Ch.4744 – The Red-Haired Witch (1)

Hello.

My name is Seo Yu-na.

My parents gave me this name with the characters for “beautiful” (瑜) and “to hold” (拿), hoping I would never miss out on all the beautiful things in the world.

Pretty, isn’t it?

Just like my beautiful name, I grew up receiving a lot of love at home.

My mom loves me more than anything in the world, and both my older brothers adore me to bits.

Although my father passed away when I was very young and I’ve only seen him in photos, mom always told me he was a truly beautiful person.

Using “beautiful” to describe a man is… strange, but somehow it fits.

My mom and brothers were all beautiful people, but our home wasn’t beautiful at all.

It was too cramped for a family of four.

During the rainy season, the ceiling would leak, and in winter, cold drafts would seep through the windows.

My brothers would lie on the floor to do their homework, and mom would push aside the blankets to make space for setting the table.

On rare occasions when we got to grill meat from some contest prize, acrid smoke would fill the entire house.

That’s why at three years old, my dream was to be a princess.

I wanted to live happily ever after with my loving family in a beautiful, spacious castle.

Mom was so happy when she heard that.

So my brothers each shared their dreams too.

My older brother’s dream was to become an artist. Sometimes when he got bored with homework, he would draw me with his three-color pen, and it looked exactly like me.

My second brother’s dream was to become a basketball player. He was tall and athletic, so he would surely become an amazing player in the future, right?

In the middle of lunch, curiosity struck me and I asked:

“Mom, what’s your dream?”

But mom just said she needed to get back to work, and never answered my question.

Her retreating back looked somehow pitiful.

* * *

“&%&@ %&$$&@@!”

I woke up to loud noises in the early morning.

Looking around, I couldn’t see mom or my brothers.

Where did everyone go?

I was scared.

Then I heard familiar voices outside the door. It was mom and my brothers.

I didn’t know how to read the clock, so I wasn’t sure what time it was, but why was everyone outside on this cold winter dawn?

“The hospital said your condition is serious and we need to schedule the next treatment as soon as possible! Why did you go to work again today?”

“Where would we get the money? I need to earn as much as I can while my body still allows it.”

“But mom, you’re not well!”

My brothers were furiously angry at mom.

I was so shaken by this side of my brothers that I’d never seen before, I couldn’t open the door.

“The doctor said they can’t treat this disease in Korea anyway. I should only be hospitalized when I’m really sick, to save every penny we can.”

“How can money matter when your life is at stake?”

“…”

From that day on, our beauty began to slowly fall apart.

Perhaps it had been happening long before that.

Mom worked from morning until late at night to support us on her own.

She worked as a cleaning lady in various buildings from morning to evening, and on weekends she worked at a restaurant until late at night, so we often couldn’t see her.

I missed mom. I wanted to see her every day.

But I never wished for my wish to come true like this.

“Mom…”

“What is it, my beautiful daughter?”

“I can’t see you…”

“Huh?”

“I’m not over there… You really can’t see, mom… waaaaaah!”

Multiple sclerosis.

It’s a terrifying disease where the police cells in mom’s body attack her own body.

Mom’s eyes gradually lost their light, and within less than a year, she couldn’t even tell where I was.

Like someone who had looked into Medusa’s eyes, mom’s body turned stiff as stone.

Below her neck, her entire body was paralyzed, and she could barely move just one index finger.

I watched as she desperately tried to wiggle even just that finger to comfort me as I cried bitterly.

So I had no choice but to hold onto mom’s finger.

It was the only way to let her know I was there, since she couldn’t feel sensations anywhere else.

For our family, happiness was a short story, but misfortune was always an endless novel.

Now I can barely remember when we were happy.

“I dropped out of school.”

My older brother spoke first, with resignation in his voice.

If mom had been her usual self, she would have scolded him and told him to focus on studying, but today she said nothing.

From then on, my older brother would wake up at 4 AM every day, hurriedly get dressed, and leave the house.

And at 7 PM, he would drag his tired body back home and collapse.

Not only did he spend 8 hours covered in construction site dust, but he also worked at a convenience store in the afternoon.

My older brother, who once had fair skin, gradually turned tan, and his delicate hands that used to hold colored pencils were now covered in blisters.

