Chapter 161 |
To be honest, he had a rough idea.
It was true that Lee Jaehun had been consistently observing his surroundings. To maintain plausibility, he needed to understand the context he was in, and that required observation. Due to the differing values between his past and present lives, he sometimes drew wrong conclusions, but overall, he was correct.
Such being the case, Lee Jaehun instinctively sensed something odd about Kang Mina after his return.
‘She seems noticeably anxious.’
It wasn’t that she was out of her mind like the protagonist, but rather that she seemed to be experiencing a certain level of confusion while maintaining her composure. Kang Mina’s gaze often flickered nervously as she scanned the survivors.
So, a thought crossed his mind.
‘Could she have regressed too?’
But that was impossible.
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Frankly, Kang Mina wasn’t mentally strong. She was curious and adaptable, but that was separate from mental fortitude. Recalling how she’d been so fixated on the spider monster in the beginning that she couldn’t even run away properly, it was clear her inherent mental strength wasn’t particularly robust.
Now, imagine if she had also regressed. Could she possibly be sitting there so calmly?
“… …”
Lee Jaehun lightly brushed his lips, thinking about the gathering team that had left to collect firewood and Jung Inho, who had gone to negotiate with Ha Sungyoon. He was calculating the time it would take for both teams to return.
Tapping his cheek with the fingers covering his lower face, Lee Jaehun made eye contact with Kang Mina, as if by chance, and as if it were perfectly timed.
“…Senior Associate Kang, is there a problem?”
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“…Yes? Yes? Oh, no… Not really…”
“No, I’m asking if there’s a problem with me.”
He deliberately furrowed his brow.
“You keep looking at me.”
Lee Jaehun knew Kang Mina wouldn’t be able to answer that question, but he hadn’t asked it expecting an answer in the first place. He felt he needed to take some action regarding this confused little chick.
And to do that, he first needed to know what the problem was.
“…I’m sorry. It’s just that… I’m worried about your injury…”
“…If you don’t want to talk about it, don’t.”
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He intentionally cut off Kang Mina’s excuse mid-sentence and started to walk away.
“W-Where are you going?”
“Why are you acting like this too, Senior Associate Kang? Are you taking after Assistant Manager Jung?”
“You shouldn’t be moving around…”
“Something came to mind.”
“Huh?”
Kang Mina couldn’t hide her bewilderment, and Lee Jaehun frowned again at her expression.
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“What’s with that look?”
“…It’s not that…”
“It was the look of someone seeing an incredibly immature child.”
“…Uh…”
His words must be spot-on.
‘It’s the reaction I was aiming for, but it’s still annoying.’
He had deliberately provoked Kang Mina’s sense of responsibility to make her follow him, but being treated like a child by a younger subordinate when he was over 40 felt strange. To be more blunt, it was embarrassing and irritating.
“…I know I’m not being obedient, so don’t give me that look.”
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“Th-That’s…”
“But have you forgotten that I’m your boss? That I’m over forty? If you don’t like that I’m not keeping my promise, you should point that out. Why treat me like a…”
His voice rose slightly as he spoke, fueled by his irritation, but Lee Jaehun, reminding himself that this wasn’t the main point, sighed deeply and waved his hand.
“Forget it, forget it. If you’re that worried, just come with me.”
“Oh, is that okay…?”
He was annoyed by how readily she took him up on his offer, but this was his intention all along.
“If I say no, it’ll all come back to bite me. I don’t think Mr. Jung Inho would stay quiet either.”
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“…The fact that you’re even walking around like this is already…”
“I’m well enough to move! Assistant Manager Jung is just… a bit… sensitive right now, but you don’t need to be this overprotective of me. Okay? I can understand Mr. Ha Sungyoon, since he’s a doctor, but, still.”
“It’s not just because he’s a doctor…”
“I’m not a terminally ill patient. How many times have I actually gotten hurt from going out without saying anything…?”
At that, Kang Mina’s voice dropped significantly.
“Quite a few times, actually.”
“… …”
“And regardless of the number of times, your condition isn’t very good.”
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All expression vanished from her face as he looked at her again.
‘…Did she really regress?’
Lee Jaehun’s certainty that it was impossible wavered.
Her obsession with his well-being was reminiscent of the protagonist, Jung Inho. Her observation of the survivors could also be explained if she felt something like, ‘It’s strange that these people are alive when they should have dⁱㅌd.’
