Ch.1Being Handsome Makes Life Easy

I’m ugly.

How ugly am I?

“Hey, sorry, but could you not come so close?”

I heard this when I was 5 years old at daycare.

“Waaaaaah! Teacher, I don’t want to be paired with Donghu!”

A girl cried because she didn’t want to sit next to me when I was 6 in kindergarten.

“You little shit, don’t come near me before I really kill you.”

In first grade, I received death threats just for getting close to someone.

In middle school, a girl cried just because our eyes met.

In high school, I was naturally excluded from groups and isolated.

College? Don’t even ask.

‘I understand.’

Even to myself, my appearance is utterly hideous.

They say even hedgehogs find their own babies cute, but that didn’t apply to me.

My self-esteem dropped to rock bottom, and I became increasingly withdrawn.

But that doesn’t mean I just gave up.

I tried working out for so-called “self-improvement” and picked up various hobbies.

‘But what’s the point?’

In the end, the most important thing for first impressions is your face.

No one looks kindly upon features that inspire disgust.

Still, I didn’t give up.

Until I finally realized:

‘My appearance really is hopeless.’

Self-deprecating humor based on looks? That only works if you’re ugly in a likable way.

How can you make people laugh when they feel uncomfortable just looking at you?

Have you ever had someone furrow their brow the moment they see you?

I have.

Every moment started with negative points because of my appearance.

And the results were always unimaginably terrible.

‘Where did it all go wrong?’

I can’t help but sigh.

What’s the problem? Thinking this, I turned on the internet again today.

The only space where I don’t have to show my appearance.

A safe world where I can express myself only through a keyboard.

Tap-tap-tap, whirrrrr.

As soon as I start the game, the screen goes dark for a moment with the loading screen.

In that moment, I catch a glimpse of my reflection.

The phrase “love yourself” doesn’t even cross my mind.

I’ve considered plastic surgery, but the estimates were ridiculous.

How could I save up hundreds of millions of won in my twenties?

Besides, having to reshape my entire face—

‘That’s too scary.’

At times like this, playing games was the right choice.

‘Maybe I’ll start a new character.’

The game I mainly play is set in the modern world, with customizable characters.

Here, at least, I can become the ideal “me” that I dream of.

In that sense, [Sims – Real Life] was the perfect game.

Especially because you could customize everything from the protagonist’s appearance to their background.

Just counting playtime, I’ve spent 50,000 hours.

[Sims – Real Life] was practically my life.

‘What kind of life should I live today?’

On the screen, I see the image of a newborn baby.

And below it, four naturally appearing choices:

[1. The luxurious life of a third-generation chaebol]

[2. The silver spoon life of moderate wealth]

[3. A life with nothing special but no minuses either]

[4. A desperately poor life full of hardship]

Normally, I would always choose option 1.

It felt like playing with cheat codes.

But today I wanted something different.

Option 3.

The home environment most similar to my current one.

After selecting it, the customization screen appeared immediately.

After the background, the next thing to decide was appearance.

This would determine the range of talents available.

“Maximum everything.”

Tall, long limbs, perfect proportions, and ideal muscle definition.

Facial features go without saying, plus resistance to weight gain and hair loss.

An appearance universally appealing across Eastern and Western standards.

My countless hours of customization experience created a character that looked divinely sculpted.

And on top of that:

[Charm has been set to maximum.]

[Physical abilities have been set to maximum.]

[Special ability “Face of a Thousand” acquired. People will perceive your appearance as similar to their ideal type.]

[Special ability “Talent of a Thousand” acquired. Everything you do will be easy to learn and master.]

[Special ability “Path of Ease” acquired. Life will unfold smoothly.]

Even sucking up all the overpowered traits with veteran player bonuses!

Normally I wouldn’t do this.

Having a good background plus special abilities was too overpowered.

But today I felt especially immersed in the game.

Somehow I wished this character could be my life.

As soon as I finished customization and ability selection, the next screen appeared.

[The child born into an ordinary family was far from ordinary.]

[Being called a prodigy was the bare minimum, and they always had talents that surprised everyone.]

[However, these talents couldn’t fully bloom due to their ordinary family background.]

[But your talents are ready to blossom at any time.]

[When would you like to begin developing these talents?]

