Episode 161
To be honest, I had a vague idea about it.
It was true that Lee Jae-heon was constantly looking around. In order to guess the probability, I had to first know the background I was standing in, and what was required for that was the ability to observe. Because the values of the past life and the present world are different, we sometimes come to wrong conclusions, but overall, it was the right answer.
Lee Jae-heon instinctively felt something strange about Kang Min-ah after his return.
‘You look visibly anxious.’
This did not mean that he was out of his mind like the main character, but that he seemed to be experiencing just the same level of confusion while maintaining his sanity. Kang Min-ah’s eyes were often slightly swaying as they scanned the survivors.
So, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘Isn’t it possible that he has regressed too?’
But that couldn’t be possible.
‘If that were the case, I would have completely lost my temper.’
To be frank, Kang Min-ah’s mental strength was not that strong. They are curious and adaptable, but mental health is a separate issue. If you think about Kang Min-ah, who was so distracted by the spider monster in the beginning that she couldn’t even run away, her natural mental strength couldn’t have been very strong.
But try making a comeback. Can you sit still like that?
“….”
Lee Jae-heon lightly rubbed the corner of his mouth, thinking of the gathering team leaving to collect firewood and Jeong In-ho leaving to negotiate with Ha Seong-yoon. The idea was to calculate the time it would take for the two teams to return.
Lee Jae-heon, who was tapping his cheek with a finger wrapped around his lower abdomen, made eye contact with Kang Min-ah, pretending it was a coincidence and as if something went well.
“…Chief Kang, is there a problem?”
“…yes? yes? Oh no… not in particular….”
“No, is there a problem with me?”
I deliberately frowned.
“You’re still paying attention to me.”
Lee Jae-heon knew Kang Min-ah wouldn’t be able to answer that question, but he didn’t ask because he wanted an answer from the beginning. He felt that something had to be done about this confused chick.
Also, to do that, we first had to know what the problem was.
“…sorry. “It’s just that I saw that the manager… was injured…”
“…Don’t say it if you don’t want to talk about it.”
He intentionally cut off Kang Min-ah’s excuse midway and walked away.
“Uh, where are you going?”
“What’s wrong with Chief Kang? Are you taking after Assistant Manager Jeong?”
“You can’t move now….”
“I have a question.”
“yes?”
Kang Min-ah could not hide her embarrassment, and Lee Jae-heon frowned once again at her expression.
“What is that expression?”
“…That’s not it….”
“It was the look of an extremely immature child.”
“…Uh….”
I guess the answer was probably correct.
‘It’s the reaction I was aiming for, but it doesn’t mean I’m not annoyed.’
I deliberately stimulated Kang Min-ah’s sense of responsibility in order to move with her, but the feeling of being treated like a child by a young subordinate despite being over 40 years old was truly strange. To put it more bluntly, I was embarrassed and annoyed.
“…I know you’re not listening, so don’t make that face.”
“That…”
“But have you forgotten that I am your manager? What about being over 40? “If you don’t like me not keeping my promises, I should point out that, why do you have to treat me like a child…”
As he spoke, he got even more heated and his voice gradually rose, but Lee Jae-heon reminded himself that this was not important, sighed and raised his hand. scribbled.
“That’s enough. “If you’re feeling uneasy, let’s go together.”
“Oh, is that okay…?”
I was angry that he was biting me as if I had been waiting for it, but this was the goal anyway.
“If you don’t like it, it will all come back as karma. “I don’t think Jeong In-ho will stay still either.”
“…Just the fact that you’re walking around like this is already…”
“Are you saying I’m worth moving? Assistant Manager Jeong is a little more sensitive now, but there is no need to overprotect me like this. huh? Even if we assume that Ha Seong-yoon is a doctor, there is nothing we can do about it.”
“It’s not that I’m a doctor…”
“I’m not a patient who will die soon. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone out without saying a word and gotten hurt…”
Kang Min-ah’s voice lowered significantly at those words.
“It’ll be quite a bit.”
“….”
“Regardless of the number of times, my physical condition is often very bad.”
When I looked at him again, the expression had disappeared from his face.
‘…Has he really regressed?’
Lee Jae-heon’s confidence that it couldn’t happen was shaken.
