Ex Rank Supporting Role’s Replay in a Prestigious School

The text on the screen was trembling.
At first, I thought it was a device error, but it turned out my pupils were just shaking.

After taking a few deep breaths, the words began to focus properly in my eyes.
[Title: Full Cam of the China-Japan-Korea Exchange Match + Anonymous Rising Star’s Solo Cam (Re-upload)]
[Title: A lot of reactions saying the art style suits the rising star and the protector.jpg]

[Title: Couple Controversy: Foreign Player Reactions are Hilarious, Sharing the Laughsㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[Title: The Moment the Anonymous Rising Star’s Eyes Shined in the Exchange Match (Lots of GIFs)]
[Title: I’m still rooting for Narae of the Backlight]

[Title: Want to see the photo of Narae of the Backlight and Shin-tan’s Protector together?]
[Title: Shin-tan’s Protector Looking Emotionally at the Anonymous Rising Star feat. 2v2 Tag Match of the Exchange Match]
[Title: Some crazy guys are wandering around the Eungwang district buying bread even though there’s a typhoon coming, haha]

The player community, where all sorts of people gather, was chaotic, but this time, it had crossed a line.
Well, it's normal for the most perfect protagonist couple, Joo Su-hyuk and Ahn Da-in, to get attention, but the problem was that my name was being mentioned!
And not just any mention — it was paired with Ahn Da-in... this was painful...

Not long ago, there were rumors of a fallout between me and Ahn Da-in, but I still couldn't understand how things got to this point.
The fact that Ahn Da-in and I fought in the exchange match was partly to put an end to those rumors, but the effect had been far too large.
I couldn’t bear to check the content of the posts, but I decided to read one to figure out what the reason behind this was.

[Title: (Not Clickbait) Why Shin-tan’s Protector Looks Better with the Anonymous Rising Star Than With Narae of the Backlight]
From the title alone, it was nonsense.
Why, when the perfect hero Joo Su-hyuk was there!

It was painful, but I had to bear it to find out the reason.
With my hands that didn’t move well, I touched the screen.
The simple thought that I squeezed out with my dizzying mind was very simple.
“There are more photos than text.”

A photo of Ahn Da-in and me standing side by side during school ambassador activities.
A photo of Ahn Da-in and me talking during training camp before the exchange match.
A photo of Ahn Da-in and me fighting together during the third round.

A photo of me handing the trophy to Ahn Da-in…
It was happy to look at high-quality photos of Ahn Da-in, but I couldn’t feel fully happy because it was only pictures of me in them.
Underneath the photos, a strange reason was written: "Proof that their faces match well together," followed by some text that hit my mind hard.

“Is it good because Ahn Da-in and my story is good? The cliché of 2nd place and 1st place getting together? Overcoming the crisis of the hate comment incident and confirming love?”
I felt disoriented and frustrated, and my emotions swayed back and forth.
Throughout the text, there were photos of Ahn Da-in, so whenever my eyes met them on the screen, I felt calm, but whenever my own photo popped up, my mood soured instantly.

The last paragraph of the confusing post attached a graph showing the cumulative damage by time from the exchange match officials.
[Here’s the hard truth. While fighting against the Anonymous Rising Star, Shin-tan’s Protector’s cumulative damage was 0. This can only be done with love. If you want to refute, do it with facts.]
Ah… It was true, and it was a fact, but Ahn Da-in was the one who did well.

No matter who I teamed up with that day, I would have done my best to prevent my partner from taking heavy damage.
While scrolling down to press the "dislike" button, I ended up reading the comments.
[Stop being ridiculous]

[↑This idiot’s here again]
[↑Doesn’t this guy even sleep? Seems like he gets the first comment every time]
[↑Even after blocking him, I can still see his freak-outs every day, lol. How many accounts does he have?]

[↑Damn, the “idiot” showed up on my post too! Here’s the screenshot for proof v^0^v]
[Someone please shut this guy up, lol. Let me link an explanation for those who don’t know about him.]
If I were to express it a bit more aggressively, I felt just like the first commenter.

When I clicked the link, it led to a post targeting the so-called “idiot.”
It was assumed that this “idiot” first started by trying to calm the opinions in the forums and redirect the focus, but recently, it seemed like they had completely snapped. They were going around every post supporting certain couples, scolding everyone to stop and threatening with insults, ending their comments by saying to just report them.
“Delicate manipulation, multiple accounts, weak mental state... reminds me of some haters at Eungwang High.”

Could this be Gye I-dam?
Crazy haters like that don’t even deserve a response, but it seems like dealing with the public who were supporting Ahn Da-in out of goodwill is tough for them.
Maybe just the idea of me being associated with Ahn Da-in has become an enormous stress for them.

I don't know the reason, but it's clear this hater is not being helpful.
Fortunately, there were wise people who rejected the crazy flow of things.
[Yeah~ But still, at Eungwang High, Narae of the Backlight and Shin-tan’s Protector are considered just background characters~]

[↑So they’re dating? Do they have as much of a story or face match as the Anonymous Rising Star and them? Is there anything that can be refuted?]
[The people pushing for Narae of the Backlight X Shin-tan’s Protector are irrational.]
But there were still many people attacking the wise ones.

The more I read these comments, the more I felt like my insides were boiling.
Suddenly, I became the illogical person.
But does logic really need to be involved when stating the truth?

