If I Don’t Earn 1 Trillion Won, My Regression Ends - Chapter 19

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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 19

Rampa Lim had warned me before.

「Oi~ careful. Hyo so wild.」

At the time, I thought.

That little brat named Jeong Hyeon-hye must have quite the attitude. A rough tomboy style fitting for the wild 90s?

Absolutely not!

“Seosing-a. There you are. You’re with Chamsol Oppa again. Are you that uncomfortable playing with us? Even if you only feel comfortable with male friends, you should play with us too. You’re a girl, so you can’t just play with boys forever. The adults will worry.”

“Oh come on, enough! Hyeon-hye. Just leave her alone! No matter how nice you are to her, it’s useless.”

“Right~ If she likes boys, let her just play with boys!”

‘Teacher Rampa Lim… I finally understand now…’

Hidden within that one-line assessment of being “wild” was the implication that eight-year-old Jeong Hyeon-hye was a budding venomous sprout skilled in public opinion manipulation, sowing discord, and various forms of self-harm blackmail… Now I know…!

Who would have expected such sinister traits to be hidden inside that graceful, ladylike beauty who looks exactly like Professor Eun Yeon-ju?

Who would have known that beneath the perfect model student Jeong Hyeon-gyo, there would be a high-intelligence sociopathic younger sister who beats down peers through jealousy, incitement, and fabrication?

What kind of family is the Jeong household to have produced the prematurely aged Jeong Hyeon-gyo and raised the venomous Jeong Hyeon-hye?

‘I believe in the theory of innate evil now…’

I watched with dead fish eyes as Jeong Hyeon-hye brought a bunch of friends again to corner me as a boy-crazy sprout, then quietly leaned against Choi Chamsol.

Of course, I didn’t forget to sniffle my nose a bit, pretending to be sad.

Then the venomous Choi Chamsol, enraged at seeing his first love getting ganged up on, immediately stepped forward.

“Hyeon-hye, lying is really habitual for you, isn’t it? Every time you open your mouth, you say Seosing-a excludes female friends and only plays with male friends, but do you have proof? It’s all just stuff you’re spouting with your mouth. I stick by Seosing-a’s side 24 hours a day, even holding it in when I want to go to the restroom, but I’ve never seen such behavior. When and where did you see it?”

‘Wait? That doesn’t sound like bragging…’

Was there really a need to hold in going to the restroom?

The girls who had been shyly glancing at the rare handsome boy Choi Chamsol were startled and stepped back several paces, but Choi Chamsol remained confident and undaunted.

Jeong Hyeon-hye gazed at Choi Chamsol sadly.

“Chamsol Oppa… I know you like Seosing-a. So I understand your reluctance to believe it. But does that mean you have to make me out to be a bad kid?”

“Wh-who likes her? You really are a bad kid!”

The flustered Choi Chamsol even had his voice crack.

“Wasn’t it true? You follow Seosing-a around even though it’s not even your neighborhood. Everyone knows… Seosing-a. You thought so too, right?”

The baby viper, not missing that opportunity, tossed a pure and cruel question to me.

Choi Chamsol also glanced at me with eyes full of anticipation while pretending to scold her not to say such things.

I sighed inwardly and equipped eyes as clear as Jirisan spring water.

“Huh? What? Are there people who don’t know that Chamsol Oppa and I are best friends? Chamsol Oppa, who is Seosing-a’s friend, is Seosing-a’s most favorite friend.”

They’re the abnormal ones; a normal eight-year-old shouldn’t be able to read such implications and undercurrents.

The innocent Seosing-a child knows nothing, but I won’t leave any room for doubt with the repeated use of the word “friend”!

Choi Chamsol’s complexion turned pale.

I sniffled at snot I hadn’t even shed, acting even more foolish…

“Ah…”

Jeong Hyeon-hye shook her head toward Choi Chamsol with eyes half pitying, half gloating.

“Cheer up. It’s just that Seosing-a is popular, she’s not a bad kid-“

“Jeong Hyeon-hye.”

The eyes of young Choi Chamsol, tasting the pain of unrequited love for the first time, filled completely with venom.

“You think only you’re smart, don’t you? You’re the one who hates Seosing-a because the adults like and praise Seosing-a the most, and you don’t want your attention taken away.”

That was really the truth.

The relationship between Jeong Hyeon-hye and me wasn’t like this from the beginning.

What adult would dislike that child who looks exactly like the angelic Professor Eun Yeon-ju?

Even a fake child who had regressed and become younger was no exception. Jeong Hyeon-hye was also endlessly kind to her new friend who was the same age and a neighbor.

But what do you know?

It was after the kidnapping incident.

When the adults’ devoted attention focused on me after I returned alive, Jeong Hyeon-hye’s face gradually hardened, and from then on, she began hunting with me as her target.

