Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 444

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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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444. The Truth (1)
In the rectangular room where luggage remained unpacked, only the sunlight streaming through the window served as illumination. In one corner of the wall sat the worn mattress Ha-jin had propped up last evening, and the neatly folded blankets that Si-u and Ha-ru had arranged this morning.
On that very floor where those blankets had been laid, three men with clenched jaws formed a tense triangular formation as they sat.
“So.”
Jeong Si-u, who until roughly an hour ago had captivated every parent passing through the Neighborhood Back Mountain Park and cemented his title as the neighborhood’s most desirable man, whispered in a honeyed voice.
“Make your excuses.”
His expression, arms crossed as if daring them to try, was so mild it almost seemed cheerful at first glance.
When Si-u had asked Ha-jin’s parents for permission to have a brief conversation with the Group Members before eating, neither his parents nor the perceptive Ha-won had suspected even remotely that he was in a foul mood—and that was precisely why.
“….”
“….”
However, the two men, well aware that their group’s eldest brother was an eccentric whose smile only grew wider the worse his mood became, felt as though they were staring directly into hellfire.
In particular, Dan Ha-ru, who had been rather earnestly playing the role of “sparkling Ha-ru in his rebellious phase” and had made considerable effort to maintain this fantasy’s security, felt as though he’d been struck by a bolt from the blue.
Kang Ha-jin had begged so desperately not to be exposed that Ha-ru had managed to pull off that awkward greeting with Nam Da-down, whom he’d never met before! All this time, he’d endured refraining from telling Ha-ru to quit smoking dozens of times daily, chewing through candy, chocolate, and gum doing every ridiculous thing imaginable!
‘Suddenly he launches into some solo limited-time one-man show, and then he actually slips up and says something stupid because he’s mesmerized by Jeong Si-u’s face!?’
Dan Ha-ru, well aware of Kang Ha-jin’s shameless acting prowess, barely managed to resist the urge to clutch the back of his neck and collapse right then and there. He then sealed his already firmly closed lips even tighter.
Normally, the best approach was to let the one who’d caused the trouble clean it up themselves. If he opened his mouth unnecessarily and their stories didn’t align, it would only make things worse.
As he glanced sideways at Kang Ha-jin sitting beside him, he saw the other man subtly shaking his head as if to say don’t speak, apparently harboring similar thoughts.
“Not going to answer?”
Ah, he’d overlooked the fact that there was a time limit to this exchange.
Jeong Si-u, who seemed to pursue endless fun and live life in full enjoyment mode, was actually an endlessly sensitive person.
While Seo Tae-hyun, of similar temperament, made constant effort to hide it and covered that sensitivity with his natural gentleness, Jeong Si-u had never harbored the expectation that the world could conform to his standards in the first place—and had thus reached a point where he even enjoyed that discomfort.
Because of this, when his sharp energy erupted like this, caution was necessary.
Dan Ha-ru desperately hoped that Kang Ha-jin beside him wasn’t in his insane mode where he spammed Jeong Si-u’s sensitivity buttons once every quarter, and he began mentally preparing for how to respond if Ha-jin couldn’t resist his madness and caused another incident….
“Actually, I’m an alien. I have to return to my planet next year.”
“What?”
“This crazy bastard….”
“Yeah, that genre’s probably a stretch, huh? Sorry.”
In this very moment.
Dan Ha-ru genuinely began to wonder why the fixed returner whose timeline had become entangled with his own had to be Kang Ha-jin of all people. He even started thinking that maybe Ha-jin’s mind had gotten scrambled along with the timeline loops he’d followed.
Yet Kang Ha-jin, who’d just lobbed that grenade, simply gazed at the infuriated Jeong Si-u with a composed expression and shrugged his shoulders.
“Would you believe me if I told you?”
“If it has more credibility than those things you said in the restroom being dialogue from some bizarre roleplay scenario.”
“That’s conditional. I can’t say anything with that level of trust.”
Why is he like this?
Kang Ha-jin was now openly showing Jeong Si-u his resolve and brazenly calling his bluff.
Jeong Si-u displayed clear discomfort and displeasure at Ha-jin’s response, yet he couldn’t suppress him with the high-handed attitude he’d shown before, nor could he force an answer. In fact, the corners of his mouth that had risen were slowly lowering!
‘Hmm, this is rather….’
Which meant Jeong Si-u wasn’t currently agitated enough to need to mask his emotions with a smile, and his rationality was regaining its footing.
Dan Ha-ru released the tension he’d been holding in his trapezius muscles. From Ha-jin’s profile, there was no trace of the previous anxiety or tension.
It was an attitude that proved he wasn’t mindlessly charging in to provoke Jeong Si-u like before, but rather acting with clear intent.
Kang Ha-jin, displaying an air of unshakeable composure, posed his question confidently to Jeong Si-u, who now found himself in the position of answering rather than interrogating.
“Please answer me, hyung.”
“….”
“If I tell you everything truthfully, do you have confidence that you’ll believe me?”
With that single question, the initiative in this exchange shifted hands.
And Kang Ha-jin was not the sort to relinquish control once he’d grasped it so hard-won.
* * *
‘I knew he wouldn’t answer easily.’
I watched Jeong Si-u struggle to find his opening words and swallowed quietly. Truth be told, I’d provoked him with the resolve that if things went sideways, we might end up in another full-blown confrontation—and my mouth was already growing parched in real time.
Yet there was reason behind my stubborn insistence on maintaining this brazen stance.
‘What matters to Jeong Si-u isn’t the truth. It’s simply that he can’t bear the existence of an unpredictable variable he doesn’t understand.’
Two years.
