Chapter 150

42%.

Still — next time, please be a lot more careful.

Even with things having landed this well, Thirteen looked like they still had plenty of complaints.

…you're the one who gets hurt, Hajin-nim. And there's no guarantee it'll always land on the good side like this.

The timid add-on came from pure worry for him, so Hajin nodded along without argument.

"I know. This time we got the idol-world fairytale route."

Team Raebingyu's incident had broken at just the right moment, and this one had landed on the good side of things — but nothing said similar situations down the road would keep resolving this cleanly.

If anything, that was exactly why Hajin thought the timing on this one had been just right.

"Something to shift the fandom mood before debut — we needed a trigger for that anyway. I knew I'd catch heat when I said it…. Going forward, I'll find safer, cleaner ways."

After debut, worse than this was bound to happen — and he couldn't exactly go picking fights with his own fans every time like some scrappy little rooster.

It hit him all over again that debut really was right around the corner. Hajin peeled himself up off the sofa where he'd been sprawled out. Anyway — his real reason for coming into the Unconscious Space today was something else.

"Alright, business talk. Rewards first."

Hajin ran a quick swipe through the System window and pulled up the most recent quest from the quest tab.

title: Sudden Quest! objective: The foundation of an idol group is teamwork! Clear any awkward feelings between teammates and take some time to hear what's really in each other's hearts. Might even become a chance to look inward at your own heart along the way? reward: Beautiful harmony from perfectly synced team chemistry♬ reward: An unexpected stroke of luck ^♡^ reward: One offset for the side effects of entering the Unconscious Space Would you like to collect your remaining rewards? (Y/N)

When Hajin nodded, a loading window came up with a note that his rewards were being collected. But calling them rewards was generous — the side-effect offset would burn off the moment he used it, and that 'unexpected good luck' was the kind of reward there was no reading in advance, so he wasn't especially hopeful.

"Well — Cat's Repayment didn't turn out badly either, so…."

This one shouldn't hurt him either.

Truth be told, he'd wondered if maybe the reason this whole mess had resolved so cleanly was thanks to that 'unexpected good luck' too….

But it was still sitting there uncollected — meaning this one really had just been sheer dumb luck.

"Alright — that one's just wait-and-see now. Only the main item left."

Hajin folded his arms, pulled his legs up onto the sofa into a cross-legged sit, and looked at Thirteen.

"I'm pretty sure the Selreg is Dan Haru. So — what do we do from here?"

He still couldn't call it 100%, but the scale in Hajin's mind was tipping heavily toward Haru.

With a strong suspect finally on the board, it was time to think about the next step.

The most important thing is to take time-management authority away from the Selected Regressor. And to do that, first we have to draw the Selected Regressor's persona out into the open.

Drawing out a kid who'd been ducking and weaving around every Time Administrator this whole time — before he'd even started, that already sounded like a fight.

Hajin tilted his head back and grumbled.

Once the Selected Regressor's persona surfaces, I'll register that persona formally into the System. From there, there are a few different routes. The easiest would be to force the Selected Regressor's persona out of existence, but…. Since we have to capture the Returner as well as the Selected Regressor, it's going to come down to a pretty tricky game of moves.

Whichever route they took, the conclusion was the same: drawing the Selected Regressor's persona out and getting a conversation with him had to come before anything else.

Which left the actual problem: how to coax that tightly-hidden coward out into the open….

Mulling it over, eyes flicking back and forth, Hajin slowly lifted his head.

"Selreg still doesn't know who I am, right? That I'm regressing along with him, and that I'm aware of every one of the timelines he's regressed through."

Given how desperately the Returner has been trying to keep your existence hidden, Hajin-nim, I'd say yes. If he'd known from the start, the infinite-regression incident last time wouldn't have happened.

"Then it's about time we let him know."

…excuse me? (๑•̌.•̑๑)ˀ̣ˀ̣

Thirteen was looking at him with a what's this brat cooking up now? expression, but Hajin — unfazed — draped an arm over the back of the sofa, propped his chin on his hand, and smiled.

"All roads lead to Seoul. Better to make Selreg want to come and talk to me than to go poking Dan Haru trying to force the persona out."

Hmm…. that does track.

"Best-odds move is to reveal my identity to Selreg…. Question is whether Retty'll sit still for it. Him being this quiet is honestly making me nervous even now."

Hajin tapped his fingers — a habitual tic.

This 'find the Selreg' business definitely felt like it was heading into its final act — but Hajin's head was still full of question marks. Like a detective manga where the culprit reveal is right around the corner and not a single plot thread has actually been paid off.

"Times like this, it's usually one of two things. Either everything gets paid off at the ending, or you think it's the ending — one more big incident goes off, and the culprit slips away."

The former, thank you and please. The latter, big problem.

I have to get to Selreg before Retty pulls something.

Every branching possibility was crowding Hajin's head, and his face turned notably serious.

Out of habit, Hajin tapped his fingers again as he sank into thought. And to that Hajin, Thirteen carefully floated a speech bubble.

