Chapter – 09
The following morning.
Chairman Hong came downstairs for breakfast. He sat waiting for Haena, who was bound to come down soon. Since his only son, Hong I-do, had walked out the night before without even finishing his meal, Haena was now Chairman Hongās solitary source of comfort.
Yet, ten minutes passed, and then twenty, but Haena was nowhere to be seen.
Just as he began to sense that something was amiss, Chairman Hong spotted Eui-ryeong rushing past and called out to her.
“Hold on. Where is Haena? Isn’t it about time for her to eat breakfast and head to kindergarten?”
That was right. Today was the long-awaited day Haena returned to kindergarten.
Historically, however, Haena absolutely loathed going to kindergarten. Every single morning, she would launch into a fierce tug-of-war with her nanny, Eui-ryeong, firmly refusing to go.
āYou brat. Stop making things difficult for your nanny and get yourself to kindergarten this instant.ā āNo! I donāt want to go! Iām not going!ā
Whenever those standoffs occurred, Chairman Hong would lose his temper and practically chase Haena out of the house. Haena would throw tantrums until the bitter end, but Chairman Hong was absolutely not the type of person to indulge a childās whims.
āI suppose I have been rather harsh on her up until now.ā
Chairman Hong was well aware that he wasn’t exactly a tender, doting grandfather. Furthermore, after listening to what I-do had said yesterday, a small realization had dawned on him. He had a sudden, sinking premonition that if he continued down this path, both his child and his grandchild would eventually abandon him.
Thus, having resolved to be a bit more affectionate from now on, Chairman Hong planned to soothe and encourage Haena the moment she came downstairs. He even intended to slip a card into her small hand. He would tell her that if she stayed out of trouble, didn’t make the other children cry, and didn’t make her teachers weep, this card would be her rewardāan unlimited black card with no spending ceiling, allowing her to buy whatever her heart desired.
With that, she would surely act a bit more endearing and show him some affection. Chairman Hong smiled to himself, deeply satisfied. After all, what problem in this world couldn’t be solved with money?
“Heh, heh.”
Just imagining Haena beaming with absolute joy made Chairman Hong feel intensely proud. He sat there with a silly grin, eagerly anticipating her arrival. But as the minutes stretched on with no sign of her, a wave of strangeness finally washed over him.
“Ah, Young Lady Haena was so eager to go to kindergarten today that she finished her breakfast incredibly early and already got into the car.” “What?!”
Smash.
The sound of Chairman Hongās grand expectations being ruthlessly shattered echoed through his mind.
“O-Oh dearā¦ Are you upset, Chairman? I entirely expected you to be proud of the Young Ladyā¦.” “Ahem, cough.”
Seeing how utterly flustered Eui-ryeong looked, Chairman Hong cleared his throat out of sheer embarrassment. It was only natural; getting angry because your granddaughter proactively ate her breakfast and diligently headed off to school on her own was a profoundly bizarre reaction.
Terrified that his true expectations would be exposed, Chairman Hong shook his head fiercely.
“No, that’s not it at allā¦. Ah! Right. Itās because she dared to leave the house without offering a proper greeting to her elder!” “Ahā¦.”
Eui-ryeong let out an awkward laugh. However, her face clearly broadcasted her internal thoughts: ‘What an old-fashioned boomerā¦.’
“I do apologize, Chairman. When the Young Lady left, you were still fast asleep, so we couldn’t bring ourselves to wake youā¦.” “Wake me next time.” “Pardon? To go as far as waking you just to receive a greetingā¦.” “Unacceptable! To let the family discipline crumble to such a disgraceful state! This cannot stand! How can a junior think of stepping out without offering a greeting to their superior?! Such a thing is utterly unheard of in our Hong family!”
Thus, Chairman Hong dug his heels deeper into his inability to be honest.
“Gasp. Itās Haena.” “The gangsterās wife is here! Scatter, scatter!” “Waaaah. Haena is backā¦. Why did she have to come so early todayā¦.”
