The World Is Unfair
The world is unfair. Irrational. Unequal. It didn't take long for Kim Hyeji to wake up to that reality. She first realized she was starting miles behind everyone else back in elementary school.
They say kids get all the love thanks to their chubby baby fat, soft skin, cute little smiles, and angelic voices. But not Kim Hyeji. She wasn't chubby—she was a bloated lump ready to burst. Her skin was rough from being stretched too tight over too much flesh, her smile crumpled when she laughed, and her voice whined like a brat. Everything about her felt cursed, deficient, repulsive.
What followed was the same old tired school story you see everywhere—bullying, ignoring, mocking, then naturally drifting into isolation and obsolescence. If someone paid her to relive that repertoire, she'd be the first to gag, or maybe it was everyone around her. Either way, it wasn't fun. In the life Kim Hyeji craved, she wasn't the star. In the tragic life her side characters wanted for her, she fit perfectly. One side endured endless pain; the other, endless boredom. In that sense, Kim Hyeji's youth couldn't even compete with a third-rate B-movie.
She got her early end-credits thanks to Jeong Suji, the girl she started dating in high school. Beautiful, refined, loaded, popular. Suji clutched everything Hyeji lacked in her greedy arms—and she wanted the last piece of "trash" too. That moral high ground from pitying and befriending someone beneath her very feet.
To Suji's grand gallery of treasures, Hyeji was just a dusty antique gathering cobwebs amid the gems. That's what made her valuable. Like how beggars make the rich feel rich, darkness makes light shine. The world always craves a peek at the crushed under the glittering elite—like bragging about a new pet from the shop.
So she changed it.
"Fuck, why won't this shit come off?!"
Back in her swanky officetel, Kim Hyeji scrubbed furiously at the floor with the mop. Suji would've just steam-cleaned it spotless without touching the rag, but some instincts die hard, no matter the surroundings.
"Come on, wipe off... just wipe off!"
She wrung it till it squeaked, but the filthy sludge and animal corpses strewn across the floor wouldn't budge. Rinse the dirty rag by hand, come back—same spot, same mess. Food scraps from half-eaten meals, a rat guts spilled from a burst belly, vivid footprints like someone trudged through a mud pit. Raised poor, she hated filth more than anything, so her delicate, pampered her hands scrubbed till the skin peeled.
Mop stays a mop no matter how you rinse it. Hyeji becomes Suji, but she's still Hyeji deep down?
I can't go back to those days. Not even out of spite.
She'd hooked the popular crowd with her weird hobby—fortunes, horoscopes, divination. An online ghost story said swapping saju could fix your life, so she swapped hers with Suji's. It worked. She's living the dream now. Ah, the upper air is so clear. So convenient, so fun. Give this up and revert? Even low-self-esteem Hyeji couldn't stomach that.
So tonight, clean it all again. Tomorrow it'll filth up the place once more.
Look at all your favorites crammed in here. These instant foods? Kids from poor homes go nuts for 'em, right? Ramen, 3-minute curry, tail soup, kimchi stew with sausage sides.
And your hates too. Those rat pups scampering across the ceiling. Try to sleep, and they thump between floor and ceiling, grating your nerves every night.
Likes and hates all mixed up—your life's got everything now! Just like you always wanted, Suji-style! She displayed treasures and junk together; you can doze happy amid trash and rats!
"I don't need this shit!!!!!!"
Unlike others, she just wanted the sweet core. Because her life had always lacked it. A life praised without trying, where wallets open easy for wants, ending married to a hot guy in rosy bliss! Fat, ugly, poor Kim Hyeji could never touch that distant dream. No room for this crap.
"Really?"
The rat with guts spilling and tongue lolling lifted its head and asked back.
"You really don't need us? We've always been with you."
"Don't need you! None of it! Useless crap in my life!"
That moment, a faint breeze tickled her ear in the sealed apartment.
Then your parents who birthed you? The ones who passed down shitty DNA and poverty. Stale instant food, musty moldy home, rats treating it like theirs—and parents always there. Don't need 'em, right? Yeah, don't.
Kim Hyeji's parents? Unneeded. She wanted Suji's life, so Suji's parents suffice!
"Don't need any of it! Die, all of y......!"
"Ever hear 'words plant seeds'?"
A man who'd scaled the five-story officetel barefoot and flung open the window said that.
"We toss around 'gonna die,' 'wanna die,' 'kill it' like nothing. No clue how one casual word ripples through you and yours."
He hopped inside shoeless, kicked aside a rat pup standing stiff, and planted himself before Hyeji. Backlit by the brilliant full moon's silver glow, he stood firm like a painting.
"People say 'it's just words,' but they're wrong. Words have power. Check this Bible—prime example."
He kindly opened a worn Bible to the very first page and pointed to the first line.
In the beginning, the Lord said, "Let there be light," and light was born.
"Behold the Lord's miracle—light from one word. Feel the class difference now?"
"......"
"You've envied and cursed Suji countless times. But if a curse holds your wishes and desires, it's basically a wish. So watch the fire—and your mouth—day and night!"
"B-but I really... really don't need it! I wanted this life! Everything else just holds me back......!"
"Don't need it? Give it to Jesus."
"...Huh?"
The young man patted her shoulder with his freshest smile yet.
"Dump unneeded stuff where it belongs. Jesus loves all equally, cradles us like kids—no need for illegal dumping, right? Parents gave you poverty and bad genes? Make 'em believers, send to heaven! Hate that curse-worthy, jealousy-inducing friend? Make her believe, send to heaven! Scared of past remnants dragging you down? Make 'em believe, send to heaven!!!!!!!!!!"
Jesus Heaven Nonbelievers Hell. Believe, ship annoyances to heaven, no hell worries. Parents lived enough—send 'em on a couples' trip to heaven they've never seen. Suji's already lost her beauty to bingeing and obesity, suffering—so heaven's mercy, yeah? Jesus fixes all. Heals pain and sorrow, saves from torment and despair. Just believe in Jesus... just believe, and all's well!
"Will you believe in Jesus?"
"I will."
"Hallelujah."
The young man announced another lamb saved in the name of Father, Son, Holy Ghost, crossing himself stylishly. All guilt, filthy desires, worries melted from Hyeji's heart like snow. She was reborn.
"That saju you swapped via shaman? It'll revert soon. Suji gets her life back, you yours. But into your eternal sewer-life shines one light: our Lord Jesus Father. Scared?"
"Not scared. Even back to old me, I'll follow Jesus forever. Live by his teachings, till his call—sleep in his love in heaven with my parents."
Clap clap clap. The young man applauded; Hyeji shed pent-up tears. Behold, under the radiant moonlight, Jesus' warm grace pouring on her.
Hyeji shed her luxury clothes, returned to her old haunt. In the cramped, musty one-room, bloated Suji snored away. No fear of reverting—she felt his warm embrace scented with Sharon's roses.
"Jesus Heaven Nonbelievers Hell."
Where believers are, heaven reigns. Where nonbelievers dwell, hell lurks. Shield our ears from evil whispers, veil our eyes from lewd and savage deeds, save us through trials and temptations. Amen.