rookie mistake || j.hn

these damned protagonists

PART ONE

The worst thing about being self-aware?

To Chanhee, it's dealing with his stupid best friend (aka Main Character 1, Ji Changmin).

To Eric, it's dealing with his major crush on Lee Juyeon (aka Main Character 2) while playing the bad guy.

But to me?

It's dealing with the stupid treatment I gets from being an extra.

Changmin's about to fall over? Juyeon just has to shove me out of the way as hard as possible. There's one last cup of chocolate ice cream? Juyeon will give me the dirtiest look and cut right in front of me, just to take it.

I've been sick of it. Juyeon won't even admit his feelings for Changmin! At least Chanhee and Eric were somewhat important to the plot. I don't have a face in the book, and yet I appear in the most scenes! I even have a notebook where I write letters to the author, which contains mostly curses and insults. 

As much as I just adore being self-aware to Lee Juyeon's bullshit, the process of figuring out that you're in a comic book is terrifying.

---

"Isn't lunch good today?"  

I picked at my food, nodding along to Sunwoo's words. 

flip

Next thing I knew, I was in the math classroom. Sunwoo yawned. "Ya, wasn't lunch good today?"

I gave him a weird look. "What?"

flip

"Ya, I'm so excited for lunch. I bet it'll be good today."

flip. 

"Isn't the lunch–"

flip. 

"–good today–

flip.

"–Haknyeon-ah?"

flip.

From that moment on, I feared the sound of pages flipping. Hours, days, even weeks passed by in mere seconds. I had thought about all the possible reasonings. Was I time traveling? Was I going insane? Was a god cursing me?

Well, it all was explained when I dropped my phone one day. However, instead of falling to the floor like you'd expect, it stayed afloat midair.

Luckily for me, Eric happened to witness it. He brought me to Chanhee. There, I learned that my world isn't real. No, it was all a romance comic book: The Space Between Us. It's the shittiest romance comic you'll ever read. I mean, how many fluffy cliches can you stuff into a book without making the characters realize their love for each other? And oh my gosh, the amount of plot twists? Absolutely insane.

The more detailed plot is that Ji Changmin and Lee Juyeon were complete rivals. Until, oh no, their math teacher puts them next to each other. Every day is spent arguing, until, oh no x2, Juyeon realized Changmin's secret identity as an anonymous youtuber, Q. Oh no x3, Changmin now has to do all of Juyeon's biddings. But suddenly, oh no x4! They kiss kiss fall in love.

It would be a good story if the author had the ability to write better than a 14-year-old fanfiction writer who failed English class three times. I mean, come on! Who names a main character Juyeon, WHICH LITERALLY MEANS MAIN CHARACTER???????? Even Tamaki could write a less cliche romance novel. Actually, maybe they're tied...

But anyways, here's the thing about our world. We have a stage and a shadow. On the stage, the author controls our actions. These are what you see in books or movies. In the shadow, we control our own actions. This is the stuff you don't see. The things you can only form assumptions about. However, we forget it all once the next scene happens. Thus, characters only remember what happens in the scenes.

Unless you're aware. If you're aware, you remember everything. If someone punches you in the shadow, you'll remember it clearly, but any trace of the wound will disappear once the next scene starts. But if someone gives you a black eye on the stage, every character will remember it, and the wound won't fade until the author decides so.

That means that not only do I have to deal with this bullshit in the scenes, but I also have to deal with it in the shadows! And like, what am I gonna do? This isn't like acting, I can't just get Juyeon cancelled for his extraphobia. No, if I post about this mistreatment on Twitter, Juyeon will get hated on for about 5 minutes until his next scene starts and he's a god again.

So every day, I suck it up and face the fact that I'll always be an extra who gets pushed around by entitled characters with actual screentime.

I mean, what else can I do, right?

—

WATCH OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB YOU COWARDS
~your lovely extra