The Hit Song of This Life Is Revenge - Chapter 40

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Hit Song of This Life Is Revenge
Episode 40
A thin, wet smear of blood still stained the very tip of the sharp knife.
Baek Song-ha’s eyes froze on that crimson trace.
‘No, that’s not right.’
The jagged memory raced through her mind.
No matter how many times she replayed the scene in the kitchen, she knew for a fact that she hadn’t thrown that knife away.
Her gaze dropped instantly to the floor.
Down below, Lee Jae-i was looking up at her with a thoroughly pitiful expression.
‘Huh?’
To make matters worse, the paper towel covering Lee Jae-i’s hand looked incredibly heavy and soaked through.
It was clearly no minor injury.
Before she knew it, the surrounding stares shifted toward her, heavy with mounting suspicion.
‘Why are they looking at me like that?’
I really didn’t do it!
A wave of injustice washed over her, as if someone had forcibly written her name down as the culprit.
Just then, Yeon Eun-soo’s voice cut through the heavy atmosphere.
“Who throws away a knife like this?! And the cup, too?!”
Yeon Eun-soo’s eyes pinned her down with unerring accuracy.
The moment she read the intent behind that look, a searing heat flared up from the soles of her feet, as if she had stepped on hot coals.
The other trainees who had helped with the cooking stayed quiet, but their tightly pressed lips were all pointed squarely at Baek Song-ha.
After all, she had been the one running the kitchen from start to finish.
The skin beneath Baek Song-ha’s eyes twitched violently.
“I never threw anything like that away.”
“So what, did the knife sprout legs and crawl in there on its own?”
The edge of Yeon Eun-soo’s words snapped sharply.
It was a phrasing that instantly twisted the absolute truth into a pathetic excuse.
The sheer unfairness of it choked her, sticking right at the back of her throat.
Why did she have to be backed into a corner when she was telling the truth?
Refusing to back down, Baek Song-ha took a deliberate step toward Yeon Eun-soo.
“I’m telling you, whatever happened, it wasn’t me.”
Meeting that glare head-on, the corner of Yeon Eun-soo’s mouth tilted upward into a crooked smirk.
The moment Yeon Eun-soo opened her mouth to shoot back a retort.
“People make mistakes.”
A soft, placating voice slid right into the space between Yeon Eun-soo and herself.
It was Lee Jae-i.
“We just have to be careful next time.”
She spoke with the exact cadence of a magnanimous victim forgiving her abuser.
Baek Song-ha’s eyes burned with sudden heat.
She no longer had the mental luxury to choose her words carefully.
“Hey!”
Baek Song-ha’s hysterical shout echoed through the kitchen.
But before she could squeeze out another word, the door swung open roughly.
“Everyone step back, please. The medical team is on standby, so trainee Lee Jae-i will move over there.”
She hadn’t even begun to explain her side of the story yet.
Right now, Lee Jae-i being hurt wasn’t the real issue.
Baek Song-ha thrust a hand toward the staff, interjecting in a frantic rush.
“Wait a minute. I didn’t—”
“Please leave the clean-up as it is and return to the lodging immediately.”
The words were right on the tip of her tongue, but the staff member brushed them aside, single-mindedly wrapping up the situation.
Her timing was thwarted at every turn.
Nobody was willing to wait for her side of the story.
‘This is driving me crazy!’
The unspoken defense boiling inside made her want to stomp her feet in sheer frustration.
In the meantime, Lee Jae-i was already walking briskly toward the door, following the staff member.
Watching that retreating figure, the look in Baek Song-ha’s eyes turned into pure, unadulterated hostility in an instant.
She gnashed her teeth, glaring as if she wanted to drill a hole right through Lee Jae-i.
Then came a sharp click.
Just before the door shut completely, Lee Jae-i turned around, and their eyes locked for a fleeting second.
* * *
Following the staff member out, Jae-i recalled the face she had just glimpsed through the crack in the door.
It looked remarkably similar to the expression she herself had worn back then, watching Baek Song-ha being led away by Yoo Young-jae’s hovering, worried hands.
‘Yeah. That’s exactly how I felt.’
The memory of that day came rushing back, a tangled mess of helpless bitterness and indignant fury.
Though, Baek Song-ha looked far more consumed by rage than she ever had.
She had thought it was a secret sorrow she would have to bury alone for the rest of her life.
But seeing that crushing grief map itself so perfectly onto that other face gave her a bizarre sensation.
‘Is this what sweet revenge feels like?’
After being suppressed for so long, this one tiny reversal tasted strangely, intoxicatingly sweet.
Jae-i followed the staff member into a room located at the very end of the hallway.
‘So this is where they monitor everything.’
Inside the space cluttered with tangled equipment, a massive monitor displayed fragmented, smaller video feeds pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Jae-i’s eyes drifted to the screen broadcasting the kitchen.
