I Became the Terminally Ill Character in My Friend’s Academy Novel – Chapter 20

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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Embarrassed. That was what Kim Ga-eul felt after crying all day yesterday and waking up this morning.

Being rejected by Yoo-hak? That could happen.

Honestly, even she found the person she was yesterday pathetic.

A fleeting feeling of resentment surfaced from within her as she recalled Cheon Yoo-hak’s cold gaze from yesterday, but she quickly shook it off.

Yesterday’s incident might have been a big deal for her, but it was probably just another passing event for Yoo-hak.

As someone who unilaterally admired him, she couldn’t be greedy.

What embarrassed her was that she had shown that crying mess to the loser, the one she looked down on.

The loser Kang So-hyun had already taken root as a truly terrible and despicable person in her mind.

“Was that loser hiding his strength or something? Why would he even hide his strength?”

During the spar, he had clearly grasped the movements of her whip perfectly.

Because he had charged in without even assuming a proper stance, like an ordinary person who didn’t know how to fight. It might have looked like a reckless charge to others, but she, who had faced him directly, knew better.

His blazing eyes couldn’t have been a mere bluff.

After calmly reaching her, and just before he stabbed her with the dagger, he said,

-“Let’s do our best, shall we?”

There was no force behind the dagger, as if he was being considerate of her, but that was also part of what angered her.

Who did he think he was?

Why did he even bother getting hit by her whip on purpose?

-“I’m definitely not laughing.”

“Showing off to me? That loser…”

She suddenly remembered him saying he definitely wasn’t laughing at her.

…Had she gone too far?

He didn’t seem like a bad person then.

She also felt like she had overreacted since even Yoo-hak hadn’t said anything after what had happened.

She had to admit.

She had initially intended to tease him a bit to impress Yoo-hak, but he had endured better than she expected, so she ended up going too far.

She would apologize to him today and think of another way to catch Yoo-hak’s attention.

She opened the classroom door, sat on the loser’s desk as usual, and greeted her friends.

“Hey guys, I’m here~”

But her friends just glanced at her before looking away.

Since they had looked at her, it meant that they could see and hear her. They were definitely ignoring her though.

The classroom atmosphere was strangely odd.

It wasn’t just her friends either. Most of the class seemed to be looking at her with contempt.

She was quite sensitive to such looks.

Even the boys who had shown interest in her until yesterday were awkwardly avoiding her gaze.

She broke out in a cold sweat.

It was a sudden change, but it didn’t seem to be a mistake, and she had a hunch about what caused it.

She composed herself and tried to speak again.

“What’s wrong, guys?”

This time, she received a reply.

“Hey, you’re good at reading the room, right~? Don’t talk to us. We don’t want to get caught in the crossfire.”

“What are you talking about…?”

“You’re screwed now. If you’re curious, read the paper on the blackboard. Also, stop trying to cling to us and just go away.”

The classmates she had considered her friends until yesterday all turned on her today.

Their attitude was too different from when they parted ways yesterday for it to be just because of the spar, so there must be another reason.

She took a slow, deep breath and walked towards the blackboard.

It felt like everyone’s unpleasant gazes were focused on her.

There was a paper attached to it.

What she had done to the loser and how she had spread the rumors. It was slightly exaggerated and explicitly written with a bit of fabrication.

Just like how she had done it.

She could roughly guess who the culprit was.

Yoo-hak wasn’t the type to do this, and the loser wouldn’t be the culprit either.

It was probably that girl who had been criticizing her yesterday.

That bitch who acted all high and mighty next to Yoo-hak, was a cowardly snake just like her.

When you were being targeted, you had to act confidently.

The moment you showed fear, the rumors became the truth and would turn into blades that came back to haunt you. She knew that all too well.

So she decided to go to the only place where she might have a chance.

She sat down on the desk near her friends, as usual.

“You guys don’t believe those lies, do you? It’s not entirely fabricated, but you know…”

There was no reply.

“It’s not like I was the only one who did it. You guys did it too…”

“Ah, seriously.”

A clear rejection.

It was over.

It seemed like she had no allies in this class.

She should have checked her own class first instead of going to this class out of habit to see Yoo-hak. It was probably too late now.

She wasn’t resentful.

She was just getting what she had dished out.

The problem was that the opponent was much stronger than her, making it difficult for her to slowly unravel the situation and get her revenge.

Who could she make her ally to turn this situation around?

Just then, the door opened with a creak, and someone entered.

It was a boy with long hair that was carelessly tied behind his head and a pair of nerdy glasses that obscured his face.

Most of the cadets looked at him differently than the way they had looked at her, but he didn’t seem to mind and just sat down in his usual seat.

And then he looked at her.

She reflexively blurted out,

“Wh-what are you looking at, loser?”

And then,

“You’re really consistent.”

For the first time today, she received a normal response.

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Judging by the awkward atmosphere in the classroom, it seemed like the story was unfolding similar to how it did in the original.

But she was still holding on and staying seated on my desk. Perhaps it was because she hadn’t been directly rejected by Cheon Yoo-hak yet?

I recalled the flow of the original story.

-You’re doing things I didn’t ask you to do. And who are you to keep mentioning my name?

Cheon Yoo-hak’s cold gaze pierced Kim Ga-eul.

Tears welled up in her eyes at his cold demeanor, treating her like she wasn’t even human. But she desperately held them back.

If she shed tears now, everything would be over.

-Lilac might be frustrating, but at least he has talent. I don’t like seeing a talentless bug like you belittling others. Especially while using my name.

But it was no use. The tears she had been holding back finally fell.

Cheon Yoo-hak scoffed coldly.

