1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 16

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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
Chapter 16
“What are you talking about?”
“Can I be honest?”
“Of course.”
“Kids are talking trash about you. Saying you act all superior.”
“Trash talk? Who?”
“The kids in our class.”
…….
Class 1 is absolutely rotten.
Ji Su bit her lip before continuing.
“I know the people insulting you are the weird ones. But that doesn’t mean the others are actively standing up for you either, does it? Even if they think what you’re doing is right, they only feel it inside. It’s ugly and cowardly, but… if you end up like that too.”
“Like what?”
“Like… Woo Do Yeon.”
“Oh.”
Ostracism.
From the moment you walk in until the moment you leave, unable to have a conversation with anyone the entire day, while everyone around you laughs and chatter joyfully, but you just clamp your mouth shut and stand alone.
Being left out.
Just sitting there quietly while kids look at you with disdain, and then whisper and snicker behind your back as they pass.
Obsessing over what they could have said about you.
When everyone takes turns presenting, only your turn is met with silence and cold indifference.
Feeling ashamed and humiliated.
Ji Su probably understands it better than I do. She took Advanced Class with Do Yeon last year.
Ji Su’s hand found mine and squeezed it.
“What you did yesterday in the cafeteria, I think it was incredible. I mean it. But you don’t have to be the one leading the charge like that.”
…….
“You could just quietly reach out from behind, meet up outside after school, text her, stay close like that in secret. Do Yeon would understand and be grateful to you. There’s no need to shout about it. If you get marked too…”
Ji Su’s voice dropped to a whisper, admitting her fear.
I turned over the memories of Song Yeo Reum inside me, thinking carefully.
‘Come on, friend. Just five thousand won.’
‘You don’t have it? Really nothing? Then what’s that in your pocket?’
‘Oh, there is something!’
‘If you lie again, I’ll smack you…’
‘Hey, just kidding~ Look, she’s scared!’
‘Damn, she’s crying.’
‘Hey, Seo Jae Gyeom. I think she likes you.’
‘Did you buy new clothes to impress Jae Gyeom? Is that why you have no money?’
Memories from second year of middle school.
How is it that more than ten years have passed, and I still remember every word so clearly?
When you’re humiliated by your peers at a sensitive age, those memories don’t fade easily.
That shame of not being able to say a single word while your friends watched. Friends who knew but pretended not to. The embarrassment, the wounded pride.
I stroked the back of Ji Su’s soft hand and opened my mouth.
“…Actually, Song Yeo Reum came to my mom’s store yesterday.”
“Song Yeo Reum came to your mother’s store?!”
“…Yeah. She and her friends were all looking down on my mom, saying awful things… I finally understood what it means when blood rushes backwards.”
But if I hadn’t regressed, if I’d been too scared to say anything to Song Yeo Reum back then—
that memory would’ve stayed with me for life, I think.
Disappointment in myself, resentment toward my mom for not protecting me, all those emotions tangled together would have broken me.
“Fortunately, yesterday’s version of me did say something to Song Yeo Reum and sent her away… but if I hadn’t been able to do that, I’d probably still be hurt about it even in my fifties or sixties.”
…….
“But Do Yeon is experiencing that every single day right now.”
I met Ji Su’s eyes. Looking at her as she flinched, I spoke.
“Ji Su, I’m not claiming to be anything great… but the fact that we can empathize with others’ pain is what makes us human, isn’t it?”
…….
“I want to be true to myself.”
I don’t want to live the rest of my life carrying the identity of someone who, at twenty-nine, turned away from an eighteen-year-old friend.
“If I know something is wrong and just stand by and do nothing, I’ll think I’m pathetic.”
I’m going to live a life I’m proud of.
Acing the College Entrance Exam and getting into Korea University—that’s ultimately about living with dignity too. If I back down out of fear of being criticized, what’s the point of it all?
I didn’t regress to live like this, shamefully.
I know exactly how things will end, but I can’t save only my own life and abandon everyone else.
And.
“Yeah, there are kids who complain and curse, but there are definitely kids who understand that this situation is wrong and want to help.”
Kids like Gyeong Se In in our class, for instance.
“The reason kids are afraid of Song Yeo Reum’s group is because of the atmosphere they create. If everyone stopped being afraid of them, what could they actually do?”
……
“We just need to shift public opinion. We need the louder voices to be those who feel this is wrong.”
