How Tragic the Villainous Extra Really Was
I opened my eyes to a ceiling I had never seen before.
Yellowed fluorescent lights flickered here and there, the wallpaper peeling in patches like old skin. Water stains spread across one corner, and from there droplets fell steadily onto the floor.
“…Where exactly am I?”
My hand found the bed, and I pushed myself upright. My head throbbed as if it might split open.
“Ugh…”
I pressed the pain behind my temples and squeezed my eyes shut.
Memories flooded back all at once.
Kim Minji. Lee Yura. Lee Suyeon.
The three main heroines of the original novel.
And at the very end, the name that rose to the surface. Lee Hyeon-ah.
The protagonist of this story.
“…Wait.”
The novel I had been reading yesterday evening… a romance comedy.
More precisely, not the common male-lead harem but a yuri harem.
A female lead named Lee Hyeon-ah… and around her, the three main heroines—Kim Minji, Lee Yura, and Lee Suyeon—intertwined in love.
I tried to steady my racing heart by tracing the memories one by one.
But no matter how hard I thought, it felt wrong.
Could I really have entered the world of this romance comedy I had been reading?
Then who was I?
I scrambled off the bed and hurried to the full-length mirror leaning against the wall.
In the glass stood a woman I recognized too well.
Long hair. Pale skin. Eyes that looked a little hollow.
And the face I had seen in my memories countless times.
“…Impossible.”
A villainous extra who had appeared in the romance-comedy world only to exit as a minor antagonist.
The problem girl who had relentlessly harassed the three heroines who loved Lee Hyeon-ah.
“A villainous extra… Seo Yejin!”
My mind went blank for a second.
Why her of all people?
Not some other character, but the villainous extra who was already scheduled to exit the original story.
Yet there was a far greater issue.
What had happened just before she was supposed to leave?
Because the woman who loved Lee Hyeon-ah too much began to suppress the heroines one by one.
At first she only warned them not to approach.
But the three ignored her, and the incidents only grew worse.
To Kim Minji she showed hidden nude photos and blackmailed her: approach Lee Hyeon-ah and the pictures would be posted online.
To Lee Yura she swung fists directly.
She lured her to an empty place, ordered her not to get close, and when Lee Yura refused, she beat her.
To Lee Suyeon she used a different method.
She stole her gym clothes and textbooks, then placed thumbtacks inside her locker—on purpose, so that when she opened it her hand would be injured.
This did not stop at one incident.
Seo Yejin continued to interfere with the three heroines approaching Lee Hyeon-ah, and eventually the girls confessed everything to her.
And then…
The fact that Seo Yejin had been bullying them was exposed to Lee Hyeon-ah.
After that, it spread like wildfire.
The story reached the entire school, including the rumor that she had blackmailed Kim Minji with nude photos.
Even the classmates who had once known Seo Yejin began distancing themselves.
In the end, no one at school stood by her side.
That single incident was exactly what caused the villainous extra Seo Yejin to exit the original novel.
“…Crazy.”
But it wasn’t over yet.
I dug deeper into Seo Yejin’s memories.
I had to know how far the original story had progressed.
The events at school. Her relationship with Lee Hyeon-ah. What she had done to Kim Minji, Lee Yura, and Lee Suyeon.
As I followed the memories, the current situation slowly became clear.
And then…
“This is already all done, isn’t it?”
The incidents had already occurred.
Lee Hyeon-ah knew. The rumor had spread throughout the school. She had been rejected by every student in the school.
According to the original novel, Seo Yejin would be completely expelled from school very soon.
“Already right before expulsion…”
In transmigration stories, characters usually fell into the body before anything happened.
In rare cases where a villainess was possessed, she would stop the villain before she could do bad things… or she would use the original plot to avoid future events.
But here she had already gone through the whole thing.
Was this correct?
“…Hah.”
A heavy sigh escaped me.
I didn’t want to die. I really, really didn’t want to die.
I already knew how Seo Yejin had exited the original story.
After being completely isolated at school, she attended an academic violence hearing, dropped out, and committed suicide at home.
That was how unimportant Seo Yejin had been in the original novel.
Through this incident…
She had only been an extra who exited the stage in order to bring Lee Hyeon-ah and the three heroines closer together.
“…Wait.”
I had to survive somehow.
There was one question that nagged at me.
Why did she drop out and immediately commit suicide at home?
That didn’t make sense.
She could have simply transferred to another school.
Why choose suicide?
Wait… suicide at home?
Could something have been wrong with her home?
The house looked shabby the moment I opened my eyes…
If she was a villainous extra, it was believable that her family situation was terrible.
But even if the family situation was bad, did that really justify suicide?
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang from beyond the door.
“…Huh? Who could it be…”
I tried to recall whose face it might be.
But it was strange.
No matter how hard I thought, the name wouldn’t come to mind.
It was as if someone had deliberately hidden even this much of the memory, leaving my mind completely empty.
“What…?”
