Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: NicoleTempest

Chapter 253 What Truly Shines

My body doesn’t obey me. I haven’t achieved anything I wanted. If I close my eyes, I feel like I’ll be taken over by the ‘fake’ again.

I’m out of breath and it’s hard to bear my own weight. I try to get up from the bed by pushing the floor, but I collapse right away.

I barely manage to stay conscious by blocking the system’s relentless attempts to restore me.

I can’t remember or do what I wanted to do so badly.

‘What did I do so wrong?’

The sheet I clenched was briefly wrinkled and then returned to its original state, limp.

A bleak dawn. The first bus heading to the provincial terminal was almost empty. I held the ticket and sat in the seat, and soon the driver came up and tore off one side of the ticket.

“Students are all riding from dawn. What a strange thing.”

I wondered if the kids hadn’t finished their vacation yet. But the ones who went to play wouldn’t take the first bus at this early hour. I thought it would be surprising.

I nodded my head to greet him instead of answering, and waited for a while until the bus moved its heavy body and left the terminal.

I was heading to the villa now. The place where Lim Hyun-seong stayed for the last time before he died.

He didn’t die in the house, and the investigation was closed as a suicide before it started in earnest, so I had no idea what the house looked like.

Should I have sold it sooner? Maybe he didn’t sell it because he didn’t know if there was any evidence of murder.

On the other hand, he might have disposed of all his belongings and sold it before the evidence came out.

I thought I should at least check it out with my eyes, so I left the shelter without thinking, but I was still at a loss.

‘I need to find evidence that it wasn’t suicide.’

If it was right after he was killed, I would have checked the CCTV that I installed for security, but it was already more than six months later. Considering that the previous footage is usually deleted after two or three months, it was time to be overwritten by new footage.

‘But I have to go anyway.’

After driving for about four hours, the terminal I arrived at was not only quiet, but also had an apocalyptic atmosphere.

There were not many people using it, and since it was dawn, there was no staff at the window, only an unmanned ticket machine.

‘Will I be able to catch a taxi?’

As I hesitated and went outside, I saw a driver who was half asleep with a cigarette in his mouth and the window half down.

“Hey, driver.”

As I approached and spoke to him, he was startled as if he was thinking of something else.

“Where are you going?”

I sighed, took a short breath, and answered.

“I need you to go to the address on the navigation. It’ll take about 30 minutes from here.”

The driver’s expression crumpled at the thought of having to share the fare on the way back. Well, that was a normal reaction. I didn’t rely on the driver’s humanity, but instead took out the bill I got from Kang Jinwoo and handed it to him.

“Just turn off the meter and go.”

The driver’s eyes sparkled at the sight of the unexpected yellow bill.

“Where’s the address?”

Anyway. It was easy to handle, but I didn’t feel very good.

“Over here.”

I showed him the address I wrote on my phone’s memo, and he rubbed out his cigarette and entered the address on the navigation.

“Do you have any relatives living here?”

It was similar. Not a relative, but a villa where I lived. I didn’t answer, but smiled faintly instead.

There was nothing but silence in the car all the way. Later, the driver seemed to feel uncomfortable, so he suddenly turned on the radio.

As the pop songs flowed out, the road scenery I often saw passed by the window.

The last time I came here, I drove myself. When I left, I must have been carried out without driving myself.

I wasn’t very happy to return to the place where I died.

“Are you almost there? Are you here to film a haunted house YouTube or something?”

A moment later, the car stopped with a notification that it had arrived at the designated destination, and the driver nagged as if to ask why I came to such a place.

“I have something to stop by for a moment. Can you give me your number if you don’t mind? I wonder if you can come back when I go back to the terminal later.”

I didn’t like the driver very much. But it wouldn’t hurt to reduce contact with others.

“Then I’ll have to charge you a bit more…”

The driver looked at me as if he misunderstood me as a fugitive or a wanted person.

“Yes. I’ll call you later if you give me your number.”

Anyway, I wasn’t a wanted person, and if I looked it up, I wouldn’t exist anywhere. I calmly handed him my phone and saved his number, then nodded and greeted him.

Vroom-. As I confirmed that the car was getting farther away, I turned around and looked at the yard, sighing deeply.

‘I was worried what if someone sold it and cleared it away.’

Who would buy this place that costs a lot of maintenance and is expensive, but has poor accessibility and is hard to come by often?

It was obvious that the place had been left untouched since I died.

‘How can the grass grow so much?’

The weeds were so thick and tall that they almost reached the height of an elementary school student. They made me reluctant to enter the yard.

I had to clean it up if I wanted to sell it. But I hated that idea, so I left it like this.

I felt relieved as I pushed through the bushes and entered the yard. And then,

Swoosh-.

I heard something moving in a corner of the yard.

It was too quiet to be a person, and it sounded like friction on the ground.

A snake? Or a rat? Either way, it was disgusting.

“Ugh.”

