PIA 2

Ji-an’s lifeless body rolled on the ground after being hit by the truck. The truck didn’t stop and continued in Ji-an’s direction. The driver seemed unaware of hitting a person. The wheels crushed Ji-an and dragged him a bit further. His body grinded on the asphalt.

Ji-an lay on the road, looking at a flower that had fallen to the ground from his chest. It had fallen and, for some reason, it felt like his chest was getting hot, and something kept flowing out of it.

Step by step, a pair of shoes approached him. The man crouched down, picked up the fallen flower, and pinned it to his own chest.

“Ugh…”

His face was completely his own, with round eyes and pale white cheeks that were devoid of malice. It was undoubtedly Ji-an’s face, the face he saw in the mirror every day. Even as blood drained from his body, he was sure that it was him.

A somewhat eerie realization passed through Ji-an’s mind as he looked at his own face. Wasn’t there a saying that if you meet your doppelganger, you’d die?

Why did I chase this guy instead of ignoring him? I should have just sat down, received the congratulatory money and handed out the meal tickets. No, I shouldn’t have come to my older brother’s wedding at all. No, I should have…not fallen for Han-joo hyung. No, if I had been better at math by myself… If only my mom hadn’t arranged for tutoring.

I guess I’m going to die. Ji-an laughed helplessly as he looked back on his life flashing by.

F*ck.

Not only was he miserable for having his unrequited love taken away, but to die in a car accident on the day of the wedding was beyond miserable.

It was just too damn unfair. He wished he could curse out loud.

Cough, the sound of coughing brought the smell of blood into the air. As Ji-an’s vision cleared, the doppelganger kept saying something to him.

Ji-an mustered his last bit of strength and squeezed out tears.

“Switch with me.”

What?

What do you mean by switch? What do you want to switch?

Ji-an watched as the monster that looked exactly like him stood up. The man walked away without a trace of remorse and headed towards the wedding hall without any hesitation.

The truck driver jumped out of his seat and shouted something, but Ji-an couldn’t hear him. His lower body felt cold, and even his fingertips were getting cold.

Hey. Don’t go, that’s my place. That’s my place over there… I have the key to my alien older brother’s money box…

His consciousness faded.

∞

“So, how do you want me to take responsibility? Mr. Seo Ji-an.”

“…”

Ji-an blinked while sitting. What is this? Is it a dream? He briefly thought he had blacked out, but when he opened his eyes, his in-law was sitting right in front of him. It felt as if he had just woken up from a long and refreshing sleep.

“Mr. Seo Ji-an?”

“Brother-in-law?”

He saw him briefly during his older brother’s couple meeting and on the wedding day… Why was Jeong Hee-seo, the older brother of Jeong Han-joo, whom he had been secretly in love with for 8 years, here in front of him today?

Ji-an looked around with a dumbfounded expression. There was a framed picture with the JM Group logo on the wall. He quickly realized that he was in Hee-seo’s office.

Seeing Ji-an muttering nonsense, Hee-seo sighed lightly and called him again.

“Those in your hand. You brought them to show me, didn’t you?”

“Yes…yes?”

Ji-an looked down at his hands without thinking and almost screamed. He almost threw the pregnancy tests in his hand at Hee-seo’s face.

He was clutching three pregnancy tests with two bright red lines each in both hands.

Ji-an was bewildered. It was as if his mind had been hit by an electric shock, and a crazy thought occurred to him.

‘This is a drama written by my older brother. I must have possessed it.’

It was an unbelievably strong conviction. He couldn’t even grasp why the accident had led him here, but right now, he strongly felt that he was inside his own older brother’s drama, “The Well-Raised Omega Son.”

– Correct!

Ji-an was startled by the sudden sound that rang in his head and jumped up from his seat. He dropped the pregnancy test he was holding in his hand.

Ji-an dug his ears as if a bug had crawled inside. Jeong Hee-seo, who was sitting across from him, stared at him as if he were insane, but Ji-an didn’t care.

In this space, there was clearly only Ji-an and Jeong Hee-seo. Nobody else could have talked to him, not to mention whispered in his ear. Furthermore, the voice sounded just like his own.

Maybe I’m crazy. Did I actually die earlier, or was I in a vegetative condition and am now in my subconscious? Am I in a coma?

– You read too many novels.

“F*ck.”

This time, he couldn’t hide my curse and he blurted it out. Jeong Hee-seo seemed to have had enough and got up to follow Ji-an. Only then did Ji-an start to feel bewildered.

When he stood up and faced Jeong Hee-seo, the intimidation he felt from him was overwhelming. The backs of his knees were tingling, and he had to strengthen his legs to keep from falling.

