Chapter 201
Chapter 201
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 201
Chapter Title: Echoes of Betrayal
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I gently closed my eyes and then opened them. Phew. After letting out a deep sigh, my excitement seemed to settle a bit.
A cold wind brushed against my cheek. I stood there blankly for a long while.
‘It's okay. Nothing happened, right?’
I tried to soothe myself like that.
The more franchises we had, the harder it became to control the franchise owners. It was unavoidable.
As the number of franchises grew, all sorts of bad apples inevitably mixed in, and every group had its share of lowlifes.
Beyond that, conflicts arose endlessly between headquarters and the franchises due to clashing interests.
‘I've been burned plenty. Learned my lesson the hard way.’
That's why I'd reacted so sharply to Kim Jong-chun's words.
If I didn't nip it in the bud now, who knew how it might come back to bite me later. And I knew all too well how easily people's hearts could twist.
‘That's why it's best to keep business and personal matters strictly separate.’
Some people would surely disapprove of me getting too chummy with certain franchise owners. Incidents like this were exactly why.
‘At least the old man's comment didn't come from any malice. That's a relief.’
If Kim Jong-chun had brought it up while scheming to exploit my weaknesses, looking far ahead...
That would have been a betrayal that cut to the bone.
‘Everyone makes mistakes. Especially now—he's way softer than before the regression.’
Pre-regression Kim Jong-chun had been a battle-hardened veteran who'd been through thick and thin with me, including aerial combat. He never would have slipped up like this.
Walking a smooth path wasn't always the answer, it seemed.
Still, I'd given him a stern warning, so he wouldn't entertain any funny ideas.
‘...Or would he?’
I felt anxiety bubbling up from deep inside.
Hadn't pre-regression Hyunmu approached with a friendly face too? We were even pretty solid business partners back then.
The despair when that rock-solid ally betrayed me...
“......”
My chest tightened on its own. I clenched the hem of my clothes. Just imagining it made my breath catch, my breathing quicken.
My vision spun, my body swayed. Why was I like this? Even the ground seemed to give way beneath me.
My limbs went limp, like I'd sunk into a swamp.
‘Huh?’
That was the moment.
In an instant, my vision went black, and I completely lost my balance.
My head spun round and round. I vaguely felt my center of gravity tilt sideways.
Thud!
“Woo-yeon!”
“...Huh?”
For that brief moment when my consciousness faded. When I came to, I felt someone steadily supporting my body.
I blinked a few times, and through my blurry vision, a familiar face came into view.
“Jung Da-on?”
I stared at him in bewilderment, and Jung Da-on slightly furrowed his brow. Who knew he could make a face like that? That idle thought flitted through my dazed mind.
“What are you doing? It's dangerous.”
“Huh?”
“You've been standing here forever, so I was watching, wondering if something was wrong... If it hadn't been me, you could've gotten seriously hurt. Got it?”
It had been ages since someone scolded me like this. The unfamiliar situation left me blinking like an idiot.
Jung Da-on pulled me upright, steadying me back in place. Looking down at the rock-hard frozen ground, I finally grasped what had happened.
‘I almost cracked my head open on the ice.’
If I'd fallen as is, I might've broken something. I patted my pounding chest.
“Thanks.”
“What's going on? This isn't like you.”
Jung Da-on bent down to meet my eye level. He seemed to notice I was still out of it.
“No, it's nothing like that. Just... a bit...”
Thinking back to what happened with Kim Jong-chun made my head throb again. But I couldn't spill every detail to Jung Da-on, so I brushed it off vaguely.
“Tired, that's all. Work's been crazy lately.”
It wasn't a lie. Everyone at The Song knew I was swamped, busier than if I had two bodies.
Jung Da-on wasn't an employee there, but he'd probably heard about it from Han Mi-ae or Baek Jae-ha.
“I was just heading in to rest. Thought I'd say hi to Owner Han first, but no can do. Tell her for me.”
I waved my hand loosely. Even that felt heavy, like my wrist had a weight attached.
I was about to take a step when—
“Wait.”
Jung Da-on grabbed me and placed his palm on my forehead.
What?
“Yep.”
I looked up at him quizzically, and he had a dead-serious expression.
