Chapter 54: The 100 Billion Won Wish

“This is a Hastatus! It’s one of the Corydoras fish, and it gets along well with both tropical fish and shrimp.”

Arum pointed to a silvery fish with its lower jaw jutting upward.

“That big fish is a Silver Arowana. It’s from Africa, and when it lays eggs, the daddy fish holds the babies in his mouth and protects them until they hatch!”

Standing in front of a giant aquarium at least ten, no, twenty times my height, I pressed my nose right up to the glass, reciting the names of this fish and that fish one after another.

“Arum.”

“Yes, Daddy.”

I looked at the child who still called me “Daddy” with her small, round lips.

Her neatly braided twin pigtails were probably the work of someone other than her mother.

“I’m sorry for disappearing so suddenly. I must have scared you, didn’t I?”

“No. It’s okay. We got to meet again like this.”

Arum shook her head with composure as she replied.

“Now we’re going to live together, right?”

But the question that immediately followed was much more fitting for her age.

“I came to see you today to say the goodbye I couldn’t say back then.”

“What do you mean?”

“Listen carefully, Arum. Daddy really, really loves you, but from now on, we can’t meet like this anymore.”

“Why? Why can’t we meet?”

“Because Mommy and Daddy got a divorce. Divorce means…”

“I know what divorce is. In my class, Youngjin’s parents got divorced too. But Youngjin said he sees his dad every weekend.”

“……”

I paused for a moment at Arum’s clever answer, but continued speaking calmly.

“That’s true. These days, divorce is more common, and some parents still see their kids after. But Daddy made a promise with Mommy. She’ll take care of you until you’re grown up.”

“Why? Is it because Mommy and Grandpa are rich? Is that why they told you not to see me?”

Why are kids these days so smart?

Or maybe Arum just had excellent early education.

“Smart Arum, if you listen to Mommy and grow up fast, then you and I can eat delicious things and go on trips together, okay?”

“No!”

As if she was afraid I might disappear like a bubble at any moment, Arum wrapped her arms tightly around my neck and hugged me close.

“I want to live with you, Daddy. I don’t need Mommy or friends. I just need you.”

“No. It’s much better for you to grow up as you are now.”

“No! I… living with you is the best!”

The trembling coming from her small body was unusual, so I gently pulled her away to look into her face.

“Is something wrong?”

“……”

“Did something happen at home or school?”

“Mommy… doesn’t like me. And my friends don’t like me either.”

“What do you mean? Why would Mommy and your friends not like you?”

Arum pursed her lips tightly, looking troubled.

When she was little, she used to puff up her cheeks and shut her mouth whenever she didn’t like something, and I’d poke her puffy cheeks and joke with her.

But now, it felt like this was something much more serious.

I looked over at Arum’s homeroom teacher, who was watching us from afar.

When I tried to take Arum to the restroom, the teacher must have liked her enough to let us have some time alone.

Even though my divorce from Jeon Minjeong was a near scandal, she must have known, but still granted my desperate request.

“Just a moment, Arum.”

I walked over to Arum’s homeroom teacher, who was standing nearby.

“Has something happened with Arum lately?”

“She’s having a hard time these days. Because of the scandal with her mother’s company, the other kids say bad things to her. Kids these days pick up on things so quickly…”

“Are you saying she’s being ostracized?”

“They’re not bullying her, but it’s enough that she feels left out.”

“Sigh. What about her mother?”

“Well…”

When I mentioned Jeon Minjeong, she hesitated, unable to give a straight answer.

“She doesn’t pay attention, does she?”

“…Arum is smarter and more advanced than other kids. She probably senses a lot of things going on.”

“I see. Thank you.”

I returned to Arum, who was sitting in the theater-style chairs by the aquarium.

My chest ached at the thought of what this little one had done to deserve to feel so small.

“Arum. No matter what, in any situation, Daddy will help you to be happy.”

“Mhm.”

“But for now, you have to be apart from Daddy. I’ll work hard so that I can live with you again, so can you wait until then?”

“If I wait, will I get to live with you?”

When Arum’s eyes sparkled with pure hope, all the careful words I’d chosen after many sleepless nights simply vanished.

Instead of answering, I just smiled brightly and nodded slowly.

“For you, Arum, I’ll do anything.”

***

Leaving my short visit with Arum behind, I returned straight to my studio.

I opened the store to look more closely at the Godflix Wish Coupons.

[Wish Coupon (Grade C): 1,000,000,000 won]

[Wish Coupon (Grade B): 5,000,000,000 won]

[Wish Coupon (Grade A): 10,000,000,000 won]

[Wish Coupon (Grade S): 50,000,000,000 won]

[Wish Coupon (Grade L): 100,000,000,000 won]

The wish coupon that let me meet Arum was a Grade C, costing one billion won.

If I wished to bring Arum to live with me, a coupon of the same grade probably wouldn’t be enough.

‘If my guess is right, the prices of wish coupons reflect what Godflix considers the cost of something happening in real life.’

Based on that, the “Let me meet Arum” wish was something that could be realized within the ten billion won limit.

It was disappointing that wishes were granted only according to their listed price, but even so, the wish coupon’s value was plenty.

If Jeon Minjeong had tried to interfere, no amount of money would have let me see Arum.

If I’d wished for custody of Arum, it would have been deemed an impossible wish, and that message would have popped up.

