Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can

“Wow, sixth place! Isn’t our team fucking awesome?!”

After the swimming competition ended, an excited second-year hyung shouted. We had finished in sixth place out of eight teams.

“Hey, it’s burning! Flip it over!”

We were at a galbi restaurant.

After the competition, our Swimming Club was holding a feast at the galbi restaurant, paid for out of the parents’ and coach’s own pockets.

“There are two whole teams below us! We lost, but we fought well-.”

“What the hell is wrong with the teams that did worse than us?”

Regardless of the result, the members were excited by the sense of accomplishment that came from completing an event. Watching them made me wonder whether this was true sportsmanship, not caring about the results.

Right, the guys were happy. That was all that mattered.

Feeling pleased, I picked up several pieces of galbi, wrapped them in lettuce, and brought the wrap toward my mouth.

“Baek Piggy, this school-bully bastard is happily stuffing his face again.”

One of the first-year Swimming Club members spoke while looking at me. My hand stopped instantly, and I awkwardly lowered the wrap onto my small plate. Then I apologized.

“Uh, well, I’m sorry….”

Smack!

A Swimming Club sunbae beside him struck the first-year who had crossed the line on the head with a spoon.

“Hanrim-ah! You know this guy always talks without using his brain!”

“This bastard risks his life for jokes and crosses the line way too far! Let it go!”

“You-son-of-a-bitch! Are you even human?! Want me to bully the fuck out of you?!”

Thanks to the sunbaes getting angrier than I was, I smiled as though nothing was wrong, put the wrap back into my mouth, and chewed. But perhaps the comment had shocked me more than I thought because I could barely taste anything.

“Did I cross the line? Sorry….”

The first-year who had spoken to me apologized. He merely enjoyed cruel jokes. He wasn’t a bad person at heart.

But my heart ached sharply, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was true that I was in no position to hold my head up, and I wasn’t someone who deserved to sit here eating meat.

“You worked hard. We all know that.”

Jihyeok-hyung patted my back and comforted me.

“Hyung, I’m really fine. It was funny, so it’s okay.”

“Mm, speaking of which.”

The second-year captain-hyung, who had been diligently stuffing himself with meat wraps, looked at me and spoke.

“Hanrim-ah, no matter how the school violence case ends, could you become captain when you’re a second-year? You work the hardest out of all the first-years.”

“If I’m officially found guilty of school violence, I won’t even be able to compete. How could I be captain?”

It was burdensome. What would the new members think when they joined and saw that the captain was someone involved in a school violence case?

“Come on, we’re the kind of guys who set off fanfare and hold a feast because we placed sixth. What are you worried about?”

“Anyone who talks to you for a little while will know you’re not the kind of guy who’d do that. Just send some other bastard to the competitions.”

“The fluid from my ruptured disc says you should be captain.”

When the sunbae with the ruptured disc spoke after undoing the medical back brace he had been wearing so he could eat more meat, the entire gathering burst into laughter.

“Do you think we’re giving it to you because you’re so impressive? We’re giving it to you because you’re the sanest one. Otherwise, one of those deranged first-year punks will have to do it.”

“Ah- Hyung! That’s too much!”

“Boo-.”

The first-years jeered at the second-year captain-hyung’s words. Even so, none of them particularly argued against him.

I also happened to like the Swimming Club, so even if I was officially found guilty of school violence, I had no intention of leaving.

“Try it, and if you can’t do it, hand it over to someone else.”

Come to think of it, that was an option too. I could try it, and if it didn’t work out, I could hand it over.

Why had I been making it so complicated?

“Mm, should I?”

“Decided-!”

“Should we hold an erection ceremony or something?!”

“An erection?”

Bang, bang, bang-.

The Swimming Club members banged their glasses against the table and burst into laughter.

“Hey! You’ll break the glasses! If you keep doing that, get out!”

In the end, the restaurant owner scolded us for being too loud. But once the cheerful atmosphere had formed, it continued through the second and third rounds and all the way until we went home.

I was truly glad I had joined the Swimming Club.

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* * *

READ ONLY AT VANISHINTOFICTION.COM

The swimming competition ended, the weekdays began again, and I returned to school to fulfill my duties as a student. Up to this point, it was the same repetition of everyday life as always.

“Huh? Class 12 is doing a butler café?”

During lunch, while we were resting after eating, I heard that Kim Jihwan’s class, Class 12, would be running a butler café.

“Wow, then will I get to see Jihwan-ie in a butler uniform?”

“If they tell him to wear it, he’ll have to.”

“Haha, that’ll be cute.”

A meme was currently popular on social media where people dressed in themed outfits such as butlers, maids, and young ladies, then danced to a trot rhythm. Apparently, that was why Class 12 had decided to make its festival booth a butler café.

“No, but can they really decide that only a week before the festival?”

“I don’t know. Let them handle it.”

Despite it being his own class, Kim Jihwan had absolutely no interest. He was the type who simply did whatever he was told during group activities, so it seemed he had merely gone along with the flow.

“Uh… Is there really any demand for a butler café at an all-boys school…?”

“Are we doing Snow White because there’s demand for it?”

I had nothing to say.

Being a butler was five hundred times better.