee Jin-seok and I could meet face-to-face without any trouble.
"Let's get straight to the point. Do you find me exhausting?"
Lee Jin-seok's expression went blank.
In his mind, the image of Kim Ji-ho, who had asked about his daughter not long ago, surfaced.
"Uh... hey... No way."
"Your reaction already tells me the truth... Dad isn't the type to make things up."
"...I'm sorry."
I rested my chin on my hand and sighed.
"Haa... Thanks to that, I lost the argument with Dad. Anyway, next."
"....."
Flinching at my gaze, Lee Jin-seok clasped his hands and began to read my mood.
"I told you not to use Kim Tae-oh."
The kid Kim Tae-oh that I'd selected back then from HSW.
Lee Jin-seok was flustered by the sudden mention of that name.
"...? What do you mean?"
"Da-yeon has fallen for him hard."
"What?! They only met once?!"
"To think that Da-yeon... would fall in love at first sight..."
Lee Jin-seok's expression turned serious as he asked me.
"Should I cancel it even now?"
"Are you confident you can never see Da-yeon's face again?"
Lee Jin-seok, having understood exactly what I meant, began to seriously ponder.
"....."
I looked at Lee Jin-seok, sighed, and continued.
"She's smart, so she'll remember everything, you know? For now, I talked to her nicely."
"Thank you..."
"It's only natural that as she grows up, her standards will get higher... But that brat Kim Tae-oh's looks are no joke..."
"....."
"He's quite the catch... He'll only shine more as he grows. Just like me."
"No way..."
I looked at the despairing Lee Jin-seok and added a few more words.
"No dating. Don't plant these kinds of ideas. At her age, if you tell her not to, she'll want to do it more."
"...So that's why you..."
Flinching at my glare, Lee Jin-seok picked up a book he hadn't even been reading and held it upside down.
"What about me."
"Ah... Never mind."
"No, tell me. I need to know my flaws so I can fix them."
After watching my mood for a moment, Lee Jin-seok closed the book. His hand trembled as he only just realized it had been upside down.
"I heard from Ji-ho that... you want to do things he wouldn't want you to do..."
"The rest are things Dad likes, so."
"...It's only natural for an adult to worry."
I lowered the hand propping up my chin, slowly laced my fingers together, and asked Lee Jin-seok.
"What's the reason, then?"
Perhaps having organized his thoughts, Lee Jin-seok spoke clearly.
"I'm worried it might have a bad influence on the child's character development."
"And how is my character."
"You're a rude little brat..."
Watching my mood, Lee Jin-seok still said everything he had to say.
My blood pressure spiked for a moment, but I realized that was the image I had in the eyes of adults.
Well, if the me of the past had seen a brat acting like I do, I would have flicked him on the forehead.
"Then how should I behave?"
"...You could just... look at Da-yeon... couldn't you...?"
"...? That's asking too much."
"....."
I nodded as if I roughly understood and then brought up the next plan.
"I get that you want to send Da-yeon abroad to study, but cancel it. The plan."
"....."
"Or, if Kim Tae-oh devours Da-yeon, I won't stop it."
Lee Jin-seok looked at me with a shocked expression.
"Later, she'll like Tae-oh more than you, you know? Or wait, maybe she already does?"
"Y... No way."
"Don't be tactless and ask Da-yeon."
I put on a serious face and stared straight into Lee Jin-seok's eyes.
"Later, if Da-yeon asks you whether she told you she likes Tae-oh, you... really... won't be able to handle it."
At my cold voice, Lee Jin-seok swallowed hard, and the gulp echoed in the quiet study.
"Si-yoon! Si-yoon!"
I stroked Ga-yeon's hair as he clung to me and wouldn't let go.
"Lee Ga-yeon! Si-yoon is tired!"
Da-yeon tried to peel Ga-yeon off me but stopped because he looked like he was about to cry.
Kim Seon-hwa, who had been watching, smiled and said.
"I didn't get to see Si-yoon's movie because of these kids~"
"The trailer for the drama I filmed recently came out. Watch that."
"Oh, really?"
Kim Seon-hwa, having looked it up on her phone, smiled brightly.
"Oh my~ So pretty~"
Jeong-yeon pretended not to be interested and kept sneaking glances.
The perceptive Kim Seon-hwa showed the phone to Jeong-yeon, and Jeong-yeon's face flushed.
"P... Pretty..."
"Right? Looks like the drama wanted to ride on Si-yoon's popularity this time~"
It was a role that had the influence of Hanseong behind it, beyond just my dad's influence. A role that couldn't just be filmed ordinarily... I played along with Kim Seon-hwa, who was pretending not to know.
"It seemed like they invested more in my role than in the adult nine-tailed fox."
Da-yeon watched the video and her eyes sparkled.
"Whoa... A tail... Si-yoon, you were a nine-tailed fox!?"
"That's right~"
"But last time you said you were a mermaid!"
"Sometimes if I stay on land too long, I turn into a nine-tailed fox."
"...Uh-huh... Really?"
When Da-yeon seemed not to believe it, I reacted as if I was sulking.
"You don't believe me?"
Da-yeon, seeing my reaction, rushed over as if by conditioned reflex.
"I believe you!! Si-yoon is a nine-tailed fox!"
"Then shall we have a snack and go to the pool?"
""Yeah!""
As Ga-yeon also joined in answering, Kim Seon-hwa laughed and said.
"Oh my~ Then the adults will have to go too~"
Before class, Park Ji-hoon put his bag down on his desk.
"Hey."
"Seems like old habits die hard, seeing you come early."
