World Rank 0, Please Stop! (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 15

Seonwoo Jin dragged me outside, saying he’d treat me to a meal instead of the homework proxy gang.

Turns out, I wasn’t an unpaid slave after all!

‘This guy… is he unexpectedly decent?’

Since he was offering, I had no reason to refuse, so I quietly followed Seonwoo Jin.

Today’s menu was hamburgers.

“Uh…”

“What?”

“Can’t we get something else?”

“Ju-eun.”

“Yeah?”

“Just eat what’s given.”

“Okay.”

I obediently picked a hamburger.

Although I had no freedom in choosing the main dish, I did have the liberty to pick which type of hamburger.

I almost chose my usual favorite, but since it was a free meal, I decided to go for the most expensive one. After all, it was just a chain burger—how pricey could it really be?

After ordering, we sat down at our seats.

An awkward silence lingered briefly.

To be precise, I was the only one feeling awkward. I couldn’t tell what Seonwoo Jin was thinking inside, but at least outwardly, he looked completely carefree.

Actually, he probably really didn’t have much on his mind—he seemed like that kind of guy by nature.

‘Now that I think about it, I don’t even have anything to talk about with him…’

We rarely spent time face-to-face, so I’d forgotten about it.

“……”

“……”

Unable to bear the awkwardness any longer, I finally spoke first.

“Hey, there’s something I’m curious about.”

I glanced at him cautiously before asking softly,

“Don’t you have any friends?”

Seonwoo Jin replied immediately,

“Yeah, I don’t.”

“……”

He just admitted it like that?

I’d expected him to deny it outright, so his honest answer left me even more flustered.

What I really wanted to ask was why he assigned homework to me, someone who wasn’t even his friend… But in my panic, the words just slipped out.

“Why don’t you have any?”

“You sure know how to ask rude questions without batting an eye.”

Seonwoo Jin gave me an incredulous look.

“Ju-eun, don’t you know you’re not supposed to ask that kind of thing to someone who doesn’t have friends?”

…Well, that was true.

But somehow, it felt unfair.

Sorry, but you seem like a special case!

To me, Seonwoo Jin didn’t lack friends because nobody liked him—he was the type who deliberately shut the world out. If he ever actually tried, I doubted he’d struggle to make friends.

Had he ever even attempted to make friends in the first place?

Wait—actually, weren’t the Three Great Idiots already his friends?

Now that I thought about it, I was genuinely curious. How on earth had those three become friends?

‘All three of them have way too strong personalities.’

Back in the original story, the kids mingled so naturally I never noticed, but now it struck me as an incredibly odd combination.

There wasn’t even a ‘^-^’ character here to mediate among the students, making it even weirder.

Seonwoo Jin and Ban Ha-min… Wow, they really didn’t match at all.

‘Do those two even talk to each other?’

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t picture them hanging out alone together.

Given Seonwoo Jin’s personality, I couldn’t imagine him putting up with someone like Ban Ha-min… Or maybe he just found it too bothersome to react at all.

I ran through various scenarios in my head, but all of them felt off.

‘…Someday, I’ll understand.’

I swallowed my curiosity about Ban Ha-min and simply nodded.

“Well, it’s possible for someone not to have friends. But if you ever do want to make some later on, you should definitely befriend someone who smiles a lot. Got it?”

“What are you even talking about?”

“There’s such a thing.”

If only there were a ‘^-^’, they could complete the Four Heavenly Kings… I clicked my tongue, feeling sorry for Seonwoo Jin’s painfully narrow social circle.

While I was doing that, Seonwoo Jin stared at me as if I were strange.

These kids here really never let my nonsense slide…

I cleared my throat and said,

“If you’re going to make friends anyway, wouldn’t it be better to pick someone cheerful?”

“I guess you could see it that way. I’ll respect your opinion.”

Despite saying he’d respect me, his expression clearly showed he wasn’t convinced at all.

As we kept exchanging random remarks, the hamburgers arrived. Seonwoo Jin stood up, saying he’d go get them.

At that moment, the system popped up abruptly.

[Miss Ju-eun!]

“Oh, jeez!”

It kept appearing out of nowhere without warning now.

I lowered my voice and whispered,

“I told you not to suddenly show up when I’m with people.”

[But I just couldn’t hold it in anymore! >0<]

Couldn’t hold what in?

It didn’t sound like anything good was coming. I narrowed my eyes and stared at the dialogue box.

[Seeing you getting along so well with Master Jin! I’m so happy you’ve finally decided to work hard! T_T]

Just as I expected—nonsense.

“No, when exactly wasn’t I working hard?”

[You’ve always been trying to avoid it!]

…Well, that was true. I still wanted to right now.

But that didn’t mean I had nothing to say in my defense.

Wouldn’t anyone act like me in this situation?

Who in their right mind would willingly pair up with Ban Ha-min?

I was merely reacting as any perfectly ordinary, rational person would.

[That’s just cowardly excuse-making. =_=]

Then you go befriend Ban Ha-min yourself after hearing Chun-ja call you out.

Even aside from him being a canon character, I had no desire whatsoever to get close to that lunatic with such unnervingly clear eyes.

