Chapter 12

“Uwaaah-.”

“Mom, Yoo Jin must be hungry.”

“Shh, shh, let’s feed our baby girl.”

After carefully handing my sister to my mom, I stepped out into the yard.

Breastfeeding moms deserve their privacy, after all.

‘No smartphone, no computer. I’m bored.’

Living with a loving family is great, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m bored. They say time moves slowly in childhood, and that seems to apply even to someone who’s regressed like me. And having lived through it before, it feels even more tedious.

‘Ugh, maybe it’s because I have nothing to do. Time feels even slower.’

Even when I took Jang Gun-i to the beach or the reservoir, the clock didn’t budge. Fishing with Dad, picking buckets of wild strawberries with my neighborhood friend Mi-kyung—none of it made the calendar flip.

‘I should finish my homework and go see Dad.’

Jin-hyuk lay sprawled on the porch, which had become his hideout, working on his vacation homework. His friends would probably cram their diaries the night before school started or the morning of, but Jin-hyuk’s mental age didn’t match his peers, making it awkward to hang out with the neighborhood girls. He decided to just finish today’s diary entry.

“……Life seems to exist on its own, but without the gentle breath of a mother and the strong embrace of a father, it’s not easy to bloom alone. Just looking at my little sister, I realize how arrogant it is to think humans are born and live alone……”

Jin-hyuk suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and frowned.

‘Sigh, seriously. What ten-year-old writes a diary like this?’

None. Last winter vacation, his dad had written his diary for him, and Mr. Choi Eung-muk had grilled him about it—though with a smile. For Jin-hyuk, it felt like all the blood was draining from his head.

‘Little Choi Mi-kyung got scolded too.’

Their handwriting and content were too similar. Mi-kyung had written hers with her left hand, but somehow the teacher noticed. Teachers really aren’t just anyone.

Anyway, Mr. Choi Eung-muk was an angel, but the third-grade homeroom teacher was a bit more demanding. Even though he was kind to Jin-hyuk, demanding was still demanding. Jin-hyuk tried his best to act like a kid.

‘How do kids even write diaries?’

As he erased, Jin-hyuk furrowed his brow.

Scratch, scratch—rip.

“Oops—.”

The diary page tore under the force of his erasing. But he had to finish erasing. As he diligently erased the diary entry written by an old soul, an unfamiliar sound reached his ears.

Vrooom—.

Still lying on the porch, he twisted his body toward the sound.

‘Coming to our house? No way!’

Jin-hyuk shot up.

At the sound, Jang Gun-i, who had been napping in the shade under the porch, startled and growled.

Jin-hyuk narrowed his eyes and glared at the car. Around this time in his previous life, hadn’t he been dragged to town by his adoptive parents? Was this some kind of cursed repetition?

But that thought was fleeting as both Jin-hyuk and Jang Gun-i tilted their heads in confusion.

‘It wasn’t a Benz, was it?’

The people who ran the tea house in town had come in an old sedan.

But this car had Seoul license plates.

Why is a Benz here?

Even in the countryside, where cars are rare, Jin-hyuk wasn’t so clueless that he wouldn’t recognize a Benz emblem.

Events and time really do create surprising connections.

In his previous life, he’d been locked in an attic by someone claiming to be his mom’s sister. Now, he was lounging on the porch, playing with a baby and leisurely doing his vacation homework. And now, a Benz was pulling into his yard.

‘Live long enough, and you’ll see everything.’

That was ten-year-old Son Jin-hyuk’s reflection.

Anyway, who is that?

The Benz stopped in the outer yard of Jin-hyuk’s house. A man and a woman stepped out of the driver and passenger seats, both wearing sunglasses like cultured modern Seoulites. Though, in reality, it was the Seoul license plate that gave them away.

The woman opened the back door and helped a little girl out.

The man from the driver’s seat took off his sunglasses and approached Jin-hyuk.

Grrr—.

