Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 443

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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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443. Your Well-Being (5)
The standoff continued with the restroom threshold between us.
Judging by their expressions, they’d heard everything they needed to. If I said something like “How much did you hear?” now, the situation would only spiral further downward.
“…Brother.”
In the moment when silence hung heavy because no one knew how to break it, Kang Ha-won—who’d been staring at me with that vacant expression the whole time—opened his mouth with the look of someone whose world had just collapsed.
“Brother, surely….”
“….”
“You don’t have, like, a terminal diagnosis or something….”
“No, no. Absolutely not…! Whatever you’re imagining right now, it’s definitely not that!”
I’d blown it.
Whatever everyone else had been thinking before, now that Kang Ha-won had said those words, the phrase “terminal diagnosis” would be floating around in all their heads. I had to somehow cut off the flights of imagination unfolding in their minds right now.
“No, seriously, listen. I get why you’d misunderstand, I do, but it’s really not like that….”
I spoke urgently.
I hadn’t figured out what excuse to make yet, but if I just kept talking, something would come to me eventually.
“I’m doing great, I’m fine. If something was wrong with me, the Company would’ve noticed first, and besides, I’m definitely not the type to be some tragic protagonist who suffers alone and slowly wastes away, I really, really don’t want to be that….”
“Ha-jin, you….”
“Mother, no, I’m telling you it’s not that.”
See? Mother had already covered her mouth.
How was I supposed to explain this?
More than anything, Jeong Si-u, who already knew about my previous incidents, didn’t look like he was going to accept any ordinary explanation. Look at those eyes shooting lasers—he was ready to admit me to a university hospital right this second.
“So, I can really explain this. I can explain it, okay? What I’m saying is….”
In any case, there was no physical evidence.
The bloodstains that had been there were scrubbed clean enough that they wouldn’t be found without a luminol test, and the dizziness had already completely disappeared.
Heart rate? Normal. High fever with coughing and phlegm? No signs of it.
So the only thing I needed to explain right now was that rambling soliloquy that couldn’t be accounted for unless it was about a terminal diagnosis….
‘I’ll figure something out from here on.’
With that resolve, the moment I stepped out of the restroom again―.
Ding!
Ding?
[※Warning! The fixed returner’s physical condition cannot withstand the temporal energy of the Unconscious Space!]
[※Warning! Additional side effects (emotional dysregulation) may occur to stabilize bodily equilibrium.]
[※Warning! Time until physical stabilization: 1 minute….]
‘Damn it all――!’
“Ugh.”
Please, seriously.
Can we get some basic human rights for fixed returners, you piece of garbage System….
* * *
Kang Ha-jin emerged from the restroom spouting lines worthy of a terminal diagnosis, his face gaunt, and the moment his eyes met his family’s, he lost control of his emotions and wept uncontrollably for a full minute.
So I really had crossed a river I couldn’t return from….
“It’s acting.”
To escape this hopeless situation, I decided to put on a dog mask.
In other words, I resolved to become shameless.
“I’ve been taking acting classes at the Company lately. There’s a curriculum where we pick free-choice themes and practice various monologues, and I guess you heard me rehearsing that while I was alone.”
Whatever you all thought, it’s a misunderstanding. Definitely a misunderstanding.
At my firm tone, the family members who had been surrounding me like interrogators subtly shifted their expressions. Jeong Si-u beside me was also glaring at me with eyes full of suspicion.
But this time, I had an ally on my side too.
“Right, Ha-ru? I do this kind of situational monologue pretty often at the Dormitory these days, don’t I?”
As I turned my head sharply, Dan Ha-ru, who had been blankly picking almonds one by one from the table in the Living Room, startled and looked at me. The gazes of my family (plus Jeong Si-u) immediately shifted to Dan Ha-ru.
Dan Ha-ru, well aware that a wrong answer here would be the end of him, reluctantly nodded his head.
“Ah… Yes, that’s right. It’s true that I’m taking acting classes, and that kind of curriculum does exist…”
“Hmm…”
“Last time, when Ha-jin and Tae-hyun were doing a scene where they fought each other, we actually got our feelings hurt and made a fuss trying to make up. You’d know about that too, Si-u.”
