# Chapter 90
The bleeding stopped quickly. However, his face and hands were covered in blood, which inevitably attracted considerable attention from those around.
‘Fortunately, no system message appeared.’
That alone was fortunate, so he wasn’t particularly disappointed or angry. After washing all the blood off in the bathroom, he came out to find Jade making a peculiar expression.
“Is that a penalty?”
“Well, rather than a skill penalty, this is… it’s complicated to explain, but I think it’s due to ‘regression’ itself.”
“…I don’t understand, but let’s move on. I don’t want to draw attention again.”
Lee Hwan shook his head, feeling as if the eyes behind those invisible sunglasses were scrutinizing him.
“Well, it doesn’t hurt. Nothing is strained either.”
Judging by the lack of response, Jade didn’t seem to believe him. Lee Hwan just made an awkward expression while constantly glancing around.
“Let’s go. We can continue talking over a meal.”
It was a sudden suggestion. Before he could stop him, this time Jade stood up first. The table where blood had dripped was already cleaned up by him, so there was nothing left to do. Lee Hwan hesitantly followed him out of the café and glanced up at the gloomy sky.
Things were taking a strange turn. He never thought he’d be discussing regression with this person before revealing everything to Kang Taesung. Especially meeting him separately.
Still, it didn’t feel entirely bad to have someone believe him for the first time. Who else would accept such a deranged story about regression?
Whether his definition of normal was broad or he was simply desperate, it was quite a refreshing feeling to experience something so unexpected.
After walking for about 20 minutes, they arrived not at some soup restaurant or meat place, but surprisingly at an old apartment building. Lee Hwan raised his eyebrows at the dilapidated building that seemed to have been built well over twenty years ago.
When he said they should have a meal, Lee Hwan thought he knew a quiet restaurant.
“…Where is this?”
“My home.”
Lee Hwan made a bewildered expression as he inadvertently followed him in, listening to the creaking sound of the elevator.
“I don’t think we’re that close.”
“Just follow quietly since you don’t want to attract attention outside.”
A forced home visit without explanation or friendly guidance. An awkward feeling filled his throat along with thoughts of running away.
After hesitating, he followed into a corridor with cracks here and there. The edges of the front door were rusted, making him wonder if even this patched-up building would have expensive housing prices because it was in Seoul.
As soon as the door opened, an almost empty living room with barely any furniture spread out before him. It was clean, but it gave the strong impression of being untouched by human hands rather than well-organized.
Only after closing the door did Jade remove his sunglasses. With a click, the sunglasses were placed on the table, clearly revealing eyes that didn’t look human.
Eyes like those of a nocturnal animal. Whenever that gaze brushed over him, Lee Hwan felt as if the back of his neck and spine were tightening.
It was exactly like the chilling sensation when instinct warns of approaching combat upon entering a gate.
“There have been some guys following me recently. Don’t misunderstand, just sit there.”
However, as his emotionless voice reached his ears, Lee Hwan was able to quickly escape from that feeling. Despite having removed his sunglasses, Jade was still just Jade.
‘No wonder he covered his eyes even indoors.’
He felt almost apologetic for thinking Jade was just trying to look cool.
Speaking of people following him, if he meant being monitored, was it because of the experiment?
As Lee Hwan sat down on a slightly lopsided sofa with a “hmm” sound, Jade took out snacks from the cupboard—who knew when they were bought—and placed them on the table.
Lee Hwan looked up at him with an ambiguous expression, wondering if he was supposed to eat these now.
“I’ll order some food, so answer me while eating those for now. Did you come back to the past specifically for the reason you started to mention earlier?”
“Since we’re going to eat anyway, let’s talk when the food arrives.”
Clicking his tongue, he turned over a gold-wrapped chocolate to check it, only to discover it was a year past its expiration date. When Lee Hwan made a grimace, Jade quickly swept it away.
“You know Kang Taesung well, right? If he gave you his house password, you must be more than just friends.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Kang Taesung, was he also running around like that in the past?”
Even though he hadn’t specified how or where he was “running around,” Lee Hwan could naturally understand it was about semi-Awakening activities.
There was no need to think about it. Lee Hwan shook his head while rummaging through the snacks for ones that weren’t expired.
“Back then, he lived millions of light-years away from company politics, so I don’t know why he became like this.”
At the same time, he felt a slight pang of conscience.
Of course he knew. In fact, he had a rough idea. If someone who was always by his side was asking like this, it meant an unexpected change. If something that didn’t happen in the past occurred after the regression, it was usually due to Lee Hwan’s actions.
Because of him, Kang Dongha had meddled with Jade, who became an experimental subject earlier than before. The rumors about him appearing at the Health Promotion Association began to circulate from that point.
Kang Dongha had retorted that Jade’s experiment would have happened anyway, but it probably would have been much later or in a milder form. At least mild enough for Taesung not to be sniffing around strange gatherings and sending him away.
