Feel-Good Story 단편 소설 & Ruthless Face Slapping 소설

It's summer now, and I've somehow become the stinkiest person in the entire company. Everyone says that I smell terrible. The doctors say that there is nothing wrong with my body, but my colleagues still avoid me like the plague at work. Even the intern secretly puts deodorant on my desk. I can't take it anymore and hand in my resignation. But on the day I'm processing the paperwork, my manager, Joel Winters, chases me to the elevators and stops me. His voice shakes as he says, "I'll give you 50 thousand dollars to continue sitting at your desk." I don't agree to it and call the police instead. When the police cut open the huge eight-foot teddy bear next to me, the entire office falls silent.

My brother brings home a scheming girlfriend. He wants to kick me out of the house for her sake and claims that everything at home belongs to him. I hand the company over with both hands and leave without hesitation. Less than a month later, my brother, who can't manage the company, grovels at my feet and begs me to return.

Every Merfolk Queen possessed the gift of weeping tears that turned to pearls, amassing fortunes to rival the wealth of kingdoms. After bearing eight sons, the queen adopted a sea serpent shape-shifter and named her our Holy Maiden, intending for her to inherit the throne. Then, a century later, the old queen, against all expectations, conceived once more and gave birth to me. My eight older brothers adored me. Our entire kingdom hailed me as their future queen. However, I was born without tear ducts. I could not cry, which made me a worthless mermaid who could not produce a pearl. In the original timeline, my adopted sister told me of an enchanted spring on land that could make me weep. I trusted her blindly and followed her ashore. I let my tail turn into legs. She set fire to every path I could have taken back to the sea, then strung me up beneath the blazing sun. My scales cracked and peeled away. I could not even shed a tear as I was left to burn and shrivel in the sun until I died. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of her coronation as the Holy Maiden. She was holding my hand and smiling with sisterly affection. “Don’t be afraid, little sister. I’ll shed the tears you can’t. I’ll look after our people for you.” I saw through her false affection, but I did not expose her. Instead, I obediently fastened the Pearl of the Sea God, the symbol of our sovereign’s power, around her neck. Everyone believed a mermaid who could not weep was worthless. Though none of them knew why I could not shed a tear. Even before my birth, I had turned every tear into deadly quicksilver, a poison that could corrode even a divine soul. I touched the burning corners of my eyes. I could hardly wait to see her face when she used that enchanted spring to force me to cry, only for my tears to blind her.

In my previous life, I inherited the family's steakhouse, while my sister asked our dad to get her a job that paid 75 hundred a month. To her shock and surprise, the heir of a rich family and I fell in love at first sight when he came over for a meal. I became his wife, and everyone envied me for marrying the richest man in Imperia. My sister lost both her legs during a work accident. Jealous of my great life, she set me up and killed me with her own hands. We were both reborn at the same time, back to the moment where we would make the decision that would change our lives forever. Right before our father, she told him she wanted to inherit Shaw's Steakhouse. I heard everything, and in a corner where no one could see me, a sneer curled my lips. Poor thing. She had no idea at all. Her nightmare would begin the moment she met Jonathan Landton.

In my dormitory, there was a poor student. With all the good intentions in the world, my roommates and I were eager to help her, not realizing how much our help would cost. She wasn't impressed by the hairdryer we offered, insisting on borrowing a branded one instead. The skincare products we gave her? They were applied to her feet. And, as if that wasn't enough, she specifically demanded luxury face cream. One day, I lent her my tablet to look up some information, and to my surprise, she secretly opened up my gaming app, spent all the diamonds and reward tickets I had saved for half a year, and left me empty-handed. When I asked her to pay me back, she turned the tables and posted a public message online, accusing me. "I'm just a poor student from the countryside, never played games before. Are the materials in the game really worth this much?" Before I knew it, the comment section was flooded with criticisms of me. In a fit of frustration, I fired back with a post of my own, throwing her into the spotlight. "Well, I suppose you've never tasted the bitterness of being cyberbullied, have you?"

