First, from the moment he and the female lead had that fight, bad things kept happening around her...
Baek Yugyeong showed up around chapter 15, and the moment he appeared, he got roasted by female lead Seo Hara. That Baek Yugyeong was nineteen, a year ahead of the current timeline. He'd been in a standoff with a student who'd been talking behind his back, when Seo Hara caught him at it.
...Well, to be fair, the student was in the wrong to some extent.
The student had been gossiping with a friend about how Yugyeong was a disowned child of the Baekgyeong Group and so on, and getting caught for that was on him. But Baek Yugyeong was no slouch either in how hard he pushed back. In the middle of the hallway, in front of everyone, he'd apparently made humiliating comments. He was big-built too, and even if he was a sidelined heir, his family setting was no joke, so he came across as genuinely threatening.
The kind of pressure male students knew how to wield, maybe. Yugyeong pinned that student with sheer external weight while listing off his weaknesses and family circumstances in front of everyone, mocking him.
Something like, 'Know your place'? Something along those lines.
Then Seo Hara, who didn't know the backstory, discovered the scene and called him out, and their relationship snapped like a dry twig.
Baek Yugyeong, wearing that distinctive cynical expression of his, looked at Seo Hara and said quietly:
"Isn't it you who's in the wrong, running your mouth without knowing the situation?"
Yugyeong's behavior wasn't right, but it wasn't entirely wrong either. It was also true that Hara, without knowing the circumstances, had shielded the student and branded Baek Yugyeong as trash on first meeting.
After Seo Hara and Baek Yugyeong fell out, bad things started happening around Seo Hara. Small things going missing, kids around her ignoring her, situations like that. Most tellingly, girls she'd been close with early on drifted away from her for no clear reason, which said it all.
Probably either Baek Yugyeong's followers doing it voluntarily, or him giving the order. One of the two.
Naturally Seo Hara would've recognized that bad things started right after her clash with Baek Yugyeong, so of course she hated Yugyeong.
It was that "regret male lead" trope... probably later on, Hara apologizes for misunderstanding him, and their relationship starts closing the gap.
What was certain was that up to chapter 35, which was as far as Chaheun had read, their relationship was as bad as sworn enemies. Every action they took drove the distance between them further.
...The comments back then had spoilers about what Yugyeong later did, and it was a lifelong regret that Chaheun had scanned them with half-closed eyes and missed most of it. What was certain was that Baek Yugyeong was definitely a regret male lead.
...Because... he cries. Real hard.
Past chapter 35, Chaheun had just been flipping through fast, so he didn't know exactly which chapter, but Baek Yugyeong would be shedding tears in the beginning of a cold autumn. It was just drawings, and he didn't know the story context, but it was after he'd fallen for Seo Hara.
He was the kind of kid you'd fall for. Even if things started rough with Baek Yugyeong, in true high-teen romance fashion, she'd have gradually fallen for him.
Even without knowing the plot, he remembered Baek Yugyeong's expression softening more and more when he looked at Seo Hara. Even if he'd end up crying in the end.
Seo Hara was, essentially, a young lady who'd been raised well in a good household with good education. If she found out she'd said something to Baek Yugyeong without knowing the full story, she'd probably apologize first later on.
Aigo, a guy really should let a girl win sometimes. Didn't have to go that hard. That's how you can't even confess and end up crying.
...Right, well, that hadn't happened yet, so setting it aside.
The problem was, he remembered the general flow, but the specific details had blurred. Like the type of memory where things would come back if he saw them, but not on their own. Trying to do a blank recap of content he'd read a month ago was surprisingly hard.
Common sense said that if you knew you were inside a manhwa world, you should've written down the protagonists' identities and the events that would happen in detail.
But the moment he'd landed in Seo Chaheun's body, even knowing it was the high-teen romance world, he'd had no bandwidth for that. The relentless flirtations from minors were a storm, and for a Chaheun who hadn't even thought about the horrifying phrase "boyfriend" in over twenty years, confessions from underage boys were chaos itself. Between rejecting those and diving headfirst into Operation Return Seo Chaheun, a month had passed, and in the midst of already-fading memories, he hadn't predicted a second male lead would show up.
