“Huk!”
A dream! Was it a dream? Did I have a dream?
Seungyeon gasped for breath as he frantically groped at his body. His face was deathly pale and covered in cold sweat. As he recalled his last memory, he couldn’t even tell if this was the living world or the afterlife.
And for good reason—blood had really poured out, not just a handful, but a whole basinful. He’d only seen that much blood flowing from someone’s nose and mouth in exorcism movies, and had never once thought he’d actually experience it himself.
“What is this! What the hell!”
Even as he fumbled and touched his face, he only felt the texture of smooth skin—there were no traces of having bled anywhere. Only after panicking and making a fuss for a while did he barely manage to grab hold of his reason. After looking around rapidly, he realized where he was.
“A hospital…?”
“That’s right, you damn brat! It’s a hospital, a hospital!”
Before he could even finish speaking, Mom, who he hadn’t realized was beside him, smacked his back hard. Still, perhaps because he was a patient, the strength in Mom’s hand was noticeably weaker. Seungyeon curled his body into a ball with a dumb look on his face, avoiding Mom.
“It hurts! No, what the hell, Mom! What happened to me? Huh?”
At Seungyeon’s question, Mom suddenly burst into tears. Mom, who wiped her tears with the apron she was wearing, even had mismatched shoes on. She blew her nose with a “Hmph!” and grumbled resentfully.
“What happened! Suddenly I heard a thud, and when I looked, you had collapsed bleeding, so we came straight in an ambulance! That’s why, you damn brat! You son of a bitch! I told you not to run around at night and to stay home!”
She continued to smack his back repeatedly. He didn’t feel like his condition was bad enough to be hospitalized, but getting hit by Mom made it seem like he really should be admitted. Seungyeon barely managed to respond while hunched over.
“Mom, it hurts…! It really hurts!”
At his cry of pain, she quickly lowered her hand. Seungyeon sighed as he watched her back as she rushed off, saying she’d call the doctor. His head was still spinning, but he seemed to understand how things were going. He muttered while biting his thumbnail.
“I collapsed in my room…?”
He clearly remembered what he’d been doing right before collapsing. He had definitely been saying goodbye to his hyungs and noonas. Since he’d possessed someone or whatever, he wanted to stop being such a hopeless nuisance. He thought he should stop the act of sweet-talking people while pretending to love them to get money. And he’d really put it into action. And then… what happened after that?
“Ah, the status window!”
A translucent status window appeared before his eyes. Startled, Seungyeon flinched and trembled. Regardless, the status window remained exactly as it had been right before he collapsed.
[Restoring collapsed balance. Until penalty ends: 00:10:11.]
“What the hell, seriously…”
Had the penalty been imposed because he sent that text message? Seungyeon glanced at the status window with suspicious eyes. Just then, the hospital room door opened and Mom appeared with a nurse. In the instantly lively hospital room, Seungyeon quickly shut his mouth.
The status window also quickly disappeared into thin air. While the nurse was taking his temperature and blood pressure, Seungyeon was lost in other thoughts.
‘Disposition of the possessed body,’ ‘collapsed balance’—no matter how they dressed it up with plausible words, the real Baek Seungyeon’s disposition was nothing but trash. Doing illegal gambling since he was a minor, stealing his older sister’s identity, buying a Porsche when he had no job or money.
Up to that point, fine. Let’s say it can’t be helped since it’s already past. All that was left was debt, but since his limbs were intact, he could earn money somehow in the future—doing manual labor or whatever—and pay it back. But what about the things he still had to commit, the things still in progress? What about those?
“At least it’s not fraud…”
“Pardon?”
“Oh, nothing.”
At the nurse’s questioning response, Seungyeon smiled slightly and shook his head. Beside him, Mom glared with fierce eyes as if to say ‘don’t do anything stupid.’ Seungyeon straightened his posture for no reason.
Whatever the penalty was, the actions Seungyeon ‘might commit’ in the future weren’t just his problem alone. Fraud was clearly a crime and an act that created victims. It was obviously wrong to deceive people and extort money, but using people’s hearts and pretending to love them while extorting money was truly heinous.
Right, that really wasn’t okay. Seungyeon steeled his resolve once more. If he did something like that, even Mom would come to hate him, and he really didn’t want that. Even if he couldn’t be a son to be proud of, shouldn’t he at least not be a son too shameful to show anyone?
