Surviving Romance

 (살아남은 로맨스, Saranameun Romaenseu) is a Horror Webtoon Original created by Lee Yone; it updates every Thursday. The original Korean Webtoon premiered on Naver and concluded on July 29, 2023.

Synopsis
''When Chaerin Eun becomes the protagonist of the romance novel she is reading, she expects a fairytale ending with the novel’s love interest, Jeha. But when a bizarre twist makes her realize the story is not playing out as it does in the book, she’ll need the help of an unlikely character from her class to defy the new storyline and find her happy ending -- if only she can figure out who this ‘Unknown Extra’ is first!''

Plot
The main character has taken the place of the female lead in her favorite romance novel, Chaerin Eun. She hopes to play out the plot of the novel, where she is beautiful, intelligent, and had the love of the male lead, Jeha Yu. But on the day Jeha Yu is supposed to confess to her, there is a zombie outbreak--something that never occurred in the original novel.

Chaerin is bitten on her hand and subsequently wakes up in bed, realizing she has returned to the morning of the same day. She quickly realizes she is trapped in a Groundhog Day scenario where she is stuck in the emerging zombie apocalypse and restarts the day every time she dies. She tries hundreds of times to change her fate and fails.

In the world of the novel, all characters other than Jeha are classified as "extras" and appear to Chaerin as black, featureless silhouettes with distorted voices. In one of her resets, a girl from her class saves Chaerin and they escape together to the school shop. Though her savior dies soon after, this experience returns Chaerin's sense of hope, and she vows to stay alive and find the "unknown extra" in her next reset.

Chaerin uses what she has learned about the outbreak to change the events and team up with her classmates, hoping to discover which is the unknown extra. Since she had the worst reputation in the class, she struggles to gain their trust. As her classmates slowly come to trust her, she becomes able to see them clearly.

The zombie sickness spreads through their fluids penetrating the skin or being ingested. Early symptoms of infection are coughing, nausea, and fever. Over time, the zombies begin to mutate. One zombie appears to imitate the actions of those around it, but with incredible strength. One grows to a monstrous size. Others gain the ability to shape-shift their faces to look like people who have died, in order to appear sympathetic. One shape-shifter mutates to have many arms and legs like a spider and a long, stalk-like neck. Cell phones still work inside the building, but no one can contact anyone outside.

Chaerin Eun
The main character and the female lead in a romance novel. She has long, pink hair and is incredibly beautiful. On the day Jeha Yu, the male lead, is supposed to confess to her, there is a zombie outbreak. Chaerin is bitten on her hand and returns to the morning of the same day. She quickly realizes she is trapped in a Groundhog Day scenario where she is stuck in the emerging zombie apocalypse and restarts the day every time she dies.

She has a reputation among her classmates for being cold to other girls and only focused on boys. She is bullied and ostracized by her class. In the beginning Chaerin didn't care because all her classmates looked like blank silhouettes and she was only interested in playing out the story of the novel. However, now she must gain their trust.

In her dreams, Chaerin begins being visited by a girl who looks just like her but with dark hair. She wonders if this is the original Chaerin Eun, from before the protagonist took her role in the novel.

Jeha Yu
The male love interest of the original novel. He is the only person Chaerin can see at first, with all other characters appearing as indistinct shadows. He always becomes infected on the first day before he can confess his love to Chaerin.

The Unknown Extra
A girl from Chaerin's class who helps her during one timeline. Chaerin almost becomes able to see her, and notices that she wears a distinctive bracelet, but the Unknown Extra is killed before Chaerin can see her face. Chaerin then dedicates herself to finding the Unknown Extra in the next timeline.

After Chaerin survives the first entire day of zombies and goes to sleep at night, she has a dream where she is seeing through the eyes of the Unknown Extra. In the dream, she sees some of the other students, and thus concludes they cannot be the Unknown Extra: Cheram Han, Shinbi Yun, Hana Do, and Mihui Yang.

Minwoo Ha
The second male lead in the book. Due to him being a main character in the original novel, Chaerin is able to see him. After the zombie outbreak, he leads a band of male students, including the student who killed the Unknown Extra. His group gains control of the school snack shop and he uses a BB gun to defend himself. He is also the twin brother of Chaerin's classmate Seonwoo Ha.

Ms. Seolim Lee
The class's homeroom teacher.

She is young and friendly, which makes her popular with the students. However, she turned a blind eye to the bullying of Chaerin. She shows up the classroom an hour and a half after the zombie crisis is underway, pretending she is worried about them. However, she is actually infected. Ms. Lee splits the class's loyalty when she gets some of the students on her side, but Hana Do uploads a video to the class's group chat to prove Ms. Lee is infected. Cheram Han ends up killing her.

Student No. 1: Seonyeong Kim
Depicted as an extremely tiny girl with a mushroom growing out of her head. She and Hana Do are the fourth and fifth students Chaerin is able to see, becoming visible to her at the same time when she recognizes their strengths.

Her locker is always full of various things, and Chaerin's bullies used to hide Chaerin's belongings in there.

Student No. 2: Hana Do
Class president. She wears round glasses and a ponytail in a scrunchie over her shoulder. She and Seonyeong Kim are the fourth and fifth students Chaerin is able to see, becoming visible to her at the same time when she recognizes their strengths.

