Chapter 97:Epilogue [2012/05/06]

May 2012.  

A leisurely Sunday.  

A five-year-old girl, Park Saeon, sat on the balcony of her home.  

“Hee…”  

Saeon blankly gazed out the window.  

On the apartment balcony, which was covered with a soft play mat, there was a small chair. Sitting there, she could see the Han River flowing gently beyond the apartment window.  

“…”  

The blue river.  

The blue sky.  

The gray buildings.  

The passing cars and people…  

Just looking at that blue scenery made her happy.  

Blue was a color that was both warm and cool. The river shimmered like the eyes of a beautiful older sister, and the sky felt as cozy as her father’s embrace.  

Saeon liked the color blue.  

So much so that when she was asked to draw a landscape at kindergarten, she used up three whole blue colored pencils at once.  

A picture filled entirely with blue.  

The kindergarten teachers were in an uproar when they saw it. If it had been any other child, it wouldn’t have been a big deal but Saeon’s unni was an extraordinary art prodigy, one of a kind.  

Anyone who had lived through the romantic 2000s in South Korea…  

Just hearing her name, they couldn’t help but shudder.  

That genius!  

Even among the countless prodigies that emerged afterward, she remained the most striking figure of them all.  

—Could it be? Could Saeon also…?  

—No way, no way…?!  

And so, with the mission of discovering the next great art genius, the Ministry of Education sought permission from Saeon’s parents to conduct intelligence and creativity tests.  

And the results…?  

—She’s at an average level.  

…Saeon was just a normal five-year-old girl.  

The journalists and teachers gathered at the testing center all looked disappointed.  

But Saeon’s parents had expected this from the start. They chuckled, finding the whole situation amusing. After all, genius or not, she was still their beloved daughter.  

From then on, Saeon was simply known as the girl who liked blue.  

Which was a good thing because now, the boys at kindergarten who used to monopolize all the blue toys started sharing them with her.  

And so, the little girl who loved blue  

sat on the balcony once again, blankly gazing at the blue scenery outside.  

At that moment, she heard her mother calling from behind.  

“Saeon-ah! Time for lunch!”  

“!”  

Saeon jumped up from her tiny chair and dashed toward the kitchen. Crossing the wide living room, she was greeted by the delicious aroma of food.  

Her favorite dish.  

Saeon shouted.

“Donkatsu!”  

Saeon’s mother, Lim Ahra, smiled at her daughter. Then, she gave her an innocent little errand.  

“Our Saeon, I think your unni hasn’t woken up yet. She’s not answering my calls. Can you go wake her up for me?”  

“Okay! Unni is such a sleepyhead!”  

“Haha, well, she’s always flying around for work, so she must be really tired.”  

“F-flying?”  

“She travels to faraway countries.”  

“Why?”  

“Because she’s an artist, and she has to show her paintings to a lot of people.”  

“Why?”  

Lim Ahra didn’t falter at the endless string of questions. Her many years as a teacher had not been in vain.  

“Saeon likes unni’s paintings, right?”  

“Yeah!”  

“Well, other people like them too, so that’s why she shows them.”  

“Ohh, I see!”  

“So, can you help unni wake up so she can eat?”  

“Okay!”  

Saeon nodded.  

She walked past the kitchen, made her way to the shoe cabinet, and stepped outside. Then, she confidently strode across the apartment hallway. The distinct, refined scent of a luxury apartment filled the air.  

Finally, she arrived at the next-door unit.  

With practiced ease, she punched in the passcode.  

—Beep, beep, beep, beep!  

—Ding-dong!  

As the door to unni’s apartment opened,  

a whole different world unfolded before Saeon’s eyes.  

Her eyes grew wide.  

No matter how many times she came here, it never failed to amaze her.  

“Woooow…!”  

Even though it was the same floor, in the same apartment complex,  

unni’s home felt special like a grand art gallery.  

In the massive living room, covered in elegant gray wallpaper, countless paintings were neatly stacked. (Maybe even more than the biggest number Saeon could count.)  

