The Regressor's Ice Is Golden - Chapter 49

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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049.

I’d changed seats, but I had no idea what to say first.
I could only manage the most clichéd questions.
“How did you get to the Airport?”
“Oh, Park Ji-ho booked a bus for us. Congratulations on the Gold Medal.”
“Ugh, this kid was so nervous the whole way that he barely said a word.”
“Keep it down, will you.”
Well, they were still needling each other and trading jabs. Perfectly peaceful, really.
Utterly serene.
“Don’t your parents say anything about you traveling to another country, Ji-ho?”
“Huh? Oh, my mom’s always out and about anyway, and I guess I’m pretty outgoing?”
As Park Ji-ho was joking around, the café’s vibration bell rang loudly.
Coach Park stood up.
“I’ll get it, so you kids just hang out together.”
“Sure thing.”
I glanced at the Coach, then rested my chin on my interlaced fingers.
“All right, I need to tell you all something.”
“What?”
“It’s about your sister.”
Cha Jin-hui flinched, her lips pressing tightly together.
“For now, I have one Gold Medal and one Bronze Medal, so I’m just going to the Grand Prix Final as is. The problem is Cha Seo-hui.”
One Silver Medal, and fourth place.
Given the performances of past Junior Grand Prix Final participants, her Ranking Points are quite ambiguous.
Last year the athlete who barely made the cut had one Gold Medal and fifth place.
Depending on the results of the seventh competition, she could drop out.
“With things the way they are, your parents must be quite upset. So I wanted to point out what situations might develop—”
“Here we go again, talking all heavy and serious.”
Coach Park set the tray down on the table before I could even finish.
Two iced americanos, two iced teas, and a slice of cheesecake were placed before the four of us.
“Just eat first.”
“I bought it, so why are you complaining?”
“My apologies.”
“Thank you, I’ll enjoy this…”
Cha Jin-hui reached for the cheesecake, glancing around uncertainly.
“Anyway, back to the main point—there’s a good chance things are going to get messy for us until the new year. Right now, structurally, I’ve dominated Cha Seo-hui’s entry spot, and these two are just along for the ride.”
“Wait, so—”
Park Ji-ho’s eyes widened as he grasped the situation.
I just smiled faintly.
“I’ve basically been marked by TK.”
A heavier silence settled over the table.
Only the soft murmur of people sharing their excitement and regret from the Airport came through.
After what felt like an eternity—maybe a minute—Coach Park broke the quiet.
“Anyway, that’s why we need to prepare from now on. We have to harvest what we laid groundwork for before the trip.”
“Right, that’s true. First, Jin-hui.”
“…Yes?”
Coach Park met her eyes gently.
“How much weight do the Cram School teachers have?”
“!”
Cha Jin-hui pressed her forehead for a moment, then looked up.
“Last time, when they mentioned skipping Cram School for extra lessons, I think I mentioned it to them. I’m pretty sure the tutors are on the same page with me, so coordinating should be easy.”
“She also goes to a study café, so that should be fine? She pays for it herself anyway.”
“Oh, is that so?”
At Park Ji-ho’s statement, Coach Park pulled out an iPad.
“Tell the Cram School teachers that you’ll be getting lots of homework for a while. The exam period’s coming up soon anyway. That all right?”
“Um, no—we’re in the Free Semester System, so there’s no school exam. But there are tests at the Cram School.”
“Okay, approved. Now, Ji-ho.”
“Yep!”
Park Ji-ho answered brightly and gave a thumbs up.
That guy’s eyes are gonna pop right out of his head.
Coach Park’s face went sour in an instant, but he kept explaining anyway.
“Tell your mother she succeeded in getting the outlet store set up, didn’t she?”
“Jeez, how did you hear about that?”
“Don’t play coy with me. And send my regards to Choi Ji-hwan as well, understood? Your company’s grown, so you’ll need to go global eventually.”
“Of course—you know how skilled my mother is at business, right? But why are you bringing that up?”
I cut in with a laugh, taking over the explanation from Coach Park.
“I have a friend I met in Japan. I gave her some of your clothes as a gift.”
“Oh really? And then?”
Confusion flickered through Park Ji-ho’s laugh as he listened to the rest.
When Cha Jin-hui heard the additional details, she stared at us both in disbelief.
“……Can you even do that?”
Park Ji-ho turned to look at me slowly, but I just gazed quietly out at the airport beyond the café windows.
The autumn sunlight glittered.

