SAV Chapter 6

They say you shouldn’t pay attention to a mad dog.

 

“I don’t know,” Choi Jeha answered, thoroughly ignoring me.

 

“You can’t not know.”

 

You’re supposed to be the smartest in this novel. If Choi Jeha didn’t know, there wasn’t a single person in this novel who could solve this problem. I told him not to answer hastily but to think carefully one more time.

 

Choi Jeha, who had neatly scooped up his rice, glanced up at me.

 

“I don’t understand why I should answer your question.”

 

Does that mean there’s still hope for an answer? I leaned towards Choi Jeha again, my eyes sparkling. Conversely, Choi Jeha leaned away from me.

 

“If you give me the answer, I won’t follow you home.”

 

“I wasn’t planning to take you anyway.”

 

“Then…”

 

After pondering for a moment, I decided to bet on what Choi Jeha wanted most right now.

 

“If you give me the answer, I’ll leave right away.”

 

“The era.”

 

“Era?”

 

“The era in which this person you mentioned exists.”

 

Finally, he was being cooperative. Indeed, to get something from someone, you should bet on what they want most. It was a bit bitter that what he wanted most was for me to get lost, but still.

 

“The same era as us.”

 

“Age?”

 

“Same age as us.”

 

He closed his mouth and rolled his deep, dark eyes down to the right.

 

“Do you think there’s an answer?”

 

Due to my impatient nature, I couldn’t wait and asked after just two seconds, but Choi Jeha nodded.

 

He found in just two seconds the answer I couldn’t find after hours of racking my brain.

 

‘Mom, I think I’m really stupid.’

 

As I had this moment of self-reflection, my mouth felt a bit dry.

 

“But leave as soon as you hear the answer.”

 

“Okay, I promise.”

 

When I held out my pinky finger to Choi Jeha’s face, he used his water glass to push my hand away. Then he took a sip of water. Maybe because his skin was so pale, I could clearly see his Adam’s apple moving up and down.

 

“Check the store information. There should be at least one delivery record.”

 

“…!”

 

It felt like enlightenment in my previously dark mind. This guy really is the top student in school!

 

“You really are a genius! I thought Park Seyoung just threw in ridiculous settings, but you really are a genius! Choi Jeha! My savior! Thank you so much!”

 

Overjoyed at the thought of not having to be homeless, I grabbed Choi Jeha’s hand tightly and shook it vigorously up and down.

 

“Who’s Park Seyoung…”

 

Choi Jeha muttered to himself as he subtly pulled his hand away from my grip and stood up.

 

“By the way, that ‘someone’ should probably go to the hospital before going home. It’s not common for people to forget their home address.”

 

“Didn’t you hear? They were attacked by aliens.”

 

“Right.”

 

Choi Jeha, who was putting the empty bowls on the tray, looked at me as I was fiddling with my phone to find the delivery information. Then he pointed to the restaurant door with his chin.

 

“Get out.”

 

Almost pushed out of the restaurant, I found a comfortably warm spot to sit. As I turned on my phone again to look for the store delivery information…

 

‘Wait, what just happened?’

 

I felt a sense of discomfort from my reflection in the large mirror in front of me. Of course, there would be some discomfort since I’m living as someone else. But the reason I felt strange was because of a different issue.

 

‘This bastard Cha Eunseong, it’s me!’

 

The face looking back at me in the mirror with an incredulous expression was Park Sejin, me.

 

If there was any difference, it was just the overall image I gave off.

 

In reality, I was an ordinary student with average height, average build, and average looks, about to graduate. But who was this punk-looking guy with fierce eyes staring back at me?

 

I thought for a moment about what this meant. And I quickly came to a conclusion.

 

“Wow, Park Seyoung. Did you really use your brother as the model for the villain character?”

 

While it seemed natural that I would look like myself in my own dream, I suspected my sister, who wrote this synopsis, because the character I ended up with was Cha Eunseong.

 

I’ve played a lot of pranks on my only sister because she’s cute, but this is too much. As I snorted in disbelief, the ladies peeling eggs next to me gave me strange looks.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

After apologizing for being noisy, I quietly fumed again.

 

‘How do you even ask for a haircut like this?’

 

I grumbled internally while fiddling with my flamboyant hair, styled as if ready to jump on stage.

 

Park Seyoung must have thought of me when creating Cha Eunseong. Otherwise, how could Cha Eunseong’s face be Park Sejin’s? Plus, there was about three doses of delinquent vibes added.

 

‘Just wait until I get back, Park Seyoung.’

 

I rang the doorbell at the address listed in the delivery registration information.

 

Since Cha Eunseong’s face was my face, I naturally thought Cha Eunseong’s mom would be our mom, and sure enough, someone with the exact same face and voice as my mom opened the door.

 

“You should have entered the passcode and come in, I’m watching my drama!”

 

Her personality was the same too.

 

“I studied so hard that I used up all of today’s memory capacity. As a result, I forgot the door lock passcode. What was it again?”

 

“What kind of joke is this now? Mom’s busy right now.”

 

What drama could be so important? Despite her son’s polite question, mom turned back and went into the master bedroom without looking back. Having finally made it home, I was about to open wide what I assumed was my sister’s room door and unleash a torrent of curses, but…

 

‘It’s empty.’

