← The youngest heir of a conglomerate returns to the day before bankruptcy and protects his family first.# 1-1
The sound of rain taps against the window. The fingers on the steering wheel are trembling.
No, they were already trembling.
Lee Junho tried to recall the past three hours, but his brain repeated only one signal: *Run. Go further.*
Outskirts highway of Seoul. 11:47 PM. A black BMW is racing at exactly 120 kilometers per hour in a section where lane changes are prohibited. The man in the driver's seat doesn't look like he's even thirty, but his eyes are exhausted like those of a sixty-year-old.
"My father... he's filing for bankruptcy tomorrow morning."
A voice message on his phone. It was his older brother Lee Jaehun's voice. His voice was trembling. The fact that the eldest son of a chaebol family's voice was shaking was itself a signal that something was wrong.
"Junho, pick up. Please."
A second message. Also from Lee Jaehun.
"Hyung. Anyway, you'll be fine just staying at home. After all, one of the four of us will..."
A third message. Lee Sujin. The second brother's voice was cold.
Junho didn't pick up his phone. He couldn't.
Because he already knew.
What his father would say at tomorrow morning's meeting. How his father's face would turn pale hearing those words. And how everything would crumble after that.
A memory from ten years ago.
No, not from ten years ago. To be precise, a memory from ten years in the future.
Junho gripped the steering wheel with both hands. The highway lights streak past the car window. Yellow stripes. White letters. Speed limit 100 kilometers. He accelerated.
Why?
If he drives faster, if he gets home sooner, will everything be different?
"This can't be. This can't be."
Muttering. An act of confirming his own existence.
The past few hours must have been a hallucination. When he wakes up, it will be an ordinary Thursday morning. The smell of coffee on the conference room table at the company. His father's voice. The rigid, mask-like faces of the executives.
"We will proceed with the bankruptcy filing."
His father said that. His voice had no strength.
"What happens to us now?"
Someone asked. Junho didn't remember that person's face. All their faces were the same.
"What about our family?"
Lee Minji asked. The youngest. She was crying, watching her father's back.
"Chairman, the asset freeze..."
"I'm well aware."
His father's voice cut off. Literally, physically cut off. As if someone were strangling his throat.
Junho exited the highway. He adjusted his speed as he entered a provincial road. The rain became heavier. The wipers moved at maximum speed, but he couldn't see ahead clearly.
His phone rang. This time with a minimalist warning tone.
It was his mother.
"Junho, where are you?"
"I'm heading home."
His voice was calm. The voice of someone skilled at lying.
"Your father... your father..."
His mother was crying. Seo Mira Lee cried easily. She was always weak. In her past life and in this one too.
"Just wait a little. Everything will be resolved when I get home."
It was a lie. Nothing was resolved.
Junho drove listening to his mother's sobs in the car. The sound of rain and crying mixed together. As if the past ten years of time were compressed and replayed in an instant.
"What about your brothers?"
"They're all... here."
His mother's voice cut off. It seemed someone had taken the phone from her.
"Junho."
It was his father. His voice returned. But it wasn't his father's voice. It was the sound of a building collapsing.
"I'm sorry."
His father said.
"Father, come inside. Wait for me."
Junho turned the steering wheel. A left turn signal. Re-entering the highway from the provincial road.
"There's no time to wait."
His father's words were strange. They weren't in the present tense. They were in the past tense. As if everything had already ended.
"Father?"
"Go inside. Take care of your mother."
The call ended.
Junho's feet began pressing the pedals. Deeper. Harder.
140 kilometers per hour.
160 kilometers per hour.
The sound of rain changed. It was no longer the sound of tapping on the window. It was like someone was tearing through the ceiling and pouring water down.
That was the moment.
A truck appeared.
More precisely, Junho's car swerved to the right to avoid the truck. But instead of just turning, the car itself began to spin. Like a body losing its sense of direction, falling off a merry-go-round.
"Ah."
A sound came out. He couldn't tell if it was his own voice or the engine's scream.
The window shattered. Rain poured inside. Now it was no longer something outside the window.
His right arm hit the dashboard. The sound of bones breaking. A clear sound.
"Ah..."
The sound came again. This time it was definitely his own voice.
The car was still spinning. He saw outside. He saw inside. Outside again. Inside again.
During that spin, Junho saw something.
Under a streetlight outside the car, people in black clothes.
They were watching the car accident.
No, it wasn't just one person. There were several.
On the far left, the tallest man. Lee Jaehun. His mouth was moving. He was speaking. But no sound came through.
Next to him, a man with black hair. Lee Sujin. He wasn't moving. He was just watching. That expression was exactly what Junho had expected. A hint of surprise and deep indifference.
Next to him, a woman of smaller stature. Lee Minji. Her face was pale. Her mouth was open. She seemed to be screaming.
Next to her, a woman with gray hair. His mother. Seo Mira. She was holding Minji. Her face was also pale. But she was crying. Still crying.
Next to her...
His father wasn't there.
Lee Kangho wasn't there.
So Junho knew.
His father had already gone.
It spun again. The streetlight disappeared. The sky came into view. The sound of rain turned into a downpour.
Junho's eyes saw the sky through the ceiling. A black sky. Gray clouds. Lightning flickering between them.
"Father..."
Muttering.
His fingers released the steering wheel.
The car stopped spinning.
Everything stopped.
The sound stopped.
The rain stopped.