But the problem was, while she was certainly not acting normal, she looked far too composed considering she supposedly remembered everything.
“I wish you wouldn’t go.”
“… …”
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“But I know everything you’re saying is right.”
Even that was hard to call normal.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re always helping us.”
“I’m just looking for efficiency.”
“I know that.”
“… …”
“So, do what you want.”
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Kang Mina spoke as if she didn’t even know what she was saying.
“I’ll protect you.”
For someone claiming to protect him, her face was strangely desperate.
As their conversation dragged on, Lee Jaehun sensed Moon Sangun, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, glancing over at them. He probably couldn’t hear what they were saying, but a faint anxiety clouded his questioning face. It seemed Kang Mina’s obsessive sense of responsibility was reaching even that far.
If she hadn’t regressed, but also hadn’t ‘not’ regressed…
“… …”
What threat could she possibly be sensing that wasn’t there?
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Lee Jaehun’s gaze narrowed.
‘…Could it be a dream?’
Since ‘Lee Jaehun’ was also suffering from dreams, it was natural for him to think of dreams first. Thinking back to the way she had woken up in the middle of the night and rambling incoherently further fueled his suspicion.
‘This complicates things.’
Come to think of it, his lucid dreams weren’t affected by the regression.
To be precise, unlike everything else outside the dream, they didn’t revert back. If it could be considered a separate world, it was as if history was accumulating there. Like layers of soil and sand, experiences accumulated and flowed within a single timeline.
“… …”
…It was a sudden, somewhat unrelated thought, but Lee Jaehun had encountered three green algae monsters in his dreams.
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“Right…”
The monster that tried to kill him.
The monster that tried to save him.
And the new monster containing Song Inmyeong.
“Is that so.”
The woman’s hand pulling him towards death.
The desperate actions wishing for him to live.
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Song Inmyeong, who eventually dⁱㅌd and became the skeleton of the green algae.
“You’ll protect me.”
All three were different individuals. Different skeletons.
The woman, a character who never appeared in the original story, tried to kill him. The one who offered the deal for Song Inmyeong tried to save him. And Song Inmyeong, who had dⁱㅌd in the previous loop, smiled at Jaehun.
He instinctively realized that the green algae monsters from all timelines inhabited his dreams. While reality before and after the regression was merely replaced, within his dreams, they remained and existed. If categorized that way, the order was jumbled, meaning the green algae monsters in his lucid dreams could act within his dreams whenever they pleased.
‘Then let’s think.’
The green algae monster chose a random corpse as its skeleton. Its actions changed depending on the skeleton. It lived in a large lake, a lake of green algae…
“… …”
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First, his corpse was dragged into the green algae lake.
“… …”
“…I…”
Second, Jung Inho reportedly committed suicide in the same lake.
“Well…”
Third.
Song Inmyeong’s body must have also been dragged into the large lake.
“Judging by how you’re behaving, it seems like you had a nightmare.”
“… …”
“You woke up in the middle of the night. You must have been tired, which means it must have been a terrible dream.”
“…I think so.”
“That’s understandable.”
Judging by the story of the green algae monster with Song Inmyeong rampaging madly, its behavior changed depending on the skeleton. This rule applied both in dreams and in the other world.
Then, a question arose.
“You said you’d protect me.”
Who was the one who wanted to save me?
“…Even if you don’t allow me to.”
“I see.”
In the previous timeline, after me, whose corpse sank into the green algae lake? Who became the monster’s skeleton after Lee Jaehun?
“That’s good.”
“… …”
“I’ll be counting on you, Kang Mina.”
It was Jung Inho.
How utterly dⁱsgʊstⁱng.
***
Then, what did it look like when it was me?
***
“…Thinking about it now, it didn’t move.”
“… …”
“I think the green algae monster back then just watched us.”
Jung Inho continued, recalling the situation.
“Though it wasn’t an observing gaze like Mr. Ha Sungyoon’s.”
He was telling Ha Sungyoon about his lost time.
He believed that if he wanted to hear someone else’s story, he should at least share his own first. Jung Inho knew that Ha Sungyoon’s secrets were hidden more deeply than he could have imagined. It was only right for the one who needed something to be the first to lower their head, at least for the sake of basic courtesy and their relationship.
