Episode 139: This Feels Great!
Sally really has an incredible sense for these things.
She immediately picked up on how talented the kids she ended up teaching were, but more than that—
“Hey, what is it? Tell me. Let me have a laugh too.”
The fact that she could smell something fishy just from the grin she herself called “annoyingly smug” and kept persistently prying made it hit home even more.
Once her curiosity engine starts running, this woman doesn’t give up easily.
No helping it—I’ll just have to tell her.
“Just sent some snacks to my girlfriend’s workplace. So she and her coworkers can share them.”
I didn’t lie.
I just left out the fact that her “workplace” was a drama set and that calling what I sent “snacks” was a massive understatement given the scale.
Still, this much should be enough, right?
“Oh my gosh!”
Seeing her dramatically cover her mouth with both hands and make a huge fuss, it’s clear this topic more than met her expectations.
It might take a bit more time to fully satisfy her dramatic reaction, though.
“Han Yujin, you little punk. I knew you were a romantic, but pulling off such a cheeky event?”
When I had no real comeback and just gave a light shrug, Sally burst into cackling laughter.
“Ha, I’m so jealous. I want to date toooo!”
“Then just do it. Someone like you, sunbae, would have tons of people lining up.”
“It’s not that easy. Noona’s standards are a little high, you know.”
I tilted my head slightly as I recalled the face of the man who would one day stand beside her on her virgin road.
He was absolutely not someone you could call outstanding in terms of looks.
But then I immediately remembered the ideal type Sally had once described—the one I’d momentarily forgotten—and nodded in understanding.
Yeah, if we’re talking about a guy whose upper arms are thicker than my thighs…
Even though I’ve trained my body quite a bit through exercise, it’s true that Sally’s standards are pretty damn high.
“Well, by your standards, sunbae, it’d have to be at least someone like Seok Joo-hyung sunbaenim, right?”
I casually tossed out the name of the muscular actor who, even far into the future, would remain the undisputed number one action star in Korea—and who became her husband—just to tease her a little.
“Seok Joo-hyung? Oh my, that would be perfect!”
The reaction that came back was… a bit off.
I figured she’d like it, but the intensity was stronger than I expected?
“Ah, come to think of it, I had drinks with him not too long ago.”
No way?
In my memory, Sally and Seok Joo-hyung started dating just a month after they first met, dated passionately for six months, and announced their marriage before any dating rumors even broke.
I was thirty or thirty-one back then—definitely not now.
But before I could even process that thought, Sally’s next words hit like a shock.
“Now that I think about it, that was thanks to you too, Yujin-ah?”
“Huh?”
“It’s been about a month? I was having drinks with Ah-jeong to ask how to get on stage with you. That’s where I met him. We even exchanged numbers? Come to think of it, I completely forgot because I’ve been so busy. It was after a few drinks… Should I shoot him a message now that I remembered?”
I’m not even sure if I’m smiling or not anymore.
‘…Is this really how it happens…?’
At least up until I regressed, Sally and Seok Joo-hyung’s marriage had been smooth sailing without a single conflict.
So even if the two of them end up together, I don’t need to feel any particular burden about it…
‘But can this really be credited to me?’
It’s undeniably a butterfly effect caused by my existence, but the feeling is… strangely complicated.
Oblivious to my inner turmoil, Sally tapped on her phone screen for a moment.
Then she suddenly looked up, a hint of worry in her eyes, and asked,
“But… has your girlfriend been at that job for a while?”
“No? She’s pretty much a newbie.”
Not just close—she might be one of the shortest-tenured people on that entire set, even among the minor roles.
Even the staff riding in the coffee truck are probably more experienced than Zia.
Sally tilted her head slightly and murmured,
“Hmm… Is that gonna be okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“No, it’s just… I heard from Ah-jeong that your girlfriend is insanely pretty.”
“What? That sunbae really went and said stuff like that…?”
Despite my words, my face broke into a goofy grin.
Sally furrowed her brow a little at the sight, clicked her tongue once, and continued.
“No, most people would probably see it in a positive light, but human relationships can’t always be perfect. Jealousy isn’t something you can just control, right? I’m just a little worried that your girlfriend might end up getting some side-eye because of it.”
“Ahh.”
If that’s what she’s worried about.
Of course, Sally’s concern is a bit different from reality, but it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to worry about.
Even I had thought the same thing at first—that sending something like a coffee truck to a not-so-big drama set with a relatively short shoot might come off as a bit ostentatious and rub some people the wrong way.
