ITDS 01

Chapter 1.

Our Child Could Never Be the Second Lead (1)

“Semin, I like your movies.”

As usual, Dokyeom was gentle, though there was a slight tremor in his voice as he confessed his feelings to Semin.

His pronunciation was clear, but his gaze was turned slightly away. Semin liked even these shy moments of his.

“I like your acting when it’s captured on my camera, too. I always have. From the very beginning.”

As Semin continued her answer, Dokyeom’s face brightened. When their feelings finally reached one another, Dokyeom mustered up the courage to take Semin’s hand first. Semin slowly closed her eyes.

—Ah, wait. This is too much. What about our Eunho?

Dokyeom’s eyelashes trembled ever so slightly. Then his lips touched Semin’s.

—What? A kiss? No, why are high schoolers kissing?! Eunho, where did you go? Eunho!

Behind the two of them, the orange sunset was disappearing over the horizon. The camera filming the scene continued rolling, its red recording light blinking.

Their tightly clasped hands and the smiles that kept creeping onto their faces. It was unmistakably the final scene of a youth romance movie.

—No?! No way!!!

[<Welcome! Summer Film>

Season 1

END]

“What the hell is this? This makes no sense. Author, what is this?”

Even after swiping my thumb to the side, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, so I swiped back.

Wasn’t today supposed to be the final chapter of Season 1?

[9/10]

Then I noticed the remaining pages listed at the bottom.

I knew it. There was no way Eunho would back down like this.

I hurriedly turned to the next page.

It was the beginning of the epilogue.

[Epilogue]

Eunho started running toward where Semin was to tell her the news about his award.

When was the last time he’d run so hard that he was out of breath? He hurried his steps, filled with a happiness comparable to the sweat he’d once shed on the mat.

The traffic light turned green, and the numbers began flashing.

5, 4, 3, 2.

With only the final second remaining, Eunho’s body suddenly flew into the air. Eunho took in the sky filling his field of vision.

Thud!

With a tremendous crash, Eunho’s body slammed onto the ground.

When he blinked his eyes, everything began moving in slow motion. The voices of people asking if he was okay sounded as though they were coming from all around him.

Even then, Eunho tightly clutched the certificate in his hand.

He slowly closed his eyes.

[END]

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

After reading the final epilogue, my heart began pounding like crazy. I turned my phone facedown, climbed into bed, and pulled the blanket over myself.

The romance webnovel <Welcome! Summer Film>.

It was a school romance, a genre supposedly hard to find in webnovels, and it had claimed the number one spot in romance.

And… it was also the notorious novel where the Dokyeom faction and the Eunho faction, divided over which candidate should be the male lead, spent every night throwing legal threats at one another in the comments.

“Calm down, Oh Young. It’s just a novel.”

After taking a deep breath, I opened the comments.

Seeing the top comments made me feel a little better, at least.

The Dokyeom faction was saying they were extremely satisfied with the ending, while the Eunho faction was demanding to know why the ending had turned out like this, and the two sides had already started fighting.

I finished the beer I was drinking and began reading the comments one by one.

Maybe they have a grand plan to switch the male lead to Eunho in Season 2.

It isn’t over until it’s over, right?

I left a new comment beneath one that said, “Dokyeom is unquestionably the male lead.”

[Comment: We need to wait and see what happens in Season 2. Our boy can’t possibly be the second lead.

Reply: Second-lead stans, stop coping.]

Second-lead stans?

Ha. Even though every guy I’d rooted for until now had turned out to be a second male lead….

Eunho definitely wasn’t a second lead.

Our Eunho was….

I swallowed the words I wanted to say and left another comment.

Why would I insult the Dokyeom faction when the author was the creator of the whole thing? Obviously, there was a reason….

What if I insulted the author, they got annoyed, and killed Eunho off for good?

[Comment: Dokyeom stans don’t know anything. Isn’t Eunho’s character arc the one that screams male lead?

Reply: Yep. Your second lead is totally pathetic.]

“What?! Pathetic?!”

At the word pathetic, I finally got out of bed and set down my beer can.

Even kicking my feet at the air didn’t relieve my anger.

If someone else saw me, they might wonder what was so important about the ending of a webnovel that I was getting this worked up over it.

But it was important to me.

Because….

“Eunho is the reason I’m still alive….”

Didn’t a famous writer of melodramatic dramas once say something like that?

That they wanted to write a drama so compelling that even someone who wanted to die couldn’t do it because they were too curious about the next episode.

That was exactly what <Welcome! Summer Film> had been for me.

‘I knew this was going to happen to him.’

‘I’m really sorry, Senior. It’s because of me.’

After quitting the hospital because of relentless workplace bullying and an unjust incident, I became a shut-in.

