The Male Lead's Confession Brings Death — Prologue & Chapter 1

On a dark night, Sojin took a sip of wine and gazed out the window.

While the river below flowed along, calm and undisturbed, her heart rippled with a vague unease that refused to settle.

She checked the time on her phone. Seven o'clock. Dohyun would be arriving soon.

When Sojin raised her hand, a server approached and offered her the menu.

“Ready to order?”

“…One more glass of this wine, please, and a cheese plate.”

Tracing the rim of her chilled glass, Sojin stole a glance at the door.

Just then, Dohyun pushed it open and stepped into the restaurant — the male lead of this drama, and the fiancé she would soon have to throw away.

Sojin forced a smile and waved.

Dohyun smiled back and made his way toward her.

“You got here first, I see.”

“I just arrived. I ordered wine, so it'll be out any minute.”

“I thought we were here to have dinner.”

“…Dinner can wait a little.”

Because this was hardly the mood for a meal, anyway.

Sojin swallowed the rest of that thought along with her wine.

Before long, the server returned with the wine and the cheese plate.

Dohyun took a sip and glanced around the room, then let out a soft laugh.

“So this is the place. Where you threatened to marry me by next month, no matter what.”

Sojin's face flushed scarlet.

That was NOT my idea!

“Th-that's ancient history,” she stammered.

“Well. Let's leave it at that.”

Dohyun was leisurely spearing a piece of cheese with his fork when it happened — the sound of keyboard keys clacking, and strange letters floating into the empty air.

The dreaded Script Dialogue Window that only she could see — the noose cinched around her ankles.

Sojin set down her glass, hiding her tension.

Putting on a cold expression, she spoke.

“The reason I called you here is… well…”

Dohyun lifted his head and looked at her.

Strange — the gentleness in his gaze made her hesitate for just a moment. Then she steeled herself and opened her mouth again.

“…I want to break off our engagement.”

Silence.

The light drained from Dohyun's eyes in an instant. Slowly, he set down his fork.

Sojin gulped, unnerved by a reaction far colder than she'd anticipated. He's the male lead — shouldn't he be relieved? Happy, even?

And then the next line appeared.

Her eyes went wide. The line had crossed every line there was, and her mouth went bone dry.

And still, she couldn't stop her own lips from moving.

“I want to break off our engagement… and marry your brother instead.”

She'd said it. This insane line, straight out loud.

The words dropped like a bomb, and the air around the table froze solid.

A chill smile crossed Dohyun's face as he slowly turned her words over.

“You want to marry my brother.”

“Yes. That's right.”

“You — the woman who was clingier than a shadow a week ago?”

Sojin's fists clenched.

“…Love's a fickle reed, you know. It bends with the wind.”

“Ha.”

He rose slowly from his seat and strode toward her. Sojin flinched instinctively and shrank back in her chair.

Dohyun leaned down further, pinning her with his gaze. His shadow swallowed her whole.

“You want to break the engagement?”

“…”

“Do you really think I'll simply let you?”

“…Yes. I-isn't that… so…?”

He gave a low, mocking laugh and tugged his tie loose.

“What exactly do you take me for…”

Then, in a voice slow and unyielding:

“That will never happen. Not in this lifetime.”

Startled, Sojin jerked her head up — and found herself close enough to feel his breath, Dohyun's eyes blazing down at her.

He leaned in until his lips nearly brushed her ear. Each word fell like a period at the end of a sentence.

“So get any idea of running out of your head.”

Sojin's eyes widened, slowly.

“W-wh-what did you… just…”

Her whole body flinched and trembled.

Since when has the male lead been looking at me like THAT?

Dohyun rubbed the white flower inked on her wrist — slowly, deliberately, as if feeling for her pulse.

Sojin swallowed hard. He shouldn't have any way of knowing what that mark was, yet it felt like he understood everything. The thought made her skin crawl.

“I have no intention — not the slightest — of handing you over to my brother.”

Sojin cried out in desperation.

“You hated me! You were the one who wanted to break the engagement!”

“My heart has changed. It seems you were right about love being a reed.”

“There's — there's no way. You're supposed to…”

You're supposed to be the one who WANTS out of this engagement.

Just then, a server passing behind her abruptly stumbled, lurching sideways.

