Kim Si-yeon waved the magic wand wildly in front of me.
"Wh-where did you get that?"
"Hehe, pretty, right? Daddy bought it for me~"
Three months had passed, and memories of the commercial I'd half-forgotten came flooding back.
The proper name of that terrifying instrument was the 'Magical Girl Lucy's Magic Wand.'
Lucy's weapon — one of the few shiny Duel King cards in my possession.
Well, it's a toy, sure.
We're seven.
Duel King is super popular right now.
And Magical Girl Lucy is cute.
'You could totally buy one, yeah yeah…'
But the timing was a little too convenient to just brush off.
Don't tell me — was yesterday when the commercial started airing?
Sure enough.
"Hee, Chaewoni looked so pretty. I asked Daddy to record it too~"
"What? Why would you do that!"
"Hm? 'Cause you were cute! So I can watch it sometimes."
"…Huh?"
This girl — she really does like me way too much sometimes.
Always trying to stick to me like glue.
'Is this just how girls are?'
Hmm.
It's not like it bothers me, so whatever.
But going as far as recording it. The dedication.
At first I thought she was trying to tease me, but it was hard to aim that kind of suspicion at a face that innocent.
"The twin pigtails were so good too! Just like Lucy!"
"Yeah?"
"No wait, Chaewoni is prettier than Lucy."
"Ahem. Is that so…? Did it suit me?"
"Mm-hm, mm-hm. Totally! You should wear it like that every day."
"…Hehe."
Okay, that's embarrassing.
I just scratched my head, flustered by the shower of pure, wholehearted compliments.
It would've been so nice if it had stopped at Si-yeon.
"Hey, you little thug. Why are you trying to copy me and become an actress?! Yours is just a commercial at best! Hahaha."
"…You were in two seconds of background filler, and I was the lead."
"What does that even mean? Talk normal. Are you stupid?"
"Why you little—"
"Anyway, I'm in a drama and you're just in some short commercial! Try harder next time! Hahaha."
"So how much did you get paid, huh? Hey! Where are you going — answer me first! Hey, you little—!"
That infuriating bowl of udon noodles just wouldn't listen to reason.
"If you press the button right here—!"
"Wooow, it got prettier!"
"No no, you have to hop around more. Chae-won jumped way higher."
"That's just because she's good at jumping."
Some kids were playing by imitating my commercial.
"Let's give a round of applause~ Our Chae-won was on TV. Shall we all watch together?"
"Yeeeees!"
EEEEEEEK——!!
The teacher, who was supposed to be protecting a child's fragile psyche, had personally stepped up to participate in the public execution of my dark history.
I didn't even want to watch my own commercial. I'd been avoiding my favorite cartoon channels just to dodge it!
Apparently it was set to air periodically across various animation channels for three months.
I'd already seen the finished version at the shoot.
I wasn't even curious about how it turned out.
And yet I was forced to watch it at kindergarten.
『A single ray of light protecting the hearts of friends! Magical Girl, Lucy!』
Dressed in a pink gown, both hands clutching a star-studded magic wand.
A little girl beaming with a smile that said she'd die of happiness.
The kids' reactions were all over the place.
"Chaewoni is so cute!!"
"She doesn't look like the boss…"
"Right… yeah."
"I want one of those."
"Whoa, the boss is on TV!"
『Find her at your nearest stationery store! Lucy's— Magic Wand!』
Of course, even though it was only a fifteen-second commercial, I had my face buried in my hands the whole time and couldn't watch properly.
I could only let out a pitiful whimper.
"Turn it offff."
After that, I had to endure the humiliation of being pointed out to kids from other kindergarten classes as 'that girl, she's the magical girl.'
As a price for getting the Bone Dragon, it was a little…
Devastating……
.
.
.
About two months later.
I decided to accept my life.
Yes — the life of a superstar.
I was eating ice cream at the playground when a group of elementary schoolers suddenly pointed at me.
A neighborhood auntie gave me snacks.
The security guard said I was well-mannered and handed me candy.
Mom kept asking what any of that had to do with my commercial and said I had celebrity disease.
'I-I'm scared. Everyone knows who I am!'
Mom has no idea.
It wasn't like this before, I'm telling you.
The world has gotten friendlier!
They must have all recognized me from the commercial.
I tried stealing Dad's sunglasses to hide my face, but failed due to a size issue, and have since been doing my best to move around as discreetly as possible.
Swish— swish—
Ninja tactics using Mom and Dad as cover.
"You're being ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous."
"She's cute, just leave her. Pfft."
At the blatant mockery, I almost flipped them off like I would with kids — then caught myself. 'Oh right, these are my parents.'
'I'll be the bigger person. Yep.'
Today we were heading to a brokerage firm, with Mom and Dad in tow.
"I'm buying what I want! I made that very clear, right?"
"But of course. Who would dare say otherwise to our princess?"
"…How does she even know about stocks? Honey, I told you not to talk about money in front of her."
"It wasn't me. Our Chae-won is just sharp, that's all."
Mom was still grumbling, insisting that keeping money in the bank was the only sensible option.
But I countered with the unbeatable logic of: 'It's my money that I earned! You won't even let me buy cards! At least let me buy stocks!'
And won.
After all the deductions, my commercial fee came out to roughly one million won.
Stingy. So stingy.
The commercial was a three-month run, and apparently child actors don't get paid much to begin with. They said it was an absurdly good rate for a newcomer, but still.
Whatever. Whatever.
The psychological damage alone was worth more than that.
