Chapter 1: The Reader(1)

The Hell Prison,

"Marinette, I've suffered all my life because of you." Diana bent one of her knees in the white elegant dress embedded with glitter like the star glittered upon the starry night, the red pinky lip grinning but the eyes crying.From the perspective of the knights guarding the hell prison of the empire, she was kind to cry over someone who taunted her for her whole life, killing everyone she loved and cared for."Diana..."The sun had its moon, the empire had its citizen and the heroine of the story will also have the villainess.Tears rolled all over the villainess's face full of the cut as she gripped the iron rod from the other side from Diana.White hair turned dusty, moonlight shone upon her purple eyes as she stared at Diana in a miserable state which was her head will be off her neck tomorrow."For all my life, I hate you." it was logical for Diana to hate the villainess. Her feeling was right, nothing was wrong. Everything she did was always right in everyone's eyes."Diana..." again muttered the same name coming out from the lip of the villainess Marinette calling her half sister's name, the male lead's beloved childhood friend and the one who was sitting on the empress's throne which was meant to be Marinette's.She was always right. The one who was forced to be engaged with the crown prince who she didn't love was wrong. The one who was caged in the basement for two decades was wrong and she, she!!! She who was showered with affection from the duke, the commander, the knight, the citizens, and even the crown prince was right."That tongue of yours...you used it to kill all of my loved ones..."Not like other villainesses who always harassed the female lead, Marinette never laid a finger to kill everyone Diana loved, poison, curse, and assassination, Marinette could do it all behind the scene.Blood splattered all over the cold floor of the prison in which Marinette was prisoned, the blood turned cold. The guards yawned as the dawn approached. With her tongue cut off, Marinette smirked at Diana as her consciousness was fading away with the droplet of blood dripping on her black prisoner uniform.The one who cut the tongue was the kind female lead the readers of the earth and citizens of Anastasia loved. The one who lost the tongue without making a groaning sound was the villainess who everyone hated, wished for her death, and cheered when she was in a miserable state."Your prince charming, I hope he treats you well." the last word from Marinette, the villainess to Diana, 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 couldn't believe it.I was a reader and a fan of this novel since it was first published and the author had to give me such an ending.Diana, the female lead and the childhood friend of the male lead. And Richard, the male lead who was the second prince of the empire was crowded to be the next ruler of Anastasia.I really didn't know what suffering those two had gone through, one thing I knew was their love brought tragedy to all those people around them.Most of the ones who loved Diana died in her place, and the one getting all the blame was Marinette.The one who ordered Marinette to be engaged to Richard was the emperor and yet, she was the villainess.While the main characters were playing the role of the victim, the villain and the villainess went all the way to secure their survival in the world they lived in.Failure meant death--Slap!Ahh...It gave me a chill down to my spine with the slap from my birth father, I looked at his anger face whose eyes were looking down at me. Those hateful eyes he used to glare at me ever since I was a child.It was always those eyes and the lonely back of him which I saw every morning and night in the very four-corner apartment.I glanced at the bottle of alcohol he was holding in his hand.It was empty. He drank faster than before."That novel of yours, I will burn it if you are lazy like this." said the one who never set his foot outside and let me, the high school student to go out there and bring the money for him to buy alcohol.'It's five o'clock...'I woke up early in the morning to read the final chapter of the novel <You're my precious gem> and I never expected that scene was the ending, they didn't even show the execution of the villainess and the villain who rebelled against the couple.I never had the time to be in a bad mood and complaints about such a thing, just only thinking in frustration. Like always, I had to go and buy him the alcohol or else I won't be going to school peacefully.Somehow it was already a habit for me. Nevertheless, it still pained me. I always had that foolish wish that I could have a mother and a happy family like the other kid.I couldn't say anything to him neither protesting nor complaining and just accepted it that was my fate and he was my only father.It was all just about my enduring.'Just a little more time, I will earn enough money to escape from this cage.'If those weren't the worst thing happening to me at that time, then this had to be it.Arriving at school after a morning job, rode a bus here, and found my table with all those cursing from my classmates.'When do people grow up?'I brought out the cleaning handkerchief and wiped all of those stains of marker and the pen's ink.'Die, you b*tch.' 'You ugly b*tch, what an ugly scar.' 'Die!!!!''You slut!!' 'Such a fake.' 'You stink of alcohol!!'If it was me from before, I would throw that table right in those people who wrote those already. I did that kind of thing one though, they who did that to me was forgiven with the bribe they shoved into the principal's pocket and I who the father didn't even answer the principal's phone was expelled for one month.I could only take a very, very deep breath to calm down my nerve and wipe those all off.Just when I thought it was all clean, the moment I sat on the chair, the inside of the table was full of rubbish falling onto the skirt among the two I had to wear for school.Their eyes, the arrogant eyes as they smirked at me. I saw it all, I bit my lip clenching my fist, and sat as nothing happened.'I...can endure it.' the thought kept occurring to me cheering me up. It was me, myself and I. If I gave up on myself too, all of those years I had to endure everything will go in vain.I always wished every night before I went to sleep that one day I would wake up from all of these things. It didn't have to be going to the other world, like reincarnating into the villainess's body or anything.I wished I could wake up as a kid who grew up with both of their parents who loved them and had a lot of money. Some people wanted love, but some of those people, a few never experience what it felt like living without that paper.Life was unfair. They opened their palm and money fell on their hands while I had to collect the tip people sometimes threw right in my face with the scar."Everyone, today is my birthday. So everyone is invited." everyone cheered smiling and laughing when someone invited them to the party.I hated being invited because I had to make an excuse every time but luckily the recent years, my life had been peaceful because most of the people hated me."Sun-hee, will you go to my birthday tonight?" I glanced at her face upon hearing her friendly tone talking to me.I got up from the table and walked past her."Who does she think she is?""Shh!! I heard they were once friends with each other."Yeah, she was my friend. I treated Eun-Kyung as my friend but it seemed like it was only me the one who did so."What're you thinking so hard about?"That startled me!"