Joo Su-hyuk and Ahn Da-in are a couple that doesn’t need logic!
[Can’t the three of us just live together? They’re all handsome and pretty, and they’re close, so I think it’s fine ^//^]
[↑Stop being ridiculous]

[↑It’s been a while since the idiot made a comment.]
[My honest opinion) I’m pushing for “Three People Living Together,” even if I go to hell.]
[↑If you’re going to hell, can’t you just go now? Quickly please.]

I saw the crazy comments.
What? The three of us?
If they want to push that and go to hell, I would help them.

“Calm down. There’s no need to fight with those people. I just need to prove how well Ahn Da-in and Joo Su-hyuk go together.”
Before my thoughts took a more extreme direction, I steadied my mind.
There were even comments that felt like they were about to lead to physical violence, but I couldn’t lower myself to that level.

If you are reading this translation anywhere other than .net or SilkRoadTL, it has been stolen.
Fortunately, there was someone who shared my thoughts.
[Title: A Shot of Narae of the Backlight and Shin-tan’s Protector (Data Warning, Long Post)]

It was a well-written post with a great title.
The moment I saw the rare photos included in the post, I realized who the author was.
Moon Sae-ron.

I immediately remembered the specific shots, as they were taken when I was next to her.
Knowing that an ally was fighting at the frontlines brought a sense of emotion to my heart.
I clicked “Like” and then checked the comments.

[I thought this was a duplicate post, but these are all new photosㄷㄷ]
[Wow) Don’t they look so good together? It’s their choice, but I’ll keep supporting them! Please join me in supporting themㅠㅠ]
[↑If you send me ten more photos, I’ll consider it.]

[↑Wow, I edited the photos, here you go~]
Moon Sae-ron was desperately sharing photos to change minds, and those who noticed this eagerly collected the rare photos.
She was the type who put a lot of effort into choosing photos even for articles, so it seemed she was using all the photos she had stored up.

I felt moved by Moon Sae-ron’s efforts.
Next, I decided to read a post with a lot of comments, which seemed negative towards the current trend.
[Title: How long is this nonsense going to continue? Honestly, isn’t it getting boring?]

[But whenever I see the Anonymous Rising Star and Shin-tan’s Protector’s ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ faces, everything becomes fun again and feels like something new, haha]
Ah... they weren’t on my side.
After that, I was tricked several more times, frustrated, and even moved by some of the comments, reading some posts carefully.

The more I read posts on the forum, the stronger the feeling that I couldn’t just stay silent became.
“I need to write a post too.”
Many people had already written about why Joo Su-hyuk and Ahn Da-in make a good couple, so I decided to write about something no one had mentioned yet.

As a result, I finished a post about why I wasn’t good enough compared to Joo Su-hyuk, and why the Anonymous Rising Star didn’t match with Shin-tan’s Protector.
It wasn’t long before comments started appearing on my post.
The first comment was as follows.

[Who are you to criticize the Anonymous Rising Star?]
It was me.
But I couldn’t prove it, so I struggled with how to respond when new comment notifications came flying in.

[There are few posts like this, but it’s upsetting every time I see them.]
[You’ve written trash and put effort into it.]
[Attacking someone won’t change your miserable situation. I hope peace comes to your heart someday.]

[Read the first line and got suspicious, so I immediately scrolled down to the comments, lol]
[↑Hands up]
[↑Hands up22]

[↑I thought there was a twist in the middle, but I read all the way through. What a waste of timeㅠㅠㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[This post doesn’t have “idiot” in it… lol]
[Didn’t the Japanese representative team incite hate comments and confess at a press conference? Could it be related?]

My intention didn’t get across at all.
I was even attacked by those who supported Joo Su-hyuk and Ahn Da-in’s couple.
The number of “dislike” votes was enormous, even at this early hour.

Because of my post, new posts related to me kept appearing.
[Title: The Anonymous Rising Star Seen on Foreign Player SNS? Almost a billboard]
[Title: This Is the Story of the Anonymous Rising Star’s Kind Deeds]

[Title: The Snack List That the Anonymous Rising Star Bought for the Juniors.txt]
Every time a new post about me came up, I felt dizzy for completely different reasons than before.
As I blankly stared at the hologram, I could hear the voices of the tigers outside the door.

“Baek Ho, why are you smiling? I bet it’s related to Yi-shin.”
“Baek Ho, don’t laugh so loud in the morning.”
“But Huang Ho, didn’t you laugh out loud in class this morning too?”

“There’s a weird post in the monitoring forum, looks like Yi-shin wrote it.”
“A weird post?”
I heard the conversation of the tigers and the white tiger’s laughter.

That sound helped me regain my composure.
This situation had something to do with the tigers.
The real problem now was that, because of the Hojo Family, a connection was being made between me and Ahn Da-in, which made it hard for Joo Su-hyuk to get involved.

If they get together, it’ll naturally solve the problem, but I might end up with a mental breakdown before Joo Su-hyuk and Ahn Da-in get married and become a part of the Hojo family.
“First, I need to get Joo Su-hyuk to have some kind of connection with the Hojo family other than marriage.”
In the PlmaGo, Baek Ho-gun and Joo Su-hyuk naturally became entangled while fighting together.

But looking at how things were going now, the white tiger didn’t seem to be any help in this crisis.
And now, the Hojo family needed a helper.
The possibility that Joo Su-hyuk might be in danger, the growth of Joo Su-hyuk, his achievements in PlmaGo, and the chaos in the player community all mixed together in my mind.

I made a difficult decision.
“I’ll fight alongside Joo Su-hyuk.”