IYBML 01

Chapter 01

My Child Can’t Possibly Be the Second Lead (1)

“Semin, I like your movies.”

Dogyeom conveyed his feelings to Semin in his usual gentle voice, though there was a slight tremble in it.

His pronunciation was clear, his gaze angled away. Semin liked even those shy moments of Dogyeom.

“I like the acting you capture with my camera, too. I’ve felt that way from the beginning. All this time.”

As Semin’s reply followed, Dogyeom’s face brightened. When their feelings reached one another, Dogyeom gathered his courage first and took Semin’s hand. Semin’s eyes slowly closed.

– Ah, wait, this is ridiculous. What about Eunho?

Dogyeom’s eyelashes began to tremble ever so slightly. Soon, his lips touched Semin’s.

– What? A kiss? No, how can high school students be kissing? Eunho, where did you go? Eunho!

Behind the two of them, the orange sunset was disappearing over the horizon. The camera filming the scene continued winding the film, its red light blinking.

Their tightly clasped hands and the corners of their mouths that kept lifting. It was unmistakably the final scene of a youth romance movie.

– No? No!!!

[<Welcome! Summer Film>

Season 1

END]

“What the hell is this? This makes no sense. Author, what is this?”

Even after swiping his thumb to the side, he couldn’t believe it, so he went back to the previous page. Wasn’t today supposed to be the final chapter of Season 1?

[9/10]

That was when he noticed the remaining pages written at the bottom.

Of course. There was no way Eunho would back down like this. He hurriedly turned to the next page. It was the beginning of the epilogue.

[Epilogue]

Eunho began running toward where Semin was to tell her about his award.

When was the last time he had run so breathlessly? He hurried his steps, overwhelmed by a happiness comparable to the sweat he had once shed on the mat.

The traffic light turned green, and the numbers began blinking.

5, 4, 3, 2. With only the final second remaining, Eunho’s body was suddenly lifted into the air. Eunho took in the sky that filled his entire field of vision.

Thud. With a tremendous crash, Eunho’s body fell to the ground.

As he blinked his eyes, all of time began to flow in slow motion. The voices of people asking if he was okay could be heard all around him.

Even in that moment, Eunho tightly gripped the certificate in his hand. He slowly closed his eyes.

[END]

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

After reading even the final epilogue, my heart began pounding like crazy. I turned my phone face down, got into bed, and pulled the blanket over myself.

The romance web novel <Welcome! Summer Film>.

It was a work that had claimed the number-one spot in the romance category with its school-life setting, something rarely seen in web novels.

And… it was also the notorious work where the Dogyeom faction and Eunho faction, divided over who should be the male lead, flew legal threats at each other in the comments every night.

“Calm down, Oh-young. It’s a novel, anyway.”

After taking a deep breath, I opened the comments. Seeing the top comments made me feel a little reassured.

The comments section soon became a battlefield, with the Dogyeom faction saying they were extremely satisfied with the ending and the Eunho faction asking why the ending had turned out like this.

I finished the beer I had been drinking and started reading the comments one by one.

Maybe they have a grand plan to change the male lead to Eunho in Season 2.

It’s not over until it’s actually over, right?

Under a comment saying, ‘Dogyeom is the undisputed male lead,’ I left a new comment.

[Comment: We have to see how Season 2 turns out. There’s no way our child is the second lead.

Reply: Second-lead fans, stop with the delusional self-victory.]

Second-lead fans? Ha. Although all the male characters I had rooted for until now had indeed been second male leads….

Eunho was definitely not a second lead.

Our Eunho was….

I swallowed the words I wanted to say and left another comment. Why are you cursing at the Dogyeom faction when the author is the creator? Well, obviously…. What if I cursed at the author, they got offended, and killed Eunho off just like this?

[Comment: Dogyeom fans don’t know anything. Isn’t Eunho’s storyline the one that makes him the male lead?

Reply: Yeah, your second lead is totally pathetic.]

“What?! Pathetic?!”

In the end, the word pathetic made me get up from the bed and put down the beer can. Even kicking at the air did nothing to calm my anger. Other people might wonder what was so important about the ending of a web novel that I was getting this worked up over it, but it was important to me. Because—

“Eunho is the reason I’m alive….”

Hadn’t a famous writer of makjang dramas once said something like that? That they wanted to write a drama so compelling that someone who wanted to die couldn’t die because they were curious about the next episode. <Welcome! Summer Film> had been that for me.

‘I knew that was how he’d end up.’