‘His eyes weren’t those of an ordinary madman.’

Just imagining what might happen if he caught me sent chills down my spine.

Ah, just thinking about Ban Ha-min again gave me a headache.

Exhausted, I waved my hand dismissively at the system.

“Alright, fine! Just go away for now. I’m about to look like a weirdo again.”

I remembered how Yoo Hee-na had labeled me suspicious after seeing me talk to the system.

My image was already ruined, but there was a world of difference between “weird kid” and “crazy person.” I couldn’t afford to look like a lunatic even to Seonwoo Jin.

I wanted to preserve my human dignity.

But the system failed to appreciate my profound intentions.

[No way! I have to keep watch over whether you’re working hard or not! O_O!]

Frustrated, I raised my voice.

“I said, just go inside and monitor me quietly by yourself, okay?”

At that exact moment, my eyes met Seonwoo Jin’s as he returned with the burgers.

Huh.

A brief silence hung between us.

After a long pause, Seonwoo Jin spoke with a reluctant expression,

“You… talk to yourself too?”

“……”

And so, following Yoo Hee-na, I was now branded as crazy in Seonwoo Jin’s eyes as well.

[This is the timeline separator]

After dinner, we returned to school.

“That was a really good meal. Well, I’m heading off now. Bye.”

When we reached the main building where our classroom was, I subtly tried to wrap things up.

Come on, let’s end this nicely right here!

I’d left my pencil case in the nurse’s office, but I could just grab it tomorrow. I planned to quickly pack my bag in the classroom and head straight home.

But at my words, Seonwoo Jin frowned as if puzzled.

“Go? Go where?”

I took a small step backward.

“…Home?”

“What?”

The moment our eyes met, a bad feeling crept up on me.

…Time to run.

I quickly turned to dash into the main building.

But the instant I spun around, Seonwoo Jin grabbed the hood of my jacket from behind.

“Where do you think you’re going? You have to work off what you ate.”

Scratch that “decent guy” comment!

In the end, I was dragged along helplessly by Seonwoo Jin.

“Do it until self-study ends.”

What a tyrannical employer.

If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have followed him for that meal earlier.

“That aloof pretty boy can just freeze to death…”

I grumbled under my breath, but Seonwoo Jin didn’t even blink. Stubborn jerk…

‘Guess I’m heading back to the nurse’s office after all.’

I gritted my teeth, glaring at Seonwoo Jin ahead of me.

While I was muttering complaints, we’d already arrived at the building housing the nurse’s office.

Let me take a brief moment here to explain the school’s layout.

Jeil High consisted of six buildings in total.

These weren’t constructed according to an initial master plan; instead, they’d been added one by one as needed. Consequently, their sizes, appearances, and placements were all mismatched and haphazard.

Among them, the old academic building—which housed the second nurse’s office—stood far apart from most other school structures.

Because of this, foot traffic in this area was extremely sparse.

“I already said I was wrong!”

…Which meant voices like this normally wouldn’t be heard here at all.

“Why can’t you understand how I feel…!”

A sharp female voice rang out.

The sound came from the open space behind the old academic building.

‘What’s going on…?’

I instantly sensed this conversation would be fascinating.

Actually, I didn’t even need intuition—if someone was saying things like that out here, it absolutely had to be interesting.

‘One hundred percent a love triangle drama.’

But the wisdom I’d gained from reading countless transmigration novels warned me: just ignore it and walk away.

Theoretically, transmigrators never benefited from getting involved in situations like this.

‘If I get tangled up again, I’ll just end up exhausted.’

I was scared that if they caught me eavesdropping, some insane in-story development might spring up again.

Right, I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear anything and leave. What’s the point of listening to other people’s business anyway?

At my age, secretly watching high schoolers’ romance dramas was downright embarrassing.

I stole a quick glance at Seonwoo Jin.

Well, he wasn’t the type to care about this sort of thing. If I pretended not to notice, he’d probably just walk past too…

“…Hey, hey! Where are you going?”

Contrary to my expectations, Seonwoo Jin suddenly started walking toward the open space.

Flustered, I stood there dumbfounded for a moment, then snapped out of it and hurried after him.

‘What’s this? He’s not supposed to be this kind of character…’

The Seonwoo Jin I knew was indifferent to others’ affairs and generally aloof. In the original novel, that trait had been packaged as stoic and cool, but either way, he definitely wasn’t the type to enjoy gossip like this.

‘…Maybe I misunderstood his character all along?’

Puzzled, I approached Seonwoo Jin.

He was hiding against the building’s outer wall, peering into the open space.

I tapped his back lightly and called out,

“What’s with you? Why the sudden change? Do you know them? Ugh!”

At that moment, Seonwoo Jin abruptly clamped a hand over my mouth.

Though one hand covered my mouth, his gaze remained fixed intently on something far away.

‘What’s going on? Who could it be?’

Bewildered, I ducked my head slightly to peek inside.

As expected, a girl stood in the open space—likely the owner of that earlier voice.

And opposite her stood another figure.

Surprisingly, he was someone I recognized.

‘…Huh?’

It was Sung Ji-chan, the male lead of this novel.