[CHAPTER 1]
A world where nobody knows why they even existed in it.
The world of stories.
Minpyo lives in this world. But you're probably expecting I'm some cool character with superpowers and abilities like a Main Character. But, no, Minpyo's a Side Character.
As well as the people around me.
("What's your role today?"
"A passerby walking a golder retriever.")
There's countless of conversations going on like these. And if you're wondering, Minpyo's role is..
... just someone in the crowd on panel 6.
Even if Minpyo's just a Side Character living for the Main Characters, Minpyo lived a normal life. He was born, went to school, college, and went to normal part-time jobs, as a Side Character. Well, we are, inside the World of Side Characters.
Damn, I wish I was a Main character.
-
Minpyo basically was a Side Character the moment he was born and it was the same to all the people here. In the Waiting Zone.
It's where they, Side Characters, wait to be on a scene or a panel. Minpyo have played a great role a lot of times and his personal favourite was when he was a freshman stray that played a great role of making the Main Characters meet on a romance story. When was that again? He forgot..
Well, back to now, He's still waiting for the Main Characters along with some people with the same role as himself on panel 6. It was currently the 4th panel.
[Todays story: Beast terminator.]
[Genre: Fantasy, Action]
Was written on the sky with the exact same messy handwriting everyone sees every Story. Everyone believes it's written by the Artist. It's like, informing the Side Characters what the Story is to get a good grasp of the situation they're gonna be in.
Well, Minpyo thinks it's not really necessary because these voices in their head tells them all what to do.
Even though it addresses characters kind of rudely like "The group of bald guys scream." and things like that. They call a grey crowd bald guys, nobody finds it strange because they believe it's one of the Gods that are spouting these insult. Or rather, orders.
Everyone was aware that they're merely existing for the greater creations of the Gods, the Main Characters.
"Yo, Minpyo! Wha'dya think about my costume today?" Minpyo's friend- does he even call her friend? She's more like, his beacon to trouble. Minpyo looks down at her outfit, she was wearing a bright T-Shirt with some kind of text on it and jeans. Minpyo thinks her role was a student promoting something seeing the papers and tickets in her hands.
"It sucks." Minpyo puts on the grey cap he has on his hand and starts to speed-walk away from the trouble beacon but his legs didn't cooperate and got captured real quick.
"Why are you running away? Aren't you glad your lovely little big sister is here to accompany you after recieving another shit-ass role?" The kid bursts in laughter. She added big to compare her role's height to his grey bodied character. She was really pissing Minpyo off now.
"Shut it, Seo Yeohui. You got clothes and a face, that's nice. Now let-" Minpyo grips Seo Yeohui's stupid pigtails and pulls. "-go!" And in that excact moment, Minpyo got teleported to panel 6 along with the people who had the same role as him. Oh, itwastime.Phew.
The scene was a chaotic one. Up on the spotlight, there was the Main Character fighting some sort of beast while protecting a little girl.
(-will look scared.)
And like the voice was an interpretation of Minpyo's actions, he changed his expression for the few seconds he was on panel. There were people shouting and doing different kinds of things. Most of them were raising up their phones and taking videos of the Main Character even though it wasn't intentional.
For what seemed like 10 minutes, the scene finally ended and he was teleported back to the real world.
That's right, The real world. Or The World of Side Characters.
That's what they call it. It was where everyone was born, this was where everyone lived. Not everyone though, the Main Characters and Side Characters were not in this world. No one knows why.
Maybe the Main and Side Character had a world of their own. And no one also knows why there was a place for Side Characters to live.
Everyone lived a normal life, there were countries, Presidents, Millionaires, Billionaires, and more high ranking people. But they were Side Characters in the world of Stories.
They were also taught to follow the voices in their heads when they were on a panel. On every Story and genre.
There are people who wants the day of Stories to stop, and normal people just act as if it was nothing. I was the latter. But I still kind of hated the Stories. It gets in the way of life too much but I can't do anything about it.
While Minpyo was in the middle of staring at the wall while sitting on the ground after being teleported back, He felt something kind of strange happening to his hair.
Was I growing grey hair? I knew it, The genetics are finally getting onto me..
Minpyo remembered his father, who, right now, has a white head. His father told him he started growing grey hair before he was even an adult.
So Minpyo decided to get up and take a shower. The transfer took place at 4am in the morning so he woke up already at the Waiting Zone of the world of Stories as a grey character. It was a common thing.
