After winning the grand prize at the last competition, I decided to think again about what I actually wanted to do.
I started studying because I envied other people’s academic backgrounds,
and I started playing the piano because people who played instruments looked cool.
I also kept jumping rope and stretching because people with fit bodies looked beautiful.
As a result, even though I was only in the first year of elementary school, I was studying high school material, and I even won the grand prize in the elementary division for piano.
And although I was a girl, I had a body that was the envy of anyone.
Even so, I still didn’t know what I was supposed to do.
“Unnieee, whatcha doin’?”
Doa toddled over to me as I lay on the sofa.
I picked Doa up, placed her on the sofa, and lay down beside her.
“Aww, I’m afraid I might end up spending my whole life just looking after Doa.”
Doa, who was still only four, beamed happily.
“Mm-hm, I wanna live with Unnie too.”
Looking at Doa, my future suddenly stopped mattering.
I’d probably become something or other if I just kept going like this.
But what if Doa got a boyfriend later on?
I needed to earn money quickly and hire a bodyguard for Doa.
But what if she fell for the bodyguard?
Right, I’d have to hire a female bodyguard.
But would a female bodyguard be able to protect her?
What should I do?
While I was spreading the wings of my imagination all by myself, Mom called for us.
“Dohui~ Doa~”
“Huh?” “Mm?”
“Should we go out for dinner?”
Because I usually hated going out, our family rarely ate out.
“Why all of a sudden?”
“Your Aunt Minha is coming. You remember Mom’s friend Minha, right?”
“Yeah. Baekhwi’s mom?”
“Right. She said we should have dinner together.”
“What about Dad?”
“He says he’ll eat out.”
“Okay, then. Let’s do that.”
While getting ready to go out,
I threw on my own clothes carelessly, then went over to Doa and started choosing an outfit for her.
“Is this one cute? Hmm, no… Doa, let’s take your clothes off. Arms up.”
“Mm-hm.”
“Hmm, this one suits you too. Should I put you in the chiffon dress?”
Mom came over beside me and joined Doa’s fashion show.
“I think a school-style two-piece would suit her.”
“Hmm, how about a sky-blue ribbon with that?”
“That color doesn’t really go with our Doa.”
“Hmm… Then this black one.”
“Yeah, let’s try that one on first.”
“Doa, arms up!”
“Mm…”
Now I understood how Mom must have felt when she put on fashion shows for me.
How could anyone resist when she was this cute?
By the time Doa was about to start pouting, we had finally chosen an outfit and barely managed to leave the house.
“Mom, so where are we going?”
“They said it’s some kind of steakhouse. Mom doesn’t really know either.”
We drove to a fairly upscale-looking restaurant.
Wow, how much does a place like this cost?
Baekhwi’s family really must be rich.
As soon as we opened the door and entered, an employee greeted us politely.
“Welcome. Do you have a reservation?”
“Ah, it should be under the name Kim Minha.”
“Yes. I’ll show you to your table.”
Following the employee’s guidance, we entered a private room, where Aunt Minha and Baekhwi were waiting.
Aunt Minha stood up to greet us.
“Welcome! Baekhwi, you should stand up and say hello too, shouldn’t you?”
Baekhwi greeted Mom.
“Hello, Auntie.”
“Well, Baekhwi, you’ve gotten even more handsome.”
Baekhwi then greeted me shyly.
“Hi, Dohui…”
Oh man, he’s still like this.
“Oh, hey. Hello, Auntie~”
“Oh my, our Dohui gets prettier every time I see her. I heard you won the grand prize at the competition again this time?”
“Yes, I was lucky. Haha.”
“How can Dohui be good at everything? I wish I had a daughter like you~”
After showering me with praise, Aunt Minha looked at Doa and continued.
“So this little one must be Doa?”
“Yes. He-hello.”
Perhaps Doa was still extremely shy around strangers, because she went behind me and tightly grabbed my hand.
I hoped Doa would grow up still this shy and keep looking only for me for the rest of her life.
“Oh, she’s so good at greeting people too. Juhui, how do you manage to give birth to such pretty girls?”
“I guess they took after me when I was young? Hehe.”
“What are you talking about? Anyway, I think I might have one more daughter.”
“Why? Baekhwi’s cute enough.”
“Oh, our son doesn’t have any charm.”
“Our firstborn is the same. It’s a good thing Doa is such a sweetheart.”
By my standards, I was a bundle of charm for an old person, but nobody appreciated it.
“Sit down for now. You must be hungry. Let’s order quickly. The steak here is delicious.”
“This place looks really expensive.”
“Come on, I have to treat you to something expensive to celebrate you winning the grand prize, Dohui~”
“Thank you, Auntie~”
When you had the chance, you had to let rich people treat you to as much as possible.
“What are you going to have, Dohui?” Aunt Minha asked.
“Um… well-done tenderloin, please.”
“Oh, Dohui, you’re still too young to know what good meat tastes like. Trust me and order it medium. Steak is supposed to have a little pink in it.”
“Then I’ll have medium-well. I want to share it with Doa.”
“Okay, okay. Juhui, what about you?”
“I’ll have medium.”
Aunt Minha called over a server and placed our order, then continued chatting with Mom.
“But I heard Dohui goes to a public elementary school? Why didn’t you send her to a private elementary school?”
