In This Life I Will Die as an Actress Not a Villainess Chapter 66

Four days later.

The filming had already reached its final two climactic scenes.

As expected, the brief short film shoot left us with regrets.

Inside the pension, the four of us sat around the prepared table—me, Kkotbyeol, Jaehyung-ssi, and Won Hyerim sunbaenim.

Everyone else was already dead.

I lifted the camcorder I’d brought and panned across the faces of those seated at the table, one by one.

With the camcorder fixed on Kkotbyeol’s Eunchae, I asked.

“What do you want to do? Take your share of the money and leave?”

Eunchae shook her head disinterestedly.

“I really came here to die. I don’t need money.”

Yeongsil, sitting beside her, scoffed at those words.

“What could a kid possibly have that’s so hard? Do you even know what dying means?”

Eunchae stared at Won Hyerim with a blank expression.

“That psycho bitch. Girls like you scare me the most. Good thing I never had kids. What if they turned out like that?”

The moment Yeongsil finished speaking, she suddenly grimaced and clutched her throat.

“Kuk. Kuk…!”

Yeongsil convulsed violently and collapsed sideways.

“Kek… kekkek…”

Veins bulged across Yeongsil’s throat.

“No… way…”

Yeongsil’s breath stopped, eyes still open.

It happened in an instant.

Without a word, I raised the camcorder to capture Yeongsil’s lifeless body.

That’s when Jaehyung-ssi spoke.

In Yu Junho’s voice, completely devoid of emotion.

“Why are you so obsessed with that camera?”

“I need to leave a record.”

“Why?”

I looked away from the camcorder to meet Yu Junho’s eyes.

“At first it was just a selfish desire to let people know. But now it’s different.”

“…”

“I need to preserve evidence of what murderers like you have done.”

As my words ended, silence descended over the table.

Yu Junho began laughing like a madman.

His low laughter echoed eerily through the room.

“When did you figure it out?”

Yu Junho asked for the first time, sounding almost pleased.

Without answering, I captured his laughing face on the camcorder.

After Yu Junho finished laughing, he spoke.

“Aren’t the people who died here utterly stupid?”

“…”

“They could’ve died keeping their pure desire to die intact, but they ended up dying over money instead. Not even knowing whose money it was, or why it was here.”

Yu Junho had hit the nail on the head.

The question no one had asked while blindly chasing the money.

“Do you know?”

At my question, Yu Junho didn’t answer.

He simply stared straight into the camcorder while pulling a knife from his pocket.

“Of course I don’t know.”

That meant he had no interest.

His interest, his purpose, his reason for coming to this pension—it was all just to commit murder.

Yu Junho flipped the table violently.

Eunchae let out a short scream beside me.

Timing it perfectly, I dropped the camcorder to the floor.

I raised my hand and counted down on my fingers.

‘5, 4, …, 1.’

“Cut, okay!”

I called out the okay as I picked up the camcorder.

The actors who’d been watching our performance from inside the room came flooding out.

“Everyone worked so hard!”

“Wow, it ended so fast. What a shame!”

“Hyerim sunbaenim, I seriously thought you took poison. You scared me.”

While everyone exchanged closing greetings, Yuri-ssi asked.

“Just one shot left now, right?”

I nodded at her words.

“Should we all go outside together to film this scene?”

The final cut would capture this island’s scenery.

I wanted to wrap up this brief journey together with everyone.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

“Should we all stay on the island for two more days? It’s such a shame.”

Jang Heeyeong sunbaenim tossed out an impossible wish, clearly reluctant to leave.

“I have a schedule, sunbaenim. Sorry.”

“I need to go back up too, oppa.”

“Ugh, you’re all just pretending to be busy!”

Everyone chatted away as we left the pension.

Even the island seemed to be honoring the final cut’s finale—a brilliant sunset was descending in the distance.

It was a breathtaking view.

For a moment, everyone gazed at the sky without saying a word.

* * *

Two weeks later, a company lunchtime somewhere.

People had gathered in small groups watching Han Sena’s video uploaded to iTube.

Someone reached out to pause the video at the moment Jang Heeyeong died.

“Are they insane?”

“Wow, that’s creepy.”

“Who put this on? Deputy Manager Kim? Where’d you even find this?”

“I just clicked because it was trending at the top. I’d never seen this channel before either. InTheBazookaFo…?”

“Everyone shh! Quick, hit play!”

* * *

The same time, at a run-down PC cafe.

Male students in uniforms, apparently ditching school, had gathered around a monitor in broad daylight.

Cup noodles were piled high at the station where the video was playing.

“You were the one who said it. Trust is like rat poison here. And after saying that, what if you trust me?”

Seon Yuseok, who’d locked the door with a key at some point, grinned menacingly at Won Hyerim.

Won Hyerim trembled with rage, her eyelids fluttering.

“The acting’s insane.”

“Shut up, you idiot.”

One male student had barely let out an exclamation before getting cursed at.

“We were on the same side. Remember? Let’s get out and live together, you said. That you liked me…”

Won Hyerim began clinging to Seon Yuseok.

When Seon Yuseok looked utterly dismissive, Won Hyerim spoke as if she’d made up her mind.

“Then hug me one last time. I’ll give up the money. I’m a lonely person, you know…”

As she closed the distance one step, two steps.

Won Hyerim suddenly pulled a knife from her pocket and stabbed Seon Yuseok in the stomach.

“…!!”

Seon Yuseok collapsed to the floor without even managing to scream.

Won Hyerim snatched the storage room key from Seon Yuseok.

“I told you, didn’t I? Trust is rat poison.”

* * *

Half a day later, on the subway.

Several people were watching the same video.

Near the end, the table where the four sat was flipped and the camcorder fell to the floor, crackling with static.

