Episode 66
Where did the problem start from?
In Jeong In-ho’s opinion, regret was probably the most useless yet powerful act in the world. But I also knew that it couldn’t be done because I didn’t want to do it.
He didn’t want to admit it, so he looked away, but he was regretting it.
‘I shouldn’t have let the words slip.’
I should have thought a little more deeply about the hesitation that Director Lee Jae-heon showed before falling asleep.
Of course I do. In fact, it is not that In-ho Jeong or the other party members thought about Director Jae-heon Lee’s condition very easily. Wouldn’t it be more difficult to treat someone calmly after barely surviving the night from a green algae monster?
In-ho Jeong did not ignore Director Jae-heon Lee’s words. I didn’t think all those reactions were easy. He still remembered the way his gaze wavered when I asked him a question.
I just didn’t expect the situation to get this bad.
‘Bed… a little. ‘Because it’s uncomfortable.’
‘….’
‘…Oh, see, I said it wasn’t a big deal.’
I remembered how he thought his pain was nothing more than an immature act of sleepiness.
An unpleasant feeling that I couldn’t hide even though I was playing ‘Manager Lee Jae-heon’. However, I knew that he could no longer back down when he was acting like that, so I hesitated due to the anxiety of not wanting to reveal my weaknesses, but I had to say the words in the end.
I don’t know how many times he visited this world in the past, and whether there was any discord or unhappiness among the survivors, as Jung In-ho himself had guessed the other day, but in the end, Director Lee Jae-heon was a victim, as they say.
This means that I spent an entire night with a monster that made me sick just by looking at it, like the victims of random assaults or serial murders on the news.
No matter how many times a person who has gone through such an unanswered time has experienced something similar…
‘There was no way he could recover quickly.’
At first, I was so shocked by the gruesome appearance that I failed to pay attention, but it also meant that Director Lee Jae-heon’s mental damage could not be ignored.
How dare you think easy about that?
‘I couldn’t have done that.’
It was only then that everyone in the group, including In-ho Jeong, realized the seriousness of the situation.
Manager Lee Jae-heon acted so calmly that I forgot about it. Or so I wanted to believe. Maybe it was because we were ignoring the collapse of the shield that had protected us until now.
Even though the person who was dragged away by the green algae monster came back, no one asked what happened.
If they were truly worried and worried about the person named ‘Lee Jae-heon’, how could they not have asked that question, no matter how reluctant he was to say it? It would have been different if the target had been Kang Min-ah or someone else rather than Director Lee Jae-heon.
I would run right away and ask what happened. Where did it hurt and what was the pain and agony? He must have tried to comfort me in the form of a question about how he was so scared and how he survived for such a long time.
Just because the other person was Lee Jae-heon, they neglected the sick and exhausted patient.
“….”
Jeong In-ho’s gaze landed on Manager Lee Jae-heon, who was sleeping as if he were dead.
There was no sound in my ears. Doctor Ha Seong-yoon went to a small lake to wash the bandages, while Director Kang and student Park Da-young went to a small lake to get water. Kwon Yeon-hee did not accompany him there. It seemed like he was intentionally avoiding it.
President Garam Yoon left with the students to check if there were any edible plants nearby, and intern Yeonseok Noh left to assist them. Perhaps by the time she came back, Director Kang Min-ah might have picked up a large rock. To try my luck, I decided to build the wall first instead of the roof, so I might get the materials together with intern Noh Yeon-seok, who has a crush on me.
I told him to do whatever he wanted, so it was probably going to happen.
So Jeong In-ho, who remained at the table in his capacity as a caregiver, kissed the quiet silence as if there was no one there, even though there were clearly only two people there.
“…Why…”
“….”
“Is that so?”
The pitch-black gaze landed on Manager Lee Jae-heon, who had his eyes closed.
Is it because the pupil cannot be distinguished in the harsh black light because of the shade under the tall trees, or is there another reason? A cool, expressionless expression appeared on Jeong In-ho’s face.
He asked again.
“Why did you do that?”
Why why?
What on earth did you hope for?
“If you had just told me, I would have done everything, even if it was because I was sorry.”
“….”
“…Why are you behaving like that and creating this situation?”
When they meet again after falling due to the green algae monster, the group ends up crying at the sight of their miserable appearance. When he was on the verge of going crazy with guilt, he refused to let us even visit the pharmacy.
“What did you say?”
Did you say, ‘Who will go to that?’
A person who was likely to die the very next morning said that it was a cruel request to sacrifice a healthy life for someone who was not likely to die right away.
Jeong In-ho almost burst into laughter because those words and the state of the person who said them were so funny and absurd.
So he tried to stop by the pharmacy somehow. Even if they saw a monster in every building, there was no telling whether there might be a monster in the pharmacy, and if done well, the life expectancy of the group could be extended with just one antibiotic.
But I couldn’t.
‘Do you think you’re confident that no one will die?’
The confidence to answer disappeared as if he were dead.
“Why…”
Why did you, and no one else, say that?
Did you, who died so cruelly and miserably in front of my eyes, tell me that you were qualified to save people, ultimately making me unable to answer? Of course, you, Manager Lee Jae-heon.
Of course, I know, but Manager Lee Jae-heon is unaware that he has returned to the past.
‘Because I didn’t tell you.’
He told me to spit it out before I went crazy alone, but the fact that he had returned to the past was too absurd and difficult to believe. In the end, In-ho Jeong did not reveal the truth to Director Jae-heon Lee.
