Chapter 4: If Mangdol Returns Three Times (4)

Ji Cheonseong reluctantly followed me out.

Since we were the last two to join as trainees, we couldn’t pass the errand off to someone else.

I had intentionally picked this guy, aiming for that.

As soon as we stepped out of the building, I was about to strike first, but Ji Cheonseong spoke before I could.

“You really came to Saesom.”

“You told me to.”

“Actually, I just said that.”

“Can I hit you just once?”

“…Last time, no one returned with me. I thought it would be the same this time.”

“Saying we should debut together was all a lie. I went to all the trouble of coming to Saesom, and you just pretended not to know me.”

As we entered the convenience store near the building, our conversation lulled for a moment.

From the way he spoke, it seemed this wasn’t his first time regressing.

I opened the ice cream freezer and swept different kinds of ice cream into a basket, and Ji Cheonseong, who had picked up a 500ml Zero Coke, suddenly spoke.

“I didn’t think you’d do the idol thing twice. You struggled, didn’t you, Overflash.”

As I dumped the ice cream and Zero Cokes on the counter, I saw the part-timer gasp after seeing Ji Cheonseong’s face.

It was true that I had struggled with Overflash.

My already difficult temperament had completely flipped after dedicating my early twenties to a failed idol group.

Seriously.

Wouldn’t it be abnormal not to struggle with that Over-samba group’s fireworks display?

Lowering my voice so the slightly dazed part-timer wouldn’t hear, I asked why he had so meaningfully talked about Saesom if he didn’t even know we would regress together.

As if to show off his strength, Ji Cheonseong carried both bags himself, making my deliberate request to pack the ice cream and drinks into two separate bags pointless.

“When I decided to return, I suddenly felt sorry towards you.”

“Sorry? After I went to all the trouble of coming, you embarrassed me by ignoring me and avoiding me.”

“Are you angry because I pretended not to know you?”

“Yeah.”

I snatched one of the bags from Ji Cheonseong’s hand.

It just had to be the bag with the drinks, and it was damn heavy.

Asking to switch bags would hurt my pride, so I gripped the handle tightly, trying my best to act like it wasn’t heavy at all.

“So, spill everything you know before I make a scene.”

Hearing my words, Ji Cheonseong burst out laughing.

“What kind of threat is that?”

His eyes crinkling from laughter and the corners of his mouth curving upwards made him so unbearably handsome that it was annoying and unfair.

‘You find this funny? You’re laughing?’

Feeling awkward, I deliberately poked Ji Cheonseong’s back with the plastic bag, and he, laughing so hard that tears welled up slightly in his eyes, replied, “Yeah, this is the first time I’ve genuinely enjoyed myself this life.”

‘First time?’

I stared at Ji Cheonseong’s back as he once again took the bag of drinks from my hand.

Even though he was someone I had known for 8 years in my previous life, including our trainee period, and we had even shared a room in the same dorm, he felt strangely unfamiliar.

Looking back, I realized I didn’t know anything properly about Ji Cheonseong.

For a few days, I was so unsettled I thought I would die.

I was so visibly troubled that my mom even secretly asked me if the Saesom kids were giving me a hard time.

Hazing? Of course, it was bad.

But this was something I had braced myself for, so it wasn’t enough to deal me a blow.

Humans are cunning, so instead of targeting Ji Cheonseong, who was obviously good-looking and talented, they subtly directed their passive aggression towards me, who fell slightly short of him.

‘His face will probably get better later with some camera therapy.’

‘Hyunoh is definitely a good dancer, but… he kind of stands out too much? I don’t think he fits the group.’

‘I thought he might have majored in ballet, but he did contemporary dance. A year and six months isn’t really much, though.’

‘Shouldn’t he bulk up a bit? Being too skinny isn’t attractive these days….’

I already knew that my monolidded eyes and slender jawline meant my appearance depended heavily on makeup.

Being skinny was unavoidable since I developed a constitution where I don’t gain weight easily from dancing intensely since I was fourteen.

It’s not like I was a stick insect, and I probably had more lean muscle than the guy who said that, so I’d laugh it off, saying, ‘Isn’t a model’s physique always popular?’

I had heard about two hundred times, including in my past life, that my dancing suited solo performances better than group choreography, so I’d brush it off indifferently, saying, ‘I guess I just stand out, huh?’

When I came to my senses, I had become the epitome of an idol trainee with a f*cking strong attitude within a few weeks.

Having endured malicious internet comments for six years and laughed them off, thinking malice was better than indifference, there was no reason for me to bat an eye at mere trainee bickering.

Then what was it that truly unsettled me?

It was because of… Ji Cheonseong.

Honestly, I wasn’t surprised that Ji Cheonseong was a third-time regressor and had screwed up his first and second lives royally, as I had somewhat expected it.