After visiting Grandpa at the care home, I got a text from my boyfriend, Lucas Mercer. “Sofia, come to the office tomorrow at ten. I’ve got a surprise for you.” I thought of the proposal plan I’d spotted on his laptop. I smiled to myself and booked the first available flight. But when I walked into that office, I froze. Lucas was down on one knee, holding out a diamond ring to my cousin, Ashley. Ten years ago, she’d hired someone to drive a car into my parents and kill them. Then she’d trapped me in the fire that followed. “Ashley, I’ve been practicing for five years. Will you marry me?” His eyes were full of nothing but her. I dug my nails into my palm. This year also happened to be the fifth year Lucas and I had been together. “Yes.” Ashley smiled and produced a document. “Since you’ve been loyal to me for five years, my father decided to throw in an extra five million as a bonus!” The room erupted. I stood there watching the celebration. The Harlow Group investment agreement I’d been holding was now a crumpled ball of paper in my fist. I turned and dropped it in the trash, then called my assistant. “Lucas Mercer. Cut him. Pull up the updated list of fiancé candidates.” Ashley had no idea I’d already returned to the Harlow family as the heir apparent. Lucas had no idea that by chasing five million, he’d just walked away from fifty.

On the day of my college graduation, I had just signed a contract with a prestigious company when my dad burst into my room, grabbed the paper, and ripped it to shreds. "Why waste your time with a crappy $8,000-a-month job? You've already been hired by the world's top financial conglomerate! A base salary of $100,000 a month, plus a luxury penthouse the moment you start! What other young woman fresh out of college gets that kind of treatment?" I stared at the flimsy piece of paper in his hand. It was stamped with a cheap-looking plastic seal that read "Global Stellar Consortium". I shook with rage. "Dad, that’s just a fake image generated with AI. This company doesn't even exist!" My dad merely snorted and shoved his phone directly into my face. On his screen was a screenshot of a prompt he had fed into an AI chatbot. Prompt: [Issue an offer letter for my daughter from the world's number one corporation. Make sure it's the highest position possible.] AI: [Operation complete. Your daughter has been officially hired as the South American President of the Global Stellar Consortium.] My throat went dry as panic set in. I tried to reason with him. "Dad, the AI is just playing along with your prompt to write a fictional story! It's a chatbot; it doesn't actually recruit people!" He simply whipped out a $200,000 transfer receipt and waved it triumphantly in front of my eyes. "What do you know?" he sneered. "The AI is real! It even gave me the payment code to cover your mandatory Employment Security Deposit!"

After three years of gathering herbs, I finally returned to Green-Pouch Valley. But my master, Mr. Gu, was not there. On the ground, only a dark red pool of blood remained, soaking his cloth robes. My senior brothers and sisters, usually so lively, were nowhere to be found. My master's wife, Auntie Qin, sat collapsed beside the pool of blood. Her once-black hair was now mostly white, her voice a hoarse whisper as she called to me. "Shuang'er, your master traded his life for the valley's ascension. You must go to the Nine Heavens and offer your thanks." It was only then I understood. The Celestial Lord, Jun Che, in his quest to forge an immortal body for his mortal wife, had coveted my master's rare Celestial Bones of Healing. He used the promise of ascension for everyone in Green-Pouch Valley as bait, then brutally tore the bones from my master's living body. I was born with a strange affliction, a void where joy and sorrow should be. The others in the valley secretly called me a cold-blooded monster. Now, as I stared at the blood-soaked robes of the man who had saved me and treated me like his own daughter, my expression remained blank. "Auntie Qin, did Master do this willingly?" Auntie Qin's eyes instantly reddened. "Jun Che is the Celestial Lord. His word is heavenly law. How could we ever defy it?" I gave a faint nod. "If it was not what Master wanted, then Jun Che deserves to die." Auntie Qin's face went pale with fright. She lunged forward and clutched my arm. "Shuang'er, your master's last words were for you all to protect yourselves, not throw your lives away fighting an unwinnable war against the heavens." I pried her fingers off one by one and looked up at the glittering, golden Celestial Realm beyond the clouds. A faint smile touched my lips. "Auntie Qin, Master taught me that a healer's heart must be compassionate." "But he never taught me that gods can't be killed."

