Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can - Chapter 74.1
“There’s no way I wouldn’t remember.”
“Ah, I guess I got mixed up.”
For now, I kept my composure and acted like it was no big deal.
I knew perfectly well how sharp Cha Gwonhyeok was after watching him all this time. So the first thing I needed to do was reassure him while he was confused. If I seemed strange for no reason, there was no telling what else he might figure out like he had during the Liar Game.
“I guess I saw it on your ID and somehow thought I’d learned it from talking to you. Sorry.”
I lightly touched the student ID hanging around Cha Gwonhyeok’s neck. He stayed still even when I touched it, so I took it in my hand altogether and looked at the photo.
He looked younger than he did now, so it seemed like he had used an ID photo from middle school. I had never looked closely before, so I hadn’t noticed, but his expression had been really stiff back then. He had piercings in his ears too, and he looked kind of intimidating.
“I guess your birthday stuck in my memory because it falls in a leap year. It’s special.”
“It is special. It doesn’t come around often.”
Cha Gwonhyeok reacted as indifferently as he had yesterday. Seeing that reminded me of the unbirthday song I had sung for him yesterday as Baek Haneul.
Had that become something that never happened too? That was a little disappointing. Laughing together had been really fun.
Feeling wistful over the past that had disappeared, I ended up saying something I didn’t need to say.
“A date is only a numerical concept we use to make the orbital period of planet Earth easier to understand.”
Cha Gwonhyeok widened his eyes at the completely out-of-nowhere statement and asked.
“Why are you suddenly talking about space?”
“Yeah. Out of this enormous universe, we beat absurd odds to meet like this and become friends. What do you think that means?”
Even at such a ridiculous question, Cha Gwonhyeok seemed to seriously consider it, gently stroking the pony’s tail as he went, “Hmm-.”
“Mm, it’s rare. It has value.”
The answer he gave after a brief thought was so very Cha Gwonhyeok that I laughed. Of all things, instead of talking about fate or miracles, he talked about value. It wasn’t cute at all, and somehow that made it cute.
“Right, we’re living through things that are much more valuable and rare than concepts like orbital periods.”
As I spoke, I checked the time and saw that I needed to head back to my classroom.
I got up from the chair.
“The fact that you exist in this world at all is what matters.”
I thought about asking Cha Gwonhyeok to give the pony back, but left it with him. The way he kept it tucked against himself and fiddled with it made it look like he liked it quite a bit.
Fine, I’ll just try not to doze off as much today.
“Are you trying to comfort me?”
“I’m just showing off. I fell asleep watching an interesting space documentary yesterday.”
After getting to my feet, I grinned at Cha Gwonhyeok and said.
“What do you think? Interesting, right?”
Cha Gwonhyeok stared blankly up at me before answering very quietly.
“Yeah.”
Pleased by the positive response, I waved to Cha Gwonhyeok and left Class 4. Cha Gwonhyeok waved back until I turned away.
I was heading back to my classroom when I remembered I hadn’t thanked him for showing me his phone, so I turned around to look at Cha Gwonhyeok.
“Ah. You….”
Cha Gwonhyeok was slumped over his desk with the pony tucked snugly in his arms. He must’ve been really tired. I should just go back to my classroom.
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Mid-November, the second-semester final exams were right around the corner.
Because of that, P.E., art, and all sorts of other arts and sports classes had been replaced with self-study periods. It was the adults’ consideration and command for us to study for the exams.
Some kids obeyed, while there were also plenty who acted like they couldn’t care less and played as hard as they could. The latter was closer to the true nature of high school boys. Give them free time and all they wanted to do was play.
“Ah! I told you not to throw a flash there!”
So it wasn’t like I couldn’t understand the guys who brought gaming laptops to self-study and noisily hammered away at their keyboards.
“Baek-troll fucking sucks!”
“I told you, I’m bad at FPS games.”
But I absolutely couldn’t understand the guys who made me play a game I had never tried before and then gave me shit for being bad at it. Do you just want an excuse to torment me…?
“Who the fuck said this guy knew games?”
“No, hey! Baekhan! You were good at mobile games!”
“That was a turn-based strategy game.”
“No, you’ve gotta at least pull your own weight! You want us to come dead last in the tournament?!”
The competition we were preparing for was the school E-sports tournament.
The game was an FPS, a team-based tactical shooter.
Simply put, it was an objective-based game where you shot guns and attacked enemy positions to capture them.
“But why me? There are plenty of guys who are good at games.”
“You’re good with guns. You’ve got good game sense too. Try focusing on the sounds and how the enemies move.”
I had gone to arcades with the guys in my class before and played shooting games. It was a game where you scored points by shooting zombies.
“You saw me do that a few times and you’re expecting way too much.”
“Because you were fucking good at it!”
Back when I was in the Marine Corps, I was a cryptographic communications specialist, and marksmanship was my strong suit. Besides, zombies were, well, something I had killed plenty of before.
“Hey, leave him alone-. There’s gotta be at least one thing he’s bad at.”
“Game scrub- Nooob-.”
“You suuuuck at games, huh? Getting wrecked, huh? Trash, huh?”
It was true that I was bad at it, so them saying I was bad was just a fact. I had nothing to say. I really was a noob.
But it still pissed me off?
“Ah, fuck, you crazy bastards! You’re fucking loud!”
Just then, Kwon Jayoon, who had been sleeping with his head down, shot up and yelled. The kids playing the game froze in surprise. They were on the timid side, which made it even worse. Kwon Jayoon was somewhere around the first or second tier of the delinquent hierarchy.
“Ah, sorry….”
“Hey, I told you guys we should keep it down….”
There was a subtle power structure within the classroom. Usually, being rough and loud gave you an advantage.
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