I Don’t Want to be a Villainess

“…….”

I slowly opened my eyes.

And I met the gaze of some girl staring at me with big round eyes.

……She was someone I had never talked to before.

Looking at her with her mouth agape and her eyes wide open, she seemed to be incredibly surprised.

Was she shocked to see me?

My head wasn’t completely awake, like I had just woken up from a nap. I blinked a few times to clear my fuzzy vision, and when I checked my surroundings, everyone around me was looking at me with similar expressions.

……What in the world was going on?

There was something soft under my chin. My left ear was itchy, and it smelled nice.

“…….”

Oh.

Right now, we were sitting in a classroom.

And…… my whole body, especially the front, was leaning against something soft and squishy. It felt like a safety bar you’d find on a ride at an amusement park, comfortably wrapping around my back. The thing touching my body was overall very warm.

“……Ah!”

Just as I realized this situation, I hurriedly pulled my body back.

Squishy.

……And then, all of a sudden, I grabbed something I definitely shouldn’t have.

An alarm went off in my head. I tried to stand up, but my legs were sprawled out and my feet were floating in the air, preventing me from getting up properly.

Above all, the arm that was wrapped around my back didn’t seem to want to let me go.

Only after I managed to lean my upper body back a bit could I see Ha Neul’s face.

And also the weird spot my hand was resting on.

“Wha, what……!”

I quickly pulled my hand away. Then, I quickly checked Ha Neul’s expression.

With her face flushed red, her eyes glistened with tears.

“I, I’m sorry……!”

I apologized, but I didn’t see any change in Ha Neul’s expression.

Surely, one would make that face if someone randomly climbed onto their lap and groped their chest.

Ha Neul stared at me with that expression for a while before asking cautiously, “Sara……?”

She seemed to completely disregard the fact that I was on her lap or that I had just freaked out and put my hand on her chest.

“…….”

Ah, I see, right.

I had just been dreaming until a moment ago.

It wasn’t an ordinary dream. I had slowly been unraveling the memories of the original owner of this body, Sara.

And my last memory was surely when I was meeting Choi Na-kyung. Not in a school like this.

So…… it’s safe to think that the real Sara had just passed by.

I didn’t know why I was in this awkward position, though.

……But wasn’t I, at the moment, being completely ignored?

“You guys……!”

As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I heard the teacher’s stern voice coming from behind me.

However, they couldn’t say anything more. I somewhat understood why. What could a teacher possibly say to students tangled up like this in the middle of the classroom?

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

……Well, I didn’t have any intention of understanding the feelings of the teachers at this school either.

“Sara, is that you……?”

It seemed Ha Neul was the same, as she asked again, unfazed by the teacher’s scolding.

“……Yeah.”

Right. I had come back.

I didn’t know how I got back, but ‘Sara’ found a way.

And she had followed me to the deepest corners of her memory and brought me here, holding my hand.

As I nodded, Ha Neul’s expression looked like she was about to burst into tears again—

And then she tightened her grip with the arms that were still wrapped around me.

“Huh……!”

I let out a weird sound in surprise again.

I awkwardly pressed my body against Ha Neul.

Thanks to that, my arms buried themselves into Ha Neul’s…… well, upper body. But she didn’t seem to mind at all.

My chin moved back up onto Ha Neul’s shoulder.

My left cheek felt ticklish as it brushed against something soft and warm. I must have ended up face to face with her since she tightly hugged me.

“…….”

I felt the urge to say something, but words wouldn’t come out.

I felt a bit sorry for Ha Neul, but I was extremely embarrassed by the current situation.

If only it weren’t during class, or if I had just been hugging her while standing instead of being on top of her, it wouldn’t have been so embarrassing.

I caught the eye of the kid sitting behind me, who was still staring at us with wide eyes.

Thud.

That kid dropped the sharp pencil they had been holding. It seemed they didn’t even notice the pencil slipping from their grip as they were engrossed in watching us.

“…….”

Yeah, this must be my own doing.

I thought I was doing the right thing, but it was also true that I made Ha Neul feel uneasy.

I heard a sniffle in my ear. My cheek felt a bit wet.

“…….”

I closed my eyes.

If only my arms weren’t folded between us, I would have hugged Ha Neul and patted her back.

Instead, I said while still holding on to her.

“I’m sorry.”

“…….”

Ha Neul didn’t respond.

“It’s okay now.”

……Yeah.

Now the original Sara—

I’m here.

—Right, still here.

“…….”

Did you see everything?

Of course. I started it all.

…….

Huh?

Why?

……I wanted to bring you back.

……I see.

The conversation I had in that dream seemed to be endlessly sincere.

