Can You Really Do That?
"You needed me? In what way exactly?"
"More importantly, what the hell are you? You're a middle schooler—why are you so damn smart?"
"Focus on what I'm saying. In what way did you need me? I'm nothing but a middle school student."
Age wasn't an issue at all. It could simply be chalked up to me being more mature and sharper than my peers.
After several more rounds of this back-and-forth power struggle, Cheon Mari finally raised both hands. It was a de facto surrender, followed by a long sigh.
"I needed someone I could truly trust to do business with."
The claim that it wasn't about business had been a lie. In the end, business was the real goal.
"I told you earlier. If that's the case, wouldn't it be better to just hire someone else?"
"Those people only do it for money. The trust is paper-thin, built on cash. What do you think happens when you hand money-related work to people like that?"
They'd take the cash and run. Or wait for the right moment to stab you in the back.
"Fair enough. Then what about your secretary? She's trustworthy, isn't she?"
"She's competent and trustworthy. But that woman reports everything to my grandfather."
"......"
"On the other hand, you don't have any of those problems, and you're my only friend."
Uh... that's not exactly true. I'm busy spilling everything to your grandfather too.
I searched for a heavy mouth, but it felt like I'd knocked on the wrong door. I was a cheap bastard who could be bought with a gift set of snacks from her grandfather.
This felt completely fucked.
It wasn't about whether the sudden acceleration was a problem—the reality was simply too different from what I'd expected.
Just as I was wondering if I should tell her the truth, Cheon Mari began shifting her posture little by little. The moment I saw her hips and legs move, her toes were aimed straight at the back of my knee.
"!!!"
I tried to yank my leg away, but it was already too late.
"Got you!"
The back of my knee took the hit, and my posture collapsed instantly. I tried to force it back into place, but it was useless. I staggered and fell forward.
Cheon Mari seized the opening, quickly drawing her legs together in a polite pose. My thigh settled onto her black stockings.
In other words, I ended up straddling her. It was a very strange position.
I panicked and tried to pull back, but she was faster. Cheon Mari wrapped her arms around me tightly and yanked me forward. She buried her face in my chest while I looked down at her from above.
Cheon Mari's eyes glistened with tears and she wore an incredibly pitiful expression.
"Hic... please... you're the only person I can trust."
"Uh, uhm......"
"Every time I regressed and tried to partner up with someone, I got betrayed... So every single time I had to struggle through everything alone... I don't want to keep working that hard anymore......"
When she begged like this, there was no other choice...
Honestly, when a friend acts this way, it's only human for your heart to soften...
I had originally planned to reject the proposal and steer the conversation in a different direction. But with her pulling this stunt, there was a real chance I'd end up getting dragged along.
My head spun with complications as I tried to figure out what to do. That's when I noticed the sensation against my chest felt strange.
"......Ah."
I quickly pulled Cheon Mari's face away from where it was buried in my chest. A sly, tearless expression appeared—one that didn't match her voice at all.
"Ah, I got caught."
She had only been pretending to cry.
I let out a deep sigh.
"Was it that obvious?"
"Obvious? You're a regressor, for fuck's sake."
What a heartless creature.
I used my finger to push down the corners of her heavily lifted mouth.
Then I returned to the main topic.
"So you want me to become your business partner and help with all sorts of ventures?"
"Yes!"
"But there's a problem."
"What problem?"
"First of all, you said everyone you brought in betrayed you in your past lives, right? That means the chance that I'll betray you is extremely high. No—I'll almost certainly betray you."
She must have regressed countless times and met all kinds of people. There would have been those with low loyalty, but also those with boundless loyalty. The fact that even they had betrayed her meant that our relationship—bound by violent friendship—was even more precarious.
At some critical moment, I would undoubtedly betray Cheon Mari.
"You'll betray me...?"
"I'm a weak-willed person. I'm no better than the people you hired. If anything, I'm worse."
"......You're the first person who's ever openly told me to my face that you'll stab me in the back."
"That's exactly why I'm telling you in advance. If it were anyone else, I wouldn't have said anything."
Customer, even knowing this risk, do you still wish to proceed? Honestly, it would be better if you didn't.
I had been completely honest in telling her not to use me. If she threw a fit later, that would be entirely on the user.
"......It's fine even so."
"Really? Even though I might stab you in the back at any moment?"
"You won't anyway."
"I'm telling you I really will. The moment I accept this proposal, I'll secretly siphon off business funds and tyrannize you however I want. Team-killing you in every game will just be the cherry on top."
"You didn't say anything about ruining my business?"
"After I stab you in the back, I have to take the whole business and run with it."
"Pfft."
Cheon Mari laughed as if something was genuinely funny. It was the look of a veteran player staring down at a fresh newbie.
"Can you really pull that off against me—a regressor and a business manager?"
"If I put in the effort, there's nothing I can't do."
"Sure, give it your best. Read up on organizational theory and study your MBA hard. It doesn't matter to me anyway~"
"No, I'm seriously going to betray you."
"Yes, yes, do your best to betray me~ I'll just interpret it as us becoming partners~"
This wasn't how it was supposed to go. I'd dragged her here to make her give up on the idea, yet she looked completely satisfied.
I couldn't let only she benefit after I'd revealed the regressor fact. I frowned at her openly.
"Fine, let's say that's settled. I have a question. How do you plan to secure the business capital?"
"Well, I'll have to invest my own money. There's about ten billion won in the account anyway, so I don't have to worry about funding."
"Ten billion won, huh... Then I'll invest in it too."
Cheon Mari tilted her head. I kept my confident attitude without shrinking back.
"How much do you have?"
"A little over two billion won."
"......Where did you get that money?"
