Chapter 128
Guinness was smiling, but his eyes were cold as ice. I couldn’t understand him. When I first met Guinness in the forest, he had been kind to me. In less than a year, something had clearly changed—but I had no idea what had touched his emotions.
“That’s a lie. Right now, you’re lying, Guinness. The Guinness I met when I first came to this world wasn’t like this. You clearly tried to help me.”
“……”
“So stop pretending to be cruel in front of me and tell me the truth. Why are you acting like this? Really—what are you so dissatisfied with? With me?”
At my barrage of words, Guinness flinched. When I took a step toward him, he stepped back. His gaze wavered weakly, unlike before.
See that? You’re someone whose heart still wavers at a single word from me—so why are you acting like a villain?
I couldn’t understand why Guinness was pushing himself like this, trying to earn everyone’s hatred. Why had his heart changed so suddenly?
The man who had first approached me was different. At the very least, he had respected my wish to make Allen happy.
Why—
For what reason—
Had he decided to destroy this world?
“Why should I tell you that?”
“Because I’m the one suffering because of you. You can at least tell me that much, can’t you? Let me know the reason before I get hurt. Please.”
Without realizing it, I started speaking to him casually. Guinness looked at me with an unreadable expression. He seemed shaken—but only for a moment. As if steeling himself, he shook his head.
“It’s already too late. Starting today, you’ll hate me.”
“What does that—!”
As if cutting me off, Guinness raised his right hand and drew a wide circle through the air. The darkness around us began to lift. It seemed the area had been dark because of a barrier he had cast.
“!!!”
I froze—not because he removed the barrier, but because of the figure that appeared behind him.
A familiar face stood there, staring straight at me.
It was Allen. One look was enough to tell how hurt he was. I couldn’t say a single word as I stared back at him. Guinness leaned in and whispered into my ear.
“Well? Do you still think I’m just pretending to be cruel? You’re wrong, Sohee. I’m evil—through and through.”
Before I knew it, tears had pooled at the corners of my eyes and began to spill down my cheeks. Guinness wiped them away with his hand and smiled coldly.
Did he hear everything?
Among the things I had poured out in front of Guinness were words about my true identity.
I didn’t want to reveal myself like this.
I had hoped he would never know. I never wanted to hurt him. But the man looking at me now had a more wounded expression than I had ever seen.
Allen’s eyes were filled with resentment and betrayal. It seemed he had heard everything—my conversation with Guinness. To think he had overheard what I couldn’t bring myself to tell him directly.
Everything was the worst it could possibly be. It was more than enough for Allen to feel betrayed. I looked at Guinness with bitterness.
“You said I mustn’t tell him.”
He had clearly warned me not to reveal my identity if I didn’t want to put Allen in danger. My voice trembled violently as it came out hoarse. Maybe I had been hiding behind those words all along—selfishly.
Seeing my tears, Guinness smiled bitterly.
“It was a lie. You were deceived by me.”
“……”
“So stop treating me like a good person. This is only the beginning.”
As if he’d never been bitter at all, Guinness grinned widely, leaned in to whisper something, and vanished. Once he was gone, only Allen and I remained.
“…Allen.”
Allen looked at me with eyes full of resentment. His gaze felt like it was piercing my heart, weighing heavily on my chest.
Once again, Guinness had deceived me. No—now I even wondered if he had been deceiving me from the very beginning. That was how extreme the situation had become.
Trusting Guinness had been a mistake. I should have doubted him, even just a little. The one who had let emotions cloud her judgment was me.
“Sohee, you’re not meant for me. Give up, and quietly wait to return.”
The words Guinness said just before disappearing were burned into my mind. The command to quietly wait to return hurt deeply.
Had I ultimately lost to Guinness?
As soon as Guinness vanished, Shasha disappeared as well, as if chasing after him. Only Allen and I were left in the forest. I had no room to care about Shasha, who had caused this situation.
A cold wind whipped my hair sharply. I forced my trembling legs to move and slowly approached him. Allen stepped back and said,
“Don’t come closer.”
“Allen, please listen to me.”
I couldn’t let him go like this without any explanation. When I stepped closer and reached out to grab his arm, he roughly knocked my hand away.
His gaze was piercing. Colder than it had ever been—far colder than during the summer festival. It was like a door slammed shut, utterly frigid. The unfamiliar look on his face made my heart feel like it was freezing over.
The thought that I had done something terribly wrong wouldn’t leave my mind. Allen spoke with a bitter smile.
“So you really were Sohee. Did you enjoy deceiving me all this time?”
My heart dropped at the sound of my name. I had never imagined he would say it like this. The way he spoke my name was colder than ever. The name I had hoped he’d call warmly stabbed into my lungs, making it hard to breathe.
“It’s a misunderstanding—”
“A misunderstanding? You deceived me while pretending to be Roni. How am I supposed to believe anything you say now?”
The timing couldn’t have been worse. The lies that had piled up over time collapsed all at once, leaving no space for any excuses.
I had never planned to reveal myself like this. I couldn’t even imagine how betrayed he must feel, and no words came out. Allen grimaced as if in pain.
“You’re no different from the Marquis. You just deceive me.”
“The Marquis?”
I stared at Allen blankly as he suddenly mentioned the marquis. It felt like something had happened to him that I didn’t know about. His emotions toward the marquis were more intense than ever.
“Did something happen between you and the Marquis?”
“……”
“Allen.”
Even when I pressed him, Allen kept his mouth tightly shut. I was worried by the distance he put between us, as if he might disappear at any moment.
His reaction made it seem like something else was layered on top of this situation. Otherwise, there was no way he would refuse to listen to me like this. Lately, our relationship had been close—there had been no gaps between us.
But now, Allen felt unbearably far away. It was as if a wall had suddenly risen between us, hiding some secret.
The rift that had formed without my knowing was growing uncontrollably. If it widened any further, I felt like I would lose Allen forever. His face twisted in anguish.
“When he came to me and said this was a world inside a comic—and that you were Sohee—I didn’t believe him. Because the one I trusted wasn’t him. It was you.”
“Allen, I—!”
“But then I learned that you really had been deceiving me all this time. I foolishly thought my feelings were genuine, all by myself. How did it feel? Having the character you like fall in love with you—was it fun?”
Allen stepped even farther away. The more I approached him, the farther he retreated.
“I didn’t mean to! I just wanted you to be happy!”
I tried to explain through a face soaked in tears, but my shaking voice failed to convey my feelings properly. I didn’t know what Guinness had said to him, but my feelings for Allen were real. I had never intended to toy with him.
“Happy?”
Allen repeated the word, frowning. It felt like a sharp blade pressed against my throat. Only then did I realize—what I had done wasn’t entirely for Allen’s sake.
Guinness wasn’t completely wrong. Drunk on the sweet lie that I would be forgotten, I had prioritized my own position over Allen’s.
I cared more about my feelings when I returned than about the Allen who would be left behind. I justified it as if “being forgotten” were a spell. It was self-deception—hypocrisy.
Allen poured out the tangled emotions inside him without restraint.
“What should I do? Right now, more than ever before, I feel the most hopeless and unhappy I’ve ever been.”
