1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Top Student Hides Her Regression
Episode 15
Seo Jae-gyeom didn’t answer my question.
He only dragged a hand through his hair with an exasperated look.
By now, I was getting irritated too.
“Seo Jae-gyeom, you’re acting strange today. Don’t make this harder—just tell me. What’s the problem?”
I pressed him on it, keeping him cornered. After my prodding continued a few times over, he exhaled a long sigh and let it out.
“Today… my father’s supposed to visit.”
My father.
That was what Seo Jae-gyeom called his father—the Vice President.
A wealthy man who’d fathered Seo Jae-gyeom as an illegitimate child and thought he’d fulfilled his parental duty by dropping in on him whenever it occurred to him.
“Since he’s only coming after all these months, my mother’s been on edge. She’s been telling me to come home early ever since this morning.”
“…So when you suddenly said you were going to the school store earlier—”
You were calling your mom, weren’t you?
At my question, Seo Jae-gyeom nodded.
“Yeah.”
“So that’s why you’ve been on edge all day?”
“…Yeah.”
That made sense.
I looked around the Counseling Room, not bothering to hide my discomfort.
Test papers piled everywhere.
An unhelpful answer key with only the correct answers marked, and a single teacher’s textbook carelessly tossed for reference.
And an eighteen-year-old boy whose nerves had been worn raw by complicated family circumstances.
‘Come to think of it, around this time Seo Jae-gyeom suddenly said he was going on a trip and didn’t come to school for a few days.’
So that was the reason.
“Seo Jae-gyeom.”
“…Yeah?”
“If something’s bothering you, tell me about it. Say you’re having a hard time because of this and that. Don’t go around venting your frustration on innocent people.”
He said nothing.
“What you did to me today was taking it out on me. What’s my crime?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Right. Don’t do it again.”
I nodded, then slipped off the School Uniform Cardigan I was wearing and draped it over the back of my chair. I pulled over a stack of the nearest test papers.
I gestured with my chin to the seat across from Seo Jae-gyeom, who was standing like a stone monument.
“Do you write neatly?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll grade from class one and pass them to you. Under the wrong answers, write why they’re incorrect. I’ll finish first, and then we’ll split the rest fifty-fifty from there on.”
Still nothing.
“What are you doing? Sit down.”
There’s no time.
Every second counts if I’m going to get home even a second sooner.
As Seo Jae-gyeom slowly took the seat across from me, I slid over a test paper I’d already finished grading and the textbook.
“Why are you just sitting there? Don’t you have a Red Ballpoint Pen?”
I urged him on, impatient with his inertia. Seo Jae-gyeom, who’d been staring at me all this while, turned the question back on me.
“Is that it?”
“Is what it?”
“You’re not angry?”
“Angry?”
“I took it out on you. You said I hit you with the fallout. But you’re just… letting it go?”
“Well…”
Of course I’m not thrilled about it.
“I heard you out, understood your side, and accepted your apology.”
What else would you want? Should I make you do public penance or something?
“Not harboring excessive anger over trivial matters—that’s a mark of good character.”
And honestly, it didn’t hit me that hard. Whether you’re irritable or not.
I’d meant it in that spirit, but Seo Jae-gyeom’s eyes didn’t leave my face.
His brown eyes studied me intently.
“Why?”
“…You’ve seemed different since yesterday. More mature.”
Because I am an adult.
“Is that why you’re pretending it doesn’t bother you, now that I’ve rejected you?”
“Good grief.”
Why was her heart suddenly racing?
“Don’t go falling for me just because I seem a little different. That would be awkward.”
“That’s not it.”
“Then what?”
“You’re just… strange, that’s all.”
“There’s plenty that’s strange. Just finish this.”
She took Seo Jae-gyeom’s still hand and pressed a ballpoint pen into it.
“Look at the explanation here and write it down.”
She opened the textbook for him as she spoke.
“The reason I seem different is because I used to like you back then, so I was tense around you. But I’m not anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
“My behavior’s become natural. You get stiff when you’re nervous, don’t you? You should pity me for it.”
“Feel sympathy for you?”
“Yes. Pity me. How sincere must I have been about you to act like such an idiot? This is just who I am.”
……
“Conversation’s over. Let’s hurry. You need to get home.”
“…Okay.”
……
……
……
……
“I’ll show you a completely transformed me…♪”
“Ptooey!”
“?”
Did he just spit on her?
“Do you have some comedy obsession? How can you not hold a serious mood for even a minute?”
“I’m completely serious right now. I’m practicing for my Music Performance Assessment.”
“Don’t be ridiculous…!”
“My singing’s funny? I’m getting a perfect score in vocal performance.”
“If you get a perfect score, I’ll give you everything I have.”
