Chapter 2: Reincarnated as a Supporting Character in a Tragic Novel (1)
For a long time, there was a strange, persistent gaze that always followed her.
In that moment, she looked out the bus window when she felt the prickling stare on her and saw Senpai, who was driving a red sports car, laughing at her directly.
(Senpai: Used to address or refer to senior colleagues in schools, workplaces, or clubs)
What the hell was his deal?
While she glared at him in disgust, his car crashed straight into the bus she was riding. In the panic that struck the bus driver, he swerved sharply to avoid the oncoming car.
Screech!
But then, on the other side of the street, a truck was heading straight toward the bus.
Bang!
It was chaos.
Something slammed into her chest with unbelievable force, and she fell from her seat like a rag doll.
After that, she felt a warm liquid flowing down her head.
The only thing she could still see in her fading vision was that bright red sports car.
Everything was blurry and made no sense, but that bastard somehow found the gall to laugh at her mockingly.
It seemed he wasn’t satisfied with harassing her all this time. And now he was responsible for her death.
All this time, she thought he was a good person. He was her senpai at school and had everything: he went to a good school, came from a wealthy family, was popular, and excelled at everything.
Just to beat her, she didn’t know he would go as far as doing something like this.
‘Is this the end?’
Her university days flashed before her eyes.
* * *
As soon as she entered the room, everyone quieted down.
She spoke in a calm voice, her head down and shoulders hunched.
“I told you it wasn’t me.”
“What? People saw you hugging an old man, even kissing him.”
All the guys in that room laughed and looked at her suggestively. They laughed and spoke openly in a joking manner, though what they were talking about was no joke at all.
They said she shouldn’t take anything they said seriously, that they were sincerely complimenting her.
“You, I heard you tried to seduce Soo Hyuk for his money, but you failed after that. I’m surprised you can still show your face here.”
“I heard a rumor that you’d do anything as long as you got paid. Is that true?”
It was humiliating.
The truth was clear to everyone, but they still used these rumors as an excuse to harass her more.
And those false rumors ruined their private lives.
The friends she thought were close turned their backs. Cruel rumors followed her like a plague.
She wanted to set things right.
She screamed countless times. It wasn’t true! It was all a lie!
But it was all in vain.
While she fought a hopeless battle alone, someone she had never spoken to before stepped forward and approached her.
“I know this is all Soo Hyuk Senpai’s fault.”
That was the first time she realized how corrupt that person truly was.
“As you know, I saw him alone in an empty classroom. He was badmouthing you, even saying how dare you take first place in the rankings.”
That was after the rumor spread about her getting money. The rumors spread so quickly and got out of control, and she thought he was responsible for it.
She wanted to laugh.
Knowing the reason and intent behind those malicious rumors, she no longer wanted to bow her head in shame.
With a fire burning beneath her, she decided not to let him get away with doing whatever he wanted.
And in the next semester, she studied diligently and got the highest grades in their department, subject after subject.
The rumors never died down; in fact, they became more vicious, but she no longer cared.
Until the direct harassment began.
That’s when she knew for sure.
His inferiority complex was worse than she thought. Maybe it would have been better if she had taken a leave of absence instead of pushing forward.
If there was filth in front of her, she shouldn’t have stepped on it. She should have avoided it.
She realized that too late.
And so, she died in vain.
* * *
When she opened her eyes again, she was in a strange room.
Had she miraculously come back to life?
The blanket covering her body was soft.
Cautiously, she got up from the bed.
All the furniture around her looked like antiques, as if she were already in an antique shop. Compared to this luxurious room, her own room paled by several degrees.
Instead of a hospital, it would be better to call this place a hotel.
‘I’m absolutely sure I was on a bus on my way to my part-time job just now. I was bored on the way, so I was reading a novel I’ve been following for a year…’
She wondered how she ended up in this place.
‘Right. I remember now. And the moment the traffic light changed, the bus flipped over while trying to avoid that sports car.’
Then everything went still.
Her surroundings darkened, and she felt a sharp sensation of her neck breaking.
With some hesitation, she touched the back of her neck. She could bend and move it without any issues.
She was supposed to be dead, but somehow, she was still breathing.
Then she saw a yellow strand.
When she lowered her head to take a closer look, more strands came into her view.
They weren’t threads.
It was her hair.
In that moment, she shivered as she gathered her hair into a handful.
It was blonde. She wasn’t supposed to be blonde.
