Good heavens.
How weak I have become. It’s all in the past. It’s all over, something I will never have to experience again.
Father is dead. Even though I know this.
Why do I keep getting pulled back into the past by gravity? Why do I get stuck in that moment?
At the very moment when Father was dying, some young part of me must have shattered. So one of the most important pieces that make up who I am fell at that point.
How else could this be explained?
If it’s not that I lost a part of my past self and emotions pooled in that void to grow into a core.
Is that why I overlap the last sound of my father, killed by an impersonator, with a mixed-race person who has no connection?
Even though I never want to…
“Choi Yoon!”
Kim Tae Rin’s scream made Choi Yoon startle.
A dump truck was barreling towards them right in front.
He barely managed to swerve the steering wheel.
Immediately after, he realized he had been driving across lanes. His hair stood on end.
His body didn’t feel like his own.
Kim Tae Rin leaned forward and grabbed Choi Yoon’s hand.
“Get out! Let’s switch seats!”
“No, I’ll…”
“You’re a patient too! You’re injured too. And you’re a terrible driver!”
“There’s no time to switch.”
“We almost just had an accident! Pull over, quickly!”
Choi Yoon frantically pulled over to the shoulder.
But he couldn’t get out right away. He clutched his chest. Cold sweat drenched his entire body.
Kim Tae Rin got out of the car, ran to the front, and flung open the driver’s side door. She tilted her head forcefully, trying to examine Choi Yoon’s complexion from below.
“Oh my. Are you alright?”
Choi Yoon couldn’t feel his hand clutching his chest. But soon after, he felt an unfamiliar warmth patting his back.
Kim Tae Rin was stroking Choi Yoon’s back soothingly, over and over.
A bit surprised, he unconsciously avoided Kim Tae Rin’s gaze. His whole body was damp with sweat, and he felt so cold. It was a chill he had never felt before.
“What’s wrong with me? I wasn’t even badly hurt…”
“You were badly hurt. And I think it’s because you’re reminded of your father.”
Choi Yoon was taken aback. Kim Tae Rin added as she tried to pull him out:
“Seo Jung was attacked by an impersonator. You must be seeing your father overlapped with him.”
“No. I’m not at all…!”
“Get out. Whatever the reason, you need to rest. You’ve already done your best.”
Choi Yoon got out of the driver’s seat, practically falling into Kim Tae Rin’s arms.
The moment his feet touched the ground, he lost his balance and staggered. Thanks to Kim Tae Rin’s quick support, he barely avoided collapsing onto the asphalt.
“See? You’ve pushed yourself too hard.”
His head and body were disconnected. He wanted to walk as if nothing was wrong, but in reality, he barely managed to climb into the passenger seat, leaning on Kim Tae Rin.
Kim Tae Rin pulled the seatbelt and clicked it in. Just as she was about to close the door, she reached out her hand.
Before Choi Yoon could react, Kim Tae Rin’s fingertips brushed his forehead. The damp, clinging hair was swept away. That touch felt ice-cold.
“You’re sweating a lot. Why didn’t you go to the hospital first? Your shoulder is a mess.”
For a moment, Choi Yoon hesitated to answer. Should he just laugh it off, or should he try to test Kim Tae Rin a little?
Before he could decide, he was already speaking.
“I thought you wouldn’t come.”
Only after saying it did he realize. How much he wanted to know about Kim Tae Rin. He felt a chilling sensation that it wasn’t just about whether she was an impersonator.
“If you didn’t come, Seo Jung wouldn’t be able to go to the hospital. I was going to take him out myself.”
Kim Tae Rin’s hands, which had been adjusting the seatbelt to avoid touching the wound on his shoulder, suddenly stopped.
Kim Tae Rin replied.
“I said I would come.”
“I couldn’t believe it. Honestly, I still can’t believe it.”
“Why did you think I wouldn’t come?”
Her voice was calm as she asked. As if there was no need to beat around the bush when they had already figured each other out.
