| Minjeong

"What are you doing in there?"

"What do you mean what am I doing in there?"

Things escalated so quickly that I don't know what's happening anymore.

Heejin cornered Jisu by the sink, grabbing tightly onto her collar. Instead of looking mad, she looked muddled and frustrated simultaneously. Because of this sudden event, Jimin and I were caught off guard.

We're both confused- No, we're all confused.

"Don't with me, Ms. Goddess! I know you're not Jisu!"

What?

As if everything had been revealed, "Jisu" gently brushed Heejin's grab off her collar. She smiled and looked at us three with curious eyes. It seemed like she was analyzing every bit of us before falling into a small chuckle.

"Being one of the creators of the system... Sitting behind countless monitors, doing nothing— It's boring, you know? Can't I have fun?"

Countless monitors...

Pursing her lips, Heejin sighed. "That's fine, but... I don't get why you had to take over Jisu's body! You can't include innocent people in this ed up game of yours."

"Innocent people..." I furrowed my brows, "Heejin, what do you mean by that?"

"I-" Heejin glanced at me, "The system— They took away the only person who mattered to me. An innocent person. Who had nothing to do with the system," she admitted hesitantly, and there was a tone of anger.

The system took away an innocent person?

Hearing Heejin say all of that pounded something heavy into my chest. Concern. I couldn't help but look at Jimin, who looked just as shocked as me, her hand grasping mine firmly.

Don't tell me our situation was one of those cases.

No way I'm letting something like that happen to her.

The Goddess slowly shook her head in disappointment, "Hey, hey. You didn't have to tell her that. That was an accident! Even though it's beyond my power, I gave you a chance to get her back."

Heejin gritted her teeth, "Only if I win."

"Exactly!"

The Goddess said before turning her head to face Jimin and mine's way. And there it is again. That uncomfortable curious look of hers was on us, causing me to instinctively step in front of Jimin.

I expected her to walk toward us, but she only giggled. "Aww, you two are my favorite couple so far! One is defensive, while the other is neutrally mysterious." she smiled at Jimin. "You know what, just because of that, I'm going to give Minjeongie a small gift."

She snapped her fingers.

[ Level Up! ]
Lvl. 32 → Lvl. 33
+ LUK has taken effect!
+ You received 2 points!

"Hahaha! You're really smart for distributing your points to LUK."

I remained unfazed, "What do you want from us?"

"Nothing as of now, I was boooorrreeed! Plus, I wanted to see how it felt like participating in this show."

Heejin had been glaring at her for a long time now, "And you did. Now get out of Jisu's body."

"Alright, I presume that you saw the future. Ohhh~ I'm scared! Please don't kill me!" The Goddess laughed, "Anyway, joking, joking! Next to Minjeongie and Jimin over here, you and that kitty are my favorite!"

Staying silent, Heejin clenched her fists, and the Goddess noticed.

"Sheesh, okay. Someone's mad. Guess I'll go now~ I look forward to our next meeting!"

After waving her hand energetically, the bathroom lights flickered on and off a few times until the Goddess who took over Jisu's body finally disappeared. Due to this, Jisu collapsed, and Heejin, fortunately, caught her before falling to the floor.

"I'm sorry the two of you had to hear that..." Heejin apologized as she gently moved Jisu's body to sit up against the wall, "Especially you, Jimin. I was only supposed to talk to the Goddess and needed Minjeong's skill, but I didn't want to look bad in front of the cameras. Like, I was leaving you out of the team."

I felt Jimin's grasp get tighter as she shook her head, "It's fine. We're in the middle of filming, so I understand."

We all stood in silence, taking in all the sequence of events that had happened. And between that stillness, it made me think many things about the system.

As far as I know, there are three Goddesses; Entertainment, Affinity, and Dungeons...?

I don't even wanna explore the last one, so I'm not going to bother and ask Heejin or Boa about it except for the stats connected to it.

"But hey, at least you leveled up."

Suddenly, Heejin broke the silence with a chuckle, and soon, Jimin too.

These two...

"Whatever." I just smiled, "What's the plan now? What's going to happen? Don't tell me the world's going to end, Heejin."

With that last part, I was glad that I made her laugh.

"Honestly, no one knows what's going to happen to the world. Even me. But I believe we can deal with that. Although we cannot change the past— we can change the future. We can change it into the world we desire."

Turning to look at me, Heejin's solemn smile gradually turned into a bright determined one.

"We're going to win, right?"

I returned her smile, "Heck yeah."

✩

That shocking ev