Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can

“Just put it somewhere. I probably wouldn’t even notice it was there.”

I made an affirmative sound in my throat and tried to put it away anywhere. But the shelves were organized according to their own system, with one section containing foreign-language books and another containing Chinese historical novels. Somehow, it felt wrong to put it away carelessly.

I carefully chose the section filled with nonfiction theory books and arranged it to blend in according to the height of the other books. Then I turned around proudly, but,

Slide-.

Cha Gwonhyeok, who had approached from behind, placed his hand on my back. Startled, I froze. For a moment, I even forgot to breathe at the sensation of his fingertips pressing against my back.

“From what I’ve heard, you seem to have a lot of nicknames.”

Cha Gwonhyeok began in a low voice.

He seemed to be talking about the Baek Hanrim nickname challenge that had become a minor trend among the students. I didn’t know who had started it, but as long as a word began with ‘Baek,’ began with the consonant ‘B,’ or even sounded vaguely similar, the students attached it to me and used it as a nickname.

“Did you know you have a mole here?”

Cha Gwonhyeok’s fingertips rubbed somewhere on my back beneath my shoulder blade. It was the same spot where I had been slapped on the back during the Swimming Club entrance test. So they had smacked me because there was a mole there. Remembering that group beating made me chuckle.

“Does it tickle?”

It didn’t tickle, but I did want him to stop touching me. If he continued, it felt as though the situation itself would become uncomfortable rather than my body feeling ticklish. I didn’t like situations like this.

I turned around to face him and pushed against his body as though telling him to move, but he didn’t budge. Why was this budding obsessive main top acting like this again? Had I done something wrong?

“You’ve got something in your mouth.”

As though he had found the answer to why I had only been making simple sounds in my throat instead of responding whenever he spoke to me, Cha Gwonhyeok gripped my chin with one hand. Then he pressed down on my slightly puffed-out cheek.

Wait, my friend! If you press it like that!

Pshk.

The water filling my mouth was forced out by the external pressure and shot onto his face like a water gun.

“…….”

Am I going to be eliminated now?

I anxiously watched Cha Gwonhyeok’s reaction. His unreadable black pupils stared blankly at me.

As I repeatedly met his eyes and looked away without managing to say anything, words finally came out of Cha Gwonhyeok’s mouth.

“…Salty.”

Cha Gwonhyeok licked the droplets running across his face.

“Uwah…!”

Flustered, I grabbed the back of Cha Gwonhyeok’s neck and pushed him down until he bent at the waist, then held my hand in front of his mouth.

“Spit it out! Throw it up! What if it makes you sick…!”

I fussed like an owner whose puppy had eaten something it shouldn’t, and Cha Gwonhyeok’s shoulders trembled with quiet laughter. The sight overlapped with the image of the main top sitting in his office and cruelly curling up the corners of his lips after eliminating someone who annoyed him.

Frightened all by myself, I urgently pulled out the hem of my stiff summer uniform shirt and wiped his face with it, not caring whether my stomach showed, then apologized.

“…Sorry. That must’ve startled you.”

“It’s fine. But why were you holding salt water in your mouth?”

“In case a ghost appeared….”

Rumble- Flash!

At that moment, thunder and lightning struck with perfect timing. I had thought the rain outside was growing heavier, and now it had finally begun. It looked as though a typhoon might actually arrive.

“Wow, I don’t have an umbrella. Lend me one when I go home.”

As I stared out the window and muttered blankly, Cha Gwonhyeok tilted his head and asked,

“You’re afraid of ghosts, but thunder and lightning don’t bother you?”

“That’s just a natural phenomenon. Electrical charges moving around inside clouds.”

Natural phenomena weren’t frightening. But supernatural phenomena like ghosts were. The unexplained part, something without any physical substance, was the most frightening of all. Ghosts couldn’t be explained through things like electrical charges or atoms.

“You really are strange.”

Cha Gwonhyeok laughed again at my serious answer. Well, from my perspective, you were the strangest one of all. You had everything anyone could possibly want, yet you still couldn’t have Kim Jihwan, so you went wild and wrote an insane love story full of melodrama.

Still, I was relieved that he didn’t seem upset, judging by how cheerfully he was smiling.

“Did you leave Jihwan alone?”

I tried to walk past Cha Gwonhyeok and return to Kim Jihwan, who was by himself.

“Can’t Jihwan be left alone?”

Cha Gwonhyeok asked with what seemed like genuine curiosity. The question was so absurdly obvious that I was momentarily speechless. Did he still not see Kim Jihwan as someone he needed to cherish and stay beside?