SOS! I’m Being Forced to Be a Villain - Chapter 48

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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 48

“Baek-hwa, come on.”

Ah~ damn. A disgustingly sweet voice urged me on, making my skin crawl. I muttered a small curse under my breath, then reluctantly opened my mouth and took a bite of the ice cream.

Without needing to chew, the soft ice cream melted on my tongue and slid down my throat. As I savored the lingering sweetness of chocolate, I narrowed my eyes as if to say ‘are you satisfied now?’

Seo Jung-hoo, his face full of smiles, nodded. I let out a sigh and was about to taste my own ice cream when a pink ice cream suddenly approached from the other side.

“This is really fucking ridiculous…”

“…Do you not like strawberry flavor?”

I couldn’t lash out at Kwon Tae-min, who was asking cautiously, the same way I had spoken to Seo Jung-hoo. Swallowing a sigh, I eventually accepted the ice cream quietly.

Somehow, Kwon Tae-min’s lips seemed to relax slightly. Of course, I wasn’t particularly interested, so I didn’t look closely and turned my eyes away.

Only then did I taste the vanilla ice cream I had chosen. As I moved my mouth diligently and shuffled along, the two naturally took positions on either side of me and walked along.

I was about to head toward the walking path again when I stopped for a moment. At the end of my gaze was a young girl running toward us and her parents following behind her.

The child’s cheerful voice, giggling brightly, brushed past my ears. Soon the child who had run past us stopped in front of the ice cream truck, and I could faintly hear her pestering her parents.

“…You were watching families earlier too.”

At the familiar voice that suddenly pierced my eardrums, I slowly turned my head. Kwon Tae-min’s gaze lingered around my eyes. Soon he continued speaking slowly.

“On the way to the bookstore, and at the restaurant too.”

“…”

“Especially families with young children.”

I swallowed the ice cream that had been remaining in my mouth, sending it down my throat.

“Are you envious?”

Normally, I would have snapped at him for nitpicking something unreasonable, or at the very least poured out curses that were nothing short of unreasonable criticism.

For some reason, my mouth wouldn’t move easily now.

Since Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min were still beside me, the System’s damn coercion hadn’t disappeared. That meant at least in this moment, instinctive emotions strong enough to overcome the System’s control were raging more intensely.

My eye muscles trembling, I slowly turned my head.

“What a fucking ridiculous question to ask. What’s there to be envious of in that?”

“Then you’re not envious?”

I frowned irritably.

“Kwon Tae-min, what exactly do you want to ask me?”

“…Sorry. Are you very upset?”

“Fuck, can’t you tell from my expression?”

My hand gripping the ice cream tensed up. The cone trapped in my grip made a precarious cracking sound.

Belatedly releasing the tension from my hand, I started walking again. But this time too, I couldn’t go far before having to stop again.

“Why? Because you, Baek-hwa, have a loving and harmonious family too?”

I stopped abruptly and slowly turned my head. Seo Jung-hoo was staring at me with a strange smile.

“Tell me, Yu Baek-hwa. So you’re not envious?”

“…”

“That’s usually how it is, right? I have the same thing, or something even better, so I’m not envious of others.”

Though it sounded somewhat sarcastic, Seo Jung-hoo’s tone was quite serious. Moreover, since Seo Jung-hoo couldn’t possibly know about my damn family situation, he couldn’t be deliberately mocking me.

Then was that just curiosity? Terribly pure and malicious curiosity like that.

‘Even so, do people normally ask things like that?’

Persistently dragging it out like this?

“Or are you just pretending not to be envious?”

Like an instinct, my eyes trembled finely for a moment. My vision lost focus, became blurry, then became clear again repeatedly.

Does he really know nothing? He asks such pointed questions while knowing absolutely nothing?

“Baek-hwa.”

“…”

“…Yu Baek-hwa.”

Even trying hard to pull myself together wasn’t easy. My head, stimulated repeatedly, finally began to boil over from overload.

Maybe I had been in this state from the beginning. A state like a time bomb that would explode at the slightest touch. It wasn’t that stress hadn’t accumulated because today had been unexpectedly satisfying, but rather I had been constantly receiving stress while pretending to be fine and ignoring it.

As my speculative conclusions began to lean toward the negative side, it felt like nausea was rising from within.

“…Sorry, I asked too carelessly. Let’s stop talking about this.”

I could hear Seo Jung-hoo belatedly saying something, but all that came through my malfunctioning eardrums was buzzing noise.

Then, when the tinnitus piercing my ears finally subsided, Seo Jung-hoo’s voice managed to squeeze through the gap.

“Still, if you ever need help with anything later, let us know. We can…”

Help? What help?

It felt like all the blood in my body was turning cold.

‘What kind of help could a bastard like you possibly give me?’

Only I can protect myself. That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it must continue to be. But some stranger who knows nothing dares to presume…

“I told you to stop being interested in me.”

“Baek-hwa.”

“Fuck, just! Please!”

I burst out shouting. My deranged reason left no room to care about the stares of people around or public consciousness.

Is this all because of the System too? Am I acting like this now because of the System’s disgusting power that blatantly stimulates and drags out my anger and wounds?

“Do you even know anything properly before spouting such words?”

The things I had buried deep inside overflowed without any chance to stop them.

“Besides stalking me like stalkers, what else can you guys do? I haven’t told you bastards anything, so why do you keep pretending to be kind and caring, cornering people and acting crazy!”

“…Yu Baek-hwa.”

“It’s all disgusting!”

Seo Jung-hoo’s eyes sank coldly and shook anxiously.

“Wait, listen to me.”

“Did you have fun taking care of someone like a pet dog and dragging them around?”

“When did we ever treat you…”

“I don’t know where or how much you’ve been sneakily eavesdropping on dog-like rumors, but I don’t need that kind of pity.”

Right. That’s how it had been from the beginning.

The way these two people seemed to take excessive care of me, their attitudes too. There had been reasons for all of it.

As if doing volunteer work.

‘It makes me sick…’

I had said something was strange. If I had used my brain just a little more, I could have figured it out quickly, but I was stupidly just being manipulated.

‘My family situation isn’t exactly a secret either.’

If someone wanted to dig a little, it was information they could easily find out. Even on the first day of high school, wasn’t there some bastard who came babbling after hearing rumors?

The melted ice cream had dripped from the cone and wet my hand. White liquid formed droplets on my fingertips and dripped down.

There was another hand carefully approaching my hand.

“Yu Baek-hwa, first calm down and…”

As soon as the cool touch reached me, I shook it off violently. Because of that, the ice cream that escaped my grip brushed against Kwon Tae-min’s clothes and fell down.

The already thoroughly melted ice cream left sticky traces on the hem of Kwon Tae-min’s clothes. I stared at that sight with shaking eyes, then abruptly turned around.

I clenched my fists and ran as if fleeing. My hand was sticky with the remaining white liquid, but I didn’t care.

I thought I heard voices calling me from behind, but I ignored them. Without the luxury to look back at such things, I squeezed out all my strength and ran with the determination that being caught by anyone would be no different from death.

I quickly left the park and entered the busy streets of the commercial district. Since I had never been to this street before, I couldn’t know exactly which direction led home, but I remembered how I had come here, so I planned to retrace my memory for now.

I stopped in front of a crosswalk showing a red light and gasped for breath. Thanks to my pathetically poor physical condition, my chest rose and fell rapidly.

Just as I was trying to gather my strength, an ear-splitting exhaust sound pierced my eardrums. The harsh noise suddenly grew closer.

I hurriedly turned my head to see a motorcycle charging directly toward me.

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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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