I Returned as a High School Girl

Chapter 155: Savior (3)

Kang Ra-Eun could not be considered a righteous person. She herself knew that she wasn’t the kind of person who couldn’t endure seeing injustice. However, She wasn’t cruel enough to just ignore seeing two middle school boys about to drown in the ocean.

She wouldn’t recklessly dive in to save them if she couldn’t swim, but that was not the case. A bodyguard’s role was to protect; hence, she had regularly received training to save people in the water to prepare for possible cases of clients drowning.

.

Due to this, Ra-Eun’s body acted faster than her mind. She sped through the water, past the safety line and reached the two boys.

“Stop floundering and stay still! You’ll just sink more!” she exclaimed.

Even if one couldn’t swim, they would naturally float if they just relaxed and laid perfectly still. The boys’ action of swinging their arms and legs around was far more dangerous.

Time was of the essence. The boy closer to Ra-Eun calmed down a little thanks to Ra-Eun’s bitter remarks, but the other boy did not. Not even she was able to save both of them at once. Thankfully, she saw Seo Yi-Jun who had come after her.

“Yi-Jun! You save that one!”

“Okay!”

Yi-Jun was also a fairly good swimmer himself, although not as good as Ra-Eun. However, he had never received training on how to save a drowning person. Unlike the flustered Yi-Jun, Ra-Eun skillfully managed to bring one of the middle school boys out of the water.

“Cough, cough!”

The middle schooler coughed violently. The people who had been standing by the shore gathered to check the middle schooler’s condition.

“Are you okay?”

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

They barraged him with questions. Ra-Eun ignored them all and crouched down to meet the middle schooler at eye level. She then grabbed both of his cheeks to check the boy’s condition. She judged that he was not in critical condition. As she was about to criticize the boy about why they went that far out into the water...

“Ra-Eun! Is Yi-Jun okay?” Ra-Hyuk yelled.

Ra-Eun belatedly recalled that she had left Yi-Jun and the other boy behind. However, the two of them had managed to return to shore. The boy seemed all right, but Yi-Jun did not.

“Hey, Yi-Jun!”

Ra-Eun sprang up and raced to Yi-Jun and the other boy. Seo Yi-Seo also frantically ran to where Yi-Jun had collapsed.

“R-Ra-Eun! What’s wrong with Yi-Jun?!”

He was lying down without moving an inch. Meanwhile, the boy looked completely fine. The boy explained to Ra-Eun and Yi-Seo what had happened.

“H-He... swam all the way back here with me on his back.”

Unlike Ra-Eun, Yi-Jun did not possess the skills required to save a drowning person. Hence, he couldn’t think of any other way to save the boy than to swim as fast as he could to shore with the boy on his back, even if he had to swallow some water.

It was a valiant attempt; the boy had been safely rescued thanks to it, but Yi-Jun himself was now unconscious.

“What should we do...?!”

Yi-Seo frantically paced around. The people around them were also panicking. Ra-Eun bit her lip.

‘Calm down. I have to make calm and cool judgments in situations like this!’

Not only was she trained to do so, but she had also always emphasized it to her junior bodyguards. No matter what sort of situation bodyguards were placed in, they always needed to maintain a calm and cool composure. They needed to observe the situation in an objective manner and take the most ideal action in reference to that.

Ra-Eun first checked Yi-Jun’s airway. If he had swallowed too much water, then there was only one way to save him.

‘It can’t be helped. I have to save him!’

Whatever the case, Yi-Jun was like a little brother to Ra-Eun. He had always done anything for her. She decided to ignore momentary embarrassment for him.

Ra-Eun commenced CPR. She gave Yi-Jun chest compressions with both of her hands as hard as she could, and then bent down to put her lips on his.

Fuu—!

Ra-Eun breathed into Yi-Jun’s airway and did chest compressions again. As she was about to breathe into his airways again, he violently flinched while coughing and vomiting out the water that he had swallowed.

“Kurgh! Urgh...!”

“Yi-Jun! Are you okay?” Ra-Eun yelled.

Yi-Jun barely managed to open his eyes from Ra-Eun’s voice. He weakly smiled at Ra-Eun, who was looking down at him in worry.

“This is my first time seeing you make that face, noona.”

“Son of a bitch, this is no time to joke around...”

She was being harsh, but her expression had relaxed much more than before. Since Yi-Jun had been resuscitated, Ra-Eun was finally able to feel at ease.

***

They had gone on this trip to relax, but they had unintentionally ended up getting involved in a massive incident. However, in terms of results, Ra-Eun, Yi-Jun and the two middle school boys were all safe.

