SOS! I’m Being Forced to Be a Villain - Chapter 33
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 33
I felt a cool sensation touching my cheek and quickly lifted my eyelids. I rolled my eyes blankly, struggling to focus my still-blurry vision.
‘…A dream?’
“Yu Baek-hwa.”
When I slowly raised my head, I saw two familiar people looking down at me.
My eyelids trembled. I blinked clumsily, then belatedly struggled to sit up.
My body and head ached everywhere. I rubbed my tingling wrist from sleeping face-down for several class periods. Meanwhile, Seo Jung-hoo, who had woken me earlier, sat down in the seat next to me with a bright smile.
“Did you sleep well? We debated dozens of times whether to wake you up or not.”
I was half-listening to Seo Jung-hoo’s chatter when the chair in front turned toward me. Kwon Tae-min, who had settled there, dumped everything he was carrying onto the desk.
It looked like he’d been to the snack bar again today. I glanced over the bread, drinks, and snacks of yet another different variety from yesterday with tired eyes.
Ever since I successfully managed to desperately escape from Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min on the way home last week, the two had started sticking to me even more closely, as if afraid I’d run away the moment they took their eyes off me.
It was somewhat better at school, but as soon as dismissal time approached, they’d watch me with burning eyes. Then, when I tried to quickly run away, they’d catch me as if they’d been waiting and drag me around here and there.
They’d been doing this for nearly a week now, so I was gradually reaching the point of giving up on escaping. I didn’t have better stamina or strength than the two of them, nor did I have any outstanding talent for running, so it was a fight I couldn’t win from the start.
“Baek-hwa.”
“…”
“Baek-hwa, Baek-hwa.”
Seo Jung-hoo, who had brought his mouth close to my ear, showed no intention of moving away. Unable to endure it any longer, I roughly pushed him away and raised my voice.
“Fuck, what! What kind of bullshit are you trying to pull now…!”
Thinking this was his chance, Seo Jung-hoo suddenly thrust what he was holding forward. An unwrapped rice ball slipped into my open mouth.
“Eat. You didn’t have breakfast again today, did you?”
Since I couldn’t spit out what was already in my mouth, I reluctantly chewed the bite of rice ball. Only then did Seo Jung-hoo transfer the remaining rice ball to my hand.
I mechanically repeated the process of chewing, swallowing, and opening my mouth again to bite the rice ball. I completely ignored the water bottle that Seo Jung-hoo had even opened the cap for and offered me. I just focused on quickly finishing what was in my hand.
Then I felt a piercing gaze and turned my head. Kwon Tae-min wasn’t even eating his own meal and was just staring at me intently.
“What, bastard. What are you looking at?”
“…Just.”
When I snapped at him fiercely, Kwon Tae-min slowly withdrew his gaze. Then he rummaged through the snacks spread out on the desk.
The sounds of rustling bags, chewing and swallowing food, and drinking water or beverages filled the quiet classroom. Occasionally, students entering the empty classroom would glance at where we were, but they didn’t directly speak to us or cause a commotion.
So I moved my mouth diligently while simultaneously thinking carefully.
Since the incident with the bruise on my knee last time, my brother sent me a message asking about my well-being at least once a day, as if he never got tired of it. On days I ignored him out of annoyance, he’d persistently call, so I couldn’t just pretend not to know even if I wanted to.
‘…I wish I could have conversations with Lee Chung-hye more often too.’
The problem was, as I mentioned earlier, that Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min were clinging to me like leeches with no sign of letting go. But going to find Lee Chung-hye while dragging these two along would be a terrible thing to do to both me and Lee Chung-hye.
Even if I openly requested, ‘I have something to discuss with Lee Chung-hye alone, so please leave us be,’ there was no way the two would meekly agree and accept that. Especially since Seo Jung-hoo had witnessed me grabbing Lee Chung-hye by the collar and shaking her with his own eyes last week, he’d be even more determined not to leave us alone together.
