In This Life I Will Die as an Actress Not a Villainess Chapter 171

That dawn, I had another nightmare.

In the living room beyond, my family screamed inside the scorching flames.

Voices agonizing to hear, no matter how many times.

I stumbled backward watching them.

While writhing in pain, my eyes met the man standing at the entrance.

Always the same timing, the same angle.

Firelight flickered in the man’s black eyes.

I stared blankly at those eyes.

Nothing existed in them except the reflection of flames.

The man looked down at me.

“Ugh.”

A chill I’d never felt before.

I jolted awake screaming.

“Huff, huff…”

My breathing came as labored as if I’d actually been inside the flames.

My entire body was soaked in cold sweat.

That’s when the final golden text appeared.

[Reach the starting point. (3/3)]

“Starting point?”

I muttered alone in the dark on-call room.

Right then, the emergency siren wailed.

I flinched violently.

I scrambled up from my spot.

* * *

The scene we arrived at was a small villa.

A building eerily similar to the villa Park Inha had lived in as a child.

The cool dawn air mingled with the hot air from the fire, creating a strange temperature.

While quickly rescuing injured people with the team members, I slipped away when no one was looking and climbed to the rooftop.

There might be rescue targets no one had found yet.

But the higher I climbed toward the rooftop, the stranger the smell became.

“What is this.”

It was gasoline.

Sensing something wrong, I opened the door at the top of the stairs.

The empty rooftop came into view as gasoline fumes hit me full force.

I suddenly sensed someone’s presence.

When I turned my head that direction, a man in work clothes and a hard hat stood there.

“Are you okay?”

I approached in surprise, but the man didn’t move.

“…?”

The moment our eyes met, my entire body froze.

A chill ran down my spine at the gaze visible between his cap and mask.

It was that man.

Only then did I notice the gasoline canister he was holding.

The canister was already empty.

The man looked at me, then casually tossed the canister aside without a word.

A gesture dismissing me as if he’d seen nothing, ignoring my presence completely.

My fingertips trembled.

The man pulled a lighter from his pocket.

The exact same lighter from that day.

My body froze—no words would come out.

I barely managed to turn and look at the stairs I’d just climbed.

Gasoline had been poured over every step.

That’s when Tae Sunwoo’s voice came through the radio.

-Park Inha. Where are you?

Hearing the radio, the man looked back this way.

The man playfully flicked the lighter two or three times.

Then threw the lighter toward me.

In an instant, the rooftop caught fire.

The flames grew larger following the gasoline trail.

My body wouldn’t move until the fire reached my feet.

The man calmly turned his back.

Then disappeared around the rooftop corner.

“No…”

I couldn’t get my feet to leave the ground.

Those feet felt unbearably frustrating.

“Park Inha!!!”

Tae Sunwoo’s voice calling for me came from below the stairs.

“Park Inha!!!”

Sounds like explosions came with his voice.

Just as the flames were about to engulf me, Tae Sunwoo appeared.

“Hey!!! Are you insane??”

Tae Sunwoo grabbed my wrist and ran down the stairs.

Nausea suddenly welled up.

“Urgh.”

“Park Inha!!”

When we got outside the building, I saw the man’s retreating figure in the distance.

As if possessed, I started following him.

Tae Sunwoo grabbed my shoulder.

“Park Inha!!!”

“That man. That’s the man. The one who set fire to my house.”

I muttered like someone who’d lost their mind.

“…!!!”

In that moment, everyone’s eyes turned toward the man disappearing between buildings.

My entire body trembled.

Tae Sunwoo and Kim Youngwoo took off running like mad.

I clenched my shaking hands tight and ran fast too.

My heart pounded so fast I felt like I’d stop breathing.

How was this area laid out again.

I stopped at the point where the man disappeared, recalling the nearby map I’d seen while responding to the call.

I needed to find the fastest route.

I ran quickly through the side alley.

* * *

How long had I been running.

By the time all strength drained from my body.

I saw the man’s back again.

“…!!”

The man also seemed tired, his running pace beginning to slow.

As the distance gradually closed, the man entered some building.

I chased after him quickly.

My legs trembled again as I climbed the seemingly endless stairs.

After climbing past the fifth floor, I stopped briefly.

My chest wouldn’t calm down.

That’s when I heard Tae Sunwoo’s voice from far below.

“Park Inha!!”

“…I’m here.”

Relief washed over me hearing that voice.

It was inexplicable.

How could I feel this calm just hearing the voice of someone I’d been with for such a short time.

And someone who’d done nothing but yell at me.

I quickly climbed the stairs again.

When the end of the stairs started appearing above my head, the man opened the rooftop door.

I squeezed out my last bit of strength and climbed like mad.

When I finally reached the rooftop, the man was frantically searching for an escape route with his back against a wall.

My legs trembled.

