Actually, It’s a Messy Melodrama Chapter 9

It was the first time after repeating regressions that something felt so utterly unpredictable. Haeshin tightly clasped his own hands to stop himself from grabbing the hand of the man called the secretary and asking, What’s going on? How did you know to come here? before opening his mouth.

“So, what’s the matter…?”

His voice sounded quite frightened. Haeshin was someone seasoned in producing such a tone. Everyone reacts differently to certain vulnerabilities, but Haeshin had learned through experience that his pitiful appearance worked on quite a few people.

Secretary Choi continued, openly staring at Haeshin’s expression.

“The CEO wishes to meet with you privately.”

“With me?”

Haeshin’s voice trembled pitifully as he responded. To the listener, it might sound like nervousness, but in truth, Haeshin was struggling to contain his excitement.

“Yes. It may be hard to understand now, but the CEO will explain in detail. However… I’d prefer if Manager Jin Youngmin didn’t know about this, and it seems we don’t have Cha Haeshin’s contact information.”

“Oh… yes. I don’t have a separate contact number. I don’t even have a home phone…”

Secretary Choi frowned.

“Then how should we contact you, Mr. Cha Haeshin?”

“Any necessary calls are received by Youngmin and passed on to me.”

“And when Manager Jin needs to contact you?”

“He calls the bodyguard next to me, and I take the call on the bodyguard’s phone.”

Hearing Haeshin’s words, Secretary Choi fell silent for a moment. He was someone who rarely got flustered, but this was far beyond his expectations. In this day and age, living as a member of the Myungjin Group without even a mobile phone? No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t normal.

“Here, take this.”

After a brief moment of thought, Secretary Choi took out a mobile phone from his pocket and handed it to Haeshin.

“It’s for emergencies, so it won’t receive calls or anything like that. Keep it safe, and the CEO will contact you.”

As he said, it was a phone with no primary use. It was occasionally used for contacting unregistered numbers and had its number changed periodically, so almost no one knew about it.

“Why go to such lengths…?”

Haeshin cautiously took the phone with both hands and asked. His tone was an act, but his curiosity was genuine. Cha Haeshin was curious about why Han Taejun was doing this and what he knew. Surely it couldn’t be that he actually had feelings for him, could it?

“The CEO will contact you.”

However, Secretary Choi wasn’t someone who could give Haeshin a clear answer. To begin with, even he didn’t know why Taejun was acting this way.

“Please take care to ensure Manager Jin Youngmin doesn’t find out.”

“What if he does?”

“Then just say I forced it on you and left.”

There was a kind of confidence in Secretary Choi’s words. The implication was that even if Jin Youngmin found out, he wouldn’t dare cause trouble for the CEO.

Haeshin’s grip on the phone tightened. From that single statement, Haeshin felt the insurmountable gap in power between Jin Youngmin and Han Taejun.

To Cha Haeshin, Jin Youngmin was an enormous wall he could never overcome, even in death. Yet, even Jin Youngmin was nothing in front of Han Taejun.

Haeshin realized he had been wandering aimlessly while the trump card he needed to bet everything on was right nearby. It was a late realization, but he didn’t have the energy to regret or lament. Regardless, Cha Haeshin had to move forward.

“I’ll take my leave then.”

With that, Secretary Choi slightly bowed to Haeshin and turned toward the exit. Watching his retreating figure, Haeshin suddenly raised his voice urgently.

“You have to come to my house tonight!”

“If the CEO really wants to talk to me… no, if he wants to know something about me, he shouldn’t just call—he must come to my house tonight. After I return home… not too late.”

“What does that mean?”

Secretary Choi frowned again, puzzled by Haeshin’s words. Haeshin, panting with rising anticipation, continued.

“I’m going to die tonight. Jin Youngmin won’t let me live. So… if you want to know something about me, if you want to know if what I’m saying is true, come tonight. Please tell him that.”

Listening to Haeshin’s incomprehensible words, Secretary Choi felt an unfamiliar, alien sensation enveloping him. Haeshin’s amber-tinged eyes sparkled unusually. The Cha Haeshin, who had always seemed gentle and quiet, now appeared to be burning with some kind of fervor.

Secretary Choi couldn’t understand it, but it was the flame of Haeshin’s sheer will to live, to survive.

“It has to be tonight.”

Staring quietly into Haeshin’s earnest eyes, Secretary Choi eventually gave a slight nod. Ultimately, the decision was up to the CEO, not something he could handle here.

“Understood. I’ll pass that on to the CEO.”

“…Thank you.”

Haeshin bowed to the departing Secretary Choi. Then he turned to look at his reflection in the mirror.

