Love for Love’s Sake - Chapter 1

Volume 1: My Worst 19

Chapter 1

“Why is senior so nice to me?”

The boy’s face, which still couldn’t completely hide his fluster, tensed slightly. Nevertheless, it couldn’t hide his attractiveness.

“Why are you doing this?”

The immature voice trembled and cracked. As expected, it was a pleasant voice. It seemed that attractive people also had attractive voices.

Cha Yeowoon, visibly frustrated by my silence, wiped his eyes vigorously. I couldn’t stand it and grabbed his wrist.

“Stop it. You’ll hurt yourself.”

The flawless white skin under his eyes was already showing signs of redness.

Then, as if Cha Yeowoon was hurt by my words, tears welled up in his eyes.

“Why is senior like this? It will only cause misunderstandings…”

The water in Cha Yeowoon’s big, puppy-like eyes soon ran down his cheeks.

His golden-brown pupils with moisture in them stared at me while his lips quivered slightly.

“What the hell am I to you?”

Cha Yeowoon was my favorite.

My secret was too big to confess.

A row of transparent windows covered his handsome face.

[ Mission: Make Cha Yeowoon happy. ]
[ Time Remaining: … ]
[ Penalty: Death ]

A number indicating how much time I had left to live was steadily decreasing.

Tae Myeongha, originally 29 years old. Now 19. They say that age is false and the heart is real, but somehow I felt neither real nor false.

Even though I had returned to the past, I had about a year to live.

I was destined to die if I couldn’t make my ‘favorite’ happy.

* * *

“Myeongha, do you often play games?”

The beginning of an event was always trivial. In retrospect, that seemed to be the case.

“Not often, just occasionally. Why?”

“I’m thinking of turning the novel I’ve been working on into a game.”

Senior said casually. I nodded as I emptied the cup he had filled for me. Well, novels were often made into movies and games. Besides, senior’s novel was interesting.

“So I’m curious, Myeongha. What’s the difference between games and novels?”

The question was out of the blue, but senior had always been a strange person. He would throw out random thoughts and contemplate them for a while.

I thought maybe all writers were like that. Artists were strange by nature. Senior had been anything but ordinary from the moment we first met.

“Well.”

As usual, I pondered the question seriously.

“If the goal of games is to complete them, novels focus more on the flow to the end. Unlike games, where the player can make changes, novels have a predetermined narrative and there’s not much room for the reader to intervene. It might be different if it’s a serialized novel.”

“Like my novel?”

“Senior never changes the plot even when I give you my feedback.”

I grumbled, but senior just smiled as if he found it amusing.

“But is that why you’re asking me? To turn < Love Supremacy Zone > into a game?”

< Love Supremacy Zone >

That was the title of the novel senior was working on. He always let me read it first when he finished a chapter.

Nevertheless, he didn’t care what I thought at all. I guess all writers were like that.

“Yes. I finally finished it. Do you want to read it?”

“You should have told me before I drank soju. I want to read it.”

I had been reading senior’s gradually accumulating novel for the past year. At first, I wondered why he asked me to read it. Anyway, I had enjoyed reading it, and most importantly, I had become attached to the characters.

As the title suggested, < Love Supremacy Zone > was a romance novel. In short, it was a story about a handsome man and a beautiful woman who, with each other’s help, overcome their wounds and live happily ever after.

Of course, the happy ending belonged to the main characters, while the secondary characters had slightly different endings.

“Is this the end? No, isn’t it too pitiful?”

I felt more sympathy for the secondary characters than for the guaranteed happiness of the main characters.

“Why did Cha Yeowoon appear at all? From the beginning to the end, he just suffers and gets hurt by everyone around him. It’s complete emotional torture.”

I vented my anger, not even wanting to finish the novel. The soju glass I had placed on the table shook, making waves in the clear liquid.

Was this why people said the second lead syndrome was scary?

They were used to provoke jealousy, endure emotional torment, and be exploited in every way, only to be discarded once they had served their purpose. I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of injustice.

“That’s life.”

Senior, as usual, chuckled mysteriously before taking my cup and drinking from it.

“Wow, senior is really cold.”

“Why? Wouldn’t you do the same if it was you?”

In retrospect, I should have given a better answer.

“Oh! If it were me, I would never do that.”

I wondered if I had touched a writer’s pride.

“Do you feel so sorry for him?”

“I just wish Yeowoon could have been happy too.”

Maybe the answer was too vague?

I was embarrassed that I tried to be too serious and stumbled over my words. It was just a novel. Cha Yeowoon wasn’t even a real person.

But senior kept looking at me as if he knew I had more to say.

“How can a person’s life be so lonely?”

When I finally added another word, senior looked at me with a mysterious, penetrating gaze and smiled.

“Then could you change it?”

I remembered saying something in response.

It was a day when the soju went down especially well.

Considering my habit of having a loose tongue when I was drunk, it was safe to say that I must have said something really stupid.

That would explain what happened next.

When I woke up the next day, I found myself in the novel < Love Supremacy Zone >.

In Cha Yeowoon’s world.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

It was completely absurd, but true.

“Do you think it makes sense that you got that score?”

I didn’t want to believe it was true either.

“Hey, answer me. Tae Myeongha!”

“I’m shocked too.”

“What? This guy.”

The homeroom teacher sitting in front of me smacked me on the shoulder with the attendance book as if he were stunned.

“Does it follow common sense that you, a punk who used to be last in the whole school, suddenly got this grade? Where did you get the answer sheet? Who did you copy from?”