But that particular worry had already been resolved a long time ago.
“It’s fine. Word’s already spread that my girlfriend is doing really well on set.”
I’d already heard through the grapevine that Zia was getting good reviews from the people there.
If that weren’t the case, Lee Ah-jeong and BNW would’ve stepped in to stop it.
And one more thing.
“The real power player on that set really likes my girlfriend a lot.”
“How do you even know that, Yujin-ah?”
“I know that power player a little bit.”
“Oh, really? So she’s a parachute hire? Well… if she’s a parachute who’s also good at her job, then… it might not be so bad.”
Well, that’s probably a bit different from what Sally is imagining.
I gave a small smile as I watched her shake off her worried expression and refocus on typing her message to Seok Joo-hyung.
Even if someone harbored ill feelings toward Zia, they wouldn’t be able to show it outwardly.
‘Choi Si-yeon likes Zia a lot—who would dare say anything?’
Of course, I didn’t hear this part through BNW.
BNW probably didn’t even anticipate it either.
The reason I can say that with confidence is because someone who worked with her for quite a long time is right here in my circle.
‘Was it Hikaru? Or Sugeom?’
A conversation from before my regression—when one of the members was talking with Haeyoung—briefly flashed through my mind again.
“Is Si-yeon noona cold? Hey, that’s a prejudice. Well… maybe not entirely prejudice? She’s cold to people who have no skills and don’t even try. In those cases, it’s straight-up midwinter. But unless it’s like that, there’s no one warmer. The whole set atmosphere turns happy. Noona makes it that way. If you ask the director, apparently she’s been like that since her child actor days?”
If what Haeyoung said that day had no lies or exaggeration in it, then right now, in Choi Si-yeon’s eyes, Zia is probably close to being the most precious attachment doll in the world.
Lee Ah-jeong probably knew that too, which is why she let this slide.
Of course, there’s a chance someone else—not Zia—might rub Choi Si-yeon the wrong way, but even then, it probably wouldn’t spill over onto Zia.
‘Ah, come to think of it…’
Then something suddenly came to mind.
A short anecdote Choi Si-yeon had once shared on a talk show.
“There was this script I really loved a long time ago. It was originally planned as a 12-episode series, but due to circumstances, it got changed to a single-episode special. If the response was good, they said they could expand it back to 12 episodes… but it didn’t work out. Thinking about it now, it’s such a shame. I really wanted to do the rest of that story properly.”
Wait a minute… is this the one right now…?
There’s no way Choi Si-yeon would be doing another single-episode drama.
I’m pretty sure the MC asked why, and she answered something about it…
A memory so vague it’s frustrating.
Did I just skim past it on YouTube or something? I can’t remember the exact reason afterward.
‘Ah, what was it…’
While I was desperately digging through buried thoughts, trying to grasp at the memory that felt just within reach—
“Eh?!”
The voice from beside me shattered my reverie into pieces.
The culprit was, of course, Sally.
“Yujin-ah. Noona’s gonna head out first.”
“Suddenly? Didn’t you say you didn’t have any schedule today, sunbae?”
It felt like I was just about to catch it, and having it interrupted made my voice come out a little brusque—even to my own ears.
But,
“Sorry. Something just came up out of nowhere. See you tomorrow. Once the song’s finished, send it to me too.”
Sally stood up as if she hadn’t even registered my reaction, and now that I looked properly, her face was faintly flushed.
To me—who knows quite a bit about the behind-the-scenes of Sally’s marriage—that expression was unmistakable.
‘Well, if it’s something like that, I can’t really complain.’
If this were a soccer match, that would’ve been a 100% yellow-card-worthy deep tackle, but this time I have no choice but to understand.
I’m reminded every single day just how powerful the force of love can be.
And then, after Sally left, the office was left with only me.
“Sigh.”
I let out a deep exhale.
The face of Choi Si-yeon from that interview had already scattered so completely that I couldn’t recall it anymore.
It didn’t feel like trying to think about it again would bring anything back, so I powered on the computer that had been in sleep mode.
Might as well get some work done in times like this.
‘I was so close to remembering… Damn, what a shame.’
Actually, I already knew.
The moment I dragged it out like this, the memory was never going to come back.
‘Even if I did manage to recall it, it’s not like I could do anything to fix it anyway.’
No matter how much of a regressor I am, there are limits to what I can influence.
