Savoring the taste of the sandwich with its crisp lettuce, soft cheese, and slightly salty ham, Jaeyoon displayed a satisfied smile.
For the first time since his possession, he woke up feeling refreshed. Plus, today was Saturday.
Jaeyoon was in a really good mood right now. He was in such a generous state of mind that he could overlook most minor annoyances.
Which is why he could even forgive Im Hangyeol, who was sitting in front of him now, picking arguments over every little thing.
“Hey, are you listening to me?”
‘No.’
Instead of answering, Jaeyoon took another big bite of his sandwich.
Having come to the cafeteria to have a proper meal for once, Jaeyoon frowned at the red hair visible from a distance.
He had considered turning back, but his body, which hadn’t been eating properly lately, was already thin and getting thinner on convenience store food.
Feeling like he might collapse from malnutrition and end up in the hospital if he kept starving himself, Jaeyoon decided to have a proper meal today for the sake of the body he was possessing.
‘Besides, this kid is relatively harmless.’
Jaeyoon rolled his blue eyes to look at the person sitting across from him. The bleached red hair, sharp upturned orange eyes, and improperly worn school uniform reflected his personality.
Im Hangyeol, who looked like a delinquent at first glance, had a prickly personality and a foul mouth. Because of this, despite his handsome appearance, people didn’t easily approach him.
‘But he unexpectedly has a warm side too… what was that called again?’
Jaeyoon frowned as he tried to recall the term his friend had used. As if the guilty party was the first to feel nervous, Im Hangyeol, who had been chattering away across from him, flinched and then slightly nervously shouted:
“What?! W-what are you glaring at me for?”
‘Ah, I remember now.’
Tsundere.
Feeling relieved at recalling the word, Jaeyoon smiled with satisfaction and took another bite of his sandwich. Im Hangyeol looked at him with an incredulous expression.
Seeing Jaeyoon completely ignoring whatever he was saying and focusing solely on his sandwich, Im Hangyeol felt a wave of frustration bordering on exasperation.
“…You really… unexpectedly like food…”
“…Me?”
“Yeah, even in middle school, you always memorized the cafeteria menu. You’d even get slightly excited on days when spaghetti was served for dinner.”
‘Lee Jaeyoon did…?’
Hiding his internal surprise at this new information, Jaeyoon nodded at Im Hangyeol.
“Spaghetti is important.”
“…Haah, yet you look like someone who doesn’t eat…”
‘True.’
Jaeyoon had also thought, judging from Lee Jaeyoon’s appearance and body type, that he wouldn’t eat well, so this was unexpected. He knew considerably less about Lee Jaeyoon compared to other characters. Partly because he wasn’t a particularly significant villain character, and partly because his friend hadn’t properly informed him about Lee Jaeyoon.
‘If I had known I would possess him, I would have asked more details about Lee Jaeyoon…’
It was useless to regret it now. Besides, even if he had known more about Lee Jaeyoon, the situation probably wouldn’t be much different from now.
Jaeyoon decided to focus on the sandwich in his hand rather than regret past events. As he took another big bite, Jaeyoon suddenly scrunched up his face.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Seeing Jaeyoon’s complexion deteriorate, Im Hangyeol asked with slightly furrowed brows. Jaeyoon slowly put down the sandwich he was holding and clutched his clothes with one hand.
“It hurts.”
“Huh…?”
‘My stomach hurts.’
He knew this feeling. During college, there was a time when he barely ate due to assignments, and whenever he ate something then, his stomach would burn. It seemed like his stomach was shocked from repeatedly starving and then eating.
‘I only ate half…’
As Jaeyoon glared at the sandwich with a blank expression, Im Hangyeol sighed and stood up from his seat. Now that he’d complained about everything, was he leaving? After watching Im Hangyeol walk away for a moment, Jaeyoon focused his attention back on the sandwich.
Should he eat it or not?
Should he endure the pain and eat, or should he stop eating now? He was hungry, so should he just eat anyway?
Jaeyoon’s blue eyes held a solemn light, as if he had made up his mind. After swallowing hard, Jaeyoon opened his mouth again to take another big bite of the sandwich, when suddenly a large hand appeared and snatched the sandwich from his hand.
‘Hmm…?’
Before he could even be surprised, a warm can of soup was handed to Jaeyoon instead of the sandwich.
Staring blankly at the can in his hand, Jaeyoon asked Im Hangyeol, who sat back down across from him, in a confused voice:
“What is this?”
“Did your stomach problems flare up again?”
“…Hm?”
