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Dawn Traveller - Chapter 02 - Born Twice
Yeon Woo learned the ways of life by observing other people.
“So I shouldn’t just naively trust everyone. Human emotions are fleeting, after all.”
“Wow, my teacher lost 2 years' worth of money because of his friend. Maybe it is not right to fully trust even your closest friends. I’m not going to lend any toys to my friends, because eventually I'm going to lose both my toys and my friends.”
“To thrive in this world, it’s easiest to just study and get good grades, or just focus on improving your talents.”
His curiosity for his future also increased.
“Ah, my life goals…”
Wouldn’t he have less chance of failing as a man in this world if he chose his path at an earlier age?
“What should I do then, from now on?”
He wanted money and power.
Without those, he couldn’t even get the toys he wanted.
With his father and mother, his 8 year old brother, 4 year old little brother, 3 year old sister and his 6 year old self, his giant family was quite a blissful one.
Although, his relationship with his brothers were more of a rivalry of who gets the better snacks and toys. He could see that just by looking at his parents, who constantly worried about raising four kids and always paid the bills and other expenses, did so with a heavy heart.
“I also want to be popular with women… All throughout my life!”
With a contemplative look on his face, he inspected it and his bulging stomach carefully.
“Ah, my looks are good enough.”
He knew through the adults’ thoughts that they thought height and skin care were very important.
He didn’t have high cheekbones or a chiseled jaw because he was still a young child, but it looked like he would look at least average if he looked after himself.
“To be honest, even if I grow as much as I can, I can probably just pass average height, but as they say, ‘looks are made by how much you care for them’”
He decided to treat his skin from an early age because of the thoughts he heard from the adult women around him.
Yeon Woo, thinking about everything from an adult perspective instead of a child’s one!
Just like that, while steadily gazing into the mirror, Yeon Woo was building his long-term plan to help him thrive in life when he grew older.
“I will eat well from now on, no matter what. I can’t be picky about my food because I need to grow.”
He also needed to study as he grew up.
He knew that studying and academics wasn’t everything in life, but seeing from other people’s thoughts and experiences, it looked like it made things easier.
“I should study just enough to get into Seoul university. They say it’s not that difficult, anyway.”
On the floor above him lived a very smart girl who came 10th in the whole country for her mock test results.
“Ha, I should study a bit more before I go to bed. Studying is so easy. Especially mathematics… Time flies when I’m solving math problems! I’m so happy!”
According to her thoughts, studying was an easy and enjoyable thing.
“I should just settle with Seoul university instead of going through the trouble of finding better universities here and there. I also hear that learning two or three languages makes work life easier.”
Academic goal: Seoul university at the least.
“After that, I will create a company and become the CEO.”
The CEO of a company!
“The company shouldn’t be too big, that would become bothersome. Earning about 450,000 dollars a year should be just about enough to live comfortably. I can just earn more if I need to.”
Even when he was playing with toys in preschool he was pondering about his future. He knew he was different from the others in many ways.
By reading their thoughts, it became clear to him that they did not know about his ability. As a baby, although he was not able to speak or understand, he understood the meaning of their thoughts, he acted first before the person did anything.
“He’s doing it again… I was just about to feed him, but how did he know that?”
Because his parents reacted strangely to his behavior, he pretended not to know and acted as though he did not understand. Revealing his ability would have been disappointing his parents, who wanted a normal child.
“Ah…”
But Yeon Woo felt happy more than anything. Being a young child, he wanted to have a special trait, different to others, and have a secret that only he knew.
Reading memories and emotions gave him a greater advantage over other people. In school, tests would be easy. At work, he would know just what to say to keep his boss happy. If he ever had to make deals with people from other companies, he would know how much money they wanted or what gifts they would like.
But there were countless bothersome traits to this ability as well.
I’m hungry… I want food.
I want to make sandcastles with Hee Jin. Hee Jin only wants to play with Yeon Woo.
I miss mom… Waaaaah!
Robot. I want a robot. Robot, robot, robot, robot.
He had to hear every single random thought that the children from his preschool babbled in their heads.
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Translated by Hannah Kim
Proofread by Janowicz
This chapter was released on Thursday the 20th of October, 2016.
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