Chapter 3
Luri decided to cool her head and think about it more calmly.
What if this was not a dream, but reality?
What if she had really been possessed into the web novel that Sowooju wrote?
What was she supposed to do?
Should she find a way to return to the real world somehow?
Or should she be happy because she was no longer a worker ant who had to work herself to death every day, but the precious daughter of a count who could live her whole life playing and eating?
But what was the point of being the daughter of a rich family?
She was going to die by a sword, wasn’t she?
“Lily, what day is it today?”
She turned her head and asked Lily.
Lily seemed relieved that Luna had finally come back to her senses and counted on her fingers before answering.
“It is August 25th, Year 26 of the Line Empire.”
Year 26 of the Line Empire?
Right, before, Sowooju had said that the empire in the novel was a country that had been unified by the current emperor.
Then it meant 26 years had passed since he conquered all the other countries.
That man Sowooju had said he would set the empire calendar based on my age.
And in Year 27 of the Empire, when another year passed, Luna would be killed by the Crown Prince’s sword.
That was what he said, wasn’t it?
Then, even if I don’t know the exact date, it means I’m going to die next year?
Ah, damn it.
Did that bastard really expect me to live here for only one year and then die?
Well, it wasn’t like that man wrote the story because he wanted me to die.
Actually, 《Love, The Promise of Flowers》 was a web novel that Luri had pushed Sowooju into writing.
Although Sowooju was now a flashy and successful model, when Luri first met him around the third grade of elementary school, the middle school boy named Wooju was a literary boy who would blush whenever they talked about books he liked.
A tall and handsome boy who always carried novels around was often teased.
They said he was “girly.”
Geez.
What did liking books have to do with being girly?
And even if he was girly, so what?!
But Wooju was not just a bookworm who only carried books around.
On the day they first met, Luri was surrounded by kids who were teasing her for being the daughter of a woman who ran a bar.
She couldn’t say anything and could only sniffle with tears in her eyes.
“Hey, what are you guys doing?! You little brats, get lost! Do you want to get in trouble? I’ll really—!”
Wooju, who was already over 170 centimeters tall in his first year of middle school, raised his fist threateningly.
The tiny kids scattered like grains of sand.
After that, rumors spread that a scary older brother was protecting Luri, and she was able to enjoy a fairly comfortable school life.
However, the truth was that after the kids ran away, Wooju collapsed on the spot, clutching his pounding heart.
‘H-Hello… I’m Lee Luri. Who are you, oppa?’
Little Luri greeted the cool older brother who had helped her first.
Only then did Wooju raise his head.
With a smile as bright as sunlight, he looked at Luri and spoke.
‘Hello, Luri. Your name is as pretty as your face. I’m Sowooju.’
Maybe it was because someone had shown her kindness without expecting anything in return.
Or maybe it was because of that dazzling smile from the handsome older boy.
Little Luri became a huge fan of Wooju oppa after that day.
The literary boy Wooju grew taller every day.
Then he threw away his shy smile and became a famous model in his twenties.
After becoming a model, his personality changed a lot.
He approached everyone without hesitation and often talked about silly and meaningless things.
People seemed unable to see the real him.
They called him things like a sly fox or a selfish person—words that could have been either insults or compliments.
In reality, Wooju had a free-spirited side, just like his constantly changing dyed hair and the colored lenses he changed so often that no one could tell his real eye color.
But to Luri, he was still the same thoughtful, kind, and serious older brother.
Instead, she felt upset that people couldn’t see the true side of Wooju.
So one day, she casually suggested this to him.
‘Wooju oppa, why don’t you write a novel? Web novels are popular these days, so you should write one too, okay? There are lots of platforms where you can upload them now. You were such a literary boy before. Write the story you really want to tell and upload it. Then people will see you differently.’
At the time, Sowooju waved his hands and said he had no idea how to write a novel.
But not long after, he scratched his head and confessed that he had actually started writing one.
And he added that he had chosen Luri’s favorite genre.
BL.
‘Luri, the BL that Luri likes.’
That was exactly the problem.
BL was a genre where men became the main characters and the couple.
The role women could play in BL was usually either an obstacle who interfered with the destined love between two men, a former girlfriend who gave them painful wounds, or at best, a female friend who gave the male leads some decent advice.
If not that, she would just be an extra female fan cheering for the male couple.
Girl fan number 123, girl fan number 124.
Anyway, among the few female roles available, the worst one was the female supporting villain who desperately tried to separate the male couple and eventually received punishment for her sins.
And that was exactly me!
No, seriously.
Couldn’t they just have their beautiful and destined love between themselves?
Why did they have to make some female character into a bad woman?
Why?!
But the person who had suggested adding a role to create conflict in the story was none other than Luri herself.
Actually, there was a reason why Luri became a BL fan.
Ever since she could remember, her mother had run a bar.
The women working there were not related to her by blood at all, but there were many older sisters like Miss Kim and Miss Jung.
They all called Luri’s mother “Madam.”
Maybe because her mother had good business skills, Luri never had serious financial problems.
However, when the nights became dark, she had to endure loneliness alone in a large house.