So, when he spoke like that, he probably intended to somehow upset Jeong In-ho and make him keep his mouth shut due to his discomfort. Because he was a man who had nothing to do with notoriety as long as it was to get the situation and answer he wanted.
But the problem was that Jeong In-ho really wasn’t confident enough to do that.
After all, I’ve seen people being destroyed like dolls right in front of my eyes, and if I were confident that I could save them, wouldn’t that be even weirder? It wasn’t that shameless.
So, even if he hadn’t stopped me like that, Manager Lee Jae-heon wouldn’t have ended up like this.
“….”
Or
maybe, no matter what I did, it would end up like this.
‘Because the most fundamental problem will remain the same.’
This would happen someday only if Lee Jae-heon himself did not change.
In-ho Jeong looked at the legs of Manager Jae-heon Lee who was asleep. A leg that has suffered penetrating injuries and is now limping because it has been torn apart to the point where I can’t even define it or express it.
Manager Lee Jae-heon probably didn’t think of himself as a person.
“…If I say this, you will deny it.”
I consciously muttered and turned my head.
Director Jaeheon Lee probably thinks he loves himself very much. Or maybe he brainwashed himself in that way because he knew his condition. Either way, if In-ho Jeong were to ask the above question directly, there was a high possibility that he would deny it.
However, when Jeong In-ho saw it, and probably also when others saw it, Director Lee Jae-heon did not particularly spare himself.
“There’s no way I could save it.”
Would a person who knows how to waste his own body really act harshly like that? I don’t know how low your self-esteem must be to call yourself efficient.
People cannot live only efficiently, and Manager Lee Jae-heon also seems to know that fact, but at least he did not apply it to himself.
‘Let’s think efficiently. I’m the only one who’s hurt, and I’m not on the verge of death right away…’ ‘
…’
‘There’s no need for anyone to get hurt more.’
He forced others to sacrifice themselves.
It would have been a little less funny if everyone but him had been forced to sacrifice, but unfortunately, Jaeheon Lee never seemed to have any intention of doing that. As Dr. Ha Seong-yoon said, he was a truly toxic patient.
So, how should In-ho Jeong deal with this problem?
How to increase his self-esteem? How can we solve problems that we are not even aware of? So what if it prevents me from being active? However, they still desperately needed Manager Lee Jae-heon’s help.
As Jeong In-ho was pondering over and over again, the words that employee Kwon Yeon-hee said while crying suddenly appeared in his mind.
‘…You’re not expecting it.’
“….”
‘You weren’t expecting anything.’
These were the words that Director Lee Jae-heon uttered right after he fainted.
Jeong In-ho, who remembered that point, looked into space without realizing it and muttered.
“Of course.”
In the first place, they don’t have a relationship where they can exchange expectations.
‘It was already wrong from the beginning.’
I don’t know why he played ‘Manager Jae-heon Lee’, but in the end, In-ho Jeong hated Manager Jae-heon Lee. In fact, it was closer to contempt than that. Jeong In-ho, who was unrivaled in his wits, was deceived, so there was nothing to say about the reactions of other co-workers.
Manager Kang Min-ah was tired of his groundless lies, and intern Noh Yeon-seok couldn’t believe that he was working in a place with such a manager. I didn’t know Employee Kwon well as we were not in the same department, but judging by his reaction, it seemed like he didn’t have a good idea.
Of course, their reaction and rejection were natural. How can anyone like a boss who constantly brings up personal stories, clouds the atmosphere, makes people feel awkward about making arbitrary decisions with no answers, and treats each person like a rat-catching person, as if he or she is suffering from phobias? To be honest, the one who was at fault was Manager Lee Jae-heon, who continued to act like that.
But, well. Given that he wanted all those negative reactions and images, wouldn’t it be a huge slap to the back of the head from those who felt sorry for him or despised him? The person playing over their heads was none other than Manager Lee Jae-heon, whom they had been criticizing.
So, this was that kind of story.
Manager Lee Jae-heon….
“Isn’t it true that you had no intention of building a proper relationship with us from the beginning?”
“….”
“You… had no intention of seeing us as people.”
This was the reason why Jeong In-ho called him a son of a bitch.
“Because they don’t even see themselves as human.”
This had already been decided by the company before coming to the underworld.
If they had not come to this world, they would have lived their whole lives knowing that Director Jae-heon Lee’s mask was the truth, and finding out even a little bit of his true face like now was not the situation that Director Jae-heon Lee wanted.
I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t hide it. In any case, Director Lee Jae-heon wanted to take responsibility for saving us. That’s why the jaw-dropping smoke broke down little by little, and the twisted figure hidden inside came out in a way that couldn’t be hidden, and it was by no means because he saw us as people.
After throwing a few dry tree branches into the bonfire where his body had shrunk, In-ho Jeong sat down next to Director Jae-heon Lee again. It was a calm and natural gesture, as it had been up until now.
No sound could be heard in the flickering fire.
“….”
The words he asked before falling asleep came to mind.
‘…Am I in your way?’
Unpleasant.
Puzzle, anxiety, frustration.
And, as has been the case up until now, the pointed gaze that could not be bent even out of pride. I wonder if they are trying to throw it away because I am now in the way.
His attitude is that he doesn’t care at all about his own suffering, which is hard to see as someone who struggled every night with nightmares due to the green algae monster or from previous memories. As he always said, he only considered his own efficiency and the resulting value as everything.
The lips were thinly curved.
“You son of a bitch.”
There was no trust in them in that face.
