Chapter 6
Paragraph Spacing
Paragraph Spacing
“Well then… Since I’m taking attendance anyway, how about we each stand up one by one and introduce ourselves? Ah, judging by your faces, you all look like you’d rather die than do that. Then I’ll just call attendance, so raise your hand and answer one at a time.”
As the teacher began calling the roll, the students’ attention shifted elsewhere again. I let out a relieved sigh.
“Kim Jincheol.”
“Yes.”
“Cha Yihan?”
“Yes.”
While I was quietly listening to the names being called, an unusually distinctive name caught my ear.
I quickly turned my head from where I had been staring down at my desk. Instinctively, I felt that I had to find the person who had just answered.
Even if I heard it while doing a forward roll, that’s the name of a male lead.
Whether that name really belonged to the male lead or not was answered the moment I found the person who had responded.
Among the blurry faces, there was one boy whose looks seemed set to high definition all by himself. He was lying facedown on his desk with a blanket over him, his cheek resting against the surface.
What is with that…
This was my first impression.
Doesn’t he look like a delinquent?
He was ridiculously good-looking, the kind that stands out at a glance.
While listening to the teacher continue calling attendance, I stared intently at Cha Yihan’s face.
At some point, as if he had noticed my gaze, he shifted his eyes and looked directly at where I was.
Our eyes met. His transparent gray eyes, lit by the sunlight, stared straight through me.
It was not a color you would expect from a person, but something you might see in a wolf or another wild animal.
The moment I saw those eyes, I unconsciously let out a faint gasp of admiration. Now I understood why his face stood out so blatantly.
That’s exactly high school Lee Hayeon’s type.
Because back when I was in high school, I had liked faces like that.
Right, right. I used to go crazy over faces that were obviously, ridiculously handsome like that when I was young.
As I grew older, I realized men like that either did not exist or, if they did, they were bad news, so my fantasy had long since shattered.
The eyes that had been looking at me slowly widened, as if he were the surprised one.
Startled as well, I opened my eyes wide. Then he flashed me a grin. It was the kind of smiling eyes that could easily charm someone.
…How am I supposed to get through school life while looking at that face?
If I were still in high school, it was a face I would have fallen for at first sight and chased after. Even as a twenty-six-year-old, I had almost been captivated for a moment.
He mouthed, ‘Hi.’ I had been dazedly admiring his face, and belatedly I snapped out of it and quickly turned my head away.
“Lee Hayeon.”
It was too late to avoid him. I should have just checked his face and turned away immediately.
But seriously, it’s such a feast for the eyes…
“Lee Hayeon?”
I had been so distracted that I did not even hear the teacher calling attendance.
“Lee Hayeon!”
At the repeated call, I came to my senses. I immediately raised my hand and answered.
“Yes, yes!”
“Uh, are you feeling sick again somewhere?”
“No….”
Feeling embarrassed, I smiled stiffly and lowered my head. Thinking about it, I had been so startled that I turned away, completely ignoring his greeting.
He’s probably going to think I’m rude. Well, that’s not very important…
More than that, it was just a little embarrassing that at my age I had been caught staring blankly at a high schooler’s face.
I lightly slapped my cheek with my palm and repeated to myself about three times to get a grip.
“There’s no one absent. Next, we need to choose a class president… but since you don’t really know each other yet, it’ll be hard to decide right now, won’t it?”
Hearing the teacher’s irritated, weary voice brought me back to reality.
“We’ll hold the class president election properly around the end of March or early April. For the temporary class president, as you all know, it’s Kang Sunwoo. Kang Sunwoo?”
“Yes.”
“Work hard for the next month.”
“Yes, Seonsaeng-nim.”
I glanced out the window.
Right in front of the school, I could see a convenience store, the waffle shop next to it, and even a franchise burger place a little farther away.
Outside looked exactly like the commercial area from my own school days.
That looks delicious… Ah, I should have written that the cafeteria food was amazing, too.
The sudden thought and realization sent a wave of regret crashing over me.
Leaving everything else aside, if I had just written one line in the novel like ⟬ The cafeteria was a buffet with hotel restaurant quality, and the school stairs were all escalators ⟭, my insane student-life fantasy could have come true exactly as I had dreamed it!
Wow, this is really regrettable. Such a shame.
Since the story was already a mess anyway, I should have added things like that instead of only throwing in weird settings.
“Then lastly, let’s switch seats and call it a day.”
While grumbling inwardly, I strongly agreed with the teacher.
There was no way I could have a peaceful school life with Kim Chanseung in front of me and Kang Sunwoo to the right.
“I don’t have time to make paper lots, so I’ll use a computer program to reshuffle the seats. If anyone objects, go make the lots yourselves.”
At that moment, Kang Sunwoo lightly nudged my arm.
“Hmm?”
“I hope we get seats close to each other, Hayeon-ah.”
I avoided Kang Sunwoo’s gaze slightly as I answered.
“...Yeah.”
Absolutely not.
