# Chapter 2
Who could this [bastard] be?
I worried for a moment that if I answered the phone carelessly and said I didn’t remember anything, this [bastard] might harm me. But then the thought flashed through my mind that I wasn’t in a position to be picky about cold rice or hot rice.
If I hung up this call too, I’d have to stay standing in front of this door indefinitely. I immediately answered the phone and waited for the other person’s voice.
“Young master, we’ve caught Seo Hanryul.”
A man’s voice came through the phone. But from the very first words—caught someone? With such a serious voice saying they caught someone, it felt awkward to say I’d hit my head and couldn’t remember anything.
“Young master, as you ordered, we’ve caught Seo Hanryul.”
When I didn’t respond, the other person repeated the same words again. What should I say? Well, judging by how he’s calling me young master, he must be on my side. So this guy kidnapped someone named Seo Hanryul as ordered, and that’s why this [bastard] caught Seo Hanryul.
I could only grasp the simple situation, but had no idea what this was really all about. I needed time to think.
“…Call me back in 10 minutes.”
After pondering what to answer, I lowered my voice and responded. First, I needed to think, then he could call back in 10 minutes.
“Yes, young master. Understood.”
The man answered immediately upon hearing my words and hung up. His voice was so disciplined it was rigid.
‘He’s incredibly respectful.’
Not only my contact list, but my entire family’s phone numbers had evaporated. Could I have fallen into a parallel world? But if it were a parallel world, shouldn’t my face be the same? Even after receiving the man’s call, I couldn’t understand the current situation at all.
No, actually I didn’t want to think about anything. I wished that after a day passed, I would return to my body, my world, as if nothing had happened.
‘…What a mess. I need to think.’
My situation was pathetic. This living room that perfectly embodied chaos, “young master,” and even kidnapping. No matter how I thought about it, I seemed to have entered the body of a hopeless scumbag.
‘Seo Hanryul…?’
Suddenly, the words “Seo Hanryul” that the man on the phone had said began circling in my head.
This name isn’t unfamiliar. Seo Hanryul. It’s definitely a name I’ve heard somewhere. I need to remember. Where did I see this name?
‘Seo Hanryul, Seo Hanryul, Seo Hanryul….’
That’s right, I finally remembered. It was the name of the male protagonist in a book I discovered when I snuck into my younger sister’s room two weeks ago.
The hopeless high school senior, Seo Jiyeon. Jiyeon would sneak into my room like it was a daily routine and steal food or take my clothes without asking.
You might wonder why a girl would want men’s clothes, but she would often steal and wear my clothes, saying something about “oversized” or whatever. I thought I’d understand with magnanimity since she was a pitiful senior in high school, but when I saw the tteokbokki sauce stains on the 300,000 won brand-new hoodie I’d splurged on, I couldn’t hold back my anger anymore.
“Hey, do you really want to die?”
“I’m really sorry~ When I go to college, I’ll pay you back with better clothes~ Really!”
My sister, perhaps anticipating she couldn’t escape my wrath, pretended to apologize in front of me. That sight only multiplied her obnoxiousness.
“I can’t even squeeze money out of a broke high schooler. Anyway, you just wait and see.”
I couldn’t just let my sister’s tyranny slide. If I left it alone, this kind of thing would obviously happen again.
‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You should experience it too.’
I immediately commenced my operation. Taking advantage of when my sister went out, I snuck into her room. My plan was to secretly take something my sister would care about, and when she made a fuss looking for it, I’d return it with a warning.
“You should clean your desk before living like this. Can you even concentrate on studying like this?”
As if possessed by Mom, I grumbled to myself while searching for something worth taking.
Should I take the tablet PC? No, she needs to listen to her online lectures. Or maybe some hidden money? Nothing at all. Well, who even carries cash these days anyway?
I searched for a while but couldn’t find anything particularly worth taking. Should I just take some clothes from the closet? Just when I was getting tired, a book tucked in the very bottom corner of the bookshelf caught my eye. A single book among study guides. I couldn’t even tell the title because of the book cover.
‘What kind of important book needs a cover like this?’
With a wicked smile, I reached toward the book and slowly removed the book cover.
‘Gotcha, you little brat.’
As soon as I removed the cover, I saw the number 19 right away. On the cover were three men drawn, and the obi strip said it was a hot bestselling BL. All three were handsome, but each had distinctly different features. The man in the middle had what they call an idol-like face these days—a delicate, refined beauty—while the men on either side seemed to have the classic handsome look with stronger features.
‘I’ve caught a big fish.’
Giggling to myself, I took a picture of the book I’d found. When my sister came home, I planned to slyly show her the photo. If she stole something one more time, I’d tell Mom about this.
Of course, I had no intention of actually telling. Well, it was her secret private life that couldn’t be spoken of—I had to protect it. But I thought this level of blackmail would make her careful for a while.
I was about to put the book back and leave the room when a wicked curiosity arose. What could be the content of that book with a 19 rating? Plus, if it’s a bestseller, that means it’s a bestseller, right? The book wasn’t particularly thick either, so it seemed like I could read it quickly.
‘I’ve got nothing to do anyway, so should I read what it’s about?’
