Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 3

Then, another strange thing happened.

A paramedic secured a cuff around the boy’s arm and began to measure his blood pressure.

Whirr, whirr.

The cuff inflated as the paramedic pumped it.

A feeling of pressure tightened on his forearm.

“Oh!”

His surprise was fleeting as the boy’s eyes locked onto the needle of the blood pressure monitor.

“Uh, uh?”

The needle on the monitor slowly began to creep upwards.

“What’s going on?”

The boy couldn’t believe what was happening before his eyes. It was the first time he had ever felt so nervous during a blood pressure check.

After a moment.

Unbelievable words came from the paramedic’s mouth.

“130 over 90. Your blood pressure is a little high, but it’s normal considering the accident. You just need a little rest…”

The paramedic continued to speak, but the boy couldn’t hear anything anymore.

The paramedic said something to the boy, packed up his equipment, and left the beach.

The boy tried to make sense of the unbelievable situation, but the more he thought about it, the more confused he became.

The boy looked around.

The people who had surrounded him just a moment ago were nowhere to be seen.

The boy shook his head violently again.

It was an attempt to force himself to come to his senses. And he began to look around carefully.

Then, someone grabbed both of the boy’s shoulders and shook him.

“Hey, Kim Hyun-sung! Are you okay?”

Someone called the boy’s name.

The boy looked up at the person shaking him.

“Huh? You, you’re… Jungwoo, my friend Lee Jungwoo, right?”

“Yeah, you idiot. You’re finally coming to your senses. But what’s with the ‘you’?”

The boy was even more confused.

It was definitely his best friend, Lee Jungwoo. It was definitely the friend he had talked to on the phone a little while ago.

But the problem was his appearance. He was definitely bald the last time he saw him…

“Hey! What’s with your hair?”

“Why are you suddenly making a fuss about my hair?”

“You were definitely bald? Come to think of it, your face looks weird too…”

“What nonsense are you talking about, you bastard?”

The more the boy thought about it, the less he understood the situation.

What on earth is going on?

The face of his friend, who he had seen not long ago, suddenly changed to how he looked when he was young.

No… that’s not the important thing. I was definitely losing consciousness in the car just a moment ago…

The boy didn’t understand the situation, but he looked around for now.

“The beach?”

The boy, who was carefully looking around, blurted out the word ‘beach’ without realizing it.

And although it was far away, the letters on the sign were clearly visible because the sign was so huge.

[Gyeongpodae Raw Fish Restaurant]

“Gyeongpodae?”

Based on the surrounding situation, the boy realized that he was now at Gyeongpo Beach.

“I’m at Gyeongpo Beach… Why?”

No matter how much the boy thought about it, he was sure it wasn’t a dream.

‘If it’s not a dream…’

The boy’s mind began to get even more confused.

Then, the boy saw the public restroom at the entrance of the beach.

He jumped up.

The boy jumped up and started running towards the public restroom.

He couldn’t stand being curious any longer. He ran to the public restroom, thinking that he had to see for himself what was going on.

But it felt strange as he ran. The feeling of the sand under his feet was conveyed directly to his whole body. It was a sensation he could never feel if he were dead.

‘Could it be that I?’

The boy shook his head violently. No matter how he thought about it, he didn’t think such a thing could happen.

But what is this feeling?

The boy’s heart started beating faster.

After a while.

A boy was standing in front of the sink.

“······.”

The boy couldn’t say anything and just stared at the mirror for a long time.

In the mirror was a boy. It was a very familiar face. No, it was the face from a very old memory that was looking back at him.

The boy, who had been standing silently for a long time, finally opened his mouth with difficulty.

“Kim! Hyun! Sung!”

The boy pronounced his name clearly, one syllable at a time.

That’s right.

The boy in the mirror was none other than Kim Hyun-sung himself as a child.

The boy’s pupils trembled violently as he stared intently into the mirror.

“No, how could this happen…”

This doesn’t make sense.

But that unbelievable thing is happening right before his eyes right now.

The boy began to stare intently at himself in the mirror.

And after a while.

Creak.

The boy turned on the faucet and filled the sink with water.

Splash, splash.

The boy splashed water on the mirror in front of him several times with both hands. In the mirror where the water was flowing down, his young self was still there.

This time, he plunged his whole head into the sink.

Phew!

He lifted his head and looked straight at the mirror. Still in the mirror was his young self, standing there dripping with water.

Slap!

He placed his palm on the mirror. Then he slowly slid his palm to the side.

How should he accept this?

The boy was confused.

The person in the mirror is definitely his younger self.

And he is alive like this.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t believe this situation.

“Ah… what is it?”

The boy shook his head violently.

Tap, tap.

Hyun-sung tapped his head with both palms and tried to sort out his thoughts one by one again.

He definitely thought he was dead, but he is alive like this.

Moreover, not in the form he was in before he died, but in the form of his former boy.

On the other hand, his memories are the same as his last memories before he died.

Hyun-sung slowly closed his eyes.

