Chapter – 02
Pick. Poke.
Poke. Pick.
What on earth is that sound, you ask?
Well, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Whenever 32-year-old office worker Kim Hae-na used to read Cocoa Page and indulge in fantasies—titled ~What If I Transmigrated? The Kim Hae-na Delusion Edition~—she had always imagined herself occupying the body of someone in her twenties or thirties. Having instead transmigrated into the body of a mere 7-year-old, she had entirely lost her appetite. Hence, the picking and poking at her food.
I never even glanced at child-rearing novels, so why did they possess me into a kid? I only ever read the 15+ rated novels!
The moment she woke up, being dragged to wash her face by a young woman who didn’t even look that much older than her original self felt profoundly bizarre. Granted, the woman’s touch was so professional that the experience was incredibly comfortable and pleasant, but the sensation was still jarring.
When I was seven, I’m pretty sure I washed my own face like a big girl…. But since this girl is a third-generation chaebol, she gets someone else to wash her face for her….
She knew she would never truly get used to this. Sooner or later, she was going to have to show them what a self-reliant, “independent child” looked like.
“Hong Hae-na.”
“Y-yes?!”
Startled by the voice addressing her, Hae-na snapped out of her thoughts and turned her head.
“Who taught you to be such a picky eater and poke at your food like that?”
“…!”
Hae-na immediately straightened her spine, scooped up a giant clump of seasoned spinach, and stuffed it into her mouth.
“I’m sorry, Grandfather.”
Indeed. The person criticizing Hae-na’s eating habits was none other than the grandfather of the third-generation chaebol Hong Hae-na—
“…?”
And a true, first-generation chaebol mogul: Chairman Hong Jae-sik.
In the original novel, he was depicted as an incredibly strict and cold-hearted man who constantly kept Hong Hae-na on a tight leash. Even Hong Hae-na, who practically lived with a dagger between her teeth like a proper villainess, couldn’t utter a single peep in front of Chairman Hong Jae-sik. Because Chairman Hong viewed her behavior with immense displeasure, the relationship between the two was notoriously terrible.
It was so bad that Chairman Hong’s final will explicitly stated that not a single penny should be left to Hae-na. Of course, the original Hae-na still managed to live a life of luxury using the astronomical alimony she extorted from the male lead, but still.
“I didn’t know you were capable of using the words ‘I’m sorry’.”
Chairman Hong Jae-sik scrutinized Hae-na with deeply suspicious eyes.
Uh-oh.
The original Hong Hae-na had been a completely unhinged, bratty little villainess ever since she was a child! Hae-na racked her brain for a moment. What should I say here to avoid breaking character completely…?
“I heard you beat up the youngest grandson of Chairman Kim from the LK Group yesterday.”
However, Chairman Hong moved right along to the next grievance without giving Hae-na a chance to answer.
“Thanks to that, I had to cancel an important meeting just to go and apologize to Chairman Kim.”
You really did it all, didn’t you, Hong Hae-na…?
Since she wasn’t the one who actually did it, Hae-na remained silent for the time being. She didn’t know the exact details of the situation.
“Chairman Kim was absolutely furious. I hear you completely broke the boy’s nose?”
“…!”
“Brooke it quite cleanly, too. I was too ashamed to even look Chairman Kim in the eye.”
Oh boy.
Breaking the nose of a growing little seedling. Hae-na carefully read Chairman Hong’s expression. The Chairman glared down at her with a chilling countenance, looking far worse than just ordinary angry.
True, if it were me, and my kid came home after breaking another family’s child’s nose, I’d be a bit upset too….
“Just when are you going to manage to at least be average?”
“…!”
“You are the sole grandchild of this Hong family. You are the only granddaughter of me, Hong Jae-sik.”
Hae-na felt a bit flustered by the freezing cold tone of his voice. In her entire life, she had never once heard someone tell her that they had high expectations for her because of her bloodline.
“I won’t ask you to lead the pack. Seeing as there doesn’t seem to be a single shred of potential for that in you.”
Grandfather, your words are a bit harsh. Hae-na kept her head bowed low as she endured the scolding.
“But shouldn’t you at least aim for the middle? Even if you can’t be better than others, you shouldn’t be running around beating people up! Are you a gangster? A gangster?!”
Did this old man swallow a train whistle or something…? His voice is incredibly loud….
Hae-na felt a sense of injustice. She knew she ought to apologize at this point, but apologizing for something she hadn’t even done made her stomach turn.
But who was Kim Hae-na? Was she not her previous company’s sole Customer Service representative, marketing manager, youngest member of the management team, accountant, and designer all rolled into one? There was nothing Hae-na couldn’t handle.
She knew exactly how to soothe an angry client without explicitly saying “I’m sorry” when the client was furious.
The CS Blueprint for De-escalating an Angry Client
Acknowledge and Validate: Agree with the customer’s frustration and show deep empathy.
Offer Compensation: Present a solution or a token of amends to mollify their anger.
If she were acting as her adult office-worker self, she would have replied with something like: ‘I understand how deeply frustrating this must have been for you. Especially since you had to cancel an important meeting… I would be furious too if I were in your shoes. I will take immediate follow-up measures to ensure this never happens again.’
…But that was definitely not something a seven-year-old child would say. She needed to adjust it to sound younger.
