A Lucky Day (2)
My breath catches hard in my throat.
The space is cramped—barely a few square meters. A chill wind whistles and howls through the gaps in the window, filling the room. This is a rooftop room with a three-million-won deposit and a monthly rent of three hundred thousand. Even in Gangnam, cheap rooftop rooms like this still exist. I had chosen a place close to school for my little nest. My parents had moved to Sokcho when Dad's job relocated. Left alone in Seoul, I had chosen to live on my own.
Sunlight streaming through the window brightens the room. Nothing more than a single desk, a compact refrigerator, and some old clothes hanging on a rack……
"……Wh-what the hell??"
The sight is impossible to believe. I had clearly come home drunk last night, and my place had been a semi-basement room. But the moment I open my eyes and check—
Here. A rooftop room.
I bite my lip lightly.
"……!!"
It really hurts. The pain is vivid and real.
"……."
My mind is blank. Why am I lying in this rooftop room right now? I cannot make sense of it. The space I face is strange yet familiar. The objects placed here are identical to those in the place where I once lived.
"Regression?"
An absurd single word flashes through my mind. Side effect of reading too many fantasy novels? Or the reverse effect of constantly imagining scenes from movies? I never once believed something like this could actually be possible. I had thoroughly ignored every regression movie that came my way. Every time I saw content of that sort I would snort in pure disbelief.
The moment of regression anyone can imagine. That impossible thing has happened to me??
"This is……"
Yesterday had been a dog-shit day I wanted to flip over and bury. And the very next morning I am confronted with this completely different, utterly impossible morning.
"Granny??"
After a good night's sleep, something good will happen! The strange old woman's final words suddenly surface. I cannot think of any other reason. She had clearly said that after a good night's sleep something good would happen. But the bankbook is not in my hand. Neither the space nor the time connects to yesterday at all.
"But…… is this real?"
It seems I really have returned to my high-school days. Looking at this tall yet scrawny body with no muscle…… every sensation I feel proves I am alive. The tiny rooftop room, the damp smell and shabby environment that had soaked into my high-school years.
Slap!
I strike my cheek with my palm once more.
"……It hurts."
That settles it. I hit hard enough to leave a handprint. The struck spot burns and stings.
"Really…… this?"
There is no way to express what I feel right now. I want to scream. Whether this is good or bad, no thought forms. It feels like an unbelievable dream.
"Hoooo……"
First I draw a deep breath and steady myself. Several times I regulate my breathing and calm the heart that is thrashing wildly out of control.
"So it's not a dream…… it's reality?"
I snatch up my phone and check the date. Even the phone is the outdated model I carried in high school. Current time: May 5, 2022, 5:05 p.m. The numbers are anything but ordinary.
"I'm going crazy."
A chill of fear runs through me at the undeniable fact. Every sensation I feel is proving this is real. Regression stories that had become a staple of every kind of content. I never thought it possible in reality. Least of all that I would be the one it happened to. The protagonists in those stories adapt right away after regressing…… I am not like that.
"Even if life is a dream that lasts only one night, this is way too vivid……"
The memories up through yesterday still fill my mind with perfect clarity. This is absolutely no dream. Even the betrayals of those people yesterday, driven into my chest like a dagger, remain completely alive. And every one of those memories is the future!
"Dad……"
The word slips out of me unconsciously. Dad had died just a few days before my high-school graduation. On his way home after finishing a business trip he had been killed at the scene by a dump truck that ran a red light. A word I had not been able to speak easily ever since. At the time I had possessed no power at all. The police had hurriedly closed it as a simple accident. The driver claimed he had fallen asleep at the wheel and was arrested. Yet something about the circumstances kept giving off a suspicious stench. There was something the family did not know about Dad's death! I had never been able to shake that feeling.
Clang clang.
A loud knock sounds. Soon comes the noise of the rooftop room's steel door opening.
"……??"
There is no one who would visit me. May 5, 2022—Children's Day.
"Is Mr. Ha Taewoong present?"
A middle-aged man's voice. Mr. Ha Taewoong? It is not the easygoing voice of the landlord.
"Who is it?"
I step outside. The school gym clothes I am wearing casually feel both familiar and strange.
Clank.
I open the steel door. A man who looks to be in his mid-fifties stands there in a neat charcoal-gray suit. Salt-and-pepper hair and a stubborn-looking square jaw give him a strong impression. One leg seems inconvenient; he leans on a cane. This is a fourth-floor rooftop room. Climbing up here had clearly been hard on him.
"Mr. Ha Taewoong?"
"Yes. I'm Ha Taewoong."
Swoosh.
The man holds out a business card.
Law Firm Jeongryul
Representative Attorney
Kim Jeongryul
A lawyer? Why me? If this is truly regression, I am a high-school student right now. Even searching my memories of this period, I have never met this lawyer before.
"I apologize for being late."
He bows his head with formal courtesy. Suddenly?
"……??"
Caught off guard, I bow in return. I cannot understand the situation at all.
"I have come to execute the will of the late Madam Han Okja."
What? The late Han Okja??
"What did you say? Lawyer Kim went to see him?"
"Yes, Director."
"……Was the warning too light? Heh."
The fortieth floor of a building in Samseong-dong. The topmost floor of that building. A man in his early fifties with a cold impression, holding the title of director, twists a sneer onto his lips.
"It was a serious injury requiring twenty-four weeks of recovery."
"Exactly my point. A guy who almost died should have lived quietly. Why is he sticking his neck out?"
"Shall we take care of him?"
"No need. Once he met the kid it's over. Lawyer Kim is a former prosecutor. He's no fool."
"Shall we recover it?"
"How much was it again?"
"One billion won."
"……Our mother is generous. Leaving an inheritance to a grandson whose face she never even knew. Heh."
He is smiling, yet his eyes are not merely cold—they carry a murderous edge. The man, lost in thought, taps the desk in rhythm with his right middle finger. The secretary standing before the desk keeps his mouth shut as if dead, waiting. One word of command from the man could end a human life in this moment.
"Mother. This time I'll grant your wish. You even visited me in a dream last night."
The man who mentions a mother long dead. He had dreamed of her the night before. She had never once appeared in his dreams after dying. In the dream she had thundered that if he so much as laid a dirty hand on her youngest grandson she would strike him with heavenly lightning. Even while alive she had constantly nagged him because she could not trust him. That was why he had quickly assigned someone. Because of the mother who never believed in him he had grown even more twisted from childhood. In contrast she had doted on the youngest with terrifying care. Of course, tangled in various incidents and schemes, he had not been able to watch over her when she passed.
"Then……"
"Just watch. What meaning does that pocket change have once it lands in a kid's hands?"
"Yes, sir!"
"By the way, what is that guy doing these days?"
"He's living quietly in Sokcho."
"Suspicious. He's not the type to live that quietly……"
"Sir? But there's absolutely nothing……"
"He's no idiot."
Tap tap.
The man drums the desk again.
"Keep a close eye on him. That bastard…… I have a feeling he's going to cause an accident."
"Yes, sir!"
"Anyway, tonight's work—are the kids ready?"
"Director Kang says he prepared the person you wanted."
"As he should. Advertising money isn't exactly pocket change. Heh heh heh."
A dark energy flashes across the cold eyes. He looks like a wildcat that has spotted its prey.
"Clear my entire afternoon schedule. I'm going to the sauna."
"Yes, sir!!"
The minor yet important matters are roughly settled. He never paid much attention to things once they were finished. Instead, he did not know.
How completely this decision of his would rewrite the future!