Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can - Chapter 28.1
…Jealousy.
I guess my personality gets twisted when I’m tired.
My Affection Level might drop. I should sing the national anthem in my head.
“Hey.”
Normally, Kim Jihwan would have kept walking ahead without looking back even once, but for some reason, he turned around and held out his hand.
“?”
I immediately grabbed Kim Jihwan’s hand.
“Ah, let go! I meant give me your bag!”
He shook off my hand and swiftly grabbed my bag. As I was tugged upward along with it, I felt something strange. We weren’t at our usual eye level.
“Jihwan, did you get taller?”
I placed my hand on top of his head and gauged his height. The original novel had barely described his appearance and had never stated exactly how many centimeters tall he was. It had only said he was slender and lean, so even being generous, I had assumed he would grow to somewhere in the low or mid-170s….
“Take your hand off unless you want it cut off.”
“If you cut this off, who’s going to eat your carrots for you?”
I stubbornly kept my hand on his head and tried to tease him, but when he glared as though he really would cut it off, I quietly lowered it.
“You’ve been walking like an idiot since this morning. You know that?”
Since this morning? Had I been in that poor of a condition today?
“Hanrim, you’re seriously pale. You look like you’d collapse if someone tapped you.”
Even Cha Gwonhyeok joined in. Now that they mentioned it, my legs were trembling a little, and keeping my balance did seem unusually difficult.
“Nah, I’ll be fine after I sleep.”
I brushed it aside as nothing serious.
We walked through the busy downtown district. I dropped Kim Jihwan off at his academy, then dropped Cha Gwonhyeok off at his academy along the way. After that, I went home. That was the route the three of us took after school. As usual, I watched Kim Jihwan disappear inside his academy building. Then, while I stood beside Cha Gwonhyeok in front of the crosswalk to see him off, he suddenly brought up an unexpected topic.
“What’s your dream?”
“Why’re you asking all of a sudden?”
I looked at Cha Gwonhyeok. He smiled as though it were no big deal, then answered.
“I’m curious about the future you envision.”
His answer reminded me of adult Baek Hanrim’s setting. The image of him working at a respectable company and living an admirably productive life immediately came to mind.
“An office worker. Preferably at a major corporation.”
“You’d fail an interview these days if you answered like that-.”
“Ah, because I named a job? Were you hoping for a more macroscopic vision, Mr. Interviewer?”
The two of us became absorbed in the sudden role-play. Applicant Baek Hanrim straightened his back as though giving a presentation, cleared his throat a couple of times, then answered.
“Yes, my dream is to be a happy person beside people who are happy.”
Even if that meant a life of sleeping alone beside you guys. At my answer, Director Cha Gwonhyeok gave a thoughtful hum before offering his feedback.
“That’s rather passive. Most people would say they want to be someone who gives others happiness.”
“I can’t give them that. I’ll live within my means!”
I laughed and looked ahead.
“There are probably people everywhere who’d accept anything you gave them.”
Then I suddenly felt a powerful force against my back.
I was shoved into the crosswalk while the light was red.
A tremendous impact struck me in an instant.
Would you like to restart?
Yes / No
I had been hit by a car and killed.
The world stopped.
I was sprawled across the road. Someone had pushed me and knocked me into the street. That was why I had been struck by a car and died instantly.
“…Who was it?”
I examined the place where I had been standing.
Around ten people had been waiting at the crosswalk, and every one of them was frozen in a different position, some with their mouths open and others with their hands extended. I couldn’t tell who had pushed me at all. Cha Gwonhyeok was among them with a hand stretched toward me, but I had no idea whether he had pushed me or tried to catch me.
“If he’s a sociopath, I can believe he’d push me.”
Had I triggered something in him?
For now, I should revive and reassess the situation.
“Baek Hanrim, either eat or sleep. Pick one.”
“……?”
Instead of returning to the crosswalk after school, I had come back to lunchtime. I immediately looked at Cha Gwonhyeok.
“If you push yourself that hard before the competition, you’ll get injured.”
He was repeating the same thing he had said at lunch.
And what I needed to say was,
“Mind your own business.”
For a moment, everything stopped, and I felt the space around us freeze. Normally, I would have casually replied, ‘I’ll take it easy from now on,’ but a sharp response had escaped my mouth before I realized it. Kim Jihwan had said I had been acting strange since this morning, so maybe I really had already been out of it from early on.
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