1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 35

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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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The Top Student Hides Her Regression
Chapter 35
In the end, we filed our statements.
“You bought me jelly from the convenience store, right? Making that sparkling sound and saying, ‘Sir, please try one of these’…!”
Against the backdrop of the Perpetrator’s genuinely aggrieved voice.
“Students, do we really have to go this far?”
Fueled by one officer’s misplaced empathy for the perpetrator.
“Even so, he’s an adult. If you corner someone like this over a simple mistake, what then? Imagine if your own parents faced something like this somewhere.”
A note here: what does “even so, he’s an adult” mean in South Korea?
It’s what adults say when they’ve wronged someone young enough to be their child but don’t want to apologize.
Adults who say “even so, he’s an adult” or “he’s someone old enough to be your parent” share one thing in common: they know full well that the wrongdoer is indeed an adult.
“From what I can see, he has a family too. How devastating must this be for a man who’s the head of his household, hmm?”
‘I have a family too… a mother like a rabbit, and myself like a monkey.’
“It’s not good to see young people pushing an older person like this either. Adults can make mistakes without realizing it…”
‘If you’ve lived this long, you should live up to it.’
So someone lives long enough to be called father-figure material, achieves nothing, accomplishes nothing, and commits sexual harassment against teenagers—and now wants respect from younger people just because of age?
Respect entrusted?
If we’re supposed to respect people by age, we’d have to respect Yi Wan-yong too. That man’s ancient. Born in ’58—1858. He’s so old he’s already dead!
Jung Eun-seong, who had tilted his head toward me, whispered in my ear.
“That’s exactly what a cop like Noh Deok-sool is, right?”
“That’s right.”
So here we are reviewing Korean history in the margins again.
But this Noh Deok-sool situation resolved in an unexpected way.
Bang!
“Da-hye! Ga-eun!”
A sharp, ringing voice forged through decades of hagwon experience. The grit and firepower built up dealing with troublesome parents.
“Where’s that sick pervert!”
An adult. An adult we desperately needed right then.
“Teacher!”
Se-in’s aunt and the Director of Ibaji Hagwon!
Director Teacher
Da-hye, today’s your last day~^^ Thanks so much for all your hard work. Were things hard working with us……
21:55
Teacher ㅠㅠ Please help
22:40
I know the hagwon’s phone calls are automatically recorded—could I get a file from you?
“Did you girls finish your statements? What? You just got them? Why?!”
The Director strode in and fixed her gaze on the officer who’d been spouting nonsense.
“Ma’am.”
The officer, with an expression of what-is-this, attempted to ignore her.
“Ma’am?! Where’s a ma’am here! To a South Korean citizen who pays taxes? ‘Ma’am?!’ What’s your name!”
“Teacher, please calm down for a moment…”
“And another thing—these girls’ parents aren’t even here. Listen, you police officers. When did these kids leave the hagwon? And you’re just now handing out statements? No guardians, just girls sitting here by themselves, and what have you been doing all this time?!”
“Teacher, please calm down…”
“Calm down? Because they’re just kids, you think you can brush this aside?! Girls, tell Teacher everything!”
“Quiet! If you keep raising your voice like this, I’ll arrest you for Obstruction of Public Official Duty!”
“What? You can’t even catch the pervert harassing kids on time, but the moment it gets a little noisy while you work, you threaten arrest?! Go ahead, arrest me! I’m reporting the officer who called me ‘ma’am’ too! Do it! Right now!”
…I didn’t need to say anything more.
“If an adult makes a mistake with a student, an adult apologizes! That’s what being an adult is!”
“A family?! That pervert has a family?! What kind of family man does that!”
“Which side is the Police even on!”
Gem after gem of a line poured from the Director’s mouth.
Ah.
Refreshing.
* * *
“Sorry about this, Teacher. At such a late hour.”
After finishing our statements in the end, it was well past midnight.
Ga-eun testified to the persistent harassment and abuse she’d suffered from the Perpetrator, and the assault that happened today, and I testified to how that man had pushed me.
There’s still some wrapping up to do, but for now it was done.
The problem was.
‘There’s no Stalking Crime Punishment Law yet.’
Kim Ga-eun’s March is ruined, and he’ll get nothing but a slap on the wrist. This insane world.
Not even a slap on the wrist.
Cotton candy?
“Our kids are at the Police Station because they ran into a pervert, and you’re worried about the time?!”
