1st in Class Hides Regression - Chapter 36

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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 return in time
Episode 36
“Ga-eun, what if. I mean, really what if. You had to handle this whole thing alone—what would you have done?”
“Just me?”
Ga-eun rolled her eyes at my question.
“I don’t know. I guess… I would’ve skipped the Academy without telling Dad. Then I’d get caught and he’d buzz my head. He’s always threatening to cut my hair whenever I mess up.”
“If you did that, could you actually quit the Academy?”
“No way! My dad would wait outside the school gate when classes end, throw me in the car, and drag me to the Academy himself.”
“Like Seo Jae-gyeom’s mother?”
“She never hit him, though.”
…….
“I guess I would’ve bribed my brother with five thousand won to pick me up after Academy… but that bastard would just take the money and stay at the PC Bang playing games. Of course he wouldn’t come.”
“You couldn’t tell your mom?”
“I’d be the only one getting in trouble for fighting with him.”
…….
“Maybe I could’ve called Se-in or Su-a and gotten a ride home, but Se-in had tutoring then and Su-a’s family is strict anyway. Ugh, I don’t know. I have no idea what would’ve happened without you.”
“Right. Let’s not imagine it. Let’s not even bring it up.”
Since I returned in time, that future never happened.
“Mom probably would’ve made me call over and over with excuses, dragging her to pick me up… oh, there’s Mom.”
My mom’s no saint either. Ga-eun answered the phone with a scoff.
I’d noticed it before—despite their strict surveillance, Ga-eun’s parents showed surprisingly little genuine interest in her.
It was already late at night, yet they were only just calling now. You’d think they’d have picked her up at least once, but they never did.
Still, today they seemed worried enough to call…
“What? You want me to buy hamburgers at this hour? Tell him to go get them himself!”
-How can your brother go out at this time!
“Then he can starve! You won’t let me eat anything after seven because I’ll get fat, but he should go hungry too!”
-Forget it! Don’t be like that just because you’re the older sister. I’ll buy them, I’ll get them!
“…Mom doesn’t even know what kind of day I had!”
Ga-eun hung up abruptly and hurled her phone onto the paving stones.
“I’m so angry…”
I pretended not to hear the tears mingled in her angry voice.
I picked up her phone and slipped it back into her pocket, then hesitated before adding one more thing.
“Want to skip the cafeteria tomorrow and get tteokbokki instead?”
“…And add a hot dog.”
“Deal.”
I need to hurry and go to the bathroom. You said you were going to the restroom earlier, remember? I whispered it close to Ga-eun’s ear so Jung Eun-seong wouldn’t hear, and finally she smiled.
“Oh, Da-hye—you’re still here?”
Just then, the Principal pulled up in his car.
I bowed again in greeting, then got into a taxi with Jung Eun-seong. After telling the patient driver who’d been waiting this whole time our address, a solemn silence fell between Jung Eun-seong and me until we pulled away.
Surprisingly, Jung Eun-seong was the first to speak.
“He’ll probably brag about it later to friends and relatives. ‘Our daughter never caused any trouble. Never gave us a moment’s worry.'”
“How do you know?”
“My uncle says stuff like that. Meanwhile, his actual cousin got sick of him and moved out on her own the second she turned twenty.”
“Ah.”
Right. Ga-eun’s parents will probably never know how hard she struggled behind the scenes to become that trouble-free daughter. They probably wouldn’t care anyway.
The adults who created a world where children can’t rely on protection from grown-ups are probably sprawled out sleeping right now…
Sleeping comfortably! When society’s in this state!
“Jung Eun-seong, I think I finally understand why idols sing so many protest songs.”
“Why?”
“That’s what teenage sensibility is.”
Confined to a prison called school as punishment for being a student, wearing a convict’s uniform called a school uniform…
Watching how society operates, wondering why adults are like this, whether we really can’t just all live with integrity.
This filthy society—everything’s absurd, everything’s wrong—I’ll never live like that when I grow up, burning with righteous fury.
But then you become an adult and get ground down by reality, and before you know it, that flame gutters out.
You learn what it means to choose the lesser evil instead of the best.
Eventually, you forget you ever thought that way.
Looking back, I was the same.
No point blaming others.
“Sigh.”
Jung Eun-seong cracked open the window a bit when he saw me sigh. Fresh air flowed in, and it eased my heart a little.
Anyway, thank you so much for today. But how did you even get here, Jung Eun-seong?
You gave me your address.
You came right over after hearing it?
Yeah. Something seemed wrong. And.
And?
I don’t trust adults.
That’s true.
So that’s why he wouldn’t trust the police either.
