That's an Empty House

Irregular beeps from the heart monitor. Raspy breaths that scraped against the floor shattered the silence of the luxurious yet deathly quiet hospital room.

The man lying there was Kang In-hyuk, chairman of Blue World—one of the world's most powerful corporations.

His personal assets alone surpassed eighty trillion won. An extraordinary figure in every sense.

Yet now, at just forty-five years old, he had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and stood one breath away from death.

I expected it, but I never imagined it would feel this empty…

Kang In-hyuk felt his whole body vibrating with each shallow breath.

His clouded eyes wandered aimlessly through the air.

Still… at least I managed to crush Tae Seok-ho…

The man who had risen to chairman of Tae Shin Group. In-hyuk himself had been the one to put him on that throne.

Yet Tae ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Seok-ho had feared him. He tried to frame In-hyuk for the deaths of former chairman Tae Geon-seung and his eldest son Tae Seok-hyun, along with every corruption scandal that could harm the group, turning him into a sacrificial lamb.

Of course, In-hyuk was never one to simply lie down and die. He left Korea at once, built his own power and forces, and completely dismantled Tae Shin Group.

That wasn't all. Along with the group, he had taken control of the South Korean government and its economy.

He had achieved so much in those long years. Now he had to leave it all behind, but he felt no regret.

A moment later, a man entered the hospital room. It was Baek Si-hwan—In-hyuk's closest secretary, colleague, and friend.

"Are you feeling all right, Chairman?"

In-hyuk had no strength left to speak, so he simply listened.

"..."

"You've worked so hard all this time. Thank you."

The words carried a strange weight for a simple farewell.

Baek Si-hwan continued without pause.

"You even took care of the Tae Shin Group that had been such a thorn in our side."

His tone sounded normal enough. Yet In-hyuk instinctively knew something was wrong.

"What…"

"On top of that, you've built Blue World so splendidly for our benefit. Thanks to you, the organization’s upper echelon is quite pleased."

At those words, In-hyuk's trembling eyelids flew open.

Organization? Upper echelon…? Who is he talking about? It can't be—!

At the same time, Baek Si-hwan's cold expression twisted into something ugly.

He smiled with thin, venomous lips and pulled a transparent ampoule filled with crimson liquid and a syringe from his pocket.

"This is a drug the organization has been developing. It enhances certain physical abilities when injected into a healthy person. The effect is so powerful, however, that it overloads the heart and nervous system. The advantage is that it leaves no trace in the blood or organs after roughly an hour."

In-hyuk wondered why they would bother. He was already dying. There was no need to hasten it with a drug.

As if reading his mind, Baek Si-hwan spoke again.

"Ah, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you must be wondering why I'm giving this to you."

It was proof that he had stayed by In-hyuk's side long enough to understand everything.

In-hyuk's eyes trembled, but he could not speak.

"They wanted to observe what effect this drug would have on a terminal cancer patient of your caliber. How fortunate that you remain useful until the very end."

With that explanation, Baek Si-hwan plunged the syringe into the IV line. The red fluid mixed with the clear solution, growing murkier before flowing into In-hyuk's veins.

The effect came quickly.

It felt as if someone had driven a stake into his heart. Whatever flowed through his blood vessels tore his entire body apart at the genetic level, delivering indescribable agony.

Beep-beep-beep-beep— Beep-beep-beep-beep—

The heart monitor screamed.

"Uuurgh!"

With a violent groan, he managed to press the emergency button he had been too weak to reach before.

But no one came.

His ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠back, which had been nearly impossible to lift, arched violently. In-hyuk glared at Baek Si-hwan with bloodshot eyes. The man who had always worn a cold mask was now smiling brightly.

"I'll make excellent use of everything you've left behind. Including your body."

"Urgh! Kugh—!"

In-hyuk's back slammed onto the bed. The racing heart monitor drew out one long, final tone.

Beeeeeeeeep—

Even in death, In-hyuk's eyes remained wide open, staring at Baek Si-hwan with murderous intent.

Sudden, absolute darkness swallowed everything.

In that void, In-hyuk's mind became strangely clear, yet he could not move a single fingertip.

That lasted only a moment. Suddenly his breath caught, then a crushing pain surged through him as if someone were forcing air down his throat.

"Uuurgh—!"

His frozen mouth opened, and a raw scream tore free. Strange visions began flashing before his eyes.

"Aaaaagh!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

An even worse agony hammered inside his skull. The screams kept pouring out like vomit.

How much time passed? His ragged breathing returned, and his vision slowly brightened.

Blinding light flooded in. Focus gradually returned, revealing an unfamiliar scene.

"Where… where am I? What were those visions?"

This was not a hospital.

He lay on a simple bed with black sheets and a matching comforter.

The unfamiliar room left him disoriented.

"…A wedding?"

One of the final visions had played like a first-person memory. A cold, familiar woman in a wedding dress had taken his hand.

She had not looked happy at all. After the officiant finished, the couple who bowed in greeting had been…

"Tae Seok-hyun and Lee Seon-hye?"

The eldest son and daughter-in-law of Tae Geon-seung, second-generation chairman of Tae Shin Group.

Yet In-hyuk could not understand why he possessed memories of a wedding those two had attended.

"…What the hell is happening?"

For some reason the body that had been paralyzed in the hospital bed could now move. He rose, left the bedroom, and entered a spacious living room.

"I'm not dead… Was I kidnapped?"

As he walked slowly toward the center of the living room, his eyes fell on a large photograph decorating one wall.

