By Zephyria 
How does he know?
Startled, I looked at Min Si-hu. He merely yawned indifferently. He looked at me as if he couldn’t understand my reaction.
“What’s with that reaction?”
“…How do you know?”
“What? Was that something you were hiding?”
“……”
I was taken aback, as I had only referred to Do Yun-hyeok as a friend and tried not to show any other signs.
I might not be good at acting, but I thought I could manage not to show anything, but was that not the case?
‘Could he even know that the other person is Do Yun-hyeok?’
My hands and feet, suddenly tense, turned cold in an instant.
I forced an awkward smile and fiddled with my fingers under the table. I suddenly felt like I was sitting on thorns. Min Si-hu clicked his tongue like an elder disapproving of a young man he didn’t like.
“I talk about my boyfriend often, but this guy hides his so well-! We haven’t even seen him! He doesn’t say anything!”
Ironically, Min Si-hu’s confident assertion allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness. He doesn’t know the other person is a guy, or that it’s Do Yun-hyeok!
I made a suitable excuse.
“It’s not like I’m hiding him… It’s work between him and me, so I didn’t feel the need to mention it.”
“Maybe it’s because we’ve been together for a long time? I feel more comfortable if I make it public.”
“It’s just a difference in personality.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. Even if the other person were a girl and not Do Yun-hyeok, I probably wouldn’t have told everyone. Of course, if it weren’t Do Yun-hyeok, it’s debatable whether I would have even had a relationship in the first place…
“But why did you suddenly ask about a girlfriend?” Seong Hae-min asked.
Lee Beom scratched the back of his head with a smile.
“I was wondering if it’s true that you get a girlfriend when you go to college.”
“What? This guy has zero self-awareness-!” Min Si-hu clicked his tongue. Objectively speaking, Lee Beom wasn’t the type to worry about or ask about relationships based on his looks, so it was a funny situation.
I laughed along with the others, but cold sweat trickled down my back.
‘Is this déjà vu?’
Someone who confessed they wanted to make me laugh, then clumsily covered it up by saying it was a joke, flashed through my mind…
“If you try, you can get one.”
“But there are some who try and still don’t succeed, and there are some who don’t even need to try in the first place.”
Min Si-hu, unaware of my thoughts, was expounding on his own theory of relationships. With a serious expression, he rested his elbow on the table and exclaimed with gusto.
“Beom-ah, you!”
“Yes?”
“Are a free pass recipient.”
“That’s true.” Seong Hae-min nodded. Generally speaking, it was true, if you considered looks the biggest asset in relationships. At least, that wasn’t the case for me.
“But your own will is the most important. For me, relationships are not really…”
This time, it was Seong Hae-min’s theory on relationships.
Throughout the conversation, I chimed in appropriately and laughed. Lee Beom didn’t bring up anything further, so we smoothly moved on to other topics. I could feel Lee Beom’s gaze occasionally glancing at me over my highly sensitive skin, but I pretended not to notice.
A sensible person wouldn’t make a bold confession after hearing I had a girlfriend, so pretending not to know was the best path for both of us.
My guess that Lee Beom wasn’t the type to deliberately make things uncomfortable for the group was correct. We hung out a bit longer, had dinner, and parted ways. I didn’t want to break this comfortable distance, and perhaps Lee Beom felt the same.
On the bus ride home, I rested my head against the window.
Winter was drawing near, and it was chilly at night. As my forehead touched the cold glass, I felt my mind calm down.
‘Has the possibility of Lee Beom regaining his memories from the novel increased?’
Whether it was the subconscious influence of his novel experiences or simply because I was a charming person and Lee Beom was falling for me again, I couldn’t tell, so I let it go.
‘Will I ever be able to tell others about my relationship with Do Yun-hyeok?’
I considered various possibilities and then stopped. This wasn’t something that could be planned; it was just speculation.
In any case, the first thing was to see if Lee Beom got into college.
❖ ❖ ❖
Around the end of the year, as we prepared for final exams while waiting for Lee Beom’s college acceptance news, Min Si-hu informed us he would be appearing on a new TV program.
On a public broadcasting channel, no less!
We had heard about the offer before, but he had signed the contract and was apparently about to start filming. The gap until broadcast wasn’t too long, so we’d be able to see it soon.
