Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can

“Ah, is this a family photo in your wallet?”

“Ah…!”

The moment I mentioned the family photo, A jerked his head up. To reassure him, I took out the photograph and tucked it into A’s collar. Then I patted his shoulder a couple of times.

“Your daughter looks around my age. How old is she?”

“…Eighteen….”

“She’s my noona.”

Even though it was only small talk meant to ease the tension and help the conversation flow, A became increasingly tense. I had never cornered anyone like this before, so I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong.

Anyway, I guess this wasn’t how you did it.

“You said you’d chatted with me before, right?”

“What? Yes….”

I gave up on the small talk and brought up the main point. Fortunately, he answered diligently, so the questioning went smoothly. I only hoped he wouldn’t lie.

“You were angry when you messaged me because you said I took your money and ran. Tell me what happened then.”

“…W-Well, back then, you came out wearing a hat and mask… You took 100,000 won as an advance payment, then ran away….”

That made this man the seventh person the impostor had conned by using my stolen photos and pretending to be me. They’d really scammed a lot of people.

“And you still came out again after that happened?”

“P-Please, I’ll give you the money….”

“Forget the money and answer me properly. I didn’t call you out here to take your money.”

A was quite obedient. I wondered how frightened he had to be to act like this, but thinking about how someone this cowardly had approached a minor through chat made me feel slightly nauseated. He wasn’t someone I wanted to speak with for long.

“Did that person look around my age? A high school student?”

“Yes, I think so….”

“Did they have any distinguishing features?”

“They wore a hat… and I could see bleached hair underneath it….”

The mention of a high school student suggested a connection to the kid who had tormented Kim Byeongjun. However, the part about bleached hair made me tilt my head slightly in confusion. Our school left the length and style of our hair up to us, but dyeing and bleaching were prohibited. Had they bleached it for the school break?

“When did you say you met them?”

“Was it… June?”

June wasn’t during the break. Were they not a student at our school? Or they could simply be a teenager who didn’t attend school.

“They looked like they were huffing gas.”

“Huh? Gas?”

“Yes, butane gas. People huffed that a lot back in my day too, and plenty of people in the neighborhood ended up brain-damaged.”

A described in detail how huffing butane gas changed a person’s teeth and complexion.

“You looked at that other person much more closely than the other men did.”

“…I’m a Korean medicine doctor….”

I had learned something I hadn’t particularly wanted to know.

“Since you’re a licensed professional, it would be better to turn yourself in and receive some leniency than to get arrested in the act, right?”

I showed him my phone screen with 112 already entered. A’s face turned deathly pale, and he stared desperately at the tip of my finger.

“Should I press it, or will you go there yourself?”

I gave A a choice. After thinking for a moment, A answered.

“…I’ll turn myself in.”

With that, I had sent the seventh chat guy to the police station. I wondered whether this counted as a good deed and raised my Karma a little.

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* * *

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The vacation survival swimming classes were held at a private swimming pool rather than the school pool. More people than expected had signed up, so the school pool couldn’t accommodate everyone.

“Teacher Baek! Baek! Aagh! Gurgle-.”

“I told you not to go into the deep end-.”

Once again, I pulled hopeless non-swimmers who looked like they couldn’t even survive in a sauna pool out of the water. Whenever I tried to rest, someone called for me from somewhere, so my pruney fingers and toes remained wrinkled all day without a chance to smooth out.

I wished the kids who genuinely couldn’t swim would only call for rescue when they truly needed it, but the children weren’t falling into the water simply because they didn’t know how to swim.

“Wear a life jacket if you’re going into the deep end. Or use a kickboard.”

“Cough, nah, that looks lame.”

“Teacher Baek, don’t you know ganjukgansal?”

The boy who had nearly died moments ago and his friend explained that it was short for ‘die for style and live for style,’ then laughed like people with punctured lungs. They weren’t drowning because they lacked skill, but because they lacked sense. A sigh escaped me naturally.

“Guys, don’t take this lightly. Do you know how many water accidents happen during the summer-.”

“Baek! Baek! Baek! Me, me! Aagh! Gurgle-.”

Just as I was about to lecture them, I heard another cry for rescue. As annoying as it was, thinking about my steadily rising Karma got my body moving again. As expected, this lifeguard work was effective for raising my Karma.

“It’s good, but….”

While my Karma was rising, my Affection Level was steadily dropping by one percent at a time. It had been a while since I had seen Kim Jihwan because of all my activities.