Um, and…. there's one more thing I need to tell you.

"Yeah. What is it? Go on."

Once we take authority away from the Selected Regressor, Hajin-nim, your role in all this ends too.

"I know that."

Since Thirteen was bringing up something Hajin already knew, Hajin tilted his head, puzzled. Thirteen went on, calm and even.

The end approaching means the moment you'll have to make your own choice isn't far off either.

"……."

My choice?

Before Hajin could even form that question, Thirteen showed him again the two choices he'd seen once before.

SAVE OR DELETE

'Fixed Regressor' Kang Hajin, and the 'base persona' Kang Hajin. Which of the two will you leave standing — have you given it any thought?

The erasure of the 'self,' or the restoration of the 'self.'

Another giant question mark, dropped into Hajin's sea.

---

42%.

The man they called the Selected Regressor read that number and let something like puzzlement show through.

Genuinely…. that's unusual.

The boy's anxiety index — which had been on its way up to 99% — had dropped below 50% in an instant.

This was, no question, something he hadn't run into before.

Before, this would already have been past the point where I'd have rewound time.

The Selected Regressor slowly turned off the sink and patted his freshly-washed face dry with a soft towel. Back in the room, a sheet mask was sitting on the bed like it had been left there for him.

…truly, a kind person.

After his previous roommate had left the dorm and rooms got reshuffled, his new roommate turned out to be the warm-hearted type. So warm-hearted that it ached to think how, in the countless timelines that had run before this one, this same person had never gotten to bloom against the world's cruelty and had just quietly withered.

Will this one really be different?

Could it?

But he'd long since given up his expectations of the world.

He was still riding this timeline out because the 'child' was fond of it — but the moment the world turned on this 'child,' he was ready to throw the world out first.

…so tired.

Come to think of it — the time he'd promised him was almost here.

The Selected Regressor let himself drop onto the bed and closed his eyes for a moment.

The end was coming, and little by little it was starting to feel real.

"Oh? Haru sleeping?"

The door opened, and his new roommate Taehyun stepped into the room.

At the voice calling for him, the Selected Regressor… no, Dan Haru slowly opened his eyes and turned his head.

"No, I was just resting my eyes."

"Hyung left a sheet mask here for you — did you see it?"

"Ah, I did…. Too tired to lift a finger right now, though."

"Unbelievable. You didn't even put toner on, did you? Come here."

Taehyun — hopeless-case tone, as if to say Haru was beyond saving — pulled skincare products out of his pouch and came over to Haru's bed. When Taehyun settled onto the edge of the bed, Haru naturally slid his head onto Taehyun's thigh and closed his eyes.

Soon a cool sensation was seeping softly across Haru's face.

"You never do it yourself because I always do it for you, huh."

"…hng. Caught me."

"Only getting a pass because you're cute, seriously. You, Hajin-hyung — I swear, people with the best skin are the ones who bother with it the least."

At the name Hajin, the corner of Haru's mouth stiffened faintly, then smoothed out again just as quickly.

Kang Hajin. Right — Kang Hajin.

Of the countless people he'd met across countless timelines, the one who'd changed 'Dan Haru' the most, and the fastest.

Another variable — one that kept shaking Dan Haru's world.

"There. Stay like this until it dries. If you're tired, just sleep — I'll peel it off when I get back from practice."

"Hng du un pahchii ehgeh yeh? (Hyung, going to practice again yeah?)"

"Ah — didn't peel your lips open. One sec."

Taehyun carefully worked open the sheet mask that had been sealed even over Dan Haru's lips, then quietly stood up, tucking a pillow behind Haru's head as he did.

That kind of warm looking-after was familiar and welcome, and Dan Haru didn't try to wave it off — just let his body go slack and watched Seo Taehyun.

"It's just…. cut ceremony's coming up. If I stay in the room, my head only gets noisier, so."

"Hyung, you're in first. You'll debut."

"If it actually goes that way, I'd have nothing left to wish for."

The wistfulness in Taehyun's small, rueful smile carried faint traces of every failure he'd been through.

The loneliness threaded into that smile was probably tied to Boys of the World and the department head, nothing more, but….

"You will. For sure."

But Dan Haru knew better.

The countless failures and defeats Seo Taehyun himself didn't remember having lived through.

Through the countless rewinds he himself had put them through — tens of times, hundreds of times — Seo Taehyun's dream had collapsed.

"…let's, for sure, debut together. Hyung."

"Yeah. Of course I have to debut together with our precious Haru. You worked hard today, get some sleep."

"Okay. Hyung, only practice a little bit and get proper rest yourself."

"Yeah~"

Seo Taehyun smiled, gathered up his practice gear, and stepped out of the room.

Darkness and silence, settling in heavily.

Dan Haru forced his eyes shut, willing away the tidal-wave cascades of memory that came looking for him.

The only comfort in this moment was knowing that the one who'd open his eyes to greet that beautiful sun tomorrow morning wouldn't be this — this tattered version of himself.