Chapter 2. Our Child Could Never Be the Second Lead (2)

Chirp.

Chirp.

Chirp.

What the hell was with these strange, artificial-sounding birds?

My officetel was on a high floor in the middle of the city, so there was no way I could hear birds chirping.

I opened my eyes wide and stared at the ceiling. Instead of the plain wallpaper the landlord had put up when I moved in, the ceiling now had wallpaper covered here and there with four-leaf clovers.

Maybe it was a dream.

I turned over again. The strangely narrow bed had become much wider, and I thought I could even smell something delicious.

“Looks like you’re having a good dream.”

It was an ordinary morning routine I hadn’t experienced in a long time.

See? I knew good things happened whenever I thought about Eunho. With the thought that I should sleep just a little longer, I turned over again. When I pulled the blanket up, the scent of lavender wafted over me.

This dream is so realistic. I can even smell fabric softener.

“Mun Yerim! Aren’t you going to school? Dad’s leaving without you.”

Huh? What was that supposed to mean?

“Yerim, I told you. I’m leaving you behind if you don’t come out!”

Before I could even figure out what was going on, the bedroom door flew open.

Yes, this was strange even for a dream.

No, if this wasn’t a dream, it was even stranger.

My house was a studio apartment!

I turned my head toward the door and saw an unfamiliar woman sighing as she stood there wearing an apron. The middle-aged woman walked toward me and mercilessly smacked me on the butt.

“Ouch!”

That hurt.

If it hurt, then this wasn’t a dream.

No, more importantly, who was this woman, and why was she hitting me?

Maybe she noticed my bewildered expression, because she put her hands on her hips and looked down at me as though I were hopeless.

“How old are you that I still have to wake you up before you’ll get out of bed? Aren’t you getting up? Hurry! Today’s the first day of school!”

“No, wh-who are you to just hit me like—”

“Who? Ha! Look at you. Right, you watched that amnesia movie yesterday, didn’t you?”

“Ah! Why are you doing this? Why are you hitting me?!”

“I’m your mother!”

The merciless smacking continued from my butt to my back.

I climbed out of bed and crawled across the floor for my life. Just as I was about to run outside, I spotted a neatly arranged school uniform inside the wardrobe.

I stopped running and stared at the school emblem proudly displayed on the uniform vest and the yellow name tag.

「Mun Yerim」

Strange.

The name looked familiar.

Was she a former classmate? Or perhaps a coworker from a job I didn’t even want to think about?

If not, then what was it?

I had been staring at the yellow name tag for a while when the school emblem beneath it caught my eye.

「Hanguk High School」

No way.

Seriously?

“Ahhh! Hanguk High School? Mun Yerim?”

“What’s wrong with you? Hurry up and wash your face and come down. You need to eat. I’ll give you thirty minutes. Otherwise, walk!”

The door closed again.

I was still absentmindedly running my fingers over the school uniform vest in my hands.

Hanguk High School was the school all the kids in Welcome! Summer Film attended.

Then Mun Yerim was definitely….

‘Follow me. I’m the club president here.’

The class president of Semin and Dokyeom’s class, as well as the president of Summer Film, the movie club at the heart of Welcome! Summer Film.

Putting all the circumstances together, I had definitely seen a bright light right before I blacked out.

And if this wasn’t a dream….

“Don’t tell me… I’m possessed?”

I couldn’t believe that the kind of possession I had only ever seen in novels, dramas, and movies had actually happened to me.

I stretched out my hand and stared at Mun Yerim’s hand, which was slightly different from mine.

The texture of the skin, the color of the skin, even the voice—they were all different.

The person reflected in the mirror hanging beside the door wasn’t Oh Young.

It was Mun Yerim.

“This is crazy. I really got possessed!”

If anything, it was a blessing.

After quitting my job as a nurse, I had spent so much time hating myself and hating my life.

And now I had become an entirely new person.

Better yet, I had become a character from my favorite novel!

There was only one thing I regretted.

I hadn’t possessed Semin.

“If I were Semin, I’d kiss Eunho right away and completely change who the male lead is!”

Since things had turned out this way, I wanted to see the beautiful Eunho, Semin, and Dokyeom with my own eyes.

I opened the bedroom door to go wash up, then stood there with my mouth hanging open as I looked around.

It was a two-story house that only a genuinely wealthy family could afford.

Downstairs in the living room, Yerim’s mother—no, my mother—was preparing breakfast with a housekeeper. She looked up at me and said,

“Why did you come out? Are you going to wash up out here? Why don’t you wash in your room?”

“Why don’t I wash in my room…?”

Come to think of it, the room was huge, and even the bathroom inside was luxurious.

Was Mun Yerim’s bedroom about the same size as my entire officetel studio?

Once I reached that conclusion, I naturally couldn’t help thinking….

