1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 22

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

The Top Student of the School Hides Her Regression
Episode 22
“Kim Ga-eun, why did you leave first!”
I hooked my arm through Kim Ga-eun’s and yanked her sharply toward me, pulling her away.
The man who’d been clinging to her so closely that anyone might mistake him for her father flinched and stepped back.
I deliberately avoided looking in his direction and pressed my phone to my ear, launching into a stream of words as if having a real conversation on a blank screen.
“Yeah, yeah, Dad. Found Ga-eun. Huh, no clue—I’m pretty sure I said we should go together, but she took off early! Where are you, Dad? Oh, the convenience store? Got it—I’m on my way!”
…….
“Kim Ga-eun! Dad says he’s right over there. No parking, so come quick. Let’s go! But who’s that man?”
I gripped Kim Ga-eun’s arm while studying the middle-aged man, still bewildered.
‘Mid-fifties, just under five-foot-seven.’
Height, hairstyle, the general cut and color of his clothes—I mentally filed away identifying details that might be useful if this ever ended up being reported to the police. I asked Kim Ga-eun in what seemed like a whisper but was loud enough for him to hear clearly.
“Is he your dad, Ga-eun?”
“…No.”
“A relative?”
“…No.”
“Then he’s nobody! Let’s go!”
Dad cuts me off and deducts it from my allowance—that’s what I said, frantically mentioning a father who didn’t even exist while dragging Kim Ga-eun along by her arm.
Somewhere bright. Absolutely crowded and well-lit.
We ended up heading toward Gugu High School instead of where Kim Ga-eun had originally been going or back to my place, but it didn’t matter. I chattered loudly about nothing in particular as we walked.
“So the homeroom teacher wrote this adult-rated fanfiction, right? And Jae-gyeom got caught reading it during class… and had to stand up front and read it out loud as punishment…”
My seemingly composed pace gradually quickened.
By the time we reached the entrance to the shopping district where Father’s Touch and Olive Ing Ing stood, we were both running.
“Huff, gasp…”
I looked at Kim Ga-eun, breathing hard.
Her face, which usually wore a slight frown, had gone pale. Somewhere along the way, our hands had clasped without either of us being first—cold and slick with sticky sweat.
Our eyes met. I gestured with my chin toward the shop next to us and asked.
“Want a cola?”
“…It’s not like I don’t know him at all.”
My stomach was growling, but if I ate anything now, I wouldn’t sleep well—which would mess up my studies tomorrow.
While I suppressed my hunger and drank water, Kim Ga-eun sat across from me, hugging her bag and sipping her cola.
Only after the ice in the cola cup made those faint crunching sounds did she finally speak.
“I think he works at the moving company up the street. I ran into him once at the convenience store during my academy break…”
He was in line to pay first, and I was behind him.
The drink he’d grabbed must have been a 1+1 promotion item. The part-timer told him to grab another one, but he didn’t understand and looked flustered, so I just brought one for him. I didn’t have much break time left, so I was trying to check out quickly.
He thanked me and gave me the extra one. Since it was my favorite, I took it.
The next day I ran into him again at the convenience store while I was eating instant noodles, and it felt weird to pretend not to know him, so I said hi. Then he asked if I really didn’t eat dinner and just studied, and bought me a triangular kimbap. I gave him some jelly I was eating in return.
But after that day, he kept…”
“Acting like you’re close?”
“…Yeah.”
He asked if I went to Gugu High School, if I attended Ibaji Academy nearby, and since his daughter was starting high school soon, he wanted to know what the academy was like. So I explained it all to him in detail.
“…But then one day, he started just standing outside when I came out of the academy. At first I thought it was a coincidence, but…”
“It wasn’t.”
“No. …I think he’s waiting for me. He keeps showing up, saying if I haven’t eaten dinner he’ll buy me something, or that there’s a bar nearby with good appetizers if I go with an adult. He says I’m like a daughter to him.”
“That’s a perverted psycho right there.”
I said it flat and cold.
“Isn’t that stalking? Why is he waiting for a girl he doesn’t know outside the academy?”
He should go pick up his own daughter! Just go! Worked up, I smacked the table with my fist. But Kim Ga-eun’s expression was uncertain.
“You need to take action right now!”
“But maybe…”
“Maybe what!”
“What if it really was coincidence, and he really does just think of me like a daughter and means well, and I’m misinterpreting it? What if I end up accusing some innocent person…”
“Even if he’s a good person, uncomfortable is uncomfortable!”
