If I Don’t Earn 1 Trillion Won, My Regression Ends - Chapter 4

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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 4

Seeing us, she lets out a sigh of relief.

“It’s you! What a surprise.”

“Did you steal something? What are you doing hiding like a thief?”

At Dad’s amused words, Madam Bang rolled her eyes.

“Don’t even mention it! I’m going absolutely crazy these days…!”

Then, as if she was really being chased, she looked around frantically and dragged us hurriedly into the elevator.

Dad’s expression became serious seeing this.

“Bang Suk-yeong. What’s wrong? Do you really have some kind of problem?”

“I do! I’m telling you I do! Choi Chamsol! I don’t know what got into him, but he keeps following me around!”

Choi Chamsol comes up here?

I was just bewildered, but Dad’s reaction was quite different from mine.

The henpecked husband who was hearing the name Choi Chamsol for the first time had his face rapidly darken.

“Who is that bastard?”

Though he currently wears the mask of a kind salesman, this man is a former special forces soldier who wrote a tearful petition in blood when Mom said let’s break up, and was crazy enough in love to drive 5 hours round trip from Seoul to Changwon every day just to date Mom.

You shouldn’t carelessly press a romantic’s buttons.

I quickly wrapped my arms tightly around Dad’s neck as he was about to put me down and turn dark.

“Chamsol Oppa? Why is Chamsol Oppa doing that?”

“…What oppa? Princess, you know him too?”

It backfired.

Mr. Seo Shin-hyeon’s face became even darker than before.

Fortunately, Mom was as oblivious as usual.

Ignoring her husband’s invisible rage, she started stamping her feet and complaining.

“What does his family moving have to do with me anyway? He shows up everywhere I go talking about how the new town is this way, how the school district is that way! The apartment is new, the park is nice, following me around muttering the same things every day! I’m really going crazy! I even talked to Chamsol’s mom about it, and she just said ‘oh really~’ and took no action! Mother and son are exactly alike!”

“A neighborhood kid?”

“Of course he’s from our neighborhood, what other neighborhood would he be from? Chamsol! Singa’s friend!”

Finally realizing the story wasn’t going in the direction he had imagined, a comfortable smile bloomed on Mr. Seo Shin-hyeon’s face.

“Suk-yeong, so you’re hiding around like this because you’re avoiding a six-year-old? Hahaha.”

“He’s seven years old!”

“Oh my~ Suk-yeong, honey~.”

I giggled beside my parents.

It seemed the Choi Chamsol seasoning was very effective~.

How did he know that Madam Bang Suk-yeong was weak to direct approaches? Moreover, Mom at this time was still innocent, not yet worn down by financial hardships and crushed by the world’s harshness.

“But honey. Listening to what Chamsol said, it really does sound pretty good.”

“You actually listened to that?”

“Well~ Chamsol’s mom said that Chamsol and our daughter are each other’s only friend at daycare. When a kid like that is talking, how could I not listen?”

“What? Didn’t you say last time that our princess is the most popular at daycare?”

“I thought so too… Ugh, I don’t know! That little rascal doesn’t tell me anything about herself, so I always have to hear everything from other moms!”

“That’s impossible. How could our daughter only have one friend? What’s wrong with kids these days?”

“Right! I can’t believe it either.”

The golden child’s parents’ conversation was veering off track again. I hurriedly grabbed the topic back.

“Mom! Isn’t Bundang where youngest uncle lives?”

“Huh? No. Where youngest uncle lives is Yongin. The neighborhood next to Bundang.”

“Really? Why doesn’t he live in Bundang? They say Bundang is amazing! Heaven first, then Bundang!”

“What? Where did you pick up that saying, you little charmer~.”

“Singa seems to like that place. Do you want to move there?”

Not wanting to miss Dad’s casually spoken words, I nodded my head rapidly like lightning.

I want to go, I want to go!!!

Mom seemed a bit surprised by my super-speed affirmation.

After thinking for a moment, she carefully said to Dad.

“Shouldn’t we move though? Youngest oppa said so too. How long are we going to stay here while the kids are growing up?”

“Youngest hyung just says that because he’s lonely living there alone. Where would we go? My company is here, and the house your mother prepared for us is here too.”

It was the expected reaction.

Dad wouldn’t be able to make a decision easily.

Our dad, Mr. Seo Shin-hyeon, was abandoned by his paternal family and really came to marry Mom empty-handed.

Therefore, this house that maternal grandmother left behind is their entire fortune, so as a son-in-law, Dad can’t make decisions carelessly.

But!

‘We’re going anyway! Let’s just go!’

What use is the house that grandmother prepared with her savings, or the money the young couple saved desperately?

If we stay here, we’ll lose it all!

Everything!

