I didn't want this

… She finally opened her eyes and saw that dreadful person next to her.
Then she remembered everything. She prayed to return, but the god she
believed in didn't answer her prayers even once. She closed her eyes again,
hoping for the best.

***
Hye-jin was an extraordinary person. She was only 23 when she reincarnated
as Hara.

She had just finished university in one of the best schools in the country,
even though she wished she could have studied out of Korea. Not only that,
but Hye-jin did get accepted, but her family could never afford it. She then
immediately started working in a prestigious company, with a salary twice as
high as that of her high school classmates.

Min Hye-jin was loved by all. She always had friends. Of course, she did with
her sociable personality, intelligence, and generosity. Though she wasn't
perfect. She had her flaws. Hye-jin was known for her moodiness, she could
be stubborn sometimes and was a people pleaser, but she was unique and no
one could say otherwise.

Her best friend was Baek Haneul, whom she adored. She followed her around
like a puppy. Hye-jin had helped Haneul when she saw her on the streets, and
they had been friends ever since. Haneul wanted to keep Hye-jin all to
herself, which the latter found cute. They promised to always be together,
hell, Haneul even got a job as a secretary at Hye-jin’s company.

After she reincarnated, Hye-jin even started crying when she realized they
weren't going to see each other again.
A hobby Hye-jin wasn't afraid to admit was her love of web novels. She
loved every genre, but she adored action with smart MCs. She thought that
most otome novels were boring, and the romance was toxic, but she
sometimes found some gems. Though she would read everything that came
out.

Maybe…maybe if she didn't like them, if only she didn't read any of them
and had any other pastime she would be living normally, and she would be
with her family.

It was a Friday. The day started very normally, she got up early to get some
coffee, wore a new shirt she just bought a few days before, cleaned herself
up a bit and Hye-jin was ready for work. When she arrived, she greeted
some coworkers and got to work. She eagerly finished half of her work and
at lunchtime she went with Haneul to their usual spot. Later she went home
alone since her best friend had finished earlier. On the way home, she
grabbed groceries and talked a little to the cute worker. By this point, she
couldn’t imagine her end in this world would be near. The beautiful woman
looked at the night sky.

‘The stars are so pretty.’ she thought

The woman was in a good mood and she hurried home to relax and see what
novel was updating. She waved at the neighbors and entered. She noticed a
sweet smell. What was that? She sat on the couch when her mom called. She
was checking up on her. Did she eat? Was she tired? Etc.

“Wow, that was exhausting.” she chuckled

While thinking to herself, she went to the balcony to get some fresh air.
The city looked nice as usual.
She suddenly felt a hand on her back. She got chills and was scared to
death, next thing she knew was falling and screaming and pain. A lot of pain.
Pain she had never felt before. She heard her neighbor’s screams.

“H-help i-i-it hurts” the extraordinary woman wept

Everyone knew Hye-jin for being a strong girl, but she could not handle this
any longer and closed her eyes

***
Light. Finally, some light. The weakened woman opened her eyes and tears
came out.

She recalled falling. Was she alive? How did she survive? And where the
heck is she?

She was horrified and so frightened. She wanted to scream, but her voice
couldn’t come out. Her ears were ringing and she had a light headache. Hye-
jin noticed she was in a strange bed, and she sickly turned her neck. There
was a strange boy around the age of 13 with a book in his hand. He was
wearing a peculiar outfit.

When the young boy noticed her, he was startled and astonished. He froze
and started wiping his eyes. The little boy started sobbing.

“Someone-someone come here. Sh-she woke up! Doctor, Clara please

everyone!” the boy screamed while running to the door.

Immediately there came a horde of women dressed in maid costumes and a

doctor. One of the younger women whose clothing was a darker color than
the other maids fell to the ground and started bawling her eyes out. The
doctor rushed to her bed and started examining her.
‘How strange...where am I? Is this a hospital? No, no, this is someone's
house. Are my parents here? Where are they? Little oppa, is he here too?’
Hye-jin contemplated.

“Young lady, can you hear us,” the doctor suddenly asked, “if you can please
blink two times”

‘Wow, young lady, well, that was old-fashioned.’ she thought while blinking.

Everyone looked overjoyed and relieved. Then Hye-jin started to remember

what happened to her. She started to tremble and felt scared. She collected
every bit of strength she had in that frail body and managed to get out a
single sentence:

“Wh-where is my f-f-family?!”

Silence. Then the young boy who was previously standing behind the doctor
came forward and with a gentle tone and a kind smile whispered

“ I’m here. Mom and dad are probably also on the way here, even though they
were sent to the palace they are rushing home” he chuckled.

What? Where are her caring brothers and her loving parents? What about
her friends? She was in utter disbelief. The girl felt so frightened.

