#070
Suboptimal condition: You’ve been absent without leave for two days.
Suboptimal condition: You’ve ignored your superior’s contact.
Suboptimal condition:
Do you want to regress?
Around 10 AM, the system window started sending warnings to Hwi-kyung. Yesterday’s unauthorized absence notification had seemed suspicious. What on earth had made him trust Lee Gyo-ha enough to skip work…
Still, he didn’t feel bad about it. He remained calm even as he saw the system windows popping up one after another.
Moreover, by this point, the forced regression angle should have been sharp, but the system window still only displayed the [Do you want to regress?] window with just ‘Y’ remaining.
“Maybe it can’t force a regression because the fifteenth time might be the last?”
“Is that also a setting from some novel?”
“Usually, it’s not the fifteenth but around the hundredth time that’s the last regression.”
“I guess the protagonists in novels are still sane even after regressing a hundred times? That’s some insane mental strength…”
“Well, you don’t regress just for getting a job at a black company…”
Even to Hwi-kyung, the regression system in this iteration seemed somewhat subtle. Excluding the period he worked as a household helper, Hwi-kyung’s fourteenth iteration was certainly eventful. If nothing else, the forced regression cooldown should have been over by the time Park Bong-joon was fired and the team underwent major changes.
But it didn’t make sense that only warning windows were popping up on the second day of unauthorized absence after taking one day off. Forced regression was a phenomenon that occurred immediately when the system window thought, “Oh, it’s time for regression,” whether Hwi-kyung wanted it or not.
“It might be related to the ‘bet’ my grandmother mentioned.”
“Bet?”
“Yes. I didn’t hear the details, but…”
Gyo-ha turned on the TV, suggesting they watch some regression-related videos while resting. Lying on a soft sofa when others were going to work made Hwi-kyung feel vaguely uncomfortable.
Is this how a model student feels when skipping school and going to a PC room for the first time? He felt nervous like a criminal, but the physical comfort made him relax.
Indeed, humans are happiest when they can legally not go to work. Hwi-kyung, half-buried in the sofa, watched the time loop movie Gyo-ha had put on.
“Since we didn’t move to the fifteenth time, I won our bet.”
“Not yet. We might suddenly move over.”
“How mean.”
“What are you going to do if you beat me? I don’t have money to give to a chaebol.”
Gyo-ha plopped down next to Hwi-kyung. The soft sofa tilted with Gyo-ha’s weight. Hwi-kyung shifted his gaze to Gyo-ha sitting beside him.
“Not money. If I win the bet, grant me one wish.”
“…A wish?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to ask for something weird again, aren’t you?”
Gyo-ha let out a small laugh at Hwi-kyung’s immediately suspicious expression. Due to the soft sofa, their bodies tilted and their knees touched. Before Hwi-kyung could notice, Gyo-ha leaned in and lightly kissed him.
“I want to ask for this kind of thing.”
Lacking quick reflexes, Hwi-kyung couldn’t immediately react to Gyo-ha’s sudden advance. Jung Hwi-kyung was a model driver, so he couldn’t beat Lee Gyo-ha who would suddenly stop or change lanes without signaling based on his mood.
Coincidentally, the main characters in the time loop movie Gyo-ha had put on were also sharing a deep kiss. This was why Hwi-kyung disliked Western movies. Why do they kiss at the drop of a hat! He didn’t know that Korean movies these days also had frequent kissing scenes.
It wasn’t easy to push away Gyo-ha who had suddenly tried to kiss him. It wasn’t as easy to shake him off as before. Unless Marcia suddenly barged in, it didn’t seem like Gyo-ha would fall off even if Hwi-kyung pushed him away.
“Move aside.”
He knew this would happen someday if they lived together in this officetel. But knowing this, Hwi-kyung was still the one who packed his bags, enchanted by Gyo-ha’s offer to live together.
No matter how much he tried to come to his senses, when Gyo-ha pushed forward recklessly, Hwi-kyung became helpless like someone caught in a typhoon. Even when he felt anxious or thought everything was ruined, if Gyo-ha held onto him, Hwi-kyung often came back to his senses.
So it was true that he was being drawn more deeply to him as time passed. Even after knowing that Lee Gyo-ha was the fortune-teller grandmother’s grandson. He clearly felt betrayed… but he felt reassured as soon as Gyo-ha held onto him and made a vow.
It was the same now. As Gyo-ha clung to his side, the thought of being absent without leave for two days completely disappeared. As if his clear-headedness was contagious, Hwi-kyung’s complicated thought processes went on strike.
The heavy weight pressing down on him gave a sense of stability rather than discomfort. Half-pinned under Gyo-ha, Hwi-kyung gave up resisting and went limp.
