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Chapter 3 …
A Lucky Day (2)
My breath caught in my throat.
A tiny rooftop room, barely a few square meters in size.
Whooo… Whooo…
Cold wind squeezed through the cracks in the window, whistling as it entered.
It was a rooftop apartment that required a 3 million won security deposit and 300,000 won in monthly rent.
Even in Gangnam, cheap rooftop rooms existed.
This was the place I had chosen because it was close to school.
After my father’s job transfer, my parents had moved to Sokcho.
I had stayed behind in Seoul and decided to live alone.
Sunlight streamed through the window, filling the room with light.
There was nothing more than a single desk, a small refrigerator, and old clothes hanging on a clothing rack.
“…W-What is this?”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
I had definitely gone home drunk last night.
And my apartment had been a semi-basement.
But when I opened my eyes…
I was here.
In this rooftop room.
I bit my lip.
“…!!”
It hurt.
The pain was vivid.
“…”
My mind was blank.
Why was I lying here, in this rooftop room?
It made no sense.
The room before me felt both unfamiliar and strangely familiar.
The objects inside were exactly as they had been during the time I had lived here years ago.
“…Did I… regress?”
An absurd word flashed through my mind.
Was this because I’d read too many fantasy novels?
Or because I’d spent too much time imagining movie scenarios?
I had never believed something like this could actually happen.
I’d always mocked stories about regression.
Whenever I watched movies with that premise, I’d laugh at how ridiculous they were.
The moment everyone fantasized about—
Going back to the past.
And now…
That impossible thing had happened to me?
“This…”
Yesterday had been one of the worst days of my life.
And now, the very next morning…
I was facing something even more unbelievable.
“…Grandma?”
Get a good night’s sleep. Something good will happen.
The strange old woman’s final words suddenly came back to me.
There was no other explanation.
She had definitely said that something good would happen after I slept.
But the bankbook she’d handed me was nowhere to be found.
And neither space nor time connected naturally to yesterday.
“But… is this really real?”
It really looked like I’d returned to my high school days.
Just looking at my body—
Tall, but skinny and lacking any muscle—
made it obvious.
The sensations I felt were unmistakably real.
The tiny rooftop room…
Its shabby atmosphere and stale smell from my high school years…
Smack!
I slapped myself across the face again.
“…It hurts.”
That settled it.
I’d hit myself hard enough to leave a handprint.
My cheek burned and throbbed.
“This is really…”
There was no way to describe how I felt.
I wanted to scream.
I couldn’t even decide whether this was good or bad.
It felt like an unbelievable dream.
“Hoooo…”
First, I took a deep breath to steady myself.
After several slow breaths, my wildly pounding heart finally calmed down.
“So this isn’t a dream…
It’s reality?”
I quickly grabbed my phone to check the date.
Even my phone was the outdated model I’d carried back in high school.
Current Time: May 5, 2022 — 5:05 PM.
Even the time felt oddly significant.
“This is driving me insane.”
A chill ran down my spine.
Every sensation told me this was real.
Regression…
The cliché that appeared in countless novels, webtoons, and movies.
I never imagined it was actually possible.
Much less that I’d become one of those protagonists.
Those heroes always adapted immediately after going back in time.
I wasn’t like that.
“They always say life is like a dream…
But this is far too vivid…”
Every memory up until yesterday remained crystal clear.
This wasn’t a dream.
Even the betrayal I’d suffered yesterday was still carved into my heart like a dagger.
And all of those memories…
Were now memories of the future.
“…Dad.”
The word escaped my lips without thinking.
My father had died just days before my high school graduation.
He had been returning home from a business trip when a dump truck ran a red light and killed him on the spot.
Since then…
I’d never been able to say that word aloud.
Back then, I was powerless.
The police had hurriedly ruled it a simple traffic accident.
The driver claimed he’d fallen asleep at the wheel and was arrested.
But something about it had always bothered me.
There was something behind my father’s death that our family didn’t know.
I could never shake that feeling.
Knock! Knock!
A loud knock interrupted my thoughts.
