What is the purpose of a person living? Is it to study hard, graduate from high school peacefully, enter into college, graduate from college, find a decent job, find a rich husband and settle down? Or maybe it's probably to live in the moment of your high school and college days, graduate, work yourself to the bone, become successful and then settle down. Either way the two options felt tiring for me.
I, Hwang Jae-In, just wanted to live a peaceful life living in comfort. Having a rich dad and model as a mother, life wasn't too hard for me. I lived the most comfortable life that everyone around me envied,even the beggars who would line up on the streets, alleyways and even outside the estate gate envied. I'm sure that they really wanted to lived my life and the looks in their eyes practically showed it. And this gave me more pride and I continued to flaunt my wealth.
My father was the richest business tycoon in Korea and my mum was an A-list actor and top model, everyone practically begged my mother to sign a movie or modelling contract with them. And my parents spoilt me to bits. I had everything, not just everything, the latest things. From toys to clothes to jewelries to make-up to accessories and to practically everything. I was practically living like a princess and I loved that life until my mum got pregnant to my little sister, Hwang Ye-rim, that was the beginning of my whole world started crumbling down.
It started with frequents arguments between my parents then fewer modelling and acting contracts came for my mum because of the physical changes the pregnancy made on my mum's face toes and body size. At one point I overheard my mum telling my dad that she wanted to abort the pregnancy but my dad refused and then they broke into a huge argument, the argument was so tense that my mum broke a vase and a lamp in my dad's home-office before she stormed off, crying.
I tried so many times to stop them from fighting but it was of no use and by the time I was in the ninth grade, Hwang Ye-rim, was born. And from that moment on my mum swore to never talk to my dad and she worked very hard to get back to the shape she was before she was pregnant. During that period she took care of Ye-rim and she never let dad get close to Ye-rim making the two of them to stop talking.
I thought that they would start talking to eachother but this silent treatment lasted for a whole year and I was soon in the tenth grade. When I came back from school after my mid-term I saw my mum on the floor crying. I quickly rushed to her side and I anxiously asked her, "What happened?" But she didn't answer me and she just cried and then I asked her the question again but she just kept on crying and at this point I just decided to wait until she claimed down. After two hours of crying, she finally calmed down and I gave her a glass of water, which she drank slowly as she sniffled in like a child. My mum looked like a tomatoe, because her nose, eyes and cheeks were red.
After she finished drinking the glass of water, she dropped the glass on the big glass table in the middle of the living room and then she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and she sniffled again. Then she started to mumble a few words. "Your dad, your dad" she sniffled in and held the hem of her long flay skirt tightly, trying so hard to surpressed herself from crying. "Your dad was cheating on me with his new office assistant, I found out about it a month ago, while you were still in the nineth grade. I confronted him about it three days ago and we got into a huge argument. After that we didn't talk to eachother until today he placed a divorce paper Infront of me and asked me to sign it because he had already put down his own signature. I refused to sign the divorce paper and he packed up his things and just left me with a check of fifty million won, saying that it was for child support. He knows fully well that I have lost a lot of contracts during my pregnancy and I haven't stepped my feet in the limelight after I gave birth to Ye-rim" Then she she began sobbing and I just pat her back to comfort her with a calm face, but deep within me there was a lump on my throat it was a very heavy lump. It felt like everything happing right now was a very bad dream. I just watched my mum sob, and tried so hard to hold back my tears. Then my mum opened her mouth to speak up again, "How I'm I supposed to use the hundred million in my account with the fifty million he gave me to cater for our feeding and shelter? How can i cater for you guys with that amount of money? Just how? Ye-rim still has a lot of things she needs to grow up, your school fees still needed to be paid and it's five million won a term, the electricity and water bills are still there. How does he expect to figure all these things out? And he just left me for that girl from the country side." She said the last sentence with resentment filled in her eyes. Then she turned to me with tears in her eyes.
"What does she have that I don't have?" My mum asked and them face palmed herself and sobbed uncontrollably. And I patted her back and comforted her while I tried so hard not to break down too. Then she turned to me and held my hand while trembling slightly. "Jae-In, you won't leave me like your dad right?" She said as she held my hand tightly and she sniffled in her tears. She look haggard and disordered. My mum's state of mind was a bit dis orientated but I had to bring her back to her normal state of mind because if she lost her sanity, she might do something horrible to her self or she might even be locked up in an asylum.
