Chapter 11
“Hey, what’s going on?”
From far away, Jung Sumin called out.
Thanks to the attention I’d drawn, the classroom had gone quiet, so even from that distance her voice carried clearly.
But I didn’t have the mind to answer.
I grabbed the protagonist’s wrist and yanked him toward me. Yeon Jaehyun awkwardly rose from his seat.
“Y-Yeon Jaehyun. I think I’m not feeling well… Can you take me to the nurse’s office?”
“Huh?”
Ignoring his flustered reaction, I turned to the temporary class president sitting right behind me.
“Hey, class rep. I’m going to the nurse’s office with him. Tell the teacher if they come.”
“Uh? O-Okay.”
“Let’s go.”
Still gripping Yeon Jaehyun’s wrist, I dragged him straight out of the classroom. I didn’t look sick at all. If anything, I probably looked mentally unstable.
‘So what. Is that what matters right now?’
Instead of heading to the nurse’s office, I pulled him toward the girls’ restroom on the third floor.
“Um… weren’t we going to the nurse’s—”
“Quiet.”
He shut his mouth.
‘How dare you act like some meek loser…’
The third floor housed special classrooms like the science lab and music room, so right before first period it was dead silent.
I shoved Yeon Jaehyun into a stall and made him sit on the toilet lid.
If it turned into a real contest of strength, I’d lose instantly. But since he was hiding his identity, the protagonist couldn’t risk that.
Click.
As I locked the stall door, Yeon Jaehyun looked up at me quietly.
“W-Why are you doing this, Seyoon…?”
“Hah.”
It had been funny even when I read the novel, but seeing it in person was even more ridiculous.
“Want to die? Stop pretending to be a loser.”
“What? I don’t understand what you—ah.”
I roughly pulled at his glasses and mask.
Or at least, I tried to—until he stopped me.
“Let go.”
“I-I have a cold. If you’re not careful, you’ll catch it too.”
“Who the hell said anything about kissing you? I just want to see your face.”
He wasn’t even officially on the White Killer list, yet he was making such a fuss.
‘It’s not like anyone would recognize him.’
Though in the novel, since he operated near the school, he was careful not to cause trouble.
‘Not like he fights bare-faced anyway.’
Even if he wasn’t as heavily covered as he was at school, he still wore a mask or pulled down a hat when fighting monsters.
The association was strict, and the fact that Yeon Jaehyun followed every rule so faithfully was unusual in itself.
“What are you going to do after seeing it?”
There was controlled strength in the large hand gripping my wrist.
It didn’t hurt—but I couldn’t move at all.
For a moment, even his voice didn’t sound like a loser’s.
“I have a disease where I’ll die if I don’t satisfy my curiosity. The more you hide it, the more curious I get. I feel like I’m about to go into cardiac arrest.”
“I-I just look average… Search ‘average Korean male face’ online.”
“Don’t lie.”
I strained against his grip. He tightened his hold in response.
This wasn’t a joke—I couldn’t budge him at all.
“Ugh… Just let go! Since when is a loser this strong? That’s suspicious.”
“On average, men are stronger than women.”
“Wow, good for you. Must be nice being a man.”
As I fumed with both wrists trapped, Yeon Jaehyun—who had been calmly talking back—suddenly went quiet.
With glasses, mask, and bangs covering his eyes, I couldn’t read his expression at all.
“…You’re not planning to stay like this forever, right?”
“I’ll let go if you promise not to touch me carelessly.”
“I’m the only one being touched carelessly right now.”
“Self-defense.”
“……”
I widened my eyes as menacingly as possible and glared down at him.
I didn’t want to fall out with the protagonist, but I had to confirm right now whether he was truly the protagonist of Not a Killer.
“Can you act like this in front of other people too? Grab someone’s wrist if they try to take off your mask? Talk back and hide your face like this?”
“……”
“Do you want to just show me your face quietly here and end it? Or do you want to deal with me ambushing you nonstop outside trying to see it?”
It was a strong move, risking my likability.
Yeon Jaehyun hated standing out and wouldn’t properly resist.
If that happened, his face could be exposed to a bunch of random people at once.
I delivered the final blow.
“If you show me now, I’ll help you avoid getting caught by the discipline committee for your mask and hair length.”
“Masks aren’t against school rules, and Hwahyeon High allows free hairstyles.”
