Since the day I returned from Na Ah Ah, the relationship between my mom, dad, and me flipped upside down for one week.
One day, Mom called me over with a pitying face and said,
“Ye-rin… could you sit with me for a moment?”
“What’s up?”
“Well…, our household expenses have run out…, could you give me some of the money you earned from your part-time job last month?”
“……”
It looked almost like daylight robbery, but honestly, this was a pretty gentlemanly approach for my parents.
They used to unlock my account and take money without telling me.
“Huh…, I’ll be so frugal and diligent from now on, so please… just a little for living expenses.”
Tears glistened in Mom’s eyes.
It seemed like my recent assertiveness made her switch to the tear tactic.
If I think about it, the tear tactics had worked on me before.
I remembered when I replaced Dad’s graphics card; it was all part of the tear strategy.
“Huh…, boo… Ye-rin, could you replace Dad’s graphics card? The current one is so crappy that… the games… sniff…”
“…Dad, this isn’t the time to play games. You should hurry up and get a job to earn some money…”
“*Waaah—! If I just had a better graphics card, I could de-stress and find a job faster—! Waaah!”
“Okay…, so how much do you need?”
“Thanks, Ye-rin! Dad will cover most of it, so just add 2 million won!”
But now, I was different.
Even after seeing Mom’s tears…, I felt nothing.
“Why should I use the money I earned to cover living expenses?”
“Why? Because we’re family!”
“Oh, I have an idea.”
I pointed to Mom’s clothing room.
“You’ve got tons of clothes you don’t wear. If you sell some of those through second-hand trading, wouldn’t that give you some money? You can use that for living expenses.”
Mom, of course, reacted just as expected…
“What—!! Absolutely not—!!”
She wiped her tears and shouted.
“How do you think I bought those clothes? Why should I sell them to cover living expenses!”
“Why do you say that? We’re family.”
“Ugh…!”
When I threw back her words, Mom glared at me, looking disgruntled.
That expression of hers was kind of cute.
I, Ha Ye-rin, owed a lot of my looks to my parents.
Especially since Mom had her pick of suitors when she was younger; guys would line up to do whatever she wanted.
That vanity from back then still lingers, especially when it comes to luxury brands.
She’d buy luxury goods, drag me into her depressive state when she was broke, and hug me while crying.
In the past, I felt sorry for her, but now it just seems kind of childish.
Of course, Dad was no different.
“Y-Ye-rin… Dad’s so hungry, could you maybe just make rice while the side dishes are okay?”
“Figure it out yourself.”
“No, Dad doesn’t know how to cook.”
Our dad, who didn’t even know how to cook at his age.
He looked so good that I thought if he were on TV, middle-aged women would swoon over him.
I had seen his high school graduation photo before, and he deserved to be called handsome.
His father, my granddad, used to be super wealthy too.
But as soon as he married Mom, he lost a fortune to gambling.
Dad would often reminisce over beer, feeling sorry for himself.
I used to feel sorry for him, but now I just think he’s pitiful.
“If you can’t cook, why not ask Mom to do it!”
“You… you… Ye-rin, what’s with that attitude towards your dad! How could a child talk to a parent like this…!”
“Mom and Dad aren’t doing their parent duties, so why should I do my child duties?”
At those words, my mom and dad looked at me, genuinely about to cry.
“Our pretty daughter Ye-rin…!”
“How could you say something like that?!”
This wasn’t just a crying act; they were sincere.
“Ugh…”
I felt a mix of disgust and sympathy for my parents as I watched them….
“……”
But the longer I watched, the softer my heart felt, and I simply walked out of the house.
“…I’m leaving. You can take care of your own food.”
“Where are you going at this hour?!”
“Ye-rin!”
And just like that, the atmosphere in our house continued to freeze over.
The end of our family cold war happened on the seventh day after I returned from Na Ah Ah.
“I’m back…”
As usual, after finishing school and coming home, I was greeted by the sight of my mom and dad sitting in the living room with serious expressions.
“…Ha Ye-rin. Come sit here.”
“…….”
Though my parents were foolish and troublesome, they weren’t the type to create a heavy atmosphere using parental authority.
But for some reason, the living room felt cold today, so I gathered my thoughts and sat in front of them.
“What’s going on?”
“…While you were at school, Dad and I deliberated all day on the changes we’ve seen in you lately.”
Seriously.
If they had that kind of time, they should be looking for a job.
