I Don’t Want to be a Villainess – Chapter 114

“……”

I slowly opened my eyes.

And I made eye contact with a girl who was staring at me with wide eyes.

…She was someone I had never spoken to before.

Judging by her dumbfounded expression, with her mouth slightly open and eyes wide, she seemed extremely shocked.

Was she startled because of me?

My head wasn’t working properly, like I had just woken up.

I blinked my stiff eyes a few times, trying to make sense of the situation, and soon noticed that everyone around me was looking at me with similar expressions.

…What exactly was happening?

Something soft was under my chin.

My left ear felt ticklish, and there was a pleasant scent.

“……”

Ah.

The place where we were sitting was a classroom.

And… my whole body, especially the front part, was leaning on something soft and squishy.

It was as if I were strapped into a ride at an amusement park, with something sturdy and comforting holding me from behind.

The warmth coming from the person in contact with my body was overall very pleasant.

“…Ah!”

As soon as I realized the situation, I hurriedly pulled my body back.

Squish.

…And then, I grabbed something I definitely shouldn’t have touched.

An alarm blared in my head.

I tried to stand up, but my legs were spread apart and floating in the air, so I couldn’t get up properly.

More than that, the arms wrapped around my back didn’t seem willing to let me go.

Somehow, I leaned my upper body back, and that’s when I finally saw Ha-neul’s face.

And I also saw where my hand was resting.

“U-Uhh…!”

I quickly withdrew my hand.

Then I anxiously checked Ha-neul’s expression.

Her face was flushed bright red, and tears were welling up in her eyes.

“I-I’m sorry…!”

Even though I apologized, Ha-neul’s expression didn’t change.

Come to think of it, it was understandable for her to make that face when someone suddenly climbed into her lap and groped her chest.

Ha-neul stared at me for a while with the same expression before cautiously asking,

“Sara…?”

She didn’t seem to care that I had climbed into her lap or accidentally touched her chest in my panic.

“……”

Oh, right, I see.

Just a moment ago, I was dreaming.

It wasn’t just any ordinary dream.

I had been retracing the memories of this body’s original owner, Sara.

And my last memory was definitely of meeting Choi Na-kyung.

I wasn’t in school like I was now.

So… I guess it’s safe to assume the real Sara had just passed by.

Although I have no idea why I’m in this position right now.

…But wasn’t I supposed to be ignored by everyone at this point?

“You guys…!”

Just as I was thinking that, I heard the teacher shout from behind us.

However, she didn’t say anything more.

I could roughly understand why.

After all, what could you even say to students in the middle of class who were so blatantly entangled like this?

Even if I were the teacher, I wouldn’t know how to handle the situation.

…Well, not that I had any intention of understanding the teachers at this school one by one anyway.

“Sara, right…?”

Ha-neul, seemingly unbothered by the teacher’s scolding, asked again.

“…Yes.”

That’s right.

I’m back.

I don’t know how it happened, but Sara found a way.

She reached the deepest part of her memories, took my hand, and brought me back here.

When I nodded, Ha-neul looked like she was about to burst into tears again.

Then, she suddenly tightened her arms around me.

“Huh?!”

Startled, I let out another weird sound.

I clung to Ha-neul, holding her a bit roughly.

Thanks to that, my arms naturally burrowed into Ha-neul’s…well, her chest, but she didn’t seem to care at all.

My chin rested on her shoulder again.

My left cheek tickled, pressing against something soft and warm.

I guess that was from Ha-neul hugging me tightly, causing our faces to touch.

“……”

I felt like I should say something, but no words came out.

I felt a bit guilty towards Ha-neul, but the situation was incredibly embarrassing.

If only this wasn’t during class or if I wasn’t lying on top of her like this, but standing up and hugging her instead, it would’ve been less awkward.

I made eye contact with the girl sitting behind me, who still had her eyes wide open.

Thud.

She dropped the mechanical pencil she had been holding.

Not realizing it had slipped from her hand, she continued staring at us, dumbfounded.

“……”

Well, I guess I deserve this.

I had thought I was doing the right thing in my own way, but I must have made Ha-neul anxious nonetheless.

I heard a faint sniffle near my ear.

My cheek felt a little damp.

“……”

I closed my eyes.

If my arms weren’t pinned between us, I would’ve hugged Ha-neul back and patted her on the back.

Instead, I just spoke while staying in her embrace.

“I’m sorry.”

“……”

Ha-neul said nothing.

“It’s okay now.”

…Yeah.

