SOS! I’m Being Forced to Be a Villain - Chapter 52

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

Episode 52

Thanks to being discharged the day before, Wednesday morning started at home. Having gotten used to lying sprawled on a sickbed for just four days, it felt strange to wake up early in the morning, wash up, and prepare for school.

As I roughly packed my bag and crossed the living room, I came to an abrupt stop. Slowly turning my head, the refrigerator placed in one corner of the kitchen came into view.

In this house, the refrigerator was no different from a useless decorative item. It wasn’t that I didn’t stock it with food at all, but the empty space was far greater than the filled space.

Before my parents died, I used to work all sorts of part-time jobs and often prepared meals when I couldn’t bear the hunger. Of course, no one else made food for me, and I made all my own meals myself.

So it wasn’t that I couldn’t cook. Since I had worked restaurant part-time jobs quite often, there was no way I wouldn’t be connected to cooking.

But unlike before, I didn’t force myself to eat meals.

The countless outdoor activities and part-time jobs that had been the cause of my hunger were meant to avoid going home as much as possible, to escape from a family that gave off an unhappy and unlucky atmosphere whenever I was included. So now that the reason to endure outside the house had disappeared, I had no particular reason to work part-time jobs, and I didn’t experience the burning hunger throughout my body either.

Moreover, the most common symptom that occurred in my stress-filled body was none other than dry heaving and vomiting. Since there had to be something eaten for something to come up from my stomach, my meal portions gradually decreased, and my body became accustomed to that eating pattern.

That was the current me.

‘I don’t think it’s really a problem.’

It’s not like I starve 365 days a year.

But my brother, and especially Seong Tae-hwan who had been thoroughly nagging me at the hospital until yesterday, seemed to think differently.

I rubbed my face irritably and swallowed a sigh. Trudging into the kitchen, I opened the unnecessarily large refrigerator.

About half of the refrigerator compartment was occupied by all kinds of fruits that had settled in.

These were things that Seong Tae-hwan had stubbornly pressed into my hands when I was discharged, and not satisfied with that, he had even asked someone else to help move them to my home.

Thanks to that, it was fortunate that I didn’t encounter those damn bastards sent by the System on my way home. But that was all.

‘There’s a limit to being meddlesome.’

I don’t even like fruits.

I scanned the refrigerator with indifferent eyes. Then reluctantly reached out and grabbed an apple that was at the very front.

I fiddled with the bright red-skinned apple. Recalling Seong Tae-hwan’s words that all the fruits had already been washed clean so I could eat them right away, I opened my mouth slightly.

A small bite mark was left on the round surface of the apple. Like chewing gum, I chewed the hard apple and slowly swallowed it.

I felt like throwing the half-eaten apple into the trash can. However, I didn’t want to collapse on the street again and suffer unnecessarily just because I ate a little less apple.

Although my collapse at that time was due to stress rather than malnutrition, that didn’t mean it was completely unrelated to nutritional problems.

Over the past few days, Seong Tae-hwan had come every morning nagging “Eat your meals. That way you’ll collapse less,” and I thought my ears would fall off.

I irritably readjusted my bag and headed to the entryway. I roughly shoved both feet into my sneakers and flung open the entrance door.

“…Shit.”

I reflexively spat out a curse, then quickly shut my mouth. While unable to erase the hostility that had seeped into my eyes, I slyly looked around.

A familiar bastard was standing right in front of our apartment entrance. The guy wearing black sunglasses from early morning without taking them off looked down at me with an expressionless, eerie face.

“…What, why. Today is my first day of school this week, damn System bastard.”

“…”

“The main characters haven’t even made contact with any students from the same school yet.”

As always, the guy didn’t give any particular response. But he also didn’t suddenly reach out to drag me along or throw me somewhere, so I closed the door with inner relief.

“I won’t be going home with them from now on either.”

I couldn’t quite glare at him comfortably, so I glanced at him sideways.

“Separate from that, running into them by chance at school or them suddenly approaching me isn’t my responsibility. It’s something I can’t help either.”

“…”

“Got it?”

He remained silently unresponsive as always. Unable to hold back, I was about to lose my temper and raise my voice when I recalled the motorcycle incident from last time and kept my mouth tightly shut.

Turning my back sharply, I passed by the guy. I pressed the elevator button, waited, got on the elevator that arrived at our floor, and even until the door closed again, the guy’s gaze never left me.

* * *

‘…I thought it would be okay.’

No matter how much I tried to pretend otherwise, there was no way to stop my gaze from constantly watching the surrounding objects and cars.

Originally, to travel safely, it’s right to observe the surrounding environment well, but my current behavior was excessively compulsive.

Chewing my lips anxiously, I took out my phone. Although it wasn’t good behavior, I needed some leeway to divert my attention like this.

On the phone I had turned on last night when discharged, there were still numerous unread or unchecked messages and missed call records. 99% of them were naturally from my brother, 0.9% were from Seo Jung-hoo, and surprisingly, 0.1% were from Lee Chung-hye.

Lee Chung-hye

You didn’t come to school?

It was a simple sentence that wasn’t asking about my well-being, showing concern, or asking about the reason for my absence. Not feeling the need to reply, I deleted that notification.

Yu Baek-hyun

Baek-hwa, Seong Tae-hwan said he got you some fruit.

If you find it bothersome to eat meals morning and evening, make sure to eat fruit at least.

I’m worried something might really happen to you at this rate.

After roughly skimming through, I scrolled down. The most recent message had arrived this morning, just 6 minutes ago.

Yu Baek-hyun

Be careful going to school.

If anything happens, call your brother.

Yeah

After finishing that reply, I likewise deleted all the notifications. Although I had skipped reading most of the above content, it didn’t matter since it probably wasn’t very important anyway.

And the remaining notifications were.

Yu Baek-hwa

Sunday afternoon 1:2

I’m saying this just in case

This is Seo Jung-hoo.

Sunday afternoon 2:47

There were no additional messages after that. Whether he was tired, had given up, or had judged that I was thoroughly angry and ignoring his contact as he had asked earlier, was unknown.

Conversely, there were no messages or calls from Kwon Tae-min at all. Of course, I absolutely hadn’t expected anything from him, but since the two people who always had schemes regarding me were taking different actions, I couldn’t help but be concerned.

Perhaps Seo Jung-hoo sending me messages was also a decision made in consultation with Kwon Tae-min from the beginning.

‘…What am I to them.’

Damn, I just wish everyone would leave me alone.

I closed the message window. It was when I confirmed the blackened screen and was about to put the phone in my coat pocket.

The phone still in my grasp vibrated softly.

It was obvious who would call so freely at this time. Gritting my teeth, I didn’t even check the caller on the screen and just pressed the connect button, bringing it to my ear.

“Why again from the morning! I replied to your message too! It’s not like I was sick for a whole month before being discharged…!”

– Baek-hwa.

What I heard wasn’t my brother’s voice that I had expected. Blankly trailing off, I blinked blankly, then belatedly lowered the phone to check the screen.

What was written as the caller wasn’t ‘Yu Baek-hyun’. An unknown phone number starting with 010 was boldly occupying the top of the screen.

As I was staring at the somewhat familiar 11-digit number, a sudden presence approached beside me.

Startled, I turned my head to see Seo Jung-hoo, who had half-removed the phone from his ear, looking down at me.

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