2 – Meeting (1)
When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar ceiling.
My body was light and my vision was fine without a single sore spot.
After blinking a few times and rolling only my eyes to see what was going on around me, I got up and picked up a small calendar lying on the table.
“November 20XX… 10 Years ago, right? Besides, this place…”
The break room at the Hero Association Training Grounds.
The place where I lived alone in my previous life.
I probably spent half of my twenties here.
Why am I here… ?
Ah. Could this be a kaleidoscope?
But didn’t the kaleidoscope show the whole life when a person died? Why do you only show short stories?
It wasn’t just one or two strange things.
Particularly noteworthy is the faint sense of life.
As if… It was like returning to the past.
“Ah, that can’t be—”
Boom!
“Seo Jin-senpai! Are you here again? What is Ji Park-ryeong? If I visit you every day, I’ll meet you at the training ground.”
As I shook my head in denial, someone opened the door roughly and came in.
When I turned around in surprise, I saw a face so familiar that I stared at it with a bruise involuntarily.
“…A… Fix?”
“Huh? Why do you look at me like that, senpai? Wait… Why are you so strangely close?!”
“Sujeong Han. Is it you? Is it really you?!”
After looking at it blankly, he stood up and staggered toward it, and Han Su-jeong stepped back in fright.
But he didn’t care, he approached her and ran her hand around her face.
Then I felt such a vivid touch that I couldn’t tell if this was a dream or reality.
“Oh really!! What are you doing?!”
“Evil!!!”
At the sudden action, Han Soo-jung got angry and kicked my shin.
Because I was still wearing sneakers with the front protruding, I felt the tremendous pain vividly.
Um. It’s a reality. Absolute reality.
You will never feel this kind of pain in a dream… !!
“You must be crazy. No. Senpai. Did you lose your taste while training? Did your head go crazy after wielding only a sword for 100 days?”
“Ouch… I’m sorry. I had a rather bizarre dream.”
“Ugh. Senpai. That doesn’t mean I’m approaching you that way.”
“I’m sorry.”
I grabbed my shin and jumped on my feet, then sat down on the sofa.
I couldn’t believe it. Didn’t die, returned to the past.
Should I call this a regression?
After pinching her cheek once, a red haired and sophisticated beautiful woman in front of her eyes. I gazed at Han Soo-jung.
She was my junior in the past.
He was someone who kindly approached me when I was treated like a weirdo, asking why I was training swords… Died during the war
She was given a beggarly order, but she didn’t refuse and went ahead with the operation.
I was enraged by the news and had all the superiors involved dismembered and decapitated.
“Anyway, let’s go home. What kind of person won’t go home?”
“Home?”
“Yes! Home! Even if it’s a shabby and old house, I have to go back and rest. What’s the point of training here while taking a break that doesn’t even feel like a break?!”
“Ah. Ahahahaha… Is that so?”
“Yes yes yes!! So let’s go! Lee Seo-jin!! And shave your shaggy beard!! Did you know that the team leader asked you to send the seniors home?!”
“Mi. Sorry.”
I could see that he was the junior I knew, with no change in Han Soo-jung’s momentum.
Every time I was training, he would always come and ask how I was doing.
Sometimes when I didn’t listen or overworked my body and was having a hard time, I tried to make myself rest even if I got angry like now.
Of course, I ignored it every time and continued training.
I wonder if that wasn’t enough, so I yelled at him to turn it off because it was noisy.
If you think about it now, why did you do that… In the past, I was so pathetic and stupid.
“Well. Like you said, you better go home.”
“Okay. Go home… Huh? What is it? I really want to go in?”
“…Didn’t I just tell you to go in?”
“It was. But it’s strange to hear that a person who always ignored me no matter how many times I talked about it, is being compliant today.”
“It’s weird… Is it?”
“Yes. Very.”
“Hmm. Well. Sometimes it’s like this. Isn’t there a way to relieve fatigue from time to time?”
Even after saying it, my heart was pierced by the words that were too awkward for me to say now.
You can’t say you’ve regressed, though.
How would you react if I told you that you went back 10 years ago?
… They’ll probably tell you that you’re crazy and go to the hospital right away.
After putting on the top clothes that were hanging near Juseomjuseom, he tapped Han Sujeong’s shoulder and passed by.
“I’m going. You look at work too.”
“Hmmm… well. It’s weird, but it’s weird, so I’ll move on.”
“Yes. To my brother… No, say hello to the team leader.”
“Don’t ask me, but have a senior visit and tell me. I think he’ll die from overwork, but he took time to ask me.”
“What? Do you still have a lot to do? That’s right… He’s always busy.”
“Yes. You’re always busy… But still?”
“Huh? Ah. No! It’s just the wrong words.”
“Hmm…”
Calm down, Seojin Lee. I’m not a kid, so why are you talking like this?
Maybe it’s because the fact that he has returned still feels unfamiliar to him.
I need to get used to it quickly. If you keep making mistakes like this, you will definitely be treated strangely.
Sujeong Han glanced at me with a suspicious look, but she passed her side as if she didn’t bother to say anything more.
“Well, okay. Go inside.”
“Aren’t you going?”
“I don’t always come here to see my seniors.”
“Ah. That’s right. Um.”
