Chapter 14: Daughter’s Gift (1)

There were five more days left until the shoot, but since Kang Ra-Eun had been continuously attending the acting school, her acting skills had significantly improved compared to how she was in the beginning. Yoon Su-Mi continued to be surprised by her, lesson after lesson.

“It’s so strange. Are you really a second-year high schooler, Ra-Eun?” Su-Mi asked.

“Yes,” Ra-Eun answered.

“But you emanate this mature energy every time you act. Hmm...”

Su-Mi was right on the mark. Ra-Eun was only a second year high schooler in appearance. On the inside, she was an old man who had tasted the sweets and bitters of life. Those experiences had seeped out while she was immersed in her role. It would be troublesome if Su-Mi pried further, so Ra-Eun decided to leave the acting school early since her lesson was over.

“I’ll be off, then. Thank you for today, Miss Yoon,” Ra-Eun expressed.

“Hm? Oh, okay. Have a safe trip home. I’ll see you next time.”

As she had thought, leaving early when things were not in her favor was the best.

***

Kang Ra-Hyuk went to see Ra-Eun as soon as she returned home.

“Ra-Eun, you know it’s Dad’s birthday in three days, right?” he asked.

How would she possibly know? She had no idea. Kang Ji-Hun wasn’t her father in the first place. However, she acted as if she remembered.

“Yeah, of course.”

She felt the fruits of attending acting school.

“I’m thinking of giving him a portion of the money that we earned through stock trading on his birthday to have him use it to pay off his debt. It’ll also serve as an allowance. What do you think?” Ra-Hyuk posed.

“Well, it’s not bad.”

“How much should we give him? 200 mil? 300?”

“Go with 300 mil.” Ra-Eun stated.

She could cover that much with the surplus funds that they had.

“But I’m sure Dad would be shocked if he found out that we’ve been earning money this way. Right, Ra-Eun?”

“To be exact, I earned it. You only clicked the mouse a few times as I instructed.”

“Come on, buying and selling is also an important job, you know?”

He wasn’t wrong. Ra-Eun had time right now because it was summer break, but it would be difficult for her to earn money through stock trading when her classes resumed. It was only possible to have earned this much in such a short time because Ra-Hyuk had moved in her stead.

“The money aside, I’m thinking of also getting him a separate gift. What are you gonna get him?” Ra-Hyuk asked.

Ra-Eun couldn’t easily answer his question since she did not know what their father liked.

“What does Dad like?” Ra-Eun questioned.

“Dad? Let’s see... Oh, he really liked collecting watches in the past.”

“Watches? I hadn’t seen a single one in the house.”

“Well, he disposed of them all when he was buried in debt after his business failed. All he wears now is one old watch,” Ra-Hyuk remarked.

“Watches, huh...?”

She put it in her potential gift list for now.

***

Although Ji-Hun wasn’t her original father, she felt that it would be bad to just overlook it, so she made her way to Starlight Road to ask Seo Yi-Seo to go shopping with her tomorrow. However...

“Sorry, I have plans tomorrow, so I can’t go with you,” Yi-Seo apologized.

“It’s fine,” Ra-Eun stated.

Ra-Hyuk had said he had plans too. Ra-Eun had no choice but to look around by herself. At that moment...

“I’m free!”

Seo Yi-Jun came out of nowhere and appealed that he was available tomorrow.

“Your name was... Seo Yi-Jun, right?”

“Yes, noona. You remembered.”

On the day that Ra-Eun met Yi-Jun, Yi-Seo secretly texted her to be careful of her little brother since he had feelings for Ra-Eun. But of course, Yi-Jun didn’t seem to know this fact.

Yi-Seo hinted at her little brother, “Stop bothering Ra-Eun and go clean the tables.”

“What?! She’ll be relieved to have a man with her, and I can act as a porter. Ra-Eun noona, I may look like this, but I work out. I can easily carry heavy loads, so take me with you tomorrow and use me however you want!”

Yi-Jun was overflowing with zeal. Yi-Seo apologized to Ra-Eun because her little brother kept blatantly showing his feelings for Ra-Eun.

“I’m sorry that my brother’s bothering you, Ra-Eun.”

“No, it’s fine.”

On the contrary, Ra-Eun thought it had worked out well.

“Okay. You, come with me tomorrow. I’ll let you know the time and place in a bit,” Ra-Eun remarked.

“Okay, noona!”

Yi-Jun gazed at his older sister triumphantly, as if to say ‘

See, Ra-Eun noona says it’s fine’

. However, Yi-Seo’s anxiety only grew.

***

The streets around Hongik University Station were busy right from the morning of a Saturday. Ra-Eun, who hadn’t been here in a while, sighed deeply.

‘I used to come here a lot.’

Park Geon-Woo had made many memories with his friends in Hongdae in his teenage years and his twenties. He had never expected that he’d be back here again in the body of the teenage girl, Kang Ra-Eun.

On the other hand, she was joined by Yi-Jun, who had paid extra attention to his fashion and hair. He was quite popular among the girls in his school. He was handsome enough for passersby to think that he was an idol or a trainee. However, Ra-Eun did not even look his way.

“Let’s start looking around Exit 1 first,” Ra-Eun said.

“Okay! But you said you were looking for a gift to buy your father, didn’t you? What are you going to get him?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

There were several candidates. Pants, gloves, a wallet, a new smartphone, Bluetooth earphones, or...

‘A watch seems best.’

She decided to think about it as she looked around.

‘He’s not even my father. I can’t believe I’m walking around searching for a gift to give to someone else’s father.’

No matter how she thought about it, it truly was a strange turn of fate.

