Chapter 20
After the lecture ended.
When Arin let out a hooaam- yawn and went off to bed.
Dad whispered very quietly into my ear.
"Ayeon. Actually, Dad went short on the day you uploaded your paper."
My eyes went wide.
"Wha, wha, whaaat...!?"
"Shh. Arin can hear."
"Ha-."
Dad raised his index finger to his lips, and I covered my mouth and clammed up.
"Come to think of it... I wondered why you suddenly asked about coins... So that was the reason after all...?"
I mumbled with my mouth covered.
Dad nodded.
"Yeah. I wasn't going to say anything at first, but since I made money thanks to Ayeon, I figured I should tell you."
The "short" Dad mentioned was short selling, a futures trade that profits when prices fall.
"W-wait, is that really okay? The risk..."
"I'm running it entirely with my own assets, so it doesn't affect the household budget. You know that, right, Ayeon? Dad's been investing since he was a college student."
"That... was true..."
Dad had majored in statistics and was very interested in investment models based on math, statistics, and big data.
Was that what it was called in professional terms, quant trading?
He had even entered mock investment contests and placed.
I remembered him bragging that he'd been making solid profits since college with an investment algorithm model he built himself.
So basically, Dad had been keeping a close eye on the investment market for a long time.
"For the record, Mom already knew. I told her before I even finished the paper."
"Really...?"
I felt betrayed...
You didn't even tell me, and you went and traded coin futures right when I uploaded my paper?
Mom didn't tell me about that either!
"Hmph!"
I crossed my arms and looked to the side.
My cheeks puffed out.
I'm super mad. Hmph!
If you don't cheer me up, I'll keep acting like this.
Sulking score: 60 out of 100.
"Sorry. I didn't tell you because I was worried that talking about money might have a bad influence on Ayeon, since she's only five. But Mom said it would be better to tell you, so I'm telling you now. Sorry."
When Dad apologized so humbly, my mood softened again. I shouldn't be like this...
"... How much did you put in?"
I shot him a prickly glare.
"I only put in a portion of it for risk management. No matter what, there are three family members I have to protect, so I don't go all-in chasing one big score. I closed everything out in three days."
"Then... that's a relief."
Actually, I knew Dad was investing while managing risk thoroughly.
After all, he was someone I'd known for ten whole years.
Besides, I could also predict that the coins would drop once my paper started drawing attention.
If anything, it was also true that investing aggressively can be advantageous when there's a clear signal.
Just...
I was just a little hurt that they hadn't told me.
Sullen-.
'But come to think of it, I'm a kid. Do I even have the right to meddle in my family's finances?'
After thinking it over carefully, that thought came to me.
'No, but if you're going to invest using information from my paper, shouldn't you tell me?'
Then again, after thinking it over some more, I found myself thinking this too.
Both arguments had merit.
It was a situation where reason couldn't produce an answer.
As a result.
Only the feeling of 'I'm sulking' remained.
"Hmph..."
"Dad didn't tell you because he was worried he'd give little Ayeon the wrong ideas about money. Even if you have Shin Yijun's memories, your mind is still immature."
"That... I can't exactly deny that..."
Indeed, my mind had gotten a little mushy thanks to the hormones of a five-year-old girl.
Dad's concern that I might develop a warped view of money if I heard money talk was also reasonable.
In fact, it had even once become a social issue that rich kids bullied poor kids and discriminated against them.
If you grow up hearing about money from a young age, you end up unconsciously developing the habit of ranking people, and that doesn't get fixed even when you become an adult.
We didn't want to become adults like that, did we?
"But since I felt it was only right to tell Ayeon that I'd been helped by her... I agonized over it for a long time and eventually decided to tell her."
"Yeah... I get it, Dad."
I could understand in my head that he'd done it because he was worried about me.
... but my heart wasn't so easy to convince, was it?
"But I'm still pouting, hmph!"
I crossed my arms again.
My sulking score had dropped to 40, but I was still sulking.