Only the beating of his heart remained. Irregular, like a broken metronome.
It slowed down more and more.
And...
It stopped.
When he opened his eyes, the world was a ceiling.
A grayish ceiling. A familiar ceiling. His bedroom ceiling.
Junho wasn't breathing. His chest wasn't moving. As if he were dead.
Then suddenly, air rushed into his lungs. A sharp breath. Like a newborn taking oxygen for the first time.
"......"
He opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
His fingers moved. Right hand. Left hand. Legs. Toes. Everything moved. It was normal.
His heart pounded rapidly. Too rapidly. It felt like his heart would burst through his chest.
Junho slowly raised his upper body. The bed sheet fell away from his back. It was soaked with sweat. His entire body was drenched in sweat.
"What......"
His voice came out. Low and hoarse. The voice of someone who hadn't spoken in days.
He looked at the walls of his bedroom. Gray walls. Frames on them. His university graduation photo. A family photo with his older brothers. His younger sister Minji's exhibition poster.
Everything was in its place.
Beyond the bedroom window, Seoul's night view was visible. It was night. A quiet night. There was no sound of rain.
Junho slowly got out of bed. His feet touched the floor. Cold and soft wooden floor. The sensation of reality.
A mirror. A mirror attached to the bedroom wall. He walked toward it.
The face in the mirror was his face. The face of a 25-year-old. An elongated face. Black eyes. Dark pupils. In those pupils was fear.
"....Ten years."
He muttered. The mouth in the mirror moved.
"It was exactly ten years."
He went back to bed. He picked up his phone from the table next to the bed. The screen turned on.
Date: Friday, March 15, 2024, 11:47 PM.
Junho's fingers stopped.
He knew that date. He knew it too well. A date embedded in his body and soul.
March 15, 2024.
Which meant tomorrow would be March 16, 2024.
The day his father announced bankruptcy.
The day a car collided with a truck on the highway.
The day his father died.
Junho put down his phone. His hands trembled.
"This can't be real."
He sat on the bed. The bed sank under his weight. The weight of reality. The sensation of reality.
He had lived ten years. Ten years exactly. The company's bankruptcy. His father's death. His brothers scattering. His mother's tears. His younger sister Minji leaving home. All of it.
And now he was here again. In his bedroom. On the night of March 15 at 11:47 PM.
Again.
From the beginning.
Junho slowly stood up again. This time more slowly. As if this were a dream and he feared that movement might wake him.
He walked to the closet. Summer clothes. Formal wear. Casual wear. Everything was in its place. The clothes he wore. The clothes he chose.
He looked at the upper left of the closet. There was a small box there. A box the size of a shoe box. He took it down.
Inside the box were documents. Company materials. Financial statements. Contracts. All things he had collected over these ten years. Collected from memories of the future. Or rather, from memories of the past.
Time had twisted.
Junho placed the box on the bed. He slowly took out the documents. His fingers trembled.
Park Eunyoung's transaction records. Starting from March 2024, he knew exactly how these materials had eaten away at the company over ten years. Or rather, he had known. He had already seen it. He had already lived it.
Lee Junseok's signature. An approval document for transferring company funds overseas. His uncle's signature. That transaction was the beginning of the company's collapse.
Junho slowly arranged the documents. His fingers still trembled, but his mind grew colder.
A chance to live ten years again. One chance.
He picked up his phone from the table next to the bed again.
The screen still showed 11:47. No, it now showed 11:53.
There was one KakaoTalk notification.
Sender: Father (Lee Kangho)
Message: Urgent. Tomorrow 8 AM. Conference room. Everyone must attend.
Junho read the message. He read it again and again.
He heard his father's voice. From ten years ago, when that car spun. The voice of the last moment.
"Father..."
He muttered.
But his voice didn't waver. A voice already turned cold.
Junho put down his phone. He lay on the bed. He stared at the ceiling.
A grayish ceiling. The same ceiling.
His eyes pierced through the ceiling and saw the future. Or rather, the past. That past he had lived ten years and returned from.
Tomorrow, his father would announce bankruptcy.
In that process, Park Eunyoung's embezzlement would be revealed.
In that process, Lee Junseok's betrayal would be revealed.
In that process, Lee Sujin's ambition would be revealed.
And in that process, the car would spin on the highway.
His father would die.
His brothers would scatter.
His mother would be left alone.
Minji would leave home.
Junho didn't have to experience all of that again. The experience of living ten years. That was his only weapon left.
He turned off the bedroom light. Darkness descended.
On the bed, Junho thought about tomorrow's plan.
First: Find his father before he calls the meeting.
Second: Show him Park Eunyoung's transaction records.
Third: Expose Lee Junseok's betrayal.
Fourth: Stop all of this before it happens.
Fifth: Save his father.
The fifth was most important.
Junho closed his eyes. In the darkness, his heart beat at a normal pace. As if he hadn't been awake for ten years, but had merely had a nightmare.
But it wasn't a nightmare.
It was a memory.
And memories don't lie.
Seoul outside the window was still night. Cold and quiet night.
Eight hours remained until tomorrow morning.
Eight hours of time.
Eight hours to change everything.
With his eyes closed, Junho looked as if he were staring at the ceiling. A black ceiling. A black sky. Between them, the future flickered like lightning.
This time would be different.
This time he would protect his father.
This time he would protect his family.
This time he would change everything.
The bedroom clock moved toward midnight.
Eight hours remained until March 16, 2024.