Screaming echoed over the black screen.

People absorbed in the video didn’t even check what station they were passing, holding their breath as they stared at their screens.

A moment later, the screen in the video brightened to show the dock at dawn breaking in bluish hues.

A boat was coming in from the distance.

Footsteps could be heard over the screen.

The footsteps grew louder before the screen cut to black and credits began rolling.

“Ah, so who was it! Whose money was it!”

Someone watching the video forgot they were on the subway and shouted.

Then quickly covered their mouth with an “oops.”

Other subway passengers who heard that outburst chuckled.

The other people watching the video also rushed to open the comments section after seeing the ending.

-This was 35 minutes but it felt like 10 minutes. Seriously.

-The immersion is amazing. Director Han Sena needs to debut.

-Release the next one. You’re making a part 2, right? Right?

-This could work as a series about things that happen on this island.

The subway rattled as it arrived at Sindorim Station, snapping the dazed viewers back to reality as they hurriedly gathered their belongings and stood.

* * *

Home again after another long absence.

How long has it been since I last lay in this bed?

The cold wind I’d endured on the island still felt like it had seeped into my bones.

As I relished the fluffy comforter, the group chat notifications kept ringing nonstop.

-Yuri-ssi: I just had a feeling, everyone.

-Heeyeong sunbaenim: What?!

-Yuri-ssi: I really had a feeling.

-Seon Yuseok: What is it, what is it!

-Jaehyung-ssi: Yuri-ssi talks too much.

Everyone seemed to have checked the view count and video comments in real-time.

Yuri-ssi began gathering everyone’s attention like the Pied Piper.

-Yuri-ssi: This somehow… doesn’t feel like it’ll just end as entertainment for us.

That was quite the bombshell statement.

Yuri-ssi’s really brimming with confidence, huh…?

I watched the group chat conversation with admiration.

-Hyerim sunbaenim: Hey, don’t make these people drink the kimchi broth! Especially Jang Heeyeong! I won’t be able to sleep starting tonight.

-Yuri-ssi: I’m serious, sunbaenim. This feeling of mine is good, you know? I think people will like it more than expected.

-Kim Eunseo: I actually agree with Yuri sunbaenim. Above all, people will be more interested because of Won Hyerim sunbaenim and Jang Heeyeong sunbaenim’s appearances.

-Seon Yuseok: Then are we… doing a CF or something? For the pension? Package tours?

-Kim Eunseo: Are you joking?

I could genuinely feel Kim Eunseo’s exasperation.

And I felt the same way.

Suicide tour packages, seriously?

-Heeyeong sunbaenim: I’m so nervous…

-Jaehyung-ssi: Hey, what do you think, Director Han?

Jaehyung-ssi, who’d been responding cynically the whole time, sent an emoji of a rabbit with sparkling eyes.

I mean, seriously, these people.

I burst out laughing at how adorable they all were.

The response was better than I’d expected, which honestly made me happy too.

After just watching, I thought for a moment before jumping into the conversation that had called me out.

I typed slowly.

-Hmm… honestly I don’t know about people’s reactions. But if they do give us more attention, I’d like to hear that it was a project worth making when everyone from rookie actors to famous veteran actors joined forces.

The group chat members sent clapping emojis.

-Seon Yuseok: Wow, you really sound like a proper director, don’t you?

-Kkotbyeol: Unnie, you’re so cool!

-Heeyeong sunbaenim: I only trust Director Han ^^

Suddenly feeling burdened, I shut off my screen.

I lay there staring at the ceiling for a moment.

Then quickly flipped over and opened iTube.

Every time I went in, the view count and comment numbers were snowballing.

My heart fluttered slightly at the unexpected response.

* * *

The next day, a small office.

A man sat buried in a pile of documents.

The title written at the top of the documents.

The man groaned as he rubbed his throat, then opened his laptop.

He habitually went to iTube and started randomly playing videos.

It was a routine most people in creative work shared.

When stuck, watching anything at all helps.

As he clicked through several videos, something like a mysterious short film appeared.

The man casually examined the video…

“A million views? In 24 hours?”

The man recoiled, checking the ID of the person who’d uploaded it.

‘InTheBazookaFo’

It was an incomprehensible ID.

The man placed his fingers on the mouse and began watching the video seriously.

Midway through, the man let out an impressed exclamation as if to say “well, would you look at that.”

“Not bad at all.”

The video was a short film with surprisingly solid quality.

Technically speaking, not great—but content-wise, quite excellent.

The video played out entirely in cramped spaces, likely due to location and budget limitations.

Plus the unexpected appearance of diverse actors.

“Won Hyerim, Jang Heeyeong, Han Sena, Jung Yuri, Kwon Jaehyung… and even some attractive rookies with good faces.”

The man fell deep into thought.

“Overall it’s got a psychological thriller vibe… but why does their chemistry work so well? Did they already know each other?”

Even with what seemed like royalty-free background music, the actors’ performances were overwhelming enough to compensate.

The sharp mind games between characters, the escalating conflicts, the nuanced delivery that resolved them all.

The moment the video ended, the man clicked on the uploader’s channel.

This video was both the first and last on the channel.

The comment count had already surpassed three thousand.

-The cast lineup’s one thing, but the content’s the best part. Way better than the movies in theaters these days!

-Seon Yuseok’s so handsome.

-This weird voyeuristic angle makes it hard to adjust at first. But I keep watching. I think I’ve become a voyeur.

-Who’s actress Kim Kkotbyeol? So charming. Where’d she come from?

-Hello, this is Create Productions. Please contact us.

Interest was pouring in from film production companies to broadcast producers across various genres.

The man narrowed his brow briefly with a serious expression.

Then picked up his phone and called someone.

“About the original content matter—there’s a video you need to see ASAP.”