1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 27

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

The top student hides her Regression
Chapter 27
Jung Eun-seong wept pitifully.
When I heard the story.
“I… I stayed in the Drama Club Room yesterday to do club activities, and someone locked the door from outside… hic….”
Jung Eun-seong’s voice trembled as he spoke.
When Jung Eun-seong blinked his wet lashes, fresh tears spilled down his cheek.
A teacher watching gasped softly, covering her mouth with her hand.
“Our eyes met and they smiled wickedly… Yesterday I had an Evaluation at my company…!”
Jung Eun-seong, hunching his broad frame, wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
Clearly yesterday he’d left me his Knit Sweater, yet now he wore a crisp School Uniform Knit without a name tag and a stiff new shirt.
The handsome boy in neatly pressed uniform weeping pitifully drew every eye in the Teachers’ Office.
Jung Eun-seong’s voice broke.
“It seemed like I’d be trapped there all night… so in my desperation I jumped out the window…!”
“Y-you jumped…?”
“I twisted my ankle in the fall… and so the Evaluation… waaaah….”
What do I do…. Jung Eun-seong shut his eyes tight and made as if to bury himself in his homeroom teacher’s chest. He didn’t actually embrace him, just mimed it, but that was enough.
A Second Year student who’d come to the office on an errand sighed.
So did the teachers.
“Isn’t that the student who transferred in recently?”
“Right, the one they said was a Trainee….”
As sympathetic glances fell on him, Jung Eun-seong’s sobs grew louder.
“Who did this to you? Did you see their face?”
From deeper in the Teachers’ Office, Na Moon’s teacher asked.
“Song Yeoreum…!”
Though crying, Jung Eun-seong’s pronunciation was precise and his delivery was impeccable.
“Song Yeoreum? She’s in Second Year Class 6….”
“Oh, her?”
Amid the commotion, Jung Eun-seong wailed, his ears burning red.
His flustered homeroom teacher patted Jung Eun-seong’s shoulder.
“Eun-seong, for now I’ll call Song Yeoreum when she gets to school and get to the bottom of this….”
“Waaah…! My Evaluation…! My whole life……!”
‘Company Evaluation on the day he stayed alone at school doing club activities? The story doesn’t add up.’
But no one in the Teachers’ Office paid attention to such minor logical gaps.
In an instant, Song Yeoreum became the perpetrator—a would-be entertainer who’d bullied the newly transferred student out of twisted affection and locked him in school—while Jung Eun-seong became the innocent victim, a sincere Trainee who’d suffered wrongfully.
“I always knew Song Yeoreum would cause trouble.”
“She did something like that before….”
Especially among the teachers who’d had it out for Song Yeoreum, the mood turned grim. Even those who saw this as mere mischief shook their heads, muttering that she’d lost her mind.
“There, there, Eun-seong. Just settle down for now… Da-hye, what are you doing here?”
The homeroom teacher, trying to soothe Jung Eun-seong, turned and looked around—his gaze landed on me, standing by the Teachers’ Office door.
“Ah. Well.”
I got locked in too. But Jung Eun-seong’s eyes stopped me from saying it. His frown made him shake his head slightly so the homeroom teacher wouldn’t notice.
“…I came to get another copy of the Printout you handed out yesterday. I forgot to pick one up for Seo Jae-gyeom.”
“Ah, right. Jae-gyeom didn’t come to school today?”
While the homeroom teacher rummaged through papers and handed me a Printout, the discussion among the teachers continued.
“Is it possible they did it by accident?”
“How could they? They made eye contact and pounded on the door, demanding to be let out.”
“And she’s not the type to stay late at school anyway….”
“Da-hye, would you mind taking Eun-seong back to class?”
“Oh, sure. …Let’s go.”
I found myself supporting Jung Eun-seong.
Unlike yesterday, when he’d struggled desperately to avoid any contact with me, Jung Eun-seong now leaned his forehead against my shoulder without hesitation, sniffling.
“Is this also School Violence….”
“What rule should we apply….”
“I’m so mortified I could die….”
I left the Teachers’ Office, Jung Eun-seong hanging on my arm, his voice still murmuring. The moment the Teachers’ Office door closed behind us, he straightened his back. His limping ankle was suddenly fine—he planted his feet firmly on the ground with confidence.
Standing upright, Jung Eun-seong stretched languidly.
“Kang Da-hye.”
“Hm?”
“Sunan University isn’t a real university. It’s fiction.”
“What…?”
“I thought something was off. Do you get a kick out of mocking someone who’s not very sharp?”
“You actually looked it up…?”
“Yeah. My phone was dead, so I went home, fired up my laptop, and searched. It’s not in Sinchon, not in Anam. Where the hell is Sunan University supposed to be?”
Jung Eun-seong fixed me with a sharp, accusing stare, saying I’d nearly submitted “Sunan University” as my college of choice on the application.
I looked up at him—at his eyes and nose, red and swollen from crying—and asked.
