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I didn’t just sit there and wait for Happy.
Instead, I took deep breaths, trying to sort through the flood of information overwhelming my mind.
But contrary to my expectations, the headache didn’t go away.
My ragged breathing remained just as unstable.
It felt like I had regressed back to the person I was two days ago.
The one who had forgotten her glorious past and feared Happy.
The one who trembled at the thought of the torments yet to come.
The one who obeyed Happy’s commands mechanically, without even having the time to process her own thoughts.
I couldn’t let that happen again.
I closed my eyes, focusing on my breathing, trying to recover the emotions that had been broken by her kiss.
At the same time, I recalled the moment I had been at my most radiant, steadying the heartbeat that threatened to spiral out of control.
Finally, I muttered an incantation that the Queen of Darkmoon should never have spoken.
“For Love and Peace.”
A ruler who once wished for the end of the world… now chanting about love and peace?
I knew it was contradictory.
But what could I do?
It was a key phrase I had to remember if I wanted to escape.
And surprisingly, it worked.
The more I repeated it, the calmer my breathing became.
My wildly pounding heart followed suit, settling into an even rhythm.
Step. Step.
I slowly opened my eyes.
I could faintly see Happy’s legs as she descended the stairs.
She hadn’t reached the basement yet.
I still had time.
I quickly reviewed the information in my mind.
The first thing I did was glance at the spot where Lunt had hidden the drawer.
It was easy to locate.
Lunt had cast his spell right beside the damaged drainage pipe—
The one I had smashed with a concrete shard.
That meant the drawer was there.
And inside the top drawer, I would find the water bottle and the green gemstone.
Next, I thought about Darkmoon’s efforts to find me.
I had been aware of this possibility from the moment my 132nd life began.
That’s why I had planned to meet Alpha once my normal life had stabilized—
To tell her not to look for me.
But now, I had to scrap that plan.
I hadn’t expected Happy to awaken this quickly.
At this rate, she might single-handedly destroy Darkmoon.
I decided that as soon as I escaped, I would find Alpha.
Of course, that was only if I actually managed to escape.
For now, my priority was figuring out how to get out of here.
I would talk to Lunt again before tomorrow arrived.
I needed to fully understand the green gemstone’s power and learn how to use the remaining water in the 500mL bottle.
“Yeres unnie.”
As I organized my thoughts,
Happy’s voice called out to me.
By then, she had already stepped onto the basement floor.
But something about her was different from what I expected.
I thought she’d be furious, still upset from being scolded by her mother.
Or that she’d still be flustered, unable to shake off the kiss we shared earlier.
But instead—
She acted as if nothing had happened at all.
As if everything that had transpired since yesterday had been nothing more than a fleeting summer night’s dream.
There wasn’t a single emotion on her face.
“Did Lunt give you that outfit?”
Even when she pointed at me,
Or more specifically, at the oversized T-shirt I was wearing—
Her tone felt completely different from the Happy I had known before.
“Yeah.”
“What about the pants?”
“I’m not wearing any.”
“I figured.”
“Lunt told you there were clothes in the first drawer of my room,
And the second drawer had bottoms.”
The two of them had argued over me back when I entered the bathroom.
Now, that felt so distant.
Back then, they had seemed to despise each other.
They hadn’t spoken in this calm, detached manner.
“The second drawer? Are you sure?
I checked, but I only found underwear.”
“Unnie, your size is different from mine.
I had to hide them deeper so Mom wouldn’t notice.”
“Oh, I must’ve looked too quickly.
Sorry, Happy.”
“It’s fine.
I didn’t think Lunt would bring them, so I brought some myself.
Here, unnie.
Wear these.”
I realized what was different.
Her tone had changed.
Before, her voice had been full of love and madness, overflowing with emotion.
But now, it felt deflated—like a balloon slowly losing air.
I stood up and walked over to her, taking the dolphin shorts from her hand.
As I did, I thought deeply, trying to pinpoint the exact reason for this shift.
Then, it hit me.
She had lost her usual habit of forcibly squeezing emotions into her words.
“These are trendy these days.
They don’t suit me, but I think they’ll look great on you, unnie.”
If this were the Happy from before meeting her mother…
She would have reacted intensely to even my smallest movements.
Something as simple as putting on clothes would have triggered an obvious response.
“Now, tuck the front part of your T-shirt into your shorts.
Just the center, not the whole thing.”
“Like this?”
“That’s right.”
If she still had that overwhelming passion,
I wasn’t sure if her reaction would have been love or madness.
But either way,
she would have poured her entire being into her response.
“You look good.
Can I take a picture?”
Not like this.
She would have handled me in a much more intense way.
But even if she wasn’t acting like before,
That didn’t mean she had stopped loving me.
Before I could even answer,
Happy pulled out her smartphone.
Click.
One photo wasn’t enough.
