The Regression I Desperately Needed

The term yandere carries a certain charm in subculture. Obsession, too. They’re popular tropes for a reason. But that’s only when they stay in fiction. The moment they cross into reality, they become pure hell.

My daily freedom vanished. I had to report every single outing with friends. At its worst, they even tried to rewrite my entire value system from the ground up. Sure, if the girl doing it was drop-dead gorgeous, you could tolerate it for a while. But try imagining this instead: a pig-like woman who sweats broth and stomps like a wild boar shows up at your door claiming she loves you. Then she keeps changing her number to spam you with texts. Wouldn’t that drive anyone insane?

I was actually one of the lucky ones. Or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. At least the girls who latched onto me were decent-looking. But even beauty has an expiration date. There’s that saying, right? Pretty for three months, good at cooking for three years, good personality for thirty. It didn’t take me long to learn that lesson the hard way.

Leaning against the wall in a pitch-black room with no windows, I let out a ragged breath. The same cycle of regret played on repeat in my head.

Where the hell did it all go wrong?

Was it the moment I entered the Hunter Academy? Or was it when I awakened the witches hiding inside those crazy bitches?

No matter how many times I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠asked, the answer never came. All I could do was spit curses under my breath. But even that had grown exhausting. The location-tracking parasite they implanted in my body. The chastity belt they forced me to wear. I was sick to death of it all.

I’d struggled desperately to endure it, but I could feel the limit approaching. My head grew foggy. My thoughts slowed to a crawl.

Fuck…

My body tilted. The moment my mental strength hit rock bottom and my brain issued its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠death sentence, the world went dark like a blown fuse.

……

A miracle had happened. A miracle I never thought I’d see again.

My ears hurt. Someone was chattering loudly right next to me, but the words sounded muffled. My ears, which had grown used to absolute silence in that sealed room, were struggling to adapt.

What the hell is going on?

I still couldn’t grasp the situation. When I forced my heavy eyelids open…

I was sitting in a lecture hall. It was identical to the one from ten years ago, back when I attended the Hunter Academy.

Was this a deathbed vision? A final replay of memories before I crossed over? That was what I thought—until a message appeared before my eyes.

Just one line. No explanation. Yet that single sentence was more than enough to snap my mind back to reality.

I immediately examined my body. The scars that had been divided three ways by those women fighting over who got to keep them were gone. The sickening sensation of parasites crawling through my organs had vanished.

My body feels so light.

The body that had been plastered with debuffs to prevent escape was now weightless. A shaky laugh escaped me.

“Ha……”

It worked. It fucking worked!

My desperate wish to escape their grasp had finally come true. I wanted to kick my chair back and scream at the top of my lungs, but I forced myself to stay calm and looked around.

Hoo……

From the looks of it, today was the Hunter Academy orientation. Students were glancing around the lecture hall awkwardly, clearly here for the first time. Others were already chatting loudly with friends. It was obvious—this was the very first day.

Which meant I hadn’t made any mistakes yet.

I turned my gaze forward. There, surrounded by a crowd of boys and girls, was one particular girl.

Lee Seol.

Silky black hair that flowed down to her waist, skin as white as fresh snow, and an innocent face that radiated purity and refreshing clarity. Yet her body was voluptuous in stark contrast. Kind to everyone, gentle to everyone. The girl loved by all.

That was Lee Seol.

And most importantly—

She’s the Pure White Witch.

Witch. The term for those capable of opening gates. Disasters incarnate. In my previous life, they would throw tantrums and rip open gates whenever they felt like it. I don’t need to explain how insane they were. Did anyone even realize what kind of darkness hid behind that innocent mask?

Of course not. That’s why those simpering fools kept hovering around her.

I turned my head to the left. A girl sat alone by the window, quietly studying.

Han Yuri.

The Witch of Love-Hate. If Lee Seol was a natural beauty, this one was like a living doll. Golden hair that reached her chest and a face like a marble statue. She was so breathtakingly beautiful that the phrase “devastating beauty” seemed created just for her. Perhaps because of that overwhelming appearance, no one dared approach her.

Her personality is fucking awful too, though.

Two of the three people who ruined my life were right here. The ones who tore me away from the woman I loved and promised to marry, then dragged me down into a pit deeper than hell itself. Killing intent boiled up from the depths of my stomach.

If not for their powerful backers, I would have smashed their skulls right then and there. The fact that I couldn’t was the greatest regret of my life.

Lee Seol was the daughter of the Korean Hunter Association president. Han Yuri was the daughter of the guild master of Fortan, one of the world’s top three guilds. If I killed them, the freedom I had barely regained in this new life would disappear in an instant.

I had to endure. For my woman. For my freedom.

Hoo…

Everything had been reset. From now on, I just had to do things right. I planned to avoid not only these two but the last one as well. I wouldn’t even exchange a single word with them.

But still…

If I just stay quiet like this, I probably won’t get entangled with them until graduation.

In my previous life, they never spoke to me until I approached them first.

Just as I barely managed to regain my composure, a man walked over to me. It was my best friend, that bastard Kim Jihun.

“Whoa. The water here is fucking nice. Did you see the girls’ faces? Man, I’m so glad I busted my ass to get in.”

