The Body I Stole, The Soul That Returned

“Your behavior is exactly like how you used to be before you changed.

The way you act, the way you speak……”

“W-wait a second.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Hearing you say that, there’s something I need to sort out. I’ll head upstairs first.”

Baek Dojun’s offhand remark threw my thoughts into chaos.

It felt like several stones had suddenly been hurled onto the calm surface of a pond.

I hurried up to my room on the third floor.

Janggun panted and whined, begging me to play, but I didn’t have the time to pay him any attention.

‘Why didn’t I think of that before?’

My pencil raced across the notebook I had opened haphazardly.

I wrote down everything based on the information I had gathered about Moon Gyeongsik so far.

Moon Gyeongsik was an Alpha full of suspicious points.

An ordinary male Alpha with no connection whatsoever to Seong Chanyeong.

He claimed to be a devoted grandson who had come to see his grandfather, who was suffering from dementia, in his final moments—yet he seemed far more focused on directing an inexplicable hatred toward me.

‘And his behavior suddenly changed, as if he’d become a completely different person.’

The report that Secretary Choi had compiled on Moon Gyeongsik included even the most trivial details.

What he liked, what he disliked—even the people he had dated.

‘And not a single male Alpha was listed. Every one of them was either a female Omega or a female Beta.’

Sexual identity doesn’t change easily.

Unless there was some decisive turning point, there was no way Moon Gyeongsik would suddenly become interested in male Alphas.

And yet now, Moon Gyeongsik was practically desperate to seduce male Alphas—specifically the male leads from the original story.

The point at which he began obsessively investigating me, and the sense of unease others had felt around him.

If I were to draw a conclusion that could only come from someone who had transmigrated like me, there was only one answer.

‘No way…….’

Had the real Seong Chanyeong’s soul possessed Moon Gyeongsik?

I had assumed that the real Seong Chanyeong had died due to a suicide attempt that didn’t exist in the original story.

But what if that wasn’t the case—what if his soul had simply lost its body and wandered the world?

And then possessed Moon Gyeongsik in order to get rid of me?

If that were true, everything made sense.

Why Moon Gyeongsik hated me so intensely, and why he showed excessive favor toward the male leads, trying to cling to them from the very first meeting.

“N-no, that can’t be right?”

Someone, please tell me that’s not it.

If this hypothesis is correct, then I…

To Seong Chanyeong, I’m nothing more than the villain.

The villain who stole his body.

‘If this is true, what am I supposed to do?’

I never wanted to take Seong Chanyeong’s body. I was a victim too.

I opened my eyes and suddenly became Seong Chanyeong—what was I supposed to do about that?

‘I really hope this is just me overthinking things…….’

But damn it, my instincts were screaming. If not this, then what else could it be?

“Whine… whiiine.”

Maybe my anxiety was showing, because Janggun scratched at my ankle with his tiny paws.
It was also a complaint that I wasn’t playing with him.

“I’m sorry, Janggun. Daddy should’ve played with you. I’m a bit late, huh?”

“Whiiine.”

I tried to soothe the displeased-looking Janggun with his toys, but the anxiety wouldn’t settle down.

If anything, it only grew worse.

The strength slowly drained from my arms.

And then, a memory I didn’t want to recall surfaced.

The chilling dream I had when I first transmigrated into this world.

The characters from the original story saying they didn’t need me, as they searched for the real Seong Chanyeong.

The real Seong Chanyeong in the original story was violent.

He was starved for affection, and despite being despised by the male leads, he stubbornly forced his feelings onto them.

‘Sure, I’m more convenient than the real Seong Chanyeong since I don’t bother them like that, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m fake.’

What about his family?

Even if the male leads didn’t care, wouldn’t his family—no matter how cold—want their real son and brother back?

‘Even Chairman Seong would feel that way…….’

I’m not their real family.

The affection Chairman Seong pours onto me—its source is that I am his blood.

It’s the love he has only just begun to give to his pitiful grandson.

There’s no way he’d want to give that to a fake.

Because I’m not Seong Chanyeong.

I’m Go Yeowoon.

‘It’s only natural.’

So why does it hurt so much?

I understand it.

If this is true, then it’s not strange for Moon Gyeongsik to show hostility toward me.

But I didn’t want to believe this hypothesis.

An indescribable sorrow surged up, and I desperately wished it wasn’t true.

Drip.
Drip.

“Huh?”

Droplets fell onto the notebook where I had been organizing my thoughts.

When I touched my eyes, they were wet.

They were tears.

“That’s strange.
Why am I crying…….”

I’m a transmigrator.
In this world, I’m nothing more than a foreign soul.
A fake.

An unnameable sadness consumed both my body and mind.

Tears kept falling endlessly.

Even though no sobs escaped, Janggun saw me and began to whimper in alarm.

