Chapter 5 · 11 min
Chapter 5
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_________________
A few months after the day of the commercial shoot.
The day the smartphone was released finally arrived.
“Aaaagh!”
“Ugh, here we go again.”
“When is the smartphone getting here already?!”
“Just wait. It’s only been three days since we heard shipping started. Why are you in such a hurry? Besides, it’s supposed to arrive today.”
“Mom doesn’t understand how I feel...”
For someone like me, still steeped in the overwhelming speed of ultra-fast modern civilization.
If delivery took more than three days without a holiday getting in the way, that was enough reason to demand a refund.
‘No, and why didn’t they just give it to me immediately on the day of the shoot in the first place?’
Actually, I knew the reason.
The shoot itself had taken place long before the smartphone’s release date, so they had said they would send it in time for launch.
‘Still! Couldn’t they have given it to me early?!’
On top of that, it wasn’t like I could use it the second it arrived. I still had to get it activated separately.
“So why is shipping taking this long?!”
There were already so many steps to go through, and now even delivery was slow. I felt like I was going insane.
“I thought our daughter seemed a little different after filming the commercial... but you’re still the same, huh?”
“Mom, what do you mean I seemed different? I told you back then too, acting is something I do all the time anyway.”
“...What a thing to brag about.”
On the way home that day, Mom had asked me one thing.
‘Mina, you’ve never really acted before, have you? Why are you so good at it?’
From Mom’s perspective, she might have thought I had talent.
But there was a clear reason I was good at it that had less to do with talent.
‘Huh? Weren’t all the times I caused trouble and lied to Mom basically acting too?’
‘...That’s true?’
Once I said that, Mom understood.
‘I was both the biggest victim and the biggest contributor to your acting skills...’
‘...Isn’t it all good if it worked out?’
Mom looked a little pitiful when she muttered that like she had attained enlightenment.
Anyway.
‘That probably played a part, but regression was definitely the biggest reason.’
Because of regression, I had spent years from birth onward continuously acting like a child.
And since I hadn’t completely stopped even now, my acting had gone on for a full ten years.
‘Mr. Juhwan also said the thing he praised most about me was how natural I was.’
That was only natural for me.
Given the environment I had been in, there was no way it wouldn’t be.
‘Still, I can’t say I have no acting talent.’
After the commercial shoot ended, I had done a simple experiment to see how far I could take my acting.
For one thing, I succeeded in crying whenever I wanted.
Thinking about the pain in my back from getting smacked by Mom made the tears come out pretty well.
‘And my expressions come out the way I want them to, too.’
That was probably less because of regression and more an acquired skill from lying and trying not to get caught.
But what did any of that matter.
None of it meant anything to me right now.
“Aaaagh! When is the smartphone coming!”
Ding-dong!
“Gasp!”
The instant the doorbell rang in my ears.
I stopped writhing around on the sofa and ran to the front door.
Click!
“You can give the package to me! Thank you! Have a good day!”
I took the small package from the deliveryman and went back inside.
Bang!
“It’s finally here!”
After cheering when I saw that the shipping label said the contents were a smartphone.
I started heading toward my room.
Ding-dong!
“Huh?”
Wondering what was going on when the doorbell rang again, I opened the front door once more.
“What is it?”
The deliveryman I had snatched the smartphone from so quickly was still standing there with an extremely awkward expression.
“Um... I need to collect the shipping fee. Are your parents not home?”
‘...It was cash on delivery.’
...That’s kind of lame.
____________
A few hours later.
“Hehehe.”
Activation was finally finished, and at last I had a fully functional smartphone of my own.
“Mina. Can’t you do something about that laugh?”
“What do you want me to do! I’m happy!”
“You really have to keep the promise you made with Mom, okay?”
“Yeah! Of course!”
‘On the surface.’
Like I told Mom, of course I would keep it on the surface.
‘As long as I don’t get caught, isn’t it fine?’
A perfect fake is real.
One of the few useful truths of the world I learned in the military before regressing.
‘Still, I should lie low for now.’
Given my past deeds and my image, Mom would definitely grit her teeth and check everything carefully at first.
So I’d follow all the rules to the letter for a few months, then when Mom loosened up a little.
‘That’s when I’ll be free...!’
“Hehehe.”
“I told you not to laugh like that.”
“Yesh.”
After finishing my conversation with Mom, I went into my room and fiddled with the smartphone here and there.
“Ahh! Civilization really does taste good!”
There still wasn’t as much you could do compared to the future.
But basic functions were available, so it relieved my thirst to some extent.
‘I do miss Shorts and Reels, though...’
Well, what could I do.
It wasn’t like I could accelerate technological development myself.
I just had to wait.
“Now it’s time to work.”
Having satisfied my dopamine cravings to a reasonable degree, I entered a stock site in pursuit of my dream of becoming a rich unemployed person.
“Whoa... These prices really are ridiculous.”
Looking at stocks that were destined to rise twofold, fivefold, tenfold, even twentyfold in the future.
I once again realized just how broken being a regressor was.
“Alright, then. Shall we make a plan?”
Squeezing out as much economic knowledge as I could remember.
I mapped out a route to get the maximum efficiency from the minimum capital.
After doing that for quite a while, one question suddenly crossed my mind.
“In the end, this plan only works if I have seed money, doesn’t it...?”
At the moment, my only seed money was the appearance fee from the commercial I had filmed before.
That was literally all I had.
“...Should I slowly grow it through stocks?”
It would take a long time, but I could design things so that I only made profits without taking losses.
“But in the end, seed money really is the most important thing...”
‘Would the allowance I get from my parents be enough as seed money?’
“Yeah, absolutely not.”
