Chapter 03
Before I regressed…
“Oh my goodness~ When she got divorced back then, everyone wondered how she’d survive. Turns out worrying about other people is pointless. She became so successful she’s even on TV now!”
“Mom, do you know her?”
“Of course I do. Remember the neighborhood we used to live in? The one from when you were really little? She was incredibly famous there.”
Mom chatted away excitedly.
Mrs. Bang Suk-young, the youngest of six siblings who had been raised like a princess in a tiny rural village, absolutely loved gossip.
And naturally, neighborhood rumors were included.
“A rich family’s princess running away for love with a poor man only ends happily in dramas. In reality, she couldn’t take it. They got divorced before their kid even started elementary school, and she went right back home.”
“But you’re a princess too, Mom.”
“Oh, you! Your mom was only a fake princess from the countryside! That woman was a real princess. The moment she got divorced, everything went her way. Her ex-husband cried and begged every single day! The whole neighborhood was talking about it. People said she wouldn’t even let him see their son’s face and called her heartless.”
“Heartless? Once you’re divorced, you’re strangers.”
“I never thought she was heartless. If anything, Yoon Ire was loyal.”
“Loyal?”
“Yeah. Later there was some nationwide audition—I think it was for a cellphone commercial. A girl from our neighborhood met Chambyeol’s mom there. She remembered that the girl’s little brother had been friends with her son and immediately gave him a chance. He didn’t become a huge star, but he definitely made good money. All the neighborhood ladies kept saying they should’ve gotten close to her while they had the chance.”
“I guess connections really are everything. Regional ties, school ties, family ties… and even childhood neighborhood ties?”
“Exactly~! Who would’ve thought that little backwater town had a pure-blooded dragon hiding in it instead of just a dragon that rose from the stream? What a waste.”
As Mom grumbled, the woman on the television was giving her acceptance speech for the Grand Prize at the Baeksang Awards.
Film producer Yoon Ire.
No longer simply Chambyeol’s mom from the familiar memories of the 1990s, but one of the most successful people in South Korea in the twenty-first century.
“Singa. Want to see this? You said you liked Sailor Moon, right? My uncle brought it back from Japan.”
“Wow… really?”
I gave an absent-minded reaction while looking around the room.
This was my first time ever inside Choi Chambyeol’s house.
A luxurious Young Chang piano, a leather sofa draped with lace covers, and dark hardwood furniture.
Everything that symbolized wealth in the 1990s was arranged with tasteful elegance.
Considering this neighborhood was in one of the most underdeveloped cities among the country’s metropolitan areas, the place had an extraordinary level of class.
They say if you want to know someone, look at their home.
This alone was enough to tell me that Mrs. Yoon came from no ordinary background.
I’d heard her cheating husband, on the other hand, was all talk and no substance.
According to my gossip-loving mother, their vicious divorce battle was almost over.
It wouldn’t be long before Yoon Ire and her son left this place.
“Singa… aren’t you having fun? Why aren’t you watching…?”
“Oppa.”
“Hm?”
“Is it true you’re moving away?”
Chambyeol’s chubby little hand froze.
He looked at me cautiously.
“Wh-Who told you?”
“So it’s true?”
“Well… Singa…”
“So it really is true…”
I lowered my head dramatically, pretending to be heartbroken.
He’d just declared things like “We’re friends because we like each other,” and “You’re my only friend, Singa.”
If he didn’t feel guilty now, then this kid wasn’t human.
Sure enough, little Choi Chambyeol sprang to his feet in a panic.
“N-No, Singa! I wasn’t trying to hide it! I really don’t want to leave, but… but I have to! My parents… Singa… are you crying?”
He fidgeted helplessly.
He grabbed my shoulders, then jerked his hands back as though he’d been burned, putting on every frantic performance imaginable in the span of a few seconds.
Compared to the six- and seven-year-old monkeys who constantly tried to kiss people and smear them with drool, he was practically a gentleman.
“You’re really my only friend… sniff…”
“Singa!!”
Using my underdeveloped child’s body to deliberately produce the voice of a crying toddler was astonishingly effective.
Chambyeol’s shoulders trembled as though he’d been struck by lightning.
Then he took a deep breath.
