If I Don’t Earn 1 Trillion Won, My Regression Ends - Chapter 71

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

Episode 71

♧

July 7th, 2002.

Sorrento, Southern Italy.

Traveling to Europe wasn’t simple in those days.

Unlike nowadays, there weren’t daily direct flights to Europe, so layovers were common, and thanks to that, the total flight time took almost 20 hours.

It was truly an exhausting journey.

[“Did you arrive?”]

“Yeah~ At the accommodation. I just unpacked and showered. Can you see the number? Save it. My phone is Korean so it doesn’t work in Europe…”

[“That made me so sad~.”]

“I don’t know…”

Can you believe it? An era without roaming!

When I panicked because my phone didn’t work, the local manager handed me some paper slip and pointed to an orange payphone.

He said I’d need this kind of paper to make calls.

I was almost impressed by the insane analog technology…

My latest Anycall mobile phone that I’d recently bought became nothing more than decoration.

I crouched down on the floor near the window, holding the landline phone.

July in Italy is the hottest time of year.

The heat-laden Mediterranean dry wind brushed through my not-quite-dry hair.

Since this was Europe, and Europe of this era at that, naturally there was no air conditioning.

Instead, to cool the heat, all the buildings in this region had ceramic or terracotta tiles laid on the floors, which felt refreshingly cool when I stepped on them barefoot.

I scratched at the ceramic tiles on the floor with their beautiful blue patterns with my fingernail.

A languid laugh echoed through the heated receiver against my ear.

[“Baby. Your voice sounds sleepy?”]

Rampa Lim asked cheerfully.

Why is he so excited today?

I replied curtly.

“Isn’t that obvious? Look at the time~ At this hour, it’s dawn in Korea. I can’t even sleep because I need to adjust to the time difference.”

[“Then hurry up and adjust. I feel like I can finally live now that there’s no time difference.”]

“Huh?”

[“You wouldn’t even answer my calls when I came back from training because it was your bedtime. You slept so soundly after standing me up, didn’t you? You didn’t care at all whether your oppa suffered from insomnia, so heartless…”]

“What are you saying~ I was just maintaining my biological rhythm, okay? Do you know how important good sleep is for your skin?”

[“How much better can your skin get from there? You’re already a gold medal, and if you were a restaurant, you’d be Michelin three-star. Live with consideration so that ordinary people can have courage too.”]

I burst out laughing and lay down on the floor. What kind of overseas Korean speaks Korean this well?

“There’s nothing you can’t say~ Even though your voice sounds weird!”

[“Bear with it. Have some sympathy for me who won the unfortunate lottery of puberty.”]

Two years had passed.

I was now twelve years old, and Rampa Lim was fifteen.

Even when Rampa Lim was young, despite having a pretty boy’s face, he didn’t have a particularly sweet voice, but after going through puberty, his voice became incredibly deep.

The change was so dramatic that it felt like I was talking to a stranger, which was rather strange.

“Jeong Hyeon-gyo doesn’t even want to open his mouth anymore.”

[“You’re talking about Kyo again.”]

“There you go again. Always telling me to focus only on you.”

I pouted.

“If it weren’t for Jeong Hyeon-gyo, would I have understood even half of what you do? Pole to win this and that, single-seater whatever, I don’t understand a word when I read articles. I only learned that F3 is the real professional stage because Hyeon-gyo explained it to me.”

The Formula racing world has a total of 4 tiers.

From the bottom: F4, F3, F2, and F1.

But young drivers couldn’t go straight into this pyramid from the beginning.

First, the lower junior series that were like trainee levels.

From entry-level karting, to basic-level Formula Ford, to the essential Formula Renault course.

Only after carefully going through these trainee processes and proving their skills could they earn the qualification to enter the real racing world.

And the first official step into the professional world was F4. But since F4 was just an adaptation period for the professional stage, promising drivers who graduated from the trainee stage usually skipped grades and competed starting from F3.

If the lower series were at the level of high-performance sports cars, then F3 was where the real ‘machines’ began.

This was the true world of racing that crossed the 300 km/h barrier.

That’s why people called F3 and above the real professionals’ stage.

Rampa Lim had trampled and ignored this carefully designed system, jumping straight to F3 before even properly removing his trainee label. He was a monster.

“Anyway, congratulations~ on getting the F3 seat.”

[“Mm~.”]