And, just like a museum,  

numerous display shelves lined the walls. Behind sturdy tempered glass, trophies gleamed. Next to them, awards and plaques of appreciation in various languages were carefully arranged.  

“Waaah…”  

Saeon walked through this extraordinary space until she reached unni’s room.  

—Click!  

The moment she opened the door,  

she was met with a space that was completely different from the tidy living room—full of life and personality.  

Posters of the immensely popular academy webtoon Art School Time (signed, limited-edition versions) were hung in seasonal order along the walls.  

A carefully preserved figure of a certain character in a nun’s habit was displayed in a protective case.  

And on the floor, wrapped haphazardly in a blanket, lay a sleeping girl.  

“!”

It was Hana unni.  

Like a princess from a fairy tale, Hana unni always curled up in her blanket on weekends like this. She looked just like a beautiful little cocoon. As far as Saeon knew, there was no other cocoon as pretty as this one.  

“Kuuh… mm…”  

Saeon walked up to Hana. She cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered softly.  

“Unni! Unni! Wake up! Time to eat.”  

“Mm… today, I’m not… night, guard…”  

“?”  

It seemed unni wasn’t fully awake yet.  

Saeon grabbed Hana’s shoulders and shook her back and forth. A five-year-old’s version of a very enthusiastic morning greeting.  

“Unni! Wake up! Time to eat!”  

“…?!”  

“Waaake up~!”  

“…Ugh.”  

In the end,  

Hana groggily sat up.  

“…”  

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and slowly turned to look at Saeon. Then, she smiled drowsily.  

“My baby’s here?”  

“Why am I unni’s baby?”  

“What do you mean, why?”  

Hana mumbled in a sleepy voice.  

“…I carried you on my back for walks, changed your diapers at home, and even hosted your first birthday party. When your mom was pregnant, I talked to you in her belly, too. So doesn’t that make you my baby?”  

“I dunno. I don’t remember.”  

“You don’t?”  

“Nope!”  

“…”  

Hana pouted.  

“Then, are you not going to call me ‘Mommy’?”  

“Nope. Mommy is Mommy. Unni is unni.”  

“Hmph. Then aren’t you at least grateful to unni?”  

“I am!”  

“Then give me a thank-you kiss.”  

“Okay!”  

—Smooch!  

When Saeon kissed Hana on the cheek, Hana grinned from ear to ear.  

“…Hehe. So this is what it feels like to raise a daughter.”  

“Why am I unni’s daughter? Unni is just a tiny princess too!”  

“Well, unni is already 19 this year.”  

“Ahaha! What? So unni is a tiny princess even at 19?”  

“That’s right. But you should sleep early and grow up big, unlike me… Haaahm.”  

Hana yawned.  

At just 138 cm tall, she looked like an elementary schooler. Her long hair stuck out in every direction, and she lazily scratched her stomach under her pajamas. She looked a little messy.  

Saeon tilted her head.  

‘But why is she still so pretty…?’  

Maybe this cocoon was a magical creature.

*

Hana, looking a bit disheveled, sat side by side with Saeon at the dining table, eating their meal. Though their actual age difference was a whopping 14 years, they looked more like sisters with only about a five-year gap.  

Lim Ahra saw this and let out a small chuckle.  

Hana, with tempura flour smudged around her mouth, asked,  

“…Why are you laughing, Aunt?”  

“Oh, nothing… Pfft, you and Saeon just really look like sisters.”  

“Ssshhh… Should I start wearing makeup, then?”  

“Huh?”  

Lim Ahra shook her head firmly. Then, in a resolute voice, she spoke. It was a life lesson she had learned upon entering her mid-thirties.  

“…That plump, baby-soft skin and natural beauty are the best makeup. Instead of putting on weird stuff, just go around looking like a princess as you are. I can vouch for that.”  

“Well, I’m an adult now… Living like a princess forever isn’t easy. Have you seen how they still call me a ‘child prodigy’ on TV?”  

“Our little genius always shows up at top art exhibitions, wearing fluttery, pretty outfits—of course they have no choice but to call you that.”  