[0. Infancy]

[1. Early childhood]

[2. Boyhood]

[3. Young adulthood]

[4. Middle age]

[5. Old age]

This was where the game truly began.

The starting point would differ depending on which period I chose.

The later options would replace earlier stories with choice summaries.

Normally, I’d choose young adulthood to skip the tedious parts, but—

‘Today I feel like starting from childhood.’

[You have selected 0. Infancy.]

I felt a strong urge to play this character from the very beginning of the game.

[Please name your character.]

The name, of course, was Kim Donghu.

My name.

I had never tried this before.

It would make it feel like my life rather than someone else’s.

‘I want to try living like this just once.’

[Would you like to play with these settings?]

Without hesitation, I pressed start.

+++++

Nervously.

At age five, about to graduate from kindergarten.

The kindergarten was warm from the heating turned up against the late cold snap.

“Hey, sorry, but could you move a little closer?”

“Why? We’re already close enough.”

“Well, it’s just… it’s nice and warm when we sit together.”

“Really? I don’t like being hot.”

“…Okay, but don’t move further away.”

“Alright.”

A little girl looked disappointed after failing to get closer to a boy.

At the same time, she had a strangely proud expression, showing pride despite her young age.

“I’m a child actor, you know. Can’t you be a little nicer to me?”

“Why should I?”

“…hic…I…waaaaaaah!”

After being rejected again when she tried speaking to him in frustration,

the girl finally burst into tears.

“Oh come on, Donghu, stop making girls cry.”

The kindergarten teacher, looking exasperated, hugged and comforted the girl.

“You’re already making girls cry at this age? What are we going to do with you?”

“She’s asking for something unreasonable.”

“That may be true, but Sujin isn’t usually like this… sigh.”

The kindergarten teacher looked at the boy called Donghu with a complicated expression.

‘How can he be so handsome?’

In all her years as a kindergarten teacher, she’d never seen such a handsome child.

Frankly, he could outshine all the current child actors.

There was a reason why the proud child actress, Kim Sujin, was flustered around him.

And that wasn’t the only issue.

“Hey, stop crying. It’s noisy.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll hold your hand, so stop making a fuss.”

“…sniff, sniff, hmm…okay… Teacher, put me down. I want to hold hands with Donghu.”

“Y-you do?”

That strong masculine quality impossible for a five-year-old.

His way of mixing the carrot and stick in conversation was unbelievable.

Even Sujin immediately stopped crying and was now smiling while holding his hand.

If he were just moderately good-looking, this would be a normal situation, but

the teacher’s experienced instincts were flashing bright red warning lights.

‘What on earth will this child become when he grows up?’

That appearance, that way with words, and those seemingly all-around capabilities.

Perhaps Rainbow Kindergarten was producing something extraordinary.

That thought suddenly crossed her mind.

+++++

My life had reset.

‘Is this even possible?’

Not just a reset, but one based on [Sims – Real Life].

Everything was exactly the same except for one thing.

‘My face.’

The character I had painstakingly customized with various special abilities was perfectly reflected.

And it wasn’t just my face.

My appearance and aura had changed 180 degrees.

And with that, people’s attitudes toward me changed as well.

The kindergarten teacher who had never taken my side before—

She still wasn’t on my side, but her attitude was dramatically different.

‘What’s going on?’

Why did this happen?

What should I do first when life rewinds? Buy land? Bitcoin? Stocks?

Many thoughts crossed my mind, but there wasn’t much a five-year-old could do.

The most I could manage was:

-Dad, I think Korea will reach the semifinals in the upcoming World Cup.

Going home and recommending World Cup betting to my dad.

The key was not just saying it once, but persistently until he listened.

I needed to plant the idea well before the World Cup started to increase the chances of him listening.

‘That would be good for making some money.’

Just because I’d gone back in time didn’t mean I had the skills to make tens of millions like other protagonists.

Those people were prepared, while I had just been reset.

‘But I can still change my life.’

From daycare all the way to when I was playing that game—

The one thing I lacked despite countless efforts was appearance.

With that filled in, how high could I soar?

I looked forward to finding out.

And the first step toward that was:

“…Can you hold my hand again later?”

“Why should I?”

Building a strong connection with child actress Kim Sujin.