I wanted nothing to do with psychos who would not help my school life in the slightest.
I’m going to study. Study.
I was certain I would never be able to focus on studying if I were surrounded by the male leads.
So please, please don’t put me next to any of the male leads!
I closed my eyes and prayed earnestly. The names on the seating chart on the computer screen shuffled around, then abruptly stopped the moment I opened my eyes.
“...Huh.”
Huh?
Huhhh?
I stared blankly at the screen with a dazed expression.
“What is that….”
It was the kind of seating arrangement that made me feel like I needed to spit out water I was not even holding in my mouth.
“…...”
Murmurs began rising from around me.
“All three of them ended up in the middle row.”
“What about the girl who is going to sit in the second seat? That’s insane.”
“Hey, that’s like winning the lottery. She should go buy a Lotto ticket today.”
Please, stop. I wanted to shut the mouths of the kids who were giggling as they talked.
I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking that I wanted to shove something, anything, even a steamed potato, into their mouths just to make them stop.
“Still, that’d be a lot of pressure.”
“But it’s a field of handsome guys. I’d take it.”
Even after closing and reopening my eyes, even after rubbing them and looking again, the position of my name did not change in the slightest.
In the very center of the middle row, my three-syllable name was written clearly. Lee Hayeon.
In front of me was Kang Sunwoo, behind me was Kim Chanseung, and beside me was Cha Yihan. The three names were planted there boldly.
This… does this make any sense? It’s not like I’m the female lead.
Unless someone was playing a prank on me, this could not be happening.
I had prayed to avoid just the male leads, and instead I got a crazy guy in front, a crazy guy beside me, and a crazy guy behind me.
“We’re close, Hayeon-ah. That’s great.”
Kang Sunwoo’s words barely registered. I just stared blankly at the seating chart on the computer screen.
For a moment, I felt the urge to act crazy, snatch the mouse from the teacher, and rerun the seating chart.
“You’ve all checked it, right? Are you moving your seats tomorrow, or now?”
Tomorrow would be better.
“Well, if we wait until tomorrow, you’ll forget, and it’ll be chaotic again, right? Just move now.”
Maybe I should bring up transferring schools to Mom when I get home today.
I’m scared, I’m really scared! Why are the main characters sitting in front of me, behind me, and next to me!
Wearing a miserable expression, I slowly lifted my desk. Each step I took toward my new seat felt unbearably heavy.
Should I ask to change seats?
But I had no valid reason to ask.
Since it was the front row, I couldn’t use bad eyesight as an excuse, and I was not particularly tall, so I could not claim I needed to move to the back either.
And why did it have to be right there, of all places?
This is insane, seriously. With a sense of resignation, I placed my desk behind Kang Sunwoo.
The moment I set my desk down, another desk slid in right beside mine. Without looking to the side, I took a small, steadying breath.
He was here. The last remaining male lead.
“Hellooo?”
Now that we were seatmates, it was inevitable that we would have to talk.
After bracing myself, I lifted my head. Cha Yihan’s face was already right in front of mine.
“What’s your name? Hayeon?”
“...Ah, yeah. Lee Hayeon.”
I had to get used to it. I had to get used to it. I began trying my best to grow accustomed to that face up close.
“Your name’s preeetty.”
Behind his carefree smile, it felt like a halo was bursting out.
He really did look like a delinquent, but unlike what I had expected, his tone was drawn out and laced with aegyo, which somehow made him feel even more dangerous.
“Uh… Thanks.”
As I sat down, I glanced over his outfit.
Instead of wearing the uniform vest, he had a cutely designed blanket draped over himself. His tie was half loosened, and at least two buttons of his shirt were undone.
He must hate feeling stuffy.
I knew because I had dressed like that before when I found uniforms uncomfortable.
Right, it’s a school uniform.
It suddenly sank in that these boys were still minors, young enough to be wearing school uniforms.
No matter how handsome they were, they were just high school students, and male leads from my novel.
If this had been back in high school, I probably would have been completely swept away. Maybe when I was a senior, or right after the CSAT ended.
But to me, who had already graduated from college and had been preparing for employment, they looked like nothing more than kids.
Even if they’re male leads, they’re about the same age as my younger cousins.
Thinking that way made me feel much lighter.
They were just fresh-faced high school students, much younger than me.
“What are you thinking about?”
Except for the fact that he was insanely handsome.
The thought wavered like a reed in the wind when Cha Yihan’s face suddenly entered my field of vision.
But I regained my composure faster than before and answered him calmly.
“I was thinking… the uniform must be pretty uncomfortable?”
“How did you know?”
“Just looking at what you’re wearing.”
At my words, Cha Yihan looked down at his uniform and then burst into giggles, nodding his head.
“Huh, you’re right.”
Doing something cute with that face was completely unfair.
I tried hard not to let the corners of my lips lift, maintaining a blank expression as if continuing an internal battle with myself.
Paragraph Spacing
Paragraph Spacing