“Then… maybe I just won’t go. A-Actually, there might be a way not to—”
What!?
What kind of nonsense was that?
That wasn’t the answer I wanted!
Before this half-grown chick could start saying he’d stay behind with his trash father and end up deeply hurting Mrs. Yoon, I hurriedly changed the subject.
“O-Oppa! Where are you moving to?”
“Huh? Oh… I heard it’s Bundang.”
“Is it a nice place?”
“I… I don’t know.”
Of course it was.
At this point in time, Bundang was a meticulously planned new city built to become the second Gangnam.
It already had all the infrastructure anyone could ask for.
If you moved there before the Shinbundang Line opened, prices were still affordable.
Later, I could naturally persuade my parents to buy woodland near Pangyo as well.
There was a reason people said,
“Nothing lies above heaven except Bundang.”
I couldn’t expect to grab Gangnam right from the start.
Whether for long-term living or investment, Bundang was, at this moment in history, the single best choice.
Even if I had to live in a one-room shack, I absolutely had to move there.
Staying in this provincial city any longer would be a complete waste of time.
“Can’t Singa come with us?”
I knitted my brows together pitifully.
The memory of my one trillion won… and my brain-dead body… brought tears to my eyes almost automatically.
“I want to go too…! Sniff… I don’t want to be separated from you. If you leave, I’ll be all alone… and being alone is so lonely…”
Chambyeol stared blankly.
It felt awkward saying this myself, but aside from my slightly upturned eyes, I had quite an innocent-looking face.
It made pretending to be fragile incredibly easy.
That hadn’t changed just because I was a child.
Thanks to that natural advantage, Chambyeol quickly projected his own lonely past onto me.
His eyes grew misty.
Is this kid a capital-F Feeler or something?
Not missing the opportunity, I spoke again in my most pitiful baby voice.
“I want to go too~ Okay? Ask your mom if my family can move with yours. You’re the smartest kid in kindergarten, Oppa.”
“Together?”
“Uh-huh! You’re the smartest person in our kindergarten. I know you can do it!”
As he fell into thought, I gently slipped my fingers into his hand.
Reflexively, he gripped them tightly and looked back at me.
I gave him my best “I’m counting on you” expression.
As I gazed up at him with complete dependence, little Choi Chambyeol’s heroic instincts kicked in.
His eyes brightened.
He nodded firmly.
“Okay! Just trust me, Singa!”
As if I would.
No matter how immature my parents were, if they actually moved because some seven-year-old neighbor convinced them to…
…they’d be completely insane.
‘Still… he could be useful as a little seasoning.’
Originally, my family would move to Bundang before I entered middle school.
All I wanted was to bring that day forward as much as possible.
“What are you two talking about?”
Right on cue, Mrs. Yoon approached carrying a plate of snacks.
Still holding Chambyeol’s hand with one of mine, I shyly reached the other toward her.
“Auntie… can I call you Auntie?”
♧
Despite looking as soft and fragile as a block of white rice cake that would topple over from a single punch, Choi Chambyeol had a surprisingly possessive streak.
He especially hated it when his friends paid attention to anyone else.
He’d even made several kids at kindergarten cry because of it.
So he hadn’t always been an outcast.
Before we became friends, I’d seen him several times standing quietly in the shadows, staring at children he’d once been close to.
Not even the teachers could stop him.
It was a little unsettling.
Still, after watching him for a while, he didn’t seem like the type whose behavior would become genuinely dangerous.
From the perspective of someone who had lived until 2026…
…it felt more like he had mild autistic tendencies.
And children like Chambyeol were generally more intelligent than their peers.
Once they became interested in something, they immersed themselves in it completely.
They could repeat the same topic all day without getting tired.
That personality had frozen his social life…
But for me, it wasn’t a bad thing.
I was Choi Chambyeol’s friend.
And thanks to my subtle manipulation, his greatest obsession at the moment had become…
“Helping my only friend, Seo Singa, move away.”
“Huh? Dad, isn’t that Mom over there?”
“You’re right! Honey!”
Dad quickened his pace while carrying me.
Mom—Mrs. Bang Suk-young—had been standing near the apartment elevators, anxiously peering around the entrance.
She spun around in surprise.