You’re scared because you’re worried about getting hurt yourself, but you already know this is wrong—when I put it that way, Ji Su nodded slowly.
Her expression was complicated, thoughtful.
“Yeah… I know.”
“That’s all that matters.”
…Okay.
All right, then.
“Ji Su, one more thing. Does it bother you, the three of us eating together? I was too scattered before to ask.”
“I’m fine with it… but Do Yeon probably feels uncomfortable. When she’s with me, kids pick on her even more…….”
Ah…
“Or maybe I should eat with our classmates for a while? I can do that.”
“Then I’d feel terrible…….”
“No, it’s fine. You’re trying to do the right thing.”
…Thank you.
“…I’m not avoiding Song Yeo Reum because I’m scared, right?”
“Of course you know that.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me right away yesterday? When Song Yeo Reum came by.”
Ji Su pouted—why was I only hearing this now—and finished grading the test sheet where I’d already memorized all the answers.
I took a sip of the Chocolate Milk Ji Su had brought, stabbed a straw through it, and kept checking off the boxes.
Beside me, Ji Su rifled through her own class’s test sheets, then lit up when she saw her perfect score.
“All the kids who cursed you out got bad marks.”
“Really? I should go tell them—maybe study geography instead of spending all that time cursing me out.”
I don’t care what they say.
They’re the type who’ll curse anyone, no matter what they do.
There are far more righteous kids who understand that this situation is bad than there are kids who complain about everything under the sun.
And soon I’d learn that my faith wasn’t misplaced.
* * *
“Song Yeo Reum probably got even more pissed that I suddenly grew a backbone after he used to shake me down for pocket change every single day.”
He really said that out loud.
Eun Sung, passing by, clicked his tongue.
He was on his way to the office after meeting with his homeroom teacher, running late.
As he hurried through the corridor past the Teachers Office, he heard voices coming from the Counseling Room next to it.
The door to the Counseling Room was closed, but the window along the upper part facing the hallway was open.
Eun Sung wasn’t particularly tall, but tall enough that hearing the voices leaking through that window was no trouble at all.
“And I had the Danso stolen from me by Song Yeo Reum back then too. I was carrying it after school, right at the Crosswalk.”
“Really?”
“Don’t you remember? You were there too. She asked me to lend it to her, but it’s not like I was getting it back, right? So I just told her to take it and leave—figured I’d at least save face.”
“Oh, right….”
“Disgusting. What was she going to do with a Danso with someone else’s spit on it? Hope she catches something.”
“What’s ‘something’?”
“A curse.”
Through the crack in the door, Eun Sung caught a glimpse of Kang Da sitting with a friend, scribbling busily on paper.
She was talking a mile a minute while her hand flew across the page. Her penmanship was incredibly fast.
“To be honest, I’m still scared right now. But I can’t figure out exactly why I’m afraid of them. It’s not like they’re some chaebol daughter who can destroy my life, and I’ve already learned that Song Yeo Reum has no way to get back at me if I stand up to her. But I’m still scared, you know?”
Even though he was running desperately late, Eun Sung’s feet stopped of their own accord.
He stood there, rooted to the spot, studying Kang Da’s face carefully.
Then.
‘Isn’t that the punishment she got with that good-looking guy?’
Eun Sung’s brow furrowed as he recalled what had happened in class earlier.
‘Where’s Jae? Why’s she doing this alone?’
Getting shaken down for money.
Having her Danso stolen.
Taking the punishment by herself.
A total pushover.
‘Eavesdropped for nothing. Waste of time.’
Eun Sung shook his head with a dismissive wave, slipping past the Counseling Room. He paused mid-step, glancing up at the ceiling with a hollow laugh.
“Ha!”
Sucker.
* * *
As expected, Seo Jae Gyeom didn’t show up at school after that day.
Oddly enough, Song Yeo Reum was absent too.
According to Se In, who’d stalked their social media, Song Yeo Reum had gone out somewhere with some close friends.
“Why did only Song Yeo Reum go? Her friends came to school.”
“Guess she wanted to have fun with them and no one else.”
“She’s got no loyalty.”
“What do you expect from a delinquent?”
With a quiet laugh, she gathered her phone and notebook.
Finally—the last club time of this exhausting week!
Here’s the question.
Which club do I belong to?
(1) English Newspaper Club
(2) Han Byeol Group
(3) Peer Counseling Club
(4) Drama Club
(5) Mystery Club

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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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