EX rank supporting role’s replay in a prestigious school-Chapter 975: Regret (9)

After finishing the lesson, Kwon Lena hurried toward the meeting spot she had arranged with Lee Yeoreum.

Kwon Jein seemed to want to have dinner together, but when she heard that Lena had a prior engagement with Yeoreum, she backed off willingly.

Kwon Jein sent Lena off with a face full of lingering regret, but in truth, Lena also felt a little disappointed.

‘It would be nice if I could introduce Yeoreum to them...’

Everyone on the Eternal Lake team, including Kwon Jein, wanted to be introduced to Lee Yeoreum by Kwon Lena.

They were so eager that it surprised Lena, but she rationalized it, thinking that it was probably just because they wanted to meet the family of Kwon Jein, her first disciple.

Lena's thoughts weren't completely wrong, but they weren't entirely accurate either.

The team from Eternal Lake knew all too well about Lena's family situation and were deeply grateful to Lee Yeoreum, who had been Lena's sole pillar of support at home.

Thus, they wanted to create a connection with Yeoreum to repay the favor, but it wasn't easy to naturally establish such a connection with Yeoreum, who was overwhelmed with long hours of work and late-night shifts, only going between the office and home.

If Lena were to introduce them, it would be a different story, but Yeoreum, feeling burdened, had only exchanged polite greetings.

‘I understand how Yeoreum must feel... I was also nervous when I first met Kwon Jein, so I can understand her feelings. I knew something was off when I brought it up...’

Lena thought back to the time when she had conveyed Kwon Jein’s request to Lee Yeoreum.

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It was late at night when Lena called Yeoreum after her work.

— "She wants to meet me? The Blue Violinist?"

— "Yes, since I’m her first disciple, she seems to want to get along with my family. She said she’d like to have a meal together..."

Lena had expected Yeoreum to agree immediately, though slightly hesitant, since Yeoreum had been quite happy about Lena learning the violin and had shown interest in Kwon Jein.

But Yeoreum’s response was shockingly strong as she rejected the offer.

— "No!"

Lena was startled by Yeoreum raising her voice. It was so unlike Yeoreum, who almost never raised her voice, even when they lived together.

Lena quickly checked if she had made a mistake or if there was some issue with her device's volume settings, but she couldn't find anything wrong.

It seemed Yeoreum herself was more startled than Lena.

In a frightened tone, Yeoreum muttered to herself.

— "If anyone finds out that I have any connections with a famous player team..."

It sounded as if having a connection with Eternal Lake would cause trouble for her.

Eternal Lake was a popular and well-regarded team, and it could cause envy and unwanted attention if someone found out about their connection. However, there was no reason to be so frightened or anxious about it.

‘Could there be an issue between Yeoreum’s company, Namgung Corporation, and Eternal Lake? I’ve never heard anything like that...’

There were almost no connections between Namgung Corporation and Eternal Lake.

If anything, the only link was that the theme park operated by Namgung Corporation was bought by the Hwangmyung Group and rebranded as the Hwangmyung Theme Park, which featured Kwon Jein as their model.

Lena was confused, but after thinking for a while, she concluded that Yeoreum was probably uncomfortable with having any ties to a “famous player team” in general, not necessarily because Kwon Jein was the master of Eternal Lake.

‘Since Yeoreum works in the Otherworld Industries division of Namgung Corporation, maybe she’s worried that having a connection with a place like Eternal Lake might cause her to be pressured into landing a big contract...?’

Lena's conclusion might not be close to reality, but she had no way of knowing what was truly on Yeoreum’s mind.

Anyway, Lena didn't want Yeoreum to face any difficulties because of her, so she decided to abandon the idea of setting up a meeting with Kwon Jein.

Afterward, Lena never brought up the topic again and, as usual, smiled at Yeoreum, pretending to know nothing.

"Yeoreum, long time no see."

"Yeah, it's been a while. I wanted to see you before the season changes."

"You said you'd be busy even during Chuseok, right?"

"...Yeah, looks like I’ll have to work through it."

Yeoreum seemed more worn out than the last time Lena saw her.

Last year during Chuseok, Lena had met with Yeoreum for a brief time, but this year it seemed unlikely they would meet.

As Lena swallowed her disappointment, Yeoreum apologized.

"I'm sorry... if I hadn’t made that mistake, I wouldn’t have been this busy."

"Huh? What happened...? Oh, never mind, if it’s difficult to talk about, you don’t have to."

Lena hastily tried to change the subject, but before she could, Yeoreum continued.

Yeoreum, holding a cup of sparkling water with ice, had her hand shaking slightly.

"You’ve heard that Namgung Group’s Otherworld Industries department is expanding, right? I’m participating in a big project, but I made some mistakes. Our department's in chaos with all the seizures and investigations... and it’s all because of me..."

Lena didn’t fully understand everything Yeoreum was saying, but she understood parts of it.

On the day of the final episode of the playlist featuring Dokkomiro, there was an incident at the broadcasting station.

One of the employees from Yeoreum’s department, who had been a participant, showed signs of knowing something about the incident and had urged others to flee just before the event happened.

Additionally, an old Otherworld simulator discovered in the underground was a product made by Namgung Corporation, and there were signs that people from their group had brought in equipment and supplies.

This led to speculation that Namgung Corporation was behind the incident, but after the investigation, they were cleared of suspicion, and Lena felt relieved.

There had been a lot of complications during the investigation, such as unusually long delays in the issuance of search warrants, allowing time for evidence to be destroyed, and Hong Gyubin, a Namgung Group official, being excluded from the investigation, but Lena didn't know any of that.