So, why is this kid acting like this toward me?
The Baek Yugyeong in his memory was definitely not a lightweight character. Having only really read the dialogue in the stretch between chapters 15 and 35, and only seeing him being cold and terse, the Baek Yugyeong who was clinging to him with such cutesy affection was actually harder to handle. Honestly, even during the stretch where he was falling for Seo Hara, he was never this warm and clingy. He was cold and standoffish.
Chaheun shook his head.
"I'd be in trouble even if you gave me your entire fortune."
"...Then what if I threw myself in with the fortune?"
...Was this really a current high schooler?
Faced with Baek Yugyeong's outrageous confidence, Chaheun was just left speechless. When he stared blankly, Baek Yugyeong smiled brightly, made a chin-cup with one hand, and asked if he was staring because he was too pretty and handsome.
What a piece of work. Can I just take the fortune and be done with it?
Actually saying that would hurt him. Chaheun couldn't bring himself to say something that cruel to a kid he saw as young.
And besides, even if you had a whole fortune, it'd still be more than mine.
...Baekgyeong, Baekcheon, whatever, he was apparently the second son of a top-3 chaebol family in this fictional Korea.
Must be nice~.
Chaheun decided ignoring was the answer, didn't respond, and moved toward his classroom.
By the time Yugyeong had followed him all the way to his class and started feeding him snacks, Chaheun realized he had to somehow shake this boy off.
It wasn't much of a connection to begin with. From the start, it wasn't the kind of connection that should've stretched this far.
Day 32 of the "Bring Seo Chaheun's Soul Back to Seo Chaheun's Body" challenge. Yesterday he'd followed the necromancy book to the letter but failed again, and he'd been walking home in a heavy mood when he got jumped by some delinquents.
This damn pheromone.
The number of times this body's pheromones had spectacularly derailed his situations was uncountable at this point.
"Yah, I hear you rejected Seojun's confession."
"...Uh, my friend. Who exactly is Seojun?"
"Fucking crazy, you don't even remember his face?"
"...No, I mean, who's Seojun. If it's someone who confessed to me, the only one who actually told me his name properly was Min Haseong, or whatever his name was."
Was it Min Haseong. He was a pretty-looking kid, and it was around day three, not exactly a confession but he'd suddenly walked up, handed him a chocolate, and left. Probably a try because he liked him.
Haseong? The name's oddly familiar. Does he appear in the original work?
Anyway, Alphas had absolutely no manners, being so ridiculously self-assured. Without even giving their names, they'd throw confessions at you, and just from that you could get a rough sense of what Alphas were like in this world.
He'd heard that if there was some standout guy nearby, there was roughly a 90 percent chance he was an Alpha. Which suggested Alphas had superior genetics even among humans. That was probably why they were so obsessed with breeding and had this elaborate system for seducing the opposite sex.
Of all things, he had to end up possessing a body attached to that stupid, breeding-obsessed system that seduced the opposite sex.
When Chaheun, playing dumb, asked who he was talking about and whether they were friends of the kid, the delinquent-looking student turned to his friends and started snickering.
"Wow, fuck, how much has this bastard been getting around that he can't even remember names? Yah, contact Chae Seojun and tell him this bastard's a fucking slut so don't take it personally."
The others around laughed and joined in. Chaheun's brow furrowed.
This little bastard.
He wanted to knock the guy out, but while he was somehow keeping his cool and figuring out how to escape, his eyes met a guy passing by the alley. That was Baek Yugyeong.
The thought that this guy was really beautifully handsome stole his gaze for about three seconds, when the kid suddenly clamped a hand over his nose and just walked past.
You're that big and you're just going to walk on by? What a genuine bastard.
The fact that he'd even briefly hoped for help felt ridiculous.
Eventually, when the students' language started escalating and turned into a physical fight, Chaheun subdued the three of them with a bit of effort and left the alley.