That Principal is the only adult who’s actually seemed like an adult since I became a high schooler.
Watching Jung Eun-seong’s expression turn serious, I laughed.
Right, he’s really a rare one, though…
* * *
Driver, please keep the meter running and wait here. I’ll just take this kid home and be right back.
It’s fine.
I don’t mind either.
I’d already told Seo Jae-gyeom to go ahead since it was hard to catch a taxi, so instead I chose to walk up the alley toward our house with Jung Eun-seong.
Though Jung Eun-seong had made the first move, somehow I wasn’t really embarrassed.
Not about the narrow, grimy alley. Not about the dilapidated villa apartment waiting at its end.
I spoke as we walked.
I didn’t realize it, but I think I had some kind of trauma.
Trauma?
The trauma from flunking the College Entrance Exam after some stranger grabbed me by the hair that day.
When I saw that guy earlier shaking Ga-eun like that, the world went red. Before I even knew what was happening, my body just moved on its own. Composure and all that—there was no time for thinking.
That’s natural. Staying calm in that situation would’ve been strange.
A dark alley, yellow streetlights, steep and slippery stairs broken here and there.
The kind of alley that usually scared me into constantly glancing back, but tonight it felt like nothing.
Jung Eun-seong, I figured out why warm air is lighter.
Oh yeah?
Yeah. Except actually the warmer part is at the bottom.
Why?
Not telling.
When did that slang come back?
Not that long ago.
Maybe it was because of Jung Eun-seong’s random nonsense that kept catching me off guard.
By the way, Jung Eun-seong—I’m curious about something.
Yeah?
Did you happen to leave Mint Chocolate on my desk?
He stopped dead.
Jung Eun-seong?
Not telling.
It’s you.
I was muttering to myself about what kind of coward he was, and without thinking I turned to look back at Jung Eun-seong, and—
…
There he stood with ears crimson red.
Jung Eun-seong’s ears, neck, cheeks, forehead—his entire face was flushed, visible even in the darkness. Covering his mouth with the back of his hand, he stammered.
Just so there’s no misunderstanding, that was just the camaraderie from being trapped in school together the day before.
I know. You hate me second only to someone else.
You even jumped down from the second floor because you didn’t want to be around me any longer than that.
I absolutely won’t misunderstand…
I’m not crying…
We’re here.
Yeah.
No matter what, I still felt nervous walking him right up to the front door.
In front of the villa apartment with cars packed bumper-to-bumper in every alley and dog mess scattered about, I watched Jung Eun-seong’s expression carefully. He managed his face well—or perhaps he simply looked like he was thinking nothing at all.
Right, I should return your clothes.
Looking at Jung Eun-seong, who seemed not just thoughtless but actually bored, I dashed inside and brought out the uniform.
The school uniform he’d lent me.
Jung Eun-seong took it without expression and immediately turned around.
I’m going.
Jung Eun-seong.
“Why?”
“I won’t become the kind of adult you hate.”
I’m not sure exactly when the spark that burned in the teenage Kang Da-hye’s chest flickered out.
But I’ve come back through time, haven’t I? So I want to let my mind regress to its teenage self again.
Back to when I believed I could change the world.
“When we grow up and become trustworthy adults—when you and I and our friends become that kind of adult first. Once we do, bit by bit, there’ll come a day when there are more adults worth trusting, won’t there?”
“…….”
“Let’s become remarkable adults together. Adults who change the world.”
Especially you—you can do it. You’ll become incredibly famous, loved by many, someone with real influence.”
“But if I forget this conversation after I’m grown up, I still have to remember it happened today, right?”
You’ll be busy and popular, so probably you won’t even remember I existed until we meet again at twenty-nine…….
No. This time around, I won’t live the same way I did before, so we probably won’t see each other again after graduation anyway.
“Promise me you’ll become a remarkable adult.”
Just remember this fleeting promise we made in passing.
I held out my hand with a smile.
Jung Eun-seong, who’d been staring down at my outstretched hand, soon extended his own.
“…Yeah. Let’s do that.”
We linked our pinky fingers and made the promise.
Childishly. Genuinely childish.
“Stamp it.”
“Okay.”
“Make a copy too.”
“…Sure.”
“Sign it.”
“Stop it…….”
That’s when it happened.
“Kang Da-hye!”
The landlady came down the stairs with a watering can, calling my name.
The landlady, with hair rollers wound through the back of her hair, looked back and forth between Jung Eun-seong and me—our hands clasped together—with wide, astonished eyes.
Her eyes gradually narrowed.
“Oh my, Da-hye…… Is this your boyfriend?”
“…….”
It’s over.
This landlady really does have a loose mouth.

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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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