Chapter 175 |
Although he said it was for his people, it was also for himself.
‘I used you for myself.’
Lee Jaehun had trusted Jung Inho enough to confide in him, and yet Jung Inho had carelessly revealed that past to others, twisted the story to suit his own purposes, and shamelessly exploited what might have been the hardest and most painful time of Lee Jaehun’s life for his own gain. Regardless of the outcome, that fact remained unchanged.
Jung Inho was a bad person.
“…I….”
What should he say?
“So.”
What should he answer to stop sinning any further? What should he, who had just nonchalantly committed such a dⁱsgʊstⁱng act, do to avoid harming the person in front of him…?
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“…I’m fine.”
But the words that came out were ultimately just lies.
Just like how he had killed himself because he didn’t want to be left alone, Jung Inho was a coward who only knew how to run away.
“I don’t know why you came all the way here, but there was no problem. You don’t have to worry.”
“…I don’t have to worry, you said.”
“Yes, I’m really fine. I’m actually more worried about the Manager’s condition.”
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“Me?”
“You seem to be having a hard time lately… You seem to have a headache too. Why don’t you talk to Mr. Ha Sungyoon? Even if there’s no proper medicine, he should be able to give you a simple prescription…”
Lee Jaehun frowned at his evasiveness and asked,
“It seemed like you were talking to Song Inmyeong.”
“…….”
“Mr. Jung Inho.”
Thank goodness.
“I was giving a light warning.”
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It seemed Lee Jaehun hadn’t heard the conversation with that trash.
Actually, even if it had been Hong Kyungjun, it wouldn’t have mattered much. Getting along with Detective Hong Kyungjun’s group was already out of the question thanks to the fabricated stories spread by Song Inmyeong’s unique eloquence, so no matter what Jung Inho did here, Hong Kyungjun would still suspect him.
‘Actually, at this point, he’s right to be suspicious.’
But even if he was suspected, Hong Kyungjun wasn’t the type to kill or abandon someone. Even if Song Inmyeong committed murder right in front of him, he wouldn’t be able to deal with it. The same would have been true even if Jung Inho conspired with Song Inmyeong to commit murder.
‘So, even if he heard, nothing would change.’
He figured since he was already under suspicion anyway, it would be better for him to bear the suspicion alone. It was too tiring for others, including Kang Mina, to be involved in this dⁱrty and complicated matter.
However, Lee Jaehun’s case was a little different.
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“I just talked to him to tell him not to approach us, Manager.”
“…Is that so?”
“It was no big deal.”
He just didn’t want to tell him about his situation, although he didn’t know exactly what it was about.
“So, you really don’t have to worry.”
Perhaps the former Manager Lee Jaehun felt this way too.
His thoughts and memories, mixed up like mud, were too much to even utter. Just as he didn’t want to violently shake a glass filled precariously to the brim, it was a kind of selfishness that made him want to stay tucked away in a warm blanket on a cold winter day. Surprisingly, there was comfort in that.
Therefore, if he assumed that the situation would improve by simply keeping his mouth shut, he didn’t want to say anything. Just holding it in wasn’t as painful as he had imagined.
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“…It was Mr. Jung Inho who said Song Inmyeong was dangerous.”
“I remember.”
“You said that person targeted me, but it’s not like he didn’t kill other people.”
“I remember that too.”
“…….”
Lee Jaehun’s slightly furrowed brow spoke volumes about his feelings, but it was a common reaction for him, making it difficult to analyze. To be exact, Jung Inho didn’t have the leisure to do so.
After a moment of hesitation, Lee Jaehun continued,
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“I regret it.”
“What?”
“That I confided in you.”
At that moment, his heart sank like a child scolded by his parents.
“…I….”
“I thought that no matter what I said or relied on, Mr. Jung Inho wouldn’t change.”
“I haven’t changed.”
“If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have approached you. I would have just watched from afar like before. I’m a bad influence on Mr. Jung Inho…”
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“That’s not it.”
“Otherwise.”
Lee Jaehun’s expression calmed down.
“Why are you making that face?”
“…….”
Just as much as, or perhaps even more than Jung Inho was observing him, Lee Jaehun must have been watching Jung Inho. Even though he knew that, was he acting foolishly because he had changed? Because he had missed something, or lost something?
But even when he brushed his hand across his lips, nothing had changed.
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“See, you’re not even sure yourself.”
“…No.”
“What do you want to do?”
“It’s nothing, Manager.”
“I’ll ask one last time.”
A mechanical, tired voice.
“Am I right not to regret it?”
But Lee Jaehun was lying.
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“…Yes.”
“…….”
“It’s fine, then.”
‘One last time,’ who would believe that?
‘He definitely won’t let it slide and will ask again someday.’
Lee Jaehun wasn’t cold enough to end it with just one scolding and interrogation. Wasn’t he a person who was terribly cruel to himself, but couldn’t be so to others? Even if he said this was the last time, he would eventually appear and call for Jung Inho when he was at his lowest.
He knew that he would approach him, calling him in a low voice, ‘Mr. Jung Inho’, just like now, just like before.
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‘Good.’
That gave Jung Inho a tremendous sense of stability.
The momentary fear he felt when Lee Jaehun frowned at his change subsided. Unless Jung Inho dⁱㅌd again and turned back time, Lee Jaehun had said he would help him and promised not to dⁱㅌ. Even when Jung Inho was at his most vulnerable, Lee Jaehun might be disappointed, but he wouldn’t leave.
