Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can

“If your legs hurt, sit here. I’ll go buy us something to drink.”

He sat me down on a bus stop bench and disappeared somewhere. At first, I considered waiting obediently. But then I decided there was no reason to and stood up.

“Why should I sit here and do what Baek Hanrim says?”

I considered returning to school. But I was reluctant to end this rare opportunity to rebel.

I strolled alone along the well-maintained walking path in May. I was the only student taking a walk in uniform at this hour. Perhaps that attracted attention, or perhaps I simply felt guilty, but I made eye contact with several passersby. I instinctively shrank back, but forced myself to act as though I had nothing to be ashamed of.

The fragrant scent of grass, the glittering sunlight on the stream, and the mechanical noises of the city drifting from afar. At first, I enjoyed everything that created this pleasant afternoon stroll. But after seeing the same things over and over, I quickly grew bored.

So rebellion isn’t anything special. It was really fun when I was running while holding Baek Hanrim’s hand.

It wasn’t interesting, but I didn’t feel like stopping either. I picked out only the white paving stones and stepped on them one by one.

“Jihwan-ie, you aren’t very talented at running away.”

Something cold touched my lowered cheek. When I raised my head, Baek Hanrim was there.

“…What? How’d you find me?”

“If you only walk straight ahead like that, of course I’ll find you right away.”

Baek Hanrim was holding an ion drink and a canned coffee, one in each hand, and waved them as though telling me to take one. But what I would say was obvious.

“Drink it your damn self.”

“Haha.”

He laughed awkwardly and slipped the ion drink into the pocket of his jacket. I turned around and resumed stepping on the paving stones. The sound of a can opening followed one step behind me as I walked. I continued stepping only on the white stones, but when the white sections became scarcer and the difficulty increased, I repeated, ‘Beep- Invalid. Revive!’ inside my head and began stepping only on the red ones.

“Actually, I didn’t decide where we were going today.”

I see. I hadn’t been particularly curious about our destination either, so it didn’t matter.

Ah, I died again. Beep- Invalid. Revive. Red.

“I just wanted the two of us to be together.”

The wind blew.

“I’m sorry.”

His voice was frail and weak. It carried so little weight that it seemed it might scatter and disappear more easily than a dandelion seed.

“Because I don’t know when I’ll be able to see you again….”

Another gust of wind blew. I began to feel uneasy. Ridiculously, it was because I wondered what I would do if Baek Hanrim really flew away. I repeated ‘Pause’ inside my head and turned around to face him.

Baek Hanrim still hadn’t flown away.

So I merely stared at him.

His eyes with their thin double eyelids. His light-brown irises, like glass beads. My reflection within them, looking no different than usual. Water began filling your eyes as they held me. It trembled pathetically before suddenly spilling out.

At that sight, a red warning tone went Beep- in my ears.

“Congratulations on graduating.”

Baek Hanrim, who had led me away while suggesting that we skip class today, was broken somehow.

“Do you seriously have a twin or something?”

Lee Seojun’s eyes sharpened as though he were exercising his right to refuse to testify under my repeated questioning, and he answered my question with another question.

“Yeah, he’s my twin. He’s the one who did this to my head too.”

“That fucking bastard.”

I was too lazy to come up with a complicated excuse, so I answered however was most convenient for me, only to hear him call the doppelgänger a fucking bastard. No, I just told you he was my brother. If he was a bastard, then I was one too, and my whole family would become a family of bastards, wouldn’t we?

“Are you the older brother or the younger one?”

“I’m the older brother.”

“Damn- That little brother needs to be put in his place!”

He even added, ‘You need to beat the shit out of him until he listens!’ and put on a threatening performance by clenching his fists and cracking his knuckles. Seeing Lee Seojun become increasingly invested in the ever more detailed family relationship between the doppelgänger and me made me worry he would feel betrayed if he ever checked my family register.

“Anyway, who was he with?”

“I don’t know. A friend, maybe? Some guy wearing the same uniform.”

I turned on my phone and showed him a selfie with Kim Jihwan to confirm the person’s identity. Then I immediately found an old apartment building of about sixteen floors with poor security and entered.

“What? Is this your house?”

But how do I get rid of him? If I told him I was about to kill myself and asked him not to stop me, would he leave obediently?

“Seojun-ah, aren’t you going home?”

“I can’t. Those gangster bastards came all the way to my school.”

I was dumbfounded by the tragic circumstances I could sense from Lee Seojun after only a few words. Looking more closely, he had barely managed to wash himself, and his uniform wasn’t in particularly good condition either. I could probably shake him off if I suddenly ran at full speed, but imagining him abandoned in this neighborhood and wandering the streets made me feel as though I had committed something unforgivable, even though I hadn’t done it yet.

“…Seojun, have you eaten?”

Ah, I don’t have time for this….