Chapter 1

The Successful Eldest Daughter (1)

I could not believe my eyes.

Just two years ago, my eldest daughter had been walking to school instead of taking the bus because she thought even the bus fare was a waste of money.

And now she had suddenly appeared in an expensive foreign car.

How could I possibly believe this?

The man beside me was just as shocked.

“Y-Your daughter?”

“Yes, hyung.”

“No……”

He clearly had a lot he wanted to say, but he could not bring himself to say it in front of us.

Of course, I felt exactly the same way.

“Jinhye. What on earth is going on? What’s with that car? And who exactly is that man?”

“That person? Oh, you mean Driver Kang?”

“Driver Kang?”

“Yes. He’s the driver I hired.”

The man called Driver Kang bowed to me at a perfect ninety-degree angle.

The moment we heard that he was a driver, hyung and I both opened our mouths in shock at the same time.

My daughter had actually brought along the kind of personal driver usually seen only with the chaebol families.

It was understandable that we were surprised.

“Where on earth did you get enough money to hire a driver?”

“Dad. I make good money. Didn’t you know?”

Jinhye pointed at the canned coffee hyung was holding.

“That coffee is also a product released by our company.”

“R-Really? No wonder I liked the taste so much.”

This was the first time I had heard about it.

I knew she had started a business related to coffee.

But I had never imagined that she had become this successful.

“Dad, what time do you finish work?”

“I still have a little while left……”

“How long? I actually came all the way down to Cheongju today because I wanted to spend the whole day here. There’s also something I want to tell you.”

“Really? Just a moment……”

I was about to check my work schedule when hyung patted me on the shoulder a few times.

“You can leave early today.”

“What? But hyung……”

“It’s okay. I’ll talk to Manager Kim. You know he’s my junior from school, right? He’ll listen to me easily, so don’t worry too much. Besides, your daughter came all the way down from Seoul after such a long time. You should go.”

I lowered my head to show my gratitude.

“Thank you, hyung!”

“Sure. Young lady, take your dad somewhere nice and buy him some good food.”

“Yes. I will.”

Thanks to hyung, I was able to leave work early even though I had not planned to.

While I was changing my clothes and coming outside,

Jinhye pointed toward the back seat of the Rolls-Royce she had waiting and said,

“Get in, Dad.”

In my entire life, I had never ridden in a foreign car even once.

I never imagined that, thanks to my daughter, I would get to enjoy such a luxury.

My eldest daughter had said she had a lot to tell me.

I also had many things I wanted to hear.

After returning home with Jinhye,

I was finally able to sit face-to-face with my daughter after such a long time.

My eldest daughter had grown so much.

Two years ago, she had still looked a little country-like.

But now—

“You’ve really become a city woman. You’ve gotten much prettier.”

“Does that mean I wasn’t pretty before?”

Jinhye spoke with a pouty expression.

I could not help but laugh.

“You were pretty back then too. I just mean that you’re even prettier now.”

“Dad, honestly.”

“But seriously, what happened? Explain it to me.”

I still could not understand how all of this had happened.

Jinhye nodded and slowly began telling me her story.

But before that—

“Two years ago, I told you I was going to start a business, right?”

“You did.”

“Do you remember the 50 million won you gave me back then?”

“Of course I remember.”

“I’ll return that first, and then I’ll tell you everything.”

Jinhye suddenly took something out of her arms and handed it to me.

“This is a bank account I opened in your name. Take a look.”

The moment I saw the number written inside,

“One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, ten million…… F-Five hundred million?!”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“W-Where did you get this money?!”

“I earned it.”

Jinhye slightly curled the corners of her lips into a smile.

Then my eldest daughter continued.

“Dad. Do you remember what I told you back then? I said that if my business succeeded, I would pay back the money you lent me ten times over.”

Of course, I had thought she was joking when she said that.

Even without those words, I had planned to simply give Jinhye the 50 million won.

My beloved daughter wanted to start a business.

What did money matter?

But—

Jinhye had actually turned her words into reality.

And it had only been two years.

“Your business must have gone really well.”

“It didn’t just go well, Dad. Do you know a café called ‘Ifrit’?”

“Of course. There’s even one in the apartment where I work.”

“I created that café brand.”

“……Huh?”

There was probably no one in South Korea who did not know a café called Ifrit.

It was famous for having a large number of franchise locations across the country.

“That’s different from the brand you told me about before.”

“We went through a merger and acquisition in the middle, so we changed the name.”

That explained it.

It made sense that I had not known.