‘Whatever the penalty is, I can’t do that.’
That resolve continued all the way until Seungyeon left the hospital holding Mom’s hand tightly. He did get his back smacked again with her complaining about the hospital bill being all because of him, but “Still, there’s nothing wrong with your health. Mom, should we get some dumplings on the way?” He coaxed Mom and his mood wasn’t bad even when they went to the dumpling shop. However, the moment someone approached Seungyeon as he was chewing on dumplings, he had a gut feeling that something was going seriously wrong.
How was he supposed to know that dumpling shop happened to be Mihee noona’s store? No wonder the dumpling shop’s name was ‘Mihee’s Steamed Dumplings’… Seungyeon scratched his head while glancing at the sign.
“Seungyeon, are you really going to break up with me?”
The back alley Mihee noona had led him to was dark and desolate. She pushed the awkwardly standing Seungyeon against the wall and slammed it. Even in this situation, Seungyeon was worried about Mom, who he’d left in the shop. To quickly resolve this situation and get back to Mom, he racked his brain and mumbled excuses.
“Noona…, I clearly said it in the text. We’re done now. We’re never going to meet again, uh!”
Suddenly Seungyeon stopped talking. It was because the protruding sign hanging right above where the two were standing crumbled and came crashing down. He instinctively tried to push Mihee noona away and dodge, but it was already too late. Seungyeon squeezed his eyes shut and screamed with a “Kyak!” at the impact of the sign striking his back.
[Major rule violation detected! Due to actions inconsistent with the possessed body’s disposition, the balance of the world is collapsing. To restore this, a penalty corresponding to your body will be immediately imposed!]
About an hour after being discharged, Seungyeon had to be taken to the hospital again.
At least this time he didn’t faint, so his mind was clear. Throughout the ambulance ride, Seungyeon mulled over the penalty.
If the same thing repeated next time, he might really die then. Who knew if that damn penalty or status window would slam an 8-ton dump truck into him?
“No, Kim Seungyeon—no, it’s Baek Seungyeon now. Right, I can do this. I’ll give it a try. Yeah, I can find a solution.”
At least this time he was lucky it ended with just a broken wrist. To get hit by a sign that fell from the sky and end up with only this much injury. Was this thanks to his sturdy body, or thanks to the status window showing mercy?
Seungyeon leaned against the railing on the hospital rooftop and let out a deep sigh.
After stubbornly sending Mom home when she said she’d stay with him, he immediately came up to the rooftop. He intended to seriously think about what he should do from now on.
“So does that mean I have to continue being a nuisance?”
Until now, Seungyeon’s phone had been flooded nonstop with love calls from hyungs and noonas. He was too scared to refuse, so he’d left his phone in the hospital room. To avoid receiving penalties, he ultimately had to act as before, which meant he had to scam all those hyungs and noonas.
With a sinking heart, Seungyeon rubbed his eyes firmly with his palm. Just saying goodbye to one person caused this disaster, so what should he really do now?
In the original work, there was only talk of Baek Seungyeon possibly going to prison for fraud and asking for help with a settlement. It didn’t say who Baek Seungyeon had scammed. He remembered hearing that 3 people had filed charges, so it meant there were at least 3 people…
“Mihee noona… she was selling dumplings at 6,000 won per pack…”
That noona had given him 6 million won as spending money—how many packs of dumplings did she have to sell to earn that? His conscience pricked him so much that his body drooped. Seungyeon’s arm, precariously draped over the railing, swayed weakly.
“I want to die…”
If only he’d messed with a rich family’s son or an heir or something like that, he wouldn’t feel so guilty. To have scammed a commoner like Mihee noona who lived hand to mouth—that bastard Baek Seungyeon was definitely trash. Seungyeon sighed so deeply the ground might cave in.
“I really should die.”
At that moment, someone snatched his neck from behind. Startled by the sudden situation, Seungyeon flailed his arms and lost his balance. And his body tumbled backward.
He felt a firm, warm body temperature behind his back. When he turned his head in confusion, he saw the face of a deathly pale man he’d never seen before.
“Fuck, seriously! What the hell are you doing something so dangerous? Huh? If you’re going to die, fuck! Go die somewhere no one’s watching!”
Unlike his angry tone, the hand gripping Seungyeon’s neck was still trembling. Seungyeon looked at the man with a flustered face.
“What…?”
I wasn’t really planning to die though…?
