Chapter 6

The Second Daughter Is Too Famous (3)

The flames had swallowed the entire family home, which was only about 20 pyeong in size, in an instant.

Inside those flames, I had a short conversation with my eldest daughter, Lee Jinhye.

“What about these kids? Are they your younger sisters?”

At my question, Jinhye slowly nodded.

The youngest, Mi-hye, was holding tightly onto her eldest sister while holding her breath.

Just in case, I checked Mi-hye’s condition.

‘She’s conscious.’

But she did not look well, perhaps because she had inhaled too much smoke.

The second daughter, on the other hand, was crying loudly, unlike Jinhye and Mi-hye.

While crying, she asked me,

“Dad…… where is Dad……?”

Dad.

At those words, a scene suddenly flashed through my mind.

The half-burned body of a man in his forties inside the bathroom.

Perhaps.

‘That man might have been these children’s father.’

Cold sweat naturally ran down my back.

It was not because of the heat from the fire.

It was because I was confused.

“Your dad……”

My breath caught.

It was not because of the smoke rising from the flames.

I simply could not think of what I should say to them.

In this situation, how many people could openly tell these children that their father was dead?

Even if there were such people,

I could not do it.

“An officer who was with me took your dad outside earlier. So for now, let’s go outside together with me. Okay?”

Once we got outside, they would be able to see their dad.

I made up an excuse like that.

After helping Jinhye and Seonhye stand up, I checked whether they were able to walk.

“You two can follow this uncle, right?”

The two girls nodded heavily.

“Jinhye. Don’t let go of your sister’s hand. Never!”

Jinhye and Seonhye held each other tightly.

Since the youngest, Mi-hye, did not look well, I decided to carry her myself.

I went ahead first and pushed through the flames.

When we left the room and were about to pass through the front door,

I suddenly remembered the sisters’ father, who had died inside the bathroom.

“Jinhye, Seonhye! Go out first!”

I was afraid the children might see their father’s body.

So I deliberately blocked their view of the bathroom with my body.

I sent Jinhye and Seonhye out first and planned to follow behind them.

But at that moment—

Crack!

An ominous sound reached my ears.

“Ahhhhh!”

The children screamed.

Burning debris began falling above Jinhye and Seonhye’s heads.

“No……!”

The moment I saw it, I instinctively threw myself forward.

And……

Slice!

Without realizing it, I tightened my grip.

The kitchen knife in my hand cut the fully ripened kimchi neatly in half.

‘Oh, no.’

I had originally planned to put the kimchi in whole without cutting it.

But I had made a mistake.

“Dad?”

Seeing me standing there blankly for a moment, my second daughter looked at me with concern.

“Are you okay? I called you several times, but you didn’t answer.”

“Huh? Oh, I’m fine. I was just thinking about something else. By the way, why did Jinhye call?”

I deliberately changed the subject before my second daughter could worry about me even more.

“Just as I expected. She nagged me for coming down to Cheongju on impulse without even telling her.”

“Really?”

While we were talking,

Throb.

I felt a slight pain in my right shoulder.

Because of that, my eyebrows naturally tightened a little.

I put down the kitchen knife for a moment, made a small fist with my left hand, and gently patted my right shoulder.

The aftereffects of the shoulder injury I had suffered during that incident were acting up again.

My second daughter, who had been watching me, suddenly walked over.

Then she began massaging my right shoulder with her small hands.

“It was this part, right?”

Seonhye knew very well that my shoulder was uncomfortable.

There was no way she could not know.

After all, this was the medal I had received in exchange for safely saving Jinhye and Seonhye.

“How is it? Does it feel a little better?”

“It gets better quickly when my daughter gives me a massage.”

“Why don’t you try something like manual therapy?”

“That kind of treatment is expensive.”

Wouldn’t it be better to use that money to buy something delicious for my daughters instead?

That thought crossed my mind.

But—

“Dad. You don’t have to think that way anymore. Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, go to the hospital with me. I’ll make the appointment.”

Since my second daughter strongly insisted, it became difficult for me to keep refusing.

Maybe it was because I was getting older.

Or maybe because my daughters had become adults and now had strong opinions of their own.

These days, when my daughters told me to do something,

I strongly felt that I should just quietly do it.

I went to an orthopedic clinic with my second daughter to receive manual therapy.

Even there, Seonhye’s popularity did not decrease at all.

While touching my shoulder, the therapist asked,

“Are you SL’s father?”

The name Lee Seonhye was still more familiar to me than SL.

So whenever people asked me questions like this, I had to remind myself that SL was Seonhye’s stage name before answering.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Your daughter is an incredible top star. You must be very proud.”

“More than that, it still doesn’t really feel real to me.”

People looked at me as if they were envious.

But honestly, this situation did not feel real to me.

My daughter had come back after two years and had apparently become one of South Korea’s biggest superstars.

How could that possibly feel real?

The therapist actually knew more about my second daughter than I did.

He told me that she had spent a year as an unknown singer before really becoming famous with her second full-length album and gradually making a name for herself.

Not only that, but the drama in which she had taken her first leading role had become a huge hit in ratings.

He explained that she was now one of the biggest stars of all, having successfully conquered both fields at once—singing and acting.