“You really never change, do you?”

“Huh? What’d you say?”

“Nothing.”

Seeing him lose his mind the second he saw a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠woman made me chuckle. He was probably the first person in history to enroll in the academy just to chase girls.

“Hey, who’s your type?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Come on, don’t play dumb. You’ve been staring holes through Lee Seol and Han Yuri since earlier. You know I can keep a secret. Just tell your hyung. Who knows? Maybe I’ll help you out.”

“Bullshit. What the hell could you do? Even if you could, I’m not interested in either of them.”

“There you go again, acting all proper by yourself.”

I gave a bitter smile as he sat down beside me, cackling. Kim Jihun had just as terrible luck with women as I did. Selective premarital chastity, gold-digging snakes, girls asking him to cosign loans—the road ahead of him was paved with thorns. If I ever had the luxury, I’d have to help the guy out. No matter how annoying he was, a friend was a friend.

While we traded meaningless chatter, orientation began. A professor stood on the podium and droned on about the origin of monsters and the history of the academy. He acted like he was revealing the truths of the universe, but it was all worthless information.

One day, monsters came out of gates. Then hunters awakened and started hunting them. The end.

Having already lived through the future once, the lecture was painfully boring.

I’m skipping classes.

The Hunter Academy was basically a free-spirited university. You didn’t have to attend lectures, but if your grades dropped, you’d be expelled without mercy. On the other hand, good grades granted you freedom. For me, that was a huge advantage.

Since I’ve regressed, I might as well squeeze everything I can out of it.

The memory of being captured by the three witches because I lacked strength still made my blood boil. I had to grow stronger, even if only to avoid grinding my teeth in resentment forever. If I monopolized the opportunities and skills the academy offered and trained my abilities, I’d have enough footing to stand against the three witches even if they all came at me at once.

I opened my status window first.

Equivalent Exchange was the skill I already had. But what was this new one?

Didn’t it say Reverse Run earlier?

And it was even S-rank, the highest potential grade. Focusing my senses on it brought up the description.

This is insane.

In other words, if I stuck to the combat style I used in my previous life, my growth would skyrocket. In the last round, my class had been evade-tank. So this time?

I’m going all-rounder.

A tank who doesn’t just draw aggro, but deals damage too.

Before I knew it, orientation had ended while I reviewed my future plans.

“Tomorrow we will be drawing teams for the group activities you’ll be doing together, so please make sure to attend.”

“Yes!”

“That concludes today’s orientation. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Thank you!”

The students answered with more energy than usual, probably because they were bored out of their minds. The professor’s speech had been on the level of a principal’s brain-dead moral lecture, so it was no wonder.

Once the professor left, the group around Lee Seol started getting noisy.

“Ugh, it’s finally over! Seol, want to grab something to eat? There’s a great bulgogi place nearby.”

“Bulgogi? Sounds good. But I have something to do… Can you guys go first? I’ll catch up later.”

“Huh? Okay, sure.”

The popular kids were heading off in groups of three or five to eat. Meanwhile, Kim Jihun was grinning like an idiot while staring at his phone.

“You’re not going?”

“Nah. You go ahead. I need to make some choices first. Hehehe.”

He said we’d go to the PC bang tomorrow, yet here he was already drooling while picking out girls. What a slave to his desires.

“Alright. See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Later.”

He waved half-heartedly. I shot him a look of pure disgust and left the lecture hall. I didn’t want to stay anywhere near those two bitches any longer than necessary.

As I walked down the corridor, recalling the location of the temporary dorms, I heard the sound of someone running toward me. Must be that bastard Kim Jihun finally catching up. I turned around, ready to smack him—

“Seonghyun! Wait!”

A clear, refreshing voice that would cleanse anyone’s ears. Or, to someone else, the voice of a demon casting a curse.

Even without looking, I knew. Lee Seol was running toward me.

Why? I hadn’t done anything in this life yet?

Fuck!

I quickened my pace. Naturally. Casually. But there was no way I could outrun someone who was actually sprinting. Lee Seol overtook me and stopped, hands on her knees, panting.

“Haa! Haa! Seonghyun, you’re so fast… I almost lost you.”

The words “almost lost you” sent chills down my spine. Was that my paranoia? I really hoped so. No, it had to be. Lee Seol shouldn’t have any memories of me yet.

I forced myself to stay calm and continued the conversation.

“…Sorry. I walk pretty fast.”

“Hehe. Must be because you’re tall.”

“I don’t think I’m that tall.”

“Come on, you’re definitely over 180cm.”

She alternated between touching her forehead and my chest as if measuring the height difference. The sweet scent of shampoo I had grown sick of in my previous life stung my nose.

“See? There’s only a head’s difference between us. That counts as tall, right?”

“……Yeah, sure. Anyway, didn’t you come to me for a reason?”

“Oh right! Look at me, I completely forgot. I’ve been like this lately.”

She stuck her tongue out cutely and rummaged through her pocket. Even though she looked beautiful enough to make any other man want to propose on the spot, my chest only grew colder.

Finally, Lee Seol slightly avoided my eyes and held out her phone.

“Can I… get your number?”