INVSD 06

Chapter 6

“Let’s get rid of the body quickly.”

Fidgeting with her mug, Baek Ga-yoon anxiously muttered the words as she watched Geum Sa-ra.

Geum Sa-ra thought silently for a moment before shaking her head.

“No. We can’t.”

The dead couldn’t come back to life, so the body would remain there, and someone would eventually find it.

But that someone couldn’t be one of their people.

Going back there after circumstances that could make them suspicious had already been discovered?

“It’d be like confessing, ‘I’m the culprit.’”

But they couldn’t simply leave the body there, either.

There would surely be plenty of Baek Ga-yoon’s skin and blood under Jung Ga-yoon’s fingernails.

“We need to hire someone.”

Geum Sa-ra took out her phone.

It was someone she would rather not contact if possible, but every second mattered.

And if there was one person who could handle something like this without anyone knowing, it was him.

“I’ll go make the call.”

Geum Sa-ra went out onto the balcony.

Baek Ga-yoon watched her mother’s back as she drank her hot chocolate.

Mom won’t abandon me as long as I’m her daughter.

Even if I killed someone.

She absolutely couldn’t give up her position.

How much anxiety had Jung Ga-yoon’s very existence caused her all this time?

It felt like finally having a rotten tooth pulled.

“Hehehe…”

Watching the slow currents of hot chocolate swirling inside the mug, Baek Ga-yoon quietly laughed.

As if she didn’t feel the weight of having killed someone at all.

Behind Baek Ga-yoon, countless evil spirits writhed and surged.

After returning home, Ga-yoon washed her hands and checked the mirror again.

The time engraved on her neck was still there.

That little shadow she had called an evil spirit had entered her body there.

Would it answer if she called for it?

“Hey. Shadow? Evil spirit?”

But there was no response.

It had definitely been able to talk to her earlier.

“Hello? Are you listening?”

She rubbed and tapped the area around her collarbone, but there was no particular reaction.

Well, whatever…

It wasn’t like it was a genie in a lamp. Rubbing the spot wasn’t going to make it appear.

“Hmm.”

Ga-yoon let out a short sigh and left the bathroom, then sat down on the living room sofa.

Several scripts were spread across the low table.

They were projects she had been offered after various people saw her performance as a villain in The Conditions of Inheritance.

And every single one of them had her playing villains.

One week.

It was certainly longer than twelve hours, but she was still living with only a one-week expiration date.

She needed to find her next project quickly.

After all, there were only two episodes left to film for The Conditions of Inheritance.

Which project should she choose?

If she played an even more vicious role, would she get more than a week?

A week felt a little stingy.

She looked through this script and that one, but all the characters were more or less similar to the one she was currently playing.

“What should I do?”

Even if the roles were similar, she still had to take one.

So this was how she was going to live now—earning lifespan instead of money, one day at a time.

A sigh escaped her.

A headache began to form, so Ga-yoon closed her eyes for a moment.

Perhaps because practicing had become part of her daily life, the scenes she still had left to film for The Conditions of Inheritance naturally came to mind.

One of the remaining scenes was where Na Yu-joo went to find Lee Ha-yeon, bullied her, and pushed the female lead from a high place.

“The roles are reversed in the drama.”

She suddenly became curious about how Baek Ga-yoon would react when she found out that she was still alive.

Baek Ga-yoon must think she was dead.

What would happen if they ran into each other on set?

Would she recoil in horror as if she had seen a ghost?

Would she become frightened, look around cautiously, and then shamelessly act as if nothing had happened?

She really was being cruel.

But she wanted to see every expression Baek Ga-yoon might make, each one crushed and twisted right before her eyes.

At that moment—

Whoosh!

A black shadow suddenly rose up, and the evil spirit’s voice rang in her ears.

『Get revenge.』

Black handprints appeared around her pale, slender neck—the marks left by Baek Ga-yoon.

“Ugh…!”

A burning, throbbing pain.

Reminding her that Baek Ga-yoon had already killed her once, the evil spirit whispered.

『What if you loosen the wire?』

During the scene where she pushed Lee Ha-yeon from a high place, all she had to do was loosen the wire and make it look like an accident.

It was an evil spirit that was actively encouraging her to commit a real crime.

It had pretended not to hear her earlier when she tried to talk to it…

“I don’t want to.”

Even as cold sweat broke out over her from the burning pain, Ga-yoon firmly cut off the evil spirit’s whisper.

But the evil spirit didn’t care.

『Why? Baek Ga-yoon killed you. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You should pay her back in exactly the same way.』

The childlike voice lowered itself conspiratorially.

『Want me to tell you something?』

Its voice was sweet, like a tempting offer.

『If you kill her, all of her remaining lifespan becomes yours!』

Baek Ga-yoon was the same age as Jung Ga-yoon.

Unless something unusual happened, she would probably live for several more decades at least.

