Chapter 546: Confession (3)

"I am… I am a Regressor."

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'Why are his hands shaking so much? I don't remember him having a tremor.'

I kept thinking he had a nervous face, almost like a guilty person waiting for his sentence. It looked like he was agonizing about whether or not he made the right choice to tell me.

He might've wanted to turn back time. After hearing his words, I remained silent for about 10 minutes. I showed him that I was deeply thinking about things which made Kim Hyunsung even more nervous.

I was already prepared to accept his confession, but it wasn't bad to give it a little more time while I was at it.

'I am a Regressor.'

Wow.

It felt nice to finally hear that phrase. I wondered how much he had struggled to say those words.

That was my small revenge to our lovely Regressor.

Of course, I remained silent right after hearing his confession, mostly because I thought it was better to spend time pretending to think, but I also wanted to exact a little vengeance. I began to worry that I had developed a strange, new hobby of torturing innocent people. I felt better the worse his expression eventually got.

He probably didn't expect me to respond like, 'Ah, I see. You're a regressor. No wonder there were many strange things about you, hahaha. Then, everything will be fine from now on. That's amazing. Great. As expected of you, Hyunsung.' But I was probably showing him the worst reaction that he could've imagined.

Sure enough, I saw him get up and approach me. He probably thought that he had to resolve the situation somehow quickly. Perhaps he was wondering if he should just say, 'Actually, it was a joke.'

Kim Hyunsung approached me slowly and lightly grabbed onto my shoulders.

I thought it was good to play with him a bit and slapped his hands away from my shoulders. In response, I heard a short sigh. I glanced at Kim Hyunsung to see his reaction and saw an unexplainable expression.

'Sh*t… I don't think I should continue to tease him.'

He looked like he had lost everything, and his expression was worse than it was in the unconscious world. I saw his pupils lose their colors for a moment. To explain it in an extreme way, he looked like he was about to hang himself.

'I can't even make a joke.'

I worried that he might suddenly enter the unconscious world. Before he could escape through the back door, I spoke quickly.

"Ah, sorry. I was just a bit surprised."

"No. I-I… I am… I… I am… the one…"

His way of talking had suddenly changed to Jung Hayan's, and his voice was growing softer while his face was being filled with fear.

He probably didn't even know what he was saying. He opened his mouth out of instinct, but his soul looked like it was already gone. However, Kim Hyunsung seemed to have recollected his mind in the next moment. Knowing he couldn't end things like that, he strengthened his mental state and hurriedly spoke.

"I can understand it if you can't believe it. I'm sure you're really surprised and shocked. But I swear with all that I have that I never intended to deceive you at all. I always thought that I should tell you, but I thought it would be hard for you to accept. I'm really sorry if I offended you in any way."

'No, Hyunsung. Why would I be offended? I am happy. Relax.'

"…"

"…"

"It's really… really true."

"I just have one thing that I want to ask…"

"Yes, Yes. I will answer everything. Everything."

"If you had really experienced living in this world before…"

"Yes?"

"Did you and I also work together back then?"

"No. We did not. In the first timeline, you were…"

"Then… perhaps, was the reason why… you approached me at the tutorial dungeon…"

"No!"

It was a voice loud enough to surprise me. It was the strongest sound that Kim Hyunsung had ever made in his lifetime. He himself also seemed shocked by his own voice, but it felt like he wanted to make excuses first.

He knew what I was worried about.

"Absolutely not. I did not approach you for any specific reasons. It was all a coincidence."

'Yes, that's right. That time, you were looking for Hayan.'

"We really met by coincidence. In the previous timeline, we had never met each other. It was my first time meeting you. I swear it on my life."

I almost laughed at how he tried to explain everything in 2 seconds, but I was able to maintain a serious face while looking at him.

Like how I wanted to hide that I had purposefully approached Kim Hyunsung, he also probably didn't want me to have similar thoughts.

Even if we made contact in the first timeline, it wouldn't have been pleasing to hear that one person purposefully approached the other, even more so since we trusted each other.

I nodded as if a question that had really been on my mind had been answered. But Kim Hyunsung still looked nervous.

