If I Don’t Earn 1 Trillion Won, My Regression Ends - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 18

“You…!”

Namihee shut her mouth, seemingly flustered.

Instead, she glared at me with eyes several times more venomous than before.

Raising my voice at a child wasn’t particularly pleasant, but no matter how young she was, I couldn’t stand watching her mess with my mother right in front of me.

Having successfully sprayed the fire extinguisher on Namihee’s foul mouth, I moved Mother behind me and slowly softened my tone.

“You don’t need to pay for dry cleaning. Not because I pity you, but because it’s genuinely unnecessary. Why would I take money for something that ends with one spin in the washing machine at home? Do we look that rich to you?”

“…”

“How about this instead? If you hate being indebted that much, since you wronged me rather than my mother, you can do me a favor later.”

“…Your favor?”

“Right. It’s cleaner if we exchange favors.”

Namihee raised her sharp-looking eyes.

She looked me up and down unpleasantly, and I could see the wariness dripping from her gaze, so I shook my head.

I could see right through what she was thinking.

“Don’t worry. I’m not a competitor like Lee Seon-yeop. We won’t meet again at audition halls. I just think you’ll become famous later, so I want to leave a debt behind. You never know what might happen in life.”

I wondered if a child would understand such talk, but look at the situation earlier and now.

Kids who entered the entertainment industry early couldn’t be seen as simple children.

Sure enough, Namihee’s expression relaxed immediately. No, more than relaxed – she became triumphant.

“Of course. My mom is Sim Hae-ryeon. How could Sim Hae-ryeon’s daughter not become famous?”

“What? Sim Hae-ryeon? You’re saying you’re Sim Hae-ryeon’s daughter?!”

Mother seemed more shocked than I was.

Namihee nodded and arrogantly jerked her chin toward me.

“What’s your name?”

“Seosing-a.”

“Good, Seosing-a. You seem a bit different from stupid kids like Lee Seon-yeop. Lady, you have a notebook, right?”

At this point when cell phones were just starting to spread, phone number notebooks were essential items for modern people.

When Mother hastily pulled out a notebook from her bag and handed it over, Namihee scribbled down a number quickly and threw it at me.

‘That little brat…’

“This is my aunt’s house number. I’ll give you my new number when I get a cell phone, so contact me here for now.”

Would there really be an occasion to contact her…?

Just wanting to send this child away quickly, I nodded halfheartedly.

“Sure.”

“And the dry cleaning fee…”

What’s with this kid’s obsession with dry cleaning fees?

When I glared at her as if I was fed up, Namihee flinched, then quickly composed her expression.

“You said it wasn’t necessary, fine!”

Then she ran away hurriedly as if afraid I’d grab her.

‘The dry cleaning fee talk was just bluffing after all.’

Mrs. Bang quietly admired from behind.

“Like mother, like daughter. Even their personalities are identical.”

“Who’s Sim Hae-ryeon? Is she famous?”

“What? You don’t know Sim Hae-ryeon from ‘Seodongyo’?! Ah~ right. Kids wouldn’t know. It’s too long ago. She was a hugely famous actress when Mom was young. A legend of the 70s. Called part of the Troika. When she was at her peak, she suddenly disappeared and there were rumors she went to North Korea, that she was a spy, but she must have died in the end. Oh dear, she was still so young, what happened…”

A spy? Wait, the daughter of a spy actress?

‘Isn’t that Na Eun-ra?!’

No wonder her features looked strangely familiar!

It felt like a light bulb suddenly turned on in my head.

I hurriedly looked in the direction Namihee had gone, but she had long since disappeared.

‘That was Na Eun-ra…!’

So her real name was Namihee.

Unless you’re a fan, how would you know if a celebrity’s name is real or fake?

But there was only one celebrity in South Korea who had rumors about having a North Korean spy actress as a mother – absolutely unique.

So that Namihee must definitely be ‘Na Eun-ra’ herself.

Na Eun-ra.

The Queen of Cannes, Na Eun-ra!

From her debut work, all her filmography was invited to the Cannes Film Festival, and she won not only Best Actress but later even became a Cannes jury member.

The undisputed favorite of Cannes, a world-class top actress.

