2
# Chapter 2
[Jang Mi-su, where exactly did you get the basis for saying that this is better?]
[From my experience.]
[Experience? Jang Mi-su, you've only been here as an intern for two months. What experience are you talking about?]
[Even so, after trying it myself, I found this way more efficient.]
[Efficient? Do you know why companies have rules?]
[Well, aren't they just formalities?]
[Formalities? Jang Mi-su, this company isn't your personal laboratory.]
[I know, but….]
[Not "but." If you're going to ignore company rules and do whatever you want, then start your own company and become the
CEO.]
[…Should I?]
[What?]
[Seriously. If I start a company, would Assistant Manager Yoon Jun-ho come work for me, too?]
[Jang Mi-su, are you joking right now?]
[No, I'm serious. I think I'd feel really reassured having someone like Assistant Manager Yoon Jun-ho by my side.]
[Sigh….]
I still remembered that conversation vividly.
“To think that we ended up lying naked on a hotel bed?”
This wasn't simply a repetition of my regression.
Something had changed.
Something had definitely changed.
“Um, Ms. Jang Mi-su. What… happened between us yesterday?”
I asked cautiously.
“Huh? You really don't remember?”
“Honestly… not at all.”
“Aww, don't lie. You were the one who started it, oppa.”
Oppa?
Mi-su was calling me oppa.
At the company, she had called me Assistant Manager Yoon Jun-ho.
“I did? What exactly did I….”
“You said, ‘Mi-su, I want to remember tonight forever.’”
“…Really?”
“Hohoho, look at your face, oppa. It's bright red.”
“Ms. Jang Mi-su, you're not joking, are you?”
“Why are you calling me Ms. Jang Mi-su again? Yesterday, you called me jagi.”
Jagi?
I called Jang Mi-su jagi?
A mere office worker like me had actually dared to bring the youngest daughter of the chairman, the Tiger Chairman, to
this hotel?
Was I really that gutsy?
“Well, maybe it's true, and maybe it isn't.”
“Jang Mi-su!”
“There you go again, calling me Jang Mi-su. Oppa, are you angry?”
“I'm not angry… I just really don't remember.”
“Aww, then I'm disappointed. You said you enjoyed it so much last night.”
“What did I do?”
To be precise, there was no way I could have any memories of yesterday.
I had just regressed.
I didn't know what the Yoon Jun-ho before my regression had done.
“There's a 99% chance I slept with Jang Mi-su.”
The moment the chairman of Changseong Group found out about this, there was absolutely no way I'd get out of it safely.
“No wonder they called him the Tiger Chairman.”
There had once been an incident where the chairman's youngest, spoiled son got drunk and was beaten up by some waiters.
At the time, the chairman himself had shown up at the bar carrying a baseball bat.
And he had beaten them, with each swing supposedly costing ten million won.
In the end, he became the only chaebol chairman in South Korea to receive an actual prison sentence for violence.
“And now I slept with the youngest daughter that chairman treasured the most.”
I unconsciously took a long breath.
“Oppa, you really don't remember? Then… wouldn't that be a shame? Hohoho!”
“Are you just going to keep staring at me like that? I know I'm embarrassed, too.”
“Ah, I'm sorry.”
“Hohoho, there's nothing to apologize for. You've already seen all of me anyway.”
Jang Mi-su was acting like an old lover.
“Oppa, we have to leave now, right?”
“What?”
“You said you have filming today. I want to stay with you longer, but I suppose I have to be patient.”
“Filming?”
What filming?
I was an office worker.
“Filming?”
“What? Oppa, are you really okay? You have a drama shoot today.”
“A drama… shoot?”
“Oppa, are you actually sick? Shouldn't you go to the hospital?”
“No, I'm fine. I'm just a little out of it.”
“Aww, you must have drunk too much last night. I told you to stop.”
“A drama shoot?”
The life of Yoon Jun-ho that I knew had been that of an ordinary office worker.
Going to work, writing reports, working overtime, and hiking on weekends.
But a drama shoot?
“Something changed. Something changed drastically when I regressed.”
---
A luxury hotel hallway.
“This is the right place, isn't it?”
“Yes, this is the suite floor. The room number is correct, too.”
Two men, a reporter and a photographer, cautiously stopped on the plush carpet.
“Actor Yoon Jun-ho is going to take a hit from this.”
“That's for sure. He's been doing incredibly well lately.”
“He's starring in a drama that's pulling over 30% ratings.”
“Exactly. But if a scandal like this breaks….”
“This is why you shouldn't make enemies.”
“Come on, he didn't exactly make an enemy. If you look at it objectively, it's Park Chan-seong who's the piece of
trash.”
“Well, that's true. If he was bitter about losing the role, he should have competed with his acting skills.”
“Exactly. Pulling something like this behind someone's back is seriously….”
“Still, from our perspective, this is a scoop, so it's great.”
“Definitely. A secret rendezvous involving top star Yoon Jun-ho.”
“And if we can just confirm who he's with, we'll hit the jackpot.”
The junior reporter spoke carefully.
“But senior, you remember, right? Yoon Jun-ho is a former track-and-field athlete and has a seventh-degree black belt in
taekwondo.”
“What's the problem? Taking pictures and running away is our specialty.”
“That's true.”
“The moment the door opens, click, click, and then we run.”
“Understood.”
“If we both get caught, we're screwed.”
“I know, I know.”
“Good. Then I'll count down. One, two….”
---
Inside the hotel room.