At first glance, Lee Jae-heon’s obsession with his well-being resembled the main character, Jeong In-ho. There’s nothing you can’t understand when looking at survivors and feeling like, ‘It’s amazing that people who should have died before are alive.’
But the problem was that, of course, it was difficult to see it as normal, but it still looked pretty good considering I remembered the whole thing.
“I wish you wouldn’t go.”
“….”
“But I know that everything the manager said is correct.”
It would be difficult to say that even that is normal.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re always helping us.”
“I’m just looking for efficiency.”
“I know.”
“….”
“So you can do whatever you want.”
Kang Min-ah seemed like she didn’t even know what I was talking about.
“I will protect you.”
For someone who is supposed to protect him, he has a strangely desperate face.
As the conversation continued, I felt Munsan, who was sitting quietly in the corner, glancing in my direction. He probably didn’t hear what was being said, but there was a faint look of anxiety on his face that was filled with questions. Kang Min-ah’s obsessive sense of responsibility seemed to be conveyed even to distant places.
If he did not regress or not….
“….”
How on earth did this person feel a threat that did not exist here?
Jaeheon Lee’s gaze narrowed.
‘…Could it be a dream?’
That’s because Lee Jae-heon was also suffering from dreams, so he had no choice but to think of dreams first. When I thought back to the last time I woke up early in the morning and started gibbering, I became even more suspicious.
‘If this happens, things really get weird.’
If you think about it, his lucid dreams are not affected by regression.
To be precise, unlike other things outside of dreams, it does not return to the way it was before. If we could call it a world, it would be like history accumulating. Just like dirt and sand, they accumulate one by one and flow in one time.
“….”
…It’s a random and slightly different story, but Jaeheon Lee met a total of three green algae monsters in his dream.
“Okay…”
A monster trying to kill me.
The monster that tried to save me.
And a new monster containing Song In-myeong.
“is that so.”
The hand of a woman who dragged her to death.
A desperate act in hopes of not dying.
Song In-myeong eventually died and became the skeleton of green algae.
“You will protect me.”
Those three must have all been different people. It would have been a different framework.
The woman, who must have never appeared in the story, tried to kill me, and the person who made a deal to sacrifice Song In-myeong tried to save me, and Song In-myeong, who died in the previous episode, laughed while looking at Lee Jae-heon.
He instinctively realized that green algae monsters from all timelines were inhabiting his dreams. This means that although the reality before and after the return is simply replaced, it remains as is in the dream. If we make that distinction, the order is also mixed up, which means that the ‘green algae monsters’ in lucid dreams can be active in the dream whenever they want.
‘Then let’s think about it.’
The green algae monster uses a randomly selected corpse as its skeleton. The behavior depends on the skeleton. It lives in a green algae lake in a large lake….
“….”
The first one said that my body was dragged into the green algae lake.
“….”
“…I….”
The second Jeong In-ho reported that he committed suicide in the same lake.
“well.”
third.
Song In-myeong’s body must have also been dragged into the large lake.
“Seeing you acting like this makes me feel like you’re having a nightmare.”
“….”
“You woke up at dawn. “You must have been tired, but does that mean it was such a terrible dream?”
“…I think so.”
“That can happen.”
Considering the story of the green algae monster named Song In-myeong running amok, its behavior changes depending on its frame. This rule is the same both in dreams and in the other world.
If so, a question arises.
“You said you would protect me.”
Who was it that tried to save me?
“…You don’t have to allow it.”
“is it so.”
In the previous story, whose body sank into the green algae lake next to me? Who became the skeleton of a monster after Lee Jae-heon?
“That’s good.”
“….”
“Please take care of me, Kang Min-ah.”
It was Jeong In-ho.
It’s so disgusting.
* * *
So then, what was it like for me?
* * *
“…I just remembered it, but it didn’t move.”
“….”
“It seems like the green algae monster at that time was just looking at us.”
In-ho Jeong continued, recalling the situation at the time.
“It wasn’t an observational view like Ha Seong-yoon’s.”
He was telling Ha Seong-yoon about his cut off time.
It was because I thought that if I wanted to hear someone else’s story, I had to at least tell my own story first. Because Jeong In-ho knows that Ha Seong-yoon’s secret is hidden more tightly than anyone can imagine. It was right for the person who was disappointed to bow down, even if only for the sake of minimal courtesy and relationship.
“…It wasn’t an observation.”
