The Slap That Changed His Fate

“What? What did you just say?”

“I said I won’t marry.”

“Why are others deciding my marriage? You know this isn’t normal, Aunt.”

His aunt glared at him, eyes blazing as if telling him to think carefully before answering.

She spoke with a face that seemed to give him another chance, but Haejin didn’t back down.

Instead, meeting her gaze, he clearly conveyed that this situation wasn’t right.

Perhaps because Beomwoo had repeatedly told him to make eye contact to not appear weak, and he had tried to follow that advice, meeting his aunt’s eyes wasn’t as difficult as before.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t scared.

Even now, as he spoke, his heart pounded as if it would burst.

But maybe because he didn’t know if this was a life flashback or what.

He was already dead; he didn’t want to obediently listen to her.

Moreover, the biggest reason he had attended the meeting with the brothers and decided to marry before was to escape this hellish house.

But as they say, there’s no paradise where you flee to.

Life after marriage wasn’t smooth.

Even escaping his aunt and uncle’s abuse, he was still alone.

He didn’t know how far this life flashback would go, but he decided he would endure somehow, earn money, and leave on his own two feet.

He steeled himself, thinking that marrying to escape now would only repeat him being alone like before.

As Haejin conveyed his will firmly without bending, her eyes filled with panic.

Even if she had expected him to refuse the marriage, she hadn’t anticipated him being this resolute.

She seemed at a loss for words from surprise, then changed her tactic.

“It’s not others; it’s a promise your father made while alive.”

“Will you abandon it like this? If you think of your dad, you wouldn’t decide so easily.”

She brought up his father as a different approach.

Now using the dead, trying to leverage his longing for his dad into guilt…

His father was even her younger brother.

Well, someone like her could take in her brother’s child, take the inheritance, and abuse him without guilt.

Although this was an unexperienced scene, it didn’t weaken his resolve.

Rather, his determination not to go through with this marriage solidified.

Even if it was a promise his father made while alive, he would want to honor it, but the ones benefiting from this marriage were them.

“Ah, Dad just said it casually…”

“If I don’t want it, he wouldn’t want to force me into marriage… He’d understand my feelings.”

“Why are you like this?”

“Your dad laid this out all for you. Is it because you don’t know how wealthy the other family is?”

Recalling his father’s personality while alive, he wasn’t the type to force an unwanted marriage on him.

So Haejin reasoned well, but she insisted it was a marriage arranged for his own good, asking if his dad would set him up with something bad, pressuring him instead.

‘…I know better than anyone how rich that family is. I married into it.’

But money wasn’t important to Haejin now, and above all, it was painfully clear who would benefit from this marriage.

“…Do you think I don’t know who would gain if I marry?”

“Wh-what? Do I look like someone who would sell off a nephew for personal gain?”

“You know this isn’t a normal marriage, and there’s no reason to force me when I don’t want it.”

If she had ever been kind to him, maybe it would be different.

But it was utterly unreasonable.

While speaking, his heart raced madly as if it would jump out, his hands trembled, and his voice shook, but he couldn’t stop.

Even in a life flashback before death, he didn’t want to be subservient and watch her mood.

As he poured out pent-up emotions he had never voiced while alive, Haejin trembled all over from a feeling he couldn’t identify as fear or exhilaration.

But his eyes remained fixed on hers.

As Haejin tried harder not to avoid her gaze, his aunt, whose lips were trembling, stood up and raised one hand.

Smack!

“How dare you look me straight in the eye and talk back?!”

A slap, cutting through the air with a whoosh, struck Haejin’s cheek.

The slap was so strong it spun his seated body sideways.

His head spun; his ears felt muffled as if ringing from tinnitus.

Since his mouth was open, he might have bitten his tongue, as a taste of blood spread inside.

The sharp, waking pain made Haejin cover the slapped cheek with his palm.

He knew a life flashback involved all senses, but the vividness of the pain shocked him awake.

Haejin forgot to retort and couldn’t speak, but his aunt, as if slapping him once wasn’t enough to vent her anger, breathed heavily, her voice rising, veins bulging in her neck.

“You do as I say!”

“Ugh, sob!”

“Is this how you repay the favor of being raised?”

*Smack! Smack!*

His aunt, seeing Haejin already greatly shocked, seemed unsatisfied and kept slapping his face repeatedly.

Whenever he tried to lift his head, she struck again, giving him no chance to look at her or say anything, pushing him down to the floor.

Being hit repeatedly made stars burst before his eyes; he was completely disoriented.

Reflexive tears blurred his vision; he saw her, flushed red with excitement, breathing heavily.

Violence—it had happened many times, but usually, his uncle was the perpetrator.

His aunt usually ordered him around and verbally criticized and belittled him, but not today.

She too had struck him.

‘I just said I didn’t want to be forced into marriage. What was so infuriating?’

Surely, when she told him to marry before, he had also said he didn’t want to, but she hadn’t slapped him then.

Was the difference in reaction because back then he had said he didn’t want to tearfully and timidly, so she thought she could persuade him, but now it was different?

Her rage seemed uncontrollable at his defiant attitude.

‘I didn’t do anything terrible; I just expressed my opinion clearly…’

Her reaction made him reflect anew on how obediently he had listened to them and acted timidly all this time.

‘I knew it, but I was treated here as someone who couldn’t even voice my own opinion.’

And it confirmed how much they saw his marriage as an opportunity.

But being hit didn’t make him want to marry.

As Haejin kept his mouth tightly shut, enduring the hits, the bedroom door slid open with a rumble.

“Talking about persuading him nicely, and you can’t even last ten minutes.”

His uncle came out of the bedroom, clicking his tongue as if he knew this would happen.

The sound of one-sided beating echoed through the house.

