This Wasn’t an Accident

Haejin and Beomwoo finished paying, grabbed their bags, left the mart, and headed toward their car.

They had parked in the underground lot beneath the mart.

As they walked down, a faint vibration sound came from somewhere.

It wasn’t from Haejin’s phone—it seemed like Beomwoo was receiving a call.

Haejin unconsciously glanced over and unintentionally saw the screen of the phone Beomwoo was pulling out.

Hyun-nam’s name was displayed on the screen.

‘Why is Hyun-nam calling…?’

Given their strained relationship and the recent incident, it was unlikely to be a call for a good reason.

A bad feeling crept in.

Haejin subtly watched Beomwoo and, sure enough, his expression was grim.

Beomwoo didn’t seem to want to answer, but he merely stared at the ringing phone without rejecting the call, as if he couldn’t refuse it.

He disliked Hyun-nam too, but… could it be because of me that he feels he can’t hang up?

Haejin studied him for a moment, then cautiously spoke up.

“I think your phone is ringing. Aren’t you going to answer?”

“…I’ll take it and then go. Could you go ahead and wait outside? I’ll catch up right away.”

“Oh, yes. Give me the bags. I’ll take them over.”

As expected, it seemed to be a call he couldn’t refuse.

Beomwoo let out a deep sigh, saying he’d take it, and handed the car keys to Haejin.

Anticipating this, Haejin reached out, ready to take both the keys and the bags.

Beomwoo hesitated as if he didn’t want to ask him to do even this, but with the phone continuing to ring, he reluctantly handed over the bags.

They hadn’t bought much, so it wasn’t a heavy load for one person to carry.

With the bags in hand, Haejin walked away, leaving Beomwoo behind to take the call.

Even though Beomwoo had offered to cook once they got home, Haejin would have to handle the cleanup and other chores.

Thinking this, Haejin headed toward the car when he suddenly heard the loud roar of a motorcycle from the opposite side.

Vrooom—!

It was a deafening noise reminiscent of a reckless biker gang.

Perhaps because it was an underground parking lot, the sound echoed, making the engine noise even louder.

What the… who rides a motorcycle like that in a parking lot?

It was strange enough to drive like that on an open road, let alone in a parking lot, but Haejin decided to ignore it since there was nothing he could say.

He tried to ignore it and walked on, recalling where he had parked, but he could feel the motorcycle’s engine sound growing louder and closer.

Vrooooom—!

“Huh…?”

Haejin turned around at the sound approaching rapidly from behind.

A man wearing a helmet was speeding toward him on a large, roaring motorcycle.

It wasn’t just fast—it was hurtling toward him at a terrifying speed.

Biker gangs were known for their reckless and threatening riding styles, so this could have been an attempt to intimidate him.

But Haejin didn’t think the motorcycle heading straight for him would swerve.

In fact, it seemed to be accelerating directly toward him, as if he were its target.

Logically, he knew he had to dodge.

But as the small motorcycle rushing toward him overlapped with the image of the large truck that had hit him in his past life, Haejin’s mind went completely blank.

His body stiffened like stone, and he couldn’t take a single step, as if his feet were glued to the ground.

In his past life, even when he saw a car coming, he hadn’t had the strength to dodge, nor had he felt the desire to.

If life was going to be this miserable and lonely, he thought it might be better to just end it.

But now was different.

He was trying to find happiness, and hope was slowly emerging.

He was turning doubt into faith, realizing one by one the dreams he had cherished while watching media alone.

He was slowly learning what it felt like to be loved…

So why…

Screech—!

The headlights of the motorcycle, now right in front of him, brightly illuminated his vision.

Thump—!

“Ahh!”

As the blinding light turned his vision from white to black, his body was thrown into the air with a dull thud, like a heavy animal being struck.

His body, flung into the air, plummeted to the ground and rolled and tumbled.

Unable to dodge the speeding motorcycle, his body, having taken a direct hit, felt as if it were shattering.

The pain was so intense that everything else felt unreal.

