1 Chapter 1: The Reader(1)

The Hell Prison,

"Everything is your fault, Marinette. My life would be perfect if you didn't exist." it should be a crime for an angel dressed in white embedded with stardust to set foot in the hell prison, but that angel broke that crime to see a person off.

"Diana..."

When we talk about the sun, there will always be the moon. In a story, a heroine wouldn't exist without a villain.

A heroine whose beauty outshone an angel made that criminal's presence fade.

With skin and bone remaining, the villainess grabbed the iron bar to take a closer look at her visitor.

Through her dusty hair, her eyes full of wrinkles took a look at the heroine. With the help of the moonlight, she finally understood why everything always worked out for her enemy.

Diana never needed to do any dirty deed, and her life was like a tree upon the hill that bore fruit every year.

But on the contrary, the pitiful villainess whose god bestowed an execution upon her tomorrow had her entire body bath in her obstacle's blood.

"Why don't you just die already, Marinette?" it was logical for Diana to hate the villainess.

Everything she did was always right in everyone's eyes.

"Diana..."

The way the villainess called Diana carried the emotion which the male lead, the love interests and the reader will never understand.

Would you notice the voice of an ant calling for your help when you were about to step on them? You will never.

Unlike Marinette, Diana always had the help Marinette always needed. Diana got all the love from her family which was supposed to be Marinette's, the crown prince who was Marinette's fiance, the duke who was Marinette's childhood friend, and the knight who served Marinette and all the readers.

"That tongue of yours...you used it to kill all of my loved ones..."

The heroine was always sweet and kind. Just like a stray cat, their environment always affected them. Diana who stood holding the dagger right now learned from Marinette.

The tongue which never had a droplet of water for many days dropped to the ground along with the blood of Marinette.

Marinette's eyes were lifeless, her lip became straight letting out the blood drip down slowly on her black uniform.

The blood followed its trail down to the prison's cobblestone making a pool of blood.

Diana dropped down her dagger realizing what she had done. She tried to reach out her hand to make up for her mistake, but Marinette didn't take that hand like she always did from the first day she met Diana.

If she had taken Diana's hand from day one, then her path wouldn't lead to her doom.

"Your prince charming, I hope he treats you well."

Staring right into Diana's eyes, the villainess whispered her last word to the heroine.

+++

On the last page of the novel,

[And Diana with her prince charming lived happily ever after from that day on.]

[The end!]

'It's really the end.'

I tried to flip the page to find more of its content, but it marked the end.

There was no marriage or any scene after Marinette died. It was as if the author wrote the story for Marinette. The novel ended when she died.

It felt so wrong for her to die like that after everything Marinette'd been through. I could understand Diana's point to some extent as to why she was mad at Marinette, but Marinette had every reason to be a villainess.

Diana was the one who stole Marinette's fiance. Although the prince was in love with Diana, all Marinette tried to do was fulfil her political duty.

The worst part was the fact that Marinette wasn't even the one who bound her fate to the crown prince, the emperor did.

I closed the book with pity for Marinette.

'I hope you will have your happy ending, Marinette.'

Slap!

A hand on my cheek brought me back to my reality. It was bold of me to wish for other people's happy endings while mine was nowhere close to that.

I put my hand on my burning cheek trying to get up from the floor. I could only look at the alcohol bottles around my father's feet instead of my father's eyes.

I didn't want my morning to become even worse after looking into his eyes. His eyes always reminded me why I shouldn't be born.

His eyes screamed with regret and frustration toward me. Because of me, my mother left him. That was what my father told me.

"That novel of yours, I will burn it if you are lazy like this."

My father and I will never have the same definition of laziness. I worked a part-time job while I was a student to bring him money to buy alcohol, and he only sat at home to get my money, however, I was the one being lazy instead.

If my father tried to be lazy like me, then we wouldn't have to worry about the food we need to eat next month.

My father never taught me anything, but thanks to him, I learned the word 'endurance'.

My life will be fine tomorrow. Everything will be better when I enter college.

I was grateful to myself for all the endurance these years that I managed to save my money to get into college.

My father wasn't the only one who taught me that.

+++

'Die, you b*tch.' 'You ugly b*tch, what an ugly scar.' 'Die!!!!'

After many weeks, I realised I should save my energy to study rather than wipe all of those words off my deck. It still came back even if I wiped it.

At least my school life was more peaceful than before. I prefer this silent bulling.

Many months ago, they would always try to gang up on me and made the ugly shit out of me. But after I broke their arm after pushing down the stairs, they changed their way of bullying.

I got expelled for one month because of that. I already expected that before punishing my bullies, but witnessing how my father responded to that was disappointingly expected.

He didn't pick up the phone when the teacher tried to call him to school. Many teachers knew about the bullying too, but with a little tip into their pocket, it seemed like the bully in their mind changed to me instead.

Sometimes I wondered who was the one who made the quote 'Life is unfair.'

They are my role model.

If life could be fair, then one day, can I wake up without worrying about money? Can I wake up and enjoy my youth?

Those were only wishful thinking.

"Can you all come to my birthday today? The party is at my house."

We really lived in a different world. I never had the privilege to have a happy birthday in my life.

