Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can - Chapter 42.2
“And why are you lending me your motorcycle like this?”
Allen made a troubled expression. His lips twitched as though he was trying to say something, but it didn’t seem to be working. Should I tell him to just speak comfortably in English? It would take time, but if we used a translator….
“…Friend fee.”
“Huh?”
“That, Lee Seojun friend fee.”
He said it so confidently that I almost thought ‘friend fee’ was an officially recognized dictionary term. Who on earth was Allen learning Korean from that he casually said things like foot rag and friend fee?
Ah, was it Lee Seojun?
“Why are you paying the fee for me to be friends with Seojun?”
“Because I’m Lee Seojun’s foot rag.”
The conversation was sinking deeper and deeper into a maze, and Allen’s expression was going blank again.
The frustrating conversation we had when I damaged the D*cati was about to repeat itself.
“Allen-ah! Do you, um… know what foot rag means?!”
I blurted out whatever came to mind to keep the conversation from ending. Allen was the type who, once given the chance to close his mouth and think, would sink endlessly into silence.
“A…ide? Assistant.”
Fortunately, Allen’s mouth didn’t close completely.
For a moment, I was relieved that he simply thought foot rag meant something like an aide. At the same time, I wondered how to explain that foot rag was more demeaning than aide and carried the nuance of an insult. As I thought about it for a moment, Allen opened his mouth again.
“Lackey?”
Lackey.
A foot rag was a lackey. Uh… that wasn’t exactly wrong…. But as the foot rag and lackey hearing that, I felt far too hurt….
“…Don’t learn Korean from Seojun.”
The wounded lackey ultimately couldn’t bring himself to say anything and timidly blamed Lee Seojun instead. Allen neither agreed nor disagreed with me. He merely gave a slight shrug. Wow, that gesture really made him look foreign.
“Then how did you know Jihwan went to the hospital?”
“Lee Seojun went to hospital, also.”
“H-Huh?! Is Seojun sick again?”
I remembered when I had first met Lee Seojun. I also remembered his strange attitude, insisting that he absolutely couldn’t go to the hospital even though he was sick.
Allen seemed to understand from my tone what I was worried about, and he tried hard to explain that Seojun wasn’t sick.
“Re…al? Real? Test? To get a test….”
Allen, who had been speaking perfectly well, suddenly began searching wildly for words as though he had malfunctioned. His Korean was still clumsy, so conversation really was difficult. But what was a real test….
“Paternity test…. You know, like Maury.”
“Huh? Maury?”
Even though it was only a very short sentence in English, he spoke too quickly, and his pronunciation wasn’t the textbook kind I was familiar with, so I couldn’t understand him. When I only gave him a completely lost expression, Allen seemed to give up and firmly closed his mouth. He had tried so hard, and I felt terrible for not understanding him.
“Anyway, thanks for the motorcycle! As long as Seojun wasn’t sick, it’s fine- That’s what matters-!”
And so I obtained a motorcycle to ride during vacation. In other words, I had gained transportation for catching ‘that bastard’ Kim Byeongjun had mentioned.
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“Hello.”
After obtaining the motorcycle, I visited the National Center for Digital Sexual Crime Response.
I had visited several times because I first needed to have the material involving me that had spread online deleted. I was also using a private company through Baek Hanrim’s parents, but there was no reason not to receive help from an existing support system.
“Student Hanrim, we’ve managed to remove a lot of the material. All the accounts and posts you reported have been deleted.”
“…But there’s still some left, right?”
“To be honest, yes. We can’t make it as though it never existed at all. If someone took screenshots or is keeping them privately, there are parts we have no way to track.”
The counselor looked apologetic. Who would have thought that one strange person stealing my photographs for an app would continue tormenting me this persistently?
“Did you catch the culprit?”
“We’re continuing to monitor everything. I know it’s hard, but hang in there a little longer. We’ll catch them.”
The counselor’s warm hand gently covered my tightly clenched fist.
“This case goes beyond simple defamation because the material was used in a way intended to cause sexual humiliation. I’ll connect you with our legal support team so you can submit a criminal complaint to the investigative authorities based on the evidence we’ve collected.”
“Yes, thank you.”
“You’ve already made it through the hardest part, so don’t blame yourself too much. We’ll help you until the very end.”
The tension left my body when she continued telling me that none of this was my fault. I already knew that, but hearing someone else say it felt different.
After receiving an update on the investigation and completing the psychological counseling procedure that followed, I left the building. As I walked toward the parking lot, I thought about the things I needed to do.
The police and the response team were investigating the case, but that wasn’t enough to reassure me. I wanted to find the culprit with my own hands, and I wanted to make certain they would never torment me again. The school break was too short to wait for the police to catch them. More than seeing the culprit legally punished, I simply wanted them to disappear from my life. So there wouldn’t be any more trouble in the future.
“I’ve got a nastier personality than I thought.”
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