NOVEL NEXT #008
#008
Unlike Jung Hwi-kyung, who could sense the signs of forced regression, Lee Gyo-ha was suddenly regressed without warning. Forced regression wasn’t always negative. Thanks to it, Gyo-ha began to suspect the existence of another regressor as soon as he entered the 4th iteration.
No matter how he thought about it, it was certain that he wasn’t the protagonist. Otherwise, it made no sense to return to the morning of the first day of the master’s first semester after participating as a gallery in someone else’s fashion show for no reason.
Anyway, since life had restarted, Gyo-ha signed a contract with a modeling agency again. From the 4th iteration, he also pursued graduate school alongside work. After doing it a couple of times, juggling both wasn’t that burdensome.
The classes were all familiar content anyway. Gyo-ha had already gone through the master’s and doctoral thesis reviews twice. Moreover, he had experience succeeding as a model.
Having done it enough, it wasn’t difficult to stand out among beginners. However, unlike his smoothly progressing life, Gyo-ha had to shudder at the anxiety of not knowing when he would regress again.
Even for a person living without much thought, the experience of returning to the morning of the first day of the master’s first semester was sufficiently shocking. The repeated graduate school openings made even the youngest son of a chaebol family anxious.
From the 4th iteration, he even sought psychological counseling in case it was a mental issue. But the counseling was of no use. Telling the counselor, “I’ve already gone through the doctoral program twice and succeeded as a model, but I woke up and it’s my 4th life iteration,” only served to make the counselor’s expression serious.
“Which bastard keeps regressing…”
You impatient bastard!
Lee Gyo-ha gritted his teeth towards Jung Hwi-kyung, whose face he didn’t even know. Meanwhile, Hwi-kyung was struggling on the other side of the earth, suffering for the sin of getting the wrong job.
Hwi-kyung wasn’t regressing by choice either. But there was no way for Gyo-ha to know that. When he regressed during the 2nd semester of his doctoral program, Gyo-ha just thought he should find the real regressor and kill them. I’ll put them in a drum and bury them in the Pacific Ocean. Stop sending me back to graduate school.
He had endured not killing the professor, but he couldn’t suppress his murderous intent towards the true protagonist, a.k.a. the real regressor, who kept impatiently choosing to regress (though it was just getting a job at a black company, but Gyo-ha couldn’t know that far). Just wait till I meet you. I’ll definitely kill you.
However, Gyo-ha’s murder plan could not be realized. First of all, Gyo-ha wasn’t cruel enough to put someone in a drum and throw them into the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, he didn’t even know who to put in the drum. While Gyo-ha was rotting in an American prestigious graduate school, Hwi-kyung was working overtime in a Korean black company…
In the twelfth regression, Gyo-ha thought that this time the real regressor had finally come to their senses. For once, an iteration lasted for over 10 years. It was truly surprising.
This guy! You’ve finally decided to settle down! Good thinking!
Gyo-ha’s heart raced at the thought of not having to get that damn graduate degree again. He was sick of even the ‘D’ in Doctor now. If there was another regression, he planned to buy the degree with money even if it caused problems later.
He had already spent decades in the U.S. due to the regressions. Gyo-ha thought it was about time to return to Korea. Is the regression really over? Am I really going to Korea? Am I really getting on the plane?
And when Lee Gyo-ha boarded the plane to Korea, Jung Hwi-kyung happened to suggest a weekend hiking trip to his team members. The regression system mercilessly regressed Jung Hwi-kyung. Lee Gyo-ha, crossing the Pacific Ocean, was also regressed as a bonus.
Gyo-ha greeted the morning of the first semester of his master’s program again in his studio in America.
…Now there’s an office worker who has regressed thirteen times and a graduate student who has regressed thirteen times.
The long-awaited thirteenth time. Lee Gyo-ha, waking up in his personal studio in America, shouted like this:
“Fuck!”
If one doesn’t swear in this situation, it means they’re either a saint or a lunatic. Fortunately or unfortunately, Gyo-ha was neither. He couldn’t become a madman like Jung Hwi-kyung who accepted everything and immediately started buying and selling stocks.
Gyo-ha hit his innocent pillow dozens of times. He wanted to drown the unknown regressor in the Pacific Ocean this time for sure. Just when I thought you were holding out for a long time, what’s the problem now! This was clearly regression addiction. You could at least report drug addiction, but there was nowhere to report regression addiction.
Unaware of Gyo-ha’s situation, Hwi-kyung was busy taking the TOEIC exam. He scored 990 out of 990 points and also took the OPic test, as there was a discount on the application fee if he took an additional test.
Until the day Jung Hwi-kyung went to take the HSK, Lee Gyo-ha couldn’t come to his senses. While Hwi-kyung was an office worker who at least got paid for working, Gyo-ha was a graduate student who had to pay to attend graduate school.
In the end, Lee Gyo-ha went crazy in the thirteenth regression and bought his degree with money.
It wasn’t normal to start throwing money around at this point either. During the past iterations, Gyo-ha had mostly gritted his teeth and earned his degrees through his own efforts. It was remarkable willpower.
But he couldn’t endure it anymore. Having to listen to lectures that never changed? Having to write a thesis with the same table of contents again? It was a miracle he hadn’t gone insane.