“Do you feel like you can’t reach us? Actually, I don’t know either. “I was so out of my mind at that time.”
“I must have been completely out of my mind.”
Ha Seong-yoon continued speaking with his characteristic soft smile.
“Isn’t it such a strange world to be able to return to the past?”
“…You believe it quite easily. “The manager and Ha Seong-yoon are the same.”
“My friend, who was quite normal, changed so much overnight. “I can’t help but want to believe this more than the monster wearing Jeong In-ho’s skin.”
“That’s also true.”
Perhaps because I had already confessed it once, the second time was even easier. Especially if you are someone like Ha Seong-yoon who reacts easily to everything.
Ha Seong-yoon, who seemed to have finished thinking briefly, asked.
“Then do I always have an observant eye?”
“These are the eyes through which a scientist looks at an experimental subject.”
“….”
“I’m kidding.”
Jeong In-ho let out a heartless laugh.
“But it’s true that I don’t want to get involved.”
It seemed like he was hurt by that.
Suddenly, Jeong In-ho realized that the previous times were increasingly feeling unrealistic. Could it be some kind of self-defense? In a way, it was a wise response because the more realistic you feel, the greater your mental burden will be. Although it wasn’t Jung In-ho’s intention, it was somewhat welcome.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t resent the doctor in front of me as much as I thought.
“Do you know that, Ha Seong-yoon? Just last time you killed someone. “He was the person who killed the manager.”
Ha Seong-yoon’s only reaction upon hearing Jeong In-ho’s words was to open his eyes slightly. Although he did not have positive feelings about committing murder on his own, he seemed like someone who had already somewhat guessed that this would happen.
“What tool did I use then?”
“Maybe it was a scalpel. “Is it okay for a doctor to take something like that outside the hospital?”
“….”
“Is it okay?”
“…of course not.”
Ha Seong-yoon’s face slowly distorted as he said that.
“It can’t be possible.”
Jung In-ho was able to read emotions such as guilt and self-destruction in it, and that was quite strange. The Ha Seong-yoon he remembered was more shameless and smooth than this.
That didn’t mean I didn’t understand.
“I am neither a good doctor nor a good person. “At least when I was at the hospital, I was a good doctor, but now I’m not even that good.”
“I’ve always felt that you are obsessed with being a doctor.”
“…Even if you say that, it’s hard to refute it.”
Ha Seong-yoon, who was mumbling, soon spoke.
“I don’t want to tell my story. But I don’t think In-ho Jeong’s story is a lie. If that was a lie, you wouldn’t have even known I had a scalpel. Doctors generally don’t bring such dangerous tools outside the hospital…”
“….”
“…I killed someone?”
“To be exact, you killed the murderer.”
“oh my god.”
He burst out laughing.
“I guess I’m not really a good person.”
“….”
Jeong In-ho felt sympathy with those words.
“Yes, I am obsessed with being a doctor. I know that I am a doctor before I am a person. “But there’s nothing I can do here, so maybe that’s why I’m gradually… changing.”
“…If you blame yourself for something like that, what will become of me, doctor?”
“I’m really glad that people call me doctor. Sorry I keep taking things out of context. “I think it’s because I’m out of my mind.”
After staring into space for a moment, he spoke again.
“…I came here to find something.”
In Jung In-ho’s opinion, it was the most honest statement he had made since meeting him.
“I purposely met that friend because I had to find something in the underworld somehow. I’m talking about that friend who once visited this world. “We met once a month and thought about ways to enter this world.”
“You’re really crazy.”
“I think so too. It’s truly crazy. “This really wasn’t something a person would do.”
He seemed regretful and relieved.
“But one thing is certain: I will eventually die here.”
Is it because the grave has already been chosen?
“…You said I would change my eyes, right? “It changed after going to the statue.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Then let’s go together.”
“…will you change it eventually?”
“Even if I change my eyes like that and go crazy or kill people like you said…”
Ha Seong-yoon, who was looking at the fish trap swaying leisurely in a small lake, soon turned his head and looked at Jeong In-ho again. Unlike usual, the smile on his face was gone. What was revealed was obvious anxiety and self-blame.
Ha Seong-yoon, who suppressed a few sighs, spoke again.
“I need that.”
It was a voice that sounded like it was crying.
(Continued in the next part)
