A case of Transmigrating as a Sick Villain chapter 102

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How would things have turned out if he had met Sanho while knowing nothing?

Would he have agreed with the way Sanho bad-mouthed Jinwoo?

One thing was clear—Sanho was dangerous.

But that aside, knowing what kind of person Baek Jingyeom was, it wasn’t all that surprising to hear him having such dark thoughts.

What surprised him more was that there was someone close enough to Jingyeom to have these kinds of conversations.

‘There’s no way someone would openly wish for another person’s death unless they were really close.’

None of the words coming from Sanho really resonated with Jingyeom.

Instead, a deep anger welled up from inside him.

“I never said anything like that. I don’t remember, and you shouldn’t say things like that again either.”

“…Can a person really change this much? Even if you lost your memory, you’re defending Baek Jinwoo? Ha!”

Sanho laughed in disbelief.

With that last remark, Jingyeom was certain.

The person in front of him wasn’t the Baek Jingyeom he once knew.

In fact, Sanho had only tried to agree with him out of frustration because his anger hadn’t yet subsided.

‘Does he really not remember?’

It was hard to believe someone could change this much just from losing their memory.

The sharp-eyed, angry Baek Jingyeom from before was nowhere to be seen.

‘Maybe I should have contacted him earlier.’

After waiting for months for something he requested to be ready, Sanho had sent Jingyeom a message.

But when there was no reply, he figured Jingyeom was still upset and decided to wait a little longer.

However, after days of watching him, he saw Jingyeom with a stranger every time he went out, making it hard to approach.

“From now on, don’t bad-mouth Jinwoo in front of me. It makes me uncomfortable.”

Sanho, wondering if he had heard wrong, poked his ear with his finger, then rubbed his entire ear with his palm.

But since he could still hear Jingyeom’s voice, it seemed his hearing was fine.

“And also! Saying that someone should die… that’s really wrong!”

Jingyeom couldn’t understand Baek Jingyeom at all. Jinwoo had devoted his life to Baek Jingyeom, and yet, Baek Jingyeom had been bad-mouthing him behind his back.

“This is crazy! Ugh, did you hit your head or something? Your character has changed so drastically I can’t even adjust!”

Sanho seemed more frustrated than ever.

“Baek Jinwoo disappearing from the world? That wasn’t my wish; ‘you’ were the first one to say that. Even if you don’t remember, get the facts straight.”

“…”

“What’s the matter? Don’t believe me? I don’t know how Baek Jinwoo brainwashed you, but it seems like it’s working well. But Jingyeom, do you even have a photo of the two of you together? You don’t, do you?”

Jingyeom wanted to say that he had a photo of him and Jinwoo together.

But Sanho was probably asking if there were any photos taken before he lost his memory.

Jingyeom and Jinwoo weren’t the type to take selfies, and in fact, there weren’t any photos.

So, Jingyeom stayed silent.

Seeing this, Sanho smirked as he tapped on his phone a few times and then slid it across the table.

On the screen was a selfie of him and Jingyeom together, proving their friendship.

“See? I guess you don’t remember, but we were closer.”

Jingyeom glared at Sanho before looking at the phone.

In the photo, only Sanho was smiling. Jingyeom was staring off into the distance with a blank expression.

“…If we were close, why didn’t you contact me earlier? We could have met sooner.”

At this, Sanho scratched his head.

“I did reach out, but you ignored it.”

“That’s because your message was suspicious. You said you had something prepared, but you didn’t explain what it was, so I couldn’t respond.”

Jingyeom hadn’t replied because he didn’t want to get caught up in something shady.

“And last time, you apologized to me. Did something happen between us?”

“…Stop calling me ‘you.’ Just call me Sanho. It sounds weird when you talk like that.”

Changing how they address each other is easy, so he didn’t care what he calls him.

But since they’ve met, he wanted to ask about the relationship between Jeong Sanho and Baek Jingyeom and what the message he sent before meant.

At first, Jingyeom was curious about the meaning of the message, “I’m ready,” but now he also want to know what happened between them.

‘Is there any way I can figure out what Baek Jingyeom was thinking, even just a little?’

Sanho turned his head away awkwardly, feeling uncomfortable under Jingyeom’s intense gaze.

The prickling sensation on his cheek made him reluctantly speak up.

“It’s nothing big. I did something you told me not to do. That’s why you got upset.”