Have you heard of guarantors?

To get a bank loan in the 90s, this ‘guarantor’ was essential.

Unlike the future’s credit score-based system, it was ‘bring one more person who’ll take responsibility with you for the money we lend’ – that was the essential condition for loans.

Isn’t that really bold and brave, so unlike the 90s?!

With joint guarantees, if you couldn’t repay the debt, the guarantor would shoulder the entire amount – it’s really absurd from a modern perspective, but this was extremely common in 90s workplaces!

Because of the ‘lifetime employment’ concept, you had to naturally agree when workplace colleagues asked, and if you refused, you’d become the weird person.

This thoughtless joint guarantee system was most severe before the IMF crisis, and Dad also ended up losing the entire household because of those damn guarantees!

If we don’t leave now when Dad is still struggling to adapt and being ostracized at work, we might have to start from negative numbers instead of accumulating seed money…

“Honestly, you’re having a hard time here too. Your colleagues look down on you calling you an ignorant ex-soldier.”

“Hey, why are you bringing that up again?”

“Let’s think about this seriously! Cheong-song was born too, starting fresh in a new place wouldn’t be bad. Bundang is right below Seoul, if we go there our oppa lives nearby and Singa has a friend there. Why can’t we go? They say people must look far to go far! I can’t stand watching our daughter and son live trapped in this well forever!”

Why did Madam Bang Suk-yeong suddenly become smart?

Is it the Chamsol effect?

When Madam Bang threw that uppercut, I decided to immediately follow up with the finishing blow.

I grabbed Dad’s sleeve tightly and loaded my chicken-dropping tears.

“Daddy~ If you don’t want to go, it’s okay! Yes…! Singa really really wants to go, but I can give up everything for Daddy. Singa will give up… I’ll sacrifice! Because what’s most precious to Singa is Daddy…!”

“Da, daughter!”

The emotional INFP Mr. Seo Shin-hyeon hugged me tightly.

“What are you saying! Tsk! Why would you give up? Our baby princess doesn’t need to sacrifice anything! Daddy will do everything for you!”

I’m suffocating in his strong, tight embrace.

I patted Dad’s back with difficulty using my underdeveloped Doraemon-fist-like hands. Father…

Trust me. I’m being ‘filial.’

♧

“Sniff, sob, hic…!”

“Stop crying, oppa.”

“B-but… sniff! H-how can I sniff, not cry? I’m, I’m hic, separating from you?!”

“We’re not separating. Singa is going too. Right?”

Dad, who had been watching disapprovingly as the child hugged his daughter and cried as if the world was ending, quickly lifted me up at my words.

“Of course, of course! It’s not like we’ll never see each other again. Hmm. But if Chamsol is a man, shouldn’t he get used to farewells? If you’re not family, you can’t avoid separating-“

“Honey! What are you saying to a child!”

Even while our parents were bickering, Choi Chamsol was sniffling and obsessively looking only at me.

Yun Yirae shook her head with a bitter smile.

“Singa. This is auntie’s phone number and address. Don’t forget and make sure to come visit. Okay? Otherwise I’m afraid my son might drown in tears and die.”

“Yes~ Don’t worry, auntie~.”

I smiled shyly at Yun Yirae.

Finally, Chamsol’s mom, who had stamped the divorce papers and turned her back on the moving truck, looked much more relieved than before, and was closer to the future Yun Yirae I knew.

She gently patted the top of my head.

“Let’s meet again.”

Of course. Naturally we have to meet again.

The telecommunications CF that Yun Yirae will be cast in as a so-called ‘neighborhood connection’ will be a nationwide hit and bring me a fortune.

Summer 1996. Along with the cool sound of cicadas, I waved my hand toward the mother and daughter duo of Yun Yirae walking away with a sincere smile.

Everything was going smoothly.

♧

United States, California.

Fairmont Hotel, San Jose.

A luxury hotel located in the southern part of Silicon Valley.

Unlike the 2000s, the hotel was rather modest to be called the best, and downtown still had more of a neat and cozy feeling rather than the glamorous big city atmosphere.

But he liked to appreciate this kind of atmosphere.

Because he could constantly feel the reality of being in the past, not in the catastrophic future.

[“Chairman. Team Leader Jin Gubon from the Strategic Planning Office’s Second Support Team is waiting.”]

“Second Support Team? Tell him to come in.”

The Second Support Team was the team within the Strategic Planning Office that specialized in work related to ‘that matter.’

A young man who silently opened the door and entered placed a document folder on the desk along with a silent bow.

“Did you find something?”

“Yes. There is no record of a child named ‘Seosing-a’ born in 1996 registered to date, but… even though it doesn’t match the conditions you mentioned, I discovered one point worth confirming and brought it.”

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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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