Sua scratched her head.
“…So this is why the world is a place where you live long and see?”
[Lies, Lies, Lies.]
▶ Elements sufficient
▶ Rank 4
Suddenly, the rank dropped.
It was something difficult to predict. It was confusing, and on the other hand, this situation was also amusing.
The script by Writer Hong, not much different from melodramas, kept getting higher in rank, but Seo Yeon-joo’s work showed the opposite trend. It was bound to be strange.
[Yeoncheon-kyung Guide]
[1. Kim Sun-il ─ Yeoncheon-kyung: Peace]
[2. Seo Yeon-joo ─ Unable to Acquire]
The name of Seo Yeon-joo engraved in the guide became even dimmer than before. There had been talk about “unable to acquire” from the start.
Is it Seo Yeon-joo’s problem? Or the problem of the work?
Sua moved her gaze to the script for “Lies, Lies, Lies.” She didn’t need much time to think.
‘There’s nothing to it but to inspect the world inside the script myself.’
Sua’s eyesight wasn’t particularly remarkable, but even so, inspecting closely would likely be of help. Plus, she could take a look at how Seo Yeon-joo’s character felt like.
She took action right away.
Poof!
Sua entered a special transmission hotel.
The corridor was much longer than when she first obtained the transmission compared before, but she easily found the lies script. Without delay, she pressed the dial of the transmission booth.
[Lies, Lies, Lies.]
001 – Park Si-yeon (Yeon-joo)
002 – Lim Soo-hee (Sua)
Sua chose Lim Soo-hee.
The next moment, her vision flipped immediately.
◈◈◈◈◈
Inside the warehouse.
“Huff… Huff…”
Sua was regulating her breathing from the start.
The sense of exhaustion was no joke, the moment the simulation began. It felt as if she had run the athletic field several rounds non-stop. For a while, she suffered from the sensation as if her lungs would burst.
“Huff… Huff….”
At that moment when she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand,
“…”
A bitter smell pricked her nose.
Right after her breathing stabilized, she smelled blood.
However, the Sua who had become ‘Lim Soo-hee’ didn’t care at all. After all, it wasn’t her own blood. She merely rolled her eyes to check the one sprawled on the floor.
“Ugh, uh! Stop! I’m sorry! Please, I beg of you!”
A man with a face covered in blood was groveling.
The pain felt from her fists, as well as the situation of someone groveling to her, wasn’t particularly impressive.
It was just her daily life right now.
“…”
Sua bent her knees and crouched.
Then, without being asked, the blood-covered man knelt and bowed deeply. Like a tree branch that couldn’t withstand a typhoon, trembling violently.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I—”
“…”
It’s ugly, you know? A grown man, talking like that.
Sua spoke briefly.
“Do you want a cigarette?”
“Huh, huh, huh?”
The kneeling man was shocked for a moment but then nodded furiously. He must have thought he shouldn’t go against anything Sua says.
Sua quietly placed a cigarette in the guy’s mouth. Not only that, she even lit it for him. How kind.
She waited a few puffs and then asked.
“Why did you do it?”
“Huh?”
Sua didn’t ask twice, just—
Crack!
“Ahk! Aa, aaah…!”
The man groaned after getting punched in the philtrum. Sua didn’t wait for him to recover. She just hit him until she got the answer she wanted, hitting crazily.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
It wasn’t any kind of sophisticated fighting technique.
She just blindly hit him, but even that was enough. Civilians aren’t accustomed to violence and pain, and Sua, apart from violence, had nothing else.
The largest violent organization in Korea, Gye-ilpa.
Sua is currently the captain of the Gye-ilpa action squad.
Crack! Crack!
Eventually, the opponent confessed in a cry.
“Forgive me! It was Si-yeon! Lady Si-yeon meant it! Just because she was pretty! I just made a joke proposal! I really wasn’t going to do it!”
While listening, Sua found it rather amusing. If he could talk so well now, why didn’t he answer when asked once?
“Hmm…”
Sua quietly adjusted her suit.
“Was the proposal to become an escort at a karaoke bar made as a joke?”
“Forgive me…! Forgive me…!”
“You touch her, and you die.”
“Y-yes! Yes! I understand! Of course!”
“Si-yeon is different from me. She’ll become a prosecutor.”
“Prosecutor, prosecutor it is! Ah, yes! Prosecutor! Fine!”
As Sua stroked the head of the kneeling man and smiled, the man tried to smile affectionately. Even with his disheveled face, he didn’t realize that it only made him look uglier.
Sua continued to smile as she spoke.
“Si-yeon shouldn’t live nastily in dark places. I’ll do the dirty work, and Si-yeon will do the good work.”
“Haha! Yes! She will surely succeed!”
Then, all of a sudden,
“Are you laughing?”
As Sua suddenly became serious, the man flinched.
Just like when a dog wets itself upon seeing the butcher, there was an element in Sua now that ordinary humans lacked. Killing intent. The certainty that she would kill a person.
“Are you finished with the cigarette?”
As Sua picked up the cigarette that had fallen to the floor earlier and examined it while rolling up her sleeves,
“…”
The man started trembling again.