After living as the son-in-law of a conglomerate family like CL Group, I knew all too well that getting custody or parental rights from them wasn’t something money alone could achieve.

‘At least a Grade B or higher.’

No, even fifty billion might not be enough to bring Arum to me, depending on the situation.

‘Alright. Let’s plan on buying a Grade A.’

If only Godflix had a customer center, I’d call to ask what grade wish coupon I needed for a wish like this.

But I couldn’t expect that kind of kindness.

If I just bought a ten-billion coupon and tried to wish for something that couldn’t be granted, I’d just lose a pile of money.

I hadn’t spent big money on a wish coupon until now because there hadn’t been a wish worth it.

If I was going to wish, I’d buy the right grade coupon and bring Arum back.

‘Of course, I’ll need various conditions in place before that.’

If I just took her away without preparation, Jeon Minjeong, Vice Chairman Jeon Youngjun, and their whole family wouldn’t leave me alone.

I needed to prepare solidly so I could not only bring Arum but also keep her safe from CL Group.

I checked the money in my fund.

Previously, I’d put all the remaining balances from the first airings of  and  into the fund.

The nine hundred million won I’d invested before the two dramas started, plus the five billion six hundred million won remaining from Macho Restaurant’s seventy million per episode contract, and the one billion eighty million won remaining from Ma Boksoon’s ninety million per episode contract, added up to about 1.7 billion.

Plus, CL Group shares worth around ten billion won.

Due to recent bad news, the value had dropped a bit since I’d first received them, but honestly, I wasn’t holding those shares for the money, so they were a separate issue.

‘Seventeen billion, huh.’

If it were just for my own living, it was more than enough.

But if I wanted to bring Arum home, seventeen billion suddenly seemed far from enough.

First goal: one hundred billion to buy the wish coupon.

And to keep Arum safe from CL Group’s clutches once I brought her home, it’d be wise to buy more shares of CL Group.

‘Phew. Still a long way to go.’

But in fact, my mind felt lighter.

Ever since the divorce, something had been weighing on me.

After seeing Arum, I realized what it was.

I couldn’t leave the child I’d raised for five years in the hands of the shameless Jeon Minjeong any longer.

With a goal in mind, I resolved to focus only on achieving it, without worrying about anything else.

And as if in response to my resolution, a call came in from an unknown number.

“Hello?”

-Is this Writer Lee Junghyuk?

“Yes, this is he.”

-Hello, sir. I’m the assistant to Director Kudo Kei from Japan.

A woman’s voice came through the receiver, fluent yet oddly tinged with a hint of translation.

-This is an international call from Tokyo. Is this a good time?

I couldn’t help but let a slight smile slip as I answered.

“Yes. I’ve heard from the production company. What’s this about?”

-It’s nothing, I just wanted to invite you to our studio. Of course, we’ll cover all your expenses. If you’re available, I’d like to speak with you face-to-face.

“Oh, I see. When were you thinking?”

-We’ll work around your schedule.

I glanced at my phone calendar and said that sometime next week would be good.

I did have other plans, but curiosity got the better of me, and I thought it’d be best to go and see as soon as possible.

Strike while the iron is hot.

The moment I decided I needed to make money, I felt a surge of good energy from this call.

Since I started using Godflix, these sorts of gut feelings had a way of being right.

And so, a week later, I boarded a business class flight to Tokyo, arranged by Director Kudo Kei’s team.

***

Japan’s drama golden age, as everyone knows, was the 1990s.

Naturally, riding the peak of the bubble economy, Japan led the way in high-quality cultural industries.

Music, movies, dramas—if it started with a ‘J’ in Korea, it was a craze.

Among women in their 40s or 50s today, probably none haven’t loved a Japanese J-pop singer or actor at some point.

Back then, not just Korea, but all of Asia and even the West went wild for Japanese culture, and many people still remember the music and dramas from that time fondly.

It’s said that when a Korean idol sang city pop at a Japanese concert, the Japanese audience wept as one.

Perhaps Japanese themselves remember that golden age even more fiercely than we do.

But at some point, the situation between Japan and Korea was reversed.

‘Maybe it started with .‘

The Korean mega-hit that sparked the ‘Yonsama’ syndrome in Japan.

That drama marked the start of the K-drama wave, overtaking J-dramas, and just as Koreans used to download Japanese dramas illegally, now Japanese turned to illegal sites to watch Korean dramas.

And in the 2020s,

Korean dramas had grown beyond comparison to the Japanese drama market.

It’s said that the top 1-5 ranking works on Japanese OTT platforms are mostly Korean dramas, so the tables have completely turned since thirty years ago.

Even without mentioning idol music, just the drama market alone showed how dominant Korean culture had become.

Because of this, Japanese content creators quickly shifted to animation.

In animation, Japan is overwhelmingly number one worldwide, so all local and OTT businesses focused their investments on anime.

Those making other content were left out in the cold.

“Hello. I am Kudo Kei.”

Director Kudo Kei approached and extended a handshake as I stepped out of the luxury limousine.

For someone learning a new language at his age, speaking Korean wasn’t easy; he’d been practicing these phrases nonstop for days.

“Nice to meet you. I’m writer Lee Junghyuk.”

“Would you make a drama with me?”

“…Excuse me?”

“I want to, once again, make a real Japanese drama. Together with you.”