Choi Da-eun had two great loves in life: iced Americanos and reading trashy webnovels at 3 a.m. in bed while convincing herself she could survive with only three hours of sleep.
It wasn't a glamorous life. But it was hers.
By day, she was an underpaid junior editor for a webnovel platform. By night, she devoured books she probably should have been rejecting. She liked fantasy romance the most—bonus points for villainess redemption arcs, magical cats, and second male leads with emotional trauma.
But her greatest obsession?
A novel called Chains of Crimson Roses.
A top-ranking dark romance set in a brutal empire filled with betrayal, beauty, and a heroine so sugar-sweet Da-eun nearly got diabetes every time she spoke.
The villainess, Lady Virelle Elerian, was supposed to be a cold, arrogant noble girl who bullied the heroine out of jealousy. She was exiled, framed for poisoning the crown prince, and eventually executed in the town square—publicly, painfully, and completely forgotten.
> Forgotten, Da-eun remembered thinking, even though she bled more for the empire than the heroine ever did.
See, the twist was that Virelle was never actually evil. She was a misunderstood genius who uncovered corruption in the court and tried to protect the heroine from shady nobles—only for the heroine to spin it as "bullying" and turn everyone against her. Her fiancé abandoned her. Her family cast her aside. Even the crown prince stood by and watched her die.
> "Dumbass prince," Da-eun had muttered, sobbing into her pillow. "Why'd you marry the marshmallow when the cinnamon roll died?"
Virelle's final scene haunted her.
The villainess stood alone in a storm, bloodied and barefoot, while the heroine married the crown prince under golden petals. The gods were silent. The people cheered. And Virelle smiled one last time before collapsing under the executioner's blade.
It wasn't fair.
It wasn't right.
And Da-eun, being Da-eun, took to the comment section with the fury of a thousand cat claws.
> "Author-nim, explain to me like I'm five: WHY WOULD YOU MURDER THE BEST CHARACTER?"
> "I will now reincarnate myself just to give that heroine a wedgie in person."
> "I hope Virelle is reborn as a magical beast and eats everyone who wronged her."
Fate, apparently, took notes.
Because thirty minutes later, Da-eun left her apartment in a sleep-deprived haze, headphones in, still arguing in her head about plot holes—only to step into the street and realize far too late that the truck was not slowing down.
---
She didn't remember the impact.
Just the floaty weightlessness after—the dizzy feeling of your soul popping out like a badly seated USB stick.
Everything was blank. Cold. Then warm. Then—
Meow.
---
When she woke up again, she was in a box. In an alley. In a cat's body.
At first, she thought it was some elaborate afterlife prank. Maybe the gods did have a sense of humor. Maybe she had been too dramatic on the forums.
But then the signs became impossible to ignore.
The way people spoke. The currency. The royal family names.
This wasn't just a new world.
It was that world.
The one from Chains of Crimson Roses.
And not only had she been dumped here like a moldy sardine—she had been cursed into a cat.
A CAT.
> "Out of every possible isekai route—maid, lady, sorceress, even a horse—why did I get stuck with this flea-ridden furball form?!"
Da-eun had spent two days in denial. She ran from dogs, hissed at kids, and tried to climb into someone's soup pot out of pure spite.
But then, she overheard someone say the name: "Lady Virelle Elerian."
And her tiny heart skipped.
She chased the voice. Limped down alleys. Fell into a crate of rotting cabbages.
And there she saw her.
Not the ice queen villainess of the story's final act, but a young girl in black—standing alone, watching the market like she was ten miles away.
Thirteen years old. Stoic. Dressed in noble finery no one dared wrinkle.
Lady Virelle.
And the moment their eyes met, Da-eun—no, Lia now—felt fate do something strange.
A twist. A ripple.
Like the story had just blinked.
---
She hadn't meant to get attached.
She swore this time she wouldn't cry over a fictional character again.
She tried to ruin away to not see her cause she know how she will ended up but how can a cat can change fate so she tried to run but she couldn't
But Virelle picked her up like she mattered.
Da-eun tried to free her self from her but her warmth and her internal love for her stopped her
She didn't coo or giggle like other girls. Didn't call her "kitty" or "fluffy." Just looked at her with tired, haunted green eyes
She didn't touch anyone else.
But she let the cat curl to her
> "Don't imprint on her," she warned herself. "She's a ticking tragedy in a corset."
But it was too late.
She'd read the story. She knew what was coming.
Unless…
Unless she changed it.
---
> "I'm not going to sit through your death again," she thought, curled in the girl's arms that night.
"You hear me, Lady Villainess? I'm rewriting your damn plot if it kills me. Again."
The gods wanted her to watch? To witness tragedy?
Tough luck.
They'd just reincarnated the most unhinged book editor in Seoul—and gave her claws.