In This Life I Will Die as an Actress Not a Villainess Chapter 128

A little later.

Jung Sewoon was handing out food to the alpacas while listening to the zookeeper’s explanation.

Kang Jio stood beside her, smiling contentedly as he watched me.

But then.

Suddenly the alpaca spat.

A glob of thick spit flew through the air and smacked onto my face.

“…?”

I stared at the alpaca in stunned disbelief.

Kang Jio panicked and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe my face…

But then he burst out laughing again.

Kang Jio started giggling uncontrollably.

That’s when Jung Sewoon got completely fed up and threw the handkerchief at him.

“Does Jio-ssi find it funny when I look stupid?”

Jung Sewoon stormed off to another area.

Kang Jio stopped laughing and hurriedly picked up the handkerchief, chasing after Jung Sewoon in a panic.

“No, that’s not it! I just, pfft.”

Kang Jio kept letting out bursts of laughter.

As Jung Sewoon walked faster, Kang Jio finally stopped laughing and grabbed hold of her.

Jung Sewoon whirled around and glared at Kang Jio.

Kang Jio spoke calmly.

“I find it funny when Sewoon-ssi is having fun.”

“What?”

“You don’t need to be perfect here. It’s fine to just enjoy yourself.”

At that, Jung Sewoon softened the sharp look she’d been giving Kang Jio.

“Seriously. You’re good with words.”

“Hm?”

“I’d hate to let the other girls have you.”

“…?”

Jung Sewoon suddenly changed the topic.

“Baek Jangmi and Lee Eunje both left too, didn’t they? You made that happen, right?”

Kang Jio looked at Jung Sewoon with slight surprise.

“Jio-ssi is impressive. Those two are ridiculously stubborn.”

“They both cooperated well.”

“They must’ve really liked you.”

Jung Sewoon smiled slightly.

Kang Jio looked down at Jung Sewoon with an uneasy expression.

“Are you… planning to leave too?”

Jung Sewoon looked at Kang Jio and let out a small laugh.

“What would you do if I threw a tantrum and said I’m not going?”

“…You wouldn’t do that.”

“Yeah. But I also hate borrowing someone else’s body to beg for more time. It hurts my pride.”

“….”

Jung Sewoon looked at Kang Jio seriously.

“The fact that I’m the one who suits Kang Jio best won’t change. Still, you’ve gone this far for me.”

Kang Jio bit his lip as he faced yet another goodbye.

“I should disappear now.”

“Sewoon-ssi.”

“Even when I disappear, I won’t really be gone. I’ll be absorbed into the core personality.”

“Sewoon.”

Kang Jio called Jung Sewoon’s name with a pained expression.

“Don’t call me so sweetly. It makes me not want to leave.”

“….”

“And let me give you one piece of advice. About Yu Dayang—cut ties with her quickly.”

“What do you.”

Kang Jio looked down at Jung Sewoon in surprise.

I was equally shocked by the unexpected words.

“You’ll have to say goodbye to her someday too.”

Kang Jio stared at my face, dumbfounded by words he couldn’t understand.

I couldn’t understand them either.

What the hell does that mean?

“Well then. I’m leaving here with style.”

“Sewoon-ssi.”

“Take care, Kang Jio.”

“Goodbye….”

In one corner of the sunny amusement park, Jung Sewoon gave her final farewell.

* * *

‘(3/5)’

I sat on a bench, staring at the golden letters.

I was waiting for Kang Jio to come back with ice cream.

It feels like I’ve been in this script world for an unusually long time.

Since there haven’t been any loops and the story’s just kept progressing, I’ve gotten even more attached.

Thinking about leaving this script made me a little sad.

Like the personalities who left Yu Dayang’s body one by one, I too would have to say goodbye to Kang Jio.

That’s when Kang Jio returned with ice cream and sat down beside me.

“What were you thinking about?”

Kang Jio handed me the ice cream as he asked.