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.'I really hoped he couldn't see the bruises on my arm, he will make a fuss again if he saw it.I tried to hide it from him by putting my arm behind my back while talking to that energetic guy in front of me with his hand holding the strawberry juice just like the color of his lip smiling at me."Didn't you say you will have a match today--""Ah, your novel came to an end today right?" this guy cut me off while I was asking him.I took a deep breath remembering the ending that morning.It was torture for me to read that novel.My chest felt stuffy and my frustration rose every time I read the villainess part."The main characters ended up living together happily ever after.""Isn't that a happy ending?" he asked me curiously since he saw my face."Yeah, so happy. I heard the author is a high school student. Maybe that's why he rushed that ending.""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 shipping them in a romantic way, 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 really ship those two?""Yeah, what's wrong with that?""Pfft. HAHAHA." he laughed out loud attracting all the attention across the hallway."Stop laughing, you idiot.""Sorry. Sorry.""I like the villainess but not because of her character, it's just I felt some connection between us."It was true from what I said. Marinette and I shared many things in common, a father who never loved his daughter and any mother to rely on. She even had the same scar as me on the right side of the face.I poured all of my feelings into her character and imagined what will I do if I were her.I even wished I would be her, I wanted her to have a happy ending she also deserved."So what about prince Philip, the villain? Do you like him?""No, not at all." I said those 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 favorite 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 ever 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 sulking up.'Ah, he looked happier now.'Time passed by really quickly when I talked to him, now we already arrived at my class.He had a worried look on his face when he waved his hand goodbye to me going back to my class. He was acting like I was going into a tiger den.The class ended, as I walked outside the school gate, Eun-Kyung and her friend hopped on a luxurious black car and drove away at a high speed.I really envied them but I couldn't do anything except go to my workplace.As usual, that day was the day I got my pay.I took a little of it into my saving and hid it from my dad.I hid it in the hiding spot in my house for the college. My suffering will come to an end soon.I smiled walking back to my apartment with smoke coming out of its door.I dropped the grocery on the street seeing the smoke, I felt like something terrible was happening, I rushed and climbed the stair to my apartment with the ominous feeling I couldn't shake off.When I opened my door, I could hear something cracking, it was my hope.All of my hopes were shattering in front of my eyes to the point even my father beat me in front of the fire, I couldn't feel any of it.My money was all gone to ash.All of those years of endurance, all of the cursing of the customers, all of those times I spent imagining my college life living the life happily with the money I earned.'It's gone in a minute.'"You b*ch. I raised you since you were a baby. How dare you hide the money from me?"Why?Why didn't use it on your alcohol instead of burning it?If you do so, at least I won't feel hurt like this.I wanted to cry, I was really tired of all these sh*ts.'Someone...just please get me out of this place.''I'm tired of enduring with expectation.'Memory Magic: Ultimate Art Of MemoryMy head suddenly felt hurt out of the blue, it was alright a moment ago.I had been lying on the floor with the smell of blood spreading around the home lingering around my nose.Although I shouted to my neighbor for help, no one even cared.As result, my head was almost cracked open because of my father. He hit me with the photo frame of my mother.I looked at myself in the mirror seeing how pathetic I became.When I got up from the floor, I walked to the door and there were people walking outside. I hit behind the corner and listened in on the conversation which my father's voice was also heard."Sir. Your daughter is all grown up now. We should let her work at this bar.""Yeah, she's gonna earn a lot of money there.""I will tell her to go there tomorrow."Just what did I expect from him anyway?In the end, I snuck out of the house to the bridge walking with one of my legs pain me in every step.I stood in the middle of the bridge, the wind was so strong there, I could hear the sound of the water hitting the bridge below.That day, there were no people on the bridge.I looked at the full moon of Seoul one last time, I climbed onto the rail.Tears were supposed to be coming out at that moment but nothing came out.I had no regret or any lingering of this world. Maybe even I didn't have the will to stay in this world any longer. I really hit my limit.I looked down from this height of the bride to the river below.But at the last moment when one of my feet was already off the rail, I couldn't. I couldn't jump down.I was really hopeless, I walked back down preparing to suffer for the rest of my life, back to the apartment to live with my father.I bit my lip cursing god. But God made it worse, the rain started pouring down.I walked in the rain, my body felt numb from my legs to my arm.I stood in front of the convenience store from the other side of the road looking at those people enjoying their life and eating ramen happily.I sighed and turned my back walking away from there.But then,Honk honk"Jisoo!!!""Ji-hoon oppa!!"Bang!Rather than going back to that kind of life, I decided to throw away my life for this man's precious person.My blood was all over the street, I couldn't feel my legs.The luxurious car which was driving wildly on the street was crushing into the light pole after hitting me and blew me away for like two meters.In the middle of the rain, the only thing that was warm was this man's arm.It was even warmer than my blood.My eyes were all blurry looking at him sobbing and calling my name, he raised his voice telling me to hold on.Just how could I hold on...in this world? What was left for someone like me?Little by little, my eyes felt heavier."I'm happy I could save your sister...""Sun-hee...please hold on. Don't...""...it was fun.""Don't...""...it was fun being with you. Goodbye, Ji-hoon.""Sun-hee!!! Sun-hee!!! Sun-hee!!!"Sun-hee!!!Sun-hee!!Sun-hee!"Lady Marinette, you're awake."To be continued...!