「What is this noise?! Are you kids okay? Who put this vase here- Oh my, Hyeon-hye! What happened to your hand?」

「*sob*… I told you to be careful, Seosing-a. Why won’t you listen to me…」

「Me? I did that?」

The first few times, I was bewildered too.

Who would have imagined that a little kid who hadn’t even entered elementary school would manipulate public opinion through self-harm blackmail?

It was only after I realized that adults looked at me with wary eyes whenever I was with Jeong Hyeon-hye that I noticed I had been had, which was truly too late.

I wasn’t the only victim either.

When I heard from Professor Eun Yeon-ju that Rampa Lim used to torment Hyeon-hye like that, I had a flash of realization.

This baby viper treats all children, regardless of gender, who steal attention from her as enemies!

“Jeong Hyeon-hye, the more you hate Seosing-a like that, the more it only proves that you can’t be loved and cherished as much as Seosing-a.”

“So what? What does that have to do with you? You talk as if you’re loved. Who would like a whining, clingy boy like you? Seosing-a has no interest in you at all.”

“Still, my feelings of liking Seosing-a are real. Someone like you will never be liked by anyone for your whole life.”

“I’m not envious. It’s better to have no one like me than to have Choi Chamsol like me.”

Sparks flew between Jeong Hyeon-hye and Choi Chamsol as they glared at each other.

‘Is this really a conversation between an eight-year-old and a nine-year-old…?’

Even though the 90s were supposedly a more mature era than modern times, watching this felt like my common sense was being destroyed.

I wonder if there were this many precocious kids in the original world too… I’m not sure since my own childhood was quite ordinary.

But since this is a world where a regressor openly exists, something must have changed, right?

In a world where something like dice exists for me, Park Min-su might be saving the world with superpowers somewhere I can’t see.

‘Min-su… Look how much your regression has messed up this world.’

Anyway, it’s all Park Min-su’s fault…

I slowly backed away and escaped from the battlefield.

I went among the adults who were chatting harmoniously, oblivious to everything, killed time, and then suddenly asked.

Because I hadn’t seen someone since earlier.

“But what about Jeong Hyeon-gyo? Didn’t he come?”

Since other grades all had the day off for the entrance ceremony, Jeong Hyeon-gyo, who was a 3rd grader at the same school, naturally had the day off too.

But no matter how I looked, Professor Eun Yeon-ju was alone.

Even if Jeong Hyeon-gyo’s father was such a busy person, why didn’t Jeong Hyeon-gyo come?

“What do you mean ‘Jeong Hyeon-gyo’ to an oppa who’s two years older than you? Hyeon-gyo caught a cold.”

Again?

What kind of cold is so frequent? Since he started attending the gifted program, there hasn’t been a month when that kid wasn’t sick.

I thought it was a bit strange, but soon forgot about it. After all, we weren’t that close.

♧

“Ah~ Ham Gyeong-seok, that guy?”

“He was a genius at Seoul National University of Arts. He was doing well even when he was in school.”

“There are opinions that he’s just flashy on the outside, pretending to be eccentric, but I think his talent is real. He won tons of awards at film festivals.”

“When he was winning awards consecutively with short films and independent movies, there were rumors all over Chungmuro that a real talent had emerged. Tsk tsk. Who would have known he’d fall so hard?”

“Who was it, some unknown actor he abused?”

“Directors treating actors harshly isn’t even unusual, so how badly must he have treated them for the rumors to spread? They say actors absolutely refuse to work on Ham Gyeong-seok’s projects.”

“Thanks to that, all productions got scrapped… If it weren’t for the IMF, who knows? They might have given him another chance. His alumni connections are solid, and he has talent too.”

“If he had just made one feature film debut, it would have been different. But that’s all in the past now.”

“The IMF changed a lot of things.”

Due to the IMF, funding sources dried up, and Chungmuro froze over too.

Opportunities disappeared for countless directors, and it was even more harsh for rookie directors like Ham Gyeong-seok who had fallen with a bad reputation attached.

[Gyeong-seok, I tried to give you more time, but it’s getting hard for me too. Sorry, but you’ll have to move out.]

“Senior. What are you looking at?”

Ham Gyeong-seok was reading a text from his landlord when he roughly closed his phone.

The man entering while wearing a baseball cap pulled low carried a sophisticated scent that didn’t match the cramped single-room apartment.

Ham Gyeong-seok swallowed a sigh. Today, his junior’s expensive wristwatch and neat appearance were particularly irritating.

“Why did you come?”

“Because I missed you?”

How easily he says such things with that indifferent face.

“I heard the news. You got a commercial, right? Good thinking. You have to survive first. Ah, this must be that audition video.”

“No. Camera test.”

“It’s already decided? Hmm?”

The hand pressing the play button on the videotape hesitated.

“They decided on her?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Nothing….”

Bae Seo-nyeok, who had been watching the screen, turned to look at Ham Gyeong-seok. His expression was peculiar.

“I know this kid.”

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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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