After everyone had left, I picked up my phone. My fingertips tingled as if the detoxification wasn’t completely finished, but I could move them. Several banner notifications were floating.
[Notification] <I’ve Been Possessed by a Real-Time Serial Novel> Episode 13 has been uploaded.
[Notification] <I’ve Been Possessed by a Real-Time Serial Novel> Episode 14 has been uploaded.
[Notification] <I’ve Been Possessed by a Real-Time Serial Novel> Episode 15 has been uploaded.
As if telling me all about what had happened in the meantime. Episode 13 contained scenes of me persuading and investigating various people after learning about this matter. A snicker came out. It was something that happened only a few days ago, but at this time I believed I could do it. That I could change anything.
Right. It changed. But could I say this change was meaningful? I felt the corners of my mouth going down again.
Episode 14 depicted the scene where Nam Ihyeon and I met Jeong Sanghyeop. Me holding the dying Jeong Sanghyeop while crying and wailing, telling him about his older sister.
Jeong Sanghyeop felt the deadly poison spreading through his body. He expected it would be terrible. But experiencing it, it wasn’t the worst. The pain he had endured to obtain hypnosis overwhelmed this current pain.
‘I scoffed when those bastards explained it as pain worse than death, but they were right. Dying is better.’
Jeong Sanghyeop felt his body cooling rapidly. He was dying. Within a few minutes, his insignificant life would end. The guide in front of him grabbed him and started shouting.
“Esper Jeong Sanghyeop, snap to attention and listen. I, Esper Jeong Suhee. Esper Jeong Suhee fought doing her utmost until the end.”
“She would have… Because noona is that kind of person. Cough.”
“No! It’s not like that! She fought even though she could have lived!”
What had been covering his eyes was removed. He saw Garam crying until his eyes were bloodshot. He told him to look at his eyes and talked about his older sister. That noona didn’t run away, that she fought until the end even knowing she would die.
‘Ah, I see. Noona and brother-in-law would have. Because they’re those kinds of people.’
After Jeong Sanghyeop killed people, noona believed that saving even one more person was the path to atonement. She was grateful she could do so as an A-class esper. Until the very end, noona had gone while atoning.
‘In the end, it might have been fifteen-year-old me who drove noona to her death.’
At that thought, his heart seemed to sink heavily, but on the other hand, he thought it was fortunate to know this fact before his breath stopped. Because noona ended her life not as a small fry under S-class, but as a righteous hero. At least he could go holding less regret about that death.
He felt hot tears surging. If only they had properly investigated the truth that it was an unavoidable righteous death, that it was the death of righteous and just A-class espers, it wouldn’t have ended up like this. If only they hadn’t closed the case incomprehensibly quickly as a dog’s death that just happened.
Jeong Sanghyeop tried not to cry. He opened his eyes wide and moved his stiffening tongue. There was something he had to do last before dying.
To make the one who told him this final truth not walk the same path as himself. To make Garam run away.
The area around my eyes became moist. Even though I wasn’t the type to cry easily, tears came. I was frustrated that I couldn’t save him, that I couldn’t change the story. It wasn’t that I was swayed by the emotions Jeong Sanghyeop felt.
Tears came from the weakness I possessed. I clenched my fists tight. In his last moment, Jeong Sanghyeop told me. ‘Don’t become a dog and run away!’
Then who was the dog holding my leash? Could it be that I, like Jeong Sanghyeop, also had a connection to that faction? The novel had no mention of the dream I had. As if that dream was separate from the novel.
At the end of Episode 14, I rushed out to save Han Miyeon. In the comment section, readers were excited, each showing different reactions.
[Reader1] Why does my heart hurt so muchㅠㅠ I’m not even a Jeong but a Kim…
⤷ Burst out laughing after crying and seeing the commentㅠㅠ Right. I’m a Lee too but briefly became part of the Jeong family. My heart hurts so much
[Reader2] Author’s cliffhanger skill is no joke… Going to read the next part quickly. In a rush. So interesting!
[Reader3] Haewon where did you goㅠㅠ Ihyeon is taking. What? My heart…. Let’s go with Ihyeon x Garam
Everyone had different reactions, but they were enjoying it. Despite it being a storm-like event that had stirred up my life just a few hours ago.
‘Right. To these people, this story is just a novel.’
Still, my feelings were strange. It seemed like something upset me. I sighed and pressed the next episode. Episode 15 depicted events in Han Miyeon’s hospital room. Because I had already been stabbed by a knife and lost consciousness in the beginning, from the middle onward were things I didn’t know.
“Park Garam! Are you crazy? Why are you doing this?”