“Why were you crying?”
“I wasn’t crying.”
“Then what was it?”
“Crying Performance.”
“Crying Performance…?”
“I had to throw the first punch by crying. Otherwise, how does a guy who looks perfectly fine end up unable to resist harassment from a girl student and gets trapped in school? It wouldn’t make any sense.”
Jung Eun-seong shrugged, saying he had to shake people to their core with his tears.
“Winter’s over now anyway.”
“It’s not Winter, it’s Song—”
Never mind. I’m too tired to keep correcting him now…….
“Winter’s over, sure, but it’s March now…….”
Your acting really is incredible. We won’t have to worry about our play…….
I murmured this as I headed toward the classroom.
As I walked alongside Jung Eun-seong, every pair of eyes in the hallway turned toward us. Some students even craned their necks to stare at him, others tried to block our path to greet him, and a few brazenly snapped photos.
Through all that commotion, Jung Eun-seong walked calmly ahead, eyes fixed forward.
I glanced around, gauging both the atmosphere and Jung Eun-seong’s mood, then whispered.
“Why did you say you were trapped alone? If we said both of us were locked in together, Song Yeoreum might’ve gotten it even worse.”
“In a school where there’s already an insane rumor going around that a student and a teacher are dating, you think it’d be good if word spread that both of us were trapped together? Do you?”
“…….”
“If I’d said that, the focus wouldn’t have been on Winter—it would’ve been on us. How long we were alone in there together, what we did while we were locked up.”
“…….”
“You know how thoughtlessly people spread nonsense rumors and pass them around.”
I didn’t answer right away, because I knew Jung Eun-seong’s future.
Having seen the countless rumors and false articles he’d suffer after his debut, his words felt like a prophecy to me.
“And.”
Jung Eun-seong spoke as we climbed the final stairs toward the classroom.
“This isn’t the first time you’ve been dragged into something with them, is it? You had that thing with Bang Jung-hwan last time.”
“Bang Eun-ji. Bang Jung-hwan was on Children’s Day.”
“Whatever.”
“Whatever….”
“Because you’re a model student, the teachers side with you at first, but they only do that so many times. Keep causing problems and adults get tired of you.”
“…….”
“Adults hate being bothered. Maybe they’ll take your side at first, but eventually they’ll say you’re part of the problem too. They’ll say you should’ve just let it slide instead of making a fuss and causing all this trouble. That’s how adults are.”
“…I know. That’s why kids try to handle things on their own without telling their guardians as they get older. Because even if you do tell them, you just hear that kind of stuff and feel like your head’s about to explode.”
“Right. It’s better not to expect anything from adults.”
“…….”
“No point feeling wronged. We’ll all become that kind of adult someday anyway.”
Jung Eun-seong finished speaking, then snatched the printout I was holding and walked ahead.
“I’ll put this on her desk.”
I watched his retreating figure for a moment.
“Jung Eun-seong!”
“What.”
“If there’s anything you don’t understand while studying, ask me anytime. I’ll teach you everything.”
“…Out of the blue?”
“Yeah.”
Because even the 29-year-old me had been that kind of adult to some extent, and it stung my conscience.
* * *
The news that Song Yeoreum had locked Jung Eun-seong in the Drama Club Room spread like wildfire.
“Insane….”
“Is that not some kind of stalker thing?”
“Jung Eun-seong must be freaked out.”
“Now that I think about it, didn’t Song Yeoreum brag about that thing in middle school—chasing a celebrity in a taxi?”
“Oh yeah, yeah! That story about staying up all night in the Apgujeong Parking Lot!”
“Creepy.”
“Hey, Song Yeoreum! Did you really lock the new transfer student in the school?”
As Song Yeoreum arrived after third period, the boys threw comments at her one after another.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
At first bewildered, Song Yeoreum was soon summoned by a group of furious teachers, and when she heard the whole story, she gasped and protested “That’s not true!” — but it was true, so there was nothing she could do about it.
Especially after the Drama Club Room Key turned up in her bag.
‘I did lock someone in, technically.’
Just not Jung Eun-seong. Me.
“This is driving me insane!”
After getting flicked on the forehead by the teachers in rotation, enduring their lectures, and withering under their scorn, Song Yeoreum wasn’t released from the Teachers’ Office until lunch period.
“Yeoreum! Are you okay?!”
“Get lost!”
Bang Eun-ji approached with concern, a large ribbon pinned in her hair, and Song Yeoreum shoved her shoulder hard.
Bang Eun-ji staggered as her back hit the wall.
I’d stopped on my way downstairs to eat and stood with Do-yeon on the landing, watching the scene unfold.
“Whoa, what?”
“Are they fighting?”
“No way.”
Oh….
Man, I should’ve grabbed popcorn.

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