I Think The Genre Has Changed

Possession (1)

Perhaps because I lived with my older sister, but I was particularly fond of Internet novels from an early age. Even now, at the age of 20, I often find and read Internet novels, or Inso*.

*Inso is Internet + novel (소설 or ‘soseol’)

It was a day that was no different from usual. While walking on the street, I got a Kakao message from my sister and I started scrolling down to open the link of the recommended Inso called “Ending Like This” and it was said to be a masterpiece…

Beep-

The sound of a vehicle horn like those in dramas filled my ears, and then my body was launched into the air with a thump.

Before I felt pain, the flying phone came into view.

Bang!

My body crashed along with the falling phone. When I saw the broken screen amongst the chaotic view, my surroundings became noisy.

Amongst the throbbing pain that came one step late, the noise became distant like a fade-out.

‘Kang Sihyun.’

Everything went blurry before I heard that name. That was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes.

***

The face in the mirror was unfamiliar. Sihyun looked at his face reflected in the clean, spotless mirror, before facing the wall with a dark expression.

The skin that covered his face was pale and clean. Every time he blinked his eyes, thin and voluminous eyelashes came down and lightly went back up.

The ‘original body’ wasn’t ugly either, but ‘Kang Sihyun’, who was six years younger, was so good-looking that even words could never call him ugly.

It was the kind of face that can probably deceive anyone by saying you’re an actor on an idol if you lie on the street.

Sihyeon, who pinched his face, narrowed his brows in clear pain.

It wasn’t a dream. That means the current situation is real.

I transmigrated into a novel.

I never imagined that I would experience something that only happened in fantasy novels.

On 7th February up until March, I woke up in an unfamiliar bed for the first time. Sihyun, who wasted the past month denying reality, was able to admit that this place was not a dream only after realizing tomorrow is the entrance day of high school, even though I had already graduated.

Even after being hit by a ball dozens of times, I never returned to ‘Yoo Sihyun’, and even after waking up several times, the environment never changed. In the end, I was caught by an unknown man after trying to jump off the roof. He probably thought I was crazy and even listened to his sermon.

I think my last memory was a car accident…

I thought I was dead and came to heaven. I also wondered if I had been trapped in Inso hell because I saw Inso so many times.

It’s been a week since I’ve been stuck in my room, ignoring strangers knocking at my door amid my thoughts. After stopping Kang Sihyun’s parents from reporting to the polish, I came to the bathroom, sighed and messed up my black hair.

Light blue eyes sparkled in the mirror. His eyes were so unfamiliar that I felt chills no matter how many times I faced them.

Despite all efforts and attempts, this body did not change and time passed. I had no choice but to admit it, so I carefully examined the person in the mirror as I rolled my eyes.

Dark hair that was too soft and blue eyes that seemed to blend with the sea; raised eyebrows, thin double eyelids – all of that belonged to ‘Kang Sihyun’, a childhood friend of the female lead and the sub-male lead of the Internet novel ‘Ending Like This’.

“…I wish I was going crazy.”

If I was looking at something crazy, I would jump for joy and rejoice right away. But over the past month, it has never been like that.

Tomorrow is Kang Sihyun’s first day of school and entrance day. I pressed my lips and looked at myself as I clenched my fist around the sink.

It had already been more than 10 years since I read the Internet novel that said “It takes three years to get a good harvest.”

If you were possessed and couldn’t get out, you would stay quiet and use all the information you knew to get back to the original world.

But the problem was that I didn’t even know much about ‘Ending Like This’.

If anything, main characters in fantasy novels are a hundred times better.

Why did I have to possess an Internet novel I only read eight pages of?

Usually, the main characters in fantasy novels who were possessed knew the ending of their novels, but I didn’t have any cheat keys. Only the main characters knew all about the cliches of different characters from ten years of experience and reading character descriptions that were confirmed as they read the novel.

What should I do?

Elements and parts are distinctly different. Knowing certain elements of a particular genre did not mean knowing all the works belonging to that genre.

I rolled my blue eyes as I got lost in thought.

The only thing that was clear was the main character of ‘Ending Like This’. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to get involved in the first place?

If I didn’t fall in love with the heroine, Jung Dawoon, and didn’t get involved with the Four Great Heavenly Kings, then the possibility of getting entangled in troublesome things would be reduced.

‘Don’t even look at a tree you can’t climb.’

Engraving the proverbs of the wise in my head, I turned on the water in the sink. After washing my face with refreshing cold water, my chaotically overheated head cooled down.

I didn’t know how to go back or when I could go back.

Therefore, it was best to avoid major characters such as the female protagonist so I can find a way to return after living a quiet and comfortable life. Even the Four Great Heavenly Kings, who can shake people’s spirits, will only associate with the female protagonist. That was the national rule of Internet novels.

The bad guy, the cold guy, the sweet guy and the cute guy. I sighed as I recalled the names of the four characters in the character description column according to the descriptions of the Four Great Heavenly Kings.

Dawoon, who knocked on my door every day for the past week and threatened to kill me if I didn’t open it, made it even more difficult to avoid them. There was nothing else I could do.

My determined eyes became blurry again.

After giving up, I decided to endure it until I found out how to return to the world, yet still feeling hopeless and anxious.