Come to My House
Even after learning that Shin Yujin had regressed just like me, my life didn't change much at all.
I simply woke up in the morning, exercised or did assignments if there were no morning classes, and went to school if there were. That was the extent of it.
Today was one of those days with morning classes, so I got ready and headed out.
Thank goodness I ended up using my major in my company job. If I hadn't, and had to start from scratch with my brain reset... I'd have been thrown straight into the hell of coding all over again.
I still wasn't sure what the advantages or disadvantages of regressing were, but having all my knowledge intact so I could half-listen in class was definitely a plus.
That was probably why class felt so unbearably boring. It was like trying to teach someone how to walk when they already knew how to run.
"Hey, Yuchan. Did you finish the assignment?"
"Assignment? Yeah, I did."
"It's only been three days since it was assigned."
"It went pretty smoothly once I started."
"How the hell did you finish a thousand-line code fill-in-the-blank that fast?"
Of course I did. Once I started working at the company, I'd have to write thousands of lines of code from scratch, not just fill in blanks. Something like this was nothing.
"Can I see yours?"
"Only if you buy me lunch."
"Obviously!! Thanks, Yuchan."
There was a reason I was willing to show Hojin my completed assignment so easily. During our college years, whenever I struggled with difficult assignments, he'd always helped me out. Back when we were actual college students, his coding skills had been better than mine. Now that the situation was reversed, I was just returning the favor.
"Lunch today, right? I'm planning to mooch off you immediately."
"Ah, lunch might be tough today. I already promised to eat with Yerim."
"What? You two are already dating?"
"Yeah. I confessed the very first day after the gwating."
Thinking back, I remembered they'd started dating right after the gwating back then too. I'd assumed they were just close friends, so when Hojin told me much later that they were together, I'd been genuinely surprised.
"How are things going with Yujin-ssi?"
"Huh? Why are we suddenly talking about Yujin?"
"You two have been hanging out a lot. Yerim says you've been texting consistently too."
So this was what Shin Yujin had meant when she said we should tell our friends. If that was the case, I figured I should play along with her story to avoid raising any suspicions.
"Ah, well... we've been texting pretty regularly."
"So when are you two going to start dating?"
"Dating? We've only known each other for a week."
"It's obvious you like each other. You both seem really interested."
Did this guy have knots for eyes? How could he look at us and think we were interested in each other?
After class ended, Hojin and I left the department building together. Since he was eating lunch with his girlfriend Kim Yerim, I figured I'd just head home and make some instant ramen for myself. As I walked along thinking that, something suddenly flashed through my mind.
In my memories, the twenty-year-old Kim Yerim and Shin Yujin had always been inseparable. Even after Hojin and Yerim started dating first and we began our relationship later, the two of them had remained incredibly close friends who were practically attached at the hip. Which meant...
"Yerim-ah!!"
"Oppa!!"
Just as I thought. Standing right next to Kim Yerim, who was greeting Hojin with a bright smile, was Shin Yujin. We exchanged the natural greetings we'd practiced to fool them.
"I missed you, Oppa!!"
"I missed you too, Yerim."
Back then, when we actually had feelings for each other, seeing this kind of scene hadn't bothered me. But now, it was genuinely unpleasant to watch. If I could, I'd wedge myself between those two lovebirds and pry them apart. Shin Yujin looked like she felt the exact same way.
"Oppa, what should we eat for lunch?"
"Let's eat whatever my Yerim wants."
"Hmm, then I want tonkatsu!!"
"Yeah? Then let's go eat. Yuchan, I'm heading off to lunch with Yerim."
"Have a good time."
"Yujin-ah, you have a good time with Yuchan-ssi too."
"Uh, yeah. Got it."
With that, Kim Yerim and Hojin walked off to eat, leaving just me and Shin Yujin behind.
"Haah, watching couples act all lovey-dovey is seriously gross."
"Right? She's my friend, but it's still awful."
"I should warn Lee Hojin in advance that he has 1TB of porn on his computer."
"He'll find out naturally anyway."
