Lesbians and Bad Endings
.・゜-: ✧ :- -: ✧ :-゜・．
In the dim light of the student dormitories, a screen illuminated the dark with its pale blue glow.
A dark figure crouched over their phone, fervently scrolling as if possessed by a demon.
With dark purple bags under his eyes, this depraved and irresponsible creature, wrapped in a Hello Kitty blanket and sacrificing sleep in favor of literary indulgence, had a name: Okjin Moon.
The only sound in the room was the rhythmic tapping of his thumb against the screen, each motion carrying the urgency of someone on the verge of uncovering the universe's greatest secrets—or in this case, finishing a novel he should've stopped reading hours ago.
He had a midterm in the morning, but the stakes of academia paled in comparison to his need for closure.
Then, the silence was shattered.
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
Okjin bolted upright, face contorted in pure, undiluted frustration.
He stared at the last line of the novel, rereading it as if sheer disbelief could somehow change the words on the screen.
But no matter how many times his tired eyes skimmed over them, the ending remained the same.
One singular star shone in the eternal darkness.
That was it. That was how it ended.
Okjin let out a strangled noise, half a groan, half a scream. "How is this how it ends? It doesn't make sense???"
For the past couple of weeks, he'd been reading a light novel recommended by a friend.
His friend had a penchant for romance stories with good worldbuilding, just like him, so Okjin had given it a shot.
It was… decent.
The worldbuilding was fine. The history was interesting, if a bit overdone. The plot, on the surface, was a classic blend of political intrigue and forbidden romance.
The novel followed Aurora Elyssian, the crown princess of the Elyssian Empire, as she competed for the throne against her half-brother, the illegitimate prince Xander Elyssian.
Her journey was full of deception, diplomacy, and near-disastrous missteps as she navigated the imperial court, avoiding the political traps set by Xander while securing the support of the empire's most powerful noble heirs—Sebastian, Raphael, and Damian.
Each of them was smitten with her for different reasons—her power, her righteousness, or her devotion to the gods.
A classic love-triangle-turned-harem.
Except for the twist: Aurora's heart already belonged to someone else.
Lady Angelica Sylvaine. The cousin of the infamous Jade Mage
Okjin had been invested.
It was an enjoyable read, if not particularly groundbreaking.
He especially liked the way Aurora carefully played her cards, maintaining the illusion of entertaining the male leads' affections while secretly fostering her romance with Angelica.
It was all set up so well.
Her coronation was announced, she confessed the truth to the male leads, and—shockingly—they took it well.
Everything seemed like it was leading to a satisfying, well-earned ending.
...
Then the plot had gone completely off the rails.
Xander, the other central villain, was suddenly killed by shadow demons—a new artificially made species immune to light magic.
In the chaos that followed, the pieces started falling into place:
1) The Jade Mage, Lirien Noctis Sylvaine, took time off every month and was currently gone when the demons showed up.
2) Angelica revealed that he always returned seemingly exhausted and drained of mana.
3) Papers found in his quarters detailed research on magical creatures.
4) The demons were found to have massive amounts of celestial magic in their blood which was then confirmed to have been the root cause for their mutation.
5) And finally, Lirien was renowned for his unmatched mastery of celestial magic.
The conclusion? Lirien had created the immune demons.
Okjin had been disoriented by the sudden change in the novel's plot, but the story pushed forward at full speed.
Aurora, the three male leads, and Angelica formed a party to hunt down the villain under imperial orders.
When they finally found him, he didn't fight back. He just looked at them, the same as always—empty, indifferent, detached, with a faint distaste for their presence.
Then they killed him.
And in his final breath, the sky shattered.
The sun, the moon, and the stars all vanished. Magic collapsed into nothing. The empire was swallowed by eternal night.
Some whispered it was Lirien's dying curse—his hateful revenge against the empire.
Others believed it was proof of his monstrous nature, that he had been holding the celestial bodies hostage all along.
And in the final moments, as the capital crumbled and chaos consumed everything, Aurora and Angelica shared one last kiss beneath a single shining star.
The end.
…
Okjin stared at his phone, gripping the device as if it had personally betrayed him.
"What was that? That wasn't an ending—that was a death flag for the entire empire!!" He sat up, rubbing his temples aggressively.
"They spent the whole novel building up this dramatic, angsty romance, only for everything to fall apart because of Lirien??"
He exhaled sharply, rolling onto his back.
It wasn't even a bad twist—if anything, it felt intentional. Like the story had been hiding something the entire time.
The Jade Mage had been an enigma from the beginning. A villain, sure, but not an active one.
He was beautiful and powerful, the revered heir of the Sylvaine Duchy, the one responsible for raising the moon during the Winter Noctis Celebration. Cold, indifferent, seemingly arrogant, and lazy.
Yet, despite the ominous presence he carried and the unnerving fact that he held political power nearly equal to that of the crown princess, he had never actually done anything to hinder Aurora.
He didn't plot against her, didn't scheme like Xander did.
The worst he had ever done was unnerve the other characters simply by existing.
In fact, his only noticeable appearance in the novel before everything spiraled into chaos was during the Festival Arcs—the Winter Noctis Celebration.
That had been his moment, his grand display of magic, where he lifted the moon and scattered the stars across the night sky for the empire.
For one fleeting night, the entire kingdom turned their eyes to him in reverence.
It was the only time his presence felt truly acknowledged, the only time his existence wasn't shrouded in unease or suspicion.
And then, just like that, he faded back into the background—until the end, when he became the empire's greatest villain.
"Something doesn't add up," Okjin muttered. "What was with the single star at the end? And why the hell did he disappear before they confronted him?"
He wanted to believe it was just lazy writing, but something nagged at him.
The novel wasn't written like an accident—it was written like a lie.
His eyes drooped. His body, which had been running on caffeine and sheer spite, finally gave in. As he drifted off to sleep, he mumbled one last thought:
"If I could just go in there and see the truth for myself…"
And the next time he opened his eyes—
Everything was different.
.・゜-: ✧ :- -: ✧ :-゜・．