I lent the company two hundred thousand dollars' worth of camera equipment for three years, and my boss repaid me by cutting my salary. My monthly pay dropped from two thousand dollars to six hundred. I went to ask him for an explanation. But when I arrived, the newly hired photography intern was showing him a refurbished camera. "The company can use my equipment too. Six hundred dollars a month is enough for me." My boss spotted me coming in and seized the chance to put me in my place. "See, Joe? If you won't do the job, plenty of other people will." I froze for a moment, then asked the intern, "How can you live in Fairhaven on just six hundred dollars a month?" He answered with self-righteous conviction. "Why couldn't I? I've done the math. A room in a shared place farther out costs a hundred and sixty. Food is six dollars a day, so a hundred and eighty a month. If I'm still short, I'll take out a loan." "What's wrong with enduring a little hardship when we're young? We should be working hard and learning, not constantly making demands of the company. How do you not understand something so basic?" My boss beamed as he listened. I smiled too. So, you enjoyed suffering? Fine. I bought the company. It was time to show them how a real capitalist operated.

I spent one million dollars of my own money installing a smart access-control system throughout Crescent Bay. The day it was installed, the property manager promised me, "Tell us if you ever need anything. We'll make sure it's taken care of." That promise lasted until this New Year's, when my parents came to stay with me. The temperatures were well below freezing that day, but my elderly parents were forced to stand outside the entrance while they tried the facial-recognition system three times. The gate didn't budge. The security guard took one look at them and snapped impatiently, "You two aren't in the system. You can't come in." I called the property manager the second I heard about it. "They're my parents. It's well below freezing outside. Can you at least let them in?" He hesitated. "Ms. Lind, it's not that I don't want to make an exception. But who's going to be responsible if something bad happens after they come in?" He hung up before I could say another word. I immediately pulled up the number for the contractor who installed the system. "Hello. I need you to remove all six main control units at Crescent Bay. Yes, the ones installed at the East Gate, South Gate, and underground parking garage."

In a car, Matteo Gallagher kisses Evelyn Walsh until she's breathless and entranced. She's been stripped, but he's still fully clothed. The stark contrast makes her blush. Matteo wraps an arm around Evelyn's waist and pulls her close. He chuckles and whispers, "The soundproof divider is up, so the driver can't hear you. He wouldn't dare listen in, anyway. Why are you so shy?" She watches as he intensifies his ministrations on her and throws her arms around him. Love fills her eyes, and she's about to reach her climax. Just then, a phone rings, interrupting them.

Jason Reed had been my boyfriend for seven years. He suddenly disappeared, and the last place I was able to trace him was Melvaris. That night, I received a video call. In it, a man holding an electric baton yelled, “Bring 50 million dollars as ransom to the industrial zone. Otherwise, don’t expect him to return alive.” Jason was beside the man. He was covered in blood. He pleaded desperately, “Clara! Save me! They promise to let me go if we give them the money!” Without thinking twice, I did as I was told. However, when I arrived, I was drugged and knocked unconscious. In the end, I was tortured to death. What hurt the most was not that. Jason took one-third of the ransom I had prepared. Then, he returned to Caldovia and married Hannah Blake, the student who had received financial assistance from my family. But when I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day he went missing.

My boyfriend gave me away to his arch-nemesis because he lost a bet. On the same night, I was driven to his arch-nemesis’ house. Before leaving, he expressed remorse, “Anya, just bear with it for a bit. I will come to pick you up in a month.” That night, the man pinned me to the bed and started unbuttoning my shirt. As he traced his cold fingertips against my collarbone, he said, deep and seductively, “So that’s the scumbag you fell for? Why don’t you be with me instead? I can give you everything you want.” I leaned forward and kissed him right away. “Sure.”