It was already 12pm when Minpyo looked at the clock. Suddendly, his stomach grumbled.
I should shower quickly and go out to eat, I hope I don't get attacked by Seo Yeohui.
Minpyo took a towel out of the washing machine, picked out a white hoodie, black sweatpants, and underwear to wear and headed to the bathroom. And as Minpyo opened the door, he yawned. Big yawn.
Minpyo was already inside the shower when he opened his eyes.
Better not to look at my ugly face.
And so, Minpyo started showering. So refreshing. Maybe it's because I spent 8 hours waiting to act crazy for 2 minutes.
Shortly, Minpyo finished showering and dried himself before putting his towel around his neck and stepping out of the shower space. But something very different to his surroundings catches Minpyo's eyes. It was bright, almost like it was shining, compared to the bathroom that had its lights off.
His hair. And it's-
White?
"Huh?" Minpyo stops in his tracks and gets closer to the mirror to look at himself. What the heck? Minpyo raises his hand and runs it across his hair. It's real.
Minpyo just stares at himself dumbfounded and thinks how am I gonna go to work with this? Should I tell them I dyed my hair? Wait- I heard of this before-
Minpyo rushes out of the bathroom and grabs his phone on the kitchen counter then types ["Sudden hair colour change to white"] on a trustful app.
But and only one expected article showed up about a syndrome that turns an individuals hair white as time passes, but thats not it. His hair changed overnight, how was that possible? Did he age? He didn't know when he woke up inside the Waiting zone because he turned into a grey body with a bald head.
But he did have a headache the day before, maybe that was it. And earlier, he felt something on the surface of his head, like hair was growing.
And come to think of it, his hair is much more voluminous than before. Maybe he did grow hair.
Why is this happening..
He scrolled more on the results of his searches but there was nothing useful. Was I the only one experiencing this?
"Haahh..." Minpyo sighs.
How the heck am I gonna eat.
-
There was a large crowd on the side of the road when Minpyo went out to eat but he ignored it. And the crowd was too thick that it was taking up almost half the road for him to check out what was happening. That's the bookstore. Minpyo turned away. None of my business.
Minpyo was wearing his hood up, tucked his hair behind his ears and wore a cap to hide the bright colour happening on his head in hopes no one would know that his hair magically changed. It would cause a great commotion.
He finally reached the small restaurant that he goes to whenever he doesn't know what or where to eat. It was called "Geoppung" he never knew what it meant, all he cared about was the delicious food.
He entered the small restaurant and bowed at someone he often saw at the restaurant leave. Wow, he recognises me in this? Minpyo looks at himself on the glass door.
Minpyo eats with him sometimes. But when he bowed his head a piece of the hair he tucked behind his ear fell and he quickly tried to tuck it away.
Minpyo looked worriedly at him and he knew he was screwed. This guy was the type of person to bothet me about something till his mouth dries but I was ready for this the moment he decided to bow.
At first the brunettes face was like "??". I tried to laugh it off nervously and just continued walking. I almost sighed but that sigh turned into silence when a hand gropes his shoulder. Minpyo gulps.
"Minpyo." Even though it was gentle, minpyo shook and flinched at the voice before slowly turning his head behind him and making eye contact to make it seem like hes hiding nothing
"Y-yes..?" He nervously answered at the hungry face looking straight in his eyes.
The brunette opened his mouth but looked at Minpyo again, inspecting him closely, and to his surprise, the brunette let go of his shoulders and smiled at Minpyo.
...?
"Nevermind, you're sick right?"
Minpyo took this as a chance to escape and changed his appearance to look calmer. Thank you so much, God.
"Yes, how did you know?" Minpyo laughed as naturally as he can and it seemed to work.
"Oh! Yeah, knew it. You came here like this when you were sick the other time too." Minpyo remembered that he actually came to the retairant wearing a hoodie and a cap too when he was sick. And the latter knew because he told him himself. By coincidence, the brunette was also feeling unwell so they ate together that time too.
We might've been eating together here for more than I thought.
"That's right!" Minpyo nodded and continued, "Now if you excuse me.. I'm getting really hungry."
And when he said that, the brunette immediately let go of Minpyo's shoulder like he forgot that it was there. "Ah! Sorry, I completely lost sense of my arm." The brunette, scratching his head continued, "Okay, I'll also be going." The guy takes some steps backwards and turns around before turning his head and saying "Bye, Minpyo!".
