Joo-Young wasn't necessarily a cruel person. He found tragedy in art fascinating and incorporated it in his own writing.

Maybe the reason his book was so popular was because the amount of suicides the characters commit. Or rather the small romance drowned underneath all the blood. Whichever it was, it made "Pry Into the Heart" popular. 

What Mina liked most about it was the female lead, Ersta's dedication to balance both of her worlds. If Almeria had never become a tyrant, it would have been difficult to say what would've happened to Lensix. 

Ersta loved Almeria even for her wrongdoings, and she loved Lensix equally as much. Her world with Almeria finally tore apart when Ersta was sentenced to execution by drowning. 

Joo-Young would always deny who was who for the counterparts in his story whenever Mina tried to guess. 

It was a bit strange for someone as sweet and gentle as Joo-Young to insert necrophilia into his book. Mina may or may not have attempted to punch Joo-Young upon him introducing this idea in his book.

As she is absolutely disgusted with Lensix, she gave him the name Six of Shits. Lensix was the sixth son, so it made sense to call him that after what he had done to Ersta. Nasty.

Joo-Young would calm her down by reassuring her this was fiction and this guy was mental. And he would repeatedly tell her he wasn't real. 

Mina had always thought that Ersta was written to be based on her, considering Joo-Young's favoritism over her. He would be on his computer, his knees on his chair with the brightest face whenever he was writing. Mina would lean over his chair to look and see it was always a paragraph dedicating how pretty and strong-minded Ersta was. Whenever he talked about his book, he would shower Ersta with compliments and how he wrote her to be such an amazing character that is perfect without flaw. 

This Ersta, that Ersta, she's the perfect lady. Occasionally, Joo-Young loved her so much as a creation he dedicated a whole mural on the wall in Mina and his house. 

His book never really described what Ersta was like physically, just that she was a princess that was beautiful and smart. It was only the author who knew what she looked like, and that was Joo-Young.

When he painted the mural in their house, the lady he drew had soft, peach hair, close to blond, but tied with pink. She had calm eyes, golden and shining, like when brown eyes reflect off the sun. She was the rose in a garden of weeds.

The mural had a painting of a man holding his hand out to her while bowing, which Joo-Young claimed to be Lensix. Oh how much Mina wanted to tear the walls apart because of him. Somehow, the mural managed to stay up until Mina moved out to study abroad for a while. 

-

There was a small studio in town dedicated to both Mina and Joo-Young for practicing music and work. It was a modern, wide space, with the illusion of looking small on the outside and being big on the inside. 

The light bordered where the ceiling and the walls met and the instruments and others would be off to the sides. Joo-Young often went there to practice piano and teach cello to Mina. Since Joo-Young had classes for almost every instrument, the studio corners slowly littered with them. A piano, guitar, a mini harp and even a guzheng stacked on top or below each other. 

As for Mina, stacks of paper, files, and textbooks lined the opposite side of the studio. Paint would be found on the cloth placed on the floor to prevent her watercolor from ruining the floor. Stacked paintings on canvases and dance shoes with badminton rackets were beside them. 

If they were to list the classes they have, it would take at least a week to finish talking. Mina began with singing and vocal lessons to end up with acting to painting and more. 

Her paintings won awards along with her music, acting, dance, studies, and sports. Joo-Young was taught painting by Mina and Mina was taught cello by him. Their studying would be done together, but half the time, they would be laughing about simple silly events that they happened to come across each day. Both still managed to get all their work done. 

As they both grew older, Mina became an extravagantly beautiful girl and Joo-Young became a charming and enchanting man. As children, they are unapproachable, untouchable by those below them. But when entering high school, letters and gifts would be thrown at them in every direction. 

Mina and Joo-Young...were simply too perfect for this world. 

-

It was a fine morning for the Samarien palace. Maids rushed around quickly, speaking as they whisk by reminding each other to do this and to do that. 

Somewhere in the midst of the chaos behind a door to a room, lay the eldest princess of Samarien. The sunlight casted on her thin, pale face, creating a warm, lush feeling. Perfumed rose smells and semi drawn hand stitched white curtains. Marble pillars and more flowers attached halfway. 

A golden chandelier hung from the ceiling, each candle outstretched holding onto the blown out candles. The walls were coated with historical artistic flower painting and the bed's transparent peach canopy draped softly around the corners of the bed.

A full wall of the room had been dedicated to hanging painted pictures and a grand piano was placed under them. 

Large doors made of the finest wood and carved designs in great detail blocked the entrance. 

It was peaceful and quiet. Just like how Mina wanted it.

She awoke, her eyelashes heavy, rising slowly from the fluffy, white bed. 

Heaven?

The pain that revolved her head vanished completely, gone. Just like that. Slender pinkish fingers drew the canopy aside an opening. 

This wasn't her. 

This was not her at all.

She sat still on the bed, her legs dangled over, frozen. White nightgown, perfect healthy nails, a silver rose ring...these didn't belong to her. 

Mina was drained from the rest of the color left in 'her' snow white skin. 

She's alive.

And someone else. 

Not her.

She had eaten the wrong pills that day. Continuously. 