I took the book out again and opened the first page. The book was short enough to read quickly. As a fellow man, watching men communicate physically with each other wasn’t particularly pleasant. Moreover, those scenes were very high-level, befitting the 19 rating.
‘Seo Jiyeon is scary—to think she was secretly reading books like this.’
But the other content was more interesting than I expected. Like a trashy drama you curse at every day but wait for the next episode. At the end of each scene, I was curious about the next chapter, wondering what would happen next, and before I knew it, I’d finished the entire book.
* * *
That’s the end of the flashback. So I’ve entered a 19+ novel I read two weeks ago. And it’s a novel about men loving each other. Judging from the situation so far, I seemed to have possessed Cha Jaehyun, the man on the left of the cover.
Cha Jaehyun. Who is he? He’s probably the person who best embodies the term “scoundrel.” The illegitimate son of Daejin Group, the second-largest conglomerate in Korea. The world doesn’t know of his existence. Money always overflowed, perhaps because the Chairman treated him like a son, but like the cliché story, he grew up with nothing but money and no attention from childhood, becoming a complete asshole with an outstanding personality.
One day, he meets rookie actor Seo Hanryul at a charity event. And befitting the 19+ rating, he falls for Seo Hanryul and starts obsessing over him like crazy. The direction of that obsession was naturally very disgusting. From digging up Seo Hanryul’s dark family history and demanding sexual favors using his entertainment career as leverage, to kidnapping. It seems he committed every dirty deed one person could do to another.
Until the middle of the novel, Seo Hanryul is one-sidedly victimized by Cha Jaehyun. But Seo Hanryul was the protagonist of the novel and a male Candy. Despite Cha Jaehyun’s bullying, he rises to the ranks of top stars through endless effort. And in that tearful process, he meets Lee Dojun.
Lee Dojun was a third-generation chaebol, but unusually, he didn’t inherit the main business and instead entered the entertainment industry. The rest was obvious. Cha Jaehyun felt great inferiority seeing Lee Dojun but naturally couldn’t beat him, and Seo Hanryul and Lee Dojun hit it off.
Lee Dojun learns of the humiliation Seo Hanryul has endured from Cha Jaehyun and becomes greatly enraged. The two meticulously gather evidence of Cha Jaehyun’s evil deeds—drug smuggling, assault instigation, attempted rape, kidnapping—and expose it all at once, and the world learns of the existence of Daejin Group’s illegitimate son, Cha Jaehyun. The Chairman, who had turned a blind eye to Cha Jaehyun’s behavior until then, also becomes furious when his conduct is revealed to the world and the company’s image is damaged.
In the end, Cha Jaehyun is sentenced to 15 years in prison. There was no leniency, and he’s completely abandoned even by his family. On the day Seo Hanryul receives an acting grand prize and spends the best day with the people around him, Cha Jaehyun ends his life by suicide in prison.
‘Of all people, I had to enter this bastard.’
Soul-swapping, not even a parallel world, but possession into a book. And even if I was possessed, I possessed a piece of trash. The only thing this bastard and I have in common is being 26 years old. I can go back, right? I really desperately want to go back.
Though it’s embarrassing to say myself, I studied diligently without troubling my parents once and entered a prestigious university. After enrollment, I maintained high grades while working part-time jobs, covering all my tuition and living expenses myself.
But the wall of employment was high. As the job-hunting period lengthened, I gradually grew exhausted, and sometimes complaints toward the world arose. Perhaps because of that, I occasionally thought, “What if I had been a rich family’s son?” But I would soon gather my resolve and devote myself to job-hunting studies again.
‘God, surely you’re not giving me this absurd punishment just because I complained a little? People can be like that—how can you give such a trial?’
‘I’ll go back and study hard again and get a job with dignity. Please let me go home.’
I made wishes in a pathetic posture, but naturally, no one answered.
Ah, I want to cry. I’ve been dropped alone into another world. And into the body of a complete asshole who ends his life by suicide. I’ve barely cried since I was young, I could count the times on my fingers…. My eyes are getting hotter and hotter.
‘Hah….’
Ring ring—
I was sitting alone like a tragic heroine, on the verge of shedding tears, when the phone rang again from that [bastard]. Ten minutes must have already passed. Now it’s do or die. With a “whatever happens, happens” mindset, I answered the phone.
“Just let Seo Hanryul go. I’ve lost interest now.”
“Pardon?”
The man questioned as if asking whether that was really okay.
“Yeah. I won’t say anything later, so let him go safely. Besides, there’s something more urgent than that right now. Come to the front of my house quickly.”
“Yes, understood. I’ll release Seo Hanryul and come straight to the front of your residence, young master.”
With those words, I hung up the phone.
Cha Jaehyun is human scum. That means he doesn’t have a single ally. Just because I’ve entered this bastard’s body doesn’t mean I can act just like him. But becoming a normal person overnight would also be strange. I need to find an appropriate middle ground. Looks like I’ll be doing acting that’s not in my nature.
“Oh God, my head. What is happening…?”
My head hurts like it’s going to split. No, at this point, I wish someone would come and knock me out. I don’t even want to think. First, when the man comes, I’ll think about what to do next.
