Chapter 0 Prologue
Prologue
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Prologue
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The one-room apartment was overflowing with trash to the point where anyone who laid eyes on it wouldn't bat an eye at furrowing their brow in disgust, and predictably, it reeked of a stale, grimy odor.
One might doubt if a human could even survive in a place like this, where you'd half-expect to run into Ba Teacher if you poked around thoroughly, but astonishingly, there was indeed someone living here.
The problem was that the person was me.
"Why... haa... why didn't I realize back then..."
A strikingly beautiful woman's photo was displayed on the monitor.
As he stared at the photo, hand moving downward, a crushing wave of self-loathing and regret washed over him.
"Na-young Han..."
His vigorously working hand came to a stop, and he murmured the name of the woman in the photo with careful reverence.
Her name was Na-young Han.
She was a woman the same age as him, famous not just in Korea but across the globe.
It didn't stop at being the same age; they'd been in the same elementary school class together as kids. And considering she was the one he'd bullied, even now he would jolt awake in the night, pounding the ground in remorse.
Back then, for an elementary schooler, she already had a large chest and hips like she did now, but thanks to her plump build, everyone just assumed it was fat making her that way.
She hadn't been this pretty back then.
How much? It wasn't just plain ugly—it was to the point where her face was covered in pimples, acne, and blemishes, making her look outright grotesque and turning her into the direct target of the kids' mockery.
But who knew? With a little care, she was a raw gem that could transform from an ordinary pebble into a black diamond.
Given all that, how could he not regret it?
What if... what if, just hypothetically...
What if he hadn't bullied her back then, but instead helped the girl who was being tormented? What might have happened?
She might have showered an utterly worthless guy like him with endless love right now.
He could have been living a life overflowing with happiness—one that others envied, jealoused, and even cursed him for as an unworthy match—experiencing it all in real time.
"Haa..."
He let out a deep sigh.
Looking back on the past, when he was young, there had been quite a few girls around him like Na-young— so ugly that they felt this life was doomed and the best option was to be reborn.
Girls who, after some polishing for whatever reason, emerged more beautiful than anyone else.
If he'd just pitied one of them and treated her kindly, leading to a situation where she said, "You're the only one who's ever been good to me," and they became lovers... how wonderful would that have been?
The regret still gnawed at him.
No, wait.
Back then, they'd probably been persecuted so much that if I was the only one who approached them kindly, I could have made them all mine...?
And on top of that, strike it rich with coins and stocks, living without a worry about money.
Kuh... Just thinking about it made him happy. So happy, yet filled with self-loathing.
He let out another deep sigh.
His motivation gone before he'd even finished, he pulled up his pants, shut off the computer.
He hadn't even turned it on in the first place. Gazing at the idle light bulb, he lay down on the thin blanket already spread out.
"Ahh. I want to go back to the past."
He voiced the earnest wish that could never come true, thinking he'd have to go job hunting again tomorrow, and slowly closed his eyelids.
Before he knew it, in his imagination—or delusion—where reality could never reach, he had already become a man anyone would envy.
Without realizing that it could actually become possible in real life.