“Sure. Then try walking around like that. I can turn something that’s not a problem into one.”
I didn’t actually have that authority—but I could beg Seo Jinhyung to make it happen.
The son of a massive private school sponsor could probably manage something.
“……”
After a brief hesitation, Yeon Jaehyun nodded.
It looked less like agreement and more like resignation.
“…Fine. Just for a moment, right?”
“Yeah. I just want to see your face.”
Finally, he removed his mask and glasses.
“Hey. I know that hair’s fake too.”
With a sigh, he removed the messy hairpiece covering his forehead.
And then—
“……”
“Done?”
Even at his quiet prompt, I couldn’t respond.
Jet-black hair. Black eyes.
Slightly sharp eyes, a straight nose bridge, tightly closed lips.
‘Oh my God… This is insane…’
Yeon Jaehyun was a cold, handsome man with a clean, sharp impression.
Even if this was a web novel world, handsome men weren’t exactly common. This was still reality, after all.
But I’d grown up around Jung Sumin, and now I even lived with Seo Jinhyung, seeing his face every day.
I thought I’d built up some immunity to good-looking men.
‘There’s a saying, right…’
Once someone passes a certain level, it becomes a matter of taste.
“Kim Seyoon.”
“……”
Yeon Jaehyun’s face… pierced straight through my exact type.
Of course I knew the protagonist was handsome.
I’d seen the cover art.
But seeing it in real life was heaven and earth compared to that.
“Seyoon.”
“Ah—!”
I snapped back to my senses after he called me twice.
“Can I put my glasses and mask back on now…?”
“No, wait.”
It was beyond a waste to hide that face. It was a national loss.
But that wasn’t why I stopped him.
“Can I touch your face just once?”
“You said just looking was enough…”
“Just a second. One second.”
Since he’d already shown everything, maybe he figured there wasn’t much left to lose. He agreed easily.
I raised my slightly trembling hand and gently lifted the black hair covering his forehead.
A neat forehead was revealed.
‘A scar above the left eyebrow…’
It matched. The protagonist.
There was no more doubt.
The protagonist wasn’t supposed to transfer in.
Because he had enrolled together with me.
The original story had changed again—on a completely different level from just Kim Seyoon changing schools.
‘That was shocking enough…’
“Hah…”
“Done?”
“Yeah.”
The shock wouldn’t fade.
Without even a mirror, Yeon Jaehyun skillfully reattached his hairpiece and put on his mask and glasses.
“Let’s go. We should stop by the nurse’s office.”
“Huh…?”
Was he actually buying that excuse? The protagonist I knew wasn’t that dumb.
“The teacher will think we went to the nurse’s office. We should at least leave a record.”
“……”
Meticulous as ever. Definitely the protagonist I knew.
“You don’t have a fever… Rest as much as you need before going back~”
The school nurse was kind.
Back in middle school, they would’ve shoved a few headache pills at me and told me to stop faking it.
“Hey… um. Sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to make things hard for you. You know that, right?”
At my belated apology, Yeon Jaehyun simply nodded and left the nurse’s office.
I lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
‘So the old man’s influence really did work.’
After checking my name and asking if I knew Seo Jinhyung, the nurse’s attitude had immediately improved once I said yes.
Either way, it was great for me, so I happily rolled around on the bed.
I felt a little bad about all the stares Yeon Jaehyun would get going back alone—but I quickly cleared my mind.
I had bigger problems.
First, I’d made the worst possible first impression on the protagonist.
‘I should’ve approached him kindly. Instead, I dragged him into the girls’ bathroom, locked him in, and demanded to see his face. Thinking about it rationally… that’s insane.’
But earlier, I’d been too shocked and flustered to think straight.
Even if I went back in time, I’d probably do the same thing.
‘Why didn’t he transfer in? Why did he enroll from the start…?’
The second strange thing was the timing of Yeon Jaehyun’s appearance.
In the original story, he transferred because of Seo Jinhyung.
That lunatic had hacked into the association’s confidential files, which led to Yeon Jaehyun—their strongest asset—being called to headquarters and transferring schools as a result.
That was the true beginning of the novel.
‘So why did he enroll from the start?’
A chill ran down my spine.
‘…Don’t tell me Seo Jinhyung hacked the association even earlier than in the original?’