Ji Cheonseong was vague about ‘how’ he regressed specifically, only ambiguously answering that it was a point system when I pressed him persistently.

“It’s just… if you accumulate more than a certain amount of specific points, the reset option becomes available.”

He didn’t tell me anything about what kind of points, how many points were needed, or how to accumulate them.

He also didn’t bother to tell me what his first life was like.

To the question of why he joined an unknown small agency in his second life after getting a fresh start, he just pursed his lips uncomfortably and trailed off, saying, ‘I was a bit out of my mind back then, as it was my first time regressing.’

Actually, although it was a bit unsatisfactory, that much of an answer was sufficient.

I wasn’t an investigator here to do a background check on Ji Cheonseong, and prying into someone else’s privacy completely was an awkward thing to do.

He surprisingly readily confessed the reason he insisted on being an idol despite having plenty of opportunities to succeed as a model or actor.

With each repeated regression, new conditions were added like penalties.

He said these conditions were even cumulative, so they still applied now, in his third life.

When Ji Cheonseong first regressed, at the start of his second life at eighteen, the conditions he received – if there wasn’t a shred of falsehood in his words – were as follows.

1. If you fail to officially debut before your twentieth birthday, you will return to the ending of your first life.

2. Profession Restriction: K-Pop Idol (Boy Group)

‘Shouldn’t there be a tutorial for up to the second run? Why is it so harsh?’

In the previous life, Overflash debuted in May of the year Ji Cheonseong and I turned twenty.

Ji Cheonseong’s birthday was in June, so they had barely managed to debut with only a month to spare.

‘You cut it close.’

When I muttered that, Ji Cheonseong laughed.

“If I hadn’t debuted then, I wouldn’t have made it this far.”

For something muttered without much thought, it was a rather unsettling sentence.

‘If he hadn’t debuted then, wouldn’t he have returned to the ending of his first life?’

I knew nothing about this guy’s first life, so it was hard to say anything.

‘It also seemed like this guy had lost it a bit.’

‘There’s probably a reason humans only have one life, and he’s on his third, so there’s no way he’s sane.’

Technically, that guy was only physically the same age as me; mentally, he was practically several years older.

Goosebumps prickled on my arms.

My faint trust in Ji Cheonseong was taking damage over time, steadily plummeting towards negative values.

“So, since this is your third life, you must have new conditions. What are they this time?”

“The points needed for a reset have doubled.”

“That’s f*cking harsh.”

“Well, sports usually get serious from the third set, don’t they?”

Ji Cheonseong subtly tried to sound me out, ‘Hyunoh, are you sure you don’t need to collect points or anything?’

‘It would be unfair if only I returned without any conditions when we regressed together.’

But I wasn’t considerate enough to tell a white lie like, ‘I have to collect points too,’ just so Ji Cheonseong wouldn’t feel it was unfair, so I smugly retorted, ‘I don’t have any conditions, though?’

I did feel sorry for Ji Cheonseong, who had regressed with such f*cking harsh conditions, but that was his life, not mine.

Still, considering the years we’d known each other, I was somewhat willing to help him.

Especially since we had suffered together in our previous life.

However, instead of getting offended by my smug attitude, Ji Cheonseong laughed cheerfully.

“That’s a relief.”

Muttering something like that.

“That you’re really just an error.”

‘No, wait, this b*stard is just casually calling someone an error?’

I ended up inadvertently… It really sounds like an excuse, but it wasn’t intentional.

It was absolutely inadvertent.

Anyway, I inadvertently ended up punching Ji Cheonseong in the face.

‘Why does this guy talk in such a creepy way?’

While Ji Cheonseong, with a busted lip, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, I momentarily forgot that he and I were idol trainees and stepped back three paces from him, wondering if I should hit him again.

“Ji Cheonseong.”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t talk like a crazy b*stard. It’s off-putting. I’d just decided to do you a favor, and now because of that, I just want to ditch you.”

“…Sorry.”

Come to think of it, that guy had seemed like a crazy b*stard at times in the past too.

He’d be overly detached during incidents where it was okay to cry, and he’d be smiling when there was nothing to smile about.

It was just that there were so many crazy b*stards in Overflash that he kind of blended in.

While looking at Ji Cheonseong suspiciously, I wondered what kind of conditions would be added if he went to a fourth life, brushed off my right hand that had hit his face, and blurted out to him that since I had regressed with him this life, I would help him.

As usual, I didn’t have any grand plan.

“How are you going to help?”

“I don’t know. Let’s just debut first and find our light.”

Ji Cheonseong had said that sports also get real from the third set, but as far as I knew, in most sports, if you lose up to the third set, the game was over.

‘Isn’t he an idiot?’

‘Even in rock-paper-scissors, they don’t give you a break if you lose all three rounds.’