62 – Haerin Kang (62)
Haerin Kang (62)
The hospital room at night is always pale.
The pure white walls are the same, but as much as the darkness outside the window is dark, the fluorescent light inside gives an artificial feeling.
‘stuffy.’
The lights of the shopping district are slowly fading one by one, and the leaves of evergreen trees sink into the jaws of darkness.
Those things were no longer comforting.
I was on a remote island.
[uh…]
A muffled sound was heard over the phone.
[… it’s really embarrassing to tell you.]
Baek Yoo-ram said.
[No, sorry… G. I think you already guessed, so I’ll say it. I also recently found out.]
“……”
[Maybe they were using a site that illegally uploads novels.]
thud.
My heart was pounding.
The members of the web novel club Possessors were still researching my novel 『Kang Hae-rin’s Murder Diary』, so they must have needed the text.
However, all the ‘official’ routes were blocked, so there would be no way to get the text.
… That’s why you wrote an illegal site.
It was clear that part of the text that Kim Hye-jeong had prepared after hearing from Hwang Ji-young and Kim Yoon-a that I liked 『Ilji』 was also copied there.
The shock that people who claimed to be my fans saw my novel on an illegal sharing site did not last long.
Rather, it was because the reality was urgent.
‘…Illegal sharing of files is also effective?’
I looked up on the shelf.
Wine red laptop.
cause of all problems.
I thought it was that laptop that summoned Kang Hae-rin, but did it matter?
Already that laptop has stopped working for a long time.
The novel itself has already been published.
Nevertheless, the fact that materialization is continuing must mean that there is an original source that exerts influence.
[… that, I’m sorry. Originally, I used to pay for it. But the aisle is blocked…]
Embarrassed Baek Yu-ram.
she hurriedly excused herself.
[… I didn’t use the site, and I told my kids not to either. no… sorry. Even if I said this, it would be nothing but selling the children.]
She said.
[A person called the head of the web novel research club just neglected this, really, I have no face…]
But I had other thoughts.
Why did Kang Hae-rin meet Park Sang-woo?
Could Haerin Kang already know about the site?
Perhaps he had already grasped the connection between the site’s existence and the materialization of the novel.
‘Since when? After Ban Yi Jae?’
If the illegally shared files had not created a person named Park Sang-woo, the encounter between the two would have been impossible.
In the first place, about a week ago, when I looked for it on my phone, there was no information about Park Sang-woo.
He was a fairly famous salesman in the setting, so he had to have already been booked for unusual cases a few times.
In fact, in 『Journal』, in the process of selecting the prey, a search scene was put in with Kang Hae-rin’s eyes.
Since it has been described, if it has been materialized, it is correct that related articles are searched in real life as well.
Since I didn’t have that information, I took it to mean that his existence was not created.
“Once I got it.”
Baek Yoo-ram, who was trying to make an excuse, hung up.
I did a quick search on my phone.
“… there is.”
The exact real name was not mentioned, but the person treated as ‘Mr. Park’ was included in the video.
Although the mosaic was applied, the disrespectful way of speaking and the unique huge body shape could not be covered.
The upload date was already 4 years ago.
That is to say, they have already been released.
“… it came into being.”
From nob le mt l. co m
Just as the character Ban Lee-jae suddenly appeared, Park Sang-woo did not exist in this world just a week ago.
It literally didn’t exist.
“sh*t.”
As a web novelist, I used to hate illegal sharing sites, but now it touches my bones more than ever.
And I understood.
Why was Harin anxious?
why did you take it so seriously
she knew
‘That it won’t end like this.’
Recently, while she was happy with the time alone with me, she revealed an unknown agitation.
I also felt it subconsciously, but now that the situation has turned out like this, I think she must have already noticed Park Sang-woo’s existence.
A few days after leaving work early.
She was actually chasing Park Sang-woo.
To kill with your own hands.
To not ruin your happiness.
Deep down, I thought that the reason she sometimes disappeared was because of my older sister in the basement, and I was shocked.
I was terribly wrong.
No, she’s still accused of her sister’s kidnapper, but at least I know that she’s been working hard behind the scenes for me, no, for us.
It was a strange feeling.
I only suspected her, but somehow she was drawing blueprints for us.
Regardless of the right or wrong direction.
