The Third Regression Begins
I can start over. This time, it'll be different. I can succeed.
What made him turn away from heading straight to a major agency was the last sight of Kim Yu-jun he'd seen.
"Hello, hyung! I'm Kim Yu-jun."
Calling a rude punk like me "hyung." He couldn't ignore the guy who'd burst into tears and thrown himself under a truck.
"Hey. I'm Seo In-ah. ...Take care of me."
His ruthless drive for success grew even stronger, but was it because he knew the future? He finally had the leisure to look around.
"Hyung, sleep when you're tired. Eat something too."
"Um, In-ah hyung. This is a... birthday present...."
"Hyung, when you take the guide exam this time, can I be the one you practice with?"
Only then did he start to notice. His little brothers had always been there, approaching him. He'd just never turned to look.
...Yeah. This time, let's go together.
Because I know so much, this time it'll really work out.
"We need to pick a leader. Who do you guys think would be good, personally?"
That's why he thought it suited him to take the leader role himself.
"I'd like to do it, President."
"You, In-ah?"
"Yes. Please trust me with it."
"Hyung's right. In-ah hyung is the oldest. It'd look weird if I, the younger one, took it."
"Alright. Then In-ah will be the leader."
When Kim Yu-jun yielded, the president had no choice but to back down.
Debut once more. Just as Seo In-ah predicted, his choices were always right.
They won Rookie of the Year right after debuting, and the next year, they took home a major award. Double Black Label became known as the miracle of a mid-tier agency.
"Hyung, did you see the news?!"
"Oh, that our world is fantasy now?"
"Is that all you have to say?"
"What, you think we're gonna flop or something?"
They even built a solid fanbase strong enough to weather the emergence of hunters.
On the day they finally named their fan club for the first time, Seo In-ah shed a few tears. He felt sorry for the tiny handful of fans from before, whom he hadn't even given a proper name to. And grateful that they liked a worthless guy like him.
It was the first emotion he'd felt with a much more mature heart.
"H-Hyung, are you crying...?!"
"I'm just grateful."
And because he had nothing to give them—had never had anything.
So he vowed.
I won't do anything to embarrass them if they ever say they're my fans.
He swore to walk only the most perfect path, just like now.
...All because of his foolish self, who even after two rounds still didn't realize it was hubris.
The pressure eventually bred tragedy.
"The moment people start seeing the image you show as fake, trust is over! You think the outcast rumors are a joke?!"
"......"
"They're digging up old stage videos as 'evidence' right now."
The president raged like fire, scolding them, then kicked them out to talk among themselves.
Alone in the hallway. Seo In-ah blankly pondered if his choices had been wrong.
...But it really worked out well, didn't it?
Because he knew the future, he'd always made decisions for the best outcomes.
"I made the right choices, so why......"
"What about our opinions in those choices?"
Park Sa-ha approached.
"......What?"
"You never included us in any decisions. You knew everything, so you just decided the answers like we should blindly follow."
"......"
"The results were amazingly good, and we know how hard you worked. But are we really a team?"
Park Sa-ha spoke in a cold tone. Seo In-ah couldn't continue.
"This isn't a team."
"......"
"You're just charging ahead alone, hyung."
Park Sa-ha sneered at him. The twisted smirk was bitter.
"......We wanted to be with you too, hyung...."
Park Sa-ha stopped there, clamped his mouth shut, and walked past Seo In-ah.
Seo In-ah looked down at his own hands.
They were the choices he'd made for their sake. But he'd overlooked the most important thing.
If they weren't happy, no success was true success.
Seo In-ah stared endlessly down the hallway where Park Sa-ha had vanished.
And the tragedy began anew.
"I-In-ah hyung! In-ah hyung!! Big trouble, hurry...!"
"Han Jun-yeol? What's wrong...?"
"Sa-ha hyung...!"
News that Park Sa-ha, who'd bolted out, had been caught in a gate and awakened as an S- hunter...
And the tower's appearance.
Their final concert was canceled just like that.
And from that moment, the world twisted.
After Double Black disbanded.
Kim Yu-jun picked up the shattered Seo In-ah once more.
