Chapter 6

Rose almost had a mini heart attack as soon as she entered her room. Ju-Mi sat on her table like she owned the place with a mouse struggling under her paws.

“Oh my god!”

“What happened, Your Highness?”

“Oh my god today there is such a clear sky! I am loving it.”

“We...we are...inside..?”

“Yes yes I know but when we were outside I saw the sky and on entering the room I remembered how precious the clear sky is.”

“Okay…..”

Ju-Mi got down from the table and started rubbing her head against Rose’s leg. Rose had to think of a way to send Dan-Bi away or else she would think Her Highness is crazy.

“Dan-Bi could you..”

“Tell her to get your gayageum. It will take time to find it in the store.¨

¨Dan-Bi please get my gayageum. I would like to practice today. It is kept in the store room.¨

¨I know where it is Your Highness, don't worry I will just get to you.¨

Dan-Bi bowed and left immediately with a few maids. Ju-Mi sat cleaning herself with the mouse sulking under left paw. After checking Dan-Bi had gone, Rose sat in front of the cat for their meeting.

¨So we submitted the report and of course they took their own sweet time to review it. Anyway the company has decided to offer you options. Fortunately or unfortunately sending you back right now is not an option.¨

¨Why?!?!¨

¨Allow me to.. Wait just give me a minute.¨

The mouse struggled free from Ju-Mi clutches and jumped away. In an instant the little mouse transformed into a boy. Andrew stuck his tongue out to the cat and adjusted his clothes.

¨Hi Andrew...Why were you...¨

¨Oh Rose, that's an interesting story! So our little Andrew here went and caused a big ruckus in the transportation department. He demanded to see the head and went bat shit crazy at him. Haesoo, who if I may add has been in the company for far more years than Andrew, listened patiently to everything this young man had to say...¨

Andrew stood there remembering the scene and went completely red due to embarrassment.

¨Then after the whole rant Haesoo personally took care of the complaint. Andrew´s problem was his has to travel in parts right? That was because he is big and they haven't figured out a way to transport complete human bodies in one go yet…..¨

¨So he made him a mouse...which is small….makes sense.¨

¨Yup and Haesoo specially did the transformation himself.¨

¨He should have made him an ant too.¨

¨Yeah but a mouse goes well with a cat.¨

¨Okay okay both of you stop. Rose to answer your question about going back. You can't do it because even if we send you back the character who called you here will call you back and keep calling you back until you do what they want. So do you really want to be trapped in an endless loop of transmigration.¨

Jumi placed a paw on Rose´s lap and sighed in sympathy.

¨The easiest way to go back is to change the story the way the character wants.¨

¨What if...what if we destroy this world?¨

¨Rose you are suggesting genocide. They may be fictional characters for you but here in this world they are as real as you.¨

¨But then you can just recreate them from scratch. Then the malfunction will stop bringing me back here.¨

¨See if you die here you will just go back to your world and if your purpose is not served you will just be pulled back here but if they die they are gone for real because they don't have any other world to go to. Also we can't create characters nor make changes in the story, we just check that things are going right okay.¨

Rose found Andrew´s calm way of explaining all the more annoying. She was going crazy here. Why didn't he show any signs of stress?

¨So what do you do when something is disrupting the flow of the story?¨

¨Where is Seo-Yeon? Her body's here obviously but where is she?¨

¨She is in what we call a `Reverie´. It´s a zone where the characters go while their body is used by the person who transmigrated. She is basically living in a very long dream of her happy memories.¨

¨Oh so she is not messing around in my body.¨

Andrew laughed at her statement while Ju-Mi smiled in amusement.

¨No she is not so you can relax.¨

¨What do you want me to do now?¨

¨Change the story.¨

¨I don't even know what the story is how am I supposed to change it?!¨

¨You will figure something out. Now the two option-¨

Ju-Mi instantly jumped towards Andrew and scratched him.

¨That is for me to explain idiot.¨

¨Yeah okay fine. Crazy lady.¨

Andrew mumbled while taking a corner to sit. Ju-Mi climbed on the table and cleared her throat.

¨Okay Rose the company's policy is to offer two contracts to everyone who transmigrates. The first one is the exclusive one in which the person agrees to a long term partnership with the company. You will get to transmigrate into the stories of your choices using the coins you have to live as the characters you want. The company gives you five hundred coins when you start, the coins are used according to the character you transmigrate into. To get more coins you have to do assignments. The assignments are given by your mentors who are assigned to you when you sign the contract. Then there is the non-exclusive contrac-”

“At least tell her what the assignments are.”

“I getting to it, have patience!”

“Okay fine hurry up.”

“So the non-exclusive one is for one book only. You get to play the character and you will have a mentor to see over you, they can’t really help. Their job is to make sure you don’t go crazy, anytime you feel overwhelmed you can ask your mentor for time out. Oh and the same happens for the excusive one too. There are no coins required for the non-exclusive contract since it’s just a one time thing. Now for the assignments. They are payed requests made by writers to the company. The fee is disturbuted fifty-fifty between the company and the one who transmigrates. The request vary from changing the story to make it better to just moving the story forward when they hit a writer’s block. Sometimes writers ask for someone to live in the world they created to test it out. That’s about it I guess. Any questions?”

“Yes. One question. Do people actually sign the exclusive contract?”

“Yes many do. It is like a stress reliever. When people find it to difficult to live in their reality they transmigrate. Some do it out of boredom too. So what’s it gonna be Ms Lee?”

“I need some time to think.”

“Yeah sure take your time.”

Andrew got up and picked Ju-Mi from the ground getting ready to leave.

“See you soon Rose.”

With that they left her alone in her room. Dan-Bi rushed in as soon as Andrew’s feet disappeared.

“Your Highness, I found your gayageum but I am really sorry you can’t practice right now. I just got the message, the king wants to spend the night together.”

“Oh okay.”

Rose nodded along still thinking about the contracts as Dan-Bi took her to get ready for the king’s arrival. She took a long bath and wore new clothes. Her hair was tied up carefully and make up applied to her face. A sweet scent was used on her body to- Wait what did she mean by the king wants to spend the night together?!?!