ā¦. Haenaā¦. Just what kind of kindergarten life did you lead before this? Could you not have lived somewhat normallyā¦. Why is every single child fleeing the moment they lay eyes on youā¦.
Watching the children scatter or burst into tears the instant she walked in, Haena was hit with a profound wave of existential dread. Is the social life of the young child Hong Haena honestly going to be okay at this rate?
Haena let out a quiet sigh, neatly hung up her kindergarten bag and coat, and sat down with pristine posture in a proper seat.
From this moment on, I am not the gangster’s wife Hong Haena. I am reborn as the model student Hong Haena. She muttered under her breath.
“!” “H-Haenaā¦?”
The homeroom teacher, who had been watching Haena with intense, breathless vigilance, visibly grew even more tense. It wasn’t just her; the other children also shrank further away, deeply unnerved by Haena’s bizarrely orderly behavior.
No, seriously, Haena. What on earth did you do to make even your teacher terrified of you? What was your daily routine here, exactly?
“Yes, Teacher.” “!” “Gasp.” “Teacher! Haena used to formal language!” “She didn’t cry or yell when she spoke! She didn’t even use bad words!” “Teacher, Haena is weirdā¦. I think she’s sickā¦.” “Is Haena going to the hospital, Teacher? Is Haena hurt?”
ā¦. A wave of genuine sadness was starting to wash over her.
“O-Our Haenaā¦ has become so incredibly mature while she was resting at home! Teacher is so incredibly happy. Our Haena is so commendable~ Shall we all give a big round of applause to our wonderful Haena, who only uses beautiful words now~”
ā¦Teacher, it seems our child psychologist already called you to deliver the message: ‘Haena is playing pretend at being mature because she’s copying drama characters lately, so just play along with it.’
A few days ago, Haena had accidentally overheard a conversation between the psychologist and Chairman Hong. She had found it incredibly suspicious when Chairman Hong suddenly ordered her to meet a counselor. To navigate it, she had put on a flawless performance of a completely thoughtless child, offering a shallow excuse: “I just want to say cool words like the pretty older sisters on TV!” It seemed everyone had readily accepted that explanation on their own.
“Waaaaah!!”
Teacherā¦. Your professional dedication is truly magnificentā¦.
Haena stood entirely dazed by the thunderous applause raining down upon her. To live a life where I am showered with praise merely for saying ‘Yes’ is profoundly tragicā¦.
After spending the entire day singing English children’s songs, folding origami, and reading English storybooks, a singular thought crystallized in her mind.
‘I absolutely despise English kindergarten.’
Even after transmigrating into a wealthy villainess in a novel, she was forced to endure the sorrow of a Korean student trapped in the endless cycle of English education.
āDear Authorā¦ if you were going to go this far, you really should have established Korean as the global lingua franca in this universeā¦.ā
Just so she could escape English studying in a fictional world. Even though her brain now instinctively processed the language perfectly, her burning hatred for studying it remained entirely unchanged.
“Alright! My lovely Sunshine Class children~ This period is our joint physical play session with our neighbors from the Leaf Class!”
Physical playā¦ so basically gym class? Haena did her best to translate the seven-year-old terminology into her own framework.
“Everyone, let’s form a single line, place your hands on the shoulders of the friend in front of you, and march forward together, heave-ho, heave-ho~”
Haena obediently fell into line and placed her small hands onto the shoulders of the child directly in front of her.
“Gasp. H-Haenaā¦ h-h-heekā¦.” “If you cry, you’ll get in trouble.” “Gulp!” “I’m serious.”
The poor child had been on the absolute verge of tears, convinced that Haena was preparing to strike him, but he tightly clamped his mouth shut the moment he saw her sweet smile.
āI really need to pitch the idea of homeschooling to the adults.ā
No matter how many millions of won this family possessed, sitting through lessons with actual seven-year-olds was causing severe mental degradation. Haena massaged her throbbing temples as she toddled along.
