A luxury apartnt inhabited only by a tiny fraction of the super-rich in Korea.
Contrary to its sophistication, the floor was littered with all sorts of trash.
Accustod to such filth, I pushed aside the garbage and headed to the kitchen.
*Clank*
As soon as I opened the fridge, I was greeted by moldy fruits and side dishes in various colors.
And there was a visibly strange plant growing, accompanied by a pungent odor that automatically wrinkled my nose.
“Let’s clean up tomorrow.”
Once again, I postponed cleaning to tomorrow and poured myself a strong drink.
“Sigh…”
I gently sat down on a garbage bag and drank the remaining liquor.
How long do I have to live like this?
I glanced at the trophies scattered in the corner, which were symbols of my past success as an actor.
Lee Seo-jun – XX Rookie Award…
Lee Seo-jun – XX Best Actor Award…
Lee Seo-jun – XX Acting Award…etc….
Fortunately, at the tender age of ten, I discovered my exceptional talent – acting and concentration. And, embarrassing as it may be to admit, I had a keen eye for good scripts.
In fact, it seed as though the projects that interested , were the only one’s to make it to the top.
The projects I chose to work with, had always garnered high ratings.
Of course, it also relied on the acting skills of the chosen cast.
Thanks to that, despite my plain appearance, I flourished in every project I took on.
Until I started a joint business with a friend I used to keep in touch with.
“Damn it.”
That trash bastard, who made
what I am today, popped into my mind, and curses slipped out of my mouth unconsciously.
“The investor of an illegal drug factory” is what you’d find if you searched for my na on the internet. The title stuck on to
as a brand label.
“If only I hadn’t befriended a trash like him…”
I was deceived by my friend.
If I had known from the beginning, I wouldn’t have invested at all.
Caught up in a busy schedule, I forgot about the business I had invested in until my na appeared in the news, and I was shocked.
Fortunately, the verdict for , who had invested a substantial amount in the business, was not guilty.
However, the public did not forgive . Despite
being deceived, they insisted on harsh punishnt.
Even after five years since the incident broke out, the response remained the sa.
Although Y&H Entertainnt, the company I belong to, told
to take so ti to calm down and slowly co back. But even if I returned with a steel plate on my face, the response was never positive.
In short, at the young age of thirty-five, my acting career was completely over.
“Why is my life like this?”
I sighed deeply, one bottle, two bottles.
I kept chugging alcohol like water.
With each empty bottle on the floor, my eyelids drooped a little more.
“Should I stop drinking and sleep?”
I tried to get up, but the world spun around and flipped over sideways.
*Thud*
I fell down, wondering how long I had been lying there.
As the alcohol buzz kicked in, painful mories from the past resurfaced.
“I worked hard and tried to forget everything…”
I suffered from parental neglect and indifference since I was a child.
Even at the re age of ten, I worked hard just to hear that one word, “well done,” from my parents. But to them, I was just a money-making machine.
Ever since I beca a middle school student, I earned money and offered it to my parents, who had abandoned
and left on a trip, only to receive news of their passing.
Back then, I felt no sadness at all.
I didn’t shed a tear.
But why am i tearing up now?
My heart felt hollow, as if nothing would bleed if pierced through.
Why do only bad things happen to ?
What did I do wrong?
“Sob… Sniff…”
I let out the tears I had been holding back, fueled by the alcohol.
And I cried myself to sleep.
***
It was early morning, faint footsteps disturbed my shallow sleep.
*Tap, tap, tap*
The sound drew closer to
and then receded, repeating in a nerve-wracking manner.
*Tap, tap*
The footsteps approached again.
With my eyes closed, I listened intently.
“Appa, the sun’s up.”
A faint voice of a child.
Soone shook my body.
Sensing sothing odd, I sat up abruptly. Blinking against the receding footsteps, I turned my head.
‘…Am I dreaming right now?’
I froze in place.
A little girl with short hair and shabby clothes crawled under a folding table.
“Who are you?”
“…Appa?”
No, Appa?
Am I still not completely sober?
As I tried to lie back down on the bedding, the short-haired girl who had suddenly rushed over grabbed my clothes.
“It’s morning… you have to get up.”
“Oh, right. I just have to get up.”
As I got up, a small smile blood on the girl’s face. It was a smile of innocence that only children can put on.
‘But… where am I?’
Regaining my senses, I glanced around and realized it wasn’t my ho.
Tacky wallpaper and plain furniture.
Toys and quaint tableware.
Despite only a small blanket laid on the floor, the place already felt cramped.
Is this a fignt of my imagination that sohow feels familiar?
‘First, I should go back ho.’
*Crunch*
As I passed by the girl, I heard a strange noise and turned my head.
The girl was picking up pieces of dried seaweed one by one and bringing them to her small mouth.
When our eyes t, she swallowed the seaweed with a gulp and smiled.
“Hehehe, Appa, have breakfast too.”
Wait a minute.
She did call
Appa, didn’t she?
“Appa, aren’t you eating?”
I didn’t mishear.
“…I’m not your Appa.”
“You are my Appa.”
“I’m telling you, I’m not.”
“But you are…”
There was no getting through to her.
Not wanting to word wrestle with the little girl, I sighed deeply and turned away.
‘Let’s just go ho.’
As I moved towards the front door to put on my shoes, the girl hurriedly swallowed what she was eating and jumped up suddenly. A hint of unease flickered across her face, making her slightly flustered.
“Appa! Where are you going?”
“I’m not your Appa… Oh, never mind.”
I wanted to correct the girl calling
Appa, but it seed futile, so I gave up.
“…I’m going ho. Take care.”
“But this is your ho.”
