107 – 107. Confession at Dawn (2)
“Ji Ye-won…… What?”
Kang Ha-neul asked back with a face that seemed uneasy but did not know why. It was a natural reaction. All she knew was that she was Ye-Won Ye, not Ye-Won Ji.
“I’m talking about Ye Ji-won. Her original name is Ji Ye-won.”
“Yes? What do you mean?”
“I was hiding my identity for some reason. Therefore… ….”
She thought, blurring her words. If she reveals anyway, she’d better reveal everything. At the point where she knew that she was the same possessor as me in the first place, that is, at the point where she was convinced that she couldn’t be my enemy anymore, she had no reason to hide her information from her.
“Ji Ye-won is a character that appeared in the original work. You should know that.”
“Okay. I don’t remember all of the originals, but I don’t think there was a girl with that name…….”
That’s why you won’t remember Ji Ye-won’s name. However, it was already proven that she was aware of the ‘existence’ of her Ji Ye-won.
“Talisman.”
“Yes?”
“…… Original episode 313. An unidentified woman who handed over Talisman to Ryu Tae-hyeon. That’s Ji Ye-won.”
“Ah…… ?”
The mouth of Kang Ha-neul, who had a dazed expression for a moment, starts to open gradually. Match! Said she, clapping her hands, trembling in her exaggerated fuss.
“Aha! There must have been such a character! I see Yes…… Ji Ye-won was such a role. But, how did she meet that character?”
A question with a strange emphasis on the word character.
I explained everything about Ji Ye-won to Kang Ha-neul. The fact that she was given a quest to save Ji Ye-won, or the fact that she is a former member of the organization who betrayed her Dawn. In exchange for cooperation with the guards, she has been protecting her all along.
As we talked, I realized that the quests suggested by the system were given only to me. If there are other possessors, I don’t know what they are like, but at least Kang Ha-neul has never received a quest or anything like that.
However, the important thing now was not that fact.
“Mmm. That’s how it all happened. Ji Ye-won was also a very important character. That’s why you two stuck together like that…….”
Kang Ha-neul’s words seemed to reflect on the truth.
‘That’s why the two of them stuck together like that.’
Those words reminded me of the days I spent with Ji Ye-won.
“…… I’ve been sticking around for a long time Because we almost lived together.”
“Ahahahahaha. You must have been very uncomfortable.”
“It was like that at first. But as I lived, I got used to it.”
“Aha. Is that so?”
“As we got used to it, we started talking to each other. Now that I think about it, it was the same that neither he nor I had anyone to rely on, so I might have felt the same way without realizing it.”
“Ah. Yes… ….”
“Since then, we have been relying on and supporting each other. Ji Ye-won and I.”
“… ….”
At first, Kang Ha-neul’s expression, which was laughing and arguing, gradually hardened. She wasn’t stupid At this point, there was no way Kang Ha-neul could not have noticed the reason why I suddenly brought up her story about her Ji Ye-won, and the reason she talked about her relationship with her as if to persuade her.
In an instant, my tongue stiffened at the hesitation that rose from the bottom of my heart.
But I couldn’t hide the truth, my feelings any longer. That is an act of deceiving Kang Ha-neul. Since her river sky gave her sincerity to me, I also had to show her her sincerity.
Her Even if it hurts her.
At least it’s better than hypocritical deception.
“…… Ji Ye-won is a very precious person to me now. The sky is like you.”
“That, what does that mean…… ? Oppa, I must say now……. Therefore… ….”
Kang Ha-neul’s expression trembled like a broken wind-up doll. The corners of her mouth went up in an attempt to somehow laugh at the situation, but a look of confusion was evident in her eyes.
“My brother likes Ji Ye-won… ….”
Unable to speak, her river Ha-neul chewed on her lips with a painful expression. I can’t believe the change in the expression of a person who was happy as if he had the whole world just 5 minutes ago.
“Right.”
However, the moment I gave my answer, Kang Ha-neul’s expression, which he had thought would never get darker, turned even more livid.
“I like Ji Ye-won. I love Ji Ye-won as a woman.”
“……………… Yes?”
Kang Ha-neul’s eyes widened.
As if I heard it wrong.
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Like I can’t believe it.
As if you don’t want to believe it.
Before long, a single tear fell from her eye. Different from the tears of joy shed a moment ago, sticky tears leaking out of deep sadness.
River Ha-neul was unable to continue her speech for a while. A few minutes of staring blankly down at her floor like a doll with her thread cut. Then she opened her mouth.
“…… I wonder if it’s a car…… ?”
“…… No.”
Even as she shook her head, her face grew hot at her own emptiness. However, her river, the sky, desperately asked back as if her misfortune was her only rope.
“No? What does that mean…… ? A moment ago, you said that you definitely love Ji Ye-won…… ?”
“Right. But I love the sky too. At least to the extent of loving Ji Ye-won.”
“… ….”
Kang Ha-neul, who heard my answer, had a complicated expression.