I cautiously looked at the ground as I approached the house, afraid of being bitten by something. Luckily, there was no sign of anyone living here.

‘Then maybe…’

I had installed three CCTV cameras around the entrance. They had been removed by the bastards who destroyed the evidence, but the sign on the door still said there were three.

‘But that’s not all.’

The door faced the road, and unless they climbed over the fence, they couldn’t enter from the other side. Behind the house, there was a cliff that led straight to the sea.

And there was one more camera that I didn’t record on the door, facing that direction.

It was dangerous, so I put up another fence. And since it was private property, anyone who came in here would be trespassing, so I didn’t have to mark it.

‘I originally installed it to film the birds that liked to build nests here… I didn’t expect this to happen.’

It was made to look like a birdhouse, and I modified it so that real birds could nest and live in the bottom. Considering the direction and location of the filming, there was a high chance that it captured the scene of me being killed.

‘Please…!’

I quickly checked the back of the building, hoping for something. There was a birdhouse with a nest that the birds had left behind.

My heart sank as I felt a pressure. I went to the birdhouse and took off the roof. There was a dusty camera inside.

‘Is the power…!?’

Of course, it was off. It was a waterproof camera, and it didn’t seem to have any damage. I guessed it was just a simple discharge.

I took the camera and went back to the front of the house.

‘Can I go inside?’

I had to try. I entered the familiar number on the door lock. It opened without a sound.

It made sense. I was dead and cremated in the yard. No one who knew the password would come back here.

The villa that I returned to after a year had no trace of people. It was cold, and mold was growing everywhere because of the moisture. It created a gloomy atmosphere.

‘Does the light work?’

Click, I flipped the switch. The electricity seemed to be cut off, too. The light didn’t come on. I went to the kitchen and turned on the faucet. The water seemed to have been cut off for a long time, too.

I felt bitter as I saw the villa that had become a ruin in a year.

‘I shouldn’t think about it.’

I had to focus on what I had to do. I pulled myself together and went to the room. The room looked the same as I remembered.

The bedding was neatly arranged, but covered with dust. Beyond that, there was a desk.

There were quite a few books on the bookshelf… I went closer and laughed bitterly at the unexpected scene.

‘Ha.’

They must have been worried that there was something like a real will or something in the books. The bookshelf was completely empty.

The drawers were the same.

‘They were meticulous in useless places.’

It was a waste of effort. My real will, which had been notarized, was somewhere else.

I lifted the dusty blanket and put it on the floor. I flipped the mattress.

Clang, as I flipped the mattress, there was a zipper that opened the inside where the springs were.

Zip, I opened it and felt inside. There was a neatly folded envelope. They wouldn’t have thought to look here with common sense.

‘I don’t know if this will be recognized as valid.’

I had hired a lawyer and replaced it with a new version, and the inheritance had been completed. It was almost impossible to overturn this unless I came back to life.

Even if I gave this to Kang Jeon-mu, unless he found solid evidence that the new will was forged, they would just dismiss this as an old version.

‘I found the will, now I just need to do something about the video…’

I turned on the laptop and waited for the power to come on. Then I hoped that the file storage would be connected.

It must have been erased long ago, but I couldn’t let go of the faint hope. As I was waiting,

Vroom-.

‘What?’

Then, I heard a car outside.

‘What is it? They can’t be coming here.’

I hoped it was just a passing car for a moment.

The car sound got closer and closer, and then stopped beyond the yard. And then, someone started walking.

‘I have to hide.’

As long as I didn’t get caught, they wouldn’t be able to find me. I was a nobody in this world anyway. But if someone saw me or grabbed me at the scene, it would be game over.

I quickly opened the door leading to the balcony and ran outside. I had taken the camera, the laptop, and the letter, but I couldn’t erase the traces of my presence.

‘Damn, where should I hide?’

As soon as I reached the backyard, I heard someone grumbling in the front yard.

“Who the hell comes here at this hour? At best, they’re just petty thieves.”

“Let’s just take a quick look and leave.”

Some people who looked like hired thugs were approaching the house, complaining.

“What was the password again?”

“1005.”

“What kind of password is that? It’s not even angelic.”

A sudden mockery made me feel a surge of anger on my forehead. Angelic, my ass. It was the day I opened my shop for the first time.

I swallowed my futile retort and crouched down cautiously.

‘If I run away like this, there’s nothing nearby to hide behind. What should I do?’

It was a very quiet neighborhood, not suitable for pretending to be a local resident. It was a place that was hard to reach without a car, so I couldn’t just smile and say, “Are you new here?” and pass by.

“Hey, wait a minute. It looks like someone came in here.”

One of the thugs added in a suspicious voice.

“Are they still here?”

I felt my heart drop again and lay flat on the ground.

If I crossed the room and went out to the balcony, I would be caught for sure. What should I do now? My vision went dark.

‘I have to think of a way.’

If they caught me now, they would take the letter and the camera. Cold sweat ran down my back.