I only got 2,000 won a week at most. What was I supposed to do with that?
“Tsk... Can’t be helped.”
I’d have to redo the plan with seed money in mind—
Click!
“Mina! Your commercial is on! Hurry up and come out! Let’s watch it together!”
Mom urgently called me in an excited voice, but.
I had something extremely important to do right now, so I refused.
“Mom, I’ll watch it later.”
I was in the middle of making the most important plan of my life.
A video I could rewatch whenever I wanted could wait—
“...Ryu Mina.”
Flinch!
“I-I meant wait three seconds!”
The voice Mom used to call my name stimulated my survival instincts to a level I had never experienced before, so I threw the smartphone onto my bed and bolted into the living room.
“Oh! It’s starting right now!”
Perfectly timed, the commercial properly began right as I sat down on the sofa.
[Alright, V!]
The commercial started with several high school girls taking a selfie together.
[Click!]
[Enjoyable anytime, anywhere]
Right after the high school girls bickered with each other and then gathered together to take a photo.
The screen changed to show an office worker on the subway quickly handling work using the smartphone.
[Me: (Work document file)]
[Me: I sent the work document!]
[Manager: Already?]
[Manager: You work fast.]
[Manager: (Thumbs-up emoji)]
[Fast anytime, anywhere]
Then the screen changed again, and I appeared.
More precisely, my hand and the smartphone appeared.
[Ring, ring]
‘Right, in the end they decided not to show me in the first part and focus on the screen of the video call being made with the smartphone.’
After trying it several times, we had concluded that this was the best version.
‘Didn’t the director say it would make the impact stronger that way?’
Honestly, I didn’t really understand what he meant, but I just accepted it.
He was the director, so surely he had some perspective of his own that I didn’t know.
[Hello?]
And only after the call connected did my face appear.
[Mom!]
‘Whoa, my face is filling the screen this much?’
I had heard that they would focus on my face, but I didn’t expect it to fill the screen this tightly.
Still, I understood exactly what he meant by making the impact stronger.
Hug!
‘Looks like Mom thought so too.’
“Eeeek! Mina! Our Mina came out so pretty~!”
Mom hugging me while squealing with joy was a little overwhelming.
But if I rejected her here, it would just get more annoying, so I tried to endure it.
Squeeze—
“Why are you so pretty?! My daughter?!”
“Mm! M-Mom! Air! Air!”
Mom got so excited that she forgot to control her strength and hugged me so tightly I couldn’t breathe.
“Ah, sorry! Our daughter was just too pretty!”
“Why are you making such a fuss over something obvious?”
Actually, Mom was basically a huge doting parent.
‘Been a while since this mode activated.’
Maybe because I had been getting into so much trouble over the past few years.
It had been quite a while since I had seen Mom like this.
“Aww~ I really don’t know who our daughter takes after to be this pretty~!”
“You, obviously.”
“Is that so~?”
As I humored Mom’s fawning, the commercial ended.
Well, there wasn’t really any need to watch the rest, so it wasn’t important.
______________
And the next day.
“Hey, isn’t that the kid from the smartphone commercial?”
“Yeah! I think it is?!”
As I went to school like usual, a few people on the street recognized me.
“Hmm.”
‘Not bad.’
Given that I couldn’t exactly say I had no attention-seeking tendencies, I didn’t mind getting attention from strangers on the street.
‘The ad must really have had a strong effect...’
This was still an era when TV ratings were high.
And since it was a major corporation’s commercial, there seemed to be some synergy.
“Mina! I saw the commercial you were in! What happened?!”
“Me too!”
And as soon as I got to school, several close friends immediately came up to talk to me.
“I just happened to get the opportunity.”
“Mina! You were really good at acting!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! I thought you were a totally different person!”
“Me too, me too!”
“Hmm, is that so?”
My shoulders rose slightly at the children’s pure praise.
“And you looked super pretty too?!”
“Hey! That’s not right! Mina is way prettier in person!”
“That’s right, that’s right! Mina is prettier in person!”
“Hoho, calm down, guys.”
The continued praise did feel nice, but this couldn’t go on forever, so I calmed them down.
“Hey! Ryu Mina! You were on TV?!”
“Exactly! I saw it too!”
“...Yeah?”
But I immediately realized that had been a huge mistake.
Once I quieted down my close friends, even kids I normally wasn’t that close with.
Crowded around me as a group and started giving me their reviews of the commercial.
“You should smile like that normally too.”
“Right! Mina, you don’t smile like that normally!”
“Y-You did look pretty when you smiled...”
“Huh?! Hey! Do you like Ryu Mina?!”
“W-What?! N-No, I don’t!”
‘...No, why are you having that conversation right in front of my desk.’
One of the hardest things about regressing was this.
That energy little kids got when they became excited.
I couldn’t keep up with that uniquely insane high energy.
‘If it were a situation where I was excited too, I could just go with the flow.’
“How am I supposed to go with the flow on a topic like this...”
I felt like I was about to lose my mind, but class was about to start soon anyway.
So I waited for them to calm down naturally.
Tra-la-la-la~ Tra-la-la-la~ Tra-la-la-la!
“Hey, class started. Go back to your seats.”
Fortunately, when the bell rang, the kids obediently returned to their seats and the teacher entered the classroom.
“Alright, everyone~ Hello~”
““Hello!””
“Today~ I heard some happy news~ so before we start class, we’re going to watch a video first~”
The moment the teacher said that, a bad scenario began unfolding in my head.
‘No way...’
I desperately denied the thought that had surfaced.
But wasn’t there a saying that ominous predictions always came true?
[Alright, V!]
‘No...’
Publicly roasting me in front of the whole class is a bit much...!