"...Wait, how do you know about that?"
"Yerim found it and came crying to our place. She complained for a whole hour without stopping."
I'd known they'd been close friends since high school, but I never expected her to share something that sensitive. The thought of Lee Hojin going through that situation again made the corner of my mouth twitch upward for some reason. He'd called me in a panic back then, asking what he should do.
"And why are you talking like this has nothing to do with you? You got caught too, remember."
"...Why do you remember that?"
"Why wouldn't I? My boyfriend, who I thought only had eyes for me, was already living with some blonde Western woman."
"Why do you remember someone else's dark past in such detail?"
"Then you shouldn't have gotten caught."
"Hey, if we're keeping score, you also—"
"Me, what? I have nothing to hide."
"...You really don't. Why don't you?"
"I got my first boyfriend at twenty. It'd be weird if there was anything like that, wouldn't it?"
No matter how hard I tried to recall, I couldn't think of a single thing that would embarrass Shin Yujin. I'd been determined to dig something up, but...
"Ah, there is something. When I went to your place."
"How many times do I have to say there isn't?"
"That black lace one with the—mmph!!"
"You crazy bastard, shut up."
Hearing such crude swearing come out of Shin Yujin's face—the same one that had never known a single curse word back then—felt incredibly strange.
"And that was because of you anyway."
"How is that my fault? Now you're blaming other people."
"There was a weird folder on your computer."
"You... saw that? You bought that because you saw it?"
"Why else would I have bought something like that for no reason?"
"Why didn't you tell me you saw it back then? I was so relieved thinking you hadn't."
"I was trying to respect your preferences at the time. If I'd known you'd react like this, I would've said something."
Learning a truth I'd never known in fourteen years felt like getting hit in the back of the head. I felt pathetic for having been so relieved, thinking I'd gotten away with it. If we kept digging any further, we'd both end up with serious wounds, so I stopped the conversation there.
"It's probably been long enough that they won't see us anymore."
"Yeah. I'm going."
"Right. Go ahead."
After exchanging stiff goodbyes, we each headed to our own homes. Once I got inside, I set down my bag, changed clothes, and boiled some ramen. Now the question was what to do after eating it. Back then, I'd often played games when I had free time, but regressing with fourteen years of memories intact made games feel completely uninteresting. Games I'd once thought were well-made now just seemed crude and amateurish.
Even after a week had passed, I still couldn't adjust to being twenty-three again. Everything I touched and used felt so outdated that it only made the feeling stronger. After finishing the ramen, I decided to read a book and started rummaging through the bookshelf I'd never touched before.
"Oh, this is..."
My hand stopped on a particular book.
"Oh?! Oppa, you have this book?"
"Huh? Ah, this? I just stuck it in there because I wanted to fill up the bookshelf."
"This novel is really good. I read the English version three times because it was so interesting."
"Yeah? If you say that, it must really be good."
"Want to read it together?"
Why were these memories flooding my mind so vividly? Shin Yujin had insisted it was the most interesting novel in her life and that I absolutely had to read it. Unable to resist her stubbornness, I'd held her in my arms while we read the book together, talking about its contents for over two hours. It was the one book that had first sparked my interest in novels, even though I'd never cared about them before. Even though there were no more memories left for me to make with Shin Yujin, my hand still reached for the book. I sat naturally on the bed and opened it. Despite having read it so many times, everything felt fresh and vivid, just like the first time. Everything was exactly the same as back then, except for the warmth I'd once felt in my arms that was no longer there.
"It is interesting. It's exactly the kind of genre Shin Yujin would like."
Even though the story was engaging and immersive, I stopped turning the pages and closed the book. The headache had become too severe. That headache came from memories I didn't want to recall constantly surfacing.
"There's nothing I can't remember."
Even when I spaced out and looked around the house or went for a walk outside, there wasn't a single place that didn't carry traces of her. Those traces only made things more painful.
-Vrrr!!
While I was letting out a deep sigh, my phone vibrated. Thinking it might be Hojin, I checked the screen.