Possessor #2 Just Wants to Fangirl Chapter 1

“It’s lung cancer.”

Blink, blink.

“Did you hear me, patient?”

Nod, nod.

“It’s already metastasized to your ribs, so surgery is difficult. Unfortunately, we’ve also missed the window for chemotherapy…”

“But I don’t even smoke?”

“Lung cancer doesn’t only affect smokers. Lung cancer is broadly divided into small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer…”

Right, I do have a chronic cough.

That’s why I got tested in the first place.

But getting ‘Stage 4 lung cancer’ on the first test—isn’t that a bit of a jump scare?

“You said you have no family, correct?”

Nod, nod.

“Even if not family, is there a close friend or someone who can be with you through this process…”

Shake, shake.

The doctor is looking at me with even more pity than when he delivered the cancer diagnosis.

Ah, so being alone—no family, no friends—is sadder than dying of cancer?

I get it now.

“How long do I have?”

“Typically, with this degree of metastasis… three to six months.”

So, to summarize the current situation:

Me, Seo Juyoung.

Age 24 this year.

Remaining lifespan: half a year at most, apparently.

* * *

The first thing I did after receiving my death sentence was check my bank balance.

― Balance: ₩30,059,948

Since I haven’t had much to spend money on lately, I’ve unintentionally saved up thirty million won.

If I have six months left, does that mean I can spend five million won a month?

There’s no one to leave it to anyway, so let’s blow it all before I die!

I stopped by a department store to buy the most expensive wine, then came home and ordered the priciest steak through a delivery app.

But… this wine isn’t like any wine I’ve known?

So this is what money tastes like.

How is a delivery steak bursting with juices like this?

Money really is nice!

When the alcohol kicked in and I was getting pleasantly buzzed, I picked up my phone and scrolled through my contacts.

Scrolling down to the ‘D’ section, I saw ‘Dog Minseok.’

Dog Minseok is the team leader at the call center where I work.

His surname isn’t actually ‘Dog’—it’s a nickname.

I hesitated between calling or texting, then decided on a text.

“I’m not coming in starting tomorrow. Don’t live your life like that, Dog Minseok.”

‘Should I have called instead?’ crossed my mind briefly. But I sent it as a text because I could—how would I say that over the phone?

It’s not like a pleasant conversation was expected anyway.

Bzzzzt!

Bzzzzt!

The phone vibrating like crazy.

Dog Minseok must have read the text.

When I stubbornly ignored the calls coming in succession, a text arrived.

「Seo Juyoung, not answering your phone?」

「How old are you to lose all sense? Showing your parentless upbringing? Where do you get off with that…」

Dog Minseok is pissed!

Well, yeah. Even a regular employee would be angry, but when someone who seemed easy to push around suddenly goes ‘Dog Minseok!’ it would be infuriating.

Bzzzzt!

Bzzzzt!

Dog Minseok’s obsession is insane!

He’s calling eighteen more times using different numbers.

Eighteen… I hurriedly sent a text before it turned into nineteen.

「I have cancer lol RIP」

The phone went quiet.

Not a single vibration.

Still, we’ve been seeing each other’s faces for years, and not even a ‘die well’?

What a coldhearted person.

Though I’m pretty shameless myself for saying that.

Anyway, no need to go to work anymore.

I’ve made reservations at several hospices and sorted through unnecessary belongings to some degree. No family, no friends, so no one to say goodbye to either.

The time it took to wrap up my 24-year-long life… half a day.

Right, minimalism is all the rage these days! Simple is the best!

I flopped down on my bed and turned on my smartphone, opening a game for the first time in a while.

But… I can’t concentrate.

Same with movies. Same with uTube.

I’m seeing it, but I’m not seeing it.

I’m hearing it, but I’m not hearing it.

Why am I like this?

I don’t particularly have any attachment to life, no dreams I want to achieve, and no one who’ll be sad when I die…

I’m an orphan.

My mother passed away on the day I was born, and my father died in a car accident when I was in high school.

My father was the epitome of diligence.

He never remarried and worked tirelessly alone, balancing childcare and work to raise his child.

He sacrificed his youth and stamina to send his only daughter to college. ‘Pennies make pounds,’ he’d say, never wasting a single hundred-won coin.

But what good did it do?

One truck and it’s over.

The era of succeeding through hard work is over.

There are too many trucks in downtown Seoul to live that way.

Having grasped this truth at a young age, I decided to practice the aesthetics of giving up and resolved to live however things turned out.

So I stopped going to school.

Every day I lazed around, immersed in movies, comics, dramas, animations, novels, and games.

A wonderful world opened up with just a reach of my hand.

Occasionally there were people who looked at me with disdain or pity… but honestly, I was quite happy. I only did fun things every single day.

Long live the shut-in life!

In a youth drama, a passionate teacher would appear at this point saying something cringeworthy like ‘Come back to school! Your friends are waiting for you!’ but reality wasn’t like that.

Not that my homeroom teacher was bad. He kindly came all the way to my house to provide on-site dropout services.

After that, I lived off the money my father had saved, and when the balance started hitting rock bottom, I began working at a call center.

It wasn’t particularly a good workplace, but excluding the personality-disordered team leader, it was tolerable.

If I memorized the given script and appropriately adapted it to parrot ‘I apologize, customer!’ and ‘I love you, customer!’ I got my paycheck regularly.

My modest daily routine was becoming a soulless parrot for eight hours a day, then returning to being human after work to enjoy my shut-in happiness.

I lived modestly and happily…

Did it seem too half-hearted?

So the higher-ups went ‘You, out!’ right?

Aah, I feel so strange!

I closed the NFlix app I’d been watching half-heartedly and this time opened a novel app.

But… something’s really weird today?

I can’t read the text.