“Don’t regret it.”
Boy you gotta be aware~~~~~♪
For a while, the Counseling Room filled only with the sound of her pencil circling or scratching, and Seo Jae-gyeom writing something, his pen scraping softly across paper.
The noisy Hallway outside had grown quiet, and the sunlight streaming through the Counseling Room window had turned the color of burnt orange.
Then Seo Jae-gyeom finally spoke.
“Kang Da-hye.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m really sorry.”
“Right. Because of you, I’m stuck here too. Take this debt of gratitude to your grave.”
“And that’s not all. This morning too.”
“This morning?”
“I was being childish.”
“Oh.”
She’d thought he’d already apologized for that.
“Forget it. It makes sense you’d be annoyed. You woke up early to come with Han Ji-su, and then I barged in and ruined it.”
The feelings you have for Han Ji-su matter just as much as the feelings I had for you.
She nodded in understanding.
But Seo Jae-gyeom shook his head.
“I didn’t wake up early because of Han Ji-su.”
“Then why?”
“My mother woke me up making a noise this morning.”
“Oh.”
“What sense would it make to wake up early for someone you like?”
He said it flatly—that he had no desire to do such a thing and couldn’t do it.
“Yeah… I guess you’d never do something like that.”
So just keep living your life with yourself always at the center.
For someone like her, who’d made a habit of waking early every weekend just to see Seo Jae-gyeom, she answered half-heartedly while glancing at the clock on the wall.
Even though she’d said she’d be quick, an hour had already passed. And ever since then, Seo Jae-gyeom’s mobile phone had been vibrating relentlessly.
Seo Jae-gyeom pretended not to notice, but his anxiety was written all over his face.
I sighed.
“Seo Jae-gyeom, just go on ahead.”
“What?”
“I said go. I’ll finish the rest and head out after.”
“How can I do that? I’m the reason you’re still here. If we both work on it, we’ll be done in no time.”
“We’ve been at this for an hour together and look how much is left. If we finish all this, you won’t be eating dinner—you’ll be eating late-night snacks. Just go now.”
……
“This isn’t free. Buy me coffee next time.”
I wasn’t about to let him use this as an excuse to ask me on a date, so I’d just have him send me a gift ticket instead. Let me enjoy it alone.
I forcibly pried the test papers and ballpoint pen from Seo Jae-gyeom’s hesitant hands.
Even then he lingered, wavering in place, until his mobile phone vibrated once more—only then did he finally rise from his seat.
“I really appreciate this.”
“I know.”
“I’ll buy you coffee and candy too.”
“Candy?”
“White Day is next week.”
“Right.”
Oh, it was.
I nodded without any particular feeling.
“Yeah, get me something big.”
Anyway, once you leave now, you won’t show up until White Day itself.
By then, whatever promise I’m making right now without thinking will be completely forgotten.
“Go on, hurry up.”
I chased out Seo Jae-gyeom, who kept glancing back, and shut the door behind him.
Looking around, I could still see a considerable stack of ungraded test papers.
I exhaled.
Think positive. I was going to have to study geography anyway.
Of course, thinking positively didn’t make an hour’s worth of work finish in ten minutes.
After what felt like a hundred years…
“…Wow. Just Class 10 left to go.”
I was leaning back in my chair and brushing off my hands when—
Click.
“Kang Da…”
Han Ji-su opened the Counseling Room door and poked his head in slightly.
“Huh? You didn’t go to cram school?”
“Well…”
“Why not?”
“Just… you know.”
Han Ji-su pouted and stepped inside the Counseling Room.
“You have to grade all of these?”
He took one look at the mountainous pile of test papers, made a disgusted face, and sat down in the chair where Seo Jae-gyeom had been moments before. He said he’d help, but something about his movements felt sluggish.
Han Ji-su, whose expression clearly broadcast that he had something to say, finally opened his mouth, his lips working nervously.
“Kang Da, um…”
“Yeah?”
“Are you… mad at me because of Seo Jae-gyeom?”
“Huh?”
What kind of ridiculous thing was that to say?
“I mean… at lunch today you mostly talked with Woo Do-yeon. You didn’t come find me once during break. You didn’t reply to my messages…”
“Oh.”
That was just because I’d been studying during break…
“No, it’s not that. I just didn’t explain. I don’t like Seo Jae-gyeom anymore.”
“You don’t like Seo Jae-gyeom anymore?! Why?!”
“Well… because something more important came up…?”
“What is it?”
“Math. I’m going for the Fields Medal.”
That’s what Do-yeon and I were talking about earlier too. She said I could listen to the rest of her lecture videos. Han Ji-su stared at me intently as I spoke.
“But listen, Kang Da.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you have to get so close with Woo Do-yeon?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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