Translator: Elisia
Editor/Proofreader: Wojo
━━━━━━♡♥♡━━━━━━
In my previous life, I used to think it would be nice to have more time.
While suffering from constant overtime without even getting proper overtime pay, I still had to make ends meet and couldn’t quit, so I commuted to a faraway company, always wishing I had a little more personal time.
Even when I rested on weekends, I would be so exhausted that I couldn’t even think about playing games or watching movies, and I would just read a bit of a novel before stopping.
There was a time when I wanted to be born into a rich family, live without worrying about money, and just play around.
…Actually, I still have that feeling.
To be honest, I was thinking along those lines when I woke up again in Sara’s body.
Every day, even if I spent it recklessly, more money would come in than what I spent.
All the things that I only saw rich people doing on the internet—like collecting supercars, raising rare animals, or building an amusement park in their house—everything was possible in this life.
I had enough wealth to fulfill all those fantasies about what I would do if I had a lot of money.
Yet, despite having all of that, there was only one thing Sara wanted.
The love of her one remaining family member.
Looking back now, the reason I could have such dreams, or perhaps fantasies, was because I had most of the things that others could have.
Even though I couldn’t meet them often because of work, I had friends I could sometimes talk to about life.
I had a family to rely on in hard times, and parents who cared for me.
I’m not saying that I lived a life that no one else could envy.
I’m simply saying that I had what Sara couldn’t have.
Unlike my previous life where I didn’t have enough time to focus on any hobby or activity, now the only thing I had was time.
Unlike Sara, who would talk to me while sharing my vision, I couldn’t do that.
All I could do was wander through Sara’s mind, reading her memories.
As I saw last time, Sara’s memories were a monotonous repetition of daily life.
Except for when she went to school, she stayed at home.
There was no one to talk to.
No one to play with and, of course, no friends.
She didn’t even use the internet unless she absolutely needed it.
In truth, all of this was something she could have done if she wanted to.
When I asked for a smartphone, Yang Hye-in handed one over to me.
And whenever I caused a commotion in the mansion, the staff were flustered but never stopped me.
That’s right.
Sara could do anything if she wanted to.
She just had her spirit broken too young and didn’t know how to anymore.
…Sara was sitting on her bed with her knees up, staring blankly ahead.
She looked like a still image at first glance, but if you looked closely, you could see her shoulders rising and falling with regular breaths.
It was a moment in Sara’s repetitive life, on some unknown day.
For no reason, I sat beside her.
I knew well that Sara wouldn’t respond, even if I sat next to her or tried talking to her.
This was just a reenactment of her memories.
No one was by her side at this time.
The sight of Sara, sitting in her room doing nothing but killing time, was just too pitiful.
“If only I had come a little sooner.”
The silence pressing down on the room was so heavy that I murmured to myself.
Naturally, the young Sara didn’t react.
I moved closer and sat beside her.
Maybe because the Sara in the memory was younger, she seemed smaller than me, even though we looked the same.
“If I had come when you were younger, before you became like this…”
“…What did I become?”
“Ah.”
Sara interrupted my words.
When I turned my head, young Sara was staring up at me intently.
She looked almost the same as the current Sara, but her eyes were a little bigger and softer, probably because she was still young.
But inside those eyes, what I saw wasn’t childlike innocence.
What I saw was something much deeper—wounds that wouldn’t heal easily.
Dark memories from her childhood.
“You came?”
When I asked her that,
“Yeah, I’m back!”
Sara smiled brightly.
Then she rested her face on my shoulder.
Sara liked it when I was a little taller than her.
She liked leaning on me, hugging me, and looking up at me.
Even someone as clueless as me could easily figure out that she looked at me with the eyes she used to direct at her parents, who weren’t there in her childhood.
Well, to be honest, I’m still a bit too young to have a daughter like this.
“Was school fun?”
“Yeah!”
We had these kinds of conversations every day.
Even though the only time I could meet Sara was when she was asleep, I didn’t think that was particularly bad.
“You know, at school today…”
Sara, facing me, eagerly told me stories about what had happened that day.
What was served at lunch, what happened with Ha-neul, So-hee, and Soo-ah, what Son Ah-reum pointed out today, how much they ran on the field, and how much she practiced with the soccer ball.
It was all about peaceful days in her repetitive routine.
There was nothing that felt particularly important or serious.
I was thankful for that.
I thought of it as Sara finding her way toward the life she wanted.
Aside from her life goal of receiving “mother’s love,” Sara was nothing but an empty shell.
A baby who didn’t know why or how she should live.
She hadn’t learned what she should have, hadn’t received the love she should have, and didn’t know how to build relationships with people.
She was a frightened child.
The reason Sara had wanted to leave her life entirely in my hands was probably because of that.
But even Sara has changed a lot now.
Sara, who once told me that she would leave her life entirely to me, had since gone back to the surface of consciousness, saying she would sort out her own life.
She no longer asked me to take care of it.
I don’t know when she might ask for help again, but for now, it seemed like Sara was doing well.
That’s a good thing.
It’s a little sad not being able to meet Ha-neul, Soo-ah, or So-hee.
It’s a bit disappointing not being able to enjoy running, which I had come to like, and it’s a shame not being able to practice kicking the ball, which I was just starting to get used to.
But all of that was originally supposed to be Sara’s life, wasn’t it?
“…Are you okay?”
Sara, who had been talking to me excitedly, suddenly looked up at me with a worried expression.
Ah, I had drifted off into other thoughts for a moment.
“Hmm? Of course.”
“Really? You’re not upset about not being able to meet your friends?”
“…”
Sara is really sharp at times like this.
Maybe because she hadn’t interacted with people before, Sara’s ability to read emotions was sometimes frighteningly keen.
Perhaps it’s a talent she gained from spending so much time observing people without building relationships with them.
“No, I’m fine.”
If I’m being honest, I am a bit disappointed.
But as I said before, these are things Sara was supposed to enjoy in the first place.
Wasn’t there a Ye Sara route in the original game?
Although I don’t know all the routes, and the parts I know aren’t from actually playing the game but from watching others play it—highlight videos of the most interesting scenes, to be exact.
Still, I could tell by now.
In that game, Ye Sara was probably the true heroine.
In every male character’s route, Ye Sara appeared as the villain.
She wasn’t as prominent in the female character routes, but why did someone like Sara, with such a tragic past, suddenly turn into a villain?
Maybe it was because she had given up on everything, or perhaps she used it as her own method.
In all of those routes, Choi Na-kyung ends up giving up on Sara in the end.
Yes, even if I hadn’t interfered, Sara might have realized that her relationship with Choi Na-kyung was twisted and worked to break it herself.
Unintentionally, I was an uninvited guest who barged into Sara’s life and meddled with all sorts of things.
That’s where I stand now.
In the long run, the right thing would be for me to leave this body.
After all, I’m already dead, and there’s no good reason for a man’s personality to remain in the head of a teenage girl with a bright future ahead of her.
“I’m fine.”
But for now, that’s how I answer.
Sara was looking up at me with such a worried expression.
For now, I need to stay by her side and hold on to that will.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
And someday,
When the day comes that Sara no longer needs me in her life,
Like an imaginary friend remembered from childhood and then forgotten, I’ll leave on the path that a ghost should take.
I’ve decided to do that.