When I was going to work, I’d read all night and still run out of time, so why is this happening?

I picked at dramas, movies, novels, and games in rotation, then threw my phone away.

Tick-tock.

I can only hear the sound of the clock’s second hand loudly.

Should I change the clock to digital while I’m at it?

It’s getting on my nerves for no reason.

Then, a novel suddenly came to mind.

I read it a few months ago… what was the title?

I think it had ‘academy’ in it…

After quite a while, I finally found the problematic novel.

<I Possessed Into an Academy on the Brink of Destruction>

What an embarrassing title.

I don’t know why this novel suddenly popped into my head.

It’s a novel I dropped.

The reasons for dropping it weren’t just one or two.

First, I don’t like academy stories.

If I loved school that much, I would have stuck it out to the end.

Second, <On the Brink of Destruction> has quite a few sections in its setting that make you go ‘Author, really?’

Last and third—this is the most important—there are more than a few frustrating sections that make you shout ‘Did the author lose their damn mind?’

Progressing nicely, then a mastermind appears, catastrophic incident.

Progress, mastermind, catastrophic incident.

Progress, mastermind, catastrophic incident—one pattern.

A repeating cycle of catastrophic incidents.

Readers fell away in droves at the repeated death cycles, and wise me who follows the trend fell away along with them.

But this author… even though the reader count was quartered and quartered and quartered again, they’re still continuing the serialization?

Not even paid—a free novel?

I’ll acknowledge the persistence.

I don’t know why it suddenly came to mind, but since it did, I decided to read it.

These things are usually fun to read while cursing anyway.

Like watching a trashy drama while complaining.

And I have plenty of time.

Just six months, though.

So I read it chapter by chapter again…

Wait, why is this fun?

Time’s flying!

I got so absorbed that I couldn’t understand why I’d dropped such a gem of a work in the first place.

Whether rose-colored glasses properly covered my eyes, all the flaws suddenly transformed into strengths.

The fact that there was so much supporting character content that you’d go ‘Wait, where’s the protagonist?’ became ‘They’ve drawn diverse characters with such depth.’

The exposition-heavy sections I’d thought ‘I didn’t want to know this’ became ‘They’ve woven the setting so tightly.’

Above all, I loved the dark worldview with no dreams or hope.

The frustrations that had felt so stifling before now felt sweet.

Right, what’s cancer compared to that?

Dying after a few coughs beats getting your limbs torn off by monsters, for sure.

Witnessing your friends die right before your eyes? Starting with no one at all is happier, yup!

And so, in the final moments of my life, I met my life’s masterpiece.

* * *

And my life’s masterpiece ended.

In the worst way possible.

Haha, both dual protagonists and all the supporting characters who’ve appeared so far dead?

I could only let out a hollow laugh as I opened the comments section to find everyone reacting similarly to me.

「Is the author insane?」

「At least resolve the plot threads. Hiatus would be better than this」

「If you have a conscience, don’t change your pen name」

「After supporting these characters for over 400 chapters, they all die? If this was going to happen, I don’t know why I read this story. Please write with responsibility next time. Of course, I’ll never read again」

The comment section truly contains a diverse range of human characters.

The threatening type, the cursing type, the family-concern type, the scholar type.

Reading them made me feel like I should leave something too.

Give back my time! Cough up my money!

My fingers began moving on their own… which I barely stopped.

Right, with not much time left, what good is cursing?

If I were going to live long it’d be different, but let’s not make the stupid mistake of changing careers to troll right in front of the King of Hell.

And honestly… it was fun while I was reading, wasn’t it?

These past few months, I’ve lived solely for the pleasure of reading this novel.

At first it was a twisted mindset of ‘At least I’m better off than you guys.’ I’ll admit that.

But seeing the protagonist’s party remain steadfast even in bleak situations… I thought they were admirable, and felt sorry for them.

At some point I started rooting for them, and when I came to my senses, all the characters just seemed like my babies.

Moreover,

‘How can I be angry looking at this face?’

The illustrations the author uploads at their own expense were the light and salt of my terminal life.

Not just the dual protagonists but even the supporting characters!

Every single one has visuals that give your cheekbones a lift.

Truly, being handsome is truth! Being pretty is truth!

Right, even a catastrophic incident ending is truth when beautiful people suffer it!

“Thank you for your hard work. I wish the ending had been a little different, but I was happy just for the time spent with these kids. I’ll support your next work too.”

After leaving just that plain comment, I felt somewhat empty.

I still have two more months before my expiration date.

Other novels don’t grip me though.

Well, I might as well binge-read again.

* * *

Cough, cough!

Is this damn cough insane? Cough one more time and I’ll hack up my lungs at this rate.

Indescribable pain covered my entire body and my vision was blurry, but I stubbornly kept scrolling.

My only hobby these past few months.

As soon as my eyes open, re-reading <On the Brink of Destruction>.

People might ask if I don’t get sick of it, but every time I re-read it, I learned new aspects of my babies, so there was no time to get sick of it.

Cough, cough!

Wow, is someone stabbing my lung with a spear?

I’m about to start my 34th complete re-read, but my hands are shaking badly.

Lately I’ve been coughing every two seconds, and a strange metallic sound comes out with every breath.

This is the last time.

Really the last…

With that thought, an inexplicable impulse seized my body.

Instead of clicking on Chapter 1, I began sending messages to the author’s account.

「Author, I’m a terminal lung cancer patient…」

「Author, do you have any thoughts about revising the ending…」

「If you just revise it, I’ll give you all my assets…」

I sent a message terror attack to the author as if possessed by something.

Just change the ending, just the ending!

Let me see my babies happy before I die!

Is granting a dying person’s wish that difficult, Author?

As I was throwing message bombs like a crazy woman,

「Hello, dear reader」

A reply came.