2002

***

Park Jeong-a.

She had been a famous idol in her previous life.

After making it into the debut lineup and receiving her first settlement payment in just one year, everything felt like happiness.

But success at such a young age brought misery to her family.

Her father, who had always worked diligently, somehow fell into gambling, and her mother cheated on him with the money she herself had earned.

The entire family stopped working and pinned everything on her.

When she worked hard on broadcasts without sparing her body to support her family, viewers who hated seeing that started flooding her with malicious comments.

She slowly fell ill while the people around her turned a blind eye.

Then the novel she loved reading suddenly went on hiatus.

All the negative emotions burst out at once.

By the time she came to her senses, she was dying.

'If there is a next life, I want to grow up in a warm family that loves me.'

That was her last memory.

And when she opened her eyes again,

she saw a poor but seemingly warm family that she had never had in her previous life.

There was only one flaw, though: her older brother.

- Park Jeong-a, you need to respect me. I was born a full seven years before you, and I even changed your diapers, so it's basically the same as me raising you.

That brother of hers was definitely a crazy bastard.

***

At first, Park Jeong-a thought this brother bastard might also have come from the future to the past.

- Heil Hitler, peace of our era, make again great america, you need to respect me. siuuuuuu─!

After all, he was shouting Make again great america and Heil Hitler in a newborn's ear.

'What is this? Is my brother also a regressor or a reincarnator?'

But that suspicion quickly faded.

If my brother had returned from the future to the past, our house wouldn't be poor like this now.

'I need to build this family up.'

If she wanted to escape poverty, it had to be done by her, the regressor.

She was a little afraid that if money suddenly started coming in, her current parents might turn into her parents from her previous life.

“Stand up straight, Park Jeong-a. If the ball hits you wrong, it'll hurt.”

“Nooo!! I don't wanna do it!!”

She was certain that this bastard who used a 4-year-old younger sibling as a free-kick wall would never change. No, she even found herself wishing he would.

'I should write down the important events before I forget.'

And while Jeong-a was organizing the major events,

time passed quickly.

***

Aside from briefly flinching at the roar, my younger sister grew up normally.

What was strange was that she alone reacted to Siuuuu; she really did seem like a Ho-dong from the cradle.

“Park Jeong-a, go fetch me a glass of water.”

In any case, Park Jeong-a listened very well, probably thanks to early education.

'So it really was worth telling her in her ear every chance I got to respect her older brother.'

Though because she was clumsy, she accidentally spilled water on my face a few times.

“Daaaaaad!!!!!”

“Unfortunately, Dad will be home this evening.”

“It hurts!! Stop it! Waaaah!”

Considering the barbaric '90s, that passed as very mild discipline.

Anyway, a lot happened over the past seven years.

Our family got out of the one-room place around the time I entered middle school.

I cried tears of joy at the fact that my privacy was finally protected.

“Stop bullying me and join the soccer club, idiot!”

I didn't go to the soccer club in elementary school.

It was obvious I'd only end up meeting some weird coach and wrecking my knees.

Since I knew the basics of the training mechanism, I handled it on my own.

And for the parts that were lacking during training, I had Park Jeong-a stand there and practice with me. A sibling really was useful in all sorts of ways.

I had the issue of not being able to play in actual games, so my match sense was a little lacking....

'That had never existed in the first place, so all good!'

“Nooo. I don't wanna do it!”

Anyway, Park Jeong-a, that tool of a sister, had somehow developed a cheeky sense of self and would sometimes rebel.

“If you don't like it, you should've been born earlier.”

I shut her down quickly with unbeatable logic.

She looked like she had a lot more to say to me, but I didn't bother paying attention.

Well. That was the end of that.

“It's been a while since I've been here too.”

Since I was planning to enter middle school and join the soccer club.

There was the trivial problem that I hadn't played soccer in elementary school, but that had already been fully accounted for.

“Hello! I'm here because I want to join the soccer club!”

“Oh? Sure. What's your name?”

“My name is Park Chan-hyeok!”

“Hmm. I've never heard that name before. Which elementary school did you play soccer at?”

“I haven't! But I'm confident I can do well!”

“Hmm....”

The moment I heard the reluctant voice from Coach Park Cheol-woong, I knelt down and let tears drip from my face.

“Sir.... I want to play soccer. I want to use these two feet to raise my poor family back up.”

And at this point, my entry into the soccer club was essentially a done deal. Coach Park Cheol-woong, a huge Slam Dunk fan, quickly went full Coach Ahn and gladly took me in.

And so, I joined the soccer club and started playing soccer.

“Since your physique is excellent, try playing center back.”

Under the pretext of testing the new recruit's skill, a practice match began.

I looked out over the field with a slightly arrogant expression.

A match against a bunch of middle school brats.

