BMGSN 2

“Ah, Yeol-ah.”

Even though his head understood, his body creaked and lagged, moving like a robot. Jinki lifted one corner of his mouth and walked over to Yeol’s side.

“Walking?”

“Ah, yeah.”

Seeing his short-cropped hair, he felt the urge to reach out and gently touch it, but he held himself back. Choi Jinki and Go Yeol were fairly close, but they did not talk often, nor were they physically close. When Jinki glanced sideways at Yeol, who was walking quietly beside him, Yeol twitched one eyebrow shaped like a seagull’s wing.

“Why?”

“Huh? Oh, uh… no. No reason.”

“……”

Go Yeol was calm, quiet, and indecisive. Even his movements were slow, making Jinki genuinely wonder how someone like that had ended up in the basketball club. The author, Kim Hyeyeon, had said she designed his settings and appearance with a turtle as the motif. His smooth head and tightly closed mouth really did resemble one in a strange way.

Her imagination is seriously something else. So this is what she was thinking when she wrote him?

Maybe Kim Hyeyeon’s next work would do well. Thinking that, Jinki turned his gaze away from Go Yeol.

The two passed through a large residential area. Big houses and gates lined the streets, much like the neighborhoods in Hannam-dong. Beside each house, there were separate spaces, as if it were only natural, for parking private cars. As they descended toward the road and picked up their pace, the air was humid and hot despite it being morning.

Heat rose at the back of his neck, but he was not sweating. Was it because he was a character from a novel? Thinking something so pointless, Jinki grabbed the front of his shirt and fanned it lightly.

“Hot?”

“Yeah.”

Go Yeol stared at Jinki for a moment, then reached out and grabbed the back of his neck. Jinki stopped short and shuddered violently. Contrary to his name¹고열 (Go Yeol) literally means “high fever” in Korean. As a common noun, it refers to an abnormally elevated body temperature, often associated with illness, heat, or intensity., Go Yeol’s hand was cold and firm, like ice kept in a freezer.

“Ugh… Hey, you, hngh….”

“Feels cool, right?”

At the blunt question, Jinki forced his tensed body to relax. Then he started walking again, wracking his brain to recall the novel’s plot and smiling awkwardly.

“I feel it every time, but you’re really cold. Are you going to the hospital?”

“Ah… The oriental medicine clinic. They said I need acupuncture.”

“Acupuncture?”

Nod. On his expressionless face, a faint distortion appeared. Wondering what could be wrong with acupuncture, Jinki tilted his head, and Go Yeol withdrew his hand from Jinki’s neck, his eyebrows twitching.

“I hate needles.”

…You do not look like the type, though.

A short scene from the novel flashed by. Go Yeol could endure hours of exercise under the blazing sun, yet he could not stand even that brief moment when a needle went in. Jinki also remembered how he had pretended to be asleep when the blood donation bus came to school.

Seeing that, Joo Unyoung and Choi Jinki had exchanged sweet, knowing smiles with each other…

“Still, go later. They say it’s bad if cold hands and feet last too long.”

“Yeah.”

Only then did Jinki remember that this guy was one of the three sub-gongs. Back then, Go Yeol had noticed the strange atmosphere between Choi Jinki and Joo Unyoung and never even managed to confess his feelings.

In the novel, it had barely been addressed and passed over, but his heart must have been battered with wounds all over. Thinking, In this life, you should confess first, Jinki looked at Go Yeol with pity.

* * *

High school.

For Jinki, it was a place that felt both familiar and awkward. The memories were not particularly vivid. School had been a place where he made up for his lack of sleep due to working part-time night jobs.

There was a time when he had even considered dropping out altogether. Jinki stepped into a school whose interior was different from the high school in his memories, starting right from the entrance.

As befitted a school located in an expensive neighborhood and attended only by the wealthy, the buildings were clean and orderly. It was completely different from the school Jinki had attended in his previous life.

Jinki and Go Yeol sat in the very back seat of the first row. Sitting down in a seat that felt familiar yet awkward, Jinki pulled out a single pencil case from his bag and set it on the desk. At that moment, Go Yeol slowly stood up, lightly patting Jinki’s head a couple of times before leaving through the back door.

Jinki knew exactly what that meant. The memories held in Choi Jinki’s body reminded him clearly, one by one. It meant, ‘I’ll be back.’

As a member of the basketball club, Go Yeol left the classroom every morning after setting his bag down, heading straight to practice. That was how it was in the novel as well. Go Yeol had the least presence among the sub-gongs, and Kim Hyeyeon had given him the basketball club setting to reduce the character’s screen time.

For some reason, Jinki felt a pang of pity for Go Yeol then. Falling for a close friend’s lover was bad enough, and on top of that, he was so busy he did not even have time to flirt, let alone date.

After fidgeting with his hands for a long while, Jinki rested his cheek against the unfamiliar desk.

So do I have to study now? Can I even go to college? …Ah, then do I have to prepare for employment all over again?

If there was one saving grace, it was that he did not have to go to the military twice. In his previous life, he had postponed it as long as possible because he was busy working, and this world had a “no military service” setting. The world the author had created was truly comfortable, as long as a bit of consideration was given to the characters.

Glancing at the timetable, Jinki took out the textbook for the first period in advance. He found several thin notebooks in the desk drawer. When he pulled one out that matched the subject and placed it on the desk, he felt strangely emotional. The textbooks, which he had rarely opened because he worked part-time day and night, did not feel like his own. 