I demanded to know what she meant, smacking the table repeatedly.
I reached across the table and grabbed Kim Ga-eun’s hand. She looked startled as our eyes met, and I spoke.
“If he’s really a good person, he needs to understand that you can feel uncomfortable in this situation.”
Regardless of his intentions, the fact that his presence itself might make you anxious—he should recognize that and keep his distance.”
“The moment he says ‘my intentions weren’t like that, so why are you misreading me?’ and gets offended, that’s when he stops being a good person!”
The truly good man is one who leaves a woman alone.
“That man—who’s making you uncomfortable and who’s so much older than you—isn’t even considering your feelings. So why are you torturing yourself with guilt just to spare his? Are you really that kind?”
That’s not kindness—that’s just naïveté!
He bought me a drink on a 1+1 Promotion and a Triangular Kimbap. So what?
Forget those few things—look at how far that man has already crossed the line!
“Get your head on straight. This world is cutthroat.”
“…I understand.”
“Good.”
Sigh.
“Have you told your parents? Did you say anything to them?”
“…No.”
“Why not?”
“There was something similar before… Dad said it was because I wasn’t being careful with my behavior, and if it happened again even once, he’d shave my head…”
……
She hadn’t refused to tell them—she’d been unable to.
“What about your mother?”
“Mom says there are strange people in the world, and if you’re not careful something terrible could happen, so I shouldn’t scratch an itch and make it worse—just swallow my pride and endure it.”
……
Except this *is* something terrible happening right now, Mother.
“Is there any other adult you could talk to?”
“I have a grandmother, but if I tell her, she’ll probably ask why a girl even needs to go to an academy in the first place.”
……
Stay calm.
“Could you quit the academy or switch to a different one?”
“My grades went up a lot since I started going to Ibaji Academy. If I just quit without a reason, my dad will kill me.”
“What if you told the academy teachers?”
“It won’t help. I already told my homeroom instructor.”
“Your academy homeroom teacher?”
“Yeah.”
“And then what?”
“Now he’s bragging about how pretty I am.”
……
I felt anger rise in me.
Just looking at Kim Ga-eun’s expression, I could tell how much this had been weighing on her.
Everyone has only so much time and energy to spend in a day.
How many kids in this world lose their focus on what matters because their energy gets drained on pointless things like this?
“So, Kim Ga-eun—what would you want to happen?”
I took the Cola cup away from Kim Ga-eun, who’d been drinking it until her lips turned blue and was now sucking on ice water. I gave her my water instead, telling her to drink this.
“I can pick you up from the academy for about a month.”
“You shouldn’t do that. You’d be taking a risk too.”
“That’s true. And it’s not a real solution anyway.”
……
“There is a second option… though honestly, it doesn’t seem like it would work at all.”
I asked Ga-eun if she wanted to at least try it anyway.
Ga-eun, who’d nodded eagerly that she’d do whatever I said as long as it wasn’t telling her parents, suddenly asked me something.
“But should you be spending time on this? Aren’t you supposed to be studying? You get nervous over every single point on your score.”
“How am I supposed to study when you’re going through something like this right next to me?”
……
“I’m joking. The thing is, I have a trauma about middle-aged men blocking the futures of young women.”
……
“Finish eating. Let’s go.”
“…Okay.”
“And by the way, I don’t get nervous over just 1 point—I get nervous over 0.1 points too. Don’t underestimate me.”
* * *
The next day. School.
“Of course we have to report it!”
“Yeah, we have to report it!”
“Tell the cops to do a stakeout and catch him!”
Se-in and Soo-ah, fired up, were shouting. Over the shoulders of the kids stomping around saying this was crazy, Do-yeon caught my eye with a look of curiosity.
She couldn’t join in because Kim Ga-eun was between us, and she was being cautious.
‘I need to sort that out later too.’
“Let’s go report it right after school today!”
I spoke awkwardly to Se-in, who was clenching his fists.
“Actually.”
“Huh?”
“I already filed a report yesterday. We…….”
Because with something like this, it’s better to report it as soon as possible…….
Filing a report immediately after an incident happens can serve as a kind of evidence that I felt genuine displeasure about it.
“You filed a report?!”
“What happened?!”
“…Well.”
I let out a sigh and swept my hair back.
To those of you hoping for a satisfying resolution.
I apologize in advance for not being able to give you what you want.
Look, all I’ve got right now is sweet potato, but would you like some of that?
Fidget, fidget.

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