Mina didn't read the labels.

Those were sleeping pills. She had eaten...maybe around forty five that day. 

She mistook those for painkillers. 

Shit. 

What had happened. What the fuck had happened? She's dead, she should be dead. Mina was ever so grateful for the end, and then she's alive again? She has to suffer. Again. With life. 

It took only a few seconds for her to adjust to the thought of being reborn. It was rather not what she expected of herself to do either. She once had a conversation with Joo-Young when she was ten, asking him what he would've done if he were to be reincarnated. 

-

He smiled and said, "I would find you, in every world, every universe, even if it's just to see you afar." Joo-Young was poetic like that. 

Mina replied back proudly, "I would become a millionaire with the stuff I used to know!" Oh she would.

"Wouldn't you freak first?"

"Well...I think I would, but then I would be happy again because I'm smart!" She's not wrong.

"Would you look for me?"

"Hmm...maybe," Mina would turn over to see Joo-Young on the verge of tears. "Ah! No of course I would, why would I not?"

"Because you like money more than me," he'd turn away, hugging himself while fake sobbing up a storm.

-

Mina got up and peered over, she saw slippers tucked almost fully under the bed. She put them on swiftly and walked over to draw the curtains over. Her body was light and feathery, but she felt cleaner than when she had last visited Joo-Young's grave. 

The curtains were tall, reaching almost ten meters and stopped a few inches before the line between the wall and ceiling. The curtains had hand stitched floral patterns and were semi transparent like her canopy fabric. 

The glass sun doors were almost equally as tall as the curtains. The handles reflected golden when the sun shot at it. 

Mina twisted it open, pulling it inward to a balcony also made of marble. It was a true fairy tale she realized. The pillars holding up the balcony were most likely handcrafted with designs of people, stars, flowers, and animals. 

Mina let herself become enchanted, forgetting she was no longer herself. An alluring view casted beyond the castle: a small river that glittered when it rushed through the middle of the village. A beautiful garden was in sight, and Mina realized the castle had been elevated onto some sort of mountain. 

She could see little people moving about in the garden, all wearing black and white. The breeze that was sent down brought a refreshing smell of something. Mina didn't know what it was, but it smelled wonderful. 

She could get used to this. Wanting peace after dying? No, this was the actual peace her inner child would have wished for. No longer would she live in that ugly cramped house filled with boxes and broken glass, but a castle! A wonderful, extravagant castle filled with flowers!

That also meant she was rich? There was no other way she'd be living in a palace that touched the skies. No?

Joo-Young would've loved to play his violin on this very balcony she was standing on. If only he was here.

After forgetting almost everything that had happened in her previous life for a few minutes, Mina had ran around her entire room, looking at everything: the teacups, the finest and most comfortable golden lined couches, the large vanity that contained large amounts of unknown liquids labeled horribly, the bookshelf that reached the height of half the room, and much more. 

After settling down, Mina flopped back onto the bed, closing her eyes dreamingly. 

"Come. Why didn't you visit me today?" She jumped up as she remembered those words.

For some reason, those words connected her mind to Joo-Young, but this time, she held back her tears of sorrow, for she would cry no more for him.

But this setting was strongly familiar. Too familiar in fact. Mina wiped away forming tears and sat back up, gripping tightly onto the blankets and her face focused on the glass sun doors.

A very light reflection that was barely visible returned to her. 

She hadn't looked in the bathroom yet. And there were three doors in her room that led to smaller rooms. Two she had already visited; the one across her bed was the workplace, the one right of that door was laced with a gold door frame that led to the vanity. The one next to the glass sun door however, had not been opened by her yet, so it was safe to say, that was the bathroom. 

Like the other doors, it was lined with gold, but this door had a tab on top with...a glass rose!

She opened a crack and stepped inside, her slippers making her steps inaudible. Mina gasped before covering her mouth. 

There was no amount of 'beautiful' used in this bathroom. That was what the pushed out section next to the balcony was. For the bathroom!

It was wide, really spacious. Near the evenly separated semi transparent windows, a large bathtub that had been littered with candles and jars of rose petals on the side took up the space. To the end, a large closet and another vanity was placed. A stretched sink was opposing the bathtub, it too, was littered with makeup, perfume, and many other feminine items. The room was bent into a rectangular space. 

Aside from everything, there was one thing that caught Mina's eye.

A toilet.

There was a toilet. In a castle.

She had assumed that she had traveled to a fictional world. A historical one full of romance and magic. 

And those historical worlds always took place back in time. 

The toilet was invented in 1775. 

What the fuck? Mina walked over to it. The toilet was placed next to the bathtub, separated by a wall. She flipped the cap up and down. It was a modern toilet. One she would see in Korea. One she saw in any part of the world, except the toilet was also fancy. 

Everything is fancy here. Everything has to be. Mina sighed and turned around, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirrors. 

What?

She slowly walked over, still in doubt. Mina knew this body wasn't hers, but she never expected it to be...Ersta's.

The same peach pink hair on that mural. The same lovely golden eyes on that mural. The same ghostly, white, pale skin on that mural.

Ersta? Was that what she had become?