He became the proper head and pillar of our household.

Perhaps that’s why the nagging that mom used to do became his responsibility.

“Seo No-eul. Your homeroom teacher called.”

“So what?”

“Why did you fight with your friends at school?”

“…Why do you care?”

“Tell me if you don’t want to die.”

“Ugh, die my ass. Someone was talking trash about Yuna’s hair color so I punched them, okay?”

“…”

“And I’m quitting school too. It’s hard to balance with work.”

“What?”

“Next year Yuna will enter the academy too. I can’t earn enough just doing deliveries like now.”

The incident started when I went to school to deliver homework that my younger brother had left behind.

Apparently, my brother’s friends made fun of my red hair, which was different from others.

Ma-ru brother didn’t blame my younger brother, and the whole thing was awkwardly brushed aside.

After that, I became self-conscious about my hair color.

Come to think of it, there were plenty of kids at the playground who made fun of my hair too.

I thought they were just jealous, but…

I asked mom honestly.

“Mom, is my hair color weird?”

“Who said that? It’s the most beautiful in the world.”

“But why is my hair the only one that’s red? You have black hair, dad had black hair, and my brothers all have black hair too.”

“That’s…”

Mom had always avoided this question.

But this time, I was stubborn and had no intention of backing down.

“Am I really not your daughter…?”

“No, absolutely not.”

“Then what is it! Why won’t you tell me!”

Does mom dislike me?

My family keeps so many secrets from me.

I always found out things late—mom’s illness, my older brother working at construction sites—I always learned about everything after the fact.

“Yuna, can you come here to mom?”

I don’t want to listen to mom.

But I still hugged mom tightly. Because mom couldn’t move.

“When you were little, there was a big fire in our apartment.”

“Fire?”

I had never heard about this.

And an apartment?

We lived in an apartment building dozens of floors high, not this tiny semi-basement room?

“Only you and dad were home at the time. The fire spread throughout the apartment so quickly that there was no way to escape. But your dad did everything he could to save you.”

Why are you only telling me this now?

And why was I the only one who survived…?

* * *

Back then, each household only had one portable oxygen respirator, though nowadays it’s normal to have one for each family member.

Dad must have used it on me. And until someone came to rescue us…

He kept…

He kept…

Protecting me.

But the smoke kept coming in, and dad couldn’t withstand it anymore.

By the time mom got to the hospital, dad had already passed away.

But apparently, I was also in critical condition after inhaling so much smoke.

In the end, mom had to make a decision without even having time to say goodbye to dad.

She decided to transplant dad’s Aura Heart into me.

That’s why 60% of my mana circuit is from dad.

And that’s why I have this beautiful red hair like a princess from a fairy tale—because of dad’s Aura Heart.

I kept holding back my tears while mom was talking.

If I cried in our small house, mom would hear and be sad.

No, do I even have the right to be sad?

I ran out of the house without thinking.

The sky was clear without a single cloud, and the weather was really nice.

In the park, a child my age was holding both parents’ hands.

They must have come out for a family outing.

My chest hurt so much.

If I had never been born,

Dad, who was an ordinary office worker, wouldn’t have been home at that time.

Instead of using the compensation money for my surgery, they could have moved to a better house.

Then mom wouldn’t have had to work day and night for us, and might not have gotten sick.

Ma-ru brother would have gone to art school and fulfilled his dream of drawing portraits of his friends,

And No-eul brother would have proudly become a popular professional basketball player.

If only I hadn’t been born,

Like the family I just saw,

My family would have deserved to live a fairy tale life too.

Going to the park together for outings, eating meat dishes every day in a warm apartment.

I wasn’t a princess at all.

Rather, I was the evil witch who offers the poisoned apple, steals voices, and puts people into eternal sleep with a spindle.

My brothers don’t know this and are still working day and night for me.

Mom and my brothers, everyone is looking only at me, to the point of giving up their long-cherished dreams.

They’re hoping that I’ll become the last hope for this family.

I could barely breathe from the pressure.

If only I hadn’t been accepted to the academy… I repeat the same words over and over.

I regret it so much, but now it’s too late to turn back.

Because it’s not just my life hanging in the balance anymore.