At the fresh age of 10, I won a Nobel prize for discovering what quarks were made of. At the youthful age of 15, I graduated from a top university with a master's in Physics and a bachelor's in Biochemistry. By the age of 18, I was on top of the world, cradling knowledge like it was the easiest aspect to master. My name was in newspapers, and I was on late-night shows bragging about my accomplishments as a scientist and inventor.

Thinking about those times made me laugh. What a genius I was! How successful I was! My mom would kiss me on the cheeks and call me her pride and joy.

Yet now every day my mom would call me her shame and embarrassment. And TV shows would call me a failure. Newspapers would say "The rise and fall of Vivian," like I was some stocks at a company. The countless sleepless nights I would spend at my laboratory are now spent lazing, sleeping, and binging Webtoons on my bed. The rumors say I fell because my "smart juice" ran out. Others would say "I'm being threatened." When in reality, the overwhelming sensation of my life had simply caught up to me.

So here I was, lying on the bed, binging Solo Labeling, still drowning in nothingness that I had been doing for a few months now. "Kyaaaa!" A scream had come from the adjacent room. I stood up and ran to my sister's room, "What happened?" I asked.

She was grinning like someone had handed her the world, "You won't believe it!! Richard and Penny got together!"

"Friends of yours?" I asked.

"No! They're characters from this webtoon, look."

She showed me a Webtoon, which was a romantasy.

"That's all? Jeez, what a waste of my effort to come here."

"Didn't ask you to," she said, her face saddened.

I was about to leave the room, to just let her be. Then she got up and held my hand, "You have to read this."

"And why would I read that?"

"Are you still gay?" she asked casually.

"Yes--What kind of question is that?!"

"Good, the male lead is super hot. Just try it out. Come on," she said.

"Fine."

That's how I ended up reading "Meant to Be." Which was just your typical story between your typical conventionally attractive blonde woman and a tall, handsome man. I can't believe I binged the entire series in one sitting. It had such bland storytelling, I can't believe I wasted hours of my life---Oh right, that's kind of my thing right now. Anyway, I read it entirely because of what my sister had told me: the hot male lead. To be honest, all male leads are hot, this one's nothing special, but a hot guy's a hot guy.

The phone fell asleep... and I saw my face on the black screen. Nothing's special about me either, I look quite bland myself. I shook my head, shooing away my thoughts. How long had I been awake? It was 6 AM. My life's actually quite pathetic. I fell asleep right then and there.

I woke up with the splashing of water upon my face. My mom was standing beside my bed, with a cup in her hand. "How long are you going to sleep for?" The time was 11 AM. I dragged myself up, went, and sat on the dining table, munching on the little bread I had. Mom placed a list before me, "Can you go and buy them?" Being the most sedentary household member currently, I always went.

I was walking on the pavement, with a dozen eggs, some bread, flour, etc., was on my right hand. The stoplight was green, and the pedestrian signal was red. Yet I went on, hoping to achieve something I wasn't sure myself. Soon enough, the eggs were cracked, and the bread and items were stained with red. I was just lying there, agonizing in pain and scolding myself for my stupid choice. I could hear voices, but those were fading away.

Somewhere, in a land far, far away.

"Lady Jadis?" a maid had entered the chamber. "Lady Jadis!"

Penny was standing on top of the railing of the veranda. She looked at the maid, Penny's eyes were an unusual green color, as if those weren't hers. Then she fell.

"Lady Jadis!" the maid rushed in and looked down the veranda. Penny's eyes were back to pink, yet you could barely see it among the thorns of the bushes and the sogging red blood.