‘I’m really sorry, Senior. It’s because of me.’

After quitting the hospital because of relentless workplace bullying and an unfair incident, I lived like a recluse at home.

I had all my food delivered, blocked out the sunlight with blackout curtains, and wished that the next day would never come.

The rising sun was unbearably horrifying. My time had stopped, yet I resented the fact that the people who had made my life miserable were looking forward to their futures.

After spending every last bit of my severance pay, all I had left was overdue rent and a dark, hopeless future.

My parents had passed away long ago, and I had no children or siblings left.

“Perfect time to die.”

Just as I decided that I should die, my phone alarm went off. It wasn’t a friend, a former coworker, or family.

[“Wouldn’t you regret it? Giving up your dreams and your life because of someone else.” <- The ultimate male-lead line! Curious about which couple to invest in for this web novel? Check out <Welcome! Summer Film> now.]

It was an alarm from a web novel app that a junior nurse who had left the hospital before me and was like a younger sister to me supposedly had open every day.

She had installed it on my phone without my permission, telling me that I absolutely had to read it, and the alarm had happened to go off.

When I first saw the alarm, I thought of my junior. Then I thought of my miserable present. And then, as if I were possessed, I somehow reached the conclusion that I had to read this work.

There was no other reason. I was curious about the person behind the line that had made me stop, even if only for a moment.

[“Wouldn’t you regret it? Giving up your dreams and your life because of other people?”

“Get lost. What do you know to be running your mouth like that?”

“How could I not know? I believed I’d do nothing but judo for my entire life, and then my whole life collapsed because of an injury as pathetic as this.”

“…….”

“I’m still going to live. It sucks, but I have to keep living. What else can I do? Honestly, you want to live too, don’t you? Am I wrong?”]

I should have stopped at Chapter 1, but in order to find that line, I kept turning the pages, and turning them, and turning them, until I met Eunho. It was something I never would have done in the past, but I ended up bawling like a child at Eunho’s words. And then I realized.

I still want to live.

After learning about Eunho, my life began finding its light again. I cleaned, went outside, and got some sunlight.

I even worked short-term part-time jobs and, although it was difficult, tried to face other people again. Of course, the reason I earned money was to read the next chapter. If it weren’t for Eunho, my days wouldn’t have started moving again.

I hadn’t died because of Eunho. Just as Eunho, a neck-and-neck candidate for male lead, had comforted me, I hoped Eunho would also be comforted through Semin. That was why I wanted to see his happy ending all the way to the end.

“Still, this isn’t right. I’ve been living all this time just to see Eunho become the male lead.”

I picked up my phone and searched for the author’s email address. Then I began writing down all the reasons Eunho had to become the male lead.

[[Please reconsider the male lead.]

Hello, Author. I’m one of the readers who really enjoys your work.

Actually, if it weren’t for your work, I wouldn’t be in this world anymore.

I’ll skip all that and get straight to the point… Could you please make Eunho the male lead?

First, let me explain why Eunho has no choice but to be the male lead.

First, Eunho has the male-lead storyline.

What about Eunho’s backstory? Eunho is a nineteen-year-old teenager who gave up judo after an accident and is wandering aimlessly.

He may look like a delinquent or a troublemaker to other people, but he actually respects adults and is an incredibly thoughtful kid. Above all, doesn’t Eunho find a new life after meeting Semin?

Second, Eunho’s personality.

Eunho’s personality alone makes him a male lead. What is the archetype of a male lead? A tsundere. Yes, a tsundere.

Our country has loved tsunderes since ancient times. Kim Cheom-ji’s “Why aren’t you eating?” Does anyone not know that line?

And Eunho has black hair. Aren’t male leads usually black-haired? Why isn’t Eunho the male lead? No, no. If he wasn’t going to be the male lead, fine, but why kill a perfectly healthy kid off in a traffic accident….]

I don’t remember much after that. I didn’t have the courage to watch the final chapter, so I drank two cans of beer before reading it, and by the time I started writing the email, I was already pretty hazy. Anyway, the one thing I clearly remember is the final line I wrote.

[I wish I could just jump into the novel myself and pair Eunho up with Semin.]

Maybe it was the alcohol, or perhaps an illusion, but the ‘Send’ button glowing on my phone screen suddenly became far too bright.

Briefly and intensely, like a spaceship crash-landing on Earth, like a shooting star suddenly falling from the sky. It enveloped me.

“I guess I really am drunk.”

And just like that, I blacked out.