Creator || Lee Jaehyun

three

Hyunjae graciously led her to the nurses office, and even stayed with her as the nurse took her temperature and asked questions. 

"You seem perfectly healthy," the nurse told her. "The only thing you said you have is a headache, but with the medicine you just took, that should go away in 20 minutes or so." 

"Thank you," Yerin said gratefully, looking at both the nurse and Hyunjae. The nurse smiled in return, leaving to go check on another patient. 

"What class do you have?" Hyunjae asked her. "Maybe we're in the same class." 

"I don't... I don't know my schedule," she said softly, her gaze cast to the floor. She had herself, only the clothes on her back. She hadn't come into this world with a book bag, extra clothes, no money... 

This was going great. 

Frustrated tears welled up in her eyes as she searched her jacket pockets for something, anything, that could help her. 

She pulled out a card and a folded piece of paper. 

Her University ID card, and her schedule. 

Yerin gasped, the objects falling out of her hands and onto the floor. She stumbled backwards, tripping over a chair and crashing to the floor. 

"Yerin!" Hyunjae said in alarm, reaching for her. 

"Don't touch me!" she screamed, crawling backwards, the certainty of her situation finally sinking in. This was much, much too vivid to be a dream. This wasn't something she could just wake up from. 

Somehow, she'd ended up in her book. 

And now she had no way out. 

She picked herself up off the floor and ran out the door, but she didn't get far. She crashed into two people who were just about to enter the nurses office, and bounced back onto the floor. Ouch. 

"Hey! We were just coming to see you, are you feeling better now?" Hyewon said in concern, reaching down to help Yerin off of the floor. 

Yerin looked around, at Hyewon who was reaching out to her, at Hyunjae who had followed her out of the nurses office and was holding her card and schedule, and at the new boy. She stayed on the floor and crawled away, fear building up inside of her. 

"This is the girl you were telling me about?" the boy whispered to Hyewon. "What's wrong with her?" 

"Shh Juyeon, she can probably hear you."

Yerin stopped in her tracks, letting out a small cry. Juyeon. Another character she'd created, was here, right next to her, so real. 

"You dropped these," Hyunjae said softly, walking over to her and sitting on the floor beside her. "What's the matter? Why are you crying? Why are you trying to run away?" 

She hadn't realized that tears were streaming down her cheeks. She was just scared. So, so scared. She was too scared to speak, so she wordlessly took her card and schedule from Hyunjae's hands. 

"I know math is a scary class," Hyunjae joked lightly. "But you don't have to be this scared." 

She put her hands over her face, her body shaking with sobs. "I just want to get out," she whispered. "I just want to go home," she said, knowing that she couldn't. Did she even have a home, in this world? Probably not. 

Hyunjae scooted forward, taking her in his arms and letting her cry into his chest. 

"This is all your fault," she sobbed. "Why did I feel sorry for you? If I hadn't felt sorry for you, this never would have happened. Your heart isn't even breaking, you're just a stupid character in my stupid book!" she screamed, folding her hand into a fist and weakly hitting his shoulder as she cried. 

She felt him tense a bit at her words, and immediately felt a pang of guilt. But as soon as she felt guilt, she remembered that he was just a character, not a real person, and then she felt frustrated and confused all over again. 

Hyunjae didn't let go of her. He held her until she'd cried all her tears away. When she looked up, Hyewon and Juyeon were long gone. She wasn't sure how much time they'd spent in that hallway, but she was grateful that it seemed to be in a part of school that not many people went too. 

"Do you feel better now?" Hyunjae asked, finally letting her go. It made her kind of sad for a moment. She liked being in his arms, it felt safe there. But she'd written him so that he'd only look at Hyewon. She'd written him to be such a sweetheart that girls would get confused, thinking that maybe he liked them, when in reality, it was just his sweet nature. 

As long as she was here, she had to make sure that she didn't get confused. 

Because that would be dangerous. 

"I feel better," she whispered, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Thank you." 

"Maybe we should get you home, hm?" he asked, smiling kindly at her. "If you tell me where it is, I can drive you there. Or do you live on campus?" 

"I live... nowhere," she whispered, a sense of dread coming over her. "I don't have a home. I just, I just-" her voice broke and she pressed her fingers to her lips, trying to stop herself from crying. She'd already cried too much today. 

Hyunjae rubbed her back comfortingly. "It's alright if you don't know," he said. "I can take you to my house today. Stay for as long as you need." 

This sweet, trusting child. 

He lived in a small, one-bedroom apartment that he rented. He worked part-time to pay for it, and quite honestly, he was probably behind on that rent. He couldn't afford her, not for long. Honestly, he shouldn't even be trusting her, not when she appeared out of nowhere and had been acting like a crazy person since they met. 

But his actions were exactly in character. 

"Thank you," she whispered. "For as long as I'm here... I'll get a job. I'll pay rent." 

"There's no need-" 

"I want to," she insisted, not knowing how or where she was going to find a job. 

Hyunjae stood up, offering his hand to her. She took it, allowing him to help her up. "You're new, right? So you must not have any friends yet. Would you like to be friends?" he asked her. The sincerity in his eyes made her feel safe. 

"I would love too," she said softly. 

"I'm going out tonight, with my other friends. You saw them earlier, Hyewon and Juyeon. Would you like to come out with us?" 

"And be a third wheel?" she giggled. "That's sure to be fun." 

Hyunjae smiled sadly at her. "You can tell, already? That we both like her?" 

Because I wrote you, you adorable idiot.

"You guys may be just a little obvious," she teased. 

"You should come," Hyunjae told her. "So when Hyewon ignores me and only looks at Juyeon, I'll have a friend to comfort me," he said playfully. But she could see the sadness in his eyes. 

Oh gosh. You're just a character. Why are your feelings so deep? Why are your eyes so sad?  

Again, she felt guilty. She wanted to tell him to give up, to move on, but she knew she couldn't. That would mess up her perfect plot. Plus, how much out of line could he go? Sure, he'd gone off script for her, but everything had still been very in-character for him. Moving on from Hyewon... she hadn't written his character to be capable of that. 

Pushing away her guilt, she smiled at Hyunjae, holding out her hand. He took it, and they shook hands in agreement. 

"Deal."