Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 437

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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437. Why Did You Come to Our House? (6)
“Where are Mother and Father?”
“Father has the day off today, so both of them are home. Mother heard that you older brothers were coming and rushed out to do some shopping, but she should have arrived by now.”
Following Ha-won’s directions, the taxi moved to an apartment complex near the subway station, about ten minutes further by car from the neighborhood where I used to live. It wasn’t a brand-new, flashy development, but it had a good location and was cleaner and quieter than the surrounding complexes.
As I’d expected, this wasn’t the apartment where I’d been stuck at twenty-nine in my previous life.
In the previous timeline, the move had happened several years later than now, and since the financial situation was different then and now, it wasn’t strange that our new nest had changed.
‘Still… it feels surreal.’
I’d passed by here often in the old days, but I’d never thought it would become my home.
If I had to compare, this apartment was much cleaner and in better condition than the one I’d lived in during the other timeline.
This was the complex that Mother used to lament about, saying, “If we’d only had a bit more money back then, we would have moved here.” About eight years from now, when redevelopment news would break, property values in this area would skyrocket.
‘It’s just like Mother not to miss an opportunity… but how on earth did we manage to move here?’
That was actually my first thought when I heard the new address.
How did we even get here?
While it couldn’t compare to Seoul housing prices, it was still an apartment that our family’s finances could never have dreamed of affording. In the first place, the previous apartment was also a miracle—Mother had happened to come into a lump sum of money and had walked the streets until she miraculously snagged it.
Of course, I’d earned quite a lot of money over the past year… but given Mother’s personality, she would never do something so impulsive as to rake together her son’s money and dump it all into real estate.
If she’d really wanted to play with money using my earnings, she would have forced herself into debt to buy a Seoul property instead. She’d grown up in a merchant family from childhood and had a keen eye for money.
‘There are so many variables now that I can barely get a read on things anymore.’
In any case, I’d find out once I got home and talked with Mother.
I finished my thoughts there and shouldered my share of the luggage.
Saying I couldn’t possibly show up empty-handed at someone else’s house for the first time, my arms were now laden with meat and fruit that I’d bought in bulk at the mart on the way here.
For the record, Ha-won had paid. The condition was that Si-u would transfer the money once he got home and charged his phone.
“Mother, I’m here.”
“Oh! My sons are here?”
After passing through the unfamiliar building, riding the elevator for the first time, and going through the entrance door I’d never seen before, a familiar voice came floating through the air along with a delicious aroma.
“Come in quickly, I heard the trip was quite eventful. My goodness, it was the perfect opportunity to abandon the eldest son of the Kang family, but it failed because my son just had to be an idol. To think they’d broadcast a missing person report on the radio.”
“Mother…? I haven’t even taken off my shoes yet.”
“A son who doesn’t even know his own parents’ phone numbers probably deserved to be abandoned, don’t you think, son?”
Mother, whose complexion had improved noticeably in the time I hadn’t seen her, welcomed us with a hearty laugh.
At that brutal joke, Si-u and Ha-ru exchanged glances, unsure whether to laugh or not, and when Ha-won quietly organized his shoes, he whispered softly, “She’s just joking.”
“Come here and let me give you a hug, my eldest son. Why do you look even thinner?”
“Mother said to gain 5kg after eating, so I pushed myself a bit these past few days.”
“You should have called ahead then. We just finished eating all the leftovers from the holiday the other day. If you’d said you were coming, I would have prepared something yesterday.”
It was truly a strange thing.
This new house, which had felt so unfamiliar, became my home—infinitely familiar and comfortable—the moment I heard Mother’s voice and was held in her embrace.
I hugged Mother, who seemed to have grown even smaller, tightly and then let go, finally taking a slow look around the house. From the interior design to the small decorative items, I could see the taste and touch of my family members embedded in everything.
I turned around and, after setting down the luggage in my hands, spoke to Si-u and Ha-ru, who were now fumbling their way into the house.
“This is our house. I’m seeing it for the first time too.”
“….”
Even with a thumbs-up gesture, the two of them showed little reaction.