She is a leader with a good reputation, and is popular and always in touch with students in other classes. However, she is also intelligent and "cold-hearted". She has a friend named Juyeon in the neighboring class who she chooses not to help. Later, the shape-shifting zombie outside the classroom imitates Juyeon's face, causing Hana to pass out. In episode 39, she becomes infected unbeknownst to the group and kills Se-eun Ham, and then infects Yeri and Jihyeon even though the later is not explicitly shown. She is still alive but as an infected as of chapter 50. 2nd to die/turn

Student No. 3: Juri Ma
Chaerin gets only a glimpse of her.

In addition to Rina Song, she is another of Chaerin's bullies in the original book. When she leaves the classroom on her own she is shown to be athletic and adept at fighting zombies. She is friends with Shinbi Yun. She is the last student Chaerin is able to see after bringing up Juri's family

Student No. 4: Rina Song
A large, muscular girl with long black hair, glasses, and a strong jaw. She is the 10th classmate that Chaerin is able to see, after Chaerin promises to take her to Minwoo Ha.

The most violent girl in the class and the main bully of Chaerin in the original book. She is incredibly strong and is shown to defend herself easily against the zombies on many occassions. She loves the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and idolizes the character of Lu Bu. She is in love with Minwoo Ha, who she calls her "little pop rock".

Student No. 5: Mihui Yang
She has purple hair worn in twin buns and a puppyish demeanor. She is the second student in her class that Chaerin becomes able to see, after Chaerin rescues her.

She has a MeTube account called Huihui TV. When she hears about the zombie apocalypse, she decides to leave the classroom to livestream the experience and get more subscribers. Chaerin is initially fine with leaving Mihui outside to fend for herself, but decides to help her after Se-eun mentions that Mihui was wearing a bracelet that morning, which Chaerin believes must make Mihui the Unknown Extra. However, it turns out to be a different bracelet.

Student No. 6: Jinseon Yeom
She never bullied Chaerin but is resistant to trusting her. She is the twelveth student to be revealed after appearing at the entrance of the science room when Chaerin exits

Student No. 7: Shinbi Yun
She has a moody appearance, with long dark hair hanging over her face, dark circles under her eyes, and her hood over her head. She is the third student in the class that Chaerin becomes able to see, after Chaerin confronts her about the voodoo dolls.

She usually takes the bus to school, but Chaerin texts her to get a car ride instead to avoid becoming infected. In timelines where her infection was not prevented, she infected the rest of the class. She is good at making things with her hands and used to make voodoo dolls and leave them in Chaerin's desk. She is friends with Juri Ma. In chapter 36 she is impaled and consequently dies in the following chapters. She is the first to die

Student No. 9: Jihyeon Jung
Tall and has a boyish look, with short dark hair and a bandage on her cheek. The seventh student Chaerin is able to see, when she takes Chaerin's side against Ms. Lee.

Jihyeon is kind and considerate. She is on the volleyball team, but otherwise is not mentioned much in the original novel. However, Chaerin learns that the day before the zombie incident, she sprained her ankle. She is also a singer who uploads her songs to MeTube. She is revealed to be bitten in chapter 41, and runs out into the zombies and plays music loudly, luring the zombies away. It is not explicitly shown that she is dead but her friend assumes that she committed suicide before turning. 5th to die(assumedly)

Student No. 10: Seyeong Jin
A cute girl with long, curly greenish hair. She wears a button-up cardigan and a white bow headband. The ninth student Chaerin becomes able to see, after Chaerin agrees to let her join her team in going to the school shop.

In the original novel, she confessed to "liking" Chaerin. Seyeong got close to her as a friend while secretly turning everyone else against her, starting the campaign of bullying, and trying to thwart Chaerin's relationship with Jeha. Even after the zombie outbreak, she is shown attempting to turn other students against Chaerin.

Student No. 11: Jinhui Choi
Nickname "Huidol". She has blunt-cut hair with a high half-ponytail, freckles, and an eyepatch, which she might wear over either eye. She is the sixth student that Chaerin becomes able to see, after Chaerim brings her a sword.

A kendō prodigy who is shown to feel useless and depressed without a sword to fight with. Once she has her sword, she is confident and very capable. She wears the eyepatch only to "seal up her power", and believes that taking it off releases her full strength.

Student No. 12: Yeri Pyeon
"Like Jinseon Yeom, she is resistant to trusting Chaerin. She is the twelveth student that Chaerin is able to see after thinking of ways to help her. However she is also the first student to return to being gray after she is infected and starts riling the group against Chaerin. She is executed by Jihyeon before anything drastic happens. She is the fourth student to die"

Student No. 13: Seonwoo Ha
Minwoo Ha's twin sister. She is the thirteenth student Chaerin is able to see after seeing her twin brother

She is "naturally suspicious and cautious", needing proof before acting, and helped Chaerin when she was bullied.

Student No. 14: Cheram Han
Tall, with long, dark blue hair in a high side ponytail and red hair clips. She is the eighth student that Chaerin becomes able to see, when she kills Ms. Lee.

Cheram is a capable gymnast who was able to scale the side of the school building to another floor and jump onto the shoulder of a monstrous zombie. She seems to be aware that Chaerin cannot see their faces, and that she's lying about being from the future.

Student No. 15: Se-eun Ham
She has freckles and usually a curly ahoge on top of her head. She is the first person other than Jeha that Chaerin becomes able to see.

She is a "rumor amplifier," who can make any gossip seem realistic and spread it around. In the original novel, she spread rumors about Chaerin and Jeha. Chaerin takes advantage of Se-eun's talents to convince the other class members she is telling the truth about the zombie apocalypse. She is killed by Hana by getting her neck bitten, and instantly died. 3rd to die.

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