Chapter 6. Why This Man Has to Be the Male Lead (3)

“What the…?”

The fight ended much more anticlimactically than I’d expected.

A few kicks from Eunho were enough to send all three boys sprawling flat on their backs.

The Class 8 president and I stood there holding hands, staring at the boys with blood streaming from their noses.

“Wow, Bae Eunho is insane.”

“Did you really think I was going to fight these guys to the death and win? They’re nothing.”

“That’s not something to brag about. Whatever. Let’s hurry and get out of here.”

“You said you called the police.”

“Exactly! That’s why we need to run!”

I hurriedly grabbed Eunho’s hand and stepped over the fallen boys.

Soon, the sound of a patrol car could be heard.

If we got caught like this, we’d be the only ones losing out.

Holding Eunho’s hand with my right hand and the Class 8 president’s with my left, I ran in the opposite direction from the approaching sirens.

“Run!”

“Hey, you crazy—!”

That was when it happened.

One of the boys, whom I’d thought had already passed out, suddenly got up and picked up a broken piece of the wooden club.

When the Class 8 president warned me to watch out, I quickly let go of his hand and raised my arms defensively.

The boy changed the direction of his swing.

I’d thought he was aiming for the Class 8 president, but the person he was actually targeting was me.

I squeezed my eyes shut as the wooden club came crashing toward my face.

I’m really going to get hit this time!

With a dull thud, I felt something warm.

“E-Eunho!”

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was his solid chest.

Eunho had wrapped his arms around me and raised one arm to block the wooden club.

His brow was slightly furrowed.

The police officers rushed toward the boy and restrained him.

The man glared at Eunho and me while breathing heavily.

“Are you okay, student?”

“What? Bae Eunho? You again?”

“Bae Eunho? He’s been quiet for a while.”

The police officers clicked their tongues as though they already knew Eunho.

Then they separated Eunho and me and checked my condition.

Even though I wasn’t the one who had been injured.

Eunho was.

The moment I saw him hurt, my heart dropped.

His navy-blue jersey was beginning to turn red with blood.

I immediately looked away.

There was blood on the wooden club the boy had swung, too.

“Bae Eunho, get in the car.”

“No!”

“What?”

“Look at our kid’s arm! He’s hurt! We need to take him to the hospital first.”

“Our… kid?”

The police officer, the Class 8 president, and even Eunho all stared at me in surprise.

But I didn’t care about their looks at all.

“Look! He’s bleeding! This happened because he was protecting me, so we’re going to the hospital first. We have every right to!”

“Okay, okay. Officer Kim, put Eunho and this student in that car.”

Unexpectedly, Eunho remained calm as he was helped by the police officer out of the alley.

The students gathered near the entrance to the alley whispered among themselves as they looked back and forth between the bloodied Eunho and the boys lying on the ground.

“Wasn’t he the one who did that?”

“Wow, Bae Eunho really has become a delinquent.”

In the end, I’d failed to change Eunho’s reputation.

All I’d accomplished was getting my favorite character hurt.

“It was scraped against the wood, so it’s not a serious wound. However, there’s a hairline fracture in the bone, so he’ll need to wear a cast for a while.”

“Thank you.”

Eunho moved the arm wrapped in a cast around experimentally.

Once the emergency-room doctor left to check on another patient, silence descended again.

Eunho lay sprawled across the hospital bed, carefully observing the familiar yet unfamiliar silhouette reflected against the curtain.

Then, apparently having figured out what was going on, he quickly pulled the curtain aside with one foot.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah, well… Yerim told me to come take a look.”

“Yerim? Ah, right. That’s her name….”

Eunho sat up and looked toward Yerim, who was watching him from the far corner.

“But why is she just standing over there watching?”

“She says she’s too sorry to come over.”

“Hah. If she’s sorry, tell her to come here herself. At least let me hear her say thank you. She should know who got hurt because of her instead of pretending nothing happened.”

At Eunho’s words, the Class 8 president nodded and approached Yerim.

The two of them whispered to each other for a while before nodding.

Not long afterward, Yerim approached Eunho timidly, her messy bun sticking out in every direction.

What was she going to say?

That he’d saved her life, so she would stop bothering him from now on?

Just thinking about everything that had happened recently, Eunho had been exhausted in one way or another because of Yerim.