“It’s such a relief that I got possessed as Yerim. Thank you, God!”

“What is wrong with you this early in the morning?! Your father said he’s leaving without you!”

If I was going to be possessed anyway, it was better to become a rich person!

“He looked like such a doting father, but he really is ruthless.”

Just as Mom had said, Dad ruthlessly left me behind and went to work.

As I ate breakfast and pieced together the context of their conversation, I learned that Mun Yerim normally rode to school in her father’s car.

I asked how to get to school by bus, doing my best not to make it obvious that I had no idea.

My mother, whom I still found awkward to call Mom, irritably put down her chopsticks.

“You were always complaining about how much you hated taking public transportation, and now you’ve forgotten everything. You’ve forgotten everything. Wait for the driver at the back gate after school. He’ll come pick you up.”

There was no sign of anything unusual in Mom’s expression as she resumed eating.

I was the only one who was shocked.

Seriously, how was an extra this rich?

I’m happy.

As expected, the author doesn’t waste even a single character.

I hurriedly stuffed the rest of my toast into my mouth, grabbed my bag, and stood up.

Now that I knew for certain I had been possessed, I had to see the kids with my own eyes.

“You’re not eating anymore?”

“Yes. No, I mean—yeah. I’m going to school!”

It was still difficult for me to stay outside for long, but if I thought of this place as the world of a novel, there was nothing I couldn’t do.

And how long had it been since I’d last gone to school?

To be honest, I was a little excited.

“Get off!”

“Ahhh! I’m getting off too!”

Once I got on the bus, I understood why Mun Yerim had always gone to school in her father’s car.

People squeezed themselves into every available space.

So many people boarded that the bus actually slowed down as it wound its way up the hill.

I stood there, squeezed among the crowd, looking around nervously. When the students in school uniforms began pressing the stop button, I hurriedly got off the bus.

“Wow. I almost died.”

The moment I stepped off, I finally let out the breath I had been holding.

Tomorrow, I was absolutely going to wake up early and take Dad’s car to school.

Absolutely.

“Hey, hey, keep your head down.”

“Is that Bae Eunho?”

“Wow, he’s actually coming to school. I thought he wouldn’t.”

“Don’t make eye contact. You’ll get into trouble for no reason.”

I slowly exhaled and looked around.

Several students had begun whispering while staring in a certain direction.

Wait.

Bae Eunho?

Could it really be that Bae Eunho?

I hurriedly raised my head and looked toward the place the students were staring at.

A tall, lean figure and broad back.

Naturally wavy black hair.

A scratched eyebrow on one side, a sharp nose, sparkling eyes, and full lips.

He was handsome enough to have been pulled straight out of the novel’s descriptions.

My favorite.

My male lead.

My lifesaver.

Bae Eunho.

“Holy shit, Bae Eunho!”

I shouldn’t have said that.

But the words escaped before I could stop myself.

The students who had been whispering turned their attention toward me.

Apparently, Eunho had heard me too, because he stood in front of the school gate, leaning to one side as he stared at me.

As I grew nervous, even the sound of me swallowing felt incredibly loud.

Eunho slowly started walking toward me.

“What? You know me?”

He was wearing a sports-brand jacket zipped all the way up to his chin, but somehow it looked completely different on him.

Swearing at someone you had just met.

That was a little much, even for a private thought.

I clasped my hands together naturally, trying not to offend Eunho, and said,

“Ah, h-hi! I mean… I’m a really huge fan of yours…. It just slipped out.”

“…A fan?”

“Yeah! You’re my favorite! So….”

“Whoa, watch your head!”

“Student, move!”

Before I could explain myself to Eunho, something heavy and long fell from above my head.

It wasn’t a towel or paper.

I reached up and touched the rough-textured object that had fallen onto my body.

As my obstructed vision cleared again, Eunho looked down at me with an expression even more displeased than the one he had worn when he heard me swear earlier.

I lowered my head.

The thing that had just fallen onto me was a banner that had been standing high above the school gate.

Right.

I hadn’t even figured out what point in the story this was set in.

And it had been so long that I’d forgotten.

If my ominous feeling was correct, then this banner was….

“Oh dear! I told you to hold onto that properly, Mr. Kim! It fell on the student!”

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, student.”

“You’re not hurt, are you?”

“If you’re okay, could you give that to us?”

「Congratulations, Second-Year Bae Eunho, Gold Medalist at the National Judo Tournament!」

This was Eunho’s final judo banner.

After that tournament, he injured his ankle in an accident and could no longer do judo.

That was why, in his third year, he became a delinquent who did nothing but get into fights….

And now I had just called someone like that….

My fan.

My favorite.

I had said all that….

I slowly raised my head.

Eunho’s scratched eyebrow twitched upward.

The same expression that had looked so charming to me just moments ago suddenly seemed terrifying.

“…Are you making fun of me?”