If it were something related to music, maybe—but acting? Even less so.
Still, a faint sense of regret lingered stubbornly,
‘Hmm… Guess tonight’s dinner will have to be that, then?’
But the moment I thought of Zia—whom I’d pushed to the back of my mind for a while—that regret melted away like snow in spring.
***
That evening.
Beeeeep beeeeeep beeeeeep.
The sound from the door lock was a little different from usual.
A breathless, frantic string of inputs, full of urgency.
Beep beep beep.
The warning tone signaling the password was wrong pulled a laugh out of me as well.
Since dinner preparations were almost done anyway, I turned the induction cooktop down to the lowest heat and headed toward the entrance.
Beeeeep beeeeeep beeeeeep. Ding-dong.
The owner of those frantic hands didn’t mess up the password a third time, and right on cue, as I stood in front of the door, her face—flushed bright red—came into view.
“Hey, Han Yujin!!!”
Before the door even fully closed, a lion-like roar echoed all the way down the hallway.
‘Look at that lung capacity. It’s gotten even better since she started acting, hasn’t it?’
I silently thanked my lucky stars that there were no other residents on this floor.
“What the hell did you doooo!!”
With her eyebrows furrowed into a perfect inverted V, Zia clenched her small, adorable fist and shrieked.
“Why? Did something happen?”
My lips were stretched into a huge grin as I said it.
I had no intention of hiding it in the first place.
Trying to act innocent would just make it obvious and awkward, and if I’d really wanted to hide it, I wouldn’t have asked Lee Ah-jeong to make the biggest possible banner out of that bright, beaming B-cut of Zia.
“Aaaargh, seriously, because of you…!”
There was a time when Zia’s acting skills had improved enough to fool even me for a bit, but right now it looked like her emotional control was completely shot.
She was throwing a tantrum, but the embarrassment underlying it was plain as day.
“How could you send something like that!! My head went completely blank when I saw it—I couldn’t focus at all!”
The only thing I’d actually been worried about was that she might break down from seeing it and have trouble with the shoot.
“But you’re saying that even though you finished filming just fine?”
I’d already heard the full report from the person managing Zia as her manager.
“How do you even… Wait—don’t tell me Eun-hyang unnie was in on it with you too?! Wow… seriously…”
The moment she realized, Zia covered her face with both hands in utter betrayal and sank to the floor.
I clenched my teeth hard to hold back the laughter threatening to burst out.
If I laughed right now—even with what I’d prepared in advance—I’d probably be banned from the bedroom tonight.
Instead,
“Surpri~se.”
I leaned slightly toward the crouched Zia and said it softly.
“Surprise my ass! Freeze to death! Freeze to death!! Freeze to death!!!”
Zia sprang up like a coiled spring, rolled her fists into hammers, and started furiously pounding my arms.
It hurt a little, sure,
‘This! Is! So! Fun!’
But the smile never left my face.
“You’re laughing? You’re actually laughing right now?! Come here.”
Spotting it, Zia started taking off her shoes in earnest to really go at me.
I hurriedly retreated to the kitchen, turned off the induction cooktop that had been on low simmer, and grabbed the pan sitting on top.
Then I held it out in front of Zia—just as she was about to grab me by the scruff like a predator on the hunt.
My ultimate reconciliation weapon: ‘Han Yujin’s Special Tteokbokki,’ more than capable of calming down this level of rage.
“You seriously think I’m going to calm down just because of… this?”
If you’re going to say something like that, you should’ve at least tried to swallow your drool first.
I quietly gulped down the words that would’ve definitely gotten me a full-back beating if I’d said them out loud.
Instead,
“It’s been a while since I made it, so it turned out really delicious. Try some.”
I simply twirled a fork loaded with a piece of rice cake, a piece of fish cake, and perfectly melted mozzarella and cheddar cheese—and brought it right up to Zia’s mouth.
There was no way Zia could resist this spicy temptation right under her nose.
Of course, if it had actually interfered with filming, this wouldn’t have worked at all—but if that were the case, I wouldn’t be making tteokbokki right now; I’d be kneeling at the door with my hands up in surrender.
And a moment later, the silver fork gleamed faintly,
“…It’s delicious.”
One short sentence from Zia as she accepted my olive branch.
As expected, our happy ending is best served spicy.
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TL Note:
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Chapters 140–174 are available on My Patreon (Premium Tier) together with 5 other novels.
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[This series is in the “Regressed Idol” collection]
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