Dan Ha-ru, nice.
As expected of someone who’d lived through many lives, he knew exactly who to target first.
“…Well, I suppose that’s true.”
At his fact-based defense, Jeong Si-u’s expression softened.
My family, who didn’t know much about my life at the Dormitory, also shifted to a half-believing attitude of “I guess so?” once Jeong Si-u showed some acceptance.
Father, who had been letting out a sigh with his arms crossed and a serious expression, opened his mouth with an intimidating momentum.
“But you were crying. In all the years I’ve raised you, I’ve never seen you cry that hard.”
At Father’s interrogation, Mother and Ha-won nodded their heads vigorously.
Of course they did.
Because I’d never cried that hard in my entire life!
I really didn’t want to know what kind of emotion a person experiences when they enter a state of 400% emotional overload for a single minute…!
‘It felt like the whole world was against me, like I had no one on my side on this Earth. And then I saw my parents’ eyes, and they seemed to have aged a bit, which just made me sad, and I thought, wait, I need to do better for them going forward. And thinking about how hard our family has struggled to get to this house, the emotions just kept welling up…!’
And I compressed all that stream of thought very briefly and explained it.
“I was sad.”
“What?”
“I was so immersed in the acting, and then I saw Mother and just felt so sad.”
In the melodramatic genre of South Korea, there existed no cheat code more powerful than the concept of “Mother.” You could gloss over almost any situation with the special nature of “Mother.”
I saw Mother and suddenly felt so sad that tears came out—what else could anyone say about that?
I wiped my eyes, which still glistened with tears, with a tissue, pressing gently. It was an additional action that added authenticity to my explanation.
“So the setting was this: the protagonist regresses to the past from the moment of Earth’s destruction and ultimately saves Earth at the cost of their own life, and during the period when their life force is being converted into Earth’s life force, they spend time with their remaining family.”
“…”
“And now, they’re going through a bucket list one by one that they’d written down to do with their family in the world line where Earth was destroyed. But the family doesn’t know any of this now. Because thanks to the protagonist, the world line where Earth was destroyed has completely disappeared.”
“…”
“But the process of converting their life force into Earth’s life force is incredibly difficult now. It’s so painful. They feel their heart burning in fire twelve times a day! But because this present where their family can live happily is better than that past world line where everyone died, they endure alone with steadfast resolve.”
“The setting is… quite detailed.”
“It has to be. That’s how you get better immersion when acting. How important is it to construct the backstory in acting? It completely changes the depth of the performance, you know?”
Actually, I’d just made up that setting.
If you asked how I could create such a deep story in such a short time, I could tell you to go into a web novel platform right now and sample works ranked 1 to 100 with keywords like #modern fantasy #salvation #hunter #hero #constellation, and you’d understand.
The final scene from the last hunter novel I’d read suddenly came to mind—the protagonist driving a blade into their own heart for the sake of the world. I’d barely stopped crying, but remembering that scene nearly brought fresh tears to my eyes.
Come on, pull yourself together, Kang Ha-jin.
“…You’re serious?”
Mother asked me carefully, her face etched with worry.
I nodded at her with an deliberately brighter smile.
“Yeah, I’m serious. Really. If you don’t believe me, I can go to the hospital tomorrow and get checked out right now. I’m confident. Last time the group members made a fuss and dragged me to the hospital, and the doctor said I was not just healthy but incredibly robust. I couldn’t be healthier than I am right now.”
It wasn’t just healthy—it was a miraculous body that had even coughed up blood to clear the blocked meridians within, healing illnesses that had plagued me. Even the allergic rhinitis that used to flare up when the weather turned cold seemed to have vanished.
I was almost frightened by the thought: ‘At this rate, I could probably use this a few more times without issue.’ Of course, I had absolutely no intention of actually doing so.
“I get why you’d be shocked. If I heard someone say something like that about me, I’d have fainted too. But Dad, you know I’m the kind of person who admits when I’m wrong and tells the truth when I’m right, don’t you? And would I really hide being sick and suffer alone?”
“…Well, that’s true.”
Kang Ha-won relented under my continued persuasion.
