“Miss Dudley really has no equal when it comes to execution.”
Mary, who had brought the evening newspaper, clicked her tongue. Summer burst into a bewildered laugh upon seeing the headline printed in large letters on the front page.
<Dudley’s Adopted Daughter Reveals Herself as a Saint!>
“Impressive, truly impressive.”
So this is what it means to be a protagonist. If it were Summer, she would never have gotten tangled up in such complicated matters, even if she died and came back to life.
Mary checked the bedding and approached Summer.
“Well then, good night.”
“Oh, Mary.”
“Yes?”
Summer grabbed Mary, who was about to leave. Mary looked quite flustered by Summer's unusual behavior.
“Shall we go on a picnic tomorrow? Somewhere with a nice view.”
“Are you planning to jump into the lake again?”
Mary's voice was cold as she spat out the words. That day still left a scar on her.
Knowing this, Summer quickly approached and took Mary’s hand.
“No, not at all. I promise. I won’t do anything like that tomorrow.”
“……Alright. Then I’ll prepare for the picnic tomorrow.”
“Sleep well, Mary.”
“You too, Miss.”
As she released the hand she had been holding, Mary quietly closed the door behind her.
Summer listened intently until she could no longer hear the sound of Mary’s footsteps walking down the hallway.
“How touching, how touching.”
Even at the voice that came from behind, Summer did not turn around.
“……Fay.”
“Yeah. I just came to check if everything is going well.”
“…….”
“How about the necklace?”
“I threw it away.”
“Do you know how precious that was?”
Fay still had a cheerful side to her, like a child. Even after everything that had happened.
“Something may be precious to someone, but it can be useless to another.”
“……You’re still upset with me, aren’t you?”
“Maybe.”
As Summer replied sarcastically, Fay subtly glanced at Summer’s expression.
“It’s quite beautiful tonight. Want to go up to the roof with me?”
Only then did Summer turn her head to gaze at the night beyond the window that Fay had flung open.
A pitch-black night, with streetlights glowing mysteriously and stars scattered across the sky like a tapestry.
As Fay said, the weather was exceptionally clear tonight.
“……Yes.”
Before Summer could finish her sentence, Fay swung her arms, and Summer’s body lightly floated into the air.
Fay carried Summer over the window and onto the roof.
Summer sat on the slanted roof, looking up at the night sky.
When the moon is bright, the stars usually can’t shine, but tonight, both the moon and the stars seemed to compete in their brilliance.
It was an unreal world. That’s why it was beautiful and fantastical. There was no denying it.
This world is,
“It’s beautiful.”
At Summer’s words, Fay beamed with pride and shrugged her shoulders for no reason.
Count Lindsey is this beautiful, so how magnificent must Bertrand’s night view be?
If it were up to her, she would want to visit tomorrow, but time wouldn’t allow it.
“I guess I shouldn’t have been so scared.”
“Scared of what?”
“This world.”
Summer glanced down. The people working below all looked grotesque.
“Grotesque and messy, but now that I see it, it’s beautiful.”
Summer forced a smile. Her face, dry and cracked, was filled with fatigue.
“Black hair.”
“…….”
“Why don’t you tell me about it?”
“My… story?”
She had never thought about it. No one had ever asked.
Summer’s expression was comically bewildered, as if someone had just hit her on the back of the head.
“Yeah. The wind is cool, the stars are shining, and the moon is up. It’s a perfect time to start a story.”
“I… don’t remember well.”
“Still, try to remember. There must be something that comes to mind.”
Summer furrowed her brow, thinking and thinking. Then she slowly began to speak.
“I prepared for exams for a long time.”
“…….”
“That was everything for me. Everyone had expectations of me, and I didn’t want to disappoint them.”
“Interesting story.”
Fay rested her chin on her hand, lazily watching Summer as she murmured.
“When I was young, it wasn’t hard to receive applause, but as I grew older, it became more difficult.”
“…….”
It was the first time she was sharing this story. Summer had never been able to tell anyone.
Because she wasn’t the only one suffering. If she couldn’t overcome this, it felt like she wouldn’t be ordinary.
That was the kind of memory that Summer had bottled up inside her until it rotted and began to stink.
“When no one applauded for me anymore, that’s when I became an adult. Living a life where I had to face only the things I had to do, with no one to applaud for me.”
“That’s a painful ache.”
“Actually, the world I want to return to is cruel too. When I was young, I was given everything I wanted, but as I grew a little, it became hard to get what I wanted, and as I grew a little more… it became blurry what I even wanted.”
“…….”
The cartoons she read as a child. The commercials she saw on TV. Bubbles. Toys. Parks. Playgrounds. Laughter.
Surrounded by such things, Summer had stopped reading comics one day and began to have nightmares more often than fantastic dreams.
The TV was loud, and she felt self-conscious about having toys. While others naturally accepted that process, she felt even more frustrated for not being able to adapt.
She lived diligently. She certainly did her best. And her dreams had come so close, just before falling into this world.