The day I was born wasn't supposed to be celebrated anyway. Instead of wishing for something on my birthday, I only wished for my father to forget about the date and let the day pass by without venting his anger on me because my mother left him on that day.

"Can you...you come to my birthday, Sun-hee?"

"I have job this evening, so have fun, Eun-kyung. Happy birthday."

After wishing for the birthday girl, I left the classroom and headed to the hallway. I needed to take in some fresh air because I was suddenly reminded of something after I talked to Eun-Kyung, my ex-friend.

She was my ex-friend because I always considered her to be my friend until that day. But to her, it seemed like I was never her friend.

She tried to make up for what happened many times from that incident, but the pain was too deep for me to forgive her.

"What're you thinking so hard about?"

That startled me! He appeared just like the cherry blossom fell on my hand.

"Ji-hoon, what're you doing out here?"

"I'm coming after you. I saw you looking gloomy earlier."

'I always look like that though.'

Looking energetic like him took so much energy, so I rather save my energy for my job instead.

I wonder where he got all the energy from for him to worry about someone like me. Even the small bruise on my arm won't escape his sharp eyes.

He put his back against the railing and gave me the strawberry milk as a way of comforting me. Strawberry wasn't my favourite, but he had a special power to change my favourite.

I learned to like strawberry because it reminded me of him.

"Didn't you say you will have a match today--"

"Ah, your novel came to an end today right?" he cut me off while I was asking him.

I sighed and replied to him, "The main characters should be living together happily ever after, I assume."

"Isn't that a happy ending?" he had to confirm my statement because he saw how my eyes turned down when I mentioned the novel.

"The ending felt a bit rushed."

"What's wrong with the ending?"

"The author didn't give the villain and the villainess the proper ending. Tsk, even though I shipped them." I muttered at the end of the sentence.

I didn't mean romantically shipping them, but they would hit it off as the partner in crime.

Cough cough

"Are you alright?"

"I'm alright. I'm alright. But did you ship those two?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"

"Pfft. HAHAHA." he laughed out loud attracting all the attention across the hallway.

I pulled the end of his white shirt gently and whispered, "Stop laughing."

Unlike him, I was never the one needing that much attention from other people. 

"Sorry. Sorry."

"I like the villainess but not because of her character, it's just I felt some connection between us."

Marinette and I shared many things in common, a father who never loved his daughter and the scar on our face.

I poured all of my feelings into her character and imagined what I do if I were her.

"So what about Prince Philip, the villain? Do you like him?"

"No, not at all," I said and then I suddenly felt a chill, I looked up at the tall guy standing beside me.

He looked like someone stabbed him alive.

'Wait, is Philip his favourite character?!'

But why? The villain who gave up the right to the throne? A few people liked him but for me, I didn't know the reason why but my chest felt like it had been stabbed when reading his dialogue and his scene in the novel.

If I could avoid reading his part, I would. I used to cry reading his part as if I met him before.

"I meant, I liked him a little since he was the only one who understands Marinette." I put up the excuse to cheer the guy.

He looked a bit cute when he was sulking. But I still prefer his smile.

We talked and talked until I could spot five to six petals in his hair. The pink cherry blossom suited him. He looked like a prince.

Sadly it might be our last happy moment together.

+++

After school, I got a day off. I was so pleased as I finally had a rest for a day.

But my happiness didn't last long when I saw many people in front of the apartment building I lived in.

"When does the fire department arrive? Hurry, bring the water."

The landlord yelled to my neighbour and those passersby to put out the fire in one of her rented rooms.

People were splashing water as much as they could but the fire appeared to be stronger than water in that scenario.

When other people tried their best to put out the fire, I noticed a man in handcuffs beside the police.

Through people's words, I learned that my father was the one who set the fire. He burned his room by setting the money on fire.

My heart sunk to my stomach, my legs were shaking, and my mind wasn't calm at all. One step told me I should go, and one step told me I should give up.

Even if I tried to go in at that time, the money would have been gone by the time I entered the room. What was the point in trying?

Nevertheless, I dropped my bag and tried to run inside, but a hand grabbed my wrist from behind.

I turned my head to look at the guy who walked me home, his words warning me to stay inside wasn't strong enough to reach my ears.

I couldn't stay when the fire was burning my dream to ashes.

Despite everyone's yell, I managed to go inside. But who was I trying to fool? Even the blanket wouldn't stay in pieces, how can a sheet of paper stay in that fire?

I dropped down with my knee on the sizzling floor.

'I'm tired.'

"Sun-hee!!! Sun-hee!!! Please!!! Let go of me!!!! Sun-hee!! Get out!!!! Please!!!!"

I could hear Jihoon's voice clearly, but I couldn't do as he said because the entrance was already blocked the moment I sat down.

I had a little regret about how I made my decision. Because of fear, I ran into death myself.

I could earn those amounts of money back in four or five years, but I wouldn't return tomorrow.

I was so foolish the time I made my decision to run into fire, and the time I decided to hide money in the pillowcase.

I inhaled the smoke as if it was air. Just like my dream to live a normal college life, I also died in that fire.

Memory Magic: The Ultimate Art of Memory

"I couldn't have my happy ending either, Marinette..."

To be continued...!