NOVEL NEXT #012
#012
Lee Gyo-ha welcomed Friday morning with a joyful heart.
How should I annoy Jung Hwi-kyung today? Just thinking about it made him excited. Haha, you regressor! I’ll make you pay for sending me to graduate school more than ten times!
After buying coffee for Hwi-kyung at the coffee shop on the first floor of the company, Gyo-ha went up to the 10th floor. This had become a routine morning task.
Jung Hwi-kyung was a diligent employee who arrived at work at 8:30 AM, so Gyo-ha thought Hwi-kyung would welcome him the moment he entered the office. He was sure Hwi-kyung would say “Thank you” with a disgruntled expression this time too.
“Deputy Jung took a sick day today.”
However, contrary to Gyo-ha’s expectations, it was the bear-like Manager Kang Moon-chul who greeted him. Instead of going out for a smoke as usual, Manager Kang was waiting for Gyo-ha in front of the office, as if he knew Gyo-ha would come.
“A sick day?”
“Yes. He urgently requested a sick day early this morning.”
“I didn’t receive any notification.”
“Ah, that’s… Our team leader hasn’t confirmed it yet.”
It was surprising that the sick leave was processed without the team leader’s confirmation. Gyo-ha recalled the good-natured face of the HR team leader. Well, it didn’t seem likely that someone with such a kind face would make a sick person come to work.
The coffee Gyo-ha had bought for Hwi-kyung ended up going to Manager Kang. Manager Kang accepted the coffee with a bewildered face, saying thank you.
“Could I possibly get Hwi-kyung’s personal number?”
“Pardon?”
“Well, I only know Hwi-kyung’s extension number.”
“……”
“I think I need to call him once about work-related matters.”
Even while feeling uneasy, Manager Kang sympathized with Jung Hwi-kyung. What could be worse than a superior contacting you about work when you’re sick as a dog?
Moreover, there must be a reason why he didn’t give his personal number to company people. Manager Kang had a very long internal conflict in a short moment. Should I just say I don’t know the number? But anyone could see that was a lie.
“…Would it be okay if I give it to you now?”
“Yes.”
In the end, Manager Kang handed over Hwi-kyung’s personal information to Gyo-ha. He had no choice. It wasn’t just anything, but work-related, so how could he ignore the Executive Director’s words? Sob, I’m sorry, Deputy Jung…
Having obtained Hwi-kyung’s personal number by selling Manager Kang’s conscience, Gyo-ha returned to his private office and slumped into his seat. Until just now, it had been a refreshing afternoon, but as soon as he heard that Jung Hwi-kyung had taken a sick day, his mood became ambivalent.
Come on, how can a grown adult not take proper care of their body? If you’re a regressor, why are you getting sick?
Lee Gyo-ha called Jung Hwi-kyung without much hesitation. Since Hwi-kyung managed Gyo-ha’s personal schedule, there was sufficient reason to contact him.
However, Hwi-kyung didn’t answer the phone. Wondering if he might have blocked all unknown numbers for his personal number, Gyo-ha tried calling from the company’s direct line as well, but there was only a long dial tone with no one answering.
Gyo-ha irritably tapped on the desk. How can a secretary be this sick without any handover? Shouldn’t he have told me, a higher-up, rather than Manager Kang?
Thinking that far, the smiling HR team leader started to seem unsatisfactory. It was strange that he processed the sick leave by contacting Manager Kang, not even the team leader, in the early morning. Is that team leader bastard working or not?
In the end, as soon as it turned 10 AM, Gyo-ha ventured out. This time, he didn’t even ask Manager Kang. He just sent a company messenger to the management support team and extracted Jung Hwi-kyung’s address.
The management support team assistant couldn’t ask, “Why are you asking for that?” and gave Lee Gyo-ha Jung Hwi-kyung’s home address. Wielding his almighty power as the chairman’s youngest son (though he himself didn’t realize it was power), Gyo-ha entered Hwi-kyung’s home address into the navigation system.
“What… He lives here?”
A woman’s voice, close to mechanical, flowed from the navigation system as it started guiding. Gyo-ha, unable to believe the location the navigation pointed to, checked the address again.
“Isn’t he a regressor?”
But no matter how many times he checked, Hwi-kyung’s address didn’t change. An old villa in a neighborhood notorious for poor security. It was fortunate that he lived on the 3rd floor, not the 1st.
If you’ve gone back to the past thirteen times, shouldn’t you at least have a lot of money? Gyo-ha became really curious about Jung Hwi-kyung. What on earth had he been doing during all those regressions to still be just a company employee?