Jang Gun-i lowered his body and growled, on guard.

But.

Surprisingly, it was a face Jin-hyuk recognized.

‘Chairman Hong Ki-jun?’

The owner of Sain Group, who had once flattered Jin-hyuk as a key figure in the group. Now in his younger days, his face was firmer than Jin-hyuk remembered, but it was definitely Chairman Hong Ki-jun.

“Jang Gun-i, quiet!”

Jin-hyuk calmed Jang Gun-i with a low voice. The dog usually wagged his tail at strangers, so his wolf-like growling was unusual. Maybe it’s because they’re from Seoul. Could be. Jin-hyuk had also lived in Seoul before regressing, so maybe Jang Gun-i was just being cautious. It seemed like a reasonable suspicion.

Anyway.

In that short time, Jin-hyuk tried to figure out what was going on.

‘Why are they here?’

Starting with chemicals, Sain Group had grown through construction in the Middle East and trade based in Hong Kong. Thanks to solid finances, they survived the foreign exchange crisis and aggressively expanded into electronics, home appliances, and insurance, eventually becoming one of Korea’s top ten conglomerates.

‘During my time, they rose to third place.’

Chairman Hong Ki-jun had acknowledged Jin-hyuk’s contributions, calling him a key figure in the group.

He probably wanted to make Jin-hyuk his son-in-law.

At that thought, Jin-hyuk’s heart raced.

‘Does he recognize me?’

No way. But why else would he be here?

Unaware of Jin-hyuk’s inner turmoil, Chairman Hong Ki-jun smiled warmly and greeted him.

“Hello?”

Typical Seoulite greeting.

Hello? People around here say, “Have you eaten yet?” It felt strange to hear such a greeting after so long.

Jin-hyuk got down from the porch. After all, they were guests and adults.

It was the first time he’d seen the young Chairman Hong Ki-jun in person, but his gaze was sharp. The older chairman had a warm, kind look, but now there was a piercing sharpness in his eyes. Being a group chairman wasn’t for just anyone.

“Hello.”

“Is your father the head of this household?”

“Yes.”

“Is he home?”

“No, he’s out in the fields.”

“Ah, I see.”

Chairman Hong Ki-jun sat on the porch and crossed his legs. He glanced at the books spread out, trying to gauge what Jin-hyuk had been doing.

The woman who had come with him approached.

‘Hong Soo-jung?’

No way! Jin-hyuk blinked hard. She looked exactly like a younger version of Hong Soo-jung. When he’d met her before, she was past sixty, and he’d thought, “Hong Soo-jung takes after her mother.”

‘Yoo Se-ra, the chairwoman.’

Chairman Hong Ki-jun’s wife and granddaughter of Sain Chemical’s founder. She had handed over the group’s management to her husband, bypassing her two older brothers. She was a respected woman dedicated to promoting grassroots sports. Now in her early thirties, she looked strikingly similar, and Jin-hyuk felt a strange sense of familiarity.

Then, that little girl must be.

‘The real Hong Soo-jung?’

The Great Magician. Just yesterday, he thought he’d never see her again. Cold to everyone but awkward around Jin-hyuk. She couldn’t even call him without a drink. She had been his mentor when he was a rookie, and he had been so strict in his work. He never hesitated to point out mistakes, even to his superiors.

Anyway.

‘This little girl made tens of thousands of employees tremble.’

Jin-hyuk stifled a laugh.

Her hair tied in two braids like a pretzel, wearing a yellow dress, she was an adorable child. Hong Soo-jung looked around with wide eyes, unfamiliar with the rural scenery. Her white tights and red shoes made her look even cuter as she toddled around.

Yoo Se-ra studied Jin-hyuk intently and spoke.

“When will your father be back?”

“Farm work lasts until sunset. It’ll be a while.”

“My, you’re so young but speak so well? And no dialect, huh?”

Everything seemed to amaze her. She didn’t use a dialect either. Oh, she’s from Seoul, so that’s natural.

