Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can

“Jihwan-ah, what’s the occasion? You’re wearing your gym uniform.”

It was time for our elective class. As usual, I claimed the seat beside Kim Jihwan and looked over at him. He was bundled up in his gym uniform and a zip-up hoodie.

“Is it because you’re cold? You should’ve just taken out your padded jacket. That looks uncomfortable.”

“……”

Kim Jihwan wore the expression of an angry Maltese, clearly in a bad mood.

What is it? Did I do something wrong today?

I turned around, grabbed the back of the neck of the guy sitting behind me who was in Kim Jihwan’s class, and pulled his face closer before whispering a question.

“What’s wrong with Jihwan? Did I do something?”

“Aagh, fuck, you scared me…! Someone apparently stole Kim Jihwan’s uniform.”

The guy behind me quickly recovered from the shock of being suddenly pulled forward and gave me a simple answer. I see, he was wearing his gym uniform because he didn’t have his school uniform. And since it was cold in only his gym uniform, he had put on a jacket.

“Why are there so many thieves in this school? Is our Jihwan some kind of fairy? Why do people keep stealing his clothes?”

“Then does Kim Jihwan have to give birth to three kids?”

“You fucking bastards! Will you shut up?!”

Kim Jihwan, who had been listening, finally exploded and shouted. The guy behind me and I obediently closed our mouths, sat up straight, and opened our books. While doing so, I subtly asked Kim Jihwan a question.

“Jihwan-ah, do your things usually go missing this often?”

“Dunno… It’s annoying…”

Kim Jihwan mumbled and expressed his frustration by drawing meaningless, crooked lines in one corner of his notebook. I found the sight both cute and pitiful.

“Being the queen of an all-boys school is a difficult position.”

“Seriously, please shut up.”

At Kim Jihwan’s rebuke, I obediently pursed my lips. The saying that being pretty was a crime really seemed fitting. He had done nothing but be pretty, so why did everyone around him keep tormenting him?

Sniffle.

Kim Jihwan sniffled, perhaps because he was cold. Seeing that made my thought that being pretty was a crime completely collapse. Why would being pretty be a crime? It was a gift from heaven that should be accepted with gratitude. You rotten thief, our kid says he’s cold. Give his clothes back.

Ziiip-.

“Jihwan-ah, put this over yourself.”

I draped my windbreaker over Kim Jihwan. He looked disgusted at first, but apparently liked its lingering warmth. He slipped his arms backward into the sleeves and wore it back-to-front as he sat through class, looking rather cute. The oversized jacket had long sleeves that covered about half the backs of his hands, and he didn’t bother rolling them up because he was cold. The sight was so pleasing that I felt proud.

READ ONLY AT VANISHINTOFICTION.COM

* * *

READ ONLY AT VANISHINTOFICTION.COM

At lunchtime, we ate and spent time sitting on a bench by the school field as usual.

“Hanrim-ah, how do you confess to someone?”

Hyeonjin-hyung, who had come to see me for the first time in a while, apparently still hadn’t confessed and asked me a question. I froze in bewilderment with a huge bite of pizza bread in my mouth. Why would he ask something like that while I was eating pizza bread?

“Mm, I—gulp—just told them that I’d been interested in them.”

“Do you confess first more often, or do people confess to you more often?”

When I wondered how ‘Baek Hanrim’ would answer at a time like this, the answer quickly came to me.

“I think I’ve been lucky. Thankfully.”

“I knew it.”

Hyeonjin-hyung nodded with an expression that said he had expected as much.

“Were the others like that too? I feel like you two must’ve received a lot of confessions as well.”

Hyung asked Kim Jihwan and Cha Gwonhyeok, who were once again amicably looking at stock charts on their phones and discussing secondary batteries and the AI industry.

“But it looked like secondary batteries had bottomed out again.”

“You shouldn’t judge so easily. You need to look at the industry itself.”

“Um… excuse me…”

The two continued their heated discussion without even glancing at Hyeonjin-hyung, completely ignoring him. Why were they making things so awkward for him? Kim Jihwan had always been prickly, so that was one thing, but had Cha Gwonhyeok always been like this too?

“You said you didn’t buy in at all. Didn’t that mean you thought there was no future in it, regardless of the outlook?”

“I’m going to buy when people lose interest. What you bought now isn’t necessarily bad.”

“Jihwan-ah, Gwonhyeok-ah.”

When I called them, both of their heads shot up simultaneously like cats who had discovered a toy.

Were they feeling shy about talking to a stranger?

“Have you two ever received a confession?”