"I should've mediated better between you and the kids, but I failed to look after everyone properly."
"......"
"I'm sorry."
It wasn't your fault—it was mine for still being so foolish even after getting the chance.
"Actually, my parents really opposed me becoming a singer."
"......What?"
"Thanks to you and the guys, I succeeded and could hold my head high."
Gratitude he didn't deserve. Seo In-ah finally burst into tears.
"Why—why are you apologizing!"
"Hyung...?"
"Why do you always apologize to me, why!"
He hated how Kim Yu-jun was always the first to apologize. And he felt insanely sorry.
"......Sorry. I'm the one who's sorry."
"Hyung."
"I wanted to make you all succeed......"
This time, I really wanted to. It was clearly his own fault, so he couldn't even beg to go back to the past again...
But that resolve broke soon enough.
Park Sa-ha, who couldn't be reached by anyone. It started when he came looking for Seo In-ah, of all people.
"Long time no see, hyung."
Park Sa-ha, seen after a year, was no longer the same.
"......You look worn out. Wanna rest here?"
Seo In-ah swallowed many words.
After that, Park Sa-ha secretly visited his place from time to time.
"Hyung, you have to be happy, no matter what. Got it? No matter what happens to the world, don't hold out for next time."
He dropped cryptic words.
"I'm sorry for not appreciating you. I can't explain details... but I'm sorry, hyung."
That the predetermined end, this madly spinning world, was hard.
"I'm worried about Lee Seonjwa."
"Why her?"
"......It's not the world she believed in anymore."
His voice, laced with tears, always spilled unknowable words.
Seo In-ah didn't pry further.
"......Come cry anytime."
He was glad he could at least do that. Shamelessly.
And then, an unexpected visitor for Seo In-ah.
"Hey, you."
Ryu Shin-ah, soaked to the bone in the rain, burst into Seo In-ah's home.
Before he could ask why a big shot he'd only seen once was here in this state, Ryu Shin-ah grabbed his shoulders.
"You'll go back this time too."
Then he gave a bitter smile.
"Even if you do, you won't say much. I get it. But just pass on one thing."
"W-Wait, explain what's going on...!"
"Please pass it on. Whatever penalty comes, I'll take it instead. Please."
"At least tell me who to pass it to......"
"Yul."
Ryu Shin-ah's body was a total wreck. Dragging a body on the verge of collapse through the rain, clinging to Seo In-ah and crumbling, yet holding back tears, he begged like that.
"Our king. General—no, our king. Our Yul......"
"......Are you talking about the hunter LeeSeonjwaSlayer right now?"
"Tell her I'm sorry."
He couldn't even ask how he knew Seo In-ah was a regressor. Ryu Shin-ah left after saying that.
Something related to Lee Seonjwa. He thought to ask Park Sa-ha, but.
He couldn't meet him after that either.
"Lately, Sa-ha hyung isn't answering... Could it be, could LeeSeonjwaSlayer...?"
Park Sa-ha, out of contact again.
Park Ho-young, clinging to him and choking up.
......He never imagined those would be his last words.
Standing in the pouring rain, Seo In-ah pried his hands away.
"......No. It's fine."
He needed one more chance.
"I'll... handle it, hyung."
Those were the only words Seo In-ah, who'd witnessed Kwon Yul's first kill, could say.
The group's end hadn't been this despairing.
Seo In-ah ran through the rain to the practice room he hadn't set foot in for ages.
The rowdy maknaes.
The sore thumb, Park Sa-ha.
And the real 'leader' he'd stolen it from. Kim Yu-jun.
He thought he'd seen the rock bottom.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
He'd ruined their lives.
If it was punishment, he'd take it gladly.
But not an ending like this... not with someone's death.
"Just once more, just one more time, help me."
He began praying to the miracle of his previous life.
Really the last time.
Just once more.
Not for me.
"No matter what, they have to succeed...!"
For his young little brothers, who'd failed too soon because of him.
He slammed his forehead against the wall mirror and collapsed.
Sobs echoed through the empty practice room.
And only after begging, begging to please save that kid, did he pass out.
"Gasp...!"
He awoke on the creaky mattress of his old one-room.
The third round had begun.