DI Ch 2

The moment someone shouted loudly, Seo Seung-won’s father hugged me in his arms. As I struggled to open my eyes amidst the stifled hum of noise, I saw Seo Seung-won’s family and friends looking down at me with worried expressions.

The problem was that I was too focused on my thoughts. I should have handled my stress well, but I was careless. It’s not a big deal if I lose consciousness for a second, but it’s a big deal if I do something wrong and hit my head. Before I could say that I was okay now, Seo Seung-won’s mother calmly grasped the situation and said.

“Honey, holds Seung-won’s head well. Don’t let the blood flow.”

Everyone looked at me and was genuinely worried. It felt like being the main character. However, I clearly knew that ‘Seo Seung-won’ was not the main character. ‘Seo Seung-won’ was close to a supporting character. Also an unfortunate person.

The life of Seo Seung-won, who is ordinary and kind. The one with the label of misfortune is the main character of this book, ‘Woo Ji-min’. No, it was actually because of ‘Tae Seong-je.’

‘Tae Seong-je,’ someone I don’t want to be associated with. A bastard with a vicious and cruel mind. A crazy bastard who doesn’t think twice about doing things that a normal person wouldn’t do with morals so low that it hit the ground.

The main character, ‘Woo Ji-min’, defined ‘Tae Seong-je’ that way. Although it was only a novel, Tae Seong-je was a crazy person of a different class to the extent that it was emphasized and described repeatedly. And the peaceful and carefree life of ‘Seo Seung-won’ goes headlong due to the ‘Tae Seong-je.’

If so, you might think it would be okay to get away from Tae Seong-je for my safety and peace in the body of ‘Seo Seung-won’. But that wasn’t as easy as it sounds. At first, I had no intention of living as the story, to be exact, pretending to be ‘Seo Seung-won.’

Even so, why should I? But if I didn’t do that, I felt like my heart would explode. It was only a gut feeling, but I was terrified. My life is currently unreal because it didn’t seem too strange that even death could be unreal.

It peaked when I actually saw the main character of this book. When I got a sense of how to control this broken body well, I went to see the main character with my own two eyes to see if this really was the world in the book and if I wasn’t mistaken.

I was wondering if they actually exist. It’s because I don’t know if I’m really ‘Seo Seung-won’, but I’ve gone crazy and I’m thinking this nonsense. However, when I checked the main character of this book, ‘Woo Ji-min,’ whom I saw with my own two eyes despite being at a distance, and even the other main character, ‘Kang Moo-hyun,’ I was astonished.

Since I knew the three characters in the novel, I thought it was right that I was inside a novel. I couldn’t have come up with a name for someone who didn’t exist, no matter how insane I was. The indescribable feeling I was experiencing at the time could not be described in any way.

In the end, I decided that I would move as the book wanted, but I decided to keep my body safe and hold my breath as much as possible except for scenes where ‘Seo Seung-won’ was absolutely necessary. After all, he’s not even the main character. In fact, that was my only consolation. Not being the main character, if it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have come to my senses easily.

The supporting character ‘Seo Seung-won’ usually has a small amount, unlike the main character ‘Woo Ji-min’… Of course, he appears in every scene. How many scenes were there? What is the line? If I was ‘Woo Ji-min’, who can’t even remember the title of the book properly, I might have gone crazy with anxiety. As one of those comforts, I accepted ‘Seo Seung-won’. Even if I didn’t like it, I had to.

Because I want to go home, not to die.

---

Start. Now it’s school opening ceremony day. It was a start.

Is it due to the fact that the first appearance is right in front of me? My thoughts were racing. I sat motionless on the bed, slowly raising my hand and rubbing my dry face. Woo Jimin, making an ordinary first meeting, becoming an ordinary senior and junior, and maintaining a relationship. This was the checklist I had to do. It was a simple thing, but if I can’t do it, the development of the second part will be twisted, and I will live someone else’s life forever with this broken body, never returning home. It would be terrible…

“Ouch.”