This is the break room at the training ground.
A training ground that superhumans belonging to the Hero Association can freely use.
I forgot about the reunion after a long time, but Han Soo-jung was a hero.
A hero who died in vain in the war, but was quite strong.
… This time, I will never let you go in vain.
“Then train well. I’ll go in first.”
“Yes. Go in. Senior.”
I left the training ground, leaving Han Soo-jung, who was warming up and undressing, behind.
※
It was snowing when I went outside.
It was a bit strange to see snow falling in November, but maybe it’s because it contrasts with the snowy winter in my memory.
On the way home.
As I was walking with my eyes closed, somehow I couldn’t take my eyes off the sky.
“I remember… it was a snowy winter in a city ravaged by war.”
A lot of people passed by on the street, laughing and chatting with each other, looking happy.
The building was built high and was in good shape with no broken or worn corners, and the lights were showing vitality.
But the war broke out and all of this was lost.
People were busy running away, leaving only despair and sadness on their faces.
The building collapsed and became empty, leaving only empty loneliness visible.
The hero defended as much as possible and fought the villains… Having something to protect was a bigger loophole in the war than I thought.
“Die while protecting them. Even if I fought, if I lost, I would spit out resentment and anger…”
… The more I think about it now, the more I get angry.
Should I beat the hero and move to the villain?
Even if you return to the past, what will happen will happen anyway.
Because war is not a small thing, it is huge enough to turn the whole world upside down.
Even if I tried to stop it, I couldn’t think of a way, and even if I did, it was questionable whether it would be blocked.
If I were to think about the future, I thought it would be okay to give up the life of a f*cking hero and move to a villain and live a comfortable life doing what I want to do.
Of course, I was just saying this, but I didn’t mean it at all.
“…This time, let’s not live like we were before.”
In my previous life, I only pursued strength.
I worked hard, saying that I would somehow become stronger and become like the heroes at the top.
What did you gain from doing that?
No.
I gained strength, but there was nothing around me.
No. Even if there was, I stupidly sent it away.
Once is enough for such a lonely life.
I will live a fun and happy life meeting many people without clinging to strength.
Of course, if a war breaks out, everything will be destroyed… Still, eight years were left before the war would break out in earnest.
“…A warrior.”
I suddenly remembered the hero.
I thought I was fighting on the battlefield alone with nothing, but the person who stayed by my side.
I suddenly wondered what would have happened after the war.
It’s difficult now that the demon king is dead, but will it end with the hero’s victory?
Was it possible to meet good people after the war and be happy?
I wish you only good things.
I arrived home imagining a future where I could no longer meet.
“It’s the same. Here.”
A shabby apartment on the outskirts of Seoul.
For Seoul, the house price was filthy expensive, and it was a two-room house.
Perhaps he wanted to make some money because he received so many people, it was so packed that there were 14 rooms on one floor.
Occasionally I could hear a noise from the next room, and it was really to die for.
Of course, at this time I didn’t go home and lived mainly in the break room, so even having a house was meaningless.
“I haven’t been in for a long time, so it’s new to me.”
As I recalled the messy room, I grabbed the doorknob with a shy smile.
It was creaking because I hadn’t touched it for a long time.
The inside is probably full of dust. When I get in, I have to clean up first.
“Kuluk kuluk! Uh. What is it? It’s stuffy.”
As soon as I entered, the musty air greeted me.
I could tell that the air was acrid because it had not been ventilated for a long time.
Fortunately it hasn’t accumulated a lot of dust, but I’ll have to clean it anyway.
“That’s it… My body feels sore once in a while.”
Is it because he devoted himself entirely to training to become stronger?
I didn’t know because I swung my sword every day without worrying about muscle pain or fatigue, but looking at it now, it’s quite significant.
Is it dull to pain or is it less sensitive to this kind of thing?
From now on, I need to take care of my body properly…
I wondered how I lived in my previous life when I rolled my body so harshly.
“Let’s ventilate… That’s good.”
From noble mtl dot com.
When I opened the window to ventilate, fresh air came in.
Of course it snowed outside and the air was cold, but it was several times better than the stale air.
After looking around the house, I opened the refrigerator to see if there was anything to eat, and saw an empty refrigerator.
“As expected… Since they don’t come home, of course there’s nothing to eat.”
I thought about stopping by the mart, but today was Sunday.
Closed days off every two weeks.
Then the only answer is convenience stores.
As soon as I put on my top and went outside, the snow was falling even harder than before.
She hurriedly ran to the convenience store in front of her house, thinking of going quickly.
But on the way to the convenience store, something strange caught my eye.
“…What is it. Is that…?”
There were two very beautiful girls who attracted attention even when they were still.
Two young-looking girls shivering in the cold, hugging each other as if they were sisters.
Like a stray cat, he went inside the box and stared blankly into the sky.
The girl, who appeared to be her older sister, had a small paper sign hanging around her own neck.
A sign that says [Please pick it up].
She was dazed at the sight so amazing that she stopped on the road and looked at it. The girl holding the sign slowly lifted her head as if she had noticed me.
Upon meeting her eyes, she smiled and asked me for a favor.
“…Mister. Can you pick us up?”
With a very pitiful yet sad smile.