“Ms. Mi-su, wait a moment.”
“Why, oppa?”
“I'm… an actor?”
“Huh? Why are you suddenly asking that?”
It was strange.
“Yoon Jun-ho… an actor?”
If my memories were correct, the current me was just an ordinary employee named Yoon Jun-ho.
“Wasn't it just Jang Mi-su who had changed?”
As a veteran of reincarnation and regression, I could say this with certainty.
This was definitely a distortion caused by the regression.
“No, I mean… am I really an actor?”
“Oppa, you really are sick, aren't you? You don't have amnesia, do you?”
“That's not it….”
“Oppa, you're the biggest top star in South Korea right now. There's no one who doesn't know you.”
“A top star… me?”
“Yes. And an incredibly famous one at that. Is there any woman these days who doesn't like you?”
“But I'm an office worker….”
“An office worker? What kind of office worker are you? You're an actor.”
“An actor….”
“What on earth is going on?”
It was completely different from the life of Yoon Jun-ho I remembered.
From an ordinary office worker to a top star actor.
And not just any actor. The lead in a drama with a 30% viewership rating.
“It's the butterfly effect. Something huge changed when I regressed.”
“Oppa, are you really okay? Should I call your manager?”
“Manager?”
“Yes. Manager Ji Cheon-myeong. Your exclusive manager.”
“Oh, no. I'm fine.”
“But what about filming? You said you had an important scene to shoot today.”
“Where is the filming location?”
“The Paju set. Oppa, you really don't remember?”
“Ah… right. Paju.”
“A completely different life has unfolded.”
I was confused.
I had experienced regression many times, but this was the first time my life had changed so completely.
“Ms. Mi-su, when did we… start dating?”
“Huh? Oppa, you really don't remember?”
“I'm sorry. I really don't remember….”
“It has already been a year. You confessed to me first around this time last year.”
“I did?”
“Yes. On the filming set. You said, ‘Mi-su, let's date.’”
“We've been dating for a whole year?”
If that was the case, did the Tiger Chairman already know about our relationship?
“Does the chairman… does your father know about us?”
“Of course. I told him myself.”
“What did he say?”
“He was incredibly angry at first. That the guy dating his daughter was a celebrity.”
“And then….”
“But after meeting you, he liked you. He said you were serious and hardworking.”
“The chairman likes me?”
I couldn't believe it.
That terrifying Tiger Chairman.
“Oppa, you're really acting strange. Let's go to the hospital.”
“No, I'm really fine.”
“But why can't you remember anything?”
“I guess… I drank too much.”
“Aww, I told you to stop. You kept drinking because you were in a good mood.”
That was when it happened.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
“Room service.”
Jang Mi-su pulled the blanket over herself and asked,
“Oppa, did you order something?”
“No.”
“Then what is it?”
I had a bad feeling.
“Could it be…?”
Knock, knock, knock.
“Room service. Please open the door.”
The voice sounded strange.
Far too urgent for a room-service employee.
“Ms. Mi-su, get dressed quickly.”
“Why?”
“Something feels wrong.”
Seeing my expression, Jang Mi-su also quickly began getting dressed.
At that moment.
Click.
The door opened.
“How did you…?”
Two men holding key cards entered.
One of them was carrying a camera.
“Hello, Actor Yoon Jun-ho!”
Click!
Click!
The flashes exploded like lightning.
For a moment, everything in front of my eyes turned white, and my vision was completely blocked.
---
Changseong Group Chairman's residence, reception room.
The chairman of Changseong Group sat on a massive sofa, anxiously staring at the door.
“Why isn't she here? Why….”
A tremor uncharacteristic of a chaebol chairman could be heard in his voice.
“Honey.”
His wife quietly came down from the second floor.
She sat beside the chairman.
“Why isn't she coming? What if something happened? Our Mi-su, maybe she got into an accident…?”
“Honey, you're starting again.”
“This time, I really have a strange feeling.”
“You always have a strange feeling.”
“Don't you worry that Mi-su still hasn't come home?”
“As for me, I'd actually be happy if something happened to Mi-su.”
“What?”
“She's already twenty-nine. It's about time something happened.”
“What are you talking about…?”
“Now is exactly the time. Whether it's dating, marriage, or even an accident. I like the days when Mi-su doesn't come
home the most. They're the days when even the smallest possibility arises.”
“Hey! What if something really happens to her?”
“That's exactly why it should happen. She needs that. Mi-su needs to experience living as a woman now. She's spent all
this time living only as Daddy's daughter.”
“But….”
“Honey, Mi-su has a boyfriend.”
“I know. That actor, Yoon Jun-ho.”
“You don't like him?”
“No, it's not that….”
“Then what is it?”
“It feels like I'm having my daughter taken away from me.”
“Hohoho, you're such a doting father.”
“I'm not a doting father.”
“Then what are you? You've had your daughter's boyfriend investigated three times.”
“That was… just in case.”
“Yoon Jun-ho is a good person. He's hardworking and serious.”
“But he's a celebrity. It makes me nervous.”
“Weren't you a gangster yourself back in the day?”
“Th-that was….”
“As long as Mi-su is happy, that's all that matters. That's the most important thing.”
The chairman sighed.
“Enough. Let's go to bed. I'll even sing you a lullaby. Hohoho!”
Reluctantly, the chairman allowed himself to be led away by his wife.
It was astonishing to see a man who had never bowed his head to anyone in the world obediently following his wife's
lead.