If I Don’t Earn 1 Trillion Won, My Regression Ends - Chapter 93
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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 93
At his ruthlessly fast rejection, I stared at him in shock, and Rampa Lim let out a shallow sigh.
“You shouldn’t joke around like that carelessly.”
“…?”
Wait, shouldn’t I be the one getting hurt here?
‘What’s with that reaction?!’
He embarrassingly rejected me in 0.1 seconds, and now what’s with that face like a Joseon-era noble lady being harassed by a ruffian!
“And how old are you anyway? You should be meeting kids your own age.”
‘Sing-a isn’t as young as she looks. Rampa oppa….’
But as I quickly recalled this point, my forty-year-old soul’s conscience was severely pricked, and I couldn’t argue back strongly.
‘I, I really might have been harassing him…?’
The silver bracelet criminal, whose defeat was becoming clear, grumbled like making an excuse in frustration.
“We’re only three years apart….”
Anyway, he’s fifteen himself, yet telling me to meet little kids? His excuse is really too half-hearted. Well, unless he regressed like me or Park Min-su—
….
…Did he really regress?
“!”
I trembled at this lightning-like realization.
That’s right. For a real fifteen-year-old, even if he’s a pro athlete, he’s excessively mature.
Once I had this thought, there were more than just one or two suspicious points. What kind of fifteen-year-old in the world gives off such an older vibe?
‘I’ve got you now, Rampa Lim.’
Wow~ Seosing-a’s intuition is incredible.
I was almost bursting with admiration for my own sharp instincts and insight, befitting a cool-headed Seoul woman!
“Ahem. I see. That aside. How is Min-su— I mean, oppa’s uncle doing?”
“…Suddenly? Well, except for almost dying from mail terrorism a few months ago? Most of the other people who received the anthrax powder with him got infected or died. Anyway, since he’s alive, I guess he’s doing well.”
“…?”
I, who had been preparing to cheerfully probe whether Park Min-su would become homeless, shut my mouth tight like a clam.
“…Please, give him my wishes for a speedy recovery…!”
“Okay. But why are you asking about my uncle?”
“Oh, no….”
I was startled by the protagonist’s difficult journey, but I can’t give up like this!
I pondered what question to ask that would hook a regressor, then said:
“Professor Snape is really a good person.”
“What professor? Snake? Are you interested in snakes?”
“…Do you know Iron Man? Tony Stark’s press conference?”
“Sing-a. I don’t know much about this, but women’s… those things… it wasn’t just stomach pain?”
Rampa Lim’s expression looking at me became serious.
At his gaze worriedly alternating between my stomach and head, I began to suspect I might really be sick….
As of 2002, only four volumes of “Harry Potter” up to “Goblet of Fire” had been released, and Marvel was still just a comic book company.
Professor Snape’s plot twist and the legendary Iron Man press conference—all my questions were topics that Rampa Lim couldn’t help but react to if he had memories up to 2009.
Even if he’s busy traveling abroad 365 days a year for races, he’s met so many women, so surely he went to the movies on dates at least once?
‘Maybe he didn’t regress….’
With consecutive humiliations, I found it hard to stay here any longer.
As I fidgeted and avoided eye contact, wanting to go back to my room and kick off the blankets, Rampa Lim nodded as if understanding.
“You must be sleepy.”
“Yes! Yeah! Right. Yaaawn…!”
“You’re even talking in your sleep while standing, yet you didn’t tell oppa. Clever girl. Keep bein’ clever~.”
“….”
“Go in. Oh, right. I’m leaving for Belgium tomorrow morning.”
“Huh? That soon?”
“I got caught sneaking out. I have to pay the price.”
With less than a week until the race, wasting two days really was an absurd thing to do, Rampa Lim laughed.
Did he get scolded a lot? I bit my lower lip with belated guilt.
I shouldn’t have vented on the phone back then.
“…Sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“But even so, wanting to see you was stronger.”
Leaning forward from the low wall, Rampa Lim gently touched his forehead to mine.
A low laugh echoed.
“What’s the point if my body is comfortable but my heart isn’t? I’m not that foolish. I always know well what’s important to me.”
“….”
“Don’t ever apologize. You could never be a loss to me. Maria mia.”
I already know about Rampa Lim’s schedule after this.