"I will believe you."

"Sorry?"

"I believe you."

"Really…?"

"Yes, I know you won't say things like this just for the sake of it. If you've been hiding this for so long until now, you must have had your own reasons. Of course, I was a little surprised- no, I showed you a disappointing reaction. But I'm serious. I trust you, Hyunsung."

'Ah, our Hyunsung is touched. Hyunsung, why are you so touched?'

"How could you… so easily… accept this?"

'It wasn't easy, Hyunsung. But the cool-time was too long.'

"Do you not have a reason to lie about this? Most of all, I always told you that I believed in you. Anyway, I feel like some of the questions I had are finally getting answered now. Even when I first saw you, I thought you were an unusual person. I guess there's a reason for everything. It explains some of your hard-to-understand behaviors. Like how you suddenly brought Ye-ri or tried to recruit Hyejin."

"Yes, I had been with Hyejin before. The same can be said for Ye-ri."

"It must have been a coincidence that we met at the tutorial."

"Yes, I was actually looking for Hayan, but… I didn't expect you or Deokgu to be there at all. Especially because I had never seen you both before."

"We were…"

"I don't know exactly. You guys could've failed to clear the tutorial dungeon before or been working in a different area. Maybe you died in the dungeon, or… Maybe, you were one of the people I abandoned."

"That could be."

"Sorry?"

"When the monsters at the tutorial dungeon attacked us."

"Yes."

"Didn't you save my life?"

"Ah…"

"If it weren't for you, there was a high chance that Deokgu and I would've both died there. As you said before, if you ran away from the tutorial dungeon, I wouldn't have been saved. I've always been thankful, but I think I became a little more grateful. My life…"

"Yes?"

"You saved my life."

"Ah…"

'This guy is really touched… If I pushed a little more, I'd probably make him cry.'

It wasn't such a big line, but Hyunsung, who had been thinking long and hard, probably took it differently.

"It might be ridiculous to say this now, but I want to thank you again."

"No, no. I am the one who has to thank you. I-I hope you don't think that way. Like I said before, I…"

"You don't have to feel guilty. Even if you left me alone and ran away in the first timeline, it wouldn't have been your fault. I also turned a blind eye to the people who were getting eaten by monsters and ran away alone to survive. It's not something you should be blamed for."

"…"

"If you're still concerned about that…"

"Yes?"

"It might be funny to say this… but I will forgive you for leaving me the first time then."

'I pardon your sins.'

"Kiyoung…"

'I think he might really cry.'

Who would've thought he was so ice-cold in the beginning? He looked like he would melt away into a mess at that moment. He seemed speechless. Hence, before he became unable to swim away from the sea of emotions, I quickly got to the point.

"So, why did you think that you had to finally tell me this now?"

"It kept… occupying my mind. Of course, it's not like I didn't have a reason, but I wanted you to hear it. It was a big burden on me, and I feel like I had let it down now."

"…"

"I thought it's also a long story… Long enough to keep you awake all night."

"It's not a story that I can finish in a day. Whenever I have time, little by little… I'll try to tell you all about it. We have a lot of time now. I'll answer whatever question you have and tell you what I want you to know."

'Yes, it's a story of a couple of decades to tell…how could you finish in a day? You can do whatever you want, Hyunsung.'

"For now, let me finish the story I was telling you. Maybe while we are drinking tea."

"…"

Like that, he slowly continued his story. It was about the first timeline, not in the way I saw it but in his perspective.

He sometimes made a calm face, but other times, he looked like he was about to cry.

It seemed that he had gone through more things than I had imagined, and I wanted him to just focus on the key points.

However, he poured out everything.

Even stories that could've brought disgrace onto himself.

Everything.

I calmly listened to his words. The time wasn't right for me to ask questions or cut him off.

Sometimes, his jaws would shake, or he would choke up and not say anything.

The general conversation wasn't all that different from before or what I already knew. However, I began to be more engrossed in his stories.

He told me how he had no choice but to flee from the tutorial dungeon and leave people there, what he did as an adventurer, and how he got into the Blue Guild.

It was all intriguing.