“You’re right….”
“?!?”
“Everything Grandfather said is right. I would have been mad too. It’s my fault. I won’t do it again.”
“…?”
Okay, he’s caught off guard. Looking at his reaction, it hadn’t completely failed. Time to move on to the next step. The next step was offering compensation…
Hmm. But there isn’t really a way for a seven-year-old child to offer compensation. After a brief moment of thought, Hae-na spoke up.
“I’ll do any errand Grandfather asks me to do.”
What more could a toddler offer as compensation? For Hae-na, this was the absolute best answer she could muster.
“I’m sorry…. From now on, I’ll become the best child, just like Grandfather wants.”
She felt like she had spoken reasonably like a seven-year-old. Since she didn’t actually know how seven-year-olds talked, she couldn’t quite grasp the proper nuance, so she kept spinning the gears in her brain.
Ah, I forgot something. The standard closing procedure after handling a client—bowing politely from the waist to the client, or rather, Grandfather.
Mm. Perfect.
She had fully channeled her two years of experience working at a department store’s customer service center. Bowing at a 90-degree angle, holding that position for five seconds to emphasize her sincerity to the client, and completing the interaction. Next, she would lift her head and display the most apologetic, pitiful face in the world—
Huh? The reaction is a bit underwhelming.
Hae-na blinked, staring at Chairman Hong. The Chairman remained entirely motionless, his face frozen in the exact same stiff expression as before.
“…Manager Kim.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Am I dreaming right now?”
“No, Chairman. This is definitely reality.”
Manager, your hands are shaking violently while you say that, though.
“Did Hae-na… did Hae-na just truly… self-reflect… on her own?”
Oops. Was I too mature? Should I have skipped the formal bow at the end? But kids are usually better at bowing than adults, aren’t they? It’s the adults who fail to bow. Children usually bow quite beautifully!
Hae-na kept analyzing the situation to figure out where she had slipped up.
“I have never seen you apologize to anyone like that before, Hae-na.”
“!”
Hey now. I’m still your granddaughter, do you really have to doubt me this harshly?
Hae-na grumbled fiercely on the inside, but she forced a brighter, more innocent smile onto her face.
“But my kindergarten teacher told me that if I do something wrong, I have to apologize!”
“…Your teacher did?”
“Yes!”
At those words, the tension in Chairman Hong’s face finally began to thaw little by little.
“I did send you to that kindergarten because they said their character education was decent, but…” Chairman Hong let out a long sigh. “Even so, do not apologize to anyone else like that.”
“!”
“Do not bow your head to anyone else besides this grandfather of yours. Do you understand?”
Chairman Hong gripped Hae-na’s shoulders with an incredibly grave expression as he asked. The sheer sincerity in his face caused Hae-na to nod her head automatically.
“Good. That’s enough then. No, wait, try not to give that kind of apology to your grandfather either. Unless it is a truly massive mistake….”
“B-but it was a massive mistake this time, wasn’t it?”
If I broke someone’s nose, isn’t that a massive mistake? I literally inflicted bodily harm on a person.
At Hae-na’s words, Chairman Hong let out a low grunt before nodding his head.
“Yes. Which is why, from the start, you shouldn’t create situations where you have to make such apologies.”
Ah, so that’s what he meant. Hae-na offered an awkward smile.
“You carry the bloodline of the Hong family. You must never bow your head to others. That is the most important thing. Do you understand?”
“….”
What rubbish is he talking about?
Hong family or not, if you do something wrong, you should bow your head and apologize. Hae-na shook her head with a look of disapproval. Is saying “I’m sorry” really that massive of a deal? No wonder this kid’s personality turned out the way it did.
“But if you do something wrong, you have to apologize. My teacher said so.”
“…You.”
Chairman Hong’s lips twitched. He looked as though he had a mountain of words he wanted to say. However, shortly after, his face brightened slightly as he scooped up a spoonful of soup.
“You are right. If you do something wrong, you should apologize.”
“Yes!”
“But never bow your head!”
“Okay….”
What on earth is the criteria here?
Having bowed her head at least thousands of times throughout her life, Hae-na couldn’t fathom why that was considered such a massive issue.
“And!”
“Yes?”
“And! Absolutely never say that you will do someone else’s errands again! What kind of errand could you possibly do with those tiny hands of yours! Our Hong family does not do such things!”
I’m pretty sure I ran errands for my mom at least a thousand times when I was a kid.
“But you’re my grandfather.”
“Huh?”
“You’re Hae-na’s grandfather. You’re an adult that Hae-na should respect, so isn’t it okay for me to run errands for you?” Hae-na asked, genuinely puzzled.
“…Then only run errands for this grandfather of yours!”
“Should I not run errands for my teacher either?”
But in kindergarten, isn’t everyone practically fighting to run errands for the teacher? Even back when I was in elementary school, kids lined up down the block just to be picked for errands.
“…Don’t do it! Do not do it!”
“Okay…. I’ll only run errands for Grandfather….”
He really is quite eccentric…. Hae-na pretended to play along for the most part.
“But why look so incredibly dispirited? Hmm?”
“Pardon?”
“I believe I told you to learn some manners, but I don’t recall telling you to come back with your spirit completely crushed?”
“!”
Is this the legendary line… ‘Don’t crush my kid’s spirit’?