Well, there were still a few unresolved matters remaining.

Once you decide to take responsibility, it’s right to uphold that responsibility until the end.

……But why the conversation took this direction, I didn’t understand well.

I thought about asking ‘Sara,’ but—

Are you okay?

When Sara inquired bluntly like that, I couldn’t bring myself to ask. Even though Sara and I were in the same body, it felt like someone was glaring at me from that side with folded arms.

“…….”

Well, if I had to answer either way, I’d have to say it’s good.

But, I didn’t have the courage to genuinely answer, so I silently stayed nestled against Ha Neul.

Everyone can hear you.

Damn.

*

Lunchtime.

Now that the kids didn’t whisper when we talked, there was certainly a good point, but unexpectedly, it had its own strong disadvantages.

While they were ignoring us before, it meant they were treating us as if we were ‘invisible’, so when we talked, there was at least a pretense of trying to hide it, and they tried to avoid looking at us as much as possible.

But now, it was different.

The eyes were pouring toward us as we gathered around with our trays of rice.

Moreover, our surrounding tables, where normally no one would sit, had some kids sitting here and there, not all of them, but a few.

And those kids were showing great interest in us.

They hadn’t directly spoken to us, nor were they openly staring, but they couldn’t hide their curiosity about the conversation we were having.

……That took quite a bit of courage.

Since Sara entered the cafeteria, it had grown immensely quiet. She had passed control of her body to me, but it seemed she wasn’t completely oblivious to the surroundings. She probably sensed what I saw, heard, and felt.

This time, it was her will that made me suddenly sit on Ha Neul’s thighs in the middle of class. She seemed to have enough understanding to know that it was a bit embarrassing.

“……I heard something about you guys.”

Son Ah-reum slowly opened her mouth while sitting at the dining table.

“You guys were hugging again in class, right……?”

“…….”

Ha Neul and I avoided her gaze. We actually did something like that.

“……You weren’t trying to attract attention with something like that, were you?”

Well, yes.

At that time, I was still being treated like a ghost, making it necessary to attract attention.

“But now, there’s no need for that, right?”

That’s right.

Since I stopped being treated like a ghost, there was no need to draw unnecessary attention. After I spoke up, there were hardly any people who could ignore us anymore.

……There was indeed a justification. I had lost my memory due to shock, and to regain it, I needed a new shock.

I had that justification, but—

How would I even put that into words?

Though I could now call Son Ah-reum a friend, I didn’t have the confidence to explain our fantastical situation to help her understand it.

The only one who knew about there being ‘two personalities’ was Ha Neul, while Sohee and Sua only thought I had forgotten a portion of my memory.

Moreover, only the two of us knew that I was not a ‘second personality’, but ‘just someone else.’

……What was that? Did I just hear laughing from a distance?

Am I imagining it?

Anyway, it’s like this.

If I had told them I lost my memory, they would have said to go to the hospital quietly.

……And the biggest hospital nearby is Hawang University Hospital.

How could I trust that place?

That doesn’t mean I could trust other university hospitals either. Even if it wasn’t Hawang Foundation, many hospitals received substantial donations from Yujin Group for social contribution purposes.

“And……”

Our lead committee member, who had been trembling with anger, blushed and said,

“You guys didn’t stop there, but……”

Son Ah-reum hesitated for a moment, grappling with her words before finally deciding to speak up.

“Th-That’s what you said, right……?!”

…….

The surroundings grew eerily quiet as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water over everyone.

No, it didn’t just feel quiet around, it seemed the whole cafeteria went silent.

No, it wasn’t just a feeling.

What do you mean by “you went away”? Where to?

…….

That was the innocent question of our lady.

And it was almost the same question I had in mind.

So…… thinking about the conversation we were having, ‘going away’ didn’t mean moving physically. It was about that, well, in a sexual sense.

Why on earth did that kind of phrase come up, I thought seriously about it……

And then I recalled when Sara had climbed onto Ha Neul’s thigh and ended up fainting for a bit there.

……To others, that looked like…….

“Ah, no, it’s not like that!?”

As soon as I thought that, I panicked and yelled.

“I just momentarily lost consciousness!”

…….

Silence crashed over us like a wave.

Sohee wiped her face with her hand. Sua’s cheeks turned bright red as she bowed her head, and Ha Neul was the same.

“……”

And Son Ah-reum just stood there with her mouth agape, frozen.

Hey, you brought it up, didn’t you!?

I desperately suppressed the urge to scream, trying to come up with an excuse.

……But what on earth was I supposed to say?

……So what does ‘going away’ even mean……?

This is ridiculous.

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