I moved on instinct, not reason.
Because I was standing so close, Yoo Si-eon bent his head slightly and drew in a soft breath. But my eyes were fixed on one place.
Just beneath his left eye, a long, fine scratch cut across his skin.
He went rigid. He pulled his lips inward and bit down on them, as if the sensation tickled.
“Did you… Did you get hurt because of the glass at your house?”
I almost never stammered, but my voice shook. Yoo Si-eon’s gaze slid downward. He was clearly avoiding my question.
“I know it wasn’t there. You were fine until you got home that day.”
I remembered it clearly. When he had swept up the broken glass, when I had put ointment on his hands and wrapped them in bandages, there had not been a single mark on his face.
My empty stare trembled.
This was not something I could brush off with a casual, Are you hurt?
The protagonist had been injured.
Not Han Tae-ryeong. Not Lee Soo-hyeon.
Yoo Si-eon himself.
As far as I remembered, Yoo Si-eon had never been wounded anywhere in the story unless Min Yu-un was involved. He suffered. He endured. But he did not carry visible injuries.
More than that, Yoo Si-eon was the protagonist. An irreplaceable existence. This world should have been protecting him. The god called the Author should always have guaranteed his safety.
Then why?
The story had changed.
Yoo Si-eon was hurt.
And at the center of it were Min Yu-un and me.
Min Yu-un, who had pushed for reconciliation by handing over his own body.
Seong Yu-un, who was dutifully clearing quests in order to die.
The two of us were ruining the story together.
I had acted selfishly. Only for myself.
And now other people were getting hurt because of it.
[Seong Yu-un?]
Even the voice ringing in my ears could not drag me back. My trembling hands slipped away from Yoo Si-eon’s face.
How was I any different from Min Yu-un?
I had gotten innocent Yoo Si-eon hurt.
I had clung to the three protagonists who found me unbearable, trying somehow to clear the quests. I said I would not get close. I said I would not show interest anymore.
All of it had been empty.
My heart beat with an ugly rhythm.
It felt as if I had torn apart a puzzle I had been painstakingly fitting together.
[Hey, Seong Yu-un.]
I need to keep my distance.
I had to stay away. I had to separate myself from them.
I already knew I was a character meant to be hated.
But in truth—
“Min Yu-un. Yu-un.”
Yoo Si-eon’s face, nervous only a moment ago, hardened with resolve. He gently caught my shoulder.
“Get a hold of yourself.”
I opened and closed my mouth, but only ragged breaths came out.
“I’m fine. Really.”
“…”
“Why are you making that face? When you look like that, I…”
Yoo Si-eon bit down hard on his lower lip, hard enough that it looked ready to bleed. His face had gone pale.
It was one of his habits, something I had naturally come to recognize over the past week. He did it whenever he was tense or upset.
“So.”
At last, I managed a proper sentence.
“How did you get that wound?”
I had to know.
After all, I was an outsider in this world.
Yoo Si-eon squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then sighed.
“You’re really stubborn.”
He muttered it under his breath and rubbed at his temple.
“It’s nothing. You can barely see it, right?”
“I asked how you got it.”
“A flowerpot grazed me.”
A flowerpot.
In other words, deliberate harassment.
I looked at him. Then at the scratch.
My vision went dark.
Jin Ha-seong, seriously…
Even after everything, he refused to stop. At this point, it was obvious Jin Ha-seong was not doing this for my sake. He was targeting Yoo Si-eon for reasons of his own.
But Yoo Si-eon’s reaction made no sense.
He knew exactly who might harass him, whether it was Jin Ha-seong or me. He also knew, better than anyone, that I had always been the main instigator.
Logically, he should have assumed I was behind this too.
Then why was he treating me like this?
It was not exactly warmth, not even by courtesy, but it was nothing like the weary resentment he had shown during the milk incident.
“Why are you…”
Before I could finish, the bell rang.
Yoo Si-eon turned away at once and returned to his seat.
Left standing there like an idiot, I only sat down after the teacher came in. Even then, I could not stop staring at the back of his head.
[Why does Jin Ha-seong keep butting in? Is he insane?]
Even Min Yu-un sounded exasperated.
[Damn it. What if the others misunderstand? What if Lee Soo-hyeon loses interest in me? He finally started liking me!]
I swallowed the obvious truth that Lee Soo-hyeon’s interest in Min Yu-un did not exist.
Ten minutes passed.
Morning announcements ended, and class began.
I stared blankly at the board, then lowered my head onto the desk.
None of this makes sense.
It felt as though I were alone in the classroom.
I closed my eyes, but my mind was too restless for sleep.
I just want to stay like this forever.
To never wake up again.
That was supposed to be my fate.
Then I would not be bound to this life anymore.
I would finally be free.
At the edge of my vision, the system window still lingered.
Quest 5: Take a photo alone with Lee Soo-hyeon.