“By the way, I’m jealous. Your daughter has a good personality, she’s popular, and she makes a lot of money. Now all that’s left is for you to receive some filial love from her.”

I had heard that successful celebrities could earn tens of billions of won…… no, even hundreds of billions.

But—

‘She said it wasn’t just the second daughter making this much money.’

My eldest daughter had also become very successful through her business.

And I had heard that the youngest was making good money too.

‘But what on earth does the youngest do?’

Even when I searched for Mi-hye’s name on the internet, just as I had done with Jinhye and Seonhye, nothing came up.

That only made me more curious.

Jinhye had refused to tell me, saying it was a secret.

‘I should casually ask my second daughter later.’

Somehow, I felt that my second daughter, who was a little more loose-lipped, might tell me.

After finishing the manual therapy, we went to a department store to have a meal together.

After eating pork cutlet at the food court,

Seonhye said it would be a shame to go home right away and took me to the sixth floor, where only men’s clothing was sold.

“Dad. I’ll buy you some clothes. When I looked at your closet yesterday, all I saw were old, worn-out clothes.”

Even though I said it was okay and that I did not want them, I could not break my second daughter’s stubbornness.

“My second daughter makes so much money, and if Dad keeps wearing worn-out clothes, people will actually criticize me. They’ll say I don’t even buy my dad a single set of clothes.”

That argument actually made some sense.

I did not care if people criticized me.

But I absolutely did not want my daughter to be criticized because of me.

In the end, Seonhye convinced me, and I ended up walking around from store to store to buy new clothes.

Along the way, Seonhye gestured toward me.

“Dad! What do you think of this padded jacket? I think it would look good on you.”

It was a thick padded jacket that looked warm even at a glance.

Before trying it on, I instinctively checked the price tag.

“My goodness. This padded jacket costs 1.2 million won?”

“Considering the brand, 1.2 million won is actually cheap. Right?”

As if she had been waiting for the question, the employee nodded repeatedly.

“Yes, sir. This item is also on sale, so we’re offering it at a 30 percent discount.”

Just in case, I asked the employee first.

“That’s the price before the discount, right?”

“No, sir. That is the discounted price.”

This was insane.

I almost cursed in front of someone I had just met.

But Seonhye reacted completely differently from me.

“You’ll never be able to buy it at this price again if you miss this chance. So, Dad, just stop saying anything and put it on. Okay?”

She said that while forcing the jacket onto me.

Then she even took out her card and paid for it.

The most expensive piece of clothing I had ever bought in my life was a suit jacket that cost 300,000 won.

“I’ll be too afraid to wear this because I might get it dirty.”

After returning from the checkout, Seonhye giggled.

“Clothes are meant to be worn, not displayed.”

“I know that too……”

The padded jacket was not the end.

I needed pants to go with it, shoes, a belt, and even a watch.

It seemed that Seonhye had decided to buy me everything she possibly could while she had the chance.

Since I knew that no matter how much I refused, she would find some way to make me buy them, I simply gave up and accepted it.

Just as I was carrying both hands full of gifts from my daughter,

―The thrilling feeling I felt when I held your hand~ It makes my heart flutter~

Suddenly, Seonhye stopped walking when she heard the song.

“Dad. Listen carefully to this song.”

Following Seonhye’s words, I also stopped and listened to the song playing inside the store.

Only then did I understand why Seonhye had told me to listen.

“Did you sing this?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

I knew it.

The voice had sounded familiar.

Hearing my daughter’s song playing inside a department store.

It was truly a strange experience.

“My daughter really did become successful.”

“I’m doing pretty well these days.”

Seeing my daughter succeed made me happy too.

My eldest daughter and my second daughter.

I felt like I no longer needed to worry about them.

But.

I still had no idea what my third daughter did.

“Jinhye said the youngest is making money too. What kind of work does Mi-hye do?”

This was my chance, so I casually asked about my youngest daughter.

But the answer I received was completely different from what I expected.

“That’s a secret.”

As expected of sisters.

How could she say exactly the same thing as Jinhye?

Seonhye smiled gently.

“Dad knows why it’s a secret, right?”

“Because each person should tell their own story themselves. That’s why, right?”

“That’s right. Unni brought it up first. But I also thought her opinion was right, so I decided to follow it.”

I roughly understood how the eldest and second daughters had become successful.

Jinhye had borrowed money from me when she started her business.

And when Seonhye wanted to become a celebrity, I often drove her to audition locations.

So even though they called it a secret, I was not all that curious.

I simply thought they had worked hard and succeeded in their respective fields.

But I could not figure out the third daughter at all.

“Did the youngest have some talent for making money?”

“Try to guess.”

The youngest I remembered did not like going outside, was introverted, and……

“She’s very lucky? Could that have something to do with it?”

At my words, Seonhye clapped two or three times.

“You’re very close!”

Huh?

Close?

“Don’t tell me she won the lottery?”

At my words, disappointment appeared on Seonhye’s face.

“Half right and half wrong.”

“Really?”

Something was either right or wrong.

I had no idea how my answer could be only half correct.

I had only asked out of curiosity, but now I was even more curious.