Jae-Min had been living in the United States long enough that the notion of citizenship no longer seemed out of reach. His days were marked by one unyielding drive after another: work, study, relentless self-improvement. While his family assumed he was languishing, he had quietly established roots in New York, and his work at Goldman Sachs had become a defining part of his new life.
His phone buzzed one evening as he sat at his desk, reviewing the financial reports that would inform the next day's presentations. He glanced at the screen—an email from his lawyer.
"Congratulations, Jae-Min. You've officially been granted U.S. citizenship. Welcome to your new chapter."
He didn't feel the rush of pride that others might have experienced, nor did he feel any great sense of loss. His decision to embrace the U.S. had been strategic—after all, it had always been about the work, the transformation, the independence. What mattered now was not the country he belonged to but the person he had become. The name "Jae-Min Kang" was no longer an identity that tied him to the family he had run away from, the man he had been. In fact, it was just another piece of his past that no longer defined him.
He was now Jae-Min Kang in name only. He had long since shed the lazy, entitled playboy image that had once been synonymous with his family's wealth. The Jae-Min Kang that remained was a different person entirely—focused, driven, and reshaping his life one decision at a time.
As he looked out the window at the sprawling skyline of New York, he couldn't help but acknowledge the profound change that had taken place within him. In his mind, the decision to acquire U.S. citizenship was a small but significant milestone in his journey of self-transformation. He had no one to answer to, no expectations placed upon him by his family. For the first time, Jae-Min felt a sense of complete autonomy.
He reached for his phone, his fingers hovering over the screen. The temptation to reach out to his family, to inform them of the change, was there. But he quickly dismissed it. They still assumed he was somewhere lost in the haze of his old habits, drifting through life with no purpose, no direction.
They couldn't be more wrong.
Instead, Jae-Min locked his phone and returned to his work. With every calculation, every deal he brokered, every hour spent grinding away at his new life, he was proving something to himself. His new citizenship, like his body and his mind, was another layer of armor he had forged in the fire of his own self-loathing and determination.
He wasn't the man they thought he was. And he never would be again.