It was instinct. He realized he wouldn’t be let off easily by Sua. To him, Sua, dressed in a black suit, looked like a Grim Reaper.
.
.
.
.
.
After a while,
“…”
Sua looked silently at the male who had become a corpse. There was no particular thought when a person died.
That was the life of the Lim Soo-hee character. Violence was a regular thing.
Sua picked up her phone with blood-stained hands.
“Dispose of one body.”
“Huh? Didn’t I finish all of them yesterday?”
“Other than that. I killed one more just now.”
“Huh? No way, Sister!”
Sua’s right-hand man was silent for a moment before speaking.
“Sister! The prosecutor’s back is already stretched thin! It’s troublesome if we haphazardly kill people who are unrelated! Sister, didn’t I tell you several times last time…?”
The torrential verbal scolding continued, yet Sua only quietly sighed, as if understanding.
“I’m sorry. I’m asking you one more time.”
“Well, this thing isn’t something to apologize and be done with….”
“But it’s not entirely unrelated.”
“Huh?”
“Si-yeon will also become a prosecutor soon.”
Sua was determined.
To clear out anything that would block her friend’s life.
.
.
.
.
.
That evening.
Soup House.
There were two bowls of soup, but only one person was present. Sua, sitting alone, was moving the spoon first.
Then someone joined her.
“Hey! Hey! Are you not a thug? Bad manners not waiting before eating? That’s too much.”
Park Si-yeon (Seo Yeon-joo) arrived.
‘…’
Simultaneously, the inner Sua sensed something strange.
The world Sua usually experienced was one of two types.
First, when the elements weren’t sufficient.
In such cases, appropriate scenarios were given as examples, and familiar characters to Sua appeared. Like the time during the audition when she accidentally killed the chef.
Second, when the elements were sufficient.
Sua experienced the world within the story as it was, but everyone’s faces were blurred. Even though she felt that there were faces, she doubted she could remember them if she tried.
‘…’
But what was in front of her now was different.
Park Si-yeon’s role clearly showed Seo Yeon-joo’s face, clearly.
It was so much that it almost felt like Seo Yeon-joo’s childhood face.
It made you think, “Did Yeon-joo’s school days look like this?”
No matter what, the Su-hi—Soo-hee, the action team captain—continued her actions, pushing over the kimchi.
“Just came back. Eat it.”
“Anyway, I was going to do it. I’m hungry from studying.”
Then, at that moment, Yeon-joo looked at Soo-hee.
More accurately, she saw the bloodstains on Soo-hee’s sleeve. Yeon-joo clicked her tongue disapprovingly and picked up a wet towel.
“I thought you spilled some kimchi broth, but you fought again, didn’t you? I told you it’s not good to have friends with thugs, right? Are you going to hit me too later? So scary.”
While Yeon-joo wiped the sleeve, speaking. Though it was dried blood, it didn’t clean off well.
Soo-hee stared silently at Yeon-joo for a while.
“You won’t hit. Can’t hit.”
To Lim Soo-hee (Sua), who had been raised as a dog in the organization since childhood, Park Si-yeon (Yeon-joo) was the only friend.
Sua perhaps entrusted her life to Yeon-joo.
She was destined to live a life unable to escape from the dark world, while Yeon-joo’s life was still hopeful. Sua hoped that Yeon-joo would live a shining life on Sua’s behalf, allowing her vicarious fulfillment.
Seo Yeon-joo laughed mischievously.
“Wow, really? Then am I better in fighting than you? If we fight, I will certainly win, right?”
“That’s right.”
Sua nodded calmly.
“Park Si-yeon.”
“What? Hey, it’s scary when you call my name.”
“Are you short of money these days?”
“Alright, no to your money.”
Seo Yeon-joo burst out laughing.
“In any case, I don’t eat with my own money these days. You know, when I play shy, men just throw money around, right? We just need to cater a bit, and it’s so much fun.”
“What kind of thing is that?”
“Ah, it’s fine. It’s not like I’ll see them my whole life. The moment I pass the bar exam, we’ll be strangers. I won’t take your money.”
Sua’s expression visibly darkened as she placed an envelope on the table.
“Park Si-yeon, don’t live in a way that damages your dignity.”
“What’s wrong with dignity? It’s good for me to save money, and those older men like eating with a pretty girl like me.”
Sua wanted to express something deep from her heart.
You are precious, and should be proud from one to ten. I hope you thrive without bowing down to anyone. Take this money and use it.
But the vocabulary of a mere thug was insufficient.
“…Don’t live like that. Take it. You’re not a common prostitute.”
“…”
Brief silence.
“…Prostitutes?”
Seo Yeon-joo set her spoon down with a loud thud.
She looked serious, about to say something, but then—
“…”
She suddenly laughed, picking up the envelope.
“Well, you’re right. Got it! I’ll use it well!”
The first experience of the three-lies script ended there.
Poof!
While returning to the original world,
Sua reflected. There was something that stood out.
‘Yeon-joo sister’s smile…’
It was strange. Bright, yet it felt sorrowful.