Of course, Hwi-kyung was just living where he had been living because he hadn’t made big money yet. Moving isn’t easy, is it? To not lose the first-time homebuyer benefits, he had to be careful in choosing a house.
However, unaware of this fact, Gyo-ha wondered why Hwi-kyung hadn’t bought lottery tickets. Only Hwi-kyung himself knew that he had given up on lottery winnings after the 4th iteration to focus on getting certifications.
One might think, “Why on earth would you give up on the lottery?” but Hwi-kyung had chosen stock trends instead of the lottery. Jung Hwi-kyung already had too much to remember. It would be nice if, like in novels, a regressor could memorize everything and monopolize it all, but there were limits to an ordinary person’s memory.
If you don’t know how to choose and focus, you’ll fail even after regressing. Gyo-ha was in a position where he could revive things he ruined with his own money, but Hwi-kyung’s situation was different.
In the third regression, Jung Hwi-kyung had a record of nearly going bankrupt right before employment due to miswriting one lottery number and messing up a stock sale. Then in the fourth regression, he was investigated by the police for consecutive lottery wins. He was eventually released, but after that, Hwi-kyung coolly gave up on the lottery.
What good would it do to become a billionaire? He’d have to work at a company anyway…
Arriving at Hwi-kyung’s house with the vain question, “Is this guy really a regressor?”, Gyo-ha faced a big problem. There was nowhere to park in this neighborhood.
Moreover, it was difficult to even enter because of the many alleyways. Many people had parked in non-parking areas. Trash dumped in front of warning signs prohibiting illegal dumping, and old villas without proper parking lots.
Gyo-ha clicked his tongue and backed out his car again. The best option was to park in the underground lot of a nearby large supermarket and walk.
The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became. Even so, true to his Confucian country upbringing, Gyo-ha bought a gift set of bottled drinks at the supermarket for his visit to someone else’s home.
Should I buy porridge instead? Suddenly visiting someone else’s house like this was unfamiliar to Gyo-ha too. He hadn’t even visited for sick calls when his family was ill, using the excuse of being in America…
From the beginning, Gyo-ha didn’t quite understand why he had come all this way. Hwi-kyung would probably look bewildered if he saw Gyo-ha visiting. The two weren’t particularly close, and they had no intersection outside of BK International.
But before he could judge, “This is an irrational act,” Gyo-ha had arrived in front of Hwi-kyung’s house.
He couldn’t help but be concerned. A cold, he says. Isn’t it obvious that he caught it from the cold water shower during the business trip I dragged him on? He didn’t look that frail, but indeed, appearances aren’t everything when it comes to people.
Gyo-ha swallowed a sigh and pressed the doorbell. However, Jung Hwi-kyung remained silent. It was impossible to tell if he was home or not. Not answering the phone, not at home… Gyo-ha began to doubt if Hwi-kyung was really sick.
Did he run away after realizing I’m also a regressor? A logical leap occurred faster than light. That possibility couldn’t be completely ignored. Since he said it was still a “suboptimal condition,” maybe he couldn’t trigger a regression right away and just ran for now.
As that thought occurred, Gyo-ha’s heart started racing. Shit! Not the first semester of graduate school again!
“Jung Hwi-kyung?”
Lee Gyo-ha now began knocking on the door in earnest. However, unlike the scripture saying “knock and it shall be opened,” Jung Hwi-kyung’s front door showed no sign of opening.
A strange anxiety made Gyo-ha’s nape feel stiff. This bastard isn’t really regressing, is he? Not graduate school! I’m sick of waking up in my studio…
Opposite the anxiety about graduate school, a tiny ant’s tear of worry for Hwi-kyung had also taken root. Since he had taken a sick day saying he was ill, there was a possibility that he was sleeping like he had collapsed or had actually collapsed.
However, no matter how hard Gyo-ha knocked on the door, Hwi-kyung remained secluded. Instead, someone popped out from Hwi-kyung’s next-door neighbor.
“Stop knocking so much!”
“Ah.”
“What’s with all this racket since morning? The young man next door is a company employee, so he’s not here at this hour, he’s at work.”
“He took a sick day today.”
“How should I know? I don’t know what’s going on, but stop knocking so much. Don’t you know these walls aren’t soundproof?”
How would Lee Gyo-ha know that…
Unfortunately, Gyo-ha had no experience living in such an old villa. Are villas usually not soundproof? No wonder there was no elevator either.