Jung Inho wasn’t so naive as not to exploit such foolishness.
“…Then, shall we go back together?”
“…You….”
“There doesn’t seem to be anything strange around here. I did see stray dog monsters occasionally, but not in significant numbers. They didn’t show any particular hostility.”
“Mr. Jung Inho.”
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“I think we can rest easy.”
He couldn’t be a good person anyway.
“Right?”
Then, all he had to do was do the good things a bad person could do.
***
Lee Jaehun blinked as the protagonist walked past him.
One second, two seconds.
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“…Huh.”
He stared blankly for a moment, then couldn’t help but sigh.
‘That b⋏st⋏rd dares to go off the rails?’
He had a feeling of unease, and in the end, he was backstabbed like this.
He had kept his mouth shut because it seemed like the protagonist would crumble first if he showed any sign of having overheard the conversation; among the senses that had improved after realizing his past life was his hearing. Even if there were times when he couldn’t focus due to his overloaded brain after entering the otherworld, there was no way he couldn’t have heard the conversation with Song Inmyeong.
And he could confirm that his prediction was correct.
“You said you didn’t like my plan, you creepy b⋏st⋏rd…”
His helpless muttering dispersed into the air, reaching nowhere.
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‘If you wanted to borrow my plan, shouldn’t you have reported to me, the owner, first, d⋏mmⁱt?’
Even though he knew it was a joke, his brain, missing a few screws, could only come up with such s*upid thoughts. No matter how much he denied it, the ‘Lee Jaehun Bait Operation’ seemed to have transformed into the ‘Moon Sangun Bait Operation_Starring Song Inmyeong_Directed by Jung Inho.’ It made his head spin just thinking about where to even begin fixing this.
“…….”
First, calm down.
‘…Is the biggest problem the change in the protagonist’s personality?’
Yes, this was the most serious issue.
Of course, the current situation, twisted by Song Inmyeong’s interference, was a problem, and so was Lee Jaehun, who was clearly in a vulnerable position, and the rest of the group who were under suspicion, and Moon Sangun, who was stuck in the middle. But even compared to all that, nothing caused Lee Jaehun more of a headache than the protagonist’s change.
‘Even if you turn dark, you should be sickeningly good.’
How dare the protagonist of this world make such a misguided judgment? Since Lee Jaehun was a reader before becoming a resident of this world, he couldn’t accept such a change.
If he considered it carefully, he must have been largely at fault, but even so, it was quite a shock that the protagonist, who was obsessively good, had changed like this. It seemed that the current protagonist’s obsession with goodness had decreased because he had a few reliable companions, including ‘Lee Jaehun.’
“…Before, he had nothing else to lean on…”
Unlike the original novel, where he couldn’t have endured without clinging to goodness.
“…….”
Jung Inho went ahead, and Lee Jaeun, who had been standing still for a while, soon nodded.
This was a problem.
‘I have to fix this somehow.’
Jung Inho could act like this now because it was a special environment where human life was worth less than an ant’s. But what if he left the otherworld, even for a moment? If he returned to the world of law, rules, and words? If he returned to a more comfortable and peaceful daily life, not this place where his mental strength drained just by breathing, could he still endure then?
“No way.”
Lee Jaehun muttered as if whispering.
Even though the range of emotions he felt was generally limited, it was not like he felt absolutely no sense of accomplishment or satisfaction from ‘goodness’ while living so far. He was a guy who considered clinging to goodness as the purpose of his life, so he wouldn’t be able to act so shamelessly even after he came to his senses. In the first place, that was one of the reasons why Lee Jaehun tried to save the survivors in front of the protagonist.
‘There’s no advantage to this….’
One person who treated people like chess pieces was enough among these many survivors, and that one person was Lee Jaehun. Especially, it absolutely shouldn’t be the protagonist. Then what would become of Lee Jaehun, who had built his image by appealing to the protagonist’s obsession with goodness? It was the worst choice, both in the short term and the long term…
Now that he thought about it—
“That’s right.”
Sometimes, this kind of situation happened in his past life as well.
When he was young, Lee Jaehun never put on such a shoddy act because he was inflexible, but as he got older and understood his place, he roughly saw how the world worked. It was a world full of people obsessed with efficiency, but they weren’t without emotions, so Lee Jaehun learned how to put up appearances.
Since Lee Jaehun was also human, he grew. He learned how to manage his expressions from someone, how to analyze others from someone, and how to subtly manipulate someone’s mind from another. Even if they hadn’t taught him, there were things he saw and felt by their side.
That was how he had boosted his employees’ performance with this outward image.
“…Hmm.”
Some psychopaths, overly influenced by such a superficial image, malfunctioned, but when he thought about it, the situation wasn’t much different from Jung Inho’s current state.
His eyes rolled, scanning the stark faces of the other world.
“I see.”
A look of understanding dawned on his pale face.
Lee Jaehun wasn’t aware of it, but it was an expression he often wore in his past life. It was also a face that rarely surfaced after he realized he had been reincarnated into a novel.
Having organized his thoughts, Lee Jaehun finally moved his feet.
“I’ve been lenient enough.”
It’s time for the whip now, you creepy b⋏st⋏rd.