And during the bright daytime, she had to listen to her mother’s complaints while she was still hungover.
Sometimes, when unfamiliar men came to the house, young Luri had to lock herself in her room and stay as quiet as a mouse.
Maybe because of that environment and lifestyle?
As Luri grew older, she became completely disgusted by real-life men.
Maybe she was scared.
Except for Wooju.
That did not mean she had no interest in men or love.
Like any teenage girl, she would get excited when she saw handsome idols or actors and dream about sweet romances with them.
But dating a man herself felt uncomfortable.
So when BL web novels and webtoons, filled with handsome and beautiful men falling in love, became popular, she quickly fell into that world.
The person who learned about the BL genre because of Luri was Sowooju.
No wonder they got along so well whenever they talked about BL.
How much could he have talked about it if he was gay?
And I didn’t even know.
I thought he just still had the delicate emotions of a literary boy.
I was such an idiot.
But that wasn’t the problem right now.
Because of the BL web novel I pushed him into writing, I’m about to die!
Wait.
Couldn’t I just wake up tomorrow and find myself back at home or lying in some hospital?
But what if that doesn’t happen?
What if I really am stuck inside this damn BL novel?
That Schwindel or whatever his name was…
To make himself mine, what did he say?
That I had to become stronger?
That kind of nonsense from a psycho, and then I’m supposed to just dance along with the love game between him and the prettier Crown Prince Pannen before quietly getting stabbed to death?!
I’m not the kind of woman who ruins someone else’s love.
Didn’t you see yesterday?
Even when my manager, who hated the man who had lied to me for 16 years, was having an engagement ceremony with him, I still coolly asked him to love my Wooju oppa and left!!
Isn’t that enough?!
Although I’m not sure if I was really that cool.
Lily grabbed her curly red hair with both hands as she watched Luna bury her head into the bed and lift it again repeatedly.
Her face turned pale.
Just what had the young lady seen in the greenhouse to become like this?
This couldn’t continue.
She had to tell the master and the young master!
Lily suddenly stood up from the bed.
“Miss, I’ll go out for a moment. Please don’t go anywhere. You must stay in your room, okay? Please.”
The rabbit-like Lily quickly opened the door and hopped out.
Seeing that cute young lady leave with a face full of 100% fear…
This place really wasn’t a dream.
Even if this was a dream, if she never woke up, then how was it different from reality?
Whether it was a novel, a dream, or reality…
Lee Luri had now become Luna de Mirage.
And there were only two paths ahead of her.
Either follow the story and live obediently until she died peacefully.
Or twist the story by force and desperately survive.
Besides, when Schwindel touched her face earlier, memories from the past had appeared.
Maybe Luna’s original soul or memories were still left inside this body.
Luna rubbed her own cheeks and hair with her hands, just in case.
But unlike when Schwindel touched her earlier, she could not see any memories from the past.
Somehow, her heart felt unsettled.
She rubbed under her eyes with her hand, but her tears had already dried.
If I were still Luri, I should have covered my mouth and blushed in excitement while watching the two male leads of Sowooju’s novel kiss each other’s necks.
Then why did tears flow without me realizing it?
Yes.
This must be proof that Luna’s soul or memories remained inside my body.
Oh my god.
Luri looked over her own hands and body as if she couldn’t believe it.
Then she picked up the mirror again.
Inside it was the golden-eyed girl with a wounded expression.
Her eyes and lips trembled slightly.
A girl like this was a villainess?
Thinking about it, Luna was actually a pitiful woman.
She had only loved the friend of her older brother, who was six years older than her, ever since she was young.
She had loved him faithfully for a long time.
But then suddenly, the beautiful Crown Prince Pannen, with platinum blond hair and blue eyes, appeared as her rival.
In the first place, the scale in a BL novel was already tilted from the beginning.
And without knowing that, she struggled desperately to change the heart of the man she loved…
Only to die by the hands of that fragile-looking Crown Prince.
Luri saw her own face overlapping with Luna’s lonely face in the mirror.
The girl in the mirror was still trembling around her eyes and lips.
Should she hide this expression?
Maybe from the beginning, Sowooju had created this BL web novel by putting himself into Schwindel, the Crown Prince Pannen as her manager So-you, and herself as Luna.
Thinking that made Luri feel even more annoyed at Sowooju.
He said something about being soulmates and wanted to give her this novel as a gift.
Then he made her promise with a pinky finger that she would only read it after the story was completely finished.
There must have been a reason for that.
If I really died in the real world because of a car accident…
I can’t die so meaninglessly here too.
Who would that benefit?
But that didn’t mean she planned to forcefully defeat the BL male leads.
How many years had she spent reading BL since college?
The money she had spent on it alone was probably at least several thousand dollars.
If she lined up all the BL webtoons and web novels she had read until now, they might circle the Earth several times.
Anyway…
No one could defeat their beautiful and great love.
Especially not a woman.
At that moment—
Bang!
The door suddenly opened, and two men rushed inside.
“Luna de Mirage, you’re finally awake!”
“N-Nuna, are you okay?”