“Just because I was upset doesn’t mean I would delete all the messages.”

“You’re extreme like that. You tend to react impulsively.”

He spoke as if he knew Baek Jingyeom better than anyone else. Jingyeom continued staring at him, waiting for more.

“When you get upset, it lasts for a while. But this time, it’s been unusually long. I even apologized, but you wouldn’t let it go. I was going to wait until you calmed down, but you ignored me so much that I got a bit offended. Plus, I knew you were getting checked up at the hospital, and I didn’t want to add more stress, so I didn’t reach out.”

He had visited Jingyeom’s house several times back then, but Jingyeom never opened the door.

Eventually, Sanho got upset too and stopped contacting him.

Still, he had no intention of cutting ties, so he made an effort to do what Jingyeom had asked, thinking it might help mend things.

When he finally reached out, only to find out Jingyeom had lost his memory, Sanho was taken aback.

But Jingyeom didn’t stop there and pressed on.

“What was the thing I told you not to do?”

“There is something, but you’ll figure it out naturally when your memory returns. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Wouldn’t telling me help jog my memory? I heard that to regain lost memories, you need to recall past experiences.”

“We have plenty of memories besides this. Want to visit the high school we went to? Maybe something will come back to you.”

“…No, I don’t really want to go there.”

Since there was no way to recover Jingyeom’s memory, Sanho didn’t want to waste time.

Jingyeom then asked something else.

“But… Did you really not contact me because you didn’t want to stress me out? Or was it because you were mad too and thought this was a good chance to end things?”

“It wasn’t like that. And stop calling me ‘you.’ Call me Sanho. My name is Jeong Sanho, it should be saved in your phone… Wait, did you delete my number too?”

“No, I still have your number.”

Jeong Sanho kept dodging Jingyeom’s questions and continued with a string of complaints.

He started by saying, “Do you know how worried I was when I didn’t hear from you?”

Then he reminded Jingyeom how he always took care of him and said he should treat him better.

He also took the chance to throw in some negative comments about Jinwoo.

Jingyeom wondered if he should listen to Sanho until the end or just cut him off.

If it was just about their relationship, it wouldn’t bother him, but the constant mention of Jinwoo made him uncomfortable.

“There was that limited-edition pair of shoes you really wanted, remember? You had to win a raffle to get them, they weren’t something you could just buy. Jinwoo didn’t even lend you his ID. I don’t know how well he treats you now, but back then, it was all an act.”

“…”

“People’s feelings change quickly, no matter how nice they are at first. Jinwoo is especially bad about that. That’s why he took all your money.”

“…You mentioned that earlier. What do you mean Jinwoo took my money?”

After silently listening to Sanho for a while, Jingyeom finally spoke. He had wanted to challenge everything Sanho said but held back.

It seemed like the ‘Jinwoo’ Sanho knew was different from the person Jingyeom knew, so he refrained from arguing.

But since he had been curious about this from earlier, he couldn’t help but ask again.

“You sold your old house and moved into a rooftop apartment, right? So where do you think all that money went? Into Jinwoo’s pocket. Do you think his salary is normal? He’s a secretary at a big company.”

“…Ha.”

“It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?”

Jingyeom let out a sigh, though for a different reason than Sanho assumed.

He now understood how Sanho saw Jinwoo.

Jinwoo, who had no money because of his parents’ debt, had to work part-time just to afford the rooftop apartment, and even now, most of his salary went to paying off loan sharks.

Sanho had conveniently left all that out, making it sound like Jinwoo was just playing the victim.

“What about the message you sent before? The one that said you were ready. What was that about?”

“I’ll tell you once you get your memory back. It’s probably useless to explain it now.”

Sanho clicked his tongue and finally closed his mouth after talking endlessly.

‘You ghosted me after all the effort I put into reaching out. What is this, some kind of soap opera with sudden amnesia?’

Even thinking back on it now, it left a bitter taste in his mouth.

As Jingyeom mentally sorted through everything he had just heard, he cautiously spoke up.

“Okay. I’ll ask you about that later. Oh, and could you send me the photo we took together that you showed me earlier?”

“Why? I thought you didn’t like it… Never mind, I’ll send it.”

The photo arrived via message shortly after. Jingyeom saved it to his phone.

“You know, if you lost your memory when you went to the hospital, then quite some time has passed. Isn’t there anything you remember?”

“…Well, it just happened like that.”