Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut!

Chapter 222. The Boy (1)

“You’re asking even though you know what I’m going to say, right?”

Still keeping my gaze on Thirteen, who was collapsed within the hologram, I answered the ‘Presence.’

“Just tell me what I need to do. Don’t beat around the bush—short and concise.”

The ‘Presence’ remained silent for a moment at my response.

The space vibrated again when the orange sunset shattered on the waves about three times.

[…Alright. I’ll tell you what you need to do.]

[There’s a lot to explain, but sometimes there’s something faster than a few words.]

With a crackling sound, the hologram before my eyes disappeared, and another system window popped up.

[Clue Viewing Privilege for Regression Tracking]

A line was drawn over the quest reward that I couldn’t use before due to that damned regressor.

The surroundings gradually turned white like a whiteout, and I instinctively realized that I was about to face some part of the past.

[Go ahead.]

[To the moment when that child gave up on life.]

When I opened my eyes again, after the voice faded away, what I saw was…

[So, do you want to go back? To a moment when you were happy.]

-…Yes.

It was ‘the first’ Dan Haru, nodding with dim eyes after losing everything.

—

Dan Haru’s first regression was on the day the Director passed away.

-The weather was clear today, so why are you taking an umbrella?

-You never know. It’s just for precaution. I’ll be back!

He packed an umbrella in advance,

Then earnestly asked the Director not to wait up for him as he would be late today, insisting she should go to bed first.

He changed his shoes, and when he encountered a troublesome drunkard at his part-time job, he called the police to chase him away.

-It’s done.

The next day, after spending the night without getting soaked by rain, without damaging his shoes, and with no one dying, Dan Haru thought everything was perfect.

He thought it was all done. That everything had returned to its original state.

He thought he had protected his day.

-…Hello?

-Excuse me, but what is your relationship with the owner of this phone?

But the Director eventually passed away.

She had simply crossed the street, and it happened just like that.

-Why… Why on earth…

One more time,

-I just… I just wanted to…

Just one more time,

-I…

One more time.

No matter how many times he turned back the clock,

-I…

In all those timelines, Dan Haru never once managed to save the person he considered his only family. It was an incident born out of his ignorance of the fact that no matter the reason, the cycles of life, death, and the laws of nature couldn’t be defied.

-It seems I’m destined to be unhappy.

Dan Haru had lived his entire life in misfortune,

But it was precisely at that moment that he truly began to feel that he was indeed unhappy.

-I’m sorry, but what is your relationship with the patient? We need a guardian’s signature.

-…

-Guardian?

-…I’m not related to the Director.

-Pardon?

-We’re not family…

The one person he wanted to save, who made him defy time, had died, yet Dan Haru had no right to even hold a funeral.

The Director, who had lost her husband and child in her youth, had been pushed to a place where she had no ties and had run an orphanage on her own. And then she passed away.

She was treated as a person without connections and became a star in the sky without even a funeral room to mourn her.

But the misfortune didn’t end there.

The orphanage, now without an owner, was swept up in a sudden real estate dispute and was forcibly demolished.

Without money or connections, Dan Haru couldn’t protect the orphanage and the children the Director had left behind.

He tried to make money by figuring out the winning lottery numbers, invested in stocks, and attempted every way possible to escape this misfortune, but Dan Haru still couldn’t protect anything.

Instead, the butterfly effects of his actions grew more uncontrollable, and everything just kept getting worse.

In the end, Dan Haru had no choice but to return to ‘the first’ day.

Before it all began,

Back to the day his misfortune started.

-…If I’d known it would be like this, I should’ve begged to be adopted.

Sitting by the sea where the Director’s ashes were scattered, Dan Haru, with his empty eyes, watched the sunset and thought.

If he could turn back time and go back to a distant past.

To when simply being alive together was something to be grateful for, and then beg to be accepted as family.

Dan Haru thought.

He thought and thought again.

But even after thinking about it thousands of times, Dan Haru couldn’t find an answer.

-…

And then, Dan Haru suddenly thought.

-Should I die?

What if he let himself sink deep into the cold seawater?

What if he tumbled down somewhere in a deep mountain where no one would find him?

Such terrifying thoughts wrapped around Dan Haru’s entire body, slowly suffocating him.

But the reason Dan Haru couldn’t die was, ironically, because he was afraid of death.

The reason was that the death he had experienced over a thousand times was terrifying beyond words.

Dan Haru had lost all hope to continue living, but he didn’t have the courage to die.

[Do you want to be happy?]

The ‘Voice’ reappeared at that moment.

When Dan Haru had once again lost everything.

[Let’s make a deal.]

The voice whispered sweetly.

[I can give you two things.]

[Happiness and death.]

[I will grant you both.]

The content of the deal was simple.

[Choose the best ‘day’ you can think of.]

[Then ‘Dan Haru’ will live that day forever.]

-…Does that mean time will stop?

[Hmm. How should I explain this?]

A small snow globe appeared before Dan Haru’s eyes.

White snow fluttered beautifully over a sculpture of a family making a snowman in a beautifully decorated house.

[You’ll live inside this.]

[Repeating that happiest day forever.]

[Without even knowing that you’re repeating the same day.]

[More precisely, only a fragment of your consciousness will be left to repeat the time loop… But that’s irrelevant to you, right?]

The happiest Dan Haru.

The one day when there would be no need to worry about tomorrow, no need to regret yesterday.

The price for that day was just one thing.