More precisely, they seemed to be wondering what kind of reaction they should show. It was strange seeing these two people, who never seemed flustered in their entire lives, making such expressions, so I tilted my head in confusion, and Mother, who was beside me, approached the two of them with long strides.
“Have your sons been doing well? I saw Ha-ru at the Broadcasting Station once before, and this is Si-u’s first time, right?”
“Ah, yes. It’s an honor to meet you, Mother. I’m Jeong Si-u.”
“Oh, don’t be so formal. Be comfortable. You’re the ones meeting us for the first time, but we’ve seen you all the time—on that TV.”
Mother pointed to the enormous television in the center of the living room and laughed with characteristic warmth.
While Jeong Si-u chuckled at her words, another massive question mark materialized above my head. I hurried over to Kang Ha-won, who was placing the fruit and meat we’d brought into the refrigerator, and grabbed his arm urgently.
“…? What.”
“Did Mom win the lottery?”
“What are you talking about.”
“I’m already shocked we moved to such a large house, but suddenly what’s with this TV? We lived without a TV in our old place for over ten years. And they bought one this big? Did I earn that much money? No, I have almost all my earnings.”
I had certainly earned a substantial amount.
But only a tiny fraction of that money had gone into Mother’s hands.
Ever since I started receiving my first settlements, Mother had drawn a firm line—she would only accept living expenses from me and help paying off urgent bank debts, nothing more.
Just a year ago, I’d barely managed to convince her not to write an IOU even for repaying those bank loans.
‘But in just one or two years, the family situation has improved this much?’
The only thing that had changed in this timeline was that I’d become an idol.
And while that had certainly transformed my life dramatically, I’d never imagined it would bring such significant changes to those around me.
Feeling somewhat bewildered, I simply smacked my lips, and Kang Ha-won—who’d just closed the refrigerator after placing the last box inside—replied as if it were nothing special.
“The move was something Mom and Dad decided on, so I don’t know all the details, but the TV was bought because of you, hyung.”
“…Me?”
“What else do Mom and Dad have to see you on besides broadcasts? But the computer screen is too small to watch on. Since both of them like watching movies anyway, they just decided to get a big one.”
“So where exactly did the money come from?”
“I don’t know. Anyway, we haven’t been here long either. Oh, your room is over there.”
“My room? I have a room?”
“…? What do you mean, don’t I?”
Kang Ha-won pointed to a door slightly distant from the kitchen, his expression asking what on earth I was talking about.
“But it’s not organized inside, so you’ll need to clean it. Since it’s all your stuff, I didn’t know how to arrange it, so I just stacked everything. While you’re here, clean it up a bit.”
“So where are we sleeping tonight?”
“You sleep in my room with me, and the Group Members can sleep in the living room or… otherwise, clean up your room today and sleep there. Go check the state of your room first. See if it’s something you can organize today.”
“….”
Leaving only those words behind, Kang Ha-won vanished like the wind, heading toward the living room where Mother and the Group Members were. Mother, blessed with charisma as natural as my own, had already seated Jeong Si-u and Dan Ha-ru on the sofa and was conducting a thorough interrogation—asking what they liked to eat, what they couldn’t eat, what they preferred and disliked.
“….”
I slowly took in the scene, then turned my steps toward the “my room” that Ha-won had pointed out.
The entrance to that most unfamiliar space in this entire house was painted in a navy blue that I loved.
Creeeeak.
The doorknob turned, and the dark room inside gradually revealed itself as I opened the door.
Just as Ha-won had said about the lack of proper organization, the space resembled a storage room, with my belongings from the previous house stacked irregularly throughout. Yet even in the darkness, I could tell that my parents had cleaned daily—not a speck of dust accumulated on the boxes or floor.
Click.
When I found the switch and turned on the light, a moderately-sized space came into view. The space my “belongings” actually occupied was smaller than I’d expected.
That made sense. After all, I hadn’t had that many possessions in the old place either, and I’d sent everything I used regularly to the Dormitory.
“…My room, huh.”