Interpreting Jaeyoon’s reaction in his own way, Im Hangyeol waved his hand as if he had expected this and said:
“Even in middle school, you’d get sick when stressed. Your body would break down and you’d always end up in the nurse’s office… and then the guys would say gross things like how pitiful you were or how they wanted to take care of you because you were frail.”
Im Hangyeol scrunched up his face as if he was really disgusted. Was it really that serious? He might not know about being pitiful, but wanting to take care of a classmate who frequently went to the nurse’s office wasn’t that strange.
Jaeyoon tilted his head slightly as he thought, then shrugged. It wasn’t his business anyway, so no need to worry about it.
By the way, Lee Jaeyoon’s body seemed more fragile than he had thought.
Jaeyoon looked at his thin wrists as he considered this. He had thought Jaeyoon was just slightly skinny since there hadn’t been any problems during PE, but it seemed Lee Jaeyoon’s body was sensitive to stress.
Jaeyoon thought of Lee Minho, who had suddenly visited early this morning. Was this why he had brought nutritional supplements and worried about his health?
‘He saw me jump out of the nurse’s office, so he must have been really worried.’
As Jaeyoon nodded to himself, Im Hangyeol, who was eating the sandwich he had taken from Jaeyoon, rested his chin in his hand and said:
“…You seem more mature these days?”
“Do I?”
‘I’m actually a much older adult than all of you.’
Jaeyoon shrugged and drank the canned soup Im Hangyeol had brought him. Fortunately, the soup seemed fine, and his stomach didn’t ache.
Im Hangyeol’s eyes narrowed as he quietly observed Jaeyoon. After thinking deeply for a moment, he opened his lips.
“So you don’t like Han Doyoon anymore?”
Jaeyoon, who had been drinking the soup, turned his gaze to Im Hangyeol. Blinking slowly as he looked at the orange eyes staring at him, Jaeyoon eventually put the soup down on the table.
“So you knew I liked the student council president?”
“With how obvious you were, how could I not know?”
Im Hangyeol snorted and leaned back in his chair.
“Han Doyoon probably knows too. That you like him.”
‘I’m sure he does.’
Even setting aside Im Hangyeol’s keen insight, there was no way Han Doyoon wouldn’t know about Lee Jaeyoon’s feelings for him. Nevertheless, Han Doyoon pretended not to know and exchanged affection with Kim Yeonwoo in front of Lee Jaeyoon. Because of this, Lee Jaeyoon lost his mind and eventually became the villain.
“I’m not interested anymore.”
“…Really?”
“I have no reason to lie.”
“I… guess…”
Despite how much you liked him.
Pretending not to hear Im Hangyeol’s small mutter, Jaeyoon stood up from his seat.
“I’m not interested in Han Doyoon or Kim Yeonwoo anymore. Whether they date each other or you date Kim Yeonwoo, I don’t care in the slightest, so don’t come to me asking about Kim Yeonwoo like you did today.”
“Huh? Hey, wait…!”
“There’s only one thing I want from you all. I wish you’d be quieter at night.”
Bending down to bring his face close to Im Hangyeol’s, Jaeyoon smiled sweetly. Im Hangyeol, who had been dumbfounded, gradually contorted his expression, and his face turned as red as an apple.
“Y-you heard…!”
“Despite your tough image, you’re quite good at saying embarrassing things?”
“Aaaaargh!”
“Thanks for this~”
Waving the can of soup in his hand, Jaeyoon left the petrified Im Hangyeol in the cafeteria.
‘For the past two days, why do I keep running into romance target characters? Am I going to meet all of them at this rate?’
Jaeyoon shook his head vigorously. What a creepy thought…
Until he returned to his original world, he didn’t want to get involved with anyone. There was no danger of becoming a villain and facing ruin, so all that remained was to avoid entanglement with the game characters. He should just exist like air and then go back.
Jaeyoon reaffirmed this to himself as he went outside. A cool breeze lightly brushed through his hair.
In the still chilly weather, Jaeyoon pulled down his cardigan sleeves to hide his hands and hunched his body as much as possible as he headed toward the dormitory.
According to information he had reluctantly heard from Im Hangyeol, Kim Yeonwoo had been missing from the dormitory since last night, and no one could contact him.
Thanks to that, Jaeyoon had been able to enjoy a sweet, uninterrupted sleep for once.
It might seem cold-hearted to be happy about a classmate being unreachable, but the possibility of something happening to Kim Yeonwoo, the protagonist, was close to zero.
Even in the one-in-a-million chance that something did happen to Kim Yeonwoo, his romance target characters would do anything to save him, so there was no need to worry.
‘I should just take care of this fragile body.’
“Ah.”
Jaeyoon’s footsteps halted. After staring at the scene before him for a moment, he turned around.
