“Miss Dudley truly has unmatched execution ability.”

Mary, who brought the evening newspaper, stuck out her tongue. Summer burst into laughter at the headline written in large letters on the front page.

“Impressive, truly impressive.”

This must be what it takes to be a protagonist. Summer would never get involved in such complicated matters, not in a million years.

Mary checked the bedding and approached Summer.

“Then, good night.”

“Ah, Mary.”

“Yes?”

Summer stopped Mary as she was about to leave. Mary seemed quite flustered by Summer’s unusual behavior.

“Shall we go on a picnic tomorrow? Somewhere with a nice view.”

“Are you planning to jump into the lake again?”

Mary’s voice was cold. That day was still a wound for her.

Knowing this, Summer quickly approached and grabbed Mary’s hand.

“No, nothing like that. Really. I won’t do anything like that tomorrow, I promise.”

“…Alright. Then I’ll prepare for the picnic tomorrow.”

“Sleep well, Mary.”

“You too, miss.”

As Summer gently released her hand, Mary quietly closed the door and left.

Somehow, Summer listened intently until Mary’s footsteps in the hallway were completely inaudible.

“How touching, how touching.”

Summer didn’t turn around at the voice from behind.

“…Fei.”

“Yes. I came to see how the preparations were going.”

“…”

“What about the necklace?”

“I threw it away.”

“How could you! That was such a precious item!”

Fei still had a childish cheerfulness about her. Even in this situation.

“Something precious to one person can be useless to another.”

“…You’re still upset with me.”

“Perhaps.”

When Summer replied cynically, Fei carefully observed Summer’s expression.

“Tonight is quite pretty. Want to go up to the roof with me?”

Only then did Summer turn her head to gaze at the night through the window Fei had thrown open.

The pitch-black night, street lamps lit by some unknown means, and stars scattered across the sky as if about to pour down.

As Fei said, the weather was exceptionally clear today.

“…Alright.”

As soon as Summer spoke, Fei waved her arm. Summer’s body lightly floated up into the air.

Fei climbed out the window with Summer and onto the roof.

Summer sat on the slanted roof and looked up at the night sky.

Usually when the moon is bright, the stars can’t shine, but tonight both the moon and stars were competing to outshine each other.

It was an unreal world. Beautiful and fantastic because of that. Undeniable.

This world,

“It’s beautiful.”

At Summer’s words, Fei smiled proudly and shrugged her shoulders for no reason.

If Lindsey County is this beautiful, I wonder how stunning Bertrand family’s night view must be.

She wanted to visit tomorrow if she could, but time wouldn’t allow it.

“I guess I shouldn’t have been so afraid.”

“Of what?”

“This world.”

Summer glanced down. All the working people had grotesque appearances.

“It’s grotesque and messy, but looking at it now, it’s pretty.”

Summer forced a smile. Her dry face was full of fatigue.

“Black hair.”

“…”

“Why don’t you tell me your story?”

“My… story?”

She had never thought about it before. Because no one had ever asked.

Summer’s expression was comical, as if someone had hit her on the back of the head.

“Yes. The wind is cool, the stars are shining, and the moon is out. It’s the perfect time to start a story.”

“I don’t remember well.”

“Try to remember anyway. There must be something that comes to mind.”

Summer frowned hard and thought and thought. Then she slowly began to speak.

“I prepared for exams for a long time.”

“…”

“That was everything to me. Everyone had expectations for me, and I didn’t want to disappoint them.”

“Interesting story.”

Fei muttered, resting her chin on her hand and looking languidly at Summer.

“When I was young, it wasn’t difficult to receive applause, but as I got older, year by year, it became more challenging.”

“…”

It was the first time she had shared this story. Summer couldn’t tell this story to anyone.

Because she wasn’t the only one struggling. Because if she couldn’t overcome this, she felt she wouldn’t be normal.

That’s how Summer kept it bottled up inside, rotting and stinking.

“Later, when no one applauded me anymore, that’s when I became an adult. Having to live a life faced with things I had to do, with no one applauding.”

“A painful ache.”

“Actually, even the world I want to return to is cruel. When you’re young, they give you everything you want, but as you grow a little, it becomes harder to get what you want, and as you grow a bit more… what you want becomes blurry.”

“…”

The comics she read as a child. The advertisements she saw on TV. Soap bubbles. Toys. Parks. Playgrounds. Laughter.

Summer, who used to be surrounded by such things, one day stopped reading comics, and nightmares became more frequent than fantastic dreams.

The TV was noisy, and she felt self-conscious about having toys. It felt like everyone else was adapting naturally to this process, but she alone couldn’t adjust, which made her even more frustrated.

She lived diligently. She definitely tried hard. And her dream seemed to be within reach. Right before she fell into this world.