...Unfortunately for them, I'm a former Judo reserve national team member. Well, I got hurt and quit, but.
Seo Chaheun's body didn't look particularly healthy, but experience must've carried over because he could actually see the movements. At least he wasn't at the level where he couldn't handle a few overconfident delinquents.
He'd sauntered out casually, and right near the alley his eyes met the boy's again.
At first, Baek Yugyeong looked like he was curious how Chaheun had gotten out of that situation, then his nose twitched once.
"..."
The boy's clean brow briefly furrowed. Chaheun frowned back and glared at the boy.
"What. You want to fight too?"
Because his first impression had been so bad, the words came out sharp.
You look perfectly capable, you could've reported it to the police at least.
He was picking a fight, but the boy glanced at the nametag on his chest and his lips twitched. Then, as if putting on charm, he folded his eyes into half-crescents and called out to him.
"Hyu-ung."
"...Why would I be your hyung?"
Chaheun stared at him with a flat expression and said it cynically. A grown adult being petty toward a kid, sure, but he couldn't bring himself to feel warm toward a student who'd watched and walked on.
"Ah, you're right..."
"..."
"Umm, I'm sorry. ...I was too scared, that's why. I was hiding trying to find my phone to report it..."
"..."
"I didn't think you'd knock them all out and come out, hyung."
"...I see."
Hearing it out, it made enough sense, and Chaheun quickly accepted it and relaxed his expression.
If he'd been going to just walk past, he would've been long gone already, so it was a plausible story.
Right. That could happen. Being big doesn't mean he's a fighter, and looking at him, he's clearly some pampered young master...
The soft-featured boy looked like he might get scared easily, and if he'd hovered nearby trying to report it without directly intervening, he did have some decency. Chaheun conceded that and tried to move on. Thinking he was actually a little admirable.
"Hyung, do you have a partner?"
He was about to walk on his way, when a strange question caught him again.
Dating someone his own age would make that person a minor-exploiter, and dating this body's age group would make him a minor-exploiter, so there was no way he'd have a partner.
"No, I don't."
He'd just answered casually, but this pretty-faced boy's face lit right up.
Honestly, with a face like that, when he smiled prettily it was seriously blinding. In terms of looks he was on the level of, an idol of that generation would be no match. Truly a character from a high-teen romance manhwa. Were even the extras here all pretty and handsome?
...No, wait. Those guys from earlier weren't really...?
Just as he was forming a short impression of the boy,
"Hyung, want to date me?"
At the abrupt confession, Chaheun thought, ah, so this one's an Alpha too, and rejected him with practiced ease on the spot. In the middle of all that, he noticed that within an otherwise neat outfit, the bottom button of his blazer was gone, with a thread hanging loose, and it was strangely conspicuous.
But… what to do with this tenacious boy who was now saying it was love at first sight, and had been chasing him around for four days straight.
Kid, forget the fact that I'm a man—my exterior's a teenager but my inside is an old guy. You crazy kid.
Saying that out loud would make him the crazy one. Chaheun decided to keep his mouth shut.
"Hyu-ung, aahn."
"...You eat it."
"What, are you worried about me?"
Chaheun let out a sigh at Yugyeong, whose eyes sparkled as he acted cute, asking if he was concerned. Yugyeong, unfazed, handed over the chocolate he'd been holding and asked Chaheun to put it in his mouth, opening his own mouth wide.
Chaheun looked away like he'd witnessed something he shouldn't. Even if the guy was pretty-looking, this was practically a fully grown man. Well over 180, and built too.
...Plus the real problem is I'm not even an Omega.
...In his memories, he remembered Seo Chaeil telling him not to reveal that he was a Beta outside the house. He'd considered just openly saying it, but his parent Seo Chaeil had left that instruction for a reason. Believing you should listen to your parents at least on things like this, Chaheun kept his mouth shut.
But in short, this guy is saying he likes what's essentially a crossdressing man. This is a mess.
Somehow, he felt a little bad for Baek Yugyeong.