I just patted my mum's back and then reassured her, "Jae-In, has a way to solve this problem so don't worry" I said as I wrapped my left arm around her back and laid her head on my shoulder as she sobbed.
After that event, I continued going to school and I finished my tenth grade there. After that I transferred to a public school in jeju island, because I, my mum and Ye-rim had to move from Seoul to Jeju island so as to lower our expenses. Before we drove to jeju island, my mum withdrew a sum of ten million won so as to buy things with cash instead of always transferring money, and I swear that from that moment on I knew that my mum's IQ level was that of a sloth. She made a decision without thinking of it's consequences later on in future. But I didn't say a word to her because I still had my own problems. I tried to so hard to imagine my life as a commoner and every time I thought of it I only felt a heavy pain in my chest. My perfect of life was snapped into two all because of a homewrecker who couldn't focus on unmarried men and she just had to leech unto my dad so that she could snatch my perfect and live a good life to her future children. I wasn't going to let that happen no matter what and I promised to get back and that homewrecker for everything she took from me. I made that promise to myself until we finally settled in Jeju island and I started going to school. At first I wasn't used to life style, but as time passed I got used to the average class lifestyle.
I soon started going to school and then I took up a job at the convenience store which was very stressful for me because I always took the night shift because I had to close the shop by 12:00am and then walk back home because the last bus that stopped at the nearest bustop to my house always left the bustop by 11:50pm and the next bus would arrive after thirty minutes and I couldn't afford to be late to school tomorrow so I had to walk back home from work which was so exhausting.
And when I mean exhausting, I mean really exhausting, like how can someone who has never walked for even thirty kilometres would walk fifty kilometres to her own house? And everytime I got home I always applied an ointment on my ankle and under my foot because my leg was always sore. And when I slept at night I placed an ice pack on my ankle, though it was a bit cold but I had no choice because I had no maids, nor money to get a pedicure.
After a month working at the convenience store I quit, I was both tired and exhausted for walking and I'm only earning Twenty thousand won monthly. I felt that stressing my leg for twenty thousand won wasn't worth it and I also quitted because the chubby fat boss of the convenience store, wanted to rape me and kicked him in the guts and called it quits. Y'all might be wondering, did I get my salary? Oh yes I did. I got my salary before the incident happened but I won't go into further details.
After I told my mum everything that happened at the convenience store, my mum hugged me and just have me words of comfort and I hugged her too. After two weeks of finding a job, I still couldn't find a job and just as I was about to give up I saw a girl snapping a picture at a cafè with a fake Louis Vuitton bag from last year sales in hand and she was dressed in a fake Chanel dress that Jennie, from Blackpink wore to VMA show, then she raised her iPhone 13 and took a picture of herself and she seemed to be typing something on her phone. I guess that she was posting it on her Instagram page.
Seeing her do that gave me an idea. I didn't need a low class job that stressed me out every single day, all what I needed was my phone my branded clothes and good spot to take a picture and live stream. When I got home I was so happy as I brought out my branded clothes and tried them on one after the other, I felt like I was about to rise to the top once again so I slept lightly because I was overwhelmed with joy.
After I came back from school, I opened my Instagram account and put my nickname as "Jane" and my Instagram name was "Jae-In". Once I was done setting up my Instagram account I went to the park and then work a black Chanel one-hand long-sleeve top and a black denim cargo pants. I didn't put on any make up because I didn't need to, I was naturally beautiful which is what I inherited from my mother. I took a selfie with my iPhone 15 pro max while I was sitting on the bench where the light from the sunset reflected on my face. I posted it with a hashtag "watching the beautiful" and immediately I posted that pic if went viral. The pic had about 5.5million likes and 3.4millon comments. I wasn't expecting things to take a huge turn like this. But I was so happy.
I kept posting more pics and videos of my self. I even opened a Tiktok account where I posted mostly videos of myself dancing, lips syncing and other cute content trends. I was on cloud nine as I started to get famous. When I told my mum about the whole thing, she was a bit anxious, and she just said, "Being famous has it's catch" at first I didn't understand but soon I understood what it meant when a girl who was in the same class as me posted a video of her insulting me. She told everyone that I was an attention seeker and that I don't really have those clothes and that they were probably borrowed. I just watched the video with no emotions in my eyes as i finished gulping down the glass of water.