“People aren’t interested in me, and to be honest, I’m not interested in people either. It’s noisy and complicated, but I’m lonely.”

“Black hair.”

Maybe even if she went back, she wouldn’t be able to live happily. She might struggle with the gap between the future she imagined and the reality she faced.

“I spent several years lonely. Dreaming that someday I might be able to blend in with ordinary people, too busy to be lonely.”

“It must have been painful. But you still want to go back?”

“Yes. Dreams can’t become reality, can they?”

But Summer had really tried hard to build that insignificant reality. If she couldn’t go back, it felt like all that effort would become just a dream.

Summer couldn’t give up. The time and effort she had invested.

“Hmm, it was quite an interesting story. It’s a rare story in this world.”

“Is that so?”

“As you know, this world has protagonists. That’s why there’s no need to have hope or dream dreams.”

“That’s cruel in its own way.”

“The world is only beautiful for protagonists, isn’t it?”

“…Protagonist.”

As Summer’s expression visibly darkened, Fei hurriedly waved her arms around Summer and spoke in an exaggerated voice.

“How about a different story? Right, Selena!”

“…Selena?”

“Aren’t you curious about Selena? She’s someone who came into this world and went back, like you.”

“I am… curious.”

She was curious. But she couldn’t show it, feeling like she might be touching Ian’s wounds.

“Selena was much brighter and more cheerful than you. She wasn’t even that surprised when she fell into this world.”

“Really?”

As Fei brought up Selena’s story, Summer quickly sat close to Fei and focused.

Fei, pleased with Summer’s interest, continued speaking while trying to suppress her joy, her cheeks twitching.

“Of course. She was overjoyed to know that her son was a boy with black hair and grey eyes.”

“Ian, Ian.”

“Oh, so that human’s name is Ian. Anyway! Selena didn’t want to go back to her original world.”

“…Why?”

“She said she was too unhappy in that world. So she was happy to be able to be near her, what did she call it, ah, favorite. Her favorite.”

Then Selena must have read the original work too.

While reading that book, Summer liked Julian the most, but it seems Selena liked Ian the most.

“But why did she go back?”

“Because she realized she wasn’t special! Isn’t that funny?”

“…”

Fei tried to speak cheerfully, but Summer caught a glimpse of a shadow passing over Fei’s expression for a moment.

“She wanted to make the protagonist she liked happy, just like you. She said she would change Ian’s past, his unhappy childhood.”

“Did that… fail?”

“Of course! Ian’s father was completely insane! How could he suddenly become warm just because someone acts all flowery?”

Summer now understood what had happened to Selena. At first, she was excited to enter a work she liked, and even became the mother of her favorite male protagonist.

With the desire for the male protagonist to be happy and the arrogance of knowing the original content, Selena decided to stay in this world, and when things didn’t go as planned, she eventually went mad.

“But I like that you have a better grasp of reality. She was too naive. To the point of being annoying.”

“…”

“It’s funny. Imagine mistaking yourself for the protagonist of the world. That’s why Selena missed her chance to return. There was a problem in the process of transferring her soul.”

“Does Fei know what happened to Selena?”

“She probably died? But that was her choice.”

“Did Selena know she might die?”

“She knew she might die. Want to hear something even funnier?”

Fei narrowed her eyes and smiled mischievously. Then she whispered softly in Summer’s ear.

“She said she was so unhappy in this world. So even if she might die, she wanted to return to her original world?”

“…”

“Unhappy, unhappy, unhappy! Just add the condition of being unhappy and it becomes all-powerful!”

“Fei.”

“How about it? Do you still want to go back after hearing this story?”

“I’m… not too late, am I?”

“Right. You have zero chance of failure.”

Fei burst into giggles. Why was someone else’s story so funny and amusing to her?

Summer gave Fei a cold look and then slid down the roof.

As Summer was about to stop at the edge, suddenly someone grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.

“What are you doing! That was dangerous!”

Summer turned her head back and stared at Fei with an expression full of bewilderment.

“…Why did you catch me?”

“Because you were about to fall! Is this how you talk to someone who saved you?”

That’s why I’m asking why you saved me. Instead of asking that, Summer chose silence.

Crickets chirped and the streetlights flickered.

Fei returned to the room through the window, still holding Summer by the scruff of her neck. Then she threw Summer onto the bed.

“Just go to sleep!”

“What about you, Fei?”

“I’ll come back tomorrow.”

“Is that… a promise?”

“Yes.”

Fei leapt onto the windowsill and flew outside. Summer watched Fei leave with drowsy eyes before closing them.

Soon, the room was filled only with the sound of Summer’s steady breathing.

That night, Summer had a hazy dream. A dream where someone was crying heartbreakingly.

When Summer opened her eyes in the morning, a tear streaked down her cheek.

Now, there were only two days left until she would leave this world.