The moment they stepped out onto the kindergarten playground, her eyes widened.
“Oh?”
She spotted a remarkably familiar face.
“Baek Do-yoon?”
What on earth was he doing here?
“Hmph.”
Baek Do-yoon, who had clearly been hyper-aware of Haena’s presence all along, let out a sharp scoff, turned his nose up, and pointedly averted his gaze. Haena let out a quiet snort at his adorable display of defiance and casually looked away. Snorting with a chubby little baby nose doesn’t make you look arrogant, kid; it just makes you look like a puppy.
“Gasp. Look! I think we’re having a hacky-sack match against the Leaf Class todayā¦!”
A match of Jegichagi?
Only after catching the hurried whispers of the children beside her did Haena notice the massive pile of traditional Korean shuttlecocksājegisāscattered across the ground. Wow. Kids still play Jegichagi these days? Do modern children even know how to kick a jegi properly?
“A jegi? What’s a jegi?” “It’s my first time seeing one!” “Do you know how to kick that? Do you just kick it like a soccer ball?”
Yeah, I figured as much. I shouldn’t expect much. Haena nodded silently to herself.
Naturally, Haena was an absolute master at Jegichagi. In her past life, her father used to challenge her to grueling jegi showdowns where the loser had to buy ice pops. Then again, what business would these ultra-wealthy, silver-spoon toddlers have with a traditional street game? They had probably spent their childhoods jet-setting across foreign resorts.
But the true, unyielding spirit of a Korean is forged in the fire of Jegichagiā¦.
“Are we really competing against the Leaf Class with that?” “What? Seriously?! We have to fight with that thing?”
Ho-oh. Now this is starting to get interesting.
“Gasp. But the Leaf Class has Do-yoon. Do-yoon is literally good at every single sport.” “That’s true. I heard Do-yoon is amazing at soccer.” “Do-yoon is good at swimming too, and, uh, basketball, and, uh, alsoā¦.”
The young girls of the Sunshine Class began hopping up and down in excitement, loudly listing every single athletic achievement that proved just how magnificent a boy Baek Do-yoon was. Listening to their praise, one would easily mistake him not for the most popular boy at a luxury English kindergarten, but rather a world-class athletic prodigy that the National Training Center had tragically failed to scout.
In any case, true to his status as the male lead, young Do-yoon had apparently been drowning in popularity since his toddler days. The girls could talk about absolutely nothing else. To Haena’s seasoned eyes, however, it was merely the adorable, innocent fluttering of puppy love.
Right then.
“Hey! Hong Haena!”
Baek Do-yoon marched directly toward her, his fluffy, curly wave of hairālooking remarkably like a cute poodleāfluttering in the wind.
“Do you even know how to kick a jegi? You don’t, do you? You have absolutely no idea how to do something like this, right?”
ā¦This kid. How on earth is he popular?
Haena offered neither a denial nor an affirmation, opting instead to stare at him with deadpan intensity.
“Ha! I knew it. I knew you wouldn’t be able to do it. You don’t even know how to lift your foot, do you? I can teach yā” “My word, Baek Do-yoon.” “?!” “You are quite the little show-off, aren’t you?” “!”
At Haena’s shocking declaration, every single child on the playground collectively gasped, slamming their tiny fern-like hands over their mouths. To label Baek Do-yoonāthe undisputed king and most stylish boy of Heritage English Kindergartenāas nothing more than a “show-off” was an act of pure madnessā¦!
True to form, Baek Do-yoon froze entirely, his face a portrait of sheer, unadulterated shock.
“Letās settle this with a match. To see who can kick the jegi the most times consecutively.” “What?!” “And the loser has to grant a wish for the winner.” “N-No way! Why should I!”
Predictably, Baek Do-yoon fiercely rejected the proposal, but Haena merely shrugged her shoulders with practiced ease, and dropped the ultimate gauntlet…
“Scared?”
She uttered the forbidden word.
“!!!!!”
