Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can - Chapter 12.2
A five-minute timer appeared before me without any explanation. Bad memories resurfaced, and my body flinched. Well, even without an explanation, I could guess what it meant….
The moment I decided I needed to go see Kim Jihwan, my vision flashed white, and the time and place shifted to the flower bed at school during lunchtime earlier that day. A broken flowerpot lay at my feet as though I had narrowly avoided it. When I looked up at the window, the doppelgänger I had seen just before losing consciousness was gone.
I calmly checked my body. My head was completely uninjured, and Lee Seojun’s number was no longer saved in my phone.
“…I wonder if he ate.”
I was in no position to worry about him.
When I entered the cafeteria, I immediately spotted Kim Jihwan sitting among the other students and glaring at the carrots and onions on his tray without even having to search carefully. Everything around him looked blurry, while only Kim Jihwan appeared in crystal-clear 4K resolution. Rather than someone in love, I looked like someone whose brain had malfunctioned.
“?”
Perhaps he felt my gaze because Kim Jihwan looked toward me. I stared blankly at him for a moment before coming to my senses. Unconsciously, I stepped backward, trying to hide from his eyes. Even as I did so, I couldn’t understand why I was trying to avoid him.
“Agh…!”
“Ugh?!”
As I moved, I collided with someone carrying a tray.
Crash!
Hot soup and side dishes spilled all over me. The student who had dropped the tray looked back and forth between the messy floor and me, trembling without knowing what to do.
“Hey! Baek Hanrim! Are you okay?!”
The Swimming Club sunbaes nearby were startled by the loud noise and rushed over. They surrounded me and helped me to my feet.
Thump, thump, pound, pound.
Forget my clothes. Cold sweat poured from me, and my heart pounded so violently that I couldn’t hear or see anything. My mind was filled with the thought that something had gone seriously wrong. I hadn’t wanted to feel this way again.
“Fuck, aren’t you going to apologize?”
“Uh, I, s… sorry….”
“Is that the right attitude for someone apologizing?!”
When I merely stared blankly at the floor, the agitated sunbaes began acting threateningly. The frozen student looked as though he were about to cry.
“I, I didn’t do it on purpose….”
The student stood there like a condemned criminal, unable to decide whether he should apologize to me or to the sunbaes. Many eyes throughout the cafeteria focused on us. Among them was Kim Jihwan, who had been locked in a staring contest with his carrots and onions. The moment I became conscious of him, my face nearly turned into a roasted sweet potato.
Just as I tried to speak and settle the situation, a status window appeared.
Affection Level 22%
The Affection Level rose all at once.
It seemed the coupon really did have an effect.
“Hyung, I’m fine.”
I pushed away the many hands helping me up and answered. At the same time, I arranged my face into the same expression as the original Baek Hanrim I had seen on the rooftop. A more natural smile, the face of someone whose fundamentally gentle nature showed through.
“You must’ve been really startled. Are you okay?”
Even while imitating Baek Hanrim, I grew increasingly anxious. Forget the Affection Level. I wanted to resolve the situation quickly and hide somewhere Kim Jihwan wasn’t. My heart was pounding so hard that it felt unbearable.
“I’m… okay….”
“That’s a relief. I’m fine, so hurry and get another tray. You’re hungry.”
I comforted the tearful student, then left the cafeteria with the sunbaes and headed toward the Swimming Club room.
Affection Level 26%
The Affection Level, which had been at 18 percent, leaped to 26 percent in less than five minutes.
“Haa….”
But I wasn’t particularly happy. This was the first time a rapid increase in the Affection Level had ever felt so unwelcome.
“Does that mean love is ultimately nothing more than a chemical reaction in the brain?”
I couldn’t believe that a single coupon had made me feel such an absurdly intense emotion of love. No, but was this really love? Rather than love, it felt more like….
“Here.”
When I came out after showering, one of the Swimming Club sunbaes was waiting for me and silently held out a bottle of water.
His name was….
“Thanks, Jihyeok-hyung.”
I remembered him because he trained harder than anyone else. Enough to make me think someone like him was wasted at our school.
“……?”
I took hold of the bottle and pulled firmly, but he didn’t release it and continued gripping it. Thinking he might have something to say, I smiled slightly and showed my teeth.
“Are you going to feed me?”
“…….”
Jihyeok-hyung frowned faintly, then opened the bottle with a crack and placed it in my hand.
“Thank you-!”
I took a sip, closed the cap again, and rolled the cold bottle over the front of my chest where the soup had spilled. It wasn’t burned, but it stung, so I needed something cold.
“…Earlier…….”
Jihyeok-hyung looked at me and quietly began to speak. But he seemed uncertain about what to say and stumbled for a moment. I gave him a gentle smile to show that I was listening. After organizing his thoughts, he quietly continued.
“…I wondered if you were… on this side too.”
I tried to determine the meaning of his abruptly spoken words, which lacked a subject.
I had a strong feeling that if I carelessly asked what he meant, he would brush it off and say it was nothing. Since I was the one with overwhelmingly more things to hide, speaking first would put me at a disadvantage, so I decided to draw out the answer through a leading question.
“…Was it obvious?”
I also omitted the subject and made my voice sound slightly dejected, as though asking how he had known.
“You stand out.”
Could he be another transmigrator? Had Jihyeok-hyung also seen the system window with the five-minute timer that appeared before me?
“Did I stand out that much?”
“You’ve been famous since the entrance ceremony.”
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