I couldn’t give him an honest answer.

Kang Jio must be having a hard time too, saying goodbye over and over.

“I was thinking I’m getting tired.”

I answered and took a bite of the ice cream.

“Sweet.”

Kang Jio sat beside me and ate his ice cream without saying anything.

“Sewoon-ssi said something strange.”

“?”

“She told me to prepare to say goodbye to you too.”

“….”

Kang Jio looked at me with a serious expression.

“Yu Dayang. You’re not going to leave me, are you?”

Kang Jio looked extremely anxious as he said this.

Hearing that, I let out a small laugh.

“Leave? Where would I go? I’m Korea’s top star. If I disappeared overnight, the whole world would be looking for me.”

Hearing my answer full of bravado, Kang Jio looked somewhat relieved.

“True. That’s one thing that’s nice about you.”

Kang Jio bit into his ice cream again and said.

“I found that driver.”

“?!”

I whipped around to look at Kang Jio in shock.

“Did you meet him?”

“Yeah. Before coming here. As expected, he was someone bribed by my uncle. But.”

Kang Jio’s face twisted in pain.

“It wasn’t an accident. My uncle ordered him to kill both me and my grandfather.”

“What?”

What the hell.

“I survived from a rigged plan. The driver got scared when the actual accident happened and ran away.”

“Jio-ssi, are you okay?”

“I’m okay. I survived thanks to my grandfather. The problem is I feel so bad for him… And I’m so angry at those people I can’t stand it.”

“….”

I silently pulled Kang Jio into my arms.

“Jio-ssi, this must be so hard for you.”

Kang Jio collapsed weakly into my embrace and dropped his head.

My heart ached.

How could something so horrible happen to someone like this?

I finally understood why Kang Jio always kept people at a distance and treated those around him coldly.

He kept choosing that path because people around him and his own heart kept getting hurt.

I felt so sorry for this man who said life only ever gave him three choices.

Kang Jio, who’d been lying in my arms, reached up and stroked my hair.

“You even know how to comfort people. I’m impressed.”

“Seriously. Who do you think I am?”

I grumbled but hugged Kang Jio even tighter.

* * *

A few days later, at the hospital counseling room.

I’d come because Nam Woohyeok called for me.

“What’s going on?”

I sat down across from Nam Woohyeok, but his expression looked unusually serious.

I sat there growing anxious, when Nam Woohyeok finally spoke.

“Dayang, you…”

“Yeah?”

“You said you don’t remember much from when you were young, right?”

“Ah, yeah. Why?”

It was a confusing question.

Why would he suddenly bring up how Yu Dayang doesn’t remember much from childhood?

“When did you say you first wanted to become an actor?”

“Probably since elementary school?”

I answered based on the script content I remembered.

“Do you remember why you wanted to become an actor?”

“It just seemed fun. An actor’s life looked glamorous somehow. I hated being poor.”

Nam Woohyeok kept asking strange questions.

Answers flowed out of me without thinking.

It felt like Yu Dayang’s personality had gotten slightly involved.

After hearing my answers, Nam Woohyeok hesitated for a moment, then looked at me with determined eyes.

Then said something strange.

“Dayang.”

“What on earth is going on?”

“The final personality, Yu Hayeong.”

“…?”

“That personality might actually be the core personality.”

For a moment, my mind went blank.

It felt like my thought process had completely shut down.

Silence filled the counseling room.

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. Yu Hayeong might have created you…”

Nam Woohyeok couldn’t finish his sentence.

Overwhelmed by shock, my hands trembled.

“Are you saying I’m the created personality…?”

Was this the twist written in the later part of the script?

I couldn’t believe it.

Nam Woohyeok continued.

“It’s just a hypothesis. But I think this is probably the answer.”

That’s when a ringtone sounded from my bag.

I listened to the sound for a moment, then pulled out my phone.

It was Kang Jio.

I answered the call as if in a trance.

-Hello? Dayang-ssi, are you listening?