That was the moment.
My entire body began to tremble.
My fingertips shook, and my heart pounded like it would burst.
Why was I like this?
I didn’t know anything.
But my body knew.
Sweat poured down my forehead.
The thought that something was wrong made me roll up my right sleeve.
“W-what…?”
From wrist to elbow, there were countless wounds cut into the skin.
Not a few.
They overlapped so densely they looked like barcodes.
“…!”
The left arm was the same.
When I rolled up the sleeve, the same scars covered it completely.
Just in case, I lifted the hem of my shorts.
“Ah…”
The same scars covered both thighs.
“What… What is this…? The original novel didn’t mention anything like this…”
There wasn’t even a single mention of self-harm in the original story.
At least not in the one I had read.
But now my body was covered in these scars.
And then…
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang again.
This time it didn’t stop at one ring.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
“Hey, Seo Yejin! What are you doing? Open the door!”
A voice shouted from outside.
Who was it?
I couldn’t recall the voice either.
Yet my body trembled even more violently, as if gripped by pure terror.
Bang!
A fist slammed against the door from outside.
“Seo Yejin! I know everything that’s inside!”
Bang!
The door shook again.
I stared blankly toward the entrance.
Without any will of my own, my body moved toward the door.
No. I had to stop.
Like someone had stolen my body.
I didn’t know who it was, yet I was about to open the door.
Seo Yejin!
I reached the entrance and turned the lock.
Creak. Click.
Standing there was a woman who looked exactly like Seo Yejin… except she looked a little older.
Her face was twisted with fury.
“Hey, Seo Yejin…! Mom told you to open the door several times!”
“Hic… I’m, I’m sorry…”
“Haa… More importantly, there’s something to talk about in the room. Come in here. Alright?”
“Yes…”
She was Mom.
Why was Seo Yejin’s body trembling like this?
I couldn’t even speak properly and kept my head bowed low.
I tried to step back on my own, but my body followed Mom into the room instead.
Click.
When Mom locked the door, Seo Yejin’s body trembled again.
“Our Yejin-ah? I heard there’s an academic violence hearing because you’ve been causing trouble at school… Do you know?”
“T-that’s…”
“A lie? Want to make up some excuse?”
Mom’s voice grew sharper.
“I told you to go right now and apologize, right? If you apologize, you won’t drop out at least!”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“Do you know what you did wrong?”
“…!”
I couldn’t answer.
I tried to, but no words came out.
My body was shaking too violently.
Mom’s expression twisted even more.
“Haa…”
Mom sighed and picked up the broom from the corner.
“How many times do I have to tell you?”
Thud.
The broom struck my back.
Thud.
“Ugh…”
This time it hit my shoulder.
Thud.
“What did Mom say…!”
“Uwaaaaah…”
The broom came down once more.
My body curled in on itself.
I covered my head with my arms and couldn’t resist.
The shock was so great that my mind went blank.
I was now enduring the same violence that Seo Yejin had taken.
Thud.
“Uuu…”
How many times…
How many times had this body endured something like this?
Was that why…
She had dropped out and committed suicide at home?
She had grown up without receiving real affection from Mom…
The love that had been lacking had turned in the wrong direction and made her obsess over Lee Hyeon-ah and the main heroines…
Even the only escape—school—had chased her away…
BAM!
“Uwaaah…”
With nowhere left to run…
No way to escape the devil-like Mom in this house…
She had ended her own life.
The beating continued until I collapsed on the floor.
“Haa… Hey, Seo Yejin. Stop making Mom so tired. Go tomorrow and somehow talk your way out so the academic violence hearing doesn’t happen. Got it?”
“Uwa… Yes…”
When the violence ended, Mom tossed the broom into the corner.
BAM!
She opened the door and left, muttering to herself.
“Because the only daughter is as irresponsible as that father of hers…”
Click.
The door closed.
The moment I heard it, tears welled up in Seo Yejin’s eyes.
“Hic… Hic…”
I tried to hold them back by biting my lip, but they poured out.
I had never been beaten in my real life.
But this…
I was experiencing it right now with this body.
Seo Yejin had lived this life.
At school she was treated as the problem girl.
When she came home she was beaten by Mom.
Yet in the original novel she had only been a minor villainous extra whose only purpose was to bring Lee Hyeon-ah and the three heroines closer together.
That was the reality.
Then tomorrow there was one thing I had to do.
Stop the academic violence hearing.
The way was simple.
Apologize.
The Seo Yejin from the original novel had stubbornly insisted until the end that she was innocent.
Perhaps… she had simply never known how to apologize.
Then I would do it.
Right now…
Tomorrow…
I would apologize to Kim Minji. To Lee Yura. To Lee Suyeon.
And to the protagonist, Lee Hyeon-ah, I would apologize without fail.
Of course I didn’t expect forgiveness to come easily.
But I had to do it.
For the sake of surviving in Seo Yejin’s body.
“…No.”
Even for my own sake now.
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