Chapter 5: A Day of Saving Everyone

By the time I finished a few more briefings, we arrived at the protagonist’s house.
As I was about to get out of the car, Secretary Kim opened the door for me before I could even touch it.
Thanks to him, I was able to step out without lifting a finger.
As my folded leg landed neatly on the ground, I was once again reminded just how incredibly long the legs of this body were.

The protagonist’s home was a very old, two-story house.
It looked like it had been built more than twenty years ago.
The protagonist’s mother had lived in the smallest basement room of this house while pregnant with Ha-min, and his grandmother, who lived on the second floor, had taken Ha-min in and raised him.

Secretary Kim went ahead and led the way toward the second floor.
As I climbed the low-ceilinged staircase, my heart pounded harder with every step.
I had roughly planned out what I was going to say, but now that I was actually about to meet the grandmother of the protagonist whom I(?) had kidnapped and imprisoned, my heart was pounding like crazy.
Was it the faint remnants of my conscience?
Or was this body’s heart pounding because I was about to meet the grandmother of the person the original owner liked?
Whatever the reason, I had absolutely no interest in knowing what was going on in this lunatic’s heart.
Apparently, however, my body had other ideas.
Maybe because I was nervous, I was even starting to break out in a little cold sweat.

‘Ugh, this is nerve-racking.’

Secretary Kim naturally opened the door and went inside.
Beyond the small living room, medical personnel were tending to the sick grandmother inside the open bedroom.
As soon as I entered, the medical staff apparently received instructions from Secretary Kim, because they closed the door behind them and left.
I set the fruit basket Secretary Kim had handed me to the side and sat down beside the grandmother.

The protagonist’s grandmother looked terribly ill.
She had grown old without any family coming to visit her, and out of loneliness, she had cared for the protagonist’s mother before taking in Ha-min and raising him herself.
Her own family had taken only her deceased husband’s inheritance and never bothered to visit, and they had opposed her adopting the protagonist.
Eventually, she had completely cut ties with them.
They weren’t even worth calling family in the first place.

How could such terrible children have come from such a kind woman?
And the good grandson she had cherished and raised had fallen into the hands of a lunatic, been kidnapped and imprisoned, and nearly been subjected to something far worse.
Then, while searching for him, she had even fallen seriously ill…

She really had lived an unbearably unfortunate life.

Feeling terribly sorry for her, I gently clasped both of her wrinkled hands in mine.
Even if this was only a dream, I sincerely hoped she could finally be happy.

I don’t know how long I had been holding her hand.
Gradually, I saw the grandmother’s eyes open.
As soon as she woke, she recognized me.

“Oh, my.
Aren’t you my grandson’s senior from school?”

“Yes, that’s right, Grandma.
How have you been?”

“Oh, dear.
I’ve been in terrible shape lately because my puppy disappeared…
You, you haven’t happened to see my puppy, have you?”

The first thing she did upon opening her eyes was worry about her grandson.
My heart felt painfully heavy.
I squeezed her hand a little tighter and smiled at her.

“Yes, Grandma.
Ha-min will be back soon.
He just went out to buy some food for you.”

The grandmother was startled and tried to get up.
I supported her and helped her sit upright.
She began asking me all sorts of questions.

All right.
It was time to confess this body’s sins.
Of course, while pretending to be a good person!

“Wait, my Ha-min is coming back?”

“Yes, Grandma.
Ha-min has been staying at our house all this time.
I’m sorry I couldn’t contact you sooner.”

“I suppose it’s all right if he wasn’t kidnapped or anything…
But you, too!
If the two of you were going to go play together, you should at least have contacted an adult!
Do you know how worried I was?”

Well…
We hadn’t exactly been staying at my house to play…

My conscience pricked me at her words.

“I’m sorry, Grandma.
I wasn’t feeling well, so I ended up causing Ha-min trouble.
I heard you became quite ill while searching for Ha-min, too.
That’s why I sent our medical staff here.
If you ever feel unwell later, please don’t worry about the cost and go to the hospital.
I’ll cover all the expenses.”

I bowed my head politely as I apologized.

My respectful attitude seemed to make the grandmother even more flustered.
I supposed anyone would be surprised if some clean-cut, obviously wealthy kid sent over medical staff and then apologized so sincerely.

Still, I had to say what I needed to say and get out of here before the pumpkin sweet potato arrived.

“And there’s something else, Grandma.
I actually found out a few things about Ha-min.
It seems Ha-min is an illegitimate child of V Group.”

“How did you know that…?”

The grandmother was so shocked that her entire body began trembling.

Seeing how shocked she was made me feel like a genuinely awful person.
I felt terrible.
I needed to wrap this up and run.

“Grandma, the reason I learned about V Group was because Ha-min was in danger.
Did you know that Ha-min has always been in danger?”

“My puppy?”