By the 2020s, Korean actors performing on the world stage was too common, but there weren’t many people who received ‘recognition’ globally like Na Eun-ra.

‘So I just made the Queen of Cannes owe me a debt?’

If I had known, I would have tried rolling the dice…

No wait. Anyway, since I was hit by those unlucky green horn-rimmed glasses, today’s opportunity was exhausted, so I’ll have to wait for next time.

‘Just having a debt placed is something.’

My gloomy mood about potentially leaving a dark history in a failing commercial completely disappeared without a trace.

How much money could I extract from Namihee later? My money-obsessed brain’s fantasies ran at full speed with joy.

♧

March 2nd, 1998.

About two weeks after the audition ended.

I finally became a first grader.

Just escaping daycare made me this happy? I might cry when I put on a school uniform.

I waved my clammy hand with a face full of joy.

Yes. Clammily clasped hands…

“Oppa… couldn’t you let go of this hand? No, more than that, this is the entrance ceremony line and you’re a second grader, so why are you standing here?”

“Why? Does Sing-a dislike Chamsol? I knew it was like that, right?”

“…”

Who on earth ‘awakened’ little Choi Chamsol?

‘It was me. It must be me… what am I even asking…’

It was my original sin – knowing well how obsessed Choi Chamsol was with friends, yet leaving him alone to maximize the reunion effect with Yun Yirae.

Little Choi Chamsol, who had spent years without being rewarded for his friendship, turned dark immediately upon reuniting with little Seosing-a.

「Sing-a. Oppa did wrong, right? That’s why you didn’t come find me, right? Right? It’s all Chamsol’s fault…」

「Chamsol Oppa. Calm down and listen to Sing-a. It’s not that serious of a problem, is it?」

「Let’s die. By my own will…」

「Ch-Chamsol Oppa!」

The power of darkened little Choi Chamsol was tremendous.

He pressured Mrs. Yun Yirae with a hunger strike to transfer his school to Gae-jeong Elementary where little Seosing-a was planning to enroll, then despite being only nine years old, he began traveling the one-hour commute alone with intelligence superior to his peers.

‘Choi Chamsol, scary child…!’

Moreover, whatever internal changes he went through, there were even external changes…

“Sing-a. Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on me?”

“No.”

Where did the weak rice cake disappear to? What about those nerdy round glasses?

I unconsciously let out a sigh.

“But you’re pretty…”

“Huh? How embarrassing to say such things.”

Little Choi Chamsol blushed shyly and leaned close to me.

Who is this person really?!

His cheeks were still soft like rice cake, but after taking off those round glasses and his features fully blooming, he became… a beautiful boy you’d only see in comic books!

If Rampa Lim was a handsome sunny-type beautiful boy, and Jeong Hyeon-gyo was an exemplary young master beautiful boy, then Choi Chamsol was a lethal rose-type young master…

‘You know that style where you can’t tell if they’re male or female, so if they dress as a woman, all the men die, and if they dress as a man, all the women die…’

And does their personality change when their appearance changes too?

Little Choi Chamsol had evolved from his semi-stalker style of secretly watching from the shadows to begin varying his attack methods by destructively targeting himself like poison.

When I told him to let go of my hand, he’d stagger asking if I hated him, and when I played with other friends, he’d tearfully beg for forgiveness, making everyone look at kind little Seosing-a with prejudiced eyes.

“Look over there, Sing-a and Chamsol get along so well!”

“That troublemaker finally grew up. After making Chamsol cry like that!”

Just look at this now.

How bad must it have been that even though he crashed my entrance ceremony, the adults are just happily taking pictures?

This is my entrance ceremony! Choi Chamsol’s entrance ceremony was last year.

‘Could this be… karma?’

Is the backlash coming back this way because I used little Choi Chamsol in the early days of regression?

I thought about rolling the dice, but decided against it since checking our relationship level would probably be truly terrifying…

“Sing-a. Chamsol oppa.”

At the delicate voice from behind me, I flinched and my shoulders trembled.

It was unavoidable. An automatic reflex, an instinctive reaction.

‘She’s here, Jeong Hyeon-hye…!’

Following this area’s male poison, this area’s female toxic flower!

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