A Catastrophe of Her Own Making

The disaster she had summoned upon herself.

Bronze Bulleteana's destination was a café on the outskirts of the city.

The man she was meeting there was named Lee Na-young — a boy fresh out of the academy.

Bronze Bulleteana enjoyed her date with him.

I'll get you into the place next door soon. Just trust your noona.

Thank you for saving me from my husband.

I love you, Na-young.

Between those carefully prepared lines, she slipped in a single request.

Want to make an aphrodisiac with me?

His skill let him manipulate chemical formulas directly. It was far more delicate than Bulleteana's own ability to alter the composition of the mucus she secreted — stable enough to satisfy the standards of a proper laboratory.

Soft temptation was all it took. He barely thought it over before he went along. They ordered pudding in a glass jar at the café, washed themselves clean in the restroom, and then filled the jar together with the aphrodisiac they had made, already looking forward to the day they would use it.

Of course, that day would never come.

Mmm~. That settles the preparations.

Bulleteana lifted the pudding jar and watched the glitter inside as she thought it through.

I'll invite that vermin over to talk. He's already borrowed money from me. He talked like he had some kind of cash pipeline, but there's no way he does.

The aphrodisiac's potency exceeded human limits. Used undiluted, a person would barely be able to stay on their feet.

Then I slip this into his tea. I send my husband somewhere else for a bit, seduce the boy once he's worked up, and make sure my husband walks in on him mounting me.

My darling would absolutely kill that kid for me. I've shaped him that way...!

"Honey. You were going to do all the housework, weren't you?"

"Haha. Caught me, darling."

Bronze Gunner never once considered that the being in front ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of him might not be his wife.

And of course he didn't. There was no difference between them. Aside from two days of memory and the word Loyalty, not a single thing set them apart.

"Heehee. Sorry. Still, just one little favor. There's something I need to look for for a bit."

"........Alright. Leave it to me."

Heehee. How adorable. He thinks I'm more upset because our plans got cancelled.

Kang Suk-hye laughed inwardly and returned to her room.

Strictly speaking it was the original's room, but to her that was nothing more than information.

Now then. What are you scheming, our dear Bulleteana?

She coughed to cover the sound of the lock clicking shut, then sat at the vanity and pulled out one of the cosmetic jars on the right.

At a glance it looked like an ordinary lump of makeup. In truth, it was Bulleteana's secret vault.

She sprayed it with a special oil-based mucus, and the cosmetic melted away at once. What she pinched out between thumb and forefinger was a tiny phone, roughly half the size of a thousand-won bill.

"Lucky me. She hasn't cleaned it out yet~."

She powered the phone on and checked its contents, starting with the gallery.

There was the middle-aged Gwak Gwak-su she was still seeing, and the young man Lee Na-young. Beyond them, the photos of countless ex-boyfriends she had already discarded packed the storage full.

Evidence better erased than kept — and yet she had deleted none of it.

"...So pathetic. Pathetic~."

Kang Suk-hye muttered bitterly. She had finally grasped the true nature of everything she had done.

But that mood did not last long.

"Pfft."

I'm not you anymore.

She said it while looking at herself in the photos, like a woman severing ties with the ugly self she used to be.

"...Heehee. Found it."

Noon, two days earlier — the exact moment she and the original had split. The call log was still intact. The other party was, of course, Gwak Gwak-su.

An old, ugly man. But he was a department chief at Gunner's workplace, flush with money, which was why she had taken him as a lover.

Even with that kind of money, though, someone like Gwak-su wouldn't just hand it over willingly. If it were me, I'd have used that as leverage and left myself a nice, advantageous IOU under the pretense of doing him a favor — so he couldn't talk later.

Just as expected, an electronic document sat inside the phone. Looking at it, Kang Suk-hye smiled from the heart.

"Ahh. This is the beginning of ruin. Of me."

The self-loathing she had kept buried all this time found a new purpose and stepped forward without hesitation. The pain felt good. Self-destruction felt good.

And by the purest stroke of luck, she could inflict that self-destruction on someone else.

"Dele~te."

She erased the electronic document. Then, without a second's pause, she placed the call. She didn't invent a lie. She didn't bother deciding what act to put on.

This was what she had always done. This was what she had already finished doing.

"Gwak-su? There's something I need to tell youuu. I accidentally deleted that contract..."

"What? Honestly. Why would you make a mistake like that? What a nuisance. Well, I'll just write a new one right ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠aw—"

"Nooo."

Kang Suk-hye began a "mistake" she would never have made under ordinary circumstances.

"Can't you just give it to me? So stingy."

".............What?"

Gwak Gwak-su was speechless. But this was only the beginning.

"You're not exactly young anymore, Gwak-su. If you want to be with me, you ought to offer up at least this much, don't you think?"

She said it with a smile. A relationship built over a long stretch of time was shattering in a single instant. She was getting wet.