Just before the college entrance exam, I accidentally overheard my cousin's inner thoughts and discovered that she'd bound herself to a system that stole the rewards of my hard work. The harder I studied, the higher her scores soared. "Ella, all your hard work is worthless compared to my natural talent!" Little did she know that I had a system of my own, one that could shut hers down on the day of the exam.

After being reborn, I make up my mind to stop chasing after my childhood crush, Emil McLaren. When he puts up a sign banning my presence at his birthday party, I pack my bags and decide to go to Wanoki Island. When he says my scent makes his house feel nauseating, I quietly move out without complaint. When he says he doesn't want to breathe the same city air as me after our graduation, I leave and never look back. Then he tells me my existence might make his beloved first love uncomfortable. I nod and soon go public with someone else. In this life, I do the opposite of everything I did before. Because in my past life, I got what I wanted—I married Emil. But then his first love jumped off a cliff. He called me her murderer and tormented me. In the end, I jumped into the sea in a state of mental confusion and died. This time, all I want is to live. So, I find myself someone new. However, Emil blocks my path, his eyes bloodshot as he glares at me. "Penelope, I'll forgive this little joke of yours if you come with me right now."

The night before registering our marriage, Elena Sawyer's friends suggest playing a game of truth or dare. Her girlfriends win, and the punishment is that Elena must speak only Ruskian from that moment on. My close friend, Justin Butler, is the first to speak to her in Ruskian. "You and Benjamin are registering your marriage tomorrow. Come up with an excuse to spend the night at my place. I just bought a few sets of the sexy uniforms you like." Elena smiles and replies, "After what you put me through last night, where we went through four condoms, you still haven't had enough?" She then turns around and affectionately takes my hand. Her girlfriends burst into laughter, realizing what she has said. I'm the only one left sitting there in confusion, asking Elena what she means. "Justin said we're registering our marriage tomorrow," she explains gently, "so he wants to prepare a surprise for us." Justin cuts in, still speaking Ruskian. "Forget it. I'm worried Benjamin might find out." Elena replies in Ruskian without hesitation, "And what if he does? He can't live without me anyway." I freeze. All this time, I've assumed that she and Justin often speak Ruskian simply because they want to practice the language. After all, they both studied abroad in Ruskia, while I'm just an ordinary guy who grew up in the country. What they don't know is that although I grew up locally, my late mother is Ruskian, and that makes me half Ruskian.

Among the three children in my wealthy family, I was the biggest embarrassment by a long shot. My eldest sister, Eliana Spencer, was busy preparing to inherit the family business, while my younger brother, Alistair Spencer, the fake heir, was busy attending parties. As for me, the real heir who had been brought back from the mountains, I was sent to the old family residence to care for my paralyzed grandfather. In my first month caring for him, the family transferred $150 as my nursing allowance. I did not think anything of it. After all, Eliana knew how to make money for the family, and Alistair knew how to keep our parents happy. All I knew how to do was grow vegetables and raise chickens. $150 was already a generous amount. That was more than good enough. Folks from the mountains had our own ways of getting by. If I could not afford fine vegetables, I would grow my own in the yard. If I could not afford a caregiver, I would bathe Grandpa, turn him over, and get up at regular intervals throughout the night to give him his medication. When I needed to replace his old oxygen concentrator, I spent my days digging up medicinal herbs and my nights weaving wicker baskets for the townspeople. After more than half a year of saving every penny, I had finally scraped together $1,000. The day the new machine arrived at the old residence, my father and mother happened to bring Eliana and Alistair over to visit Grandpa. Eliana brought a top medical team. Alistair presented Grandpa with a wild Phoenix Root worth a million dollars. Then there was me, looking like I had just crawled out of a dirt pit, carrying a bundle of wild vegetables in one hand and an $1,000 domestically-made oxygen concentrator in the other. Alistair glanced at the machine in my arms and put on an exaggerated look of surprise. “We give you $100,000 a month for Grandpa’s care, and this is the cheap piece of junk you bought him?” Eliana’s face darkened. She demanded furiously, “That’s $900,000 over nine months! Where did you spend Grandpa’s life-saving money?" I stared at her blankly, swallowed hard, and wiped the dust from my face. We mountain folk were honest to a fault. If I was truly given that much money, Grandpa would be living in luxury right now. Which brought me to the real question: I had not even caught a whiff of that money, so whose pockets had that $900,000 ended up lining?

