Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can - Chapter 29.1
“Baek Hanrim, either eat or sleep. Pick one.”
“If you push yourself that hard before the competition, you’ll get injured.”
“You said you’d tell me.”
The boys looked at me, startled by my numb voice. I had just returned after being killed by the assailant for the eighth time.
“Tell you what?”
Kim Jihwan was the first to respond. He seemed surprised because I wasn’t acting like myself.
“It’s nothing.”
I gave the startled Kim Jihwan my usual smile and spooned up some soup. I rubbed my stomach slightly, feeling as though everything would spill back out through the holes that had been pierced into it. I had died plenty of times, but these were the first deaths that had left me feeling so betrayed. I must have grown quite fond of Cha Gwonhyeok despite not having known him for long.
Without knowing what was going on inside his head.
“Aren’t you going to eat Jihwan’s carrots for him today?”
Cha Gwonhyeok asked as he watched me repeatedly spoon nothing but clear dried pollack soup into my mouth. Had there been carrots today? Right, there was stir-fried shredded potato, and the julienned carrots and onions had encouraged Kim Jihwan’s picky eating.
“Of course I have to eat them for him- Hahaha, isn’t Jihwan-ie my baby?”
I picked a carrot off Kim Jihwan’s tray, brought it to my mouth, and chewed. I wondered whether the substance rolling around inside my mouth was really food, and whether this was how chewing was supposed to work.
“Oh, right. Jihwan-ah, do you want to come watch Drama Club practice today?”
I had to face Cha Gwonhyeok at school for a while longer, but I had no confidence I could handle it, so I dragged Kim Jihwan into the situation. In all the deaths before this one, I had repeatedly left school early because I was afraid of being alone with him. But if I wasn’t safe even outside school, it was better to stay beside Kim Jihwan. I had died whenever I was alone or left one-on-one with Cha Gwonhyeok.
“I’m going to do my academy homework.”
“Then should I skip practice too? I don’t want to do it if Jihwan isn’t going to watch-.”
Kim Jihwan replied with a sullen expression, “Do whatever you want.”
“I need to watch Jihwan-ie doing his homework….”
“Jihwan-ah, did you know the sound booth in the main auditorium is soundproof?”
Cha Gwonhyeok suddenly threw out an unrelated opening. Kim Jihwan looked at him as though asking why he should care.
“It’ll be quiet if you study in there, even without earphones.”
“…So?”
I subtly began to feel anxious. Cha Gwonhyeok had an innate talent for swaying people’s hearts.
“Isn’t the classroom noisy now that finals are over? I’ll get permission for you to study in the soundproof booth.”
I prayed inwardly that Kim Jihwan wouldn’t fall for it. I don’t want to be around Cha Gwonhyeok right now. He’s too overwhelming and frightening. Jihwan-ah, please.
“Well… I guess I could.”
Contrary to my wishes, Kim Jihwan accepted Cha Gwonhyeok’s suggestion.
Even the heavens were heartless.
“What the hell is wrong with these lines?”
Kim Jihwan came to the main auditorium with a workbook and pencil case tucked beneath his arm, then examined the disastrously bad Snow White script.
“Come on, I told you not to look because it would hurt your eyes….”
I was a little… No, I was extremely embarrassed.
“‘I would like to request a kiss?’ Are you asking for approval? Who wrote this? It’s fucking stupid.”
I did. The original lines had been so awful that I had stubbornly insisted on changing them. But I had no talent for writing either.
“It hasn’t been finalized yet.”
Cha Gwonhyeok put an arm around Kim Jihwan’s shoulders and answered for me. Right, it wasn’t final, so we would probably spend today only working out the blocking again.
“Doesn’t Snow White just lie there? Does she really need a line?”
“The white horse and the dwarves start breakdancing after this. We need a line that can act as their cue.”
“Break…? What?”
Right, technically speaking, this play was closer to a musical. Its main feature was a Bollywood-style progression where even awkward acting was ultimately covered up with music and dancing.
“The white horse and the dwarves are more like the main characters than the princess and prince.”
“That’s why I almost ended up playing the white horse. Hahaha.”
The persecution of the Baek surname had extended all the way to the white horse just because it meant ‘white’, but through the nonsensical logic that a white horse springing to its feet and dancing would be funnier than the princess dancing, I, who had no sense of pitch or rhythm, had become Snow White. Someone with no sense of pitch or rhythm moving stiffly would probably have been perfect for a joke too, but I kept quiet in case they gave me even more work.
“So you’re not actually kissing, right?”
Kim Jihwan asked as though confirming it. He sounded strangely serious, so I answered playfully for no particular reason.
“Ah, Jihwan-ah- Let me have this one-.”
I covered my mouth with both hands and continued, acting pitiful in an exaggerated manner as I said,
“A first kiss should be with someone you like.”
“Who? Cha Gwonhyeok?” one of the club members teased.
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