Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“What…… did you say I liked?”
“Introduction to Film Studies and Hungarian New Wave cinema.”
“……I don’t remember that at all.”
“True knowledge doesn’t stay in memory—it becomes embodied in the body.”
“…….”
“Problem?”
“Hmm……, no, let’s just watch the film.”
The film wasn’t bad. Honestly, it was quite brilliant.
The lead was played by a young actress around my age, and her eyes held a desolate, haunting quality.
[What’s the point of any of this? After tonight passes, we’ll be forgotten without a trace in this world…….]
When the protagonist, caught up in a chance incident and entangled with revolutionary forces, narrowly escaped death, I was completely absorbed.
“I just realized something.”
I lowered my voice to a whisper, and Mallo leaned his body slightly toward me.
“In all my life, I don’t think I’ve ever watched a film with this much focus.”
I’d rarely even been to a cinema, and the few times I had, I’d spent the whole time nodding off from exhaustion.
When people talked about films that changed their lives or whatever, I’d always thought it was spoiled nonsense.
As if their lives were so peaceful they had to make such a fuss over entertainment.
But this time was different. This single film didn’t feel like mere entertainment—it felt like an experience.
I could understand the emotion hidden in the dialogue, the intention behind each shot, the subtle mise-en-scène.
‘But how do I even know what mise-en-scène means?’
Maybe it was knowledge that Mallo had somehow planted in my head?
“Is that what they mean—you see as much as you know?”
Mallo laughed.
“It wasn’t knowledge that profound, and knowing more doesn’t make you a different person.”
“No?”
“Maybe. Perhaps what matters is who you’re watching it with.”
While I hesitated over what to say, the scene shifted into a long take, and soft ambient music began to play.
A young rebel commander who had suspected the protagonist was now shedding tears before her.
[Why would you go this far? I don’t know you, and you don’t know me…….]
The protagonist looked up at the weeping commander with a resolute face. Somehow, her expression had grown firmer.
In a calm voice, she spoke.
[I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. But we dream the same dream every night.]
The screen tightened into a close-up, and dawn broke over a misty landscape.
[We are lonely, sorrowful souls. And yet……. I still believe in what I chose to do.]
The two embraced. The protagonist rested her head on the commander’s shoulder, quietly shedding tears.
[Just one. Knowing just a single truth can turn your entire world upside down.]
The commander carefully cupped the protagonist’s face and gently wiped away the tears on her cheeks.
And then, without hesitation, the two kissed.
“Lee Yuri.”
I quickly rubbed my face with my sleeve.
“I’m not crying.”
“…….”
“I’m not…….”
What in the world. How could a film be this beautiful.
“Lee Yuri.”
“Why are you——!”
I turned my head sharply, and Mallo thrust a crumpled paper napkin toward me.
“……What’s this.”
“I found it in the concession stand earlier.”
“…….”
“Isn’t that what you do when someone’s crying—you give them one of these?”
I took the napkin and looked down at the cinema logo printed in the corner, then burst out laughing.
“What’s funny?”
“Haha……, you’re ridiculous, you really are…….”
“You just called your professor ridiculous?”
Mallo asked playfully.
I dabbed my eyes with the crinkly napkin and shook my head.
“More importantly, please stop calling me by my real name like that.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m Amelie here. If you keep doing that, Seongchae might come to dislike me.”
“Who’d dislike you.”
I faltered. Mallo’s expression was genuinely puzzled.
As if there could possibly be anyone in this world who’d dislike me.
“……Well, that’s what everyone says.”
An awkward laugh escaped me, because I really did have a habit of drawing dislike.
In a way, it was inevitable. I’d grown up among charlatans and never learned how to be normal, never had the chance to learn.
Even I would’ve disliked someone like me. And I had no intention of complaining to Mallo about my fate.
Just as I was about to brush it off, something glinted at the edge of my vision.
I quickly dropped low. “Professor, did you see that?”
“……I’m not sure. I didn’t see anything.”
“No, there was definitely something—like a flashlight…….”
The moment I stood and took a step toward the emergency exit, the shadow of a large man limped across the railing and vanished.
I reached for my pocket to check my weapon.
“What’s the point of calling me if you’re going to handle it alone?”
Mallo asked in an amused tone.
My knees buckled.
“Wait, Mallo…….”
“Yeah, Lee Yuri.”
He wrapped his arms around me from behind, whispering close to my ear.
“It’s okay.”
My body went limp, my eyes closed, and darkness swallowed me whole.
* * *
-Remember, Lee Yuri.
‘……Who are you?’
-I’m sorry. But there was no other way.
‘What are you talking about?’
-Remember, Lee Yuri. You are…….
“Gasp.”
When I came to, I was leaning against the passenger seat of a car, asleep.
‘What……?’
At the sound of the wipers turning on, I turned my head to see Mallo with one hand on the steering wheel, gazing down the distant road.
“We’re almost there.”
He spoke in a low voice, and I finally realized I was inside Mallo’s car.
Just as when we’d come to Riverside Cinema, the car was crossing a bridge that spanned the black waters of the river.
In the deep of night, the car glided smoothly over the empty road, and distant orange streetlights flickered in the distance.
“The lecture must have been pretty boring. I didn’t think you’d actually fall asleep during Field Research.”
“I……fell asleep?”
Sure, I was tired, but actually dropping off like that surprised me.
‘Wait…….’
I tried to piece the memory together.
I remembered entering the theater with Mallo, remembered watching the film called Sunset Glow.
If I’d fallen asleep partway through……then how did I get from the cinema to the car? Did Mallo carry me out like last time?
The moment that thought hit me, I felt utterly foolish.
I’d spouted all these grand words about Field Research and Missing Person Search, and then I’d just fallen asleep watching a film.
“I’m sorry, Professor.”
Mallo glanced at me sideways.
“You went to all this trouble to come here with me, and I found nothing and just slept through it comfortably.”
I watched him start to say something, then close his mouth. Silence settled over the car.
Perhaps it was the light from the streetlamps, but Mallo’s face looked slightly different from usual.
He seemed a little melancholy, a little angry.
“……Professor?”
“This world won’t hate you.”
“……?”
It was an odd thing to say. But then I remembered what I’d told him in the theater.
I’d asked him not to call me by my real name because Seongchae might come to hate me.
It was just a casual complaint, but why was Mallo looking so serious saying something like that.
“It’s fine.”
“…….”
“I’m strong. I don’t get hurt by things like that.”
With his gaze still fixed on the road ahead, Mallo laughed quietly.
“……Yeah.”
After his ambiguous reply, we didn’t speak again until we arrived at the Dormitory. Yet my heart felt strangely at ease.
When we reached the Dormitory, it was already dusk.
“Sleep well.”
Before parting at my door, Mallo offered the farewell.
“Oh, yes, you too, Professor…….”
I tried to respond reflexively, then stopped. What should I say? Sleep well?
Did Mallo even sleep?
As if reading my thoughts, Mallo smiled and simply turned away.
“…….”
When I climbed the quiet stairs and reached the third floor, I noticed muddy footprints in the corridor.
They were the same boot marks I’d seen at the student center. The irregular tracks led all the way to my door.
As if someone had lingered there for a while.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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