Chapter 107
Chapter 107
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: Confession at Dawn (2)
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"Ji Ye-won...?"
Kang Haneul echoed the name back, her face a mix of anxiety and utter confusion. It was a perfectly natural reaction. To her, the girl was Ye Ji-won, not Ji Ye-won.
"I'm talking about Ye Ji-won. Her real name is Ji Ye-won."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"She was hiding her identity for personal reasons. So..."
I trailed off, lost in thought. If I was going to reveal it anyway, better to lay everything out. From the moment I knew she was a possessor like me—that she could no longer be my enemy—there was no reason to withhold information from her.
"Ji Ye-won is a character from the original story. You must know her well."
"Well... I don't remember the original perfectly, but I don't think there was a female character by that name..."
Of course she wouldn't remember her by that name. But the fact that she knew of Ji Ye-won's existence was already proven.
"Talisman."
"Pardon?"
"...Chapter 313 of the original. The mysterious woman who handed the talisman to Ryu Tae-hyun. That's Ji Ye-won."
"Ah...?"
For a moment, Kang Haneul's face went blank. Then her mouth slowly began to gape open. She clapped her hands with a sharp smack! and made a big show of it.
"Aha! Yeah, there was a character like that! I get it now. So Ye Ji-won... Ji Ye-won was that role. But how did you end up meeting her?"
She put strange emphasis on the word "character."
I explained everything about Ji Ye-won to Kang Haneul. The quest to save her, the fact that she was a former Dawn Legion member who'd betrayed them. How I'd been protecting her in exchange for her cooperation with the Security Force.
As I spoke, I realized the system quests were given only to me. I didn't know about other possessors, but Kang Haneul had never received a single one.
But that wasn't what mattered now.
"Hmm. So that's how it all went down. Ji Ye-won turned out to be a really important character. That's why you two have been stuck together..."
Her words, as if piecing the facts together.
'That's why you two have been stuck together.'
Those words brought back a flood of memories of the days I'd spent with Ji Ye-won.
"...Yeah, we've been together a long time. Practically living in each other's pockets."
"Ahahaha. Must've been awkward."
"At first, yeah. But it got easier with time."
"Ahaha. I see."
"Once we got comfortable, we started opening up. Looking back, both of us had no one else to lean on, so maybe I felt a sense of shared hardship without realizing it."
"Ah... Yeah..."
"We ended up supporting each other through thick and thin. Ji Ye-won and I."
"......"
Kang Haneul, who had been nodding and smiling at first, gradually stiffened. She wasn't stupid. She had to sense why I was suddenly bringing up Ji Ye-won—why I was explaining our relationship like I was trying to justify it.
For a moment, hesitation welled up from my chest, freezing my tongue.
But I couldn't hide the truth—my feelings—any longer. That would be deceiving Kang Haneul. She'd been honest with me, so I had to be honest in return.
Even if it hurt her.
It was still better than hypocritical lies.
"...To me, Ji Ye-won has become incredibly precious. Just like you, Haneul."
"W-what do you mean...? O-oppa, what you're saying sounds like... um..."
Kang Haneul's face trembled like a broken wind-up doll. Her lips twitched upward in a desperate attempt to laugh it off, but her eyes were filled with confusion.
"Like... you like Ji Ye-won...?"
She bit her lip hard, unable to finish, her expression pained. It was impossible to believe this was the same face that had glowed with joy just five minutes ago, as if she owned the world.
"Yeah."
But as soon as I answered, her face, which I'd thought couldn't darken further, turned ashen.
"I like Ji Ye-won. I love her as a woman."
"..............Pardon?"
Kang Haneul's eyes widened.
As if she'd misheard.
As if she couldn't believe it.
As if she didn't want to believe it.
Soon, a single tear trickled from the corner of her eye. Not the joyful tears from before, but thick, sticky ones born of deep sorrow.
Kang Haneul couldn't speak for a while. Like a doll with severed strings, she stared blankly at the floor for minutes. Finally, she opened her mouth.
"...Am I getting dumped...?"
"...No."
I shook my head, my face burning with my own patheticness. But Kang Haneul clung to that patheticness like a lifeline, pressing desperately.
"No? What do you mean...? You just said you love Ji Ye-won...?"