The news of Ra-Eun saving two middle school boys spread like wildfire through news articles. Due to the wave of reporters that had arrived at the beach, Shin Yu-Bin and Chief Jung had no choice but to head to the cottage where Ra-Eun had been staying.

Ra-Eun changed into regular clothes and stood in front of the reporters with people from her agency.

The reporters barraged her with questions.

“Miss Kang! How did you decide to rescue the two boys in such a situation?”

“I didn’t think to rescue them with anything particular in mind. I’m sure someone else would have, even if I wasn’t there.”

She was saying that what she did had been nothing special. She wasn’t pretending to be humble; she was being completely truthful. Koreans were not so heartless. Righteous people existed in any situation, and Ra-Eun just so happened to take on that role in that particular situation.

That was how Ra-Eun thought, but others did not think so. She herself could have fallen into great danger. There weren’t many people who would willingly jump into that danger, and the public knew that very well. Opinions praising Ra-Eun’s heroic actions were already on the rise.

However, the reporters did not only ask questions regarding the two middle school boys.

“There was a man who had jumped into the water with you, correct? The one who you performed CPR on.”

Ra-Eun instantly blushed. She had not thought much of it at the time since it was to save a life, but after some thought, it had been the first time that she had kissed a man. She belatedly felt the humiliation.

“What is your relationship with that man? From what the people who were on the scene at the time had told us, you two seemed to be close enough to know each other by name,” one of the reporters asked.

The reporters couldn’t help but be curious, since a man and a woman had gone on a trip to an unknown place. Not just that, Ra-Eun was a popular actress. The main topic was that she had rescued people, but a reporter of entertainment news couldn’t fight their instincts.

“He is my friend’s little brother. And we didn’t come here by ourselves,” Ra-Eun mentioned as she pointed at the cottage.

Her older brother Ra-Hyuk and her friends waved at the reporters. They were helping to resolve the reporters’ misunderstandings. The interview with the reporters had finally come to an end once the misunderstanding of the trip had been resolved.

Chief Jung let out an enormous sigh. Although Ra-Eun had done something worth great praise...

“Ra-Eun. I’m not criticizing what you did, but you could’ve gotten hurt as well. I hope you'll take better care of yourself from now on.”

Chief Jung was always worried about Ra-Eun running off somewhere. Her usual self would have justified her actions by laying out tons of reasons, but not this time.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful.”

Ra-Eun herself aside, Yi-Jun, who had followed her, could have died. Something like that may not have occurred if she had thought more carefully about her actions.

The criticism ended here. Chief Jung patted Ra-Eun’s shoulder and got up together with Yu-Bin.

“Enjoy the rest of your trip. I’ll keep the reporters away. Let me or Yu-Bin know if anything happens or you need help.”

“Okay. Have a safe trip home.”

After sending Chief Jung and Yu-Bin off, Ra-Hyuk carefully approached Ra-Eun.

“What a mess on a trip to relax,” he mentioned.

“Well, that’s how trips are; you never know what will happen.”

Ra-Eun decided not to think much of what had already passed. Ra-Hyuk shrugged.

“You want some meat? You know what they say, everything goes better on a full stomach.”

The refrigerator had been filled with meat and all sorts of food for a barbecue. Ra-Eun nodded. Ra-Hyuk, having gotten his little sister’s approval, rolled up his sleeves and took on the role of meat griller. He was planning on doing his best for his little sister, who had worked hard today.

***

Albeit the huge commotion in the morning, it did not dampen their enjoyment since everything had been perfectly resolved. Ro-Mi put down the dish with the meat that Ra-Hyuk had grilled in front of everyone.

“Now, dig in!” Ro-Mi exclaimed.

“Thank you for the meal!”

They were so hungry that chopsticks flocked toward the meat. The same went for Yi-Jun. He put two pieces of meat into his mouth and gave Ra-Hyuk a thumbs up.

“Hyung-nim! This tastes amazing! You’re a meat cooking master!”

“Really? Just you wait, I’ll grill you some pork neck too.”

Yi-Jun and Ra-Hyuk had gotten so close that Yi-Jun was now calling Ra-Hyuk ‘hyung-nim.’ Silently watching the two of them, Ra-Eun tapped on Yi-Jun’s dish with the ends of her chopsticks.

“Yes, noona?”

“...Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s all thanks to you.”

He had even gone to the hospital just in case, but they did not find anything wrong with him.

“...”

Although Yi-Jun was physically fine, this was not the reaction that Ra-Eun had wanted from him.

Yi-Jun noticed something was wrong and belatedly asked, “Is there something about me that’s bothering you?”

One of Ra-Eun’s eyebrows flinched.

“Hell no. Just stuff your face with more meat.”

Yi-Jun couldn’t help but be baffled by Ra-Eun’s sudden burst of anger.