I had all my food delivered, blocked out the sunlight with blackout curtains instead of ever going outside for a walk, and wished the next day would never come.

The rising sun was unbearably horrifying.

My time had stopped, yet the people who had made my life miserable were looking forward to their futures.

I resented them for it.

After spending every last bit of my severance pay, all I had left was overdue rent and a dark future with no hope in sight.

My parents had passed away long ago, and I had no children or siblings left either.

“It’s the perfect time to die.”

Just as I made up my mind to die, my phone alarm went off.

It wasn’t a friend.

It wasn’t a former coworker.

It wasn’t family.

[“Wouldn’t you regret it? Giving up your dreams and your life because of someone else.” ← THE ULTIMATE MALE-LEAD LINE! Curious about which couple you should invest in? Check out <Welcome! Summer Film> now.]

It was a notification from a webnovel app that a younger nurse who had left the hospital before me—someone I was close to like a little sister—was apparently addicted to every day.

She had installed it on my phone without my permission, insisting that I absolutely had to read it too.

The alarm had gone off by chance.

When I first saw the notification, I thought of my junior.

Then I thought of my miserable present.

And then….

As if I’d been possessed, I came to the conclusion that I had to read this story.

There was no other reason.

I was simply curious about the person responsible for a line that had managed to make me stop, even if only for a moment.

[“Wouldn’t you regret it? Giving up your dreams and your life because of other people?”

“Fuck off. What do you know to be spouting nonsense like that?”

“Why wouldn’t I know? My entire life, I believed I’d do nothing but judo forever, and then my whole life collapsed because of some stupid injury like this.”

“…….”

“I’m still going to live. It fucking sucks, but I’ve got to keep living. What else can I do? You want to live too, don’t you? Don’t you?”]

I should have turned it off after Chapter 1.

But I kept turning the pages to find that line.

And another.

And another.

Until I met Eunho.

It was something I never would have done in the past, but I ended up sobbing like a child over Eunho’s words.

And then I realized.

I still want to live.

After getting to know Eunho, my life began to find its light again.

I cleaned my home.

I went outside.

I let the sunlight touch me.

I even worked part-time for a while, trying to face people again despite how difficult it was.

Of course, the reason I was earning money was so I could read the next chapter.

If it hadn’t been for Eunho, my days wouldn’t have kept moving forward.

I was alive because of Eunho.

Just as Eunho, one of the closest male-lead candidates, had comforted me, I wanted Eunho to be comforted through Semin, too.

I wanted to see their story through to the end and watch Eunho finally have a happy ending.

“But this still isn’t right. I’ve lived all this time just to see Eunho become the male lead.”

I picked up my phone and searched for the author’s email address.

Then I began writing down all the reasons Eunho had to become the male lead.

[[Author, Please Reconsider the Male Lead.]

Hello, Author.

I’m one of your readers, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying your work.

To be honest, if it weren’t for your novel, I probably wouldn’t be in this world anymore.

Anyway, putting all that aside… I’ll get straight to the point.

Could you please make Eunho the male lead?

First, I’d like to explain why Eunho has no choice but to be the male lead.

First, Eunho has the male-lead backstory.

What do you think about Eunho’s past?

Eunho is a nineteen-year-old teenager who gave up judo after an accident and has been wandering aimlessly ever since.

He may look like a delinquent and a troublemaker to other people, but he’s actually respectful toward adults and incredibly thoughtful.

Most importantly, doesn’t Eunho find a new life after meeting Semin?

Second, Eunho’s personality.

Eunho is simply a male lead from the moment you look at his personality.

What is the quintessential trait of a male lead?

A tsundere.

Yes, a tsundere.

Our country has loved tsunderes since ancient times.

Kim Cheom-ji’s famous line, “Why aren’t you eating?”—is there anyone who doesn’t know it?

And Eunho has black hair.

Aren’t male leads usually black-haired?

Why isn’t Eunho the male lead?

I mean, if he’s not going to be the male lead, then fine, but why kill a perfectly healthy kid off in a traffic accident….]]

I don’t remember much after that.

I didn’t have the courage to read the final chapter, so I drank two cans of beer before doing it, and by the time I started writing the email, I was already hazy.

But one thing I remember for certain is the last line I wrote.

[If it were up to me, I’d jump straight into the novel and pair Eunho up with Semin myself.]

Maybe it was the alcohol.

Maybe I was imagining it.

But the ‘Send’ button glowing on my phone screen suddenly became excessively bright.

Short and intense, like a spaceship crash-landing on Earth, or a shooting star suddenly falling from the sky.

It enveloped me.

“I really am drunk.”

And just like that, everything went black.