The Regressed Chaebol Grandson Finds It Hard to Forgive - Chapter 2

Episode 2. A Lucky Day (1)

Click-clack.

The sound of high heels rings out rhythmically.

A beautiful woman comes into view.

She looks great in a ponytail.

Clear, porcelain skin, a perfectly balanced, sharp nose, and large eyes.

Everyone in the coffee shop turns their gaze toward her.

Just looking at her makes my shoulders puff up with pride.

That’s my girlfriend, Goo Hye-jin.

Slide.

She elegantly slides into the seat across from me with a smooth motion.

“Traffic bad?”

“No.”

“Were you busy?”

“No.”

Her tone is cold, unlike other days.

“I have something to say!”

“……??”

As soon as she sits down, Hye-jin stares at me with an indifferent gaze and opens her mouth.

It’s a look I’ve seen a lot more often lately.

“Let’s end this.”

A bombshell statement that suddenly popped out of her mouth.

“You didn’t actually think you’d keep seeing me, did you?”

Her cold, rhetorical question.

“……”

She’s a hundred percent right.

She and I have become people who can no longer be together.

She’s too good for me now that I’m an unemployed bum.

She doesn’t belong with me; she’s a full-time employee at a top-10 conglomerate.

“……Yeah.”

A fact I’ve been subconsciously denying.

It’s an undeniable reality.

“It’s our last time, so eat something before you go. And… this is late, but here’s your birthday present.”

I hurriedly took a gift box out of my bag.

Her birthday was a few days ago.

But I couldn’t give it to her because of her busy schedule.

“Forget it. Sell that and pay off your debts, oppa.”

“Hye-jin-ah!”

“Why? Embarrassed? Yeah, you should be ashamed. At your age, not having a car or a house is something to be ashamed of. It’s a relief you at least realize that now.”

Tremble.

My pride is getting scratched up so many times today.

Even though she’s my girlfriend, I find myself clenching my fists.

“I hate pathetic things. You know that, right? Delete my number. And don’t get drunk and call me like some loser asshole. Keep your pride. If you have even a rat’s tail worth of conscience left.”

She repeatedly stabs daggers into my heart until it’s shredded.

She’s not just crossing the river of no return; she’s long-jumping over it.

“It was fun while it lasted.”

The one line she throws out as comfort is devastating.

“Actually, oppa, you’re not exactly a bad-looking guy. I mean, find a woman who’s on your level and live well.”

Is that a compliment?

Or is it a curse disguised as comfort?

Her words turn into a sharp spearhead and strike deep, right into the center of my heart!

I stared blankly at Hye-jin’s cold expression.

Even with my busy schedule, I did my best for both the company and my woman.

I thought if I lived like that, I wouldn’t get betrayed.

That’s what the seniors in life advised, too.

But it was all a lie.

On the same day, both the company and my woman abandoned me.

The coworkers I shared meals with weren’t any different.

The look in my colleagues’ eyes when I walked out of the executive office after clashing with Go Dong-yeol.

They all avoided my gaze.

These were the same people who, until just before, were asking me to eat and drink with them.

I was devastated by how quickly they cut ties.

The attitude of my girlfriend, whom I met just a few hours later, was no different.

I… have no money and no connections!

“I’m sorry to say this, but I’ll give you one last piece of advice for your own sake. Actually, oppa, you were the third guy in my ‘fishing pond’.”

“……??”

“So, consider yourself lucky. It’s also true that you were negligent with me while we were dating because you were too busy working part-time jobs and showing off how broke you were!”

My sadness turns into burning rage.

Then, in an instant, my heart strangely turns cold.

I spent several years as her lover.

The memories of that time flash by like a revolving lantern and scatter like dust.

Ring-ring-ring-ring.

Her phone rings.

Hye-jin checks her smartphone as if she’d been waiting for it.

Her eyes sparkle, and her face lights up with joy.

Soon, a soft smile spreads across her lips.

She answers the phone while looking away.

“Sunbae-nim~”

It’s that sweet voice I believed only I was hearing until just a few hours ago.

“Did you arrive?”

The line, dripping with aegyo, is exactly the same.

“……”

The person she’s addressing is ‘Sunbae’.

But the emotion felt in Hye-jin’s voice as she talks is clearly not ordinary.

A pain rises in my chest.

My whole body tingles with pain.

“I’ll come down.”

Before she even finishes speaking, Hye-jin gets up from her seat.

Click-clack.

She walks away without even giving me a single indifferent glance.

Gulp-gulp.

I downed the ice water in the cup without even taking a breath.

My throat feels numb.

Yeah, this is the full story of the events that happened to me on this ‘lucky’ day.

But……

“Want me to tell you a pro-tip for receiving blessings?”

“……??”

“If you make a lot of money, don’t stuff your face alone like a pig. Make sure to give one out of ten to others. That’s the only way you’ll keep receiving blessings until the day you die.”

“……”

A pro-tip?

It’s not exactly a great secret.

The grandma whispers quietly, as if afraid someone might hear this ‘secret’.

“Don’t be discouraged… This grandma will give you strength.”

Is she, by any chance, a… god?