I am happy that I told her I love her, but on the other hand, I feel sad that she said I love Ji Yewon too. The expression of joy and sorrow that cannot coexist is truly expressed in words. That was difficult to do.
“………… So in the end, what that means is that I love Ji Ye-won and that woman too? In other words, I will cross my legs, do you mean?”
“I want to if I can. But if you don’t understand, I won’t.”
“Otherwise, what are you going to do?”
“…… I will have to make a choice.”
“Who?”
With those words, Kang Ha-neul said he would choose you right away. If you say that, Kang Ha-neul will surely be happy. Maybe she’ll gladly accept my two-legged declaration, content that she’s been given priority.
But, in the end, it was just deception. That’s an insult to her feelings. Although she was already cutting through her breasts with a dagger, at least she didn’t want to hit the lies anymore.
I decided to show my sincerity to Kang Ha-neul today.
“Why, why can’t you answer right away…… ?”
Kang Ha-neul didn’t like my hesitation. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I held onto my collar as if Kang Ha-neul was clinging to it.
Holding on to his collar, he said it with difficulty as if to vomit the boiling sadness.
“…… It’s just a character in a novel, isn’t it?”
Only a character in a novel.
That one word was the true identity of the sense of incongruity I felt in the conversation with her a little while ago.
“It’s fake, isn’t it? Yewon Ji. Character in the novel. Created by the author. It’s just a fake, just a few lines of text. I’m real he’s fake But, but why, why can’t I answer right away…… ? Yes…… ?”
Spontaneous words like a broken radio. That was Kang Ha-neul’s perception of Ji Ye-won and, furthermore, of the world as a whole.
A novel at best.
At most, a creation.
It was only made up.
Things that are fake at best.
Kang Ha Neul had a face as if she had been betrayed by her comrades who trusted her. I understand that feeling. I could also empathize. Because at one time, I also thought like Kang Ha-neul and accepted this world like Kang Ha-neul.
But not anymore.
“At least a character in a novel, not a character.”
“…… Yes?”
“I thought so too at first. But while living in this world, meeting many people, and being with you and Ji Ye-won, I no longer think that way. I decided not to think so.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you remember when you and I first met?”
Bewildered by the sudden question, the river sky nodded her head. There was no way I couldn’t remember. Just as the memory of Kang Ha-neul is precious and intense to me, so will she.
“When I first met you, I was so embarrassed to see you, whose personality was completely different from the original.”
I spoke to Kang Ha-neul in a calm tone.
When I first met you, I felt a sense of humanity from you, who had a completely different personality from the original. The more I got to know you, the more I felt that humanity.
The river sky I saw really looked like a real person.
It was so real that I couldn’t believe it was artificially created.
It felt like he was a real person just like me.
It is no longer possible to ignore this world as a world in a novel, as if everything is fake anyway.
“Of course. Because I am a real person…….”
“That’s right, but. You were just like everyone else to me until today you revealed to me that you were a possessor. Like other people, even though they are characters in novels, even if they are created, they have the value of being ‘real’ that deserves respect. Even if I hadn’t known that you were a possessor like me, I would have accepted your confession today. Because to me, you are no longer a fake in a novel, but a real person.”
“… ….”
“And the same goes for Yewon Ji.”
The world in the novel.
Fake world.
A place covered in fakes.
A sloppy puppet theater stage where everything is played according to the taste of the artist, the Heavenly Demon of Pleasure. That was my perception of this world at first.
However, Ji Ye-won and Kang Ha-neul changed my perception.
They were more like real people than anyone else.
Smiling with the same expression as me.
Crying with the same expression.
Sometimes I get angry.
Sometimes with joy.
Sad.
Having fun.
Thank you.
I’m sorry.
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Looking at those people who, even when their knees almost broke in front of hardships, want to overcome the adversity and move forward.
I can finally accept this world as one true world.
Thanks to Kang Ha Neul.
And.
“Thanks to Yewon Ji. I was able to survive in this world with no one to turn to. At least I got some peace of mind. That’s why Ji Ye-won is a very precious person to me. The sky is as big as you.”
That’s why I couldn’t choose.
In a situation where two people liked me at the same time, I couldn’t bear to abandon one person.
So, in the end, they are trying to be selfish and greedy like this.
Actually, I wrapped it up in slick words, but in the end, my request was nothing more than an extremely self-centered and selfish request. It was to stand in the position of having received the confession and thoroughly force one’s opinion.
“…… Ji Ye-won.”
At that time, Kang Ha-neul, who had only listened to me in silence, opened her mouth.
“Did Ji Ye-won confess to her brother?”
“Yes. I did it.”
“When…… ?”
“…… The day the four of us drank together.”
“Ha.”
A laugh escaped from Kang Ha-neul’s mouth. Her long, protruding eyelashes trembled.
“Somehow, it seemed so.”
Tears no longer flow intermittently. Tears began to overflow like a burst of water, and flowed down her cheeks incessantly. But there was no sound of sobbing.
Just be silent.