The hospital's latest intern, Lindsey Clark, is very pretty, but she's a total idiot as well. When my mom came to the hospital for a prescription, she swapped the vitamin C for potassium supplements, which were known to be very poisonous if misused. Mom, who was fresh out of surgery, suffered from heavy bleeding right after taking the medication. She died on the same night. Before I could hold Lindsey responsible for Mom's death, the latter quickly piped up with teary eyes, "I'm so sorry, Dr. Monroe! I just thought that potassium supplements can help your mother heal faster…" Even Michael Jones, my husband, who was the hospital director, took her side. "Your mom only had her idiocy to blame! She died because she took the wrong medication! How dare you drag Lindsey into this!" I was so furious that my cardiac arrest was triggered on the spot. Soon, I was sent into the operating room. Lindsey said she wanted to redeem herself by taking on the post as Michael's assistant in the surgery. But her hands kept trembling even when she tried to thread the suture needle. In the end, she took off her mask and picked up the suture with her teeth. Just like that, she used her saliva to wet the suture end. One day later, I died in the ICU due to a case of severe infection. When my spirit was about to fade away, I heard Lindsey crying sadly. "If it wasn't for my idiocy, Dr. Monroe wouldn't have died!" Michael just patted her dotingly on the head in return. "Having medical risks in a surgical operation is completely normal. You're still young, so stop blaming yourself already." Mom and I were cremated instantly, seeing as Michael intended to cover up our deaths. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Lindsey has just gotten recruited by the hospital.

A torrential downpour hits the city, but our boss, Emmett Price, forces all employees to stay at the company to work overtime. He even deducts 100 dollars per person per day from our wages for utilities. Discontent fills the office. My team members come to me with a petition and plead with me, as their team leader, to sign it, telling me everyone will feel emboldened if I take the lead. I'm about to leave on a business trip, and I could've stayed out of it, but I can't bring myself to watch everyone get exploited. So, I readily sign my name. However, when Mr. Price calls me into his office, I realize with a start that my name's the only one left on the petition. He publicly berates me for instigating a revolt and fires me on the spot. Meanwhile, my teammates who throw me under the bus instantly swarm Mr. Price to suck up to him and effortlessly get out of the mandatory overtime. Even the project I've spent half a year securing gets divided among them. After losing my job, I search everywhere for another one. However, I accidentally come into contact with a live wire on the street and die on the spot from electrocution. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the day Mr. Price announces the mandatory stay-at-work notice. My team members walk up to me with the petition once again, but I simply shake my head. "I'm sorry, but I'm busy right now."

My cousin, Kaylee Langford, pushes me down the ski slope when there's an avalanche. My boyfriend, Atlas Ferguson, lifts her into his arms and leaves. He seems to have forgotten that I'm buried underneath the snow mountain. He leaves me stranded at the valley for seven days. He's furious when he finds me. "You should be glad nothing went wrong with Kaylee's arms. Otherwise, the only way you could atone would be to die on this mountain! Our wedding is canceled—we'll have it once you realize what you did wrong." He thinks I'll cry or kick up a fuss, but I merely nod and say, "Okay." He doesn't know that I've made a deal with the Moon Goddess. In six days, I'll be giving up the things that mean most to me—my love for Atlas and my memories of him. Once that happens, I'll forget everything about him and start afresh somewhere new. What does a wedding matter when the Ember Sloane who loved him is now dead?