Surviving to the Finale on My Patchwork Character Setting

[Temporary blurb written in a hurry. I'll polish it properly later.]

"You're a disposable character in a horror novel, and you're about to die."

Chi Yun: Nooo! Please spare me!!

"...You can survive if you earn enough popularity."

Chi Yun, the melodramatic novelist: ?

No choice. If I want to live, I have to give it a shot!

Everyone flocks to the cake shop on the street corner after narrowly escaping death. Its owner is a frail young man with a warm smile. Sometimes, eerie runes and scars can be glimpsed on his wrist, but they are usually hidden before anyone gets a good look. He brings out a freshly baked cake.

"A little something sweet will cheer you up."

The boy, who seems poor and withdrawn to everyone else, is actually a puppet controlled by an evil spirit. Yet in a moment of crisis, he takes a fatal blow meant for his enemy. At death's door, tears streaming down his face, he says:

"I want to go home. I don't want to hurt anyone."

"If only I'd tried a little harder, I could have taken Mom away from there..."

On a silent night, a boy who has accidentally learned his own fate walks resolutely toward his death. "The interests of humanity come before my own..."

[The shopkeeper went to help the protagonist's group deal with trouble again today, didn't he!! He's carrying so much himself, but still has to comfort everyone else... I'm going to cry my eyes out.]

[He softened at the very last moment... But you were so close to living happily with your mom...]

[Ahhhhh, I'm seriously going to cry my eyes out. Star's death was just glossed over so casually... His sacrifice concerned all of humanity!]

#I'm just a resilient little flower in a horror novel : )#

#What do I have to do with being both the protagonist's and the villain's unattainable love?#

#Forum, don't cry just yet. I only want to survive!!#

Theme: Love