The world’s hottest celeb, Juliet Karenina.
Born to a Korean mother and a British father.
With beauty worthy of the title “global beauty,” she made a glamorous Hollywood debut as a child actress at age six.
After that, she worked on all kinds of projects, winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress in drama, film, and musical — taking the crown in all three categories — and proving herself a powerhouse actress.
Not stopping there, she used her keen sense and fashion flair to launch her own brand, Blanc de Juliet, at 21, and it was a huge hit.
Juliet Karenina herself became the brand’s value.
Sales continued to soar, and she soon became a successful businesswoman, earning hundreds of billions of won annually. At 24, she was named one of The New York Times’ “Top 10 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs in the World.”
“If anyone wants to talk about a perfect life, tell them to look at Juliet Karenina.” — John Edgerton, director of the film ‘Celebrity Lady’
“Is there even such a thing as something she can’t get her way? — Claire Collins, model for Blanc de Juliet”
She had the attention, admiration, envy, love, and jealousy of people all over the world. Her life had been perfect since birth, and she had never failed at anything.
If “smooth sailing” had a face, it was hers.
…Until yesterday.
“What the…?”
Wait. Nice words, polite words.
My mom always told me, since I was constantly in the public eye, to behave carefully.
“Sorry, Mom.”
But no. This was a situation where swearing was necessary.
I stared into the mirror, squishing my chubby cheeks this way and that.
“Oh, she’s a cute pig.”
Yeah, right.
Even being generous, I didn’t look like some adorable pet pig — more like a prize hog fattened up for the dinner table.
Sure, the flashy red hair, strange golden eyes, and bright milky skin gave off a noble vibe… but that was it.
My face was so big that no matter how much my features tried to stand out, it was pointless, and my double chin completely hid the line of my neck.
No idea how much she’d been eating, but even in a loose A-line dress, the fat on her back and belly made it hard to breathe.
And the kicker? She barely looked older than a middle schooler.
No — the real shock was…
“Calm down, Juliet.”
…this fat girl was me. Juliet Karenina.
“Not even 160 cm tall, but… 80 kilos? No, maybe 90?”
I grabbed and let go of my belly, as round as Namsan Mountain.
Whether it was 80, 90, or 100, I couldn’t say — I’d never weighed this much before.
“This is extreme obesity. Not just unattractive — for your health, you need to diet. At this rate, a heart attack from high blood pressure tomorrow wouldn’t be surprising.”
I sounded like a doctor giving bad news to a patient, my expression bitter as I looked at the girl in the mirror.
But it didn’t calm me down.
Patient? No, this was me.
“But… this…”
I clutched the ornate edge of the mirror, about to cry. I couldn’t even describe how hopeless I felt.
“…is me.”
I’d woken up in this nightmare body exactly eight hours ago.
So, until I woke up in this body, I’d been in Korea.
“I want to show my life not as actress Juliet Karenina on screen, but just as the person Juliet Karenina.”
God, my retirement announcement had been perfect.
I’d thrown my countless fans around the world into shock. After retiring, I switched to being a lifestyle YouTuber with my mom in her home country, Korea.
These days, YouTube is king.
[JulietTV hits 10 million subscribers in just one month]
[Juliet Karenina — will her influence ever fade?]
[Global celeb Juliet Karenina — 200 million social media followers]
[Juliet Karenina — ₩2 billion per sponsored post, still proving she’s “the it girl”]
Every video I uploaded got at least 100 million views. I’d hit 10 million subs in a month, and my second life was just starting in Korea.
That day, like always, I was scrolling through the thousands of comments that flooded in the moment I posted, looking for ones from rubette_pig.
From the weird username alone, I couldn’t tell if they were a fan or not — but their comments were always a little unhinged.
[rubette_pig: You’re really beautiful. I’m so jealous of you. Your life is completely different from mine.]
[rubette_pig: A pretty face, a slim body, and you’re surrounded only by people who love you. I’m jealous. Meanwhile, I’m just a toad today, too.]
[rubette_pig: I want to live as you, just for one day.]
The last comment I’d seen was worrying enough that I asked my manager to dig up their info… and then I went to bed feeling uneasy.
[Rubette_pig: I decided to die today, Juliet.]
That was my last memory.
“My lady! You’re awake!”
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was a young girl nodding off beside my bed.
I’d been famous since I was very young, so I’d had my share of rumors, death threats, and danger that ordinary people couldn’t imagine.
So my first thought was, Great, I’ve been kidnapped again.
“What do you want?”
No need to ask — it’d be money.
To be precise: how much did they want?
“…Excuse me?”
But the girl just looked at me like I was crazy.
The old man she brought in, whom they called “doctor,” did the same.
After asking me a few questions, he gave an absurd diagnosis and left.
“It seems she’s lost her memory from the shock.”
So not only had they kidnapped me from my bed, but now they were treating me like an amnesia patient. At first, I thought, How much are they planning to squeeze out of me with this act?
But after talking to the girl a few times, I became sure — this wasn’t a normal kidnapping. This was… something unreal.
“So my name is… Rubette something? Not Juliet Karenina?”
“My lady…”
“Mirror. Can I see a mirror? No — I’ll find one myself.”
I’d already noticed my fingers were puffy like little fish cakes, but I didn’t want to believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.
Something out of a movie couldn’t happen to me, a woman living quietly in the 21st century.
“Shit!”
But reality was harsh. This wasn’t a dream. I’d gone to sleep and woken up in the body of a complete stranger.
Apparently, this woman had fallen into a pond for some reason, lost consciousness, and had just woken up.
But there was more.
If I’d just swapped bodies with some overweight woman living somewhere on Earth — okay, still ridiculous, but maybe I could wrap my head around it.
After all, “body-swap” plots are all over fantasy movies.
But…
“D-Deckard?”
“Yes, my lady. You’re Lady Rubetria Diollus, only daughter of Duke Leonard Diollus, one of the Four Grand Dukes of the Decard Empire.”
The girl, who introduced herself as my maid Rebecca, had repeated this about twenty times now without a hint of annoyance.
She genuinely seemed to think I had amnesia… and even felt a bit sorry for me.
Honestly, pity was fair in my situation.
Because this place…
…didn’t seem to be Earth at all.
As a public figure, I’d hated being called dumb, so I’d studied history hard — and I knew for a fact the “Decard Empire” had never existed.
“At least you know Korea, right?”
“Korea?”
“UK, USA? All that?”
“…What?”
Even an isolated tribe in the middle of nowhere would know about Britain or America.
Given that I’d already accepted the impossible fact that I was in someone else’s body, it wasn’t hard to also accept that I wasn’t in my world anymore.
Of course, accepting it and getting over the shock were two different things.
I sat on the bed for a long time, praying this was a nightmare, while Rebecca patiently stayed by my side.
“Why do we even have to show our faces in her room just because she woke up?”
“Come on, Lillia. She’s still a lady of the house. We have to put on appearances — we’ll get scolded if we don’t.”
And then, my first unwanted guests showed up — right about the time I could no longer deny this wasn’t a dream.
“So, what, you thought making a scene about drowning would get people to care? You really try everything, don’t you?”
A girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen, with golden hair and golden eyes — drop-dead gorgeous — came in and immediately picked a fight.
“You’re lucky you even woke up. If it were me, I’d rather stay dead than live in that bloated body.”
The boy, about the same age, dragged a chair over like it was his own room and plopped down in it.
The hostility radiating from the two of them was obvious. They looked so alike that I didn’t need anyone to tell me — they were siblings.