Maybe everything would be fine if she just disappeared from his life.

Eunho raised his head.

“I’m really sorry, Eunho….”

When he saw Yerim’s large eyes filled with tears, Eunho’s mouth fell slightly open.

What’s wrong with you?

Eunho’s question only seemed to light a fuse.

Yerim covered her face with her hands and sank to the floor.

“It’s all because of me. Because I keep getting carried away…. Someone who hurts her favorite isn’t even a fan. I’m just trash.”

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad…. They said it’s not a serious injury. It’s just a fracture.”

“Doesn’t a fracture hurt? Even a little injury hurts! Why do you keep saying it doesn’t hurt?”

“……”

“They didn’t have to stitch it, right? Will insurance cover it? When are you supposed to go back to get it disinfected?”

Even while wiping away her tears, Yerim was worrying about things like insurance and wound treatment.

Eunho found it ridiculous.

Pfft.

Before he knew it, Eunho burst out laughing.

At his sudden laughter, the Class 8 president and Yerim, who had been watching him from the side, exchanged puzzled looks.

“You really are crazy.”

“Huh?”

“Anyway, you owe me now. I saved your life.”

What kind of deal should he make?

Eunho rolled his tongue around inside his mouth as he thought.

Just moments ago, Yerim had been acting as though the world were falling apart.

But now, she suddenly burst into laughter.

Her eyes were red and swollen, tears still clinging to them, and the corners of her lips had curled upward.

Eunho silently stared at her.

“That’s true. I owe you again.”

Again?

Eunho looked at the name tag pinned to Yerim’s chest.

“Mun Yerim.”

It was the moment Yerim’s name became clearly engraved in Eunho’s mind.

Until then, he’d been too busy running away whenever she bothered him to even care about remembering her name.

“Why did you end up going to the hospital? And what happened with the police?”

“You heard everything, didn’t you? They said it’s nothing serious.”

“Nothing serious, my foot! You have no idea how shocked I was when the chief called me.”

When I arrived home a little after ten, my parents were waiting for me with worried expressions.

Apparently, my father was quite close with the chief of the police station, so he’d already been told everything that had happened.

“Mun Yerim, have you been having a hard time lately? You seemed fine this morning, and then suddenly….”

“It’s not like that. I’m sorry for making you worry.”

“…Well, if it’s not that, then fine. Dad trusts you. You know that, right?”

I nodded vaguely at my father’s words.

I mean, the way to get along with your parents was pretty simple.

Don’t do what they tell you not to do, and do what they tell you to do.

I was about to hurry up and end the conversation so I could go to my room when my father stopped me.

“Oh, I heard Dokyeom transferred to your school.”

“You know Dokyeom, Dad?”

“Of course I do. He’s actress Lee Seol’s son. She’s filming something this time, so Dokyeom came along with her.”

“Ah… right. But how do you know all that?”

“What are you talking about?”

Because those were circumstances only the readers and the school’s extras were supposed to know, since they were explained in the novel.

How did this father know?

Only then did I notice my father’s personal photograph hanging beneath the enormous family portrait, surrounded by dozens of trophies behind him.

“Scene by Scene, CEO Mun Jungwon.”

Scene by Scene was the largest and most famous film production company in this world.

So Yerim’s father, whom I’d assumed was just another extra, was actually the CEO.

No wonder the family was so rich.

“This is totally a cinephile family….”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? Since we’re on the subject, you absolutely have to win an award at this year’s Summer Film Competition. Make your father proud.”

“Yes, yes. I’m going to my room.”

I shut my bedroom door and pouted in my father’s direction.

I knew.

In this world, Mun Yerim was the president of the high school’s movie club, Summer Film.

But Summer Film wasn’t what mattered to me.

What good would it do if I worked hard there?

That was the crucial place where Dokyeom and Semin would eventually become a couple.

The important thing wasn’t the club.

It was Eunho.

“I definitely have to change what happened to him because of me.”

I took out a sheet of paper and began making a serious plan to turn Eunho into the male lead.

“What else is there…. Ah.”

As I made a list of the conditions for becoming the male lead, my wrist began to ache.

I raised my head and slowly looked over the ten conditions I’d written down.

Yes.

If I just did these things….

“Making our Eunho the male lead will be a piece of cake.”