Just then, a cool breeze brushed in through the curtains. When he turned his head, he saw that the window was half open. Yellow sunlight struck the sheer curtains, sparkling as it scattered. Jinki stretched out his arm and opened the window wider. A fresh breeze blew in pleasantly.

It was summer. The scent of a summer breeze.

“Jinki-ya.”

“Huh?”

What snapped Jinki out of his gaze outside was someone’s hand. Startled, he turned around to see the blond Joo Unyoung, now familiar on the second sighting, standing there with a frown.

“Why aren’t you answering when I call you?”

Looking a little hurt, Joo Unyoung drooped his eyebrows and grabbed Jinki’s sleeve. There was a touch of aegyo²Refers to a set of cute, endearing behaviors commonly expressed through tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, or word choice. It often includes speaking in a higher pitch, slight mispronunciations, exaggerated cuteness, or playful whining. in the gentle tug.

“No, I was just thinking about something else…”

“Want to step out for a bit? Should we go to the school store?”

Perching with both arms on one side of the desk, Joo Unyoung gazed at him, his eyes round and bright. His eye shape, prettily slanted upward, made Jinki think of a fennec fox. Also, because his hair was yellow, and he was so ridiculously pretty that it was deadly…

“Huh?”

Without realizing it, Jinki covered his ears with both hands. Joo Unyoung, looking up at him from below, tilted his head slightly and grabbed Jinki’s hands, pulling him toward himself. At the same time, he jumped to his feet.

“Let’s go to the school store. The school store.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Jinki vigorously rubbed his burning cheeks with one hand. For a moment, Joo Unyoung, shining as the sunlight reflected off him, looked so incredibly beautiful that Jinki almost felt bewitched. If Joo Unyoung had asked, ‘Want to date?’, Jinki would probably have nodded.

As if his body were reacting on its own, his fingertips trembled. Jinki took a deep breath and turned his gaze away from Joo Unyoung. He had to avoid him, deliberately if necessary. It was obvious. The feelings of liking Joo Unyoung from before the transmigration still lingered, and that was why this was happening.

Just as he had thought that morning, he needed to become either “ugly Choi Jinki” or “bad Choi Jinki”.

The two soon arrived at the school store. Located at the far end of the first floor, the store was already packed with students despite it being morning.

“What do you want to eat?”

“Uh… I’ll just have any soda.”

“Okay, wait a second.”

Joo Unyoung smoothly slipped into the crowd of students. With a few taps and nudges of his hand as he pushed through, the group of male students swarming around parted noisily to either side. The guys who glanced at Joo Unyoung wore wide, stupid grins on their faces.

Looks like they don’t mind even if he’s got the same thing hanging.

“Here.”

“Thanks.”

Joo Unyoung pressed an ion drink into Jinki’s hand. Jinki was pretty sure he had said soda, but thinking Unyoung must have misheard, he said nothing and twisted the cap open. As they naturally headed toward the stairs, Joo Unyoung, holding a small, square apple juice box with a straw stuck in it, waved his hand and gestured outside.

When Jinki followed, strong sunlight stabbed at his eyes. It had seemed cool enough in the morning. Shading his eyes with his hand, Jinki walked toward the bench where Joo Unyoung had already sat down.

“Sit here, Jinki-ya.”

“Uh, okay.”

When Jinki sat a bit away, Joo Unyoung moved closer. Because they were wearing summer uniforms, their elbows bumped into each other. Jinki hid his surprise and pretended to be calm.

“I was too hasty yesterday, right?”

“…Huh?”

“Sorry. I wanted to know how you really felt.”

The athletic field was completely empty. It was already past arrival time. Inwardly, Jinki was sweating buckets, agonizing over what he should say in response. The cold ion drink already seemed to have turned lukewarm.

“Let’s get to know each other slowly. That’s probably better, right?”

“Uh, Unyoung-ah.”

“I’ll adjust to you. We both know we like each other… to be honest. Right?”

Naturally swinging his arm back to drape it over Jinki’s shoulders, Joo Unyoung beamed. After setting down his finished drink, he leaned even closer to Jinki. When their eyes met, and he tilted his head, his platinum blond hair shimmered and fell messily into place.

“Ah.”

Unexpectedly large hands came to rest on Jinki’s thigh. Joo Unyoung smiled with eyes curved into crescents, glittering in the sunlight. He smelled like warm yellow sunshine.

“That’s not it, um… Unyoung-ah.”

“Yeah.”

“What I said yesterday, I really, truly meant it.”

As if to prove it was a novel. Ding-dong-ding-dong, the bell signaling the start of class rang over the athletic field speakers. Jinki licked his lips with a desperate expression, but Joo Unyoung stood up first.

“We should go in now. We did not really get to talk.”

“No, Unyoung-ah. Wait a second. I think you’re misunderstanding, just a little, let me explain…”

“First period is math. You know it’s scary if you’re late for math, right?”

Joo Unyoung smiled lightly, then flicked the drink carton in his hand into the trash can. After seeing it drop cleanly inside, he waved his hand at Jinki as if urging him on.

Jinki swallowed hard as he followed behind him. Joo Unyoung’s personality was a little different from what he knew. The Joo Unyoung in the novel was bright and pure, not timid but not bold either. He never imagined he would speak so directly like that.

• 1
  고열 (Go Yeol) literally means “high fever” in Korean. As a common noun, it refers to an abnormally elevated body temperature, often associated with illness, heat, or intensity.
• 2
  Refers to a set of cute, endearing behaviors commonly expressed through tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, or word choice. It often includes speaking in a higher pitch, slight mispronunciations, exaggerated cuteness, or playful whining.