She looked around for a mirror and found one on the vanity table in one corner of the room. However, when she tried to get up from the bed and run to the mirror, she felt a strong pain in her stomach.
“Urk!”
It felt as if she had been kicked directly in the stomach.
She crawled to the vanity table, groaning and clutching her sides.
After struggling to get there, her eyes widened when she looked at her reflection.
She blinked and rubbed her eyes repeatedly, but nothing changed.
The woman in the mirror wasn’t her. She was a completely different person.
This face didn’t belong to her.
‘I always tie my black hair back because it gets in the way.’
Her cheeks were supposed to be gaunt, her pallor terrible from sleep deprivation.
That’s what she was supposed to look like. The reflection staring back at her was the complete opposite of what she actually looked like.
As if honey had been poured over her.
This blonde hair, which slid gently as she ran her fingers through it, reminded her of a gold coin.
Her wavy hair was thick, and her skin was clear.
When she opened her lips to mutter to herself, the beautiful woman in the mirror opened her lips too.
Her lemon-colored eyes, adorned with thick lashes, trembled at the sight.
“How the hell is this…”
She stopped mid-sentence.
Even the voice wasn’t right. There was no resemblance to how she was supposed to sound.
A complete stranger was pretending to be her in the mirror before her.
At that moment, she felt a piercing pulse in her stomach again, making her pain double. And every time she moved, a stabbing pain followed.
She lifted the nightgown she was wearing to see the damage, and her face stiffened.
“What is this?”
She grimaced.
Her stomach was full of bruises, seemingly from being kicked by someone. Instantly, she paled.
‘Who did this…?’
The entire situation left her with more questions than answers.
And as she tried to calm and gather her thoughts, the door opened as someone walked in.
“Oh my, you’re awake.”
She turned her head to see the owner of this unfamiliar voice, but then, thinking she saw something strange, her eyes narrowed.
That was because the woman’s clothes were extremely unusual; she was wearing a white lace apron over a black dress.
It was like a medieval maid’s uniform.
Then her eyes went to the woman’s hair.
It was an impressive dark green color, and she didn’t think anyone could achieve it with regular hair dye.
While she stared without saying anything, the woman sighed deeply and reached where she was on the floor.
“Sorry, but—do you know who I am?”
“What?”
“What is this place? Is this a hospital, ma’am? Am I dead?”
The woman’s face gradually turned to panic. But then, she quickly recovered and scolded the blonde in a stern voice.
“Miss Eliana, what are you doing? Who’s dead? Why are you speaking so formally like that?”
“Excuse me?”
After hearing the woman say all this with a straight face, the blonde flinched.
She asked again, this time grabbing the woman’s arm, unconcerned with politeness.
“What did you say?”
“It’s just… you keep saying something about being dead.”
The woman replied, her face sullen. It seemed the woman thought she was angry.
“No, no, what did you say just now? You said something else!”
The blonde shook her head and repeated, “No, you said something before that.”
“Miss Eliana?”
“…Eliana? What?”
She yanked the woman’s arm again, her eyes expressing disbelief as she asked. Placing her hand on the blonde’s, the woman looked a little sad as she answered.
“But, miss, your name is Eliana Museau. How else should I call you? Do you no longer like your name?”
“Impossible.”
The moment she heard the name ‘Eliana Museau,’ her hand fell to her side, and the shock was evident on her face.
In the meantime, the woman helped her back to the bed, but even after lying down, she still couldn’t accept the situation.
‘Eliana’ gathered her hair in her fist and examined the blonde strands.
The name the woman uttered was all too familiar.
In this unfamiliar place, it was the only familiar thing.
She looked up and stared blankly at nothing in particular, like a patient with a terminal illness.
In the back of her mind all this time, no wonder she thought she stood out.
Blonde hair, a slender frame, porcelain skin.
A small face with delicate features, unforgettable lemon-colored eyes.
Everything pointed to one person. Or rather, one character.
Eliana Museau.
This world was inside a novel.
* * *
A day had passed since she came here.
She told herself she might return to reality once she woke up again.
But the morning came without issue, and when she opened her eyes, she was still ‘Eliana Museau.’
“Haaah!”
Feeling frustrated, she collapsed under the covers.
‘I died for nothing, but then I’ll die again because this character is going to die any moment now!’
It never crossed her mind that she would be reincarnated as a character in a book she was reading.
She raised her head and stared at nothing in particular, her gaze filled with resentment.
