Transmigrated as the Side Top used as an Emotional Trash Can - Chapter 82.1
“Wow, 54th out of 62? Is this for real?”
“You got fucking destroyed from the preliminaries. If you’d been doping, the drugs would’ve been a waste of money.”
The digital numbers on the scoreboard in the humid swimming pool blinked. It was much faster to look for our school’s name starting from the bottom. The results of hard work were merciless.
“You only started learning how to swim this year. You did well enough.”
I patted the dejected Swimming Club guy consolingly. Even the drops of water falling from his wet hair looked unusually dispirited today. I was wondering what else I could say when the guys beside me chimed in.
“But the kid who competed in the elementary division qualifiers was faster than you.”
“Dumbass. Go die.”
“Delete that pretentious quote you put on your Inst* Story. It’s fucking embarrassing.”
The Swimming Club guys I thought were going to comfort him instead kept running their mouths nonstop, teasing the guy who had placed 54th. I hurriedly tried to smooth things over in case their nasty remarks hurt him, but.
“Ah, shut up! You crazy bastards! Get off my dick!”
The Swimming Club guy who had placed 54th actually perked right back up, jumping around and cursing at them. At the same time, he quickly deleted the Inst* Story post that said, ‘My only competition is the me of yesterday.’ I guess what he needed wasn’t comfort so much as normalcy.
“Coach gave us his card, so let’s go get something to eat.”
The Swimming Club guys gathered in a cluster and discussed what to eat. I spoke to them.
“I have something I need to do today. I’ll head out first.”
Leaving their complaints behind, I left the swimming pool and walked over to Cha Gwonhyeok, who was waiting outside.
“Did you wait long?”
“No, it’s fine.”
I walked around downtown Chuncheon alone with Cha Gwonhyeok on the weekend. Since it was around the time final exams were ending, there were a lot of students like us around.
“Are you sure you don’t have to eat with your Swimming Club friends?”
Cha Gwonhyeok asked as he walked looking straight ahead. I glanced at his profile, since he seemed unusually bad at making eye contact today, then looked forward as I answered.
“I should at least feed the guy who says he’s going to America.”
He laughed at my answer and replied.
“It’s not like I’m leaving right away.”
“Still, you said you’re going during winter break. That means there aren’t that many days left.”
It was noon, just as lunchtime was beginning. Restaurants along the street were busily opening for business. We held our hungry stomachs and started by deciding what to eat.
“Let’s eat whatever you want.”
“No, let’s have whatever Hanrim wants.”
“The one who’s leaving should eat what he wants.”
“I’m fine. Let’s have whatever you want.”
We started going around in circles just trying to choose the menu.
This is when we need Kim Jihwan. You need someone with clear likes and dislikes to keep things balanced.
“Hmm, then should we just eat there?”
I pointed at some random restaurant in front of us. Cha Gwonhyeok looked up at it and seemed a little flustered.
“Pork gukbap?”
A twenty-four-hour franchise gukbap restaurant. The kind of down-to-earth place with a kindly smiling grandmother on the sign.
“You don’t like it?”
I looked at Cha Gwonhyeok and asked. He made an ambiguous expression and held off answering, then eventually sighed. After that, he spoke as if he’d made up his mind.
“Let’s go.”
We sat down and ordered the same thing. I naturally put some kkakdugi on a small plate and set out the spoons and chopsticks. Even while I pulled out a cup and poured water, Cha Gwonhyeok just stared blankly. What? Did I do something wrong?
“Hm? Why?”
I looked at Cha Gwonhyeok and asked. But instead of answering, Cha Gwonhyeok went, “Hm?” right back at me, acting like he couldn’t understand my reaction. For a while, we had nothing but a bewildered exchange of “Hm?” and “Why?”
“Ah, no way. Gwonhyeok-ah, have you never set a table before?”
“Hm? We’re supposed to do it ourselves?”
That answer told me everything. Wow, Cha Gwonhyeok has seriously never been to a gukbap restaurant before. Not just a gukbap restaurant, he’s probably never been to any restaurant like this. Good grief.
I roughly gathered up my surprise, regained my composure, and asked him a question.
“Gwonhyeok-ah, are you going to come back to Korea once you’re an adult?”
“Probably after I graduate from university and get some practical work experience.”
It was an answer that made it sound like he had a clear plan for his future. At that, I stopped putting a spoon and chopsticks in front of him and put them back into the utensil container.
“Then you’ll need to learn a little about navigating Korean society.”
The main top in a novel doesn’t eat things like pork gukbap. But if the story changed and he became a little more human, wouldn’t he at least come somewhere like this with his coworkers? If I taught him a little now, it would make things easier for him later, right?
With that somewhat presumptuous thought, I began giving the future obsessive psycho top a makeshift lesson on Korean table manners.
“Gwonhyeok-ah, why do you think I’m setting out the utensils?”
“Consideration?”
“No, this is closer to showmanship.”
I pulled a tissue from the dispenser on the table. I fluttered it lightly as I continued.
“This tissue isn’t really something you want touching your utensils. But people still put it underneath them. To make it look like they’re making an effort.”
In one continuous motion, I placed the tissue on the table and swept it across once. On a table with poor hygiene, the surface was sticky enough to create friction, so the tissue wouldn’t slide smoothly.
“And the table’s sticky too. Putting down a tissue gives you the feeling that you’ve gotten rid of the discomfort right in front of you.”
“But nothing’s actually been solved, has it?”
“That’s what keeping up appearances is like.”
I looked at Cha Gwonhyeok as if telling him to try it. He did exactly what I had done, laying down a tissue and placing his spoon and chopsticks on top. When he neatly set down a cup too, I poured water into it.
“Especially when people like you are this attentive, it makes an even better impression.”
Cha Gwonhyeok paused for a moment and fiddled with his wristwatch. Then he looked at me and said,
“People like me…? I haven’t told you anything.”
Oops.
Cha Gwonhyeok had never directly told me anything about his family background during all the time we’d been friends.
But he wasn’t strongly denying it either. So I figured I could naturally brush it off as something I’d deduced from everything I’d seen and experienced so far.
“The lady who takes care of your meals calls you ‘Young Master.’ I’d have to be an idiot not to notice.”
“Your gukbap is here-.”
With perfect timing, our steaming bowls of gukbap arrived on a silver tray. I let out an internal sigh of relief and took mine. Then I naturally opened the lid of my bowl of rice, and Cha Gwonhyeok tried to copy me and open his too.
Clang-.
“Aigoo….”
Apparently, Cha Gwonhyeok hadn’t known how hot the rice bowl would be. His eyes widened in surprise, and he dropped the lid.
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