A beautiful beta named Betty drifted from one powerful, influential person to another. They called him a shared wife, saying that anyone with money could have a taste.
They cursed him as a promiscuous slut, while envying the powerful for getting to spend a night with him. They desired him and despised him at the same time, watching Betty's every move from the corners of the banquet hall and trying to get in front of him, hoping to lure the butterfly onto their shoulders.
“From now on, your name is Betty.” A plainly dressed woman, a well-known menial worker on this tourist planet, took Betty's hand and pressed his smooth shoulder with a sigh. “I don't know whether to be sorry or relieved that you're a beta.”
“Sorry, what does beta mean?”
It turned out Betty hadn't always been called Betty. He was someone from another world who had transmigrated into this strange one. He'd lost his memory, but had a vague feeling that this wasn't his home. Where was his home? He searched for it, in this lonely world.
“Your mind and body are rotting together, Betty. I'm sorry.”
“It's all right. I can't go home anymore. Can I live here from now on?”
“Of course.”
Formerly a sunny, cheerful kitten, now a severely self-destructive beta x ?
*The title is from The Afterward, Melancholy Betty
You might want to know:
1. Pure, painful, angsty melodrama. If you're a devoted shipper, don't read. It's really dark.
2. It gets very neurotic later on.
3. My own take on a stock-picking story.
4. Transmigration with the body.
5. Open ending.
Theme: Love yourself