Then I heard the metal rooftop door opening.
“…?”
No one should be visiting me.
Today was Children’s Day.
May 5, 2022.
“Is Mr. Ha Tae-woong here?”
It was the voice of a middle-aged man.
Mr. Ha Tae-woong?
It definitely wasn’t my easygoing landlord.
“Who is it?”
I walked outside.
The school tracksuit I was casually wearing felt both familiar and foreign.
Clank.
I opened the metal door.
Standing there was a neatly dressed man in a dark gray suit, probably in his mid-fifties.
His graying hair and square jaw gave him a stern appearance.
He leaned on a cane, as if one of his legs was injured.
This was a fourth-floor rooftop room.
The climb had obviously been difficult for him.
“Mr. Ha Tae-woong?”
“Yes. That’s me.”
The man handed me a business card.
Jeongryul Law Firm (正律)
Kim Jeong-ryul — Managing Attorney
A lawyer?
Why would a lawyer come looking for me?
If this really was regression, then I was still in high school.
Even thinking back…
I had never met a lawyer at this point in my previous life.
“I sincerely apologize for arriving so late.”
He bowed politely.
Out of nowhere?
“…?”
Caught off guard, I instinctively bowed back.
I had absolutely no idea what was happening.
“I have come to execute the last will and testament of the late Madam Han Ok-ja.”
What?
The late Han Ok-ja?
* * *
“What? Attorney Kim went to see him?”
“Yes, Director.”
“…Maybe my warning wasn’t strong enough. Heh.”
Inside a forty-story office tower in Samseong-dong.
At the very top floor.
A cold-looking man in his early fifties, bearing the title of director, curled his lips into a mocking smile.
“He suffered injuries requiring twenty-four weeks of recovery.”
“Exactly. If someone survives after nearly dying, they should just keep their head down. Why stir up trouble?”
“Shall we eliminate him?”
“No need. Once Attorney Kim has met the kid, it’s over. Kim used to be a prosecutor. He’s not an idiot.”
“Should we dispose of it?”
“How much was it again?”
“One billion won.”
“…Mother really was generous. Leaving an inheritance to a grandson she’d never even met. Heh.”
He was smiling.
But his eyes were colder than ice.
There was even killing intent hidden within them.
Tap. Tap.
The man absentmindedly tapped his desk with his middle finger.
His secretary stood silently before him, barely daring to breathe.
A single order from this man could decide someone’s life.
“Mother…
I’ll grant your wish this time.
You even came to me in my dream yesterday.”
He spoke of his mother, who had died years ago.
She had appeared in his dream for the first time since her death.
She had thundered at him—
If he dared lay a finger on her youngest grandson one more time, heaven itself would punish him.
Even while she was alive, she had constantly nagged him because she never trusted him.
So he had hurriedly assigned people to watch.
Because of his mother’s constant distrust, he’d grown increasingly rebellious from childhood.
Yet she had always doted on her youngest son.
Of course, he hadn’t even been there to witness her death, having been caught up in one scheme after another.
“So…”
“Just keep watching. What difference will that little bit of money make once it lands in the brat’s hands?”
“Yes, sir!”
“By the way… what’s that man doing these days?”
“He’s living quietly in Sokcho.”
“That’s suspicious. He’s not the type to live quietly.”
“…Sir? But there’s been absolutely no sign—”
“He’s no fool.”
Tap. Tap.
He resumed drumming his fingers on the desk.
“Keep a close eye on him.
That bastard…
I’ve got a feeling he’s going to cause trouble.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Anyway, are the preparations for tonight finished?”
“President Kang says he’s arranged exactly the person you requested.”
“As he should.
We’re spending a fortune on that advertising campaign. Heh.”
A dark glint flashed through his cold eyes.
Like a wildcat staring at its prey.
“Clear my entire afternoon schedule.
I’m going to the sauna.”
“Yes, sir!”
The minor yet important matters had been more or less settled.
He never wasted much thought on things he considered finished.
What he didn’t know…
Was that this single decision would completely change the future.
