How to Fix a Psychopath

How to Fix a Psychopath

Episode 4

 

 

So, to put it simply, it was like this.

 

Eunwoo Lee went back to playing soccer, and I continued to watch him play soccer from where I was. Then, due to a mistake by a child in another class, the soccer ball rolled towards my feet.

 

That’s it! That’s really it! That was it, but Eunwoo Lee turned his gaze and hit the face of the guy who had kicked the ball towards me.

 

It was a one-sided violence that continued like a bang, not a thud, like being hit with a hammer. Even without that, Eunwoo Lee, who was growing up quickly, was stronger and taller than other boys his age, so he was no match for them. With one blow, the poor boy’s nose started bleeding.

 

There’s nothing I can do.

 

I fell down from my seat.

 

“Oh my, oh my, she fell down!”

 

“Hey, Kim So-young!”

 

“Soyoung has fallen!”

 

As expected from those good extras, the girls screamed when I suddenly collapsed.

 

I could hear the girls around me retreating. Yeah, yeah, that was better. The one who had to carry me to the infirmary was Eunwoo Lee, who was beating up people like crazy.

 

I opened my eyes slightly and looked up, and saw Lee Eun-woo running towards me like crazy. Yes, that’s right, Lee Eun-woo.

 

Ah…….

 

I was sure I had pretended to faint. I blinked slowly. I felt dazed, like someone who had lost consciousness.

 

“Soyoung!”

 

Lastly, I only remember Eunwoo Lee running towards me. Did I really faint without realizing it?

 

I turned my head to the side at the loud shout that pierced through the crackling noise. Suddenly, the surroundings became blurry and then quickly became clear, as if a camera had zoomed in and was focusing.

 

“Are you in your right mind?”

 

Eunwoo Lee, who couldn’t easily touch me and was fidgeting, was sobbing. His face, covered with guilt, was biting his lips tightly as if trying to relieve his guilt. He looked even more anxious at the sight of me just staring at him without saying anything.

 

“I’m, I’m sorry, Soyoung. I should have taken you to a shady place… … Are you okay now?”

 

Lee Eun-woo, who kicked up dust as he stood up, was desperate. Yes, nothing else came to his mind. It was a pity.

 

Originally, Lee Eun-woo blamed himself for Kim So-young’s weak body. In reality, wasn’t it me who passively acted and did whatever she wanted even though I knew she was weak? Even so, he was begging me for everything as if he were the victim who had taken all the blame.

 

“… …Why did you do that?”

 

Eunwoo Lee’s pupils dilated as he desperately tried to hide his mistake by stamping his feet.

 

You must be surprised. He’s never been asked for doing something wrong like this before. Kim So-young had no clue,

 

and she absolutely trusted Lee Eun-woo. If this situation were as it was in the original novel, Kim So-young would say it was okay. She would gladly go into that dust and hug Lee Eun-woo while being covered in dirt as well. She would hold him.

 

But not me.

 

“Why did you fight?”

 

I’m going to pull Lee Eun-woo out of that dust.

 

Eunwoo Lee, who had stopped standing, slowly blinked his eyes. With that blink, the guy’s inner thoughts slowly rose like a buoy on the sea, and then sank as if he had turned into a rock.

 

Maybe Lee Eun-woo realized this conversation. Like a psychopath who has figured out a murder pattern. Since I have dug into his mistakes, he will hide them more cleverly and perfectly from now on. He can further expand the power within the class that is already powerful, and he can also more quickly bring out the obsession that started appearing from his college days.

 

No, before that, he might have realized that I wasn’t Kim So-young. Because in the story, Kim So-young has never been like this.

 

If that happens, what will happen to Lee Eun-woo and I? Will we have no contact at all? Will I change into an ordinary Kim So-young, a student in Class 2, Grade 3 at Daeheon Middle School, who doesn’t catch Lee Eun-woo’s eye?

 

If that’s the case, isn’t it actually good for me? I can hang out with my female friends to my heart’s content, and I don’t have to give up playing dodgeball like I had to do today.

 

Since we just became strangers and Eunwoo Lee has no one to get tied down to, he might grow up to be much more ordinary than the original story.

 

My friend, Eunwoo Lee was always overflowing with energy.

 

Was it because of having been abused by his father until he was in high school… …?

 

That boy who doesn’t had any friends and never showed his true feelings to anyone other than Kim So-young.

 

“… …Soyoung.”

 

Lee Eun-woo, who was looking at me with confusion, had the face of a frightened child. It was exactly the face of a child of his age. However, this was not the face she wanted. Lee Eun-woo deliberately acted like an adult for Kim So-young.

 

 

I hoped that Lee Eun-woo would not become someone who lived for Kim So-young. I hope that he would not risk his life for Kim So-young, abandon his humanity, and live in isolation.

 

It was only half a day. Lee Eun-woo, whom I had seen in a paper book, was a crazy male protagonist who took my breath away, but he was also the best man.

 

But it was only after I met Eunwoo Lee in person, breathing and with warm skin, that I realized: This was no longer fiction.

 

This is reality.

 

Gulp, I can see everything, even the lump in his throat when he swallowed the dry saliva.

 

“Do not do that.”

 

The sun was setting. I reached out and stroked the guy’s head. I couldn’t just stroke the guy’s chest, which was so bruised and scarred.

 

The same goes for Kim So-young in the novel. All Kim So-young could do was to hold Lee Eun-woo in her arms so he could rest comfortably. To begin with, Kim So-young was also a character with no social skills at all.

 

 

That’s why they only know how to cover each other in dirt. They didn’t even know how to properly save someone, comfort someone, or love someone.