“A while ago, Seonhye, Mihae, and I sat down together and talked. We’ve finally started settling down in Seoul. We even moved. So we decided that somehow, we had to convince you to come live with us, even if we had to break your stubbornness.”

While speaking, Jinhye looked at my left hand.

“……”

Then her eyes suddenly began to redden.

“How is your left hand……? Is it okay now?”

“It’s fine. Something like this is nothing.”

I had not quit being a firefighter for no reason.

The severe burn on my left hand.

The injury to my right shoulder.

And—

The nightmares that tormented me every night.

In the end, I had been forced to quit being a firefighter because the aftereffects had become unbearable.

Jinhye knew roughly what had happened.

After all, she was my eldest daughter.

She gently held my scarred left hand, which had become ugly because of the burn, with both of her hands.

“Now that my business is stable, I’ll take care of you for the rest of your life, Dad.”

“No. It’s okay. I didn’t raise you girls because I wanted something like this in return.”

“Please don’t say that. To us, Dad, you’re our one and only precious father and the person who saved our lives. So please give us a chance to repay you too. Okay?”

My eldest daughter opened both arms and quietly hugged me.

The warm embrace of an angel seemed to gently soothe my heart.

It was dinner time with my daughter after such a long time.

The lady who was grilling the meat smiled warmly as she looked at the two of us.

“A father and daughter, and you’re both so handsome and beautiful. How lovely!”

Jinhye smiled brightly at her words.

“Our dad is handsome, right?”

“Yes! He could even be an actor.”

After cutting the meat, the lady walked over to another table.

Jinhye picked up the tongs and placed several pieces of meat in front of me.

“I think these are cooked the best. Eat these, Dad.”

“No. You should eat more than me. You look much thinner than before, and I don’t like seeing you like that.”

“I’m on a diet, so I’ll only eat a little.”

“A diet? Where do you even have any weight left to lose?”

“Men and women naturally see things differently. These days, I’ve been tasting new drinks because we’re developing them, so I’ve gained quite a bit of weight. So here, Dad. Eat this.”

“Good grief……”

Well, Jinhye was not completely wrong.

Men and women were bound to see things differently.

Besides, Jinhye was my daughter.

So perhaps she really did look thinner to me.

“But Dad. Have you thought about it?”

“Thought about what?”

“Coming to Seoul and living with us. Seonhye and Mihae are living together in a house. What do you think about coming up there and living with us as a family?”

Actually, Jinhye had been saying this to me since last year.

Now that she had successfully settled down in Seoul, she wanted me to move there and live with them too.

But I had continued to refuse.

That was why Seonhye had said earlier that they would convince me even if they had to break my stubbornness.

“No, it’s okay. If all four of us live together, the house will probably be too small.”

I simply did not want to become a burden to my daughters, who had successfully become independent.

That was the reason behind my stubbornness.

But this time, Jinhye did not seem willing to back down so easily.

She suddenly took out her smartphone and told me to wait a moment.

Then she showed me several pictures.

A spacious house overlooking the Han River.

It looked like it was at least 80 pyeong.

“We’re living here now.”

“My goodness…… You live in a place like this?”

“Yes! Seonhye kept complaining that the house was too small, so we just moved to a bigger place.”

“How much does a house like this even cost?”

“About six billion won, I think.”

The chopsticks I was holding slipped from my hand.

Six billion won.

Even after seeing the five hundred million won in the bank account earlier, I still could not believe it.

Now I was being told that my daughters were living in a house worth six billion won.

It felt completely unreal.

“When we moved, we talked about bringing Dad to live with us too, so we deliberately moved into a bigger place.”

“R-Really?”

“Yes. Seonhye and Mihae are also going crazy because they want to see Dad.”

Jinhye and my second daughter, Seonhye, were one thing.

But Mihae was the kind of child who used to say that she could not live without her dad.

I also wanted to see Mihae and my other daughters.

But—

“If I, an old man, suddenly move in with you, I feel like you girls might find it uncomfortable……”

Just then,

Jinhye suddenly became serious.

“Dad. Please never say that again. Even when I was living with my sisters and Dad in that basement apartment that was barely ten pyeong, I never once thought that you were a burden. In fact, thanks to you stepping forward, my sisters and I were able to stay together instead of being separated.”

“……”

“And when you say things like that, it really hurts my feelings. We’re family, aren’t we? So please don’t say that you’ll make us uncomfortable or anything like that. Neither I, Seonhye, nor Mihae would ever think that way. Do you understand?”

I never expected to be lectured by my grown-up daughter.

Still, somehow……

‘I don’t feel bad about it.’

Rather, I was happy to know how my daughter truly felt.