“ You… w-who ar-are you?” she whispered weakly

All the people in the room were taken aback. The doctor started to examine
her again and whispered something to the boy, who was on the verge of
tears.

“What do you mean memory loss?!” he yelled “No, no, no sister n-n-no” then
he started full-on sobbing.

The maid who fell to the ground seemed to have regained herself and came
over and delicately started stroking her hand. She looked around her age
and she was absolutely stunning.

“My lady, everything's going to be fine, don't worry.” the pretty maid said
with a sweet voice, one which her little oppa always used.

“Hy-hyun-ju?Hy-hyun-su? Wh-where are they?” Hye-jin asked.

“My lady, who are you looking for? I have never heard those names before?”
An older maid replied.

The little boy who was crying and stunned now turned to look at her.

“Do you remember something?! Who-” the young boy was interrupted by a
young couple who came bolting with tears in their eyes.

They were wearing fancy clothes and looked like the teenage boy. The woman
had slightly lighter hair with a slim figure and a beautiful face. She appeared
to be concerned but ecstatic, the same could be said about the man. He had
dark hair with alluring eyes.

‘Is he a model? Maybe an idol?’ the girl pondered, ‘Anyway, when am I going
home? I’m getting scared.’ she continued.
The young pair rushed to the bed with the woman talking to the little boy to
calm down while the model started talking to Hye-jin.

“Sweetheart, you’re finally awake,” the model said with a sweet voice “you
can’t imagine how worried we were. I would hug you right now but I don’t
want to tire you anymore”

She was more puzzled and more frightened than before. Hye-jin almost died
and she was now kidnapped. While she tried to comprehend what happened
the angelic servant that was talking to her before pulled the couple aside
together with the doctor and they were presumably talking about her. The
pair looked awfully shocked and the woman froze, almost falling if the idol
didn’t catch her.

Hye-jin stretched her arm slightly to a servant next to her. The servant,
though surprised, immediately approached her, bowed, and asked.

“Yes, young miss. Is something the matter? Are you maybe cold or are you
tired? Is anything cold? Or maybe you want to eat? Hmmm, are the crowd of
people bothering you?”

“What’s h-ha-happe-ning?” Hye-jin whispered panickily.

Although she tried to be quiet the others had heard her and turned to look
her way. Some of the servants left the room as they understood they were
alarming Hye-jin and only a few people stayed 3 maids one of which was the
pretty girl with a darker shade uniform, the doctor, and the couple with the
small boy. They all seemed sad, especially the family.
Surprisingly the female which she assumed was the mother of the kid as he
was calling her mom started to speak with a melodious voice

“My baby I’m so sorry you had to go through all that. I-” her voice started to
crack and she couldn’t continue to talk.

As she was listening to the lady her headache was getting more bothersome
and it started to throb. She felt horrible and was probably losing
consciousness. The doctor noticed instantly and started checking her and
speaking to the employees to rush and bring some stuff Hye-jin didn't
understand.

“Young miss, are you alright? Does something hurt?” the doctor kindly asked.

“... my head.” Hye-jin barely whispered. She turned her head to the side and
even though she thought she may have been abducted she was too unwell to
ponder more and finally the korean woman fell asleep.

***

Hye-jin saw light and there it was, her family. Her loving parents were in the
kitchen bickering about where they should go at the upcoming weekend. One
wanted to relax and visit some cousins in the countryside, the other wanted
to do something more exciting since they were all together. Hye-jin couldn't
help but laugh. In the living room were sitting her two amazing big brothers,
Hyun-ju the youngest and Hyun-su the oldest.

As the youngest out of the siblings, she was showered with love and
affection. Her brothers loved babying her and they were the definition of
overprotective. Regardless of their overprotectiveness she cherished and
loved them to death and wouldn't trade them for the world.
Unexpectedly she saw a flash and she was now sitted in a bar with some of
her friends drinking soju. On her right there was Haneul, opposite her Chae
Minha was drinking happily while talking to her. There were also Park Yohan,
Kim Areum and Jang Sarang. Yohan was making a bomb drink while telling
jokes.

‘Heh, that guy. He makes me laugh whenever.’ she thought while smiling.

‘Wait, if Sarang is here then…’ she immediately turned her head to the left
and she saw him.

Jang Seonghwa. Jang Sarang’s twin and Hye-jin's love. They have had mutual
feelings since the end of junior high and were head over heels for each
other but both of them were waiting for the ‘right’ time. As soon as her eyes
caught sight of him her cheeks took a red tint and she started grinning.

“What are you smiling about?” Seonghwa said with a mischievous smile. His
facial expressions were very different from when he was with Hye-jin as
with the others, and obviously the same could be said about her as well.
Anyone could notice that and the friend group had an inside joke about how
their big smiles blind people.

