Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can - Chapter 35.2
On the way home, I chose a sheet of letter paper and an envelope to keep my promise to the teacher, then sat on a park bench and considered what to write.
“What should I write to Byeongjun to change his mind….”
I quietly recalled the conversations I had shared with Kim Byeongjun. If there was anything memorable from our very brief contact and conversation, it was….
‘I really didn’t hit him. Today was the first time I’d ever seen him.’
…The hurt look in his eyes when I said those words.
It seemed Kim Byeongjun had known me one-sidedly. Should I really call it one-sided…? Perhaps we had exchanged a few words before. I often failed to notice other people because I was always thinking only about Kim Jihwan.
“I don’t understand why you’re doing this to me… but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.”
You knew me, and now I knew you, so we were friends now.
Would Kim Byeongjun’s heart be moved if I wrote to him as though I were writing to a friend?
I hoped so.
My deliberation was brief, and the pen moved lightly.
“Jihwan-ah- Let’s go to school-.”
The Swimming Club had said there would be no morning practice after the competition until the end of summer vacation. So for the first time in a very long while, I could go to school with Jihwan-ie.
“Haha, seeing Hanrim-ie like this reminds me of when you were in elementary school-.”
“Good morning, sir!”
Kim Jihwan was such a clone of his mother that I sometimes wondered whether she had produced him by budding. But whenever Kim Jihwan was in a good mood and the corners of his eyes relaxed slightly, he looked exactly like his father.
“Baek Hanrim, you’re loud. Let’s go. We’re off.”
He grabbed the back of my neck and dragged me away. As I was dragged along, I carried out today’s mission.
“Stay healthy! I love you! Live a long, long time! You know I like you, right?!”
When the bus arrived, I tapped my card one step ahead of him, took a seat, and called him over.
“Here!”
“I said you’re loud….”
He grumbled as he sat in the window seat I had given him, and I naturally settled beside him while pressing myself against his shoulder.
“Jihwan-ah, don’t grow any taller. There’s a height that’s exactly comfortable for me.”
“What a load of fucking nonsense.”
Lately, he had been growing much taller than expected, which made me feel slightly deceived. It was the kind of scam where you thought you were raising a house cat, only for it to turn out to be a leopard cat.
Even so, he was still a feline that fit neatly within my arms.
“Well, even if you grow bigger, you’ll be super big, so I guess you’ll be super cute.”
Kim Jihwan didn’t answer me.
When I looked at him, the scam product I had doted on and raised had earphones in his ears, his chin resting on the windowsill, and a blank expression on his face.
“Haha, cute-.”
I leaned against Kim Jihwan’s shoulder and relaxed slightly. As I did, I smelled Kim Jihwan’s familiar scent. The soft, fragrant smell of fabric softener made drowsiness wash over me.
If I fell asleep here, he would scold me and ask whether I had narcolepsy. But what could I do when simply resting my head made me sleepy?
I hoped he would generously overlook this much as my childhood friend.
With my consciousness growing hazy, I briefly recalled the beginning of the semester.
Back then, I hadn’t known I would join the Swimming Club. Because of that, I hadn’t known I would end up taking a different bus to school in the mornings either.
I also remembered the conversation I had shared with Kim Jihwan on our first day of school.
‘Looks like we’ll be taking the same bus for another three years.’
You had spoken of three years with me.
I had naturally existed within the future you imagined.
I was grateful for that, but it also made me sad.
Because I was a side top.
I didn’t exist in your future.
You probably didn’t know your own future.
“…It’s hard.”
Half asleep, I murmured the truth.
Then I fell asleep.
Baek Hanrim sometimes had a habit of mumbling in his sleep.
He probably didn’t know it himself. Unless someone told him, he would never realize that the thoughts inside his head occasionally leaked out.
“It’s okay.”
And every once in a while, I would give Baek Hanrim the words he seemed to need when he looked peaceful only while his eyes were closed.
READ ONLY AT VANISHINTOFICTION.COM
* * *
READ ONLY AT VANISHINTOFICTION.COM
“Hello! I love you! I like you!”
I tried speaking to a cicada clinging to a tree and crying, screeee-.
Daily Quest: Say ‘I like you’ (4/10)
“Why does this work…?”
It was ridiculous, but I welcomed any task that could be completed this easily. Maybe the quest had been given to let me rest after all the difficult worlds I had suffered through.
“Hey! Snow White! Hurry up!”
“Okay!”
I prepared the stage in the main auditorium for that afternoon while carrying stage props and supplies for the various talent-show performances.
Today was the school festival.
The weather was clear, and the students’ faces were brighter than ever.
For safety reasons, the school festival had been held only among the students without allowing outsiders to enter for the past several years. Still, it seemed people were quietly inviting friends, girlfriends, and other peers.
What did that mean?
“Oh, girls. Girls.”
“Fucking gorgeous.”
It meant girls our age, not counting adults, had come to this all-boys school.
Because of that, the male students couldn’t hide their excitement, acting like prisoners encountering the opposite sex for the first time in ten years.
“Hello, are you Snow White?”
A female student approached and spoke to me while I was busy helping prepare the stage.
She was my age, wore the uniform of a cosmetology high school, and knew that I was playing Snow White in the play.
It was easy to guess who she was.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
