My Company Is Black

#036

Unlike Hwi-kyung, who fell asleep easily, Gyo-ha was kicking off his blanket because of Hwi-kyung. What was going on? As soon as he called, he heard the message that the phone was turned off and connected to voicemail.

Just about 5 minutes ago, they were clearly chatting via messenger, but Hwi-kyung had unilaterally cut off contact as if he was done with his business.

Just as people like Lee Gyo-ha were rare in Jung Hwi-kyung’s life, Jung Hwi-kyung was an unpredictable person to Lee Gyo-ha. In a way, it was natural. Jung Hwi-kyung was probably the only person in the world who had to go back to the same period fourteen times and get a job at a different company.

Gyo-ha changed his clothes again and grabbed his car keys. Even when he tried to sleep, he couldn’t fall asleep at all. Hwi-kyung’s pale face when he returned and Sung-ha’s smiling face behind him grated on Gyo-ha’s nerves.

Moreover, when Hwi-kyung returned to the dinner table, he was holding Sung-ha’s handkerchief. A handkerchief with Lee Sung-ha’s initials embroidered on it and doused with strong cologne! Why on earth was it in the hands of Jung Hwi-kyung, who had broken Lee Sung-ha’s nose! Even when asked what happened, Hwi-kyung repeatedly told Gyo-ha that nothing had happened.

Gyo-ha was an adult who knew better than to take that “nothing happened” at face value. Jung Hwi-kyung’s “I’m fine” had too many variations. “Nothing happened” and “It’s nothing” were like the most frequently used variation number 3.

For this reason, Gyo-ha decided to go find Hwi-kyung directly, who had turned off his phone. Driving in the middle of the night to suddenly visit someone’s house. This was truly something Jung Hwi-kyung would never imagine doing.

When Gyo-ha rang Hwi-kyung’s doorbell like that, Hwi-kyung was in the midst of a dream. Having just fallen asleep after recovering from indigestion, he couldn’t wake up easily. Gyo-ha held his forehead again because Hwi-kyung wasn’t opening the door. He should have asked for the door passcode as soon as they regressed.

The problem was that he thought he could watch Hwi-kyung five days a week if he brought him close. Because they weren’t living together 24 hours a day, Hwi-kyung didn’t give Gyo-ha any time outside of work hours.

Weekends like this were even worse. During work hours, he at least replied to messages well, but on days off, Hwi-kyung frequently cut off contact as if he had never existed.

Gyo-ha felt like he was going crazy every time Hwi-kyung, who clearly seemed to have something going on, unilaterally went silent like this. He thought it was understandable when he was Hwi-kyung’s superior, but shouldn’t his attitude be different when they were fellow regressors?

He thought they had gotten much closer. But when Gyo-ha took two steps closer, Hwi-kyung forcibly took three steps back. He would willingly sit across from Gyo-ha and talk in detail about his past regression experiences, but then he would suddenly jump to the next cycle.

If Gyo-ha let his guard down even a little, Jung Hwi-kyung would put up walls on his own. Even when revealing his inner thoughts, he would say he felt like he had shared too much and retreat before Gyo-ha could dig deeper.

Couldn’t he give him just a little more room? No matter what Gyo-ha did, Hwi-kyung’s iron-like defense mechanism wouldn’t easily soften. Gyo-ha found this aspect of Hwi-kyung really difficult. To be suspicious first when shown kindness. It made Gyo-ha feel strange, as if he could understand how Jung Hwi-kyung had lived all this time.

As he repeatedly rang the doorbell, an irritated neighbor popped out, just like before. It was a similar pattern to the previous cycle.

“Do you know what time it is?”

“…”

“My child is so sensitive! Are you going to take responsibility if you wake the baby?”

Having experienced this scolding before, Gyo-ha didn’t find the neighbor raising their voice at him threatening. It was fascinating how consistently they made a fuss, as if the neighbor’s doorbell sound was that loud.

If the soundproofing was that poor, it was clear that Hwi-kyung’s side would be suffering from noise, not the neighbor. Even now, the sound of a TV and a crying child could be heard through the slightly open gap. It was too noisy to be just everyday living sounds.

“I’ll take responsibility, sure.”

“What?”

“I’m planning to take the young man from this house out soon.”

“…What nonsense is this now?”

“It’s not nonsense.”

“I don’t know who you are, but if you keep standing in the hallway like this, I’m going to call the police.”

The moment the neighbor took out their phone, threatening to call the police, Hwi-kyung, sensing danger, finally woke up. With the system window flashing before his eyes, it was no longer possible to remain in a sleepy state.

