Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Great Magician (2)
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“Waaah—.”
“Mom, looks like Yu-jin is hungry.”
“Come here, my baby girl. Time for some milk.”
I carefully handed my little sister over to Mom and stepped out into the yard.
Mom’s privacy during breastfeeding was important, after all.
No smartphone, no computer. So boring.
Living happily with my loving family was great, but aside from that, I still felt bored. They say time drags on slowly in childhood, and it was the same even for a regressor like me. And having lived through it before made it even more tedious.
Ugh, is it because there’s nothing to do? Feels even slower.
Even running around to the beach or the reservoir with General didn’t move the clock. Coming back from fishing with Dad or picking a basket full of wild strawberries with my neighborhood friend Mi-kyeong didn’t flip the calendar page either.
Guess I should do my homework and check on Dad.
I sprawled out on the wooden platform that had become my hideout and tackled my summer homework. The other kids would probably cram their journals the day before or morning of school. My mental age didn’t match theirs, so hanging out with the neighborhood girls felt awkward anyway. Might as well finish today’s journal entry.
「...While life may seem to exist on its own, without the gentle breath of a mother and the sturdy embrace of a father, it cannot bloom alone. Just looking at my little sister shows how arrogant it is to think humans are born and live independently...」
As I wrote in my journal, I snapped back to reality and furrowed my brow.
Sheesh. Would a ten-year-old really write something like this?
No way. Last winter break, Teacher Choi Eung-muk had grilled me—not exactly grilling, but close—asking if Dad wrote it for me. Even with his smiling face, it felt like the blood was draining from my head.
Mi-kyeong got scolded too.
Our handwriting and content were too similar. Mi-kyeong had written hers with her left hand, but somehow the teacher knew. Teachers really aren’t just anyone.
Anyway, Teacher Choi was an angel, but the third-grade homeroom teacher was a bit strict. He was kind to me, but strict is strict. I did my best to act like a kid.
How do kids write journals anyway?
I erased vigorously, brow furrowed.
Scribble- rip-.
“Ow!”
The journal tore because I erased too hard. Still, I had to finish erasing what I’d started. As the old soul kid scrubbed away at his entry with the eraser, an unfamiliar sound reached my ears.
Vroom-.
Flat on the platform, I twisted toward the noise.
Coming to our house? No way!
I jumped up.
At the sound, General, who’d been napping in the shade under the platform, startled and growled.
I narrowed my eyes and glared at the car. In my previous life, around this time, I’d been dragged off by my foster parents to the town office. Was that bad connection repeating?
But the thought didn’t last. Jin-hyuk and General both tilted their heads.
Wasn’t it a Benz?
Those people running the tea house in town had come in an old sedan.
But this car had Seoul plates.
Why was a Benz coming here?
It was hard to see fancy cars in the countryside, and while I wasn’t a car guy, I wasn’t blind enough to miss the Benz emblem.
Events and timing create such astonishing causations.
In my past life, I’d been taken by someone claiming to be Mom’s sister and locked in an attic. Now, here I was, playing with the baby, lounging on the platform doing homework leisurely. Even watching a Benz pull into our yard.
Live long enough, you see everything.
That was ten-year-old Son Jin-hyuk’s sentiment.
But who were they, anyway?
The Benz stopped in our front yard. A man and woman got out of the driver’s and passenger seats—both wearing sunglasses, proving they were cultured modern Seoulites. Well, the Seoul plates gave it away first.
The woman opened the back door to help a little girl out.
The man from the driver’s seat took off his sunglasses and approached me.
Grrrr-.
General crouched low, growling like boiling water, on alert.
But then.
Surprisingly, it was a face I recognized.
Chairman Hong Gi-jun?
The owner of Sein Group, who in my previous life had hyped me up as the group’s powerhouse while buttering me up. He was younger now, face tighter than I remembered, but definitely Chairman Hong.
“General, quiet!”
I hushed him in a low voice. The guy wagged his tail at strangers, but now he was growling like a wolf. Was it because they were from Seoul? Maybe. I’d lived in Seoul too before regressing, so maybe General sensed that. Seemed like reasonable suspicion.
Anyway.
In that short time, I tried to figure out what was going on.
Why the heck are they here?
Sein Group started in chemicals but grew through Middle East construction and Hong Kong trade. With solid finances, they weathered the foreign exchange crisis and aggressively expanded into electronics, appliances, insurance—making it into Korea’s top 10 groups.
It even hit number 3 while I was there.
That’s why Chairman Hong called me the group’s powerhouse, crediting me.
He’d quietly worked to make me his son-in-law.
The thought made my heart race.
Does he somehow recognize me?
No way. But then why were they here?
Having no clue about my complicated thoughts, Chairman Hong approached with a friendly smile.
“Hello?”
Classic Seoul greeting.
Hello? Folks around here would say, “You eaten yet?” Hearing it after so long felt fresh.
I climbed down from the platform. Guests and adults deserved respect, after all.
First time seeing young Chairman Hong up close, but his eyes weren’t ordinary. The elderly chairman had kind, gentle eyes; these pierced right through you. Guess group chairmen aren’t just anyone.
