Episode 91 Noh
Yeon-seok was scared of Manager Lee Jae-heon, and that soon became his own sense of guilt.
If he was asked which of the two he thought was worse, the correct answer was Noh Yeon-seok. If you were to compare a scolding that was just hard to hear and the bleeding coming from torn skin, wouldn’t you give more weight to the latter? No matter what Director Lee Jae-heon said to me before, it was right for Noh Yeon-seok to thank him.
But it was very difficult to do so. No matter how much I think about it, he received a lot of criticism from Lee Jae-heon, and that person had much more money than me and was easy-going. Moreover, Manager Kang Min-ah, who Noh Yeon-seok had a crush on, also relied on Manager Lee Jae-heon.
It was absurd, but he knew the feeling of jealousy. Even when Kang Min-ah hugged Jung In-ho to comfort him, Noh Yeon-seok was jealous, and he was jealous of Lee Jae-heon, who was much stronger and better than Jung In-ho. Even though I thought to myself that I was stupid and stupid, it was difficult to swallow my emotions. Why is it so hard for me to breathe and walk?
So it made me feel sick to hear it.
“…I am.”
People you meet for the first time in their life curse you and call you a monster.
Because I, who have seen you for longer than them, have thought about it only recently, a person I have met for the first time without any pain or relationship casually points out. There was a feeling of injustice that even I couldn’t define. My heart was pounding because my feet were numb and nervous.
So I got angry.
“I didn’t mean to do that….”
“….”
“I didn’t mean to do that.”
I did it because I thought it shouldn’t be done like this.
“I didn’t mean to do that.”
Noh Yeon-seok knew that he couldn’t leave it like this.
Who is worse, who is more just, you or me? Whether it’s right or not. When people simply instinctively felt that it was whoever they felt most likely to point the finger at or gossip about.
“Director Eun. “Really… really, really, it’s not a lie.”
“…That uh um.”
“It’s not really that bad.”
What do you do if you don’t know that?
“Manager, I’m not really a bad person…”
Why do you not know something that even an idiot like me who can’t do anything knows?
Suddenly a feeling of regret came over me, I don’t know where it came from.
Maybe it was when Noh Yeon-seok first joined the company as an intern, maybe it was when he entered this world, or maybe he was regretting something that happened 10 minutes ago. I was so dazed by the anxiety that filled my fingertips that I couldn’t be sure.
That person thought of himself as a wicked person.
“It’s not like that…”
Just like I once thought that way or tried to insist that way.
You’re saying bad things about yourself.
“…That…”
Still, there was nothing I could say.
Lee Jae-heon said that because he was so confident that he acted like he was not a bad person and had never once thought about it. Even Noh Yeon-seok, who hated this person, was speechless because he had never actually done something he had thought about hundreds of times.
I was out of breath because I felt like I had seen a fragment of that person’s life.
“….”
“….”
Noh Yeon-seok’s face gradually distorted and everyone present was unable to speak, until Lee Jae-heon belatedly realized what was wrong and kept his mouth shut.
So, it took some time for this whole situation to be sorted out.
* * *
“Nice to meet you, my name is Jaeheon Lee.”
Detective Hong Gyeong-jun bowed his head and answered those words.
“Nice to meet you, my name is Hong Gyeong-jun.”
And the people watching the scene murmured.
“…Even if you actually say hello, it’s like that….”
“Wow, they seem like such boring people.”
“It’s surprising that there are more people like Hong Gyeong-jun under the sun.”
“It’s been a while since I heard somewhere that it was fun.”
“Of course I didn’t swear.”
From the generous man who looked at the two in disgust, to the young man who muttered earnestly, to the conductor Kim Ki-jeong, who quickly added an explanation to Hong Gyeong-jun’s words, even though it was an insult to anyone who heard it.
Lee Jae-heon glanced at the other party and nodded inwardly.
‘The atmosphere is better than the original novel.’
The current state certainly seemed better than the human-shaped bugs I remembered.
It will certainly be a big help to secure drinking water from Mirror Lake. Even if a person can survive without eating, if he cannot drink water, he will go crazy and die without the strength to run wild. As expected, it was a wise decision to tell him where the small lake was during our last meeting.
The man who was talking to Lee Jae-heon, who was thinking like that, in his characteristic blunt voice cleared his throat once and opened his mouth again.
“I am Choi Jeong-man. “There’s a restaurant running on the main road over there. If you feel like soup later, you can come by.”
“Isn’t that the restaurant right next to the macaron store? “I stop by often and eat well.”
“What? This was a guest. Isn’t it delicious? I don’t know what else to say, but make the soup well. “They’ll come again.”
“I am always grateful for opening a good restaurant.”
In an instant, his face relaxed and he held out his hand, which Jaeheon Lee also accepted with a smile. In fact, it wasn’t exactly an empty remark because it was a place where I stopped by the day after drinking and had it delivered. Of course, that was Lee Jae-heon before he remembered his past life.
Immediately after that, a young man with a gentle face who resembled a potato introduced himself in the same proud voice as before.
“I’m Vivian, nice to meet you too. “If I have to brag, I’m a Korean university student.”
“You can do more, more. “If you go to Korea University, you have to straighten your shoulders and pull.”
“I am in second place in my department…! “Soon we’ll knock the first place winner off the roof and take his place!”
“Wow, you’re good. “Wow, you’re good.”