A man and woman in tuxedo and wedding dress stood arm-in-arm with indifferent expressions. It was the exact scene from the vision.

"Why am I in this photo? And the woman beside me is… Tae Ju-ha?"

She was definitely Tae Seok-hyun's youngest daughter.

"What is going on…"

Staggering backward in confusion, he caught his reflection in a mirror on the opposite wall.

"Why do I look completely healthy? More than that… I look younger."

Until his death, terminal pancreatic cancer had spread throughout his body, leaving him skeletal. Now he looked healthier than at any point in his life. It made no sense.

Even the countless scars earned through brutal combat had vanished.

"What on earth happened?"

His gaze fell on the dining table. A phone, wallet, car keys, and employee ID lay there.

The face and name on the ID were his own.

But the affiliation read—

He reached for the unfamiliar phone. The fingerprint sensor recognized him and unlocked.

The screen was filled with missed calls and message notifications. As he tried to check them, his eyes caught the calendar dominating the home screen.

"…2025? Not 2037?"

It was twelve years ago. He was thirty-three again.

The impossible situation only deepened his confusion.

"Don't tell me… I've returned to the past?"

He opened the browser and confirmed the date refused to change. When he searched for Tae Shin Group, familiar headlines appeared.

These were exactly the articles that had circulated at this time in his previous life.

He had no choice but to accept that he had returned to the past.

But in this period, he had never married. Moreover, he had never had any connection to a company called Tae Shin Asset Management.

At this point in time, he should have been working in the security team of Tae Shin Mulsan—the holding company of Tae Shin Group. Specifically, he had been one of the bodyguards personally assigned to Tae Seok-ho, the very target of his revenge.

"Tae Ju-ha got married last year, and her husband was definitely… right. He had the same name as me. But how is this possible?"

He stepped closer to the mirror and examined himself again, but nothing changed. As he did, a throbbing headache struck, and memories that were not his own flashed through his mind.

"That wedding I remembered earlier… Are these the original Kang In-hyuk's memories?"

No other explanation came to mind.

Countless memories collided inside his head until Baek Si-hwan's cruel final smile rose to the surface.

"I should have killed that bastard… No. If I've truly returned to the past…"

Baek Si-hwan would be here in this time as well.

Deep questions followed.

Where exactly had everything gone wrong…?

He had been dancing on the stage the man had prepared.

Looking back at Baek Si-hwan's final words before his death, it had not been a simple betrayal. From beginning to end, the man had clearly belonged to some organization while working at In-hyuk's side.

Vrrrr— Vrrrr—

The phone in his hand vibrated.

The name triggered a faint memory.

"A classmate from when I joined the company?"

It felt like a scene from the orientation held in a large auditorium.

Kang In-hyuk had entered Tae Shin Group through the 2018 public recruitment. He had been assigned to the sales team at Tae Shin Mulsan, while No Dong-jun had been sent to Tae Shin Asset Management, a subsidiary of Tae Shin Life.

They had never been particularly close. However, after In-hyuk recently transferred from Tae Shin Mulsan to become team leader of Stock Operations Team 3 at Tae Shin Asset Management, they had begun seeing each other occasionally and exchanging words.

In-hyuk cautiously pressed the answer button.

"…Hello?"

"Team Leader Kang! Aren't you coming in today?"

"…Coming in?"

"Are you sick? Hold on a second."

Sounds of movement came from the other end. Then No Dong-jun's tone changed completely.

"Hey! Are you actually sick?"

The sudden shift to casual speech confirmed it was the same person he remembered.

"Uh… a little?"

"Is it bad enough that you can't even come to work? Your team's in total chaos right now!"

"…Chaos?"

"That A2 client account the Team 1 leader dumped on us last time. The client just called saying they're pulling out their funds. You need to get here and handle it right now… You really can't make it?"

In-hyuk couldn't even grasp his current situation yet. Having this barrage of incomprehensible problems thrown at him only made his head hurt more.

"I got it. I'll call you back."

He ended the call and set the phone down. Another thought suddenly struck him.

"Wait. If I've become the Kang In-hyuk who is Tae Ju-ha's husband… then what happened to the original me?"

He immediately dialed the number he had used in his previous life.

The call connected after a few rings.

"Hello?"

A woman's voice answered.

"Is this not Kang In-hyuk's phone?"

"It's not."

Click—

The call ended abruptly. He checked the number again, but it was correct.

"What happened to the original me?"

It didn't take long to stop the questions spinning in circles.

In-hyuk stripped off his sweat-soaked pajamas, grabbed a suit from the closet, and left the apartment with his phone and wallet.

The building turned out to be a luxury officetel in Hannam-dong. He hailed a taxi on the street and headed toward the area near Gasan Digital Station where he had lived in this timeline.

It was a multi-family house with seven households, including the rooftop unit. The moment he stepped out of the taxi, he climbed the stairs and entered the password for the unit at the end of the narrow third-floor hallway.

Beep— Beep— Beep— Beep—

It was definitely the same door code he had used before.

Yet no matter how many times he tried, the lock only responded with error tones.

"What's wrong with it!"

An old man coming up the stairs spotted him and asked,

"That's an empty house though… Didn't you come to the wrong place?"

"…Empty? Since when?"

"It's been over two years."

"..."

The old man shook his head as if In-hyuk were strange and disappeared inside his own unit.

Meanwhile, In-hyuk's phone continued to flood with calls and messages from No Dong-jun and other unfamiliar names.