“Yes.
Ha-min is… quite beautiful, isn’t he?
Because of that, there seem to be quite a few dangerous people around him.
I’ve even stopped him from getting into dangerous situations at school several times.”

Well, that much was true.
The protagonist was such a frustratingly oblivious sweet potato that he never noticed anything, but there were actually plenty of perverts targeting him.
And the one who stopped them was the original lunatic.

In his own twisted way, the lunatic had endured quite a lot while protecting the pumpkin sweet potato.

Of course, I didn’t mention that I was one of those dangerous perverts.
The ultimate lunatic pervert who had nearly done something terrible to Grandma’s puppy.

Ahem…

I exaggerated a few incidents in which Ha-min had nearly gotten into danger and told her about my own righteous(?) actions in stopping them.

The grandmother became agitated, but she also thanked me profusely.

“Oh, those wicked people.
How dare they go after my grandson?
Oh, young man, how can I ever repay you?
Then what should I do now?
If it’s something you tell me to do, I’ll listen to anything.”

Apparently, the few stories about me protecting Ha-min had convinced her that I was an extremely ‘kind’ senior.

She was already saying she would listen to anything I told her.

Even though I was the one inhabiting this body now, this body had been the cause of the grandmother’s eventual death in the original story.
Seeing her place such absolute trust in my words made my conscience ache.

It was something I should have been grateful for if I wanted to move the story along quickly, but I couldn’t help feeling strangely guilty.

I was beginning to understand how the protagonist had grown up to be such an unbelievably innocent, clueless sweet potato.

“Grandma, first of all, you should tell V Group that Ha-min is their illegitimate child and ask them to protect him.
It would be a good idea to bring Ha-min’s mother’s belongings, such as her personal effects and his birth records, as well.
It might be difficult for you to go alone, so I’ll have someone escort you.”

“But what if V Group rejects our Ha-min or mistreats him?
That’s what I was worried about all this time, so I raised him myself…”

“Don’t worry, Grandma.
According to what I investigated, Ha-min’s father didn’t abandon his mother.
He didn’t even know she was pregnant.
He genuinely loved Ha-min’s mother, so I’m sure he’ll protect Ha-min as well.”

“All right, then.
I’ll trust what you say and do that.
Thank you, young man.”

The grandmother was still considerably less of a sweet potato than Ha-min.
Perhaps because she had lived in the world for so long, she knew how to grasp a situation to some extent.

After talking with her for a while, Secretary Kim approached me and quietly informed me that the sweet potato would be arriving home soon.
I immediately left the house.

The grandmother told me to wait and see Ha-min, but I smiled and politely refused, saying that it was already too late.

‘You want me to see that sweet potato again, Grandma?
I’ve had enough sweet potatoes for one day.
I need to go home and drink some cold water.’

“Let’s go home.”

“Yes.”

I got into the car and told him to head home.
The car quickly made its way back toward the officetel.

The lunatic was the youngest son of a wealthy family and such a troublemaker that his family had practically given up on him.
Even though he was only a high school student, he had moved out of the family home and lived alone in a huge officetel, with his family simply providing him with money.
His detailed family history never really came up because it was overshadowed by the protagonist’s family story…

Well, my life would be over as soon as I woke from this dream anyway.
I should just rest for today.

First, I flopped down onto the enormous king-size bed.
Secretary Kim followed me into the room and asked whether there was anything else I wanted him to take care of, so I told him to go home for the day.

Oh, right.
I still needed to give Secretary Kim a vacation…

Suddenly, I became incredibly sleepy.
Maybe I was getting sleepy because I was finally about to wake up from the dream.

Thinking about it, it had been quite a rewarding day, dream or not.
I had ruined a novel that was making a mess out of the lives of minors, saved the pumpkin sweet potato, stopped this lunatic from becoming a criminal, and even saved his grandmother!

I felt a little guilty about not giving Secretary Kim his vacation, but during this brief dream, I had managed to save the lives(?) of so many people.

Come to think of it, what would happen to this lunatic and the protagonist after I woke up?
Would the lunatic try to kidnap and imprison the protagonist again?

I had gone through all this trouble to save him from a life of crime.
I really hoped he wouldn’t do it again.

If you wanted to seduce someone, you should use your handsome face and the wealth of a rich heir.
Doing something like this was just hopeless.

Ah.
Then again, since the protagonist had Stockholm syndrome, maybe it wouldn’t matter…

Either way, Ha-min had now become a rich heir much earlier than he did in the novel, and whether he ended up with the lunatic again or not, I hoped they could have a normal, sweet relationship.

It had truly been a rewarding day.

If this had been a bromance novel, I might have wanted to live comfortably as a rich heir just like the owner of this body.
But from now on, I wanted nothing more to do with sweet potatoes.

Just before I completely fell asleep, I made one final resolution.

‘This is the end.
No more reading!
People really shouldn’t start doing things they’ve never done before!’

I fell asleep, grateful to the novel for giving me such profound realizations and life lessons.

-To be continued-

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