My gaze drifted toward the corner of the room.
Next to a large window where sunlight streamed in, a single-sized mattress I’d used long ago sat there, solitary and worn.
“….”
I slowly approached that mattress.
It was exactly the same one I’d lain on at twenty-nine. Back when my circumstances were far more dire, I’d stubbornly used that same mattress I’d first bought at nineteen for precisely ten years without replacement.
Even as the cushioning collapsed and the stuffing burst through, I never changed it.
Back then, even that was a luxury I couldn’t afford.
“…hyung.”
“…?”
Pulled from my reverie by the sound from behind, I saw Dan Ha-ru stepping hesitantly into the room with an awkward expression.
As if someone might drag him away, Dan Ha-ru gripped the doorknob tightly and cautiously stepped inside, speaking.
“Hyung, um…. Mother says to change your clothes quickly and come out. She says there’s plenty of food to prepare.”
“Ah, yeah. I’ll be right out. You and Si-woo hyung can just leave your luggage here for now. This is my room.”
“Okay.”
At my words, Dan Ha-ru rolled his eyes around the room, nodded, and stepped back. It seemed he was planning to tell Jeong Si-u in the living room to move the luggage.
“Dan Ha-ru.”
“…?”
I called out to stop him.
It was a very impulsive call, but what I wanted to say was clear.
“Thank you.”
“…what, all of a sudden?”
“You said your return was an opportunity for me, didn’t you?”
A long time ago.
The Returner had said something to me.
That I should be grateful to him above all else. That without him, how could I have lived a life 180 degrees different from that garbage existence?
“Thank you for giving me that chance.”
Now that I think about it, those words held some truth.
I’d rediscovered the dreams I’d lost, earned more money than I could have imagined, and now I had a clean room of my own in this sprawling house.
It wasn’t just Ju Eun-chan who’d gained the opportunity to escape the corner of that cramped bed because of Dan Ha-ru’s return.
“I’m not sure what the other members think. Seo Tae-hyun was a failure back then, but things turned out well for him in the end, so maybe he thinks like I do.”
“….”
“As for Jeong Si-u hyung, well…. Human life and death aren’t things humans can decide, so if he can explain it well enough, maybe he can just move past it….”
“….”
“Still, somewhere in this world, there might be someone whose life turned 180 degrees worse because of your return. Like those Lanion kids, right? Actually, in my memories, they should have done better than they are now…. Those people might resent you, or whatever.”
Dan Ha-ru patiently listened to my rambling.
With an expression suggesting he didn’t understand what I was trying to say, he waited for my next words without releasing the doorknob he held.
I collapsed onto the worn mattress lying on the floor. It was so well-maintained that despite sitting down quite heavily, not a speck of dust rose.
Letting out a hollow laugh at the cushioning of that old, sunken mattress that felt like my rear would touch the ground, I offered my true feelings to Dan Ha-ru standing at the doorway.
“Still, I’ll be on your side.”
“….”
“So don’t get all nervous about it, man. It doesn’t suit you.”
Whether it was encouragement or reproach, Dan Ha-ru fell silent at my words.
Still wearing that inscrutable expression, he quietly glanced around my room once more before tossing out a blunt remark.
“…Nice room. Congrats on the move.”
Dan Ha-ru left those words behind and turned to step back out of the room.
Through the gap in the open door, I could hear Mother—the commanding matriarch of this household—orchestrating another grand production, her energetic voice bustling as she ordered Jeong Si-u, Dan Ha-ru, and Kang Ha-won around with boisterous enthusiasm.
“Eldest son! Did you pass out from happiness while checking out the room? Come change your clothes and get out here if you want to eat a delicious dinner and gain five kilos! There’s so much to do!”
At Mother’s words—calling for me when three sons apparently weren’t enough—I slowly rose from where I sat.
Then I propped up the worn mattress I’d been sitting on and leaned it neatly against one wall.
“…I should throw this out now.”
You have to discard the old to make room for the new.
With a heart suddenly lighter, I followed the commotion echoing from beyond the room and stepped out of that dark, cramped corner.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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