"It's what my deceased parents left behind. To be exact, it became two billion after selling the house along with the money they left."
Mom, Dad. I'm sorry for being such an unfilial son. But to gain a big advantage against a regressor, it can't be helped. Even though I was your son in the previous life too, I'll believe you'll forgive me if I earn it back and repay you.
After all sorts of discussion, the business capital was decided.
It was when I brushed off my clothes and stepped out of the bathroom stall.
Suddenly, one critical issue came to mind. And the center of that issue was Cheon Mari's secretary waiting outside right now.
"By the way, about your secretary. You said she reports everything to your grandfather."
"Yeah, she's probably out there writing up a report right now."
"Then... doesn't that mean your grandfather most likely knows we were drinking?"
"That would be... right?"
"Which means the excuse you prepared before we drank won't work at all, right?"
"Uh... now that I think about it, yeah......"
"This girl is actually insane!!!"
"Ah, ow! Sian, ow!"
Trustworthy manager my ass. Just looking at today, she was proceeding with everything without any plan whatsoever.
In the end, I had no choice but to repeatedly smack her back and sides.
With a heart full of despair, I opened the door to the men's bathroom and stepped out.
"Hing, I got a bruise on my side......"
"That's what you get for hiding important information."
"Even if it's punishment, couldn't you have gone easier... A maiden's skin is precious... Ah!"
"And you don't even have a bruise. Where do you get off lying?"
"Hing, I guess I raised a tiger cub while thinking it was my friend. Hing."
It was the moment I took off my shoes to head back into the room.
When I glanced to the side, I saw someone I hadn't considered. The auntie at the counter was giving us an incredibly strange look.
It was exactly like an adult who'd caught delinquent kids playing with fire at the shabby neighborhood playground.
Surely she hadn't seen me coming out of the men's bathroom, right?
I firmly told myself that wasn't the case and sat back down in my seat.
Time flowed on once again. Middle school life had completely ended, and a high school life with many things changed began.
First was the start of hunter life. My life as a hunter—dealing with monsters and bosses—had begun.
It might sound like simply taking requests and hunting, but a hunter's duties were broader than expected.
Even as a high school student, if a gate appeared in the middle of the city, you had to rush out immediately.
"Teacher. A gate handling notification came in, so I'll head out for a bit."
"Eh? Alright. Be careful."
Because of that, the other kids often asked me what monster hunting or boss hunting was like. Even though I kept telling them it was dangerous, their eyes were always full of envy—probably because they were high school students who hated studying.
Second was the start of our business. The venture where Cheon Mari invested eight billion won and I invested two billion officially began.
In truth, it was less of a business and more like a two-person investment firm. Even that investment was heavily concentrated in stocks or real estate.
Honestly, since Cheon Mari was a regressor, I'd expected her to invest in companies destined to skyrocket. But she said it was still too early for those.
Investing now wouldn't hurt, but waiting for them to rise might take a lifetime. Or the companies themselves hadn't even been founded yet. Or the moment we invested, the odds of them not rising increased. This was apparently the most boring period, with the smallest fluctuations.
The only saving grace was that she could read the minor upward trends.
I followed Cheon Mari's instructions and bought and sold various stocks.
"Can't I just put in more money? Why can't we get a proper auxiliary office?"
"No. My relatives might notice if we do that."
And we were doing all this in a hotel room, no less.
I knew Cheon Mari didn't get along with her relatives. Still, I wondered if we really needed to go this far—secretly working on a laptop—when there were more comfortable options.
Honestly, trading stocks in a hotel was like lying in bed playing a thirty-hour clicker game. After the Korean market came the British one, then the American, then back to Korea.
On top of that, I had my hunter candidate life. There was virtually no time to rest.
The only comfort was that we could still make a decent, if not huge, profit.
"At this rate, I'll never grow taller."
"From experience, staying up late doesn't stop you from growing."
Sua noona had told me the same thing before. Though it felt a bit strange coming from her while she kept me trapped in the car for two hours, touching me everywhere.
Third, Cheon Mari and I ended up at different high schools. Honestly, this was very good news. For me. And for her.
I was happy because I only had to listen to her nonsense after school. She was happy because her family had sent her to a good high school.
Of course, it was truly unfortunate that she caused trouble every single day at that prestigious school. But what could you do? That was something the educators and the institution would have to endure.
That was how things were.
"Hey, starting next year I'm transferring to the high school you go to."
"What?"
Oh God. Why did this have to happen?
Tragically, it was no longer one of the changed elements. I erased from my mind the fact that our schools had been different starting from second year.
Third, Cheon Mari gained a new nickname. It was "Old Hag."
"Hey, old hag!"
"What?! Old hag?! You son of a bitch! Fuck, even if I've regressed, I'm not old enough to be called an old hag, you know?!?!!"
It had been a joke, assuming that as a regressor her mental age was higher than mine. I'd said it playfully, but Cheon Mari always had an unusually strong reaction to it.
An ugliness without equal. It seemed she wanted to remain an eternal high school girl forever.
"......I bought some snacks. You like tteokbokki, so I got that too."
"Whoa, thank you. Bro."
Still, if you gave her something tasty, she would quiet down. It couldn't get any simpler than that.
And so, the ordinary high school life continued endlessly into second year as well.
It was just like any other weekend. I had stepped out of the house to work at the hotel or a café when the clothes I'd bought as a set with Cheon Mari sparkled in the sunlight and caught the eye of someone nearby.
"Kang Sian oppa?"
A familiar voice. A familiar face. But not completely—it was subtly different. The kind of difference you only saw between siblings.
Damn it. Did that family have some kind of grudge against me?
With a bitter thought, I fixed my gaze on her. She was none other than Lim Hana's younger sister.