Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can - Chapter 1.2
Affection Level 34%
Time passed again, and we became elementary school students.
Kim Jihwan and I naturally ended up in different classes, but we were still best friends.
That was especially true because I stuck to Kim Jihwan, who wasn’t good at making friends, all the way to and from school and acted as his personal secretary.
I already regarded him with the affection one might have for a younger brother or one’s own child, so the Affection Level rose steadily.
Seeing Kim Jihwan, who grew a little stiff around other people, act relatively at ease in front of me tugged at something deep in my chest and gave me a great sense of satisfaction.
“Baek Hanrim, drink my milk for me.”
“Sure!”
Still, he continued to treat me like a garbage disposal.
With such severe picky eating, no wonder he would grow up into a beautiful bottom with a delicate, willowy figure. Feeling sorry for him inwardly, I gulped down the plain milk carton with Kim Jihwan’s name written on it.
Perhaps because Baek Hanrim’s growing body had trained its stomach through years of serving as Kim Jihwan’s garbage disposal, it could pack away anything.
“Um… Hanrim-ah….”
Someone poked me in the back as I drank the plain milk.
“Mix this in….”
A girl in my class was shyly holding out a packet of J*ti chocolate powder.
Her moon-round face was plump with baby fat, yet somehow the thought that she was cute settled into one corner of my heart.
“Thanks!”
I had already finished the milk, but there was no reason to turn down the J*ti, so I accepted it and smiled as brightly as I could.
“Hey, Saint Baek and Fatty Moon are dating-!”
“They’re going out- They’re dating- Na-na-na-na-na-!”
“I’m not fat, okay?! Do you wanna die?!”
The girl who had handed me the J*ti suddenly raised her voice in anger.
Not to be outdone, I chimed in too.
“Yeah! Yeji is so cute! Don’t call her that!”
“……!”
Yeji’s face turned so red it looked as though her cheeks might burst.
Fourth grade. She was my first girlfriend.
Affection Level 46%
“Baek Hanrim, I’m not going home with you anymore.”
In sixth grade, Kim Jihwan suddenly announced that he no longer wanted to walk home from school together.
We were in the same class, and he hadn’t shown any particular dissatisfaction until now, so I was puzzled by his sudden change in attitude.
“Why? We live next door to each other anyway.”
“What does that matter?”
I was left speechless by Kim Jihwan’s prickly response.
We were best friends, so wasn’t it only natural for us to go together?
“Did I do something wrong?”
There was no other conclusion I could reach.
What had I done, and how had it affected this child?
“No, not you… The other kids….”
Kim Jihwan hesitated and mumbled.
His vague answer gave me a rough idea. As we moved up through the grades, I made more and more friends, but Kim Jihwan still had almost no friends besides me. A group that looked down on him for that must have started picking on him.
“Did the other kids tease you again, saying you don’t have any friends besides Baek Hanrim?”
“…….”
Kim Jihwan didn’t answer. But the way he pressed his lips tightly together, as though his pride had been wounded, told me I had guessed correctly.
“Okay.”
When I answered, Kim Jihwan looked up in surprise.
“If they keep teasing you, let’s go home separately from now on.”
I walked on ahead.
We lived next door and were in the same class anyway, so it wasn’t as though we were cutting ties forever. I didn’t think anything would change much just because we spent a little time apart.
As I walked ahead, I didn’t hear any footsteps following me.
“…….”
It was so quiet that I glanced behind me through a roadside traffic mirror. I saw Kim Jihwan with his head lowered, tightly clutching his indoor-shoe bag. I felt a little sorry for him, but if this was what Kim Jihwan wanted, I should grant it.
From that day onward, I stopped going home from school with Kim Jihwan.
Affection Level 53%
By the time we entered middle school, I had changed girlfriends at least twice.
Like most elementary school romances, getting together was easy, and breaking up was easy too.
I had also made more friends in the meantime and hadn’t been able to pay much attention to Kim Jihwan, so the rate at which the Affection Level rose didn’t merely slow down. There were now many days when it actually lost points.
By then, it was barely hovering in the teens.
“Come to think of it, what would happen if the Affection Level reached 0 percent?”
As I wondered about that on my way to my first day of middle school, a warning window flew into view.
The Affection Level is dropping below 10%.
If you are not with Kim Jihwan within the time limit, a penalty will be imposed.
08:00:00
“……?”
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