***

Once they entered their first store, Ra-Eun immediately headed to the corner where the men's wallets were displayed. Yi-Jun voiced his opinions as he was looking at wallets with her.

“Noona, men like this kind of design and color.”

He offered his advice because he had expected Ra-Eun not to know male preferences since she was a girl. However...

“I know,” Ra-Eun said.

Ra-Eun was originally male, so there was no way that she wouldn’t know something like that. She would be able to find a wallet that her father would like if she compared them to her own preferences, but she couldn’t find a wallet that she wanted here.

“Let’s go to the next store,” Ra-Eun expressed.

“Already?” Yi-Jun asked.

“There are nothing but stores in this area.”

“That’s true, but...”

Yi-Jun had gone on many dates with his ex-girlfriends, and they would spend at least thirty minutes to an hour in every store. He had felt their enthusiasm to go through every single item displayed in the store. However, that wasn’t Ra-Eun’s style. She first checked whether the store had what she needed or not, and left without hesitation if it didn’t. Yi-Jun smiled brightly as he was following behind Ra-Eun.

‘She sure is unreserved, just like what Sis had told me.’

Yi-Jun was starting to like Ra-Eun more and more.

***

They had gone through many stores, but there wasn’t a single item that caught Ra-Eun’s eyes. She was very disappointed. Or...

‘Are my preferences crap?’

Such thoughts popped up inside her head, but she didn’t want to let go of her stubbornness just because of that. She was sure that she would find something good as long as she kept looking. She kept searching with such beliefs, and three hours passed before she knew it.

“Noona! Could we take a break in a cafe somewhere?” Yi-Jun protested.

“A man like you is tired already?” Ra-Eun complained.

“You just have insane stamina!”

Ever since returning as a high school girl, Ra-Eun made sure to go jogging every single morning to improve her stamina, if anything else. Thanks to that, her stamina was much better compared to what it was when Park Geon-Woo had first entered Kang Ra-Eun’s body. Having no choice, Ra-Eun clicked her tongue and headed toward the cafe on the 3rd floor with Yi-Jun.

The part-timer asked the two of them, “Are you couples? If you are, then we’re offering a 10% sale on the items on our special menu as a promotion.”

Yi-Jun was charmed by the word

couple?

rather than the word

sale

. He immediately answered that they were, and received a death glare from Ra-Eun as a side. They took their drinks and headed to a window seat.

“Ra-Eun noona, why don’t we lower the gift conditions a little?”

“Why?”

“Because it feels like it’s gonna take too much time.”

“...”

He wasn’t wrong, but Ra-Eun didn’t like it, since it felt as if she lost if she lowered the conditions. She was sure that there was a good item somewhere out there. As she was in deep thought while biting the straw, a man's voice entered her ear.

“Now, we’ll be gathering participants for the special event that we, Iliou, have prepared!”

A voice coming from outside caught Ra-Eun’s attention.

“Can you see these prizes here? If you participate, then you can earn special prizes and leave memorable photos. It’s two birds in one stone, so I hope many of you participate!”

There was one item among the prizes displayed that caught Ra-Eun’s eyes. It was a wristwatch that looked high-class.

‘It looks like an automatic skeleton watch.’

Ra-Eun remembered her older brother saying that their father used to love collecting watches, especially automatic ones. It had a nice design, and was apparently limited-edition, according to the man.

‘It may be suitable for a gift.’

Ra-Eun got up from her seat without even finishing her drink.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said.

“Huh? Already?” Yi-Jun asked.

She had a goal. Yi-Jun scrambled to follow Ra-Eun.

The host was just about to explain the rules of the event.

“The rules of this game are simple! We’ll only be accepting couples as participants. The man has to hold the woman in his arms for as long as they can. Simple, right?”

Ra-Eun poked Yi-Jun's side with her elbow.

“Hey, let’s participate,” Ra-Eun expressed.

“Us?” Yi-Jun asked perplexedly.

“What? You told the part-timer at the cafe that we were couples.”

“I-I sure did.”

“And you said to leave the heavy-duty work to you, didn’t you?”

“...”

Yi-Jun was running out of excuses that he could make.

“Or what, should I be the one to carry you?” Ra-Eun asked sarcastically.

“N-No! How could I possibly let you do something like that? Just leave it to me!” Yi-Jun declared.

He had mustered up the courage with the power of unrequited love, but their competitors were nothing to scoff at. All the men were built like bricks. Yi-Jun also had a good physique, but he looked like a toothpick compared to them.

The host shouted toward the twenty teams, “The event will soon begin, so please get in position!”

Ra-Eun let herself be held by Yi-Jun as per the host’s instructions.

Lift!

Yi-Jun was astonished by how light Ra-Eun was compared to what he had expected. Once she was lifted, Ra-Eun put her arms around Yi-Jun’s neck. Yi-Jun felt like he could even last five hours just from the nice scent that he could smell from Ra-Eun, despite her not wearing any perfume.

The game began as soon as every couple got into position. The host spoke to each couple as he was going around them.

“Miss, could I hear you cheer for your boyfriend?”

“Do your best, honey! I love you~!”

One could feel the burning love from that cheer. Next, it was the long-awaited Ra-Eun and Yi-Jun’s turn.

“Please give your boyfriend a loving cheer!”

Ra-Eun’s loving cheer was...

“You’re dead if you drop me. Hold on until the end if you don’t want to die.”

...The most savage among the participants.

1. The Korean school system consists of six years of elementary school, three years of middle school, and three years of high school.

2. Hongik University Station is around the Hongdae area, which is known for its arts, culture, entertainment and stores.