Undercover teen tycoon

The wall in front of Ji-ah was covered in red spray paint:

"Rich eat, poor bleed."

She leaned back, wiping sweat off her forehead with her sleeve, the can still rattling in her hand. The alley stank of kimchi waste and gasoline, just another backstreet in eastern Seoul where no one looked twice at a girl in a hoodie with calloused hands.

She wasn't doing this for attention. She hated attention. She did it to remember where she came from. Where she still was.

Then her burner phone buzzed. Not her normal phone-her emergency one. The one her foster mom said to never answer unless it rang three times. It buzzed again. A third time.

She froze.

Ji-ah clicked the green button and lifted the phone to her ear. "Yeah?"

A man's voice replied, low and clipped. "Kang Ji-ah?"

"Nope." She was already backing out of the alley, slipping the can into her backpack.

"You are Kang Ji-ah," the voice repeated. "And your father is dead. You've inherited 18.3 trillion won."

She stopped walking.

"What the hell did you say?"

There was silence, then a short beep. The line went dead.

Ji-ah didn't say a word on the subway ride home. She clutched the rusted pole, ignoring the crowd, replaying the voice. The number was untraceable. Burned. Her foster mom, Sun-hee, had been weird all week-tight-lipped, eyes red like she'd been crying.

She slammed open the door to their flat. "Unni!" she yelled. "Someone just said my dad died and left me trillions. What kind of sick-"

Sun-hee was sitting at the kitchen table with a man in a black suit. The table was clean, too clean. No kimchi pot, no ramen wrappers.

The man stood. "Ji-ah. I'm Min Dae-jung. Legal representative of the Kang family estate."

Ji-ah blinked. "What Kang family , from where and how ? This doesn't make sense."

Ji-ah turned to face Sun-hee and met her eyes , demanding an explanation. Ji-ah uttered " Make this make make sense"

He pulled a document from a leather folder. "Your birth certificate. Kang Ji-ah. Daughter of Kang Hyun-woo, CEO and majority shareholder of K Group. He died in a private plane crash three days ago."

Ji-ah stared at the page. It had her name. Her birthday. Her mother's name-unknown. And the father's name: Kang Hyun-woo.

"I-I don't understand. What do you mean I'm rich? I'm not rich. We're not rich. I grew up in a room smaller than a closet."

Sun-hee finally looked at her. "Because he didn't know you were alive. Your mother hid you before she disappeared. I was paid to raise you without ever contacting him."

Ji-ah sat down slowly. "Why now, huh? Where has he been the whole time? When we were struggling , not just to feed but to survive as a whole."

The lawyer didn't blink. "He found out just a year ago. He began searching quietly. His lawyers traced you. Then he died before he could act. You are his only child. His will names you sole heir. Eighteen point three trillion won. Businesses, real estate, tech patents, a yacht, eight vehicles, and..."

He slid a photo across the table. A mansion in the hills. All glass and steel.

"That's your new home."

Ji-ah stared at the image. Everything just felt surreal.Her reflection in the glossy print looked like a stranger.

She didn't cry that night. Why would she? At this point she didn't know what to feel.She wandered up to the rooftop, staring at Seoul's skyline. Distant sirens. Neon. Life still buzzing below like nothing had happened.

What kind of girl wakes up with nothing and goes to bed with eighteen trillion?

She thought about the kids at school who called her "alley trash." About the way she hoarded coupons. About sleeping in a coat in winter.

She could buy Seoul now.

But the idea made her stomach twist.

The next morning, the lawyer returned with a sleek black car.

"You'll need security. And a new identity. Paparazzi are already circling."

Ji-ah crossed her arms. "No. I'm not doing the chaebol princess thing. I'm not your next gossip headline."

Min Dae-jung adjusted his tie. "You are legally obligated to take control of the estate before your 18th birthday. But how you live? That's your choice."

She stared at him. Her mind was already moving.

"I want to enroll in a school under a fake name. No bodyguards. No headlines."

"Impossible."

She pulled out her burner phone. "Then I walk. I disappear."

He hesitated.

"...Fine. You'll be 'Seo Min-ji.' We'll set up the identity. You'll attend Daehan International School. But you'll meet your private board twice a week. Start learning the business."

Ji-ah thought it through within a few seconds. "Deal."

As the car pulled away from her old life, she stared at her hands. Same callouses. Same dirt under her nails.

She was the richest teen in Asia.

And no one could know.