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Like pouring out the emotions accumulated in your heart into tears.
Kang Ha-neul sobbed silently.
“Brother, I did that day. I had a very strange dream. Do you know what kind of dream it is…… ?”
“…… What kind of dream is this?”
“My dream is to go out with my brother and Ji Ye-won.”
At those words, I couldn’t bear to meet Kang Ha-neul’s eyes. Why she had such a dream, she partly guessed.
“I can’t remember properly. However, in the dream, my brother and Ji Ye-won looked very friendly, and I was very, very frustrated just watching it from a distance. So even after waking up from the dream, that stuffy feeling remained firmly in her heart. But anyway, it’s a dream. It was just a dream, so I thought it would be okay. By the way, but…….”
I buried my head in the chest of the river sky. It clasps my collar with both fists and bites me as if grabbing my collar. The trembling of her hands, the fierce emotions she felt, were clearly conveyed.
“This is not this… …. Only me, me and my brother are real. Everything else is fake But, to say I lost to a fake like that, isn’t this…….”
“I’m sorry. But to you it may be fake, but to me…….”
“It’s fake!!!!”
A loud cry echoed throughout the hospital room.
“Your brother knows everything!! Age of superhumans!! Academy web novels that were serialized on the Internet!! The writer is a heaven of pleasure!! There are 300 episodes in the series, and the main character’s name is Ryu Tae-hyun!! Heroine is Midwinter! Naeun Sol! Do So-young! Seol Ah-hyun! And, and…… !!”
A red line is added to her face where transparent tears flowed. Bright red fresh blood, red blood leaking from her lips, which the river sky chewed, slowly spread across her face.
“Your brother said that too. You know my brother. Ji Ye-won is just an extra whose name didn’t even appear in the original work. It’s just, it’s just a few lines of description, it’s nothing, it’s fake, it’s fake…….”
The river, unable to speak until the end, lowered her head. I tried to hug her back as she leaned in my arms, but then took her hand back.
Kang Ha-neul and I are the same possessed chair.
But there was a crucial difference between us. The difference is that I accepted this world as the truth and that Kang Ha-neul is still a product of fiction.
Why is there such a difference?
Maybe it’s because Kang Ha-neul didn’t have someone like Ji Ye-won. In the days when I was possessed by this world and had no place to rely on, Kang Ha-neul tried to run away from the stage of this world alone, unlike me who ran into various colleagues including Ji Ye-won or the original characters.
“…… Sorry.”
I apologized to Kang Ha-neul. Because she did something to be sorry for. It was definitely something to apologize for.
“…… I love my brother Even now. Still.”
Kang Ha-neul calmly added to me.
“But, I don’t understand.”
River Sky raised her head. The tears in her eyes had dried up before I knew it. Instead, only a drop of red blood dripped down her lips.
“You said that if I refuse, if I don’t agree, I will choose.”
“…… Okay.”
“Then choose. Is it me or Ji Ye-won?”
With those last words, the river sky dropped her body from me. She turned her head away from me. It was a congratulatory order reflected in the middle of the day.
“…… Take good care. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to contact me.”
With that attitude, I had no choice but to leave the hospital room without leaving such a formal greeting.
“Brother.”
But right before I left the hospital room, Kang Ha-neul called me.
Her hand holding her doorknob trembled slightly. I turned her head to look at her, but then put her coffin back. Even I couldn’t figure out why.
“I’m sorry. Because I can’t understand you.”
But when I heard that, I thought it was good not to turn my head.
If I had heard those words while looking at Kang Ha-neul’s face, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my expression.
-Jumping.
I left the hospital room and sat down on the floor, leaning against the door. I wasn’t too tired, but I felt like my whole body was losing strength.
I thought, staring at the ground with a drooping head.
In the end, it turned out like this.
I naturally assumed the possibility that Kang Ha-neul would reject my selfish request. But I was vaguely thinking about this. Because this world is a fiction. Since that’s also in a harem novel, it might be possible for the three of them to maintain a peaceful relationship.
What a stupid idea.
Apart from the fact that it was me who decided to accept this world as real and no longer fiction.
Even if this world is a harem novel, what does that have to do with me, who couldn’t even become an extra, let alone a main character?
“Really dog crap. Me.”
I muttered to myself like a character in a novel. Then he kicked himself and let out an absurd laugh. Along with that laugh, a sense of shame about himself and other indescribable complex emotions filled up like sticky mud and settled heavily in his chest.
-Tiririririri.
At that time, the bell ringing in my pocket.
When I took out my smartphone, Seol Ah-hyun’s number appeared on the screen. It was only then that I remembered that the attack on the dungeon where Wilhelm lived, the Knight’s Grave, was tomorrow.
“Haaa.”
It’s a mountain beyond the mountain. No, I haven’t even crossed the previous mountain yet, but a new mountain has come out.
Sitting still, I sighed and reflexively rummaged through my pockets.
Soon, I grabbed the half-wrinkled pack of cigarettes in my pocket and left the infirmary that way.