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Chapter 1
Prologue
The moment I opened my eyes, my head felt as though it were about to split apart.
Memories surged into me like the receding tide. The person in those flowing memories was me, yet not me. The unfamiliar memories were dizzying and… disgusting enough to make me want to vomit.
‘…I don’t understand any of this. Who… who are you people? And who am I…?’
‘You don’t know who we are, Florence?’
‘I don’t know… Florence? Is that my name?’
Her pitiful, trembling voice was repulsive. While pretending to cry, she was laughing inside, thinking, Wouldn’t amnesia be the most convenient option? There’s a reason clichés are clichés.
Yes, it must have been convenient.
‘…Yes, Florence. You are Florence. My daughter.’
‘And our little sister, too.’
They smiled warmly at her. Smiles they had never once shown me. They had so readily opened their hearts to her, someone who wasn’t me. Yet they had been so cruel to me, even though I had practically thrown myself at their feet like a dog, baring my belly and begging for their affection.
Everything that had been difficult for me was ridiculously easy and simple for her.
‘Florence, my one and only flower.’
My fiancé, who had never so much as spared me a glance, whispered sweet words of love in a honeyed voice.
He stroked me as though I were precious to him. I had never seen those eyes, burning with such overwhelming warmth that they seemed ready to melt. I had never known such careful, tender touches, as though I might shatter, or the sensation of his palm against my skin, its warmth and texture. The feeling of feathers tickling the back of my throat came vividly back to me.
But those sensations weren’t mine.
I knew nothing of such overwhelming happiness.
I remembered the way he had looked down at me. Those eyes that had regarded me like an annoying gnat when I tripped and fell while chasing after him.
Those weren’t the eyes of a man looking at me with such burning affection. The man who had looked at me could never have gazed at anyone with such warmth.
‘I will never let you go, my love.’
‘Why would I ever leave you? You’re all I have. We’ll be together for the rest of our lives.’
Goosebumps rose across my skin. The sensation of my voice echoing inside my head was horrifying. My voice was speaking, but my will had nothing to do with it.
My body. My voice.
But I wasn’t the one controlling them.
The soul of another woman had taken control of my body.
A soul from another world, a woman named Jang Hyunji, who had possessed me.
‘She can use magic and spirit arts, too? This is insane. Amazing!’
‘Give it back! That’s my body!’
‘And she’s gorgeous, too. Wow, just looking in a mirror would make me feel full!’
‘Give it back, I said! Get out! Disappear, you demon!’
‘And her figure… damn. She’s healthy, too. Wow, look at those slender calves! How did she even walk around with legs like these?’
‘Don’t touch me! Don’t lay a hand on me! Stop moving! Stop it, I said!’
The reflection of my own face in the mirror looked unfamiliar.
Using my face, she made expressions I had never made. I hadn’t smiled. I hadn’t spoken. I hadn’t moved.
A demon had stolen my body!
The woman gazing into the mirror flashed a wide grin and spoke.
‘To think I’d possess a supporting character in a romance fantasy novel I was reading… I feel bad for this girl, but if she was destined to die anyway, someone else possessing her body must have been part of the original plot. That’s how these stories usually go.’
‘No! I didn’t die! I’ve never died!’
‘Florence, I’ll live the rest of your life for you, so don’t worry and pass peacefully into the afterlife.’
‘I’M NOT DEAD! Get out right now! Get out of my body!’
‘So my name is Florence Love Seymour now. Wow, that’s such a long name.’
‘That’s MY name…! My grandmother gave me that name, you demon!’
I screamed and sobbed until my throat felt raw, but my voice never reached anyone. It simply faded into the void.
With a smirk, she turned away from the mirror. The last thing I heard was her cheerful humming as she walked away.
Then my consciousness abruptly cut out, as though someone had switched it off.
I didn’t know how long I cried or how many times I screamed.
No. I don’t want this. Give it back. Disappear.
I cried until I passed out.
And when I opened my eyes, I was in an unfamiliar world.
I knew instinctively. This body belonged to the woman who had stolen mine.
‘No… I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die…’
‘Save me! It’s hot! Why… why is this happening to me…?’
Every night, an unbearable agony descended upon me, as though my entire body were being burned alive.
Flames danced before my eyes. Unfamiliar faces lay motionless, their breathing stilled. I would wake up after fleeing in tears, again and again, dozens of times over.
Inside my head, that woman kept screaming.
‘I’m Florence now. This place belongs to me. Do you think I’ll ever give it back? What if I end up returning to that miserable world?’
‘…I don’t want to die…’
I don’t want to die.
I gasped for breath.
I had lived in Jang Hyunji’s body for barely five months, yet the memories that had accumulated inside me spanned five whole years. Desperate, futile screams drifted through my mind like thick, clinging oil, but a few deep breaths managed to calm my churning stomach, at least a little.
I looked down at my palms.
I clenched my fists, then opened them again. My body moved exactly as I wanted it to.
“…I can move…”
Tears pattered onto my palms.
My own voice, reaching my ears.
My own body, moving as I commanded.
For five years, my body had been stolen by the heroine who possessed the body of a character in a romance fantasy novel.
I had gotten my body back.