But Choi Yoon swallowed the words that were rising in his throat.
What that damn personal matter was. Why they said they hadn’t seen you at any of the checkpoints when you’d left the restaurant a while ago. Why it took exactly 20 minutes for you to appear after ending the call.
He didn’t want to ask. Because he wanted to know so badly.
“I don’t understand at all why you came back. Not at all.”
To come back here.
After leaving so perfectly, properly backstabbing several people. To return as if nothing had happened and be here in front of me now.
With that face, asking why I thought you wouldn’t come, with a clear face as if you never had any intention of running away.
He muttered softly.
“…Aren’t you stupid?”
With Kim Tae Rin’s complex expression as the last thing he saw, Choi Yoon felt a chilling sensation as if all the blood in his body was being swept away.
He wanted to see more of Kim Tae Rin’s expression. To hear what answer she would give.
But his consciousness scattered before he could grasp it.
When he opened his eyes, he was in the emergency room.
Amidst the glaring light and sensitive noise, Choi Yoon quickly regained his composure.
After his shoulder was stitched up, a nurse approached and advised that, based on what the accompanying guardian said, he seemed to have gone into shock and might want to stop by the psychiatry department. He replied that he already had medication and left the place.
He hurriedly bought a hat and mask at the convenience store and put them on. When he went to the operating room where Han Seo Jung had been taken, after asking at the counter, Kim Tae Rin was sitting on a chair in the hallway.
She looked the most disheveled and anxious he had ever seen her.
Her lips were tightly pressed as if biting the inside, and her pitch-black eyes were staring intently at some spot on the hallway floor.
Her moist eyes were red and swollen as if she had shed a flood of tears and rubbed them incessantly.
The paper cup clutched in her hand was half-full of instant coffee. As he got closer, he saw it wasn’t just one cup. There were three or four stacked together.
Choi Yoon was a bit surprised. Kim Tae Rin doesn’t drink coffee.
When they first visited the restaurant, he learned that even the coffee that existed as the only brand Choi Yoon advertised, Kim Tae Rin never touched, despite buying it reluctantly due to customers’ complaints about wanting to try what others drink.
“You don’t drink coffee.”
Kim Tae Rin’s head shot up. After confirming Choi Yoon’s face, she loosened her shoulders slightly.
“What did the doctor say?”
Instead of answering, Choi Yoon sat down next to Kim Tae Rin.
Though unintentional, the chair was small, so they ended up sitting close together. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should adjust his position. He thought Kim Tae Rin might move away slightly, but she didn’t budge at all. She just stared at him with a worried expression.
Kim Tae Rin’s elbow lightly touched Choi Yoon’s arm. She seemed hardly aware of it. She just looked at him deeply and asked again.
“What did the doctor say? Is it serious? Did you tell them you fainted and collapsed? Did they stitch it up?”
It felt strange. She should be worried about herself, not me.
“A little.”
“How many stitches? There was a lot of blood.”
“It’s fine now. Just a scratch.”
“Will it leave a scar?”
Though the doctor had expressed concern that it wouldn’t heal completely cleanly even if it healed well, Choi Yoon smiled reassuringly.
“They say it’ll be fine.”
Kim Tae Rin didn’t look convinced at all.
“What if it leaves a scar? Your body is expensive.”
For a moment, Choi Yoon thought Kim Tae Rin was joking. But she had a very serious expression.
“…That’s true. I am quite expensive. I wonder if this will lower my value.”
He said it lightly, but Kim Tae Rin didn’t laugh at all.
Since her elbow was still precariously touching Choi Yoon’s arm, he somehow found it difficult to look at Kim Tae Rin directly.
But as he cleared his throat and lowered his eyes, Kim Tae Rin said quietly.
“Not to me.”
Choi Yoon looked at Kim Tae Rin.
“I don’t think your value has decreased because of today’s incident. One could say you’ve gotten a blemish on the outside, but I don’t want to put it that way.”
