Chapter 7
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Cha Yihan covered his face with his hand and spoke.
“Ah, I didn’t tell you my name, did I?”
“Huh? I know. You’re Cha Yihan.”
At my words, he stared at me with his eyes wide open. He reacted as if he had just witnessed a magic trick.
“How do you know? I didn’t tell you.”
“……”
I bent down to take my tumbler out of my bag, then paused.
Come to think of it, I had just heard it during attendance, realized he was a male lead, and memorized it.
Does that make me seem kind of creepy?
If someone memorized my name after hearing it during attendance and then called me by it… It might be fine, but it might also feel a little weird.
During those few seconds of hesitation, Cha Yihan mirrored my movements exactly.
His eyes sparkled as if he were watching something interesting. I reluctantly opened my mouth.
“I… I.”
“Yeah.”
He was looking at me with such fascination that it felt like I needed a different excuse than just saying I memorized it from attendance.
“I… I’m good at remembering people’s names.”
“Really? That’s amazing.”
“It’s not that amazing.”
But Cha Yihan had called my name earlier, even though I hadn’t told him, hadn’t he?
Or not?
I was probably mistaken. Or maybe the teacher had kept calling out Lee Hayeon, Lee Hayeon, so that was how he knew.
Cha Yihan, who had been staring at me intently with that dangerously attractive face, pointed at the desk in front of me.
“Then what’s his name?”
“…Kang Sunwoo.”
But I already knew him. Still, Cha Yihan didn’t seem to care and asked again with innocent curiosity.
“Then the one behind you?”
“The one behind me?”
I had forgotten who sat behind me and quickly turned around, only to lock eyes with Kim Chanseung, whose physique was on another level as he looked down at me.
Facing the silent Kim Chanseung, I reflexively formed a small smile before turning back to the front.
Cha Yihan was lying face down on his desk, smiling brightly as he looked up at me.
“You don’t know?”
“…Kim Chanseung.”
Cha Yihan’s eyes grew huge.
"Wow."
He looked exactly like a cat that had just discovered a fascinating new toy, and without realizing it, I almost reached out to pat his head.
But I quickly came to my senses, because Cha Yihan had started looking at me with shining eyes.
“That’s cool.”
“What is? It’s just a trivial talent…”
With him acting like that, I felt extremely embarrassed. Anyway, the last male lead I had encountered, Cha Yihan, had a personality that was truly… bright and innocent.
They all had very distinct character traits. Showing interest, he began asking me questions.
“Hayeon, which middle school did you go to?”
“Me? Uh, I…”
Does the middle school I went to even exist? This is a novel.
As soon as I answered one question, another flew at me.
“Were you in the classroom during the entrance ceremony? Why don’t I remember seeing you?”
“No. I wasn’t in the classroom. I fainted…”
“Fainted? Why?”
"It is just that I felt a bit anemic."
“Anemia? Are you weak?”
Why did this suddenly feel like an interrogation?
I tried to brush things off and only gave the necessary answers, but he soon began asking one thing after another about my birthday, hobbies, favorite movies or books, even my family relationships, so I simply closed my mouth.
Why is he so interested?
He seemed to be the kind of person who was naturally affectionate, but since he was the male lead of my novel, it felt uncomfortable to answer him so readily.
There’s no way he’s normal either…
When I didn’t respond, he tilted his head and asked, “Why are you spacing out?”
Cha Yihan laughed as he poked my cheek with his long finger. The smiling face right in front of me was so cute for a moment that I almost answered him.
N-no. Don’t be fooled. Get a grip.
He was also a male lead from my novel. One was a psychopath, one was a stalker, and there was no doubt that he, too, had some incredible trait that would carry on that same lineage.
I began looking at Cha Yihan with a highly suspicious expression, as if he were a criminal hiding his identity.
“Hayeon’s expression is so fascinating~”
Right now, he was pretending to be innocent, dragging out his words cutely and smiling, but if his true nature came out, there was no telling what kind of trouble might end up landing on me.
Later on, you’re going to reveal some crazy side too, aren’t you? There’s no way the me from senior year of high school would have created a normal person here.
What had Cha Yihan’s issue been? I tried hard to recall the contents of the novel I had written.
“Hm?”
At that moment, I remembered the existence of the female lead, whom I had completely forgotten.
Come to think of it, all three male leads were in the same class right now. Then shouldn’t the female lead obviously be here too?
I began scanning my surroundings intently.
The students whose eyes met mine either greeted me awkwardly or blushed in embarrassment, but I did not care and persistently observed each and every one of them.
Why… isn’t she here?
There was no one who stood out as much as the male leads, whether in appearance or personality.
What? She’s not here? Then, when do I run into the female lead? Aren’t we in the same class?
My brain started spinning rapidly as I tried to figure out how to survive.
As if responding to my desperate wish, the very first line of the novel flashed through my head like lightning.
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⟬ One month after the start of the second semester of sophomore year, a female student transferred to Shinyeon High School. ⟭
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Damn it.
The female lead transfers in during sophomore year, not freshman year?