These people were truly living the good life.
I internally scoffed and said,
“So?”
“Before, we didn’t say anything because you were such a nice and polite daughter. But considering recent events, it seems your behavior has gone too far.”
As Dad spoke with a stern face, Mom nodded along to his words.
“So…, it seems we’ve concluded that you might need some discipline.”
“…Discipline? How are you going to discipline me?”
At my question, Dad brought something from behind and handed it to me.
Thunk.
It was a pen and a stack of A4 paper that, at a glance, looked like it had dozens of sheets.
“Here, 100 sheets of A4 paper. Write a letter of reflection about what you did wrong.”
This was their version of discipline?
It didn’t seem like much of a punishment, but…
“…No.”
Of course, I wasn’t planning to follow their orders.
“By what right do you think you can discipline me? The ones who’ve been neglectful parents are you two, so you should be writing the reflection letters.”
“Ha Ye-rin! What kind of words toward your parents is that! How can a child speak to their parents like this…!”
Mom raised her clear voice and got angry.
Dad, too, wore a rare angry expression and shouted.
“Ye-rin! What exactly have we failed as parents? We bore you…, raised you…. Send you to school! Um… anyway!!”
“If I’m a good daughter, I could help with chores a bit! Is making a bit of rice or doing dishes that hard?”
“Of course, it might be hard and bring up complaints. But you should say it respectfully to your mom and dad!”
“Whatever happened to the nice Ye-rin we knew…?”
After throwing an onslaught of nonsense my way, they placed the A4 paper in front of me and said,
“We’ve spoiled you too much until now.”
“Now that we are trying to correct it, hurry and write the reflection letter.”
“No.”
“Hey—! Ha Ye-rin! How could you act like that towards your parents…!”
As the conversation kept looping, suddenly, bzzz—.
“……!”
When Dad raised his voice, a phone began to vibrate.
I usually keep my phone on silent, so it wasn’t mine. It seemed to be coming from Dad’s pocket.
“Who is it at this important time?”
Dad fumed and picked up the call without checking who it was.
Then….
“Hello! Who is this? What? Oh, President Kang.”
As soon as he recognized it was Kang Hyung-man, he straightened up immediately.
“Yes, haha. How have you been? Yes, yes. Hey~ when did I ever bother Ye-rin~? Yes? But why are you calling me…? Yes?”
Dad replied on the call, then turned to me.
“Ye-rin! President Kang said he called a lot; didn’t you see?”
“…A call?”
At Dad’s words, I took out my phone to check.
“…Ah.”
[Missed calls from Kang Hyung-man: 7.]
I must have missed the calls since my phone was set to silent.
“…I didn’t see it because it was on silent.”
“Yes, President. Yes, Ye-rin has been careless and missed the calls because of her phone being on silent. Ah, should I switch over to her now?”
Dad passed the phone to me with an annoyed expression, and I accepted it.
[Ye-rin.]
“President.”
Given the circumstances, I was oddly pleased to hear his voice.
“Yes, what’s up?”
[Did you check the video?]
“…Video? What….”
When I tilted my head, Kang Hyung-man explained.
[The group theme song video for Na Ah Ah went up yesterday at midnight. You should check it out.]
“Oh.”
I remembered they said they’d upload the video this week. I guess it went up last night.
I immediately pulled out my phone and opened YouTube.
I didn’t even have to search it; it was already on my recommended videos.
And the video was….
[My Idol Academia – We are dreaming idol! (Premiere)]
[Views: 1,732,869 – 17 hours ago]
Before even a full day had passed, it had already surpassed 1.7 million views.
“Uh…? The views are….”
[Yeah, the views are better than expected. I’ll hang up, so take your time to watch it. Check out your screen time in the video too.]
Click.
With that, he seemed done with his business and hung up.
I placed Dad’s phone down and rubbed my eyes to check the views again.
…It was no mistake.
‘1.7 million views in 17 hours….’
Of course, I knew Na Ah Ah had taken the world by storm in my previous life.
But I hadn’t expected it to be this big.
“……”
As I stared blankly at the surprisingly high views…
“Y-Ye-rin, what’s this? The, the views are 170 million….”
“This, this is you, Ye-rin?! Hurry, play it!”
Even my parents, who wanted to discipline me, huddled beside me to see the phone screen.
Swish
Before long, Mom and Dad’s hands were gently placed on my shoulders.
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