Min Si-hu had received quite a few love calls after gaining popularity from his music show appearances post-exams, and it seemed he had finally decided to appear.
Given his popularity, it had long surpassed what an ordinary person could experience. I had even benefited significantly from searching for information about Min Si-hu online.
So, I was a little scared to see how much further this already popular guy would rise. Would he continue to succeed as a singer?
Even to a stranger, Min Si-hu was the type of person who would succeed as an entertainer.
He was handsome, sang well, composed well, spoke well, was charming, and even had the academic background that people often gave extra points for. Objectively, he was a person with excellent capabilities.
However, Min Si-hu himself seemed to have many concerns, even though he welcomed his current popularity. He had always thought he wanted to write more songs than sing them, but it turned out he was also suited to singing on stage. He seemed to have a perfectionist streak, wanting to do one thing properly.
He was a capable person with many dreams, so it seemed he wanted to do many things.
“This is a bit burdensome.”
“It’s the fate of someone with a star friend.”
In any case, as articles about Min Si-hu’s new program began to appear, his SNS followers also increased rapidly. Even when I first saw his account, the number wasn’t small, but it had grown much larger since then.
The problem was that the number of followers, which shouldn’t have concerned me, was affecting my life.
Occasionally, when photos of me with him were uploaded to his Instagram stories, my middle and high school friends who followed his account would contact me in a friendly manner. I sent polite replies a few times, but as the number of requests grew, it started to become bothersome.
Moreover, it wasn’t just people who knew me who were looking for me. I heard that Min Si-hu’s account also received frequent messages asking for the account of the person he took photos with, requesting tags so they could follow them, and I almost fainted.
‘It’s a good thing I don’t have an SNS account.’
If I were told to live a life with a large number of SNS followers, I would choose to faint instead. The thought of strangers looking into my daily life! It felt like being spied on.
“Anyway, block those DMs for a while.”
“I’m starting to feel the need to do that too.”
“Just close them.”
“But there are a lot of funny ones too.”
“You’re addicted to SNS.”
“It’s slightly different. Call it an addiction to attention.”
“There isn’t much difference.”
“Oh, wait a second.”
In any case, after hearing that people were asking about me, I nagged Min Si-hu to close his direct messages whenever I had the chance.
Min Si-hu, who had opened his DM window to show me some funny content, let out a surprised sound.
“You won’t fool me, you rascal.”
“Look.”
He scoffed, asking if I thought he’d fall for it. Min Si-hu suddenly thrust his mobile phone in front of my face. I involuntarily read the message on the bright screen.
“…Huh?”
And then I looked at Min Si-hu, bewildered.
Min Si-hu grinned, as if to say, ‘See?’
「Sir」
「Do you happen to know Leopard Against the World?」
❖ ❖ ❖
The cold wind whipped past my cheeks. The time to wrap up the busy year was approaching again.
Looking back, this year had been full of events. Starting college life, starting a relationship, meeting all the Four Heavenly Kings…
The news of my college acceptance felt like a distant past, yet it was only a year ago, which was hard to believe. Of course, if you count the half-year I spent dragged into the novel’s world, it would extend to a year and a half!
I adjusted the scarf Do Yun-hyeok had given me. The chill seeping through my clothes was significant. They said global warming was causing abnormal temperatures, and a cold snap had already hit.
It was amazing that we had made plans to meet in this weather.
“I’m even more nervous because it’s cold.”
It seemed I wasn’t the only one. Min Si-hu, who was dressed even warmer than I was, also shivered. They say everyone is equal before the cold, but it was amusing to see someone so tall and broad-shouldered hunched over.
I checked the time again. It was almost time to meet the person who had sent us the message that had caused all the trouble.
“Do you perhaps know Leopard Against the World?”
It was a mysterious direct message that had suddenly arrived on Min Si-hu’s social media account one day.
Actually, it was obvious who had sent the message. Although there wasn’t a single photo of themselves uploaded to the account, making it impossible to confirm, one could easily deduce it by reading the combination of English letters in the ID aloud.
‘Ban Pyo-ran.’
Today was for confirmation.
To see if this person was indeed the Ban Pyo-ran we knew!