That meant I had to spend an entire year in this class with the male leads. I felt all the blood drain from my body.
“Your expressions keep changing by the second…”
Cha Yihan muttered as he watched my face. With each memory that surfaced in my mind, my emotions swung between heaven and hell.
There were murder cases and stuff… It wasn’t that bad, right?
I think I wrote the story with a bit too much over-the-top drama, but if people around us started dying, that would be seriously problematic.
Because that person around them would probably be me…?
The very fact that I was seated right next to the male leads made me the perfect extra to be sacrificed. Sweat began to trickle down.
“Are you sick? Are you okay?”
Cha Yihan lowered his brows and reached his hand toward my forehead. Almost automatically, I raised my hand and blocked his wrist.
“N-no. I’m fine.”
Even though my resolve had wavered just from looking at his face, the moment I realized I might die, the male leads’ good looks no longer caught my attention.
I answered firmly and grabbed Cha Yihan’s arm, pushing it down as if telling him not to touch me.
He blinked slowly, then stared intently at the arm I had pushed away.
Ignoring his reaction, I continued thinking on my own.
If I reviewed the traits of the male leads I had recalled so far, the one most likely to die seemed to be the female lead.
After all, every guy around her who claimed to like her was either a psychopath, a stalker, or some other kind of strange person with something I could not even remember.
…Isn’t that a problem in itself?
When I become a sophomore, I might end up living in constant anxiety over the female lead dying, burdened with guilt.
Is transferring schools the answer after all?
If I could not transfer for some reason, I could just refuse to attend school and drop out.
It might worry my parents for a bit, but nothing was more important than my life.
I can just prepare for the high school equivalency exam right away, pass it, study for the CSAT for three years, and then go to college.
While I was neatly laying out my future plans in my head, Cha Yihan’s expression as he looked at me gradually turned subtly strange.
Yeah, just think I’m crazy and lose interest.
That would be better for me too.
Scrrrk—
“Everyone finished moving seats?”
The teacher, who had said he would stop by the staff room for a moment, only returned to the classroom after a full thirty minutes had passed.
“There’s nothing else to do today, so just eat lunch at school and then head home on your own.”
Lunch… Come to think of it, back when I used to attend school, waiting for lunchtime every day had been the highlight of my day.
Anyway, the thought that I would soon be able to go home and organize the information by myself made me feel much more at ease.
“Seonsaeng-nim! What time is lunch?”
“Lunch? What time is it now? Uh… You can start heading out in ten minutes. You all know where the cafeteria is, right?”
“Yes!”
Uh, I didn’t.
The layout of this school was quite different from my old one, so the cafeteria was probably different too.
The teacher, who had caught the confusion reflected on my face head-on, let out an exclamation.
“Ah, right. You couldn’t go to the cafeteria last time, could you? What a shame. You probably don’t know anyone in the class yet.”
“I’ll go with her, Seonsaeng-nim.”
Kang Sunwoo, who was sitting in front of me, immediately responded. Even without looking, I was sure he was wearing that unmistakably kind and gentle smile.
“I’m fin—”
“Oh, will you? Thanks.”
Before I could even finish saying I was fine, the teacher cut me off.
If I eat lunch alone with Kang Sunwoo, I feel like I’ll get indigestion from all the stares.
But staying alone in the classroom and then going out to eat or heading home by myself felt a bit awkward, too. It would be a problem again next time if I did not know the way to the cafeteria.
“Then Hayeon-ah, when the bell rings, come eat with us.”
“…Us?”
Kang Sunwoo casually pointed toward our row of desks and spoke.
“Yihan, Chanseung, and I all went to the same middle school, so we all know each other.”
I was definitely going to get indigestion. One hundred percent.
“N-no. I’m really fine…”
“Why? Do you have other friends to eat with?”
I didn’t. Hit right where it hurt, I could not respond for a moment. Cha Yihan, who was next to me, lightly nudged me and smiled.
“Let’s eat together.”
My gaze naturally drifted to the stick in Cha Yihan’s mouth.
At first glance, I thought he was smoking and stared at him with wide eyes, but then I realized it was candy and cooled down.
I thought he was some lunatic smoking in the classroom.
That was how delinquent-like he looked with that stick in his mouth. Cha Yihan, who had been holding the cigarette… no, the candy, noticed my gaze and asked, “Do you want one too, Yeon?”
Cha Yihan rummaged through his pocket, took out a piece of candy, and placed it in my hand.
“Thanks… Ah, no. It’s okay.”
I had almost absentmindedly accepted it, but quickly pressed the candy back into his hand.
When I returned it, he looked at me with a strange expression and raised an eyebrow before soon drooping dejectedly.
But I think he just called me something odd.
“…By the way, what’s ‘Yeon’?”
“Hm? You.”
“Why am I Yeon?”
Cha Yihan stepped closer to me. The sweet scent of strawberry candy wafted into my nose.
“Because you’re Hayeon, so I took the last syllable. Yeon.”
Cha Yihan, who had suddenly made a nickname for me, smiled prettily as if he was pleased.
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