I heard Tae Sunwoo’s footsteps chasing up behind me.

The man randomly grabbed a flowerpot on the rooftop and hurled it at me.

I kept approaching straight toward the man, blocking and getting hit by them.

The man, who’d been looking down, seemed to find a safe spot to jump and climbed onto the railing.

“No!”

The moment the man leaped, I grabbed his waist.

My body tilted from the man’s weight and I lost my grip on his waist.

The man screamed as he fell.

I also started plummeting after him in an instant.

“Park Inha!!!!!”

Behind me, Tae Sunwoo screamed.

For that brief moment, my eyes met the man’s.

If I just reached out a little more, I could touch him.

The man’s outer clothing brushed precariously against my fingertips.

“No…”

I stretched out my body and grabbed the man’s clothing.

But his clothing slipped through my grip in an instant.

In that moment, my consciousness cut out as if a film reel had snapped.

* * *

“Sena, Sena!!”

I opened my eyes staring at a white ceiling.

“Aaaaah!!!”

I screamed and sat up.

“Sena!!”

Minyeong unnie and a nurse checked on me.

“Sena, are you okay? Do you know where you are?”

“Where is this!! The man??? Did you catch him?”

“What…?”

Looking at Minyeong unnie’s confused face, I shed tears briefly.

Then I started feeling something was wrong.

Why was Minyeong unnie here.

Did unnie enter the script world too?

I reached out and touched unnie’s cheek.

Pain shot through my shoulder.

“Sena, you can’t move.”

Sena…?

Minyeong unnie called my name.

I looked around with teary eyes.

The scene of a university hospital single room.

What’s going on.

Just moments ago I was definitely chasing that man.

“Am I… Han Sena right now?”

Unnie made a horrified expression.

The nurse also looked at me with a serious face.

“Patient. Do you know where you are?”

“……”

My mind went hazy.

Is this a dream.

I definitely hadn’t finished all the missions yet.

Could this really be the end of the script world?

Did they deliberately end the possession at that timing?

Rage surged up.

I’d lost the arsonist right in front of me.

The emotions from the script world and reality hadn’t separated.

I felt like I was going insane with anger and frustration.

When I silently shed tears, Minyeong unnie made a completely frightened expression.

“Unnie.”

“Sena…?”

“I can’t do this.”

“Can’t do what…?? Sena, what’s wrong.”

“I’m so scared.”

Minyeong unnie hugged me with a shocked face.

The nurse ran out of the room to call a doctor.

* * *

The next afternoon.

I sat staring blankly out the window.

Warm sunlight seeped into the hospital room.

After hearing my diagnosis of severe PTSD, unnie was also suffering a terrible shock.

“Sena, are you okay?”

For unnie, this entire situation must be terrifying mystery.

From the out-of-nowhere car accident to the fire, my nonsense and the strange diagnosis.

Jinseok oppa, who’d been brought in with me, was fine except for his injuries.

I rubbed my hand over my throat area.

I kept having the illusion that my airway was burning.

The acrid smoke still felt like it lingered inside my body.

Tae Sunwoo’s voice as I fell from the rooftop echoed in my ears.

What am I supposed to do if I came out like this.

I bit my lip.

My head was filled entirely with thoughts of the script world.

In that world, did Park Inha catch that man according to the ending?

And did she finally become free…?

‘Then what’s the point.’

When I’m still suffering like this after coming out of the script.

I had another nightmare last night too.

I saw the man inside the flames, and lost him on the rooftop.

I never wanted this kind of method acting.

My heart ached.

To shake off complicated thoughts, I turned on the TV.

My accident was on the news.

‘…Han Sena-ssi was on her way back after mentioning her next project on Jang Dogyeom-ssi’s radio channel. This is CCTV from the accident scene.’

The footage showed fire spreading to the van I’d been in.

Minyeong unnie, who entered the room, jumped in surprise and turned off the TV.

“Why are you watching that! Don’t watch TV for a while.”

“…Right. I did talk about my next project. On the radio.”

A sense of futility washed over me.

Was I even getting punished for announcing my next project on my own.

“Next project, nothing. Don’t worry about it now. QYN said they’ll look for another actor too.”

“No!”

Unnie looked at me in shock.

“I’m going to do it.”

“Sena.”

“I want to do it, unnie.”

I wanted to complete it with my own hands.

I wanted to reach the ending of the script world I’d left unfinished.

Catch the arsonist and return to ordinary daily life.

Only after showing everyone that kind of Park Inha could I finally put a period on it myself.

In this state, I couldn’t do anything.

“If you’re okay with it, could you ask them to delay the filming schedule a bit?”

“Han Sena! What’s gotten into you!!”

“If I can’t do this, I think it’ll be too hard for me, unnie.”

Minyeong unnie looked at me with a confused expression.