He thought he screamed in agony, but he couldn’t tell what kind of monstrous sound he made.

He just howled in pain, desperate to live.

No matter how hard he struggled to escape fate, was this the same miserable death that awaited him?

Was it not Beomwoo he couldn’t escape, but this kind of death?

If that were the case, why did God give him a second chance?

Ever since time was reversed to that terrible moment, he had thought that if God truly cared for him, He wouldn’t have turned back time.

But if this was the outcome, why did He reverse time at all?

“Ugh, huh, save me, please save me… huh…”

In the end, it seemed everything was proceeding as fate intended, and he was about to die.

But Haejin, crawling on the ground with bloodied hands, grabbed the ankle of the driver who had hit him.

He wasn’t trying to hold onto the person who hit him—he simply couldn’t see clearly.

Desperate to survive, he clung to any shred of hope, no matter who it was.

He begged desperately for help, pleaded for an ambulance because he felt like he was dying, and barely managed to cling to the driver’s leg.

But the driver kicked Haejin’s hand away as if it were something filthy.

“Tch, damn it. It’s covered in blood…”

The man with an unfamiliar voice spoke as if annoyed, then got back on his motorcycle and left without providing any emergency aid or reporting the incident.

“Huh, huh…”

The voice was clearly unfamiliar, but the reaction made it obvious it had been intentional.

He hadn’t thought it was an accident from the moment the motorcycle sped straight toward him, but the driver’s reaction confirmed it.

He wondered why the man had hit him and what he had done wrong, but the pain in his body was eating away at his mind, making it impossible to think any further.

Hot, red blood flowed from his head, and it felt like his ribs were broken, making it difficult even to breathe.

His mind grew so hazy that he couldn’t curse God, blame the hit-and-run driver, or think about this life anymore.

It was the same sensation he had felt before losing consciousness from the pain in his past life.

“—Jina, Haejin!”

As his eyes slowly closed, Beomwoo’s urgent voice reached his ears, muffled as if he were submerged underwater.

In the past, Beomwoo had called him “you” without any warmth.

More recently, it had been “Mr. Haejin,” a polite yet subtly affectionate tone.

Haejin had heard Beomwoo’s voice in many different tones, but today’s voice was one he had never heard before.

For the first time, Beomwoo had even dropped formalities.

Haejin felt on the verge of losing consciousness from the pain, but at the sound of that urgent voice calling out while cradling his cold body on the ground, he barely managed to lift his heavy eyelids.

Haejin could barely open his eyes halfway as he looked up at Beomwoo with difficulty.

Having lived a second life, Haejin had heard many different tones from Beomwoo, witnessed many unexpected sides of him, and seen many unfamiliar expressions.

But this time, even with his vision unfocused, he could tell Beomwoo was wearing a face he had never seen before.

His face flushed red, his expression completely distorted, his hands trembling as he held Haejin, tears streaming down his cheeks.

As Haejin opened his eyes and looked at him, Beomwoo stroked Haejin’s face with his shaking hands.

He seemed at a loss for what to do—it was the first time Haejin had seen him so completely lose his composure.

It was understandable that he was shocked, given that something like this had happened to his lover while he stepped away briefly to take a call…

But this was the first time Haejin had seen him cry.

The thought that it was because of him made Haejin’s heart ache as if it were being wrung out.

When he had been hit by a car in his past life, he had hated Beomwoo even as he lost consciousness.

But this time, perhaps because he could feel Beomwoo’s terror so palpably, even though Haejin was the one in pain, he felt sorry for Beomwoo and guilty.

But even that had its limits.

His barely opened eyes closed again, and his consciousness drifted away.

“Why… like this… again…”

Beomwoo’s voice reached his fading consciousness, muffled once more.

He couldn’t make out exactly what Beomwoo was saying, but he could faintly hear a voice muttering as if in self-reproach.

Why was he blaming himself?

Beomwoo often reproached himself for reasons Haejin couldn’t understand, and Haejin wanted to know what he was saying this time.

But before he could think any further, Haejin completely lost consciousness.