Click. Click. Click.
The camera shutter kept going off, capturing me over and over.
“I love it.”
The moment she finished taking pictures,
she sorted through them, keeping only her favorite one
and deleting the rest.
Only after slipping her smartphone back into her skirt pocket did Happy finally smile brightly.
But it was a smile that wouldn’t last long.
“I have to go to school now… so we’ll have to be apart for a little while.”
Morning had come.
If my memory was correct, today was a weekday, just like yesterday.
Living a double life, hiding the fact that she was a magical girl, Happy had to attend high school.
Her once pink hair had turned black.
The frilly magical girl outfit was gone, replaced by a neatly pressed school uniform.
The name tag on her chest pocket was clumsily stitched with the name “Park Hyun-seo”.
If not for the swollen cheek, a lingering mark from her mother’s slap,
she would have looked like any ordinary high school girl.
“So until I come back, stay here.
Okay?”
Her fading smile disappeared completely after that.
She took a deep breath, then tried to force another smile—
but failed.
For a second, she looked like a patient suffering from bipolar disorder.
…That was too harsh.
I wasn’t defending her.
Nor was I pitying her.
Did I even have the luxury to pity anyone in my current state?
No.
It was just—
I realized that I was in the exact same position as her.
After experiencing so many emotions and pouring them all out,
it was as if the muscles in my face had stopped working.
I wasn’t showing any emotions either.
“This is for you.”
Happy, who had been silently watching me, finally offered an apology.
Not in words—but by handing me something.
She pulled out a fruit and held it in front of me, shaking it slightly.
A green apple, its skin still unripe, as if soaked in poison instead of ripening into red.
“It’s breakfast.
We don’t have time, so hurry.
Finish it in five minutes.”
For a moment, I thought of the fairy tale about a princess who ate a poisoned apple,
only to be awakened by the kiss of a prince.
I had read that story in the orphanage, hadn’t I?
Why was I suddenly thinking about my past so much today?
Was it because my connection to Happy was just that deeply intertwined?
If our relationship hadn’t been one of misery…
Would things have been reversed?
Would she have offered the apple first,
before kissing me?
I quickly shook off the ridiculous thought and took a bite of the green apple.
Of course, Happy and I were not a fairy tale prince and princess.
The taste was so bitter that I almost spat it out.
There wasn’t a single drop of moisture in the apple.
She had done this on purpose.
Since my magic relied on water,
she must have ensured that even the fruit contained no liquid.
It wasn’t too dry to eat,
but it definitely wasn’t pleasant.
“Chew properly.”
Even after all that, Happy still watched me uneasily,
making sure I ate the entire thing.
Another difference from before she met her mother.
The uneasiness in my chest only grew stronger.
Could it be?
An impossible theory, but—
Could Happy and Park Hyun-seo be different people?
Why would I think that?
Think about how they express emotions.
Magical Girl Happy used to amplify her emotions to the extreme.
Now?
Not at all.
For some reason, she was deliberately muting them.
Interesting theory.
But isn’t it too much to assume someone has split personalities over something so small?
No.
It’s not just that.
Then what else?
Explain it.
“Did you finish?
Do you want another one?”
At that moment, I began searching for more evidence to support my theory.
I wanted to test whether Happy and Park Hyun-seo would react differently to the same stimulus.
“Open your mouth.”
As I sat there, thinking,
Happy—or Hyun-seo—pulled out a new water bottle from her bag.
When I obediently opened my mouth,
she poured the water carefully, making sure not to spill a single drop.
“For the next few days, stay here.
This is your own fault, so don’t complain.”
My first experiment came to mind:
I wouldn’t respond to her.
I simply nodded but didn’t say a word.
If this were Happy, she would have slapped me immediately.
“Yeres unnie.”
…My theory was wrong.
Happy bit her lip and clenched her fist.
I instinctively closed my eyes, bracing for the coming punishment.
“Let me hear your voice.”
No.
You’re not wrong.
Look closely.
Somewhere deep in my mind, a voice whispered.
I slowly opened my eyes.
Instead of hitting me,
Happy’s trembling hands wrapped around me in a hug.
Unlike when she kissed me,
she wasn’t crushing my ribs this time.
She felt… weak.
So fragile that I started to doubt whether she was really Happy at all.
At that moment,
I was certain.
I didn’t know why yet—
but I would find out.
This girl was mentally unwell.
Inside her body,
the minds of Park Hyun-seo and Magical Girl Happy were distinctly separated.
You figured it out.
That’s just like you.
But…
Who are you?
Me?
Did you already forget who I am?
And then, I realized something else.
I was no different from her.
You think this chapter was thrilling? Wait until you read The Actress Acts Out Her Daily Life Today Too! Click here to discover the next big twist!
Read : The Actress Acts Out Her Daily Life Today Too
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