In the bathroom, Lee Hwashin frantically wiped Hwa Lee's beautiful black hair with a paper towel, while Hwa Lee wiped at her own uniform collar with another napkin, sighing. With sad, sparklingly beautiful dark eyes, Hwa Lee turned to Lee Hwashin and smiled.
"Hwashin-ah...thank you."
Lee Hwashin snorted, waving her hands nonchalantly and continuing to grab more paper towels. "Thank you for what? I was just cleaning up some trash."
Hwa Lee laughed. Her laugh was like one of those laughs princesses in fairytales are said to have. You know, the kind of laugh that sounds like a thousand glass bluebells tinkling to call fairies for celebration. Lee Hwashin swallowed at the sound of it, mesmerized. Hwa Lee...she really was the perfect female manhwa protagonist, huh! So impressive! She had the flawless looks, a laugh that could call fairies, and a pure and generous heart. What boy wouldn't fall head over heels for her?
Hwa Lee sighed, wiping the last of the milk off her uniform with the wet paper towel and throwing it out. "I'm glad, at least, that my book didn't get wet. Clothes can be washed, but books can't. That would have been a shame!"
In response to this, Lee Hwashin lightly smacked Hwa Lee on the arm, causing Hwa Lee to yelp. "Hwa Lee!" She scolded, wagging her finger adamantly. "Have you already forgotten about who did this to you? You need to start standing up for yourself, aiyah! I hate seeing that bitch walk all over you! I can't take it! I couldn't take it to the point that I barfed all over her face!"
You see, this was the personality of Lee Hwashin, secondary female lead of the Heartbreak High School series. She was a tough-love chick; she punched down the enemies of her friends, then turned around to give her friends noogies and demand they learn self-defense. Lee Yoona didn't have to try too hard to act like this; she was naturally a sloppy, tough-love girl before she had died.
"Here, I'll teach you how to punch someone in the nose right now!" Lee Hwashin hopped on her feet, putting her hands up like a mock boxer. "It all starts with the fist! Make a good fist, and you'll get a good punch! Make a bad fist, and you'll break all your fingers!"
Hwa Lee laughed, drying her hair with a paper towel. "You have so much energy, Hwashin-ah. It's admirable."
Lee Hwashin opened her mouth to retort with some more on-brand tough love, but at that moment, there was the sound of clicking high heels approaching the bathroom and snooty voices. That could only mean one thing—Jeon Soomin and her bully friends.
In a flash, Lee Hwashin grabbed Hwa Lee's wrist and pulled her into a stall, locking it with the two of them inside.
This resulted in a very compromising position. Lee Hwashin's face immediately turned bright red, and she swallowed, looking straight up at the ceiling and berating herself internally. The stall was very small and there wasn't much space to stand around the toilet—so Hwa Lee and Lee Hwashin were pressed together, chest to chest. They were the same height, which meant that their manhwa-level boobs were pressed together! Lee Hwashin's face turned scarlet, and she covered her eyes and face.
Meanwhile, the Mean Girls (copyright symbol, tm, whatever it's called), entered in.
Click, click, click,
Went their expensive prada heels. There was the sound of makeup bags being slapped onto the counter and lipsticks being popped open. Lee Hwashin rolled her eyes underneath her hands that were covering them. What a typical mean girls scenario! No girl actually ever did this in a public bathroom!!!
Jeon Soomi's cold, and yet unmistakably attractive voice rang out in the small bathroom:
"That bitch...My mortal enemy..."
That's right, Lee Hwashin remembered. All throughout the series, Jeon Soomi had considered Hwa Lee her mortal enemy. She had served as a negative foil to Hwa Lee, the perfectly pretty protagonist, in every way: where Hwa Lee had a heart of gold, Jeon Soomi's was rotten like a poison apple's; where Hwa Lee let boys chase her and fight over her, Jeon Soomi seduced boys and coveted everything Hwa Lee had. Where Hwa Lee was made out to be the perfect girl, Jeon Soomi was made out to be the perfect Bitch with a capital B.
"I though Hwa Lee was bad, but I was wrong...it's that Lee Hwashin who's the real little bitch, isn't it?" Jeon Soomi laughed, high-pitched and sarcastic. Her girlfriends giggled along in agreement.
In the bathroom stall, pressed together with Hwa Lee, Lee Hwashin frowned.
...Huh?
That wasn't the right line.
This exact scene had occurred in the manhwa, shortly after Hwa Lee had gotten milk poured on her by that wretch Soomi. In the bathroom, later, Hwa Lee and Lee Hwashin had overheard Jeon Soomi ranting to her girlfriends about revenge...but what she'd said had been slightly different...
That bitch...My Mortal enemy...Hwa Lee is the worst...getting her minions to do her bidding...
The only mention of Lee Hwashin Jeon Soomi had made was as a "minion" of Hwa Lee's. And that was how it was supposed to be. Hwa Lee was the protagonist. Lee Hwashin was the protagonist's bestie who would protect her at all costs. It was Jeon Soomi and Hwa Lee who were fated to be mortal enemies, not Jeon Soomi and The-Protagonist's-Friend! What kind of plot would that make for?! A boring one! Obviously!
"Hwa Lee thinks she's pretty when she's ugly, but Lee Hwashin? She thinks she's ALL THAT, in every way! She thinks she can do whatever she wants just because she's strong! I think I need to teach her a lesson..."
Jeon Soomi went on ranting until she and her girlfriends had finished reapplying their lip tints and mascaras, and then they all left in a huff.
As soon as they were gone, Lee Hwashin fumbled and unlocked the stall door, falling out and away from Hwa Lee's (admittedly very comfortable) chest. She panted, face red with embarrassment and eyebrows furrowed with confusion.
Lee Hwashin was so concerned with mulling over why Jeon Soomi's first words in the story had been changed, that she didn't notice Hwa Lee's red face, and the dark eyes that were staring at her with barely suppressed desire and curiosity.