“Your ho, maybe. Not mine…”
*Gurgle*
I grabbed onto my stomach.
Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my abdon.
Where’s the bathroom… Is it over there?
Sohow, I felt sure.
“…Hey kid, can I use the bathroom?”
“I’m not a kid… I’m Yuna, but Appa keeps calling
kid…”
There wasn’t ti to soothe the whimpering child. It felt like it might happen any mont now.
*Gurgle*
Clutching my stomach, I opened the door next to the kitchen without looking back.
Luckily, it was the bathroom.
“Phew, that was close.”
After taking care of business, I headed to the sink with a relieved heart.
“What, what’s this…!”
The reflection in the mirror, stained with spots, wasn’t mine.
Sharp eyes that gave a striking impression, complented by thick eyebrows.
Smooth skin without a single blemish.
It was the typical idol face.
‘I’m not this good-looking…’
A shiver ran down my spine.
I forgot about washing my hands and rushed out of the bathroom, frantically rummaging through the cramped room.
***
It didn’t take long to face reality. Embarrassing as it was, as I rummaged through the narrow room, the pain in my knee from hitting the corner of a shelf reminded
it wasn’t a dream.
How much did it hurt then?
Tears welled up, even though I was a grown adult.
No, that wasn’t important.
I ticulously searched through the drawer and unfolded a child’s health record I found.
The daughter’s na was Yuna. Five years old.
Her birthday was on December 31st.
The na of the deceased wife was Kang Minju.
And my na was Lee Jun-seo… 25 years old.
“My birthday is April 1st… It’s the sa.”
So today is my birthday?
When I opened the phone I found on the floor, I realized it was April 1st.
Anyway, that’s not important. What’s staggering is that I’ve sohow aged ten years younger.
What’s even more chilling is that this is the exact house I lived in with my parents in my past life.
“Is this just a coincidence?”
I shook my head.
But there was a more serious issue at hand.
The letter I found on top of the drawer.
Lee Jun-seo was planning to leave this world, leaving his own daughter behind. The evidence lay in the multiple sleeping pills on the bedding.
“Ugh, what on earth is going on…”
The letter revealed that he had neglected his daughter, only five years old, completely. He expressed regret for his actions, not bothering to intervene in anything and not even calling out to her.
Look at the little girl now. She doesn’t speak unless spoken to, just like .
‘How could he have neglected her so much…’
She resembles
when I was young.
It felt personal.
What could a little girl, only five years old, have done wrong?
If there’s any fault, it’s the previous owner of this body.
Isn’t it his fault for not being able to overco the grief of losing his wife, Kang Minju?
I crumpled up the letter and tossed it into a corner before letting out a deep sigh.
“Sigh…”
The little girl, once again, silently cried, glancing at .
Oh, co on. My heart is too weak.
I montarily put the little girl aside and unfolded the passbook I found in the closet corner.
My head is throbbing.
The ager amount in the passbook.
It seed barely enough to last a week. No, now that there’s the little girl, it looked a bit difficult to stretch it for over a week.
“Appa.”
“…”
I looked straight into the moist eyes of the little girl. Whatever happened, has happened now.
If there’s no way to go back, then I have to take responsibility for raising this little girl, right?
Honestly, living with this body didn’t seem so bad.
In my past life, when I was Lee Seo-jun, every day felt like hell.
The cold gazes of others and the storm of hateful comnts directed at
were unbearable.
So I lived depending on strong alcohol.
‘Yeah, maybe this… is a new opportunity?’
I cautiously opened my mouth again, looking at the little girl.
“Yeah, what’s up? Why did you call ?”
“Hehehe. It’s nothing.”
The smile that quickly returned to her face.
No, now I should call her Yuna.
I couldn’t treat her like my own daughter right away, but I was willing to try.
Weakness didn’t suit . I was always the one to act first and challenge myself.
With those thoughts in mind, I couldn’t help but chuckle as I reflected on my past self.
Wasn’t that guy like a recluse, hiding away at ho all the ti?
“Haha”
Thinking about my shabby appearance, I found it funny.
“Appa is weird…”
Whether it was the seriousness followed by sudden laughter, finding my changing deanor unsettling, she began to slowly back away.
***
Feeling the pinch of tight finances, I stepped out with the intention of finding a short-term job. I brought Yuna along because I was worried about leaving her alone at ho.
But I couldn’t tell if she was enjoying our outing or not. Her smile didn’t fade since we left the house.
“Appa, where are we going?”
The term “Appa” felt awkward, so I hesitated before answering, looking away.
“Yu… we’re going to the PC Cafe.”
“PC Cafe?”
I tried to call her by na, but the words just wouldn’t co out easily. Feeling self-conscious, I continued to answer her questions.
“I’m going to look for a job.”
“Job. Okay.”
These days, with just a smartphone, you can easily find work from ho. So why did we co out?
There were two reasons.
One was that I wanted to freely roam the streets without hiding my face.
The other was my current phone.
In my pocket was a phone I’ve only seen a long ti ago, a relic from a bygone era. With this phone, I couldn’t find short-term work from ho.
‘Using a phone like this in today’s world…’
I didn’t want to pull it out in front of others.
It felt embarrassing.
*Tap, tap*
Wandering through the changed shops, I stumbled upon the PC Cafe. Just one more traffic light to cross, and…
As I picked up speed towards my destination, a familiar na from the adjacent shop caught my attention, accompanied by breaking news.
– We have breaking news just in. Actor Lee Seo-jun was found dead in his ho this morning. Further investigation is underway to determine the exact cause of death…
‘Of course…’
I had suspected as much, but hearing about my own death in this manner left
feeling awkward.
“Appa?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
I moved my legs, which had stopped without
realizing it, and crossed the street.
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