“….”

-My memory came back. All of it.

* * *

“I remember. That day… when I said I wanted to run away somewhere, you said you wanted to live glamorously like actors on TV. That you were sick of being poor. Sick of people treating you carelessly because you had no dad, because your mom worked at a restaurant, because you had no friends.”

Kang Jio looked at me with complicated eyes as he asked.

“So you created Yu Dayang?”

“You remember now?”

Before I knew it, Yu Hayeong had emerged and calmly asked while listening to Kang Jio’s words.

Kang Jio silently rubbed his face.

His expression looked as tormented as mine.

Kang Jio stared at me for a long time.

His eyes held all sorts of emotions—longing, pain, nostalgia, and a desire to escape.

He looked sad.

“I should’ve been better to you.”

Kang Jio said quietly.

“I would’ve struggled less. I should’ve helped carry your burden.”

“….”

“Then you wouldn’t have ended up like this.”

What kind of person was Yu Hayeong to Kang Jio?

I found myself curious about Kang Jio’s heart, aching this much over her.

That’s when Kang Jio muttered as if he’d heard my unspoken question.

“You were my only friend. My precious person who protected me from my family so many times when things were hard.”

Both Yu Hayeong and I listened quietly to those words.

I’d spent quite a lot of time in Yu Dayang’s body by now.

Was that why?

Watching Kang Jio hurt this much because of Yu Hayeong made me feel strange.

An indescribable sense of powerlessness washed over me.

I’d thought Kang Jio was my person.

I’d thought he was closer to me than any of the other personalities.

And I’d taken for granted that I was obviously the protagonist.

I’d never doubted it…

But it was all wrong.

“I don’t know how to treat you anymore.”

Kang Jio looked confused.

After a moment of silence, Yu Hayeong asked.

“Do you love Yu Dayang?”

Kang Jio’s pupils shook.

“….”

Watching Kang Jio unable to answer easily, I could feel Yu Hayeong getting hurt.

“I stayed asleep for ten years because I missed you, Jio, and finally came out. But you ended up falling in love with a different personality that I created…”

Kang Jio couldn’t answer and dropped his head.

Then after a long while, he finally managed to ask.

“Do you really have to send Yu Dayang away?”

“What?”

“She’s lived in your body for over ten years. Yu Dayang makes up half your life. Isn’t there another way?”

“…….”

Yu Hayeong stared at Kang Jio silently.

“You bastard.”

Yu Hayeong turned away.

* * *

The moment I got home, Yu Hayeong disappeared.

All the strength drained from my body as if I’d lost all energy.

I collapsed onto the sofa and closed my eyes.

Thoughts spiraled endlessly.

So the ending of this work, my ending, is Yu Dayang’s disappearance?

I was furious.

After living in place of Yu Hayeong for over ten years, now I’m supposed to disappear?

Yu Dayang fulfilled all of Yu Hayeong’s dreams and desires.

The other personalities also gave up their lives and left for Yu Hayeong’s sake.

This whole situation felt so unfair.

Could Yu Dayang choose a beautiful farewell with Kang Jio, knowing she has to disappear?

Am I being too greedy?

“Hah…”

I needed to pull myself out of immersion.

“I’m not Yu Dayang.”

I spoke the words aloud.

I’m Han Sena, not Yu Dayang.

When I leave this script, I’ll have to act all five personalities.

I can’t take sides with just one personality.

‘Do you love Yu Dayang?’

But suddenly I remembered Kang Jio’s expression when Yu Hayeong asked that question.

That expression that delivered such a sense of betrayal to Yu Hayeong.

That expression kept pulling me back into immersion.

Then what about the mission?

The number is still 3/5.

Why hasn’t it ended?

Kang Jio loves both Yu Dayang and Yu Hayeong.

Is it because the problem between Yu Dayang and Yu Hayeong hasn’t been resolved yet?

Because Kang Jio is confused…?