Dad saw that my expression still hadn't softened, snickered as if he'd expected it, and walked over to the fridge.
Then he opened the fridge door and took out a small box.
Inside the box was...
"Heeek...! A whole strawberry...!"
It was a slice of cake with a whole strawberry on top...!
And it was from the dessert shop in the alley I like...!
Too excited, I stood up on tiptoe.
"This is an apology gift for Ayeon. I'm sorry for not telling you. The money I earned, I won't spend on myself; I'll only use it to buy things Ayeon and Arin like."
Pshhh-.
I let the air out of my cheeks.
My sulking score dropped all the way to 0.
"Hmph... If you want to apologize that much, then... well, I guess I have no choice but to accept it again... mm. Right, of course."
"Ayeon. You're drooling."
"Sluuurp-. Don't go pointing out stuff like that one by one-! Dad's a dummy-!"
I snatched the sparkling strawberry cake from Dad's hands.
Seeing me like that, Mom said to Dad.
"Honey, we already had dinner. Won't she get fat?"
"It's okay, just for today. Think of it as a belated celebration for finishing the paper."
"Okay, got it. Ayeon, make sure you brush your teeth properly after you eat it, okay?"
"Yeees-!"
I sat at the table and picked up a small fork.
Snick-.
Even with a little force, the cake cut easily.
"Heheh."
Nyam nyam chomp chomp-.
The cake was sweet and melted in my mouth.
"Huaa... so tasty..."
It was enough to make me wear an expression like I was melting without even realizing it.
✒️✒️✒️
Our family began to face a problem we'd been putting off.
That problem was Arin's social skills.
Arin, who still lacked life experience, was afraid of anything outside the family fence.
As for me, well.
Since I had memories from my previous life, I thought social skills wouldn't be a problem.
But Arin wasn't like that.
And since Arin was three, it was about time for her to start interacting with kids her age.
For that reason.
Mom took Arin to a kids' café. I went along too.
"All right, Arin. Go inside and play with the other kids. Mom will wait here."
At first she hesitated, but Arin still bravely approached the kids her age.
"L-let's play together."
Arin started playing ball games with the other kids.
Mom and I watched with pleased smiles.
But 30 minutes later.
"Waaahhh...! Those kids are too stupid; I can't play with them..."
Arin cried and clung to Mom.
"Arin, you can't say things like that. That's bad language."
"B-but they suddenly started throwing the ball around... suddenly shouting... suddenly putting dirty things in their mouths... they're just too uncivilized!"
"Tsk! Bad words!"
Mom scolded Arin sternly.
"Waaah—!"
Arin cried bitterly.
"Arin, one day you'll have to leave the family nest. For that day, too, you need experience interacting with your peers now."
I soothed her calmly.
Then Arin huffed and fired back.
"Then, big sis! Can you go in there and play with them right now?"
Arin suddenly pointed at me.
"Huh? Me?"
"Yeah! You're still five too, big sis!"
Hmm...
Me, go in there and play?
I took a close look around the kids' café.
Setting aside the fact that I wasn't all that interested in the toys and play equipment there.
Like Arin said, there were a lot of kids suddenly doing bizarre things and putting dirty stuff in their mouths.
Ugh, gross...
Those kids are my age...?
"... Come to think of it, going in there and playing would be a bit hard for me too. Biologically, that's impossible."
"See? Even you don't want to do it, so why are you only nagging me!"
"R-right?"
Ugh... I had been neatly refuted by Arin.
I had no comeback.
So in the end, the plan to build Arin's social skills through the kids' café ended in failure.
After that.
Our family held a meeting about Arin's problem.
"How do we develop Arin's social skills?"
"Ugh-."
Mom and Dad had studied child-rearing diligently, but that was knowledge written for ordinary children.
It wasn't a child-rearing method that could be applied to geniuses like Arin, who were outside the 3-sigma range.
So even when the family put our heads together, we couldn't come up with a proper answer.
In the end, we went back to the counseling center.