Prologue

"It's not easy to get this close to you, Saintess." A figure with silver-white hair and crimson red eyes appeared before her, swiftly grabbing her by the neck.

"You could have just come to me. None of this would have happened." He loosened his grip and made her look around.

The castle was in ruins, littered with dead bodies. Her exhausted friends lay on the floor, and her lover fought for his life, gravely injured.

"Why would you do this?" she asked, her eyes devoid of hope.

He met her gaze with his crimson-red eyes, a playful grin spreading across his face. "Why do you think?" he replied, answering her question with another question.

She paused for a long moment before attempting to answer, but everything suddenly went black.

YOU'VE DIED

GAME OVER

These words flashed on the screen of a mobile phone.

"Did I just die?" I blurted out, realizing I'd lost the game. "How the hell did I lose to a freaking otome game?!" I ranted angrily. 'Aren't games like this supposed to have happy endings for the main character?'

Frustrated, I took a sip of my beer and sighed deeply, glancing at my watch.

5:56 pm.

[It's almost time.] I opened my laptop and navigated to a news website. As soon as it hit 6:00 pm, the news flash started live.

"Breaking news! Kim Seo-ah, the youngest daughter of Mayor Kim Dae-Hyun, posted on her social media accounts exposing the violations and corruptions her father committed since his election. She included files as proof for her accusations." 

As the news flash ended, my phone started to ring.

'Asshole #1.'

[Well, that was fast.]

I answered the phone without hesitation.

"How dare you do this to me, you ungrateful brat! Do you know what you've done?!"

This was the first time he'd ever called me, and the first thing he did was shout.

He continued barking insults without lowering his voice. For a man his age, he sure had a lot of energy.

I took another sip of my beer. "You sure are loud." He probably was surprised because he suddenly went quiet. I bet he's already turning red with anger.

"When I find you, bitch, I will kill you! You hear me?! I will kill you!"

"Well, good luck with that, shithead." I turned off my phone and set it aside.

'I've finally done it!'

I jumped for joy as a sense of ease washed over me. I was finally free from that shitty family, and I'd destroyed everything they built.

I opened another can of beer and took a sip of my sweet victory. I walked to the edge and watched the nightscape before me.

"I should have done this sooner," I said to myself.

I stepped onto the railing, raising my drink in the air. "From now on, I will make myself happy!" I shouted.

[From now on, I will live my life as I want to. I won't let anyone treat me the way my family did.]

As I reminisced, I suddenly felt a push from behind.

[Was I so drunk that a little push could make me fall off the edge?]

Time seemed to slow as I fell, catching a glimpse of a shadowy figure where I had been standing.

[Who—]

And then everything turned black.

I woke up in bed, gasping for breath. I checked my body for injuries, relieved to find none. The dream felt so real that I could still feel the impact of the fall. But as relief washed over me, confusion set in when I realized the room didn't look like mine.

It was small and almost empty, with only a bed and a dressing table with a mirror.

I stood up and went straight to the mirror.

"Who the heck is this?!"

Panicked, I backed away from the mirror, tripping over something and falling to the floor.

"What the hell just happened to me?"