“Haah…”
A deep sigh escaped him. See, not only is nothing wrong, he looks perfectly fine.
Jaeyoon frowned as he recalled the image of Han Doyoon and Kim Yeonwoo conversing while looking at each other in front of the dormitory. His brief day of freedom was over.
Should he ask to change dorm rooms?
After considering it briefly, Jaeyoon shook his head. Changing dorm rooms would require a reason, and he couldn’t exactly say, “I can’t sleep because of the noise from the next room,” could he?
Becoming Kim Yeonwoo’s enemy meant becoming the villain.
“Ah, my stomach hurts…”
As Jaeyoon clutched his abdomen, he was startled by a paper suddenly flying toward his face and quickly raised his hand to catch it.
While Lee Jaeyoon’s body was fragile, his athletic reflexes were good. Jaeyoon looked at the paper in his hand. It had a beautiful landscape painted with watercolors.
“Wow…”
They draw well. Admiring the drawing with appreciation, Jaeyoon realized that there were several other drawings scattered on the ground.
Did they fall from the art room?
As Jaeyoon carefully picked up the drawings one by one, he spotted someone standing blankly in front of a fountain.
A boy whose bangs covered half his face, making one wonder if he could actually see, stared quietly at the drawings fallen at his feet, then lifted his foot and began to stomp on them with all his might.
“Hey, what are you doing?!”
The boy’s shoulders flinched. Though his expression wasn’t visible, his body language clearly showed he was startled. The boy slowly turned his head to look at Jaeyoon.
“Who…?”
“Foot.”
“Huh…?”
“Foot, move it.”
“Hm?”
Instead of repeating himself, Jaeyoon bent down and grabbed the paper the boy was stepping on. Then he tugged on the paper as if telling him to move his foot.
The boy hesitated for a moment, then carefully moved his foot. After gathering all the drawings that had been soiled from being stepped on, Jaeyoon leaned against the fountain and carefully dusted off the dirt from the drawings.
“Um…?”
“How could you step on someone else’s precious drawings like that?”
“Those, I…”
“Do you know how difficult it is to complete one drawing?”
Jaeyoon recalled his college friend from the art department who constantly said he wanted to die while working on his graduation project. Always with dark circles under his eyes and an Americano in hand, he eventually snapped from exhaustion after pulling all-nighters and went berserk, saying he was going to kill his professor.
‘It wasn’t just talk, he was serious about it…’
Remembering his friend’s appearance with dilated pupils, firmly gripping the cutter knife he usually used to sharpen pencils, Jaeyoon smiled bitterly.
Never mess with art students. These are people who live surrounded by dangerous objects all the time.
“Don’t ever do this again. It might just be a piece of paper to you, but to someone, it’s a precious drawing.”
“…It’s just trash…”
Watching the boy who was clenching his interlocked hands, Jaeyoon turned his gaze to the drawings.
“How is this trash? It’s a masterpiece.”
“Huh…?”
As the boy abruptly raised his head, Jaeyoon smiled and said:
“I like it. Your drawing.”
“H-how did you know it was my drawing?!”
Jaeyoon just smiled at the flustered boy.
‘My friend also always called his drawings trash.’
Swallowing the words that rose to the tip of his tongue, Jaeyoon waved the stack of drawings in his hand and said:
“If you’re going to throw them away anyway, can I have them?”
“Wh-what? No, but…!”
“Thanks, I’ll take good care of them.”
“No, I never said I’d give them to you…!”
Jaeyoon thrust his face close to the boy who was frantically trying to take back the drawings. Watching with amusement as the startled boy hastily stepped back, he rolled his eyes to check the name on the badge attached to the boy’s chest.
[Jung Jihoo]
The middle character was slightly faded, but it was still legible.
‘A name I haven’t seen before… a red badge means he’s one year older than me.’
Relieved that he wasn’t a romance target character, Jaeyoon spoke to Jung Jihoo, who was shifting awkwardly, trying to figure out what to say:
“I’m looking forward to your next work, Sunbae-nim Jung Jihoo.”
“Huh?”
Though hidden by his bangs, Jaeyoon imagined his eyes would be wide open like a surprised rabbit.
Waving the drawings in his hand, Jaeyoon greeted Jung Jihoo and turned around.
He thought he heard a voice urgently calling after him, but he cleanly ignored it and smiled, curling up the corners of his mouth.
‘I miss my friends.’
Jung Jihoo, who had been blankly staring at Jaeyoon’s retreating figure, slowly blinked his eyes hidden behind his bangs, then quietly muttered:
“My name isn’t Jihoo…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
