1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 24

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

The top student in school hides her return
Chapter 24
I hurled a book at the mountain of costumes rising before me.
“Die!”
Only after throwing it did I consider that whatever was buried under there might not be a ghost at all—maybe a giant rat, or, though I really didn’t want to think it, a cockroach—but either way, it needed to be exterminated, didn’t it?
“Ack! Ack! Ack!”
The pile of costumes dodged my frenzied assault with surprising grace, evading everything I threw at it.
Then it seized both my wrists and pulled me into its embrace.
I lost my footing and tumbled down with it.
My nose crashed into a firm, elastic human chest. The scent hit me all at once—fabric softener, the kind that smelled like laundry dried stiff in the summer sun.
“Why do I suddenly have to die……?”
Large hands cradled the back of my head and shoulders, holding me close. The person’s chest—the part my cheek was pressed against—resonated softly with their low murmur.
That voice was familiar.
“…Jung Eun-seong?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you doing here……? I thought you were a ghost!”
“If you tell a ghost to kill you, what’s it supposed to do? It’s already dead.”
“Fair point…….”
“Come on, get up. I can’t breathe.”
“Oh. Right.”
Sorry, I apologized and scrambled to my feet. In the process of regaining balance, I couldn’t help but press my palms against his upper body.
Ah. This was awkward.
As I floundered, Jung Eun-seong spoke flatly.
“Just grab on.”
“…Sorry.”
Still apologizing, I gripped his flat abdomen instead.
Once I was off him, Jung Eun-seong finally pulled away the Blue Gonryongpo that had been draped over him and the Apron that had been sitting on his head.
He ran a hand through his bird’s-nest hair and asked me.
“What are you doing here?”
“I… came to write a book report. But what about you—why are you here?”
What time was it anyway? Shouldn’t you have gone home or to work by now?
At my question, Jung Eun-seong hesitated.
“You told me to read the materials.”
“Materials?”
“For the Theater Club.”
“Ah.”
But that wasn’t due until before club time this Friday.
“I might not be able to come to school Friday. The company’s got an event that day.”
“Your company won’t even let a minor attend school? And they’re not even responsible for your entire life?”
The words came out sounding like I was disparaging his agency, and I winced—but Jung Eun-seong remained unfazed.
“Anyway.”
So he’d wanted to finish reading everything today…….
“But why were you sleeping on top of the pile?”
“What do you expect? I get sleepy when I read.”
Jung Eun-seong answered curtly and began organizing the scattered costumes.
His hair was disheveled and his expression drowsy, like someone who’d been sleeping soundly. The skin exposed below his pushed-up Spring-Autumn Robe sleeves looked warm to the touch.
I noticed the printout trapped underneath Jung Eun-seong. Ji-su’s neatly bound materials had progressed past the halfway point.
“The old language makes it impossible to understand anyway.”
Jung Eun-seong grumbled, noticing where my gaze had landed.
He’d read quite a lot, considering.
I felt bad for his effort, but now I had bad news to deliver.
I spoke to Jung Eun-seong as he smoothed out the pages wrinkled from being slept on.
“We’re locked in.”
“What?”
“We’re locked in. Song Yeoreom locked the door from outside and took off.”
“Song Yeoreom?”
“The girl I fought with in the Cafeteria last time.”
At least there was that. Jung Eun-seong was here.
Why?
Because while I didn’t have a cell phone, Jung Eun-seong surely did.
“Jung Eun-seong, you have your phone, right? Mine’s in my locker. Can you call the Staff Room from yours and ask them to open the door for us…?”
“I don’t have mine.”
“…What?!”
“The Debut Group senior got caught dating, so the company confiscated all the trainees’ phones. They’re checking KakaoTalk and Facebook, and we get them back Friday.”
“That’s insane!”
No matter that they’re affiliated trainees, seizing someone’s phone and searching through it—isn’t that an invasion of privacy? But setting that aside for now…
“So what do we do?!”
“What else? Wait a bit. The facilities manager should come by on his rounds and let us out.”
“He already left… It’s past seven now.”
“…Say that again?”
“He came by while you were buried in your notes earlier. He told me to lock up and return the key to the on-duty teacher when I left, but… Song Yeoreom locked the door and took off.”
“……”
“……”
“Well, the on-duty teacher can open it, then.”