The look in Jeong Hee-seo’s eyes right now was exactly the same as his mother’s when she watched her brother-in-law complaining about the side dishes after coming into the store to get a free meal on a busy evening.

“Why… why are you doing this?”

Ji-an tried to muster some courage and ask. He bent his knees slightly, ready to run in case he hit him. He wanted to have some momentum if he raised his hands. It’s like how a frog crouches before making a big leap. It’s not because they’re scared or anything…

“Mr. Seo Ji-an.”

“Y-yes, please go on.”

“You came in here uninvited and suddenly started saying crazy things. But you and I did something together, so I set aside some time to listen… That’s why I was here.”

Something together? What do you mean? What did we do together?

Ji-an’s eyes widened and he was about to ask again.

– What else could it be? We f*cked. We even did a lot of things, and I think I cummed three times… no, maybe four times?

Ji-an covered his ears, but he couldn’t block out the mocking voice.

In his bewildered gaze, he saw the pregnancy tests scattered on the floor. Ji-an’s head was spinning. In a moment of crisis, his racing mind quickly recalled the drama “The Well-Raised Omega Son.”

That crazy alien, I mean my brother, wrote that drama, and he incorporated everyone around him into the story.

The protagonist was obviously his older brother- Seo Ji-hyeok, the Dominant Omega. It’s easy to tell that Seo Ji-an was written as a villainous Recessive Omega younger brother, who constantly envies and interferes with his older brother at everything, right?

Seo Ji-an was portrayed in the drama as a psychopath who, at the age of five, devised a cunning plan to get rid of his older brother, who was three years older than him. Although it was tough to bear his mother’s favoritism, who was the owner of a successful restaurant chain toward his Dominant Omega older brother, there was no justification for his heinous act.

When they showed the young actor who played Ji-an laughing smugly after getting rid of his older brother, his realistic performance sparked a huge controversy, and he earned the title of ‘National Villain’ in no time.

‘No, no matter what. Is it possible that an elder brother three years older fell for his younger brother’s trick? Does that make sense? And how could a chaebol family lose a child like that?’

When Ji-an asked his older brother, the answer he got from him was absurd.

‘If they find him, the story won’t progress, you idiot. You can’t make money because you’re so stupid.’

‘Anyway, I can’t accept my name being used. I’m going to sue.’

When he said that, what came back was a smack.

‘Your name is only in the files I worked on. It’s a different name in the drama, you idiot. You can’t win a lawsuit even if you try. Try it.’

‘Damn… Everyone knows it’s me. It makes me feel bad!’

‘Don’t watch the drama then.’

His older brother said casually, and then he hummed with a nasal voice while talking to his lover, Han-joo hyung, over the phone before disappearing.

Double personality bastard. Not only did his older brother’s novel become a best-seller, but the drama also received high ratings. The whole nation was talking about the drama. And he didn’t like the fact that he was the model for the psychopathic villain in it.

He made him a national villain who was suffering from all kinds of insults…

As Ji-an was pulling out his hair from stress, Seo Ji-hyuk, who returned from the phone call, smiled and said,

‘Originally, great fiction always creatively restructures reality in a very sexy way. Welcome to becoming the great villain in my world, Ji-an. Little brother, you should be thankful to this older brother.’

‘What are you saying, you crazy idiot?’

‘Your gloomy personality helped me a lot in my writing. It’s similar to you. I didn’t fix it much. Oh, of course, the same goes for me as the main character.’

Um- Hwahahahaha! He threw a roll of toilet paper at the back of the smiling older brother’s head, but annoyingly, he dodged it. Then he delivered the final blow.

‘What can you do now? Can you withdraw or stop the broadcast? Do you have the money for the penalty fee? Will Mom stay quiet?’

‘…’

‘Don’t be like this. When I receive my payment, I’ll give you a generous allowance.’

The anger that withered in the face of money was like a dried-up anchovy. It means that it has become so dry that it has no existence and has become nothing more than a bite of food.

He shouldn’t have done that then.

Ji-an swallowed a dry chuckle. The one million won allowance he received at that time had sealed his life inside this drama. For just a measly one million won…

And to make matters worse, the first person he met in this world, Jeong Hee-seo, used his real name and had the same face as in reality. It sent a shiver down Ji-an’s spine, adding another spoonful to his existing discomfort.

‘This is insane.’

Jeong Hee-seo. Jeong Hee-seo, Han-joo’s older brother. In reality, this person should have become his brother-in-law… he was practically as influential as the owner of JM Group.