Minpyo quickly responds with "See you, Seonggu."
Minpyo ordered his food as quickly as he can so he can occupy the seat the furthest from the entrace and was also hidden well. He didn't need anyone recognizing him while he was eating, he still needed to think how he could hide his hair well. He just needed to quickly eat.
When his order arrived, he thanked the cashier and immediately started eating like he was starved for days.
Who cares if my stomach bloats? At least I'm full!
-
"I take it back... I care... a lot.." Minpyo sulked. Because when he was on his way home, all that he's been getting were stomach aches. He didn't even eat that much.
"Urgghh..." He was currently lying in the sofa clutching his stomach because of the pain he's been feeling since he finished eating his lunch.
"I have school at 3pm, work at 5pm to 9pm, and then studying...." Minpyo just closed his eyes and bit his lips.
"All of those were already torture and this had also just been added." Minpyo grabs his white hair and pulls. Normally, a few hair would come off if he did this but there was nothing on his hands at all.
"Is this supposed to be a blessing or something to make me suffer?"
Minpyo was not the type to panic heavily on problems and overthink. Whenever there's something wrong, he processes the situation calmly, takes his time and thinks of a solution before slowly solving the problem without any chaos.
People may think it's a good thing, that Minpyo was lucky he had a mindset and was mature. But in some cases, this kind of thinking gave him a bad reputation. When he was in highschool, people called him a robot or a two-faced bastard.
Minpyo often had injuries and many problems in both middle and high school because he was on the football team in both grades. When he acquired injuries, the next day, he would be completely fine. Minpyo's mental stability was the best, but he wasn't physically. So his actions didn't match the physical state he was in.
When someone approaches him and he gets the feeling that he doesn't want to be involved with them in any way, he politely holds a short conversation and ends it as quickly as he can and avoids that person for the rest of the school year. And he does the opposite to people he thinks is decent.
But even though there were stupid rumours and gossips around the school, there were still a lot of students and teachers that liked his braveness and sanity but teachers liked him mostly because he was smart and has decent grades, so Minpyo didn't mind the gossips because he thought it was fair.
And Minpyo, looking back at those memories before college thought that he was childlish and stupid. Upon starting college, Minpyo gained a better understanding of people's different perspectives and he finally knew why they called him two-faced. An example was when it was the first day of highschool.
[ "Hey! Minpyo, right? I'm Jihan, to be honest you're the most good-looking huy here so, like, wou-"
"Oh really? Thanks."
"Hey, I haven't even finished talking." The guy laughed
"Okay."]
This left some listening classmates dumbfounded. At that time, he didn't give a damn about making friends and they guy talked too much and he didn't like it. So, he just did what he felt like he needed to. But afterwards, when he started ignoring the guy, he figured out he was a bully.
And there was a huge difference between that and when he thinks someone is decent.
[ "Uhm excuse me, can I borrow a spare pencil of yours? I think I left mine at home because I was running late.." (Spoken in honorifics)
"Yeah sure."]
Minpyo was already done writing so he lent him his only pencil, pretending it was a spare and just hoped he would get it back the next day.
And his seatmate never returned the pencil and made an excuse.
He judged people easily. And just because someone used honorifics on him, he thought they would be a good person. It makes Minpyo wanna go back on time that very moment so he can politely say no.
It wasn't rare for Minpyo to keep on thinking about his past, things were just better back then than now. And he was the type to always be nostalgic and regret everything but also miss them at the same time.
Minpyo thinks there's actually something really wrong with him.
"Oh, I gotta finish my review my report script." And just like that, Minpyo started his day for real.
-
"Minpyo did you get taller?" One of his male friends, Jiwoo, asks him while walking down the hall. They were on their way to class.
"Huh?
"It's just that, I have to slightly look up when I look at your eyes. Not straight. Weren't we the same height?" People said that when you get a growth spurt, you will feel the difference. They were lying.
Minpyo felt nothing at all.
"Oh, yeah. I guess I grew." Minpyo agreed, he also realized that his shoulders were a little higher that Jiwoo's. Minpyo felt kind of accomplished.
Heh, height is not a problem to me anymore.
