Chapter 3. There’s No Way My Baby Could Be the Second Male Lead (3)

The iconic youth web novel Welcome! Summer Film.

The female protagonist, Semin, grew up under the care of her parents, who owned a video rental store. For some reason, she became an outcast at school.

Semin had one dream she couldn’t tell anyone about: making a movie under her own name.

Then, two men who seemed straight out of a movie appeared in her otherwise boring life!

“Hi! Would you like to make a movie with me?”

“You can’t live quietly anymore. I’ve got you on camera.”

Dogyeom, the son of a famous actress who had moved from the United States to Korea, and Eunho, who had quit judo because of an injury and become a delinquent at school.

Caught between a sweet, considerate guy and a prickly, tsundere guy, Semin would experience the most turbulent period of her nineteen-year-old life.

—Hmm, I think I prefer Dogyeom. Eunho is way too much like the male leads from old-school internet novels.

I felt bad saying this about Eunho, but in the early chapters, I had been on Dogyeom’s side.

Dogyeom was gentle, kind, and someone who could easily hold a conversation with Semin.

Eunho, on the other hand, was nothing like that. He had a rough way of speaking and was like a hedgehog, always bristling and ready to prick anyone who came near him.

Even putting all those reasons aside, Eunho in the early chapters was incredibly sensitive and intimidating. He was practically a stray cat that had been hurt one too many times.

In other words, I had possessed Yerim at the exact point when Eunho’s sensitivity was at its peak.

“…Are you making fun of me right now?”

Before I could even open my mouth, a whistle sounded.

The students who had been hesitating to enter the school gate because they were watching the situation between us turned toward the playground.

I turned around, too.

In the distance, a man wearing a tracksuit was approaching while scratching his head.

“What are you doing? The bell’s about to ring! Why aren’t you going inside? Bae Eunho, you come with me.”

So that’s the discipline teacher. The one who wears yellow tracksuit pants and likes hot dogs…

As far as I remembered, the discipline teacher had more appearances in the story than Yerim did.

Surprisingly, Eunho obediently followed when the teacher called him.

As he passed me, he lowered his gaze and gave me a quiet warning.

“You… stay out of my sight from now on.”

Eunho’s back gradually grew smaller as he walked away.

The students hurried through the school gate, and I headed toward my classroom as the bell rang.

While climbing the stairs, I recalled Eunho’s final words.

[Comment: What’s with his terrible attitude? Please, I hope he’s not the male lead.]

[Comment: I absolutely hate delinquent male leads.]

That was right. Even when Eunho first appeared in the story, quite a few readers disliked him.

Whenever he saw Semin, the female protagonist, he would furrow his brows and pick fights with her for no reason. Even I had thought Eunho was a little too rough for a male lead candidate.

But…

Those people simply didn’t know our Eunho well enough.

I was certain that by the time they finished Season 1, they would become Eunho fans, their hearts practically torn apart by the story.

After all, that was exactly what had happened to me.

Perhaps because I knew Eunho’s personality so well, seeing him glare at me and tell me to stay out of his sight was just so…

“Cute! What am I supposed to do?!”

There was no way such a cute boy could be the second male lead!

I wanted nothing more than to punch a wall and scream at the sky, but I restrained myself, remembering that I had to protect Moon Yerim’s reputation.

However, the moment I actually tried to enter the school, I felt like I was about to have a panic attack.

I took a deep breath and looked around at the students.

These kids are innocent and kind. And I can do this.

“I’m Moon Yerim.”

I adjusted my bag and looked around for my classroom.

I was certain that, according to the novel, I was in the same class as Semin and Dogyeom, and their classroom was…

“Class 3!”

It was Class 3.

The problem was that I had no idea where Class 3 was.

On top of that, the third-year students used the annex building. Earlier, I had mistakenly entered the main building and suffered the trouble of climbing all the way to the fourth floor before coming back down.

I was admiring how meticulously the author had planned even the details that weren’t visible in the story when I stopped to check the directory in the annex.

“Huh? Han Dogyeom?”

In the distance, I spotted a tall boy wandering around the building’s lobby.

His handsome face immediately caught my attention, along with his naturally brown hair and brown eyes.

Seeing Han Dogyeom, who was even more handsome in person than the novel’s descriptions suggested, I couldn’t help opening my mouth in astonishment.

Come to think of it, in the scene that followed, Semin found Dogyeom, who couldn’t locate his classroom, and took him to the teachers’ office.

