"Hello, my name is Lee Han. Whoever sees this message, please know that I committed suicide because of the bullying I was subjected to by my classmates and my alcoholic father.
I was like any other child, living my life happily with my parents, until that fateful day...
When we went to my grandmother's house..."
"...It was a sweltering day in the summer of 2015. My grandmother, the only one who treated me with kindness, suddenly passed away for no apparent reason. With her passing to the other world, the last shred of warmth in my life was gone. My father, who was more suspicious of ghosts than humans, beat me up in his drunken stupor after I refused to give him the money I had inherited from my grandmother. At school, the story wasn't any better. The sound of my classmates' laughter whenever my glasses broke or my food slipped on the floor... pierced my ears more intensely than the whistle of bullets. I tried to persevere. But the question I couldn't stop asking was: Why am I alive? Today, as I climb onto the roof of Seoul High School, I know that this leap is not to death... but to a new life where there will be no room for tears.
I looked at the letter I had written, and my face flushed with shame.
I grabbed the paper and tore it into small pieces, then muttered in a trembling voice, "If I am going to die, let me die with honor!" Well, suicide isn't honorable... it's cowardly, and only fools do it.
And I'm... one of those fools.
With that thought, I jumped off the school roof, making sure my head hit the ground first, so I could die quickly and painlessly.
"At least I should have killed one of those bullies... or that one The bitch who betrayed me!"
***
I opened my eyes feeling sleepy, but my sleepiness was dispelled by a severe headache that split my head, accompanied by a barrage of strange memories.
"What the hell is this headache?!" I rolled onto the bed, clutching my head with my hands, then bit my pillow to stifle my screams. I don't know how long I stayed like this. After the headache subsided, I wiped the drool that had dripped from my mouth and ran toward the mirror. In the mirror, I saw a child about three or four years old, with soft, black hair and black eyes. They hide a strange glow, skin as white as snow, and plump cheeks that tempt you to pinch them. I pinched them... and felt a sharp pain in my face, and I realized this wasn't a dream. "I can't believe I've been reincarnated... just like in the novels I've read!" I reviewed this body's memories. I discovered that his name was "Ji-hoon," a three-year-old boy, living with his family of five... from the middle class.
He had a twin sister...
...and I heard a soft voice coming from behind:
"Ji-hoon! Lunchtime!"
I turned around. It was… my twin sister, Ji-min. I didn't just recognize her from my physical memories… I'd also seen her in the dream that visited me before my jump. The girl who betrayed me!
"You…!" I whispered in a choked voice.
But her tone wasn't one of betrayal... rather, that of an innocent child carrying a plate of soup.
Before I could speak, a flood of new memories flooded me:
Ji Min isn't a traitor... She's a sister who loves me, who runs away with me to the rooftop every night to watch the stars to escape our father's screams...
"She's not "She..." My tears suddenly flowed.
A new life is not an end... but an opportunity to b
e who I couldn't be.