There was no one in the classroom but me and Ji-hoon.
I leaned back in my chair and stretched.
"I don't know. My dad drops me off at this time."
"Same here... Ugh..."
Ji-hoon hung his bag on the hook, clasped his hands, and said seriously.
"I'm going to learn modern martial arts."
"Mixed martial arts?"
Ji-hoon nodded seriously.
"Why."
"It's embarrassing as hell to lose to a girl."
"Dumbass, do I count as a woman?"
"The problem is that other people think so..."
"Sure~ Do your best or whatever."
Sometimes I secretly watch modern fighting on Neotube behind Dad's back, but it's a lot different from the methods of the past.
And even the way we fought in the past seemed inefficient.
If I get to see Park Ji-hoon after his fighting style changes, that would be interesting too.
Also, when I saw Park Ji-hoon turn on his phone and concentrate on a video, I could tell he was more serious than I'd thought.
Before we knew it, spring had passed and summer was approaching.
During that time, Park Ji-hoon started learning kickboxing first.
Usually, Seoul private elementary schools dismissed at 6 PM, but Ji-hoon used the athletic track to choose the 1 PM dismissal instead.
Today again, Ji-hoon went home after dismissal, and I was drawing with paints with Mr. Go Min-su.
At my overwhelmingly improved drawing skills, Mr. Go Min-su was looking at the painting with a serious expression.
"Si-yoon, why are you doing art?"
"Because there's nothing else to do?"
"....."
Mr. Go Min-su seemed unsatisfied with my answer.
"Is there something you want to do the most?"
At the sudden barrage of questions, I stopped my hand and thought for a moment.
I, who had told Park Ji-hoon to have a goal, thought about what I really wanted to do...
Just a few years ago, our goal had been Taebaek and S Company. Not anymore, though.
Now Hanseong was aggressively swallowing S Company whole, and there seemed no need to interfere with a company already collapsing on its own.
In the end, after pondering what I wanted to do the most, I nodded and said.
"Hmm... A rich bum?"
I'd spent my life running nonstop without ever looking back.
If I had to choose how to spend my second life... nothing beat being a rich bum, enjoying the moment and doing nothing.
But Mr. Go Min-su seemed to be thinking a lot about my answer.
"Hmm... So it doesn't matter if you do something other than art?"
"That's not it."
"Why?"
"Because I decided to succeed at what I'm worst at."
"....."
As expected, Mr. Go Min-su, who had poured everything into art, seemed displeased that I took painting lightly, and his expression soured.
"Then... would you try reaching that goal sooner...?"
"How?"
"In a year, there's an international student art competition. Would you like to give it a try? If you get up to the gold prize, you'll get to submit your work to a world competition held in Australia called 'Beusa.' If you win a prize there, your work will travel the world."
Mr. Go Min-su said seriously.
I understood his desire to nurture me.
Having taught me many things and poured so much passion into me, he must have had a lot on his mind seeing me improve at such a rapid pace.
He was bound to grow ambitious, and he was young enough for that passion to burn fiercely...
But as I said before, I didn't want to do bothersome things.
"I don't want to."
"...Because you want to live peacefully?"
"Yes. Because I don't like being busy."
Mr. Go Min-su picked up a brush stained with oil paint, different from the watercolors I was using, and dabbed the canvas.
"Yet you're already busy, aren't you?"
"....."
Truthfully, because of the movie 'Zombie' that I'd filmed wanting to experience acting... even audition invitations from Hollywood had flown in. I'd turned them all down, though.
"If you keep painting, Si-yoon... I can enter your work for you..."
The brush in Go Min-su's hand—his gentle face looking as though he'd never raised his voice—swept across the canvas in surging strokes, as if expressing his emotions.
"What's the theme?"
"...Free choice."
I silently nodded and continued the picture I was drawing, and Mr. Go Min-su also silently corrected my painting.
I told Dad about the international competition, and Dad immediately set up a workspace at home.
I sat up straight in a chair and dabbed oil paint onto the canvas.
I'd used them a few times before, but their texture was very different from watercolors.
Brushes and paints that supposedly let you feel the emotions of the artist who used them.
Unlike how I'd drawn from observation until now, I drew scenes from my head without looking at anything.
Unlike watercolors, the oil paints handled more the way I wanted than I'd expected, which was fun, and I burned through them at a tremendous rate.
My supply of canvases disappeared quickly, and the stack of finished paintings grew at the same pace.
Winter came, and time flew quickly toward the end of my ninth year.
Among the many rooms, one room was full of stacked paintings. I suggested throwing them away to tidy up, but Dad didn't want to throw away my paintings.
"Ugh... Then let's give them away to fans."
"Oh!! That's my girl! Then shall we do that?!"
I started carefully packaging and signing each one with Dad.
Canvases with no titles, only numbers written on them. It was a number to keep track of how many paintings I'd done using oil paints.
Before I knew it, I'd turned 10, and as if warning that summer would soon arrive, the once-beautiful flowers were losing their strength, decorating the streets.
I stood in front of the art room holding a canvas wrapped in paper larger than my body.
"Is that you, Si-yoon?"
"Yes~"
"Oh... What's that?"
"Um... I thought about it... and I figured a certain amount of busyness might be okay."
Mr. Go Min-su's expression hadn't been good since a year ago when he'd told me about the international competition. The more my artistic talent bloomed, the more...
But when he heard my words, Mr. Go Min-su's expression completely changed.
"Because they say life is too short to not show off what you're good at."
Mr. Go Min-su received the canvas from me and carefully opened the wrapping.