“Whine? Whiiine. Whine.”

I couldn’t even move the hand holding the toy.

An overwhelming fear had taken over.

Janggun quietly approached my statue-like form and gently licked my tear-streaked face.

“Whiiine.”

“……Are you telling me not to cry?”

“Whiiine.”

“It would’ve been better if I could understand what you’re saying.”

Would I feel less anxious then?

Dogs don’t betray their owners.

Not unless the owner abandons them first.

Janggun would be the same.

Unlike everything else tied to the original story, he was a life I had personally saved.

Whether I was the real Seong Chanyeong or not didn’t matter to him.

At least Janggun wouldn’t betray me.

“Janggun, let’s sleep together.”

“Woof!”

“Right now… I don’t think I can sleep without you.

It might be uncomfortable, but can I hold you while we sleep?”

“Woof woof!”

I couldn’t understand him, but somehow, it felt like Janggun was saying it was okay.

That alone eased my heart a little.

Holding the fluffy white bundle tightly in my arms, I got ready for bed.

I wanted to escape into sleep as soon as possible.

“Good night, Janggun.”

“Woof.”

The moment I turned off the lights, exhaustion washed over me.

I thought I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep easily, but maybe it was because I was holding a warm puppy.

My eyelids gradually grew heavy.

‘Please… just no nightmares.’

But my wish wasn’t granted. I fell into another nightmare.

A nightmare where the real Seong Chanyeong appeared.

“……A hospital again?”

In a space that felt vividly real, I stood there, looking at myself lying on a hospital bed.

Not Seong Chanyeong.
The real me.

Completely different from the memory of recovering and being discharged, in this dream, I was always sick.
I had no consciousness.

With an oxygen mask on and IV lines hanging from my arm, I barely managed to breathe—like someone on the brink of death.

“Is this what Seong Chanyeong wants me to be like?”

Since I stole someone else’s body, now I should suffer too—is that it?

The real me wasn’t that sick.

A dream is just a dream.

It’s different from reality.

‘How much must he hate me…?’

To distort reality like this just to show me.
How did he even know I hated hospitals?

The hospital room, filled only with the sound of breathing, was so quiet that it was terrifying in itself.

Watching my dying self became unbearable, so I tried to run away like before.

That’s when it happened. Something grabbed my wrist tightly.

“You can’t run away.”

“W-what…?”

The one holding me was me.

The body that had looked like it would die at any moment suddenly sat up perfectly fine, eyes wide open, gripping my wrist so I couldn’t escape.

That face gradually changed into Seong Chanyeong’s.

I struggled to run, but the firm grip only tightened, digging into my wrist.

‘It hurts!’

“Let go! Let go of me!”

I wasn’t going to be caught like last time.

With all my strength, I shoved Seong Chanyeong away and ran.

Through the endless hospital corridor.

Desperately running to escape this eerie hospital that would never end because it was a dream.

“Haah… haah…”

“Even so, it’s useless!”

Even though I had run far, Seong Chanyeong’s voice sounded as if he were right beside me.

I covered my ears and kept running until I was out of breath.

“Shut up.”

“You need to realize it. You have to remember.

What condition you were in.

Why you ended up having this dream.”

“It’s because of you!”

“Is it really only because of me?”

“What are you talking about?”

At those meaningful words, my legs stopped.

A mouth emerged from the wall and whispered to me.

“If you want to find out, just go back to the hospital room.

You’re curious too, aren’t you? Why you ended up here.”

“……”

That whisper, like a demon’s, hooked my curiosity.

Because it was certain that this dream was connected to both Seong Chanyeong and me.

“You’re curious, right? I knew it. Let’s go together.”

Countless hands stretched out from the walls, pushing my back, urging me to return to the hospital room.

They didn’t look like human hands—black, abnormally long fingers swayed as they tapped against my back.

They were incredibly cold, and felt heavy, like being struck by stone.

I was curious, but I didn’t want to go back to see Seong Chanyeong.

If I went there, it felt like I would witness something irreversible.

“No!”

I struggled to break free from the countless hands, but I was like a dragonfly with its wings caught.

‘I can’t get out…….’

This time, it really felt like the Seong Chanyeong in the dream was trying to catch and kill me.

‘Someone… please help me.’

Anyone would do.
I just wanted to escape this terrible dream.

‘But who would help me? This is just my dream.’

As I was dragged helplessly by the countless hands, drowning in despair, I heard something from afar.

“……!”

“What is that?”

“……Woof! Woof! Woof woof woof!”

It was the sound of a dog barking.

“Janggun!”

“It’s time to feed Janggun!”

I have to feed my baby—

That thought snapped me back to my senses.

Lick, lick.

“Huh?”

“Woof woof!”

Just like that, I woke up from the dream.

Thanks to my lovely dog, Janggun, who barked and pulled me back.