After running for a while, he realized he was lost. It was the result of sprinting blindly in any direction. Jingi crouched in front of a random storefront, gasping for air.
‘Ah, that was really unlike the “Choi Jingi” I’m supposed to be.’
At this rate, wouldn’t Joo Unyoung get suspicious? Like, ‘”You’re not Choi Jingi, are you? Get out of my darling’s body!”‘ or something.
Then another thought hit him. Did Joo Unyoung go back up alone and get caught by that guy? Why was he stupid enough to run away by himself? He checked his phone and saw messages from Unyoung. Since the texts were just asking where he was, Jingi breathed a sigh of relief, realizing Unyoung had made it out safely too.
He began to walk aimlessly. The frantic events of moments ago felt as distant as a dream, as if they hadn’t happened at all. Perhaps being inside a novel was causing him to lose his sense of reality.
When he idly opened a map app, he found himself near Gwangim High School, quite a distance from the study hall. Right across from him, he could see the main gate and a wide athletic field. Young high school students were running around there, playing soccer.
Jingi sent a message to Joo Unyoung: ”[I haven’t eaten yet.]”
Sending a long explanation felt too embarrassing, but not sending anything felt too rude. Clutching his hungry stomach, he crossed the crosswalk and entered the high school grounds. He planned to kill some time outside for a bit.
Since it was Saturday, no one was there except for the kids playing on the field. Jingi sat on a bench on the right side where there was some shade. Having run so much in the scorching summer heat, his vision kept flashing black before returning to a blur.
No matter how much he rested in the shade, the dizziness persisted. ‘Am I going to collapse from heatstroke again at this rate?’ Jingi pulled his legs up onto the bench and lay down flat. Even when he took deep breaths, the heavy, suffocating feeling remained.
Once he calmed down just a little, the earlier events suddenly rushed back. The guy who was probably trying to traffic his organs, getting laughed at while trying to explain it… and then shouting that “pretty” nonsense at the friend who was raging on his behalf before running away.
‘Ah, even if he asked if I was hitting on him, I’d have nothing to say.’ It looked exactly like that. He’d made a huge scene over a guy who was, at most, only one or two centimeters shorter than him, screaming about how he was “small and pretty.”
Jingi let out a hollow laugh and placed a hand over his forehead. His sense of reality seemed to be returning. ‘Right, organ trafficking wouldn’t be that sloppy.’ If that guy were the real deal, his accomplices should have jumped out before he could even run away.
Just then, a sharp whistle blew. ‘Tweet!’ Turning his head toward the field, he saw a group of boys in gym clothes huddling together to drink water.
One team looked familiar. Their gym uniforms were similar to the ones he knew. As he stared at them, a boy with reddish-brown hair came running over from a distance.
“Chooooooe! Jiiiiiiiiiiin-gi!”
“Who— ugh, hey!”
He couldn’t recognize the boy through his blurry vision until he got closer. It was Baek Jaehui. The guy lunged at Jingi with a leap. Jingi’s heart nearly skipped a beat.
Was this the place he mentioned he was playing soccer this morning? Jingi sat up with a grumpy face. Jaehui sat down next to him with a broad grin. He wiped his face roughly with a towel, flashing a bright, toothy smile.
“We won the first round 3-0! Amazing, right? But it was a bit boring without you. You’re actually really good.”
“Good for you. You’ll win the second round too, then?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know. The guy they’re bringing out for the second round is a real monster. We might lose that one.”
“Is that so…”
Jingi subtly swiped the water bottle Jaehui had set down and took a drink. It was filled with half-melted ice, so cold it made his throat feel chilled.
“So, after playing hard to get, did you actually come to cheer for me?”
“Uh… no. I went to the study hall, and I was just walking around to find lunch and ended up here. Somehow.”
“Pfft, you know you’ve been acting really spaced out lately? Is the ‘concept’ acting getting too hard? Hey, but I like you way better now. You used to be so stiff and such a prick.”
“I’m still rich and handsome, so am I still a prick?”
“…Wow, you actually said that with your own mouth.”
After finishing the water, Jingi handed the bottle—now containing only ice—back to Baek Jaehui. As a single ice cube rattled inside, Jaehui’s eyes widened.
“Hey, you crazy—! Did you… did you put your mouth on it and drink it all? You heartless bastard, seriously!”
“I feel alive again… I almost collapsed again.”
“Really? …Want more? There’s more over there.”
“I’m good.”
‘Is he not mad I drank it all? I guess it doesn’t matter since there’s more.’
The water had definitely cleared his vision. Jingi let out a deep sigh, turned around, and lay down with his head on Baek Jaehui’s thigh.
“Ah…”
“Hey, hey. What do you think you’re doing right now?”
“I’m lying down…?”
As he answered in a drowsy voice and looked up, he saw Baek Jaehui, whose face was turning so red it looked ready to explode. He wondered if drinking all the water had been too much. Jingi shifted around, trying to find a comfortable spot for his head. But Jaehui hurriedly tried to stop him, stammering.
“S-stay still. Just… move down a little bit.”
“Why? It’s too hard, I don’t like it.”
“No, fuck, ah… seriously, you’ve gone crazy.”
“I guess because you exercise so much, this doesn’t make for a very good pillow.”
When he turned on his side and moved closer to the knee, it finally felt comfortable. Those thighs were as hard as rock from all that exercise.
“You, you, you. You shouldn’t just… lie down like that.”
“Like what.”
“A p-person should… well, you have to be careful about certain things. R-right? Crazy, wow, I really…”
The way he was stammering made him look like an idiot. Jingi simply ignored Baek Jaehui and put a hand to his forehead. ‘Did “Choi Jingi”—the owner of this body in the original story—always suffer this much from the heat? I don’t think he was this bothered even when they went on the school trip during the peak of summer.’
As he exhaled to cool himself down, Baek Jaehui started taking deep breaths as if he were trying to copy him.
“Until the East Sea’s waves… and Mt. Baekdu… are dry and worn away…”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Lord, Buddha, Allah, please, just… ‘sigh’, damn it…”
“Stop swearing. Why are you so vulgar?”
“The vulgar one right now is you! Haven’t you heard of the rule that men and women shouldn’t sit together after age seven?”
“We’re both guys, though.”
He didn’t look it, but he was more of a Confucian traditionalist than expected. Since he was always hugging people, Jingi thought he was fine with physical touch, but it turned out he was a narrow-minded guy who couldn’t even handle a friend using his lap as a pillow.
Or maybe he had a thought like, ‘”Only my true love is allowed on my lap!”‘
‘Hmph.’ Jingi snorted and ignored him. It was Baek Jaehui who had interrupted his peace first. If he didn’t want to be treated like a pillow, he shouldn’t have sat down!
Crossing his arms and closing his eyes, his mind finally began to settle into a peaceful calm. The incident at the study hall, his role as Joo Unyoung’s Cupid, and all the various thoughts he’d been juggling simply faded away.