Even with Haejin lying face down, blood at the corner of his mouth, his uncle was leisurely as if it were someone else’s affair.

His walking gait, yawning widely with his mouth open—it was the demeanor of someone accustomed to such one-sided abuse.

When his uncle appeared, his aunt, who had been slapping Haejin’s cheek like a madwoman, stopped the violence and gasped for breath.

“Haah, haah… I didn’t know this kid was so ill-mannered.”

“Step aside. What are you doing, hitting the kid so brutally? You’ll ruin the face of the child who needs to go out in public.”

His uncle said even so, this wasn’t the way to persuade, and told his aunt to step back as if he would handle it.

With a face looking utterly annoyed, his uncle looked down, then crouched to match Haejin’s eye level.

“Say it again. You won’t marry? Who said they’d gain?”

His uncle, having perhaps heard their conversation from inside, quoted Haejin’s words and asked.

If he heard, he should know.

Asking again must mean he should think properly this time.

The more transparent their intentions became, the bolder his heart grew.

Feeling the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, Haejin pressed his lips together, then answered his uncle clearly.

“I won’t.”

“You’re pushing for this marriage to gain benefi— Ah, ack!”

Before Haejin could finish, his uncle grabbed a fistful of his hair.

As his short hair was seized in the large, toad-like hand, his scalp hurt as if being torn, and a scream escaped involuntarily.

“Ha, are you stupid…? Given a chance, and you still don’t get it?”

That was the last chance.

Saying so, he dragged Haejin by the hair toward his room.

He wondered why he had been so afraid of them before when he had boldly rebutted them just now.

But the moment his uncle grabbed his hair, the memory of being dragged into a cramped, dusty room and beaten surfaced.

He thought he was doing well, believed this time might be different…

But before real fear, he couldn’t move his body.

As Haejin trembled, face pale and drained of blood, his uncle, who had practically thrown him into the room, lifted the corner of his mouth and spoke.

“You should have listened when we spoke nicely.”

The mouth corner stretched like a devil’s, as if enjoying this bothersome act; eyes glinting with madness even in the deep darkness.

If it wouldn’t show him happy memories, he had hoped it would at least show him becoming happy.

But the world didn’t work that way.

To the point of not knowing what this life flashback was for, nothing had changed even in this moment he was reliving.

****

“Haah…”

Leaning against the cafe chair back, Haejin let out a long sigh.

At first, he thought he was experiencing a life flashback, but as one day passed, then two, he realized this wasn’t just a dream.

If it were a life flashback, it would be like a dream, but it couldn’t be this vividly sensory.

So, had he regressed to before his marriage?

When he was hit by the car and consciousness faded, he thought maybe it was for the best.

Why was he given another chance? He didn’t even want this.

The first feeling upon realizing his regression was frustration.

Why was he being thrown back into this hellish situation? He even resented God.

But what’s done was done.

Perhaps it was a warning not to live that way a second time.

He barely steadied his mind, resolving not to repeat his unhappy past life.

That day, Haejin was beaten by his uncle, avoiding his face.

Probably because they needed to marry him off, so they avoided the face, but since his aunt had already slapped his cheek several times, his lips were busted, and his cheeks were swollen with blue-black bruises.

Despite the persistent violence, he didn’t want to say he would marry, so he kept his mouth shut with all his might.

But they were determined to proceed with the marriage anyway.

No matter how many times he said he didn’t want to, they didn’t accept his refusal and eventually even set a meeting date.

If it would come to this, why did he get beaten and refuse?

For a moment, he felt helpless, seeing nothing changed even with his changed attitude.

But Haejin didn’t bend his will.

If he couldn’t avoid the meeting, he would meet and refuse.

So Haejin met the first and second brothers in turn.

To them, he politely declined, saying that since he had just become an adult, marriage seemed too much to handle, and he had no immediate thoughts of marriage.

At first, perhaps because they needed to marry him to receive the company, they didn’t back down despite the refusal and tried to persuade him to reconsider.

But when Haejin said that if he didn’t marry any of the brothers, wouldn’t that condition disappear?

They reluctantly backed off, though with apparent distaste.

They all seemed unable to completely give up, suggesting a second meeting.

But as long as he didn’t meet one of the brothers separately, they likely wouldn’t press further.

…The problem was meeting Beomwoo.

Today was the day to meet him.

Compared to the days he met the first and second brothers, he felt much more nervous and burdened.

Even while waiting, his mouth kept drying up, and he kept sipping water.

It didn’t calm his heart, though…

As Haejin tried to calm his racing heart with deep breaths, a shadow fell over him.

At the familiar sensation he had experienced once before, Haejin reflexively looked up.

The face of a man with his back to the sunlight came into view.

“Jeong Haejin-ssi?”

“……”

The man he had loved, and longed for even in death, reappeared before his eyes.

Until this meeting, Haejin had imagined and simulated many times, ‘How would I feel seeing him again?’

He didn’t expect to get over his feelings for him overnight, since feelings don’t obey one’s will.

He had tried many times before and failed.

But he trembled more than he thought.

He felt more nervous and strange than during the waiting time.

Was it because he was seeing his face from years ago?

His younger-looking face was more handsome than he remembered, making him feel strange.

As Haejin felt an indescribable, strange emotion and couldn’t show a proper reaction, Beomwoo seemed slightly flustered, moved his lips, then reached out a hand and spoke again.

“Gu Beomwoo.”

A handshake… I don’t think we did that last time.

Did his different reaction cause a slight change?

Since his aunt and uncle’s reactions changed when he resisted at home, maybe this was similar.

Haejin hesitated but carefully grasped his hand.

“…Hello. I’m Jeong Haejin.”

It was his second first meeting with him.