As soon as he finishes his debut race in Belgium, he’ll move to England and won’t budge until October.
And if he achieves excellent results in F3, he’ll head to the Macau Grand Prix in winter, where top aces compete.
We probably wouldn’t be able to meet this winter either.
“Why are you making that face again? If you do this, oppa can’t leave.”
“…No. Congratulations. Next time we meet, you’ll be a real pro, right? That’s really amazing.”
“You too.”
“Huh?”
Rampa Lim’s fingertips gently brushed through my shortened hair.
“Cutting your hair like this, coming all this way to work with adults. You’ve grown up so much while I wasn’t watching, baby. You’re cool. You’re already a pro.”
“I’m….”
After hesitating briefly, I tried to speak brightly.
“Ugh~ I still have a long way to go. You should have seen how much the director scolded me today… I need to work harder.”
“Ah. So there was a reason you cried as soon as you saw me?”
Rampa Lim, who had been gazing at me intently as if gauging my inner thoughts, soon shook his head with a quiet laugh.
“Don’t be intimidated by the director. Directors just have a habit of acting tough. In reality, they’re just cowards who depend on the players.”
“Depend?”
“Right. Directors and athletes aren’t in a hierarchy, but a mutual relationship. What’s the point of them drawing up plans? We’re the ones who run. Those old men can only sit and struggle. Praying and begging for us to do well, to save them. Whether it’s sports or movies, it’s the same in every field.”
These were the words of someone who would become a more successful F1 driver than anyone in the near future.
Rampa Lim’s attitude as he spoke was confident, and so resolute as if expounding established truth, that I found myself asking without thinking:
“Even if the other party is a big shot?”
“Big shot? What’s a big shot?”
“Those… incredibly successful people. Incomparably higher than me….”
“Ah~ You mean Titans?”
Rampa Lim chuckled softly.
“Sing-a. Think about it. Where are there cowards who fear death as much as giants do?”
The glass lantern swayed in the night breeze. Each time the light brushed across Rampa Lim’s face, shadows flickered.
In the darkness, the young boy looked like a flame.
“And….”
Rampa Lim said, staring intently at me.
“Your movie will be a masterpiece without me even watching it. Look at you.”
“….”
“Even in this unfamiliar Capri, I was able to find you. Do you know why? Because everyone your brother and I encountered remembered you.”
They all remembered your appearance from just passing by once, down to every accessory.
As vividly as if they had met a ‘star,’ not missing a single detail.
“As soon as the movie is released, I’ll get tickets as quickly as possible to watch you. That’s the only reason I’ll go see that movie. You already have your own audience.”
“….”
“Be arrogant. Like an athlete. Like an actor.”
♧
Italy location shoot, day 9.
My self-esteem guardian had left, and morning had dawned.
“Cut. No good.”
On the azure Tyrrhenian Sea of Capri, back on that yacht again.
Once again, the same situation as yesterday.
Hearing Haemun’s low, dry voice, I took a deep breath into my lungs.
‘Rampa Lim was right.’
My first film set as a rookie actor.
Perhaps I had been too intimidated by Haemun’s presence as a 5-star master director, and by the authority that the position of director carries on set in this era where human rights don’t exist.
“Again, camera. Roll—”
“I can’t do it like this.”
….
The youngest crew member who had been running to clap the slate stopped dead in his tracks, and the set fell into deathly silence.
I could hear the sound of people drawing in their breath around me.
All eyes turned to me in shock.
Even the staff who had been half-asleep from the early morning shoot were now completely awake.
My hands trembled at the looks as if they were seeing a crazy person, but I hid them behind my back and gritted my teeth. I mustered courage and met Haemun’s eyes.
I’m an athlete. Not the director’s subordinate.
‘Don’t be intimidated, Seosing-a.’
“I can’t do it this way. Give me direction. Director.”
“Oh….”
In the silence, Haemun smiled coldly.
He slowly straightened his hunched posture.
The director, who had been watching only the actors instead of the crude quality monitor, had been staring only at the monitor as the takes piled up.
Haemun, with his arm draped over the chair, looked at me with amusement. …What? Am I imagining things?
‘It almost looks like he’s proud—’
“Fine. Then let me ask you something too.”
Like a plot twist, Haemun spoke coldly.
“Seosing-a. Do you think the director is a joke?”
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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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