#2
What was I thinking?
After three sleepless days buried in assignments, with my mind frayed and my emotions hovering somewhere between exhaustion and an almost drunken sensitivity, I had left an unnecessarily long comment. I apparently wanted to convey my "thoughts." And of course, amidst the tide of "We support you!" comments flooding the page during some fan event, Cheon Yun-jae had stubbornly stuck to his post.
["I've read similar setups before, but I didn't notice it as a kid. Now, though, looking at it as an adult, this setup seems more like the heroine would get locked up before any revenge even happens. Starting from faking a death certificate to… (omitted)… inserting potential crimes… (omitted)… these days it just lacks realism. So it's a bit hard to immerse myself unless the emotional motivations are expanded on more carefully…"]
Looking back, Yun-jae realized it was really a story he didn't need to tell.
Did the author really not know this when they set it up?
Here he was, acting all knowledgeable and superior in front of someone who had painstakingly crafted every detail.
But honestly, he hadn't meant any malice. He hadn't realized back then that even an unintended comment could hurt the author.
At first, Do-young felt a bit wronged. He hadn't declared, "I quit because it's boring," and he intended to keep reading. His feedback had come from a place of wanting the story to go in a better direction.
…Of course, after being scolded by countless others with "The know-it-all is acting up," he engraved a deep lesson: don't act recklessly.
Buzz, buzz, buzz… the notifications never stopped.
["This is just a romance manga cliché, nothing more."]
["Don't tire out the author by telling them what to do from the start."]
["Don't think about realism; just see what you want to know in the manga."]
["Arguing about realism? Aren't you just over-immersed?"]
[└ lolololol]
["Do you often get called clueless?"]
The comments about him being clueless stung a bit, making his hands tremble slightly as he gripped his phone.
Eventually, after posting an apology for his short-sightedness and deleting the original comment, the phone quieted, and things seemed to calm down. Yun-jae, sinking his face into a pillow, had thought that was the end of it…
Apparently, it wasn't.
Yun-jae awoke again under a strange hospital ceiling, clutching the blanket tightly in his hands.
'Cha Do-young. I'm Cha Do-young…'
He recalled the brief summary of the webtoon he had skimmed earlier:
[>To avenge her twin brother, who committed suicide after severe bullying, Do-hee…]
'The author is basically telling me,
Even after waking multiple times, staring at himself in the hospital bed, Yun-jae began to grasp it a little.
This really wasn't a dream.
'I've really become Cha Do-young.'
As he quietly turned his head, he saw Cha Do-hee standing there, her eyes and nose reddened from crying, biting her lips and staring at him with a sorrowful expression. The gorgeous heroine of the webtoon… looking at him. Yun-jae felt awkward and uneasy, hesitating, lips trembling, before he awkwardly called her name.
"…Do-hee."
Even those three short syllables cracked and faltered—he worried it would immediately reveal that he wasn't truly Cha Do-young.
The floodgates of her held-back tears finally opened. The tears that had brimmed in her eyes fell in streams. Startled, Yun-jae sat up abruptly. The movement made the long tube connected to his hand sway violently.
"D-Do-hee, don't cry. It's my fault. I'm sorry, okay?"
"Why would you be sorry…!"
"…No, I am. I'm sorry."
'First, I became Cha Do-young… then I triggered two more forced terminations while fussing over the webtoon…'
A sharp pang of guilt pricked his chest.
Yun-jae figured this place was indeed inside the webtoon. It seemed that "webtoon" and "inside the manga" were forbidden words; especially in front of the heroine, even uttering "web" triggered a warning and forcibly terminated him.
He guessed it was some kind of system.
'Even imagining that I'm just inside a manga would make my head explode… and yet there's something more…'
Apparently, this world didn't want the protagonist to know certain secrets. Realizing he couldn't just keep being forcibly terminated, he thought he'd need to be careful from now on.
Yes. Too late.
Which meant Cha Do-hee had already seen her "brother" collapse three times right in front of her. He vaguely remembered hearing her wailing to a doctor about what to do with her brother.
"…I scared you."
His hesitant words only seemed to anger her further.
"You idiot!"
"…I-diot?"
Flustered, Yun-jae had no words to counter and stayed silent. Idiot, indeed. Clueless. That explained how he had ended up here…
Do-hee scolded him for a while, expressing how frightened she had been, interspersed with cries. Yun-jae could only apologize; he couldn't do anything else.
Once the commotion calmed a little, Do-hee, her face still puffed from crying, gently took his hand.
"Oppa, the doctor said your body is very weak now."
"…Although it's not like you've collapsed this many times normally, he wondered if something has been troubling you mentally as well."
'No… I just wasn't careful with my words…'
Maybe. Cha Do-young's body and mind were indeed weak.
"Oppa, has anything been happening at school? Or maybe some worry?"
Yun-jae hesitated, then shook his head. It wasn't that he wanted to hide anything—he just didn't yet fully understand Cha Do-young's life. He only knew the rough outline: severe bullying after middle school, keeping it hidden from Do-hee. That faint memory was too vague to speak of it confidently.
He thought it best to first understand the current situation accurately.
Do-hee, noticing his hesitation, naturally became suspicious.
"Really?"
"…Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"…Yeah."
"Okay, got it."
'For now?'
Though her expression showed displeasure, Do-hee seemed to accept that she wouldn't get more answers from Yun-jae and let it drop—for now. But she added one final warning:
"If anything happens, you must tell me. Promise."
Her worried gaze pressed the word "must" onto him. Yun-jae, feeling like he was sitting on a bed of needles, rolled his eyes silently and glanced at the clock, trying to change the subject.
"Do-hee, how's your school…?"
"Oppa, you're so sick—how can you worry about my school?"
Ah, right. There was no escaping the topic. Another lecture was about to begin.
'She likes her brother this much…'
Yun-jae swallowed his bitter thoughts silently. Even with parents constantly abroad, at least Do-hee…
What if Cha Do-young had mustered the courage to speak up and faced this together?
He could never fully understand her feelings as a third party, but it pained him that Cha Do-young had carried such a heavy burden alone, ending in tragedy.
'…And now I've stepped into that tragic life.'
He gazed blankly out the hospital window. The sunset looked… perfectly painted. Was it because he was in a webtoon? No, it had to be real for him now.
Time seemed to have passed, yet so much was still unknown. The thought made him want to cry.
'What happened to the original Cheon Yun-jae?'
And his parents… his throat tightened.
"Oppa, what's wrong? Are you hurt again?"
"…Do-hee, you don't know how to get out of here, do you?"
"Get out? What do you mean?"
The words slipped out like a sigh, and Yun-jae froze, fearing it might trigger another forced termination—but this time, the vague remark caused no warning. Relief. He had almost made her cry again.