Chapter 1: Chapter 0

People tend to meet their end when they try things they’re not used to doing.

Even if it’s something as small as choosing the stairs over the elevator they usually take.

-Thud.

“…Ah.”

I lost my balance on a patch of water I hadn’t noticed on the stairs, and down I went.

The pain radiated through my whole body, with a particularly sharp throbbing in my head.

Before long, drops of red liquid began to fall onto the sterile white patient gown I was wearing.

When I closed and opened my eyes, I found myself being wheeled away.

“Stay awake, please! Keep your eyes open!!”

The urgent voice belonged to someone I couldn’t see, but I could hear their panic.

Blinding light from a flashlight blinked in rapid succession.

But before I even reached ten seconds…

-Ssshrk.

The line between consciousness and unconsciousness blurred, and I felt myself slipping away.

Even if I didn’t want to know, I knew. I wouldn’t be opening my eyes again.

It was a wretched life, just as one would say in any famous poem or story.

***

-Tap, tap.

-Tap, tap.

A foreign sensation.

“Oh, who did you take after to turn out this pretty, Ha-eun?”

“Hmm, they say daughters usually take after their fathers….”

“What was that?”

Unfamiliar voices.

“Well, can’t ignore the mom’s DNA either. Actually, looking now, she’s the spitting image of you.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

An unknown atmosphere.

None of this felt like anything I knew, and it was enough to dispel the notion that I was seeing my life flash before my eyes.

This scene was ironic, unrealistic yet somehow grounded in reality. Only one conclusion made sense: reincarnation.

‘…This is a weird feeling.’

Good people are supposed to go to heaven, and bad people go to hell, right?

Maybe because I’d done absolutely nothing in my previous life, I’d been sent back.

When I thought about it, it wasn’t really all that strange. Living a sickly life that ended so early didn’t seem fair.

“Ha-eun, say ‘mom.’ Come on, ‘mom!’”

“She’s not even one yet. What are you trying to make her say?”

“Who knows? Maybe Ha-eun will turn out to be a prodigy?”

But the doting gaze from the woman looking at me began to make me sleepy.

I guess resetting to a near-zero state in life also meant resetting my resistance to drowsiness to zero.

Before long, I drifted off to dreamland.

Even in this new life, I was just as unaware of the passage of time as I’d been before.

“Happy sixth birthday, Ha-eun!”

“Happy birthday, our girl.”

By the time I came to, I could not only walk by myself but also say the word ‘mom’ with ease.

The infant and toddler stages had vanished like they were snapped away by Thanos without me even noticing.

“Blow out all your candles in one go, Ha-eun! Then your wish will come true. Give it your best, okay?”

With a quick puff, the candles went out.

The time that had flown by like those candles left me feeling a bit regretful.

Though, to be fair, I was still a kid who hadn’t even started elementary school, with little to do but eat and sleep.

But memories of my previous life, where I lived with an expiration date, made me want to spend each moment more meaningfully.@@novelbin@@

The day after my sixth birthday, in the morning:

I picked up a small hand mirror from the vanity in my parents’ room.

Gazing into the mirror at my reflection, I tried to have a conversation with myself.

It was all to think seriously about what I wanted to do with my life.

I just wasn’t entirely accustomed to the young girl’s face that looked back at me from the mirror.

“Hmm…”

Like those who’ve gone through a surreal experience, I was quite cute with a rather charming appearance.

To be fair, my mom fawned over me so much every time she saw me that I sometimes thought she was a bit exaggerated.

Still, I had to admit: I had a face that no one could call unattractive, even as a joke.

If someone asked what my future ambition was, I could easily say model or actor without any shame.

That said, I hadn’t yet decided on either career path.

My appearance was balanced for now, but who knew what might happen as I grew older?

After a long period of contemplation about the future of “Lee Ha-eun,”

‘…Why’s the visitor so engrossed in that, ignoring the patient?’

‘Oh, this? It’s something called a VTuber─’

A memory surfaced from the depths of my mind, floating back up to my ears.

Oh yeah, that career path existed too.

I’d read a few stories about people suddenly transforming into women and becoming streamers or VTubers. The thought of being a VTuber wasn’t hard to imagine.

Back then, I’d never imagined I’d become one of those characters. But here I was.

And surprisingly, the more I thought about it, the more the idea of becoming a VTuber didn’t sound half bad.

Especially since this was a time when the concept of VTubers didn’t even exist yet.

With actors and models, the competition was already fierce.

The entertainment industry could hardly be considered a “blue ocean.”

But if I prepared for an uncharted profession that hadn’t even been explored yet, patiently waiting until the internet overtook TV in influence, and jumped into VTubing before anyone else…

I could grab the so-called “success” by the horns.

No one but fate knows how things will turn out, but that’s all the more reason to choose the path with the lowest risk of failure.

Recalling all the knowledge I had of VTubers, I inspected it like a panorama.

Looking at the young girl in the mirror who still felt unfamiliar, I cautiously opened my mouth.

“Haa—woo.”

I puffed my cheeks just like a VTuber I’d seen, responding to a donation during a live stream.

And, not even a second later…

“Ribbit-ribbit. Playing around with mom’s mirror from the morning, are we? Ribbit-ribbit.”

“Ribbit-ribbit. I guess the Frog Prince story I read to you made quite an impression, huh? Ribbit-ribbit.”

“…!…!!”

When I turned, I saw the two shadows behind me, whose playful voices had turned me into a frog on the spot.

And just like that, my cheeks blushed bright red, as red as a tomato.

In that instant, I finally understood what VTubers must feel like when they accidentally reveal their “red pills” on stream before even debuting.

…It was already proving not to be easy.