Chapter 14 – GOY 14

#14

“Hey, ​do ​you ​know ​someone ​named ​Kim Joon?”

“Kim Joon?”

“Yeah.”

“Who ​is ​that?”

The ​eyes ​that ​had been smiling like ​a ​child just a ​second ago suddenly ​turned ​cold.

“He’s ​a ​freshman ​this ​term. An F-Rank ​Guide…”

“Ah, ​he’s ​a Guide?”

The dark ​mana that had been ​creeping out ​subsided once ​again.

“Yeah. A ​Guide.”

“I think ​I ​might ​have heard something ​about an ​F-Rank entering.”

He replied in ​a disinterested tone.

“You haven’t ​met him yet?”

“No.”

Had they ​not crossed ​paths ​at all?

I had been worried that ​I might have taken ​the ​place ​of ​the ​main uke because ​of what ​happened ​that night, but ​I ​felt a bit relieved.

The two ​of them ​hadn’t ​met yet. Because ​of ​that, ​the ​development ​of the ​original ​plot had ​been naturally delayed.

If Joo Seung-hyuk met Kim ​Joon, he would ​feel an intense ​attraction, just as he ​did in ​the original work. ​He ​would probably forget ​all about someone ​like me ​in ​an instant.

“Do ​I ​have to ​meet ​that bastard?”

“No, ​it’s ​not ​that, it’s just ​that ​he’s become ​quite ​a ​hot ​topic.”

“I don’t know.”

“He’s incredibly handsome.”

In the original work, Joo Seung-hyuk described Lee Yeon-soo as a rose without a scent. He said it was ugly how he poured perfume over himself just to force a fragrance.

On the other hand, he described Kim Joon as an orchid buried among weeds.

It meant he was the kind of person who wasn’t immediately obvious, but someone you couldn’t stop looking at.

“Should I say he’s like an orchid buried among weeds, someone you just keep glancing at?”

I delivered the killing blow of a line. In that moment, Joo Seung-hyuk’s eyes widened.

Hmph, right. Just hearing about him fits your taste, doesn’t it? You want to jump up from your seat right now and go meet Kim Joon, don’t you?

The moment I smiled triumphantly inside, a loud ‘thud!’ echoed.

Startled, I looked forward. A blunt table knife had been slammed into the table, causing a crack to ripple across the surface.

“Lee Yeon-soo.”

Joo Seung-hyuk’s voice dropped to an ominous tone.

“Yes.”

Out of sheer terror, the formal speech slipped out reflexively.

“Why do you keep talking about some other bastard? Is that bastard really that handsome?”

“…….”

“Why? Now that you’re actually dating me, do you regret it? Has some other bastard caught your eye? Are you glancing at him?”

“…….”

Madness fueled by possessiveness [visit our site]flashed in his eyes, and pitch-black mana radiated [stolen content]killing intent, tightening around my body.

“Why aren’t you answering. If you like him, tell me. So I can kill him.”

This wasn’t a simple threat. If it was Joo Seung-hyuk, he was more than capable of actually doing it.

“It’s not that…”

“Be honest. Besides Kim Joon, who else is handsome? Who are you glancing at?”

He looked ready to kill every person I had mentioned and lock me away right this second.

I took a deep breath and carefully opened my mouth.

“Who else would I have besides you? And it’s the opposite. It’s not that I like him, I was just curious about how you’d feel.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. I’m the type that’s like a flower without a scent. Oh, I’m definitely not saying I’m handsome. Anyway, I’m the kind of style people get tired of quickly, and since people say the type like Kim Joon becomes more charming the more you see them, I wondered if you felt that way too.”

“Who says such a thing?”

The original Joo Seung-hyuk said so.

But there was no way I could tell him that.

“No, it’s not that someone specifically said it… It’s just that I’m not very charming. My family is ordinary, too. I was worried that you were only forcing yourself to date me because of what happened that night…”

“You worried about that?”

The chill in his voice weakened, as if his mood had improved slightly. However, the mana constricting my entire body remained exactly as it was.

Either he didn’t fully believe me, or his possessiveness was simply uncontrollable…

“Yeah…”

“Why would Hyung not be charming?”

“People don’t seem to like me very much.”

Even when I didn’t do anything in particular, everyone avoided me and kept their distance. I hadn’t committed any atrocities like in the original work; in fact, stolen contentI Read on Read BL Novelsfelt I had lived quite kindly, yet it was still like that.

I assumed it was because of the Original Plot Constraint.

I figured this damn constraint was so strong that no amount of effort would change things, so I had lived my life curled up, reminding myself to be extremely careful not to be killed by Joo Seung-hyuk.

But looking at Joo Seung-hyuk’s eyes now, shimmering with obsession for me, perhaps that wasn’t the case.

“Don’t worry. You have me now.”

“U-huh…”

That’s exactly what I’m most worried about.

I would rather spend my whole life being hated and alone than become the object of an Obsessive Madman’s fixation.

However, I gave a thin smile and nodded.

---

I thought that perhaps Joo Seung-hyuk was pretending to like me to get revenge for what happened seven years ago.

But the moment he sliced into the table instead of the steak with unauthorized copythat blunt knife, my last remaining [unauthorized copy]shred of hope shattered into pieces.

It was funny to call it hope, but I still felt that being a target of revenge was a hundred times better than being the object of Joo Seung-hyuk’s obsession.

If it were for revenge, he might forgive me if I knelt and begged for forgiveness.

But it was none of those. It wasn’t mockery, revenge, amusement, or any other ulterior motive.

Joo Seung-hyuk was purely obsessed with me. The obsession switch had been flipped completely.

How did things end up like this… The seven years I spent trying to deviate from the original plot had gone down the drain.

