Celebrity Lady

Chapter 5

As soon as I woke up, I was faced with the face of a strange woman who was strangling my throat.

“Are you that good? How dare you meet our Jaehyun-oppa.”

Perhaps that woman who infiltrated my house was a huge fan of actor Ha Jaehyun.

Recently, after I shot an advertisement with Ha Jaehyun, I was unfortunately caught up in a scandal and suffered a lot.

I’ve received letters full of death threats from his fanatic fans or got beaten with raw eggs many times.

Still, it was tolerable because it was familiar to me, who had been through all sorts of hardships.

But really, I never imagined that there would be such a fanatic who actually take out a knife while hiding in my house with the intention of killing me…

“Where do you want to run? Die!”

That time when I was struggling and finally getting out of bed and running away.

I could clearly feel the coolness of the heavy kitchen knife that stabbed deep into my stomach.

“Ah, how absurd.”

It was hot as if the pain had just transferred to me, so I grabbed my stomach for a moment and crouched down.

‘Yes, I was mistaken. It must have been such a terrible memory that I wanted to forget it.’

My last memory was not falling asleep. It was being stabbed right there, by Ha Jaehyun’s fanatic fan.

‘Then, don’t tell me that my body had only 10 minutes left to live…’

I grabbed hold of my confused mind and carefully asked Wishit.

“…I’m dead, aren’t I? For real?”

Wishit was silent again at my question. This time, it was a confirmation.

“Then did Rubette make a wish to switch with my dying body?”

“…”

I asked further, hoping that my prediction would be wrong.

“Sh-she made such a wish without knowing it, right? She just made a wish because she was greedy for my life, and unfortunately, I just died, right? Is that so?”

“…”

“…Can you please tell me?”

“I’m sorry I can’t give you the answer you want.”

“Oh, my God.”

Don’t tell me she knew I was going to die? She made a wish to switch our bodies even though she knew it?

It left no room for other interpretations. Rubette made such a wish not because she wanted my life, but to save me like this.

For me, who lived in a completely different world, who didn’t even know her existence.

‘Why?’

Looking at me confused, Wishit said.

“Rubette, at the end, had lost all her will to live. She had one of her three wishes left, but she didn’t feel like it was worth using about. In the end, she went to throw herself into the pond where she peeked into your life…”

With those words, I remembered the last comment that Rubette left on my social media.

I decided to die today, Juliet.

It seemed sincere.

“I wanted to watch your life one last time before I die. The last scene happened to be you, stabbed to death.”

“…”

“You may think it’s cruel, but there’s something I want to show you. The appearance of Rubette making her last wish.”

Wishit, who muttered with an indifferent expression, lightly tapped my forehead. At that moment, a scene was drawn like a shudder in my mind.

Looking into the pond where my dying self unfolded, Rubette was crying.

“No! No! Juliet! Please!”

She immediately summoned Wishit, shouting shakily.

“A wish. I want to make a wish. Please save Juliet. Please.”

“I’m sorry, but you can’t bring the dead back to life. The gears of fate have already turned, and Juliet Karenina is doomed to die soon.”

“Then, can you at least turn back the time over there? We have to somehow tell Juliet to avoid…”

“Didn’t I tell you already? Interfering with causality in the other world is beyond my ability.”

“Then? Should Juliet just die like that?”

“If that is the fate of Juliet Karenina.”

Wishit’s answer made Rubette more distressed than I was, the party directly involved.

“It can’t… Juliet had a pretty, glamorous life, but I know better than anyone that she didn’t get it without trying.”

Her voice, crying and muttering, lingered clearly in my head, and suddenly I choked.

“She lives a hard life! Unlike me, who is stupid! Juliet is such a wonderful person!”

Rubette cried like a madman.

“She is the kind of person who sleeps four hours a day and doesn’t want to waste these four hours! Juliet didn’t just get everything she achieved!”

“…”

“A very, very hard…! Someone who cares so much about her life like that, dying in vain like this…”

“…”

“It can’t be like this. It really can’t be like this.”

Rubette, who was watching me bleeding and dying with empty eyes, said to Wishit with a changed look at once.

“It will be okay as long as you don’t interfere in the causal relationship of the world over there, right?”

“What are you thinking?”

“Right now, before Juliet is completely out of breath.”

“…”

“Swap the souls of me and Juliet. If you can’t save Juliet, I’ll go into that body and die instead.”

“What?”

“Because I wanted to die anyway.”

“Are you crazy? You— If I grant that wish—”

“You are in my power, and this is my command. Change our souls right now. Juliet would never want to die like this.”

“Ha…”

“A lot more than me, who is useless if I have lived… I’m sure she’s someone who has a lingering attachment to life.”

Wishit could not disobey Rubette’s orders.

So I woke up in Rubette’s body, and Rubette woke up in my dying body.

And she passed away in my body, writhing in the agony of death, just ten minutes later.

‘Nonsense. What the hell am I…’

After the first glimpse of Rubette’s figure faded like an afterimage in my head and then disappeared.

I stayed silent for a very long time, suppressing the feeling of nausea.

It was a difficult reality to accept all at once.

A futile death.

And lastly, a woman named Rubetria Diollus, whom I didn’t even know existed, gave me…

A new life.

“I, I didn’t know…”

“…”

“Because I was bullied… I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. As you said, you didn’t know.”

“Yes.”

“…”

“Can you give me a little time to cry?”

Without waiting for Wishit’s silent reply, I lay flat on the bed. Tears started flowing right away.

***

At dawn.

By that time I thought that there would be no more tears to shed because all the moisture in my body had drained out.

“Are you done crying?”

Wishit, who had been by my side all the time when I cried, asked. I barely looked at him with puffy eyes and nodded my head.

“What will you do?”

“What should I do?”

“I must tell you, Rubette’s life is so difficult and miserable that she decided to commit suicide after returning. Perhaps all the ordeal surrounding her will be difficult for you to bear.”

“…What do you want to say? Don’t beat around the bush and tell me.”

“Maybe you can use me cleverly.”

Wishit crossed his arms and looked down at me, adding.

“I’m still in the grip of ‘Rubetria Diollus’ body, but now that the soul inside is different, you can make three new wishes to me.”

The unexpected remark surprised me. Wishit, who smiled like it was the expected reaction, suggested.

“What do you think? Would you like to use one now?”

“…Okay. I’ll use it right away.”

“Good. I will make you slim.”

As if he had expected the wish to be granted, Wishit gestured for a finger swipe.

I groaned and scrambled up and grabbed his hand.

“Are you crazy? Why would I make a wish like that when I can only wish three times?”

“Isn’t it?”

“Of course not. You can lose weight by controlling your diet and exercising. And how strange would people think if I suddenly became thin?”

“…Controlling diet? Exercising?”

Wishit’s eyes were questioning. It seemed that he remembered the history of Rubette’s failed diet in the past.

“I was an actor. I’ve been taking care of my body for nearly 20 years since my debut. I exercise every day, check my diet, and every time I enter a new set, I control my weight, so the easiest thing for me is dieting. Take off your hand right away. I won’t make that wish.”

“Then what will you wish for?”

To Wishit, who asked with confused eyes, I immediately stated my wish.

“First of all…”