Insufficient condition: Your employer has made an unannounced visit to your home.

Insufficient condition: Your employer is arguing with your neighbor.

“Oh, damn…”

Crazy Lee Gyo-ha…. Hwi-kyung muttered a curse toward Gyo-ha for the first time in a while. Is this what you call a helper? If this were a game, Lee Gyo-ha would be what’s called a “troll” player.

If not for his chaebol background, Hwi-kyung would have coolly abandoned Gyo-ha. Even though they were regressing together, he might have exchanged some information, but he wouldn’t have tried to overcome the situation together like now.

Hwi-kyung sluggishly got up and opened the front door. In a scene similar to the previous cycle, Lee Gyo-ha was arguing with his neighbor. Having seen this once in the previous cycle, Hwi-kyung wasn’t surprised by this argument either.

“Gyo-ha, just come inside.”

“No, we’re not done talking yet, how can I go in?”

“I’m really sorry. I’ll apologize again tomorrow afternoon.”

“Do you think this problem can be solved with an apology?”

To think he had to deal with troublemakers even after coming home from work. Hwi-kyung looked at the neighbor who was giving a long speech about how rude Gyo-ha was, with veins popping on their neck.

In the previous cycle, this neighbor always got angry like this. It was understandable that they were sensitive, having lived for a long time in a villa with thin walls and severe noise between floors, wondering how much money the construction company had embezzled.

They had two children, one young and one preparing for exams, right? Given the situation, perhaps it would be right for Hwi-kyung to be considerate of this neighbor.

But unlike Hwi-kyung, who wanted to let it go quietly, Gyo-ha said this as soon as the front door closed:

“I think your voice is louder than the doorbell sound, so why are you making such a fuss?”

“…”

“Should I just buy this villa?”

“You’re going to live here?”

“No. I’m saying I’ll buy it with money.”

“Stop showing off that you’re rich and come inside. The soundproofing is bad here, so everything can be heard outside, so lower your voice too.”

If Lee Gyo-ha hadn’t gone through fourteen regressions, he would have inevitably asked Hwi-kyung, “But why on earth do you live here?”

The social skills Gyo-ha had developed through regression barely helped him not show off more that he was a chaebol. Gyo-ha sat on the living room sofa (which he thought was too small to even be called a living room) as Hwi-kyung led him.

“Why did you come to my house again? And why are you fighting with the neighbor?”

“I called, but your phone was turned off.”

“…I said we’d see each other on Monday.”

“Were you planning not to contact me until Monday? Are you really trying to keep things purely business-like with me?”

Insufficient condition: Your employer has made an unannounced visit to your home.

Insufficient condition: Your employer is requesting a personal relationship.

The system window showed a new window as if a button had been pressed by Gyo-ha’s words. Hwi-kyung was glad that the system window was blocking between him and Gyo-ha. Otherwise, he would have shown a surprised face.

Aren’t we going to see each other anyway when I come to work on Monday? Hwi-kyung still thought he and Gyo-ha were too close. Because they were the only two regressors in the world, Hwi-kyung had almost unconsciously tried to depend on Gyo-ha.

So it wasn’t good to be this close. In his experience, the closer human relationships were, the more likely they were to end in disaster over small mistakes. He had to be even more careful with someone like Lee Gyo-ha, who couldn’t reset their relationship even after regressing.

Stop causing trouble like this and just do what I tell you. Even if we move on to the next cycle, set up the corporation and improve the treatment of the workers around you…

That was about all Hwi-kyung could say to Gyo-ha. We may literally be bound by fate, but I could add that suddenly coming to my house like this isn’t okay.

But even knowing this, the words wouldn’t come out easily. Hwi-kyung didn’t feel as bad as before about Gyo-ha barging into his house like this. In fact, his mood seemed better than before he fell asleep.

“What if we don’t keep things purely business-like?”

But these personal feelings don’t help at all in stopping the regression.

“Are you saying you want to build some kind of personal relationship with me?”

“Would that be so bad?”

“I’m asking because there’s nothing good that can come from it.”

“…”

“I’m saying there’s nothing good that can come from us getting unnecessarily close. Suddenly visiting like this, contacting me for trivial things… What good does that do? It doesn’t even help with the regression.”

“But it helps Jung Hwi-kyung emotionally, doesn’t it?”

“What?”

“You don’t realize you have avoidant tendencies, do you?”

Gyo-ha’s sudden attack left Hwi-kyung dumbfounded. Just when he thought Gyo-ha might be somewhat likeable, he would suddenly dig in and do something outrageous like this. Gyo-ha was truly a difficult person to understand.