"Yeah. But I love you too, Haneul. At least as much as I love her."
"......"
Kang Haneul's expression was complex upon hearing my answer.
Happy that I loved her, yet sad that I loved Ji Ye-won too. Joy and sorrow, emotions that shouldn't coexist, mingled in a look that was truly hard to describe.
"...So you're saying you love me and that woman, Ji Ye-won? In other words, you want both?"
"If possible, yeah. But if you can't accept it, I won't."
"Then what will you do?"
"...I'd have to choose."
"Who?"
I could say right away that I'd choose her. She'd be thrilled, maybe even accept my two-timing declaration happily, satisfied at being prioritized.
But that would be deception. An insult to her feelings. I was already carving into her heart like a dagger, but I didn't want to lie anymore.
Today, I'd decided to confront Kang Haneul with my raw truth.
"Why... why can't you answer right away...?"
Kang Haneul didn't like my hesitation. Tears streamed from her eyes as she grabbed my collar desperately.
Gripping it tight, she forced out her boiling resentment.
"...She's just a character from a novel...?"
Just a character from a novel.
That one phrase was the source of the unease I'd felt in our conversation.
"Fake... She's fake. Ji Ye-won. A character from a novel. Created by the author. Just... just a few lines of text, a fake. I'm real. She's fake. So why... why can't you answer right away...? Huh...?"
Her words came in broken bursts, like a malfunctioning radio. That was Kang Haneul's view of Ji Ye-won—and this entire world.
Just a novel.
Just fiction.
Just made up.
Just fake.
She looked betrayed, like a comrade had stabbed her in the back. I understood. I could empathize. Once, I'd thought the same way—accepted this world the same way.
But not anymore.
"She's not 'just a character from a novel.'"
"...Huh?"
"I used to think that too. But living in this world, meeting so many people, spending time with you and Ji Ye-won... I stopped thinking that way. I decided not to."
"What do you mean...?"
"Remember when we first met?"
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Kang Haneul nodded blankly. Of course she did. The memory was as precious and vivid to her as it was to me.
"When I first met you, seeing how different your personality was from the original... I was so shocked."
I spoke to her calmly.
When I first met you, your completely changed personality from the original made me feel your humanity. The more I got to know you, the clearer that humanity became.
The Kang Haneul I saw felt utterly real.
So real it was impossible to believe you were artificial.
Like a real person, just like me.
I could no longer dismiss this world as a novel—as all fake.
"Of course. Because I'm a real person..."
"Sure. But until you told me today you're a possessor, you were just like everyone else to me. Like them, even as a novel character—an created being—you had the value of a 'real' person worthy of respect. Even if I hadn't known you were a possessor like me, I would've accepted your confession today. Because to me, you were no longer a fake from a novel, but a real person."
"......"
"And the same goes for Ji Ye-won."
A world from a novel.
A fabricated realm.
A place covered in fakes.
That's how I'd once seen it—a crude puppet show dancing to the whims of the author, Pleasure Heavenly Demon.
But Ji Ye-won... and Kang Haneul... changed that.
They felt more real than anyone.
Smiling with the same expressions as me.
Crying the same way.
Sometimes angry.
Sometimes joyful.
Sad.
Happy.
Grateful.
Sorry.
Facing hardships that nearly broke their knees, yet overcoming adversity and pushing forward.
Watching them, I finally accepted this world as a true one.
Thanks to Kang Haneul.
And...
"Thanks to Ji Ye-won. She helped me survive in this world where I had no one. At least, she gave me emotional solace. So to me, Ji Ye-won is incredibly precious. As much as you, Haneul."
That's why I couldn't choose.
With both of them liking me, I couldn't bear to abandon one.
That's why I was being selfish like this.
In truth, no matter how prettily I wrapped it, my demand was purely self-centered greed. Standing in the position of the one confessed to, forcing my will completely.
"...Ji Ye-won."
Then, Kang Haneul, who'd been silently listening, spoke up.
"Did... Ji Ye-won confess to you?"
"Yeah. She did."
"When...?"
"...The night we four drank together."
"Ha."
A hollow laugh escaped Kang Haneul's lips. Her long eyelashes quivered.
"I had a feeling... something like that happened."
