This Life is Splendid

Chapter 3

Da-eun tried to move her body while suppressing the rising feeling of nausea.

A summer vacation classroom with few people in the school.

She had fallen asleep while waiting for Hye-young here.

Shh …

While I was sleeping, someone had left a gas burner open and the heat was blazing.

“First, you have to open the window… … .”

I had to vent the gas that had settled on the floor first. In my previous life, I had been badly burned when I went to turn it off without thinking and the gas burner exploded.

Da-eun tried to get up by holding on to the sofa under the window of the fruit shop, but her body was too heavy.

As I felt around, her cell phone fell into my hand.

Da-eun swung the cell phone around with all her might and strength.

Clang-!

The thin glass window broke. Fresh air flowed in. I have to turn off the burner quickly. That’s the problem.

at that time.

Crunch-!

The iron door of the orchard opened roughly and a man rushed in, covering Da-eun with his shirt as if protecting her and quickly approaching the burner.

The mysterious man opened the burner lid and even dismantled the gas tank. It must be extremely hot. It’s dangerous because you never know when it might explode. Who is he…?

At that moment, a siren sounded faintly in the distance.

“Let’s go out.”

Then a familiar, panting voice was heard.

Oh, yeah. I remember. Yoon Joo-hyuk, who was my senior in the film department.

Da-eun strained her eyes to look straight at him.

“It won’t work. I’ll carry it.”

When Da-eun couldn’t control her body, he carried her and left the room. The faint sound of an ambulance siren was getting closer.

As Joo-hyuk reached the first floor, an ambulance arrived. The rescuers unrolled the stretcher and entered, and when they found them, they asked.

“Are you the reporter?”

“Yes. There was a near-death gas accident in the smoke and gas department room on the third floor.”

Yes, Yoon Joo-hyuk.

This person was a reporter in his past life as well. But the accident had already happened then. What happened now?

Did you hear the sound of breaking glass? Then what is that ambulance?

“Enter the third floor. Transfer the patient to the hospital.”

Knock knock, knock knock.

Da-eun was put on a stretcher and put into an ambulance. The oxygen tank was filled and the machine beeped to indicate her heart rate.

The ambulance quickly left the school.

Da-eun felt the warmth of Yoon Joo-hyuk on one of her hands.

Oh, did you avoid getting burned on your face?

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

Da-eun fell into a deep sleep amidst the regular mechanical sounds and her breathing becoming more and more comfortable.

A few hours later, a police officer who had come to investigate the incident spoke dryly, taking notes in his notebook.

“So, you fell asleep while waiting for a friend, and when you woke up, the burner was on?”

“yes.”

“Hmm. And I didn’t see who turned it on?”

As Da-eun nodded while sitting on the emergency room bed, touching her wrist where the IV needle was inserted, the police officer glanced at her. Then he suddenly asked.

“You weren’t trying to kill me, were you?”

It was the same question as before.

Da-eun grimaced, but the police officer simply moved his pen, saying it was a courtesy question.

Should I have said that I saw Hye-young?

I had a sudden thought, but quickly shook my head. There was no evidence.

“Okay, I understand.”

The police officer nodded with his lips pursed and left the emergency room, telling me to take care of myself.

Da-eun sighed and looked around.

The patients sitting here and there in the emergency room looked at her and then turned their gaze away.

The sound of cicadas was loud beyond the window.

There were no burn scars to be found on the face faintly reflected in the glass window. She stared blankly at the clear skin that was revealed when she pushed the long hair covering her face behind her ear.

Ah, really… …. I can live again with such a clean face. The corners of Da-eun’s lips, which had been trembling, curled upward smoothly.

Suddenly, Da-eun remembered the voice she had heard when she died.

[I will give you a chance too. Opportunities should be equal. I will give you back your time.]

Does anyone get this opportunity when they die? I’m not sure, but it must be no ordinary opportunity to be able to return to the past.

Didn’t you even pay the price?

[Let me take this. Oh, the biggest piece you had was ‘–‘.]

What was taken from me, my pronunciation was muffled and I couldn’t hear it properly.

Who on earth was that being?

Although it was full of unknowns, Da-eun was happy with the situation.

In the past, Noh Hye-young took all her opportunities away by leaving burn scars on her face, so this time, she wanted to take all of Hye-young’s opportunities away.

Da-eun carefully touched her left cheek. The cheek where the burn mark had been pressed down.

Suddenly, I felt a heat that seemed to melt my insides, and as I barely managed to calm my anger down and let out a sigh, I heard a familiar voice.

“You’re awake.”