My soccer career was on a level that couldn't even be compared with kids like these.

I didn't even need to give it my all.

Just taking them lightly would be enough....

Boom.

Wobble─.

'Hmm. Is that guy going to be a big deal in the future?'

I didn't bother checking the opponent's stats through the Scouter.

Somehow, I felt like it would hurt my heart.

***

After conceding to a middle school kid because I let my guard down, I was able to completely shut down the opposing team's striker using my build and a bit of hand shenanigans. I kept digging hard into the weakness I had identified through the Scouter.

“Does it make sense for some ace to score only one goal against a kid who just started soccer?”

“No, senior, that bastard plays really dirty, you know?”

Well. Because of that, the second-year striker called the ace seemed to have gotten angry.

“Ah. Were you our team's ace? Indeed, I thought your dribbling was on a completely different level.”

“Hmph. You were pretty good too for someone who's just starting soccer.”

A quick compliment and he loosened up fast, as you'd expect from a kid his age.

Some people might say it's tacky to go all out against middle schoolers, but I was proud. A lion always goes all out even when facing the weak.

“Chan-hyeok, I want you to become our team's Kang Baek-ho.”

“I'd like to be Seo Tae-woong, though.”

And Coach Park Cheol-woong, who had been watching this practice match, must have been impressed by my performance. He had me start in the next game.

Normally, most first-years are stuck on bench water-boy duty, but the center-back position let me get on the field. Since talented kids are usually filtered out in the order of forwards, midfielders, then defenders, competition at center back was naturally low.

“Referee! This kid keeps pinching me!”

“Me? When? Don't slander me.”

Whenever I played, I would lock the opponent down tight.

Before long, I was being called 'the Devil's Right Arm,' and people began mentioning me as a candidate for the youth national team.

'...What? Did I have talent for soccer?'

***

But good times didn't last long.

Around the time things were in an uproar over the youth national team call-up.

“Chan-hyeok, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.”

A drunk Coach Park Cheol-woong came to our house, suddenly apologized, and left.

'I got beaten not in skill, but in another area.'

At that moment, I quickly understood the situation.

Coach Park Cheol-woong, just like my past-life self, wasn't part of the mainstream.

Recently, the chairman of the football association had been intentionally pushing the Yonsei line to wipe out factional infighting in the association, but Korea University's influence was still strong for now.

'School ties, regional ties, blood ties, they're disgusting!'

Ah. Of course, that doesn't mean Yonsei was clean.

The Yonsei line they were backing during this period all got ruined by corruption later on. You can just think of the association bastards as all cut from the same cloth.

'I guess I don't have any connection with the national team.'

Anyway, putting that disappointment aside, I focused on my present life.

There was no media that would listen if I complained about being wronged over some youth national team selection issue.

Time passed quickly, and I became a third-year middle schooler, while my younger sister turned nine.

Around the time the 2002 World Cup ended successfully and the football association chairman, who had played a decisive role in hosting it, emerged as a strong presidential candidate.

“Brother. I have something to say.”

My younger sister came into my room.

***

December 2002, when the 16th presidential election was causing a stir.

The first Lotto, launched on December 2, 2002, was causing a craze and selling like crazy.

But that had nothing to do with me.

If I only won the lottery, I could cover the cost of overseas soccer training, but unfortunately I didn't know the Lotto numbers.

If you memorize lottery numbers in preparation for regression, what kind of person are you? A psychopath.

I was a normal person, so I wasn't memorizing Lotto numbers in preparation for regression.

'Are all web-novel regressors psychopaths?'

While I was mentally cursing the protagonists of the regression stories flooding the web-novel scene.

Knock knock─.

“Brother. I have something to say.”

My younger sister opened my door and came in after knocking.

I stared at my younger sister's face.

It felt a little strange.

'Did our real parents pick her up from under a bridge?'

If I were to be a little unfilial, it was hard to believe that face came from our parents.

'Maybe I shouldn't be having such a nasty thought as whether they switched the baby at the hospital...?'

Recently, she had apparently been offered a street casting—child actress, model, something like that—but she turned it down.

At first, she had given the family this oddly closed-off feeling, but recently it seemed like she'd completely opened her heart to us.

Maybe because she was finally getting old enough to get headstrong, my younger sister would flare up in anger whenever we faced each other.

For some reason, though, today she opened my room and came in first.

“Brother.”

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

“...Don't think what I'm about to say is weird.”

My younger sister fidgeted in my room for quite a while after coming in.

“I'm a reincarnator. In my past life, I was a really famous entertainer.”

She hurriedly added.

“And I'm memorizing the next lottery numbers!”

At my sister's words, I nodded calmly. I was a regressor too, so my sister could be a reincarnator.

“So there was a nutcase here.”

But strangely enough, once I finished speaking, my sister's complexion turned white as a sheet.