“Hello.”
“So, your dad’s the boss of this house?”
“Yes.”
“Is Dad inside?”
“No, he’s out in the fields.”
“Ah, I see.”
Chairman Hong sat on the platform, crossing his legs. He glanced at the books spread out, gauging what I’d been doing.
The woman who’d come with him approached.
Hong Su-jeong?
No way! I squeezed my eyes shut then opened them. She looked just like future Hong Su-jeong had come back. When I’d met her past sixty, I’d thought, “Su-jeong takes after her mom.”
President Yu Se-ra.
Hong Gi-jun’s wife and granddaughter of Sein Chemicals’ founder. She’d overtaken her two older brothers to inherit the group’s management rights and handed them to her husband. Then devoted herself to grassroots sports promotion—a respectable woman. Probably early thirties now, but the resemblance was uncanny, making me oddly glad to see her.
Then that little kid was...
The real Hong Su-jeong?
The Great Magician. Until yesterday, I’d thought I’d never see her again. Cold to everyone but awkward around me. She couldn’t even call me without borrowing liquid courage. I’d been her mentor in her early career days, and I handled work ruthlessly. Plus, I called out superiors on BS straight up.
Anyway.
Who’d have thought this little tyke made thousands of employees quake?
I swallowed a laugh inwardly.
Her hair in twin braids like twists looked like antennae, and the yellow dress suited the cute kid perfectly. Unfamiliar with the countryside, Hong Su-jeong looked around with wide eyes. White tights and red shoes made her waddling steps adorable.
Yu Se-ra eyed me closely before speaking.
“When will Dad be back?”
“Farm work goes till sundown. Still a ways off.”
“My, you’re so young but speak so well. No dialect either?”
Everything seemed novel to her. She didn’t use dialect either. Oh, right—Seoul folks, so it was normal.
Chairman Hong jumped in to steer the conversation.
“Is Mom home, then? We’d like to at least say hello before we go.”
Why would Seoul rich folks greet country people?
“She’s inside, but you can’t go in.”
I answered Chairman Hong’s question firmly.
In my past life, I’d been straightforward with Hong Su-jeong and never bowed or cowered before the chairman. Being solo, getting fired wouldn’t have hurt anyway.
Normally, Mom would’ve come out hearing the car, but she was nursing the newborn. And exposing a baby to outsiders outside a hospital didn’t seem right. Newborns have weak immunity and should avoid outside contact, I’d heard.
“Can’t? Why? Auntie’s not a bad person.”
Yu Se-ra smiled.
A bold, straightforward smile—refreshing, no edge.
Still, no meant no.
“Mom just had the baby and is recovering. Outside air might not be good for it.”
“Oh, how can you be so smart?”
Yu Se-ra genuinely admired me, face full of fresh shock—like she never expected such a chat with a strange boy.
I felt weird too.
Facing someone from my past life—barely outside work—in this adult-kid dynamic.
“Hey, don’t touch that—you’ll get hurt—.”
Watching little Hong Su-jeong, I suddenly freaked and ran over.
The five-year-old was reaching for the goblin grass growing around the yard, so I blocked her quick.
Hong Su-jeong looked up at me with startled eyes, tears welling up. Being suddenly stopped must’ve hurt her feelings.
Time for quick thinking. Had to stop the waterworks before they started.
“Look, see this.”
I plucked some goblin grass and brushed it on my shorts—it stuck like glue. Tiny barbs you barely see would scratch skin; it’s called “mother-in-law’s spite grass” or something.
Legend says a nasty mother-in-law hating her daughter-in-law picked this spiky weed for her to wipe with. Ridiculous, but it showed the plant’s vicious prickliness.
“Ah.”
Hong Su-jeong was a smart kid.
She got why I’d stopped her.
And then.
“Oppa—.”
She pointed at me and lisped clearly.
Well, more like pointing accusingly, but even that was cute. Her first smile at me overlapped with her drunk, nasal “Oppa” from before—made my heart thump uselessly.
What a sight. Heart racing just ’cause a kid called me oppa.
And I was an old man inside.
I recalled pre-regression Hong Su-jeong.
Divorcée. She’d married the third son of the nation’s top group owner. Broke it off in under a month, I remembered. Debates on whether it was annulment or divorce since no registry but a wedding—gossip galore, but I didn’t care about the truth. Anyway, that’s when the lively Su-jeong started looking down.
We did grab drinks alone a few times.
She was calm and cold at work, so this kid version was a total shock. Then again, how cold can a kid be?
“Jin-hyuk-ah, who’s here?”
The gate opened as Mom came out. Chairman Hong and Yu Se-ra, watching us from the platform, stood. But little sister Yu-jin, who should’ve been in Mom’s arms, was missing.
Oh man! Don’t leave the baby alone!
Ferret! Wildcat!
I bolted inside.
It might seem like overprotective brother stuff, but to me, my little sister was that fragile and that precious.
“O-oppa—.”
Darn it.
Little Hong Su-jeong toddled after me into the house.
General still glared at Chairman Hong, silently baring his teeth.