 

The room was vacant.

 

There were traces of someone having lived there, but no one was there. So I peeked into the master bedroom and asked:

 

“Where did my sister go?”

 

“She went to study abroad, remember?”

 

“This kid is acting so strange today.”

 

She always whined about wanting to study abroad, and this is how she fulfills that wish? Shaking my head, I greeted the people who had the same faces as my parents and closed the door.

 

I entered what I assumed was my room and flopped down on the bed.

 

I wasn’t envious at all of Cha Eunseong, who lived in a much nicer apartment than our house, received much more allowance, and attended a school with prettier uniforms. No matter how nice it was, this wasn’t my home, and those weren’t my parents.

 

And I wasn’t myself either.

 

I hoped that when I fell asleep and woke up again, I’d be in my own cramped room corner. With that thought, I closed my eyes.

 

***

 

I’m not waking up.

 

I don’t know why I’m not waking up. From Friday night to Sunday morning, I’ve fallen asleep and woken up repeatedly, but I’m still in the dream. At this point, I started to think that maybe this wasn’t a dream at all.

 

If so, there’s something to consider at this juncture.

 

If this isn’t a dream, then what is this place?

 

‘Who am I, really?’

 

I used to be called the king of positivity, but facing a situation where the dream wouldn’t end even after days, anxiety set in. I couldn’t help but be anxious. After all, I’m someone who shouldn’t be here.

 

There was an even bigger problem. I absolutely shouldn’t be Cha Eunseong. Of course not. Cha Eunseong is a character who gives up on life and dies in his early 20s. A character who wanders with his life shattered by the very Choi Jeha he bullied, until he meets his death!

 

‘What should I do? What can I do?’

 

What if I can’t return to reality at this rate?

 

What felt light when I thought it was a dream became a suffocating problem when I considered it might be reality.

 

This isn’t the time for this. I needed to write down everything I remembered about the novel’s content before I forgot it all. Scratching the back of my head, I got up from the bed and slumped down at the desk.

 

‘I’m going crazy.’

 

Is there really no clue about how to return to reality? While rummaging through the desk, I found a glasses case in the drawer.

 

‘Glasses?’

 

I used to wear glasses until I had LASEK surgery, and it seems this setting followed me into the novel as well. Suddenly, I remembered Choi Jeha saying he had lost his glasses. If I couldn’t return to reality immediately, it seemed inevitable that I’d have to redefine my relationship with Choi Jeha.

 

‘I need to somehow create a friendship and clear up his misunderstandings about me.’

 

Otherwise, I might end up bearing the full brunt of Cha Eunseong’s misdeeds and face destruction at Choi Jeha’s hands. There’s no guarantee that death here wouldn’t translate to reality!

 

‘Oh right, my eyes!’

 

I felt my eyes, which I hadn’t been conscious of until now.

 

Fortunately, it seems to be before the eye injury incident.

 

There was an incident where Cha Eunseong got into an accident while bullying Choi Jeha. Since I only saw the synopsis, I’m not sure exactly when this happens, but it’s certainly before ‘that’ episode. Whether this is a dream or possession, I needed to quickly mend my relationship with Choi Jeha and survive safely until I could return to reality.

 

For now, I wrote down everything I could remember from the synopsis in a notebook. Including all the character settings.

 

After sitting at the desk for over an hour, trying to squeeze out every memory, Cha Eunseong’s mother brought me a snack, wondering why I was studying so much.

 

‘I’ll leave it at this for now…’

 

As I put down the pen, I turned my gaze to the glasses case I had taken out of the drawer.

 

If Choi Jeha lost his glasses in the recycling area, I thought I might gain some friendship points if I found and returned them to him.

 

Thought quickly turned to action. I immediately got dressed and went to school, and as soon as I arrived, I went to find the security guard first.

 

“There wasn’t anything?”

 

The security guard swept in front of the school gate, saying he had cleaned near the recycling area in the morning but hadn’t seen any dropped personal belongings.

 

“Then maybe… a bag or something?”

 

“I told you, there was nothing.”

 

He added that while there were no dropped items, some “damn kid” had run off with the key to the recycling area.

 

‘Ah…’

 

That key is in Cha Eunseong’s bag right now. Since I was that “damn kid,” I immediately backed off. I’ll have to secretly return it to its place when I come to school on Monday.

 

“Can I take a look around just in case it was dropped somewhere else?”

 

Fearing my guilt would be revealed if I talked too long, I asked for the guard’s permission and then thoroughly searched the recycling area and classroom by myself. But no matter how much I looked, I couldn’t find Choi Jeha’s glasses or bag.

 

‘Maybe he didn’t lose them that day?’

 

If not, how could they not be found after searching this thoroughly…

 

The project to build a friendship with Choi Jeha failed before it even started. Feeling disappointed, I took out the garbage bag I had brought from home from my pocket. Then, as I was about to stand up after filling it with the trash from Choi Jeha’s desk drawer…

 

‘What’s this?’

 

I felt something in the innermost corner. It seemed to be wedged in a crevice, pushed there by the accumulating trash. I crouched down and pulled out the object that was crushed and stuck in the corner of the drawer.