He nodded and murmured as if he understood.
“You’re the type who takes a picture and sends it if you even get a paper cut, asking for comfort… I really don’t think you’d hide something seriously wrong.”
“Right?”
“If you didn’t have that firstborn trait of not wanting to burden the family, handling things alone, and then later reminiscing about it like ‘that’s how it was back then’…”
“If I were sick, I’d definitely check into the hospital and receive visits and care from the whole family, using my patient status to throw all the tantrums I’ve been holding back.”
“Now that I think about it, that does sound like something you’d do.”
“…I appreciate you believing me, but why does it feel weird?”
“Why are you complaining even when I believe you?”
Kang Ha-won nodded without much hesitation.
I was grateful he believed me, but somehow it felt strange that he believed me so readily.
Though thinking about it, I really wasn’t the cool, composed type who handled some massive situation entirely alone and hid it from everyone until the end with a smug grin.
‘That’s more Lee Do-ha or Lee Yu-gun’s style…’
Here I was, analyzing the group members’ character archetypes even in this urgent situation. My stomach must be full, Kang Ha-jin.
Anyway, looking at the atmosphere, it seemed we’d gotten past the worst of it. My family all seemed half-convinced by my earnest explanation, and even if they didn’t fully believe everything I said, they at least seemed to accept that I wasn’t terminally ill.
“Anyway, as long as you’re not sick, that’s what matters. Your mother just came back from shopping and got quite a shock…”
“If I were sick, the company would have moved first. Do you know how well I’m doing these days? The company conducts medical checkups every month without fail, so really, there’s nothing to worry about. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“As long as nothing’s wrong, that’s fine with me. …Goodness, let’s eat. You’ve all been exercising since morning, so you must be starving.”
It was Mother who ended the conversation.
Knowing Mother well—especially how much she hated lying—I met her gaze with unwavering confidence. At least I didn’t want to worry her about my health.
“Don’t worry about me. Just make sure you and Father take good care of yourselves. Get your checkups regularly, okay?”
“Got it, son. Phew, you really gave me a scare.”
“I’m serious. Really get those health checkups, and if anything hurts, you have to go to the hospital, understand?”
“I said I got it~”
Finally seeming to fully believe me, Mother and Father, who were now smiling faintly, received my repeated assurances and promises.
I looked at Mother, remembering how in the previous timeline she’d delayed going to the hospital due to financial concerns and eventually developed a serious illness that required hospitalization and surgery.
Unlike then, Mother didn’t need to overwork herself juggling housework and her job to the point of getting sick, but… still, it was better to prepare for these things in advance.
“Ha-won, let’s go. We need to put these groceries in the refrigerator right away.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, I’ll help too.”
“Then I’ll go take a shower.”
Thinking the conversation had concluded, Mother led Kang Ha-won and Dan Ha-ru toward the kitchen. Father also rose to his feet, intending to organize the exercise equipment in the storage room and wash up.
Now only Jeong Si-u and I remained in the living room.
“….”
“….”
This awkwardness was absolutely suffocating.
I scratched the back of my neck several times, cautiously observing Jeong Si-u, who hadn’t uttered a single word.
Unable to endure this stifling silence any longer, I finally began to rise from my seat.
“…Right, come to think of it, my tablet in my room should be fully charged by now, so I should probably go check on it―.”
“Kang Ha-jin.”
“Yes.”
I stopped mid-rise.
It wasn’t because of Jeong Si-u—my legs had simply grown stiff from suddenly trying to stand. I’d need to start doing hip flexor stretches starting today….
“You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?”
“….”
Jeong Si-u’s chillingly perceptive voice cut through the air like ice against my ears.
This is scarier than the ghost they showed on Touch High’s horror special.
As I awkwardly turned my head to face Jeong Si-u, he tilted his head slightly with an expression of clear displeasure, speaking with absolute certainty.
“You and Ha-ru. You’re both hiding something right now, aren’t you?”
“…Are you perhaps a shaman, hyung?”
How on earth does he know all of this…?
Beyond mere surprise, faced with the uncanny perceptiveness of our household’s resident fool-god, my genuine feelings spilled out between my lips before I could stop them.

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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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