[In exchange, give me your life.]

-…

[I can’t become a living being. But it’s possible to wear your ‘empty shell.’]

After contemplating for a while, Dan Haru finally nodded.

-…Okay.

-But, I have one condition.

[Speak.]

-The ‘me’ that lives that ‘day’ should forget everything.

Forget the Director’s death, the misfortune, and even the nature of the day he would live.

When he expressed his wish to forget everything, the ‘Voice’ smiled so broadly that its mouth seemed to tear.

[Alright.]

[I’ll make sure ‘Dan Haru’ can live without knowing anything.]

And so, Dan Haru ran away from his life.

It was the beginning of a false life.

—

Dan Haru, who had run away from life, began time looping to create his ‘happy one day’ from that moment on.

It was never easy to create ‘perfect happiness.’

It wasn’t just about living a day and making a moment the ‘happiest.’ Even the memories that made up him in that moment had to be happy and shining.

Moreover, the trauma from the numerous regressions he had gone through had made him so weak that he couldn’t even face the slightest misfortune.

[I’ll change your ‘setting.’]

[Then it’ll be easier to design your life, won’t it?]

The ‘Voice’ encouraged Dan Haru by helping him modify ‘Dan Haru’s life’ using the timelines he had abandoned or erased.

Dan Haru first created a family.

He changed the ‘setting’ of the Director’s child, who had died a long time ago, to being ‘alive’ and set himself as the Director’s only son.

[Of course, there’s no way to bring the dead back to life.]

[But, a ‘setting that says so’ is possible.]

With that, Dan Haru, who had gained a new family, continued to move through the timelines.

Whenever even the slightest misfortune occurred, Dan Haru regressed.

Whenever something didn’t go his way, Dan Haru turned back time or moved on.

The only criterion for moving through timelines was this:

The day before the Director’s twenty-sixth birthday.

Thus, without ever experiencing the first day of his twenty-seventh year, Dan Haru wandered through countless timelines.

However, despite experiencing so many lives, he still felt empty.

-You know.

[Yes, tell me.]

-…How about something like this?

[An idol?]

The decision to become an idol was made on a very trivial whim.

-Isn’t it cool? Everyone likes you. They remember you.

-…They say they love you.

That phrase was written on someone’s birthday ad hanging in a subway station.

Looking at the brightly colored post-it notes stuck on the ad and the orange flowers left by fans, Dan Haru thought.

-Just once…

-Just once, I want to shine like that.

A life where you assert your existence intensely in front of thousands of people, receiving the spotlight.

A life where you are loved and supported by many people.

A life where you have comrades who

will stick by your side no matter what.

Wearing beautiful clothes, standing on a glamorous stage, and burning with youth.

He didn’t know if it was fortunate, but he had always been good at singing since he was young. Dancing wasn’t hard for him either.

In the past, he never had the luxury to make use of such talents, but now it was different.

This time, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to have what people called a ‘dream.’

-And…

Dan Haru was still afraid of death.

Once he chose the ‘happiest day,’ ‘he’ would disappear, and only his consciousness would remain, repeating that day forever.

And that would mean his death.

So, Dan Haru had a very foolish thought.

-Idols often say they wish this moment could last forever.

-…Wouldn’t I experience that too?

If he spent the most youthful, beautiful, radiant, and shining moment,

At some point, he would become afraid of the future where his youth fades, popularity wanes, and the world forgets him.

-Then, I think I could welcome the forever-repeating day a little more joyfully.

If he could preserve himself in the most youthful, beautiful, radiant, shining, and happiest moment.

In a space filled with people who love him,

With the light of cheering sticks shining like stars,

With comrades with whom he could share everything,

In a moment where he could pour out his passion to the point of sweating like rain.

-I want to live that day too.

[As you wish.]

And so, Dan Haru decided to become an idol.

After a few ‘adjustments,’ he became a trainee at Miro.

But perhaps because he was writing a completely new timeline that had never existed before, it wasn’t as easy as he had thought.

-Taehyun hyung!

-Oh, Haru, hi. Going to see Eunchan?

-Yes!

There, Dan Haru met many people.

Among them were those suffering from the side effects of the timelines Dan Haru had repeatedly altered.

Seo Taehyun, who had failed to debut as an idol during the time Dan Haru had rewound, making that failure a ‘fixed event,’ or

Joo Eunchan, who had become instinctively fearful of people due to the repeated timelines where he was bullied by others.

The fact that Dan Haru first became close with these two after joining Miro was likely influenced by the guilt he had buried deep in his heart.

It wasn’t just the two of them. By that point, Dan Haru had already changed the lives of so many people.

Even someone on the opposite side of the earth, unknown to him, would have been affected by his regressions.

But so what?

-I just.

Dan Haru, exhausted by all the irretrievable moments, decided to close his eyes.

-I just wanted to be happy.

To close his eyes to the world that had abandoned him,

And to live only to create the ‘one day’ he desired.

It was while living with such thoughts that Dan Haru met the person who would change his world.

-If you ever have something you find hard to talk about, just ask me to go to the vending machine. Then I’ll buy you a drink.

-I have a younger brother. Actually… When I saw you earlier, it reminded me of my brother, so I felt a bit emotional.

-Ah, is this a bit meddlesome? I just thought it might be hard for you to talk about it with the others inside.

The ‘adult’ who extended a hand to Dan Haru’s world for the first time since the Director.

That was Kang Hajin’s first impression on Dan Haru.