Actually, It’s a Messy Melodrama Chapter 64

“Please, please… please…”

Taejun muttered continuously like a madman, searching the streets wherever his feet took him. At this hour, where would Haeshin, without a car, be wandering? No, would he even be alive? Where would someone with nothing first head if they wanted to die? Unsorted thoughts surged wildly.

‘I am sincerely sorry to Representative Sir. You did so much for me, and in the end, it has all come to nothing. I am truly sorry. I will not forget anything you gave me.’

Haeshin didn’t know Taejun was a regressor. So, he must think that when the regression is activated someday, he will lose all his memories. Even so, Taejun could not even begin to fathom the heart with which Haeshin wrote him that letter.

Taejun’s eyes reddened. A belated regret rushed in: why hadn’t he told him sooner?

He should have told him that he was the same as him, that he was someone who wouldn’t forget. Even if it hadn’t been any help, Haeshin should have been made to know that there was one person who could remember him.

‘But, Representative Sir. I truly did my best. I genuinely wanted to live well this time. But… I can’t give my mother an end like this. I came this far trying to save my mother… Without my mother, my countless deaths become meaningless.’

Why was he so arrogant? He thought carelessly that since they could now remember each other even if the regression suddenly happened, there was no need to rush.

“Cha Haeshin…?”

Then, in the distance, Cha Haeshin’s figure appeared. Cha Haeshin was visible far ahead, near a main road. It was early dawn, and several cars were speeding down the deserted road.

His heart sank with a thud. He felt he knew what Cha Haeshin was trying to do.

“Hey! Cha Haeshin, stop!”

Taejun started running, shouting with all his might. Haeshin had already stepped onto the road, but Taejun was still far away.

‘One fortunate thing is… that Representative Sir will forget me. He will forget the suffering I caused him, the things he gave me, and even my selfishness until the very end. That’s a relief. Though I am a little sad.’

“Cha Haeshin! Wait, please just wait! Haeshin-ah!”

He yelled until his throat was torn. But there was a distance, and Haeshin already seemed like a person who had severed his connection with the world. He saw a truck approaching in the distance with a loud noise. Haeshin took another step onto the road.

No. This wasn’t it. Taejun ran desperately. There was no need to end it like this. Of course, even if the regression was triggered later, Taejun would meet Haeshin again, but that fact was no comfort to Han Taejun right now.

No one knew when Taejun’s regression would happen. It would be great if it happened tomorrow, but if he was unlucky, he might have to wait until the final day, years later. No, the truly unlucky thing wasn’t having to wait for years. What if, what if the last regression had already ended? What if time no longer went back? What if Cha Haeshin’s death couldn’t be reversed?

Only then did Taejun understand why Haeshin chose death instead of waiting for the regression. Cha Haeshin knew how terrible it would be to wait for uncertain luck, how hellish that time would be.

Taejun, whose foot caught on a stumbling block while running desperately, tumbled to the ground. But he couldn’t hesitate. Taejun got up, practically crawling, and ran again. A little more, just a little more. Please, just a little.

‘I hope I can meet Representative Sir early again next time too. I sincerely hope that Representative Sir will pity me then as well. I will try harder then to end Representative Sir’s hell too. Thank you. See you again.’

Thank you. See you again.

The will ended with a hopeful farewell that didn’t suit it. And just as Taejun was almost at the road where Haeshin was standing, Haeshin threw his body in front of the approaching truck.

“No!!!”

Taejun let out a piercing scream. But even that sound was drowned out by the truck’s horn.

Taejun saw Haeshin’s thin body, struck by the truck, soar into the air. That sight was engraved very slowly in Taejun’s eyes. It felt as if time was flowing slowly. His ears were deafened, as if submerged in water. Haeshin’s body rolled for a long time even after falling to the ground.

“Ah… Aah…”

Taejun let out a sound that wasn’t even a proper word. It was a noise like a groan, or a cry. He couldn’t hear or see anything else. Taejun’s eyes only held the sight of the bloody Cha Haeshin.

“Hae, Haeshin-ah…”

Taejun, who approached Haeshin, gasping for breath, carefully hugged Haeshin’s broken and twisted body. He couldn’t hear the shouts of the driver who got out of the truck, or anything else. Cha Haeshin was dying. Again.