“People are not interested in me, and honestly, I’m not interested in people either. It’s noisy and complicated, yet lonely.”
“Black hair.”
Perhaps even if she returned, she might not be able to live happily. She might struggle with the gap between the future she imagined and the reality she faced.
“I spent years feeling lonely. Dreaming that someday I could mix in with ordinary people and live a busy life without feeling lonely.”
“That must have hurt. But do you still want to go back?”
“Yes. Dreams can’t become reality.”
But to piece together that insignificant reality, Summer had truly worked hard. If she couldn’t go back, it felt like all that effort would turn into a dream.
Summer couldn’t give up. On the time and effort she had invested.
“Hm, that was quite an interesting story. It’s a tale you don’t often hear in this world.”
“Is that so?”
“As you know, this world has its protagonists. That’s why there’s no room for hope or dreams.”
“That’s cruel in its own way.”
“The world is originally beautiful only for the protagonists, isn’t it?”
“……Protagonist.”
As Summer’s expression noticeably darkened, Fay flailed her arms around in a panic and spoke in an exaggerated voice.
“How about a different story? Yes, how about Selena!”
“……Selena?”
“Aren’t you curious about Selena? She’s someone who came into this world and then returned, just like you.”
“I’m curious….”
She was curious. It felt like touching on Ian’s wounds, so she couldn’t let it show.
“Selena was much brighter and cheerier than you. Even after falling into this world, she wasn’t that surprised.”
“Is that so?”
As Fay began to tell the story of Selena, Summer quickly scooted closer to Fay, focusing intently.
Fay, pleased with Summer’s interest, tried to suppress her joy, her face twitching with excitement as she continued.
“Of course. She was thrilled to find out her son was a boy with black hair and gray eyes.”
“Ian, Ian.”
“Yeah, that guy’s name is Ian. Anyway! Selena didn’t want to return to her original world.”
“……Why?”
“She said she was very unhappy in that world. So she was happy to be with her… what did she call it? Ah, her favorite. She said she was happy to be with her favorite.”
Then it was clear that Selena had read the original work.
While reading that book, Summer had liked Julian the most, but it seemed Selena had liked Ian the most.
“Then why did she return?”
“Because she realized she wasn’t special! Isn’t that funny?”
“…….”
Fay tried to sound cheerful, but Summer caught a glimpse of the fleeting shadow on Fay’s face.
“She wanted to make the protagonist she liked happy, just like you. She thought she could change Ian’s past, which was filled with a miserable childhood.”
“Did she… fail?”
“Of course! Ian’s dad was completely insane! Do you think that guy would suddenly become warm just because he pretended to be in a flower garden?”
Only now did Summer understand what had happened to Selena. At first, she was excited to be in her favorite work, and she even became the mother of her most beloved male lead.
With the desire for the male lead to be happy and the arrogance of knowing the content of the original work, Selena decided to stay in this world, and when things didn’t go as planned, she eventually went mad.
“But you were good at grasping reality. She was too naive. Infuriatingly so.”
“…….”
“Isn’t it funny? To think she was under the illusion that she was the protagonist of the world. So Selena missed her chance to return. There was a problem during the process of transferring her soul.”
“Do you know what happened to Selena?”
“She probably died? But that was her choice.”
“Did Selena know she would die?”
“She knew she might die. Want to hear something even funnier?”
Fay narrowed her eyes and grinned mischievously. Then she leaned in close to Summer’s ear and whispered softly.
“She said she was so unhappy in this world. So even if she might die, she wanted to return to her original world.”
“…….”
“Unhappy, unhappy, unhappy! As long as you attach the clue of unhappiness, it becomes a universal truth!”
“Fay.”
“What do you think? After hearing this story, do you still want to go back?”
“I… it’s not too late, is it?”
“Right. You have no chance of failure at all.”
Fay burst into giggles. Why was she laughing so much at someone else’s misfortune?
Summer shot a cold glance at Fay and slid down from the roof.
Just as Summer was about to stop in front of the edge, someone suddenly grabbed her by the back of her neck.
“What are you doing! That was dangerous!”
Summer, looking back, stared at Fay with a look of disbelief.
“……Why did you grab me?”
“Because you almost fell! What are you saying to the person who saved you?”
So you’re asking why I’m saving you. Instead of asking that, Summer chose silence.
The crickets chirped, and the streetlight flickered.
Fay held onto the back of Summer’s neck and returned through the window into the room. Then she tossed Summer onto the bed.
“Just sleep!”
“What about you, Fay?”
“I’ll come back tomorrow.”
“You promised….”
“Yeah.”
Fay hopped onto the window sill and flew outside. Summer followed Fay with blurry eyes until she finally closed them.
Soon, the room was filled only with the sound of Summer’s gentle breathing.
That night, Summer had a hazy dream. A dream where someone was crying heartbreakingly.
When morning came and Summer opened her eyes, a single tear rolled down her cheek.
Now, there were only two days left until she would leave this world.