-Why are you crying? Don’t appear before me again. You’re annoying.

That was what happened to her in the original story. Afterward, she gave up on everything, moved around like a corpse, and then opened up to Lilac after he comforted her.

But now, since she hadn’t been directly rejected by the person she liked, a spark of hope still flickered in her heart, and her eyes weren’t completely lifeless yet.

“Loser.”

“What?”

Just by me responding, the corners of her mouth twitched slightly. She must have been really scared.

Well, how mentally strong could a young kid who had just entered the academy be?

Of course, she would be scared if her friends suddenly ignored her, and she was being bullied.

But don’t worry.

The sweet Lilac would step up and help her, saying it was too much, so it wouldn’t be too terrible.

As expected, Lilac appeared, and the strange bullying continued.

One of her friends seemed to have explained the situation to Lilac, who didn’t yet understand what was going on.

Lilac’s expression suddenly contorted.

Around lunchtime, he would probably ask the kids to stop, showing his pushover side.

It won’t be long now.

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Perhaps because they were afraid of being ostracized by Cheon Yoo-hak’s group, I received a lot of apologies whenever there were no classes.

Even the girl who hadn’t directly harmed me apologized, saying, “I’m sorry for believing the rumors.” I ignored most of them, but it felt like I was the villain, so I just told them it was fine.

It seemed like I was able to avoid the “bullying route,” one of the common rules of academy transmigrator stories.

“Hey! Here, eat this.”

And now the boar was standing in front of me.

Not just a boar, but a new species that walked on two legs and spoke human language.

This one looked similar to the one I played tag with on the school grounds the other day, but we weren’t on food-sharing terms, so it was reasonable to assume that this one was a new species that merely resembled him.

“I’m sorry for believing the rumors. You’re not such a bad guy.”

Was this bastard doing this because the professor was covering for me?

Don’t do this. I wasn’t going to let you off the hook.

“I didn’t want to apologize empty-handed, so make sure you eat this alone.”

He was making a big deal out of giving me a bag of potato chips.

He probably thought it was a cool apology offering, but yeah, I wasn’t going to forgive him.

I would get my petty revenge later.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Did that bastard say something again?”

Ha-ni, whose class must have ended, approached me.

“No, he just gave me potato chips, and said he was sorry.”

“Those pathetic guys. To think they’d call themselves heroes. I told them not to believe in the rumors. Now, it’s already spread throughout the academy that the bitch who instigated the bullying is the real bad guy.”

“Don’t believe those rumors too much either.”

“She tried to frame you. That makes her a bad guy.”

Our roommate seemed to be thinking about me more than I thought.

But don’t be so defensive.

You’d have to listen to Lilac’s infuriating words while eating later on.

“Ah, here comes Lilac and Yoo-na.”

Speak of the devil, the pushover and the pink chihuahua were walking towards us.

We bought meal tickets, chatted, and finished our meal.

It was an uneventful meal, except for the fact that I had to eat cherry tomatoes because of my roommate’s insistence.

Lilac didn’t bring anything up.

You crazy bastard. Why weren’t you saying anything?

“Uh, Lilac?”

So I asked.

Fortunately, the pink chihuahua and the cross-dresser weren’t there, saying they had the same class.

“Uh, you really hate bullying, right?”

Someone might ask what nonsense I was spouting, considering we had only known each other for less than a week, but Lilac didn’t deny it.

“Well, it’s true that she was in the wrong, but I don’t like this kind of bullying.”

“But?”

“But this time, the victim isn’t me, it’s you.”

“…Huh?”

“If I were the target of the bullying and false rumors, I would have a reason to persuade them to stop after it was resolved. But this is something that happened to you. I can’t just persuade them without your permission. We’re friends, after all.”

He chuckled and rubbed his cheek, as if embarrassed.

What? Why were you saying the right things now?

Wow.

I thought Lilac was a naive white knight who believed there was a reason for all evil deeds and that people could change for the better if the problem was resolved. It was the reason why he was incredibly lenient to those who messed with him in the original story.

Well, he was always like that.

The fact that he couldn’t stand injustice was even written in the settings book. While he rarely killed villains, even the ones who harmed citizens, he beat them all up mercilessly.

This wasn’t a plot hole. Rather, it was just his personality.

But damn it, it made things difficult for me if you acted like this.

“You don’t have to hold yourself back. You can do whatever you want.”

“Huh? Really?”

Lilac’s eyes widened.

“Why are you so surprised?”

“Honestly, So-hyun, I thought you were the type to never let things go, like that time in the cafeteria.”

Oh, right. I was the type to never let things go.

But this time, I had a plan, so I wanted to let it go. But it would be strange if I did it myself, so you had to step up, Lilac.

“Anyway, I don’t mind. You can persuade them if you want.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

-The Saint’s Will reacts to your good deed.

What?

-Your recovery rate is further increased for practicing the virtue of forgiveness.

Seriously, the effect was supposed to be a random buff, but why was it always increased recovery rate? And why was this a “good deed”?

I had a plan.

I just said it was okay for him to defend the bitch who had been causing trouble for me by spreading rumors!

…Uh, now that I thought about it, setting aside my plan, didn’t this sound like a good deed?

“You’re a good guy.”

What the hell.

All the characters in this novel were misunderstanding me.

Everyone, I’m not that kind of person.

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T/N – Don’t resist, MC. Just accept your eternal ‘Good Guy’ card. Mwahahaha! Also, I don’t know what happened to this chapter, but I had a hard time translating this one. I tried to straighten it out as best as I could, but there might have been some things that I missed. So do point it out if you see any mistakes or weirdly structured sentences in this chapter.

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.