‘Could it be that Lee Chung-hye planned all of this? Did she scheme from the beginning to dump both these bastards on me?’
But how? Since Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min refused to leave my side all day, it wouldn’t have been easy for Lee Chung-hye to secretly approach just the two of them excluding me.
‘No, in the first place!’
I whipped my head around. I glared at Kwon Tae-min with my eyes sharply narrowed.
“You…!”
“…Yu Baek-hwa?”
“Fuck, you! You…!”
‘You like Lee Chung-hye! I don’t know about Seo Jung-hoo, but I confirmed it myself with you!’
You said you wanted to see her! Go run to see Lee Chung-hye right now!
I desperately wanted to scream, but I couldn’t let it out of my mouth. If it were any other time, I would have been compelled by the System’s force to blabber everything, but since this was related to the world’s secrets, it wouldn’t come out easily and just circled around inside my throat.
Thanks to that, my frustration only doubled. I clenched my mouth shut and trembled, then buried my head again and just chewed on the rice ball.
“Why are you eating so frantically, Baek-hwa? You’ll get indigestion.”
I didn’t respond to the gentle concern I heard from beside me. I just silently continued chewing.
Seo Jung-hoo, who had been quietly watching me, perhaps trying to fill the awkward silence, brought up a meaningless topic and spoke to Kwon Tae-min. What classes were left in the afternoon, whether there were any overlapping subjects… Kwon Tae-min, who had been meaninglessly fiddling with a canned drink, glanced at me briefly before quietly responding.
I swallowed a sigh without paying attention to their conversation.
This too was a daily routine that wasn’t really routine, something I’d unwillingly become accustomed to over the past few days.
From the moment I came to school, Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min would stick to me, and I’d encounter them every break, and even when I tried to hide in the infirmary all day, I’d be discovered quickly.
They came during lunch time without fail too. If I was sleeping, they’d buy a bunch of things from the snack bar to wake me up, and if not, the three of us would head to the cafeteria together. To be precise, I was just dragged along by their hands, never having followed them of my own will.
Then I’d spend the afternoon hours again, spend time with them even after homeroom, and then go home. It was companionship that naturally excluded my will.
In that process, Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min often, or frequently, acted as if they were anxious about not being able to examine my body. They didn’t focus on just one area but tried to scrutinize my entire body thoroughly. They didn’t forcibly remove my uniform or coat, but their actions were already sufficiently bizarre and incomprehensible.
‘This much bullying should be enough. How much more viciously are they planning to act…’
…Yeah, honestly speaking, it wasn’t that I completely disliked it. Eating meals with someone, bickering meaninglessly – it was all like that. It was a slightly different emotion from the impulsive rebelliousness and hostility that the being beyond the System forced upon me.
But that was what I felt when such things had only repeated two or three times at most, not a sentiment that remained valid even now. Moreover, I was originally someone who couldn’t feel comfortable being with people, someone most specialized in being alone.
In the midst of all this, whenever I was separated from the two, I’d tremble with fear that the black man might come looking for me, and messages from my brother came to my phone every other day. I had to think about Lee Chung-hye too, and I even had to consistently rack my brains to objectively assess my situation. With all this, it was inevitable that I’d become mentally and physically exhausted and tired.
‘I can’t properly attend classes because I’m sleeping all day, and when I go home I can’t do anything because of headaches…’
“…I think I’m going crazy.”
No more, no less.
“I think I’m going to go crazy and die…”
Both my shoulders were suddenly grabbed. I trembled as my body was roughly turned around.
‘…What.’
I couldn’t bring myself to close my wide-open eyes and only moved my mouth slightly.
It was Seo Jung-hoo who had suddenly grabbed my shoulders and turned me around. But even he seemed quite startled by his own actions.
“…Ah.”
Seo Jung-hoo, who let out a small exclamation, finally released the strength from his grip. But his hands still didn’t fall away and remained just resting on my shoulders.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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