★ TIP: A special tip just for you, since you keep getting dragged around! ★
How about taking a photo of just the two of you? Sometimes a photo becomes the only memory left!
I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t want to harm people who don’t deserve it.
I slowly closed my eyes.
If only I could rest like this for a while.
Just long enough to endure.
*****
The classroom was noisy with students getting ready for P.E.
Students who had returned from the locker room in their gym clothes glanced at Min Yu-un, asleep with his head turned to the side.
“Shouldn’t someone wake him up?”
“Who’s going to do it? I don’t want to talk to him.”
As the students whispered among themselves, Yoo Si-eon stepped in.
“Leave him alone.”
Even while speaking to the others, his gaze stayed fixed on Min Yu-un.
“And tell the teacher I’m not feeling well enough to participate today.”
“Si-eon, are you sick?”
“Take care of yourself.”
Yoo Si-eon brushed off their concern and ushered the students out.
The moment the classroom door closed, a deep silence settled over the room.
Once everyone had left, only Yoo Si-eon and Min Yu-un remained.
The only sounds were the wind, the distant noise of students running on the field, and Min Yu-un’s steady breathing as he slept without stirring.
Moving quietly, Yoo Si-eon dragged a chair beside Min Yu-un and sat down.
His emotionless eyes watched Min Yu-un sleep.
Every now and then, Min Yu-un moved his lips as though chewing on something in his dream. Sometimes his eyelids fluttered. Sometimes his fingers twitched.
Though he was deeply asleep, his dreams seemed to leak into his body.
It was oddly amusing to watch.
What are you up to?
Yoo Si-eon flicked Min Yu-un’s forehead with one finger.
Min Yu-un furrowed his brow for a moment, then sank back into peaceful sleep.
Seriously. What are you thinking?
When Min Yu-un had suddenly called him out to apologize and then offered him expired bread, Yoo Si-eon had simply been surprised. Nothing more.
He had only watched, wondering how long this absurd behavior would last.
But before he knew it, he had begun to waver.
Maybe, just maybe, Min Yu-un’s change in attitude was worth believing.
Still, Min Yu-un had done nothing to ease the uneasiness that remained.
Yoo Si-eon remembered his desk soaked in milk. The scene had burned itself into his mind. He had blamed himself for letting his guard down, for believing even a little.
That morning, before homeroom, he had hurried back to the classroom with a rag, determined to clean up the mess before the teacher arrived.
But when he got there, his desk was spotless.
The milk stains were completely gone.
Even the sharp smell had faded.
Someone had cleaned it.
No one had ever done that for him before.
The answer came from an unexpected place.
“Min Yu-un was wiping down your desk earlier. Did something happen this morning?”
When Han Tae-ryeong told him that, Yoo Si-eon asked again and again, needing to confirm it.
“Min Yu-un? He did? Are you sure?”
“Unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, yeah.”
“Why would he do that? He’s the one who did it in the first place, isn’t he?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you. I couldn’t believe it either.”
Even after going back and forth with Han Tae-ryeong, they reached no clear conclusion.
No matter how Yoo Si-eon thought about it, there was no logical reason for Min Yu-un to spill milk on his desk and then clean it up himself.
Then he remembered what Min Yu-un had said.
That it was not him.
The way he had insisted. His expression, empty of emotion yet tinged with something almost like anxiety.
Maybe he had felt guilty afterward.
That was what Yoo Si-eon told himself as he let the matter pass.
Even when he saw Lee Soo-hyeon treating Min Yu-un more kindly, he tried not to read too much into it.
But then he witnessed something even stranger.
Min Yu-un had thrown a torn gym uniform straight into Jin Ha-seong’s face—the same uniform, soaked in dirty water, that most likely belonged to Yoo Si-eon.
Yoo Si-eon had stood there, stunned.
Min Yu-un was reckless and impulsive, someone who acted without thinking.
And yet, despite knowing that, Yoo Si-eon found himself shaken.
Or was this truly Min Yu-un?
Was the Min Yu-un he knew really the same person?
If he was, then why did Yoo Si-eon keep remembering that child?
Why did that child’s face keep overlapping with Min Yu-un’s?
Yoo Si-eon reached out and brushed Min Yu-un’s neatly arranged bangs aside, baring his pale forehead.
Like this, he looked like nothing more than a child.
A completely different person.
The change was so drastic Yoo Si-eon could almost believe it really was someone else.
Could almost wish it were true.
His gaze shifted toward the window facing the hallway.
Han Tae-ryeong was passing by.
As if sensing Yoo Si-eon’s stare, Han Tae-ryeong turned his head. His expression twisted into a frown, and he opened the classroom door.
“Aren’t you guys supposed to be in P.E.? What are you…”
“Shh.”
Yoo Si-eon gestured toward Min Yu-un.
Han Tae-ryeong fell silent.