I called Harry.
I know what you’re thinking, but I thought there might be another way, a better option.
no, it had to be
#
“……”
around 8pm.
Kang Hae-rin took the steering wheel of Mercedes and drove slowly along Park Sang-woo’s silver sedan.
While moving with the lights off, the phone on the passenger seat glowed, but I ignored it.
I couldn’t get it now.
Even if it’s a phone call from Lee Dong-min.
‘found.’
No matter how much she was, she would have gone through a lot of trouble to find a complete stranger from the beginning.
But this time it was very convenient.
[… ‘Lassen’. It was the name of Park Sang-woo’s favorite restaurant. It is a buffet-style restaurant located in a famous hotel and serves dishes such as steak and sashimi.]
This is because Kang Hae-rin in 『Journal』 just had to follow what he had investigated to kill him.
Although the intermediate steps were listed, the real Kang Hae-rin did not have to read that part.
You just have to take care of the results.
Park Sang-woo, like Kang Hae-rin in the past, did not seem to know that he was a character in a novel.
Kang Hae-rin saw him sitting with a woman.
A woman wearing a white dress that tightens her body with a belt around her waist.
Her hair was curly and her makeup was heavy.
Age is around mid-twenties.
He looks like that even though he puts on a lot of makeup, so maybe his actual age is younger.
“Thank you, brother-”
The woman put her arms on the table and leaned forward, making her breastbone visible.
Pretending to be indifferent, but quite intentional dynamic.
Park Sang-woo said in a low voice.
“Hye-eun, I will buy anything you ask for. Oppa, the business you did this time was big.”
Unlike the fully-dressed woman, Park Sang-woo was wearing a training suit just as he had just returned from a transaction.
Still, the woman named ‘Hyeeun’ didn’t seem to have any complaints about it, but the man gave her something.
‘jewel…?’
Kang Hae-rin kept her appearance in mind and returned to Mercedes, which stopped on the road.
It’s dangerous to get too close.
Although he wore a mask, Park Sang-woo had already dealt drugs with Kang Hae-rin once.
She turned on her phone to check the text.
[… Kang Hae-rin saw the hand of the man she would kill within a few days. Although he was wearing gloves, his hands were thick and large, befitting his large size. But he, like his many victims, will be drugged to death.]
It was a strange feeling to see her own psychology through texts written by others.
No, it would not be wrong to say that Kang Hae-rin’s psychology followed the text already written.
After making contact through tweets, meeting in person, and exchanging goods, Kang Hae-rin deliberately followed the scenes and processes in 『Journal』.
Park Sang-soo imitated the Kang Hae-rin in the novel, even the thoughts in his head that could not be seen or heard.
It was very simple.
And like Hae-Rin Kang’s prudence in the novel, Hae-Rin Kang did not approach Park Sang-Woo unreasonably.
He will remember her face.
Haerin Kang is a face that is hard to forget once you see it.
To the point of forgetting the face of a girlfriend who shows off her charms or angst in an instant.
“……..”
It is enough to know the destination today.
Kang Hae-rin had no choice because it was a place where you couldn’t eat unless you made a reservation.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, she had a new concern.
“… somehow I’m used to it.”
For some reason, the woman’s face flickered.
No matter how much I rummaged through the drawers of my memory, there was no woman who looked and behaved like that.
‘… It’s not even a real memory.’
Kang Hae-rin wore a bitter smile that he had never shown before when he was with Lee Dong-min.
‘… Am I in a bad mood right now?’
She doesn’t feel emotions very well.
At all, even if it wasn’t until now, I wouldn’t have felt it if ‘Lee Dong-min’ wasn’t involved like now.
But now she was bitter.
Maybe it’s because the other person is a ‘woman’.
Possibility of Lee Dong-min’s acquaintance.
It is never mentioned in the novel.
Even after Kang Hae-rin came into existence in this world, there is no information about her in the novels or before.
So, what is this deja vu?
I thought I might have seen it too much when I was very young, but Kang Hae-rin didn’t have a childhood.
“……..”
Feelings that were neither disappointment nor despair were gone.
I don’t feel anything because it’s a question about myself, not related to Lee Dong-min.
If not associated with Lee Dong-min, Kang Hae-rin felt like a wealthy ghost of the world.