“…Those were expensive clothes Mari bought for me, so I couldn’t just let them go to waste. And honestly, she has a better sense of style than I do, so wearing what she picks makes me look way better.”  

“Really?”  

Hana recalled the day she went shopping at the department store with Mija and Juri.  

“…”  

Last year, Hana had made up her mind.  

While Mari was away for an overseas exhibition, she had decided—for the first time—to build her own fashion sense, free from Mari’s influence.  

‘It’s about time I started caring about makeup and fashion too…’  

And the result?  

—”Hana-chan, I thought you were good at dressing yourself… Turns out Mari-chan did it all for you. You seriously dress like a clueless little kid.”  

—”Haha, you look like a child actor trying to imitate her mom. It’s actually adorable.”  

“…”  

Hearing that, Hana shriveled up. And when she saw how her friends had grown into tall, elegant young women, she felt another wave of despair.  

‘Mija, you traitor…! Since when…?! Since when have you been hiding such a massive weapon in your arsenal?!’  

Of course, Mija had never hidden anything. It was just that Hana, who had been eating and sleeping beside her all these years, had failed to notice how gradually she had grown.  

Meanwhile, Juri, who had resumed her career as a rookie actress, now radiated an even more refined aura. She had always been mature, even during their school days, but in just a few years, she had ascended to another level.  

‘Ever since she redebuted, her confidence is on another level… She exudes this overwhelming presence. I even heard she might land a lead role in an action movie soon.’  

And in the midst of these tall, stylish, and curvy friends…  

Hana was still just a little kid.  

“Guhh…!”  

Saeon, sitting beside her, copied her.  

“Guhh!”  

Seeing this, Lim Ahra burst into laughter once again.

*

After finishing her meal and taking a shower, Hana returned to her home. She wanted to enjoy some rare free time.  

It was a vacation arranged for her by Jung, the CEO of HU Art Studio, out of consideration for her.  

— “Artist Go Hana, you can take it easy until the London Olympic commemorative invitation event this summer.”  

‘So, things are gonna get hectic again in the summer…’  

Thinking that, Hana lazily played a space strategy game. She looked no different from an elementary schooler on summer break.  

“…”  

— Click!  

— Your base is under attack.  

— Your base is under attack.  

— Your base is under attack.  

…She ended up suffering a crushing defeat.  

“…Phew.”  

She sighed as she stared at her base, which had been nuked into oblivion.  

Ah, this sucks.  

Her skills had completely deteriorated.  

‘Is it because I haven’t played games at all in this life…?’  

Eventually, she closed the game and started browsing the internet, looking for funny posts.  

“…”  

Hmm.  

Hmmm…  

‘…Not funny.’  

As someone who had lived through the dopamine-fueled meme era up to 2024, the humor of 2012 internet jokesters felt… painfully predictable.  

History had changed so much,  

yet people were still making the same tired jokes.  

— Disappointed. You ghostly remnants of the internet.  

In the end, Hana shut down her computer.  

She grabbed her smartphone. The wallpaper on her phone was a photo of Mari, elegantly dressed in a formal suit while receiving an art award.  

“…”  

‘Should I call Mari…?’  

Hmm.  

Hmmm…  

‘…She’s probably busy preparing for the exhibition. I shouldn’t bother her.’  

With that, she tossed her phone onto her computer desk.  

“…”  

Sitting in her chair, she fell into deep thought.  

“…”  

She had free time, but nothing to do.  

‘…Should I go to the electronics store and buy a gaming console? Or maybe rewatch the drama Juri starred in?’

At that moment of hesitation,  

a message notification sound rang from the phone.  

– Ding!  

“!”  

I quickly looked at my phone.  

It was a message from Mijjang.  

「Mijjang: Hana-chan, are you free next Friday?」 

「Hana-chan:  I’m bored.」 

「Mijjang: Then how about we do a VTuber stream together after a long time? Someone I know from Japan asked if we could join the stream again… I said yes, but they were wondering if you could come too.」

“…!”  

A rush of dopamine started surging through Hana’s mind.