The evil spirit was saying that Ga-yoon could take all of that remaining lifespan.

Ga-yoon hesitated.

The hand resting on her knee twitched.

Living with a predetermined death date was a constant source of tension.

So…

Kill Baek Ga-yoon.

She wouldn’t even have to strangle her herself.

All she had to do was loosen the wire.

It would simply be paying her back for what she had done.

And it wouldn’t be particularly difficult.

“Ha… This is driving me crazy.”

Jung Ga-yoon squeezed her eyes shut.

The offer was tempting.

But she didn’t want to be manipulated.

“Get lost. I’ll handle it myself.”

Weren’t they supposed to be helping each other?

It was merely a parasite living inside her, yet it was trying to use her like a puppet.

Even if she wanted revenge, she would plan it herself and carry it out herself.

Then—

『Tsk.』

The shadow that had been circling around her as if observing her disappeared after leaving behind a single remark.

『You’re not falling for it?』

Its grumbling voice faded away.

What was wrong with this thing?

Ga-yoon let out a hollow laugh.

She had thought only its voice was childlike, but it really did behave like a child.

“……”

When the evil spirit stopped responding altogether, Ga-yoon abruptly stood up and headed to the vanity in her bedroom.

Time continued to pass without changing.

And there were no handprints left on the area that had been burning with pain.

Ga-yoon touched her perfectly clean neck.

Ultimately, it had been tempting her to kill someone, so she hadn’t fallen for it.

But if it had encouraged her to commit some kind of wrongdoing that even she considered relatively minor, she might have given in.

“I need to be careful.”

There was something seductive about the evil spirit’s whispering voice, almost like a snake’s.

But unlike Baek Ga-yoon, she had no powerful backing to cover up her crimes.

No.

Even if she did have someone like that behind her—

Wasn’t it only right to avoid doing things that went against common sense and morality?

As if shaking off the temptation, she shook her head and firmly reminded herself of that again.

“What? The body is gone…?”

Geum Sa-ra was on the phone when she lowered her voice and swallowed her words.

Someone had taken the body first.

Baek Ga-yoon’s face went completely pale as she listened nearby.

A curse escaped her lips.

“Damn it. Are you sure they searched properly?”

Perhaps Baek Ga-yoon’s voice was interfering with the call.

Geum Sa-ra repeatedly pressed a finger to her lips, signaling her to be quiet, then moved away.

Baek Ga-yoon followed her all the way.

“Okay, okay. I understand. I’ll look into what happened again myself.”

The call ended without much more being said.

Baek Ga-yoon hurriedly grabbed Geum Sa-ra and shook her.

“What did they say? Why is it gone? Huh?”

“Ha…”

Geum Sa-ra repeatedly brushed her short hair back as she explained.

“They said there were no signs that anyone had dragged it away. If someone had carried away an unconscious body, there should have been witnesses nearby. But they said there weren’t any.”

After repeatedly muttering that it was strange, Geum Sa-ra turned to Baek Ga-yoon.

“What if she didn’t die?”

“No! She did… She definitely stopped breathing. The feeling… It was different!”

Baek Ga-yoon shook violently as she pleaded.

“Who was it? Who took the body? She was definitely dead. I killed her!”

“Shh! Quiet, quiet!”

No matter how spacious and well soundproofed the CEO’s office was, it was still an office inside a company.

Geum Sa-ra smacked Baek Ga-yoon on the back, telling her to watch what she said, then called for Lee Jeong-han, who had gone outside.

“Manager Lee!”

Lee Jeong-han, who had been waiting outside, knocked on the CEO’s office door before entering.

“How’s the atmosphere on set? What about Director Kang?”

“Well, he said the same thing as always. He’s pressuring us to set the next shooting schedule as quickly as possible.”

It was a drama that was already airing.

They had to make sure there was no disruption to the production.

“They’ve been filming? What about the other actors?”

Geum Sa-ra had no intention of telling anyone that Baek Ga-yoon had killed Jung Ga-yoon.

So she asked as indirectly as possible.

“You know, Ahn Ji-ho and Jung Ga-yoon. They filmed first, right?”

At the same time, she clung to one last hope.

If Jung Ga-yoon really had died, would the set really be calmly discussing the next shooting schedule when asked about the atmosphere?

Lee Jeong-han answered casually, as if to crush that hope.

“Yes. They said Jung Ga-yoon filmed first, then Ahn Ji-ho arrived and continued filming.”

“Jung Ga-yoon filmed?”

At her repeated question, Lee Jeong-han glanced at Baek Ga-yoon before answering.

From the situation unfolding before him, he seemed to have realized that Baek Ga-yoon’s injuries were somehow connected to Jung Ga-yoon.

He had even caught fragments of words like “I’ll kill her” coming from inside the CEO’s office.

“Yes. She finished all her scenes and went home.”

At Lee Jeong-han’s firm answer, Baek Ga-yoon’s face twisted strangely.