The Korean college student who told me to brag more and the owner of the soup restaurant who applauded even after I ordered it all looked like they were there, but Lee Jae-heon still smiled. Anyway, the flow wasn’t good enough to ruin the atmosphere now.
Conductor Kim Ki-jeong, a long, thin man who was looking at the lively atmosphere with an uneasy expression, sighed and spoke as if muttering.
“…This is Kim Ki-jeong. “I’m a musician and I’m sorry for pushing you… earlier.”
“No, not much to say. “Even I would have been surprised.”
“Because I have a bad personality. “If what I’m saying offends you, please tell me you’re a fool among those who do art.”
After all, I’m not the type to hide my words just because my voice is creeping.
Obviously, the content itself is self-torture, but he doesn’t seem to think that way in the first place, and the reason he says it like that is probably to stock up on things to say in advance for future conflicts. For example, ‘Oh, I told you I had a bad personality.’
Lee Jae-heon thought about that and spoke with a smile reserved for social life.
“Once again, it’s nice to meet you. This guy is the manager.”
“…I’m Noh Yeon-seok… I’m working as an intern under Manager Lee Jae-heon.”
When Lee Jae-heon tapped his shoulder, Noh Yeon-seok, who had an ambiguous expression for a moment, bowed his head and said hello. His expression probably said, ‘This person was able to make such a normal introduction?’, but Lee Jae-heon felt strange in a different way.
He thought to himself, laughing inwardly.
‘I’ve never introduced anything like this other than when I went to a children’s observation class.’
Of course, this is a story from a past life.
Lee Jae-heon in his current life behaved so clumsily that he had never been in a romantic relationship since being dumped about three times, so there was no reason to have children. For your information, because his parents and their daughter were very conservative, Lee Jae-heon lived a fairly healthy life sexually, even though it was semi-coercive.
Detective Hong Gyeong-jun, who didn’t know what he was thinking, looked around for a while, then turned his gaze again and said to Lee Jae-heon.
“…Anyway, the appearance was so flashy that the situation was paralyzed for a moment…”
“Is that usually called flashy?”
“It was gorgeous, but nothing….”
“Now that the atmosphere has settled down, can we proceed with the proper story?”
“This has been sorted out.”
Lee Jae-heon blinked and asked, not knowing what conductor Kim Ki-jeong was muttering.
“Do you also guarantee my right to remain silent, detective?”
“It is possible, but please keep in mind that the situation may turn out to be unfavorable for you.”
“I will take it into consideration.”
“Oh my gosh, isn’t this a court somewhere?”
“Oh, be quiet, man…”
Even though the loud voices of CEO Choi Jeong-man and conductor Kim Ki-jeong were clearly audible, Detective Lee Jae-heon and Hong Gyeong-jun just ignored them. Even Vivian, who was in the same group, didn’t seem to care at all, so only Noh Yeon-seok, who was sitting next to her and watching the situation in confusion, awkwardly distanced himself from them.
Detective Hong Gyeong-jun glanced at Noh Yeon-seok and asked.
“First question… I’m curious about how you healed that person.”
“aha.”
“I definitely saw him putting something into his mouth. It wasn’t that big. Did you bring it separately?”
Jaeheon Lee rolled his eyes at the words ‘items brought separately’. In fact, I’ve been through the other side of the world enough to go through this side, but saying something like that only meant one thing.
‘Did you know in advance that this would happen?’
In short, it is doubtful whether Lee Jae-heon has any role in this situation.
Of course I knew. If you ask me why, all I can say is something like, ‘Yes, I was thinking about my past life, but this is actually a novel~’ so I’ll just shut up for now.
Moreover, if you show that you knew, the build-up you have built so far will fall apart. All I knew was that ‘Lee Jae-heon’, the setting he created, would one day return to the underworld, but I didn’t know that it would be on March 1st.
Lee Jae-heon, who gathered his thoughts internally, shook his head while maintaining his expression.
“This is something I have had since coming to this world.”
“okay. “Then how did you know it was for therapeutic purposes?”
“That’s…”
I knew you were going to ask that.
Jaeheon Lee looked up once, looked at the intern crouching next to him, and then looked at Detective Hong Gyeongjun again. It was to show that he was contemplating whether to say this or not.
And surprisingly, the other person took the bait.
“Once again, the situation may be used against you.”
“hmm.”
To be honest, it would have been better for Lee Jae-heon to say it now.
‘I’ve been biting on this piece of cake for too long.’
No matter how big or good the rice cake is, if you drag it on, its effectiveness is halved.
Since the nuances of Lee Jae-heon’s past have already been revealed to the rest of the group except for Jung In-ho, it is time to slowly let go of his mental patient image. Moreover, since intern Noh Yeon-seok and detective Hong Gyeong-jun are here together, the story will flow smoothly between both sides.
Lee Jae-heon glanced at intern Noh Yeon-seok, who was looking at him with anxious eyes, then wiped the corners of his mouth as if covering his mouth and began speaking again.
“…To tell you in advance, I really don’t know anything about this world.”
“For all that, you seem quite calm.”
“Really. “I know a few things, but I don’t know why this world was created or why monsters exist.”
“….”
“I just stopped by.”
Detective Hong Gyeong-jun asked him.
“What if you ‘have stopped by’?”
“…I wasn’t saying anything out of context…”
Lee Jae-heon, after a brief pause, immediately answered.
“I have lived here before.”
“….”
“For a while.”