“What’s that? You seem indifferent? They said it’s an unprecedented ultra-fast promotion in history. Everyone’s going crazy about it.”

[“I was going to go there anyway, so I just went.”]

Rampa Lim said indifferently and sighed deeply.

[“It’s gotten noisy. I don’t like feeling like I’m being watched.”]

I laughed because I understood what he meant.

“Shouldn’t you be careful about wiretapping?”

[“I already checked.”]

“Really?”

It’s that serious?

With the recent news of Rampa Lim’s direct advancement to F3.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Rampa Lim was currently the most famous fifteen-year-old on Earth.

Passionate paparazzi were already following him around every moment.

Rampa Lim was currently staying in Fiorano, northern Italy, for machine adaptation training, and since this was Ferrari’s homeland, he seemed to be suffering even more.

After all, Rampa Lim was the crown prince that Ferrari, currently monopolizing the F1 ecosystem, had openly marked as the face of our next generation and was advertising.

[“I’m moving to Belgium in two weeks. It should be less intense then.”]

“Oh, you’re leaving for Belgium? Why?”

[“I’m being inserted in the middle of the series.”]

Middle of the series?

Didn’t Formula seasons usually start in spring and end before winter? I remember Rampa Lim always being busiest in summer.

“Weren’t you supposed to just train all year this year?”

[“You just congratulated me on getting a seat, but you didn’t understand at all.”]

“Huh?”

[“Getting a seat means I got a team and have to get in the machine. Ferrari paid bundles of money to forcibly take a spot from Prema. They said we need to develop our driver, so move the kid who’s currently driving and give the seat to our kid.”]

“Gasp… You took someone’s occupied seat?”

[“Where would there be empty seats in machines? Everything’s taken.”]

Rampa Lim answered in a languid voice.

[“The guy who gets his seat taken by me is lucky. It’s less embarrassing.”]

…Indeed, it’s sports.

To say such things without any arrogance.

(This is something I only learned later, but the ‘Belgium’ Rampa Lim mentioned was the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, a notoriously high-speed circuit called the graveyard of drivers.

To have his debut race there right after promotion.

Ferrari had essentially thrown Rampa Lim in using the lion’s method of throwing cubs off a cliff.)

I swallowed a sigh and asked.

“How’s living there? Aren’t the Italian people bothering you?”

[“Hmm?”]

“We beat Italy in the World Cup. Italy’s been cursing Korea saying it was biased refereeing and going crazy. Our director got so scared he pretended to be Japanese, then Chinese, it was chaos. You’re Australian, but you’re still Korean-descent so- wait, didn’t you watch the World Cup?”

[“I don’t watch it. Soccer? What’s so important about soccer.”]

“What?”]

[“Don’t worry. In Italy, Ferrari is the national religion. Your oppa is the new baby Jesus that the Pope bought with a huge sum of money.”]

“Ah, seriously, what are you saying~.”

I laughed until I was breathless.

Rampa Lim, who had been chuckling softly, spoke with a sigh.

[“It’s nice to hear you laugh.”]

“Mm-hmm.”

[“It’s been way too long since I’ve seen you…”]

“Yeah…”

So many things had happened over the past two years.

I hadn’t been able to meet Rampa Lim for quite a while either.

The last time we met was the year before last, when he celebrated my birthday.

Having successfully completed his rehabilitation, Rampa Lim had returned to his life of traveling around the world competing in matches.

So during that time, we only kept in touch through emails or phone calls like this.

Due to time differences, I found emails more convenient, but Rampa Lim clearly disliked it. He said he didn’t like leaving traces of himself.

What kind of nonsense was that.

When I asked seriously if he was worried I’d sell his private life to the media later, he frantically said that wasn’t it, but still wouldn’t tell me the reason.

He just asked me to think of it as his personal preference.

[“How long did you say you’re staying in Italy?”]

“A little over three weeks.”

Of course, I was busy too.

First, as soon as the Yewon Festival ended, some rumors must have spread because management companies came looking for me endlessly with much more aggressive attitudes than before.

Second, the house was also bustling with the official announcement of Pangyo New Town development.

Lastly, and most importantly, the movie contract.

Director Haemun’s production company offered a huge appearance fee on the condition of ‘exclusive rights’ – that I would maintain the mystique from my NEU CF days with no media exposure whatsoever, revealing my grown-up appearance for the first time only through the released movie.

100 million won.

It was the highest fee in South Korean junior actor history.

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