He began to unravel and organize his thoughts one by one, as if untangling a tangled thread.

How much time has passed?

The boy slowly opened his closed eyes.

And unbelievable words flowed from his mouth.

“Regression!”

The story that would only appear in fantasy novels came out of his mouth.

“No way, is this happening to me…”

The boy opened his palm and placed it on his chest.

Thump! Thump!

He could feel it. The strong beating of his heart was transmitted to his whole body through his palm. It was the feeling of that strong heart from his childhood, not the feeling of suffering from heart disease later in life.

“Ah! So this is it.”

Thump, thump!

The boy pounded his chest hard with his fist.

“This is it!”

The vibrations were transmitted to his whole body as if awakening each and every cell. Could there be a clearer and more certain explanation than this?

Whatever the reason, the clear fact was that he was alive without dying.

It was the moment when the boy’s eyes shone strongly.

“Honey!”

Whether he had regressed or not, the first person he thought of when he thought he was alive was his wife, Yoon Ji-soo. His mind suddenly became complicated.

By the way, what happens to my past life? Is it over that day?

If not… what if it keeps going?

No way. I’m here, that doesn’t make sense.

I don’t know, but if my past life continues as it is, I don’t even want to imagine it. Because of my wife, Yoon Ji-soo.

Because he knew too well how much she would be suffering.

“Let’s get out of here for now.”

The boy moved his feet.

As he came outside, pine trees and the distant crashing waves came into view.

Huh.

Hyun-sung took a deep breath. Then, the feeling of fresh air filling his lungs was so good.

Whew.

He breathed out a long breath.

He felt like he had the whole world with just one breath.

Slap.

When he put his hands on the pine tree, the rough texture was transmitted directly through his palms.

“Nice!”

As Hyun-sung muttered to himself while holding onto the pine tree, people passing by glanced at him. But that gaze didn’t matter. At least not at this moment.

At that time, two female students passed by. One of them pointed to a banner hanging on a tree and said.

“Hey, I went out there last week.”

“Oh, you bad girl. Without even telling me. So how did it go?”

“Hehe… I failed. Don’t even mention it, I was so embarrassed I wanted to die.”

“Haha… Serves you right. That’s what happens when you go alone.”

The two female students chattered and walked away.

Hyun-sung looked at the banner that the female student had pointed to earlier. It was none other than a banner for the preliminary round of the ‘National Singing Contest’.

It was partially damaged, but there was no problem in understanding the contents.

Hyun-sung’s gaze, which had been scanning the banner, stopped at one place. It was the date on the banner.

[1986. 7. 30 (Wednesday) 1 PM]

It was the preliminary round time.

He wondered if he had seen it wrong, so he went closer and checked again, but he was right.

“If it’s 1986… huh?”

Suddenly, a very old memory popped out.

It was back when he was a sophomore in high school.

He had come to Gyeongpo Beach with his best friend, Lee Jungwoo, for a summer vacation. But at that time, Hyun-sung got carried away and jumped straight into the sea.

And he ended up getting swept away by the waves.

Fortunately, he was saved by the marine rescue team just before he drowned.

Hyun-sung, who had been lost in reminiscence for a moment, brought up the memory from that time.

“If it’s ’86… that’s right. Sophomore year, that time.”

Coincidentally, it was exactly the time when he had an accident at Gyeongpo Beach in the past.

“Then, does that mean I’ve gone back to that time?”

When he first woke up on the beach, he was so out of it that he couldn’t think of anything. But as time passed, he began to remember his past memories little by little.

And he remembered the female students’ conversation a little while ago, when they said it was last week.

If that’s the case, then today is roughly the beginning of August. The 30th of July was Wednesday on the banner, so July has 31 days, and if he left on Monday back then… then the calculation is that today is exactly August 4th.

“The 4th? It’s the rural market day, market day… huh?”

Hyun-sung’s eyes suddenly changed at some point as he was thinking about the point in time he had returned to.

“Ah!”

A jolt! A shiver ran down his spine. It was because something strongly flashed through his mind.

It was none other than his mother’s car accident.

A long time ago, that is, on the day Hyun-sung left for his trip to Gangneung, that was the day of the accident. He heard that she had an accident while going to the market on market day.

Of course, he didn’t even know that his mother had an accident at that time. And since it was a time when there were no cell phones, he wouldn’t have been able to contact home even if he wanted to.

He found out about his mother’s accident when he returned home four days after his trip.

‘If that’s the case…’

“Mother!”

Hyun-sung, who suddenly shouted, started running somewhere.

This time it’s different.

It’s before the accident. He doesn’t know the exact time of the accident, but he heard that the accident happened around the time the market was closing.

Then that means there’s a chance to prevent the accident this time.

Due to that accident, his mother had to limp for the rest of her life. Moreover, in the winter, she would wear several layers of clothes because the area where the accident happened was cold, but it was no use.

In Gangwon-do [a province in South Korea], where the winters are particularly long, his mother had no choice but to live in pain like that for the rest of her life.