I held back a snort of laughter.

“Get a good night’s sleep and wake up. Something good will happen. A lucky…”

The grandma offers encouragement blindly and insistently.

Even if it was just empty words, I felt grateful.

She’s not someone I’ve ever seen among my relatives.

But I felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

She’s the grandma I ran smack into in the alleyway while walking home, dead drunk.

She is definitely a stranger.

I can’t even tell if this is a dream or reality.

“Go on now… And I’ve put a few good things in there for you, so cheer up. No matter what happens, don’t forget that you are a Big Bear.”

“Th-thank you.”

My life is a failure; it didn’t matter if it was all a crazy dream.

A few good things?

I still don’t get it.

The grandma appearing out of nowhere and treating me like this was even more baffling.

Still, I bowed my head and greeted her.

It’s a dream-like situation with zero sense of reality, but I’m a guy who keeps his manners.

“This grandma is very sorry…”

Who is she, and why does she keep saying she’s sorry?

We should at least identify ourselves…

“Life is short. Go and have fun…”

The grandma left behind only incomprehensible words until the end.

Now that I look, her eyes are moist.

What is that? That look in her eyes!

It was filled with pity and regret.

No matter how I look at it, I’ve never met her before.

Why……

Crunch-crunch.

While I was trying to connect my disjointed thoughts, the grandma wearing flower-patterned rubber shoes disappeared into the alley.

I wanted to grab her and confirm at least one thing, but my mouth just wouldn’t open.

And.

“……!!”

She disappeared completely, without even a shadow.

She seemed to sink into the darkness, and then the grandma completely vanished.

“……Was I bewitched by a ghost?”

But it wasn’t a ghost.

Even thinking about it again, the events of today remain vividly in my memory.

“……’Lucky day’ my ass……”

“Argh!!”

I woke up with a start.

Thud.

With my eyes closed, I kicked off the blanket that was tangled around my feet.

As soon as I woke up, the shitty events of yesterday came rushing back.

Everything, even the trivial details, came to mind.

“Fine! Go ahead, leave. I may not have money, but I still have my dignity.”

I vented my frustration at the ceiling.

Goo Hye-jin, who had shredded and trampled on even my last bit of pride.

She was a junior in the business department at university.

We met when we were grouped together in a liberal arts class after I returned to school following my military service.

From the moment I first saw her, Goo Hye-jin was popular.

Literally, a total social butterfly.

Her face was small, and her proportions were quite good.

On top of that, her looks were striking.

She had a charm that drew people in even when she was just standing still.

With a perfect visual that transcended the level of an average person, every man was attracted to her.

Plus, when she flirted, the men around her would lose their minds.

At first, I didn’t even have any interest in her.

‘She’s pretty.’

That was the extent of my interest.

Because of my family situation, I wasn’t free enough to dream of dating.

I was just desperate to scrape together time for part-time jobs.

To someone like me, Goo Hye-jin—pretty, bubbly, and the object of many men’s affection—was way out of my league.

The twist was there.

Because I didn’t show interest, she actually became curious about me.

She pouted at me for not reacting and showed curiosity.

It was basically the ‘bad boy’ attraction kicking in.

She expressed interest several times.

I noticed, but I ignored the signals.

In the end, it didn’t take long for the fox to win me over.

I was a man, too.

There was no way to resist when a fox was bewitching me.

It was a drinking party with juniors for the first time in a while.

A gathering she also joined.

She sat next to me and kept calling out, “Sunbae-nim, Sunbae-nim.”

While pressed against me……

I got drunk helplessly.

I was bewitched by her seductive, sticky gaze as she came at me with intent.

If you don’t get bewitched by a fox, you’re not a man.

Even thinking about it now, those were happy days.

Those happy times ended as of yesterday.

It met a spectacular end that will never happen again.

“Thanks for everything. …Live well.”

I muttered to myself the words I couldn’t bring myself to say yesterday.

I’m not petty enough to curse her or anything.

It’s more my fault for trusting and liking her.

I was happy with her.

She was a girlfriend overflowing with beauty and aegyo.

It was a blessing of my hot-blooded youth.

“I’m unemployed starting today. What am I supposed to do to make a living now……”

I feel hopeless.

I quit coolly and walked out, but the future is bleak.

I’m even scared to open my eyes.

I never imagined I would face the IMF crisis my parents went through all over again.

Whoosh!

“Huh??”

I feel dazzling sunlight on my closed eyes.

This is unfamiliar.

My semi-basement apartment that I rent.

The window, which is half-exposed above ground, is always locked.

I keep blackout curtains drawn 24 hours a day.

It’s a method I chose because I didn’t want to become a spectacle for people passing by in the alley.

But……

It’s a bright light that I could never feel from the semi-basement window.

The warmth resting on my eyes wraps around my face.

And it’s sunlight filled with warmth, at that.

I snapped my eyes open.

“……??”

A cheap, grid-patterned ceiling wallpaper comes into view.

It feels unfamiliar, yet somehow familiar.

The strange thing is, it’s similar to that rooftop room I lived in while fending for myself in high school……

“Huuuh!”