‘That employee must have predicted the incident using skills or clairvoyance, which made Namgung Corporation suspect. They were trying to do something good, but it almost backfired.’

Lena vaguely remembered hearing that the employee had resigned afterward, and Yeoreum briefly mentioned it in passing.

"If I hadn’t sent that document to the wrong address, things wouldn’t have gotten so tangled up..."

As Yeoreum blamed herself, Lena felt a pang in her heart as well.

In truth, if a project was doomed to fail because of a small mistake made by an employee without much authority or experience, it was a project that was bound to fail anyway.

There should have been safeguards to prevent such small mistakes, and the ability to cover for mistakes when they did occur, which pointed to issues with the project lead or system.

However, neither Lena, as a student, nor Yeoreum, a newcomer to the workforce, could see things that clearly and were just troubled by the situation.

"...Lena."

Yeoreum, muttering in self-blame, suddenly called Lena’s name.

Lena felt a shiver of tension run through her body, as she had never been called like this by Yeoreum before.

"Just once, if you could help me..."

Yeoreum’s voice trailed off, almost inaudible.

It felt like Yeoreum was deep in a pit, as though Lena was in a completely different position than before.

In the past, it was Yeoreum who reached out to Lena, but now, Lena was ready to reach out to Yeoreum.

Lena firmly decided to wait for Yeoreum’s next words.

"Ah..."

Yeoreum met Lena’s eyes and made a face that seemed about to cry.

But eventually, she shook her head and changed the subject.

"Ah, no, what was I even trying to say? Oh, what should we have for dessert? As the youngest, I always have to pick the menu. I’ll pick something according to your taste."

It seemed like Yeoreum had something to say but had swallowed it instead.

Lena couldn’t guess what Yeoreum had intended to say, but she assumed it wasn’t going to be a good suggestion.

‘Yeoreum...’

Lena would have been willing to do anything dangerous for Yeoreum, even if it meant making her master, Kwon Jein, and her classmates sad in the process.

It wasn’t easy to make the tigers accept my proposal, but in the end, it worked out as I intended.

At first, Hwang Ji-ho strongly opposed it just hearing the details.

— "Joi-shin, are you out of your mind? You want to be treated like that by the public?"

— "It’s not that strange a treatment."

— "How is being treated like 0th class not strange?"

Hwang Ji-ho spoke as if there was something wrong with being in 0th class, but I, Hwang Ji-ho, and Eun Ho were all in 0th class by now, so I didn’t get what he was on about.

— "I’m not thrilled, but if it’s for the safety of Yi-shin hyung, it’s not a bad idea."

— "Eun Ho, are you agreeing with Jo Yi-shin’s plan?"

— "I said I’m not thrilled. But Yi-shin hyung made his appearance in the incident with the Hojo. He’s already been on a live broadcast, and the Hojo can’t touch him now."

— "The relationship between Hojo and Jo Yi-shin hasn’t been made public yet."

— "But they’ll suspect him. We need to reduce that suspicion."

Luckily, Eun Ho started actively persuading Hwang Ji-ho, and Hwang Ji-ho eventually stopped protesting. I considered it as tacit approval.

— "The Japanese side might try to make contact with Yi-shin hyung soon."

— "I’m sure. They’re desperate after failing to handle Ahn Da-in. If they can use the ‘eternal second place,’ they’ll try to exploit the division within the ranks."

Hwang Ji-ho still seemed to dislike one of my suggestions, as he sarcastically remarked.

One of my ideas had been to spread rumors about a conflict between me and the top student from Eun Gwang High.

I’ve always maintained a vague academic standing, second only to the perfect top student, Joo Su-hyeok, and Ahn Da-in.

The forever second-place, 0th class vice president Jo Yi-shin.

If you leave out the name and think of the epithet alone, there’s a crazy person who comes to mind.

The one who caused trouble with Do Won-woo in the past.

That troublemaker, the vice president of 0th class, Jo Yi-shin, is gradually becoming infamous for his eccentricities. There was even a time when he had an argument with Do Won-woo, and later, it shifted to the strong homeroom teacher, Im Yeon-hwa.

Anyway, with this precedent, it’s easy to spread rumors of a conflict between me, Joo Su-hyeok, and Ahn Da-in.

Spreading a false rumor isn’t difficult, and it’s not hard to do with the help of the malicious commenters, Gye I-dam.

This wasn’t going to be too hard to pull off.

‘And if we let the rumors spread and have the Hojo take action, claiming they are protecting Ahn Da-in... it wouldn’t be such a bad move. I could challenge Ahn Da-in to a duel, and the Hojo could step in to stop it...’

Knock, knock.

The sound of a knock interrupted my thoughts.

I already knew it was the tiger coming.

It was obvious, so I just waited for them to come in.

Click.

Just as expected, the white tiger appeared.

I decided to get straight to the point.

“Are you just going to keep saying you’ll talk about it tomorrow?”

“No, I came to talk right now.”

“Then speak.”

Baek Ho-gun seemed to remember that we had agreed to discuss the matter of the four misfortunes. He had remained silent until now, and I had thought he had forgotten, but it seemed like he still intended to speak.

“However, after hearing this, you’d better go straight to bed.”

“Depends on what you have to say.”

“Misfortune will come to put you to sleep.”

“What?”

Instead of talking about angels, Baek Ho-gun continued with his words.

“Your malice is not ordinary. The being you call the mastermind harbors malice, different from yours, but the amount is vast, swallowing the nightmares of countless stars.”

“So?”

I was about to ask more about angels, but Baek Ho-gun’s words continued.

“If the four misfortunes sense the malice inside you, they will try to gauge which side to follow, between your malice and theirs. That’s my thinking.”