On the other hand, about a month after the commercial started airing —
The toy company reached out with an exclusive contract offer, promising to multiply the fee several times over.
'No thanks.'
I'd already gotten the Bone Dragon I wanted.
And just because I'd earned money didn't mean Mom was going to lift the card-buying ban.
Unless the money was going directly into my own wallet, watching it pile up in a bank account I couldn't even touch did nothing for my motivation.
'Shooting is a hassle too… and it feels too much like actually working for a living. Not my style.'
For all those reasons combined, I'd turned down the commercial offer for now.
I want easy money.
Yeah. Like stocks. Exactly like this.
The moment we arrived at the brokerage, my gold farming instincts started stirring.
"Maybe I should follow Chae-won's lead and buy a few shares too…?"
"You'll lose everything. Absolutely not."
"Yes, dear."
Mom had nearly had her family's finances wiped out by her grandfather's stock trading, so even hearing the word 'stocks' was enough to send her into a panic.
Setting up a stock account for me was fine since the amount was small.
"Losing some of it would be a good life lesson."
That was her reasoning for allowing it.
'But I'm not going to lose anything.'
I couldn't guarantee the returns, though.
My memories from my past life were pretty hazy, and I'd never been interested in stocks back then either — so the best I could do was buy companies I knew had survived.
'At least I won't lose money, right?'
With a staff member's help, I opened an account.
"Princess, what do you want to buy? Want Daddy to give you some recommendations?"
"I'm fine."
I'm buying what I know.
Shoo, shoo.
I was quietly racking my brain, trying to piece together my memories, when Dad started chattering away beside me.
"This one looks good. Apparently it's trendy among students these days — mini homepages? Decorating them or something. The name is… MiniWorld! Some people are saying it'll grow globally. And a big conglomerate is backing it, so there's no way it'll fail."
"……"
That thing crashes and burns spectacularly.
"Or, oh! MP3 players! Eum-ri River! Man. This is huge. Everyone has one."
MP3 players die off just as spectacularly.
Watching him ramble on with such enthusiasm, I realized Dad must have had a quiet interest in stocks all along.
'Wow, Dad should never be allowed near the stock market. Every single pick he makes is catastrophically doomed.'
Mom really is the wise one.
I ignored Dad completely and chose Cocoa Talk and O-Sung Electronics — two things I knew every person in the country would be using in the future.
I had no idea how much either would go up.
'But surviving means they're strong!'
Hold until adulthood. Let's go.
I bought ninety thousand won's worth out of the one million, leaving one hundred thousand won left over.
'The leftover amount is awkward… hmm… Oh!'
There was also that thing called crypto!
I dug around as hard as I could, but couldn't find any stock called 'crypto.'
'Is it an abbreviation?'
I figured a brokerage employee would know, so I asked directly.
"Excuse me! Is there a stock called 'crypto'?"
"Cry…pto? One moment please. Um… I've never heard of that, ma'am."
"Oh really? Okay. Thank you~"
Huh? Is it not a stock?
I'll have to search it up when I get the chance.
Not having a computer at home is really inconvenient.
I can't even look things up freely like this.
It's not like the games I used to play would exist yet anyway, so that part doesn't matter — but as someone who used to live glued to a computer, I just missed the internet in general.
"Princess, want Daddy to pick something for the leftover hundred thousand won?"
While I was deliberating, Dad swooped in with another sales pitch.
"Hmm…"
Absolutely not.
If I leave it to Dad, I feel like my money will just vanish.
Even without his recommendations, something had come to mind while thinking about the internet.
"I want this one."
"What's this? Link?"
"Yeah."
Link — the internet streaming platform. Back in the day, whenever someone in a game seemed a little unusual, they'd often turn out to be a streamer broadcasting on Link.
'I had a channel there too.'
I'd tried a few no-mic CCTV streams under the embarrassingly childish name 'Master of Commerce' before giving up…
Anyway.
It might not be famous yet, being so early in its life —
but in the future, 'streamer' would become an actual profession.
'The stock has to go up, right?'
I bought it with that casual thought in mind.
"Hmm, I've heard about a lot of companies from people I know — you really don't want to hear about them?"
"Let Chae-won buy what she wants. It's all life experience. And honey… I didn't realize you were so interested in stocks?"
"Huh? No no, I just pick things up here and there, haha."
Thanks to Mom's smoldering glare, I was spared from Dad's persistent sales pitch.
***
The year Lee Chae-won turned eight.
February arrived.
The children who had seemed like they'd be kindergarteners forever were already singing at their graduation ceremony.
"Sniff, sniff, our daughter is so wonderful. Look how brave she is."
"Chae-won isn't even crying, so why are you…"
Lee Jeong-hwan captured Chae-won on camera — standing in the front row, singing the graduation song with a composed expression.
In just one month, come March, she'd be a grade schooler.
It felt like just yesterday that he'd been a nervous wreck about sending her to kindergarten, and now here they were — elementary school.
He watched warmly as Chae-won stood surrounded by the other children.
"Chae-won is really popular."
"Of course she is. Look who her father is."
They'd promised to take her out for something delicious to celebrate graduation, so they were on their way to pick her up.
As they drew close enough to hear the children's conversation—
"Are you going to Eunha Elementary too, boss?"
"I told you to stop calling me boss. I swear."
"But… what else am I supposed to call the boss?"
Those doe-like eyes and that bright, sunny smile — truly no different from an angel.
Watching their daughter play the role of neighborhood boss, the two of them felt a whole different kind of worry about her upcoming elementary school life.