I would have rather been despised like the Lee Yeon-soo in the novel.

If that were the case, I could have just apologized sincerely and wished him happiness with Kim Joon.

But if I become the main uke, I’ll be walking the path of obsession, confinement, and high-intensity hardcore. I might be trapped in his house forever in an endless cycle of obsession.

“Lee Yeon-soo.”

Someone tapped my shoulder. It was Kang In-ho, an A-Class Guide.

“What are you doing? Let’s go in.”

“Ah, yeah.”

We entered the shooting range.

Once a gate is created, it goes to auction within 12 hours, and the raid begins as soon as it’s won.

The basic method was for High-rank Espers to defeat monsters and Low-rank Espers to mine minerals within the gate, while Guides waited near the gate or in a Guiding Room to provide Guiding.

However, in cases where a super-large gate occurred—where it took a full day just to walk to the boss room—or when a particularly fast raid was required, Guides would enter the gate as well.

When a Guide entered a gate, they would wait in a safe zone or be escorted by an Esper. But there were also cases where they had to protect themselves.

And to prepare for such situations, the Esper Academy provided practical training for Guides.

As we entered the shooting range, second-year students wearing the white Guide uniforms were standing in lines according to their rank.

Unlike theory classes, uniforms had to be worn without exception for practical classes.

Being S-Class, I was in the very front row.

As I took my designated spot, Jeong Sang-cheol, an A-Class Guide in the row behind me, spoke up.

“Lee Yeon-soo, you’re a bit late.”

“I’m not actually late…”

“Still, you’re always the first one here whenever there’s training like this.”

“Not the first, but…”

I trailed off, trying to cut the conversation short. I didn’t want to get involved with Jeong Sang-cheol. But he continued to ramble.

“Still, you were the fastest among the High-ranks. But seeing you come in late today, I guess you’re finally getting annoyed by this useless shit too.”

“Huh?”

“Why do High-rank Guides like us have to do this [visit our site]kind of training? What idiot company would take a precious High-rank Guide into a gate? They should [visit our site]leave this kind of class to the B-Rankers and below.”

I was appalled.

The capacity for the Shooting Training Class A was 35 people. Among them, 32 people—excluding myself, Kang In-ho, and Jeong Sang-cheol—were B-Rank or below.

He had just made a statement disregarding 32 people.

A chilly silence descended upon the shooting range. However, oblivious to the cold atmosphere emanating from the back rows, Jeong Sang-cheol continued.

“I’m telling you, it’s stupid because the government runs it. Why should we have to follow a curriculum designed based on incompetent people? Don’t you agree?”

This is why I hate getting involved with this guy. If he says something that provokes people, he should handle it alone, but he always drags me into it.

“It’s training to prepare for emergencies. I don’t think rank is important in that regard.”

I attempted to settle the situation by stating the principle. At that, Jeong Sang-cheol snorted.

“This guy is reading the room for the mid-to-low ranks again. Hey, be confident. You’re S-Class. Did we say anything wrong?”

Who is ‘we’! It’s just your opinion!

Of course, there were problems with the Esper Academy’s curriculum.

Since most of the lectures were tailored to mid-rank Ability Users, they were inappropriate and inefficient for both High-rank and Low-rank students to learn from.

Even experts had pointed this out.

But even if what he said was true, there was no need to point it out with such an obnoxious tone in this situation.

Furthermore, it wasn’t as if High-rank Guides only stayed in Guiding Rooms. If they had a bonding, many willingly entered gates for the sake of their Esper.

His premise was flawed from the start.

“I…!”

“How noisy.”

Just as I was about to refute Jeong Sang-cheol, Professor Oh Seok-gwang entered.

“I hear some nonsense. A Guide protecting their Read on Read BL Novelsown body is equivalent to protecting their [unauthorized copy]own life. If you give your body, visit our siteyour mana, and even your life to an Esper, are you even human? You’re just an Esper’s lackey.”

Professor Oh was a star professor who gained popularity among the public by fearlessly criticizing High-rank Ability Users, despite being an A-Class Guide himself. Moreover, he was popular among students for his attitude of representing mid-to-low rank Guides, his candid and direct way of speaking, and his aphorisms.

But I didn’t like him very much. I disliked him far more than Jeong Sang-cheol.

One might think, Why are there so many people you dislike? Is there something wrong with your personality? but there was a reason.

“If you do such a thing, your life disappears. Even S-Class Lee Yeon-soo is no exception.”

Wait, Jeong Sang-cheol was the one who said that, so why are you targeting me?

Like Jeong Sang-cheol, Professor Oh also brought me up whenever he got the chance.

But while Jeong Sang-cheol just spewed obnoxious nonsense because he was drunk on his status as a High-rank Guide, Professor Oh used me for his own popularity.

He forced me down to appeal the image of: ‘Everyone treats Lee Yeon-soo as a god because he’s S-Class, but I am different. I am a fair man who is ruthless even toward High-ranks.’

If he wanted to criticize High-rank students, he should criticize all of them. He couldn’t touch the ones belonging to large corporations or those from wealthy families; he only attacked easy targets like me.

Look at him now. He couldn’t say [unauthorized copy]a word to Jeong Sang-cheol, the nephew of the Guide Association’s vice-chairman, and [stolen content]was only pointing the finger at me.

“Do not become arrogant just because you are an S-Class Guide. Once you enter a gate, whether you’re S-Class or F-Rank, you’re just monster food. Rank is nothing, so stop acting superior because of it. Is that clear, everyone?”

“Yes, sir!”

The students, moved by Professor Oh’s words, answered loudly.

But I kept my mouth shut. I was utterly speechless. What exactly did I say to deserve this? Then again, I couldn’t exactly argue with a professor.