5 Born With A Silver Spoon

The Lee family manor occupied a large swathe of land on the banks of the Han River. Sat atop a hill, it had an unobscured view over Seoul and its surroundings. As one of the last undeveloped areas, it was clearly a show of the remarkable strength and importance of the Lee family.

Min-soo looked out the window of the latest Mercedes-AMG C63 that Hyun-woo was driving. It was of course, owned by the family but the family was not lacking in vehicles, so it was essentially Min-soo's.

The moonlight reflecting off the Han River against the backdrop of the brightly lit Seoul City further reinforced to Min-soo that he was no longer Alistair. With a gentle sigh, Min-soo prepared himself mentally for the challenges ahead.

The car came to a gentle stop and Hyun-woo opened the door before Min-soo had unbuckled his seat belt. It still felt strange to him to be waited upon like this. Although he had lived a well-off life as Alistair, it still did not hold a candle to the wealth of the Lee family.

A mansion that hired almost a hundred staff to maintain was already more money spent than all he had as Alistair. Looking up he could feel the history behind it, even though it was merely modelled after an English aristocratic manor, there was a solid presence to the building. It was hard to describe but Min-soo felt slightly pressured.

Home. This was his home. Min-soo had lived here since he was born, along with his parents and sister. His Grandfather had at one point too, but upon retiring as the CEO of Antares and pursuing a career in politics, he had moved out to be closer to the centres of power. Capability needed to be matched with accessibility and the Lee family manor was not accessible to just any average person.

In fact, the mansion was fairly empty for most parts of the year, with only the main wing used by him and his family on a day to day basis. Except for the once a year family gathering, the rest of the manor sat empty but maintained.

Pools, spas, saunas, tennis courts to arcade rooms, the manor was equipped with all manners of entertainment. Sparsely used but they existed. After all they had money and the least, they could do was spend it on things they would use occasionally. The life of the rich indeed.

Min-soo slowly made his way inside, he was immediately greeted by the family butler, Butler Kim. An older gentleman only a few years younger than his Grandfather, Butler Kim had served in the position for at least thirty years, no one knew Butler Kim's full name apart from his Father and Grandfather.

A kind man, but stern and strict when necessary, he smiled and greeted Min-so in his usual affable manner.

"Young Master, it is good to see you up and well. The Master and Madam have been most concerned and will be gladdened by your return. Dinner will be ready in an hour. The Master is yet to return, however the Madam is in the study. Perhaps it is prudent for you to meet her after a shower. With all due respect, Young Master you could do with one."

Min-soo smiled in embarrassment, he had noticed it a while ago, but Hyun-woo had been too kind to mention it to him, but he stank. Although he knew he was cleaned every day by nurses, it still did not equate with the efficacy of a long shower or bath.

"Haha, thank you Butler Kim and it is good to see you. Very well, I will visit her shortly."

Min-soo then walked up the grand, polished marble stairs and made his way over to his room. Every room was equipped with a bathroom, walk-in-wardrobe and a 50-inch OLED display. Rich people truly had it good.

Opening the door into his room, he could tell instantly exactly what type of person the previous Min-soo was. The heavy scent of an overbearing cologne assailed him. This was the smell of an arrogant man. The two mirrors that reflected his image upon entering the room showed his narcissism.

Arrogant and narcissistic, already bad signs, yet how did someone like him become a slave to his younger sister? But then again who was he to talk, it would be like the pot calling the kettle black.

Having sifted through his memories earlier he had already gained a small grasp over the personality of the previous Min-soo, although intelligent and consistently scoring top grades during his schooling years allowing him to attend Seoul National University. He was also a bit of a slacker and had for the past couple years been chasing skirts instead of elevating his grades.

His Father was already at his wits end when it came to disciplining him. His Mother had instead decided to find him a nice girl to settle down with, hopefully anchoring him so he could finally focus on his studies and graduate.

He was currently only in his third year of university and if nothing went wrong should be able to graduate by the end of the year. However, having been in a coma for three months he was lucky he could remain a student, all thanks to his family background, let alone think about graduating so soon.

He was 22, but that was by Korean age, since they counted the year from birth. He had been slightly confused when his Father had said twenty-two years in their conversation earlier. But he had realised that was because of the way Koreans measured age.

Fortunately, he was born in May of 1998 well after both the Solar and Lunar New Years, otherwise it would have been a nightmare to remember his age. So, since it was currently August, which was after his birthday for the year, he was officially twenty-two in the eyes of Koreans. What a strange system.

Min-soo inspected the rest of the room. The bed was a large four-poster that oozed wealth, silk sheets and 100% cotton blankets that looked to be handcrafted. Sitting on the bed, he realised while everything else was soft and nice to the touch, the mattress was hard, just how he liked it.

It seemed he and Min-soo shared some similarities apart from the bus incidents. Erika on the other hand and from his memories, Seo-yeon detested hard mattresses, they both preferred the comfort of soft beds. Min-soo smiled at these fond memories.

However, it only made him more aware of the distance between him and Seo-yeon let alone Erika. Gathering himself and stopping himself from wallowing further in self-pity he made his way over to the walk-in-wardrobe. He needed a change of clothes.

The automatic doors recognised him instantly and opened for him. Min-soo nodded his head in appreciation of the convenience. Filled with all manners of clothes, casual, formal, sportswear, matched with shoes for all occasions and some accessories, Min-soo whistled at the wealth displayed before him.

He could very easily tell that both the quality and the price of the items before him was not cheap. Even the piece of underwear he grabbed was from memory brought for more than $200 USD. They truly did have too much money on hand.

In fact, the Lee family was rich enough to never need to use Korean won, when they asked for prices, they meant it in US dollars. They only measured in won on the rare occasions, where it was unwieldy or inappropriate to use US dollars, after all they were a Korean family.

There were many older forces in the country that respected and had willingly embraced US protection after the war and loved the money from America, but they were unusually stubborn when it came to maintaining traditions. Korea was Korea, America was America, was what they would say.

So, although many Koreans studied all over the world, bringing the wealth of knowledge and technology back to Korea, a large and vocal majority of the country was still very traditional.

At the end of the day though, this was all largely irrelevant to Min-soo's everyday life.