novellhall Chapter 2 Death is Rebirth
Chapter 2 Death is Rebirth
The recording of "Jinri Shop" was ultimately terminated because Choi Sulli was not in good condition.
She didn't say anything on the way home, while her manager, Park Jung-soo, was still cursing Liu Zimu, calling him an anti.
Choi Sulli looked out the car window, the scenery gradually blurring, much like the countless faces she had seen over the years.
Laughing, cursing.
Then Liu Zimu's face appeared in my mind.
Is it anti?
But it doesn't seem like that; it's more like a sasaeng fan (obsessive fan who stalks their loved ones).
And she didn't feel that he was a bad person.
Although he patted his own butt.
But he really wanted to cry.
A man she had met a few times held her tightly, on the verge of tears.
And her expression made it seem like she was about to die.
"In my dreams, I reluctantly protected you..."
"Live life to the fullest."
Choi Sulli closed her eyes, her eyelashes fluttering slightly.
She then thought of the bad things online.
Those comments saying she was "crazy for not wearing a bra," those news reports saying she had "mental problems."
She sometimes feels that she has mental problems.
But today there's someone even crazier than her.
Sulli suddenly felt like laughing and crying at the same time.
My emotions started to become unstable.
The car was parked in front of the house in Sanggok-dong, Seongnam City.
Park Jung-soo spoke up: "Sulli, you're home now, get some rest."
Sulli didn't move.
Park Jung-soo sighed: "About today... the company said they'll handle it. That madman, the company will sue him."
Choi Sulli's finger twitched: "Let's not file a lawsuit."
Park Jung-soo was stunned: "What?"
"I told you not to file a lawsuit," Choi Sulli said, opening the car door. "Liu Zimu doesn't seem like a bad person. He wasn't like this the last few times we met."
"But what about him—"
"He spanked me, I know," Choi Sulli interrupted him, her tone flat, "but you saw it too, he wasn't trying to take advantage of me, he's just crazy."
Park Jung-soo opened his mouth, unsure of what to say: "I'm afraid that won't work. The company has already decided to set an example, since you've been getting too many anti-fans lately."
"I'm going in first." Choi Sulli knew that resisting was futile, so she sighed.
She walked into the house.
She kicked off her shoes, threw her bag on the floor, and curled up on the sofa.
The house was empty and quiet.
It was so quiet that I could hear my own breathing.
She pulled her legs up, curled up into a ball, and rested her chin on her knees.
Liu Zimu's image reappeared.
The man was still laughing as he was being pinned to the ground.
He looked back at her as the police took him away.
That look in his eyes...
It really is a stranger who feels sorry for her.
This world is truly absurd.
She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a medicine bottle.
I swallowed the pills dry; they were incredibly bitter.
But she just frowned in disgust and didn't go to drink any water.
It doesn't matter whether it's tough or not.
My phone vibrated.
Park Jung-soo's message: [Sulli, I just asked again. Although Liu Zimu is Chinese, the company has still decided to sue him.]
Choi Sulli stared at the screen and shook her head.
I tossed my phone to the other end of the sofa.
The house fell silent again.
The silence was unsettling.
She curled up on the sofa, staring at the ceiling.
They were pale white squares.
She wanted to cry.
But I can't cry.
That's the worst part about depression.
You want to vent, but you can't.
When your emotions are controlled, you feel completely frozen.
You are like an ice cube, slowly melting, but the melting process is so slow that you feel you will never completely turn into water, but will just keep dripping, half-dead.
Choi Sulli closed her eyes.
Consciousness began to fade.
Before she fell completely asleep, the last image in her mind was Liu Zimu's face.
That face was still saying, "Choi Jin-ri, it's so good to see you."
He called me Truth, not Sherry, and then she fell into a dream.
She was dreaming, but this time it was different; she had never seen anything like it before.
It was as if something had dragged her into a tunnel.
The tunnel was full of images.
She saw Liu Zimu, whose face looked much younger than it does now.
But the soul is something else entirely.
The young Liu Zimu was sitting in his dormitory at a university in China, eating instant noodles while a variety show was playing on his computer screen.
And she was on the screen.
It's a special episode of Running Man featuring high school girls.
It was 2011, and she was 18 years old.
On the screen, she's sharpening a pencil, laughing, and cursing the PD for being annoying.
Liu Zimu, watching from outside the screen, was also laughing, laughing like a fool, muttering as he ate instant noodles, "This Choi Sulli is so cute."
Then the screen changed.
At first, many people criticized her, but Liu Zimu was blessing her relationship.
Then came the withdrawal from the group and various incidents involving Liu Zimu.
The scene then shifts to 2019.
She saw Liu Zimu, now 28 years old, scrolling through his phone.
The screen was full of news, news from China.
But the content was all about her.
Sulli has been confirmed dead; she committed suicide.
Sulli suffered from severe depression before her death.
[Netizen: What a pity, I even criticized her before.]
Liu Zimu stared at his phone with a strange expression.
There was no crying, no shouting.
It's just that I'm watching it closely, and it's a bit of a shame.
I stared at it for a very long time.
Then the scene changed, showing her memories of her past life.
She got it.
I knew she would leave this world on October 14, 2019.
Knowing all the malicious comments, the cyberbullying, and the leeches surrounding her, it seemed like everyone was a straw that pushed her to the brink.
She knew, but there was nothing she could do.
She knew that people only started pretending to love her after she died.
And the man who patted his butt today was Liu Zimu.
He was just an ordinary Chinese man who ate instant noodles in a rented room and had never even been to Seoul.
He wasn't even a real fan of hers; he would just watch her variety shows, occasionally see news about her, and sometimes feel sorry for her.
Moreover, in Liu Zimu's vision, she would occasionally see another unnie's pictorial.
But she knew he would feel sorry for her.
She finally understood why Liu Zimu had behaved this way today.
Choi Sulli opened her eyes.
The sofa is still the same sofa.
The house is still the same house.
It's dark outside.
But she is not the same person she was before.
She slowly sat up.
My legs are still numb, and my head still hurts.
But the heartbeat is different now.
My heartbeat used to be numb.
My heart is pounding wildly right now, it's all jerked up.
She looked down at her hands, then looked up at the overhead light.
She smiled slowly.
First, the corner of her mouth twitched, then the curve widened.
Finally, his whole face was laughing.
Not that kind of professional smile you give in front of the camera.
It was a wild, unrestrained, insane laugh.
It was the kind of laughter that Liu Zimu was still laughing even when he was pinned to the ground.
She actually experienced Liu Zimu's memories for nine whole years, so real that she thought she had become him.
She picked up her phone.
Then he dialed Park Jung-soo's number.
I answered it after it rang twice.
"Shirley? Is something wrong?"
Choi Sulli's voice was calm, almost unnaturally so: "Jungsoo oppa, don't sue Liu Zimu."
"But the company..."
"I told you, don't sue," she interrupted him. "I'm just letting you know so you can notify the company."
"What?!"
That's all.
"Shirley, have you gone mad?!"
Choi Sulli laughed, a little eerily: "Yeah, I'm crazy."
She hung up the phone and went to find a set of flamboyant clothes to change into.
She's dressed like a sophisticated vixen!
I went out, drove straight to the police station.
"Liu Zimu, you're mine for life."
Even if you're a fan of Joo-hyun unnie, it's still not allowed!