The real Sara—

I’m here.

—was still with me.

“……”

You saw everything?

Of course.

I started it.

……

Huh?

Why?

…Because I wanted to bring you back.

…Is that so.

The conversation we had in that dream seemed to be incredibly sincere.

Well, there were still some unresolved matters left.

Once I take responsibility, I should see it through to the end.

…Although, I’m not quite sure why things unfolded in this direction.

I briefly thought about asking ‘Sara’, but—

Is it nice?

Sara abruptly asked, sounding blunt, so I couldn’t bring myself to ask.

Even though we were in the same body, I felt as though someone was crossing their arms and glaring at me from her side.

“……”

Well.

If I had to answer whether it was good or bad, I couldn’t deny it was good.

But I didn’t have the courage to say that out loud, so I stayed silent, still hugged by Ha-neul.

I can hear you, you know.

Damn it.

*

During lunchtime.

While it was nice that the other students no longer whispered behind our backs, there were some unexpected downsides too.

Back when we were being ignored, they at least pretended to hide their conversations about us, and they tried not to look at us.

But now things are different.

Every pair of eyes was on us as we sat together with our trays.

And what used to be an empty area around our table now had a few more students sitting at nearby tables, though not all of them were occupied yet.

All of those students were clearly very interested in us.

They weren’t directly approaching or blatantly staring, but it was obvious they were curious about our conversation.

…They’re quite bold.

Sara had gone quiet ever since we entered the cafeteria.

Although she had handed control of the body over to me, it didn’t mean she was completely unaware of her surroundings.

She could probably see, hear, and feel everything I did.

And it wasn’t me who jumped up and sat on Ha-neul’s lap during class earlier; it was Sara’s will.

Even she seemed to realize how embarrassing it was.

“…I heard something,” said Son A-reum, slowly speaking at our table.

“You two were hugging again during class…?”

“……”

Ha-neul and I both averted our eyes.

We were guilty after all.

“…Weren’t you guys doing that last time to get attention?”

That’s right.

Back then, I had still been treated like I didn’t exist, so I needed to draw attention.

“But you don’t need to do that now.”

Exactly.

Now that I wasn’t being treated like a ghost anymore, there was no need to attract unnecessary attention.

There were hardly any people who could still ignore me when I spoke to them.

…Although, we did have an excuse.

That I had lost my memories and needed another shock to regain them.

But how could I explain that?

Even though Son A-reum could be called a friend now, I didn’t have the confidence to explain the almost fantastical nature of our situation and make her understand.

Only Ha-neul knew that there were two ‘personalities’, and So-hee and Soo-ah just thought I had lost part of my memories.

And only we two knew that I wasn’t just another ‘personality’, but ‘someone else entirely.’

…What was that?

Did I just hear someone laughing in the distance?

Maybe I’m imagining things.

Anyway, that’s how it is.

If I had told her that I lost my memories, she would’ve simply told me to go to the hospital.

And the biggest hospital around here was Hwayoung University Hospital.

How could I trust that place?

It wasn’t like I could trust other university hospitals either.

There were plenty of hospitals that had received huge donations from the Eugene Group under the guise of social contribution.

“And…”

Son A-reum, with her shoulders trembling, blurted out with a face flushed bright red,

“You two were sitting on top of each other in the middle of the classroom, and then… you ‘went off’ together…!”

……

The surroundings fell silent as if water had been poured over them.

No, it wasn’t just the surroundings.

It felt like the entire cafeteria had gone silent.

No, it wasn’t just a feeling.

‘Went off together?’

What does she mean?

Where to?

……

It was an innocent question from our pure-hearted lady.

And I had a similar thought.

So… considering the context of our conversation, “went off” wasn’t referring to physically leaving, but, you know, in the sexual sense.

I seriously thought about why that came up…

And then I remembered how Sara had climbed onto Ha-neul’s lap and passed out for a while.

…From others’ perspectives…

“No, it’s not like that!”

As soon as I realized, I freaked out and shouted.

“I just blacked out for a moment!”

……

Another wave of silence.

So-hee dragged her hand down her face.

Soo-ah’s face turned beet red, and she hung her head, while Ha-neul was the same.

“……”

Meanwhile, Son A-reum was frozen, her mouth slightly open.

Hey, you’re the one who brought this up!

I desperately suppressed the urge to scream and racked my brain for some kind of explanation.

…But what the hell could I even say?

…So, what exactly does ‘went off’ mean anyway…?

This is driving me crazy.