chapter 01

Prologue

This original novel was doomed from the start.

Illena lay in bed, muttering bitterly.

Always bright like the sun, with no wrinkles or shadows, someone who didn’t cry even when sad or lonely.

“The moment someone like me, a person with depression, possessed such a sunshine-type heroine—that’s when everything went wrong.”

She had possessed an overpowered heroine who could control the weather at will. But the problem was a ridiculous setting: the heroine’s emotions affected the weather.

“If I make you cry, it’ll rain in the desert too.”

“Exactly. That’s how everything ended up like this.”

Lost in bitter thoughts, Illena turned her head at the sound of a voice—and saw a viciously handsome man on top of her.

Well, him being on top of her wasn’t the issue. In fact, she might even be okay with that.

The real problem was that the man was actually vicious.

He was the cruel ruler of the desert—and the villain of the original story.

“You won’t last long.”

He spoke coldly, his beautiful eyes glowing with ruthlessness.

“Ah… if only I could control that myself…”

But with depression, she couldn’t control her emotions at will.

She’d long forgotten how to even cry.

“What now?”

Just as Illena was about to ponder her grim future, she gave up and flopped onto the bed.

“What else can I do.”

Sprawled like a limp piece of seaweed, she repeated the new life motto she’d come up with after possessing this world:

“Let’s just live… whatever… half-heartedly.”

Episode 1: I Got Possessed, but I’m Depressed (1)

Choi Inna had depression.

She had been taking a handful of pills every morning and night for about two years.

People often assumed that those with depression were always lethargic and low-energy—but that wasn’t true.

As long as she took her meds on time, daily life was fine.

But why did she have depression in the first place?

Inna was what you’d call a “third-generation chaebol.”

To win her ruthless family’s succession war and earn the approval of her grandfather—the group’s chairman—she had endured it all with the help of medication.

She pretended to be strong, bright, a born leader—faking it all in front of others.

She’d clenched her teeth and trained herself to hide her emotions.

And yet… what the hell was this now?

When she suddenly opened her eyes, the first thing that struck her was the intense tropical sun.

“Miss Illena?”

Then came the smell.

A sweet, vibrant floral scent filled the air.

Towering palm trees she’d never seen in Seoul surrounded her, and large, vividly colored tropical flowers caught her eye.

She was sitting leisurely in a garden more exotic than anywhere she’d ever been.

Far off in the distance, a massive mountain loomed faintly.

“Hmm. Is this… Jeju Island?”

Inna spoke calmly, unfazed.

“And that must be Mount Halla?”

She’d just been in her company office moments ago, so obviously this made no sense—but it was the most logical guess she could make.

“To stand in front of others, one must always stay calm. Never show your emotions—that will become your weakness!”

No matter the situation, keep calm. Her grandfather—the chairman—had drilled that into her endlessly.

“Jeju… you say? What do you mean? Miss Illena, did you doze off for a moment, perhaps? Hehe.”

A woman beside her in a maid uniform laughed politely.

At home, they had live-in staff too—but they never made them wear something so… fetishistic.

“It doesn’t feel like a kidnapping…”

She had been kidnapped before, at age nine, by thugs after her family’s money.

This didn’t feel like that.

Inna calmly considered the second possibility.

“Is this another one of the chairman’s tests? A leadership trial for the successor?”

Yes, that seemed most likely.

“Hmm. Are you from the chairman—”

Just as she tried to gather herself and speak—

Rrrumble—

Thunder suddenly rolled through what had been a sunny, scorching sky.

“Out of nowhere?”

Inna looked up.

The sky was now filled with thick storm clouds that seemed ready to burst into rain at any moment.

“Maybe it’s just a tropical climate… a squall? No, wait. Why am I even in the tropics? And didn’t that foreigner just call me… ‘Illena’?”

She frantically touched her body.

“M-Miss Illena?”

Soft sky-blue hair cascaded down over her shining silver silk dress.

“Who the hell has sky-blue hair?”

She grabbed a handful of the hair in panic.

“Hey, uh… can you tell me… what color are my eyes right now? Are they… lemon yellow?”

“Huh? W-What do you mean, Miss Illena? Why… why are you asking that?”

The maid blinked, confused by the bizarre question.

“Are they?”

Used to handling people, Inna pressed her for an answer.

“Y-Yes, of course. You have unique and beautiful lemon-colored eyes.”

The hair. The eyes.

The name “Illena.” And now this ominous weather.

Rrrumble—

“Looks like it’s going to rain, Miss Illena. We didn’t bring an umbrella, so could you delay the rain just a bit?”

“…”

Even the maid’s casual request confirmed it.

Despite how confusing everything was, Inna made a quick and accurate assessment of her situation:

She had somehow possessed the main character Illena in the novel Happy Island Illena.

Blankly staring up at the gathering storm clouds, she suddenly shouted:

“Damn it! Damn it! I mean…”

Even that level of cursing wasn’t enough to relieve her.

She clenched her fists and yelled at full volume:

“What the F*?!”**

Happy Island Illena.

One day while suffering through depression, she had found the novel tucked away in a bookshelf otherwise filled with finance and management books.

She’d reached for it instinctively.

Because of one desperate word on the cover: “Happy.”

She ended up reading the whole thing in a single sitting.

The story was exactly what the title promised: the life of Illena, who lives happily ever after.

A quick summary of the plot:

Illena, the heroine, lost her parents young and was mistreated in an orphanage.

But she had one unique trait: when she was sad or depressed, it would suddenly rain, and when she was happy, the weather would be clear.

One day, someone from the royal palace came and declared her a divine priestess who could control the weather.

That was the end of the suffering. From then on, it was all smooth sailing.

She entered the palace, was showered with love, and at age twelve, got engaged to the crown prince—the male lead.

The only real crisis came near the end, when she was kidnapped by the desert villain.

But even that was quickly resolved when the male lead came charging in to save her. They got married, and the story ended with a perfect happily-ever-after.

No angst. All fluff. Pure wish fulfillment.

She loved it. She’d reread it multiple times.

Compared to her own cold, emotionless real life, the warm and loving “Happy Island” was a dream. She wished she could go live there.

“But why… why the hell did I end up as Illena?”

And then—it began to rain.

A soft drizzle, light and fluttering, fell from the sky now completely blanketed in dark clouds.

Illena stared at it in despair.

You might think, “Well, if you possessed a beloved character in your favorite novel, shouldn’t it be all smooth sailing?”

The problem was—she had depression.

And in this world, the concept of depression didn’t even exist.

That meant no psychiatrist, no medication.

Her doctor had said she had severe high-functioning depression with anxiety disorder. Oh, and burnout syndrome too.