For two years, I’d clashed with Jeong Si-u endlessly over matters both great and small. If I’d learned nothing from that crucible, then I wasn’t Kang Ha-jin—I was a chimpanzee.
“Hyung, honestly, even if I say something now, you won’t believe me unless it makes sense to you, right? Isn’t that true?”
Jeong Si-u was a man who pathologically despised being underestimated or deferred to, yet simultaneously he was someone whose body had grown accustomed to the predator’s posture of bearing down on others from a position of superiority.
So to converse with such a man as equals, I first needed to stage a reversal of the hierarchy.
And for me, this was the first stepping stone of that reversal.
“That’s right, I am hiding something. But if I tell you, will you believe me?”
“….”
“Promise me you’ll believe whatever I say. Then I’ll tell you the truth.”
If I couldn’t hide it perfectly, then I would expose it perfectly.
Excuses like “I’m not hiding anything” had long since stopped working on Jeong Si-u. He’d already witnessed far too much for that to be credible.
So instead, coaxing him with “I am hiding something, but it won’t be a threat to you” would work far better. At least, that’s what my experience with Jeong Si-u thus far had taught me.
Jeong Si-u fell silent. Then he alternated his gaze between me and Dan Ha-ru.
Beside me, Dan Ha-ru was shooting daggers with his eyes, clearly questioning what on earth I was doing, but I paid it no mind.
Soon, Jeong Si-u slowly uncrossed his arms and nodded.
“Fine. I’ll believe you.”
The difference between unwrapping a gift box whose contents are unknown and leaving it as merely “something is inside.”
Jeong Si-u’s choice was the former. Perhaps it resembled the moment Pandora resolved to open her box.
Yet while Pandora’s box contained all manner of disasters—grimly realistic calamities—the “truth” Jeong Si-u had chosen to embrace harbored a fantasy that defied all credibility. That was the crucial difference.
“Dan Ha-ru and I are Returners.”
Just how far could Jeong Si-u believe?
I found myself growing curious.
“Dan Ha-ru wanted to be happy, so he made a contract with a divine entity and turned back time. I got caught up in it. You won’t remember, but we’re actually several timelines deep now.”
“…What?”
“The reason I sometimes couldn’t sleep well and felt dizzy was a kind of regression side effect. When Dan Ha-ru decided to give up on regression this time, I said I was relieved because it wouldn’t happen anymore.”
Curiosity always triumphs over fear.
‘I will trust you’—I was curious just how far Jeong Si-u’s resolve would hold.
As I laid everything bare, I saw Dan Ha-ru’s eyes widen to the point of bulging, his expression shifting to something akin to alarm. But true to his quick wit, he rapidly smoothed away his expression, replacing it with a look of disbelief—as if blinking and thinking, ‘What are you talking about, hyung?’
Yet despite his efforts, Jeong Si-u wasn’t even looking in Dan Ha-ru’s direction.
He was wondering why I would say something so absurd while looking at him.
“…Ha!”
After a long silence, Jeong Si-u finally let out a dumbfounded laugh.
I maintained a poker face, keeping my tension carefully hidden as I calmly waited for Jeong Si-u’s next words. Dan Ha-ru seemed confused by my sudden outburst, but it appeared he decided to trust me for now, taking no particular action.
I waited quietly for Jeong Si-u’s verdict. Now that I’d opened this particular box, whether it became a disaster or a hope depended entirely on our Pandora.
“Ha-jin.”
“Yes, hyung.”
Soon, Jeong Si-u forced his mouth open.
The corners of his lips, which had just returned to their proper place, were already curving upward toward the sky again.
“I don’t quite understand, so….”
“….”
“Just tell me a convincing lie instead. Every time you do this, I can’t tell whether you want to play with me or fight me.”
Pandora ultimately couldn’t believe the truth that lay within the box.
It was a natural reaction, and exactly what I’d anticipated.
Jeong Si-u now openly laughed in exasperation and continued speaking.
“I said I’d believe you. I said I’d believe whatever you said. That meant I wouldn’t ask further questions even if you hid the facts and made excuses instead.”
I’m sorry, but I was more sincere than ever before.
Yet sometimes, truths that are far too obvious lack credibility compared to plausible lies.
“But after extracting even my promise like that, if you come at me like this, what am I supposed to think? Should I understand it as ‘this isn’t something I need to know, so don’t worry about it and shut up from now on’?”
“….”
“Ha-ru. Do you trust me less than Do-ha or Ha-jin?”
Jeong Si-u was genuinely disappointed in us, his frustration evident and unguarded. And ironically, that very quality demonstrated how much our relationship with Jeong Si-u had developed compared to before.
At least now it meant Jeong Si-u had clear expectations of me and the Group Members.
“If you don’t intend to talk, then just say you don’t intend to talk. Then I won’t ask anymore.”
Jeong Si-u’s patience had run dry.
Seeing someone I’d only known as a newcomer get angry like this actually made me feel a certain humanity from him.
Of course, if I’d actually voiced such honest impressions, a real catastrophe would unfold, so I quickly opened my mouth before the third Jeong-Kang War could break out.
“That’s right, it was a lie.”
“You really―!”
“I’m in pain, hyung.”
“…What?”
If truth cannot be believed, then show a lie worth believing.
I deeply regret lying to someone already traumatized, but Jeong Si-u won’t shake his suspicions unless I confront him head-on like this—there’s no helping it.
And he just said with his own mouth that he’d forgive me even if I lied, with his generous heart, so he’ll understand this much. (Probably.)
“I’m in pain. Nothing serious, just a little.”
So, from now on, I’m a patient.
With no actual pain and energy bursting at the seams, yet somehow symptomatic, but the kind of super flimsy patient who’ll recover completely in a few months without any surgery.

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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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