 

“……huh.”

 

A hushed answer came. I smiled slightly as I listened to Eunwoo Lee’s trembling voice. With this, I felt like I had taken Eunwoo Lee out of the sandstorm with just one step. Even though it was just a very small step.

 

Let’s take it slowly. I’ll be Lee Eun-woo’s guide. So that we can both grow up properly and healthily. If we try to change suddenly, Lee Eun-woo will have a hard time too. We’re only middle school students, so we have plenty of time. We’ll be high school students soon, but I’m an adult who has experienced enough social life, so it’s possible.

 

* * *

It was a dream.

 

There was a person sitting at a desk in the midst of total darkness. A small desk lantern was shining.

 

“… … Eunwoo.”

 

Eunwoo Lee was sitting in front of the desk. Eunwoo Lee, who had been sitting quietly, suddenly trembled. I felt his hands and his face as if he had come to life at my call, and then turned his head towards me.

 

“Soyoung… … .”

 

And then he looked at me and had a relieved look on his face.

 

“I couldn’t do anything.”

 

“…What?”

 

“I tried to move, but I couldn’t do anything. I was alive, but things weren’t going my way.”

 

Eunwoo Lee got up from his desk and approached me.

 

“Why is that?”

 

Eunwoo Lee grabbed the book and bullpen that I was holding. I don’t know how long I had them. Eunwoo Lee took them, even though I didn’t know they were mine. And the bookmark caught my eye.

 

‘Trapped in the swamp’.

 

It was the name of a novel I had heard of.

 

“What’s this?”

 

For a while, I couldn’t take my eyes off the title as if it was nailed to the ground. Since it was already a finished novel, it should have been filled with content, but it was empty. Now, the part that barely filled a page was written in my handwriting like a diary of what happened that day.

 

It was confusing.

 

What’s this?

 

“Soyoung… … .”

 

Eunwoo Lee opened his mouth as if to ask for an answer and without even knowing, suddenly a tearing sound came out of his mouth. Eunwoo Lee mumbled something in a voice that no human could produce.

 

No. This sound is not coming from Lee Eun-woo’s mouth.

 

And then my eyes suddenly opened.

 

It was the sound of an alarm. I got out of bed and turned off the desk alarm clock. I was sweating profusely, perhaps from the

 

tension of my vivid dream. I wiped my forehead with the sleeve of my pajamas and picked up the cell phone that was lying next to the clock.

 

Now, I opened the folder with my thumb, which was familiar. Of course, the text message from Eunwoo Lee asking me to call him when I woke up did not arrive yet.

 

I thought about whether today was Sunday or not, but today was Thursday. I blinked and closed the phone folder again.

 

I thought maybe he was in front of my house like before, so I hurriedly finished getting ready and went out, but Eunwoo Lee wasn’t there. I had only been with Eunwoo Lee for a day, but I knew very well that this had never happened before, so I was suspicious. I went to school alone, worried that he might be absent because he was beaten by his father the night before.

 

But Lee Eun-woo had already arrived at school before me, completely fine. Not in the seat next to Kim So-young, but in a different seat.

 

Something was wrong.

 

I felt creepy and cold.

 

A strange dream. A quiet cell phone. A class that was unusually

 

quiet when I came in. Eunwoo Lee, who ignored me in just one day even though I came in.

 

And the children in the class stared at me openly. Their gazes were as vicious as those of monsters on the verge of starvation.

 

My body trembled faintly.

 

It’s going in a different direction than the original. I didn’t intend to do the same stupid thing that Kim So-young did anyway, but I didn’t know that the original would turn out this way right away.

 

I slowly moved back to my original seat with a tense body.

 

Eunwoo Lee, whose thoughts I had no idea about, turned his head and looked at me. My eyes met with Eunwoo Lee’s. Ah, this is dangerous. The guy’s black eyes were so dark that it was difficult to even discern what thoughts he had.

 

I was out of breath.

 

There is no trace of being hit by his biological father, Lee Hyun-woo.

 

Was she unknowingly acting selfishly for no reason? Was she being overconfident in rehabilitating Lee Eun-woo for no reason? Was the dark side of Lee Eun-woo, which should have started

 

when he was a college student, being brought up now because of me?

 

I smiled at Eunwoo Lee with my expression as indifferent as possible.

 

But even so, he is still a third-year middle school student. Although he appears as the character whose inner thoughts are the most incomprehensible in the work, it is not that I do not know him at all. He is like a dog. In other words, he will never leave Kim So-young alone. Till either of them die.

 

I don’t know what the guy was up to, but I needed to check.

 

I’m talking about the plan that came out of the head of Eunwoo Lee, a third-year middle school student.

 

It would be really nice if the guy lost interest in me because the original story was distorted… …. I shut my mouth when Eunwoo Lee blushed and turned his head away without realizing it at my laughter.

 

He still has feelings for me. It felt strange. Eunwoo Lee hasn’t given up on me yet. But it was strange because there was no way this behaviour change would appear overnight.

 

My chest felt heavy with anxiety at Eunwoo Lee’s changed

 

behavior.

 

In the original, Lee Eun-woo always paid attention to Kim So-young. It was a grave matter to him if other guys caught Kim So-young’s eye. Now the opposite of it would be a big deal. In this novel, there was no man better than Lee Eun-woo, but she was always anxious that such a man might appear in front of Kim So-young.

 

But the current Lee Eun-woo just sits there and lets me do whatever I want. Unlike before, he just leaves me alone.

 

And the other children…

 

The classroom atmosphere was extremely cold, perhaps because of Eunwoo Lee’s strange behaviour.