But Jiwoo was wrong about one thing, Minpyo was shorter than him. Jiwoo, was not that tall, but he was probably taller than average which was Minpyo. Now he was taller. He didn't need to wear shoes that add one inch to his height.
He was kind of towering Jiwoo because he got tall, and was also wearing the shoes that add one inch to his height. I'd have to wear other shoes now.
Minpuo also wondered if this sudden growth spurt had something related to his hair turning white.
Ah, his hair. Minpyo had sprayed black hairspray on his head to go to school. He didn't want to seem like some depressed kid if he came in wearing a beanie with a hoodie. So he took the hairspray he never thought he would use that was given to him by his mother when he moved out.
She said something in the lines of "You would need it someday." And Minpyo tried to refuse but his mother shoved it in his suitcase anyway.
Thinking about it more now, it makes sense his mother would give it to him because of, well, early appearance of white hair in their family.
He was gonna be the one to use the most hairspray in their family tree now.
While they were still walking, another classmate approached.
"Jiwoo!!!"
Oh, Jiwoo's girlfriend.
Minpyo deadpans, these two always makes it seem single. Well, he is single and he doesn't have any problems about that. But thirdwheeling is embarrassing.
"Ah, I'll go first. I'll see you inside, Ji..." Minpyo stopped talking at the sight infront of him. Unpleasant.
Minpyo just walks away without even looking back.
When Minpyo enters the classroom, he almost screams out of shock.
?!?!?
The Official Side Characters of the Stories Government people are here?! Why?
"Is that the last student?" One of the three people standing infront of five more people talks.
"No, not yet. Ma'am." His professor looks at Minpyo. Minpyo bows and quickly walks to his seat to sit down. As soon as he sat down, the room was silent. He asks his friend as quietly as he can about what's happening right now.
"Well.. They just came in, said some things to the professor and they stood in there waiting for the other students for like, 10 minutes now." Yoeun, his female seatmate answers. "But look at what they're doing now," Yoeun nods at the Government people at the front.
Minpyo looks at the person in the center and they make eye contact. Minpyo flinches. Why look at me like that, I'm gonna pee my pants! (*Joking)
"You." The person he had eye contact with talks,
Students chatter, looking for the student who was addressed.
"You, with the purple and grey clothes." At this moment, every single person in the room looks at Minpyo including Jiwoo and his girlfriend who just entered.
"M-me? Wha-"
"You are coming with us." The male at the left states in a friendly manner, like he's just one of Minpyo's friends. But his Smile did not match where he was from at all.
"Why?" Minpyo thinks of a way to avoid coming with them but nothing was getting inside his head.
"Just come with us, or do you not want to?" The woman in the center looked at Minpyo with so much intimidation that Minpyo almost felt like fainting. But he couldn't go againts the Government, so he agreed.
Minpyo was about to walk down from his column but the silent one at the right spoke,
"No need." And after she said that, the lady pulled out something from her inner pocket. A teleportation device.
"N-no way!"
"A teleportaion device!"
Chaos erupted upon seeing the device held by the lady and Minpyo was just as dumbfounded. He was finally honna experience how it was like to get teleported to somewhere.
*Fwoosh!*
It feels like!
...
Nothing?
They teleported infront of a room, something like, an.. office?
Different kinds of wild imaginations filled Minpyo's head. W-what if the president is there? Some evil workers? Loan sharks?! I don't even have loans but-
His thoughts were interupted when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He turns his head. It was the.. Woman from earlier? And why is she smiling at me so genuinely? Is this her offering because I'm about to die inside that room?
"Woah, now, now! Stop sweating! We just have something private and secret to share with you inside rhat room. Don't worry." The guy on the left side from earlier leads him towards the door. Oh no, I love you mom and dad!
...
"What?"
The sight he was seeing right now was the complete opposite of what he expected. It was a normal office, with workers typing up things on their computers, printing documents, chatting, and everything normal.
Everyone looked their way and instantly beamed,
"Oh! Miss Choi, Lady Oh, and Mister Lee!" One worker exclaimed and the office bustled with Good afternoon's and How are you's. Meanwhile Minpyo just walks behind the Mister Lee with a drained face.
Then they finally reached what seemed to be the boss's office. Its probably the CEO of the Government. Minpyo prepared and prayed inside his head.
But as soon as the door opened he was welcomed with bowed heads and a loud,
"WELCOME, BELOVED MAIN CHARACTER!!!"