As if guided by unseen hands, the dishes in his grasp went hurtling straight toward Sojin's head — and shattered on their own, mid-air.

Crash—!

“…!”

Dohyun's arm snaked around her waist and yanked her out of the chair, her face pressed against his firm chest as the sound of glass raining onto the floor rang out sharp and close.

He whispered into her ear.

“You are my fiancée. I will never hand you to anyone else.”

His whisper sounded like something spoken by death itself.

Sojin stared at the shattered glass, her breath coming in shallow gasps. Dishes that had struck nothing at all, splitting apart in empty air of their own accord — and every single shard aimed at one target. Me. The villainess.

It was a warning from the original story, unmistakably. Do not deviate from the tale as it is written. The male lead's confession will bring death.

On her wrist, one petal of the white flower flushed deep red.

Two of its four petals were now stained crimson, and the number written at the flower's center glittered — 45% climbing to 50%.

I had possessed the body of,

a woman fated to die,

the male lead's villainess fiancée.

It was unbelievable.

“That was OUR team's project! We spent six months running around trying to secure investment — you KNOW how much we went through, Manager Kim.”

Yet there was Son Yeji's name on the credits where the team leader's name should have been — the team leader who had built that IP from nothing. Her teammates' names weren't even listed.

Manager Kim sighed, wearing the expression of a man inconvenienced by an unpleasant chore.

“One of the executives at Ave Corp — that's Son's parents. And she'll be joining the executive ranks soon enough herself. What exactly do you expect me to do about it?”

“I'm sorry, what?”

“She's only sitting in the team leader's chair to learn the business, anyway. Just bear with it for a bit. We paid out a generous bonus, didn't we?”

“This isn't about money! My entire career is riding on this. And what about my teammates? Do you have any idea how many hours we poured into development—”

“You've gotta learn to bend a little if you want to get ahead in this world!”

It was unbearable nonsense, through and through.

Then—

“Manager Kim!”

The click of high heels echoed from down the hall.

“Director.”

Son Yeji came toward them, her lush brown hair swinging.

Kim's face brightened the moment he saw her.

“Team Leader Son! There you are. Why don't the two of you talk it out — I've got pressing business, so I'll be off.”

Delighted to escape an awkward situation, he ducked straight into his office.

Yeji was draped head to toe in ultra-luxury designer labels. No mere office worker could afford them on her own salary — they had to have been bought with her parents' money.

Yeji spoke first.

“Why are you putting poor Manager Kim through the wringer? He hasn't done anything wrong.”

“Ha. Right. You know what, you're absolutely right — I completely overlooked whose fault this all is. So go ahead. Explain yourself. Defend this situation.”

“Subordinates work for their superiors. That's just how it is. Consider it a job working for me — I'm going to be an executive someday.”

A laugh escaped Sojin despite herself.

It was beyond her how someone who already had everything kept stealing from her, of all people.

“You haven't changed a bit since you were twenty, have you?”

Yeji had tormented Sojin since college, and at thirty she was exactly the same. She had always stolen what was Sojin's, and everyone around them had always covered for her.

Yeji walked up and planted herself in front of Sojin. The two women glared at each other.

“Just call it fate. The same way you were born a penniless orphan — that's your fate — meeting my wonderful parents is mine.”

“Watch your mouth. Before I take this public.”

“Big talk from someone who can't actually do it. Just keep your head down, why don't you? Don't come crawling out with some whistle-blower stunt or whatever. You don't want a repeat of last time, do you?”

A sneer curled across Sojin's lips.

“You parachuted into this company, and now you're stealing someone else's work because you have no talent of your own. Aren't you even ashamed?”

Yeji's face flushed crimson.

“The world only sees results!”

“People without talent are the only ones who say that. Without Mommy and Daddy clearing the path, you can't do a single thing.”

“You! One word to my parents and—!”

“Your parents again? Say what? You'll have me fired from this company? Go ahead and try. It's a fight to the death now anyway — I've got nothing left to lose.”

Yeji's expression twisted.

Sojin had nothing left to lose, and the daughter of some big shot didn't scare her in the slightest.

Caught off guard by a reaction she'd never anticipated, Yeji panicked and hurriedly scurried away.