“Still…”
“I’m going to press charges against him too. For Obstruction of Public Official Duty. He called the hagwon with a fake number, impersonated a parent, and harassed the students.”
“Can you charge someone with that?”
“Who knows!”
The Perpetrator — the one who’d been whining in the conference room about how wronged he was, calling the girls femme fatales — had his wife come pick him up.
If it were me, I think I’d rather die than tell my wife about being caught hitting on a minor. But criminals have a different kind of logic.
Apparently he even has a daughter.
☆Your dad goes around outside hitting on high school girls★
It’s the kind of thing you’d say, “Hey, that’s a bit much…” if you saw it as an internet comment. Yet it exists in reality.
“It’s gotten so late there won’t be any buses. How are you two getting home? Have you called your parents?”
“I normally go to the Study Room and come home late anyway, so it’s fine.”
“What about Ga-eun? I can call your parents right now if you need. Have you told them about what happened?”
“No.”
Ga-eun laughed awkwardly.
“If my parents find out, they’ll just get mad at me again. It’s better to let it go without saying anything.”
“Oh dear.”
Director Teacher seemed to know about Ga-eun’s parents already and didn’t press further. She patted Ga-eun’s cheek gently as the girl smiled. “Still, you should have told another adult. Your homeroom teacher at school, or… if that’s awkward, at least one of the hagwon teachers.”
“Actually, I did tell Seong-il.”
“That’s right, Seong-il is your Class A homeroom teacher. But why didn’t he report this to me?”
“He said… was I bragging about it?”
“What? Bragging about what?”
“That I was pretty, so men outside were hitting on me — was I bragging about that?”
“That bastard…!”
Director Teacher’s mouth hung open for a moment, then closed as her eyes rolled skyward. She looked up at the ceiling and let out a long, deep sigh before fishing her keys out of her pocket.
“Alright then. I’ll drive Ga-eun home. It’s on my way anyway. How’s your handsome friend getting back?”
“I’m planning to take Kang Da-hye home first.”
“Huh?”
I’m hearing this for the first time.
Yet Jung Eun-seong said it so naturally, and Director Teacher nodded approvingly.
“Da-hye, take a taxi home with this handsome friend.”
Director Teacher pulled a 50,000 Won Bill from her wallet and pressed it into my hand.
“Oh my god, Teacher. I can’t take this much money.”
“When an adult gives you something, you say thank you and take it.”
“But still…”
“Think of it as a bonus for the good work you’ve been doing, Da-hye.”
“…Thank you so much. Really. A lot.”
I know that even adults don’t usually step in like this for other people’s troubles.
‘Maybe it’s harder because they’re adults.’
Adults are busy just keeping their own heads above water. If they step in and something goes wrong, they have to take responsibility. They’ve had their kindness thrown back in their faces more often than kids ever have.
“It’s because you’re like a daughter to me. If I imagined my own child going through something like that…”
“…Because I’m like a daughter.”
“That’s right. And I’ll make sure through the Police that neither that man nor his wife can find your school. But if anything does come up, you come straight to me, understand?”
“Yes. Thank you, Teacher.”
“Alright, alright. Go on, get in. The taxi’s coming.”
Director Teacher waved at a taxi pulling up from down the street.
“I’ll get my car from the parking lot. Ga-eun, wait here a moment.”
Director Teacher headed inside, and Ga-eun took my hand.
“Thank you. Da-hye.”
“Sure. Make sure you remember this kindness forever.”
I said it as a joke, but Ga-eun nodded seriously.
“I’ll carve it into my grave.”
Ga-eun continued, her tone earnest. “I heard from the police later — apparently someone submitted a request to the Patrol Suggestion Box asking for extra patrols around our hagwon during that time. That’s why the police happened to be in the area. That was you, wasn’t it?”
“I looked it up and found out the system existed.”

“If it weren’t for you, I don’t know what would have happened to me today. Seriously.”
She meant it — the intensity in Ga-eun’s voice sent a chill down my spine.
‘Before the regression……’
I hadn’t been working part-time at Ibaji Hagwon back then.
Which meant Ga-eun had to navigate all of this alone?
This work is fiction, and the Police investigation and reporting procedures depicted in this episode do not reflect actual practices.
(The Patrol Suggestion Box, too, was not an established system during the time period in which this story is set.)

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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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