Then I scrolled through the comments just to see that ninety percent of my fans were defending while ten percent chose to believe her. Anyways those ten people who chose believe her were morons, because only morons would believe morons. Then an idea suddenly came to me and then I went to my room, took out my phone stand, placed it on my dressing table, placed my phone on it and then went to Instagram and turned on the livestream.
Then I started the livestream with some sobs, "It has come to my notice that my classmate Yi-rang has decided to come and spread lies on the internet, I indeed go to a public high school but I do have branded clothes, my mother is Hwang soo-reyon, I'm sure some of you know her" I said as I picked up a picture and I showed them the picture of I and my mother taking a picture on my tenth birthday and I showed it on my phone screen. "See, I'm not lying" then I sniffled in and dropped the picture back on the dressing table.
"Something personal happened to my mum so we had to move from our mansion in Seoul to our vacation house in Jeju Island. Things weren't easy because we we didn't have enough money to meet with our daily necessities and untop of that I have a little sister who just two years old and she still needs alot of nutrients and good environment to grow up. It hasn't been easy for us since dad left so I decided to become a social media influencer even though my mum didn't want to do it because of the pressure I would face but I still did it because if I didn't we might be living on the streets by now". I sobbed a few more times before speaking up again.
"I want to thank all my fans for supporting me in various ways, you all are the best" I said as I wiped my fake tears and u smiled at the camera. After I ended the livestream millions of people flooded Yi-rang's page and then she completely deleted her account the next day I decided that after school I would cost the orphanage and donate some money and clothes which I actually did but after that day I saw a video that someone had taken of me donating sums of money, clothes and foods to the orphanage. It seemed like after that livestream one of my fans was stalking me.
Soon my mum started to get some contracts for acting and modeling and I felt that my life was about to change for the better until after I finished my eleventh grade final exams and I came back home. After I finished freshen up I ate dinner with my mum and Ye-rim at the dinning table before I went upstairs. After I went up stairs to my room I sank on the bed because I was exhausted, the exam had drained the life out of me and I just wanted to drift into the world of dreams when I heard my phone call ringing tone. I sat up abruptly from the bed and looked at the caller ID just see that it was my dad. After a whole year and a few months of not talking to I and Ye-rim he suddenly decided to call me now.
I was reluctant to pick the call at first but when the phone rang again I decided to answr the call. "Hello?" I said coldly and then my dad replied in a hoarse voice, "Jae-In" he just called my name and I felt ripples in my chest. It had been so long since I ever heard my dad call my name and suddenly felt my chest tighten.
"Why did you abandon us dad?" That was the only sentence I could make out from my mouth as I held back tears from falling down my cheeks.
"I didn't abandon you, I had my reasons to leave you" He said and I could feel the sadness emitting from his voice. "I actually wanted you to come and spend a year with me, atleast you can complete your high school in Seoul before you go back to meet your mum". He said with a hint of joy in his throat.
"What about Ye-rim? That child was only a year old when you abandoned us, have you thought of how she would feel growing up without a her father knowing fully well that he is alive?" I said coldly as I clenched my fists angrily. I was so mad at my dad that I wished I could just enter through the phone and hit him until I'm satisfied.
"The situation here might not be favourable for Ye-rim so that's why I don't want her to come with you, but I promise to fix everything thing with your mother once you spend atleast a year with me".
After three seconds of silence I agreed and then my dad sent me the ticket he booked to Seoul, the next morning I packed my things, wrote a letter to mum telling her that I want to finish up my highschool in Seoul and then I left. I wasn't going to Seoul just because my dad had requested it but I was going to Seoul because I wanted to settle some scores with that homewrecker and her child. Luckily her child is up to my age so I wouldn't to feel to guilty dealing with her.
After I landed in Seoul I met up with my dad at the airport and we left for his house, on the way I and my talked for a very long time till we arrived at the Korea's most expensive apartment building for the top ten richest people in all of Seoul and all over Korea–though some millionaires live there but they stay on the ground floor and not the floors that have been marked with a VIP sign on the elevator button–and since my dad was an investor and a very rich business I'm not surprised to see that he was living on the penthouse which was above all of the othe apartments.