Dogyeom fell in love with Semin at first sight. Semin, too, was surprised by how handsome he was.

It was fair to say that this was the beginning of their fresh, youthful romance.

“Everything went wrong from their very first meeting. I shouldn’t have let them meet first.”

At the sound of approaching footsteps, I looked toward the stairs.

In the distance, a girl with fair skin and a bob haircut that reached her chin was coming downstairs, carrying a huge stack of books in her arms.

Even from afar, she radiated the aura of a female protagonist, making my heart race.

With every step she took, the name tag hanging over the left side of her chest moved ever so slightly.

She’s finally here.

The female protagonist of this story, and my second-favorite character, Jeong Semin.

Semin was supposed to stumble upon Dogyeom by chance and take him to the teachers’ office. That was how the original story went…

But I hurried over to Dogyeom instead.

“Hi! Are you a transfer student?”

At my question, Dogyeom’s previously expressionless face immediately brightened.

He was the kind of person who always welcomed anyone who approached him with a smile.

I smiled just as brightly.

When I spotted Semin through the glass door, I hurriedly grabbed Dogyeom’s arm and moved farther inside the building.

“This is the teachers’ office.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Only after showing him the teachers’ office did I realize that I was still holding his wrist.

Startled, I quickly let go.

Dogyeom rubbed his wrist and nodded gratefully. I waved at him as he entered the teachers’ office.

Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eye, I watched Semin’s back as she left the annex.

“Why did I do that?”

Maybe it was because I had just seen Eunho, who was covered in emotional wounds.

Some instinct inside me had told me that I mustn’t let Semin and Dogyeom meet.

Even so, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling.

I turned around and looked toward the place where Semin had disappeared.

“Huh? Eunho!”

Through the glass door Semin had just walked out of, I could see Eunho crossing the playground.

He was walking with his face scrunched up in displeasure, as though something had annoyed him.

Looking at Eunho’s broad, dependable back, I suddenly remembered that day just before I died.

“I’m still going to live, no matter what. It’s shitty, but I have to keep living. What else can I do? You want to live, too, don’t you?”

Even if I could meet Eunho in a dream, I had always wanted to thank him.

Now that I had possessed someone in this world, I hoped Eunho could find happiness, just as I had.

“Eunho, I’ll make sure you and Semin end up together.”

“Hello. My name is Han Dogyeom. I look forward to getting along with you.”

With my help, Dogyeom entered the classroom alongside the teacher before the first period began.

His gentle tone and the way the corners of his eyes curved into a pretty smile made the girls blush.

By the time the break began, Dogyeom had become the talk of the school.

He was the son of a famous actress, after all, and he was incredibly handsome. It was only natural that everyone wanted to talk to him.

I glanced back toward the rear of the classroom, where Semin was sitting.

Without even looking at Dogyeom, she was busy drawing a storyboard.

“Yerim, we’re going to the school store. Want to come with us?”

“Why are you going to the store? It’s almost lunchtime.”

“What’s gotten into you? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”

My classmates left the classroom, saying they were going to the store without me.

Before the next class, I stepped into the hallway to wake myself up a little.

That was when I saw Semin climbing the stairs.

She was holding her storyboard and heading toward the school rooftop.

“Looks like Semin’s going to draw on the rooftop again.”

In the original story, Semin was the kind of girl who spent every break sitting on the rooftop and drawing storyboards.

I was about to dismiss the sight, thinking that she was doing the same thing even in places the novel never described, when I spotted Dogyeom heading up the stairs toward the rooftop in the distance.

“Did Dogyeom meet Semin up there?”

I had reread the web novel so many times, yet there was no scene in the early chapters where Dogyeom and Semin met on the rooftop.

Wondering whether there might be some behind-the-scenes story that hadn’t been included in the novel, I followed Dogyeom up the stairs.

When I opened the rooftop’s metal door, bright sunlight and a refreshing breeze greeted me.

I also saw the long metal fence that had been installed to prevent students from jumping off the building.

I looked around, searching for Dogyeom and Semin.

The school rooftop had been turned into a garden, with flowers, trees, and benches scattered throughout.

It was much larger than I’d expected, so finding the two of them wasn’t easy.

“Where are they?”

I had already walked halfway around the rooftop, but neither of them was anywhere to be seen.

Growing increasingly anxious, I hurried my steps.

Perhaps because I was so busy looking ahead, behind me, and to either side…