“She said it would be a waste of money and that she’d rather go to the one near our house.”
“Oh, come on. That’s not the kind of thing you should be worried about the cost of. The kids you meet at a private elementary school all end up becoming connections later on.”
“More than anything, the quality of education at a private elementary school is different from that of a public one.”
After listening to Aunt Minha, Mom seemed to be considering transferring me to a private school even now.
“Auntie, there wouldn’t be anything for me to learn at a private elementary school anyway.”
“Oh, Dohui, you may think that, but if you actually went, you’d find that you learn different things.”
“Um… I’m already studying high school material…”
“Huh? High school? What do you mean, Dohui is studying high school material?”
“She started studying on her own when she was little, and now she’s already looking at high school textbooks…”
Aunt Minha was so shocked that she smacked Mom on the arm.
“That’s crazy, absolutely crazy! Your daughter is that smart, and you kept it a secret and just let her be?”
“I was worried that if I went around telling people, it would only make things tiring for Dohui.”
“Even so! Shouldn’t you at least have put her in gifted education?”
“Well, she does fine on her own, and Dohui didn’t want to attend gifted classes either, haha…”
Aunt Minha continued talking to Mom in an excited state of shock, then turned to me.
“Dohui, you really don’t want to become Auntie’s daughter-in-law?”
“No.”
Aunt Minha pointed at Baekhwi, who was sitting shyly in his seat.
“He’s handsome, at least. He takes after his auntie, after all. There are tons of girls at school who confess that they like him.”
Then why doesn’t he choose one of them? Why does it have to be me?
“Haha…”
“And his family has plenty of money. He may not study as much as you, but he’s already studying middle school material.”
Isn’t it child abuse to make a first grader study middle school material?
“I’m just going to live with our Doa forever~”
“Oh, you’re still a child, so you’re not interested in boys yet, huh? I’m not saying this just because Baekhwi is my son—there really isn’t another boy like him.”
“Yes, yes…”
“Auntie isn’t giving up on making you her daughter-in-law, Dohui.”
Please give up…
After finally escaping Aunt Minha’s relentless teasing, I spoke to Baekhwi.
“Hey, are you really studying middle school material?”
“Yeah. I only started recently, though…”
“What kind of elementary school student studies that far ahead? Isn’t it tiring?”
“You study high school material.”
“I’m doing it because I want to.”
Baekhwi smiled as he spoke.
“I’m doing it because I want to, too.”
Then he blushed and said quietly,
“And you said it before, remember? That studying hard is cool…”
Ah.
Did I accidentally set a flag?
“No, well, everyone generally agrees that working hard is cool…”
“Yeah…”
“Okay, keep at it. If it gets too hard, take a break.”
“Okay!”
Good grief…
As long as he didn’t grow up to be hideous, there would be no shortage of girls throwing themselves at him.
He’d give up on me then, right?
“Unnieee~”
Perhaps Doa felt left out because we were talking without her. She tugged at my arm with her tiny, fern-like hands.
“Our Doa was bored because Unnie wasn’t playing with you, huh~”
“Mm-hm.”
“Unnie only has Doa for the rest of her life~”
“I wuv Unnie too.”
“Unnie loves you too~”
—Knock, knock—
With a knock, a server entered carrying our food.
“I’ll set the dishes down.”
“Yes, thank you.”
The steak placed in front of me smelled incredible even before I tasted it.
I cut into it and put a piece in my mouth.
“Wow, this is freaking delicious.”
“Ahem. Dohui, Mom told you not to use bad words.”
“Yeah, anyway, it’s so good.”
Aunt Minha, who had been listening to Mom and me, laughed.
“Haha, I guess it suits your taste, Dohui?”
“Yes, it’s really delicious.”
“If you marry our Baekhwi, you can eat it every day.”
“That’s a little…”
“I’m joking, I’m joking.”
As if.
I cut the steak into small pieces for Doa, whose teeth hadn’t fully grown in yet, and fed her a piece.
“Doa, say ah~”
“Ah~”
Watching her chew with that tiny mouth was unbearably adorable.
“Is it good?”
“Mm-hm. It’s yummy.”
Expensive places really did charge what they were worth.
Whatever I became in the future, I needed to make lots of money.
That way, I could buy delicious things for our Doa.
A tour of Michelin-starred restaurants overseas would be nice too.
After finishing our meal, we said goodbye to Baekhwi’s family and drove home.
Doa must have been tired, because she fell asleep with her head in my lap.
After winning the competition, I hadn’t been able to focus on my daily life, so I decided to tell Mom what had been on my mind.
“Mom.”
“Hmm?”
“What should I do?”
“What do you mean, later on?”
“Yeah.”
Mom thought about it for a moment before answering.
“Why does it matter what you do? You’re still just Mom’s daughter.”
“Oh~ That was a pretty cool line, Mom.”
“How’s my sense of style?”
“It sounded too rehearsed, so minus ten points.”
“Do you want another bonk on the head, Princess?”
“Hehe. Then ninety out of a hundred.”
“Since when did our daughter start giving such high scores?”
“Because it sounds like something you’d say.”
Mom answered with a little laugh.
“When has it ever not?”
“Yeah…”
I guess this wasn’t something I needed to worry about after all.