The intermittent tears stopped. Now they flowed endlessly like a burst dam down her cheeks. But there were no sobs.
Just silently.
As if pouring out the emotions piled in her heart as tears.
Kang Haneul wept without a sound.
"Oppa, that night... I had a really weird dream. Do you know what it was...?"
"...What dream?"
"A dream where you and Ji Ye-won were dating."
I couldn't meet Kang Haneul's eyes. I had a guess why she'd dreamed that.
"I don't remember it clearly. But in the dream, you two looked so affectionate, and I was just watching from afar, feeling so... so frustrated. That frustration stuck with me even after waking up. But it was just a dream, so I thought it'd be fine. But... but..."
Kang Haneul buried her face in my chest. She clutched my collar with both fists, clinging like she was grabbing my throat. The tremor in her hands conveyed her intense pain vividly.
"This... this isn't right... Only you and I are real. Everything else is fake. But to lose to something fake... this isn't right..."
"I'm sorry. But she might be fake to you, but to me..."
"Fake!!!"
Her shout echoed through the hospital room.
"You know it too!! [Age of Superhumans]!! The academy webnovel serialized online!! Author Pleasure Heavenly Demon!! Over three hundred chapters, protagonist Ryu Tae-hyun!! Heroines Han Gyeoul! Na Eun-sol! Do So-young! Seol A-hyeon! And, and...!!"
A red line joined the clear tears on her face. Fresh blood from her bitten lip slowly spread across her cheek.
"You said it yourself! You know! Ji Ye-won... she's just an extra who didn't even get a name in the original. Just... just a few lines of description, a nobody, a fake, fake..."
Unable to finish, Kang Haneul bowed her head. I reached to embrace her back as she leaned into me, then pulled my hand away.
We were both possessors.
But there was a crucial difference. I'd accepted this world as real; she still saw it as fiction.
Why the difference?
Maybe because she never had someone like Ji Ye-won. Unlike me, who right after possessing tangled with comrades like her and original characters when I had nowhere to turn, Kang Haneul had tried to flee this stage alone.
"...I'm sorry."
I apologized to Kang Haneul. I'd done something worth apologizing for. It was only right.
"...I love you, oppa. Still. Even now."
She added calmly.
"But I can't understand."
Kang Haneul lifted her head. The tears in her eyes had dried. Instead, a trickle of red blood dripped from her lip.
"You said if I refuse, if I don't accept, you'll choose."
"...Yeah."
"Then choose. Me... or Ji Ye-won."
With those final words, Kang Haneul pulled away from me. She turned her head, ignoring me. It was a subtle dismissal.
"...Take care of yourself. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call."
Her attitude left me no choice but to leave with those perfunctory farewell words.
"Oppa."
But just as I was about to exit, Kang Haneul called me.
My hand on the doorknob trembled slightly. I wanted to turn and look, but held back. I didn't know why.
"I'm sorry. For not understanding you."
Hearing that, I was glad I hadn't turned.
If I'd seen her face, I couldn't have kept my expression.
-Click.
After leaving the room, I slumped against the door, sliding to the floor. Even though I wasn't tired, all strength drained from my body.
Staring at the ground with my head hung low, I thought.
In the end, it came to this.
I'd considered the possibility she'd reject my selfish demand. But I'd vaguely hoped: this is a novel world, a harem novel at that, so maybe we three could coexist peacefully.
What a foolish thought.
Never mind that I'd decided this was a real world, not a novel.
Even if it were a harem novel, what did it matter to me—an extra who wasn't even the protagonist?
"What a total piece of trash I am."
I muttered to myself like a novel character. Then I let out a hollow chuckle alone. With the laugh came self-loathing and a sticky sludge of complex emotions weighing heavy in my chest.
-Ring ring ring.
Then my pocket buzzed.
Pulling out my smartphone, Seol A-hyeon's number lit the screen. That's when I remembered: the raid on the Knight's Grave dungeon where Wilhelm resided was tomorrow.
"Haaah."
Mountain after mountain. No, I hadn't even cleared the first one, and here was another.
Sitting there sighing, I instinctively rummaged in my pocket.
I pulled out the crumpled cigarette pack from inside and headed straight out of the infirmary.