The eyelids scratched by the nails I had raised without my knowledge were stinging, so I gently touched the stinging area. I shoved over the blanket and opened the notebook in my hand, afraid of hurting my face again. This was a summary of the plot, events, and characters from the novel, written as best as I could remember. To be honest, I knew everything even without looking at it because I had studied it many times so that I would never make a mistake.

Still, I read it three or four more times. ‘Seo Seung-won’ has few appearances and lines, so I don’t have to worry about it this much, but… I studied and studied obsessively to the extent that my worn-out pen formed a small mountain, fearing that I would create a problem for myself by not understanding the development that was going smoothly and that I would not be able to return home because of it.

I slowly stood up, sat down in front of the trash can, and shredded the notebook. It didn’t matter because I had already written it down on my laptop. I know the process of getting rid of it right away is troublesome, but because of the habit of taking notes and studying like this for a long time, I wrote it unconsciously, so I was just repeating making, and getting rid of it several times.

“Ah. Blood…”

I quickly covered my nose at the red mark on the paper. Apart from the amount poured out, the bleeding stopped quickly, so there was no need to stop the bleeding. Sometimes I get tired of this being normal. I massaged my throbbing limbs as naturally as breathing and did light stretching.

I had to empty my head to make it even less painful, but that was really difficult. When I was immersed in something, I felt better, so I exercised, put together cubes or puzzles, or piled up problem books in the corner of my room to solve them, but actually, it wasn’t the best way.

The most effective way is to think positively about everything. It was beneficial to me to think of only optimistic and bright things. From the situation of not being able to return home to my terrible situation, I turn away from everything. But the reality is that it can’t be. If I completely ignore my reality, I feel like I’m really becoming Seo Seung-won. It‘s a depressing situation in many ways.

When I arrived at the university, it was so lively that my steps came to a halt. The students walking around maintained their composure. Is it due to the fact that it is the first day of school? I wasn’t usually the type to look around, so my surroundings caught my attention once more. A sky with cumulus clouds or bright sunlight. Great university structures and sculptures. A group of college students conversing beneath the green trees’ shadows…

It was no different than the university I attended. At times like this, I wonder if this place is really inside of a novel. I felt more disconnected because everything was so realistic. However, it was easy to conclude that this couldn’t be the case again, so I wasn’t too perplexed.

Thanks to this moment.

“Ugh…”

I suddenly felt like vomiting, so I sat down on the bench in front of me and caught my breath. Such a strange body could never be real. I ate a piece of chocolate from a small bag in my backpack. Eating sweets temporarily made me feel better, so I put them in my pocket and carried them around, which worked well.

The March wind brushing my cheeks and the shadows of the trees covering the benches were quite cold, but I managed to bear it, so I sat still until my stomach calmed down. A sweet and bitter taste filled my mouth. Sometimes I wonder if I would have liked the obligatory chocolate or candy. So I, who fully remember everything…

I had forgotten what I liked and what my personality was like before I lost my memory, so I was curious about everything about myself. I stood up without hesitation after silently fiddling with the chocolate wrapper. Time to wonder about myself was a luxury.

The classroom, which had not yet become crowded, was very quiet. I simply sat and slumped over my desk. The empty classroom felt even more desolate when I buried my face in my arms and closed my eyes. Students will be coming in soon. Among them are the main characters of this novel, Woo Ji-min and Kang Moo-hyun.

Their story has already begun, but for me, this is the first chapter. It was difficult for me to calm my mind because I was nervous. As the anxiety grew, dizziness came and I closed my eyes tightly. It’s not even a very close relationship that we call each other brother, it’s just a matter of being close enough that contacting them won’t feel strange, but if I don’t, it’s all over. This thought was dizzying.

It was then.

Someone tapped my shoulder. I was surprised, but I didn’t have the energy to respond. Someone was sitting next to me… Suddenly, I became aware that my surroundings were a little noisy. I’m not sure if I fell asleep or passed out for a moment.