Prologue
"Suhyeok, I've regressed."
"Regressed?"
"Yeah. I've come back to the past."
"You're out of your damn mind."
I'd done everything I could. I'd begged and clung to her, asked her to think it over just one more time, but in the end there was nothing to do but accept it. Well, it wasn't as if I'd cheated on her, and once her feelings had gone cold, what could I do about it? Right. I had broken up with my girlfriend today.
Strictly speaking, she'd dumped me. And to be perfectly honest, I'd seen it coming — I'd noticed her feelings cooling a good three months ago.
But the reason I was angry right now wasn't my ex-girlfriend. It was Ha Heejeong, my one and only female friend.
In the few minutes I'd stepped out to the bathroom, Ha Heejeong had planted her face on the table, out cold. A fistful of her hair was floating in the kimchi stew that had come out with our drinks.
I'm losing my mind.
Whenever Ha Heejeong got like this, dealing with the aftermath was my job. She hadn't drunk nearly enough to explain it, yet there she was, already down for the count.
After fishing the strands of hair out of the stew with a wad of tissues, I took Ha Heejeong by the shoulders and shook her.
"Hey. Hey. Get up."
"Mnnngh..."
She squirmed for a moment but didn't get up. My irritation spiked all over again. The reason she was drinking tonight was me. I was the one who'd been dumped — which meant the one who should be drinking himself unconscious was me. But she'd gone down first, on barely any alcohol at all. It pissed me off.
She wouldn't remember any of it once she sobered up anyway, so I decided to give the back of her head a smack. Thwack — the blow landed with a crisp, satisfying sound.
"You little shi—"
In a flash, Ha Heejeong snatched my right hand out of the air. The pain of my wrist wrenching backward hit me in real time.
"Aaargh!"
"...You bastard...?"
Ha Heejeong stared at me, eyes huge and round, as I howled in pain. Chopsticks in hand. The chopsticks — frozen just short of my throat — were trembling violently.
The first thing I felt was bewilderment. The next was fear. A murderous glint flickered in Ha Heejeong's eyes, the eyes of someone who'd been about to run me through. Ha Heejeong had genuinely, truly tried to stab me.
I did my best to think through the situation as rationally as I could. I'd only had a little to drink, so my head wasn't exactly turning at full speed. Ha Heejeong had drunk a lot, and when someone smacked the back of her head, she must have instinctively lashed out with the chopsticks to protect herself...
Damn it.
Let's just say the alcohol had made her lose her mind. That was the story I'd go with.
"What's going on? Are they fighting?"
"Shouldn't somebody call the police? What's she holding?"
The murmuring around us reached me a beat too late. Every single person in the tiny pub was staring at us. Ha Heejeong remained frozen in mid-stab, only her eyes drifting, unfocused. Thankfully, there was no strength in her arm.
"Ah, I'm so sorry. My friend's had way too much to drink. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
I let go of my wrenched wrist and bowed over and over to the people around us, then eased Ha Heejeong — still standing there blank as a statue — back down into her seat.
"Hey, you okay? What was that about? You scared me."
"...Hold on."
"What do you mean, hold on? Are you hurt?"
"No — hold on. Shut up for a second and look."
The razor-sharp edge in Ha Heejeong's voice shut me right up. So this was what it felt like to be crushed by someone's sheer presence?
I rolled my eyes sideways to take her measure. This wasn't like her at all — the aura coming off her belonged to a completely different person. A split personality, maybe? No. I'd known her for years; there was no way. If that were the case, I'd have noticed ages ago.
I waited in silence until Ha Heejeong spoke. She drummed her fingers on the table, mumbling something under her breath. The thought crossed my mind that some ghost had gotten into her.
After a long stretch of this, Ha Heejeong suddenly checked her phone.
"October 3rd, 2020. October 3rd, 2020."
October 3rd, 2020. Today's date. Had I really smacked her head hard enough to knock something loose in there?
"Hey. Suhyeok."
"What."
I answered curtly on reflex, then stole a glance at her face. Thankfully, unlike that terrifying presence from before, she didn't seem to mind my tone.
Ha Heejeong hesitated, saying nothing, then suddenly leaned her upper body toward me. Our faces drew close. It was a pretty face, but the wave of kimchi-stew fumes rolling off her made me wrinkle my nose.
Ha Heejeong spoke in a whisper, as if afraid someone might overhear.
"I've regressed."
"Regressed?"
"Yeah. I've come back to the past."
She had clearly lost her mind.
"You're out of your damn mind."
The words were out of my mouth before they'd passed through my brain.