After we parked at the underground parking lot, we walked into the elevator and my dad clicked the 50th floor button which had a golden crown sign on it and the words VIP was encrusted on the golden crown. The elevator took us up until we got to our floor and then I stepped out of the elevator with dad who led me to the door of our house and the he wrote the password and I happened to see that the password that my dad wrote was my mum and his wedding anniversary, which left me a bit confused.
Anyways once I got into the house my dad introduced me to the homewrecker who ruined my home, AKA, his new wife, I just stared at her blankly as she hugged me and I didn't even bother to reciprocate the hug. I just stood still like a statue and then she seperated from hugging me.
"I know that this feels all of a sudden to you but I promise to take care of you like your my own daughter" She said with a smile on her face and something about that smile made me feel iffy. Anyways what she said was the major problem, she talked like as if she could take a bullet for which made me annoyed but I didn't utter a single word until a girl my age came down stairs wearing a short sleeve celine crop-top and a denim black cargo pants.
She looked at me for just three seconds before she turned to dad and hugged him. "Dad who is this?" She said as she turned to look at me once again, though the look she gave looked innocent but main meaning behind the look wasn't ordinary.
"She's your step sister, Jae-In" then dad turned to me, "Jae-In this is your step sister Ki-ka-young"
"You can just call me Kiya" she said in English with a smile and she stops hugging my dad and then turned to look at me.
"Ok Kiya" I replied in English too, coldly.
"Ok, Kiya take Jae-In to the room next to yours". Kiya nodded her head and I took my suitcase in my hand as I walked upstairs with Kita directing me. When we got to the front of my room I turned to look at her and the she looked at me.
"Why did you come here?" She asked in a cold tone. And I just stared at her before laughing like a manic for ten seconds and then I regained my composure. She looked at me irritated by my laugh and u couldn't care any less.
"Do you really want to know why I came here?" I asked her as I leaned closer to her face with a smirk on my face.
"Yes" she said coldly with her arms folded on her chest.
Then I whispered in her ear, "To become your nightmare" I said coldly and I swear that I could see that she was having goosebumps, and she looked like someone who could not breath properly. "I want you and you mother to go through the same thing I, my mother and my sister went through. I want to you to feel the pain of losing everything, I want to cause you and your mother so much pain that the both of your will question your existence. That is why I came here" I said as I turned away from her as she stumbled back while she stared at me in dis belief and I just opened my room door and entered into it before shutting it.
After confronting Ki-ka-young I knew that I had an upper hand in this house but I couldn't underestimate her yet. I had to be careful with every single move I make even if it meant that I had to make selfish decisions, I didn't care, so long as I am able to make Ki-ka-young suffer I'll glad do anything to make that happen.
After taking a few pics of myself in my room, I decided to post it on my Instagram account with the hashtag, "Now in Seoul" and like always I had alot of likes and comments but I just turned off my phone and I went to shower, once I was done showering I went downstairs and had dinner with my dad and his homewrecker wife and her daughter. Dad kept putting meat in my plate which made Kiya jealous and then she asked dad to also put some meat in her plate which dad reluctantly did and this made me happy in a way.
Anyways when I got back upstairs to my room I took my phone from my dressing table just to see twenty missed calls from mum. I immediately called her and she picked up the call.
"Why did you leave so suddenly? I was so worried sick that I couldn't concentrate on set". My mum's voice sounded anxious and I could already imagine how worried she was.
"Mum, I'm sorry, but my moving to Seoul was so sudden for me too, I promise that after I finish my high school in Seoul and return to Jeju island, I'll tell you every single thing" I said to reassure her.
"Is there something that your hiding from me? Did something serious happen that you had to go to Seoul?" My mom sounded so worried that I suddenly started regretting coming to Seoul without talking to her first but I had to settle the debt I had with Ki-ka-young's mum.
"No, it's nothing like that, I promise that once I come, I'll make sure to explain everything to you in detail". I reassured her once more.
"Ok, but make sure to video call me atleast twice a week"
"I know that you follow me on social media and you know that I post almost every single day but if you wish for me to video call you everyday then I will" I said and then we both laughed.
"Make sure to take care of yourself" She said, her tone warm and full of concern.
"Ok, and you too" I said and hung up the phone and then I snak myself in my bed and closed my eyes and slowly drifted into Dreamland.