Yeah… The moment I woke up, I found a strange woman strangling me.
“You think you’re so great? Who do you think you are, meeting our Jaehyun oppa?”
She must have been a fan of some actor.
Recently, I’d shot a commercial with him, and of course, that had sparked a scandal.
I’d been getting hate mail full of death threats and even had eggs thrown at me.
But I’d been through enough in my career to handle stuff like that.
I just didn’t expect there to be a fan crazy enough to sneak into my house, actually pull out a knife, and try to kill me.
“Where do you think you’re running?! Die!”
I wrestled with her, rolling off the bed, trying to get away… and then I felt it — the heavy, cold kitchen knife sinking deep into my stomach.
“Ah… no way.”
The pain was so real I curled up, clutching my belly.
Right… I guess I’d been blocking it out because it was so horrible.
My last memory wasn’t of falling asleep — it was being stabbed by that obsessed fan.
‘So… when they said my body only had ten minutes left to live…’
I held onto my fading consciousness and asked Wishit,
“…Am I dead? For real?”
He didn’t answer, which basically meant yes.
“Then Rubette… she wished to switch bodies with me when I was dying?”
I pressed on, hoping I was wrong.
“She didn’t know I was about to die, right? She just wanted my life because she liked it, but I just happened to die right then. Right? Please tell me that’s it.”
“…Sorry, but I can’t give you the answer you want.”
Oh no.
She knew I was dying… and still wished to switch bodies.
Not because she wanted my life, but because she wanted to save me.
Even though we were from completely different worlds… even though she’d never met me before.
‘But… why?’
Wishit explained,
“Rubette had completely lost the will to live. She still had one wish left, but thought it was pointless to use it. She went to throw herself into the pond I’d shown her — the one that let her see your life…”
That’s when I remembered her last comment on my SNS:
Juliet, I’ve decided to die today.
She’d meant it.
“She just wanted to watch your life one last time… and the last thing she saw was you, dying from that stab wound.”
Then Wishit said he’d show me what happened next.
Rubette was screaming into the pond, watching me die.
“No! No! Juliet! Please!”
She called Wishit in a panic.
“I-I still have one wish! Please save Juliet! I’m begging you!”
“I can’t revive the dead. Juliet’s fate is sealed.”
“Then turn back time over there! Let me warn her—”
“I told you, I can’t interfere with the cause-and-effect of that world.”
“So what, Juliet just has to die?!”
“If that’s her fate, yes.”
Rubette broke down worse than I did.
“No… Juliet’s beautiful and glamorous, but she worked for all of it. I know that better than anyone!”
She sobbed,
“She fought so hard, unlike me! She’s amazing! She only slept four hours a day, and even then thought it was a waste of time! Everything she achieved, she earned!”
And then she whispered,
“Such a hardworking person can’t die like this… it’s not fair…”
Finally, she looked up at Wishit with determined eyes.
“As long as I’m not breaking that world’s rules… then switch our souls before she dies. Put me in her body.”
“What?”
“I was going to die anyway. Let me take her place. Juliet would never want to die like this.”
Wishit hesitated, but he couldn’t go against her order.
And so… I woke up in Rubette’s body.
And Rubette… woke up in my dying body.
She lasted ten minutes. Ten minutes of agony before she died instead of me.
When the vision ended, I just sat there for a long time, swallowing the storm of emotions inside me.
It was too much to process — my pointless death, and the life handed to me by a woman I’d never met.
“I… didn’t know. I’m sorry for what I said.”
“It’s fine. You really didn’t know.”
“Hey… can I just… cry for a bit?”
Without waiting for an answer, I buried my face into the bed and cried until I had nothing left.
Later that night
“Done crying?” Wishit asked.
I nodded, my eyes swollen.
“What will you do now?”
“What do you mean?”
“Rubette’s life was so awful, she decided to kill herself even after turning back time. I doubt you can handle all her hardships.”
“Get to the point.”
“You could use me smartly. I’m still bound to Rubette’s body, but since your soul is in here, you can make three wishes.”
That caught me off guard.
“Want to use one now?”
“Okay, sure.”
“Good. I’ll make you skinny—”
“Whoa, stop! Why would I waste a wish on that?!”
“…Not it?”
“Of course not. I can lose weight with diet and exercise. If I suddenly got thin, people would freak out.”
“…Diet? Exercise?”
He clearly doubted me, probably remembering Rubette’s failed diets.
“I was an actress for almost twenty years. I’ve been managing my body all that time. Dieting is the easiest thing for me. I’m not wasting a wish on it.”
“Then what will you wish for?”
I looked him straight in the eye and said, “First…”