“You’ve lost more weight. Why is that when I feed you well.”
As Hwi-kyung went limp, Gyo-ha excitedly started to feel Hwi-kyung’s body. Although there was no sexual implication in his touch over the clothes, Hwi-kyung was startled every time Gyo-ha’s unusually warm hands touched him.
Why is he kneading that area? Why is he feeling my sides? In Hwi-kyung’s long life, Gyo-ha was the first person to sit next to him on a sofa, pin him down, and suddenly start kneading him.
Hwi-kyung stayed still when Gyo-ha touched his wrists or nape, but he twisted his body when Gyo-ha’s hands moved to his stomach and sides. It was useless to tell him to stop touching and move away. Gyo-ha checked Hwi-kyung’s body condition with deft hand movements, like a veterinarian subduing a frantic cat.
Finally, this tedious examination ended only when Hwi-kyung reached out and pushed Gyo-ha’s head away. Unlike the seemingly calm Gyo-ha, Hwi-kyung was panting from fluttering under Gyo-ha who was caressing his sides.
“No, no, why… there must be a reason for touching someone like this…”
“Ah? I just thought you lost some weight.”
“Do you have to touch to know that?”
“I can tell by looking too, you know? I just wanted to touch since the opportunity came.”
“……”
“I only touched over your clothes, can’t you let it slide just this once?”
How could it be possible to have complex thoughts with such a person beside him? Hwi-kyung suddenly realized why his anxiety disappeared when Gyo-ha was around. Dealing with this clear-headed madman drained all his energy, leaving no room for other thoughts.
“Anyway, if I win, you’ll let me touch under your clothes too, right?”
“We didn’t talk about that when we started the bet.”
“If I lose, you can touch me. Sounds fair enough?”
“No…”
Hwi-kyung held his forehead as Gyo-ha chuckled and slipped into his room. He should have known that guy would be like this from the start of living together…
* * *
Kang Moon-chul called. Gyo-ha said to ignore all calls from work superiors while resting, but Hwi-kyung didn’t have the guts to do so.
– Hwi-kyung, are you okay?
“Yes…”
– Your voice is very hoarse. Are you sick? I knew it, so I processed it all as sick leave.
It wasn’t entirely voluntary, but it was an incredibly kind voice for an employee who had been absent without leave for two days after taking a day off, only to be contacted on Thursday.
It was true that Jung Hwi-kyung had really been sick. Although he got up after a day, he had a record of being hospitalized. He had collapsed at Kim Tae-pung’s concert, bleeding profusely from his nose, so it wouldn’t be a lie to answer “yes” to Kang Moon-chul’s “Are you sick?” question.
However, Hwi-kyung was at a loss for words due to Moon-chul’s sudden crying. It seemed that the whole team had been in a state of emergency because he had abandoned his work for two days. A company doesn’t stop running just because one person is missing, but it’s a social science truth that when someone who was there goes MIA without contact, the rest get ground down.
In the end, despite Gyo-ha’s hand signals to just hang up the phone, Hwi-kyung ended up saying he would come to work tomorrow. Moon-chul must have thought Hwi-kyung would act tough like a new generation employee and say “I’m quitting, you know?”, because he repeatedly thanked Hwi-kyung for saying he would come to work.
“When you look closely, Hwi-kyung seems really soft-hearted.”
“I’m not that soft.”
“Yes, you are.”
Gyo-ha, who had tried to make Hwi-kyung absent without leave for three consecutive days, clicked his tongue briefly like a dog that had failed to catch a chicken. At this rate, Hwi-kyung had only properly rested for one day. He had taken a day off on the weekend, then didn’t go to work for two more days, but he had only properly rested for one day.
“Honestly, you could just quit. You could move to another job right away.”
“I won’t stay at BK International for long. Even if I don’t move to the next iteration, I’m thinking about changing jobs.”
“Hah… You say that, but you’re already preparing to go to work.”
“If we’re being precise, I’m the one who kicked out Park Bong-joon and made him team leader, so I’m trying to maintain my principles.”
“Does that person maintain principles towards you?”
Of course not. What principles are there to maintain among coworkers? Jung Hwi-kyung had also ruthlessly stabbed his teammates in the back in previous iterations. As long as it’s not our team! As long as it’s not my work! The NIMBY phenomenon in work distribution was an unstoppable flow, like water flowing from high to low.
But Hwi-kyung couldn’t carelessly abandon Moon-chul. Although Kang Moon-chul wasn’t a middle-aged woman like Yoon Marcia, Hwi-kyung hoped for the best for him, who had firmly held his hand saying they should do well together.
Even though he knew that the most useless worries in this world were worrying about the rich, worrying about celebrities, and worrying about coworkers…