So I was more emotionally vulnerable.
“……..”
Kang Hae-rin grabbed the steering wheel and lowered her head.
Healthy hair that never lost its vitality, no matter how tired she was, fell down the side of her cheeks.
‘Feeling exhausted.’
Incredibly, she felt exhausted.
No, could this be exhaustion?
It was a feeling I didn’t know what to name.
As she fell in love with Lee Dong-min and watched everything about him, her senses opened up.
All the emotions and senses of the world seen through Lee Dong-min were resurrected in her.
It was also a curse.
What if a person who has been immersed in the depths of the water for a long time, or a person who has lived deaf, suddenly comes to the surface one day and gains normal hearing?
He won’t be able to handle the flood of information.
In particular, the penetrating of Lee Dong-min’s palm with Ban Lee-jae’s sword seemed to tear her soul apart.
In fact, there were no wounds on her hands, but the pain felt purer.
that hellish night!
When the senses are so sharp that you can’t bear to stay by the side of Lee Dong-min, whom you love.
At home, she thought and thought.
Lee Dong-min struggles to stop her from killing her, but he will fail in the end.
Haerin Kang has to do her part.
After all, everything was set up for her.
‘… I just need to do it exactly as it is in the novel.’
As Lee Dong-min said, even if the existence of someone who realized that a novel has become a reality transforms a part of reality, nothing will change greatly.
In the first place, the pattern of those ‘villains’ is the same.
As described in the novel, Park Sang-woo came to eat with his girlfriend on a set date and time.
You just sold tens of millions of won worth of drugs.
‘One strike.’
Haerin Kang thought.
‘Selling drugs is one strike.’
She doesn’t want to kill either.
When she was by Lee Dong-min’s side, she completely forgot her intention to kill and just wanted to be happy.
Perhaps that was also influenced by the 『Diary』 written by Lee Dong-min.
But I don’t want to think that far.
that’s so cynical
‘Anything.’
I hoped that even one of them was her feelings.
For this reason, while carefully ‘researching’ the main story, which was serialized up to episode 1233, he did not bother to check the abduction file in which Lee Dong-min and himself appeared together.
I wonder if all the overflowing affection and love he feels right now is nothing more than injected into him.
‘No matter when I’ll check.’
Now, her goal was one.
I just want to be happy.
The longing for happiness.
A novel he wrote to show determination to Lee Dong-min after knowing that he was a character in the novel.
As the cloned wife said to her husband.
‘Even if it’s a fake life, I can be happy.’
At least, if I hadn’t known that I was in a novel, I wouldn’t have felt this way.
Haerin Kang was sure.
At least in that respect, after taking the red pill was better than before.
The question is, how many volumes of 『Journal』 files will materialize into reality?
A whopping 1233 novels.
‘All of them?’
No matter what.
Even if you defeat the dozens of villains that appear in it, Haerin Kang will be acquired.
her happiness.
Lee Dong-min.
like a machine.
over and over again.
#
“… what.”
It’s a completely dark night now.
When I turned off the light in the hospital room, the stars and the moon poured in, and the outside of the window looked brighter than the inside.
I muttered in bewilderment.
I pressed it just in case, but the laptop I got from Park Se-young was working properly.
However, the files inside were all gone.
The main story file and the side story file of 『Journal』.
It was clean, as if it had been formatted.
I thought about where the USB might be.
Park Se-young may have missed the one that was plugged in here while taking it from the locker.
Or still at my sister’s house.
But I’m in a dilemma.
If, by any chance, this laptop relays Haerin’s insides and actions again, I’m treating her as a character, not a full-fledged person.
‘You promised you wouldn’t.’
However, this was the only way to stop her from rushing to take on all the sins.
There was no way I could predict and catch up with her, who has far above average beauty and ability.
“……..”
I turned off my laptop and took out my phone.
It’s late, but there was no delay.
First of all, it was a problem to punish illegal sharing sites that would have an effect on the materialization of the novel.
I don’t know if it’s possible.
At least we can tell by the fact that reality continues to materialize even though the laptop is in this state.
Even if it’s not a laptop, reality will change.
After hesitating, I contacted PD Banyuri.
It was impossible for me personally to deal with this problem.
The beeping stops.
A cracking voice was heard.
[… Yeh Busei…]