| Minjeong

After dangerously suggesting that she should run away, Jimin looked at me in disbelief, playfully pushed my shoulder, and chuckled.

"Are you insane?"

"Hmm, nope. You said you don't wanna go out there, so why not?"

"Well, the idea is not impossible..." Jimin paused, seemingly in thought as she listened to the faint crowd in the background. "But I don't wanna ditch the hundreds of people invited to that stupid party my grandma had set up."

"Oh, makes sense."

"You're actually a bad influence, huh?"

I chuckled nervously. "Whhaaaat? Nahhhh~"

"I'm kidding. I know you were only trying to cheer me up."

Jimin snickered as she began to push me out of the room, telling me to go back to the others since it was going to be her turn to perform. Before I could say anything, she shut the door right in my face.

I could've sworn I heard a few thuds behind that door. Then again, maybe Jimin was doing that habit of hers where she would jump a few times to calm herself whenever she felt nervous before performing in competitions.

"There you are."

As I was staring blankly at the door, I heard a voice to my left not too far from where I stood. When I turned to face the owner, I saw Yizhuo who crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She looked a bit annoyed, maybe directed at me...?

"Wow, you're not even hiding your personality from me anymore."

Yizhuo scoffed.

I pursed my lips to keep myself from laughing at her response. Since I made Yizhuo a lowkey smartass, I guess she already picked up on the fact that I'm not as mindless as Junwoo, who'd forget how she carelessly displayed this side of her personality.

It was in chapter ten when Junwoo overheard Yizhuo and a bunch of delinquents on the school's rooftop, hinting at her bold and aggressive nature. The reason Junwoo was there was to check on those delinquents as a replacement for Jimin, who was absent due to violin practice.

Those delinquents were female students jealous of Aeri, and Yizhuo overheard them in the bathroom planning to spread a false rumor about her crush secretly dating a handsome professor at the university. They were badmouthing her a lot too.

Yizhuo, who usually kept herself calm, snapped and followed them. At first, she displayed her usual cheerful side and masked her irritation by pretending to be all friendly with them. When the delinquents got cozy, the last thing they expected was Yizhuo's facade cracking as she pulled down all four of their hair.

Because her grip was so strong, the four girls couldn't do anything and collapsed to the ground. But Yizhuo wasn't done. She kept her grip firm, not letting go, and began cursing and threatening them. She told them that if anything bad happened to Aeri, she'd hire a bunch of hitmen and have their legs shot.

And thinking how I missed that scenario thanks to track training...

That must've been so hot of her though.

Oh, to have a Ning Yizhuo who'd protect me like that~

By the time Yizhuo let go of their hair, the four delinquents were helpless, knowing Yizhuo had come from a powerful family with influential ties to the government. Defeated, they ran away, only to bump into Junwoo, who stood in shock under the doorway.

The girls, too embarrassed to even look at him, fled the scene as quickly as they could. This marked the continuation of the scenario in chapter ten, revealing Yizhuo's true personality to Junwoo.

While Junwoo was impressed by how she protected Aeri from a potential scandal that could have wrecked her reputation, Yizhuo simply smiled cheerfully at him and spoke as if nothing "strange" had happened.

"Oh, wow. They're soooo bad, right? I was forced to act like that!!!"

And left.

However, the next day, Junwoo shrugged off Yizhuo's behavior, thinking it was just a spur-of-the-moment reaction. It was the only plausible explanation. After all, it's hard to notice things when you're in your own perspective compared to those observing from a third-person view.

Junwoo would only connect the dots once chapter fifteen occurs.

Let's not forget you're inside a webtoon, Minjeong.

With that in mind, I focused back on the situation, realizing that Yizhuo was holding my wrist and pulling me toward the stage to the audience seats.

"Were you looking for me?" I asked.

"What? No. I randomly found you standing in front of Jimin's room while I was getting something from a vending machine." Yizhuo let go of my wrist once she noticed I was pacing her steps. "I just thought of bringing you back since those two have been wondering where you went."

"Oh, I went to the flower shop and gave Jimin a bouquet of daisies."

"Seriously?" Yizhuo glanced at me, thought for a moment, and raised a brow, "Do you like her?"

"Well, yeah. She's like... my precious idol!"

"No, I mean. Do you like-like her?"

Narrowing my eyes, I hadn't even thought about that, so I casually shook my head. It's a bit odd for me to think about that. I'm the one who created them—so to like-like your own creation... well, that totally doesn't sound wrong if you dismiss the double meaning.

Yizhuo laughed. "Wait, are you even...?"

"Gay?" I finished her sentence, causing her to look at me, nod, and laugh more. "Honestly, aside from fictional characters and celebrities, I've never liked anyone before. But based on those characters and celebrities, I think I'm into women."

[ 13% ]

Seeing her meter unexpectedly increase from 5% to 13% as we arrived at the second front-row seats, Yizhuo smiled and nodded in response. She looked relieved. Knowing that she has a huge crush on Aeri, a girl, I guess finding out that I was the same made her a bit happy.

After all, she's been closeted throughout the webtoon and only revealed her crush on Aeri to Jimin around the end of the chapters.

Aware that she had no chance with Aeri, Yizhuo never admitted her feelings and solely moved on with her life, straying away from her family's traditions and becoming one of the best researchers at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.

Noticing that we were talking about something while we took our seats, Aeri and Junwoo looked at us curiously.

Now that we were around these two, Yizhuo went back to her bubbly self and spoke. "Minjeongie is into girrrrllls~!" 

Hearing this, both the two main characters flinched and looked at me with surprised faces. Revealing that so suddenly, I couldn't resist myself but instinctively punched Yizhuo on the shoulder who laughed and gave me a cute pout for hitting her.

I'm not really against her revealing that, it's true anyway.

Junwoo covered his mouth and gasped, "Wait, wait, wait... No cap?"

I laughed at his reaction, "No cap."

[ 9% ]
[ 34% ]

Oh, wow.

I didn't get that much of a reaction from the two, but I did see their meters. While Junwoo nodded in understanding and comfortably sat on his seat, his meter decreasing by 1%, Aeri didn't look at me despite her meter increasing by 4% and pointed to the stage where the lights