“You have a fever.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you. Your forehead's scorching. How long has it been like this?”
Hearing him, I touched my own forehead. Maybe because of the cold wind, it didn't feel that hot.
“It's not.”
“Doesn't count if you use your own hand!”
He looked exasperated, like he might die of frustration.
“When did it even... Ugh, fine. You wouldn't know.”
“Isn't your hand just cold?”
“I told you no.”
No way. As I kept rubbing my forehead, Jung Da-on sighed deeply.
“This won't do. I'll take you home. Go in and rest properly.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Still have paperwork to sort.”
I'd planned to meet Kim Jong-chun briefly and head back to the office. At my words, Jung Da-on recoiled.
“It's 1 a.m.?”
“Yeah.”
“World ends if you don't finish tonight?”
“Not that, but...”
“Then go home. You resting comes first.”
Jung Da-on decided the priorities on his own.
‘Was that limp feeling from the fever?’
I'd thought it was from the clash with Kim Jong-chun. Come to think of it, I'd been feeling chills lately.
Hadn't slept well recently either. Overwork plus that sudden stress spike must've tanked my condition.
It made sense. I nodded in agreement.
“Guess I'm not feeling well.”
“Right?”
“But that's no reason to skip work.”
“......”
Jung Da-on smacked his forehead and clamped his mouth shut.
But I meant it. Work was work, and my health was my health. If anything, it was my fault for not managing my body properly, so preventing it from affecting work was the right call.
‘I've gotten so fragile.’
Catching a cold from this much overwork? Pre-regression, I'd pull all-nighters for days, cover no-show part-timers on the fly, and still handle inventory.
‘Maybe I should train my stamina.’
Should I carve out workout time by sleeping even less? As I pondered—
Riiing.
I saw Jung Da-on calling someone.
“Hey. Jae-ha.”
“?”
Calling Baek Jae-ha at this hour? The kid should be in dreamland.
You'll stunt his growth. As I frowned, Jung Da-on quickly continued.
“You free right now? Sorry it's the crack of dawn. Woo-yeon's being ridiculously stubborn. You need to come get him.”
“What are you—”
“Yeah, in front of the gukbap place? Shop's still open, so I can't step away long. He's sick but insists on going to work, so you gotta—gotta take him straight home. Okay? Yeah, hurry!”
Click.
Jung Da-on hung up and looked at me.
A faint smile on his face carried an unusual authority. As I hesitated, he enunciated each word firmly.
“When Jae-ha gets here, you go home quietly, got it?”
“I'm really fine. Not bad enough to skip work.”
I tried protesting one more time, sensing I'd be dragged home otherwise, but he ignored it completely.
“Should I call my mom?”
“Ugh.”
I knew exactly how Han Mi-ae would react.
Eyes welling up, pitying me, then sending over some medicinal stew or tonic.
Hospital visits as standard, and word of me bedridden with illness spreading everywhere. The flood of concern calls from all sides made my head ache preemptively.
“You'll behave?”
Looking at Jung Da-on's beaming face, I could only nod weakly.
-There was no talk of this!
The desk slam jolted me awake. And the scene before me made me jump in shock.
‘That's... me?’
Yeah. More precisely, pre-regression me.
My face, a bit older than now, was rigid with tension. Deepened by the years, eyes blazing with sharp fury, lips trembling.
Pre-regression me didn't care that my well-tailored suit was rumpling as I raged.
-Even if Hyunmu provided massive initial investment capital, this is fundamentally our franchise brand's expansion, isn't it? So how...!
-Song CEO. Changing the deal now puts us in a bind too.
I knew this conversation inside out. I'd replayed it thousands, millions of times.
-It's right there in the contract. ‘Per this agreement, both parties hold 50% initial shares, with the right to acquire up to 70% via future investments.’
The man lurking in the shadows crossed his legs casually and asked.
-So Hyunmu's just making that additional investment to buy more shares. What's the problem?
The Song didn't have Hyunmu-level cash liquidity. This was Hyunmu swooping in to snatch the fruit we'd carefully cultivated.
‘The back of my head throbbed just like that.’
Even recalling it now made the base of my skull ache.
It was betrayal. A gut-wrenching one.