Kim Tae Rin took her gaze off Choi Yoon. She said while staring at the operating room.
“Thank you so much.”
Choi Yoon couldn’t grasp what Kim Tae Rin was thanking him for.
Kim Tae Rin looked at Choi Yoon again.
Round, moist eyes under dense eyelashes stared at him intently. The hair tucked behind her ear, the soft line falling below it, the slightly rolled-up blouse sleeve crumpled on the inside of her elbow.
For a moment, his heart skipped a beat.
Ah, this person really doesn’t care about time and place…
His chest tightened.
…She’s so terribly pretty.
“I heard everything while talking to the village chief earlier.”
Only then did he realize this was something to be thanked for. He felt dazed.
“Because Choi Yoon was there. That’s why the bullet only grazed his leg. He said it could have been a disaster.”
At the time, Choi Yoon had pushed Han Seo Jung away from his arms. He judged that separating would be safer for Han Seo Jung since he alone was enough as a hostage for the impersonator.
But when the police hit the impersonator’s wing with a bullet, the situation changed.
The injured impersonator let go of Choi Yoon, and Choi Yoon saw Han Seo Jung running towards the police.
And one of the many gun barrels that should have been aimed at the impersonator was pointing at Han Seo Jung.
He hadn’t expected it. He thought the only threat was the impersonator.
There was no time to judge. His body moved before his head could understand. He hugged Han Seo Jung from behind. At the same time, one of the countless uniform gunshots flew towards them.
One shot. It hit the lunchbox and ricocheted off.
Another shot. It grazed Han Seo Jung’s leg by a hair’s breadth. They rolled several times while embracing tightly.
He was completely disoriented. Why, why was this happening?
As he held Han Seo Jung, he raised his head to call for an ambulance, but that one gun barrel was indistinguishable among the police.
Why did they shoot?
His chest felt like it would burst.
Something hot flowed down from his hand supporting Han Seo Jung, from the arms embracing him. He couldn’t tell if it was his own blood from his torn shoulder or blood from Han Seo Jung’s leg.
Why? Why did they shoot a civilian?
Could it be because he’s mixed-race? For fun? Because nobody would care if a mixed-race person died anyway?
Suddenly, something huge shot up into the sky.
It was the impersonator with wings spread wide. Though severely injured, like a wild beast is a wild beast, it flew up quickly and rapidly distanced itself.
The police fired shots, but it was futile.
Choi Yoon picked up Han Seo Jung. He ran down the mountain, shouting for an ambulance. Until some police brought a stretcher and he found Jang Yong Sik to explain the situation amidst the screaming neighbors, Choi Yoon had only one question.
Why did they let the eagle go? When it was so close.
How could the special police from the Monster Management Center fail to catch one injured impersonator?
As if they were letting it live.
At that moment, Choi Yoon felt a vague wall.
He came down here to correct his mistakes and stand up to the government’s injustice.
But the real problem beneath the surface was terrifyingly deep.
Perhaps more solid than the government, can I change people’s perspectives, their reluctant hearts?
It was a kind of helplessness he had never felt before.
That all this effort might be in vain.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
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Daily Life of a Scumbag Man Giving Birth (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The way for a promiscuous scumbag man to atone for his sins is to let him get… pregnant.
Synopsis:
Meng Huan, a scumbag who has dated countless girlfriends, scammed countless women, transmigrates to a female-dominated country.
Day 1: Whether it’s female dominance or not doesn’t matter. The beauties here are passionate and amorous. Isn’t it easier to scam them than in modern times?
Day 2: After a night, Meng Huan discovers the differences in the female-dominated world. Men here actually have chastity locks and menstrual cycles. This hinders his ability to perform, damn it!
Day 3: What’s wrong with sleeping around? I don’t want you to marry me. I’m meant to be a playboy. I don’t care about male virtues… What? You want to drown me in a pig cage? Marry, I’ll marry!
Day N: Meng Huan inexplicably vomits and receives the shocking news of his life… He’s pregnant.