“I'm just happy to see you.” the cheeky woman said with a quiet enough voice
so their friends couldn’t hear her.

As poor Seonghwa heard this he became red as a tomato and blood came
rushing to his cheeks.

“WH-WHAT?!” he shouted, startling everyone in a 100-meter radius of him.

“You heard me. I mean it.” she replied with an amazing look that Seonghwa
adored and made him fall in love.

“What are you guys talking about? My poor Seonghwa is blushing so hard he
is going to faint. What did you do to him, Hyejin-ah?” they all broke into
laughter with Sarang continuing. “ Hyejin-ah, did you finally confess? Should
I finally call you sister-in-law now? You know, I’ve been waiting for years for
you to start dating.”

“Yaaaaah stop it” Hye-jin yelled cheerfully now blushing as hard as Seonhwa.

Then they continued to drink a bit more soju while eating chicken until most
of them were drunk. Hye-jin usually has a pretty high alcohol tolerance but
fortunately or unfortunately she was quite drunk that day. Yohan offered to
walk Haneul and Minha, the former who was almost asleep, while Seonghwa
would walk Hye-jin, Areum, and Sarang. The boys luckily had known them
since middle school and knew to not drink too much so they could escort the
girls back.

“I’ll come home as soon as I bring Hye-jin home,” Seonghwa said as he was
waving to his sister. ”Okay” Sarang shouted sprinting to her home when she
was about to puke

With Areum and the twins’ houses being the closest, Seonghwa got his sister
and friend home and then he was alone with Hye-jin.

They talked about a lot of things and common interests making it seem as if
they were the only ones there that night. When they got to Hye-jin’s
appartement, the woman was dozing off so he took off her heels and carried
her to bed. She truly was dazzling. During the time that Seonghwa was
covering the girl and was ready to leave, he heard a small whisper and felt a
tug in his shirt.

“...please stay” Hye-jin weakly said “please.”

The boy was really tired and a bit drunk from a long day and could almost
drift off to dreamland. The girl scouted over and they both fell asleep
cuddling.

Hye-jin had woken up a few minutes earlier and was admiring Seonghwa’s
features. A few minutes later the boy woke up to one thing he would have
never thought would happen.

“I love you.” the woman said, staring straight into his black eyes with a
breathtaking smile.

“Well, you could have first started with a ‘good morning’.” the man replied
with the same smile as he leaned over to give her a light kiss.

And then she woke up. She was still in the weird place as before. The couple
talking next to her while the young boy was sleeping in a small bed someone
seemed to have brought in.

At this moment she could only think about her family and loved ones. She
even dreamed of their memories. And Seonghwa. That was one moment she
could never forget and that always showed up in her dreams. She loves him
with all her heart and he does too. So she couldn’t help but call out to him.

“Seonghwa?”
The couple looked at her and the young woman said. “Are you awake already
sweetheart?”

“Where's my family? My oppas? And Seonghwa? He surely came.” Hye-jin

was desperate to see her family.

“Who are you talking about?” the man acknowledged.

“Did you-did you kidnap me? Why am I here?” the confused girl mumbled.

The pair’s expression darkened straight away

“I-I probably misunderstood. Right? I’m sorry. Can I call my mom or

something?"

“I’m so sorry.” listening to the woman, Hye-jin knew something was very
wrong

As Hye-jin was observing the room, looking at the unusual and expensive
furniture her head started aching again, she felt her heart clench and was
dizzy. She clenched the velvet sheets and the pain started to worsen. The
girl’s throat was closing up and she started coughing violently. Her head spun
and she couldn't focus and then started to panic.

The noises and people rushing didn't help either.

‘I want to go home’ she felt herself slipping out of consciousness and

everything was a mess. The doctor injected a syringe and the headache and
the coughing started to slowly fade while she closed her eyes.

***
Min Hye-jin found herself in darkness and immediately assumed she was in a
dream. Lucid dreams weren’t uncommon for her and she couldn't help but
remember how her friends found it so fascinating. But something was weird.
She couldn’t control anything. The woman stood up and walked to a shining
object she saw on the horizon. As she got closer the room from pitch black
went to a blinding white and a dark figure was sitting cross-legged on the
floor.

The shadow started to talk and it seemed directed at her. Was this even a
dream? As she stared at the figure she felt a strange aura. Divine some may
call it. But there was nothing divine or godlike about the shadow.

Hye-jin got some of the best scores in her school on the CSAT so she was
known as an intelligent girl and she did understand that this was not a dream.
But was this a nightmare?

“My dear Hye-jin. Hmmm, I thought you would have understood by now
what’s happening. Ahh but I guess everyone would be confused if they wake
up in a strange place.