“…It wasn’t an observing gaze, you said?”
“It felt like it couldn’t approach us? To be honest, I’m not sure. I was quite out of it at the time.”
“It’s understandable that you were out of it.”
Ha Sungyoon continued, wearing his usual gentle smile.
“Being able to return to the past… it’s a strange world, isn’t it?”
“…You believe it quite easily. Both the Manager and you, Mr. Ha Sungyoon.”
“My relatively sane friend changed this drastically overnight. I have no choice but to believe this rather than a monster wearing Mr. Jung Inho’s skin.”
“That’s true.”
Perhaps because he had already confessed once, the second time was even easier. Especially with someone like Ha Sungyoon, who reacted calmly to everything.
As if he had finished his brief contemplation, Ha Sungyoon asked,
“So, do I always have an observing gaze?”
“Like a scientist looking at a test subject.”
“… …”
“Just kidding.”
Jung Inho let out an empty laugh.
“But it’s true that it’s a gaze that doesn’t want to get involved.”
He seemed almost hurt by that.
Suddenly, Jung Inho realized that the previous timelines were starting to feel unreal. Perhaps it was a kind of self-defense mechanism. The more real it felt, the greater the burden on his mind, so in a way, it was a wise reaction. Although Jung Inho hadn’t intended it, he was somewhat grateful for it.
Perhaps that was why he didn’t resent the doctor in front of him as much as he thought he would.
“Did you know, Mr. Ha Sungyoon? In the last timeline, you killed someone. The person who killed the Manager.”
Ha Sungyoon’s reaction to Jung Inho’s words was simply to widen his eyes slightly. He didn’t seem to harbor positive feelings about having committed murder, but he seemed to have expected it to some extent.
“What tool did I use?”
“A scalpel, I think. Are doctors allowed to carry something like that outside the hospital?”
“… …”
“Are they?”
“…Of course not.”
Ha Sungyoon’s face slowly contorted as he spoke.
“There’s no way they would be.”
Jung Inho could read feelings like guilt and self-loathing in his expression, and that was quite strange. The Ha Sungyoon he remembered was more brazen and smooth.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t understand.
“I’m not a good doctor, and I’m not a good person. At least when I was in the hospital, I was a competent doctor, but now I can’t even do that.”
“I’ve always felt that you’re fixated on being a doctor.”
“…It’s hard to argue with that.”
Ha Sungyoon mumbled before continuing.
“I don’t want to talk about myself. But I don’t think Mr. Jung Inho’s story is a lie. If it were a lie, you wouldn’t know I had a scalpel. Normally, doctors don’t carry such dangerous tools outside the hospital…”
“… …”
“…Did I kill someone?”
“To be precise, you killed a murderer.”
“Good heavens.”
He chuckled.
“I guess I really can’t be a good person.”
“… …”
Jung Inho felt a sense of kinship with those words.
“Yes, I am fixated on being a doctor. I know that I’m a doctor before I’m a person. But the fact that I can’t do anything here… I think that’s what’s making me… change.”
“…If you’re blaming yourself for that, what am I supposed to do, Doctor?”
“It makes me happy when people call me doctor. I apologize, I keep going off on tangents. I think it’s because I’m so disoriented.”
He stared blankly for a moment before speaking again.
“…I came here looking for something.”
In Jung Inho’s opinion, it was the most honest thing he’d said since they met.
“There’s something I need to find in this other world, so I’ve been meeting with that friend. The friend who said they’d been to this world. We met once a month and thought about how to enter this world.”
“You’re truly insane.”
“I think so too. It’s truly insane. This wasn’t something a person should do.”
He seemed both regretful and relieved.
“But one thing’s for sure, I’ll eventually dⁱㅌ here.”
Perhaps it was because his grave was already predetermined.
“…You said I changed my eyes? That they changed after visiting the statue.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Then let’s go together.”
“…You’re really going to change them?”
“Even if I change my eyes and, as you said, go crazy or kill someone…”
Ha Sungyoon, who had been gazing at the fishing traps swaying gently in the small lake, turned his head and looked at Jung Inho again. Unlike usual, his face was devoid of a smile, replaced by raw anxiety and self-reproach.
After suppressing several sighs, Ha Sungyoon continued,
“I need those eyes.”
His voice sounded like he was about to cry.