Chairman Hong Ki-jun quickly stepped in to steer the conversation.

“Is your mother home? We’d like to say hello before we leave.”

Why would wealthy Seoulites want to greet a rural family?

“She’s inside, but you can’t go in.”

Jin-hyuk answered firmly.

In his previous life, Jin-hyuk had been blunt with Hong Soo-jung and never bowed or cowered before the chairman. He had nothing to lose if he got fired.

Normally, his mom would have come out at the sound of the car, but she was busy with the newborn. And it wasn’t a hospital, so exposing the baby to outsiders wasn’t a good idea. He’d heard newborns have weak immune systems and should avoid contact with the outside world.

“No? Why? Auntie isn’t a bad person.”

Yoo Se-ra smiled.

A confident, genuine smile.

But no means no.

“Mom just had a baby and is recovering. Outside air might not be good for the baby.”

“Ah, how are you so smart?”

Yoo Se-ra looked at Jin-hyuk with genuine admiration.

She seemed pleasantly surprised to be having such a conversation with a boy she’d just met.

Jin-hyuk felt strange too.

Facing someone from his past, whom he’d rarely met outside of work, now as an adult and a child.

“Hey, don’t touch that, it’ll hurt!”

Jin-hyuk suddenly panicked and ran over.

Five-year-old Hong Soo-jung was about to touch the devil’s grass growing around the yard, so Jin-hyuk quickly stopped her.

Hong Soo-jung looked up at him with wide, teary eyes. Being suddenly stopped must have upset her.

Quick thinking was needed. He had to stop her before she started crying.

“Look here.”

Jin-hyuk plucked the devil’s grass and pressed it against his shorts. The grass stuck to his clothes like magic. The grass, with its nearly invisible thorns, could leave scratches on the skin. It was called “daughter-in-law’s wiping grass.”

The story goes that a wicked mother-in-law gave this thorny grass to her daughter-in-law to wipe with, hence the name. Using this sandpaper-like grass to wipe? Unthinkable, but it was a plant with serious offensive power.

“Ah.”

Hong Soo-jung was a smart kid.

She seemed to understand why Jin-hyuk had stopped her.

And then.

“Oppa—.”

Hong Soo-jung pointed at Jin-hyuk and clearly mouthed the word.

It was more of a finger-point, but it was still cute. Seeing Jin-hyuk smile for the first time, her pointing finger overlapped with the image of her drunkenly calling him “oppa” in his mind. Jin-hyuk’s heart started beating unnecessarily fast.

‘What’s wrong with me? My heart’s racing just because a little girl called me oppa.’

And I’m an old man.

Jin-hyuk thought back to Hong Soo-jung from before his regression.

A divorcee. Hong Soo-jung had married the third son of Korea’s top conglomerate. They divorced within a month. There were rumors about whether it was an annulment or a divorce, but Jin-hyuk didn’t care about the truth. Either way, the cheerful Hong Soo-jung had seemed down ever since.

‘We had a few drinks together, just the two of us.’

At work, she was usually calm and cold, so seeing her as a little girl was a shock. But then again, how cold could a little girl be?

“Jin-hyuk, who’s here?”

The gate opened, and Mom came out. Chairman Hong Ki-jun and Yoo Se-ra, who had been sitting on the porch watching Jin-hyuk and Hong Soo-jung, stood up. But Yoo Jin, who should have been in Mom’s arms, was nowhere to be seen.

‘Oh no! What if something happens to the baby?’

Weasels! Wildcats!

Jin-hyuk rushed into the house.

It might have seemed like overprotective big brother behavior, but to Jin-hyuk, his little sister was that fragile and precious.

“Oppa—.”

Whoosh.

Following Jin-hyuk into the house, little Hong Soo-jung scampered after him.

Jang Gun-i was still glaring at Chairman Hong Ki-jun, silently baring his teeth.