There was Baek Song-ha, standing face-to-face with Eun-soo.
What on earth were they talking about?
Right in front of that screen, she locked eyes with a staff member wearing a headset.
“Jae-i, are you alright? It looked like a pretty deep cut.”
“Yes, please don’t worry too much.”
So that’s the person listening to the audio.
Jae-i subtly took note of the audio staff’s headphones.
Another staff member then guided Jae-i toward the infirmary.
Passing through a wide, open space, they reached a room tucked away at the very far edge.
While it lacked the distinct, pungent smell of a hospital, a crisp, orderly chill hung in the air.
“Have a seat over here.”
The man waiting inside pointed toward a chair with a kind, welcoming gaze.
As Jae-i sat down, the man addressed her in a gentle tone.
“Let me take a look at the wound first.”
“Okay.”
Jae-i set the soaked towel aside and extended her hand.
He plucked a cotton ball from a small stainless-steel container, wiping her hand as he inspected it from various angles.
A few blood-stained cotton balls were dropped onto a nearby tray.
After a brief moment, the man nodded.
“Fortunately, it’s just a shallow scratch. When I saw it on the screen, I thought for sure we’d have to rush you to the hospital.”
The man’s gaze shifted to the damp paper towel.
“I suppose it looked worse because you wrapped it in something wet.”
Jae-i simply kept her hand steady in his grasp and nodded silently.
The man flipped her palm over one more time to double-check before letting out a sigh of relief.
“This will be fine with a simple treatment. Still, it must have given you quite a fright.”
Leaning back slightly in his chair, the man pulled a bandage out of the first-aid kit.
“Um… I think I twisted my wrist a bit when I tripped earlier. It feels quite stiff.”
“Is that so?”
At Jae-i’s words, the man tilted his head.
“Wouldn’t it be better to go to the hospital and get an X-ray just in case?”
“I don’t think it’s that serious. I’d just feel better if it were wrapped up tight to keep it steady.”
The man urged her a few more times to get it checked properly, but Jae-i politely declined, saying she would let him know if the pain got any worse.
“Alright, let’s keep an eye on it for today, but you must tell me if it hurts.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
The man stood up completely and walked toward the back of the room.
After rummaging through a drawer, he returned holding a thick roll of bandages.
‘Perfect. This is more than enough.’
Jae-i stifled a small, victorious smile internally.
Her mind drifted back to the situation from earlier.
It had happened right before she could fully process the thought that sparked when she saw the broken glass in the trash can.
Baek Song-ha had been trying to throw away the pile of onion skins she had recklessly peeled.
But then, Jae-i felt a cold touch from down below.
It was the kitchen knife, tossed aside carelessly.
If her hands hadn’t slowed down from being deep in thought, she would have drawn blood right then and there based on where it was positioned.
‘Does she ever think before she acts?’
Unless Baek Song-ha was planning to clean it up herself, it was an accident waiting to happen for whoever came next.
In that split second, Jae-i made her decision.
If she was going to pay her back, she might as well return the favor twofold.
With that, she pretended to sweep away the onion skins, shoving everything into the trash bag at once.
Thanks to the total disaster Baek Song-ha had left behind, the towering pile of onion skins perfectly blocked the camera’s blind spot.
‘You dug your own grave.’
Jae-i naturally pulled out a paper towel, soaking it thoroughly with water while pretending to wipe down the countertop.
She had no intention of getting seriously hurt, but she absolutely intended to make it look dramatic.
Picking up the trash bag, Jae-i calculated the distance in her head one more time.
‘Right about there.’
Carefully avoiding the broken glass, she plunged her hand directly toward the spot where the knife lay.
When her skin grazed the chilly metal, a shudder ran down her spine.
She instantly wrapped her fingers around it and pressed the wet towel against the cut.
Just as she thought.
The crimson color spread with terrifying speed through the damp paper.
As frantic, worried voices began to surround her, she tossed the trash bag aside carelessly.
The brief glimpse she caught of Baek Song-ha’s face was an absolute masterpiece.
Faced with her own medicine, she looked utterly helpless, not knowing what to do.
‘You’re not the only one who knows how to act.’
Jae-i delivered that silent, biting retort straight to the girl’s face.
The sting of the disinfectant on her cut pricked sharply, but the rush of satisfaction far outweighed the pain.
While the fall itself had been real, she had exaggerated the wrist pain just a little.
If an accident could be resolved with a single band-aid, it ran the risk of being cut from the final edit.
She had no intention of letting this settle as a minor incident.
Even if the conversation they had inside this room made it to the broadcast, the injury itself was undeniable.
‘Besides, the producers might want something a bit more sensational.’
If that were the case, this exact conversation would never make it to the final editing point.
Jae-i looked down at the layers of bandage wrapping around her wrist, the image of Baek Song-ha’s face vivid in her mind once more.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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