Ihyeon roughly pushed Han Miyeon away. Han Miyeon, gripping the knife, tumbled onto the bed. Like Jeong Sanghyeop, Han Miyeon vomited blood. Only then did life return to Han Miyeon’s vacant eyes. Seeing the blood pouring from her mouth and the knife in her hand, Han Miyeon suffered as if choking, unable to breathe. Her gaze turned to Nam Ihyeon who was holding Park Garam who had fallen to the floor.
“I, Ihyeon-ssi…”
“Call a doctor! Call a doctor quickly!”
“Ihyeon-ssi…”
Han Miyeon called for him with a desperate voice. Nam Ihyeon’s nerves were all poured only on Garam. Tears flowed from Han Miyeon’s eyes. When Nam Ihyeon’s sharp gaze reached Han Miyeon, Han Miyeon barely opened her mouth.
“Park… Geun, yeong.”
“What?”
“That… bastard.”
“I’ll listen to that stuff later, so hang on. You can live. Everyone can live.”
At Nam Ihyeon’s words, tears flowed from the corners of Han Miyeon’s eyes. She instinctively knew her end. Medical staff rushed in haphazardly. One group moved Garam, one group headed to Han Miyeon.
Han Miyeon tried to grab Nam Ihyeon’s clothes, but couldn’t. She seemed to reach but didn’t. It was because Nam Ihyeon was helping with the movable bed carrying Garam. With tears filling her eyes, she moved her mouth. Her voice no longer came out.
When Nam Ihyeon sent Garam off and turned around, Han Miyeon’s eyes met his. Han Miyeon contained only Nam Ihyeon. Nam Ihyeon called her name.
“Guide Han Miyeon.”
Just because he called her name, hot tears flowed from Han Miyeon’s eyes. She closed her eyes. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to open them again.
Han Miyeon’s hypnosis seemed to have been lifted after she stabbed me. She recognized her death the moment the hypnosis was lifted. And she spat out a new name, Park Geun-yeong, and died. She said that bastard.
Who was Park Geun-yeong? Was it the person who hypnotized Han Miyeon? But according to the literature, generally they don’t remember who hypnotized them. In fact, Nam Ihyeon was like that too.
“Park Geun-yeong.”
I tried entering the name into the application that could find S-class espers and guides. First, there was no one named Park Geun-yeong among S-class. Then A-class? No. Since Jeong Sanghyeop was D-class in the first place, grade might not matter.
“Why didn’t she tell me that name beforehand?”
I was the one who had visited her before Nam Ihyeon. When I asked about Jeong Suhee, or even knowing I was digging into hypnosis, why didn’t she tell me? If she thought I was the person who would clear Nam Ihyeon’s false accusation, she should have spoken.
She wouldn’t be someone unrelated to this matter. A name left like a dying wish couldn’t be just any name.
The episode didn’t end there. After Han Miyeon was pronounced dead, I immediately went into surgery. A doctor came over from the research building to analyze the poison on the knife and immediately used an antidote, but I didn’t regain consciousness. While receiving treatment in the intensive care unit, Kim Haewon and Director Cha Hyeonseok arrived at the hospital.
As soon as Cha Hyeonseok saw Nam Ihyeon’s back, he scolded loudly.
“Hey, you bastard. Why didn’t you answer the phone?”
Nam Ihyeon turned around toward where the sound came from.
“You! What the hell is this state you’re in, man!”
Ihyeon was a mess. It was because the blood splattered on his face and hands was still there. Hyeonseok hurriedly sent him to the shower room, saying he’d get poisoned if poison was on him. Nam Ihyeon finished showering and changed into spare clothes that were in his car.
“What about Park Garam?”
“Take this first.”
Nam Ihyeon gulped down one pill and water he received from Cha Hyeonseok. It was an antidote.
“The poison was identified as phthaldomide. It’s questionable who recreated a drug that was only used in chemical warfare 200 years ago, but.”
“So what about Park Garam?”
When Ihyeon persistently asked about Garam, Haewon’s eyes narrowed. Hyeonseok said there was no danger to his life, but in fact, the doctor had said he wasn’t confident. When Ihyeon sighed as if frustrated, Haewon opened his mouth.
“Is just sighing enough? You should have guarded him well.”
“What?”
At Haewon’s words, Ihyeon’s face crumpled sharply.
I clicked my tongue. I could clearly see them about to fight again like children, going “you’re so great” and “I’m so great.”
“These guys are fighting again. Don’t take up screen time, and hurry up and find out who Park Geun-yeong is.”
I anxiously scrolled down the little that remained.