“Maybe… but I don’t think the teacher’s going to wander through dark hallways having a horror experience just to let us out. He’ll probably just stay in the Staff Room doing his work.”
“This is driving me crazy!”
That’s when Jung Eun-seong seemed to grasp just how serious the situation was.
He alternated his gaze between the wall clock and the door that wouldn’t budge no matter how hard he pulled, then the flower bed below the window (note: we were on the second floor), and suddenly stamped his foot hard against the floor.
His irritated glare fixed on me.
“Why don’t you carry your phone?! How dangerous is the world these days?!”
“You weren’t carrying yours either…”
“Mine was confiscated!”
“…?”
Is there a difference?
“It’s only because Song Yeoreom just locked the door and left—if she’d come in and done something worse, what then? There are so many strange people in the world these days, how can you go around without your phone?!”
You have to keep it on you at all times! Set it so one button press connects you straight to 112! Jung Eun-seong was genuinely angry now.
Honestly. This guy’s so concerned about phones, yet he just handed his over to the company without a fight. Now I was annoyed too.
“As a woman, I know better than anyone how many strange people are out there! And it’s Song Yeoreom!”
Not Song Gyeoreom!
“What do I know! What are we going to do now?!”
“I don’t know!”
“Open the window and shout! Loud enough for the Staff Room to hear!”
“You should be the one shouting!”
“Why me?!”
“Lower frequencies carry farther!”
“How would you know that?!”
“Why don’t you know! We learned it in science class!”
“I was asleep!”
“That’s bragging!”
“I’m sorry!”
“If you’re sorry, then open that window and shout!”
“Science! Science!”
Jung Eun-seong wrenched the window open and let out a shout into the darkness outside.
Kwa-ack… kwa-ack…
The sheer volume was enough to understand instantly why he debuted as a main vocalist, but of course… there was no response from outside.
Jung Eun-seong’s ears gradually flushed red.
I’m embarrassed too…
I offered a timid suggestion from beside him.
“Should I shout with you?”
“Do you have a loud voice?”
“No. I have delicate vocal cords.”
“Forget it, then.”
Jung Eun-seong muttered gruffly and closed the window. Without a word, he sat down in a chair and picked up the notes he’d been lying on.
‘Now that I think about it, I feel kind of bad.’
After all, he’d dutifully read through the material because of me—even if he’d fallen asleep doing it—and his phone was taken against his will, so he’s stuck here because of me.
I spoke up awkwardly.
“Don’t worry too much.”
“What?”
“I mean… don’t worry too much. Either way, someone will notice the light on in the Club Room and come turn it off, and if nothing else happens, my mom will come home later and come looking for me when I’m not there.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Jung Eun-seong’s words trailed off abruptly. What? He blinked, bemused, and offered a different suggestion.
“…If you’re bored, want to listen to some music?”
“How am I supposed to listen to music without a phone?”
“Oh. Right.”
“Never mind. I’m not that into music anyway.”
“What kind of aspiring singer doesn’t like music…….”
And then silence stretched between them.
There was nothing left to say, we weren’t that close anyway, and it seemed better to conserve energy than to force conversation.
While I was thinking this, the sun had completely set without my noticing.
The air turned sharp and cold.
‘It’s definitely colder now that evening’s come.’
I wrapped my arms around myself, thinking it would be nice if I could borrow the Spring-Autumn Robe that Jung Eun-seong had been using as a blanket.
Jung Eun-seong glanced sideways at me curling inward and asked.
“Cold?”
“Yeah.”
“…….”
“I wish our Club Room was on the sixth floor instead. Somewhere better than this awkward second floor.”
“Why?”
“Warm air rises, doesn’t it? Because it’s lighter.”
“You learned that in science class?”
“Yeah.”
Jung Eun-seong had the look of someone hearing this for the first time.
“Why is warm air lighter? Did it lose weight from the heat?”
“I forgot the reason. Go study and figure it out yourself.”
I answered halfheartedly and opened my book again, checking the rough draft of my book report for any awkward phrasings.
Something settled across my shoulders.
Jung Eun-seong had slipped off his School Uniform Knit and draped it over me, then turned his head away deliberately. He mumbled.
“You said you were cold.”
“…….”
“I’m fine. Warm air rises anyway, since I’m tall.”
“…….”
“I went over 180 centimeters yesterday.”

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