“Haah…”
A deep sigh that seemed to scrape his internal organs escaped his throat. He hoped he wasn’t ruining things. He thought he had been working hard, but he didn’t know why only regrets came to mind whenever he thought of Taesung.
When he finally found snacks that were barely within their expiration date and put them in his mouth, they seemed to have a strangely stale taste. Seeing his face contort, Jade pushed away all the snacks.
“I thought I could just handle things however they turned out, but there’s less time than I expected. Not my lifespan, I mean. I’m busy being called in for experiments.”
He didn’t need to point that out specifically. Lee Hwan finished chewing and swallowing the snacks with an uncomfortable expression.
Come to think of it, there was one thing he couldn’t understand. No matter how he looked at it, the experiment he participated in didn’t seem to work in a positive direction for either him or Taesung.
So why did he voluntarily go to the experiment?
“I’m curious about something too. I heard you went to the experiment of your own accord.”
Especially if he was predicting his death because of that experiment. Lee Hwan wondered about this. Wasn’t it because of this that Taesung, who originally wouldn’t have caused trouble, started poking around everywhere?
If he had refused to go, even if the research department pressured him, he could have bought time as in the past. In other words, even if the experiment eventually happened, it wouldn’t have been immediate like now.
The answer came sooner than expected. Jade casually asked while sweeping the inedible chocolates and snacks into a bag.
“You know who I work under, right?”
Of course he did. He had already gathered that much in a previous uncomfortable situation.
‘That guy isn’t Kang Taesung’s man. He’s the old man’s dog.’
From a particularly rude individual.
“The Chairman… right?”
“I had served my purpose in the previous experiment, and was sent to make sure one abandoned kid didn’t die. As a bodyguard and monitor. There was quite a commotion when Kang Taesung awakened… It wasn’t particularly a significant meeting.”
He had already heard from Taesung about how all sorts of trash had swarmed around him after he awakened an S-rank ability. He couldn’t possibly stay alone in his original home, so Naru arranged a separate house with security guards.
“To be honest, the Chairman isn’t very interested in him. With his own son already in his fifties, he doesn’t feel threatened about succession from a distant relative. Just ‘A Kang bloodline with an S-rank Hunter is helpful to Naru,’ nothing more, nothing less. So they attached something like me as protection and surveillance for the young kid.”
A life where a monitor was attached before a caretaker. Lee Hwan suddenly felt reminded of his own school days, making his already non-existent appetite drop completely.
The image of young Taesung, having lost his guardian and wandering through unfamiliar places, overlapped and melted into his own past.
Rustle-
He put a slightly melted, sticky candy in his mouth. A strange sweetness spread across his tongue, making his stomach feel queasy.
Fiddling with his lustreless fingernails, he turned his head to find aquamarine eyes also looking at his hands. Lee Hwan quickly covered his clearly broken nails with his other hand.
“The reason I’m allowed a certain degree of freedom is that. Not because they’ve let me go, but simply because they don’t care. But what would happen if that pawn rebelled against a component of the life extension project they’ve been longing for?”
The Chairman thinks of Jade. And recognizes Taesung. His attention, or sparks, would shift to Taesung. Lee Hwan could understand his words perfectly without any further explanation.
Jade didn’t bother to continue the story. Instead, he took the bag filled with old snacks and threw it entirely into the empty trash can.
Watching this quietly, Lee Hwan realized that this older man had developed a thin but somewhat responsible feeling towards his surveillance subject whom he had observed for a long time. Enough to care about him while staying out of the Chairman’s and other power-holders’ sights.
And it was probably the same for Taesung. The reason he was so excited about Jade’s situation was likely because he was the only person the Taesung of this timeline could rely on.
Lee Hwan pressed his cheek, bulging with candy, then bit and swallowed it. As the crunching candy completely dissolved and flowed down his throat, he kept working his mouth, which still had the taste of rancid strawberry, and suddenly asked.
“Why are you telling me this? And so suddenly at that?”
“I don’t know what your goal is, but I know you’ve been hovering around Kang Taesung. So let’s help each other. You’re a friend who escaped from the future, and I happen to have no future.”
Looking at the man who so calmly spoke of his own end, Lee Hwan found the inside of his mouth, which had just been sucking on candy, somehow turning bitter.
Ding-dong.
The honest doorbell sound broke the silence. Jade came back carrying something heavy in both arms, and a series of what looked like nutritious foods were placed on the dining table.
Lee Hwan briefly thought of the team leader who always ordered pine mushroom chicken soup at every field work dinner, wondering if all middle-aged people were like this.
“Eat. Don’t leave anything.”
Well, it didn’t matter. He was getting hungry anyway, and all the food was free.
Besides, after eating this, he had more questions to ask. Not just about Taesung, but also about his experiment.
