Chapter 1: Prologue (1)

As if now becoming a habit, Raeliana McMillan opened the window and stretched her body out the yonder soon as she opened her eyes.

Warm sunlight bathed her in full warmth; she could see the Syamcane River flow gently around the mansion. Across the river were rows of upper-class mansions thoroughly planned as sculptures of beautiful scenery. To her, it was a majestic view worth millions.

She thought of how much her father, Baron Johndein McMillan, lavished in order to purchase the mansion in this sweet location was of tales from bygone days.

Raeliana sat on the stool by the window and peered blankly into the Syamcane River.

The Syamcane River circled once around the capital then inwards; it was the pride of the capital, which was also known as the city of water.

Thousands of tourists visit the city every day to see this stunning view—the river that is. Even to this day, a painter, who paints portraits for tourists and couples, sets up his easel by the riverside.

Raeliana rested her chin on her hand, sighing solemnly. Even though two months had passed, she realized it once again. 

This isn’t my home, she thought.

The Han river flowed through the capital of the world she lived in, but rather than overlooking the Han river, which rippled with joys and excitement of the passing history, her home was now billions of light-years away.

Raeliana McMillan… rather Park Eunha, the name of her old self, rolled around on the king-sized bed, screaming.

“Ah!” she grunted. “Why…?!”

At this very moment, she was inside a world of a novel.

***

On February 18, 2015, a woman who goes by the name Park Eunha passed away. Someone pushed her off the roof, she supposed, but even now, she wasn’t quite sure why she had to die.

She remembered her last memory. It was during the winter after she took the College Scholastic Ability Test. She’d been rejected by all the universities of her choice, crying thereafter, and had been spending the rest of her time commuting to the study hall, waiting desperately for additional admissions.

She was restless, unable to focus on her studies. She went up to the roof of the study hall, wallowing in agony and pain of the bitterness of life, when a stranger began speaking to her.

“Well… bzzzzz…. Tzzz…”

Park Eunha conversed with the man for about three minutes, but all she could remember were broken, static words akin to a crackling sound like a broken radio. 

She took wild guesses thinking it might have been due to the shock of being sent into a novel, but ultimately, the truth had been lost and she could not figure it out. Each time she tried to remember the conversation, hoping that it would hold some clue, but nothing came to mind. The man’s voice, words, even his face, were all blurred. Nothing was clear in her foggy memories. All that remained were curiosity and suspicions about the unknown man and a vague feeling of joy.

While she spoke to the man, her phone vibrated, informing her that she had been admitted to Seoul National University of Education. Overcome with joy, she twirled ‘round and ‘round while clutching her phone tight.

And that’s when it happened. 

Suddenly, she was looking up.

“What…?”

Her feet rose into the air; vertigo hit her as if she was coming down from the high on a swing. Her shocked eyes saw a man smiling wickedly.

Before she could cry for help, her body plummeted downwards. Fast. Life flashed before her eyes. All different kinds of thoughts came to mind as she saw death near her. 

Her mother who raised her alone… her brother, a troublemaker yet had a good heart… her friends… they were kind and funny… and lastly, she thought of…

“Your life is short-lived,” said the fortune-teller.

She was nine years old at the time when she went to see a fortune-teller with her mother. 

Her mother, tough like a general, flipped the table in fury, barraged the fortune teller with words of obscenities, and marched out of the room with little Park Eunha. Those words had been stuck in her brain like a small thorn.

Short life, huh…

At that moment, light surrounded her body, and once she opened her eyes, Park Eunha had become Raeliana McMillan.