Just then, a high-pitched ringing sound—tinnitus—filled Taejun’s ears. He felt a sensation as if his body was wavering, floating, and then his vision blurred and distorted. It was a familiar sensation.

The joy he felt at the perfectly timed regression lasted only for a moment, then Taejun suddenly held his breath at a thought that struck his head. Haeshin’s body in his arms went limp, and simultaneously, his vision went black.

At that moment, Taejun finally learned the truth of the world that he had never even suspected until now.

Cha Haeshin was not a regressor who remembered everything like him. He was not a person who lost time without knowing why, like Taejun. Cha Haeshin, Cha Haeshin’s death, was the incantation that activated the cursed regression.

The moment Taejun realized that truth, the end finally came.

☂️

“Huk…!”

Taejun opened his eyes, taking rough breaths. And he tried to stand up immediately, but his legs gave way, and he stumbled forward, falling onto the floor. Taejun, who was rarely flustered or excited by ordinary things, was trembling violently as he gripped the floor.

Cold sweat drenched his face, and tears streamed down. He still couldn’t collect himself from the shock he received just before the regression. It was Cha Haeshin.

It was Cha Haeshin. Han Taejun’s regression, which he thought had no criteria or reason, was entirely related to Cha Haeshin’s death.

“How… how could this happen…! How!!”

Taejun slammed his forehead on the floor and wailed. The deaths of Haeshin he had witnessed at Jin Youngmin’s house flashed through his mind like a kaleidoscope.

‘I want my death to be peaceful. Like an rest.’

The words Haeshin had said once pierced Taejun’s heart like a thousand blades. He was in so much pain and agony that he couldn’t breathe properly.

‘I don’t need anything like heaven. I just wish death was the end, and nothing came after.’

How many regressions had there been? Taejun couldn’t even count the number. They were moments he considered futile and meaningless. But Cha Haeshin’s death was present in every one of those moments.

What Han Taejun thought was his hell was, from beginning to end, the most wicked hell solely for Cha Haeshin.

“Ah, ah…!”

Suddenly coming to his senses, Taejun urgently searched for his phone. Objects on the table spilled over, but he didn’t care. What Taejun checked was today’s date.

“God damn it…!”

And Taejun, who confirmed the date on the phone screen, swore and immediately rushed out.

July 7th, 2023, today was the day Cha Haeshin had to die.

☂️

“Open the door! Open it, you sons of bitches!!”

“R-Representative Sir, why are you doing this? Please calm down for a moment…”

“Cha Haeshin is inside, isn’t he! Haeshin-ah!!”

Taejun shook off the hands of those trying to restrain him and pounded on the firmly closed door with all his might. The back of his hand was scraped and bleeding from hitting the iron door, but he didn’t care.

The housekeeper, who had been cleaning the garden and opened the gate, was nervously pacing beside him, startled by the sudden appearance of CEO Han Taejun pounding on the main door. She couldn’t recklessly open the door, knowing what was happening inside.

Although CEO Han Taejun was undoubtedly a scary person, in her life, incurring the displeasure of Director Jin Youngmin was far more terrifying.

“Jin Youngmin! Open the door right now, you son of a bitch!! Please… please just open this door…”

Taejun finally grabbed the doorknob and pleaded. Imagining what Cha Haeshin was going through inside this firmly closed door, and what he had gone through in the countless overlapping times, felt like chewing and swallowing a billion needles.

“Open it, open it, please… Haeshin-ah… Huk…”

He could see Cha Haeshin without looking. He could hear Cha Haeshin’s voice without listening. Cha Haeshin’s suffering, his death, which he had to endure all alone in this prison-like place, was too vivid.

“Please let me in, please… I beg you…”

Taejun, who finally collapsed while holding onto the door, poured out supplications to someone he didn’t even know. His demeanor was so desperate that the housekeeper pacing beside him was also moved to tears.

At that moment, when the housekeeper, who clearly knew the situation of Haeshin who must be enduring terrible violence inside, found it too hard to bear and considered just opening the door—

Taejun huddled up, covering his ears with both hands. He heard tinnitus. The familiar sensation dominated his body once more.

How many more times do I have to experience your death?

The moment a different kind of despair than before swallowed Han Taejun, the world flipped again.