I Want to Escape
I want to escape. From this suffocating poverty, from the endless repetition of the same damn daily grind, from these fake friendships where I have to force the vibe, from my parents shoving studies down my throat.
Where did it all go wrong? Was I wrong from the moment I was born?
I'm done. I want to quit. Living feels so stifling. I can't breathe. It's like I'm suffocating to death.
Yeah, let's just die. If death is the only way to end this, then dying will do it. If I can just break free from this place, I don't care what happens to this worthless body.
Tonight, it all ends. That devil-summoning ritual I stumbled across online. They say if it works, the devil takes all the sins I've piled up in this life, and my soul slips into peaceful reincarnation like falling asleep.
Please... please, I beg you, make it work. I'll give you my life, this body—everything. Just let me escape this hell of a life.
Please, I beg you, Devil.
If you end up possessing my body and reading this diary someday... please take good care of my family.
— Baek Seorin, to the Devil —
"Haa... haa..."
In the pitch-black room, only the faint moonlight filtering through the window provided any illumination.
The girl sat on the floor, breathing raggedly as she scanned her surroundings. Torn-up practice sheets spread out as wide as possible, covered in geometric, grotesque patterns she'd drawn.
"This should... do it. It'll all be over."
With trembling hands, she placed the diary—written in red ballpoint pen—right in the center of the pattern.
"...Please."
Her voice quivered softly.
"Let me... escape from here."
The fragile plea of a girl grasping at straws echoed through the darkness-infested room.
Finally, she drew out the cutter knife blade—and sliced across her finger. Crimson blood dripped onto the diary, drop by drop.
And as she flawlessly recited the final incantation from the ritual she'd seen online...
Thud.
Her body went limp, collapsing as if all strength had drained from it. As if her soul had suddenly been yanked right out of her flesh.
"......Mm."
About five minutes? Ten? A short span like that passed.
The girl sprawled atop the red-ink pattern groaned faintly and slowly opened her eyes.
She pushed herself up languidly, glancing around in a daze, and muttered blankly.
"What?"
It was utterly bizarre. The voice was unmistakably the girl's. The body was unmistakably hers.
Yet the emotion laced into that voice, the depth in those eyes... they carried the weight of years.
"Where... is this place?"
As the girl—or rather, the soul that had possessed the girl's body—tried to assess her situation and move...
Bang!
"Hey, Seorin. About your test scores this time..."
Kyaaak! "W-what the hell are you doing right now!?"
Some middle-aged woman burst in and immediately screamed.
"...What in the world is going on here."