I wasn’t last. There were at least 10 people lower, but it wasn’t the right atmosphere to think that kind of protest would work.

If I had to say that I copied something, it would be my future self’s answer sheet. Well, if I said something like that, I might really get beaten up, so I decided to keep my mouth shut for now.

Why did I get thrown into a high school setting of all places?

“It’s just a quiz, so I’ll let it go. But punk, if you do this on a test that affects your academic record…”

“So why do you think I would cheat on a quiz that doesn’t affect my academic record…No, nothing.”

Blood vessels popped up on my homeroom teacher’s forehead as soon as he heard what I had said. This time the attendance book hit my other shoulder.

“Brat, it’s not my place to know what an idiot like you is thinking.”

Idiot. Honestly, that wasn’t far off.

My high school days were really turbulent, a dark time.

Standing in the corner of the sunlit faculty room and listening to the scoldings wasn’t unfamiliar to me. In fact, it was as if the memories came flooding back. Ah, it was like this in the past.

“Behave yourself, Tae Myeongha. I’m watching you.”

Perhaps it was difficult to scold me further under the pretext of a perfect score on a quiz, but the homeroom teacher grilled me a little more before finally letting me go.

After a 90-degree bow, I left the faculty room with heavy steps. As I walked out, I was greeted by the typical school scene. Hallways. Stairwells. Kids in school uniforms.

New Leaf High School, an all-boys school. Even the name of the school was written under different signs.

It seemed that I had fallen into Cha Yeowoon’s school just by looking at the following.

[ Mission: Make Cha Yeowoon happy. ]

A square transparent window blinked in front of my eyes and then disappeared.

It was strange to suddenly wake up wearing a school uniform and in a classroom. Even more so when a transparent window suddenly appeared about Cha Yeowoon.

Right? Really all of a sudden? And in a classroom? Hadn’t I graduated 10 years ago? Was I drunk and dreaming?

“Tae Myeongha. Are you boasting about your height? Why are you standing there when class is starting? Sit down!”

My homeroom teacher had shouted at me while I was lost in thought. When my full name was clearly called out, I had unconsciously slumped back into my chair like a dog being told to sit down.

Whether I was confused or not, the school bell rang and the quiz had begun. The result of solving the quiz while wondering if I was dreaming or hallucinating led to the incident in the faculty room just now.

Had I suddenly fallen into a novel or had I gone mad? The former was a little better. At least in terms of sanity. After all, there was a saying that as long as you kept your wits about you, you could survive.

As soon as I opened the classroom door, the voices I had heard inside abruptly stopped. I could feel the eyes of the students turning to me.

Perhaps afraid to make eye contact with me, the children quickly turned their heads away. Did they think I was going to eat them?

This place was strangely similar and yet different from the high school I had attended. For one thing, there were no wireless earpieces like the ones these kids were wearing.

Obviously, this wasn’t the world of 10 years ago. It was just that I was 10 years younger.

I examined my reflection in the mirror on the back door.

Sharp features peeked out from under the short hair.

I had guessed as much while listening to the homeroom teacher earlier. After entering this novel, I seemed to have returned to my high school days. At that time, people’s impression of me was bad.

When I took my eyes off the mirror and turned around, the students who made eye contact with me quickly turned their heads. My reputation hadn’t changed either.

“Hi, buddy.”

“Eek.”

The student with the thick glasses hunched his shoulders as I took a seat next to him in the back row. Flinching so much…

Upon closer inspection, he had a distinctive appearance. His hair, like a bird’s nest, was disheveled and covered his eyebrows. The thick glasses made his eyes almost invisible.

“What day is it today?”

“Wed–it’s, Wednesday.”

It was pitiful to see him stone-faced and stuttering, even though I wasn’t trying to eat him, but there was something I had to find out.

Whether it was a dream or a hallucination, I just had to do what I could.

[ Make Cha Yeowoon happy. ]

When given a task, it was better to start with what you knew than to waste time thinking about it. This was a hard lesson I had learned in life.

“Buddy, do you know Cha Yeowoon?”

Glasses suddenly seemed surprised. His surprised expression had answered my question.

This was normal. It was possible not to know, even if we went to the same school. But I had asked because Cha Yeowoon’s handsome appearance was something that would stand out.

“The 2nd year student?”

Glasses asked.

I thought he didn’t know, but did he?

When my reaction stiffened for a moment, Glasses quickly held out his hands.

“I-I didn’t mean anything, I’m just curious.”

“So you know Cha Yeowoon? How do you know him?”

He asked, and yet he didn’t know? I guess Glasses was nervous, but he just blinked.

“Isn’t he the one in track and field…?”

“Ah!”

Right. When I touched my forehead at the realization, Glasses started to tremble more and more.

Cha Yeowoon was a promising athlete in high school. So much so that he often won awards and was featured in local newspapers.

“Oh, yeah. That’s him. He’s a good runner. Which class is he in?”

“I-I don’t remember…”

Right, that was reasonable. He might not know which class.

After roughly gathering some information, I got up from my seat. It seemed like I would easily find the answer if I went down to the 2nd year students’ floor and asked around.

This meant that I would soon meet Cha Yeowoon.

I felt slightly nauseous. To meet the person I had been watching and cheering for over a year. To use senior’s words, he was my favorite.

Senior explained it this way when I asked. It means the one you like best. At the time, his tone was playful and friendly.

“Where are you going?”

“To find my favorite.”