There was Cha Haeshin, who, despite having nothing, had become the daughter-in-law of a chaebol family with just his face. Everyone gossiped about Cha Haeshin, but no one in this world truly knew him.

But that didn’t matter. Even before getting trapped in this vicious cycle of regression, he had always been alone. Haeshin had loved his mother enough to marry Jin Youngmin to pay for her medical treatment, but that didn’t mean she had been a source of comfort or strength in his life.

“So, in the end, it’s about needing someone with a lot of money…?”

He had chosen Jin Youngmin to protect his mother from poverty, and now, to escape Jin Youngmin, he was eyeing Han Taejun. The irony made him laugh.

How absurd and unjust could life possibly get?

Exhaling a useless question with his breath, Haeshin set the phone from Han Taejun’s secretary to silent and slipped it into his pocket.

Would Han Taejun really come to him? And if he did, how would he react? Depending on that, Haeshin could chart his course for the next cycle. Getting killed by Jin Youngmin one more time wasn’t a bad price to pay for that information.

☂️

“You’re saying he’ll die tonight?”

“Yes, sir. It sounded like he meant Manager Jin Youngmin would beat him that severely.”

“…”

“He emphasized several times that it had to be tonight.”

Leaning back deeply in the car seat, Taejun listened to Secretary Choi’s report with a serious expression. Every word coming out of his mouth was beyond expectation.

Rarely leaving the house, shrinking in front of Jin Youngmin, without even a common mobile phone, only contactable through Jin Youngmin or the bodyguard always by his side.

Their newlywed home was located in an outskirts area where getting to the city without a car was difficult, and aside from his cancer-stricken mother, Cha Haeshin had no relatives. Even without recalling the bruises on his wrist or the murder scene from the previous cycle, there were more than enough suspicious details.

“What’s your take on it?”

“He didn’t seem normal. He appeared unstable and dangerous, and in my judgment, he needs help.”

“Right…”

Taejun nodded slowly. He had no particular objections. Recalling the previous cycle only made the situation more certain.

“But there’s something strange, like he’s acting…?”

That is, if it weren’t for the subtle sense of unease Taejun felt seeing Cha Haeshin today.

Secretary Choi, catching Taejun’s reflection in the rearview mirror, closed his mouth after preparing to respond. Taejun slowly sank into his own thoughts.

It wasn’t that Cha Haeshin had acted particularly awkwardly. As Secretary Choi said, he was clearly nervous and constantly wary of Jin Youngmin. He didn’t look like someone loved by a devoted spouse.

However, Taejun knew a Cha Haeshin who had clung to him in far more desperate situations. That Cha Haeshin might have seemed卑屈, but he didn’t seem pitiful.

Whether that Cha Haeshin and this Cha Haeshin were truly the same person required some consideration, but regardless, the Haeshin he saw today felt somewhat off, at least to Taejun’s eyes.

No, even without comparison, today’s behavior alone felt strange. A slave gripped by fear cannot defy their master. If Cha Haeshin truly feared Jin Youngmin to that extent, he shouldn’t have allowed Taejun to join them. It was obvious to anyone that Youngmin didn’t welcome Taejun.

The fact that Cha Haeshin noticed Taejun’s glance and headed to the bathroom was another thing. It was a signal he wouldn’t have caught without keenly observing Taejun, and it was odd that he obediently complied.

Listening to someone he’d never met privately instead of the person threatening his life? That didn’t make sense.

“We’ve arrived, sir.”

At that moment, the car stopped in front of Taejun’s house. But Taejun remained seated.

Why did it have to be tonight? It seemed too exaggerated to simply emphasize the severity of the violence. “I might die” and “I will die tonight” are distinctly different statements. There was definitely something off about Cha Haeshin’s words.

“Jungho, give me the keys and head home.”

“Are you going to Manager Jin’s house? I’ll drive you.”

“No, I’ll go alone.”

Taejun got out of the car and took the keys. Secretary Choi asked with a worried expression.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“What’s there to worry about, going to Jin Youngmin’s house?”

Despite Taejun’s playful response, Secretary Choi couldn’t shake his concerned look. Taejun lightly patted his secretary’s shoulder and got into the driver’s seat, starting the car.

Glancing at Secretary Choi bowing through the side mirror, Taejun let out a short “Ah…” It occurred to him that Jungho had long disapproved of Jin Youngmin.

He seemed polite but was full of schemes—that’s how Jungho saw Jin Youngmin.

“Jungho does have a good eye for people,” Taejun muttered. It was one of the reasons he valued Jungho. Beyond his exceptional work ability, Jungho often prevented potential troubles with his surprisingly sharp intuition.

Would Choi Jungho’s instincts prove right this time as well?

With a small spark of curiosity, Taejun’s car sped down the road.