***

I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but the Grand Prix Final runs for both seniors and juniors at the same time in the same place.
That’s scheduled for early December.
Since it’s currently late September, there’s still some time before we head out to Kazakhstan for the Grand Prix Final.
But that doesn’t mean we get to take it easy.
We need to see the results of the seventh and final competition in early October—the Turkey event.
I won’t be competing, but the results there will determine whether Cha Seo-hui makes it to the Final.
So, annoying as it is, I’ll be watching the broadcast live.
I rolled my stiff neck back and forth.
I’d showered right after getting home, knocked out a few press interviews, and suddenly it was already this late.
“You not tired?”
“Coach, didn’t we finish filling out the entry forms?”
“Yeah.”
Coach Park tapped away at his laptop as he answered.
The forms were for the first competition: the Asian Open Trophy in mid-October.
It’s not the highest caliber, but it’s an official ISU event with an active junior division.
There’s an entry fee and we don’t necessarily have to go, but with ice time at such a premium lately, we needed any excuse we could get to use the rink one more time.
As a bonus, we’d get to break in the new equipment and gain more international competition experience.
“Still, Hooks put more money into advertising revenue.”
“Really?”
“They seemed really happy about the outlet store opening. Apparently the response has been fantastic.”
Well, if you put Choi Ji-hwan’s face out there and can’t draw customers, what’s the point?
In fact, his fans on social media had thrown a full celebration back then.
-Man, I don’t even need to eat, I’m so full just looking at him
-Thanks Hooks, Ji-hwan made this so artistic lol
-How do I stop liking Choi Ji-hwan? Asking for a friend
-First thing when this month’s salary hits: buying a windbreaker for my baby prince
That last one might’ve been serious, but anyway, thanks to all that we didn’t have to worry about the entry fee.
We’d just go and come back on schedule.
Second, there’s the Winter Sports Games preliminary in late October.
It’s the qualifying round to pick provincial representatives for the main Winter Sports Games in late January.
To compete in the main event, you have to earn your spot in the preliminaries.
There’s no real competition around here, so it won’t be hard, but the main Winter Sports Games itself could be a real challenge.
Until now, the podium spots have been locked down by the Seoul region due to infrastructure issues.
And then the most important third one.
“Coach, when are we doing the Chairman’s Cup this year?”
“November 27th and 28th.”
The Chairman’s Cup Ranking Tournament, as it’s officially called.
It doubles as the National Championships and serves as the qualifying tournament for the national team next season.
So if I were a TK official, I’d definitely be looking for ways to salt my scoring sheet in my favor.
After we finish the Chairman’s Cup Ranking, the long-awaited Grand Prix Final will finally be within reach.
‘This is gonna be rough.’
Just thinking about practicing while keeping up with school made my head spin.
“Get some sleep first. I’ll wake you up at three.”
“……I wonder if that’s the case.”
I yawned and flopped onto the mattress.
For the record, the first Ice Rink Reservation after entering the country was……from 4 a.m. for two hours.
Remember?
In case someone tried to interfere, I had the agency scrape together the reservation times right before departure.
Thanks to that, I secured practice time without incident, but the schedule was an absolute mess.
‘At least it’s something.’
And it wasn’t even the rink where I usually trained.
That place was so packed with reservations even Purplie didn’t have to block it.
So the place I chose was…….
“Are you really sure about this? I’m not convinced……. Honestly, when I heard the reservation schedule, it felt like garbage.”
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to focus on our practice.”
“But still, Bloom Ice is……. I mean, All Of managed to pull strings and make it happen.”
Coach Park sighed heavily, draping himself across the mattress.
Bloom Ice Figure Academy.
The place where I first started, spent my entire Novice years, and got kicked out.
So honestly, seeing the schedule was surprising.
I mean, the director there didn’t care much for Coach Park either.
At least the time slot was late enough that we’d have exclusive use of the rink.
As I stared off into space, Coach Park finally closed his laptop.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Right.”
Then he went to the kitchen and made himself a cup of instant coffee.
“You’re really not going to sleep?”
“I’ll catch some sleep after I put you through your land training.”
As if he would.
I pulled the blanket over myself and looked up at the ceiling.
“Coach. What if……. I had quit back then? How would I have lived?”
“Hmm?”
“No, just curious. I mean, things worked out really lucky this time……, and it’s not like figure skating is an event you can do on a small budget for a long time anyway.”
“Why are you thinking about something like that.”
Coach Park downed that hot coffee in one shot and lay down beside me.
“But there’s one thing I can say for certain. I wouldn’t have given up on you.”
“Why?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong. You just did your job diligently. But now you’re walking around like you’ve lived a whole lifetime, dressed in mourning clothes at barely graduating elementary school. That’s why I couldn’t.”
I heard a heavy, exhausted sigh and slowly blinked my eyes.
“I couldn’t ignore that.”
“…….”
“And you would’ve done something even if you quit figure skating. Look at what you’re doing these days. Every time you compete, you’re dancing like it’s life or death, calculating scores on the side, but I don’t think that kind of thinking has applied to studying.”
“Ha, that’s true too.”
“Ugh, for something so small, you worry way too much.”
Coach Park turned onto his side and patted the blanket I’d pulled over myself, tap-tap.
“If you understand now, don’t think like that. You’re doing well.”
And that face smiling as he said it was somehow……, too young.
“……Thank you.”
“Right.”
With those words of comfort, I drifted off to sleep, hazy and dazed.
Autumn was deepening.

But I didn’t know it yet.
What form one of the reasons I didn’t complain about coming back to the past would take in this altered future.
Nor the disaster that a forgotten biological phenomenon would bring, nor the catastrophe that would unfold when turbulent adolescents collided with one another.
The actual turning point was……, after the seventh Junior Grand Prix event ended.
“So she went after all…….”
“Yeah, I know.”
Cha Jin-hui started to open her mouth, then closed it again.
She had plenty to say, but couldn’t.
Cha Seo-hui had ended up competing in the Grand Prix Final after all.
‘Her luck really is something else.’
I’m curious what kind of a scene must’ve played out at the TK household.
In any case, we gazed out at the blue-glass building of Cheongju Airport.
Today we had a visitor.
While Coach Park had gone to park the car in the lot, the two of us headed into the terminal.
A plane from Chubu had landed a while ago, so our timing would be perfect.
And at the immigration gate, a familiar face came rushing toward us with a smile.
“Chizuru!”
“Her?”
“Yeah.”
I greeted Chizuru with a soft smile.
The Returner’s Ice — Golden Chapter 49
E-book release date | June 5, 2026

Author | Korkarolli
Publisher | Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won
Published by | Potent

Address | [04783] 10th Floor, 8 Yeonmuljang 11-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Phone | 02-6320-8500
Fax | 02-6320-8585

UCI | G720:N+A101-20260514092.0049
List price | 100 won

© Korkarolli 2026

This e-book is a protected work under copyright law.
This e-book has been published under contract with the author, and unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or sharing without the written consent of both parties is prohibited.

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