Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can - Chapter 17.1
“Huh? How long have you been in there?”
“Cough, f, from the beginning… cough.”
Had he been hiding there ever since the Mugunghwa Flower game? Haa, now I couldn’t even die in peace because he would keep bothering me….
“I guess you were sent here so I could make this life count too.”
Even if I burned to death, I had to open an escape route that would let that guy survive and get out too. I had already found a way to save everyone else, so saving one more person shouldn’t take long.
“Can you help support me?”
“Cough, I, I don’t have any strength….”
The coughing student looked as though even standing up was difficult, so running would be impossible.
“I’ll try walking too, so just help me keep my balance. Please.”
“O, okay…! I’ll try…!”
With his help, I forced my twisted left foot down and limped forward. Supporting each other, we made it to a window in the hallway where we could at least breathe a little easier. Since the air circulated there, the heat struck my back hard enough to feel as though it would tear off my skin, but it was still better to cook on only one side than to be roasted whole.
“Uh, the sky…!”
At his startled cry, I looked up. The red sky was slowly returning to its original starless black night. Beneath it, students were pouring out of the school and sprinting toward the front gate.
―Ding-dong-.
A bell rang, and I couldn’t tell whether it meant the Death Game had ended or a third game had begun. The students running wildly across the field stopped for a moment and turned to look at the burning school. Among the students pouring out was Kim Jihwan, covered in scratches here and there.
You were alive.
“What a relief…. Huh?”
Kim Jihwan seemed to meet my eyes where I stood by the hallway window, and then he suddenly ran back toward the school.
“Jihwan-ah! No! Don’t come!”
I shouted at the tiny dot that was Kim Jihwan not to come closer. But as though he couldn’t hear me, he didn’t slow down and rapidly approached.
Rumble-.
“Ugh?!”
“Agh!”
A supernatural vibration shook the school building. The ground sank, and cracks spread across the walls. Soon, pieces of ceiling plasterboard began raining down, and I felt the school collapsing.
Damn, is this the third game? A great escape?
“Wow… this world setting is seriously brutal!”
Even as the building tilted and collapsed, I grabbed the panicking student beside me and kept him from falling.
“Wh, what do we do? Am I g, going to d, die…?!”
“Let’s do everything we can. I’ll save you somehow, no matter how long it takes.”
Even if I have to die and restart several times, I’ll do it, so don’t worry.
The building began collapsing rapidly from the entrance inward. A powerful smell of burning and dust from the debris rushed into my lungs.
“N, no. Why is this….”
When I looked down at the first floor, Kim Jihwan couldn’t get inside. He stared at the debris in despair and muttered blankly. Then he struggled desperately to lift it somehow.
“Jihwan-ah! Just go! You’ll hurt your hands!”
I can die. I can come back to life and look for another way. I’ll find the solution, so please stay alive.
“But… but…!”
“I’m fine! Hurry and go!”
Even with the protagonist’s protection, dying still hurts. It would be difficult for the frail Kim Jihwan, who suffered from indigestion whenever he was under even a little stress.
“How could I… leave you….”
Kim Jihwan looked at me with a face so desperate it seemed to be boiling over. I didn’t know he could make an expression like that.
“Ugh…!”
While my attention was briefly stolen by Kim Jihwan, a powerful wave of scorching air struck me from behind. A stinging pain engulfed me, as though all the skin on my back were being peeled away.
“Just go! Hurry!”
The intense burning heat.
My white school uniform, filthy with black ash.
And then,
“Hanrim….”
For a moment, everything seemed to slow as though time had stopped.
And if I had to name the reason, I could confidently say it was Kim Jihwan, his face a mess as he spread both arms toward me as though telling me to jump.
“Hanrim-ah, hurry….”
In this unreal situation, things unfolded that I could hardly believe even as I watched them. Kim Jihwan calling me by my name without my surname. Kim Jihwan acting as though he would catch me if I jumped from the fourth floor. The expression he was making right now….
“Hiic….”
Affection Level 39%
The world setting will now be restored.
Kim Jihwan was crying as though he had lost everything in the world.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I didn’t even notice the Affection Level rising.
READ ONLY AT VANISHINTOFICTION.COM
* * *
READ ONLY AT VANISHINTOFICTION.COM
“Did you two fight?”
The homeroom teacher of Class 12 looked exactly as he did in everyday life, as though his head had never burst. Without realizing it, I squeezed Kim Jihwan’s hand so hard that it must have hurt.
Had the world setting been restored? Was the Death Game completely over?
“Ugh….”
Kim Jihwan grimaced and groaned as though my grip hurt. That made relief wash over me because we really had returned. At the same time, I remembered Kim Jihwan crying as he looked at me and couldn’t do anything. I hadn’t expected the fact that I was quite precious to you to be this shocking.
It probably felt even more overwhelming because I had been growing sick of the system due to the Affection Level Coupons, only to confirm his affection in such an unexpected way.
“Jihwan….”
Like an idiot, I only repeated Kim Jihwan’s name. I liked the Kim Jihwan before me so much. I also liked this situation where no one was hurt or screaming, and the peaceful school scenery that wasn’t collapsing or burning. A smile rose on my face without me realizing it.
“I like you so much, Jihwan.”
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