While Hwi-kyung was obtaining a Russian language certificate, Gyo-ha was preparing to return to Korea immediately. It wasn’t that he wanted to go back, but because he bought his degree with money, he could no longer ignore his father’s plea to return to Korea.
The chairman of BK Group, who particularly doted on his youngest son Gyo-ha, unintentionally divided the siblings by going around saying he would give Gyo-ha any position if he just returned to Korea. Gyo-ha, the subject of this favoritism, had stayed in the U.S. to avoid his father’s excessive affection and the resulting sibling conflicts.
But by this point, Gyo-ha was no longer afraid of his older brother or sister. Gyo-ha might look like he was in his 20s on the outside, but inside he was already old. If you added up all the years he had lived during the regression iterations, he might even be older than his father, Lee Baek-gyeong.
Being in your 20s and always having to try to live young. Gyo-ha no longer had any pride or anything left. Rather than going to graduate school one more time, he’d just go to Korea. Even his siblings, who had been difficult to deal with before the regression, now looked like young kittens to Gyo-ha. His sister was tolerable even before the regression, so he just had to be careful with his brother.
Yeah, sharpen your claws. Go ahead and make life difficult for the youngest. You’re still better than graduate school professors. Better than agency directors who repeat the same things like parrots…
So Gyo-ha returned to Korea. He didn’t attend the social parties he used to enjoy or have gatherings. Days passed where he stayed holed up at home like a reclusive loner, looking up novels related to regression or time travel.
The wariness of his siblings towards the youngest who said he was going to America but just bought his degree with money and returned, inevitably dulled. Because the youngest who returned to Korea really did nothing but breathe.
To the question of why he was unemployed, Gyo-ha had a lot to say. Up until the very last iteration, Lee Gyo-ha had been busy with business. He directly attended graduate school, worked as a model, ran a food business, and even dabbled in the entertainment business. Everything was successful, but he was really busy without a moment to spare.
But now, all the achievements he had made disappeared in an instant. If only his graduate degrees had disappeared, he might have found the courage to restart, thinking “here we go again,” but with all the businesses he had built with blood, sweat, and tears flying away, everything felt futile.
Gyo-ha didn’t have the condition of forced regression if he couldn’t get a job or entered a black company like Jung Hwi-kyung. The life of a regressor without compulsion is powerless beyond compare. What’s the point of trying hard? If an unknown regressor decides to regress because something goes wrong, it will all become nothing again.
The biggest problem was that Gyo-ha had no idea about the timing of the regressions. Sometimes it happened after just over a year, and sometimes there was no regression for nearly 10 years… Gyo-ha couldn’t even imagine that this was due to getting a job at a black company.
“…Sis.”
“What?”
“What is life? Why do you think people should live?”
“…Are you on drugs?”
Moreover, he couldn’t seriously consult with others about this problem. If he told his family, they would probably grab him by the collar, asking if he was on drugs. Gyo-ha cried tears of blood inwardly. Why does everyone think the rich will do drugs? I’m not lacking dopamine…
Every time he imagined the unknown regressor bastard sleeping comfortably (fortunately, Jung Hwi-kyung couldn’t sleep comfortably due to overtime work), his guts twisted and his stomach turned. He lost weight without even controlling his diet. The regressor diet was very effective.
“I’m not doing drugs or anything…”
“If an unemployed bastard does drugs too, that’s just unconscionable.”
“……”
“Stop worrying Dad and just work. He says he’ll make you an Executive Director.”
“Would it be okay if I became an Executive Director?”
“Of course it would be. Seong-ha might get annoyed, but I think you should do some work.”
Lee Jung-hye, Gyo-ha’s sister, forcibly raised Lee Gyo-ha, who was sprawled on the sofa.
“How about International? You’re good at English since you lived in America.”
It’s not just good, it’s almost native level. Gyo-ha recalled his language skills given to him by the integrated master’s and doctoral course at the prestigious American university. And it’s not just English, is it? Although his family might not know yet, in the previous iteration, Gyo-ha was also proficient in Chinese due to his business.
But unlike Jung Hwi-kyung, who had to passionately appeal his language skills for employment, Lee Gyo-ha was in a position where he didn’t need to reveal his abilities.
“I don’t want to work…”
“Good grief. Do you want to live like a parasite? This is why you shouldn’t spoil children.”
Jung-hye looked at her younger brother pitifully and said this:
“Just start something, anything for now.”
“I’m too tired…”
“What have you done to be tired!”
He was tired from regressing thirteen times, but no one understood Gyo-ha’s pain. In the end, Lee Gyo-ha reluctantly became a parachute Executive Director at BK International. It wasn’t the position he wanted anyway.
Until right before his first day at work, Lee Gyo-ha had no vitality in his life. It felt like the fourteenth regression could start at any moment. His heart raced every night. He thought he might open his eyes and be back on the morning of the first semester of his master’s program in his American studio.
And on the long-awaited first day of work, Lee Gyo-ha finally encountered the real regressor he had been desperately wanting to meet. It was a striking coincidence that felt almost ‘fated’.
“Jung Hwi-kyung?”
The moment he first saw Hwi-kyung, Gyo-ha felt as if time had stopped and his breath had ceased. It wasn’t because he had fallen in love, but because he saw something like the system window he had been searching for next to Hwi-kyung.
At that moment, Lee Gyo-ha thought, ‘Is it you?’ Is it you? The one who sent me to graduate school more than ten times?