It was Yoon Joo-hyuk.

He was a senior in the film department and was the youngest director to have won awards for best director and best screenplay at three of the world’s top film festivals before his return.

Yoon Joo-hyuk’s directing sense is sharp and sophisticated, and has the power to elicit admiration and recognition from critics as well as the public.

Maybe that’s why no one was dissatisfied even though he scolded the staff and actors with sharp words. No, they couldn’t be. They had no choice but to accept it when they saw the results.

He came closer, looked at Da-eun, then exhaled as if relieved.

“It looks okay.”

“I survived thanks to you. Thank you so much, senior.”

If it weren’t for him, I might have been struggling because of the gas and repeating the same thing as my previous life.

“But how did you know that there was a near-accident?”

I was curious. Even though we weren’t in the same department, how could a senior from the film department know exactly what I was doing and come into the acting department’s office at that time?

Joohyuk said, shrugging his shoulders and avoiding eye contact for a moment.

“I was passing by and there was a strong smell of gas. At that moment, I heard the sound of a window breaking from the smoke detector room.”

His speech was so gentle. His worried eyes were like that. He was so different that I wondered if he was the Yoon Joo Hyuk I knew.

Why are you so affectionate?

Was this the image of this senior? No. He was really quiet and cold.

Da-eun stared at him quietly, absorbed in thought.

Before or after his return, his chiseled face was warmly smiling, enough to be an actor.

Thick eyebrows that seemed to have been drawn proportionally had never curved so flexibly.

Da-eun nodded while looking at him and asked a question to clear up her remaining doubts.

“Then when did you call the ambulance? It seemed to arrive at about the same time as your senior.”

Shouldn’t you report at least 10 minutes in advance to arrive at that time? Joohyuk said to her, who was wondering about the time.

“Not that much. I was surprised too. It came in the blink of an eye.”

“yes?”

When Da-eun looked at him strangely, he smiled and took something out of his pocket. It was a cell phone with a completely broken screen.

“Hey! It’s mine!”

She reached out to take it, but Joohyuk quickly grabbed it. Then he looked at Da-eun.

He had been staring at me so persistently since a while ago, I felt like my eyes were going to burst open. I had no way of knowing what his faint smile meant.

“… … ?”

As Da-eun quietly held out her hand, he slowly placed the cell phone on her palm.

“Be careful, you might get stabbed.”

Da-eun’s cell phone was literally shattered into pieces.

I guess I’ll have to throw it away and buy a new one. I carefully pressed the power button, but it didn’t turn on.

Well, it would be strange if he broke a window and fell from the third floor and was fine.

No, wait a minute.

“You really went to school looking for this?”

Da-eun, who was looking at her cell phone, suddenly raised her head. He nodded slightly. Even though it had become a useless piece of scrap metal, she was grateful that he had found it for her.

“…thank you.”

I’m sure they came with me in the ambulance, but when I woke up, they weren’t there, so I thought they’d gone back.

Why did you come back again?

I had worked with Joo-hyuk on an independent film a few months ago, but we weren’t close enough to each other to go out of our way to find and return a broken phone like this.

Joo-hyuk just looked at her without saying anything. Yes, Yoon Joo-hyuk was originally like this. He was quiet and didn’t say anything soft.

“Hon, are you okay?”

Da-eun pointed to Joo-hyuk’s hand with her eyes. His long fingers were wrapped in bandages.

Maybe it’s because I touched the hot gas burner earlier.

It seemed like they took her to the emergency room and treated her.

“This much is okay.”

He said, putting his injured hand in his pocket.

“You can be discharged from the hospital now.”

Joo-hyuk turned around as if to leave, then stopped and looked back.

“Good luck with the audition tomorrow.”

At those words, Da-eun’s eyes opened wide.

audition!

Only then did it suddenly dawn on her that she had come back to the past. There had been no gas explosion, and she hadn’t been burned, so she would be able to go to the audition safely.

“yes!”

As mentioned above, Da-eun’s cheeks turned red. Ju-hyuk, who had been raising the corners of his lips while looking at her, turned around and walked away again.

Joo-hyuk, who had left the emergency room, stopped and muttered to himself.

“I thought I knew everything about you.”

He stood there blankly for a while, muttering incoherent words, thinking about the fact that Da-eun was here safely.

The next day.

Da-eun arrived at the building where the audition for the movie was held, which she had been notified of in advance.

Because of this audition, Hye-young burned my face.

‘That’s what I meant by . I wanted to do it. I don’t think I could win against you.’

Hye-young’s voice rang in my ears along with the faint smell of a hospital.