Bulleteana finished sleeping with Lee Na-young and came home. Erasing the traces left on her body was her greatest specialty.

Scent and stains, of course — even kiss marks and swelling could be regulated by secreting specific mucus beneath the skin.

Once my husband kills that vermin, I'll pretend my conscience is bothering me and report him. While he's in prison, I divorce him, right? I've already taken out the insurance, so the hospital bills can be covered immediately. If I sweet-talk Gwak-su a little more, he'll knock some off the total.

Money, solved. A place for her young lover to move in, solved. And she could kill the piece of trash who had insulted her.

It was a perfect plan.

As long as no one found out, as long as no one interfered, it would proceed exactly as designed.

I'm the kind of woman who can do this much without batting an eye.

She finished the thought and pressed the door lock.

Beep. Beep-beep. Beep.

"Honeeey. I'm hooome~."

"Honeeey?"

No answer came. But there was a presence in the house. Bulleteana tilted her head, slipped off her shoes, and stepped inside.

"Where did you gooo?"

The timing was perfect. She went to her room and locked the door.

Then she took out the cosmetic jar. Nothing felt off. The texture of the seal she herself had hardened was still unmistakably there.

She melted the white lump and pulled out the phone.

"Maybe I'll call Gwak-su and lay on a little charm~."

Gwak Gwak-su might have been old and ugly, but wringing money out of a man like that had a pleasure all its own.

".......Hm?"

He didn't pick up. Only after she tried a few more times did she realize she had been blocked.

".............."

She ran through other possibilities in her head. Maybe his phone had died. Maybe he had mistaken her for someone else.

But the mail waiting in her notifications made it brutally clear that none of that was true.

"......Ha?"

While she read the message — dripping with the tone of an old man — she half-doubted whether she was thinking at all. But no matter how many times she read it, the words did not change.

Without understanding a thing, she screamed.

"How dare you, how dare you, how dare you, how dare you!!!!"

More than confusion, more than comprehension — rage that he had dared to ignore her and discard her first seized complete control of her.

"Uwaaaaah...!"

She slammed the vanity. Bottles and plastic jars crashed down in a cascade.

"Hah... hah... hah...!"

Her heart hammered. Blood surged the wrong way through her veins. Tension locked her brow until not a trace of her soft gaze remained.

"Fuck. Fuuuuck...!"

After the shout, she tipped her face toward the choked ceiling and forced her breathing steady.

She was intelligent. The fact that she had never once been caught while pulling stunts this complicated was proof enough of that.

Even drowning in this torrent of emotion, she was already ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thinking about what came next.

She looked at the phone again.

"!"

There was a new IOU. Hospital bills for the vermin next door — with surcharges and interest piled on top.

"...That's impossible."

The phone had a Status Recognition function.

In a society where fingerprint and iris forgeries could be cracked without much trouble by certain skills, it was one of the few technologies that was both reliable and cheap.

"I... did this...?"

Of course there was nothing like that in her memory. But looking at Gwak Gwak-su's sudden change and this electronic document, the only conclusion she could reach was that she had done something without knowing it.

And yet even that was strange. With only her common sense and the information she had, she could grasp nothing at all.

Then, abruptly, she muttered.

"..............Next door."

It wasn't deduction.

Pure hostility. That was all. But it was enough.

"He did something to me. Yes. That's why he was so full of confidence."

She knew the background. Someone who had unlocked an ability but couldn't use it. Among those with Unique skills, that type was fairly common.

Had nearly dying made some power awaken?

And he had used it on her.

Hypnosis? Brainwashing? It was definitely mental. Yesterday — he had done something to her yesterday...!

"Haa...!"

She drew a long breath. Leaning against the vanity, she stared into the mirror for a moment.

"Kik."

A short burst of air.

"Kyahahahahaha!!!"

And then she started laughing like a madwoman.

Mental abilities were sensitive enough that the government maintained specialized police divisions for them.

And since she was already well-known, if this came to light she could even torment Gwak Gwak-su's conscience and squeeze even more out of him.

You little vermin. You've been rotting inside that apartment for years — you don't even know basic common sense, do you?!

She sneered at the wall beside her.

Control me? Don't make me laugh. As if a bug like you could dare.

She stowed the affair phone, powered on her own, and downloaded a security app. Then she activated the Mind Control Detection function, which linked immediately to police surveillance records.

"Haa. Where the hell did that Gunner bastard go. No choice, then. Guess I'll head to the station alone for now."

Even if her mind were seized on the way there, with the app running an alert would fire at once.

"I win. Thanks for shortening the operation for me?"

Stepping out through the front door, she said it toward the neighbor's entrance — and set off for the police station.

What her other self was doing in the meantime. What kind of reception she would get once she arrived at the station.

She had no idea at all.

"Hahaha!!"

From the apartment rooftop, Nagaja roared with laughter as he watched Bulleteana hurry off down the road.